REVIEW / Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth – Hacker’s Memory

 

With a year like 2017, which was filled with heavy hitting new game releases like Nier: Automata, Breath of the Wild, Yakuza 0, Night In The Woods and many more totally engrossing game worlds and experiences, it’s nice to have a “palette cleanser.” Sometimes I need a game that doesn’t demand my time, but rather casually suggests to hang out. For myself, Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth – Hacker’s Memory perfectly fits this craving. It’s not going to wow you with crazy new gameplay mechanics, the visual fidelity feels right at home on a PS3, and the story is a wacky, convoluted mess of futuristic technobabble – yet all these flaws that should sink this game into obscurity seem to only add to its charm.

 

 

Hacker’s Memory takes place at the same time and place as the first Cyber Sleuth game. Players will explore the near-future metropolis of Shibuya, Japan, as well as Cyberspace EDEN; an incredibly advanced form of the Internet where users are represented by avatars in an ever-expanding digital realm (think Sword Art Online, Ready Player One, and so on).

The story focuses on Keisuke Amazawa, a former high school student who’s EDEN account has been stolen by an unknown hacker, who then uses his account to commit a crime using his name. Keisuke’s goal is to find this hacker, take back his original account and clear his name. To do that, he becomes a hacker himself, joining a small hacking “gang” called Hudie who will help him follow the breadcrumbs to this rouge account stealer.

 

Your character will spend a majority of their time sitting on their ass in front of a computer. Just like real life.

 

The Cyber Sleuth world requires a healthy suspension of disbelief, but it at least provides an interesting backdrop for the real meat of the story, which is Keisuke’s interactions with the full cast of characters. It was a blast getting to know more about Ryuji, Chitose, and Erika on your Hudie squad, as well as the other friends and enemies I encountered. The ridiculous setup is also saved by the witty and hilarious dialogue. Hacker’s Memory knows when to lean into the wackiness of its world, and when to pluck at the heartstrings during serious moments, like a guilty pleasure anime or sci-fi TV series.

While trying to track this rogue hacker, the player will collect tons of Digimon, which in this world act like advanced, sentient computer programs. Just like in the first game, you find and collect Digimon by running around dungeons and fighting in random turn-based encounters. Diversity matters here–there are four Types (Data, Vaccine, Virus, and Free) and nine elemental Attributes which do more or less damage with skills and attacks against another type, depending on the matchup.

 

This is Fei. She has Princess Leia hair buns and likes to attack people with her signature Digimon, Bumblebee Man.

 

The combat system will feel very familiar to Pokemon fans in that regard, but that’s where the two games similarities stop. As a longtime Pokemon fan, I actually enjoy the Cyber Sleuth system more. It encourages team coordination and tactics because your Digimon can sync up special abilities and attacks for ridiculous damage.

There is a bit of a grind if you are dead set on getting some of the rarest or highest level Digimon, but thanks to the addition of Hacker Skills, which are special abilities Keisuke can use in EDEN depending on your party composition, it was way less tedious than in other JRPGs. With the Skills, you can force encounters, run faster in the dungeons, warp to checkpoints for a quick breather, or even stop random encounters entirely.

 

 

The best addition to the game’s combat is the new Domination battles, where you’ll fight alongside friendly characters against up to three enemies on a laser grid, like a futuristic chess match. Each round, you’ll move characters along the grid, attempting to capture the spaces with the highest point totals while defending against assaults from enemies encroaching on your turf. These battles can get really brutal late in the game, but nothing feels better than barely holding off a wave of vicious attacks from enemy teams while your pals sneak around and capture points behind enemy lines.

As much as I enjoyed my time with Hacker’s Memory, this game is definitely not for everyone. This game shows off its anime roots very proudly, which will be a huge turn-off for some. I was also disappointed to find that many of the same blocky, linear environments I explored in the first game were used again in Hacker’s Memory with literally no changes, aside from a color swap on occasion. It introduces just enough changes and quality-of-life improvements to the Cyber Sleuth series to call itself a successful sequel, but not enough to stand out against more popular modern JRPGs. Hopefully developer Media Vision will take some bigger risks should they get another chance to expand the Cyber Sleuth world.

 

The post REVIEW / Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth – Hacker’s Memory appeared first on That VideoGame Blog.

from That VideoGame Blog http://ift.tt/2FbPMHf

80s-themed adventure Crossing Souls now available on PS4 and PC

 

Ready your walkmans and unsupervised children, because Devolver Digital and Fourattic’s beloved little 80s-themed darling, Crossing Souls, is now available on PS4 and PC.

Crossing Souls is set in a Californian suburb in the midst of a supernatural event where grand forces have sieged the town. The meticulously-crafted pixel art homage to 80s adventures allows you to control five characters: Chris, Matt, Charlie, Big Joe, and Kevin. Each kid has their own skills and combat styles and you can swap between said kids at will to overcome any obstacle and target enemy weaknesses. Fights play out in real-time where you face off against standard enemies as well as powerful bosses. The gang will also solve clever puzzles and play special levels inspired by 80s arcade videogames.

Crossing Souls is available now on Playstation 4 and PC for 20% off, so get in while the sale is on. If you move slowly, the game is only a respectable $14.99, so either way there’s no excuse not to pick it up.

The post 80s-themed adventure Crossing Souls now available on PS4 and PC appeared first on That VideoGame Blog.

from That VideoGame Blog http://ift.tt/2EsKWEk

Dying Light drops Valentine’s Day event, new Content Pack

 

As a rule, unless you’re some sort of sicko, zombies probably don’t make you feel particularly amorous. Techland is trying to change that with their community event “Undying Love.” From now until February 18th, Dying Light players have the chance to help the community complete 1,000,000 total quests in co-op. Once this goal has been reached, players will receive a sweet crossbow and buggy skin to show off just how lovey-dovey you can be in the middle of a zombie apocalypse.

Zombies enjoying a drive-in movie together. Now I’ve seen everything.

This is a Valentine’s event after all, and so players will also be receiving the third of ten total free DLC coming before the end of summer. This Content Drop #3 includes three new characters, all of whom are ruggedly handsome survival-types armed to the teeth and ready to kick ass.

I don’t know any 42 year olds who look quite that good

Does this mean that the graphic and brutal nature of the game will be turned down because of this event? OF COURSE NOT! What better way to show your co-op partners that you love them than by slaughtering zombies together? This is a time to make the most out of Techland’s lovely little zombie massacre simulator, since lord knows none of us would ever make it as far as these guys did.

If this all sounds a little too good to be true, check out the video Techland released on the subject. It’s appropriately goofy, but still keeps that Dying Light sense of utter devastation and doom.

 

The post Dying Light drops Valentine’s Day event, new Content Pack appeared first on That VideoGame Blog.

from That VideoGame Blog http://ift.tt/2o87CT5

PREVIEW / Ash of Gods (PC)

 

High fantasy is a tricky genre to navigate and can be full of narrative pitfalls. Often times entries in the genre tread too close to cliche, or delve too deep into their own lore all at once and lose the audience. It takes a strong storyteller to reach into the genre and pull out something genuinely special. Recently, I was able to get my hands on a 60 minute preview build of the upcoming Ash of Gods from the small dev team at Aurum Dust and I walked away feeling a deep craving for more.

 

 

Right off the bat, the striking art direction of Ash of Gods impresses. The bold, colorful palette makes the character art leap off the screen and the animation is surprisingly fluid. Ash of Gods’ art felt like a living cartoon, similar in the vein of Dragon’s Lair and more recently Banner Saga; high quality, hand drawn Disney-esque aesthetic abounds. However, don’t let the Disney comparison lead you to draw conclusions that this is a bright and cheery game. The very first cinematic features tons of graphic sword battling on an epic scale that was really a sight to behold.

 

 

After the beautifully rendered battle, Ash of Gods shows off a taste of its gameplay in the tutorial. Aurum Dust describes the game as “a turn-based RPG featuring a rogue-like storytelling and CCG elements.” Obviously, this is a lot to take in at once, but the game does a good job of showing off its basic gameplay mechanics quickly and letting the player explore their options.

 

 

A standard battle in Ash of Gods takes place on a tile grid similar to tactical RPGs such as Final Fantasy Tactics. On the grid you move your selected character and position them for whatever attack or buff will benefit them the most. You have two bars to watch for on every character, Health and Energy. If a character runs out of energy they are susceptible to 2x attacks so you have to watch out when you sprint across the play area and unleash power attacks. You can choose to attack an enemies health or energy directly, whichever puts you at the advantage depending on the enemy.

 

 

In the preview I got to use a few different character classes such as warrior, fighter, archer, assassin, etc. each with a different array of attacks. I was able to put my warriors up front and buff their defense while an archer sat in the back row and pegged enemies with arrows and an assassin was sent around the side of the play area. According to Aurum Dust, the full release of Ash of Gods will include over 50 character classes that have different relationships to each other in battle, for better or worse.

 

 

The card game elements come into play in Ash of Gods during the battles. When you choose your load out you can choose a hand of 5 cards to play at any moment during your turn. In the preview build I only got to use 2 different cards, an elemental attack and a buff. Functionally they work similar to spells, but they aren’t tied to any specific character and can be played during any of your characters turns. It was an interesting addition to the experience, but I personally thought that claiming it as a CCG element may have been a bit of an overstep. However, this could be expanded upon greatly in the final build.

 

 

Ash of Gods is a very narrative heavy game, as one would expect from a high fantasy RPG. While the orchestral score is very beautifully done and fits the theme of the game, I feel that a solid amount of voice acting would lend a lot of credence to the vast amount of story that is told. The game’s big bad comes in the form of evil deities known as reapers that are seeking to cleanse the land that reappear after years and years of people thinking they had been eradicated. You control a ragtag group as they fight against seemingly insurmountable odds. Not to generalize too much, but it’s a similar setup to Game of Thrones and the Whitewalkers, but there is definitely enough in the lore to separate the worlds.

 

 

Speaking of Game of Thrones, Ash of Gods features rogue-like storytelling which means that any character can die at any time. Nobody is protected by a layer of plot armor. I found this out first hand in the last battle I had in the preview, when the character that I just spent so much time learning about was killed due to my poor tactical decisions and was gone forever.

 

 

Unfortunately, due to the short nature of the preview, I wasn’t able to get a good sense of how this perma-death mechanic would ultimately play into the overall narrative, but I am for sure interested. It’s a definite risk in killing off a main character, even more so when you could theoretically kill off every perceived main character and keep the story going. Ultimately, my main takeaway from the preview of Ash of Gods is that I need to play more Ash of Gods. As all of these elements tie together in interesting ways, I am infinitely curious to see the finished tapestry.

 

 

 

This preview is based on an early access copy provided by the publisher.

The post PREVIEW / Ash of Gods (PC) appeared first on That VideoGame Blog.

from That VideoGame Blog http://ift.tt/2EC00Tg

REVIEW / Dragon Sinker (Vita)

 

Hearing that Dragon Sinker by the publisher KEMCO was going to be ported to the PS4 and Vita excited me. Originally, the two-year old game was released for mobile devices, and early last year, a port for the 3DS came out. KEMCO has a track record of releasing some decent RPGs, and I saw that Dragon Sinker has a great overall rating within iOS and Android.

 

 

KEMCO has a track record of publishing games that look like they were made using RPG Maker, and Dragon Sinker is no exception. However, what’s different with Dragon Sinker is obvious: it’s borrows major elements of the beloved Dragon Quest series from the looks, the feel, and straight to the title. The gameplay is its saving grace, but it still is a little bit of a carbon copy of the job system of Final Fantasy games.

The story of Dragon Sinker is your typical save the world from an evil entity. As you can guess, this entity is a ferocious scarlet dragon seeking to destroy all living creatures–humans, elves, and dwarves alike. After the Abram, the human prince, and his two buddies, fail to dispatch the scaly beast, the prince learns that the keys to defeating it are three legendary weapons long forgotten. You then take control of the prince as he searches all over the world to retrieve the sword, staff, and axe of lore. During the prince’s journey, he will befriend two key characters, a feisty elf sorceress and a burly dwarf smith, that will accompany him in his quest.

 

 

Gameplay-wise, the three key characters of Dragon Sinker lead up parties that you can customize with three followers. The followers make up the bread and butter of the game’s job system. Each main character automatically comes with one follower (who also provide some dialogue to the story) with the typical archetype of an RPG: a priest, a mage, and a warrior. You can complete side quests in order to obtain up to 16 followers and jobs. Once a follower joins, you automatically unlock that job for the whole team and any follower can change jobs for a small fee. It is also important to note here that your three protagonists are locked in their jobs and cannot be given a different one.

Reminiscent of typical job system in the early iterations of the Final Fantasy series, each follower in Dragon Sinker has job levels for each of the 16 jobs, and completing a battle earns job points towards leveling the job currently assigned. New skills are gained after leveling up a job, and there are 10 levels per job. While some skills have no cost, some require magic points (MP) or health points (HP). That’s right: HP to use a physical-based attack.

 

 

While you may think it’s better off to have physical-based jobs, since there’s 9,999 HP than 999 MP, that’s not the case. You see, the cost of skills are based off a percentage of the follower’s overall level. So in a case of two warriors, one at level 5 and another at level 10, the level 5 will always have a lower HP cost to use a double attack than the level 10. What can cause trouble is that higher level skills obviously cost more, and if you don’t have a healer in your party or keep a replenished stock of restorative items, your party may fall apart easily, since using HP to use skills plus getting damaged is a double whammy. However, in my play through, I haven’t seen a skill cost more than 35% of a follower’s HP or MP.

Luckily, the customization of the party and job system in Dragon Sinker helps keep your party’s HP at bay. There’s a bunch of healer-based jobs, from the standard priest to the eccentric baker. There’s also the auto skills of each job. Each job features a passive skill that becomes a permanent fixture in a follower’s arsenal once he or she masters the job. These skills range from getting a regenerative HP or MP buff at the start of each turn to mitigating skills’ costs. There’s even one that automatically leaves a follower with 1 HP if he or she gets damaged to the point of swooning. As far as the three main characters with locked jobs, a scroll is obtained once for each job mastered that transfers that auto skill to the main character selected to receive it.

 

 

I’ll be honest though, even with the customization options you have in your arsenal, you’ll end up relying on the same low- to mid-level skills that give the most bang for your buck. With Dragon Sinker being a KEMCO game, if you really feel like the game is kicking your butt, you can always change up the difficulty (although going for hard and expert difficulties give you more experience and money at the end of battles). You can also purchase premium content using the lottery system that gives you a chance to earn epic equipment to the rare animal followers like a sneaky cat (based on the thief job).

Overall, while the story of Dragon Sinker is so-so, its aesthetics and gameplay will definitely satiate those who are craving the good ol’ days of Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy. You’ll get to recruit some followers, level up their jobs, and create the ultimate party to defeat the evil dragon once and for all. Oh, and if you’re lucky, you can get a cat with the scratching skills of death in that ultimate party.

 

 

 

This review is based on a retail copy of the game provided by the publisher.

The post REVIEW / Dragon Sinker (Vita) appeared first on That VideoGame Blog.

from That VideoGame Blog http://ift.tt/2nWOp7w

Things get psychological with Past Cure

 

As a rule I don’t like survival horror games, or actually horror much of anything for that matter. It’s not that I don’t like the premise. I really love a good ghost story when it’s written well and H.P. Lovecraft is one of my all time heroes. The thing is, this is a different kind of horror. Real horror is something that keeps you up at night because you’re given a very basic premise full of big shady bits that let your brain fill in the gaps. What I can’t stand is jump scares. I want to switch off my console or put down my book and then go and quietly wee myself thinking about it two hours later. I don’t want to feel like I can’t play the game without throwing the controller through the TV screen because I don’t know what’s going to startle me next. As the title I’m about to tell you about seems to be more creepy and less jumpy, let’s come to Past Cure, a rather interesting dark, psychological thriller that has just seen the release of its new story trailer.

So what is it, then? Well, as I’ve just mentioned we’re entering the world of the dark and the creepy in Phantom8 studio’s story-driven supernatural thriller. This is a cinematic experience which challenges players to use mind-bending mental abilities to survive; not to mention a mastery of gunplay, melee ability and stealth.

As the story goes … Ian, a former elite soldier, reappears after years of being missing, somehow changed. The soldier’s brother shelters him in a secluded safe house in a bid to help him come to terms with his memory loss and the effects of the experiments he was forced to endure during his absence. In an attempt to tap into the hidden powers of the mind, Ian’s captors left him scarred by unrelenting nightmares, visions and unstable powers such as time manipulation and telekinesis.

You take on the role of Ian and set out with him on his quest for the truth. Thirsting for revenge, you will embark on a hunt for the masterminds behind this conspiracy. Plunged into a criminal underworld, searching for leads, you will have to use your newly found powers to survive. Each use of these powers will leave you further detached from reality and reveal the presence of a much darker power at work.

This is a game that will leave you wondering exactly what is real. Ian will shift between real world action packed combat and a nightmarish dreamscape in which he will have to use his puzzle solving skills and survival instincts to win out. Past Cure also gives you a degree of freedom in how you play. If you don’t want to go toe to toe with the bad guys with a mixture of bullet and fist, you are invited to take the stealthy approach, where evasion tactics and slick take downs allow you to outwit and outmatch the enemy from the shadows.

If you like a bit of mystery, a playable demo of Past Cure will be getting released on Steam next week. In the mean time, I’ll leave you with a teaser trailer for the game, which will see release on PC, PS4 and Xbox One on the 23rd of this month.

The post Things get psychological with Past Cure appeared first on That VideoGame Blog.

from That VideoGame Blog http://ift.tt/2nWDQ4o

PREVIEW / Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire

 

Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire is a direct sequel to the critically acclaimed CRPG Pillars of Eternity. Fans of the classic CRPGs like Baldur’s Gate and Icewind Dale felt that PoE was a spiritual successor to those games, this being further supported by the fact that members of the development team at Obsidian Entertainment worked on these games at Black Isle Studios. Deadfire is a crowd-funded success riding the nostalgia wave since it was announced last year.

 

 

We got a chance to take Deadfire out for a drive (or trip around the lake), and I have to say, I like what I’ve experience thus far from the preview build. While Deadfire carries over a lot of the elements of its predecessor, the big addition is ship combat. The islands of the Deadfire Archipeligo are separated by lots of wet water, making navigation via ship necessary. You’ll be out to sea for a good chunk of time, exploring and charting out some of the islands that are both inhabited and not. But these waters are not tame, as pirates are wandering the high seas looking for plunder and booty. With a nice big ship cruising through these waters, you will not be able to scuttle around undetected – prepare yourself to take these pirates on mast to mast.

 

Not actual illustration of combat from the game, but this is what it felt like!

 

Unlike combat on land in Deadfire (technically called real-time with pause), ship combat is turn-based. The interface changes when you jump into the ship combat mode, with an illustrated book taking over your screen as you basically “choose your own pirate adventure”. Your turns will consist of moving, positioning, and attacking, and should you decide to jump on the enemy ship, the combat switches back to your party and the real-time combat system of PoE. Turn-based combat for ship battles works fine, and it can be an inviting change of pace to the gameplay. You will also need to manage your crew, among other things as captain. For fans of the series who might be on the fence about this, I personally welcome it.

 

 

Graphically, there are some nice updates to the character models from PoE. My elf rogue was looking pretty good, but if you get too creative, don’t count on being able to match up to the provided character portraits. However, these options could be updated upon release. Wandering around in the build, I noticed the stark contrast from its prequel, environment-wise. There are still beautifully rendered maps and levels, but it was almost jarring to start off in a tropical locale. However, the different islands that I visited vary up the environments, making each island that I explored feel distinct.

 

 

Combat hasn’t changed, but now feels more streamlined. First, there are only 5 party members instead of 6. I’m all about a little less management in these games, but some may miss that 6th member. I was provided with a mercenary party for my rogue character to team up with, and they were balanced out builds. Personally, I wonder if any of these mercs will be the actually character party members in the release. Pivoting back to the combat, there are nuances where the party feels a bit more independent when you need to focus on saving a party member like retargeting for casters and improved party AI. Again, I’m all about a little less management, so I’ll be interested to see how this all plays out after many more hours with the release.

 

 

So, am I looking forward to Deadfire? Based on this small sample, I am very much looking forward to it. Everything you loved about PoE is in Deadfire, including the robust story and dialogue features that I experienced in this build. Needless to say, I’m looking forward to reviewing Deadfire when it officially releases on April 3rd.

 

The post PREVIEW / Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire appeared first on That VideoGame Blog.

from That VideoGame Blog http://ift.tt/2G4hAMI