I wrote in an earlier post that I'm not getting any younger and that I should probably stop wasting time playing obscure and mediocre games with the time I have left before I kick the bucket. So what better way to listen to my own advice by playing EXTERMINATION for the PS2?
These little buggers are so annoying
To be fair, this is an early PS2 title and the first survival horror game on the console. If you consider that the PS2 was still fairly new at the time, the graphics are impressive compared to say the Biohazard series on the PS1. However, it's not 2001 anymore, and I'm assuming Biohazard 4 is way better. I dunno because for some reason I could never finish games in this genre. The only Biohazard game I was able to beat was 5 which is definitely NOT survival horror.
In that sense, I guess EXTERMINATION is a good starter game for people like me who can't handle a limited number of saves. In this game, as long as you can get to certain areas, you can recharge your battery and save as much as you want and even refill all your regular ammo. I also found the number of health packs were adequate to get through the game without too much difficulty. I did feel I was running a bit low for the last boss but was able to make it after a couple tries.
It's like a ribbon but rechargable! Technology!!
For a survival horror game, it's pretty low on the scare factor. You are exploring a base or lab or whatever near the South Pole that's being infected by some kind of bacteria. I dunno if it's just me but like Corpse Party: Blood Drive, I never found organic goop to be that scary.
Eww, did you try ingesting disinfectant or shining a flashlight on yourself?
The camera is pretty crappy typical of this era and you have to rely pretty heavily on the auto-aim to shoot. At the beginning, I was killing everything but then figured out that it was a waste of time. All the enemies just respawn so a couple hours in, I realized it was much faster and easier to just run around everything.
I beat this game in a little under 6 hours and was so glad when it was finally over. For such a short game, it felt pretty long. Basically, imagine about 4 hours of running around and dodging everything you see except for the occasional boss fight. Not only was the gameplay fundamentally pointless and flawed, the story was bad as well. Minor spoiler here but when you finally beat the game, you get friend zoned. WTF?!
Score: 2 I don't get the story. Why didn't he just wait for the bacteria to disappear one day like a miracle? That's totally a valid strategy! #MAGA (6 hours to beat)
Scale
0 - Awful
1 - Bad and not worth your time
2 - Has some flaws but still enjoyable
3 - An average enjoyable experience
4 - A great game
5 - Masterpiece of a caliber only found very rarely
So after finishing Memories Off last year, I went and finished the sequel Memories Off 2nd in less than a year, which is good considering the series has been revived and another game is on the way. At this rate, I might be able to get caught up on the series in... 2026?
Oh boy, that's a lot of girls, I hope I can keep up.
2nd is a sequel to the first game in a way that I have a feeling is going to be a signature feature of the series going forward. The 2nd game has almost nothing to do with the previous game so you don't need to play it in order. However, it does take place after the events of the first and only a few train stations away geographically. There's also one character from the first game and Tomoya is now a dog (lol not really). It also tried to maintain the whole rain theme from the first game in one ending though it felt kind of forced.
This game has the usual diverse cast of girls to choose from though this time around, there's a slight, super minor, teeny weensy problem. You start the game with one girl already chosen for you so to speak. In other words, you start the game with a girlfriend, you lucky dog you. And no, she doesn't die nor is there anything wrong with her except maybe her awful taste in men. So yeaaaaaah, you're going to have to be an asshole to get all those other women.
Yup, you're going to have to be an asshole in this game
As usual, this game maintains the series standard as being perhaps the most pure and orthodox model of a traditional galge. Once again, there is almost no fan service and many of the girls have some sort of backstory with quite a bit of drama. There's also many awkward or emotional scenes, particularly when your girlfriend reacts in almost every conceivable way as you break her heart in like 11 out of the 12 possible endings: denial, anger, disappointment, sorrow. I mean, it got kind of ridiculous, seriously, around the 4th or 5th time. If you consider that the list of possible options to cheat with include her best friend and her older sister, it's like JESUS. You are SUCH an ASSHOLE.
Aww so cute. Ok, time to break up this family! #homewrecker
Fortunately, as the After Story bonus scenario shows, the true ending is supposedly sticking with your original girl after all. Kind of boring but of course not unexpected. The PSN 100 yen sale version I played includes Pure Story as well. It was kind of weird that they decided to voice the main character in Pure Story as it kind of broke the immersion. Also, Hotaru sounds very different maybe because the VA is older? Ah, the ravages of time. Oh wait, a Japanese woman, never mind. #loli4life
Hot dayum, she's almost 40 now?
Score: 3 pretty good breaking up with your girlfriend simulator out of 5 (39 hours to complete)
I actually found out while digging into the inner recesses of the Closet of Shame™ that I already had bought a copy of Memories Off Duet at some point which means I own a physical copy of both this game and the first Memories Off. Umm, did I mention I only paid 100 yen for the PSP digital licenses on a PSN sale? C'mon, it's so cheap! SALE!! BARGAIN PRICES!!!
Welp, there goes another 40 hours of my life, down the drain
Given the ever shrinking space left for shit, I probably really should get rid of my PS2 copy but I dunno. I liked the first two Memories Off games enough to want to keep them, which is really perhaps the biggest endorsement I can give for a game. Not the best game but it's definitely good ol' traditional stuff.
Minor potential spoiler warning. Stop reading here if you care.
I do have to rage a bit here on one of the endings which made absolutely no sense at all. I can't talk about it too much cause potential spoiler but how the fuck do you just slap two Kanji characters together and make 2 people into one? Oooh, this is a Uchikoshi scenario. Never 7 reference eh? HA! Feel free to discuss in the comments if you played this game (crickets)...
Ahhh, kyurei syndrome eh? You clever you #spoilers
Scale
0 - Awful
1 - Bad and not worth your time
2 - Has some flaws but still enjoyable
3 - An average enjoyable experience
4 - A great game
5 - Masterpiece of a caliber only found very rarely
Somehow, I had never heard of Gitaroo Man until this month as it comes free with PS Plus. Now, I would never waste my precious money on these "free" games that are only playable if you continue paying each month but Play Asia had multiple promotions making PSN yen really cheap and there was some PS plus discounts that were worth more than the cost of a month of Plus itself and ANYWAY, long story short, how the FUCK have I never heard about Gitaroo Man until now? I mean, Koei published a rhythm game?? Whoa!
Awww yeah, time to fuckin' battle with MUZAK!!!
Gitaroo Man Live! is the PSP port of a PS2 title that to briefly sum up, is everything I wished Parappa the Rapper was but is obviously NOT. Yeah yeah, Parappa is way older and the first of its genre, blah blah sure but still doesn't change the fact that Gitaroo Man is an awesome game.
The single player story only has 10 stages so in terms of volume, there's not much more than Parappa and I was able to beat it on Normal mode in a couple days. However, my main gripe with Parappa wasn't the length but the fact that the game was broken. I watched a perfect play of a song and the rapping parts don't even match up to the song. On the other hand, Gitaroo Man's gameplay is spot on. While things get really hard, pretty darn fast, if you practice and get used to the frantic pace of the button presses, you can get through... at least on Normal mode.
Gitaroo man is lucky he didn't have to battle tenor sax, master race... instrument
Everything about the story was top notch, unlike Parappa, whose message seemed to be "You gotta believe!" and if you do, you can get away with doing whatever stupid shit you want. This game is about believing in yourself and what you can achieve with self-confidence. I loved the voice acting, especially Puma and Kira and the playful, colorful graphics were great. As a once avid Tenor sax player before I got busy with real life, (ahem yeah real life like Gitaroo Man? Shuddap!) I'm also totally a sucker for the idea of battling opponents in a music battle.
As enjoyable as this game is, the tiny tablet sized Vita buttons killed my thumb. I never really liked the stupid tiny Vita buttons and it really makes its annoyance known when it comes to frantic rhythm games. It might be why Vita got stuck with DJMax Tecknika touchscreen bleh instead of the #BAE portable shit. Still, the PSP has that shitty nub of a analog stick so I don't know if that would be better. I would say go for the PS2 version but then you'd miss out on the two new co-op songs in Live!
Apparently the inspiration for Vita button design
So until Stage 9, I was going to give this game a score of 3.5. but the whole story with the legendary theme filled me with so much hype and emotion that hasn't been matched since watching the ending of Crossroads so many years ago, that I instantly upgraded this game to a 4. This is a great game and if you don't agree with me, well then, you're probably some sort of music philistine listening to Britney Spears or whatever the kids are listening to nowadays. (Yeah, I'm old, I GET IT!)
Crossroads: It's like Karate Kid but way better and with Devils.
I'm still working on the game in Master Mode as it's no freakin' joke. Of course, it doesn't help that my thumb is practically flat after a few hours of this game, stupid Vita tablet buttons. And I still have to check out the two Live! exclusive multiplayer songs. Since I have no friends, I'm going to see if there's a way to play it by myself in adhoc mode on the Vita. Anyways, while short, any fans of music games should definitely give this one a try as it's a great game. Wouldn't it be great if we got a full HD remake on PS4 with trophy support? Naw, let's remake shitty Parappa instead. Bitter? Who me?
Score: 4 I probably should've learned guitar instead of accordion, then maybe I'd have my own Pico-chan out of 5
As a Jhipster, I did take a brief look at some English gameplay and man, the voice acting is a severe downgrade. It's stupid they call him "You One". His name is Yu-ichi which of course is a pun but you know, I guess that doesn't work so well in English. Anyways, best to stick to the Japanese version, AS USUAL.
Scale
0 - Awful
1 - Bad and not worth your time
2 - Has some flaws but still enjoyable
3 - An average enjoyable experience
4 - A great game
5 - Masterpiece of a caliber only found very rarely
I've heard great things about Ever 17 and been wanting to check it out for a while. Of course, as you can probably guess by now, I'm going in order by first playing Never7 -the end of infinity-. Originally called just infinity for the PS1, it seems to have been ported to every platform imaginable since it's original release in 2000. According to Wikipedia, extra scenarios were added at one point, the OST was re-arranged in one version, a new ED theme here, a new movie there... WHATEVER.
Normally, I would pick the PSP version any day but I got the PC download for free as a promotion when it went on sale online. Unfortunately, the PC version kinda sucks balls to put it mildly. While there is an option to skip text, there is no backlog, no rewind, no auto mode, and no record of which options you've chosen previously. Though bizarrely enough, there IS an option to have a separate font for the girl's dialogue text???
No Option umm... option and context menu doesn't really add much
The inadequacies of the specific version I played doesn't really matter I guess as long as you pick a better version. I'm sure the Android app (region-locked BARF) has all the features you would expect by now including fancy extras like an alarm clock.
All you have to do is get an alien registration card,
open a bank account, and buy a phone in Japan for these nice extras
(FU Google)
The worst part about this version is the inability to adjust the BGM volume down to better hear the dialgoue which is a shame because this game is fully voiced (doesn't include the protagonist). I dunno what it is but something about voice acting from before all the moe shit really appeals to me. Even though it came out in the year 2000, this game definitely reminds me of them old animes I grew up with in the 90s.
I played through Yuka's route before I finally gave up on the PC version. Going through the game over again without being able to fast forward to unread text was a deal breaker. I tried fast-forwarding to the next dialogue option and checking the back log but yeah, screw that. PSP HERE I COME!!!
Hey Yuka, don't be made at me, I'M not the one that picked your crazy swimsuit.
And thank god for the mighty PSP, because the PSP version has every ADV feature that you could want: auto mode, volume controls, it even lets you use the analog stick to see the whole image. I thought that worked much better to deal with the different aspect ratio than a static background image on either side or just chopping off the image like other PSP ports. Unfortunately, taking screenshots is a pain on the PSP so enjoy the rainbow dialogue screenshots from the PC version.
AHAHA an alcoholic! ...oh that's not very funny at all
Putting aside all this talk about ports, PC master race, blah blah blah, how was the game itself? Well, if you enjoy reading about college students enjoying exciting activities such as fishing, tennis, and barbecues, you're in luck. I obviously went to college in the wrong country if attending what they call a "zemi" (short for seminar) is basically a free island vacation complete with private cottage accommodations in the woods.
No seriously, the first 5-10 hours of the game is probably one of the most boring segments I've gone through in an adventure game. The pacing of the game is SO slow, it only drops tiny hints of something fishy going like once every few hours between long stretches of dialogue involving things like shopping for rice, making breakfast, and eating lunch. Zzzzzzzzzz
At least you get can a good fill of that ol' imouto goodness. Even though most of the characters are college age or older, Kurumi, a senior in high school decides to call you oniichan for no reason whatsoever. Even though she's supposed to be a senior in high school, the game still somehow manages to make her seem like 15 years old. #jailbait
YEEEAAAAAH, (fake) IMOUTO TAIMU!
I really liked that the branching paths were not too simplistic like Harvest Overlay and yet was not stupid random nonsense like '&'. I was able to play through all scenarios without a guide and even though I got stuck a bit in one part where hanging out with Izumi went into Kurumi's route and vice-versa, the rest was easy to figure out just with a bit of trial and error.
PS2? pffft! I play all my PS2 games on the game gear
Score: 2.5 goddamn I went to college in the wrong country! out of 5 (30 hours to beat)
Overall, the game had some interesting ideas besides the renai dating aspect. You can definitely see that this is Uchikoshi's early work. There are several theories in the game as to what's going on in the story and in true ADV style, any of those theories could be true depending on your route.
As for the renai portion, the characters were likable enough and while the illustrations were rough at times, it had its charm. The music was better than the usual ADV generic crap but not much more so. I really like the quality of the voice acting and while I was bored to death in the beginning, there were brief moments where I really wanted to find out what happened next.
I thought Never 7 was worth playing but I definitely wouldn't call this game spectacular. While there's extra "Append" scenarios at this point, I'm so sick of playing through the same 6 days over and over that I don't think I can touch it without a least few years break.
It was at least something to play while I'm sitting here waiting for my copy of Zero time dilemma (those goddamn "reviewers" with their early, free copies!!!). We'll see how Ever 17 shapes up. For you non-jhipsters, the game was at least interesting enough for someone to make a fan translation patch (if you can find it).
Some additional screenshots for um... investigative purposes.
Yup, still an alcoholic.
This girl is TOTALLY 18, right guys? *wink wink*
Scale
0 - Awful
1 - Bad and not worth your time
2 - Has some flaws but still enjoyable
3 - An average enjoyable experience
4 - A great game
5 - Masterpiece of a caliber only found very rarely
