22 years later, we finally get a direct sequel A Link to the past

Many hardcore Zelda enthusiasts will maintain that the 2D top down Zeldas, specifically the original A Link to the Past, are the best Zelda games. Personally, I'd have to say that A Link to the Past is my 2nd favourite but is just narrowly edged out by Ocarina of Time which is damn near as close to a perfect game that I think I've ever played.

So imagine my excitement when I heard that Nintendo were planning on making a direct sequel to my 2nd favourite Zelda game and still probably one of the best games ever made! I did initially think it was a little odd to put it on the 3DS limiting it to both a small screen and only people owning that handheld. But I knew that the 3D capability is excellent when put to good use so I still had high hopes for this game.

And I'm quite happy to say that those hopes were well placed because this is a fantastic Zelda game harking back to the days of old when you were just left to your own devices and to find your own way through things rather than constant tutorials and interruptions from "helpful" assistants. Being a Zelda veteran almost since day 1 (first one I got was Link's Adventure not long after it came out) I do not need tutorials and prefer to be left to my own devices and to seek out help if and when I need it. Thankfully, this game caters to that very well in 2 different ways.

First of all, just like the original Zelda games, you do not get your hand held the whole way and the tutorial is a dungeon that you can get to in probably under a minute. Second of all, the items work a lot different than before. Apart from a couple of key items you get from dungeons, you rent or buy the vast majority of the items for the game. So with a bit of money farming at the start, you can have a good 90% of the items from the get go. This also changes up the dungeon sequence obviously, so instead of being pointed to one dungeon and then the next, you are just told "Here are a bunch of places bad shit is happening. Do with them what you will.". Which I thought was a very nice change of pace. The one drawback of the rental system is that if you fall in battle you lose the items and must rent them again. This can be fixed later in the game when you are given them option to outright buy them instead (for quite large amounts) and then you are also given the ability to upgrade them. I was not searching especially hard for money, but I was still able to rent out all the items right away and then buy them all quite early on.

The other well touted change is Link's new ability to merge with the wall and move along it. I thought it would take me a while to get used to using this mechanic but it didn't. You very quickly get used to thinking with this mechanic in mind and it is well used all the way right up to the end of the game for both normal puzzles, battles and finding secrets.

The game plays almost exactly like A Link to the Past we all know and love, except now looks much much prettier and is rendered in very effective 3D giving areas and and enemies and multi level locations great depth and feel.

I would only have two negative things to say about this game. And one of them is not really even entirely a bad thing.

1: Being a direct sequel to A Link to the Past it is set in the same version of Hyrule as that one. And because it takes places not a huge amount of time afterwards, the world is practically identical. Both the light world and the dark world (now referred to as Lorule for some reason) are 95% identical for what I could see. And while this provides a lot of great nostalgia, it means that you will not be seeing a huge amount of new material or locations. The only things that are majorly different are the interiors of the dungeons. But even these have a lot of the same exterior locations, names and sometimes bosses. The same goes for the music and I can scarcely remember hearing a new tune throughout the entirety of the game but I'm sure there must be a few. Overall it feels like there was an awful lot of copy-paste done to put this game together.

2: This game is very easy. Like really easy. I'm not sure if this was a side-effect of the open ended structure causing the difficulty levels of the dungeons to needing some evening out so none of them are ever impossible but I blew through this game hardly ever getting stuck on a puzzle and the only thing that even came close to knocking me down was the end boss. Some may say this is not entirely a bad thing either as it allows you to focus on having fun rather than dying all the time but it was a little bit of a disappointment to me as I remember getting stuck in the Link to the Past dungeons a lot.

But those are tiny little niggles and definitely do not do very much to detract from the sheer enjoyment to be had from playing this game. It brings you back to your childhood and the amazing Zelda games of old all in glorious 3D. And right in the palm of your hand!

A little known portable 4th wall breaking game from the mind of Suda51

This one has been on the backlog for a fair amount of time. It was put on for the sole reason that it was made by the much insane Suda51 of who I am a big fan of. I knew very little about it going in apart from that it had many 4th wall breaking moments. Because of this, I was considering cutting it from the backlog. Now having played it, I think I could have done that quite safely without missing much.

Mechanically, it's a fairly normal action RPG in the vein of Secret of Mana or Vagrant Story etc where there is no separation between the overworld you move around on and the battles. You just move close to enemies and engage battle mode and your character attacks automatically when it is his turn. There are still hard numbers and levels and values so it's not as simple of a battle mode as the likes of a Zelda game and you can easily be out-classed and quickly pummeled if you try to fight an enemies too many levels ahead of you. There are also magic techniques which are referred to as Techs in this game. One unique feature to it is the addition of decals. Which are one of the aforementioned 4th wall breaking elements. You collect decals which can then be stuck onto the screen over the real world for a variety of effects such as attacking enemies or warping back to base and such.

The story is one of 3 main characters. A professor guy who seems to be an alien of some kind. His ship has been shot down and crashed on earth. The power cells are missing and it's your job to get them back. A small child who the professor ropes into doing this helping (the character you control). And you. The person controlling this small child. Yes, you are often spoken to directly by the professor as he is aware of your presence and will talk to you as if behind the main characters back. It's a little strange at times but seems to work pretty well. In the process of hunting down these power cells you come across another group who wants them for less pleasant reasons and conspiracies appear and so it all unfolds.

Overall, this was a fairly enjoyable little action RPG, but I don't think I would have missed out on a lot had I removed it from my list. It's 4th wall breaking antics added little to it and it lacked the usual signature brand of madness that Suda51 normally adds to games that give them such appeal to me. A dissapointingly average affair overall sadly.

Returning to the dark and difficult world of The Walking Dead

Long term readers of this blog may recall that I was a little unsure about The Walking Dead after playing the first episode and was unsure if I should carry on playing the rest of the series. It's a good thing I did....

After some quite common technical difficulties getting my saves from Episode 1 working again (although I don't think my 400 days decisions were recovered) I was ready to dive into season 2 but I made sure to brace myself before I did because I heard it was quite a rough start.

The game play itself follows the same kind of point and click pattern as the first season in that you go through a fairly linear path making dialogue choices along the way. You also get into encounters with "walkers" and sometimes other people. These usually play out as quick time events. But the appeal of the game lies in the great writing and dialogue in the characters and how even the smallest of choice that you make can have unforeseen consequences further down the road. You control Clementine, your young sidekick from the first season, although now she is a little older, a little wiser, a little stronger and much more capable at dealing with threats than she was before. Which is good because you will come across many of these.

It's difficult to say much in a review of this because the best part of it really is the story and the way the events unfold, but saying too much will just result in spoilers. All I can feel comfortable saying is that in the games introduction, you are still wandering with some of the characters from season one, but very quickly things go to shit and you found yourself split up from them and falling in with a new group trying to find your old one again. But needless to say, a lot happens in and around those events. And most of it is unpleasant. One over-arching theme of The Walking Dead is that most of the choices you are forced to make have no real right or wrong. They're all wrong. Just to varying degrees. So you really are trying to make the best of bad situations for the majority of the game and not trying to get anyone else killed.

This first episode is a good bit shorter than I expected taking me little over 90 minutes to finish and ended quite abruptly so I'm hoping they can keep a quick and consistent release schedule for the following episodes. I am also very excited to see how my choices come to play in the long run. Bring on Episode 2!

An action based Final Fantasy game in all but name from the original Fantasy Fantasy creators

Fans of the Final Fantasy series may have noticed the games declining in quality over the years. I have yet to play any of the newer ones beyond Final Fantasy X (what I regard to be the last true Final Fantasy) but everyone other that games reviewers, who we know cannot be trusted, have said almost nothing but bad things about the newer Final Fantasy games. Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV are simply an MMORPGs with Final Fantasy branding slapped onto them. I started Final Fantasy XII when it first came out but played it one time for 3 hours and had no desire to return to it because it was so boring. I will have to someday though.... And from what I've heard of Final Fantasy XIII, it's simply a 30 hour tutorial where you walk from A to B through linear corridors.

Most of this downfall in quality in the newer games is due to the vast majority of the teams that made the older Final Fantasy games leaving the studio and the new ones are now being made by entirely new people and just can't put out the same quality games the original team did. But thankfully, most of this old team are still making games and still together in the form of Mistwalker Games. And some of the games that they put out, mostly this one and the incredible Lost Odyssey) can genuinely be considered to be the true new Final Fantasy games in all but name because they have a lot more in common with the legacy than the new pretenders to the throne do.

All that being said, I can indeed confirm that this feels like a true Final Fantasy game through and through. The battle system is quite different to the usual fixed standing battles and instead adopts a free roaming system where you move close to an enemy to hit them. You can also command other characters to attack or use magic and distract enemies or enhance ally spells once they have been cast. Despite seeming simple at first, there is a lot to the battle system that I gradually realised as I went through it hacking things to bits.

It adopts a system similar to Final Fantasy IV in that new spells and skills are unlocked just by levelling up so you do not have to hunt down new spells or equipment to get them. There is also the usual armour and weapon systems like Final Fantasy games but in this one, like a few others, you can upgrade both weapons and armour with the use of cash and/or specialist items breathing new life into old equipment. I did a fairly straight run through the game only doing a few optional side quests, but even doing this, I was almost always flush with cash and good equipment so this aspect of it seemed fairly easy except for the difficulty ramp at the end of the game.

One minor deviation from Final Fantasies of old that this game takes is that you are not trying to save the entire world. Just your own island, Lazarus Island, from a reptilian species called the Gurak that you are war with. You play a character who is in a band of mercenaries with his friends who has ambitions to become a knight of the empire. You start off doing small times jobs, but as usual, you get embedded in larger and larger jobs with more widespread effects and end up battling for the fate of the island itself.

The characters in your gang are all very notable and different and well fleshed out through both the main story and some side missions. All but one character who just seems to be there to tick a box and is quite irrelevant in the big picture.... The NPC characters are also very well fleshed out and you do feel strongly about helping/stopping them all. Basically what I'm trying to say here is that the characters and story are very expertly done and do a great job of drawing you in to the world.

This is also one of the most visually impressive Wii games that I have ever seen and it seems Mistwalker did a great job of squeezing every last ounce of performance out of the machine's limited spec to make every character and location look as detailed and wonderful as they could. It even feels like they push it too far a couple of times because there is hints of slowdown in very busy areas and battles where it is asking just a little too much and the Wii struggles to keep up.

I was a little hesitant to play this before hand because I had heard mixed reviews on it from many sources. I had considered striking it from the backlog due to lack of interest but now that I have been through it, I am very glad I did not because it was a truly wonderful JRPG that continues the legacy of the classic Final Fantasy games in the best way possible. Once again, it seems more and more that reviews can not be trusted.

Even the name "The Last Story" is quite similar to "Final Fantasy" when you think about it....

Sidenote: barring any games that I add after the backlog is finished or anything done in co-op, this is the last game on the list for the Nintendo Wii. The backlog is finally coming to a close....

Shotgunning two Gran Turismos in a row = car orgasam

Almost immediately after finishing Gran Turismo 5, I dove straight into Gran Turismo 6 to keep the racing simulation momentum going. Lots of racing being done lately….
This release was oddly quiet and snuck up on a lot of people which would explain it’s poor sales compared to it’s predecessor. Many would have expected this game to go to PlayStation 4 rather than PlayStation 3 because of it’s release so close to the arrival of the next-gen consoles. But the developers of the series maintained that so far, they have done 2 main Gran Turismo games on each console and so wanted to stick to that formula. Meaning that sometime in the next 3-5 years we should get Gran Turismo 7 on PlayStation 4.
Because I played this and Gran Turismo 5 so close together, there felt like there was a great deal of overlap and similarity. And there was. But there were also some large noticeable differences. Some good and some bad.

The enormous load times from the game before it seemed to be even worse than before. While the menus had been improved and sped up greatly, the loading of the actual races seemed to suffer and sometimes it could take upwards of two minutes to load a race. Thankfully though, the stupid level system of the previous game had gone and you had more freedom in picking your way through events. But still not as much as you did in previous games because events were still divided up into license classes and you had to get to and complete the final event in each class before moving on to the next.

One other negative thing that was very noticeable was the very low number of prize cars given compared to previous games. With this game, I again decided just to hit the end credits and call it a win as I did with Gran Turismo 5. But in doing that in the previous game, inhad at least a dozen cars in my garage. Only a couple of them having been bought and most being awarded. This time I had 3 cars in my garage. 2 of which I had bought myself. As a result of this, I had to stretch the first good car I won (a Renault Clio this time) even further. Pitting it against proper performance cars and scraping wins by the skin of my teeth. And instead of winning a car capable of winning the last few events, I had to save up and buy a monstrous racing Nissan Skyline. This felt a bit disconcerting because it's Gran Turismo tradition to win most of the cars you need and usually only to have to buy cars for specific model events. After finishing it and consulting some prize car lists it seems that most of the prize cars came from getting all golds or all available points in a division. Quite a departure from the procedures of the previous games again resulting in reduced freedom to move through the career. I think more prize cars will be given out over time for free in the Gran Turismo showcase and Vision Gran Turismo events, but I was playing this too soon to avail of those sadly.

Left: The Renault Clio Sport that got way too big for it's britches taking me through the majority of the career

Right: The Nissan GT-R touring car that took me to the finale

There are a number of very interesting side missions to do while you make your way through the career like visiting the Goodwood Festival of Speed, doing driving missions where you have to knock down cones, one make races and even lunar missions where you get to drive the actual lunar rover around the same routes the Apollo 11 team took. Those missions are an interesting novelty, but not terribly exciting seeing as the rover tops out at 15 Mph and topples over if you hit a pebble the wrong way.

But these are all minor quibbles and few things can take away from the pure joy that is Gran Turismo driving. Making your way through the career and gawping at cars that you want on the way and then eventually unlocking or buying them and loving every minute of it. Like Gran Turismo 5, this is another game I will return to at a later date to play more of because I very very much enjoyed what I did to get to the finale.

I just wish they had given me some more prize cars along the way....

A long delayed but much enjoyed return to the legendary Gran Turismo series

I have been a very long running fan of the Gran Turismo series.  I can quite clearly remember getting the first one upon release on PSX back in 1998.  Which recent advertising for Gran Turismo’s 15^th anniversary has reminded me that it was released 15 years ago and made me feel quite old.  I have got and played every instalment since then including most of the weird single make demos and Prologues and such.  But for some reason, I didn’t get into this one very much when I first got it.  Most likely because I was swamped under by many other games at the time and I knew it would be a huge undertaking.

But with the impending release of Gran Turismo 6, I decided that it was finally time to get this one done.  But decided to just “Beat” it for now (i.e. get to the credits roll) rather than 100% it which I had done with all the previous entries in the series.  This would at least allow me to go into Gran Turismo 6 having experienced the majority of 5 beforehand.

The most obvious upgrade in this newest instalment in the series is the enhanced visuals thanks to the power of the PlayStation 3.  But due to there still being some technical limitations, some cars do look nicer than others.  Certain important or expensive cars are classed as “Premium” and will be rendered in exquisite detail with full lighting and shadowing and such.  Whereas all the other cars will simply be rendered normally and while these still look better than PlayStation 2 cars, there is a very noticeable divide in their visual representations.  There is now also car damage both visual and mechanical which was forbidden by Honda for a long time but they have finally allowed now.  As well as a lot of manufacturers not previously available such as Ferrari and Lamborghini. 

One new addition that I did not approve of is enormous loading times.  Everywhere.  Both in menus and getting ready to race, you seem to spend more time watching loading screens than you do playing.  Despite it installing the game to the hard disk gradually as you go to reduce loading times, they never really seemed to get any better.  One other new addition I did not like is the introduction of an RPG-like level system.  You gain experience by doing events and level up, but the levels are only really there to provide entry barriers to later events stopping you from moving through the career at a pace faster than the developers wanted you to. 

A-Spec and B-Spec are now also separate careers altogether.  Rather than having one set of races that you can complete in A-Spec mode, B-Spec mode or both, now there are 2 entirely separate careers with separate sets of races and separate drivers with separate levels meaning you have to do a lot of things twice over.  I did not particularly care for this change either and preferred the old system of being able to choose which mode I wanted.

The racing itself is the usual excellent simulation handling that we have all come to expect from Gran Turismo.  There were many tweaks put into the engine this time around to make it even more realistic and you can notice them over time and trying out a number of cars.

This is the first game in the series to have an online mode, but I did not touch that for obvious reasons.

Most of my time was spent racing through various events (when I had reached high enough levels), winning cars, doing license tests (when I had reached high enough levels).  I did the usual Gran Turismo thing of using one of the better cars that I won earlier on (A Toyota Scion FR-s) and continuously tuning it up to its limit so that it was in races against cars that far outclassed it but still won.  I did this for as long as possible, then did some single make races and was lucky enough to win a Mazda Concept Le Mans car that I could use in the World Championship.

Left: The Toyoya FR-S that took me most of the way to victory. 

Right: The Mazda Furai Concept that won me the world championship.

As mentioned before, I only went as far in this game as to hit the end credits and consider it a win, but I did have a lot of fun with it and it is another game that I want to return to after the backlog is defeated and do more of because it brought back a lot of good racing memories.  That were only slightly hampered by some annoying new features.

On to Gran Turismo 6!