Join me after the break for some possible game recommendations. And one entry that will probably be a lot of "damning with faint praise".
Guilty Gear Xrd: Sign
The current gen (i.e. PS4) rebirth of the Guilty Gear franchise was something I've been anticipating for awhile now, and it did not disappoint.
I sort of stumbled into the Guilty Gear series way back when the first one came out on the PS1. It was my first exposure to the "anime" style of fighting games (as is the case with most people, I'd imagine), and I was immediately hooked. I had already fallen in love with the over the top action that Capcom dealt out in their "Vs." series of fighting games, and Guilty Gear was another way to get that high-octane, over the top fighting game fix.
GGXrd: Sign maintains the pacing of previous games, though it does simplify mechanics from previous entries (to the chagrin of some vets). For a more casual fan like myself, it's easily the most accessible Guilty Gear game so far ("accessible" being rather relative compared to other games), it plays very well, and it looks great.
Actually, that isn't accurate: GGXrd: Sign is the most impressive, amazing, consistently beautiful fighting game I've ever seen. The wizards at Arc System Works have come up with a method that uses 3D models, but animates them in such a way that the characters look like they were animated using high res sprites. The effect is consistently mesmerizing, and it has some fantastic side benefits: the 3D models allow for cinematic pans that make certain moments really "pop" (such as when super moves come out, end of round hits, etc) which would be extremely difficult or impossible to pull off with sprites.
Additionally, the 3D models allow for easy asset re-use. It's much, much easier to put the characters into cutscenes, story sequences, post-fight poses, etc, without having to come up with a separate set of sprites for that situation (or do something ugly like scale existing sprites). It gives the game an awesome sense of visual consistency.
There are only two "bad" things with this game:
1) The story mode is a straight up movie, instead of a set of interconnected, branching fights like in previous ArcSys games. It's entertaining enough to watch (it's about as good as an average anime) and it's broken up into enough chapters that it's easy to watch at your own pace. But it's also an entirely passive experience, which is a bit of a bummer.
2) For anyone with a sense of pattern recognition, this is going to be the first in a series of games. ArcSys (along with several other fighting game developers) has a history of releasing a "foundation" game, then building on it incrementally with update releases. I don't consider this a big downside - I'd much rather play this now than in, say, five years when the "final" GGXrd game comes out - but it is worth bearing in mind (and it's why I bought the game on disc instead of digitally).
Overall, GGXrd: Sign is fantastic. Its worth at least checking out videos of it just to see it in motion, and absolutely worth playing if you're a fan of the series (or fighting games in general).
Transistor
This is the follow up game from Supergiant Games, developers of Bastion. Transistor is another 3rd person action-RPG style game with an emphasis on style and emergent storytelling, but it is a very different experience from Bastion.
For starters, Transistor's combat introduces some very interesting new ideas. You still run around and attack enemies (using attacks that you choose from a pool of options), but trying to play the game like a normal action-RPG won't work out very well - your main character doesn't move or attack very fast, and the enemies you run into are much more combat capable. What evens out the playing field is the Turn() system: when you activate this mode, you queue up attacks in sequence (i.e. build a program with them) and then they play out at a much faster speed when you activate the sequence (i.e. execute the program).
It's a very interesting and fun system that encourages bursts of aggression followed by dodging and defensive play. The Turn() system also serves as your biggest defensive measure, as it will activate to save you if you have it queued up (at the cost of temporarily disabling one of the attacks/abilities you have equipped). Add onto that the incredible depth offered by the way attacks work in the game - you equip various programs to be your attacks/abilities, but you can also equip otherwise unused attacks/abilities onto active ones to give them side benefits - and it ends up being a very fun game to play.
I'm still working my way through this one (mostly due to distractions, as I hear it's not very long), but so far it's very fun to play, looks fantastic, and (much like Bastion) has an awesome soundtrack. Definitely worth picking up if you liked Bastion, or if you enjoy action-RPGs in general.
Lords of the Fallen
I had this game on my radar for awhile, but mediocre reviews (and a really dense release schedule around that time) led to me giving it a pass. However, a flash sale on the Xbone marked the price down to $9, so I figured I'd give it a shot.
For $9, Lords of the Fallen is a fine game. I'd even go as high as $30, depending on how much you get into it. That's about the nicest thing I can say about it.
Lords of the Fallen is not a bad game, just not a very impressive one. The art style is everything 13-yr old boys think is awesome (I'd have goddamn loved this game at that age), the story is uninspired and poorly told (read: bad writing), and it clearly attempts to cash in on the popularity of Dark Souls by aping it's gameplay, while not really understanding what makes those games really engaging and fun to play.
I have a hard time putting my finger on it, but combat in Lords of the Fallen feels off. The best way I can put it is that it feels like it's stuck between two worlds: on one hand, it wants to have the methodical, paced combat of Dark Souls, but on the other hand it wants to have the dynamic, action-y combat of something like God of War. The result is combat that works, but feels clunky and conflicted.
The developers also fell into the same trap that mucked with the "balance" of most of the Souls games: magic ends up being pretty powerful, and you can have access to it really early on. With very little effort I was able to make a character that can survive pretty much indefinitely without having to use healing items, which sort of killed any tension the game may have had.
Lords of the Fallen isn't a bad game, but it's not particularly good or remarkable either. If you want to play a great Souls game, Dark Souls and Dark Souls II (to a lesser extent) are easily available, and if you want to play a great action/adventure game there are a ton of other games that offer a better sense of agency and action. If you're interested in it, I'd say it's worth picking up on the cheap. Otherwise, just give it a pass.
Mercenary Kings
Mercenary Kings is a game that I hadn't ever heard of, until one of the YouTube channels I subscribe to did a quick look for it. My interest was immediately piqued, and when I picked up a PS4 (sadly not available on the Xbone) I finally got a chance to check it out.
Mercenary Kings is an interesting mix of old-school sidescroller shooter and modern day Monster Hunter-style loot grind games. It's an action RPG version of Contra or more accurately, Metal Slug. Having quick reflexes and a good sense of enemy patterns is important, but it's also important to upgrade your equipment and equip yourself appropriately for each mission.
It's an interesting mix that is fun, if a bit repetitive, since the game has a bit of an emphasis on re-running missions for loot and cash. The game throws just enough variety into the missions to keep it interesting, and the art design (expressive, well animated sprites) does a lot to buoy up the whole package. And the missions are relatively quick and easy to run through so the game has a nice popcorn/potato chip pace to it.
The best way I can pitch this game is: if playing a hybrid of Monster Hunter and Metal Slug sounds appealing to you, you'll find a lot to love here.
The Binding of Issac: Rebirth
The Binding of Issac is a game I've had my eye on for awhile. For whatever reason, the combination of roguelike level/item generation and permadeath combined with Zelda-style dungeons and twin-stick shooting seemed like it could be a lot of fun. It's been available on PC for a long time, but since I do all my gaming on consoles (due to good 'ol fashioned laziness) I had to wait until I picked up a console that The Binding of Issac is available on (though it'll be finding it's way to the Xbone soon).
This is actually the updated release (hence "Rebirth") and from what I've read the changes to this version did a lot to improve the game. I can't speak to how it compares to the original game, but I can say that this version of the game is pretty damn fun.
One of the nicest things about it is the pace: even the most successful dungeon runs will only last around 30-40 minutes, and anything that doesn't go well will be over much faster than that. As a result, its a game where you can sit down and get a few dungeon runs in without devoting a ton of time to it. The heavy randomization ensures that each run is unique, but the common pool that everything is drawing on (that slowly expands as you unlock more items/features/monsters/etc by playing) allows you to build up a knowledge base that makes the game feel more skill based than you'd expect.
A lot of that is the appeal of a roguelike (a genre I've dabbled in here and there) shaken up by the rapid pacing of a shooter. Well, relatively rapid pacing; Issac is faster than, say, NetHack, but it's slower paced than your average shooter. Regardless, that difference in combat interface goes a long way to making Issac a game that's very easy to sit down and play, then difficult to put down (due to the powerful grip of "just one more run").
I ended up enjoying Issac a lot more than I thought I would. It was slow going at first - equal parts learning the game's rules and getting used to the controls - but I found myself making more and more progress each time. After just a couple of weeks I'd beaten the game five times, with one trip being a laser-filled run that capped off with me clearing Sheol on my first time through. It's a game I can easily come back to, and I'm really looking forward to putting more time into it here and there in the future (especially with another expansion reportedly on the horizon).
Similar to Mercenary Kings, The Binding of Issac: Rebirth is a game that is likely to either grab you based on the description, or not sound very interesting at all. If Issac does sound interesting to you though, I highly recommend picking it up. It ended up being one of my favorite games of the past few years.
Final Fantasy: Type-0 HD
Now here's a game with an interesting development. A current gen port of a PSP game that no one ever thought would get a Western release (and indeed, it may not have if there hadn't been so much groundswell in support of it). I picked this up for a few reasons: 1) it's supposedly one of the best Final Fantasy games released recently, which is a damn low hurdle, but was still compelling, 2) I wanted to support Square-Enix for listening to their fans and finally bringing over a game people have been begging for for years, and 3) it came with a demo of Final Fantasy XV. Even a jaded Final Fantasy fan like me can't resist the lure of a new game and the promise it might hold.
I haven't had a chance to play the demo yet - I'm holding off until I can sit down and play through the whole thing without being distracted by other games/projects - but I have managed to put some time into Type-0. I'm one of the few who actually bought a PSP (and actually enjoy owning one a fair bit), so I can say this with absolute authority: this game still feels 100% like a PSP game.
That's not necessarily a bad thing. One of the best things about PSP games is that they played remarkably close to console games (most closely to PS2 games), so it still plays well. But the odd button choices - why am I so limited in the active skills I can set when my controller has plenty of buttons to accommodate more skills? - and wild, super-blurry camera are hallmarks of a game that started out on the PSP.
Similarly, the environments feel like they were designed for portable gaming: small-ish, straightforward areas that would be easy to navigate on a small screen. I don't consider that a downside - it keeps the pace from dragging on missions, and makes navigating the home base pretty straightforward - but it is a sharp contrast to some of the older Final Fantasy games and their sprawling over worlds.
The last thing I'll say about the PSP origins of this game is that you can also really see it in some of the visuals. The most prominent characters have been given a remarkable facelift (check out the comparisons in this Eurogamer article to really appreciate the differences), but some character models don't look that much different from their PSP incarnations (I'm guessing these models just got a new coat of paint). As with the other foibles, this isn't enough to detract from the game (at least for me), but it is an occasional reminder of this game's roots.
All that said, is Final Fantasy Type-0 HD worth playing? If you're a fan of the Final Fantasy series or JRPGs in general, yes.
Type-0 hits a lot of the same notes as other JRPGs (especially from that release cycle): banal story, mediocre scripting, trope riddled characters, and lots of random jargon in place of world building. However, if you can get past those issues (which, while annoying, aren't any worse than any of this game's original contemporaries) there is a really fun action(ish) RPG to be found underneath.
Type-0 plays similar to Square's Kingdom Hearts series, but with a clearer focus on action and party management. The resulting mix is a nice blend of the combat you've come to expect from Final Fantasy games - right down to all the classic abilities being available on various party members - spiced up with the combat playing out in real time and with the ability to quickly switch party members on the fly. There are lots of characters for you to choose from (though you can only ever have access to three at any given time) and you're encouraged to rotate your active members (since they may be called on to fill in as reserves if your main party is wiped out during a mission), so there is enough variety to keep things feeling fresh.
I haven't put a lot of time into Type-0 (I got sidetracked by the next game in this post) but what I've played of it, I've enjoyed. The story is decent enough to keep the game moving, and easy enough to ignore when I don't feel like dealing with it's nonsense moments. The gameplay, meanwhile, is punchy and active enough to keep me awake, and the large cast of characters should keep me interested in playing it long enough to see the game through to the end.
That's a far sight better than anything I've said about the last three Final Fantasy games (though Lightning Returns holds a special place in my bitter heart), and it makes Type-0 probably the best Final Fantasy game to come along in awhile. Definitely recommended for curious fans.
Bloodborne
I have many thoughts about this game, but I'm saving them all up for after I finish it. As far as I can tell, I'm around 3/4 of the way through the game, so hopefully I'll be able to wrap up my first run through soon (though I'm sure I'll run into a few boss roadblocks along the way).
For now I'll just say that I had high expectations for this game, and it's exceeded all of them. I have some minor issues with it - long load times and the need to farm up healing items periodically - but overall it's as impressive and remarkable as Dark Souls was. Probably moreso, considering how much this game innovates on the traditional Souls-style game approach.
Killer Instinct (2013) Season 2, cont'd
Killer Instinct's experiment of continuous development marches on, and so far it's been extremely successful. The last time I reported on it, Season 2 had just begun (with a big patch and the release of TJ Combo and Maya). As we get closer to the end of Season 2 - it looks like it'll wrap up sometime in May - there is a lot more to talk about, pretty much all of it positive.
Most of the new characters (Kan Ra, Riptor, Aganos, and Hisako) are impressively designed and add a lot to the game, and even the "bonus" character (Omen) is interesting and has long term potential. The art design concerns that came with TJ and Maya have largely been eliminated; each new character looks better than the last, and starting with Kan Ra they've been pretty awesome looking. Each character also brings interesting new mechanics to the table and the game is overall much richer and more interesting with such a diverse cast (despite still being markedly smaller than other franchise rosters).
Iron Galaxy has also earned a lot of good faith (at least with me) with how well it's handled secondary features, such as the accessories and alternate costumes for each character. While some of the Season 1 accessories and alternates are alright, most of them unfortunately feel rushed. So far, without exception, the accessories and alternate costumes for the Season 2 cast have been at least good, if not outright excellent. While it doesn't affect gameplay at all, it is very nice for fun, fluffy things like this to be so well executed.
Season 2 also introduced some welcome refinement to the Story mode introduced in Season 1. The criteria for the various endings for each character are explicitly spelled out and you can see which endings you have already unlocked, which makes working through those much more accessible. Plus they added in some nice rewards for unlocking the endings - big chunks of player experience for each character, and an art mural when you unlock them all - which makes it more worthwhile to play through each path for the Season 1 characters.
Season 2 characters will get their own content when the Season 2 revised Story mode drops towards the end of the season, which is supposed to be a far more robust and developed Story mode than what is in place for the Season 1 characters.
Along with the new characters, Iron Galaxy has continued to polish the game with bug fixes and character rebalancing (mostly low-key changes, but there have been a few remarkable tweaks over the months). While this has driven some competitive players kind of crazy - understandably so, as I'm sure it's a little frustrating to potentially have to re-learn entire match ups every other month - I'm a big fan of it. All of the changes so far have felt carefully considered and thought out on the part of the developers, and the aggregate of these tweaks is a game with a fairly level playing field of character power levels. Most of the changes have focused on the Season 2 characters (or contentious Season 1 characters like Fulgore) and the most intense period for changes is the first month or two after a new character is released, which is understandable. As the season rolls along, more and more characters hit states that are where the developers want them, and they settle into a comfortably stable state. That's not to say that those characters won't see any changes in the future, but for the most part the only characters that get major changes are the most recent ones, so if you're working with one of the earlier released characters you don't need to worry about big changes coming along.
Finally, Iron Galaxy re-vamped the primary online competitive mode - Ranked - by replacing the previously nebulous structure with a ranked ladder system. The new system is still technically in beta, but it's already a huge improvement over the old ranked system. The revised UI conveys where you are in the ladders, what you should be aiming for (next rank, next ladder), and how you're progressing in a way that's very easy to understand at a glance, which in turn makes the process of trying to climb the ladders more encouraging. I burned out fairly quickly in the old Ranked system, but the new approach has me re-invigorated to play more online. I'd call that a success.
As Season 2 nears it's end we're waiting for the last two characters: the return of fan-favorite (and the final returning member of the original game's cast) Cinder, and the enigmatic new character (and supposed final boss of the new story) ARIA. Cinder was teased at the end of the most recent character trailer (Hisako's) and he was expounded upon more in depth in a recent textual stream. So far, he's looking pretty damn good. I'm not at all a fan of the character but he looks like another instance of Iron Galaxy coming up with a fantastic re-design (a la TJ, Maya, and Riptor).
ARIA we know almost nothing about, but I'm guessing that we'll get plenty of info about her (?) after Cinder goes live (and the throngs of Cinder fans can finally just shut up and play him).
Killer Instinct continues to be one of the most fun, interesting, and entertaining fighting games I've ever experienced. Iron Galaxy has stepped up to prove, at least to me, that they're an extremely capable developer. They've managed to re-introduce some of the weakest old characters (I still can't believe what they came up with for Maya) and all of the new characters they've come up with have been absolutely fantastic (while also fitting well into the "feel" of the game). I look forward to playing this game over the coming months, and I eagerly await any news of a Season 3.
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That's about it for the games I've played recently. I should have two follow-ups coming soon: a full blown write up of my impressions of Bloodborne whenever I get around to finishing it, and my thoughts about Mortal Kombat X, which comes out today (and I am unreasonably excited to play).
Keep an eye out for those posts coming sometime in the future. As always, thanks very much for reading!
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