Sol Trigger was one of the first games I beat on the PSP so long ago that I totally forgot about it till now. Even though it's from one of my favorite but alas defunct developer Imageepoch, it wasn't one of my favorite games from them. Still, it has the usual impressive Imageepoch PSP visuals and some great animation so it definitely makes a good first impression.
If only looks were everything
Unfortunately, the gameplay was uncharacteristically well, to be frank, kind of boring. Now, it has been many years since I played and my memory is a bit hazy but this is a very vanilla RPG without a lot of depth in mechanics. Each character has abilities and you can charge them before you use it but I never found a reason NOT to charge them to the max so it was just a tedious exercise of holding R every time.
Why the hell would you NOT want to charge to max?
I still remember the story so at least it definitely made an impression. It was very... well interesting to say the least. Especially when you get to the first ending so to speak. I wouldn't say the story was good necessarily but it was definitely different. One highlight is that Ema is voiced by Hanazawa Kana. This was before she got super popular so her gyara was actually probably affordable at the time.
Kana-chan moeeeeee
The game isn't that long and the replay value is pretty limited as well. You can pick one of the girls (I picked Kana-chan ofc) and it has minor affects on some abilities for a future party member for reasons that will be apparent if you play the game.
Score: 2.5 and optional 0.5 bonus Kana-chan points cause HOTNESS out of 5 (31 hours played)
Overall, in my vague recollection of the game, I didn't come away too impressed though it wasn't a terrible game either. It was just eh, whatever. It at least tried something new in the ending department at least, if not the battle system.
LOL, like I said, it's been a while
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
The first thing that stood out for me in Fate/EXTRA CCC is that this sequel jumped from Cero B from the first game all the way straight to D. You probably won't notice it in the first few hours of the game but as a dedicated Cero D import collector, I went in apprehensive of any SJW fodder.
What sword fighting technique is this stance?
Fortunately, the sequel came out in that blessed but all too short period in history when developers gave up on localizing all but the most mainstream titles and practically deserted the PSP "Pirates of the Caribbean" ISO download orgy platform. This was the golden age before all this gamer gate nonsense when all non-jhipsters could do was whine and beg instead of complaining that a new game now costs (gasp!) $40?! Stupid Japanese developers!
Because niche means higher volume=lower price... #oxymoron
Ah yes, the golden years, when costumes could be unlocked by playing the fucking game and DLC was a cute idea that fleeced token revenue from only the most gullible. The days of blissful ignorance when nobody knew half the stuff Japan was pumping out like they have been since the mid 80s. When gratuitous panchira was nothing more than a few harmless pixels. I guess what I'm trying to say is, "Can you imagine if Passionlip came out today?"
I claim not clickbait because this is not the first header image
Actually, I am very curious to see what characters will be making a comeback in Fate/Extella. I'm going to go out on a limb here and make a prediction that I WON'T see Passionlip in current gen HD graphics. Nor will we see BB's way too mini skirt and the frequent low angle camera. Oh but it's totally ok because nobody is wearing panties, it's all leotards, right guys? *wink wink*
In communist Russia, panties wear YOU
Anyways, now that I got the obligatory old man ramblings out of the way, let's dive into the game itself. The first thing I want to address is the battle system. The first game gets a lot of flack for being nothing more than a glorified paper-rock-scissor game, a common shitaku-style 10 second analysis before moving onto the next paycheck er... I mean "review". I, for one, enjoyed the pattern matching gameplay and statistical risk analysis for boss fights. It sure beats the spam the "A" button and heal routine of other RPGs that typical gamers rave over *cough Earthbound cough*.
Ugh, another 50+ hours of this shit?
However, no matter how much slack I gave the gameplay, I wasn't expecting the EXACT same thing in the sequel. I'm not asking for a complete different game (ugh Extella musou), but at least they could've made some tweaks, new abilities, ANYTHING to distinguish it from the first game. They recycled pretty much everything including the hougu, which in English is noble phanta... something blah blah blah.
Dunno where they came up with Noble Phanta... whatever
While the combat system is identical, including the already generic and boring enemy models, there's a bunch of tweaks that make this game much easier (eg mainstream) than the first entry. First of all, EXP doesn't have diminishing returns so grinding is now an option and you can retry if you lose a battle. What was Normal/Easy difficulty was also renamed to Maniac/Normal perhaps to make you feel better about being a gamer NEWB.
I actually look a bit younger than the grampa... a bit.
With the tight balance gone, CCC feels more like a TYPE-MOON game instead of an Imageepoch one. In that sense, the visual novel aspect of the game is massively beefed up. There's way more voice acting, which was one of my complaints in the first game. There's a new servant and a few costumes for each servant. Sure, you don't get a choice of dozens of costumes for only 300/400 yen each like the new games but they're included as part of the game (whoaaaaa).
I'm not fucking stupid, you bundled all this on Switch port #boycott #fuckSwitch
Each servant also has their own ending in addition to the standard and CCC ending. However, the biggest flaw in all this new content is that you have to play through the same bosses to view it. My first playthrough was 50 hours but I ended up playing through it twice more for a whopping 105 hours in total. One major problem is that the CCC ending is almost impossible to unlock without a guide and a lot of the story just doesn't make sense without all the events you need to trigger for that ending.
After the first playthrough, I did look up how to get the true ending but fucking google decided it was a good idea to shove spoiler screenshots of the hidden final boss right in my face. Usually, I don't have this kind of issue for Japanese-only Jhipster games but I guess the fate franchise is too mainstream, what with this Fate/GO smartphone bullshit. I quickly closed the offending tab and decided fuck it, I'll try a second playthrough blind and BOY was that a mistake. After another 30 hours, while I did get to see Caster's ending, the true ending was nowhere to be seen. With some more careful googling, I found out that I missed an event in the VERY FIRST CHAPTER. Here we go, round 3, this time, might was well see how the new servant works out story wise. UGH. At least the hougu for the new servant is pretty damn cool and I even got my otome fill. This new servant is SUCH an asshole and you can't help but fall for the "bad boy" even if he does make you sleep pathetically huddled in the corner.
Score: 3.5 Ok, they're not leotards, I admit it! The girls are wearing regular panties and you can see them OMG OMG OMG!!!! out of 5 (50 hours to beat, 105 hours total played).
While the gameplay was recycled, I at least still enjoyed the boss fights even though I didn't enjoy having to replay the game over and over. Caster though is so fun to play because she requires a bit of strategy and is always one step away from dying due to her low HP.
Whoa, Dの食卓 reference? (Sorry non-jhipsters)
In the end, the graphics looked great for the PSP, the music was not bad at all, and the story was interesting enough. Yeah, the story was about girls, girls, girls and their girly problems blown up to have enormous consequence but I enjoyed it. In addition, due to the triggering nature of the content, I'm 99% confident this will never see an English release so +0.5 Jhipster optional points there. What exactly is so risque? Well, minor spoiler but how does "global cum" sound? You'll have to fight the final true boss to see for yourself.
Maybe they'll localize, after all we haven't had good clickbait ad $$$ in a while
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
If you're a long-time reader of this blog, first of all, you have excellent taste and second, you may have noticed just the slightest hint of fondness for Imageepoch. It's not like I planned things that way. I only noticed much later that many of the games I really dug and enjoyed just happened to share the same name.
You may be gone but your spirit lives on... I hope. Sigh...
I was super bummed when the company disappeared (whatever happened to the CEO btw?) but thankfully other companies are picking up the slack. Fate/EXTELLA was just announced and even though it sounds like an action Musou clone (MEH), I'm still hopeful for a good game. At least it's a good excuse to revisit the first game.
Hopeful Fate/EXTELLA will be OK at least story-wise despite this action bullshit
When I first played Fate/EXTRA, my only exposure to the Fate franchise was the Fate/stay night anime and I thought it was boring as hell. Shirou was one of the most whiniest, annoying characters only a bit better than Shinji from Evangelion (aka "the crying masturbator") and Saber was like that super annoying straight edge girl in college who probably should've gone to a dry campus. So you won't hear me raving and drooling over this game just because of the franchise. In fact, I actually came in a bit skeptical but I was quickly pulled in by the very unorthodox premise.
Wha-? You calling ME the NPC?? THE NERVE! Sure, my avatar is super generic but I HAVE FEELINGS!
What I really liked about this game is that you're not some super special hero destined to save the world AGAIN. Ok ok, you start off with amnesia (oh that's a new one) but I loved how everybody just treats you like NPC trash (aka mob-chara if you ask some fucking weaboos). Everyone assumes you're going to die in every battle and it was awesome to see their shocked faces every time you come out alive. They're all like, "WTF?? You're still here??"
Gameplay-wise, the boss battles are definitely the highlight. The regular battles are very simple, pretty much rock-paper-scissor. The environments and regular enemies are super low-budget, very generic and often recycled. You level up very quickly at each new dungeon but there's a huge drop off so you can't grind really. This makes the later boss battles fairly challenging. Between just plain luck, trying to anticipate the boss's moves as well as timing your own special attacks, and making good use of your items, the boss battles are what makes this game fun. Yes, you actually need to use ITEMS in this game!
The music is smooth as hell... just like yours truly
You can choose between 3 servants and so far I've only played through the game with Saber. But man, she's SOOOO much cooler than Fate/stay night. She's deliciously decadent and is totally the opposite of the annoying, straight-edge, frigid Saber character from the anime. I am replaying the game with Caster and there's a couple boss battles and options that you can choose differently in a second playthrough so there is some replayability. A 3rd playthrough is stretching it a bit though.
UPDATE: Since it's been a while and I forgot a lot of the story, I went ahead and beat this game a second time with Caster and it was just as much fun as I remember. I even beat the secret hidden boss that only unlocks on the second playthrough and boy was that fight TOUGH! If you want to win as Caster, you pretty much have to cast a spell almost every turn as the boss can and WILL kill you with one devastating move. However, the battle won't end early enough for your MP to last so that's something you have to figure out. Anyways, great game and I'm sure I'll play it for a final 3rd time a few years later again.
Caster, you're the only waifu for me! Really!
Score: 3.5 Ha, paper beats rock! Wait, why is there a sword in my chest?? GAAAAAH! out of 5 (80 hours to beat twice with Saber and Caster)
I think Fate/EXTRA could have really used some more budget. Despite being a very story heavy TYPE-MOON game, there are far too few voiced lines. I actually had to read or something. (WTF is this "read" shit??) The environments are extremely limited and while the regular battles are kinda relaxing in a way, paper-rock-scissor isn't something to get excited about.
However, I really enjoyed the story despite all the reading and the boss battles were fun as hell. The music was good and overall, I had a great time with the game. I'm going to enjoy replaying it now it's been a few years and a bit more fresh.
Fate/EXTRA is available in English but not dubbed. Even though non-Jhipsters have to read ALL the text, with the large volume of unvoiced dialogue, I guess this time I can sympathize... a bit. LOL, you poor non-Jhipsters.
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
It's been a while since I last played Last Ranker but I still clearly remember how much fun I had with it. This is one of those games that has the classic Imageepoch signature (at least their later games). It has a very unique battle system, fairly simple but fun and addictive mechanics, mediocre story, and impressive PSP graphics.
This was the top result for an in-game screenshot Google search. Go figure.
Back when I first escaped the mainstream hypetrain for the Nintendo DS and got into the PSP like a REAL gamer, Last Ranker was one of the first games I completed because it was just so much darn fun. The basic premise is you go to a city full of fighters all ranked by strength and you start out WAY at the bottom of the heap at rank 95,000.
No, you're not going to fight 95,000 people. If you beat someone of a higher rank, you basically swap rank. I had so much fun climbing up the ranks by fighting various people around the city. I also loved how some NPCs talk to you like you're some common plebian dirt and gradually change their attitude as you climb the ranks, eventually treating you like some sort of celebrity god. Being popular with the ladies is a nice change too.
The order in which you can challenge people to raise your rank is pretty linear and I used a guide a couple times to find the right person to fight. It's not like you can grind hardcore and jump several thousands ranks in one fell swoop. However, there are optional people you may miss that you don't have to fight to progress in the game.
I loved the character models, especially the top 7 ranked fighters. Everybody looked totally badass and I couldn't wait to climb up to their level. There's also a few nice FMV cut-scenes which I'm guessing Capcom had a hand in given the monster hunter-ish style.
If this trailer doesn't make you want to play... I guess we can never be friends.
The real highlight of the game is the battle system. As usual with Imageepoch, all the various mechanics unlock gradually but when it does, it's a really fun system of semi-realtime action with special moves and a stamina meter. It's very similar to Black Rock Shooter but less action and more RPG. You can even switch between different fighting styles such as using a gun or shield but I dunno, the first style was good enough to beat the game and the other styles seemed a bit weak to me. Might be something worth considering in another play-through one day.
The graphics are great, the mechanics are fun, and the music is good. The only thing that was a tad disappointing was the ending but hey, just don't expect a Xenogears or something. There's not much in terms of environments, you have the city, some woods to fight monsters and level up, and a smattering of other areas. Still, Last Ranker is definitely one of the funnest games I've played so far on the PSP and I would recommend it any day to anybody (with taste).
Unfortunately, for non-Jhipsters, you're gonna have to wait for an English patch that will come out... who knows? Or you know, you can join the ranks of the elite Jhipster army... just saying.
Music... pretty DARN good.
Score 3.5 Imageepoch, why did you leave me? WHYYYYYYYYYY!!! out of 5 (34 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
Well, I just platinumed Criminal Girls INVITATION so I guess it's a good a time as any to review this awful piece of trash. As usual, the Japanese show a total immunity to seeing ALL CAPS as anything but some cool blob of English text. Thank god us Westerners are too enlightened to ever use a language without first properly understanding it.
What is this weaboo garbage?
So where do I even begin? First, do I need to remind the world that video games are an art form and this kind of lowbrow junk undermines the very fabric of our racially diverse, gender agnostic, politically correct society??? We should not tolerate this kind of thing if we are to ascend to a higher level of society that is cognizant and understanding of all people and their differing viewpoints.
The main problem with this game is that it doesn't try to play on a popular social topic of the times with an overblown sense of self-importance such as the indie masterpiece of mind numbing boredom and teenybopper first world problems game: Gone Home. All it succeeds at is being an extremely fun game with an addictive and original gameplay mechanic.
And no, I'm not talking about the "motivation" mini-games (PUNISH in Japanese). Since I have ABSOLUTELY ZERO interest in this kind of stuff, it was nothing more than just very simple mini-games to me. A bit of strategizing does come into play in terms of which skills to spend your OP points on, for example ice skills in the fire dungeon but there's not much more than that.
The pink fog was NISA censorship. The Japanese version showed EVERYTHING including the MRI Scan preorder DLC
No, the real fun comes when you unlock all the battle mechanics which is actually pretty far into the game. On the surface, it seems dead simple as there are no weapons or armor and you can only pick from 4 suggestions. But the real trick comes in trying to coax the right moves, especially in the boss battles by swapping in the right characters at the right time
The battle system starts out extremely simple so the "pro" contract reviewer paid to play 5 hours to knock out a review isn't gonna think it's so great
For example, one strategy I used was a chain (Yuko+Sako) continuous heal skill so you can unleash a powerful attack that only gets suggested at full health combined with an Attack X boost. Another example is a character that has two complementary skills: one keeps you alive when an attack >50% health would kill you and the other is an attack that gets stronger the lower your HP. There's nothing more satisfying than pulling off a huge move of 10K+ damage with a tiny sliver of health and coming back from the brink of death. You can really tell the balancing was well-tested because the true final boss has an attack that hits you a bunch of times with tiny hits to block this move.
Yeah, you can grind your way to the end but it's much more satisfying to go up against a boss under-leveled. Now, there are various endings to unlock by repeatedly beating the last boss so I just grinded afterwards to make it easier for myself but the first time was pretty epic. In addition, there's tons more to do after the first ending to get the true and true true ending so don't miss it.
The OST was nothing too special but this song was good
The story is microcosmic and very down-to-earth. If you insist on saving the world AGAIN, then it may not be the kind for you. Personally, I find themes such as getting picked on at school far more relateable that hits closer to home. (Disclaimer: As swim team captain with raiju girlfriend in High school and not the type to play weaboo shit, I'm just imagining what it must be like to be picked on at school.)
Score: 4 yet another obligatory disclaimer of how I'm totally not interested in these types of games out of 5 (47 hours to get final ending)
I had a lot of fun with Criminal Girls. Imageepoch has a knack for making deceptively simple and yet addictive and satisfying games (Fate/Extra review pending). If I was a "professional" reviewer, I could talk this and that and whatever diarrhea crap but at the end of the day, I had enough fun with it that it is in my book a great game. In fact, I may even try out the original PSP version for kicks one day.
The OG PSP version didn't have Live 2D and featured rhythm games
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
You know when you have a really cool idea for a story, character, or setting but not enough to develop it into anything fleshed out? Well, Black Rocker Shooter is kinda like that but the original illustrator just rolled with it cause INTERNET. The rest, as they say is internet viral/social/whatever history.
Looks cool so let's just roll out a whole media franchise on it
I was first exposed to Black Rock Shooter as these viral things go pretty randomly. It was probably an AMV or MAD from a related youtube vid which led me to the OVA, which brings us here to the game.
The famous(?) supercell song
Given the grassroots nature of the whole BRS thing, there really is no canonical anything as it's media developed out of nothing more than a concept and the game is totally unrelated to any other BRS media works. It definitely took an interesting approach as the story begins with the human race almost entirely wiped out.
You thought other post-apocalyptic games were hardcore? This game starts out with literally only 12 humans left alive after 2 die right at the start of the game. My first thought at the beginning of the game was, you're the only girl (weapon thingy?) in the ENTIRE WORLD surrounded by 12 men? UH OH. Turns out my fears were unfounded as the story is not about any sort of fan service and is actually quite serious (the unlockable costumes on the other hand...).
The main story is fairly short and can be completed in about 12 hours or so and it's exactly the type of story that every mainstream gamer would hate. Without going into spoilers, let's just say it's not exactly Hollywood happy endings and was very artsy, indie film-ish. I personally loved it as it definitely breaks the mold.
Try dem graphics on the DS in 2011
The graphics are great as Imageepoch (RIP) is the master of the PSP platform and I was already biased towards the BRS character designs. The gameplay was fun as well, especially the boss battles. In classic Imageepoch fashion, it tries lots of new things and battles are a mix of balancing dodging, blocking, shooting (of course), and special moves along with stamina and recovery time. My only complaint is that the standard enemies are often recycled and VERY generic.
While the main story is fairly short, there's tons of things to unlock in the EX missions including the most powerful, best looking special attacks and some sexy costumes (this is a Japanese game after all). I tried to swipe my credit card on the PSP to buy the costume DLC but it wasn't working for some reason. Amazingly, it appears to be unlock by playing the game??? WEIRD!
The OST definitely has a few gems
Overall, I really enjoyed this game. The music was really good, I loved the character designs (WRS OMG), and the boss battles were a blast. It was also fun unlocking all the cool stuff post end-game. Yes, the regular battles could get a bit repetitive and some of the bike missions were a pain in the ass but I definitely think this is one of those underrated titles that mainstreamers are totally gonna write off.
Score: 3 when costumes could be unlocked without a credit card out of 5 (27 hours played)
+.5 optional bonus point for the EXTREMELY short skirt costume.
The PSN version is only available in English as Imageepoch published games were pulled from the Japanese PSN store. :-(
I LOVE YOU IMAGEEPOCH! PLZ COME BACK!!!!!
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
