Hey everyone, Mazer here and today we’re going to be talking about what we’re playing. It’s been a while since our last blog post for which I apologize. We’re currently working on several projects – including a board game, our live streams, and even some cross-stitching. It can be difficult balancing everything on top of updating out blog. But we’re trying. I promise you.
So. What is today’s post about? Well let me tell you! As of the last week of September, we’ve been doing our annual Horror Game Marathon! We started off strong with our usual Silent Hill 2 and 3 – gaining the Dog Ending and the Heather Beam unlockable respectively. Afterwards, we tried something new with the voice-controlled Playstation 2 game LifeLine.
That was an experience…
It was a combination of things that made Lifeline such a pain but we persevered and added the game to our Beaten collection!
We washed the taste of LifeLine out of our mouths with a bit of Mortuary’s Assistant. This particular game proved to be more than meets the eye. I had originally thought it was nothing more than a “jump-scare simulator”; a game that strictly focuses on providing jump scares than an actual storyline. I was wrong. It has a detailed story that you uncover across multiple playthroughs. It was a great game and I loved every second of it.
Afterwards we touched upon the horror, stalker game Clock Tower 3. After playing the fourth game in the franchise, The Haunting Grounds, I wanted to explore the other ones in the franchise. Let me tell you, Clock Tower 3 was a wonderful surprise. Not too difficult – we beat it in 3 session – with a killer sound track, great enemy designs, and an enjoyable storyline. The final boss was, admittedly, a pain in the butt, but overall the game was fantastic.
Next on the list was a game voted upon by our Discord Chat; that being the Playstation 1 classic, Dino Crisis. Now, I won’t lie. I was a bit anxious when it was chosen. I have nothing against playing older games – hell, most my channel is me streaming them. It’s just that some games, especially old survival horror games, can be more frustrating than fun. This goes double when you’re trying to stream them.
Luckily, Dino Crisis proved to be an entertaining experience. The game was no where near as stiff as its Resident Evil counterpart and it balanced fighting and running away expertly. I enjoyed the game so much that I feel like adding it to our yearly rotation alongside Silent Hill 2 and 3 – at least until we unlock the other two endings.
What We’re Currently Playing
With Dino Crisis added to the Beaten List, we’ve moved on to another game in my backlog. Silent Hill: Shattered Memories.
Now, I will admit that while I profess my love for the Silent Hill franchise, I’ve only played 2 of the several games released. I’ve played the first half of Silent Hill 4: The Room but lost interest when I realized the second half of the game would consist of repeated levels and escort missions. I have yet to play the original game (Maybe we’ll fix that next year) or the games after 4.
Ergo, I’ve taken the advice of one of my followers and started Silent Hill: Shattered Memories for the Wii. A different style of Silent Hill game, this is an artistic retelling of the first game. We follow Harry Mason as he looks for his daughter Cheryl Mason within the cursed town of Silent Hill. Hit by a frigid blizzard, we must guide Harry through several key locations as he searches for Cherly.
We are three chapters deep and as of right now, I’m loving it. the icy environment is a stark contrast to Silent Hill 2’s wet environments or Silent Hill 3’s hot and rusty landscapes. But what really sets Shattered Memories apart is the combat and its psychological mechanics.
In Shattered Memories you are unable to fight against the various creatures you come across in the Dark World. Instead, you must run through glacial environments while avoiding skinless beasts. You can sneak by them – either by turning off your flashlight and moving quietly or ducking inside various hiding spots. Or you can do what I do – run like a bat out of hell as quickly as I can.
There are ways to defend yourself during these events. You could either knock items over to slow the demons down or use road flares to scare them away. Those are the methods that I usually use when escaping the entities.
The other mechanic – the psychological one – alters the game’s cutscenes, environments, and even Harry’s interactions with other characters based on how you answer questions or interact with your psychologist. You see, throughout the game you flash forward to an interview with your therapist. He asks you several different questions and even hands you paperwork to fill out. How you respond greatly effects the game. I am curious to see how subsequential playthroughs will turn out when we choose different answers.
Hopefully, we’ll find time to review this game properly. Until then, we’ll be continuing our adventure in the chilly wonderland that is Silent Hill Shattered Memories!
I hope to post again shortly! I am Mazer, please have a great day and a better tomorrow, and I’ll see you next time!
Everyone has that one movie they use to officially kick off the Halloween spirit. My wife’s, for example, is The Rocky Horror Picture show. Mine on the other hand, is Poltergeist.
Poltergeist is, hands down, one of my favorite horror movies of all time. It is the perfect balance between terror and wholesomeness. On one hand we have the slowly growing threat of the spirits’ takeover of the homestead. On the other, we have the loving family dynamic between husband and wife Steven and Diane Freeling. I could write an entire post surrounding the love these two have for one another but for now, I would like to focus on another character.
That of their youngest daughter Carol Anne.
For you see, there is more than one love story in Poltergeist. We have the love between Steven and Diane, but also the love between Diane and daughter Carol Anne. A majority of the movie revolves around the mother’s feelings towards protecting, and later finding, her daughter.
Hell. One of the movie’s strongest and most emotionally charged scenes is when Carol Anne, trapped within the spirit world, runs through Diane. Diane then describes the sensation. Talking about how Carol Anne touched her soul and how she can now smell her daughter on her clothes. It is a powerful scene that really hammers home the love Diane has for Carol Anne and is another fine example of just how well made this movie is.
With that out of the way, let’s discuss something I noticed during my most recent viewing. Carol Anne’s “No More.”.
“No More.”
As I had mentioned before; the primary story of Poltergeist revolves around Steven and Diane trying to save their youngest daughter from the spirit world. After several stressful days and sleepless nights, the Freelings get in touch with a medium who agrees to help them.
They concoct a plan to send Diane into the spirit realm to find Carol Anne and bring her back to the world of the living. The plan succeeds resulting in reunion of Carol Anne with her family. The next day, as Steven and Diane pack up their belongings to move away, we learn that Carol Anne seems to have no memory of what happened. According to Diane, the little girl is as happy and as care-free as she has always been – much to the relief of her parents. No expensive therapy for this wee one.
I don’t know why, but for some reason I ended up focusing on that line. What was it that made this line stand out so much? Then it hit me. Carol Anne’s whimper of “No More” meant that she did, indeed, have memory of being inside the spirt world. She was fully aware of everything that had happened to her the previous night and she did not want experience that horrific event again.
Now I don’t know if this was the intention of the writer and director but for me, at least, it adds just that much more tragedy to Carol Anne’s experiences. The poor girl wants nothing more than to forget everything that happened only for the entities to try and pull her back in. It is as heartbreaking as it is terrifying.
What are your thoughts on this scene? Is this just Carol Anne’s reaction to another ghostly event – having already experienced such things earlier in the movie? Or is she expressing fear based off her memories of being within the spirit world? Let us know in the comments below!
I would also like to take a moment to apologize for our lack of updates. We are working to keep moving forward with entries – whether they are brief discussions such as this one or fully detailed reviews. We appreciate your patience!
MegaCorporation CHAANK ARMAMENTS is the world’s leader in weapon’s manufacturing and development. Their latest experiment in cybernetically enhanced super soldiers is a complete failure; resulting in the deaths of dozens of civilians. As a result, the newly appointed CEO, Hayen Cale decides to terminate the contract of the one responsible: Jake Dante. Unfortunately, Jake doesn’t take this news lightly and unleashes his latest project – a death machine called the War Beast – into the building with the intention of slaughtering everyone involved in his termination. Cale, along with a band of coworkers and misfits, must now find a way out of the building before it’s too late.
(Non-Spoiler) Review:
I have a soft spot for these weird B-Movies that existed during the mid 80s to late 90s. Especially when they involve killer machines and practical effects. I don’t know what it is that I love about them. I just know that I do.
1984’s Chopping Mall is the best example I can think of when describing this sub-genre. It’s just a bunch of clunky robots rolling about, killing everything in their path. It’s silly, it’s absurd, and it’s a lot of fun to watch.
Death Machine falls into that same absurdity pool that birthed Chopping Mall. You’d think a movie about a giant killer machine that resembles a walking bear-trap covered in Raptor Talons would be dumb.
And you’d be right. It is dumb, but it is dumb in all the right ways. Okay. Death Machine is this weird, hyperactive work of art that somehow balances horror with insanity.
How do I mean? Well, let me give you an example.
There is a moment in the movie where our villain, Jack Dante (Played by the delightfully entertaining Brad Dourif) is threatening our protagonist Hayden Cale (Ely Pouget). He is trying to blackmail her into sleeping with him to which she responds by putting a gun to his head.
Dante then goes to his knees and continues talking dirty. It is at this point that we realize that to Dante, this is just foreplay. He’s getting off on it. Only when she pulls the hammer back on the gun does he realize that she is serious.
Now, by itself, this scene sounds rather tense. Our hero is dealing with a sick, sexual deviant who clearly gets off on violence. It’s impactful and gives us some insight to how Dante’s twisted little mind works.
But then the scene keeps going. After apologizing for not realizing that it was “Her time of the month.”, Dante raises his arms and runs out of the room while pretending to be an airplane.
I could not make this up even if I tried.
This is only the tip of the insanity ice burg. You have eco-terrorists quoting Street Fighter during combat. Then there are the characters named after famous horror icons (My favorites being a pair named Waylen and Yutani respectively). Then you got the War Beast itself. It is this obscenely gigantic practical puppet that somehow looks as badass as it does ridiculous. And finally you have Brad Dourif himself who chews the scenery as a mouse does cheese.
Seriously, what even is this movie?
I’ll tell you. The movie is Fun. It is well paced, comedically written, enthusiastically weird, and entertaining as hell.
Hello everyone, Mazer here and I would like to take some time talk about the passion of “Middle-Tier” developers. That is, developers of video games who do not make so-called “AAA” titles, but instead these smaller games that tend to reflect their personal interests and passions.
However, I would like to take this time to apologize for our lack of content recently. To make a long story short – things have just been too hectic and too hot for me to sit at my home computer to write. Seriously, it is currently 21:38 as I write this and my phone tells me that it is 105 degrees outside. It’s insane.
That said, I would like to take a moment to share with you this clip from our most recent Live Stream: No More Heroes 3.
No More Heroes is about an otaku named Travis Touchdown who wants to be the world’s best assassin. Why? Well the answer is simple. So he can get laid, of course! I’d go into further detail but that’s a story for another post.
The series is the brain child of Goichi Suda, otherwise known as Suda51. He tends to include his passions into his games; passions such as music, anime, horror movies, and sci-fi. Every one of his games from Lollipop Chainsaw to No More Heroes is just oozing with personality and style. It’s no reason why I love his games. And as of last Friday, I finally completed his latest game: No More Heroes 3.
Now it is a tradition of mine to share my thoughts and feelings on a game during the ending credits. No More Heroes 3 was no exception. This time, however, I went into a little rant concerning my love for auteurs like Suda51. About how their games come from a place of love instead of a cooperate office.
I would like to share that rant with you today. So please, sit back, have a drink, and let’s gush about these passionate, and talented, developers.
As mentioned in our previous post; Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age has been a pleasant surprise. I had originally played it on the Playstation 2 back when it launched. It was unfortunately not my cup of tea. At the time, I felt as if the game had made too many changes. From the combat, to the setting, to the heavily political storyline, to the license system. It just didn’t feel like MY Final Fantasy.
That opinion has since changed. For one reason or another, I had declared on my stream that 2024 would be the “Year of JRPGS”. We started with Skies of Arcadia, moved to Secret of Mana, and are now playing Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age. It is the first time I’ve touched the game since launch and let me tell you; I am glad that I did. The game is phenomenal. The story is layered, the characters nuanced, and the language mature. I love it.
But you know what else I love? I love the fact that this is the first Final Fantasy game that has ever frightened me. I’m not talking about the feeling you get when fighting a boss with no health potions and down three characters. I’m talking about legitimate fear.
Allow me to explain.
The Horror of Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age
So there I am, nearly twelve hours into the game when I stumble across a mysterious tunnel in the middle of an open field. Without thinking, I decide to explore the tunnel. I mean, what could go wrong? I had some decent equipment and I have been handling most enemies without problem.
My average level was 16 when I entered the “Zertinan Caverns”. Immediately upon entering the caverns we notice a trio of green horses with horrible tentacles protruding from their necks. Their design was disturbing but for some reason that escapes me, I decided to step forward.
Big mistake.
For you see, these horses, called Mallicants, were not the same as the goombas on the surface of which I had been destroying with relative ease. No. These horses were almost doubled my level! According to the wiki page, Mallicants averaged between levels 37 and 38.
Guess who didn’t realize that until it was too late?
Correct. This guy.
I noticed almost immediately that the Mallicants were taking little damage from my attacks. This sent me into a full blown panic and, for whatever reason I cannot fathom, I decided to retreat…
FURTHER into the cavern. The exit was right behind me but instead I ran deeper into the caves! I watched in absolute horror as these Mallicants teleported behind me. Kicking me, blasting me with status ailments, and obliterating me with lightning magic. One by one my party fell to their onslaught until, with only Penelo remaining in my party, I escaped into the next room.
Free from the horses, I took a moment to revive and heal my party as well as compose myself. I figured that this had been a player error. That if I had just attacked the Mallicants one at a time, I would have handled the situation much better. With that in mind, I decided to push even DEEPER into the cave system.
I mean, why wouldn’t I? Despite the fact that I was severely under-leveled, I just could not help myself to the idea that the Caverns would contain some awesome loot.
I raced through the next room without much problem. I avoided the Mallicants with ease and stepped into the third chamber of the Zertinan Cavern only to be greeted with an underground sand storm. Confused, I ventured deeper into the storm only to lay witness to a horrifying cut-scene. From the dust emerged a gigantic being with massive claws, huge wings, and a jackal-like face. Purple lightning erupted from its body and it’s at that moment when I realized I had encountered an Esper – a super powerful magical being of which I was not prepared for.
With my tail tucked between my legs, I ran out of that chamber as fast as I could. Unfortunately for me, the Mallicants who had chased me prior were waiting for my return! Once again, I found myself running for my life. My party members falling, one by one, as I pushed towards the exit.
Wounded and dying, I was able to push my way through the cavern and back to the field from which I came. You can watch the entire exchange below.
Eldritch Horse of Doom
I escaped the Mallicants by the skin of my death. Now, you would think, “Surely, he’s learned his lesson.”
Well. You’d be wrong. Whereas most people would stick to locations best suited to their current level, I continued to push myself into dangerous situations in hopes of finding that sweet, sweet loot.
This desire would lead me to the absolute nightmare that is the Necrohol of Nabudis. While this dungeon did contain some fantastic armor and loot, it also contained some of the worse monsters in the game.
Admittedly, my first attempt failed spectacularly. My second attempt, however, was a lot more promising. Armed with better weapons and more patience, I took down every enemy one or two at a time until I finally made it to the final floor of the dungeon. After clearing the floor of enemies, I noticed a strange purple shimmer emanating from the center of the room.
This purple shimmer became a horse. A Mallicant-like horse comprised of purple and blue flames.
Ha! I thought. If I could take down the dungeon’s other enemies, I surely could take this guy down as well!
Then I targeted him.
HELVINEK: LEVEL 49, HP 9,999
I hit the Helvinek with my strongest weapon. did about 1,200 damage.
It’s health still read 9,999.
Oh no.
OH NO, NO, NO!
I ran. I ran as fast as my characters could towards the closest exit. All I had to do was leave the chamber and I’d be safe. Like the Mallicants before it, the Helvinek chased me relentlessly but, just when all hope seemed lost, I made it to the next chamber!
I breathed a sigh of relief and took a moment to heal my party. We had survived and now it was only a few chambers away from the dungeon’s back exit. We were in the clear.
That’s when the Helvinek re-appeared before me.
To my horror, I realized that this enemy was not your average eldritch horse demon. No. Like Resident Evil 3’s Nemesis, the Helvinek could FOLLOW ME INTO OTHER ROOMS!
We ran. We ran as if our lives depended upon it. I could NOT die down here. Not after spending all this time collecting all this loot.
The Helvinek kept up with us. To my horror, I watched as, once again, my party fell to its onslaught. Flashbacks to the caverns riddled my mind as bullets would riddle a body. I couldn’t die here. Not like this!
One character remaining. Less than 1,000 hit points remaining and we made it out of the dungeon. To my relief, the Helvinek did not pursue us into the forest beyond. We were safe.
The Horrors Explained
It isn’t uncommon for gamers to encounter an area that is well beyond their current level. In fact, many open-world-games boast this feature. They allow players to explore the map at their own peril. Two games that immediately come to mind are Elden Ring and Mad Max – both allowing players to go to territories that are far beyond their current capabilities. However, with the appropriate planning and preparation, players can make it out of these territories alive. Barely, but still, alive.
There is a risk-and-reward system in place for games like these. Do you venture into forbidden territory in hopes of scoring a magnificent weapon or a devastating spell?
You could sneak your way through these areas, kiting enemies one by one until you make it to the chest containing you precious loot. Or you can just run in at full speed, screaming as you do, past the enemies toward in hopes of avoiding them just long enough to find the treasure.
Either way, you now find yourself in a dangerous situation. Just because you got to the treasure does not mean you can make it back out alive. And with Final Fantasy XII’s autosave system (saving every time you venture into a new room) – there is a strong possibility that you can end up stuck in a dungeon and forced to revert to the last manual save done outside the temple, thus losing all the loot found within.
That, my friends, is the horror of which I speak. The knowledge that all your hard work, all your planning, could be for naught. One wrong move, one wrong enemy spawn and BAM! You’re stuck. You have the loot but can you make it out alive?
This is exactly what happened to me the first time I entered the Necrohol. I got stuck without any revival items and my healer was dead. For about half an hour I attempted my escape only to die over, and over, and over again. Finally, I had to concede and reload my last save losing about an hour’s worth of work.
I’ve always described horror as “Characters stuck in a situation that they cannot control.” and that is where I found myself. I was stuck. I was nervous and afraid of losing all my progress.
It’s a different kind of horror than what you experience during Resident Evil or Silent Hill. It’s not the ever lingering sense of dread that these games build up but instead the fear of being trapped in, as I said, a situation you cannot control.
And it is this reason I am adding Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age to our list. The fact that this bright and colorful game can inflict such dread throughout my playthrough is proof that horror can exist in the most unexpected places.
Like previous Final Fantasies, I bought Final Fantasy XII at launch. I was excited, as I always was, for a new Final Fantasy. My excitement slowly dwindled as I discovered that you did things differently than the previous games.
You had a very MMO style look and feel. You allowed enemies to hit me even as I tried running away. The license board meant I could not equip what I wanted, when I wanted. Gold came from loot instead of normal fights.
The story was overly political the language flowery. You were not my basic Final Fantasy I grew up with.
I distinctly remember the exact moment I stopped playing you. It was in the Tomb of Raithwall, shortly after the Demon Wall. Although you provided beautiful graphics and a surprisingly amount of well-spoken dialogue, you were not my Final Fantasy. You were new and different. I tried to keep an open mind but it wasn’t enough. Final Fantasy had a tried and true system and you changed that. As such, I stopped playing and had since never looked back.
Time has passed. I am now 41 years old and spending my free time live streaming old video games. Several of which being games that I had never finished during my childhood. Eventually, I came across you. Final Fantasy XII. Staring up at me from my game cabinet as if begging for another chance to show me your greatness. Although I had my reservations, I decided to do just that. I gave you a second chance.
Today I stand before you humbled. I have realized simultaneously that I was not only a stubborn child but a foolish one. What I seek from you, as I fall to me knees, is forgiveness. I was blind to the magnificence you tried to show me.
The language that I had originally thought as long winded and boring is now seen as mature and delightful to listen to.
Whereas the story, which I had once believed to be boring and political is now gripping with a sense of constant dread. There are high stakes involved in this colorful world you’ve created.
Furthermore, I no longer see our cast of characters as one irritating and dull. Instead, they are full of life and personality. Vaan, you lovable one-brain-celled fool. Ashe you stoic badass. Balthier you delightful scamp. Penelo, I hope you never lose your hope and kindness.
The combat is so detailed, the Gambit system phenomenal. I had originally thought the Gambit system to be overly complicated but now I see it is nuanced with a great deal of customization. Oh how your future brother FF7REMAKE would benefit from the Gambit system…how I wish it would return.
The dungeons surprising me with dangerous areas full of over-leveled monsters – resulting in my panic and fear. Making me feel things as I race my level 14 ass out of the level 40 enemy swarm.
The plethora of hidden weapons, items, armor, and loot. The hunts. The monster designs; it is all wonderful!
As I write this, I squeaked a win against Adrammelech, the Wroth – my characters only at level 24-26. Yet in a world where facing monsters too early means instant death, you were fair enough to allow me to alter my stratergies and find a way to win. An adrenaline rush given up to me from among high.
Forgive me, Final Fantasy XII. I was but a fool. Today I am one of your biggest fans. Thank you. Thank you for climbing the ranks to, as of right now, being my 3rd favorite FF of all time…
I hope this feeling lasts as I continue my journey!
Released for the Nintendo Gamecube back in 2003, Gotcha Force is an arena-based fighting game that pits tiny robots (known as Borgs) against one another in hopes to save the Earth. Basically, it’s Autobots vs Decepticons if they were 4 inches tall.
I’ll be honest. I had never even heard of this game until a friend of mine gave it to me as a gift. Unfortunately, like Legend of Dragoon before it, I just never got around to playing it. Frankly, I always thought it was a kid’s game. What with its young protagonists and its child-like aesthetic. Apparently, I was wrong.
My live-stream chat later informed me that the game was not only good, but difficult as well. Curiosity peaked, I decided to make it the next game we finished on stream. Which leads us to the following question. Was it as good as Chat made it out to be or was this another game blinded by nostalgia?
Story
Does Gotcha Force have a story? Yes? I guess? Sort of?
Kidding aside; yes. Gotcha Force has a story. It’s just razor thin. Basically it boils down to a young boy named Kou finding an alien robot named G-Red. G-Red tells Kou that the evil “Death Force” is planning an attack against Earth. It is now up to Kou to find allies in order to create a kid army strong enough to defeat the Dark Emperor.
Along the way Kou meets up with several neighborhood kids. The youngest being (I think) 5 years old and the oldest being a pre-teen? They don’t really give much information about the characters. They just exist to fight alongside you.
Not all kids are friendly; however. There are three brats who, for reasons that I couldn’t figure out, have joined the Death Force. First you have Sho who, for all intents and purposes, is the Gary to your Ash Ketchum. He’s pretty much your rival. Then you have the rich, snobby brat Tama and finally you have the green-haired Orochi whose motivations I really never understood.
Eventually, you win over the hearts and loyalty of the other kids in the neighborhood and together you team up to face the Dark Emperor. The story is nothing special but it serves its purpose.
Gameplay
As we mentioned before, Gotcha Force is an Arena-Based action game. It’s a high-octane 3rd-person action game where you build a team of Borgs to face off against the enemy team. Every Borg comes equipped with 2 special attacks and a melee attack that can combo.
Teams can consist up to 30 Borgs at a time though you’ll be lucky to get upwards of 5 or 6. You see, Borgs cost “GF Points” and you cannot exceed the amount of GF Points you have in your pool. Smaller bots can cost as little as 200 points whereas the bigger, more powerful bots can exceed 1,000 points. You earn GF Points by participating in battles – which this game has in spades. Most battles will net you a few dozen Points whereas boss battles will provide you with much more. Usually in the hundreds.
Oh. Did I mention that Borgs also count as your lives? Yup. The amount of Borgs you bring onto the battlefield count as your life system. When all the Borgs die, you lose.
This adds a whole new level of strategy to the game. Do you want a whole-bunch of little/medium Borgs to maximize your chances of survival? Or do you want a trio of Heavies and hope they deal enough damage to kill the enemy before dying themselves?
Now having a lot of GF Points means nothing if you don’t have Borgs to summon. Luckily, collecting Borgs is as simple as playing the game. At the end of each battle you have a chance to earn one (or more) of the Borgs you just fought against. This either comes in the form of the Borg itself, or capsules that you need to collect in order to form a complete Borg. So you really don’t need to worry about finding Borgs. You’ll soon own more Borgs than you can handle. That is not an exaggeration either. From what I’ve been told, there are about 200 individual Borgs in this game. Each with their own strengths and weaknesses.
That’s pretty damn impressive!
Then there’s the Ally system. During the story-mode you end up teaming up with other neighborhood kids. These kids each have their own specialized team of Borgs that will fight alongside you in battle.
Now each kid has their own unique team. For example, your rival Sho specializes in heavily armed, melee-focused Knights. Tama on the other hand has a single Borg in his team but its a massive skyship that utilizes multiple cannons and lasers to decimate the enemy forces. Another has Jet-themed borgs whereas another has healers. These options allow you to further customize each battle to better your odds at survival.
For the sake of transparency; I will like to mention that there is a Challenge Mode and a Multiplayer Mode that I hadn’t tried. So, unfortunately, I will not be discussing either in this review.
Review
I like Gotcha Force. I like it a lot. This is one of those games that surprises you. It waves its colorful, childish design around before sucker punching you in the gut with its high-octane action and surprising difficulty spikes.
How do I describe my experience? Okay. So during the first half hour or so, the game lures you into this false sense of security. You’re tearing through the enemy Borgs with little to no effort. You’ll be facing maybe 2 enemy Borgs at a time. They each have very little health so it doesn’t take much to destroy them. Then will come the next wave of 2 enemy Borgs and you’d kill them easily as well.
Then, without warning, you’ll be facing upwards of 5 Borgs at a time. Each with mega weapons that cover the screen with bright, flashing colors and particle effects. You’ll watch as your favorite Borg suddenly gets bodied across the arena as if he weighed nothing. Lasers will blast you into oblivion and before you know it, you’ve lost half your team.
I am not exaggerating when I say that there are moments in this game where I can barely keep track of all the insanity that I’m seeing on screen. So many Borgs, so many weapons going off, so many explosions, so many special abilities firing off – it’s pure madness!
I love it.
For you see, these difficulty spikes forced me to reevaluate my Borg team time and time again. There were moments in the game where I felt like I had assembled the perfect team. A team who could destroy my enemies without a second thought.
Only for the Death Force to completely and utterly wipe me out. These new enemy Borgs rendered my tactics completely useless. They chewed me up and spat me out like so much scrap metal.
For this, I was thankful.
You see, it is all too common for me to fall into the trap of using the same group of characters from start-to-finish. It happens all the time – from JRPGs to Fighting Games. I find a team that clicks with me and stick with them until the end.
Gotcha Force forces me to do the opposite. It forced me to experiment with different Borgs – swapping out my Heavies for those with lower armor but higher speed. There was many a time where I eked out a victory thanks to a Borg I previously thought to be useless. This kept the game fresh and exciting.
Unfortunately, we cannot say the same for the game’s Storyline or it’s Voice Acting.
We mentioned before how Gotcha Force’s storyline is bare bones. It is basically the same plot as Power Rangers and Transformers. A force of good turns to kids to help them defeat their evil, almost identical, counterparts. We don’t ever learn why the Death Force is so bad nor do we ever learn the villain’s motivation. Hell, we don’t even communicate with the Dark Emperor until 3/4ths through the game. As such, I found myself spamming the A button to get through what little dialogue Gotcha Force has in order to proceed to the next battle.
The Voice acting is just as rough. Each character has a series of phrases that they repeat ad nauseum. The problem is that these phrases don’t match up with what the characters are saying on screen.
For example; Sho’s dialogue would read “…” but his dialogue would be “YES!”
To which your character says. “Who was that guy” but his voice would say “OH!”
It’s very conflicting. Sure, it’s funny at first but even I found myself rolling my eyes by the end of the game. I am sure this could be due to translation errors or something but either way; it was rough.
The music however, is upbeat and matches the intensity of the gameplay beautifully. I found it catchy and fun. If I had to make a compliant about the soundtrack it would be that there wasn’t much variety in the music. It had four, maybe five real tracks in the game. That said, the music was pleasant to listen too and I enjoyed it quite a bit.
Conclusion
Gotcha Force was a pleasant surprise. I literally thought it was going to a laid-back game designed for kids. A “Babies First Armored Core” if you will.
I’ve never been so wrong. This game is intense! It’s non-stop, adrenaline pumping madness that keeps you on your toes. What surprised me the most was just HOW MUCH content the game throws at you. You get over 100 battles with the chance to collect about 200 Borgs – each having their own unique gameplay style and stats. Not to mention the multiplayer split-screen component and challenge mode. There’s even a trading option to allow you to trade Borgs with your friends!
The graphics are bright and vivid and the gameplay fast and tight. Even with so much happening on screen, I never experienced slowdown or stuttering. The few issues that the game does have (Voice acting and story) are so minute that it never distracts from the game itself.
I give Gotcha Force a 9/10. I highly, HIGHLY recommend Gotcha Force to anyone able to purchase (or emulate) it.
Hey everyone, Mazer here and today we are going to be talking about video games! Specifically the video games that we’re currently playing.
If I’m being honest with you, I just really could not come up with a topic to discuss this week. I don’t know what it is but I am just drawing a blank. As such, I decided instead to talk about the games we’re currently playing.
Funnily enough, the games we are playing somehow fell into the same genre of Action/Adventure games featuring Mechs! For those of you who do not know, I am not really a fan of Mechs. When it comes to Mech Anime, I find most of them rather dull. Naturally, there are some exceptions. I absolutely love the insanity of Studio Trigger’s Gurren Lagann and Production I.G.’s Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet.
Yet when it comes to Mechs in video games; I love them. I love how heavy they feel. I enjoy the satisfaction of seeing enemy mechs get pulverized, and I absolutely adore the power you feel when you get that massive punch through the enemy mech’s defenses. It’s satisfying as hell.
Do you remember Virtual On? It was a Sega game made for the arcades in the 90s and it served as my introduction to the Mech Game genre. Players sat in these chairs and used tank controls to move their agile mechs across the battleground while fighting off other mechs. What made it even better was the fact that you could battle other players as well. Such a good game!
I digress. We’re not here to talk about the past. We are here to talk about the present! So without further ado, let’s talk about what Mech games we are currently playing!
Gotcha Force (Nintendo Gamecube, 2003)
Gotcha Force is a funny little game. In it you play as a young Japanese kid who is approached by a tiny robotic alien called a Gotcha Borg. The Gotcha Borgs are recruiting children and preteens to help them defeat the evil Gotcha Borg empire – the Death Force. It’s a very Power Rangersesque storyline complete with rivals, betrayals, and twists.
Now, in order to defeat the Death Force, players must train, upgrade, and recruit Gotcha Borgs. This is where the game takes an interesting little turn. From what I’ve been told, Gotcha Force includes over 200 Borgs for you to seek out and collect. By battling other kids, you earn the chance of recruiting a new Borg. The more Borgs you recruit, the better your chances to defeat the Death Force.
Every Borg provides its own unique abilities. Some move faster, others deal more damage; some can teleport, some have rapid-fire weapons, and some can even nuke the entire battlefield. The wide variety of Borgs makes for fun gameplay as I rarely find myself sticking to the same team for more than a handful of battles.
I love this mechanic. I am one of those guys who sticks to a specific party if I find they serve my purposes. If they are getting the job done, what’s the point of swapping them out? Well that is not the case in Gotcha Force. For example; I was rocking a trio of Heavy Borgs – a traditional tank, a heavy melee Borg, and a Borg with a giant chainsaw. They were decimating the enemy! That is until I ran into a group of speedsters. These nimble little Borgs tore my heavies to shreds! This made me rethink my strategy. I swapped my trio out for a group of nimble ninja and gunslinger Borgs. With these faster Borgs under my control, I was finally able to defeat the enemy with few casualities.
Gotcha Force is a surprisingly good game. While it is not perfect (the camera angles can be a problem and the voice acting is laughable at best), it a lot of fun. We are currently streaming it Friday-Sunday at 11:30am – 14:30pm PST.
You can check out our first stream here!
Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon (Xbox Series X, 2023)
Dark Souls with Mechs.
There. That is all I have to say about this game.
Okay, that’s not entirely accurate. In fact, it isn’t the least bit accurate. Armored Core VI is the latest game from developer FromSoft. Known for their soul-crushing difficulty, FromSoft is responsible for such games as Dark Souls, Elden Ring, Blood Borne, and of course – Armored Core. This is, obviously, the 6th mainline game of the franchise and the first I’ve played.
I’m presently still in the early chapters of the game. That being said, I already love what I’ve experienced thus far. Whereas their other games instill a sense of helplessness in the player, Armored Core makes you feel like an unstoppable killing machine.
Well, for the most part.
Your mech feels satisfyingly heavy. Every step you make, every move you take (I’ll be watching you!) results in a satisfying THUNK. When you jump off a building, you FEEL the impact of your mech hitting the ground. Whenever you use your boosters, you FEEL the speed.
But it is the SCALE of the game that makes you feel like a bad-ass. What I thought were small drones were, in fact, full sized Helicopters. They were the size of my Mech’s arm! Tanks might as well be toys as I crunch them beneath my feet.
And the equipment! Oh the equipment! There are so many options from weapons to body parts that you can get lost in customizing your mech to your exact playstyle! Personally, I lean towards the heavily armored builds but the fact that I could swap out to a speedster build on the fly is fantastic!
That said; although you can rip and tear your way through the game’s version of Goombas with ease, don’t you dare think that this is a cakewalk. This is first and foremost a FromSoft game and it comes with the same difficulty the company is famous for. The rival mechs (the full-sized ones, not the fodder) can easily rip you apart if you aren’t paying attention. And the bosses? Forget about it! They are wonderfully insane and I look forward to tackling the challenge they present. Here is a clip of us facing off against one of the game’s early bosses.
Unfortunately, I am still early in the story so I cannot go into any further detail about its story or combat. But from what I’ve experienced so far, I love it!
Sand Land (Xbox Series X, 2024)
Sand Land is an Open World action game based off the manga (and later anime) of the same name. Written and drawn by legendary manga author Akira Toriyama, Sand Land was one of the last projects worked on before his untimely passing.
The game’s plot is as follows: Natural disasters and endless war has left the planet a desert wasteland. People and monsters alike struggle to survive on a daily basis. Taking care of the monsters (classified as demons) is the Prince of Demons, Beelzebub. The precocious scamp steals water and supplies from the greedy king’s forces and hands the supplies over to his people.
One day he is approached by a human sheriff named Rao. Rao informs the Prince that he may have discovered a water spring that could end the desert’s drought. Unfortunately he is not strong enough on his own to tackle the task at hand. He offers an alliance with Beelzebub – exchanging the location of the spring for the Prince’s strength and abilities. Beelzebub agrees and together they venture off into the desert to find the spring.
As of this post, I am only an hour and a half into the game. Just far enough to encounter my first mini-boss and first stealth mission. That said; I am loving everything that I’ve encountered thus far. The graphics are bright and colorful and just dripping with Akira Tomiyama’s artistic charm. The writing is akin to his other works as well. Charming, silly, with just the right amount of menace to make the villains feel like a threat without ever getting too serious.
Gameplay – mixed between driving around in your car/mech and moving on foot – is tight and entertaining. Usually in open-world games, I end up ignoring enemies while on my way to the next waypoint. That is not the case here. The combat is so satisfying – mixing up light and heavy attacks to build combos – that I find myself jumping out of my car at the first sign of enemies.
Sadly, I cannot really comment any further as I’m still very early in the game. I have yet to try out any of the mechs or tanks that have been shown in the trailer so unfortunately I cannot give my opinion on that mechanic. However, if the early gameplay is anything to go by, I feel like I’ll be enjoying the mech combat as much as the rest of the game.
We’ll return to this topic once I get further into the game but for now I just wanted to share my early impressions as it is one of the three games I’m currently playing!
What are you playing this month? Let us know in the comments!
If I may be so bold; we are experiencing a new Horror Renaissance. The last time Horror achieved this kind of fame and popularity, it was during the late 90s with the release of SCREAM. Before then, horror was a bit stagnant. We had some good hits, sure, but it was becoming a bit repetitive. SCREAM changed that with its unflinching violence and meta commentary. Then we had the rise of so-called “Torture Porn” with SAW and HOSTEL followed by the Remake/Reboot Revolution.
Then, around 2009/2010, we entered a new age of Horror. One that focused more on creative freedom. Leading the charge was Blumhouse Productions – a production studio that focused on lower-budgeted movies in exchange of higher creative freedoms. This method has done wonders for the studio as it produced such blockbusters as the Paranormal Activity, Insidious, and Purge franchises. They also produced some of the last 10 years’ most acclaimed horror movies like The Invisible Man (2020), Get Out (2017), Upgrade (2018), Halloween (2018), and M3GAN (2023).
Then we have MonkeyPaw Productions which co-produced the aforementioned Get Out along with US, (2019), Candyman (2021), and my personal favorite, NOPE (2022).
But it’s not just production companies. We’ve seen a rise of new blood as well. Writer/Directors such as Ari Aster (Midsommer, Hereditary), Robert Eggers (VVITCH, The LightHouse, The Northman), Mike Flannigan (Oculus, Haunting of Hill House, and The Fall of the House of Usher), and James Wan (SAW, Conjuring, Insidious).
Included in this new renaissance is Abigail production/directorial studio Radio Silence. Known for their over-the-top violence and humor (SCREAM, SCREAM VI, Ready or Not), Radio Silence is quickly becoming one of my favorite new studios.
So how did they do with their latest project? Well let’s talk about it and find out. This is our review on Radio Silence’s Abigail.
Story
Abigail is the story of the titular character and her kidnappers. A mysterious man named Lambert (Giancarlo Esposito) hires a crew of six to assist him in finding, and capturing, the daughter of a rich man. The daughter in question is the 12-year-old ballerina Abigail.
The kidnapping goes off without a hitch. They abduct Abigail and deliver her to Lambert. Now, the only thing left for them to do is wait for the ransom. Once paid, they will find themselves 7 million dollars richer.
What the team doesn’t know is that there is more to this mission than meets the eye. Now they must work together if they hope to make it through the night in one piece.
**WARNING SPOILERS FROM HERE ON. IF YOU WISH TO AVOID SPOILERS, PLEASE SCROLL TO OUR CONCLUSION**
REVIEW (SPOILERS)
I do not normally include spoilers in our reviews but Abigail forces my hand. If you have watched the trailers, then you already know what I am about to say. If you haven’t – then this is your final warning.
The trailers (as well as all promotional media) show Abigail for what she truly is. A centuries-old, blood thirsty vampire. One who turns the tables on her kidnappers; turning them into her playthings. As a result, we get an absolutely hilarious bloodbath where a 12-year-old little girl beats the ever living hell out of a group of several able-bodies adults.
It is this kind of absurdity that Radio Silence excels at. We see this in SCREAM VI but more so in what I consider their best movie; Ready or Not. Like Ready or Not, Abigail’s humor stems from the absolute insanity of the situation.
Watching 14-year-old Alisha Weir tearing through a bunch of grownups is a joy to watch. Whether its tossing a 250lb man like a Cabbage Patch doll or dancing ballet while approaching her victims; she is a delight to watch. Seriously; this young actress steals the show with every scene she is in.
But it’s not just Alisha’s performance that sells the movie but the other cast members as well. In lesser hands, Abigail would be the movie’s only highlight. The other characters would be mindless meat-bags who serve little purpose other than padding the body count. With Radio Silence, however, each character is wonderfully fleshed out and developed. Not to say there is some hidden depth in these characters. More like they all have well-written, distinguishable personalities that add to the movie’s overall tone and humor.
One particular scene comes to mind. After learning the truth about Abigail, the surviving members get together to come up with a plan of attack. Using vampires in pop-culture, they devise a series of weapons to either kill, or at the least, subdue Abigail. The leads to some brilliant character moments as they argue over the types of vampires seen in movies and how each movie kills them differently. It’s a fun and smartly written bit of comedy that I truly enjoyed watching.
Of course I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about the gore – which this movie has in spades. There is SO MUCH blood in this movie that it makes the elevator scene from The Shining look like a mere puddle. Some of the sets literally get caked with the stuff – a majority of which being done practically which I am all here for.
The action sequences of similar quality. Watching the different characters taking turns beating on, or getting beaten up by, Abigail is entertaining as hell. I don’t know what it is but seeing a 14-year old beating a giant muscle-bound man senseless is just funny to me. It is even funnier when the same man chucks the girl into a wall before running away.
Off the top of my head, I cannot really think of any real flaws that hinder the movie. If anything, all I can say is that it isn’t as funny as their previous movies. I think Ready or Not delivered upon its absurdity better than Abigail does and I also feel like Ready or Not’s higher body count allowed for some more creative and memorable deaths.
Perhaps that is what I am trying to get at. With only 6 criminals and 1 killer, they really couldn’t give us a high enough body count to showcase Abigail’s brutality. After the initial kills, the rest of the movie is more of a cat-and-mouse sequence revolving around the survivors avoiding Abigail while coming up with a means for escape. With Ready or Not, we had a huge cast to take advantage.
I don’t mean to compare the two but with such similar premises, it is hard not too. That said, Abigail still succeeds in its premise; for which I am grateful.
Conclusion
Good horror comedies are hard to come by. I feel like most revolve a silly premise and stick to that premise as their primary source of comedy. The downside to this approach is that the joke wears thin by the third act. You can only repeat the same joke so many times before it gets old.
Then you get those horror comedies that take that silly premise and build upon it. The joke evolves as the movie goes on. Abigail is one of those movies. It could have easily been a generic monster movie with brainless, one-note characters and lots of gore but it instead delivers us some witty banter, intense action sequences, and some pretty damn good acting.
The cast is great – again with Abigail actress Alisha Weir stealing the show – the practical effects are delightfully gory and over-the-top, and the fight scenes entertaining as hell. While not as funny or corpse-filled as Ready or Not, it is still a fun movie for anyone seeking a bloody good time.
Legend of Dragoon is a JRPG developed by Japan Studio and released on the Playstation 1 in 2000 (United States). It follows the story of a young man named Dart who is on a journey to find his family’s killer. Along the way, he meets up with a group of characters and together they end up tasked with saving the world from an ancient evil.
I bought Legend of Dragoon at launch though I didn’t actually play it until this year (2024). Why? I don’t know. This was during the height of Final Fantasy’s popularity – with Final Fantasy IX coming out the same year. It would not surprise me that I set Legend of Dragoon aside in favor of Final Fantasy IX. IX is hands down my favorite of the 3D Final Fantasy games so it makes sense that I gave it all my attention.
After that, I just never got around to Legend of Dragoon. However this year I decided to stream a butt-load of JRPGs on my twitch channel. We started with Skies of Arcadia, then Secret of Mana, and we just recently finished Legend of Dragoon.
So. How did Legend of Dragoon fair? Was it a fine glass of wine that gets better with age or did it turn into so much vinegar in our mouths?
STORY
The story of Legend of Dragoon follows a young man named Dart and his childhood friend Shana. By the time we meet Dart, he is on his way back home after a years-long journey hunting a mysterious creature called The Black Monster (Creative name no?). The Black Monster is responsible for the destruction of not only his village, but his parents as well. Having sworn revenge, Dart ventured out in hopes of finding The Black Monster.
During his return trip home, Dart discovers that the local empire has destroyed his village (He can’t get a break can he?) and kidnapped his close friend Shana. He learns all of this from mysterious armored woman named Rose. She assists him in pushing back the remaining imperial forces. It is during this battle that she reveals that she is a Dragoon – a mystical knight imbued with the powers of the legendary dragon. To Dart’s surprise, she informs him that he is a Dragoon as well!
Together Dart and Rose team up to rescue Shana from the Imperial prison. Along the way they discover a plot to overthrow the world. A plot led by Emperor Doel and his right hand Lloyd (Yes, that is his actual name).
As is tradition, we learn that there is more to this story than meets the eye. While journeying to learn the truth, we come across a wide variety of interesting characters including the 16-year old dancer Meru, the barbarian Kongol, the knight Lavitz and his king Albert, the solider sister Miranda, and the martial artist Haschel. These heroes make up the rest of the legendary Dragoon Knights. Together they must find a way to stop Lloyd before he can bring about the end of the world.
Gameplay
Legend of Dragoon uses turn-based combat with a twist. That twist being an early form of Quick Time Events – that is, pushing a specific button when prompted. These are called “Additions.”
The way this works is as follows: Whenever you attack an enemy, a blue square appears in the center of the screen. A secondary square then flies across the screen to align with the static one. You are supposed to press the X button when the two squares align. This builds your combo. Think of this like a primitive version of Guitar Hero or a Rhythm game.
Each Addition has it’s own combo length and timing. One may have three inputs whereas another has five. Some have a slower input window whereas others are a lot faster. It’s an interesting premise that felt fun at first but wore thing as the game went on. But we’ll get into that later.
Every time you perform a successful Addition, you gain Spirit Points (SP). Spirit points not only level up your Additions but they also level up your Dragoon Abilities. The more SP you accumulate, the more attacks you can do while in Dragoon form.
Dragoon Form can be activated whenever you accumulate 100 SP. Upon activation, your character will undergo a Sailor Moon style transformation in which your character dons on their Dragoon Armor. Their offense and defense increases while also gaining the ability to use Magic.
Every action while in the Dragoon State uses up 1 level of Dragoon Spirit – with a maximum of 5. So if your Dragoon level is 2, for example, you can use 2 actions before your Dragoon State runs out.
But the Dragoon State is not the only time you can use magic. You can use it in your normal state as well but, like with the Additions, there is a twist. Instead of being an ability, Magic is treated like an Item. Magic spells are purchased from shops much like you would weapons and items. To use Magic, you select it from your items list and watch as your character “throws” it at the enemy. Depending on the spell, it either activates immediately or you have to mash the X button to increase damage. Either way, magic is a limited commodity. However, even this has a downside. Again, we’ll talk about it below.
Weapons, Armor, and Accessories are treated with a more traditional flair. You equip the best ones you find to increase your chances of survival. Simple.
Review
It took us approximately 53 hours to complete Legend of Dragoon. As far as I can tell, we completely a majority of the game. We found all the stardust (a collectable required to gain access to a hidden area). I was able to defeat the optional bosses. We max leveled some (not all) of our Additions and Dragoon levels, and we were able to finish the story.
So how did it turn out?
Honestly? It was rather average. Nothing too horrible but nothing too memorable either.
First off, lets talk the cast. Although we have several interesting characters, a majority of the game revolves around Dart, Rose, and later, Meru. This isn’t a problem early on but by the end of Disc 2 and start of Disc 3, the game’s focus shifts more towards these three. We don’t really get that much development out of the others until the final disc but by then, I found myself no longer interested. They were just side stories that felt more like padding than actual character development.
It didn’t help that the story felt quite generic. I will admit that this is likely my fault. Back in 2000, before I experienced other JRPGS and anime, this story may have felt fun and fresh. By playing it today, after 2 decades of anime and RPG experience under my belt, it felt predictable and tropey. We were able to guess practically every twist and turn that Legend of Dragoon threw at us. As such, I won’t blame the game for it’s story but more myself for my experience with the game’s tropes and story beats.
But what I will find fault with is the game’s combat and item system. While I appreciate Legend of Dragoon doing something different – keeping players actively engaged with its combat system – I did find myself growing tired of constantly mashing the X button for every attack. This goes double whenever I find myself backtracking. The game forces you to travel through previous dungeons which increases the chances of you running into more enemies. This meant, for the sake of progressing through the game in a timely manner, I had to either run away, or use some repeatable spells to end the battle as quickly as possible.
Now don’t get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with the combat. Leveling up additions is easy (and not to grindy) and seeing the different attacks play out is fun. I like seeing how each character fights. It is vastly different than other JRPGs at the time which kept characters swinging their weapons in the same manner no matter what their level. So I give them points for that. It’s just frustrating to complete a string of ever growing combos when you’re trying to get from point A to B as quickly as possible.
What did bother me, however, was the unusual inclusion of an Inventory Limit. Weapons and armor are capped off around (I think) 99 items. Fair enough. Even by the end of the game, I don’t think I got close to that limit. Items on the other hand had a hard cap of 32. So there were several moments throughout the game where I couldn’t open treasure chests because I had met my item limit. This also meant that I was constantly juggling Healing, Resurrection, Magical, and Ailment Items. Eventually, I just gave up on carrying Ailment Items and limited my Magical items to the tiniest handful. Most of my inventory was reserved for healing/resurrection potions and reusable magical items.
Yet again, I must give credit where credit is due. The aforementioned Reusable Magical Items was a fantastic addition to the game. With the limited inventory space, the inclusion of specific items that could be used over and over again (with a limit of 1x per battle) really helped balance the game. These items would either boost our characters’ speed, defense, and power, or act as a magical spell to damage enemies. So points for that!
My final frustration comes from the experience points and gold gained after every battle. Admittedly this comes from someone who loves grinding and making myself as over-leveled as possible but it did irritate me that the game provided you with the tiniest amount of Experience Points and Gold after every battle. Now I know why they did this. They wanted the game’s bosses to provide the majority of the gold and experience. That’s fine. But when you are low on funds and having to grind a bit to earn enough for a new weapon or piece of armor, that tiny amount of gold earned ends up being rather annoying.
This rings especially true if you want some of the game’s most powerful armor and accessories. At 10k a pop, these items are practically unobtainable unless you grind what the game calls Unique Monsters. These monsters have very low health but very high defense and agility. This means you’ll miss a majority of the time. But this is balanced by the aforementioned low health. You just need to score between 3 to 5 hits to take down one of these Unique Monsters. The reward for defeating them? Either a ton of gold (lowest being 300, highest being 1000) or experience. So, while frustrating that I cannot grind the normal way, there is a system in place to help players like me gain that armor.
This is the developers saying “Hey, if you WANT to get this hardcore armor, you can. You just have to work for it.” A bit irritating, sure, but doable. Once again – a frustration is balanced.
And that’s pretty much how I’d describe the entire Dragoon experience – Frustrating but Balanced. For everything that irritated me about the game, there was something that I found quite enjoyable about it. It was never too hard nor was it too difficult. Game Overs did occur throughout my playthrough which came as a welcome surprise. I don’t usually experience classic old-school Game Overs as much as I used too as a kid so whenever I fail in such a manner, it comes as a shock. I go “Oh, that just happened. Let’s change up our strategy and try from a different angle!” It was fun.
All that said – I will be remiss if I didn’t talk about the two things that had no redeeming qualities whatsoever. The first being a part of the game’s design, the second being a glitch that drove me insnae.
On the design front there is something that Legend of Dragoon does that I’ve not seen in any JRPG. That is the game’s requirement of changing discs when backtracking.
Back in the day, games, especially Jrpgs, came on multiple discs. When you completed a specific area in Disc 1, it would save your progress and ask you to insert the 2nd disc to continue the game’s story. If, at any time, you decide to return to a town or location from Disc 1, you may do so without interruption. Sometimes there is a story element that prevents you from going back but usually by the final disc, you can go anywhere in the world without problem.
Legend of Dragoon doesn’t do this. Some towns are locked behind specific discs. There was one moment where I went back to one town while on Disc 4 and had to swap out to Disc 2. When I finished up in the town, I started a side quest that required me to switch to Disc 3. Now while this is a minor inconvenience, it is still an inconvenience that shouldn’t exist. As far my experience goes, this is the only JRPG that I’ve played with this problem. It’s odd and quite frustrating.
Lastly comes the “Fade to Black” glitch that I encountered three times during my playthrough. So from what I understand, the Fade to Black glitch occurs when gamers are playing Legend of Dragoon on anything other than the original hardware. This means if you are playing on a Playstation 2 or 3, or in my case, emulating the ripped discs on a computer, there is a chance the game will freeze after a boss battle.
The way the glitch works is as follows: During specific boss battles, if you transform into your Dragoon state while playing on anything other than the original Playstation 1, there is a chance that, after the battle, the game will fade to black and free. We didn’t encounter this glitch until the end of Disc 2 when we fought the Kraken boss. After discovering the glitch, a quick Google search resulted in evidence that this is a well-documented problem. That was rather disappointing to find out because now I had to do some extra research to find out which bosses I could and couldn’t use my Dragoon State on.
But you know what the kicker was? It was during the final boss of the game. After spending an absurd amount of time defeating him, I was treated to Legend of Dragoon’s final cinematic. Once the cinematic ended, however, I was not given the end-game credits but instead…
ANOTHER BLACK SCREEN CRASH!
Luckily, I had already seen the game’s final cut scene (unless there is one after the credits – I have not looked yet) so I just turned off the game and left it at that.
Conclusion
Legend of Dragoon isn’t a bad game nor is it a phenomenal game. I would describe this game as “one that exists.”
Of course I’m joking.
It’s fine for what it is. It has an interesting premise, an experimental combat system, some seriously catchy music, and – despite being a bit forgettable – a decent cast of characters. While it is true I was frustrated with a lot of the game’s backtracking and high levels of enemy encounters; none of these were enough to sour my experience altogether.
There are no regrets when it comes to Legend of Dragoon. For what it was, I enjoyed it. I am happy that I was finally able to remove it from my backlog and I am glad I was able to share my experience with those on my live stream.
Overall, I would give it a solid 7/10. A good, but flawed game, that was daring enough to try new things even if those new things weren’t always successful.
