What the hell is echoshift? I’ll soon find out.
Author: SeeInBytes
Owen is a writer based out of Denver and currently preparing his first novel PUSH PULL for publication. In the meantime, feel free to explore his meandering thoughts, movie and videogame op-eds and situational playlists. If you know him from another life, this is a chance for exposure to his creative endeavors. www.owensader.com
Crimson Shroud Review
Title: Crimson Shroud
Maker: Nexus
Publisher: Level-5
System: 3DS
Format: Nintendo eShop
Cost: $8
The best thing I ever read in middle school
Positives: The writing. Which means: the story, the characters, and the scope. It creates an entire world, but never has the need to leave the one area you explore in. It doesn’t try to do too much, but as a result everything it does, it does well. The battle and upgrade systems are simple but lend themselves well to tinkering. The character art design is solid, if not as strong as other Yasumi Matsuno games. And as a personal plus, the main character eschews the normal jrpg bullshit of being a whiny teenager, and is instead set in his late 20s.
Negatives: I rarely say this for the time sink-hole that is the rpg genre, but Crimson Shroud could be longer. The table-top piece setup doesn’t harm the game at all, but it only gets away with the complete lack of animation because the writing is so strong. In the end, you just want it to have a bit more of everything.
Verdict: There’s beauty in the simplicity, and it allowed Nexus and Level-5 to make a very good game. But it’s probably unrealistic to think it could be stretched into anything with enough substance to be great. Still, it’s so easy to like while it lasts.
Review: 4 stars (out of 5)
Memory: The use of the word “slurry”. It’s poured down someone’s throat at the beginning.
Yakuza 3 and the Art of Fishing
I once read that the first Yakuza was a Japanese version of GTA3. I never played the first, but if its’ anything like the third, than I wonder how much that writer was paid by Sega to say that. It’s about as far away, while still being in the same genre, that a game can be. You could even make the case it has more in common with Max Payne 3 than any grand theft auto.
I’ve developed a pattern with Yakuza 3. I play it when I don’t want my games adding any drama to my life. When I don’t have the mental space for long-term x-com ironman strategies, or meeting up with friends on Borderlands 2. Because despite what the name says, Yakuza 3 has about as much to do with fishing as it does gangster life.
I don’t know what engine it’s running on, but the game looks damn good, especially considering it’s almost 3 years old. * Just checked – it’s the Magical V-Engine from Cyberware Inc. It’s also used on Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2.
Why you should play Crimson Shroud…
Crimson Shroud is such a simple game that it makes you want to make a game. There is no animation (besides your table-top like pieces falling over), but the story/dialogue adds more life to the characters than other games with an abundance of animation (even a solid game like Fire Emblem Awakening leaves you feeling cold in comparison). This is also the reason why it’s deceiving, even if you were to emulate the mechanics exactly, you would be no closer to making a good game.
It’s no surprise; Yasumi Matsuno has created perhaps some of the best written games ever. Tactics Ogre has a darkness and intensity that buries it in a depth few other games I’ve ever played can begin to compete with (Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne perhaps). While Vagrant Story is an aesthetic marvel on all levels. Crimson Shroud isn’t as stellar in any of these ways, but it’s staying with me in the best kind of way.
Singularity Review
Title: Singularity
Maker: Raven Soft
Publisher: Activision
System: PS3
Cost: $9 Used – Gamestop
So close, but so far…
Positives: The game for the most part feels good. There aren’t a lot of guns, but what they do have feels a hell of a lot better than anything in a game like Killzone. And on top of that you get some superhero powers that aren’t really necessary, but add to the overall appeal. It also does small thing right, like automatically putting you into a crouch when you walk into a vent. Crouching in general is handled well in the game (I actually never realized how much I hate most crouching mechanisms until playing Singularity).
Negatives: This is the small stuff, but it’s on the big stuff that Singularity gets absurd. First, it can’t make up it’s mind if it’s scary or camp. The first area has some legitimate ambiance and unease to it, but this is completely unsettled by the character models and the gung-ho gameplay that eventually replaces it. In this change, the resource management that exists at the beginning is also thrown out (naturally, as run and gun gameplay doesn’t lend itself well to ammo conservation).
There are multiple endings to Singularity, and together they sum up all the problems of the game. They run the gambit from darkly logical and intriguing to stupid and hole-ridden (oh, the main one is so bad). It’s a two that I want to be a three, but it’s still a two.
Review: 2 stars (out of 5)
Memory: The Soviets speak to each other in English (with obligatory horrible Russian accents).
Dear Esteban- “Punching an existential hole”
I just finished Dear Esteban. Which means I walked to the end of the level. Having never played Dear Esther, I’m guessing I missed the point (a little). Most of the lines are random for the sake of being random, which in the best and worst case sounds like a space ghost episode. But the lines related to 21st century 20-something life, are endearing, and make it worth it. Anyone who has ever tried to make small talk with the girl behind the bar will relate to these rants. It’s something we all learn the hard way with bartenders- don’t bother.
http://bmo.fuckthisjam.com/submissions/89-dear-esteban
Tokyo Jungle – A takeaway
Love it or hate it, Tokyo Jungle has a lot of what modern counsels need to do. It’s execution as a game is lacking, but the elements are there. It’s short, downloadable, fulfilling, and it’s cheap. That’s basically what people want. Content is only valuable if it’s enjoyable. I can’t imagine anyone really enjoys collecting all the cars in LA Noire or doing all the side-quests in Red Dead Redemption. But you will if you want that trophy.
Here you’ll play until you feel you’re done. When you’ve seen everything you need, you can walk away without feeling bad about it. It mixes brevity with an open ended world, and people will extend that to whatever amount is right for them.
Two Very Different Games
I’ve been playing a decent amount of Borderlands 2, which has in most ways been incredibly enjoyable. But this enjoyment really only comes in the multiplayer, and with my friends indisposed I’ve taken a break to play LA Noire. As a gap it’s an interesting experience. I can’t say I love the way it “feels”, but it’s a good game to play after you’ve been rampaging around a foreign world for a bit too long. It’s calm and calculating, the sort of thing you want to play after you’ve had a crushing day, allowing you to avoid further stimulation. It’s not a weekend game; it’s a night game, best played in bits.
Puzzle Quest 2 Review
Title: Puzzle Quest 2
Maker: Infinitive Interactive
Publisher: D3 Publisher of America
System: DS
Cost: $15
Will make you question your choices in life.
First thing, if you’re going to play this game, do two things: turn the difficulty up to hard, and turn off the hint cursor. The game will still be a breeze, but that’s the only chance you have to lose a round.
Positives: Auto-save is slow but thorough. Occasionally, and I use that term very loosely, they will get the language right and put something funny together. But I can only think of one exact moment where it was completely successful (see Memory below). The first half-hour, as your clear out the town and get used to the mechanics, is entertaining without feeling bad.
Negatives: You’ll notice the art-style is incredibly bland. So was the first’s, but maybe playing it on the PSP left it with a little more sheen. I chose the Assassin as a character because even though he looks stupid, I didn’t have to look at his face. You would think these classes would determine a lot of your abilities, but neither class nor level seems to have any discernible effect on your ability to pick a lock vs. break it, for example. In reality the game is just one long fetch quest stretched into a story. It’s as fun as a typical fetch quest. Meaning the game isn’t long, but it sure as hell feels long.
All this could be forgiven if the puzzle mechanics we’re captivating. But the mechanics are the real failure. Because of your characters spells, and the poor A.I., you’ll basically be doing the same thing every time. Which is trying to get enough mana to combo out the opponent (and if they’re still alive, use your weapon to finish them off). I could see how playing against another human could provide legitimate counter-strategy and unpredictability, but this potential doesn’t excuse the hours of mindless repetition that makes up the game.
End Result: As I played Puzzle Quest 2 I was consciously aware of the time I was wasting on it. This is fine when you’re on an airplane and need to waste two hours (but even then I thought- I should be reading a book…), but when you’re at home you become acutely aware of what this is doing to your life. It’s like you can feel your body degrading as you play it.
One night, as I sat on the couch playing Puzzle Quest 2, I started to question if all games were just a waste of my time (probably, but they shouldn’t be reminding me), this of course lead to the question of what I should actually be doing with my life. By the end I was fidgeting so badly and feeling so guilty, that I went to bed with a terrible taste in my mouth, slept horribly, and was still angry the next day. I kept trying to play it, hoping something would redeem the hours I had already sunk into it, but like gambling, it just keeps taking from you until you have the guts to write it off.
Review: 1 Star (Out of 5)
Memory: A zombie trying out for the city guard eats another guard recruit. As a result the captain of the guard promotes him.
At least it was a quick read.
It turns out JPod is about as pointless and unbelievable as could be conceived, and maybe that’s the underlying statement. The characters lose themselves in fantasy, while their lives are beyond fantasy. The irony of wanting to replace yourself with something that is less bizarre. But that’s a lot of pages to get a simple ironic message across. The only real sad thing is that nothing comes close to the promise of the first two pages.
One thing that did amuse me was impossible to plan, and can only come from reading something years after it was written. They mention constantly the golden age of the 90’s, and they’re right, it was a golden age for tech. But the videogame industry of 2006 compared with 2012 must seem like a forgotten golden age itself. Most videogame companies haven’t even come close to their new worth in 2006 (check out Ubi-Soft’s or Nintendo’s stock history). It’s easy to do nothing on the job when times are good, you’re rising with the tide, and it provides the temporary environment for the characters unrelatable nihilistic attitudes.
Do authors intentionally make their characters unrelateable? It’s a hard thing to pull off, and something people like to try since Seinfeld. But that was a stroke of genius, or a fluke. I can’t understand why would anyone would want to. How does that motivate you?
In the end the book left me hating the concept of a videogame culture. Not games themselves, just the culture, or at least the one that’s portrayed in the book. It turns out there’s good reason to avoid mixing passions for literature and games.
He’s also ruined the name Kaitlin for me. I never minded it before, but now seeing it in writing makes cringe.