Power to the People

Nintendo Power v236 is the final issue for the year of 2008 and what an issue it turned out to be. Picking up a copy of Nintendo Power is always a bit of a gamble for me as there are usually no open issue for me to browse through first. Thankfully Nintendo Wikia provides a preview of each issue content for me to decide whether the issue is worth picking up and they usually don't disappoint. Nintendo Power is one of the few things related to Nintendo that have remained traditionally-hardcore. After all how many publications would feature Ninja Gaiden : Dragon Sword, GTA: Chinatown Wars and Madworld on their covers? I initially got this issue for the Castlevania poster included and the retrospective look at the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. I was pleasantly surprised to find a Power Profile feature on Shinji Mikami and also a nice coverage of the recent TGS 2008, complete with an interview with Suda51 on the upcoming No More Heroes 2.

Handsome Devil with the Cigarette

When i first saw the japanese box art of Yakuza 3 revealed, i immediately thought of John Woo's Hard Boiled. Some one on the Yakuza 3 team must be a fan of the John Woo classic as there is a scene in the film where Tony leads his head back lost in his thoughts, the same manner as kazuma does here. Sure it could be a coincidence as i'm sure there are many other similar pose of one smoking but here's another coincident for you, when Hard Boiled was first released on DVD in Japan, it featured the same iconic shot of Tony Leung on the cover of the DVD box art. While i don't have the DVD in my possession to show or any reference for that matter, i certainly remembered it well enough. I also remember watching my Criterion Collection of WKW's In The Mood for Love and inside, Kar-Wai casually referred to Tony Leung as the handsome devil with a cigarette when they first worked together in Days of Being Wild.

Yakuza 3 is scheduled for release in February next year and i haven't even finish playing Yakuza 2 or heard anything of the Kenzan spin-off getting localised. If there is ever a reason to feel proud as a PS3 owner, this is it. Third-party exclusive doesn't get any better than this.

Fearsome Combination

While debating on a local forum on whether multiple-disc games has already become a relic of past generation gaming, i can't help but to reminisce about Fear Effect on the original Playstation. Heavily influenced by the films of Hong Kong cinema which i also happened to be a long-time fan of, Fear Effect was probably my first love affair with cel-shaded games. Long before Suda51 was pushing the envelope on sex and violence portrayed in cel-shaded games, Stan Liu and his team of talented designers at Kronos Digital were already giving it their best shot on Fear Effect.

Aside from the eye-catching cel-shaded graphics they had another ace up their sleeves, pre-rendered backgrounds unlike any you have seen in the 32-bit era. Often critised for looking static, Fear Effect featured a looping-effect on their pre-rendered background where a bunch of effects could be incoporated into the background, making it lively instead of having your character just walking through a painting. That all came at a price of having to put up with four discs to swap through an essentially one disc long game with these looping-backgrounds taking up all the space. Fear effect had a trio of interesting and very likable leads and they would proceed to add another female to the mix in their follow-up prequel, Retro Helix also on the Playstation. With two successful outings on the original Playstation, Fear Effect was set to make the jump to PS2 and indeed, screenshots released indicated that a third title was well in the works however it never saw the light of day.

Apart from a movie adaption being developed with Uwe Boll and Stanley Tong participation very little is known of the fate of the Fear Effect series. However Fear Effect remains as probably the best game to pay homage to HK cinema, a generation before the likes of Jet Li's Rise to Honour and John Woo's Stranglehold. It has all my favourite elements which i still hold dear to me now; survival horror, cel-shaded graphic sand HK cinema so it's little wonder why i still reminisce fondly about Fear Effect.

Jack of All Trades

Dino Crisis 2 is another victim of being a late entry to a system which has already been superseded by its big brother. I vividly remember Dino Crisis 2 because it happened to be one of the very few Capcom games during the 32-bit era which i didn't have to play the PC port first. Capcom were at the top of their game in making 32-bit action-adventure games and each were so successful that they were almost surely ported to the PC platform later. DC2 took a lot of the best ideas from past Capcom successes and gels it all into one finely-crafted action game. It's easy to call DC2 the jack-of-all-trade and master-of-none but that's the beauty of it, it does everything so well that it doesn't need to surpass any of the standards set by it's older brothers, be it the past RE games or the first Dino Crisis. Perhaps that's why it's easily forgotten now but i bet no one forgot the ending of the game.

Series pioneer Shu Takumi has since gone on to work on the Ace Attorney series on the GBA and DS so it's highly likely we will ever see the resolution to that ending. But Dino Crisis 2 remains a fond memory of a time when Capcom could do no wrong and were churning out games like a factory.

Long Story Short

Here's an unusual gaming quirk of mine which is should to puzzle a few; i have a tendency to finish a long game really quick but tend to prolong short games a little bit longer. No other games demonstrate this better then these two which i happened to be playing recently, Product Number 03 and Final Fantasy VII. I took about forty plus hours to reach the end of Final Fantasy VII and despite all that, there were still so many side missions and summons which i failed to gather. I could have spent a bit more time finishing these side missions and leveling up my characters further but i felt forty hours was enough for me.

PN03 on the other hand is reportedly only a five hour game and sure enough i did finish it under six hours on my first try. However i immediately went back to playing it soon after that, this time trying to clear all the side missions as well as the main story mode. I'm only about two-thirds into finishing the game and if factor in the earlier five plus hours i spent on my first run, i would have spent about 20 plus hours on PN03 already. There is barely any story or cutscene in PN03 but yet the burning desire to master Vanessa moves and score professional rank on every mission have me obsessively playing the game non-stop for the past week. Perhaps it's the difference in genre that led to such different playing styles, now i'm starting to wonder should i even bother with Final Fantasy XIII when it ships.

The Great Repeater

There i was, just moments from finishing FF VII and i felt the urge to cheat my way through the last three boss fights. You see at the start of disc 3, you are given the option of proceeding onto the last stage or continue to level up your characters through the side-missions. Having clocked just slighty over 40 hours of play, i felt that i spend well enough time on the game and bravely proceed onto the final stage. But most of my characters were not really up to task as i rarely spend any time leveling up my two strongest members, Cid and Vincent, they just happen to be powerful right from when i recruit them.

To make things worse you only get one save point troughout the final stage and far too many random battles before you even reach the final boss. When i did get to the final boss, i was overwhelmed by how powerful it and each time that i had to replay it, i had to endure the same pointless random battle before i get another chance at it again. By then I was convinced my characters were not up to the task that i consider cheating my way through. Again, just like i did with FFX a few years back.Unfortunately (or fortunately) I didn't have any cheat disc in my possession that would work with the game and left with no other options, i gave it one last try. I'm absolutely convinced that sometimes in RPG battle, a little luck is required. Luckily for me, the final sephiroth was not as violent as usual so with a little luck i managed to scrape through and finish my third RPG, the second for this year.

Rusty Gear

Here's a good way to tell if you really like a game, try re-playing it. Recently i talked about how much i enjoyed re-playing DMC4 but unfortunately i can't really say the same about MGS4 which i'm trying to finish again on big boss hard mode. It's not the greater difficulty, the cinemas still look great in my eyes and nothing shows off a good graphic engine better than putting on bonus costume/skins. Tackling snake final mission again just feel cumbersome, i wasn't really any good in sneaking in the first five games and now it's even harder with the improved AI and greater difficulty level. Plus without any new surprises from the story to keep things interesting, i'm beginning to wonder what can i do to keep things interesting in this second play-through.

And i haven't even got to the boring bits like tracking naomi's footprints in Act 2...

Hear My Voice

The gaming world has played host to a number of silent heroes, most notably Link from the Legend of Zelda and more recently his spiritual successor Amaterasu from Okami. These characters despite being set off on the adventure of a lifetime has the distinction of letting their action define their character rather than their words. Vannesa Z Schneider from PN03 was set to join the list of heroes or so i thought, two-third into the game where she has yet to utter a word. It was certainly fitting for her character and the scenario as she is on a lone mission on a distant planet to destroy every moving mecha under the control of CAMS (Computer Arms Management System). She appears so cool and calm disposing each mecha with her slick moves and she is wonderfully animated down to every last intricate move. Receiving text orders from a faceless contact, it's easy to see why she's the most charming individual in the game despite being silent.

Then about two-thirds into the game, something happened. Faced with what looks like a clone of herself, she begins to wonder aloud what the heck is going on. I have yet to finish the game but i always figured her to be a clone, a terminator of some kind. Now she just sounds European and her thick accent makes her more foreign than any of the fancy aegis suit that she wears. You know, i bet Franka Potente (Run Lola Run) would be perfect to play her character if they ever do a movie adaption.

The Man with the Glowing Beard

I just finished playing Silent Hill 3 last weekend, making it the first ps2 game i finished on my backward compatible ps3. Silent Hill 3 was the obvious first choice it had great replay value, still is one of the best looking game of its era and on top of that, i get to drum up some excitement for the lacklustre sequel that was recently released on the ps3. Despite all that i still end up taking more than two months to finish the game, clocking in a game time of less than ten hours.

You know what they say about the little deflects that show up whenever you play ps2 games on a ps3 unit that doesn't have hardware-enabled backward compatibility? While i didn't run into any major problem with Silent Hill 3, i did notice one slightly amusing deflect from the game running on my ps3. Remember how Douglas reminded everyone of Donald Sutherland when you first saw him? His beard is certainly a work of art, augmented on the ps3 by the fact that it actually glows in the dark !No kidding during the cutscene where Douglas and Heather are both driving Silent Hill, you can still clearly see his beard behind the misty wet windscreen. Apart from that i'm happy to report that there were no other major deflect, i'm eager to see just how the other games would look like.

24-7

We have all been there before, of course i'm talking games left unfinished.I often tend to leave a game behind when i'm enticed by newer fancier games only to find that i never ever go back to it after a lapse of time. Sometimes the fear to not being able to comprehend the on-going plot prevents me from going back to it, other time the game simply has too long of a learning curve until i can't be bother to learn up the controls again.

It often happened to me for games that i do not pay for and most recently it happened me again with crisis core so i'm determined not to let that thing happen again with FF VII. i have devise a plan to play the game every day without fail, be it for half an hour or two hours i must play the game at least once a day. Sure a plan like that might eventually make a simple thing like playing games a chore but knowing myself, the tendency of leaving a game as epic as FF VII unfinished is always there. After finishing FF VII, i intend to re-run Advent Children, take another stab at finishing both Dirge of Cerebrus and Crisis Core in order to get the full picture. That is, if i'm not already sick of FF VII by then...

Straight Story

Shinji Mikami is a bit of an enigma among his game developer peers. Sure he is most famously known as the forefather of Capcom's Resident Evil series but in between each high-profile RE game that he worked on, comes a rough diamond like Godhand and PN03 which i happened to be playing right now on my Wii. For a developer of his calibre, it's certainly surprising to see the level of polish in these games in fact, mikami himself often lamented about how he should have spent more time polishing up and promoting these titles.

I remember when i was looking for Godhand with my friend in Singapore and he kept asking me if it was a good game. Worse when i eventually found a copy of it in one of the stores, even the shop assistant who was attending to me, leaned over to ask if this game was any good. Understandably, i ended up not buying the game from that store. Godhand a fighting game that may or may not have been made from the re-used asset and engine of mikami other hit, resident evil 4 caught gamers attention for the wrong reasons when it scored a lowly 3.0 from IGN. I happened to like it because of it's intuitive dodging system and memorable soundtrack composed by the legendary maestros at Grasshopper manufacture.

PN03 was the first of Capcom Five out of the gates and unsurprisingly the only one that was not eventually ported to the ps2 due to its poor critical reception and lukewarm sales. It has the same diamond in the rough feeling as Godhand where presentation are kept to a bare minimum and it's all about the gameplay. The game doesn't take you by the hand and simply thrust you straight into the heat of the action. I was a little caught off-guard by this but have a feeling i'm going to like this as much as Godhand...

Back for One

A few weeks ago i got myself a copy of FFVII in hopes of reviving my ole PSOne and with my portable 5" LCD screen arriving earlier this week, the revival is now complete. I spent a lot less than i expected, i remember first seeing the screen in the local game stores here and the only thing that has always kept me back from getting it was the price. Considering i wasn't planning on playing it that much, the amount of time i foresee myself spending on it just doesn't justify the asking price though it actually wasn't very expensive.

Now that i have the portable screen i can just keep my PSOne handy by my side on the desk instead of having to dig it up whenever i get the urge. Gamers prefer to wait for these PSOne classic to appear on the PSN but if you already own the game initially why bother paying for it again? While i don't actually have an extensive collection of PSOne games i do have everything i could ever want to play on the platform including a few gems i never got around to playing before abandoning the system. Vagrant Story and Syphon Filter 2 were the unfortunate lot as the former get condemned to hell by some of my friends and i lost interest in the latter when the series became a laughing stock with the release of a few poor sequels on the PS2.

Eternal Sonata

Dr. Franken is a Gameboy game that i remember with fond memories, especially since i had to pestered my dad to buy it for me from his business trip to US. During those days, it's hard to any game to be scary with pixelated 16-bit graphics, much less a GB game with just six shades of black. Dr. Franken went above and beyond most standard GB game, sure it wasn't scary back then and it sure as hell isn't scary now. But the level of detail packed into each room in the mansion is unlike anything you will come across in a 8-bit game or even a 16-bit game. Coupled with a soundtrack of endless moonlight sonata, Dr. Franken was able to evoke a creepy atmosphere that makes it memorable even if it features a mundane task of gathering the body parts of your dead girlfriend. The game features an intricate password system to make up for the lack of a battery backed-up save and an indication of how massive and deep the game is, i never got the same password twice during my time of playing it. Of course, it's pretty hard to considering the password is easily 16-letters long !

Like most great handheld games, it eventually inspire a sequel on the 16-bit Super NES and another back on the GB platform but this is where it all started. I can't believe how naive i was when i first played Resident Evil and heard jill playing moonlight sonata, thinking that it was ripped from Dr. Franken. I immediately thought of Dr. Franken which i still credit as the catalysis for my fascination with the survival horror genre and the game that made me believe video games could be scary even in the 16-bit era. If you are in the mood for some portable horror this halloween, you need to play Dr. Franken.

Pandora Box

On my second run through Devil May Cry 4, i don't think i have ever been so thorough before in trying to accomplish every task the game throws at me. As you probably know, i have a habit of leaving things unfinished during my first play-through a game so i will eventually go back to it again assuming this is game that i would want to replay again.

It all started with my friend who told me i didn't know what he went through until i tried the DEVIL mode, having finished the game rather easily on HUMAN mode. When all i wanna to do was to finish the game again to view the extended ending, i certainly didn't expect to be playing the game this thoroughly. Little by little i come to realise i barely scratch the surface of the game when i first played it. In trying to acquire the blue orbs from my unfinished secret missions, i had to learn up every intricate move in Dante and Nero fighting style as the game is so highly customistable that you could actually finish the game without having to learn the fighting style or weapon that you don't fancy. Though some of the tactics are highly questionable such as engaging the Pandora missile pod to fly over a stream of laser beams you are supposed to jump and avoid, i don't think it necessary counts as cheating as the game never really tells how you are suppose to accomplish your goals. I come to learn and appreciated Dante's Pandora box and Gilgamesh and even Nero's hold with the devil bringer.

Devil May Cry 4 carried over the scoring system from DMC3 which you actually save all your high scores on one common scoreboard, making it easy to compare your previous runs. In the end, i probably enjoyed replaying DMC4 now than i did when i first played it, which is rare when it comes to most games. Production Studio 1 who are responsible for both DMC3&4 has managed to achieve what kamiya set out to do with the first Devil May Cry. A game that not everyone will like but for those who do, like will be a bit of an understatement.

Wii're Alright

Wii are one today, actually more like one year and about five days old but it's been one heck of a year as far as the Wii is concerned. I have been pretty careful when it comes to selecting my Wii games chiefly because of the amount of shovelware available for the system so as a result, i have more or less the same amount of games for the Nintendo Wii then i do for my four-months old Playstation3!

All that is about to change come next year as there are actually more third party Wii titles that i'm interested in compared with the Playstation3, or any other systems for that matter. On top of the Nintendo Gamecube games which i have, the Wii has keep me entertained and thrilled pretty well during this year and yet that's still so much i have yet to experienced on the system, i haven't even got started on the Virtual Console store yet! What impressed me most is how reliable the system is, the backward compartibility is just perfect and every game that i played, Wii or Gamecube runs smoothly without any hiccups or slowdowns even the supposedly glitchy Okami Wii. So as long as suda51 and capcom keeps supporting the Nintendo Wii, i'll be a happy camper for a long time to come.

A Night with Symphony

Having played almost all post-Symphony of the Night Castlevanias, i was still pleasantly surprised when playing symphony for the first time at how familiar it seems and yet, altogether different than the rest of the games that followed. Perhaps that's the true testament of an all-time classic, it's so well ahead of its time that it still possess the ability to surprised and amazed even to jaded fans of the series such as myself.

I'm amazed at how much innovations Symphony has introduced and yet, somehow all the games that followed in the series failed to adopt it. The ability to transform to both a wolf and a bat, though isn't much of any use in the puzzles or the boss battle is still a welcome addition to the series. The ability to equip different weapon in both arms, clothes and equipment that appear on-screen when equipped, it's easy to see why Symphony of the Night is such a beloved entry in the series. Perhaps it's not fair to compare Symphony with the Castlevania GBA and DS games that followed, after all Symphony was a console game and i have always maintained that console and handheld game are very different, especially in the nature of the time and resources invested by the developers onto the project.

I'm hard-pressed to decide which one i liked better between Symphony and Rondo of Blood, being an action junkie Rondo of Blood felt like the Die Hard of the series with it's endless boss battles and straight-forward action approach while Symphony was amazingly innovative.

November Rain

In the midst of the good news that suda51 is currently working on a follow-up to No More Heroes on the Wii, i discovered that the DS remake to his lost PS2 classic, Flower Sun and Rain has slipped out of the October release window and is currently scheduled to ship in November.

And that only in Europe region mind you as the game has yet to be picked up by any publisher stateside. This creates a problem, not many online stores carry PAL games and those that i know of have no current plans of bringing in this title. I haven't been buying much DS games since getting my new consoles but the upcoming Order of the Ecclesia has revived my interest in DS games. That coupled with the fact i recently stumbled onto a copy of grasshopper manfacture's Contact means that i'm running high for anything suda51 and Nintendo DS. Of course, all this craze is also partly attributed to GHM announcement of No More Heroes 2 during TGS 08.

Perhaps it's not such a bad thing that the game release date has slipped into November, i have way too many orders waiting to be ship out during the month of October and most are not even game-related. Given the current situation, i might just have to download the game to play while i continued my hunt for it. Chances are there might be game stores in singapore that will bring it in since the influx of PAL DS games into the region.

Black on White

Nintendo recently announced plans on reviving Gamecube games for the Wii platform, enabling new users to experience classic Gamecube games which they may have missed during its time. Great news for some, especially since certain Gamecube titles are becoming increasingly difficult to find such as Metroid Prime and Wind Waker. It certainly helps give Nintendo some breathing space as the fast-selling Wii is facing a serious software drought right now though long-time Nintendo users will probably not benefit much from this move.

Personally i'm not too pleased with the decision as i went though a lot of trouble to acquire those Gamecube titles that i really want to play. It's not that i'm sore about these title getting a re-release and being widely available again but the reality is, i already had my "fix" and would rather look forward to future Wii release. But to be fair, the Gamecube had a relatively short shelf life and its amazing software library deserve to be revived to a new audience however i for one will probably not indulge in any of these re-release.

Well maybe just the Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker for obvious reasons.

7th Heavan

I received my copy of Final Fantasy VII today after having strike a deal with a fellow forumer last week, who was eager to let go some of his PSOne games. Now in my lifetime of gaming, i have only finished a handful of RPG games, probably still enough to count with my good five fingers. There's Final Fantasy X which i regretfully had to cheat my way to finish it as i didn't level up my characters enough near the end and most recently, Jeanne D'arc on the PSP.

Final Fantasy VII was a game that almost any gamer would know even those who aren't into the RPG genre, and i would really like to know what the big deal is all about. After reviving my Playstation2 recently with Yakuza 2, this PSOne game would be a good start towards reviving my PSOne again, which was never really fully-utilised since i bought it so late and never got it modded after bringing it home. I was only about one-third into Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core before cooling off and ultimately distracted by cel-shaded charms of Jeanna D'Arc. I suspected i will definitely be interested to see how the story continues in FVII once i finished Crisis Core.

Heavan Can't Wait

You should never wait too long when it comes to buying games. I recently adopted a new strategy of waiting out for selected games to drop in price before picking it up to play. There are of course, exception to this rule like the forthcoming Resident Evil 5 but everything else in between, like We Love Golf! and the recent Silent Hill Homecoming will just have to wait. I've been sitting on the fence with the US version of Castlevania Dracula X Chronicles for quite some time now, the price was pretty tempting for a PSP game and i'm still struggling to finish Symphony of the Night on my japanese version. But the reality is i have already spent way too much on this one title, having purchased the deluxe konamistyle edition of Dracula X Chronicles and later, a PSOne books version of the original Symphony of the Night on the PSOne. Neither one of them really of any use to me unless i happened to speak and read japanese as i soon discover when i started playing Symphony of the Night. Should i decided not to pick up another copy of Dracula X Chronicles, there is always the original Symphony Of the Night available for purchase on Sony Playstation Network Store for the Playstation3. As much of the content was altered for the Dracula X Chronicles, this would be a better option to experience the classic in its' original unaltered form.


So as it turns out, i waited a little too long to come to a decision and lucked out on this one as the Greatest Hits version of Dracula X Chronicles has already been issued and Play-asia is no longer carrying the black label version. Well there's always the shadier side of Singapore games stores which i can turn to should i still intend on hunting down the black label Dracula X Chronicles. Lesson learnt, looks like i better pre-order the upcoming Castlevania Judgment for the Wii soon.

Trigger Finger

I was really intrigued by Sony redesigned Sixaxis controller, or what is now known as Dualshock3 for their Playstation3 system. For one thing, they designed the bottom two shoulder buttons (L2,R2) to function more like trigger buttons whereby you actually press the buttons downwards rather than inwards. Up until now, i never really got a chance to try out these button as the games i played never really put them to good use. That is until i started playing Lost Planet over this long weekend break i'm enjoying.

In Lost Planet, the top two shoulder buttons (L1,R1) are used to align the character focus either 90 degrees to the left or right while the bottom two shoulder buttons (L2,R2) are free up to fire your primary and secondary weapons. Very practical though unusual setup of controls, it functions pretty well but the same goes the Gamecube shoulder buttons is that i can never tell the difference between pressing the button completely and lightly pressing it.

Kinda defeats the purpose doesn't it?

Two Steps Forward Two Steps Back

There's something distinctly japanese about piloting a robot mech, or Vital Suit as they are referred to in Lost Planet. Then again there is also something strangely "western" about how this game is structured, from the auto-save system to the auto-inventory management which only allows you to carry two guns at a time.

In the end, you get a Capcom game that is more Japanese (in terms of storytelling) than their previous efforts and yet, more Western (in gameplay) than anything they've done before. It's a strange fusion of East meets West, not the most successful attempt by Capcom but a real effort to address some of the shortcomings of traditional japanese game style, though unnecessary in my eyes.

Yakuza Second Run

After finshing Okami, i need a brutally violent action game to wash away the overly-sweet aftertaste of the game. Yakuza fits the bill quite nicely, i replayed the first game rather quickly and just started on the second game. I'm surprised at how much further the SEGA team is able to push the aging hardware, they seem to have further optimised the game engine, cutting the loading time at every corner and thus, allowing the game to run even smoother. The game looks remarkably good for something that was originally released almost two years ago, shame some of the cutscenes look a little compressed. Looks like my PS3 is going to take a break for awhile...

Number of completed sub-scenerios - 16
Percentage of moves acquired - 78%
Number of defeated enemies - 816 KOs
Percentage of coin lockers opened - 10%
Number of retries - 9 times
Number of saves - 35 times
Play time - 14:59

Okami Play Scores

For a guy with a short attention span, i don't really enjoy long-winded movies or games for that matter. Okami has tested my patience on so many levels that sometimes i wonder if i would ever finish the game if it was not for my fanboyism love for hideki kamiya games. As good as Kamiya is at crafting out action games, i must admit most if not all of his games lacks a strong finish. It could be due to his inability to stick to schedule and finish a game ontime, thus leading to the game getting rushed as it reaches the end of production that's something i will never know for sure.

Devil May Cry was a short but very sweet game, a nice length for an action game but yet somehow kamiya still managed to ruin it by plugging in an on-the-rails shooting/flying segment with the final boss. Viewtiful Joe was far worse, upon beating the final boss you are treated to an ending that revealed that it's not quite the end of Viewtiful Joe and co yet. I don't exactly remember much of the last level as i thought the game sort of fizzle out after the big boss fight with Fire Leo, probably because i had to cheat my way through the rest of the way. Okami? Plain awful final boss and a rather abrupt ending similar to the first Viewtiful Joe, i wonder if it would have felt more fulfilling had ReadyatDawn left the original credit sequence in there?

Play time - 56hr 29min 53sec
Days passed - 88
Saves - 98
Deaths - 0
Enemies defeated - 450
Money gained - 2429823 yen
Demon fangs found - 96
Praise earned - 4190

There you go, i have finally finished the game. Man, i feel like i deserved a medal for this!

If You Wanna Rock, You Gotta Roll...

Being a Capcom fanboy, i'm little ashamed to admit that i have only played a handful of Megaman games. Sure my very first Capcom game happens to be Megaman: Dr Wily Revenge on the Gameboy (a remake or compilation of sorts of the first two Megaman NES games) but since then, i have had very little contact with the blue wonder. Like a double-edged sword, Megaman's wild success which led to an insane number of sequels and spin-off has sort of made it incomprehendable to the average gamer. At least that's why i have shy away from the franchise since and perhaps Capcom themselves have recognised this and decided to return to their roots by releasing Megaman 9, the first sequel to the main installment in ten years not withcounting the various spin-offs and other sequels.

If you happened to follow my blog you would know i have a tendency to replay old games in anticipation of new ones and in an effort to prepare for the new Megaman 9, i picked up the Megaman Anniversary Collection to replay the first eight Megaman installments. I have been contemplating which versions to get but since i found the Gamecube version at a nice bargain price i decided to go with that. Its exclusive content also happens to be far more enticing, now i'll just have to see if i got the skills to make it past all eight games as Megaman is notorious for its difficulty.

Dawn of a New Order

It seems that Play has wise up to their customers scheming ways. In the past, they would do partial shipment whenever the other items in your order is already in-stock but not without giving you the full discount on your initial invoice. That way, if you were to cancel your remaining order before it's shipped, you would have earned the full discount on only a partial shipment.

I have unintentionally exploit this to my advantage when i ordered Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow along with another game back when supply of the game was begining to become scarce and rumour started to persist about the low print run. Play partial shipped out the other game in the order which i believe was Sprung, discounted down to USD14.90 after the full USD5 discount. However they took a bit too long in securing new supply of Dawn of Sorrow and during the wait, i managed to buy the game at a local game store as i simply didn't want to take the risk. So i ended up canceling the remaining order with Play and in the process, earned the full USD5 discount on only a partial order USD19.90.

Things seem to have changed as Play have not partial ship my order for the upcoming Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia even though some of the items are already in-stock. Perhaps it has something to do with me using a bigger discount of USD10 off this time?

Unspeakable Secret

Ever had something you wish you could blog about but couldn't because of the possible people who might end up reading it? It's horrible it's even worse than not having anything to blog about, i'll tell you that.

I apologise for the long hiatus, everything is fine and well gaming-wise and otherwise. Got some great stuff to you guys in the coming days so just hang in there.

Order of the Day

I don't usually pre-order games aside from limited edition, the last being metal gear portable ops. However playing symphony of the night has got me all worked up that i decided to pre-order Order of Ecclesia from Play-Asia. After all, Castlevania games are notorious for having a low print run and tend to disppear off the shelf pretty quickly upon release.

I haven't decided yet whether i will play it as soon as i get it, seeing that i have yet to play Portrait of Ruins.

Bittersweet Symphony

Being an avid castlevania, Symphony of the night was a game that i have yet to play despite its huge accolades. Acquiring the PSOne really late when the system was on its way out, all i was left with were huge system sellers re-released on budget labels and some other late releases like Dino Crisis 2. Symphony of the Night was such an obscure little hit that it was very difficult to acquire it from game stores.

Having finished Jeanne D'arc recently , i thought of playing Symphony of the Night on the Dracula X Chronicles so as to drum up some hype for the upcoming Order of the Ecclesia released on the DS next month. I missed the sound of UMD spinning in the disc drive and it's always a good time to give it a good spin after running on the memory stick for so long. I always thought that the Dracula X Chronicles was a really good value for money as you are essentially getting three games for the price of one. I would probably have spent more time on it had it not been for the language barrier on the japan import, it's certain not impossible to play given Rondo of Blood distinctly old school lack of menu and text.

But Symphony was a slightly newer game with a little more emphasis on RPG so there was always that worry there. I'm going to try to play it on the import version and if it really does prove too difficult, there always the US version recently discounted on Play-asia. When i initially boot up Symphony, the graphics took a little getting used to as it was from an era of Castlevania that i was not entirely familiar with. Widely regarded as the pinnacle of the series, this should keep me busy for some time to come.

Once a Thief

I finally finished Jeanne D'arc today and i did so without relying too much on my only tank, Rufus. The unlikely hero turned out to be another character i rarely used, the french thief Colet. You see, early on i assembled a team of mostly archers, magicians and spear users as they are able to score easy multiple enemy hits without sustaining too much counter attacks. So somehow the thief Colet just got left out as i couldn't stand his bad english and poor dagger. However i had to use him for some of the free play mission and found out he happens to be really good at evading and wasn't as weak as i initially thought. So my final assemble consists of jeanne, roger, richard, giles, cuisses, colet and rufus, i had to drop marcel my favourite archer as i realised i had little use for him against the lass boss. The sneaky colet proved to be pretty useful for the last mission as he is very mobile, quick to evade attacks and is able to pull off two to three hits in a row if you happened to have the right orbs.

All in all i took about 40 hours to finish the game, leveling up most of my characters to about 60+ level and a pretty good accomplishment for someone who doesn't indulge in RPG like myself.

Now i'm ready to tackle Rogue Galaxy !

Stranglehold Second Play-through

My second play-through Stranglehold was thoroughly more enjoyable than the first, marred only by some occasional skipping of the action on my Playstation 3. The freezing was less apparent on my first run, maybe it has something to do with me turning up the difficulty a notch from casual to normal? Anyway the game froze on two occasion causing me to reluctantly force-shut down the machine and later downloading the patch for the game. i wonder if the patch actually did any good apart from adding a new hard boiled difficulty mode?

I also took the time to do some shopping at Woo bar stand and watch all the development footage and sketches, not bad i especially liked the how to make a paper crane demonstrated by a origami master. I don't think i ever replay a game immediately after finishing it before but Stranglehold was an incredibly short game i just had to experience it again. Judging from my scores, i really didn't improve much from my first go, i doubt i'll be able to survive hard boiled mode.

Enemies defeated - 1234
Highest style combo - 33
Style point earned - 2884
Paper cranes found - 96
Damage to world - $ 153,664,459

Overall ranking - C

Think Tank

It has happened again, years ago when i first played FFX i got all the way to the final sin and was unable to proceed because i didn't level up my characters properly. Now i just got to stage 35 of Jeanne D'arc and i faced the same dilemma only this time, the solution is less clear cut. I relied too much on my archers and magicians early on, leveling them up quite a fair bit only to reach the end and come to the startling realisation that they aren't very useful against big bosses. I neglected my brawlers (or some FAQers refer to as tanks) and have to now level them up evenly if i were to stand any chance against the big bad boss.

So close yet so far, i had a friend who spent more than 60 hours on this game alone, i wonder if all that time was spent leveling up?

3 is The Magic Number

During this 3 day weekend i have decided to go back to playing Silent Hill 3 on my Playstation 3 in anticipation for the upcoming Silent Hill Homecoming. Surprisingly the graphics in Silent Hill 3 still holds up remarkably well though i believe it has more to do with the series strong art direction rather than the graphical power of the PS2.

Silent Hill 3 is probably my least favourite SH installment of all, the storyline has too much connections to the first Silent Hill and the inclusion of a playable female lead is the worst thing the Team Silent could ever do to the series. The game does however has the best-looking cover of all in the series though i'm referring specifically to the Japanese version. The image of a teenager girl gripping a handgun in fear is a pretty powerful image but it's also the stuff the anti-video game activists would love to get their hands on so it's probably a good idea Konami decided to change it for the overseas release.

Better Than a Dozen Die Hards

While the cinematic style of Stranglehold disappoints, i'm happy to report that the Hard Boiled movie included on the disc is the best i have seen of the film for some time. This includes multiple versions of the film on DVDs and also a cinema screening in an old cinema in Birmingham during my university years. The version here includes the original film credits where names are featured in both english and chinese, and Chow and Tony Leung shares the top billing.

The film mark the high point of John Woo career when the man in the top of his game and ready to move to the greener pastures of Hollywood. It also significant for me as it bridges the gap between my early infatuation with Woo and later admiration of the works of tony leung and wong kar-wai. I begin to admire the subtle acting method of tony as opposed to the often over-acting and dramatic style of chow.

This disc best demonstrate the true power of blu-ray, both the game and possibly best presentation of the movie on a single blu-ray disc! Seeing how good Hard Boiled look makes me glad that i lucked out on the earlier standard edition and got this instead. Afte rall, the movie is definitely the highlight of the disc despite being 16 years older than the game. However i find the cover of the standard edition more enticing than this collector edition, perhaps because Chow looks more like tony leung on that cover.

Are you Blu or Are you Blind?

Here's a good example why i loathe region 3 product, this is the back cover of MGS4 special edition cardboard case. Official konami product mind you, if you are a Sony enthusiast you will easily notice something is amiss. If you can't well there is nothing to worry about after all, ignorance is bliss right? But seriously once you do take notice of it, it does sticks out like a sore thumb doesn't it? Oh how i wish i had the US special edition with the yoji shinkawa boxart instead, sigh...

Stranglehold Scores

Stranglehold as a game alone is such a hard-sell seeing that the whole campaign last for roughly less than ten hours. Sure Midway could have made it a bit longer but there is really no point to it as the whole game is rather repetitive and any longer would not have serve the game any good. In the end, the whole John Woo experience feels unfulfilled because while the game does play like a John Woo film, it lacks that cinema flair of it's silver screen predecessor. The cutscenes in Stranglehold are just plain bad and i found myself wishing that there were less cutscenes in the game, it was that bad.

Thankfully the Hard Boiled movie which inspired the game is also included on the Collector Edition, making the purchase worthwhile at its current price which is about the price of a blu-ray movie alone. Hard Boiled isn't just any movie, if you have not seen it i strongly urge you to watch it if you have any love for action films.

Enemies defeated - 1264
Highest style combo - 32
Style point earned - 2857
Paper cranes found - 110
Damage to world - $ 146,048,617

Overall ranking - C -

The Dead Will Rise

Seeing that most of us are pretty slow on our feet come Monday mornings, here are some of the more interesting abstract from Dead Rising Delusion Replay just as i promised. The last piece of artwork featuring the girls of Dead Rising in skimpy swimsuits and provocative poses is pretty risque if you asked me, just take a look for yourself. I apologise for most of the captures looking mostly the same, i realised i should have taken a more diverse range of pictures. Well, maybe next time.

October Rain

October has always been a big month for me when it comes to games where i usually reward myself with a big purchase and by the definition of big, i don't just mean a new game. It's a trend i started about three years ago with the japanese version of Dante May Cry 3 which i bought at a local game store. Seeing that it was a local game store, you can probably guess it wasn't by any means cheap but i really wanted that cool handphone strap that came with it. Since Play-asia never discounted the japanese version anyways before it was eventually replaced with the special edition, i don't think it was that bad of a purchase.

Next was the PAL version of Metal Gear Solid 3 Subsistence, the standard edition for the PAL market comes with all three discs included while the US version only had two disc as the standard edition. While i won't mind the standard two-disc US version at that time, it too became scarce when i was about to purchase it so i have to settle for the PAL three-disc version. Most recently was the konamistyle edition of Castlevania Dracula X Chronicles, probably my biggest purchase so far. i thought about it for some time and even hesitated a while primarily because it wasn't cheap but since it happens to be close to October, i thought what the hell.


This year, the only release in the month of October which i'm interested in is Suda51's Flower, sun and rain but sadly, no US release date has been announced yet. The only other option is the PAL version scheduled for release this October, however shipping it from HMV is not going to be cheap, what with the postage rates they charge.

Home is Where The Heart is

While having a conversation with some friends on upcoming games this Fall, i failed to come up with a game when asked which game will i most probably get this Fall. Shock, horrors, the guy with the most systems (among my friends at least) has got no game in mind for this upcoming Fall!

I suppose it has something to do with my distinct taste for gaming, as you can tell from this blog i don't usually play a wide-variety of games, in fact my friend would go so far as to pigeon-holed it as "anything horror or gothic with guns & bullets in it". While i don't deny the appeal, i would suppose it's one of the reason why i got so many system to cater to my distinct taste. One game coming out this Fall quickly slipping out of my radar is Silent Hill: Homecoming which received even less attention during this recent Leipzig. Is the game coming out this Fall and has everyone forgotten about it? One thing's for sure, i won't be getting it on release day as i decided to wait it out until the price drops. The reason?

There's no collector edition announced.

Coyote Chow

Remember the Wile E. Coyote and the Road runner show from Looney Tunes where the bird is constantly on the run from the hungry coyote? Somehow the coyote will always lay the most obvious of trap, like a boulder hanging right above a bait just to lure the unsuspecting coyote so he can eat him.

The enemies in Stranglehold are often strategically placed under such circumstances and unfortunately they lack the AI or the good fortune of our roadrunner to escape their impending doom. So it's all up to our Inspector Tequila to play the big bad coyote and put them out of their misery. I wish Stranglehold would have better level design so you have to somehow lure these guys under the traps before setting it off. This is the sort of level design you can excuse from maybe a generation ago but now in this generation where every piece of the environment is destructible (such is the selling point of Stranglehold) and the enemy AI is expected to provide some kind of challenge, this is really not acceptable. Welcome to the world of Stranglehold, where all your guilty pleasure fantasies come to life like the ultimate John Woo movie.

Into the Blu

Apart from the bonus blu-ray i received from the bundle and the MGS4 bonus disc, i don't actually have any blu-ray movies. This Stranglehold Collector's Edition which contain the full-length feature film of Hard Boiled will be my first though essentially it's not exactly a blu-ray movie disc.

I always made the excuse that i can barely keep up collecting games so that's why i don't collect blu-ray movies. Judging from my pattern of owning multiple copies of the same game, it's a probably good idea to keep away from the temptation of blu-rays. The truth is i used to be an avid collector of DVD during the DVD boom and it pains me to have to start all over again. Sure i'm sure many faced the same dilemma and i have seen some new blu-ray collector letting go of their old DVD collection to fund their new interest. I for one do not intend to do the same though it's not to say that i would completely ignore the format, the blu-ray version of newer films are still the most viable way to go. As for older movies, those that i already owned i intend to keep and won't necessarily upgrade to blu-ray unless the new version happens to have some new features.

Grindhouse

While having a casual discussion with some gamers on Jeanne D'arc this morning, i happened to pick up a new RPG jargon. Grinding which a casual RPG gamer like myself often call "leveling up" is a common practise when it comes to RPG and also is one of the very reason why i don't indulge in RPG games very much, save perhaps this one. You see i'm sort of gamer who prefer to be told what to do, so when it comes to free-roaming and RPG games i often end up wandering around aimlessly. How much is enough when it comes to leveling up? That is something which i have yet to master, having reach the end of FFX only to have to cheat my way through Sin at the end.

Yes i know, it's not something that i'm proud of and hopefully it won't happen again with Jeanne D'arc.

Dead Out of Stock

Well surprise suprise the Dead Rising Delusion Replay that i ordered a while back is already out of stock on Play-asia, i wonder how many others ordered the book thinking that the language barrier would be only a small matter? Perhaps i should have saved them the trouble by posting a review of it on Play? Oh well it's too late for that now, however there is one particular tasty piece of artwork inside that is absolutely universal which i'm sure every male gamer can appreciate. Just be a little patient and i'm try to upload it for you guys to see.

Number Crunchers

A lot of issue has been made about the technical difficulties of porting Dead Rising to a lesser platform like the Wii, chiefly like how many zombies will appear on the screen at once? After all, the original Xbox360 was an average game made great by the mere number of zombies Capcom were able to generate on-screen at once and also the number of creative ways you could disperse the zombies. I have always been a firm supporter of playing games on their original platform and would really just contradict myself if i were to proclaim that the Wii version would be superior to the original Xbox360 version. I'm however, a lot more optimistic about how the Wii version would turn out than most, simply because i believed in the potential of the platform. I was an avid player of the Mercenaries Mode in Resident Evil 4 and was really amazed by the number of zombies on-screen at once on the Gamecube version having gotten used to the PS2 version. It made me believe that the Gamecube and PS2 version of Resident Evil 4 were indeed worlds apart and the Gamecube was a much more capable hardware than the PS2. And now the Wii is capable of so much more too, sure it will never match the PS3 and Xbox360 in the technical department but we have yet to witness just what the little white box is capable of.

I'm glad it's coming to the Wii and with the development team at Capcom Japan re-designing the game from the ground up using the RE4 engine, the end result should be promising. Of all the games coming to the PS3 and Wii, this is the one i'm most looking forward to and no, i'm not kidding.

Lost in Amazon

As much as i enjoy ordering stuff online, i have never order from Amazon before up until the Okami Official Works was translated and released by Udon books. Amazon was the only online store that i know of which was carrying it as Play-asia only had the original Japanese version. I had no idea what the shipping rates and delivery time would be like, having grown so accustomed to HK online stores. In some ways, ordering and getting this book was like an adventure itself much like the game.

As you probably know Amazon does not provide free shipping overseas and shipping for books aren't cheap so i actually talked my friend Andy into ordering one for himself in order to save on postage! One problem solved then came the day when it would finally arrived, about 10 days after it was shipped from US. All that came was a little pink slip asking the recipient to pick it up from the post office collection centre in downtown. Being a bit of an otaku, i had no idea where is this collection centre so getting there was going to be a bit of a problem. So in the end, i got my dad to drive me down on a Saturday while i navigate our way with a roadmap. When i finally got there and went inside their storeroom, it looked like the warehouse where they stored the ark in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Apparently the parcel could not be shipped to my home address as it was encased in a M-bag (which looks more like a fishnet to me) and the post office had no authority to open it.

So i got home and open the parcel only to discover that the book shipped all the way from US was actually printed in HK! Oh the irony of that, Play-asia could have stocked it so i wouldn't have to go through all that trouble just to get it.

Violent Reaction

While i was at Borders earlier today after meeting up with the gang to pass Andy his Okami book, i noticed the Borders there had a hell lot more gaming magazines than the other branches. One particular magazine caught my attention, vol231 of Nintendo Power featured a cover story on the upcoming Platinum Games' Madworld. What caught my attention wasn't the cover story of Madworld but the fact that Nintendo Power discreetly hid the cover behind a bagged cover featuring Mario and company celebrating the 20th anniversary of the publication. Coincidence? Maybe but i have a strong feeling Nintendo Power didn't want to scare away their audience by featuring a prominent blood red cover focusing on an ultra-violence game. Oh well, Nintendo Power has consistently been one of the better Nintendo-publication around, they have great taste when it comes on cover stories and reviews so i'll just let this one slide.

Now as much as i dig the guys over at Platinum Games, i can't really say i feel the same way about Madworld particularly because i feel that any game shouldn't have to rely on excessive violence as its main selling point. I could be swayed by the fact that Platinum Games happened to have other games in development that are far more exciting and Madworld is helmed by a relatively newcomer. Also with my comic book background the art direction of Madworld just doesn't sit too well with me, it's highly reminiscent of John Romita Jr and Frank Miller and i wasn't never into those guys. On a postive note, given the competition on the Nintendo Wii from third-party developers, Madworld does have a pretty good chance of being a big seller.I just hope its got something else apart from blood & gore to back up those sales figures.

Art of Life

More on Okami, i have been meaning to share about this artbook i ordered from Amazon for some time now but didn't because i haven't really got around to actually looking at it. You see i'm afraid that it might contain spoilers to the ending so i would very much rather wait till i finished the game before dwelling into it. Of course there is also the issue of suspense if i were to bring it up on the forum as i ordered two copies, one for myself and the other for andy so if anyone were to get curious it's always fun to tease.

It didn't work out quite like what i expected, ordering the book did not spurred me to play the game further (though i'm still playing it) and i wouldn't be passing it to andy as he wouldn't be making it to tomorrow's gathering. Oh well, that's life right?

High for Five

Good news, Play-asia has already started taking pre-orders for the upcoming Resident Evil 5 due for release on 13th March 2009 and it looks like they are bringing in the collector's edition too.

Now the past few collector edition has mostly been Gamestop/EBgames exclusive so naturally were very difficult to obtain especially if you don't live in the states. Metal Gear Solid 4 and Ninja Gaiden Sigma were the most notable examples though some were still able to buy it off eBay but not without paying an arm and leg for it. Since i already missed the Collector Edition for MGS4 and DMC4 (and Sigma while we are at it), there is no way i'm not getting this one ! As you know i'm an absolute RE nut and so that's why i think i'll pass on the upcoming konamistyle edition of Castlevania: Order of Eccelsia in order to save for this one.

Paper paper

I was playing Okami on the Wii last night when the rolling demo kick in at the start menu after leaving your controller idle for too long. I'm sure it was footage taken directly from the playstation2 version because it had a completely different look to it, the infamous paper filter effect of the ps2 version.

Now i'm not familiar with japanese art style but paper filter effect to someone with a casual eyes like myself just looks like hazy, grainy, blurry effect. I really wonder if the developers intentionally created such an art look for the original version or they just couldn't get the ps2 to generate such rich vibrant colors? After all, the gamespot reviewer remarked that the Gamecube version of Viewtiful Joe had richer more vibrant colors than the subsequent ps2 port. This is all just pure speculation from my side unless someone is able to provide me with some proof that the paper filter on the original ps2 version was intentional. Anyone?

Prepare to Go Ballistic

Blogging has its own perks too even if you are not a babe with a hundred visitors a day. So there i was dreaming up my post yesterday and finishing it up over the evening by posting the appropriate links to each item on my shopping list. I intentionally put links to each item from Play-asia because i knew they aren't available on Play anymore so it should be obvious why i'm eager to go down to Singapore to look for them. So there i was at Play-asia looking for the links and lo and behold, Stranglehold Collector Edition was back in stock again!

I immediately ordered it along with a little something else to make up the numbers so by this time week now, my Playstation3 should be busy again. Hopefully i would have finished Okami by then but it's really not necessary anymore as i realise there is little point to rush through a game like that. Stranglehold on the other hand is not, it's the kind of mindless fun that you can quickly rush through and pick it up again every now and again. It should make a nice little distraction before i settle down to play Lost Planet.

We Can Remember It for You Wholesale

Whenever a long weekend is around the corner, everyone starts thinking about a vacation be it a long or a short one. Well i don't really need a vacation but i have been meaning to go down to Singapore to do some major game-hunting for quite some time now.
You see, since i got the new console i haven't really got the chance to go shopping for games especially early generation games which i might have missed, or even some old PS2 gems since i got a BC unit. I'm the sort of guy who likes having a stack (a small one, preferably) of games by my side just waiting for me to play and I have compiled a list of games which i have been meaning to make a trip down to Singapore to look for.

1. Zack & Wiki
Yes, i haven't given up on looking for this title and i'm fairly confident i should be able to find it there. i've seen it selling in several stores and since most asian wii users don't normally buy original games there's a good chance it might still be there.

2. Ace Attorney 3
The final episode in the Phoenix Wright is just golden, it was never released in Europe and and came out shortly before Apollo Justice so i suspected it had a pretty low print run. Of course, there is always the Japanese import version available but since i owned the US version of both the earlier two episodes i would really like to keep it consistent in completing the trilogy.

3. Stranglehold
I have been following this game all the way from development to release and still haven't played it yet! The collector's edition would be perfect as i don't think i want the regular edition anymore after missing out on getting it for less than USD 20. I always make it a point to only get games that i would play more than once and this one fits the bill perfectly. On top of it, i'm a real big fan of John Woo and Chow Yun-fat.

4. God Hand
A bit of a odd one, i made a pact with Andy to pick this up the last time as it was selling cheap and was on offer if you buy more than one. I don't remember the details but i never got around to buying it then, i still want this one for the sake of completion because i also happened to be a big fan of shinji mikami and despite what the reviews said, i liked this game.