The Next Level

When I think of Level 5 I don't think of Professor Layton or Ni No Kuni like most do. I think of Jeanne D'Arc, the game that got me started on the world of tactical RPG.

I played some RPG prior to Jeanne but always have a lukewarm feeling about the genre. What is it that gamers like so much about RPG? The sappy storyline or fantasy setting were always a big bore for me.

I credit Jeanne D'Arc for starting me on this genre and showing me there are other RPG that interests me. This game and  the PSP system basically turned me into a RPG gamer. It paved the way for me to indulge in other RPG series like Fire Emblem and Valkyria Chronicles.

Sometimes, a special game is good enough to get a gamer started on a new genre. The first Resident Evil was one of those games that introduced many gamers to the survival horror genre. Jeanne D'Arc introduced me to the RPG genre as well as the Level-5 company.

Since competing Jeanne D'Arc, I have feverishly searched for the next Level 5 game that would give me the same feeling. There was one that came close (Rogue Galaxy) while the other is nothing like this (Attack of the Friday Monsters). But I reckon Jeanne D'Arc will always have a special place in my collection.

Local Fuss

Most of any recent Nintendo game localization has had some controvesy one way or another. The big recent fuss is Fire Emblem Fates that came out last month. Now Fire Emblem is this big Nintendo RPG franchise that suddenly found an audience because it has dating sim elements. The game has this petting feature where you can use the touch screen to pet your potential partner when you are alone. Yes it's as creepy as it sounds and Nintendo decided to removed it somewhat for the English version.

Now removing it is one thing but someone from the localisation team had the nerve to say content change is all part of the localization process. I couldn't disagree more with that statement.

While I don't expect everything in the original Japanese version to be translated word-for word, I do expect the content to remain the same. Unfortunately in most cases, content change usually means content removed. Paying for a game that is late to be localized is not ideal but paying for a game that is localized late with content removed is a double-whammy. Thankfully only Yakuza 3 comes to mind when speaking of such.

Unfortunatelty this is the price to pay for playing foreign-made games.

Fatal Frame V removed the risque bonus costumes for the English version as expected but Nintendo/Tecmo made up for it by replacing them with new costumes. It's a fair trade as Nintendo could have simply remove the costume without any new addition like what happened for Crimson Butterfly Remake.

All You Can Carry

Resident Evil mini-games are usually a hit or miss.

For every the 4th Survivor, there is uhm, what is that Code Veronica mini-game called again?

RE Zero has its own mini-game called the Leech Hunter. I never gave this mini-game much of a fair shake until now.

It follows the first Mercenaries reward system. You want infinite ammo in the story mode? You got to finish Leech Hunter first and do it well. There are no countdown timer in this, your only challenge here is the inventory slot. You are tasked with collecting 50 leeches each for Billy and Rebecca within the training facility. You can't drop the leeches once you picked them up and each item slot can only carry up to 10 leeches. Obviously as you reached closer to 50 leeches, the game gets progreesively harder because your inventory gets tighter.

It's pretty challenging, never has inventory management in a RE game became so critical. Some players came up with the loophole of wiping all the enemies in the facility before picking up any leeches since there is no timer. Sure that could work but the danger is if you die in the middle of combat then all the hard work is wasted. Your leech count at time of death would be very little if you used this strategy. 

This mini-game is carefully thought out, you can only pick up the right color leech for each character. This prevents using Billy as the attacker and leaving Rebecca as the supply mule. You need to use both character as according to how the leeches are scattered and there are 3 random arrangements for the leech and weapons each time you play.

This is one of the better mini-games in the RE series. The RE0 game itself isn't all that great but bear in mind that REHD or any other RE game during this era never had any mini-games.

Portable Warfare

Valkyria Chronicles is one of the best IP to come out from last generation. It has everything I loved in a video game : cel-shaded graphics, strategy RPG gameplay and women with big guns. While I have yet to finish the first game on the PS3, it's only because I have too many PS3 games to clear. The recent HDD woes on my PS3 system certainly didn't helped matters.

VC3 was a great experience and to be honest, I enjoyed this type of game more on a portable than a console. Since my PSP has been sitting idle for a while, I decided to play VC2 in the mean time. Now I'm really playing the series in reverse order and hopefully that won't be an issue as the 3 games are loosely connected. It does mess up the timeline quite a bit though.

Valkyria Chronicles on the PS3 is like the big-budget brother to the PSP siblings. In VC1, every dialogue was voiced and the character models were used even in the non-animated cutscenes. VC3 made some small compromises but the strong character design and artwork made up for the loss.

VC2 seems to be using a different art director compared with VC1 and VC3. The new style of character design is hard to get into after being so used to the original artist. The new characters pale in comparisons to the cast of VC1 and VC3. To top it off, their personality isn't great either. The lead character is supposed to be some underdog slacker but it's pretty hard to root for him.

As for the gameplay, in VC1 and VC3 you get to view your enemy's action as it unfolds during their turn. It may be boring for some players but I tend to use the time to put down the controller and take a quick break. It's always a nice surprise if you come back to find half your squad wiped off because of some poor decisions (lol). In VC2, you don't get to see your opponent turn at all as everything is simulated on the battle map (it doesn't zoom in on the characters). This speeds things up considerably but it's hard to improve and learn from mistakes when you don't get to see how the AI plays.

It's clear even from this point that VC2 isn't the best in the series. In fact it could have very well torpedo the series potential if it wasn't for VC3 righting the ship.

The Wonderful One

On the dawn of Platinum 10th Aniversary, let's talk about The Wonderful 101 which I just finished recently.

Even after getting the U, I was lukewarm about this game as it seems more 'viewtiful' than 'stylish hard action'. H.Kamiya has made many great games but it's his Devil May Cry style which appeals to me the most. Fortunately Club Nintendo rewarded me this game so I didn't have to make the choice of buying.

This is a hard game to describe, it has a realistic cartoon visual style but a less than friendly learning curve. The heroes looked like old-fashioned superheroes and they have a lot more personality than the average hero. This is probably H.Kamiya best writing work so far. I laughed a lot at the banter between the heroes because it's just so sharply written. The localisation team did a great job on this one, it reminded me of the Ace Attorney humour. Apparently S.Takumi from the Ace Attorney series is close friends with H.Kamiya during their Capcom days.

It's easy to say this now but this game was doomed for commercial failure and I don't think releasing it on a more popular system would have made a difference. Like most Japanese games, it gives you all the tools you need and expect you to learn everything on your own. At times, I feel like I need 4 extra mechanical arms from Doc Ock to play this. I struggled with when to block and when to dodge, apparently you need a bit of cartoon logic which I certainly lacked. 

Things eventually clicked and I started to enjoy it a bit more. There is certainly no other games out there like this. Some games try to be different for the sake of being different however this one feels genuinely unique. It's probably Platinum games best game so far and that is not an easy feat considering the competition. It's an amalgamation of everything H.Kamiya has done. There is a bit Okami (formation attack), a bit of Devil May Cry (Wonder-Blue) and a lot of Viewtiful Joe (Wonder-Red).

If you love video games, it's hard not to like The Wonderful 101 at all. Well unless you are some kid who grew up on mobile games that requires only one finger to play and minimum amount of attention.

Nickel and Dime

After all that good feelings, it's time to talk about the ugly side of the game business. Unfortunately Capcom is once again the guilty party.

When Capcom started to unveiled the new bonus costumes for RE0 remaster, I was getting a little suspicious of how much effort they are putting in. After all, they basically phoned-in the new bonus costumes for the earlier RE remaster though that was understandable being their first major HD remaster title. For RE0, there was a major t-shirt contest where fans can submit their own design. Then there are the throwback costumes to the previous RE games. Unfortunately Capcom have decided to charge the new RE0 bonus costume as DLC.

This is a classic example of publisher witholding content to nick an extra dime from consumers. After all the game is already more than 10 years old and any new content should be deemed part of the remastering packaging. But looks like the basic $20 is just enough to cover their remastering fee and you need to pony up an additional $10 for the new costumes.


To be honest, the new costumes are a nice throwback to the series history.  I wasn't so fond of the fan design T-shirt idea as it seem out of place in this game. But the costumes from the past RE games got me nostalgic of the series. It's just too bad that's probably all we are getting for this year's 20th anniversary of RE.

Good Will Funding

Publishers seems to recognise the importance of good will among the consumer these days.

Take Yakuza 5 for example, when Sega announced the localisation of this 3-year old game, fans lamented that they were basically sending the game out to fail without a retail release. It was only months later when the game is about to release that the full picture is revealed. Sega never had high hopes for Yakuza 5 given the circumstances of the timing, it's Yakuza 0 that they are pinning their hopes on.

But in order to ensure that they don't alienate fans and leave a bad impression before 0, Sega knew they had to give Yakuza 5 a localization even if it means losing money. Now Yakuza 0 takes centre stage and will get a proper retail release on Sony's thriving PS4 console. It's in a good position to succeed unlike Yakuza 5. The announcement of Zero on the eve of Yakuza 5 release hopefully created more good will for fans to believe again.

Another prime example would be Zelda Wii U. With the NX announcement looming this year, many believe Nintendo will jump ship and release the new Zelda on the NX instead. They might very well do so but probably not at the cost of forsaking the original Wii U version. Sure, Nintendo has no legal obligation to do so and would only be breaking their word if they do. But Nintendo can't afford to lose anymore good will at this point especially when they are hoping this very same customer base will buy their new NX.

Releasing the Zelda Wii U is probably a losing business for Nintendo just like releasing Yakuza 5 is for Sega/Sony. It's only the big picture that is making these losses worthwhile as any clever businessman will recognise. Sometime you need to lose a little first in order to win later. Or sometimes, it's not about losing but maintaining the relationship that matters here.