Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero Review

I wasn't even planning to get this game anytime soon or not as soon as I did. I hated the Sand Land game so much that Sparking Zero came out around the same time I played that and I decided, "well let's play the better game based on a franchise by Akria Toriyama" so as a result, I bought Sparking Zero at full price rather than the discount I was originally going to get it on. With that all out of the way, how was it?

It's "good" but buying it for the single player and story mode at the current price point, I'm not so sure is a good idea, I know Sparking Zero's big appeal was the multiplayer but the story mode isn't really that great. I'd say it's a step down from the story modes in the very series Sparking Zero is trying to revive minus Tenkaichi 1. Before I get started on the story mode, I'll start talking about the gameplay.

This is very much a Tenkaichi game, of course it is, that's Sparking Zero's biggest draw, and as a guy who played those games a lot as a kid, and only replayed the 3rd game around 2 years ago, I felt right at home with everything, Sparking Zero is very much the modernized Tenkaichi game that many people wanted. You want a Tenkaichi game with a new look and covers the modern Dragon Ball content than look no furthur. No more need to mod Tenkaichi 3 anymore, I guess.

Even playing Sparking Zero, it's going to have it's detractors especially those that play more traditional fighting games, the game's mechanics have a lot more going for it than many other similar arena anime fighters. Naruto Storm for example can generally feel pretty mindless a lot of the time since the back and forth in Storm is basically landing the first hit and hoping you got the substitution jutsu meter lined up to break out of the combo string and maybe having an ultimate jutsu lined up.

Sparking Zero on the other hand gives you more, you got Z counters, high and low blocks, parries, sparking mode, charge attacks, dashes as well there being a distance game where you can use ki blasts and energy attacks to prevent your opponent from powering up or if you suck at close quarters combat like me, you can try to constantly play the distance game. There is beam struggles and clashes to account for to.

There are issues Sparking Zero has like Z counter timing and parrying for every character being the same and many of the attacks can be boiled down to energy beams and rushing melee attacks and a lot of the combos for the characters are just square, triangle, square, or square, square, triangle, but as far as this style of fighter is concerned, Dragon Ball Sparking Zero has more going it for it than many of it's contemporaries.

However the single player is where SZ drops the ball for me. By no means is it, "bad" and it does a decent enough job at being a bear minimum single player but at the same time, the "what ifs" don't amount to much since the story decisions pop up too few and far between.

Much of the character routes outside of Goku don't have much effort put into them. It's decently presented even if it could be of a higher standard since some scenes are still images with voices and other are full on cutscenes.

The biggest problem is the other characters' routes outside of Goku have large chunks of story missing for them. Vegeta has no Super content, Gohan has Sayain and Namek Sagas skipped over, Piccolo goes up to the Androids, Future Trunks only covers Goku Black, and the villain routes felt like they were tacked on. The whole thing feels like Dragon Universe from Budokai 3 and I'm not sure SZ does a good job capturing that since at least DU covers every major character's fight throughout the series. All the main fights with Jiren, Goku Black and Frieza are covered but it didn't seem they needed to be there since those characters popped in one saga and Frieza was gone for so long of DB until Super. It also doesn't even include the fact that all the routes have the Universe 6 saga skipped over. Doing anything past Goku's campaign felt like a chore.

Another major aspect of the story mode that isn't really that great is the difficulty, and no it's not the Great Ape Vegeta fight, it's the amount of times the story mode has the boss rush handicap matches and how canon ending requirements for some characters requires you to wait for dialogue before finishing off an enemy. The amount of the former can really annoy me since it's the only way SZ adds difficulty. You wil have a hard time fighting one opponent, then another character with lots of health appears, and you may have to fight 4-5 characters at once.

As a result, I mainly just played a distance game, spammed charged up energy attacks and special moves to win. It felt like I was just cheesing because I had to since the AI is relentless when it comes to close quarters fighting. It didn't feel like the game wanted me to play the "fun" way.

Overall, SZ is a good game, but if you aren't playing online, wait for a discount for the single player content.

Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin Review

I'm not the biggest fan of the Symphony of the Night style of metroidvania, I'm more on the Metroid side but I do get some casual fun out of the former, I remember trying to play the DS Castlevania games on emulator almost a decade ago and I couldn't get very far, I only managed to finish Dawn of Sorrow but to much of my surprise the Castlevania Dominus Collection dropped out of nowhere and I decided to jump into Portrait of Ruin.

It's about as good as an SOTN style metroidvania can get, but it also has the stuff I am lukewarm on more on that later.

New to PoR is the dual character system and the fact that instead of exploring a large castle, it's basically a hub world with enemies and you progress the game by completing standalone "portrait" levels. These innovations are mostly fine, and I welcome them since there was already multiple games in this style of CV game.

The dual character system where you control Johnathan and Charlotte is interesting, you get two characters for the price of one and there is cool team up attacks you can do. Early game has the player using their pushing ability, using one of the characters as boost up and solving some coop puzzles here and there but this starts to go away the more the game goes on which is a shame. I also mainly stuck to one character whenever they had a high damage melee weapon and I started to use Charlotte with her Tomb of Arms 2 being a switch blade where I can hit in all 3 directions in front of me.

The Portraits levels are fine and the level progression do a good enough job at being long but not overly so that it makes going back to the castle with all the upgrades pretty rewarding.

However like I said PoR carries over what I liked and disliked about this style of CV and Metroidvania, what I like is that I rarely if ever felt like I got lost, which is nice since there are times in Metroid games and games like where I'm not sure where to go and look up a guide. I also love how the requirement to get the "true" ending is relatively simple, find the spell called "Sanctuary", make sure Charlotte is equipped with it and commander her to do it while Johnathan have taunt equipped and have him do it to the the Vampire Sisters boss and bam, it's done, now continue on with the game, it's nothing as padded as the Inverted Castle from SOTN.

There are the things I dislike, for example being that exploration isn't even always worth it since you can spend minutes in certain corridors and rooms to find a weapon and item with stats lower than the weapons and items that you are already carrying. Making me felt like I wasted my time and it wasn't even worth it.

The extra moves and abilties that you don't even need to use to beat the game. PoR has these techniques you can learn but I never needed to learn any of them since all you really need is a high damage weapon and magic attacks to be effective. I also used the Rolling Thunder attack and rarely if ever used any other special team up move.

The final negative is that the Vampire Killer once it's potential is unlocked becomes the most powerful and dominant weapon in the game, there is no downsides to using it. Sure, yes, Richter Belmont is a very challenging boss for sure but once you beat him, no other boss outside of maybe Dracula gets hard as him again and the latter is hard because he has a 2nd phase meaning you might need to have more healing items stocked in order to beat him. I'll admit I did use rewind that comes with the Dominus Collection during Dracula but once it's again, it's more so that he has a 2nd phase and meaning it takes longer for him to go down.

Overall, Portrait of Ruin was lived up to my expectations, a decently made SOTN styled metroidvania back in a time where CV games were primarily making their money off the portable scene. It didn't do much to change my mind on this style of game but it is nice that I finally got to beat a game I started around 10 years ago.

Ghostbusters: The Game Remastered(Nintendo Switch) Review

After playing Ghosthunter a few months ago and strongly disliking that game, I wanted to replay for a 3rd time a shooter where you fight ghosts. I always remember Ghostbusters the games as being one of those well made licensed 3rd person shooters from 7th gen like the Transformers Cybertron games and Warhammer 40K Space Marine and does it still hold up? I'd say for the most part it does all though I'm noticing some major design issues that bother me much more now. It's a well made game but there are things about GB the game that annoys me a lot when I played it recently.

Before I start this, I'm not sure if this applies to the other versions of the remastered edition but the Switch version really isn't that great. I suffered one crash which never happened to me when playing on PS3 or replaying on PS4. That and the load times are super slow and that can be really bothersome especially during the game's difficulty spikes. It's not the worst way to play but if you can find alternate ways to play, I suggest looking into them.

As for the game itself, it's a pretty unique third person shooter in a number of ways, the best way of describing it that what if you had the controls and camera perspective of Gears of War, the scaning from Metroid Prime and the fact that your primary antagonist you will be actively fighting in the game are ghost and how the run away constantly and phase through walls like the Fatal Frame games. You get this.

Before I get to the gameplay, the story is worth mentioning since the script for the game is esstentially the official sequel to Ghostbusters 2...before the recent new movies but that is besides the point. It's full of charm and the character interactions are decent fun even though I haven't watched the movies in a while. However it does seem to expect you to know the first two films before jumping into the game which can be a little offputting, but it's still a moderately entertaining story for the kind of game this is even if a big issue with the story is that the player character feels like he has no agency or geniune value to the story since the player is doing all the work but the Ghostbusters crew takes all the credit and they are the ones who the plot acknowledges. Since was originally a movie script so it does show to some degree.

The gameplay however is mostly good even if there are some big issues I have with it. The Gears of War inspirations can be seen in that the Ghostbusters during gameplay are kind of like COG soliders who are with you in Gears, they help you out and talk during gameplay and you have to revive them if they are down, but on the flipside before the later Gears games, the Ghostbusters can revive you provided if they aren't downed by enemies themselves.

Metroid Prime inspirations can be seen in that you have 4 selectable weapons which you can use by touching the D pad and the PKE meter is esstentially Samus' scan visor. How you can scan various parts of the environment and what attacks enemies are weak to.

This makes for a TPS game that I can't find a similar game to. It also has unqiue ideas of it's own where you need to "trap" ghosts instead of killing them and they are mixed in with enemies who can be killed traditionally. This makes for a robust combat system where you will shoot enemies traditionally one minute and trap ghosts the next and this novelty as well as competent execution really makes the game.

However I mentioned some major issues, a smaller one is that while the PKE meter is cool, sometimes it feels pointless since allies will use the current weapon enemies are weak to which takes away from using it. There is some use in it with that said when fighting newer enemies.

The upgrade system is also rather pointless since by the end of the game you will be able to unlock everything just by playing the game normally.

The biggest issue I have is the difficulty spikes, the enemies and the inept friendly AI. When Ghostbusters the game is fun, it's a really good time, but there are some enemies and encounters that can sap away the fun. The gargoyles are the worst enemies in the game since their attacks are poorly telegraphed on top of being able to stagger the player character to insane degrees, if you get hit by them 3 times, it's a game over and it's a 50-50 game of chance if you friendly AI will be able to revive you. You don't fight them throughout the whole game but they ruin it every time they pop up.

The friendly AI is pretty bad and will be get downed a lot which is one really annoying way GB the game tries to add difficulty, you are fighting enemies and they will need reviving and get in your way. The checkpoint system however prevents the game from being infuriating. The health system isn't that great since it's hard to tell when I'm at critical plus the staggering.

Overall, Ghostbusters the game mostly is good but it has some major problems that can cause me to rage like crazy when the difficulty spikes happened.

Mister Mosquito Review

I always heard of this game being brought up, over the years I would randomly see it get mentioned as one of those really "weird" games that is unique and should be experienced, and it popped in Playstation Premium Classics recently so I decided to play it.

Mister Mosquito is certainly a unique game, the best way of describing it is that what if games like Hitman and Untilted Goose Game gave the player the ability to fly and the whole point of the game is to be an annoying pest like in the latter game? It's esstentially Mister Mosquito. In a lot of ways, it can be considered a stealth puzzle game of sorts.

The first offputting thing about the game is that there is no tutorial that I am able to find and as a result, I had no idea what the controls and level objectives even were, this could potentially ruin the game for first time players, I was almost considering quitting but after I looked up some the controls and what you are supposed to do during the levels, everything became much more enjoyable.

The flight controls do take some getting used and I had to invert the camera in the PS5 emulation control settings. You may need to adjust more than just that depending on your prefrences.

What makes Mister Mosquito a "stealth" game of sorts is that the whole point of the game is to suck blood from the various npcs inside certain rooms of their house without being spotted and without them noticing that you are sucking their blood like an actual mosquito. You have to suck certain amounts of blood from the npcs in every level in order to complete them. You also have to avoid getting into their line of sight and alerting them to your presence, while also activating parts of the environment in order to have the npc reveal certain body parts to suck off of, and suck blood using a right analog stick mini game before you get smacked all though PS5 rewind does arguably makes the mini games loose their tension since you can rewind and undo swat you could get.

When you do get caught, it's not all doom and gloom, you just need to hit certain pressure points while avoid the npcs' attacks and the game will reset itself back to stealth and them being unware.

And even more of a surprise there is an actual story and campaign in Mister Mosquito, both do a good enough job at feeling decently fleshed out especially for a game that you might think wouldn't even have one. The story does a good enough job at feeling fuffling, how the family gets more and more annoyed by the antics you do in the levels and how the stakes slowly start to ramp up.

This is where the structure of the campaign comes in, for a game that is about less than 2 hours, it's pretty varied you got multiple blood sucking points, npcs being aware of your presence the more the game goes on, different environment hazards, different ways in order for blood sucking points, and different animations to watch out for in order for blood suck points to pop up.

It's a well made campaign for what it is.

However some issues with the game are the same levels get reused a little too much for my liking, the level objectives did change, but appearing in the same rooms constantly did start to get a little old since I got tired of seeing the same scenery which while "fine" wasn't great enough to make me want to see them multiple times.

The contextual blood sucking animation to activate the mini game can be a little too inconsistent, I'm not sure if it's positioning, but sometimes I felt like I should've been able to activate the mini game and at other times the player mosquito character would just bump into the npc body part and it wouldn't activate.

Final complaint is that the penultimate level can jump the shark a little too much, you have an npc that suddenly has superpowers in a game which seemingly has a grounded everyday setting, you can argue it's part of the game's over the top tone, but personally I feel like a normal everyday family where a husband has superpowers is silly on top of the fact that the projectiles for his attacks feel like I have to be super lucky to dodge and the controls weren't precise enough for me to cosistently avoid the attacks. They either felt like they were hitscan or just moves to fast for me to even see or the controls were good enough for me to move quick. If it weren't for PS5 save states and rewind, I got a feeling I could've dropped the game here.

Overall, Mister Mosquito certainly does live up to it's reputation of being a quirky cult classic, I didn't even know what I was expecting going in but I turned out to enjoy a lot more than I ever thought I would.

Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings(Playstation 2) Review

This was a weird one, I randomly just found out about this game when looking up Emperor's Tomb and I randomly stumbled upon it. I did emulate the PS2 version of Staff of Kings. I decided to play this game at all because it was interesting to see an Indy game that wasn't done in Lego and especially before the upcoming new game.

As a whole, the game is really nothing special, it doesn't really stand out in any particular way, everything about Staff of Kings feels like it's a 7th gen action game for people who didn't own an Xbox 360 or PS3.

Emperor's Tomb is the better game to me mainly because in that game, you could be platforming and then randomly encounter enemies while traversing through the level. Staff of Kings however takes the 7th gen action game approach where major gameplay section is clear cut and exists in isolation of each other.

Staff of Kings will have your fist fighting bits, your shooting bits, your platforming bits, and your puzzle solving bits. None of this is outright terrible but just isn't done in a way other games doesn't already do.

The shooting sections in particular feel like they are borderline on rails even games like Uncharted and Gears of War at times lets you move around and try to flank the enemy, in Staff of Kings, Indy's is just in a sationary position as he shoots human enemies, occasionally shooting environmental objects even if it is never made clear to shoot them or enemies, and often dealing with the fact that one gun shot from enemies staggers him and loses a large chunk of health. You also only get one gun in these sections too.

The platforming is just stuff many games at the time did with a lot of it being automated where it revolves around holding the left stick and occasionally pressing sqaure to get past small gaps when shimming and pressing L1 and R1 to have Indy regain his grip. You also have to use Indy's grapple hook whip to get across but there is no timing involved just press the button and Indy will make it there.

Fist fighting fares the best out of all the gameplay pillars, where there is a punches, grabs, dodges, and environmental objects it's decent fleshed out and does an okay job at breaking up the pace. It does a good enough job at replicating the movies where it feels like Indy barely scrapes by in fights and it is amusing to use makeshift objects as weapons or throw broken parts of weapons at enemies since it has that quick thinking Indy would do in the movies all though it never reaches the heights of Emperor's Tomb. In the latter game firearms can be used in junction to fist fighting and enemies can drop weapons during fights making fist fighting more dynamic or having to save ammo so you can defeat enemies quicker.

You also never need to manage health, or given any resources to look around the levels and be attentive much like Uncharted so in many ways, Staff of Kings takes the scripted rollar coaster approach of that series with much lower production values, there's even a level in Nepal like Uncharted 2. It's a kind of design I never really cared for since health, collecting and research management makes a game engaging to me. A game's mechanics could carry a game if it doesn't have that but neither this game or Uncharted really does.

As a whole the game, is moderately entertaining at a service level even if it never leaves a lasting impression since it juggles these gameplay ideas so much, it never outright gets monotonous.

There is other problems with the game like an excessive use of QTEs and weird gimmick sections like moving a piano around to hit enemies. Sometimes it's never made clear what Indy can and cannot interact with since the button prompts don't show up to tell me I can interact with this. There is also a lot of on rails sections which almost feels like they were there to show off the Wii's motion control gimmicks and this was a carry over to the PS2 version.

Story is okay, typical Indy adventure with him fighting Nazis to get to some buried treasure. It's nothing to write home about. Some points I'll give is that it looks better than Emperor's Tomb and the short length prevents the game's problem from feeling too noticeable since if it was longer, I would get annoyed by all it's shortcomings. It also checkpoints often and you get health refills on checkpoints too.

Overall, Staff of Kings is just okay if rather forgettable. If you didn't own a 360 or PS3 during the time this game can out, then I can see it being a solid if unremarkable time.

Skygunner Review

I have never even heard of this game before it came to Playstation Premium Classics and I decided to play this game at all because it was a game with the anime art style that wasn't a JRPG, fighting game or visual novel. That said, the game is just "okay".

The biggest strength the game has it's brevity, it lasts about 2 hours and I wouldn't want the game to be any longer than that due to this, the game can almost feels like playing an obscure anime movie especially with it's art style and look. The steampunk asethetics are also kind of nice too.

Some good things about the game is that mechanically it's sort of interesting, where you can shoot from your aircraft, and have 3 special weapons like, a dog launcher, fireworks and crosses, all 3 have their own use in combat. Fireworks is for regular enemies, crosses is for larger foes and dogs are for very weak fodder enemies. This is all pretty interesting on paper all though a weakness for me is that the game straight up tells you what special weapon to use during combat which takes the fun out of guessing which attacks work on which enemy. I'm also not sure if they do a good job at telling you since I used fireworks when it told me to use the dogs and I got by just fine.

However, one major thing about the game that really can be a geniune hassle is the lock on and controls. In Skygunner, you have a lock on but your character doesn't shoot to where the camera is locked to, you still have to aim your reticle to where the lock on is while your aircraft is moving. The game uses character relative aiming while also demanding you to aim your shots even though lock on should just do it for you. On top of this, aiming with the reticle tends to be way to sensitive and it's hard to feel like I'm getting a good shot in. The camera also spazzes out in tight spaces with your vehicle being always moving.

The final boss is also a massive damage sponge, and trying to do the timed multiple cross attack and then shooting to get his shield down felt more like a game of luck. It took me a while to get the timing down to shoot the crosses and when I did do it, I felt like it was luck rather than skill.

Let's just say due to all this, if it weren't for rewind and save states on PS5, I wouldn't get anywhere in the game or beat it at all. The game's easy difficulty with character of Femme also helped me get to the end of Skygunner at all since you had a crazy level of hp before a game over, however I do not want to play this game on higher difficulty modes with the other characters.

Overall, Skygunner is a game that is just "okay" to me. The easy mode, save states, rewind and it's short length are big factors to why I got to the end at all didn't drop it. I can't imagine trying to beat it on base PS2 hardware with limited continues. If you can get past the design quirks I mentioned, you might be able to enjoy the game more than me.

Sand Land Video Game Thoughts

I wanted to like this video game based on Sand Land, I watched the anime a few months ago and I enjoyed it, the story of that isn't a masterpiece but it's overall a solid time, this is how I wanted to feel on the game but instead, it felt like one of the biggest sunk cost fallacies I have engaged with in a while. I didn't beat it, I'm going to make this clear but at the same time, I did spend around 17-20 hours with it which is enough time to give me a decent assessment on the game.

The story of the game is not too bad and is moderately engaging featuring decent character interactions and has enough going on themematically to the point where it's not 100% a junk food story and can even make you think from time to time when going on the adventure with these characters. Here is the problem, much of this story is the same as the anime except now, it's a million times more padded to get from plot point to plot point. The first few missions of the game is essentially the same as the first few episodes of the anime however halfway through the game before it can get to the Forest Land sections of the show, there is a massive amount of padding before the story can get there with Belz and the crew needing to secure Aquanium and going on lengthy treks through the open world and going through similar looking dungeon after similar looking dungeon before the Forest Land parts even begin.

I do like that the character of Ann gets introduced early in the story but then I slowly realized that during the non Forest Land sections of the game, she has no presence in the plot can be boiled down to a plot device. When I realized this, all of my hopes that the Sand Land game could've brought its own ideas were dashed away.

The Sand Land game essentially took a 13 episode anime series and padded it out to be a 25-30 hour open world game. You could argue that much of this critcism can apply to Dragon Ball Kakarot but the difference with that game is that DBZ is lengthy story and if you choose to watch Kai that is about 167 episodes where Sand Land is only 13 episodes which furthur puts the existence of this video game adaptation in question.

The gameplay is however is where the game faulters. I can take a licensed game that has mostly a similar story to the story it's based on, I do enjoy some of the Dragon Ball, Naruto and various movie tie in games to name some examples, however Sand Land's gameplay just doesn't do enough of the heavy lifting.

At first, things are okay, the game gives you various gameplay mechanics and ideas all has been done before like stealth, platforming and melee combat, but some aspects that modern gaming has abandoned like vehicular combat is also a gameplay pillar which is one major reason why I played it at all.

This is all fine on paper but there are two major aspects that prevent the game from at the very least being a solid if nothing too amazing experience, the game is unevenly paced in terms of gameplay and narrative and the vechicular combat is too basic to support much of the game.

The vehicle combat never evolves past what you do in the first 5 hours, you fight animals who charge and throw projectiles at you, some robots and enemy vehicles which consist tanks, fodder enemies and jump bots. Much of the enemy types are basically this and the never game never evolves past fighting them. If the devs at the very least added more platforming, fist fighting and stealth more often rather than on occasion, this wouldn't be so bad, sure it isn't the most incredible game design but at least it tells me the devs know that the vehicular combat isn't their strong suit. So much of Sand Land is a one note 3rd person shooter and it wears thin quickly.

The biggest problem with Sand Land and this destroys the game for me is how bloated the open world is. The game has very, very, very large stretches of open areas where all the player does is follow quest markers, this is where much of the game's length comes from, the player going through a large open world where nothing happens besides choosing to do explore or fight enemies but this gets boring quickly since all it really does is pad the long sections where nothing happens in the story. This is pretty much what I'm talking about how they took a 13 episode anime into a game that lasts over 10 hours.

The same in game voice lines also get repeated over and over. The same 5-6 conversations while driving occur multiple times ad naseum which makes traversing the open world all the more tedious.

There is also inconsistent game design how some large falls will make me take damage while others is a death pit where I respawn upon falling into them even though I should be able to make the landing.

Some praise I'll give is that the bosses are decent, and have just enough going on in terms of specticle and attack pattern dodging that they can be a decent highlight to a game that is just dull to play 95% of the time. They are too few and far between.

Overall, if Sand Land was an 8-10 hour game, then maybe it would've been a decent but instead, it's a bloated mess that constantly beats around the bush and has uneven narrative and gameplay pacing.

A King's Tale: Final Fantasy 15 Review

For a game I randomly just heard about and played because it was free, this was a shockingly well made for what it is. I know this might sound crazy but this is a well made game from a series I never really cared about and based on a specific game from that said series I never played.

This is a well made 2D beat em up especially considering the fact that 2D beat em up I never really cared for that much.

Right away when picking up the game, what I loved about it is that moving up and down through the arena felt quick and smooth and on top of this, you have an actual evade command and avoiding attacks is something I can consistently do. Enemies also do a good enough job at telegraphing their attacks with them having various colored flashes above their head knowing when to move away, I can also cancel out of a combo and immediately roll out of the way.

Movement feels smooth, controls are pretty good and the combat has some solid design.

It doesn't end there, the game is constantly introducing new enemies throughout the 1 hour run time the game lasts.

On top of this and this is what the seals the deal for the game for me is that the game constantly encourages use your moveset to gaurentee survival.

For example to hit the skeleton enemies need to use shield bash or else you won't be able to combo them and you take damage, normal sword wielders need to be hit using heavy attacks to break their guard, bigger enemies need to be hit from behind, the slime enemies need to be hit with specific ice, fire and thunder spells in order to effectively kill them. You can deflect projectile attacks back at some enemies if timing your attacks right, you have to shield bash fireball enemies to have them explode, bulls have to be avoided and can't be attacked and ally attacks MUST be used for crowd control or else the enemy waves will overwhelm you.

There is a one hit kill enemy that appears later in the game but the game gives you enough ways to dispatch him like using magic, ally attacks, and combos that it never felt unfair.

There is no healing items and enemies do drop health pick ups so it keeps the fighting balanced and all though I played the game on casual difficulty, it still makes use it base moves and skills to survive the basic enemy waves. The game does have pretty lengthy enemy waves but the game does such a good job at giving you enough ways to dispatch enemies and teaches you all the mechanics needed to survive that I enjoy fighting large mobs of enemies. The game gives you enough tools and moves needed to handle and beat the waves of enemies.

Games having large enemy waves are boring when combat feels limited and there is only one or two reliable tactics if even two but this game does not suffer from that.

Overall, for a free game you can beat in an hour, A King's Tale is a well put together game that is really worth looking into. If you are worried that this is connected to FF15 and it needs that game for you to enjoy this one, this can be played mostly standalone since the story is just "there" and isn't shoved down your throat. You don't even need to pay for this one, it's highly worth it. I'd even consider this to be one of the best game spin offs ever made.

Timesplitters 2 Review

I thought Timesplitters 2 was never going to get a modern re release but it ended up getting one through the Playstation Premium Classic section along with the rest of the Timesplitters games. After playing this game again, I say the game is still "good" but it has a number of flaws about it that I think makes it not as consistently enjoyable as Future Perfect is.

The good things about TS2 is the sheer number of variety and locals the player will be going in and how it homages varies genres of film and fiction. You got Goldeneye homage with Siberia, a gangster film noir level with Chicago, a period piece with horror elements with Notre Dame, sci fi with Planet X, cyberpunk with Neo Tokyo, westerns with the titular level name "Wild West", espionage thrillers with Atom Smasher and treasure hunting adventures with Aztec Ruins. Every level has a weird motif to them with catchy ambient music and quirky cutscenes to go along with it. It's a game that is filled to the brim with personality.

The cartoony art style also adds to this with characters having very expressive movements and animations that still look impressive to this day. This also reflects to the gameplay too where TS2 technically isn't a game that is full of blood and gore, it instead has enemies reacting to shots in a very exaggerated way, they will react to getting shot in the arms, legs and head. The robot enemies have over the top explosions as death animations.

The guns also sound very loud and beefy and even the laser guns sound decently powerful too. It's up there with FEAR when it comes to sound design and enemy damage animations despite it not being as violent of a title.

The level design is solid for the most part, it has the Goldeneye and Perfect Dark style of objective system where you need to explore the environment as you are searching through the level to complete the stage. To give TS2 a massive amount of credit, the game isn't nearly as strict with fail states as Perfect Dark is. One issue that some can have with this style of level design is that you are playing TS2 for the over the top combat, having objectives where you need to look around to progress can seem annoying and the in the map you need to equip isn't very helpful since it glitches out a lot and gives the player a hard time on where their position is Some objectives like in the Chicago mission you need to drain 4 beer canisters but if you miss this and just ran through the level killing everyone and did all of the objectives besides that, the time portal won't open and you will be chased by the Timesplitters monsters everywhere you go which is almost like a soft lock, this can throw off first time players.

The biggest issues with TS2 and the aspect about that has aged the most are the controls even with the PS5 version of the game coming with dual analog aiming and needing to tinker with the camera controls for vertical aiming, the controls still aren't very good. For one, you have no weapon wheel or quick select option when switching through items and weapons with the d pad makes selecting them slow and cumbersome which doesn't help when enemies are shooting at you.

However the biggest problem with the controls is the fact that there is no targeting reticle when not in aiming mode so this means you have to rely on the auto aim to get consistent kills and when you are in aiming mode you can't move while doing it nor do you even want to since reticle is magnetized to the center and nudging it up, down, left or right will feel like trying to pull a large magnet away. Moment to moment gunplay can feel like a guessing game where hitting enemies in the head often feels like luck than skill.

Another big issue with the game and this is due to the whole theme of time travel the game has is the use of one off mechanics. Shooting cameras out with silenced pistols and using stealth? Only there for Sibera and Neo Tokyo. Using environmental objects as part of the gameplay? Only appears in Atom Smasher. Escorting npcs to help you do specific level objectives? Activating switches to open a time portal? Only in Atom Smasher. Puzzles and enemies that need to be killed using traps and fire arrows? Only there in Aztec Ruins. Using an electricity gun to help complete level objectives? Only there in Robot Factoy. Using gunpower as makeshift explosives? Only in Wild West. Using throwable mines to destroy things to progress? Only in Siberia and it's an easy to miss statellite.

The problem with all this is that most came to TS2 for the combat and all of these different mechanics can feel like they came out of left field. Don't like puzzles? Do it once and then never do it again which makes me wonder why it was even there at all. TS2 can feel really confused due it the amount of one off ideas it has and it can stump people since they were never there beforehand. I'm willing to bet anyone who starts Atom Smasher without beforehand knowledge even knows you have to pick up the fire extiguisher to progress furthur into the level.

Overall, TS2 is a good game and is a big improvement over the first but the game does have it's issues as a whole.

Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City Review

I always heard the game getting a massive amount of hate and not being very well liked by Resident Evil fans but then I realized in recent years that you are better off playing games for yourself and come to your own conclusions on media even if they aren't well liked. Plus, on a side note, I never saw eye to eye on the Resident Evil fandom on a lot of things so it just made me curious about this game all the more.

That out of the way, I can see why Operation Raccoon City never got nearly as much as a vocal cult following as games like Resident Evils 5 and 6 do. As a whole, Operation Raccoon City is a painfully average game that just so happens to be more of a fan service homage masquerading as an "okay" third person shooter. It's similar to Dirge of Cerberus in this regard. Both are spin off games that are reimagining of beloved PS1 games a good while before their respective remakes for both franchises would even see the light of day. So it's interesting in that regard.

As for the game itself, if you ever wanted a Resident Evil themed shooting gallery with elements found in the multiplayer portions of Call of Duty games from CoD4 onwards, with cover based shooting, custom loadouts, perks and playing with 3 npcs at a time that is basically Operation Raccoon City in a nutshell all though to Operation Raccoon City's credit, the coop isn't as forced on you by comparison to RE5. You can also move while shooting which is nice. The guns have a decent punch to them and killing enemies both infected, zombie and humans does feel stimulating enough.

However there are weird and awkward "quirks" about the game that I doubt I would tolerate if the game were longer. First being that you can't dodge or do any evade command but you CAN do such a thing while sprinting which doesn't really make much sense since I want to evade while moving normally. Second there is no dedicated cover button and the player takes cover automatically which isn't very intuitive when trying to run away with waste cover litereted everywhere. Third the player is given a two weapon limit and grenades which is fine but you run out of ammo very often even on easy difficulty and it can be very inoppourtune when there is a large horde of enemies and especially when there are Hunters who can take lots of damage and ammo drops aren't enough, I have to use pistols a lot and it feels like I killed the hordes because I got lucky since it feels like the pistols don't do much damage. Forth, you can only carry one healing item and herbs can be picked up and be used upon pick up, you can buy an upgrade to carry more but it might not be the most helpful during human enemy fights since they use hitscan weapons and there is no way to avoid damage other than hide behind cover and it might not be so helpful when all the healing items are used up partnered with being low on ammo constantly. There is lots of left stick waggling which a lot of 7th gen action games have and it's a carry over from the original RE4, which I never liked since half the time I don't know whether to waggle the left stick with my left thumb or use the palm of my hand to do.

The bosses also aren't that great due to the above mentioned reasons and the final boss is hilariously lame considering this is a Resident Evil game and an action one at that and on top of all that being killed through an infection and turning into a zombie can feel cheap since there are times I can find an anti virus spray and other times I can't and get a game over.

If you combine all these things together than the idea of an RE themed shooting gallery isn't too bad and sounds pretty fun but it's letdown by awkward design quirk after awkward design quirk.

A major aspect that is a massive point in the game's favor is that it checkpoints very frequently and the game levels rarely if ever go on for too long, you can probably beat it in a single sitting if you tried. This helps since if the game was any longer I would be annoyed beyond belief. One final positive is that combat encounters do become more interesting when zombies, humans and occasional monsters like Hunters and Lickers up since you got to prioritize different enemies but this is all let down due to the above mentioned "quirks".

Overall, I did spend money to play Operation Raccoon City so in a sense, I'm glad I got to the end and got something out the game but at the same time, the game is very much mediocre, I did hear the DLC for the game is much better than the main campaign and I wish 7th gen Capcom put these parts on the game on the disc but what can you do. I'd still say Raccoon City is worth checking out if you have an interest in short mediocre games like I do.

The Punisher Arcade Game Review

Pretty decent beat em up, it's nothing special and I'd say it's about on par with the X-Men Arcade game and much better than Marvel Superheroes War of the Gems. My only big issues with the game comes from my usual issues with 2D beat em ups like how there is no dedicated evade command, and moving around feels like awkward and rigid since you can move up and down as well as left and right and partner this with the lack of a dedicated evade command and a quick way to move around the arena outside of double tapping the d pad to run I feel more like a tank than someone agile and nimble. Weapons and item pick ups are mapped to the attack button meaning I could punch someone instead of picking up the weapon and item I want and enemies are huge damage sponges, you can unload massive amounts of bullets to these guys and they still won't go down. Bosses have two health bars and feel very spongey.

I do think the game letting me respawn right where I died which the Marvel vs Capcom collection does alleviate potential frustration I could have like with many older games styled after this.

Some positives is that the story and presentation are pretty decent, it's not going to be the most indepth Punisher story in the world but it provides decent context for the beat em up gameplay and I like Wilson Fisk as the final boss since he's one of my favorite Marvel villains. It's also interesting to see an on screen Punisher in the 90s that predates the 2004 movie, War Zone and the MCU and all the on screen versions after the 80s movie was this and the 90s Marvel animated universe so the game is intriguing regarding that.

To this game's credit, it does have more enemy variety than the Volition game does like ninjas, bigger thugs and robots all though the latter game is better as a whole.

Overall, not a lot to say, it's a typical superhero 2D beat em up made in the era, it does what it does well enough but it won't make me change my thoughts on the 2D beat em up genre as a whole.

Granblue Fantasy: Relink Review

I haven't played a "traditional" JRPG in so long I dabbled in stuff like Dragon Ball Kakarot and Super Mario RPG and played a few JRPGs before but not much. I have some experience with the Granblue Fantasy franchise, with me playing Versus and watching the first 12 episodes of the anime so on top of this, I also heard the game was short which was the final seal that made me try this game out. I'm using Relink as a way to slowly ease me back into playing JRPGs again and I'm hoping this amounts to something.

Anyways, that out of the way, I think the game is "fine" but nothing too amazing which is exactly I was expecting out of it.

I'll start with the biggest issue with the game and that is the story, it had a number of problems going for it. If you are new to Granblue Fantasy, right away, there's a number of refrences, callbacks and aspects you aren't going to be familar with, it's kind of like watching a TV show and you start with season 2 or start the Lord of the Rings trilogy with the Two Towers. On top of this, the original game from what I can tell isn't very accessible and the only reason I had some clue about what was going on in the story and some of the characters at all was because I watched the anime, my recollection of it did allow me to fill in some of the holes but not entirely.

Then there is the story itself which isn't really that good. It's not terrible since the cutscenes never drag on and the english voice acting is good enough that it does an okay job at selling me on the material but on top of being familar with Granblue and the actual plot mainly just consists of rescuing people more so than anything else. For example, multiple chapters of the game is dedicated to finding the location of an important character, finding the means to help her and then when you come close to it, she gets kidnapped again. Once the rescue is done, you then have to rescue someone else.

It doesn't help that as a result of needing to know the Granblue Fantasy, the characters themselves feel underdeveloped outside of maybe Rolan. There's heel face turns that almost feel unearned since all you were doing with some of the villains were fighting them and their character development was off screen. The english voice acting once again does much of the heavy lifting and maybe to some degree me watching the anime.

Another good thing about the story, which once again, involves voice acting is that every line is voiced as far as the campaign goes.

The gameplay is where things get better but it ultimately depends on what you are expecting, there isn't really much that you expect out of JRPGs for when it comes to gameplay. There is no dungeon crawling or heavy amounts of level exploration. The game is very linear, and you got quest markers telling you where to go. You only fight hordes of enemies on occasion and the game mainly just consist of scripted sequences and bosses, especially bosses so much so that 80% of Relink's main campaign is basically a boss rush.

I don't dislike the idea of this since I found the bosses to work in term of providing specticle and the set pieces are pretty interesting Excavallion being a highlight since it's very reminiscent of games like God of War 3 and Halo 3 with the Chronos Boss and the Scrab Tank respectively.

As much as I did enjoy the bosses for the most part, it can get pretty exhausting fighting them since this is basically 80% of the game.

One thing that did annoy me was how much HP bosses had on normal difficulty. This is one of those games where bosses can take out your health pretty quickly when not careful when dodging and learning attack patterns and they can take up so much HP that I eventually got sick of getting their health bar below 20% just to die and then try to widdle down their HP down to 20% again because I'm trying to get back to learning the attack pattens that are throwing me off. Then there is fact that teamates might need to get revived as I dodge these attacks and I only get to have one revival potion when in critical condition and I only get revied by teammates a few times before a game over, this was too much for me. I eventually lowered to easy because of this and enjoyed the game more as a result.

The lock on system also isn't very good and it often feels like it tracks different so many different targets at once.

Some positives I will say the visuals do look really nice and when it comes to anime asethetic games, this is by far the nicest looking game I have ever seen bearing the style. The cutscenes look very nice and colorful and the enviroments look crisp. The music is also immerses me into the game.

Overall, Granblue Fantasy Relink is a solid game, I had a lot of issues with it but this is a game I ultimately had a good time with, I didn't take many breaks inbetween play sessions which is a sign that the game was at the very least moderately engaging. I use that as a metric to see if I enjoyed a game and Granblue did deliver that.