Review: Bleach the 3rd Phantom

First Impression:
So I've been on a Bleach fix lately, as those on my friends list would know thanks to the Rock Musical. (Twelve kinds of awesome, I tell ya.) Go figure as I was hyping myself up for this game. Now I'm only a Bleach fan as far as the Soul Society arc. Anything beyond that and I'm not too updated on. Maybe this game can shed some light on it...

Gameplay:
Unlike Bleach Blade of Fate and Dark Souls, The 3rd Phantom is an SRPG. Yes, you heard me right. An SRPG.
Battles are played out on a grid where you move your units beside an enemy to attack them. Fights are done on a one-on-one basis with full renders of your character and their opponent. Characters are classified as Power (Zaraki, Ichigo, Renji, etc), Speed (Hisagi, Soi Fon, Yoruichi, etc) and Tech (Ukitake, Hitsugaya, Rangiku, etc) and interact in a rock paper scissors fashion: power is weak to tech, tech is weak to speed and speed is weak to power. Unless you're a big fan, battles are rather slow as you're watching the same battle animation over and over again. Most people complain about it but I don't mind it all that much, really.



Battles aren't all that hard. During fights, you have options to move, attack an adjacent opponent and use skills but 3rd Phantom adds two other things.
First is the option to charge spiritual pressure. Getting it higher gives a higher chance of getting in a stronger attack during fights. Get it to maximum and characters with bankai can activate it to power up and deal some massive damage.
Bankai is a shinigami-exclusive skill that involves releasing the true power of their weapon. Bankai mode differs with each Shinigami and gives them a nice hefty boost to power and defense. Some characters will summon another heavily powered unit to join the fight and some others will have an altered sprite and new attacks during Bankai.
Another thing is the reiatsu field. All over the map are these brown panels (normally invisible until you press Y) which give a nice boost when you absorb them during Spiritual Pressure charge.


Before the game, you are asked to pick between Fujimaru or Matsuri; a brother and sister shinigami pair. Nothing much changes plot wise no matter who you pick. The only difference being in the shikai form of your zanpakuto which you get much later. Fujimaru, the brother and younger twin is a speed type while his sister Matsuri is a power type.
You can name the character you pick as well as give them a last name... and off you go.
Inbetween battles, you get some graphic novel style dialogue and plot progression. You don't select locations to go to. The game handles that for you. You can say it's more of a "read lotsa dialogue, deploy units on the set up screen and let's go kick some arse" sort of deal.
Some time inbetween parts of a chapter, you get something called Freetime. Kon is seen on the top screen and on the bottom screen are panels with different characters on them. These panels can be selected for scenes with that character and your main character. These scenes can net you some exclusive stat boosting items or raise your compatibility with that character which leads to better team attacks together in battle. These scenes have an AP cost and make Kon move forward a certain number of squares depending on the AP cost. On the way, he can pick up icons which can give you an AP discount for one scene selection, a stat boost for your character or restorative items.

Last words:
The 3rd Phantom is a simple enough game. The battles aren't crazy hard and the characters are well rendered. I'd recommend this for anyone who actually enjoys Bleach. For those who aren't, it's a fun little distraction. Beware for squee moments during the beginning of the game.

Protip:
-Items are hard to come by so make the most of them. You can get them sometimes when you defeat enemies and during Free Time.
-During Free Time, plan out your moves. You only get to keep panels you land on, not panels you pass through.
-You might hit a major snag in Chapter 9. During that battle, I suggest you make use of the suspend save function if Chad's El Diretso doesn't hit. Trust me. You'll WANT it to hit each time.
-If you're having a tough time, remember that free battle (accessible from the system menu on the pre-battle set up screen) is your friend.
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Rating:
Graphics: 3.5/5
The sprites are well colored and true to the character design. The static images are alright but nothing that blows me out of the water. The fighting games had better renders for the action scenes.

Gameplay: 4/5
Some people complain about it being slow but as I mentioned, I don't mind that all too much. The SRPG scenario is simple enough and what can I say, Free Time is pretty fun because of the scenarios that pop up.

Soundtrack: 3.5/5
Voice acting isn't so grating and the background music is pretty nice. Heavy use of some rock rifts during fights. Seems they recycled sound clips from Dark Souls...

The Look and Feel: 4/5
Everything's right there. The top screen is used during battles as a map and to display stats and levels of whatever your cursor's on which is pretty handy considering the SRPG setup.

Rating: 8/10

Oh... oh yes please...

Yup. You're seeing it right. Luminous Arc 3: Eyes. Marvelous has started to promote it. Now I know most of the population has mixed reactions about the LA series but I for one rather liked it. The first game... I believe I have to take another look at but the second was actually quite fun. I'm rather mad for the character designs and the characterizstion for some of the cast.



LA isn't a crazy intimidating SRPG which is what made it fun for yours truly. Me and SRPGs, we have a love-hate relationship. I want to love them but they hate me sometimes.

This time around, you play as a student of the Ulgard Magic Academy and inbetween fights, you'll be interacting with your party members and other students. There seems to be a bit of a dating sim aspect with this too, much like the past two installments.
Image Epoch (Sands of Destruction, 7th Dragon) is handling development and Yasunori Mitsuda has been credited as sound producer. The game's due out this winter in Japan. So far, no English release has been scheduled but knowing Atlus... we'll prolly see one come 2010. As Luminous Arc and its sequel has been ported, there's a good chance this'll come up, too.



No doubt I'll have my eye out on news related to this game.

via [Siliconera/1up.com]

Review: Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings

Tactics was a good game and despite the fact that the recent games in the Final Fantasy franchise seemed to be a letdown (IMHO), I thought I'd give FFXII: Revenant Wings a try.

First Impression:
I saw the screenshots and thought "Uh oh, Squeenix has gone and made a Tactics clone" but thank goodness I was sorely mistaken.
The minute you turn on the DS, you're greeted with a crisp, clean well orchestrated FMV which shows off the DS' graphical capabilities rather well. They didn't skimp on the background music either, it seems. The game itself has moments when you tend to forget that you're actually playing a hand-held console game. The backgrounds are well rendered and the sprite movement is smooth. You won't be disappointed at all.



Gameplay:
From the very start, you're already immersed into a dungeon and combat is the order of the day. The battle system is easy to get used to and doesn't leave you in moments of "OhgodnoI'munderleveledandI'mgonnadie". With Revenant Wings, it's a combination of both levelling and brains. A small tip: As long as you wipe out all enemies you see on the field, you'll be fiiiiiiiine~
Controls are easy enough and are manageable in a pinch. If you have to give split second commands, nothing bars your way and there's no moment of risking your unit's lives because you were busy fiddling with the commands.
I do have one teeny little comment though. Unit movement is so slow, that if you're moving your entire group from one side of the map to the other, you might have to wait a while. This proved to be a hindrance in a much later mission which severely chafed my ass.
Battles are fast paced and are over before you know it. AI for both enemy and friendly units is rather good, your units are responsive and ranged units and healers stay a good distance away from the fray.

Story:
The plot itself is interesting on it's own. For one who has yet to play FFXII, I found myself a bit confused over certain things but nothing that will leave you scratching your head for the duration of the game. A few mentions here and there but Revenant Wings seems to be a completely different kettle of fish from its predecessor.

Last words:
It seems that Square has managed to redeem itself. Revenant Wings wasn't a major flop but then it was engaging enough to keep a fan of the series interested. Unfortunately, some newcomers might be put off by the inability of the game to give us at least a little idea of what some of the hints were. Never the less, it was interesting enough.

Rating:
Graphics: 4.5/5
The characters are easy to figure out on the field even in the midst of battle. Backgrounds are well rendered and show a good level of detail.

Gameplay: 3.5/5
Controls are easy to learn even if you're not a fan of the SRPG genre. My only complaint would be the fact that units move rather slow and in the case of a mission where you have to hurry and sneaking around is choice, this can be quite a hindrance. It follows a bit of a pattern though, with the "build army, rush enemy" thing.

Soundtrack: 5/5
Impressive. As always, Square-Enix gives us an excellent score which is quite fitting for the situations at hand.

The Look and Feel: 4/5
Controls aren't clumsy and the interface is easy to navigate through.

Overall Rating: 8/10