Mini Review: Donut Dodo

 Donut Dodo Mini Review

Donut Dodo is a modern arcade game done in the style of games from the golden age of arcade games. Similar to other single screen platforming games like Popeye or Donkey Kong Jr., Donut Dodo sees you play as a baker who gets his days worth of donuts stolen by a giant dodo, and you have to get them back. You chase this dodo over 5 different stages before they loop, and they have great level design. My personal favorite is the 4th where you're in a large candy shop and the dodo attacks you by rattling gumball machines. One major difference between this game and its inspirations are in its smooth controls. Often when going back to arcade games like Donkey Kong, especially on original hardware, it can be a little stiff in its controls because of the limitations of the joystick, and not being able to influence your direction in mid-air. Donut Dodo takes after more modern conventions and let you have full control over the short hop that the chef can do, which really lets you run through stages at what feel like a fast clip. Just because you have more control compared to older games however, doesn't mean that it gives up in the difficulty department. Far from it. In order to unlock different difficulty levels you have to run through 2 full cycles of the 5 stages with the 2nd loop getting more difficult, and I got stuck for about an hour or so just trying to get further. Thankfully this isn't 1982, and a new try doesn't cost 50 cents. Scoring also is comparable to its older counterparts, where you can try to complete the stage as quickly as possible for a bigger bonus, or complete the stage in a certain way by grabbing the flashing donuts that have a multiplier attached to them. I appreciate that Donut Dodo gives you the option for a fast-paced or more methodical approach and still let you get a decent score either way. Lastly is the presentation, which shows appreciation to older games with some lovely modern flairs. The pixel art is well animated, lively even though they limit the game to a 16-color palette. The game also has an overlay by default with artwork and how many points each donut and bonus fruit gives, and looks like it fits right in with an 80's arcade. The standout in the presentation is the soundtrack by Sean "CosmicGem" Bialo, which is energetic and catchy. Of the short soundtrack list, I'd have to say the final dodo battle and construction chaos stages are my personal choices when going back and listening. I don't have any major complaints with this game outside of wanting more of the experience, but for 5 bucks I think Donut Dodo more than delivers. If you're looking for an arcade challenge, a great chiptune soundtrack, or something to pick up and play in short bursts, Donut Dodo is worth your time. 

  Donut Dodo is available on Steam and Nintendo Switch with store links provided below

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1779560/Donut_Dodo/

Nintendo Switch: https://www.nintendo.com/store/products/donut-dodo-switch/

New Game Pickups 7/28/23

 New Game Pickupssssss

Back again with the new game pickups. I haven't been shopping for games as much as I used to over the past year or two, but that still doesn't mean I don't pick something up from time to time. I was able to sell some items I haven't played and that contributed to my budget, as well as take some friends to an arcade about 45 minutes away from me which was nice. They have an awesome media store there with a little bit of everything, and they were also one of the only stores I came across local to me that were willing to take my extra import Saturn games. Eventually I want to get a Neo-Geo CD and they actually had a few games, I should've picked up Crossed Swords there while I had the chance, but such is life. With that being said here are the games I was able to find local to me!

ESWAT is an early action platformer similar to your Rolling Thunders and Splatterhouses, where you aren't so much focused on the platforming but more the action side of things. Trying it out I had some issues in level 2 trying to figure out what to do, but after about 10 minutes or so I was able to progress. Other than that, its a solid, challenging experience that isn't very expensive either which is nice. These types of games are the reason I bought a Genesis so I'm happy I could expand more on my collection.

Yet another Genesis game we have Forgotten Worlds, a horizontal shooter by Capcom. Horizontal shooters for me always have had more personality than vertical ones, and Forgotten Worlds is no exception. In the game you can control the direction you shoot with a decently intuitive control scheme, where A and C rotate you and B shoots. I feel like the music leaves a little to be desired, and the game isn't exceedingly hard especially during the first few stages once you learn the controls and the stages. Another nice addition to the collection and one that feels feasible to beat in a short amount of time. 

I'm gonna be honest, I didn't even know this game existed. Pinballs games are something I wish were still being pushed out on occasion. Growing up I played some Pokemon Pinball as well as Fantastic Pinball on Saturn more recently, and I think video pinball gives experiences that you can't get from normal pinball games. The table in Pinball of the Dead is pretty neat and I'll definitely play more of it. Now I just have to get the Ruby and Sapphire Pokemon Pinball as well as Sonic Pinball Party both on GBA.

I've been playing my Vita a lot more recently, and so I was on the look out while at the arcade for some Vita games. This one was a recommendation from a friend that works at the arcade, made by the same people that worked on Odin Sphere and Dragons Crown which I was all about. My friend had some pretty high praise for the game so I may check it out sooner rather than later, but we will see. 

This was the other Vita game I was able to pick up while at the arcade, complete as well! I know Teraway was one of the few games that really took advantage of all of the Vita's features which some people may not be about, but as someone who grew up with a DS and Wii, gimmick controls are something I'm more accepting of. I wasn't a huge fan of LittleBigPlanet when I played it, but I have more faith in a 3D platformer I feel. Outside of Persona 4 Golden this was one of the Vita games I knew I wanted from the point of initially getting the system, so I'm happy I was able to find this one.

Expanding the Vita collection once more with a visual novel mystery game from part of the same series as 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors. Visual novels are a genre that I'm wanting to get more into as of recent, and from what I've heard this series is a good one. Another game I'll be on the lookout for will be the Nonary Games which is another entry in the same series. It might be a while before I actually do end up playing this one, but I'm happy I was able to find the game for cheap!

If you've read my recent magazine spotlight you may recognize this one. Let's Tap was one of the first creative endeavors after Yuji Naka left Sega and formed his own company named Prope. I remember reading about this game back in the day with the fascination of being able to play the game without actually having to hold the controller. I don't know if I have a suitable surface for the Wii remote to sit on, but I'm sure I'll be able to find a suitable substitute. I was looking a little more into it and in Europe the game actually came with a foldable box along with the manual for you to rest your Wii remote on. 

I recently got to experience the Mister in all its glory as something to play my retro games on, and Kickle Cubicle was one of the games that we played while testing some things out. A fun little puzzle game that actually reminds me quite a bit of the arcade game Pengo by SEGA. Basically you push blocks around a top down stage to try and kill enemies and complete the stage. A fun little game which I found at a local shop, the same as Xexyz. I don't know much about Xexyz but I liked the name of it and it's by hudson who makes a lot of games on NES that I enjoy, so I figure that I give this one a shot as well. For me, games like these are a main reason why I love collecting for the NES, with a lot of games that I've never even heard of turning out to be someof my favorite games on the platform. Kabuki Quantum Fighter is a great example of a game that unless you collect or know about it, you'lll likely never play. But, I'm getting ahead of myself as this is a post for another time.

Another game I enjoyed on the Mister was Devil Dice on PS1.  How I had never heard of this game prior to this point is beyond me, but this one was right up my alley. Devil Dice is a two-player competitive multiplayer puzzle game where you play as a lil' devil climbing on top of dice and trying to match the faces up to eliminate them from the board. It really is unlike any other game I've experienced and was a ton of fun. They also mad e some further sequels on PS2 named Bombastic which may be a bit easier to find in the wild. Still, give this one a shot if you ever get the opportunity!

Project X Zone to me makes complete sense and I don't know why I didn't have this game sooner. From what I understand its a crossover between Sega, Namco and Capcom all wrapped up into a tactical RPG experience . I read and watched some reviews on this game before buying the special edition that I found, and some people were complaining about the story, but the story isn't the main reason I would play this game. For me, its all going to be about the fanservice and which characters I recognize and can build my team around. There was a 2nd one of these actually made as well (how the hell that happened I'll never know) but its a little more expensive than this game, so I'll have to see how this one turns out

Lastly, these two were a complete surprise to me as I hadn't even known of their existence until I saw them. The Magnavox odyssey 2 is a console I don't often collect for just because its not something I have hooked up very frequently. From time to time I do come across some Odyssey 2 games in the wild, but I was very surprised to see these two. Let's start with the Great Wall Street Fortune Hunt. Unfortunately I found out I was missing a few pieces including the manual and some smaller pieces involved in the higher levels of difficulty offered, but even without you'll still be able to play the game. Its a one or two player game where you're able to trade stocks on the open market. As long as you buy low and sell high you should turn out just fine. As far as the 2nd game, The Quest For The Rings looks to be similar to a DND adventure. I don't know too much about this one so I'm excited to learn more as I play because I have all the pieces for this one. 

That's all for my recent pickups! I got some big games I'm looking forward to in the month of August like Sea of Stars and Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, but those won't come out physically until much later I'm sure. I know this article is coming out a bit later than when I started writing it, but I wasn't stressing myself out getting a post out. If you read all the way through let me know if there are any other games I should keep my eye out for! Thanks again and I hope you have a great rest of your day!

Magazine Spotlight: Nintendo Power May 2009

 Magazine Spotlight!

Welcome to another magazine spotlight, where I take a look at gaming publications and give some shout outs to articles and games during times when they were most relevant. This time we have another Nintendo Power issue to look at, this time from a few years earlier when I was first subscribed to the magazine. This was a special time for me, I was just starting to get old enough to figure out what kind of games I liked and this was my main way of learning what new games were coming out. Now that being said, I wasn't reading the magazines to their fullest extent until some time later, I mainly just liked looking at the pictures and some of the review scores on games I was looking forward to. However, this was a good way to introduce me to franchises I had never had much experience with and this issue is a prime example with some of the main cover titles being Silent Hill: Shattered Memories and Klonoa. With that being said, lets take a brief look at some of the games and articles

One of the parts that I did read when I was a kid was the Pulse, because I enjoyed reading peoples' letters and some of the funny stories they wrote in, like after Sonic Unleashed asking the question why everyone was turning into a werewolf, also including Link from Twilight Princess. What I want to focus on today is Nintendo Power asking the question of "What's the coolest thing that Nintendo could reveal at E3?". It's neat to see what peoples' ideas were in 2009 and how some of them evolved into games that we would see later and some that would just remain as ideas. For example, someone had thought of the idea for Miitopia waaaay before Nintendo had even thought about that. "One thing I'd like to see at E3 is an RPG starring Miis! Imagine this: the game starts and it tells you to pick the characters that you want to use. So, if there's a box labeled Bad Guy, you'd click on it and then pick the Mii character that you'd want to be the bad guy...When the game starts you see all of the Mii characters that you love." I liked the idea for Miitopia when it was initially announced, I thought along the lines of Find Mii from Streetpass but much more expanded upon, but this guy had the idea about 8 years before the game even came out in the states! 

Prior to this issue, the Download section was solely focused around the Wii Channels and games from the Wii Shop. Starting with this issue they add DsiWare into the mix as well with a preview on Mighty Flip Champs by Wayforward. It was games like Shantae and Mighty Flip Champs that got me interested in Wayforward as a company in the first place and it's awesome to see how far they've come working on the recent Advance Wars 1+2 Reboot Camp. Mighty Flip Champs is a cute puzzle platformer that was one of the must-haves from the Dsi Shop that involved flipping the top screen down to the bottom screen in order to traverse and reach the end of the level. 

On the next page they also have a preview on another game that was very influential on me, Cave Story. Easily one of my top ten favorite games of all time. Here they're previewing the WiiWare version of the game with some characters, weapons, locales etc. with some cute descriptions on them. Cave Story is a metroidvania with some awesome gameplay, some darker story moments, multiple endings that's tightly paced. If you haven't played Cave Story, give it a shot as it's still available on all modern platforms and the original version is free. 

Lastly, in their evaluation station they review a few standout titles along with the first few Commodore 64 titles that were just placed on the Wii Shop. Here we have a handful of shmups in Gradius Rebirth and Life Force, along with Ogre Battle: Macrh of the Black Queen all getting recommended from the NP staff. Their best reviewed C64 game to this point was the Last Ninja which only got a Hmmm... rating from them. They also have poll on which games Nintendo fans wanted the most on virtual console. The readers' choices include some heavy hitters that eventually would be released like Majora's Mask and Smash 64 as well as some games that they would have to wait for the Wii U's virtual console to release like Earthbound and Mother 1. The NP staff have some killer games on their list like Castlevania Rondo of Blood on TG16 and Terranigma! Looking back these guys really were perfect for editing and writing this magazine. 

The cover game on this issue is Silent Hill Shattered Memories, back when Silent Hill was still a relevant franchise. This was somewhat of a weird release at least to me, people tend to look at the Wii as a casual game console, and for the most part it is. So seeing one of the all-time great horror franchises in Silent Hill show up on here was a bit weird at least to me when I first was looking at the magazine. I personally haven't played the game yet, but now its something that I'm looking out for. The article goes in depth with screenshots and descriptions from the first bit of gameplay that you could experience, all standard stuff. They also have several interviews with game staff such as Akira Yamaoka who created the music and sound design for the game, as well as lead designer Sam Barlow, producer Tomm Hulett and game director Mark Simmons which is all awesome stuff to see as well. Going back to how much Nintendo Power loves games and franchises with some history, they have blerb on "a History of Violence" going over each game in the Silent Hill franchise up to this point. I always thought the cover for Silent Hill 4 was crazy looking and a crazy concept, where you wake up one day and the door leading out of your apartment or house is chained shut. I am excited to see what the new Silent Hill 2 remake looks like in the future as well, hopefully it doesn't get canceled.

This game is a perfect example of something that you could only get coverage on in Nintendo Power. Let's Tap is a game developed by Prope, Yuji Naka's company after he left Sega, and this was his first game from the company. The game itself is a minigame collection where the concept is you can play every single game without actually touching the controller. You actually rest the Wii controller down on a flat surface, and as the name implies, tap on the surface to control the minigames. Interesting concept and something you could only find on Nintendo Wii. One thing to note here is that in the promotional art along with the pictures associated in the interview with Yuji Naka a few pages later, the Wii remotes they're using are placed on branded Let's Tap boxes that were released in EU and Japan but not in the USA. Speaking of that interview, Yuji Naka talks about the games development and how he got the initial idea, along with his creation of Prope as a company to create new games. He mentions the size he wants his company to be in terms of employees to be around 50 people, and speaks from experience saying "When I was the head of Sonic Team, we had about 140 employees, and I just wasn't able to talk with each of the developers individually. I don't think that's a good thing". Rereading this article has me on the lookout for a clean copy of Let's Tap that's for sure!

This month has some reviews on some great games, some of which had growing up and were favorites of mine and some that may become future favorites. Starting off with the feature interview of this issue is Rhythm Heaven on DS. They give the game a 9.0 and I couldn't agree more with them. The minigame collection has awesome tunes, a ton of charm in its artstyle and super easy to pick up and play make it one of my favorite games of all time and right up there with Elite Beat Agents for DS games, which the magazine also points out. Other featured reviews this month include Excitebots: Trick Racing, Klonoa, Pokémon Platinum and Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars all which scored very well.

 Looking a bit deeper into Pokemon Platinum's 9.0 rating, they mention the updated story and the main hook of the game being the Pokemon you can encounter. They also mention "Platinum's tastiest novelties are reserved for its community features" and dive deeper into the Nintendo Wi-Fi plaza and BattleTower. I would've loved to experience more of the global functionality and Wii communication that the game offered, but I was just too young at this point and I didn't play Platinum until a bit later. Lastly, they give some average reviews to games like The Dark Spire and Dokapon Journey which I appreciated at the time. Review sites now tend to only look at games that will review well or are hyped up, but Nintendo Power looked at a little bit of everything released for Nintendo consoles at the time and weren't afraid to give their opinion. 

This was a pretty standard issue to take a look at, and the magazine doesn't really change a lot in between the issue I did from 2012 previously, but it doesn't need to. Nintendo Power focuses on showing anything and everything Nintendo-related and that is exactly what they do best. I'm happy I was a fan during this era of the magazine because it was such an exciting time where Nintendo was releasing plenty of quality titles and they had great 3rd party support as well. The next magazine spotlight I'm planning on doing will be to a competitor's magazine around this same era that I think will be interesting to compare to.

Thank you for reading!

 Video Games and Preservation

This post is gonna be a little different from some of my other posts, but I wanted to use whatever small platform I have, if any at all to spread awareness about something I'm passionate about. It is no surprise if you've read any post on this blog that I love video games the history of them. Video Games as a medium for entertainment are still a generally new concept when compared to other forms of entertainment like literature, music or movies. However, the medium of video games has a rich history behind it, and its still recent enough that my parents were alive and were able to experience the rise of video games in the entertainment industry. Last year in 2022 the video game industry as a whole made $220.79 billion and is expected to hit the $500 billion mark within the next few years. With an industry that has changed so much over its lifespan of 50 years or so in pop culture, why is it so hard to view or experience the steps that were taken to get to where we are today? Recently, the Video Game History Foundation conducted an excellent study as far as how many classic games were available on the market today. I highly recommended checking the study out for yourself as its really insightful, but of the games that they researched for this study they found that around 13% of them were playable in some way on modern platforms today. To put that into perspective this is comparable to the percentage of pre-WW2 audio recording availability (10%) as well as the survival rate of American silent films (14%) which to me is just insane. Imagine if movies or TV shows were in a similar state where a majority of them weren't viewable outside of very major releases. I understand that games are a unique medium because unlike film, games have their own formats and consoles that can make experiencing them tricky. Emulators solve a majority of the problems that accessing old games have, but the industry doesn't approve of and actively fights/lobbies against them. Just recently Dolphin, a GameCube and Wii emulator, announced that it was going to get released on Steam. Nintendo advised Steam to not release the emulator citing DMCA as a reason not to release, and thus Steam refused Dolphin to have a store page. Once the industry stops lobbying and starts allowing emulators to be used on a wider basis is when we will see some classic games become more available. Video game remakes and remasters don't solve the issue either, especially for historians who need the original hardware and its limitations. Personally I say enjoy video games however you can, emulators and the retro aftermarket has made things much more accessible than in the past. 

I've included some links with sources along with additional resources that dive deeper into this topic, and I highly recommend reading the Video Game History Foundations post in full for their summary of findings. Thanks for reading!

Dolphin Emulator and Steam

Video Game industry worth

Video Game History Foundation initial blog post

Full Study

Game Developer Conference Emulator talk 2016 

Game Developer Conference Emulator talk 2019 

Star Soldier: A Preview of What's to Come

Why Should We Remember Star Soldier?

That's a serious question by the way. Of all games to be underappreciated, it makes sense that it would be a space shooter. The genre has evolved so much since Space Invaders, and is still innovating even today. But Space Invaders came out in 1978, over 40 years ago so it makes sense that the genre advances. With that history it also makes sense that some steps would be looked over along the way. Enter Star Soldier. For most people Star Soldier isn't a game on anyone's radar. Most mid-level NES games of this era and vintage if they don't have an explicit reason to go back or they aren't touted as a classic. Now if you are familiar with the genre, you may be familiar with some of the later games in the franchise released on the PC-Engine/TurboGrafx like Soldier Blade or Super Star Soldier. You might not have realized that this original game existed, but don't feel like you're missing out. The future games in the franchise expand on so much gameplay wise and presentation wise, so outside of curiosity there isn't much reason to go back. So if the game itself isn't impressive today and its sequels are similar but just better overall, then why should we remember the original Star Soldier? To understand this we need a little history lesson

Star Soldier was created by and published Hudson Soft originally for the Nintendo Famicom in the summer of 1986, then getting published in the US later in 1989 for the NES. The game itself is a spiritual successor of sorts to the game Star Force, which Hudson published in 1985 to home systems but was developed by Tehkan, an early name of the company later known as Tecmo. Star Force as an arcade game and early space shooter was a decent success and ended up spawning some sequels later on, but once Hudson actually published Star Force this gave them the idea to do their own space shooter. Hudson then went on to partner with electronics company NEC and helped co-develop the PC-Engine console, so it made sense that the future games would release on that console. In later years the game saw several different re-releases on virtual consoles as well as a Gameboy Advance in Japan as part of their Famicom Classics line of games. With that being said what makes Star Soldier notable? 

To understand Star Soldier's story you have to understand the context of its release and the promotion centered around the game. Like I said earlier, Japan has always had more of an appreciation for space shooters. Xevious was still one of the biggest releases at this point and countless games took what made that work and stole that for their own games and Star Soldier is no exception. Also keep in mind that for the time when Star Soldier came out on Famicom it was considered graphically impressive. Keep in mind that in 1986 the Famicom Disk System had come out a few months prior, and people were used to the limitations of early Famicom games without the add-on chips that were more frequent in later releases on the system. Hudson was also had the advantage of being one of the earliest 3rd parties to release games on the Famicom, and so they had a decent pedigree when it came to their releases. All of this would've made for a great game upon release in Japan, but the thing that stands out in my mind that contributed to Star Soldier's success was the promotion around the game. 

Hudson had these events held in Japan known as Famicom Caravans, where they would travel across the country and hold competitions and activities where people could come and compete for high scores and play upcoming games. For 1986 it was way ahead of its time and a genius way to attract business for Hudson, but what was even smarter was that they filmed the events and had broadcasts about what went on at the events for people that weren't able to go in person. These videos also included a recurring character of sorts which was the game master himself Takahashi Meijin. Takahashi was known for his impressive skill at Star Soldier which was shown on the broadcasts giving viewers new strategies and secrets on how to get bonuses and high scores. He also was known for his incredible button pressing ability of around 16 times a second. With this button pressing along with game knowledge its no wonder how he was able to achieve such high scores. Takahashi went on to be a sort of mascot for Hudson in Japan not only in appearing adverts for Star Soldier, but also appeared in games like Adventure Island. In Japan, Adventure Island is actually known as "Takahashi Meijin no Bouken Jima". The story of Takahashi goes on after Star Soldier as well, where he goes on to help develop the idea of a turbo button on controllers as well as later becoming an executive of Hudson. 

This idea of promoting the game through live events with hands-on testing along with tips and tricks from one of the games best players has evolved so well in the digital age. Now if you want to play a game before it comes out, a lot of the time they'll either have demos available to download or they're out in early access so that you can show your support for a game while they're still tweaking it. Takahashi today would be the equivalent to an esports player or notable streamer where he's known for his gameplay skills first and you are able to learn from actually watching his gameplay. Hudson was also ahead of its time here as well. While not necessarily a full blown esport by this stage, you can see the inspiration start here with a company that supports its upcoming or current game by having competitions. Hudson in my mind is the first step in the evolution of major events like Capcom Cup or the International for Dota 2 where people can tune in and see people compete. Takahashi would also have an influence on the immediate future on the idea of a game guru of sorts. Nintendo and even Sega would have something similar in the states with hotlines where kids could call in to get advice from a game expert. These phone calls along with gaming publications like Nintendo Power or Gamepro were good for giving kids tips and tricks, but these weren't anywhere near the caravans that Hudson held that were televised. Keeping all this in mind its important to remember Hudson, Star Solider and Takahashi and their influence whether intentional or not on games today.

 With that being said, unfortunately the game didn't see as much success in the states. When the game was released in '89 so many more games graphically more advance and gameplay innovations evolving at such a rapid pace, Star Soldier was already outdated by the time it came out. For example games like Life Force, Section Z, and Zanac were all already released in '87 and '88, so what does Star Soldier offer in comparison to those games? Well nothing really, compared to those releases Star Soldier is lacking in content and not as impressive presentation wise. That doesn't mean that Star Soldier is a bad game. You control your start ship and kill pretty stereotypical enemies as you try to make your way to the end of the stage and fight a boss. Star Soldier does do a few things in order to stand out. For one, its scoring system is a little more advance than other games at the time with bonuses everywhere for you to find by shooting areas to make them appear, or shoot specific enemies in specific ways. For example at the end of every stage there are 2 eyeballs that you can shoot to make them shut and then explode, and if they both explode at the same time you get a major bonus. Star Solider also has you interact with the background in stages as well. Several times throughout stages you can go underneath the background to fly underneath it and avoid enemies. However this mechanic isn't implemented to the best of its ability because you can't tell which parts of the background you'll fly over or fly under. Lastly, the bosses are pretty repetitive with the same boss appearing for 3-4 stages in a row before a larger boss appears that you have to defeat. If you don't defeat the boss within an unspecified time limit, the boss will fly away and you'll have to replay the stage in order to get another shot. Barring a few annoyances of older game design, like the aforementioned background issues and the lack of an in game turbo, Star Soldier is still a good time. Enemy patterns are varied and the challenge is still there especially without a turbo button.

Star Soldier today doesn't hold a ton of merit in terms of a game worth replaying today compared to other games of its era. However the real value of Star Soldier today comes from looking at the game comparatively to when it came out. Takahashi Meijin was not only big during his time, but also influenced the industry in ways that we are still feeling the impact on today. Stories like this are part of the reason I love video games and their history. If you're interested in trying out Star Solider, its available on Nintendo Switch Online and I recommend giving it a try to see a little bit of history. 

Thanks for reading!

Not Really A Review But Just Some Thoughts on Chained Echoes

     I don't really like being someone who writes a full on review for a game that they haven't completed. I think its disingenuous to the games' creators because there will be plenty of things that you haven't experienced but still will give their review as if they've played the entire game. However, I am one for expressing some thoughts while playing or looking back at what you just experienced with a video game. It helps find things that you might not have thought about while you're playing and just increases your appreciation of the game overall. So that's what I'm aiming to do today with an indie JRPG I'm playing through right now named Chained Echoes. After playing the Sea of Stars demo a month or so ago I had an itch for something new to fill the void until August when I remembered a game that was on my radar for the past year named Chained Echoes. Chained Echoes takes a lot of inspiration from the golden age of RPG's in the mid to late 90's in its visuals, but its very much on its own with some great modern touches. Right now I'm about 11 hours in to the experience, but how have those 11 hours been thus far?

    

    Chained Echoes opens up with continent that is constantly fighting and in war. You start off the story following a duo of mercenaries, Glenn and Kylian hunting a treasure known as the Grimoire that is supposed to hold great power. After fighting your way up to the Grimoire you try to destroy it so that the enemy doesn't have that advantage in battle, but it causes a huge explosion that kills pretty much everyone in the surrounding area except for people that were closest to the blast. Then the story fast-forwards a year to a city that had just signed a peace-treaty ending the long war between them and another faction. Here you get to experience multiple characters perspective before they all meet up before the parade where their fates align. Personally, I love when games do this kind of thing. It really gives a good concept of what characters personalities and backgrounds are before the adventure begins. One example of this in the game is Lenne and Robb, Lenne being a princess undercover who's nation just signed the peace treaty and traveled with her servant Robb who's protect at all cost attitude is amicable at first, but is also very quick to judge and has that classic upper-class harshness. Lenne generally is the opposite, strong yet understanding and really only wants what is best for her people. I won't go too much into the story after this point because there have already been some big twists and turns with it and I expect more going forward.

    The main thing that I wanted to talk about today however isn't the story, but rather my love-hate relationship with the combat system and difficulty. The combat system is one of the most unique that I've seen in an RPG and really takes advantage of fans of the genre by pushing it's systems to the limits. In a nutshell, the combat in Chained Echoes is a fine balancing act of attacks, buffs, de-buffs and healing to go along with the main mechanic, the Drive Gauge. Every battle will have your Drive Gauge in the top left hand side showing you your current level. You'll always start at a base level, but almost every action that you take or damage that you take from enemies increases your Drive Gauge until you reach Overdrive. In Overdrive, your special skills do more damage, cost less tech points to do and you'll take less damage meaning you always want to be in Overdrive. However, go past the Overdrive point and you'll enter Overheat where pretty much the opposite of Overdrive happens and de-buffs your entire party. Now lowering this gauge can come in a few ways. The main way is by performing a specific type of skill that you can view in the top left, like elemental magic or a slash attack that will decrease the gauge. Otherwise you'll have to defend, switch out your party members or perform an ultra move to decrease your Drive Gauge. In typical battles, you'll have access to 4 party members at any given turn that you're able to switch out with the press of a button with up to 4 reserve members that are tied to each other. You are also able to view the battle turn order with you and the enemy which is something that I always appreciate. The amount of options that you have on any given turn along with a variety of characters to do so makes for an intuitive system that makes every battle engaging. This does come at a big cost in my mind and why I said I have a love hate relationship in the difficulty. Levels aren't gained through a typical experience system, rather every time you fight a boss, they'll drop a Grimoire Shard that you can then use to level up one aspect of your character whether its a statistic, adding a new special move or a trait that they have in battle. That on paper makes for a cool system that every time you beat a boss it makes you feel accomplished that you can learn a new skill every time. With this freedom comes the difficulty along with it. Normal battles in a new area can be ridiculous sometimes in how tanky the opponents are and how much damage they can deal out. You don't get experience from these difficult battles either, only skill points that you can add on to your traits that you gain from beating bosses, making fighting enemies that aren't bosses feel a little tedious and not rewarding. I've lost more than a dozen times to basic enemies you find on the field in the areas that you're supposed to be going to in order to progress, which I can't say for most RPGs. Normally in that situation, I would sit down and grind an area until I was comfortable with the enemies and continue on, but because grinding doesn't work the same way in terms of raw statistics you gain like in other RPGS, I get stuck dying over and over trying to progress. I don't really consider myself a bad player either, I feel like I'm trying multiple methods of attack battles and ways to get into overdrive, and I still end up losing to basic enemies more than I have any boss. The game is generous in that after every battle your party is fully healed, so at least that's nice. In battles though, even after 10 hours I have no party member that's able to heal the entire party consistently which is difficult because a lot of enemies have attacks that go across the entire party. I have spells that can heal one member or boost defense or shield me for a turn, but nothing to heal me which I think is holding me back from enjoying this game to its fullest. Because of what I've experienced so far, I wouldn't recommend Chained Echoes to the general gamer off of the combat alone, its too difficult for people who don't have experience with the genre. If you are a JRPG fan, this system is breath of fresh air in most areas and brings in a lot of cool ideas for you to play around with if you can deal with the difficulty. 

    Visually and musically, the game looks and sounds great. Important characters have more detailed portraits that give you a little more insight to what characters look like. Sound effects have a good punch to them and are satisfying to slice enemies with your sword or attack with elemental magic. The music I wouldn't say is super memorable to me right now, I think if I were to play more it would stand out a bit more, but it suits the game well and there hasn't been anything that I would say is bad. I might have to listen to the OST outside of the game as well. One of the only other gripes I had when I first started playing was actually the move speed of my character. I thought it felt way too fast for some reason and wished there was like a walking toggle or button I could hold down. The environments and pixel art is all very well crafted and are distinct. Weather effects look especially beautiful as well. Like when it rains and you can see the drops falling into the pixel art puddles. However if you don't stop to appreciate it, you move so fast that you can miss some of the minor details that got put into the environments. 

TL;DR

    Chained Echoes is a game that knew exactly what it wanted to be before it was even created. The battle system and presentation makes you think of JRPGs of old, but it doesn't have those same older tropes that were better left off in the past. However, I can only as of right now recommend the game to fans of the genre who are willing to go through with the difficulty of some of its battles. You have to play older games in order to appreciate some of the QOL changes that are offered here and appreciate the game to its fullest. 

I don't know if I'll finish the game right now, I might look at it again later on down the line because right now I'm a little frustrated with it and I'm playing Zelda BOTW for the first time and that has my full attention. Thanks for reading I appreciate it!

New Game Pickups as of 6/15/23

 New Game Pickups June 2023

Welcome back to another edition of new game pickups where I highlight some games that I've been buying over the past month or so. This month was pretty busy outside of game collecting, my apartment just had some nice renovations done to it with a new kitchen/bathrooms being put in. This meant I had to put away all my games before the contractors came in, and I had to reorganize all my games which was nice change of pace. I did get some time to make some to do some decent game shopping and go to some game stores I don't normally go to, as well as a pretty big purchase that I'll detail a little bit more in another post. With that being said, let's take a look at what I spend my money on.

First off a DS game that I had known about growing up, and decided to check out, Trauma Center: Under the Knife. Developed by Atlus and published by Nintendo here in the states, Trauma Center is a visual novel/surgeon simulator with a fun twist where you find out you have special surgeon powers and you help as many people as you can. I think I originally found out about this believe it or not from Super Smash Bros Brawl, where they had the Chronicle section that showed every Nintendo published game up to that point. I started playing this one and so far it's pretty good. The characters have personality, and definitely takes some darker themes being that you're saving peoples' lives after injury or disease. Some of the surgeries I've done have been pretty stressful too, I don't think I could be a real surgeon lol. A lot of the surgeries that I have done have been pretty down to the wire, but you unlock some tools that make things a bit easier in order to fight off a new disease that pretty much only you can treat. So far so good, I'm interested to see where the story goes with this one.

Here's one that I was looking to get back after having as a kid. Fossil Fighters is a DS RPG where you dig for fossils, resurrect them and fight in battles with other dinosaur owners. Very similar to Pokémon with it's creature collection, pretty simple story and battle system but I remember having a lot of fun with this one. Trying to dig up fossils to the best of your ability trying to make sure that they'll get as strong as possible was pretty cool, and I liked how all battles were 3-on-3. Thankfully I still had the sequel Fossil Fighters Champions, but somewhere along the line I had lost my cartridge for the original game. I still had the case for the game so now it's sitting pretty on my shelf

 This was a mega cheap game that I only really got because the store I bought from I was using store credit, and didn't want to leave 3 bucks just sitting there. That being said, True Swing Golf has a neat little background. The game was developed by T&E Soft (who made every golf game known to man) and actually published by Nintendo and marketed as part of their Touch Generations line of games that were meant to appeal to a wider audience. Nothing could be easier than swinging a golf club with a stylus according to Nintendo until they figured out what a Wii remote could do. I enjoy a few golf games from time to time, so for 3 bucks I figured why not. 

This one I was really happy to find as Metal Slug games are some of my favorite to pick up and play. Metal Slug Anthology is a collection of games from the series 1-6 giving you every major Metal Slug game up to that point. I bought the Wii version of the game but it also came out on PS2 and PSP. I actually was going to buy the PS2 version, but the Wii version was 10 bucks cheaper, and my Wii collection isn't as big so I figured this would be a great addition. One thing I am a little disappointed in is that it doesn't support the Wii classic controller, but after reading the manual it looks like GameCube controller support is available which is enough for me. I really only played the OG Metal Slug and Metal Slug X so I'm excited to check out all the other games in the series, especially with some co-op too.

It's not every day I get to find a new racing game to obsess over but I think Auto Modellista will fill that void for me. Developed by Capcom, this was an era in the early 2000's when everyone was trying their hand at simulation racers after the major success of Gran Turismo. Capcom's attempt has a few things to help it stand out, with the main one being a cel-shaded art style. Most games from this era with similar art like Wind Waker or Jet Set Radio have aged really well, and Auto Modellista is no different as the game looks awesome. Capcom themselves have made a ton of great games in the past, but aren't really known for their racing games so it'll be interesting to see how it plays. I also don't really know why the GameCube version of the game is so expensive, I thought the PS2 version would be as well but the game was like 15 bucks. Look out for a review later down the line once I sink my teeth into it. 

Watching the new PlayStation presentation one of the games that had me most excited was the announcement of the Metal Gear Solid 3 remake. That game along with a few other games they announced might be the reason I finally get a next generation console. Along with actually playing Metal Gear Solid 3 before the game comes out, I wanted to check out some other Kojima games that he had made before the game came out. One of those I actually found while out shopping, Zone of the Enders. Zone of the Enders to my knowledge is a mech hack and slash game with a pretty involved plot. I learned about the game from SomecallmeJohnny on YouTube and his review of Metal Gear Solid 2. Either way, I think it looks interesting enough to check out.

As a Sega Saturn fan this one was probably the pickup I got most excited to find. Nights Journey of Dreams is the direct sequel to the Saturn game Nights into Dreams. The Saturn original is one of my favorite games for the platform with its great visuals for the console as well as gameplay that isn't really matched by any other game because it's so unique.  I remember this game being covered in Nintendo Power as well, so when I saw this on the shelf I had to pick it up. I'm sure the game will use some sort of motion control since it is on the Wii, but most games from the Saturn didn't get follow-ups so I'll take what I can get.

Last but certainly not least we have the only new release out of all of these games is Capcom's newest entry in the Street Fighter franchise, Street Fighter 6. I wasn't really following the prerelease information about this game too much so I didn't have that same hype I would for some other games, but I really enjoy a lot of the older games in the franchise and the game looked beautiful so I wanted to give it a shot. After playing the game for a few hours with friends and in the training room I'm loving it so far. Characters are more expressive and have some great new tools like the Drive Rush or the return of the parry system to all characters which I'm a big fan of. This is also the first fighting game that a lot of my friends are playing simultaneously which I'm excited about, because normally I'll just grind out combos in the training room and play the arcade modes. Right now though the characters I'm enjoying the most are Dee Jay and E. Honda, although Lily and Kimberly are pretty cool to mess around with as well. Capcom is having a hell of a year in 2023 and I can't wait to see what they put out next, including the remake of Ghost Trick to look out for!

Overall a little bit slower this month, I didn't really get a chance to go out and game shop the way I would like but still got some great games added in. There's another surprise coming soon like I mentioned at the beginning of the post, but I'm still working on that before I fully write that post out. In terms of what is on the horizon, my lovely girlfriend is very excited to play the new Bethesda release Starfield and I don't have a good PC to really play on, so a new Xbox will most likely be in my future as well which I'll be excited to sink my teeth into. I've never owned a Microsoft console, and I know it does have some backwards compatibility with the older consoles that I'll be interested along with some newer releases like the Metal Gear Solid 3 remake. Otherwise thanks for taking time to read and I hope you have a great rest of your day!