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Games Ex has beaten in 2016:


81. L.A. Noire|Xbox 360|2011|action adventure|24h 54m|8/10



L.A. Noire set out to be an epic noir infused action adventure game, wherein the player is a veteran war hero turned detective. The 1947 atmosphere feels authentic, bolstered by amazing graphics and a believable world. Characters are wholly convincing as well, thanks to innovative face scanning technology that successfully overcomes the uncanny valley. Not to mention the solid acting of the entire cast. A huge and sprawling story takes nearly 20 hours to unravel, harboring plenty of surprises and dark secrets to discover. Crazy driving sequences and blistering shootouts help offset the more languid pace of investigating.



Unfortunately L.A. Noire's writing and direction is not as amazing as its graphics or sheer scope. The lead protagonist is never humanized enough, to truly draw the player into emphasizing with said character's end game rash decisions. Cases often become tedious and repetitive due to their associated nature, rather than being proper unique vignettes. The most standout aspect of the game design; the interrogations of suspects, far too often becomes a game of chance rather than proper deduction. And for being of such astounding size and detail, the open world 1947 L.A. offers barely anything to entice the player to actually explore it. Exploratory side diversions and mini-games would have helped to reward the inquisitive player. Another big complaint is this game is super easy. I mean, you'd have to try really hard not to be able to finish L.A. Noire.



All of that criticism however hardly matters when examining L.A. Noire's core strength. This is a mature game for actual adults. That is why so many younger gamers found L.A. Noire to be "boring'. The true enjoyment is to be found in its myriad subtleties and thoughtful reflections. And while the nitty gritty of the writing isn't so hot, the big picture is. L.A. Noire's plot itself is not traditionally rewarding, hardly anything goes as planned, plenty of questions are never answered, and there's no real happy ending. That sort of design is spot on noir though, so kudos for Brendan McNamara knowing his genre. I have to also commend L.A. Noire for not pulling punches when it comes to its subject matter. Be it rape, murder, pedophilia, etc. L.A. Noire does nothing to sugarcoat its harsh realities.



L.A. Noire is not 1947 GTA, plenty of people were disappointed when they realized that. There's plenty of gameplay here all the same, and there are dozens of other reviews of this game on the internet to explain that part to you. I just want you to know that L.A. Noire is an important experience, flawed as it is. A game that really tried hard to push its medium's slowly unfolding envelope a little wider. If you are a patient gamer who loves mysteries, and can appreciate the subtle details, you should find L.A. Noire to be a fine experience. Yes the end game is a let down, but it was still one helluva fall. Sometimes it's the euphoric descent that counts more than the bitter end. And this game built its gallows high, baby.

Also, if you love classic cards, L.A. Noire is fantastic car porn.

January:

February:

March:

April:

May:

June:


July:

102) Vapor Trail (GEN)
103) King Colossus (GEN)
104) Kirby: Planet Robobot (3DS)
105) Curse of Issyos (PC)
106) Alisia Dragoon (GEN)
107) Curse of the Crescent Isle DX (PC)
108) Tales of Hearts R (VITA)

Well, finished this one off. As far as Tales games go, this one was solid throughout. It's certainly nothing brand-new as far as the series goes, but it's executed very well, with excellent pacing, a battle system that flows very well, and characters that are a lot of fun and have a bit more depth than you'd expect, even if they do tend to fall into well-worn archetypes.

There's a little bit of risque humor floating around, too, which I suppose isn't surprising. It's usually related to the size of Ines'... er, assets. Nothing too crazy, though. The localization itself is superb. I really get a kick out of Beryl using the wrong words for different things, or pulling Spoonerisms by switching the consonants on two different words. It makes me think of Frank Caliendo's Pres. Bush impressions. All the voices are in Japanese, but that's no biggie.

I liked the upgrade system a lot as well. As you level up, you get points that you can spend in five different categories. Things like Fight, Mettle, Endurance, Faith, and an esoteric all-around category for each character. Each level you bump up gives you a new move, or a passive skill you can equip, or a bump in skill point capacity so you can use more of the passive skills. This is also how you upgrade your weapons, with different branches giving weapons with different boosts. Plus, there is some synergy between categories, too, so raising both above a certain threshold might unlock another combined skill.

Since cooking was mentioned before, it's in here. It's also very simple. Have ingredients, have recipe, and you can cook. However, each recipe has a level, so if your cooking level is low, there's a significant chance that you'll fail. Cooking dishes will raise that level. Sometimes you can still cook a high-level dish, and it is more likely to increase your cooking level upon success as well.

I guess the most impressive thing about the game is that it doesn't really feel compromised. To me, it felt like it easily had as much quality as the console installments. Oddly enough, I enjoyed it a lot more than Vesperia. It didn't overstay its welcome, either, as I finished it at 34h25m. That's just about right, in my mind. I'm somewhat tempted to go back in and grind for a tad more grade, then buy the 5x experience boost and see what happens then.

Games Beaten in 2016 So Far - 69

January (20 Games Beaten)


February (8 Games Beaten)


March (8 Games Beaten)


April (13 Games Beaten)


May (6 Games Beaten)


June (13 Games Beaten)


July (1 Game Beaten)


69. Raiden V - Xbox One - July 16



Since I prefer literally everything about the Playstation 4 over the Xbox One, my Xbox doesn't get a lot of love. It's really only used to exclusives. Raiden V, however, is a hell of an exclusive if you like shmups. It also marks my first Xbox One import.


I love how it's all Japanese and then "Xbox One" in random Latin characters.

As far as shmups go, Raiden V isn't necessarily a ground-breaking or revolutionary game, but it is a damn good time. One of my favorite things about the game is how accessible it is. It gives you multiple difficulty options all the way from so easy that the enemies literally don't shoot at you so you can practice memorizing levels and attack patterns all the way up to "Bite the pillow; I'm going in dry."



When you start, you get to choose between three different ships - a Japanese ship, an American ship, and a French ship. Each one has different value distributions for the three stats - offense, defense, and speed. After that, you pick your weapons. There are three weapon categories - gatling, laser, and plasma - and you have three weapons to chose from within each of the three categories. The main difference here is the weapon spread. From what I can tell, they're all roughly the same strength within each category, and what category you're using is determined by power pick-ups (as one would expect from Raiden).



I mentioned that it's my first import game, but Raiden V is available to Americans and Europeans without the need to import from Japan, but it's only available digitally, so if you're a physical purist like I am, then thank the gaming gods that the Xbox One is region free and go throw too much money at Play-Asia. Seriously, I think it's like $65 before shipping for a shmup, but it's my favorite genre, and there aren't many Xbox One exclusives for me to collect, so I bit the bullet.

Now I dare you to beat Gradius V.

The tilting green blob stage gets me every time.

ElkinFencer10 wrote:I love how it's all Japanese and then "Xbox One" in random Latin characters.

This is really common brotha.

Buy a JRPG released only in Japan (a JJRPG?) sometime - the "RPG" text on the back will jump right out at you.

BoneSnapDeez wrote:

ElkinFencer10 wrote:I love how it's all Japanese and then "Xbox One" in random Latin characters.

This is really common brotha.

Buy a JRPG released only in Japan (a JJRPG?) sometime - the "RPG" text on the back will jump right out at you.

I've seen even weirder. In the PS2 Tales of Destiny remake (that only came out in Japan), all of the character's names are in roman characters. This is in their status screens, on their text box-labels, and even when they're referred to in dialogue, despite the fact that the game is voice acted in Japanese, and therefore versions of those names in Kana exist. Very very strange O.o

Haha, well, I've only been importing for a couple years, so at least in the context of Racketboy users, I'm still a newbie with Japanese import games.

Games Beaten in 2016 So Far - 70

January (20 Games Beaten)


February (8 Games Beaten)


March (8 Games Beaten)


April (13 Games Beaten)


May (6 Games Beaten)


June (13 Games Beaten)


July (2 Games Beaten)


70. Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE - Wii U - July 16



This game has had a bit of a mixed reception from Wii U owners who are fans of both Fire Emblem and Shin Megami Tensei (admittedly a rather niche group...), and there are some good reasons for that, but let me go on record here and tell you go buy this game because it's fucking amazing. Those of you who know my gaming habits know that I tend to prefer shorter games, and I almost never "complete" games; I'll beat the main story line and maybe do a few side quests, but I don't make a point to do EVERYTHING in a game. I just get bored and want to move on to something else.



Well sit down, son, and let me tell you a story about one of the exceptions to that rule into which I sank almost 72 hours. This game is basically a Persona game. Mechanically, it's straight up Persona, and stylistically, it's pretty damn Persona. The main conflict in the game, however, is essentially the main conflict from the first Fire Emblem game but told as a sort of frame story within the context of weeb-as-fuck idol bullshit. And by bullshit, I mean a premise that every game needs. Adorable little girl and sexy tsundere chick team up as ass kicking idols? Hell yes, sign me up.



So why did THIS game entice me to do almost every optional thing there is when I couldn't be bothered to do more than a handful of side quests in Skyrim? The short answer is "fuck if I know." The long answer is that it masterfully blends a number of elements that somehow manages to be far greater than the sum of its parts. Let's start with the plot. On the surface, it's a super anime trope - random catastrophe, mysterious evil steals the energy and happiness from people, random teenagers team up to save the world through the power of friendship or some other such bullshit. Yeah, that's the story if you only look at the surface. Look a little bit deeper, however, and it's actually got some very dark elements that are right at home for the Megami Tensei series. It's the subtlety with which those dark elements are implemented that makes the game so damn impressive from a literary perspective. What on the surface appears to be just stealing peoples' talent and energy is actually, if you pay attention, stealing their souls - the very core of who they are and what their purpose in the world is - and life force. My explanation isn't really doing it justice, but it's really quite well done.



Let's next look at the combat. Again, it's fairly standard Persona, though there is a twist. The "Sessions" from the title comes from a battle mechanic implemented in the game. When you make an attack that exploits and enemy's weakness, you trigger a "session" with your active party members (and your reserves provided that you've unlocked a specific skill for them). These sessions are essentially combo chains that, if you're very lucky and get the chance to perform a dual attack, can reset, earning you enough of a chain to (potentially) kill a boss in one fell swoop. My highest combo was 16, but I've had a couple of friends tell me that they came across screenshots on Reddit and Miiverse of 20 or 30 combo sessions (20 I can believe if you're reaaaally lucky, but I question the legitimacy of a 30+ combo session). It's such a small thing, but it really adds a lot to the game's combat, and (most importantly) it does a lot to fix the problem of picking two favorite characters and letting the other four waste away in the reserve party because it keeps them engaged even when they're not on your active party.



I could talk about this game for a long time, and I'll be glad to answer any specific questions for those of you who haven't played it or are debating whether or not to pick it up, but I'll end by talking about the characters. You end up with seven party members and four support characters who aren't in your party but support you "behind the scenes" throughout your quest. Each of the playable characters represent a Fire Emblem class - lord, knight, pegasus knight, mage, general, archer, and swordmaster. If you find a Master Seal (they're really rare, but I found probably 15 or 20 during my playthrough), you can upgrade each character's class to one of two stronger classes (the pegasus knight, for example, changes into either a falcon knight that specializes in healing or a wyvern knight that is more focused on offense). You can also change to the other upgraded class if you find you don't like the one you chose at any time, though it does require another Master Seal, so don't go throwing them around like glow sticks at a rave.



I'm going to recommend this game to all JRPG fans in general, but if your only current gen console is a Wii U or if you're a huge Persona fan, I'm going to recommend this in the strongest possible terms. The fact of the matter is that the Wii U simply doesn't have many JRPGs. Aside from TMS, it's got what, one? Is Xenoblade Chronicles X it? Maybe Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate if you count that as a JRPG (I don't). If you've got a Wii U, then you'll want to pick this up for genre diversity if nothing else. Let's look at another concrete fact - Atlus making fucking amazing JRPGs, and the Megami Tensei series (especially the Persona sub-series) is one of the premier JRPG series around. What you've got here is one of the VERY few RPGs on the Wii U that's (at least unofficially) part of the one of the greatest JRPG series there is. Not only that, but it's got little bits of one of Nintendo's great under-appreciated IPs and references thrown throughout. Even if you've never played Fire Emblem or care nothing about it, I'd say you ought to pick this game up. It's really 98% Persona, 2% Fire Emblem. Not that being Fire Emblem is a bad thing - I wish it had been a SRPG like Fire Emblem, personally - but you don't have to like the strategy element of Fire Emblem to enjoy Tokyo Mirage Sessions.



tl;dr - buy this game, it's good as fuck.

Man, I was honestly a bit worried about how Tokyo Mirage Sessions would turn out. Glad to hear that my worries were for nothing! Sucks for my wallet though... This year has way too many games that I want lol

1/16: Diablo III (PC)
1/19: Picross E (3DS DL)
1/23: Baroque (Wii)
2/5: LocoRoco (PSP)
3/31: Picross e2 (3DS DL)
4/7: Stardew Valley (Steam)
4/8: Voices From the Sea (Steam)
4/10: X-Note (Steam)
4/11: To the Moon (Steam)
4/19: Atelier Totori: The Adventurer of Arland (PS3)
4/19: Aquapazza: Aquaplus Dream Match (PS3)
6/19: Steins;Gate (PS3)
7/11: Yoshi’s Woolly World (Wii U)
7/13: Muramasa Rebirth (Vita)
7/13: Strider 2 (PS1 Classics)
7/16: Planetarian ~The Reverie of a Little Planet~ (Steam)
7/16: Narcissu (Steam)

Total: 17 games

Beat some short kinetic visual novels since I felt like reading a bit.

Planetarian
This VN takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where everything is in ruin and the few people that are still around have to struggle to survive. Many people had to flee their homes while leaving everything behind, so people called Junkers scavenge cities to try and find things of value to trade or use for themselves. The unnamed main character, who is a Junker, goes into one of these cities and finds a planetarium with a still functioning robot named Hoshino Yumemi. Yumemi is very happy-go-lucky and knows nothing about what has happened to everyone, so the main character talks with her and tries to fix the planetarium's projector.

Of course, since this visual novel is by Key (same people who made Clannad), I expected this to be a bit of a tear-jerker. And of course, since I'm a bit of sucker for these sorts of things, I did tear up a little. I felt is was well written, and the little bits of animation of the rain was really nice to see (as a lot of VNs have no animation in the background). I enjoyed reading this the whole way through, even though I kind of felt that the ending was a bit predictable.

Narcissu
Another tear-jerker! Not sure why I wanted to read two of these in a row... Anyway, this one is about two hospital patients who are placed on the 7th floor; the floor for patients who have terminal illnesses. The main character becomes attached to one particular patient who has given up on life, and decides to leave the hospital with her and drive to a place she wants to go to.

Nothing else really happens in the VN, but as they talk to each other on the trip, you learn more about how having a terminal illness really impacts them. Not that I know if this is how people normally feel, but I think it was quite interesting to read this sort of thing, as it's not something I would normally read. I didn't find it as impactful as Planetarian, but that's probably because Planetarian had a bit more time to develop it's characters than Narcissu did (Planetarian took me about 3 hours to read, where as Narcissu took a little over an hour). Still a good read considering that it's free.

When people say Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE plays like Persona, they literally mean Persona and are not mistaking it with Shin Megami Tensei, correct?