Fear The Camera

As hard as it is to make a good horror game, it's probably even harder to make a decent one on a handheld system. Many of this generation more established handheld horror games consist of taking what works on the console and shrinking it down to fit on a handheld system  like Silent Hill Origins. While it's not necessarily a wrong approach, it doesn't set the game apart from the console games with the exception of poorer graphics.

Spirit Camera, the 3DS game from the Fatal Frame series is the exception to the rule: it's a game that honor the series legacy but can only be played on the 3DS. Basically it puts the camera obscura onto the palm of your hands by transforming the handheld to the infamous camera. It isn't very scary (then again most of these games tend not to be) but it sure feels fun swinging the handheld around trying to locate the supernatural. It also deploys Nintendo AR scanning feature where you can basically scan a printed image with the camera and create some sort of a 3D image on screen. 

Finally captured Maya with my own hands

Some fans might have been disappointed that this wasn't a traditional Frame Frame game but it hard to fault the makers for trying to ultilized every unique feature of the 3DS handheld. Hopefully the newly announced Fatal Frame set for the Wii U will be something truly special for the series and the platform, seeing the lack of such horror games on the system.

Justice for All

Since upgrading my Nintendo DS to 3DS XL, I felt the need to clear the backlog of unfinished games on the old DS especially an ongoing series such as Capcom's Ace Attorney. So I spent the last month resuming my save game of Apollo Justice which I probably first started more than a year ago and finished the last two remaining cases over the weekend.

Now Apollo Justice was the first real installment of the Ace Attorney series made for the Nintendo DS as the previously 3 games were originally Gameboy Advance games that never made it out of Japan until they were ported to the Nintendo DS. If you never knew this, you wouldn't be able to tell after playing all four games as Apollo Justice doesn't look very different aesthetic wise from the earlier games. The interface remains the same, sprites of old characters like Phoenix Wright looks identical in the flashback sequence (he has aged in the present story you see) and there isn't much changes introduced apart from new characters.

Capcom bundled the first 3 games and ported them to the 3DS, so it's a port of  what was already a port. 

The real draw of the Ace Attorney game is the story and in that sense, the fourth game does the series justice in the final case where events from 7 years ago all come together to explain Phoenix Wright's involvement in this one. It's hard to remember why I took this long to finish Apollo Justice, I guess the fatigue of playing all four games in a relative short amount of time on the same system eventually wears you out. Like remember when Capcom ported all of the previous RE games to the Gamecube after doing a full blown remake of the first? Same thing with the Ace Attorney games and eventually you get underwhelmed with game's dated graphics running on more powerful hardware, no matter how good the games were back in the day.

Blackout in Kamurocho

I managed to track down a used copy of the first Ryu Ga Gotoku to add to my collection, having never played the first game in Japanese voice-overs since Sega wisely decided to dub the game for Western audience. Even then I didn't have much complaints about the English voice-overs, as a matter of fact I remember most of the main characters were really well done but Sega did used one too many celebrities for this one.

Before she was WET, she was Kiryu's first love interest

I missed having Kiryu at the center of the story, these days in the newer games he tends to just show up at the end of the story to beat the main bad guy because he's after all, the face of the series. I also missed gritty feel of the yakuza society, these guys are not nice people and the original writer set the tone in these first 2 games which team RGG have since failed to keep up and do justice to his characters. 

The loading time is not as bad as I remember and the graphics still look pretty good for PS2 games, I like how every cutscene looked consistent because there is only one engine to render all cutscenes (save for the FMV videos which SEGA used very sparingly). In the PS3 games, the story sometimes unfolds using the video cutscene and game engine cutscene but there is always an awkward fade-out black screen when switching over and it can get annoying when there are numerous switch overs. SEGA needs to create a more seamless transition between these or just stick with one form of cut-scene because it looks very outdated for a modern game like Yakuza. 

Tale of Two Sisters

Fatal Frame 2 is a curious choice for a remake on the Nintendo Wii since the original version appeared on the Playstation 2 (and later Xbox) so the graphical leap isn't what you would come to expect for a remake. The plot of the remake remains largely unchanged with the exception of the new endings introduced here.

This Wii version has six endings in total, including the one where you can opt to just save your own hide and leave the twin sister behind when she gets abducted at the last chapter. I have seen four of the six endings now and honestly, the original ending is the one that resonates most when I think of this game. It's the only ending I unlocked when I played the original version on the Playstation 2 and it's a fitting end to the story.  I remember the original version forces you to play the game again in Hard mode in order to unlock the other endings. The developers have fixed this on the Wii remake, you don't have to play the game twice to experience the other endings - the ending you received is based on how well you play so you can actually reload from a save file near the end and get a different ending each time, assuming you know the criteria for locking that particular ending.

There is one ending where both sisters survives but Mio ends up blind because of the events but so far, each ending I got is pretty tragic and dark (meaning either one or both sisters dies).

Yakuza 5 Final Impressions

When Team RGG made Dead Souls, they clearly pushed the game engine as far as they could. In fact, I would say they over-exert the system resulting in frequent frame-rate drops and long loading time. Dead Souls is a low point in SEGA stellar series especially after reaching great heights with Kenzan (the first spin-off), it would be a shame if the game ends the series run outside Japan.

Yakuza 5 is a turning point for the franchise with a new game engine which will be basis for the next few installments in the series (Ishin appears to be running on the same engine). When you first play Yakuza 5, the difference is not immediately noticeable as there isn't a great graphic leap from previous installments. The improvements comes from a gameplay perspective which I will share from my observations having finished the game. Obviously there won't be any spoilers as I will probably cover the story some time later, now onto the improvements found in Yakuza 5.

1. The Gang Fights

Kiryu is a beast when it comes to fighting even with hoards of yakuzas, it doesn't matter how many they are Kiryu will always be the last man standing. The last few RGG games have big epic brawls but you can fight up to about 6 to 8 yakuzas the most at one time, the game will usually show a screen of more yakuzas stepping in before 'loading' a new wave of enemies. This time you get to fight them all, no screen to hide the loading if you can see them, you can fight them. This is a major step, big epic brawls are what RGG games are all about - just imagine how many more yakuzas the game will have on PS4 system. 

2. The Chase Sequence

I can't remember when the chase sequence in RGG games started but it was really clumsy at the beginning and team RGG knew this as they kept improving it with each installments. It always felt ridiculous when you begin running around in the same 'laps' over and over again if you can't catch up to the guy fast enough. Now you can do more that just tackle the guy, you can execute a whole set of moves including a cool drop kick if you get close enough. No more laps too, the chase sequence actually covers a wide area of the city crossing through busy traffic and crowd (Did I mention the cars are no longer just part of the background?). Team RGG finally nails it right in Yakuza 5 but I wish they would focus more on tailing missions instead, which was introduced in the Kurohyou PSP game and seen briefly here in the taxi missions.

3. Seamless Transition 

This was the big selling point before Yakuza 5 was released but I'm not convinced if it's a fully seamless transition to 'combat mode' when it comes to random encounters. It feels more or less similar to Yakuza 3 which was a big leap from Yakuza 2, there is still a loading time only this time - more enemies can join in or escape from the fight depending on how well you are doing. You are never quite sure how many you are fighting unlike in the past games' random encounters, it's always a fixed number of enemies you have to clear them all to win the fight. In Yakuza 5 if the remaining enemy gets scared and run off - you automatically win the fight, I can't really appreciate this feature so I'm writing it down last. 

There you have it, Yakuza 5 improvements if you can't be bothered with the game or was not impressed by the demo. The last game engine was use for up to 4 installments so it remains to see how long team RGG will keep with this.

When Being Sneaky Isn't Enough

There was one particular moment in The Last of Us when Joel and Ellie are still trapped in the city ruled by the hunters that I encounter a bug. I sneak past two hunters positioned at the upper floor of a building then took down one hunter in the way of the escape route but when I got to the ladder - the button prompt to lower the ladder didn't appear ! 

I could tell from the Ellie's body language that the two were still in sneaking mode as the remaining enemies were nearby. I had no choice but the proceed back to the nearby building and take care of those hunters on the upper floor before the button prompt would appear. This being a survival game where resources are limited, sneaking is a big part of the game. Unfortunately the one moment when you decide to kill only when necessary, the bug in the game forces you to go out of your way to kill the remaining and waste more precious resources. 

I Need More Platinum Trophies

As you may have noticed, I have earned two Platinum trophy in my PSN account - a figure I'm not contend with and fully intend on adding to but a third Platinum trophy probably won't happen until next year. Until then I'm going to list out what my third Platinum trophy would likely be but I haven't actually made up my mind which one I'm intending to pursue. 

1. Resident Evil 6 

This is an obvious one, Resident Evil trophy requirements are the most un-imaginative of them all, just keep beating the game on higher difficulty modes and eventually you will achieve the Platinum. The only problem is the game isn't very good, it would be hard to stomach finishing such a long game over so many times. The percentage of trophy completion is a bit misleading here, I'm actually only short of around 8 more trophies from the Platinum. 

2. Vanquish 

This is a tough one to crack, probably even harder than say Yakuza 3 Platinum trophy. It would be de-moralizing to come so near but unable to achieve that one missing trophy in order to unlock the Platinum. Then again, I remember thinking the same thing of Yakuza 3 before eventually beating that one.

There are six trophies for finishing the Hard mode (the easy part I reckon) and one for completing the challenge mode (the one you will throw your controller in frustration). Tempting to try but then I remember I haven't finish Bayonetta since I started that game again. 

3. Shadow of the Damned

This is an easy one, a bit similar to RE6 trophy requirements but a much shorter game and definitely more enjoyable than RE6. One problem with this one is the trophies are not "stackable" so I have to finish the game on Easy mode to achieve Platinum. Now having finished the game once on Normal mode, do I go from Easy to Hard mode or Hard to Easy mode?

There are several notable games exempt from this list due to the fact I lost the save files when my first PS3 broke down. I'm not against chasing those Platinums down but I would rather not waste time replaying what I already unlock before.