Title: SwapQuest
Developer: Rebusmind
Platform: PlayStation Vita
Game Type: Vita
Download: 78 MB
NA Availability: Digital Download
EU Availability: Digital Download
PSTV Support: Yes

Mobile games coming to console is a joy for some, and dread for others.  You already know the arguments about Mobile coming to console.  Some don’t like it because it’s mobile.  Handheld gamers tend to have a hate feeling towards Mobile versus handhelds.  (In simple terms, touch screen gameplay vs button gameplay).  Then you have the arguments about why Mobile games cost so much more on consoles and handhelds, like Angry Birds Star Wars launching on consoles for $40+.

Nowadays, that is normally not as extreme of a case.  Mobile games do generally cost more on handhelds and consoles, but there’s not nearly as big of a gap.  As an example, Hitman GO recently released on the Vita and PS4.  On iOS, the game costs $4.99.  On PlayStation, it costs $7.99.  You’re essentially paying $3 for use on consoles, and cross-buy aka two different versions of the game.  Much better than $40 for Angry Birds.

Today’s review is on a Mobile game that recently came to the Vita (and only the Vita).  Originally a small, but fun hit on Mobile, here is my official review of the Puzzle/RPG cross-genre game, Swap Quest!

Story

The plot of this game is that you live in a kingdom that is under attack from a legendary demonic cloud known as “The Horde”.  As the only member of your kingdom to rise up and try to fight it off, you’re on an adventure throughout your entire kingdom, both on the run from The Horde and searching and hunting for the tools needed to vanquish it and rescue the kingdom.

The story is pretty light in the game.  You have an intro to explain the kingdom and the horde, and then some story towards the end of the game, and that’s about it.  This is clearly intentional as the focus of the game is the actual gameplay and not the storyline.

Gameplay

SwapQuest is a puzzle game filled with RPG elements.  In the developer’s terms and my own, think of it as a game that takes the formula of Pipe Mania and throws it into an RPG environment with RPG elements, from classes to equipment upgrades to leveling systems.  Sometimes, it feels like more RPG, but I’d classify it as a puzzler with RPG elements thrown in.

When you play the game, you start by choosing your character and class.  Character doesn’t make much of a difference, as it’s just you choosing to be a male or female character.  Class makes a big difference, though.  Like in the older Final Fantasy games, you have several classes to choose from, with strengths.  For example, the Rogue is faster on their feet with dogs that can fetch treasure while Tricksters are slower but are good with magic.  Your class will determine what sort of skills you can learn as you play the game.

Once you have your character set up, you will play through the tutorial and be taken to a world map.  This map has you going on a point-based map to go through stages, working your way towards the Sky Pillar, where the game’s story progresses towards the finale.  There are over 20 different stages to go through, and there are several branches and forks in the road, meaning you don’t have to follow a set path.  You can choose whether to go into a snowy mountain path or a desert path and the like.  Granted, you will do every stage by the end of the game, but you do have the freedom of choice before you get there.

Progressing through a stage is like Pipe Mania.  You are traveling on a grid with The Horde slowly moving the stage on you, trying to reach you.  Each tile of the grid has a road on it in various directions.  Some are straight paths of various directions.  Other function as corners and turns, and some function as intersections.  You have to swap the tiles back and forth to create a path to lead you towards the goal at the end of the stage.

The Horde is not the only thing keeping you from the goal.  Each stage has enemies placed around the map, along with puzzles like switching you have to move around and press to open doors or even energy balls that you need to direct away from you and towards a harness or statue that it activates.  You have to think on all of this and head in your proper direction while the horde is still slowly moving towards you.  It’s a big bunch of time management and figuring out what to move where as quickly as possible.

The next two things are Combat and Quests.  When you waltz up to an enemy, you will automatically start fighting in a “You-attack, they-attack” pattern until you flee or one of you gets killed.  Then, enemies drop hearts for health and gems you can use outside of stages.  You also get Experience Points and can level up to increase your skills as well as upgrading your class.  Every so many levels, your class will evolve, like Mage to Wizard, allowing you to learn a new skill.  Remember what happens when you give Bahamut the Rat’s Tail in the first Final Fantasy?  It’s like that, but with levels instead of items for a quest.

Then you have Quests, which are objectives to complete while you go through the stage like opening a certain number of chests or not getting caught by enemies.  Adding to the million other things you’re thinking of as you swap tiles.

Finally, we get to the most fun you’ll have in the game: Boss Battles.  Every few stages and you’ll encounter a boss fight.  The stages will not move during these fights (except for one) and you’ll basically be swapping tiles while duking it out with a huge boss.  This could be against a giant spider spitting web everywhere to slow your movement, a three-headed fire-spitting monster burning down a village, or even a kraken with tentacles around that you have to attack as you swim around a lake.

Every boss has a pattern and strategy to it.  Some will be as simple as dodging attacks and running up to attack them while they’re stunned.  Others are more in-depth.  One boss has you using an pool of water to splash to knock the boss unconscious and then having you attacking it until it woke up, while others will have you launching defeated enemies towards them to break a shell to reveal their true form that you can actually damage with your weapons.

Outside of stages is where the other RPG mechanics get thrown in.  You can visit the Caravan at any time on the World Map to customize.  You can use gems you collect to buy weapons and equipment, upgrade your skills, or enhancing certain elements of your weapons.

Difficulty is something to also keep in mind.  You’re constantly doing stuff and you can easily get cornered by The Horde, leading you to getting launched somewhere completely out of what you were doing and taking damage.  It’s not exactly an easy game, but I wouldn’t say it’s abnormally hard, either.  It’s a nice challenge and you can set the difficulty at will whenever you’re in the menu if things are too easy or too hard.

So what’s the bad part about this game?  The only thing I will say is something that some Mobile reviews of the game have also said: The Game doesn’t tell you how to do a lot of stuff you’re supposed to do.  There are no explanations of how, exactly to play the game, or what each icon is in the weapon upgrade menu.  It’s not all that hard to figure out the gameplay if you’ve played Pipe Mania, but it’s still confusing when I upgrade my equipment.

Now, let’s go for length.  There are about 24 stages on the world map, give or take.  Most of them would take an average of 6-10 minutes to complete, while one stage I would put at an average of 30-40 minutes your first time through.  Given that, and running internal numbers, that’s probably going to clock you around 3-5 hours, depending on how well you can play the game.

Controls

Controlling the game goes in two ways: Touch and Buttons.  This is yet another game in the confusing section of games that can pretty much completely be controlled by the PS Vita’s buttons, yet is not compatible with the PlayStation TV.  I plan to talk to the dev after I write this review to see if compatibility is in the cards for the future.

The control scheme is easy to pull up.  Just hit the Select button during gameplay and the control scheme will show.  Before going on, this is something extremely ueful as it shows a screen of where you are in the game.  So, you can use this to plan out your moves while not worrying about the game going on while you think.

You can move with the D-Pad and Left Analog Stick, while changing direction is done with the Right Analog Stick.  X allows you to select tiles to swap and cancelling a swap can be done with the Circle button.  Triangle can set the cursor back to where your character it, and the L trigger also does this.  Finally, Square lets you use an ability and R makes you stop or start moving.

Presentation

The visual presentation is supposed to mimic older RPGs, so it’s set in a very SNES-like visual presentation.  Imagine it like the Final Fantasy or Zelda games of that era.  (Yes, I know very few Zelda games are RPGs.  You know what I mean).  The music is also put in to mimic RPGs of this era.  There is quite a bit of variety and it works rather well.

The only gripe I have about the presentation are the load times.  The load wait times aren’t bad.  You normally only have to wait about 5 seconds for a screen to load.  However, it kind of tricks you.  The music doesn’t stop, making it feel like the loading will be instantaneous, and it isn’t.

Title: Hitman GO: Definitive Edition
Developer: Square Enix Montreal
Platform: PlayStation Vita
Game Type: Vita
Download: 522 MB
NA Availability: Digital Download
EU Availability: Digital Download
PSTV Support: Yes

The Hitman series hasn’t seen a ton of action lately, though there is hype towards the upcoming game.  That is in the console and PC world, though.  What is there for Hitman in the handheld world?  Almost nothing, to be honest.  Mobile got a Hitman game that was a pretty big hit, but dedicated handhelds haven’t really had any Hitman games at all.

Square Enix went recently to change that.  The Mobile game has been such a hit that they decided to send it over to the handheld, console, and PC world in a definitive release of the game.  That’s right.  The mobile game has now released on Mobile as well as Steam, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, and PlayStation TV.  So, here is my review of Hitman GO: Definitive Edition.

Story

Due to this game having no storyline, this section shall remain blank.

Gameplay

Hitman Go is a different breed of game than its predecessors in the series.  Instead of being a tactical shooting game, it is a grid-based puzzle game with strategy elements thrown into the mix.  You move along a grid, avoiding and taking down enemies in the hopes of reaching the end of a grid or taking out a certain enemy.

A lot of fans of the series may be turned off, because this is so different than the rest of the series.  I will admit that it really threw me off when I first started playing it.  Hitman is not where I’d expect there to be a grid-based puzzle game.  However, the more I played it, the more I didn’t want to put it down.  The gameplay is surprisingly charming, so let’s talk about that now.

First, how is this different from its Mobile counterpart?  Mobile has micro-transactions for hints and automatically unlocking levels.  This version doesn’t have that.  So, what are you getting for paying $3 more for the PlayStation version?  Other additions are typical Mobile to PlayStation enhancements, like button controls, cross-save, and trophy support (including a platinum trophy).  Regarding trophies, one such feature that’s new that is nice is that the game warns you if you’re about to take an action that would make getting specific trophies impossible.

Progression goes through 7 hub worlds that contain stages.  Each time you clear a stage, the next stage opens.  Clear all 15 stages in one world and you unlock the next world.  The worlds can also unlock by gaining high scores on the stages.  Either way, you play the stages to unlock new stages and new worlds.

Going through a stage has you on a grid in an environment.  You move along the grid in a turn-based fashion where you move and enemies also move.  Enemy types will always move and perform specific actions during their turn.  Some enemy constantly move from point to point while others will turn, changing their aim to a different area.  The key is to learn patterns on the grid to avoid them as you can never be seen by the enemy or they’ll kill you and its Game Over.

You do this not only by learning patterns, but by using your surroundings.  There are many objects that help you hide, like bushes that will hide you from the enemy, even if they’re on the same part of the grid at the time.  There are also colored suits you can change into, making you friendly to all enemies of that same color.  Apart from this are aggressive items, like sniper rifles you can use to take out enemies that are in far-away locations.

Apart from finishing a level, there are challenges which add to your score to unlock worlds sooner.  Each level has 3 objectives.  One is normally just finishing the level with the second going out of your way to collect a briefcase and then finish the level.  The third can vary, mostly being finishing the level within a certain number of turns, but could also be killing all enemies or killing no enemies.  Each of these requires you to master the level to be able to accomplish.

This is about all there is to it.  As a mobile game, it is something you don’t play in long sessions, but short sessions.  This makes it perfect for the PS Vita, not so much for the PS4, but we’ll get to my gripe with playing it on a TV later.  It is also better for quick play because of how you play and how the difficulty rises.  It is a strategy game, so it’ll have you thinking a lot and it’s not something you really want to keep doing for a long time.  That’s one reason my Twitch stream (twitch.tv/reviews2go) of the game wasn’t all that long.

Although this isn’t really something you would gauge a time-frame for, I can give you details on that.  There are 7 worlds, each with 15 stages.  That is over 100 stages.  I would give each stage an average of 2 minutes, maybe 3 for trying, succeeding, and mastering.  So I’d gauge the whole game around 5-8 hours.  Lots of time for an $8 game.

Controls

Controlling the game works well, whether you’re a mobile or console player.  The touch controls from the Mobile release are here as well as button alternatives for absolutely everything.  The PlayStation TV is supported here as well, but there aren’t any L2 or R2 controls.  I believe this is the same with the PS4 version as well.

Cycling menus and moving is done with the D-Pad and Left Analog Stick.  The Right Analog Stick can be used to move the camera within a stage and change the perspective.  L and R don’t really do anything, so there’s not much point in using them.  The X button is used to interact with objects and menus.  Square can restart a stage.  The rest of the face buttons are just used in menus and not really used in stages.

I don’t really have a problem with the controls, but it would’ve been nice for the game to have told you what you’re supposed to do.  The game just throws you under the bus and lets you figure out everything about the game by yourself.

Presentation

Visually, the game looks nice.  I honestly don’t see all that much difference between the visuals of the PS Vita version and PS4 version.  Everything is nice and smooth.  Things flow well, and the music also goes well with each environment.

The only gripe I have with playing on the PSTV (or PS4) is that this isn’t a game you want to sit far from your TV to play.  When I played it on my TV and sat across the room (Probably 10-15 feet away from the TV), the visuals blended and got fairly blurry.  When I set it up on my 19” TV on my computer desk it was fine, but it got to be quite blurrish further away, something that most games do not do.  At first, one could think this is because the PSTV is 720p, but the PS4 version does the same thing, so it’s something to do with the game, itself.

The real thing about the presentation is that the Vita version fidgets when changing screens.  The PS4 version runs incredibly smooth and the Vita version is jumpy regarding its frame rate.  This doesn’t happen in stages, but when switching menus or going into stages.  It’s something noticeable enough to make worth nothing.

Tomorrow if the final day of the month, and it really crept up on us!  Since the month is about to end, I’m dedicating today and tomorrow to my usual monthly articles, the Recaps.  Starting, of course, with the Review Recap.

Last month was the start of this writer’s new job outside of this site that he does for fun.  Due to a very strange sleeping and work schedule, I only sent out 8 reviews last month, and felt pretty bad that was all I could do.  This month is better and into my goal of 10 reviews per month!

Note that any review with a * next to it in the PS Vita section is not compatible with the PSTV/PlayStation TV.

Here are the 10 reviews posted for February 2016!

Nintendo 3DS Reviews

Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam

PlayStation Vita / PlayStation TV Reviews

Atelier Escha & Logy Plus – Video Review
Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth – Video Review
Drama Fever
Hitman GO: Definitive Edition – Video Review
LEGO Marvel’s Avengers – Video Review
PS4 Link – Video Review
Super Blast Deluxe
Swap Quest *
We Are Doomed

The 3DS didn’t get a whole lot of love this month, but making it back to 10 reviews per month is a great thing!  Let’s hope for another good month with March.  For starters, I can say all of you Pokemon fans will definitely enjoy one of the first reviews next month.

It’s time for the final recap and post of the month!  A lot of people are probably down about the recent news/speculation of Sony Computer Entertainment Japan (SCEJ) possibly discontinuing the PlayStation Vita TV over in Japan.  No new unit shipments can be a bit concerning, but that’s not to say support for the PSTV will stop from developers.

I am an optimist and will not stop updating my compatibility list until weeks, if not months go by without a single game releasing as compatible.  So, let’s go over everything that has been released or revealed or updated as PSTV compatible for the month of February 2016!

Japan

Summon Night 6: Lost Borders
Uppers
Yusha Shisu

North America

Crypt of the Necrodancer
Drama Fever (App)
Level 22
Ninja Senki DX
Shiren the Wanderer
Super Blast Deluxe

I wouldn’t call it an incredibly busy month, but that’s 9 more games that are compatible that weren’t (or not known) before!  PlayStation TV fans, I hope you can enjoy these games and all of the updates further on!

Title: Pokemon Red, Blue, Yellow
Developer: Game Freak, Nintendo
Platform: Nintendo 3DS
Game Type: Virtual Console
NA Availability: Digital
EU Availability: Digital
Block Usage:  80

This past week was the anticipated 20h anniversary of the Pokemon franchise.  20 years ago last Friday, Pokemon was first introduced to the world in Japan, and soon later in Europe and North America.  It’s been a long 20 years, spanning 6 generations of Pokemon games, with the 7^th announced for late this year.  Endless improvements and changes have been made, yet some still love the old, classic feel of the original Game Boy games, even over the GBA remakes (Fire Red and Leaf Green).

As of Friday, Nintendo 3DS owners can experience or re-experience the charm of those old, original games.  After years of claiming they didn’t wish to do it, Nintendo has finally re-released Pokemon Red Version, Blue Version, and Yellow Version on the 3DS Virtual Console.  I’ve had plenty of time to re-live old memories as well as crafting a unique retro review for you.

So, here is my official review of the VC releases of Pokemon Blue Version, Red Version, and Yellow Version: Special Pikachu Edition!

Story

The story of the original Pokemon games take place in the Kanto region, where a young boy ventures out to become a great Pokemon trainer after receiving a Starter Pokemon from a local professor as well as constantly in competition with the professor’s son.  In his ventures, he learns of different towns of the region as well as thwarting the crimes of the local trouble-making organization known as Team Rocket.

The story is something that varies between versions.  Red and Blue have the same story, but it is slightly altered in Yellow.  Since the Special Pikachu Edition was made to be more based around the anime TV series, there are a few story changes to accommodate for this.  First of all, you gain all three starter Pokemon with NPC dialogue that references their introductions in the anime, such as a bad trainer giving you Charmander (referencing the Charmander that got abandoned in the rain) or a troublesome Squirtle (referencing The Squirtle Squad).

The other notable story addition is the inclusion of some extra fights with Team Rocket, against the iconic Jesse and James from the TV series.  To add onto this, Yellow version made their Pokemon unavailable to further give the notion that those are “evil” Pokemon.

The story of the game, like any Pokemon game, isn’t the focus.  It’s there and you get some bits here and there in each town.  But, as Pokemon still is, the story isn’t the main focus.

Gameplay

Pokemon RBY are monster-catching and taming RPGs with adventure elements thrown into the mix.  You will be traveling around the world map to go through each town and environment on your quest to collect Gym Badges to be able to challenge the Elite Four, the toughest trainers in the region.  All in all, though, the genre hasn’t really changed since these games.

Before talking about the game, let’s talk about the difference between the three versions.  You have Red and Blue that released on the original Game Boy, and then Yellow version that released later on.  The main differences are Pokemon exclusive to specific games.  There are some you can only get in Red and some you can only get in Blue.  This encourages trading (which is made possible with local wireless multiplayer in these re-releases).  You also have Yellow, which is the only of the versions where you can acquire all three starter Pokemon without trading with others.  There are also some balancing changes with the Gym Leaders in Yellow.

The progression style will be heading from town to town to challenge gyms and on the way, you’ll be challenged by other trainers, encountering random encounters with Pokemon you can fight and/or capture and recruit, and solving puzzles to be able to open up new paths.  For example, you won’t be able to access the central areas of the region without first traveling down to a southern town to get a unique skill used to take out trees and plants that are blocking your path.  A lot of the game’s later areas are hidden and sealed off until you find these skills and navigate back with a Pokemon with that skill.

Fighting and capturing will be your main task, as Pokemon strives on an elemental strength and weakness system.  Each Gym is themed, and you’ll need Pokemon with abilities that are strong against that type.  It is typically good to have a variety of Pokemon in your party .  So, your task will be to recruiting Pokemon as you go, and that’s where capturing comes in.  Each Pokemon you come across in a random fight you can fight and also capture with spheres called Pokeballs (with Great, Ultra, and Master variations that affect the capture rate).

To capture a Pokemon, you fight with them for awhile and throw a Pokeball at them.  When it hits them, there is a certain % chance of them being caught.  To increase the chance, you attack them until their health is low, and you can further increase this by using stronger Pokeball variations and inflicting status ailments, like Paralyze and Sleep.  Once captured, they are yours to put into your party and fight with.

Managing this and having variety is important, as the original Pokemon games are not easy games.  Each Gym can and will challenge you unless you know and utilize weaknesses and are able to level-grind to be able to get to a point where you can fight them off.  Occasional Rival fights will give you a reminder of about how strong you should be, and you certainly won’t stay that way if you have a 6-member party and never stop to train.

Finally, let’s get to the question that everyone here has.  Are all of the infamous glitches present in these original releases still here in the Virtual Console release?  The answer is yes.  Every single glitch from the original Red, Blue, and Yellow are here in this release.  The Mew glitches?  I’ve done them.  Missingno?  Done them.  Item Duplication?  Done them.  Every awesome glitch is still here.  So if you want to get a Mew as soon as you hit Cerulean City, you can.

As far as length is concerned, you can easily log a good 20-30 hours in the main story and a few more hours in the story-based post-game.  If you want to go out of the way to capture and evolve every one of the 151 Pokemon, you’ll have a much, much higher play time.  Do note that if you’re a nostalgic gamer and know exactly what to do and rush, it could be more like a 10-15 hour trek.

Controls

Controls in the game are light, as you’d expect.  The Game Boy and Game Boy Color only had 5 or 6 buttons on it, and not a lot is extended to other buttons on the Nintendo 3DS.  First off, none of the New 3DS buttons do anything in the Virtual Console release.  Neither do the L and R triggers.

The D-Pad and Circle Pad are used for moving around.  The A button interacts with NPCs and B button will back out of an option and a menu.  The same they did back on the Game Boy.  The Start button pulls up the menu, and so does the X button, bringing a very PlayStation RPG feel with Triangle having been used to open that menu on many of its games.  The 3DS also does this in some RPGs.

And that’s it, aside from the touch screen being able to pause the game.

Presentation

Visually, the games are just as they were back in the day.  First thing to know is that Pokemon Red and Blue are locked to the original Game Boy color scheme.  That means it is in grayscale (or Green if you hit L+R+Y), while Yellow is in full color, being given a Game Boy Color scheme.  If you recall, Red and Blue could be used on a GBC with full color.  You cannot do that in Red and Blue on Virtual Console.

The rest we look at is performance.  The VC releases play exactly the way the originals did, which is both good and bad.  The good thing is that there isn’t any further performance drops because of the emulator the 3DS uses.  The bad thing is that all of the hiccups, frame drops, glitches, freezes, and lag are still here.  Granted, it is assumed that one wouldn’t fix this sort of thing in a strictly emulated release, but it’s there and it can be quite the annoyance if you don’t save often.

Title: Level 22: Gary’s Misadventures
Developer: Moving Player
Platform: PlayStation Vita
Game Type: Vita
Download: 215 MB
NA Availability: Digital Download
EU Availability: Digital Download
PSTV Support: Yes

Have you ever been that one person that’s on the ropes because you’ve been late for work so many times that one more instance will get you fired?  If you have, then you know the tension and stress involved in running late once again, whether it’s because you woke up late, took too long with breakfast, or traffic was entirely not on your side.

So, what do you do?  Not show up for work because you’re getting fired anyways?  Call in with some incredibly not-feasible sick excuse?  Or do you do the bold move of trying to not only going to work, but sneaking your way to your desk so no one even knows you weren’t there?  You’d have to have a lot of courage of Solid Snake-level of skills to accomplish that.

If you’ve ever wanted to try, then a new game for the PS Vita lets you do just that.  This is a Mobile game in Europe, but is not on PlayStation in Noth America.  Here is my official review of Level 22: Gary’s Misadventures!

Story

You play the role of Gary, an office worker that has a bad habit of arriving late to work a lot.  He has been late so many times that he’s certain that he will be fired if he is late one more time and, of course, on this day, he is very, very late.  Rushing to work, he decides to fool everyone by sneaking through the office without being seen in order to get to his desk and keep his job.

The storyline is very limited in the game, but it’s something charming that anyone who works in an office can appreciate.  It also continues as Gary’s friend talks to him over a radio as you go through each level.

Gameplay

Level 22 is a stealth indie game that has you sneaking around and using objects to move past enemies and get from level to level.  You will be using objects for distractions as well as hiding places as you move through the office to get to your desk, along with fighting various boss fights.

The game progresses in stages/missions in a very Super Mario fashion.  Each set of Levels is called a World, so you’re going through World 1-1, 1-2, 1-3, and so on until you hit stage 5, which holds a boss.  Then the story progresses and you go to the next World.  While Metal Gear fans will be used to games that are all in one world/stage, this is much more condensed in small levels.

When you begin each level, you will be in a semi-top-down environment and be tasked with finding the staircase to get to the next floor.  Reaching the staircase will be a matter of using stealth and puzzle elements to get there.  Lots of co-workers and security guards roam the halls that you need to avoid and sneak past.

The sneaking is done with environments and items.  Lots of cabinets, car trunks, and other hiding spots are available to jump in until people walk past you.  You also find items from donuts to distract security guards, books to knock people out, and even cardboard boxes to sneak around under.  If you didn’t think this was a tribute to Metal Gear by now, you surely should start thinking it the moment you see that cardboard box.

The puzzles start easy, like jumping into cabinets or laying donuts, but things get trickier the further you go in.  You’ll be going from dodging one guard to 4-5 and things are very much based on timing.  Getting caught gets you a game over, but a checkpoint system helps this not be frustrating when you have to re-do something.

Finally are the boss fights.  These are a mix of stealth and action.  In the boss fights, you cannot be seen, but you also need to take down the boss.  For example, in the first boss, you have to lay down staplers to attract a security guard and then launch explosives to damage him.  Afterwards, you have to hurry and hide in a cabinet so no one sees you.  In another, you have to knock someone out so they don’t see you wrecking security camera equipment.

Over the course of the game are plenty of hours of content, but this is really something you just pick up and play, rather than do in one sitting.  How many times have I said that in a review?  The thing to note is that this is the same content as the Mobile release, so it’s a bit of a toss-up if you want to buy this on the Vita for $6-7 or just pay $2 for the Mobile version.

Controls

As far as controls are concerned, things stay pretty simple.  PlayStation TV is supported with this game, but no special controls when on a Dual Shock 3 or Dual Shock 4 controller.  Also, touch controls are still in here from the Mobile release, so you can choose touch or buttons.

The Left Analog Stick is used to move around, and the Right Analog Stick can move the camera out to watch for the positions of the nearby guards.  D-Pad is not used for movement, but rather for the use of items you’ve picked up.  L and R don’t really get used, and the only face buttons the game uses are X and Circle.  It’s pretty light on controls.

Presentation

The game’s original visual presentation is here in the PS Vita version of the game, and it looks colorful.  Renders aren’t perfect, but they’re not supposed to be.  So, no real complaints there.

Performance is a give and take.  The load times are pretty much at the limit of the acceptable range.  Some load times are around 10 seconds, some shorter.  That’s about at the acceptable cap for me before I start taking points.

Glitching is the main issue and annoyance with this version of the game.  There are many areas where the game will not allow you to move where you’re supposed to.  Some boss fights can also glitch.  The second boss has sections where the boss will move towards something you break and you’re supposed to be able to move out of the way.  A few time, the game locked in a cinematic and wouldn’t let me move until I was spotted and got a game over.

Nintendo has always been a more family and child-oriented game company.  Ever since they began, their franchises have all been geared towards all ages and some specifically towards kids. Just think about it.  Mario.  Kirby.  Zelda.  Pokemon.  Even Smash.  They’re all either geared towards family or kids.  I was once a small child around 8 years old when Pokemon Red and Blue released in the United States and it’s what really got me into handhelds with the original Game Boy and then the GBC with Pokemon Yellow.

It’s no surprise that with this generation, Nintendo made a model of its popular 3DS handheld that is specifically targeted towards to help children get into Nintendo games, while providing parents with a cheaper alternative to buying the full 3DS or 3DS XL.  That handheld is what I’m about to talk about, and I’m sure many of you already know what I’m talking about.

Let’s get down to it!  Here’s my review of the Nintendo 2DS!

Design

Let’s start with this new system’s design.  If you take a look, it is a free-holding handheld that has no hinge and has the clamshell design completely removed.  Nintendo has not released a hinge-less handheld since the Game Boy Advance era, with the original GBA and the Game Boy Micro.  The idea of this may have been to make it a much simpler task to hold and view it, rather than angling the top screen like you’ve had to do with all DS and 3DS handhelds.

The displays on the system are roughly the same size as that of the original 3DS model, so users of the XL’s may notice a bit of a change.  Then, we have a button configuration that mirrors that of the 3DS. N Circle Pad above a D-Pad on the left of the screens, while the face buttons on the right of the screen.  Also to the left of the screens is a mono speaker, which is the only speaker built into the system.  Much like the New 3DS models, the Start and Select buttons are also to the right of the screens, rather than below with the Home button.  The Power button is also to the right of the screens, just on the bottom.

Since this isn’t a clamshell design, Nintendo needed a way to initiate sleep mode, and that’s what the slider just below the Power Button is for.  Slide it to the right and it will click in place, putting the system into sleep mode.  Move it to the left and it will automatically wake up.  On the opposite side on the bottom of the system is the headphone jack.

Now let’s look at the sides and the top.  The left side of the system has the volume sider on it, while the right side houses the SD Card Slot, and the Stylus Pen.  Note that the SD Cards supported are the full-size SD Card, and a 4 GB card comes pre-loaded in the system.  Then we get to the top, where the corners house large, thick L and R triggers, and the power port and Cartridge Slot are in the middle on the top.

On the back is where things get interesting, and strange.  There are two cameras on the back, supporting the 3D feature for the camera, and it is here on the 2DS.  Why the 3D-less model still has a 3D camera feature, no one knows.  But that’s really all that’s on the back other than the logo and disclaimer.

As far as software is concerned, it’s no different than a normal 3DS.  The home screen looks the same and you even still get the “3DS” logo when you launch 3DS games.  The only difference with software is that the game has no built-in 3D.  Meaning that games can only be played in 2D mode.

Performance

Now we get to the fun part.  How does this model perform?  First, we look at the design itself.  It’s pretty clear that Nintendo made this in mind for kids, particularly the guarantee that a child could and would drop the system.  The shell and material is very hard and thick, clearly made to take a beating.  It is actually a lot tougher than any of the other 3DS models, and that makes it a nice and stable handheld to have and use, especially if you have a tendency to drop portable technology.

The system, itself, is surprisingly comfortable to hold.  When I picked it up, it felt comfortable right away.  My hands fit onto the 2DS just like it would hold an iPad in portrait orientation.  One of my fingers even made it seem more convenient with the natural holding of the system being right where the stylus pen is, making whipping out the pen for touch controls incredibly easy and much less work than on my New 3DS XL.

The only thing I will say as a complaint is the location of the trigger buttons.  My fingers naturally rested around halfway up the back of the device, so getting used to holding it with my two pointer fingers resting all the way on top of the system was a hassle, to say the least.  Granted, it wouldn’t have been easy for Nintendo to make triggers work sticking out the back of the system, but that didn’t make it any less awkward of a change.  Even now, my fingers still naturally rest halfway up the back whenever I don’t have to use the triggers.

As far as use, let’s talk about those screens and the speaker.  I tested the screen brightness and it isn’t quite as bright as the New 3DS is.  It’s still got enough light to be decently playable out and about, but there is a subtle difference between how bright it is compared to the New 3DS.  The speaker is the main culprit of the performance, though.  They have one mono speaker on this thing, which means you cannot have stereo sound without headphones.  You may not notice, but a lot of people will.  Why there isn’t a secondary speaker somewhere, I don’t know.

As far as games go, I have no complaints.  There is actually an advantage to using the smaller screen of the 3DS.  On the XL models, you can easily pinpoint breaks and jagged edges in 3D games.  With the smaller screens, much less so.  When I played Ocarina of Time on my XL, I could make out a ton of jagged edges on Link.  When I played it on my 2DS, I could barely tell there even were jagged edges.  It’s that big of a difference.

Just remember.  The 2DS is not part of the “New” 3DS lineup.  That means that this cannot play games exclusive to those models, like The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, Xenoblade Chronicles 3D, and SNES Virtual Console.

Longevity is about the same as the normal 3DS.  You’ve got about 3-5 hours of 3DS games on a charge or 5-8 hours of Nintendo DS games on a charge.  No real advantage of disadvantage over other models.  Other things to note are that the hardware is a bit out-dated because of the New 3DS.  The New line improved on screen brightness as well as touch screen responsiveness.  With the 2DS you cannot freely use your finger for everything.  You’ll have to use that stylus pen for a lot of stuff.  Until they release a “New 2DS”, if they ever do, the hardware won’t be quite on par with the New models, in terms of specs, screen brightness, or touch response.

Title: Return to Popolocrois: A Story of Seasons Fairytale
Developer: Marvelous, XSEED Games
Platform: Nintendo 3DS
Game Type: 3DS
NA Availability: Digital | Retail
EU Availability: Digital
Block Usage:  12,099

If you haven’t played Harvest Moon in recent years, you probably don’t know that the series now has a new game, called Story of Seasons.  Honestly, I’d heard of Story of Seasons before, but I never put 2-and-2 together to realize that it was actually the new name for Harvest Moon.  So, if you didn’t know, there you have it.  If you’re playing Story of Seasons, you are playing Harvest Moon.

XSEED Games recently localized a title related to Story of Seasons, but more of a cross-over with another franchise, Popolocrois.  This was a popular Manga that spawned a few games based on it and continuing the storyline of the series.  The original Popolocrois game got re-released on the PSP last gen, though it isn’t available for download via PSN if Vita owners wish to play it.

This cross-over was once called Popolocrois Farm Story, as it crossed over Popolocrois with Harvest Moon elements.  Now that we have the localization, I’m ready to give you some information!  Here’s my review of Return of Popolocrois: A Story of Seasons Fairytale!

Story

Return to Popolocrois begins at Prince Pietro’s 13^th birthday, only 2 years after the first game in the series and one year after the second game.  We detail the events of those games as an introduction to the characters, and the land of Popolocrois is once again under threat.  Strange, powerful black beasts have shown up, corrupting farmland and attacking citizens.  Prince Pietro volunteers to journey to a faraway world to train to fight back against these beasts, unknown that the plan is actually to strand him there, never to return.

The story details Pietro’s introduction to this new world, making friends and helping restore its land while journeying to find a way to save his own home of Popolocrois.  It certainly doesn’t sound much like a Harvest Moon game, does it?  We will get to that in the next section of the review.

Gameplay

Return to Popolocrois is a turn-based RPG with farm simulation and character building elements thrown into the mix.  It wouldn’t be fair to say this is half Popolocrois and half Harvest Moon, because it really isn’t.  I would call it a Popolocrois RPG with a bunch of Harvest Moon / Story of Seasons elements thrown into the mix.  You’re gonna be doing some farming, but you’re mostly traveling in a JRPG fashion.

The game progresses in chapters as you journey around the world.  To be able to get home, your main goal will be to open up four gates to four mystical farmlands to find a way home.  Opening these gates has you finding corrupted farmlands and shrinking to have those farms as dungeons, and defeating the boss monsters that are corrupting them.  Only after you do this will the paths open up for you to proceed to the next major areas of the game.

There are also a lot of side-quests you can do, and those side objectives are where Story of Seasons elements show themselves.  Each time you clear a dungeon, you obtain seeds to be able to plant new crops in your farm bases.  You can use these crops to either fulfill side-quests or sell for money for new items and equipment for your party.  Side-Quests will normally have you farming something or fighting off some monster.  Sometimes, you have to do both.

The other major element from Harvest Moon / Story of Seasons is affection levels with other characters.  In each major town you visit, you’ll encounter girls that are gifted by the fairies of the land.  All of these girls you can be-friend and grow affection with.  This is done by visiting them often, giving them presents, and you can unlock special events with them.  To know which you are gaining affection with, the game will often give you notification messages to say that someone is missing you.

As you proceed through all of this, you will also recruit party members and be fighting in random fights with enemies as you travel the world, much like in traditional RPG games.  It is also worth noting that this isn’t a game where you can see the random encounters.  They just pop up and put you in a battle while traveling, be it in a dungeon or a field area.

Combat functions much like it did in the other Popolocrois games.  When you go into combat, you are all placed on the field and so is the enemy.  During your during, you can move around the field with limited range (similar to how you can in The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky).  The goal is to be able to move to have attack range where the enemy is.  When you go up, it shows your range and will highlight an enemy.  You also have skills that have much larger ranges as well as Team Attacks where you can perform even more powerful skills with multi-character attacks.

Once you win a fight, you gain experience that move towards leveling up to increase your stats as well as learning new skills.  That experience is divided up between your party members.  You start out with only two, but it will quickly end up in a full party, both of characters that automatically join and others that you can choose to let join or not.

I wouldn’t say this is a particularly difficult RPG to play through.  I went through a lot of it without much, if any trouble against bosses.  As long as you fight all of the battles you come across and make sure you take a full party with you, there shouldn’t be many areas where you have issues.  It’s a pretty light and casual RPG.

Overall, it’s a fun RPG, though the simple premise of the dungeons both fits in with casual RPGs and can leave you wanting a bit more.  Each dungeon is just, go in, fight a few random encounters, defeat a boss, done.  While this is the normal trend, they’re all quite short especially when compared to other RPGs, even other casual RPGs.

Controls

Controlling the game I’ve no real issue with.  It works quite well.  First of all, you don’t have any extra control options on the New 3DS.  The Z buttons and C Stick are not used for anything.  So, no need to worry there.  The touch controls also are mostly options.  A few of the touch menus you can use buttons for, though a couple, like the Hints button to tell you where to go next, can only be done on the touch screen.

Moving around can be done with either the D-Pad for walking or Circle Pad for running.  A will let you interact with menus, objects, and people, and B lets you cancel menu options.  X pulls up the customization menu, and that’s about all you’ll be using a lot of throughout the game.

Again, I have no quarrel with the controls.  They are very easy to learn and use, and many are always displayed on the touch screen to ensure that you do not forget how to do certain things, like the customization menu.

Presentation

Visually, I really have to nitpick.  The cell shading really helps the anime-like presentation show itself, but it’s not quite as refined and smooth as it should be.  If you’re playing on an XL, expect to see tons of jagged edges over practically every character model.  Environments are fine, but character models are fggvery jaggy and blurry at times.  It looks better on a 3DS/2DS, but something to bear in mind.

How the game performance there is nothing wrong with.  The music is great and fits the casual theme well, the load times are short, and I didn’t see any areas where the frames dropped.  The occasional full anime CG scene also helps the presentation with the oldschool RPG feel.

Title: Croixleur Sigma
Developer: Souvenir Circ, Active Gaming Media, Playism
Platform: PlayStation Vita
Game Type: Vita
Download: 816 MB
NA Availability: Digital Download
EU Availability: Digital Download
PSTV Support: Yes

Croixleur Sigma is one of the games I’ve really been looking forward to playing on my PS Vita.  For a couple reasons, too.  First of all, it’s because I had a fun time talking back and forth with Playism about whether the game ran on the PlayStation TV.  Another is what it is.  An anime-style fast-paced action game.  It’s looked like a lot of fun from the first time I saw screenshots of the game.

So, before we get started, let’s do some history on the game, itself.  This originally released on PC, simply as Croixleur.  It only had 1 story scenario and far less game modes back then, and was also a fraction of the price.  Since then, it’s been updated with new story scenarios, unlockable game modes, characters, and more.  To summarize, it is an enhanced port of the original game with a bunch of new content thrown in.

Now, we can get this started.  Here is my official review of the PS Vita version of Croixleur Sigma!

Story

The story takes place in the Queendom (kingdom ruled by a Queen) of Ilance, where two different military groups have fought for power over the land.  The plot takes place around two young girls, one from each faction, as they race their way up a combat-oriented tower.  Whoever wins the trial will decide which faction will have military dominance and have the right to protecting the Royal Family.

Apart from this, there’s a new bit of story with two new characters.  These are introduced in the new story scenarios, as the Queendom comes under threat from magical invaders, and the two venture into their fortress to discover and eliminate that threat.

As grand as that story summary may sound, the story is one of the more disappointing aspects of the game.  It’s not that it isn’t interesting, but it felt like more of a “This is justification for you doing this” sort of thing.  A lot of the scenes go through and act like you already know a ton about the story, and even that is pretty light.  It has a very interesting backstory, but once you reach the end of even all four scenarios, I couldn’t help but feeling a bit of a “Where’s the rest?  That’s it?” notion.  I think it could and should have been fleshed out a lot more, as far as story is concerned.

Gameplay

Croixleur Sigma is an arena-based action game with RPG elements thrown into the mix.  Each stage has you in a small arena, fighting against wave of enemies in fast-paced combat and leveling up as you go (hence the RPG elements).  Although each game mode handles things a little differently, that’s the general synopsis.  Arena-based brawler with RPG elements to mix things up.

Speaking of game modes, let’s talk about what is available.  From the main menu, there’s a tutorial mode that teaches you how the game works.  Then, once you get to the Game Modes menu, you have Story Mode, Score Attack Mode, Survival Mode, Challenge Mode, Dungeon Mode, and Training Mode.  Note that some of these are not unlocked from the start and you must clear parts of Story Mode to be able to use them.

Story Mode is where you go to participate in the game’s story.  There are four different characters to play as across two scenarios.  Although it appears as four different scenarios, they are more or less two scenarios with two character options.  The main difference is that the story is told from that character, and the ending is slightly different, depending on who you choose to play through it as.

Unlocking new scenarios are a matter of clearing already-available scenarios.  However, one scenario can only be unlocked by moving through the first scenario very quickly and covering it all in under 10 minutes of its 15-minute time limit, enabling a “True Ending” and thus enabling the second character’s story mode.  The third and fourth scenarios can just be unlocked by beating the earlier scenarios normally, rushed or not.

Score Attack Mode gives you a time limit, where you fight off as many enemies as possible to get a high score in that time limit.  Then you have Survival Mode, where you fight endless waves of enemies until you are finally taken down, yourself.  Challenge Mode pits you in specific scenarios and conditions to conquer.  Finally, there is Dungeon Mode (Training I won’t go deep into.  Imagine Practice Mode from fighters).  In Dungeon Mode, you are traveling a 50-floor dungeon (Much longer than any of the story mode scenarios, fighting off enemies and bosses, with the goal of reaching the end of the dungeon and clearing the game mode.

Now let’s talk about how you actually play the game.  In each stage, you’re placed in a small, circular arena where enemies will keep spawning until you’ve defeated all for that floor.  You do this by dashing around them, attacking with various weapons you find, and using both weapon skills that vary depending on the equipped weapon, and Secret Skills, which are Ultimate Attacks that you can use after racking up so much energy from defeating enemies.

The basic synopsis is the same across all modes.  In many modes, you will be alone in the dungeon against the hordes of enemies.  However, some modes, like Dungeon, give you an AI partner.  You start out with only a single weapon, but can collect more as you traverse the dungeons and defeat enemies.  Each weapon has a specific skill type attached to it, and you can equip up to four at the same time.

Skills and Weapons are also something you have to watch, because weapons can break.  If you use a single weapon too much, it will break and you will lose it.  It’s good to be able to be diverse and remember to switch these around so you have as few breaks as possible.  There is a small chance of getting that weapon back at the end of the stage, but it is no guarantee.  So, if there’s a skill you want to keep, be careful with your weapons.

MP is the final thing to watch for.  Dashing and Skills are a ton of fun to use (You can literally fly around the field almost endlessly with air dashing) but use up MP and if you enter a combo with no MP, you can’t chain skills if you get surrounded.  It’s a good idea to watch your MP gauge at all times.  Though it’s worth noting that this becomes more doable the further you get as you level up as you fight, increasing your pool of HP and MP.

The combat may feel a little clunky at first, but once you start utilizing the dash, which is clearly one of the biggest stars of the combat system, it gets very fluid and a ton of fun.  The difficulty can also show itself the further you get.  Although there is an Easy Mode for Story Mode, you don’t get difficulty options in the other Game Modes.  So, diving through Dungeon Mode can be quite difficult if you haven’t mastered the system.

Outside of this, there is also customization to be done.  While each character can equip weapons you find in their game modes, you also collect Medals from defeating enemies that are used for character customization.  This is 100% for looks and decoration, using medals to buy accessories like bunny ears, sunglasses, eyepatches, cat tails, etc. to customize the looks of each character.

As far as time is concerned, the Story Mode could take you as little as 2 hours to clear.  15 minutes a piece for Scenarios 1 and 2, and 30 minutes a piece for 3 and 4.  I would wager you’ll need to replay 1 and 2 at least a couple times to get into that “Under 10 minutes to unlock True Ending” challenge, so I’d place Story Mode more at 3 hours, maybe 4.  It certainly isn’t a long game, but the focus is clearly more on the extra game modes that are much longer.  The first Story Mode is only 15 minutes across about 15 stages.  Dungeon Mode is almost 4 times that, so expect a single go through Dungeon to take you at least an hour.

Your main concern here is whether it’s worth the money.  Croixleur Sigma costs $15 for cross-buy between the PS Vita and PS4 versions, but it is also worth noting that the Co-Op Multiplayer from the PC version is not present here.  Some may think $15 for a short-ish game may not be worth it, while others think it is.  For how much fun the combat can be, I personally think it is.

Controls

As far as controls are concerned, we aren’t looking at a confusing scheme.  First of all, the default scheme does have the Secret Skills set to the touch screen, which may prove odd for PlayStation TV owners.  However, there are alternate control schemes that move that to the physical buttons.

Moving around is done with the Left Analog Stick and the camera can be moved with either the D-Pad or the Right Analog Stick.  But really, there’s no reason to ever use the “Claw Camera” by using the D-Pad for camera movement.  The L trigger can be held with a face button for a weapon skill, and the R trigger is used to center the camera behind the player.  X is used for jumping, Square for dashing, and Circle is used for using normal physical attacks.

That’s about all there is to it.  It works quite well and is explained well in the Tutorial section.

Presentation

The visual presentation is what makes this game so impressive.  If you compared this to it’s PS4 version, you could see a difference, but this is a really nice looking Vita game.  The visual presentation is almost right on par with the PS4 version, savor a few jagged edges here and there.  Despite this, it still looks really good for a Vita game.

Performance also runs quite well.  The most I ever had to wait for a load screen was about 5 seconds, most of the time much less, and the game flows and loads new floors near-instantaneously.  To a point where they don’t even need to put in load times.  Tying this with the near-perfect frame-rate, the developers did an excellent job on Croixleur Sigma’s PS Vita version.

Title: Final Fantasy Explorers
Developer: Square Enix
Platform: Nintendo 3DS
Game Type: 3DS
NA Availability: Digital | Retail
EU Availability: Digital | Retail
Block Usage:  5,021

The Hunting RPG genre has been a big thing with handhelds lately, though the PS Vita has gotten the most games over the years.  The Nintendo 3DS, however, has been the system for Monster Hunter fans as of late, with Monster Hunter 3, Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, and the recently-announced Monster Hunter Generations.  It hasn’t seen many other hunting games, until this past month or so.

Square Enix has gone into the Hunting genre before, publishing a couple games of the Lord of Arcana series on the PSP and PS Vita.  They decided to go a little deeper and develop their own Hunting game for the Nintendo 3DS, though.  So, here comes coverage for the Hunting RPG that takes place in the Final Fantasy franchises.  Here is my official review of Final Fantasy Explorers!

Story

The world of Final Fantasy Explorers surrounds the existence of Crystals, which the population has found to be capable of helping them create technology and furthering their lifestyle.  In response to this, a large number of people have been traveling to unknown lands in search of more crystals, calling themselves “Explorers”.  These Explorers fight off monsters and powerful beings known as Eidolons in their journey for the Crystals.

The story of Explorers has an interesting premise, but is nearly nonexistent throughout the rest of the game.  Once you actually get into the game, it’s more just “We found an Eidolon here, so go fight it” or “Go explore this new area and see what monsters are there”, much like Monster Hunter handles story.  It’s got an interesting premise but doesn’t follow through with story throughout the rest of the game nearly on par with what the introduction sheds light on.

Gameplay

Final Fantasy Explorers is a Hunting RPG.  Hunting action game with RPG elements.  Whatever your personal definition of the genre is.  Like Freedom Wars, Monster Hunter, and Toukiden.  It is a mission-based game that has you exploring the continent and taking on both monsters and powerful bosses.

The main progression goes through taking Quests as you explore the continent the game takes place on.  You have a base of operations as well as a large open-world-style map of locations that you slowly explore and unlock new locations for as you progress through the game.  You will be using both, though will mostly be taking on quests and then heading into the map to do said quests.

The base has many different facilities you can use.  There is the Guild, where you can take on quests and sub-quests.  Shop-type facilities where you can buy items and equipment as well as forging and upgrading your equipment.  There’s a shop that lets you take fortunes before going on quests (much like the offering box from Toukiden).  There’s also a Moogle Shop that you can purchase from and gain plans for special equipment based on famous Final Fantasy characters, like Sephiroth and Yuna.  Finally, there’s a Monster Lab where you can create and modify monsters to join your party as AI characters and a Central Crystal, which is used to spend mission points to learn new abilities.

Exploration is in the form of dungeons that connect to other dungeons.  The game takes place on an overall world map that can be progressed in a semi-open-world fashion.  Instead of being locked to an arena during a mission, you can freely explore all unlocked areas at will.  You can even just embark to the World Map without taking on a quest just to explore for the sake of exploring or not being held down by the smaller timer of a quest (normally around 30 minutes versus 60 minutes for exploring without a quest).  Since the world is so huge, you unlock an airship later on so you can start a mission at a specific point instead of running through several dungeons just to get to where the mission takes place.

Combat takes place in a free-roam Action RPG fashion, like all Hunters do.  You have special job classes that unlock which you can take on, but those are just tied to what weapons you can equip for physical attacks.  Skills can be shared across classes.  For example, I can use the Black Mage class, but equip abilities both from the Black Mage and White Mage classes.  That way, you can use White Magic for healing and not relying on item stock.

Like most Hunters, there is an Action Point Gauge just below your health gauge that slowly regenerates, but is used whenever you use skills or dash through the field.  This is something you have to watch because you suddenly get very slow if this drops down to zero.  Aside from waiting, landing physical attacks on enemies will also help regenerate this gauge.  If you use a skill-heavy class like a mage, there will be times where you’ll have to resort to running to dodge attacks and using physical attacks to build up enough gauge to start casting spells again.

The final aspect of combat are Crystal Surges and Trances.  As you fight enemies, landing hits will build up a Crystal Gauge, which will enable Crystal Surges to temporarily increase your power.  This could be an elemental affinity, giving your attacks a certain elemental strength or status ailment or could make you twice your normal size, making it easier to cover long distances.  This can also lead to Trances to further increase power and allow you to temporarily borrow the powers of Legendary Final Fantasy heroes, like Cloud Strife.

To enhance this further, you can capture the essence of any of the Eidolons/Summons you fight as bosses and have a chance of gaining their signature abilities as a Crystal Surge, enabling abilities like Hellfire or Diamond Dust.

Aside from this, we should talk about the game’s repetition.  Most Hunters have different kinds of mission objectives, like gathering materials, fighting bosses, fighting certain enemies, harvesting materials from enemies, reaching location goals.  FFE does this, but it doesn’t have nearly the variety most Hunters do.  First of all is that the bosses can get repetitive.  You have your boss mission against Ifrit, and then you have another mission to fight Ifrit again that drops only 1 of the item you need 10 of for a certain piece of equipment.  So if you want the equipment, you have to fight Ifrit 10 times over and the same for all other Eidolons.

The other part is that almost every mission is killing mobs and that’s it.  Go kill 20 enemies.  Go kill 5 goblins.  Go kill 10 Lamias.  Without a whole lot of variety, the game can get repetitive and old pretty fast.

As far as time is concerned, FFE is just a tad bit behind most Hunters.  For the majority of the games, about 20 hours is the average timeframe for sticking to Story Missions.  That’s about how long the original Toukiden was, and Freedom Wars.  FFE I would put around 16-17 hours if you just stick to story missions.  It’s close, but not quite at the average.  Nothing to worry about, as the side missions can easily double or triple that play time.  But something to consider.

Controls

Controlling the game is a pretty simple maneuver.  Camera Controls are a bit weird if you don’t have a New 3DS, though, because of the claw camera controls.  L resets the camera and the D-Pad manually moves it.  With a New 3DS, though, the C Stick is used to rotate the camera and the Z buttons can be held down to be able to dash.

The Circle Pad is used to move around the base and the field.  L is used to reset the camera and can be held to pull up one of the skill palettes.  R can also be held for the alternate skill palette and tapped to lock onto the nearest enemy.  A is used to interact with NPCs and B is held to dash.  Y can be used for physical attacks and X is used to pull up the menu.  Any of the face buttons can be used for appropriate skills when L/R are held down.

I don’t really have any issues with the control scheme.  It’s a little odd on the pre-New models, but the Camera reset and lock-on mechanics make it doable.

Presentation

Visually is where I would knock a point off for this game’s presentation.  The game doesn’t look terrible, but it doesn’t look great, either.  In all honestly, it looks like an early PSP game.  Some of the environments are colorful, but there are a lot of grainy and jagged areas that really shouldn’t be there.  I’d put this game on the low-end of graphical games of the Nintendo 3DS.

Performance-wise, it is mostly good.  The game’s load times are nice and short, and the frames don’t drop too often.  There are some slight drops when running around, but they’re not heavy enough to hurt the game’s performance.  The only time when it gets bad is when you have a full party in online co-op.  With 2 players, it is fine, but with 3-4 it can drop a fair bit.

Title: Samurai Warriors 4 Empires
Developer: Koei Tecmo
Platform: PlayStation Vita
Game Type: Vita
Download: 2.9 GB
NA Availability: Digital Download
EU Availability: Digital Download
PSTV Support: Yes

The Musou genre has been very popular among fans of Koei Tecmo, particularly through the Dynasty Warriors franchise.  Last year, I got my first taste of the genre with Hyperdimension Neptunia U, and the home of the genre with Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires.  I reviewed it, noting a few things, good and bad, but have not been back to the genre since then.  At least, until now.

There are other franchises that Koei Tecmo does within the genre other than Dynasty Warriors, namely Warriors Orochi and the Samurai Warriors series.  Samurai Warriors has been getting PS Vita games for a good bit now, and it wasn’t until recently that I got a taste of it for myself.  Thanks to Koei Tecmo PR, here is my official review of another Empires title, Samurai Warriors 4: Empires!

Story

Samurai Warriors 4 and 4-II had story modes to flesh out story scenarios.  Like Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires, though, there is no Story Mode here.  One mode has a lot of character biographies to learn about each character’s background information, but the main mode is not a story-driven one, but a gameplay-driven one.

The basic idea here is to imagine Dynasty Warriors 8: Empires, except as a Samurai Warriors game.  The short of it is that there is no story campaign.

Gameplay

Samurai Warriors 4: Empires is a 3D Action game with management and character creation elements thrown into the mix.  During gameplay, you will be thrown into combat in large 3D arenas against huge mobs of enemies with your own allied teams in fast-paced beat-em-up gameplay.

The Game Modes available in this game are Conquest Mode, Genesis Mode, Edit Mode, Vault, and Settings.  First of all, Vault and Settings Mode are used for viewing scenes, music, and character biographies and changing the game settings, respectively.  They are the smallest of the game modes since you don’t actually play anything inside them.

Next, let’s talk about Edit Mode since it can be used within the other two modes of the game.  Edit Mode is where you can create your own custom characters.  You can customize gender, face, height, chest size, arm length, weight, as well as weapons.  This game has a ton of weapon possibilities, but not quite as many as Dynasty Warriors.  There are around 60-70 different weapons, each with their own playstyle, vs the near-100 in DW8: Empires.  It’s still enough and different enough to merit that this doesn’t completely feel like a Dynasty Warriors knock-off.

Once you create your characters, you can also set parents for stats and use them in the other game modes.  Whenever you make a scenario in them, there is an option to allow Custom Characters and you can even input that character into your starting clan so you can use them right away.  Much easier than Dynasty Warriors that just put them in a random clan you had to eventually find and obtain in order to use them.

Conquest and Genesis Modes are the main gameplay modes in this game, though it wouldn’t be as farfetched to say they’re slightly different versions of the same mode.  In both modes, you can tackle an era and scenario where you go in under a certain clan with an objective for them to complete.  The only difference is that Conquest Mode has preset scenarios and you can customize your own scenario in Genesis Mode.

When you begin a scenario, you go in under one of the 40 clans/territories of ancient Japan and they will have different ambitions, depending on the clan.  In DW8, every game was to obtain all territories and unite the entire country under a single banner.  The Ambitions in SW4 can be anything from that to uniting a specific territory, or as simple as leading a conquest and taking the nation’s capital.  This brings a lot more variety and much less lengthy campaigns to these game modes.

Navigating each turn is similar to how it worked in DW8:E, but a little different as well.  First of all, you cannot join as a Freelancer, so there’s no way to freelance before joining a clan.  You start in a Clan, so the only battle types are invading and defending territories.  This does limit what you can do a bit, but the biggest parts of it are here, intact.

Between battles are management options.  You can customize your own castle with a logo and wallpaper, but can also direct certain officers to developments in your territory.  This could be as simple as increasing your military forces or investing in resources and creating new formations to use in combat.  Among this, marriage events also return, allowing your character to marry another after working with them for so long.

Combat, itself, is very similar to other games.  You still go into the field with troops and must capture bases the same way as in Dynasty Warriors.  How you fight is the only difference.  You have normal and heavy attacks that you can combo with.  You also have Hyper Attacks that allow you to easily zip across the field and have much faster-paced battles.  It’s still a hack n slash and can still seem repetitive if you always use the same weapon type, but it’s got a little more spunk than previous Samurai Warriors titles.

One thing to note is that, despite the Wiki page for this game advertising Multiplayer, there is no multiplayer in Samurai Warriors 4: Empires.  Whether that is solely in the PS Vita version, I’m not sure.  I just know that there is no Multiplayer Option in any of the game modes.  For all intents and purposes, it is a Single Player game.

Another thing to note is that it is a good bit more difficult than Dynasty Warriors.  The first couple games I played I set on Normal and Easy, and the difficulty spikes quickly if you don’t take time to build up your resources.  On the Easy Mode game, I went through a single invasion easily, but the next I tried had me easily underpowered, completely losing my health in a matter of seconds after jumping into a horde of enemies to try out a few combos.  It’s a button-masher, but not one you can take lightly.

As far as time is concerned, it’s difficult to say without a story scenario and with all the different kinds of Ambition Goals at your disposal.  If you go for a “Unite the Country” game, it could last you 8 hours or more.  But a “Reach the Capital” game could last as little as 3 or 4 hours.  It all depends on what you want to play.  Conquering all of the scenarios will surely take dozens of hours, but it depends on what you want to do with it.

Controls

We won’t be looking at a lot of differences between the controls of this and the last Empires game I reviewed.  Just like before, it is PlayStation TV compatible, so all of you PSTV owners will be able to play the game without issue.  Do note that you do have a couple touch controls when you play on the Vita, though.  Calling the horse is done with the rear touch screen.

Those rear touch controls are one thing I want to make a note of, along with the camera controls not working that well.  The camera is easy to move, and the game likes to put it directly above you when you’re near a horse or a wall.  It actually does this to me a lot, making it very annoying.

The game’s settings says you swipe the top-left corner of the rear touch pad to summon your horse and holding it while moving will mount your horse.  These controls are very finicky as I found that half the time when I did the touch correctly, no horse appeared and it always took me several attempts like this to get the mounting to work properly.

The rest of the controls are as such.  The Left Analog Stick is used to move and the Right Analog Stick rotates the camera.  The D-Pad is used for giving commands.  L is used to center the camera and guard against attacks, and the R trigger is used to enhance your abilities for a short time or use another special weapon skill.  X is used to jump and Square is used for light attacks.  Triangle is used for heavy attacks and Circle is used for Ultimate Attacks when the gauge is filled up.

I can’t say I don’t have any problems with the controls, as those finicky rear touch controls and camera angles that go out of place are quite an annoyance.

Presentation

This is the section I have no issues with.  Visually, it’s a step up from DW8: Empires, and things go quite smoothly.  There’s a lot of detail in all of the character models as well as the enemy models and environments.  Sometimes it’s hard to read the full map view, but overall, I have no quarrel with the visual presentation.

How the game plays is also an improvement.  Most Warriors games on the Vita suffer from slowdown issues.  DW8 Empires was definitely a step in the right direction but it still had problems.  Samurai Warriors 4 Empires is yet another step in the right direction.  It isn’t 60 fps, but I rarely saw any drops as I played the game.  It was a nice and smooth experience for me.

Title: Ace Combat Assault Horizon Legacy +
Developer: Access Games, Namco Bandai
Platform: Nintendo 3DS
Game Type: 3DS
NA Availability: Digital | Retail
EU Availability: Digital | Retail
Block Usage:  5,536

Every time I reach a landmark with the site, I want to use it on a particularly memorable game, or that of a memorable series, to me.  Today’s review marks the 350^th review I’ve done on the site, and of my review queue games, I chose to do the review on a series I love, Ace Combat.

I’ve done one Ace Combat review before, with Ace Combat: Joint Assault for the PSP and PS Vita.  I would’ve done more, but Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception never released on PSN for download on the PS Vita.  A shame, as it was one of my favorite PSP games.  To return to the series, we look to new handhelds, namely the Nintendo 3DS.

The 3DS got its own Ace Combat game back in 2011 in the form of a remake of Ace Combat 2.  Not to make this review on a game too old for this landmark, Namco Bandai released an updated and modified version of the game just last year, in 2015.  Unknown to me at the time when I bought it, I got that updated version.  So, here is my official review of the Nintendo 3DS title, Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Legacy Plus!

Story

The plot of Ace Combat 2 and this remake follows the Osean War, where several nations forge together alliances with two major military forces that are constantly at war with one another, set four years after the events of Ace Combat Zero.

Unlike Joint Assault, this takes place in Ace Combat’s original world structure and as such, doesn’t contain real landmarks, like Tokyo and London.  The story is interesting for what it is, but there’s not much in it to really stand out, especially compared to the borderline-science fiction stories we see in Ace Combat X and Joint Assault.

Gameplay

Like all other games of the series and its original version, this is a 3D flying combat game that borderlines on the definition of an aircraft simulator.  Each mission has you flying through various environments with the goal of shooting down target aircraft, defending locations, taking out facilities, escorting NPCs, among other things.  Most of these, though, has you flying through at high speeds and shooting down enemy aircraft.

Two comparisons are to be made.  First, AHL vs Ace Combat 2.  Aside from gameplay changes due to this being on the 3DS, the game has a bit more content than the original version of Ace Combat 2.  AC2 had 21 story missions and that’s about it.  Assault Horizon Legacy has 23 story missions plus 10 extra mission comprised of Extra and Survival Missions.  There is also more aircraft, including some from the PS3/Xbox 360 game, Ace Combat: Assault Horizon.

Now what’s the difference between Assault Horizon Legacy and Legacy Plus?  This update was mostly to make the game compatible with the Circle Pad Pro and the New Nintendo 3DS.  It added controls for the Z buttons for alternate sources of acceleration and deceleration.  The biggest addition was the ability to use some Amiibos to unlock Nintendo-themed color variations of certain aircraft.

The game proceeds in a linear fashion with unlocking mission after mission, similar to how it works in Joint Assault, but with less choices.  When you select a mission, you go into an unlocked aircraft and go into battle, which takes place in a large 3D arena where you and enemy aircraft are placed.

Engaging in enemies is a matter of finding them and firing on them with missile-based weapons and a machine gun weapon.  If you’ve played any of the other Ace Combat games, you know how this works.  You fly to an enemy and fire on them with a machine gun, or set a ranged weapon and wait for a lock-on to appear on them before firing.

Navigation is mostly the same, but the way you turn is different, since this is based on an older game in the series.  The method of tilting your plane vertically to turn is not present.  Instead, you can use swift g-force turns by holding down the accelerator and brakes at the same time for high-speed turns.  You also build up a gauge on the touch screen that can be used to make a cinematic about-face maneuver to get the jump on enemies directly behind you.

There’s also a Wingman feature that was in Ace Combat 2.  Instead of having a ton of near-useless AI fighters going with you, some missions allow you to take a wingman with you to fight alongside you.  They won’t be up to your level of fighting, but it’s certainly a nice thing to have, even if for a distraction so not all aircraft go at you at the same time.

This goes on across the 23 story missions and 10 extra missions.  A trek through the entire story campaign will likely take you about 4 hours, give or take.  It’s quite a bit shorter than more recent games, even with the extra content.  This is good because the game isn’t full price anymore, but it’s still a wonder of if you want to buy that short of a game with your money.  Joint Assault is still overpriced, but it still has a good 1-2 hours more content, yet fewer story missions than this game.

Controls

Controlling the game isn’t too hard, and it is plenty doable both on the old and new models of the 3DS.  I tried it on my 2DS as well as the New 3DS XL.  The New 3DS’ Controls are basically just being able to use ZL and ZR for Deceleration and Acceleration, just like the normal L and R trigger buttons can do.

Moving your plane around is done with the Circle Pad and the D-Pad is used to switch your missile weapon type.  The shoulder buttons are used for, as said above, deceleration and acceleration.  A is used for firing Missiles and B is used for the machine gun.  X is used to change targets, and Y is used for the about-face turn maneuver.

Also, the touch screen can be used to manually change your aim.

Presentation

Visually, the game doesn’t look bad, but it’s certainly not as polished as you’d expect.  There is some detail in the environments and planes, but there’s a lot more detail in Joint Assault, and that was a PSP game.  For the 3DS standards, it is acceptable, but nowhere near as polished as a game like this should be.  Why it isn’t is easily explained by how the game performs, which I’m about to get to.  Before, though, I will say that the audio and music is really well done, as the series music always is.

So what’s wrong with the performance?  The problem is that there’s a lot of lag in the game.  Even when there’s as little as three planes on screen, counting you, the game can easily fall into a mess of frame drops and laggy sections.  The game clearly struggles with what it’s trying to play, and that’s not a good thing.  Even with the lower visuals, it doesn’t perform very well in some missions.

Title: Mario Kart 7
Developer: Nintendo
Platform: Nintendo 3DS
Game Type: 3DS
NA Availability: Digital | Retail
EU Availability: Digital | Retail
Block Usage:  5,081

The Mario Kart series is something that’s been immensely popular among Nintendo gamers for the past 23 years, and the years just keep passing by.  Every Nintendo system since the Super Nintendo (SNES) has had a Mario Kart game, including handhelds.  From Super Mario Kart to Mario Kart 64 to Mario Kart Wii to Mario Kart 8, every generation of gamers have experienced this series for the first time.  Personally, I began the series with Mario Kart 64, though I have gone back and played the original as well.

With so many games in the series already, there’s a lot people can do with the game, and that’s a nice aspect of the game I’m about to talk about.  If you’re a 3DS owner, there is a Mario Kart game that you can enjoy, and even comes bundled with the Nintendo 2DS still.  The most recent handheld Mario Kart that still has an active online community, here is my official review of Mario Kart 7!

Story

Due to this game having no story, this section shall remain blank.

Gameplay

Mario Kart 7 is a 3D racing game with combat elements thrown into the mix.  This is the series that practically defined the combat racing genre for other franchises, like Wipeout.  During races, you are racing to be first, but you also obtain power-ups to attack your opponents with as you go through each track.

As far as content is concerned, there are 32 race tracks in the game.  16 of these are tracks recreated from previous Mario Kart games and 16 are completely new.  This matches the amount of track content in its Wii U successor, Mario Kart 8.  There are 16 playable characters, 8 of which must be unlocked by beating each Grand Prix Cup in 150cc/Hard Mode.  You can also use your Nintendo Mii in the game.

The game has 3 ways to play the game: Single Player, Local Multiplayer, and Online Multiplayer.  Single Player has most of the game modes, which I will detail shortly.  The two Multiplayer Modes allows you to play with opponents, be them in the room with you with other 3DS/2DS systems or online via Wi-Fi connections in either standard Racing tracks or Battle Tracks, where you fight each other constantly for high scores.

Single Player is comprised of Grand Prix, Time Trial, Balloon Battle, and Coin Runners.  Grand Prix has you going through 4-race tournaments to unlock Kart Mods and Characters through Easy, Medium, and Hard Difficulties, in the form of 50cc, 100cc, and 150cc modes.  Time Trial has you racing to try to get the fastest record for a specific track.  Balloon Battle has you with Balloons for health and fighting and hitting enemies with power-ups over the course of a time limit or until you lose balloons.  Coin Battle has you racing and collecting as many coins littered around the track as possible.

Before you go into a track, you select karts with base models as well as customizable tired and parasols.  Parasols don’t differ, but karts and tires do.  Each kart has its own speed, weight, handling, etc.  You can go for a high speed model with low handling if you have good reflexes for the turns or have a standard model so you can just casually drive and not worry too much about sharp turns.  Tires can also change this.  Bigger tires are more for speed and smaller are more for handling.

Racing through tracks is a matter of staying on the right paths and maneuvering ground, underwater, and gliding sections.  Every track has various branches you can go through as well as paths that are easy to drive on and paths next to them that are not.  Some might have blocked roads that’s easy to drive on and sand-based paths next to them that will slow you down if you drive through them.  The main goal here is to learn the tracks so you know exactly how to drive on them.

The combat elements come from power-ups.  You pick up power-up items that give you random power-ups.  This could be as simple as mushrooms to give you a speed boost or koopa shells that you launch to ricochet off walls or track down enemies ahead of you to make them crash and slow down so you can catch up.  There are a lot of different power-ups including a fairly new Tanooki tail power-up.

The tracks, themselves, are themed after Nintendo games and locations, the majority being of the Mario series.  However, a couple of the tracks in 7 also have locations from other series, like the Wii Fit series, despite the fact that the Wii Fit Trainer is not an unlockable character in the game.  Aside from the Mii, every character is from the Mario franchise.

The main differences is this is the fact that this has underwater sections where the physics change and your kart turns into a boat/kart combo.  Also is the gliding sections.  There are some jumping pads like boost pads that have you gliding over long distances with no ground nearby, making you glide with a parasol through the wind towards the next path.  There are physics here as well with wind as well as breezes that can blow you around.

Another thing are coins that are scattered around the racetrack.  You can collect up to 10 coins to take with you after completing the race.  However, when you get hit by a weapon or fall off the track, you’ll lose 3 coins.  Getting out of every race with 10 coins will be no easy feat.  The point of collecting coins is that they’re used for unlocking new kart and tire models for use in later races, essential for the harder difficulties.

As far as time is concerned, no Mario Kart game takes a very long time to finish the Grand Prix for.  If you go through 50cc mode, you won’t have issues winning every tournament and could finish all 8 tournaments in about 2 hours.  What I would say, though, is that you would go through with all difficulties.  You’d do 50cc to familiarize yourself with the tracks, 100cc to improve your skills, and then the challenging 150cc for unlocking characters and further preparing for multiplayer.  By this, I would clock the game, outside of multiplayer, at least around 5-6 hours.

Finally, multiplayer works incredibly well.  There is virtually no lag at all when you go into multiplayer matches.  I’ve done nearly a dozen different matches now, races and battles both, and those online matches ran just as fluidly as single player races.  The community is always active.  I have never had to wait more than about 5 seconds to get a full match of people.

Controls

The controls are pretty simple to use, but there is only one thing I will say about acceleration: Owie.  The thing about racing games is that the 3DS face buttons were not meant to be used in the manner of being constantly held down.  Every time I used my thumb to hold down the A button for acceleration, it was strained and was stinging and in pain by the end of a single lap.  The alternate button (Y) is much more comfortable, but still strains your finger.  Without being able to customize the controls, I feel they should have made the triggers for acceleration and deceleration.

Now the controls.  You use the Circle Pad to move around the racetrack and D-Pad is used for changing the camera angle between driver view and third person view.  The two triggers are used for using power-ups with the L trigger and jumping with the R trigger.  A and Y are used for acceleration.  B is used for the brakes.  Finally, X doesn’t do much of anything.

Nothing is wrong with the control scheme, but the buttons themselves causes that strain and ache with acceleration.  The ability to customize the controls would have gone a long way.

Presentation

Visually, I’ve got no complaints.  It’s not a perfect-looking game, but it looks pretty nice.  You can see some jagged on the XL and on the normal/2DS models, there are far less.  The models don’t look perfect, but it’s a very nice looking 3DS game.

Performance I also have no issues with.  There’s no lag or frame-dropping as you play the games and the load times are normally nice and quick.

When I reviewed the Nintendo 2DS earlier this month, I talked about how I loved how it felt and played.  However, I also noted that I did not like the feel of the L and R triggers being set up at the very top of the device.  Having been playing the system since then, I still stand by that remark.  My fingers still feel strained every time I have to use the triggers.  And, after just reviewing Mario Kart 7, I had to use those triggers a lot.

Since before I bought the 2DS, I’ve been after a very particular accessory for the device.  A grip that PDP made for the 2DS that has lower triggers on it.  In the US, only GameStop sells the triggers, and there isn’t much of a retail presence for the grips.  Unlike Europe with the Pokemon 2DS units, North America hasn’t seen a lot of new 2DS Bundles lately.

You can order them online without any problems, but I finally found one at a Game Swap used game store.  Now that I’ve had a good amount of time to use the grip, I can give you my thoughts.  Here is my review of the 2DS Trigger Grip from PDP!

Design

The design is pretty standard for a gaming grip.  You have the base engraved area that the system slides and clicks into with two controller-style handles on the bottom so you can hold it like you would a PlayStation controller.  These are made of a smooth silicon-like material to give that comfortable controller feel when you pick up and use it.

The sides and the top are mostly used for holes to enable access to all of the sliders and compartments.  There is one hold on the left side for the volume slider and a large hold on the right to enable access to the stylus pen and memory card slot.  On top are two holes for the charging port and the cartridge slot.  Finally, the back has two round holes for the cameras.

The stars of this grip, though, are the two trigger buttons built into the back of it.  Unlike the 2DS’ natural design of the triggers being on the top of the system, the two triggers are on the back, halfway between the height of the stylus pen and the camera holes.  The triggers, themselves are shaped with flat tops, making them unlike any trigger I’ve ever used on any system, and I’ve played on a lot of systems.  Not unlike the L2 and R2 triggers for the PS4, but without the curve.

There’s not much else to say about the actual design.  They don’t weigh nearly as much as the system does, so there isn’t going to be a feeling of it being heavy, even with the system attached to the grip.  It may not look the most stylish on some colors, since the grip only comes in black.  But, comfort over looks, as they say.

Performance

Now we get to how it actually performs.  I have good to say here and bad to say.  Most people will tell you this is the best grip for the 2DS, and I definitely agree with that statement.  The feel of the grip is really nice.  It fits well in your hand and creates a lot of comfort.  Your fingers can go around and latch onto the two controller grip sections well and it feels natural to pick it up when it’s already in the system.

Next, let’s talk about longevity.  The comfort of the grip may very well be too much.  Whenever I play the system for more than, say, 15-20 minutes, some of the fingers in my right hand can easily start to go numb.  This is normal with handhelds if you’re laying down in bed, but this happens to me, regardless of sitting, standing, or laying positions.  So, in my opinion, it gives just a bit too much comfort.

The other criticism I have, regarding the grip, is the hole areas for the sliders and buttons.  The holes for most things are fine, but the hole for the stylus pen and memory card slot isn’t quite as large as it could or should be.  Whenever I put my fingers in to open the memory card slot, the back of the hole rubs and pushes against my finger, just below the base of my fingernail.  This ends up pushing and hurting my finger every time I do this.

So, how do the triggers work?  They work really well.  Once you get the system going and start pressing on the triggers, the pressure pads built into the system work fluidly and comfortably.  You may not feel like they move down far enough to push down on the real triggers, but they really do.  A light push down and it responds just as well as you would on the normal L and R triggers.

The positioning of the triggers also improves the finger strain tremendously.  I have not felt my finger strain once with the use of the trigger grip, yet I still do whenever I take the system out of said grip and use it normally.  This is the kind of area the 2DS should have had for the triggers, and the trigger grip fixes the problem with no problem.

Title: Resident Evil The Mercenaries 3D
Developer: Nintendo
Platform: Nintendo 3DS
Game Type: 3DS
NA Availability: Digital | Retail
EU Availability: Digital | Retail
Block Usage:  4,711

Resident Evil is one of the franchises that I’ve loved ever since the very first game of the series I played which was, in fact, the original on the PlayStation.  Since then, I have spent countless hours, from 1-3 on the PlayStation to 5 and Chronicles on PS3 to Revelations 2 on both the Vita and PS4.  There has yet to be an RE game I didn’t enjoy, and that’s including that wonky Game Boy Color game, Resident Evil Gaiden.

This past week was the celebration of the franchise’s 20^th anniversary, and I have aimed to finish off all of the RE games I can currently review for the site because of that.  I’ve already reviewed all of the RE games available on the Vita (with the exception of the PS3 games on PS Now), and have reviewed Revelations for the 3DS.  That leaves two more RE games that I can review on handhelds until more release.

One of those games has not arrived in the mail yet, but the other I nabbed from this week’s sale for only $4.99!  Here is my official review of Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D!

Story

Due to this game having no story mode, this section shall remain blank.

Gameplay

Mercenaries 3D is a third-person shooter with light survival horror elements.  Since, unlike other Resident Evil games, this is solely focused on multiplayer, there are little to no horror elements here.  So, for all intents and purposes, this game is a third-person shooter with the only survival horror elements coming from the enemies on-screen.

Progression in the game is in the form of missions.  The game has 30 missions to take on, each separated into Ranks 1-5 and EX.  Unlocking Ranks is in the form of completing all missions in the previous rank, though unlocking 5 and EX requires you to do all prior missions and achieve a high rank instead of just being able to finish them.

Unlocking new ranks will unlock new missions as well as new characters.  There are 8 playable characters from across the Resident Evil franchise and they can all be unlocked by getting to higher ranks.  You start out with only Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine, so if you want higher-tier characters like Claire Redfield, Albert Wesker, or my personal favorite, Rebecca Chambers, you have to do campaign and unlock more missions.

Mission objectives are pretty simplistic overall, though the objectives only vary in the first few ranks which serve as various tutorials.  You start with missions to help you move around and interact with environments and keep moving on various weapons, items, and other elements until you finish up with missions on how to defeat enemies, increase your time limit, and taking on bosses.

Once you get past that, every mission is the same: Kill as many enemies as possible in the time limit given to you.  With this in mind, you will be firing upon enemies over and over again while looking for special items to increase your time limitation like Time Bonus items scattered across the map or simply using physical attack finishers to give yourself a little more time.  The more time you have, the more enemies you can kill and the better rank you’ll get when the mission is over.  Since you have to get a B Rank on every mission to unlock Rank 5, you’ll always want as much time as humanly possible.

Weapons are what you use to do this with.  Each character has a specific weapon set assigned to them and you use those weapons to fight off enemies in each mission.  Since each character has specific weapons, each character plays a little different aside from stat differences with some characters being stronger with physical attacks than others.

Customization mostly comes from skills.  As you fight missions, you can acquire skills to enhance your character.  These skills can increase how much health an herb can replenish or increase your aptitude with certain weapons.  You unlock these by doing certain things.  Use handguns a lot, and you’ll unlock Handgun Aptitude.

What you’ll be fighting against will be familiar to fans of the franchise.  For all intents and purposes, this is like a Mercenaries mode for Resident Evil 4 and 5, as every location and every enemy are taken from those two games, the majority being from 5.  So you’ll be taking on Ganados that can mutate, Maijin soldiers, and bosses like the Wasp/Scorpion monster from RE5.

This also brings up a good point in the game.  Nothing in this game is new, aside from some of the alternate costumes you can unlock.  Every location, item, and enemy were taken straight from RE4 and RE5.  The mechanics here work decently well (more on that in the controls and presentation sections), but it feels like this is a glorified Mercenaries mode being packaged as its own game.

That is my main problem with the game. It feels so close and glued to the design of Mercenaries from 4 and 5 with virtually nothing new that it feels like more of a tech demo.  To me, Mercenaries 3D feels like “Let’s see how an RE mercenaries mode might play on the 3DS and release it as a full game”.

One thing to mention regarding this is length.  There are 30 missions total.  21 Campaign Missions and 9 EX Missions.  Before Rank 4, all missions can probably be beaten in less than 5 minutes for a series veteran.  That’s roughly 1 hour of play time for half of the game.  Granted, later missions do take more time if you go for the time bonus, but the long and short of it is that, with only 30 missions, it’s not a very long game.

Controls

Now let’s talk about the controls for the game.  This game was made before the Circle Pad Pro came out, and was never updated to work with it, like Revelations was.  As such, the Z buttons and C Stick have no function in Mercenaries 3D.  If you’ve ever played Revelations on the normal 3DS, you can see where I’m going with this.

The game has 4 control schemes.  The main control scheme has you moving with the Circle Pad and then holding down the R trigger with various face buttons for the majority of the controls, such as R + Y for shooting and R + B for reloading.  Pretty classic RE control scheme.  It also has one more shooter-like with L and R for shooting, D-Pad for reloading, and the face buttons for moving the camera.

The latter is, by far, the closest to true dual analog controls and the least wonky with movement, but it’s still wonky.  No matter what control scheme you choose, there will be at least one or two options that will be awkward for you to use.

Presentation

Visually, the game looks fine.  It’s got some pretty polished visuals, especially for an early 3DS game.  When I played it, I just imagined it like “This is what RE4 or RE5 would look like if it got ported to the 3DS”.  Granted, they’d need a much bigger cartridge size for all of one of those games, but it looked pretty good for a handheld RE title.

How the game plays is something that needs to be addressed.  The frame-rate stays steady for the most part, whether you’re doing single player or playing with a friend over online co-op.  The only discrepancy here is that faraway enemies will look choppy, a clear design flaw with the game’s draw distance, because they stop the choppy actions when you get so close to them or they get so close to you.  Another would be some characters’ physical animations.  Every time I use a finisher with Claire, her last kick goes through the enemy and hits nothing but air or a wall.

Title: Senran Kagura Estival Versus
Developer: Tamsoft, Marvelous, XSEED Games
Platform: PlayStation Vita
Game Type: Vita
Download: 4.9 GB
NA Availability: Digital Download | Retail
EU Availability: Digital Download | Retail
PSTV Support: Yes

Let’s talk about fanservice and its many meanings.  To me, the term “fanservice” means some sort of easter egg thrown in for series fans into movie, TV Show, or video game.  An example of this would be the inclusion of King Dodongo and a remix of the Ocarina of Time Dinosaur Boss Battle music being thrown into Hyrule Warriors.  Something for fans to pick up on.

The other term, which many people in the gaming world now use, is another term for “Eye Candy”.  When many Japanese game fans say the term fan-service, they’re talking about lewd and sexual content in a game, be it images of girls with bikinis about to burst or innuendo about sexual acts, be it in that context or not.  An example of a game with a lot of this is the Dead or Alive Xtreme series or Criminal Girls: Invite Only.

Even with sexual fanservice, there is always a limit to what is allowed to be brought West and a limit to what some people think is acceptable even in the world of that sort of fanservice.  No PS Vita series is better known for fanservice than the Senran Kagura games.  This is going to be my first time writing for this series.  So, here is my official review of Senran Kagura: Estival Versus!

Story

The story of Estival Versus takes place in an unknown time period after the events of Shinovi Versus.  During a festival to celebrate fallen Shinobi Warriors, the various schools of Shinobi featured in the series are transported to an alternate dimension to do part in a game of combat with one another as well as being able to see old relatives long past.

The story of Estival Versus is certainly interesting enough to keep you going, especially if you’re a fan of the series.  Series newcomers will also have a fair amount of information thrown at them with origin stories for the various characters.  You won’t know who is who at the beginning, but after various sequences, you will learn a lot about the characters, making this game doable even if you haven’t played previous games or watched the anime series for Senran Kagura.

The only thing I’ll note otherwise about the story is further in as well, with the amount of lewd and derogatory content in the game.  There are times when everyone is acting serious, but there are also a lot of times where you will see overly sexual dialogue going on.  From Kat acting like a horny and shameless teenage boy and groping other girls’ breasts to Ryona trying to re-enact Master/Slave BDSM relationships in casual conversation, there is a lot of sexual content thrown in and it is much more than any other game I’ve ever played.

More visual in nature, but every time the characters move even inches during story dialogue, their breasts jiggle, a lot.  There was a reason that the first day I got the game, someone on PSN sent me a message, asking me if I was masturbating with one hand and playing the game with the other.  No, that’s not a joke.  Someone really did that.

Gameplay

Senran Kagura: Estival Versus is a 3D Beat-em-up game with RPG elements thrown into the mix.  In each stage you play, you’ll be fighting against hordes of enemies in a 3D arena while gathering items and experience to level up and enhance your own skills.  It isn’t unlike games like Shinovi Versus, Uppers, and somewhat like Hyperdimension Neptunia U: Action Unleashed.

First of all, let’s talk about the fan-service in this game.  I told you about the fan-service in story scenes, but it’s also in the actual gameplay.  This is mostly comprised of story dialogue and costume-tearing.  The dialogue can happen during gameplay as well as story scenes.  While you’re fighting, if you take enough damage, your costume will be torn to shreds while showing your character in an embarrassing scene of said costume being torn.  Remember the costume-breaking in Neptunia U?  These animations are just like that.  Enemies’ costumes break, too.  Generally, all enemies will be down to nearly just a bra and panties by the time you finish them off.

The other major aspect of fan-service is the Dressing Room.  This lets you set characters up for poses, but also has a feature where you swipe the touch screen to disrobe the girls on screen.  Granted, full nudity is not there, but you can get as close as legally possible for a Western game release.

You can turn off the fan-service, to a point.  Basically, you can prevent your own costume from being torn.  However, this does not prevent enemy costumes from being torn or enemy bosses from having the same costume-shredding scenes when you’re fighting another major character as opposed to hordes of enemies.  Just be sure to remember this when you go to make your purchase.

Now let’s talk about the game, itself.  When you boot the game, you have Story Mode, Multiplayer, Dressing Room, Library, Settings, and Records.  Settings explains itself, though Records is actually the Save Data area, where you can manage your data as well as cross-save between the PS4 and PS Vita versions of the game.  Library is also a smaller game mode, comprised of viewing game stats and unlocked music.

Story Mode is the main area of the game.  This allows you to progress through the 8-day storyline the game has to offer, as well as learning how to control each of the 32 characters built into the game (some not unlocked at the start or without patches/DLC).  Each section is based around specific characters, giving you a chance to use most everyone, an ingenious way to tackle story mode that I first saw in Mortal Kombat (2011) and Injustice: Gods Among Us.

Each section of this mode are made up of going through story dialogue and going into stages, be it stages against hordes of enemies or stages against a single boss fight.  You arguably spend more time watching and reading cut-scenes than actually do combat, though.  Many of the scenes are quite lengthy.

Stages have you in large 3D arenas with enemies and sometimes partner AI to assist you in taking down said enemies.  In Story Mode, you’ll have missions in each stage, mostly defeating all of the enemies within the time limitations.  Unlike Hunting RPGs, though, time limits can be very tight.  If you don’t fight well against enemies, it can be very easy to run down that timer and fail a mission.  You still get EXP for failing a mission, but it also means you get to do all of it all over again.

Combat is combo-based.  You have combo chains you can link your attacks in and this is key to winning.  You also have different strategies, depending on which character you’re currently using.  Some are better to fast button-mash combos while others have slower attacks that you can charge up to maximize damage output.  It will all be a matter of playing around with each character to learn who is better at what, be it ground combat, aerial combat, combos, items you can pick up and throw, etc.

The more in-depth parts of combat are in various transformations.  You can build up a gauge to perform a Shinobi Transformation to increase your stats as well as to change your costume, heal, and change your fighting style.  Every character has one of these transformations as well as another that can be used to effectively disrobe them to bare minimum and create a different type of combat aura.

Combining ground and aerial combat will also make the fighting more fun.  If you do a combo and launch an enemy or group through the air, you can dash after them for much faster-paced combats.  Not all that unlike the Hyper Attacks from Samurai Warriors 4: Empires, but requiring an enemy to be launched before the combo can be chained.

Hordes and Bosses differ in the means that hordes are very easy to run around and just mash buttons without worrying about being pushed back much.  Bosses, however, always require a strategy of waiting for openings.  Even when you do have openings, it can be easy for them to break your combos, depending on who the character is.  This makes fighting bosses difficult, and that goes double for when you dive into the Online Multiplayer.

Overall, Story Mode should take you roughly 12 hours to finish, assuming you pay attention to scenes instead of skipping them.  Add Multiplayer to this if you get into the combat and it should last a good amount of time.

Controls

As far as the controls are concerned, this isn’t a very hard game to play.  The game is PlayStation TV Compatible, so you can look forward to being able to play it on the go or on the big screen, even without the PS4 version.

Moving around the stage is done with the Left Analog Stick and camera control with the Right Stick.  L and R are used for guarding, centering the camera, and are used for activating transformations.  The rest of the controls are the face buttons as the D-Pad is just an alternative for camera controls.  X lets you jump and Circle lets you dash and dodge.  Square is used for normal attacks and Triangle is used for heavy attacks.

I don’t have any quarrels with the way the controls are set up.  They’re also explained to you very well as you go through the tutorials.

Presentation

Visually, the game looks really well-done for a PS Vita game.  The cell-shading has a ton of details and very few jagged edges anywhere to be found.  Certainly one of the higher-end games on the Vita as far as visuals are concerned.  This also does a lot for the lewd fanservice, as there are physics elements for wind and, of course, breast jiggling.

There are two aspects of the presentation I have issues with.  First is the load times.  Many load sequences can take from around 12-20 seconds, depending.  The average is around 12-15, some longer and some shorter.

The main issue with the presentation is how the game plays.  As you go through the game, you’ll see quite a few frame drops when there are a lot of enemies on-screen.  As with many other games, the drops aren’t too heavy to disrupt your flow.  But it’s certainly noticeable.

March has been a very productive month for the site.  Not only did I pass my 10-reviews-per-month goal, but I got a lot more than that done.  This month also marked the return of hardware and accessory reviews.  Hardware reviews are very scarce on the site.  In fact, I believe I’ve only done 4 hardware reviews across the entire 27 months this site has been around.

Little more can be said about what’s happened in the handheld world this month.  The only other major thing to happen isn’t to be discussed until my PlayStation TV Recap for March in a couple days.  So, here are all of the reviews I posted this month!

Just as last month, a game in the Vita section with a * next to it means that is is not compatible with the PlayStation TV.

Nintendo 3DS

2DS Trigger Grips
Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Legacy Plus
Final Fantasy Explorers
Mario Kart 7
Nintendo 2DS – Video Review
Pokemon Red, Blue, Yellow
Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D
Return to Popolocrois: A Story of Seasons Fairytale

PlayStation Vita / PlayStation TV

Croixleur Sigma – Video Review
Level 22 – Video Review
Samurai Warriors 4: Empires – Video Review
Senran Kagura: Estival Versus

12 reviews this month is pretty good for how things are, lately.  Next month already has lots of plans as well.  Some games that may have reviews soon include Hyrule Warriors Legends on the 3DS and Trillion: God of Destruction on the Vita.  I’ve got a big queue of review copies, so I will be back with my PSTV recap on Wednesday and reviews on April 1st!

The PlayStation TV was the topic of a lot of jokes and the regular “We are looking for reasons to talk crap about Sony” discussions from the Vita community in the online world this month.  That is because it was seen that the PSTV is being discontinued in most regions.  What this means is that there will no longer be new hardware units shipped out.

Many people have interpreted this as the PSTV not getting compatibility ever again, which I optimistically retort.  New units will not have an impact on developers making their games compatible, especially with me contacting every single one of them every time a game release is upcoming, asking for PSTV information.

So, let’s get down to the point of this article.  This is the monthly recap of what games in Japan and North America were added to my PlayStation TV Compatibility List for the month of March.  As always, this is comprised of updated games, new releases, or just games that I didn’t know of before.

Here are all of the PSTV games added for March 2016!

Japan

Attack on Titan
Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 (Japan and Asia)
Digimon World: Next Order
Hatsune Miku: Project Diva X
La Corda d’Oro 4
Lord of Apocalypse
Silverio Vendetta: Verse of Orpheus
Super Robot Taisen OG Saga Msoukishin 3: Pride of Justice

North America

Blast ’em Bunnies
Day of the Tentacle Remastered
Murasaki Mist: Akara’s Journey
Neverending Nightmares
Pixel Hunter

Certainly a lot on the Japanese side, and I check every week when new box art or demos release.  Overall, this is a total of 13 games.  We are still going strong, with the majority of new games releasing compatible with the PSTV.

Whether that changes or not, stay tuned and watch the Compatibility List, as I make very regular updates!

Title: Hyrule Warriors Legends
Developer: Omega Force, Koei Tecmo, Nintendo
Platform: Nintendo 3DS
Game Type: 3DS
NA Availability: Digital | Retail
EU Availability: Digital | Retail
Block Usage:  16,138

Hyrule Warriors came out for the Wii U and has a love or hate relationship with Zelda fans.  This isn’t surprising, as the “Warriors” franchise has a very love-or-hate reception in general with gamers.  Some people love the mindless violence and others cannot stand the repetition of the series.  So, it’s no surprise that the same kind of reception hit when Koei Tecmo and Nintendo decided to make a Warriors game based on The Legend of Zelda.

As many of you already know, Hyrule Warriors recently came to the handheld world, in the form of a port to the Nintendo 3DS.  There’s been a lot of skepticism about the game, but also a lot of hype.  For me, it started as “Well, that’s one less reason to buy a Wii U”, as Hyrule Warriors was actually a game I was considering buying a Wii U to play.  Now that it’s out on the 3DS, that’s just one less reason to buy Nintendo’s current console, holding out until the NX comes.

As far as the handheld entry goes, the reviews have been mixed, from average reviews and a particularly pessimistic review from everyone’s favorite site, IGN.  They even went so far as to review the game twice, once for the New 3DS and another whole review just for the old one.  If you’ve read those reviews and don’t agree with what they said, we’re on the same page.  Now, let’s get to my thoughts.  Here is my review of Hyrule Warriors Legends!

Story

The story of Hyrule Warriors takes place in a separate dimension from the canon Zelda timeline.  In this timeline, there is a Sorceress that serves as the Guardian of Time and Space.  As she watched the different timelines, she noticed the endless cycle of rebirth with the Legendary Hero, Princess of Destiny, and the Embodiment of Evil that Zelda fans are oh-so familiar with.  Eventually, evil slips into her and she begins a campaign of conquest to take over all of Hyrule after obtaining the Tri-Force, the ultimate power in the world.

In the midst of this conquest, Princess Zelda disappears and Impa takes Link, a trainee at Hyrule Castle on a journey to find the missing princess and stop the sorceress from stealing the Tri-Force by journeying not only across Hyrule, but into time periods dragged into the present.

The story of Hyrule Warriors is set up in a way that reminds me of the Dissidia: Final Fantasy series.  The worlds you go through are from different timelines, all brought into the present, morphing the world.  Instead of gathering specific dungeons from Final Fantasy games, this game presents dungeons and populations from some of the series’ most popular entries, notably Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword and, thanks to the new content in Legends, The Wind Waker.

The story is something that feels right at home with Zelda and there are cinematic scenes all over each story level to keep you interested in the story and characters, more in the form of newly-introduced characters in chapters, like Fi, Midna, Lana and, of course, everyone’s love-hate new character, Linkle.

Gameplay

Hyrule Warriors Legends is a port of the original Wii U game, represented as a 3D action game with RPG elements thrown into the mix.  In each stage, you will be running across large 3D environments based on Zelda dungeons, fighting off mass hordes of enemies as well as mini-bosses, character bosses, and giant bosses.

First of all is how Legends is different from the original.  First of all, there are new story scenarios thrown into this version of the game.  Linkle has been incorporated into the story in 3 new scenarios, along with 4 new scenarios after the end of the base game for the Wind Waker content.  Aside from this, there are gameplay improvements and the “My Fairy” system that lets you catch and customize fairies, a likely balancing addition due to the fact that the original game’s DLC mini-game, Ganon’s Fury, is not in Legends.

What people have most been interested in with improvements, though, is characters.  Legends has all of the base and DLC characters from the original game as well as four new characters.  The new additions are Tetra and King Daphnes from Wind Waker, Toon Link from Wind Waker, Skull Kid from Majora’s Mask, and Linkle, the new character that is a female character that looks very similar to Link.  These can all be transferred to the Wii U version of the game, and there is planned DLC to add 5 more playable characters, including Marin from Link’s Awakening.

When you boot up the game, you can go into Legend, Free, Adventure, My Fairy, Gallery, Setting, and Extra.  Gallery lets you see unlocked artwork and music tracks, settings lets you alter the game’s settings, and Extra allows you to access DLC for the game.

Legend Mode is the game’s story campaign.  This has you going through the game’s 32 story scenarios, which include the original story along with the Linkle and Wind Waker story scenarios that have been added in.  Then you have Free Mode that is like Legend Mode, but allows you to replay any unlocked story scenario with any character, rather than the characters involved in that stage’s story scenes.

Adventure Mode is, by far, the largest mode the game has to offer.  This has you going across a tile-based map of missions that make up a map of the original Zelda game.  Each of these tiles has missions as well as items that you can win from them.  Items could be new playable characters, costumes, item cards to help you discover secrets on other tiles, or it could be as simple as just unlocking new tiles.

In adventure, each tile can unlock surrounding tiles, enabling you to move to them and do those missions.  This is unlocked through a Rank system.  Some tiles will only unlock if you complete the adjacent tile’s mission with a high rank.  That means more than just completing objectives, but completing objectives in under so much time, taking as little damage as possible and killing as many enemies as possible beforehand.  This rank system is also the key to gaining each character’s ultimate weapons.

Finally, My Fairy is the new mode added to Legends.  In Adventure, you can sometimes find Fairy Companions in jars that can then be customized in this mode.  My Fairy allows you to feed them food to power them up, customize their looks with clothing you find in Adventure Mode, send them to School to learn a different skill for you to use in missions, and Party Mode, which lets you use local multi-player to swap fairy skills with other 3DS players.

Actual combat is like Dynasty Warriors but also different.  The standard invasion game from the Warriors series is here.  There are bases all over the map that can be taken as well as hordes of enemies around the maps as well as commanders that are leading them.  You and other commanders in the form of playable characters are moving around the map, completing objectives.

Objectives are where things get far less repetitive than Dynasty Warriors is known for.  In Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires, every mission is capture bases until you have enough to win, or defend your country by capturing bases until the enemy flees.  You capture bases, and then you capture more bases, and maybe one quick spar with a unique character.  Not a whole lot of variety here.

Hyrule Warriors changes that.  In a new map, you may be tasked with taking out some mini-boss officers running around the map, followed by escorting bombchu’s to blocked paths to allow you access to a new area.  After this, you may have to fight a giant monster, like King Dodongo or Gohma.  There are a lot of objectives in every story mission, and they all vary by quite a bit.  No scenario has you doing exactly the same as the last, and that’s what helps Hyrule Warriors stay fresh from start to finish.

Adventure Mode also has variety.  Missions could go from defeating so many enemies in time limitations to doing quiz battles with the game asking you what enemy comes from what game to fighting off a horde of giant bosses.  There is so much variety here that it’s easy to forget about the repetition the Warriors series is known for.

Giant Bosses are one of the notable additions that has the Zelda flair that fans are familiar with.  The giant bosses are renditions of past bosses from the series and, as such, have patterns and weaknesses that must be exploited.  When you fight off a boss with normal combos, you can barely do any damage to them.  This makes you figure out their weakness and exploit it to lower their defenses and pull off combos to do huge damage.  These weaknesses are fairly simple to figure out, like throwing bombs into King Dodongo’s mouth or firing off arrows at Gohma’s eye.

Now there’s the gameplay enhancements that weren’t in the original version.  One of the biggest features is the ability to manually and actively swap control between your character and another playable character on the map.  That way, when a base on the other side of the map is under attack, you don’t have to backtrack to defend it.  You simply tap the touch screen to switch to a nearby character and control them to defend the base.  Other additions are Owl Statues that serve as warp points, a Hammer for hitting switched and certain enemies and bosses and a power boost that activates when several playable characters are all around the same boss.

The last things to talk about are weapons and RPG elements.  When you finish a battle, you gain materials and weapons from it.  Weapons can be used by characters and they all come in ranks and with different skills.  The higher the rank, the stronger the base attack.  You also have weapons that have empty skill slots, allowing you to fuse them with other weapons of the same type to let the more powerful weapon inherit a skill from the other.

You also gain Rupees and Experience from battle.  Rupees are used to craft badges to enhance your abilities as well as manually leveling up characters.  That brings us to leveling.  Experience Points allows your characters to level up to increase their attack power.  You can also spend money to manually level up your character but this can only be used up to the current level of your highest-trained character.  So, if you have Link at Level 50 and Fi at Level 39, you can use Rupees to manually level Fi up to 50.

My main complaint about the game is something that also plagued the Wii U version.  Completing objectives too quickly can screw your game up.  When I went back to replay Legends Mode on Hard difficulty, I was completing objectives faster than the game could keep up with.  Normally, this ended in a case of waiting for the game to catch up.  However, I learned to back off because I’ve had a few cases where I did objectives so quickly that the game never registered I’d completed them, still asking me to complete an objectives I couldn’t undo.  This led to me having to replay the stage from the beginning each time.

As far as time is concerned, each story scenario should take you roughly 15 minutes, give or take, your first time through.  That would clock one run through Legend Mode around 8 hours.  If you take your time investing into Adventure Mode to unlock all of the characters, I can see this game easily using up dozens upon dozens of hours.

Controls

Controlling this game isn’t bad, but it also has its flaws.  First of all, you can use the buttons on the New 3DS for an advantage here.  The ZL button is used for locking onto a nearby boss monsters and the C Stick can be used to change who you’re locked onto.  The only downer is that the C Stick can’t be used to manually move the camera, like the Right Analog Stick can in the PS Vita Warriors games.

The base control scheme has you moving around with the Circle Pad and using the D-Pad for locking onto enemies as well as activating focus mode to increase your power with the magic gauge.  The L button is used to center the camera behind you and the R trigger is used to use an equipped item, like a bomb or hook-shot.

The face buttons are set up differently depending on if you choose the Warriors or Zelda style control schemes.  In the Warriors setting, Y is used for regular attacks and X for strong attacks, while B is used for dodging and A is used for special attacks/ultimate attacks.  This is very similar to the control scheme on the PlayStation Warriors titles.  In the Zelda setting, B is used for attacks and Y for strong attacks, while X is used for ultimate attacks and A is used for dodging.

However, you can also customize the controls however you with.  Either of these is doable and comfortable.

The only thing I will note about the game’s controls is the ever-annoying camera.  Since you can only center the camera behind you or move it while locked onto a boss, it wanders a lot.  There will be many situations where you’ll be fighting in a direction that you cannot see.  This is quite bothersome, especially when you’re in the middle of a horde and trying to focus attacks on their leader.

Presentation

Let’s talk about the game’s visual presentation.  I’m not going to say it looks fantastic, but I also won’t say it looks terrible.  There are definitely a few jaggies when playing on the XL and some on the smaller 3DS/2DS units.  The game doesn’t look perfect, but more like a higher-end PSP title.  For a 3DS title, it’s quite acceptable.  A lot better than the rough visuals of Xenoblade 3D.

So, let’s talk about performance, which is the biggest pet peeve of every Legends review.  The game runs smoother on the New 3DS, but how does it perform on the old 3DS?  I spent most of my time with this game on my 2DS and it isn’t nearly as bad as a lot of people are claiming.  In comparison, I would say this runs a good deal more smoothly than the Warriors PS Vita games.  There are times when the frames drop down pretty low, normally for a second or two after beating a large boss, and there are times when it jumps up to a smooth 30 fps when there are only a few enemies on-screen.

The base verdict of the frame-rate is that, yes, there are frame drops and most of the time, the game will likely be chugging around 20 fps.  It’s very playable, even if you don’t have a New 3DS.

Title: Trillion: God of Destruction
Developer: Compile Heart, Idea Factory
Platform: PlayStation Vita
Game Type: Vita
Download: 3.2GB
NA Availability: Digital Download | Retail
EU Availability: Digital Download | Retail
PSTV Support: Yes

Idea Factory International has been popping out games for the past few years for the PS Vita, really doing a great job of supporting the handheld.  Between all of the Neptunia games along with Amnesia, they’re one of the most recurring developers and supporters of the Vita.  While some fans aren’t happy about them taking advantage of Steam, there are still plenty of handheld titles coming from them.

One such handheld game is a game a lot of people didn’t think was coming West, because of how the game plays.  That game is a game heavy in strategy elements with a design and scenario not that unlike the Disgaea series from Nippon Ichi (NIS).  However, with much marketing, it has finally released in the West, both in physical and digital formats.

Here is my official review of Trillion: God of Destruction!

Story

Long ago, angels rebelled against Heaven, ending up cast down into the dark, demonic Underworld.  Their leaders, the Overlords, leads an ongoing war with heaven, as does every successor to hold the title of Great Overlord.  Zeabolos is the Great Overlord when a giant being of immense power arrives at the Gates of Hell to destroy the Underworld.  This being is known to them as the God of Destruction.  It is also known as Trillion, containing one trillion curses and one trillion points of Health.

After a grueling battle, Trillion murders his brother and leaves Zeabolos at death’s door.  After a final strike that injures Trillion’s arm, he calls out, offering his very soul for a chance to strike down and defeat Trillion and save the Underworld.  As his wish vocally goes outward, he is saved with his body sewn together by a being known as Faust.  In exchange for his soul, she promises him power and assistance in taking down Trillion.

As soon as the battle ends, Trillion goes into a dormant slumber, Faust giving Zeabolos a time-frame until Trillion awakens.  Until then, he must train the Overlords that follow him to become powerful enough to take on the giant being.

The storyline reminds me heavily of the Disgaea series with the environment as well as the personalities of all of the characters.  While it doesn’t have quite as much humor as Disgaea, it is a very cute and entertaining plot.

Gameplay

Trillion in an RPG that doesn’t fit into a single genre.  It’s a tactical RPG, a roguelike, an action RPG, a raising sim RPG, and also has some dating sim elements thrown in, too.  In short, it’s a ton of different genres thrown into a single RPG.  At its basest, it’s a big strategy RPG.

Progression in the game mostly progresses through the phases where Trillion is asleep.  In each of these phases, you choose one of the Overlords to be assigned with the task of taking on Trillion.  You have only a certain number of days to be able to train and prepare.  These phases allow you to do a lot of things, from training to get experience, upgrading your character’s stats with earned experience, restings, obtaining and upgrading weapons in dungeons, and more.

The main strategy of this is the fact that every action takes up a single day.  If you train, a day is used up.  Upgrade, a day is gone.  You get the idea.  However, there is also the Rest function that must be used.  If you train every day, the Overlord will tire out and you won’t get nearly as much experience for training.  So, for this, you have to use Rest to get the best output for stat increases and skill acquisition.

Rest is also important because of the interaction option in Rest Mode.  Interaction allows you to spend time with that Overlord and create Affection points, where the dating sim elements come into play.  You get closer but also have            an Affection Point gauge that builds up for battle.  This is used before HP and MP when in combat, so the more Affection Points you have, the longer you can keep a battle going.

When in dungeons or when Trillion wakes up, you go into combat.  This is a mix of a rogue-like and a strategy RPG.  You and enemies appear on a grid-based 3D map and move simultaneously.  When you move, they move.  Remember Sorcery Saga?  If so, you’ll get the general idea of this type of movement.  So, your goal is to move across the map and clear off all enemies with normal attacks right in front of you, your minions taking them out, or using area-based skills that use up Affection Points and MP.

Fighting Trillion is a little different.  You’re still on a grid, but he is at the back.  His attacks are all shown to you on the grid a few turns before they happen, so you have ample time to move away from them before they strike.  His attacks come in a few forms.  He does huge area attacks as well as summoning troops and bombs to attack you with.  So to get to Trillion, you need to avoid attacks, take out enemies, and slowly work your way back the map.

There is a ton of strategy involved here and every move counts.  One false move and you could take a pretty big hit.  You’ll have to take hits to get close to him, regardless, so you’ll want to take as few hits as possible.  It’s all about what risks are worth it and what aren’t since you don’t get do-overs unless you restart your save data.  If an Overlord loses to Trillion, they permanently die and you must start a new dormant cycle with another.

Speaking of dying, there are Death Skills you’ll be able to use if an Overlord dies.  Some will weaken Trillion while others can create a ghost of that Overlord to take into battle with you.  Basically, you repeat this process until either all Overlords die and you get a game over, or you eventually beat Trillion and beat the game.

While this game is very unique, I would have to dock a point for the game being quite repetitive.  As flashy and colorful as the combat 3D arenas are, 90% if not more of the game will be spent in 2D menus micro-managing everything.  This could roughly be described as hours of menus and 5 minutes of combat, repeat process.  The fact that there is so little actual combat compared to this can make this feel incredibly repetitive and a bit of a bore if you’re trying to do stuff just to get to the next combat segment.

Overall, the game can last quite a long time.  Hours of management between boss battles can really add up towards the end of the game.  We are talking dozens of hours if you get into the system and put your heart into it.

Controls

The game’s controls aren’t too hard to understand and do.  First of all, this game is compatible with the PlayStation TV, so you can play this on the go or on the big screen.  Not really any different controls when using a controller, though.

Menu controls are pretty self-explanatory.  D-Pad to move around options, X to select, and Circle to cancel.  Pretty standard controls for a localized game for menus.  In combat, you move on the grid with the D-Pad.  L and R triggers can be used to rotate the camera.  You can also zoom in the camera behind the player or in a top-view fashion with the triggers and the Square button.

The rest of the controls are just with the other face buttons.  The Triangle button can be used to pull up the menus to show tutorials or use items, skills, or other actions.  X and Circle are used here like in menus.  Outside of the menus, X is used for a physical attack on an enemy directly in front of you, and Square can be used to automatically change the direction you’re facing towards an enemy on the next tile to you.

The controls are pretty simple to use (though not being able to use the Analog Sticks for movement is a little odd), and they’re explained quite well in the tutorial sections.

Presentation

The visual presentation I would classify as pretty decent for a Vita title.  While most of the game has 2D menus with crisp and perfect renders, the 3D models do have jagged edges here and there.  They’re small jaggies, but there if you intently stare to look for them.  I’ve no issues with the graphics of the game.

The Voice-Acting is pretty superb for a Vita title.  Trillion has one of the better PS Vita English dubs available.  Each of the Overlords presents their voice in a really nice manner.  The only issue is something I’ve seen in other Vita titles.  Even with the newest patch/update for the game, there are some scenes that have voice-acting, but don’t voice entire scenes.  What I mean by this is that the voice-acting will cut off the last few words of said dialogue.  It doesn’t happen too often, but enough to be noticeable.