Kingdom's Return: Time-Eating Fruit and the Ancient Monster by developer and publisher Inti Creates—Sony PlayStation 5 review written by Pierre-Yves with a copy provided by the publisher.
Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes.
Showing posts with label sony. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sony. Show all posts
Kingdom's Return: Time-Eating Fruit and the Ancient Monster - PS5 Review
Decollate Decoration - PS5 Review
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
Hello
everyone and welcome to a new KEMCO title! But wait a moment, this one is
different to the retro JRPGs that you’re probably expecting when you hear KEMCO
from me by this point. Instead what we have is a sort of point-and-click style
visual novel! Something a little new and fresh coming out here!
Decollate Decoration
is the story about a girl (you) and her love, life, and trying to kill the guy
she likes. Yeah, I know that last one is a little weird, but hear me out.
Basically, this girl died and is stuck as a ghost. She can’t bear to be parted
with the guy she loves, so she wants his soul to come with her to the
afterlife. Obviously that means she needs him dead so they can be together
forever! Or does it? You’ll need to find that out.
The short premise
here is that you only have so many days to fulfill your task before your spirit
can’t stick around any longer. Your hubby can’t see or hear you, so you need to
get him to notice you if you want to affect him in any meaningful way. You can
take actions such as talking to him, entering his dreams, causing a poltergeist
phenomenon, or cursing him. Each of these actions drains your power and you
need to wait for it to recharge. You can also check items around his house at
no energy charge. All this is done via a point-and-click style interaction.
There are
six different endings you can get, each ending not taking too long to reach,
and a prologue and epilogue that are unlockable. It’s a short and “bitter”sweet
sort of story that is kinda depressing and heartwarming at the same time,
depending on the ending you reach.
The story
is told mostly through endings and the little tidbits you can glean between
each time you have to act told through a sort of bit-like style with a sort of
up-beat but creepy ish soundtrack playing in the background. It doesn’t take
more than maybe a few hours to get through the entire thing, all endings and
prologue and epilogue included, so make sure you’re aware of what you’re
getting. Thankfully the price is pretty low, so you may want to either grab it
on sale or pick it up as part of a package deal if you’re unsure if you want to
play it.
As a handy
note, there are a bunch of save locations if you want to try different
combinations of actions, and there is a “hint” system built in to tell you what
you need to do in order to get each ending, just in case you’re struggling on some.
Definitely helpful on a second or third go around to make sure you’re on route
for a new ending. It even tells you if you’ve seen the different endings
before! The only real issue I can bring up is occasionally some words in the textboxes aren't separated properly, but that's small potatoes really.
Overall
Decollate Decoration is a pretty interesting but short title that uses a
point-and-choose type of interaction to tell a narrative about life, death, and
what feelings mean to different people. It’s a weirdly introspective story told
in a cute art style about a not-so-cute topic. Definitely worth a go if you have
the chance I’d say.
Score: 9 / 10
WWE 2K26 - PlayStation 5 Review
WWE 2K26 by developer Visual Concepts and publisher 2K Games—Sony PlayStation 5 review written by Nick with a copy provided by the publisher.
#WWE #WWE2K26
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
Fortuna Magus - PS5 Review
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
Hello
everyone and welcome to a new flavour of KEMCO rpg! Today we will be looking at
Fortuna Magus, a bit of a shorter title with a more straight-laced JRPG
gameplay.
Fortuna
Magus tells the tale of Amane and Tia, whose father disappeared a number of
years ago and their sister left to go find him. They are drawn into a struggle
against the kingdom when they defend a magus, a person capable of using magic,
that the kingdom has deemed a threat to the peace. Now put on the wanted list
for defending a discriminated against group, Amane and Tia embark on a journey
with Rett, the magus they helped, in order to learn the truth behind why their
father went missing and what their sister has gotten herself into.
In this
KEMCO release, we’ve gone back a little in terms of how the game plays. A
traditional JRPG style with random encounters while walking around field areas
and a pretty basic structure compared to some of their other titles, Fortuna
Magus tends to play it more straight than adding some of the gimmicks or
mechanics that have been a part of similar styled titles. All the tried and
true combat is there: turn-based battles with turn order based on unit speed,
normal attacks, skills that use MP, special moves that can be used when you
fill a gauge similar to a limit break, defence and item commands, and different
elements and attack types to play with.
What is a
bit more of an underused trait in most RPGs is how you learn new skills. By
meeting certain level and element requirements and performing certain actions
in battle you can learn new skills. These could be improved versions of your
current skills, a new special move, or maybe even a combo attack. This is
labelled as the Revelation System in the game, and it can seem a little random
at times, but it is pretty fun to use one move and then get a chain of other
moves that completely wipe all the enemies off the screen. You don’t see this
done very often, so it’s a neat addition to keep the game from feeling too
lacking in interesting mechanics while still holding true to the retro spirit.
Those of
you familiar with KEMCO titles should also have guessed that there is a point
shop, however this one is significantly less game breaking than pretty much any
other point shop in a KEMCO title. While there are equipment pieces that reduce
damage taken or confer passive bonuses, items that can raise stats, and items
that can raise element levels, they are largely inexpensive. But the game seems
to be built around the assumption you’ll be using the shop. Seriously, some of
the bosses can be pretty big bullies, so unless you spend some time grinding
monsters for points to buy stat increases and earning exp to level with, you’re
probably going to get hurt a decent amount.
Another
interesting aspect of Fortuna Magus is that there isn’t a world map to roam
around like you’ve probably gotten used to in these KEMCO titles. Instead you
have a map with red and blue dots representing fields/dungeons and towns, where
you will instantly go to when selecting. Add onto that the fact most fields are
about three fairly small areas, and the game isn’t very long story wise, and
you’ll end up with a much shorter title than what you’d probably expect. That
being said it isn’t bad, just be prepared to get through half the story in a
handful of hours pretty easily.
There are
some sidequests available for you to participate in as you play through the
game, and titles to earn that can be equipped like any other gear. So it’s not
as if Fortuna Magus is particularly lacking in content for what it’s worth,
despite how short it is. The story is surprisingly engaging and full of more plot
turns than I was honestly expecting, so that’s also a nice bonus. On the other
hand, you’ll probably be quick to notice that the assets are pretty much all
very generic looking. While I can’t confirm 100% if they used an RPG maker
style engine for the game, I’m pretty confident they did. Not saying this is
bad, just don’t go expecting any fancy unique and flourishing artwork or
designs.
Overall I
have to say that Fortuna Magus was a bit of a pleasant surprise. While
definitely shorter than I was expecting, the story was engaging and the
characters were pretty varied. The Revelation aspect is an underused mechanic,
although it tends to be hit and miss with whether you will enjoy learning
skills a little more randomly than pure level requirements. If you’re
interested in a quick nostalgia trip, definitely keep Fortuna Magus on your
radar!
Score: 8 / 10
Ship's Cat - PS5 Review
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
Today we have a treat for all you folks. We
get to talk about Ship’s Cat, a game about playing as a cat on a ship trying to
get rid of the rodent infestation. This one is a bit of an experience, so
buckle up and let’s get exploring.
The basic premise of Ship’s Cat is exactly
what it says on the tin: you’re a cat on a ship. You’ve been brought on board
to take care of the rodents, and for some reason all the crewmates treat you
like a moderately functional human who can understand them and can freely open
doors and interact with things. Luckily you actually can. You can bap the mice on the head, pick them up and throw them in the pool, listen to some
vacationers talk about some really funny stuff, put out fires (literally and
figuratively), do some golf, try on hats, get distracted by lasers, all great
cat things!
Alright, I have to admit that the game
gets…silly, I suppose is the best way to describe it. If you’re anticipating a
chill, relaxed game with not much going on, you’d be somewhat right for only
the first half the game at best. There have only been three times in my life
where I had to pause a game to just think for five minutes about what just
happened, and one of those times was the ending sequence for Ship’s Cat. I
won’t spoil it if you’re interested in discovering it, but hoh boy I was not
expecting that.
In terms of gameplay, I’m going to have to
say it’s a combination of slapping and throwing mice, trying to maneuver your
cat to face the right way to jump up or down a ledge, and trying really hard
not to hit a glitch. Good lord the amount of times I tried jumping on a shelf
only to end up outside the ship and falling into the void below. Or getting
stuck in the environment. Or using a special attack on the mice and being
slingshot outside bounds, or dying and reloading only to have my cat
constantly drift in one direction even if it’s through walls. Yeah, there’s a
lot of issues that need some fixing here.
So, the main idea is that you explore the
ship, taking out mice and dealing with problems as they occur. Some of this is
hitting buttons, some is finding the path you need to take to proceed to the
next area. All of it has something to do with the mice and their boss. Then it
gets weird. Very weird. And suddenly you have special moves. And so do the mice. Most of the time though a good whack or two will solve your problems,
unless your problems are figuring out what you’re supposed to do in areas where
you aren’t given much direction. Pro tip, usually fighting isn’t actually the
answer.
I’m really torn with Ship’s Cat, because on
the one hand, it’s cooky and I loved it. On the other hand, it’s so full of
glitches I can’t rightly call it a well put together game. The only saving
grace is that the autosave makes plenty of backups when you need them.
Unfortunately, loading a save may have the unfortunate side effect of making
you drift in one direction constantly and through walls. Even while trying to
open a door. Good news is, if you close the game and boot it back up it’ll be
back to working normally. Also be wary of how you jump up to things, because
sometimes you get pushed through the walls and then need to reload then as
well.
On a more positive note, the game is weirdly fun despite all this, and the dialogue between passengers in the background can be pretty funny. Between a lady explaining what she uses her extra long nails for, and a guy in the kitchen inappropriately trying to cook eggs, it had some really hilarious dialogue. Just be prepared for everything voiced to be AI voicechat style, although I honestly found this to be more amusing than having actual real voices, since it's "ye olde" robotic voice that's clearly fake, and not any of the newer "sounds human" fake. Really this is something you play for the laughs, not something you're serious about, which we really need to see more of.
Overall, I have to say I really liked Ship's Cat, despite being riddled with issues. If we ignore the clipping through walls and objects, the occasional weird drift while trying to open a door after dying, and some weird attack animations slingshotting you into the nether, Ship's Cat is really enjoyable, and for a good price. Honestly, for a one man dev I think this is a really fun project and I gotta hand it to them for making such an entertaining piece. It might not be perfect, but it's fun to laugh about in a good way. Definitely take a look into this if you're interested in a short but weird and funny romp through a ship and some mutant mice.
Score: 7 / 10
No Sleep for Kaname Date-From AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES - PS5 Review
No Sleep for Kaname Date-From AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES by developer and publisher Spike Chunsoft Co. Ltd.—PS5 review written by Richard with a copy provided by the publisher.
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
Hello
everyone and welcome back to another Somnium Files title! Today we’ll be taking
a look at No Sleep for Kaname Date – From AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES! A sort of
filler game in the series set between the first and second games
chronologically. In this instalment Date gets to experience the wonders of
escape games in addition to his detective and mental deep dive work!
If you’ve
read the review for No Sleep on the Switch, the takeaway from the PS5 version
is basically just a smoother running experience, and that’s about it. Less lag
or slowdown in some scenes, and faster loading times. For those who haven’t
read the Switch review, come join me as we take a look at this nifty spin-off
type game that’s broaching into escape game!
It's
important to note right off the bat that if you don’t know what happened in the
first game in the series, you’re probably going to be pretty confused. You can
get away without having played Nirvana Initiative, although some things may
still confuse you. That being the case, I’m going to assume you have a bit of
knowledge about the series, but may be a little rusty.
No Sleep
for Kaname Date starts out with Iris, the local internet idol extraordinaire,
being kidnapped and waking up in a spaceship! She is told by an alien that she
must use her “third eye” to escape the confines of the ship. She’s allowed one
helper she can call, so who else but Date and his sentient AI fake eyeball
companion Aiba! Basically this means Iris will need to “play an escape game” to
get out while Date can give running commentary or suggestions. The viewpoint
will rotate between Date’s investigation and Iris’s escape attempts, having a
mix of investigations, escape rooms, and mental diving into the Somnium.
Let’s take
things one at a time. Since this game starts in an escape room, we’ll begin
there. If you’ve played any of the Zero Escape games, you’ll have a decent idea
how this works, but basically the escape sequences work in the same way that
real life escape rooms do. You have a bunch of puzzles and objects and your
goal is to use what you have available to escape the room you’re stuck in. You
can interact with points of interest, pick up and use or combine items, and
rotate and examine items to figure out what to do.
Good news
for those that are having a tough time, if you set the game to anything other
than hard for the escape sequences you will get plenty of hints. Unfortunately
this also means that if you don’t need those hints but are checking something
or seeing if there are other places to inspect, it feels like you’re being
treated like you have no idea what you’re doing. It isn’t too bad for the most
part, but can get pretty annoying. Thankfully there’s not usually a time limit
in the escape games, so most of the time you’re free to think or reexamine at
your leisure.
Good news
for you puzzle fans, pretty much all of the answers to the puzzles or riddles
are quite reasonable. There were only two I recall being a bit troubling, one
was because I discovered an alternate way to solve the puzzle that didn’t give
the actual answer but still was AN answer, and the other was a bit of suspect
wording, but I managed to get through them, so it isn’t unsolvable. Each escape
segment is themed, and as you progress through the game you will actually get
multiple characters to swap between during the escape segments. You need to
find ways to pass items back and forth, or solve puzzles to make something
another character can interact with work. It’s actually pretty neat.
While
outside the escape game, you will be either investigating the disappearance of
Iris, or the appearance of a mysterious pod that may have been related to the
incident or it could be completely unrelated. Either way, it’s up to you to investigate!
Go places, talk to people, examine things, and sometimes get into a quick-time
event. It’s detective Date’s time to shine! An interesting thing about No Sleep
for Kaname Date is that there are a ton of hidden alternate endings. Like,
there are at least three in the first investigation sequence you do alone, and
most of them are pretty funny.
Once you’ve
completed your prodding at possible leads, you can head back to ABYSS, where
Kaname Date can delve into the subconscious mind of a suspect, and hope to gain
insight from their dream realm, or somnium as it were. In the somnium you
control Aiba as she investigates the mental world. Things are usually weird
here, and you basically play a guessing or association game where you can
interact or examine items, and sometimes do weird things with them. Sometimes
those weird things are actually what you’re supposed to do too. In the somnium
you have a time limit, and actions and walking decrease your time. After 6
minutes are up, you’re forcibly ejected and have to restart either from a
checkpoint or from the beginning.
A neat
thing about the somniums is that they have a lot of really funny and weird
interactions. Also, there are giant eyeballs you can collect that give points
towards bonus content you can unlock in-game. If you collect them all you also
get some concept art. Once you’ve completed a somnium once you can return to it
with infinite time so you can explore at your leisure. The giant eyeballs are
still here and can be collected, but the clear bonus for more than a second
remaining won’t be available if you go infinite time. There are multiple difficulties
for the somniums, mostly adjusting how much time gets used on actions.
I have to
say I was rather a fan of No Sleep for Kaname Date. It’s certainly shorter than
other titles, and the plot is very “filler episode” like, but I thought it was
pretty interesting, and I found the escape additions a fun time. The graphics
and soundtrack should be just what you expect from previous games, with decent
3D models for characters and interesting environments coupled with a suitable
soundtrack and solid voice acting. I also like how each game has it’s own dance
number.
While No
Sleep for Kaname Date – From AI the Somnium Files probably isn’t winning too
many awards, it’s definitely a nice filler between main title entries. The
puzzles are good, the escape rooms are well put together, and the somniums are
pretty entertaining. The story is also really interesting once you really get
into it, but might take awhile to really take hold for some people. It is a
little on the shorter side, but I certainly enjoyed my time with it. The PS5
port does wonders for some choppy load times and lag I experienced on the
switch, so if you’re considering playing this title after one of the previous
two, you won’t go wrong with the PS5 port here.
Score: 8.5 / 10
Nioh 3 - PS5 Review
Nioh 3 by developer Team Ninja and publisher Koei Tecmo America—Sony PlayStation 5 review written by Pierre-Yves with copy provided by the publisher.
#Nioh3 Nioh 3
Estimated Reading Time: 17 minutes.
Related reading:
● Nioh - PS4 Review
● Nioh 2 - PC Review
● Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty - PS5 Review
● Nioh 3 - Alpha and Pre-release demo Preview
The year is off to a great start.
Releasing a demo containing the first hours of Nioh 3 in late January, Nioh 3 itself released on February 6. Available until February 15, this demo allowed players to experience the beginning of what this title has to offer.
From an amazing character customization to a new dual playstyle in a more open world format environment, everything accomplished can carry over to the main game. The best parts? Anyone who completed the demo in the available time frame will revive an item in the full game and the trophies are retroactive. So there's no reason to restart!
Now for the reason you're here. After a solid almost 70 hours between the demo and the rest of the adventure, Nioh 3 is easily already on my short list for game of the year. It also, for the record didn't feel like that much time… where have my past two weeks gone?!
Introduction
For those that may not have heard of Nioh before, it is Team Ninja and Koei Tecmo’s Soulslike series. Taking a different direction from the often darker gothic inspired designs that the genre gravitates towards, Nioh instead chose to visit Japan in the 15~1600s. Using historical events as a backdrop allowed for an interesting fantasy adventure of what could have happened if otherworldly power was involved.
This series has also never been afraid to try new things while still keeping its formula intact. Starting with Nioh in 2017, our British protagonist William sets sail for Japan in the very late 1500s. Instead of the more Metroidvania approach that most Soulslikes have adopted with plenty of locked doors, ladders to kick down and other shortcuts to unlock in a single large environment, Nioh instead went in a stage like format. Stages could vary in length but they all finished with an epic boss fight.
Released in 2020, Nioh 2 enhanced the gameplay design of its predecessor. While being named, Hidechiyo, you this time around had the chance to design your own character that would become “half” of Hideyoshi, one of Oda Nobunaga’s retainers. Where you were different from William is that you yourself were half demon. You could harness the powers of the spirit guardians in a different way and instead of seriously imbuing your weapons with power, you yourself changed shape and surged in power. You could also now acquire demon cores for an even greater advantage in battle.
Just released, Nioh 3 takes all of the above, including lessons learned from Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty in 2023, and has dropped the best entry yet. Combining stage-like designs with open world hubs, our latest protagonist and future Shogun Tokugawa Takechiyo is fighting for Japan across the ages starting in the early 1600s, visiting the late 1500s, the late 200s, and mid 1800s for some interesting blends of challenges.
Exploration
Where the Nioh series has stood apart from the rest of the Soulslikes is in its stage design. While using some of the Metroidvania formula with locked doors, hidden passages and plenty of shortcuts, these were all “bite” sized pieces of the world. This has allowed for a very catered experience that presented a very specific gauntlet to be conquered.
Nioh 3 is the first in this series to move away from the strict stage-like design. Combining the stage-like formula that it's known for with “open world” hubs, the scope is now much grander in what can be done. While the specific stages segments will continue to throw a very catered gauntlet your way, the open nature of the hubs will often allow you to poke and prod at various parts of Japan throughout the years.
There are still plenty of elements to block your path such as locked gates that need a specific key, doors that “don’t open from this side”, and shortcuts to uncover but it works well together. If you can’t move forward right away, that’s often because you don’t yet have the right tools to do so. You can also explore another area if the current area is too hard.
While I personally in general am not a fan of open worlds as I often find them empty and just an excuse to pad the core gameplay design, the open nature of the hubs work for the most part. Rarely did I feel like I was going through yet another empty space as there is enough to do while you’re in each of these areas. Lastly, I appreciated that some of these areas will see multiple uses from the main and secondary quests.
Map items
Love them or hate them, Nioh 3 has A LOT of collectibles or actions to be taken on a map for "completion. Back once again are our adorable Kodama that reside in the shrines that act as our safety points. Scattered throughout the world, they need to be guided back and can provide us with bonuses for doing so.
Also returning are treasure chests big and small. Who doesn’t like a good loot box? Available to locate are Chijiko which are flying ferrets that love to be used for target practice. Once shot down they can be pet and will drop you much needed items for character development. Finally, and also returning are the Scampusses which are super adorably round but unlike before, need to be chased down to obtain a reward.
While these may sound like “ugh”, why do I have to do this for a simple item or three, they combine into a grander feature. Each hub is designed in regions that all have a various amounts of items or actions that must be taken. As these lists are completed, you’ll obtain permanent bonuses such as attack, defense or luck increases which can go a very long way as the adventure progresses.
The best part? Once you get to the higher thresholds of completion, you’ll be able to see all the currently missing ones on the map. This makes searching much easier with no need for guides in order to get 100%.
Player graves
Making a return are the various player's graves that can be interacted with. This is one feature that I’ve enjoyed going back to the original alpha for Nioh. While Demons and Dark Souls introduced a feature to see the last moments of a player’s life before “something” ended it, Nioh instead allows you to fight these revenants.
While controlled by the game’s AI (which goes back decades now with IF / Then statements), revenants can easily differ from one to another as they are a reflection of the player that died. Do they go in for super fast attacks? Use items? Dodge a lot? Try to stay in long range combat? All of these can be easily calculated by the system to give other players a challenge.
Why do this though? Like in the original, you can do it for Glory (more below), or you can do it for cold hard steel. Taking out a revenant gives you the chance to acquire a copy of one or more pieces of gear that they are holding. Sometimes this can be better than what you have, other times it’s useful for materials to help you upgrade.
Introduced in Nioh 2 and making a return is the ability for players to place benevolent grave sites. Like the malevolent graves, they will summon a copy of a player but instead of facing off against them, they’ll stay with you for a period of time giving you a bit of breathing room especially against foes of immense powers like the new Bloodedge Demons.
Bloodedge Demons
These will haunt me for a long time.
As tough as I considered some of the boss fights, I would rather do them with increasing difficulty than facing off against one of these four horsemen of the apocalypse. Horseman War here is the accumulation of the hatred of all of the players that died.
If I’m not mistaken on this aspect, the more players that die, the stronger this demon is? They do however level with you, so regardless of if they level up another way, they will always be an insane fight as they are already stronger than they have the right to be. In my almost 70 hours, I’ve honestly only defeated three in total and that is not from a lack of trying. Two in the Beta Demo and one in the main game.
So why go out of your way for this? The loot they dropped changed the entire course of my game. The armor was nice, by the Tonfa they dropped with a VERY high paralyze infusion? I literally used them until the very end of the game through the returning soul level matching available at the blacksmith.
So worth it, but you’re going to have to really work for those victories.
Combat styles
While each Soulslike has its own quirk, the Nioh series continues to push the boundaries of its own from one entry to the next.
Shifting styles
Originally combining the martial Samurai arts with both Ninjitsu and Onmyo as support abilities, you could shape William and Hidechiyo into the type of warrior that you wanted.
Unlike our former protagonists, Takechiyo can literally on a moment's notice switch from being a Samurai to a Ninja. Weapon change, armor change, and even appearance change if you want, all of these changes allow for two completely different playstyles without the need to restart your entire character development.
I loved this as it allowed for a much more flexible approach to the various challenges. Being nimble won’t always help you win the day, some days you need to tank the hits. Other times, you need to be fast otherwise you’ll never catch up or be able to avoid certain enemies. The shifting mechanic has removed the compromise in your character setup. Now you can really play as you want to play regardless of the situation.
Samurai Mode
Playing as a Samurai is everything that we’ve come to know over the course of the series. With multiple different weapons available, we can hold them in a low, medium or high stance which will affect the speed and power. As new weapon abilities are learned, we can modify some of these moves to be stronger and slower, or, add in some elemental damage for good measure.
It still feels just as solid as it has been. Where some players may feel “slighted”, is that not all of the weapons are available for a Samurai loadout, nor a Ninja loadout. Heavier and harder hitting weapons have been reserved keeping this mode feeling powerful. That’s not to say that there aren’t faster hitting weapons like your standard sword, but for Tonfa lovers, me, those are in the Ninja category.
Ninja Mode
Playing as a Ninja is where things get interesting. Unlike playing as a Samurai that can adjust how they hold their weapon, a Ninja only has one style. To compensate for this, playing as a Ninja allows you to equip several “usable” items that can be recharged for unlimited use. Elemental range attacks, surikens, caltrops, bombs, you name it. The stronger the item, the less uses it will have, but the more efficient it will be.
I abso-freaking-lutely loved this new style of gameplay. You can say that it’s technically already been there, but for people like me who have always preferred a character that can take more than one hit? I’ve avoided it as I just know that I’ll be dodging into an attack instead of out at the worst possible timing. Now being able to have a tank mode and a dodging mode for any occasion? I made very good use of the Ninja’s unlimited items.
Equipment
To prepare for all of these situations, you’ll be spending a decent amount of time in the equipment menu. Both Samurai and Ninja modes have their own melee weapons, range weapon, armor sets and accessories. Looking through both active and passive abilities will take some time, however it’s worth the investment.
Spirit guardians
Only adding to what you can do are your spirit guardians. These wonderful beings are back again and even better than before. Each spirit comes with an attack and defense value to increase your character’s baseline. From there, each spirit also has two special attacks that can be used for some pretty epic gameplay.
More than that, however, is that Burst moves from Nioh 2’s demon core abilities have moved into both the switching of the styles mentioned above and the spirit guardian abilities. Those giant red flashing attacks are no longer as scary as they have been as there are multiple ways to now counter them without fear of being taken out in one hit.
I have still been on many occasions taken out in one hit. But it’s a Soulslike, you learn, you adapt, and you run back to your spirit guardian to hopefully not lose all of the amrita that has been accumulated to level up!
Soul cores
Soul cores have also made a return but function “differently” than before. In Nioh 2, these cores were used for Burst attacks to counter the dreaded red attacks from enemies. Having been replaced by the spirit guardians, soul cores now have a Yin and Yang function.
If a core is set into the Yang position, that demon can be summoned however many times is listed to perform an attack against your enemies. The stronger the demon, the less times it can be summoned, but, the stronger the attack. Cores set into the Yang position will also provide an attack and defense boost similar to the Spirit Guardians.
If a core is set into the Yin position, Onmyo talismans can be created for use that are restored every time that you rest at a Kodama Shrine. These abilities range from added elements to your weapons, boosting your attack, your defense, regenerating your health or surrounding yourself in floating elemental orbs for extra damage. Why should the enemies get all of the fun?
I really enjoyed this adjustment to the soul cores from Nioh 2 as it allowed for so much flexibility while keeping the same pieces in play.
Rewards systems
So what does everything above have in common? The more you do, the more that you’ll be rewarded for it. Fighting enemies, tackling strong bosses, fighting mid-bosses, chasing down scampusses and guiding Kodama home all reward you in one of two ways.
Kodama and Jizo Six Statue boons
Guiding our little adorable yokai home has also been beneficial to us. In a stage-like format, these rewards used to be localized to either a stage or set of stages, but now? These bonuses carry through across the ages!
For every Kodama that you guide home, you’ll receive points that can be used to increase healing Elixir drop rates, its efficiency, and if it could boost your attack and defense at the same time. Comparatively, stopping to pray at Jizo statues will net you Jizo Merit that can be used to increase melee damage done in Crucibles, as well as Crucible Elixir drop rate, Life Corrosion and Guardian Spirit Skill recovery in Crucibles.
In both of these cases, these small increases can go a long way to help you out.
Titles
For everything else you do, you’ll earn a reputation in a variety of categories that will all allow you to increase the percentage of certain aspects. Increasing the amount of Amrita acquired will allow you to level up faster. You can increase your stealth to sneak around more easily. You can also increase the damage to another Ki which will allow you to perform grapple attacks even faster.
The great thing about all of these decisions are that none of them are permanent, allowing you to easily mix, match and try a variety of different upgrades to see what works best for you.
Clan battles
Clan battles continue to be interesting. This is where all of your glory can be used for a faction of your choice to try to come out on top of others. Glory can be accumulated by defeating revenants summoned through malevolent graves or by having your character summoned through benevolent graves.
What’s it all used for? Primarily, it’s used in a store that allows you to spend glory to buy items, character looks or gestures. What it is also used for is to raise your rank in the clan to increase the passive bonuses that it bestows for your loyalty. If you don’t end up liking these bonuses, you can always move, but this can only be done once every eight hours.
Either that, or move before you’re tired of being on the losing team. There’s no judgement here. I myself while having constantly been on the losing team haven’t moved because the bonuses provided to me made breaking an opponents Ki that much easier.
Summary
I think that we can all admit that the above was a lot to go through. Unlike a lot of others in the genre, Nioh continues to have layers to its gameplay that all come together for a very refined experience. Does it always work? “Yes”, but like a lot of others in the genre there are areas that can be a bit rougher than others.
Soulslikes have a high entry point and Nioh 3 is no different. In a way, Nioh 3 may have an even higher entry point as the first boss is damn right savage with most of the game’s features becoming available after that point. That said, I did keep expecting a super high difficulty spike that soulslikes and JRPGs are both known for, and it didn’t happen. Were some areas tougher? Sure, but not so much so that I would die in one hit. I mean… I did, but that’s because I realized that I shouldn’t have been there but conquered the day anyways. I was there and not leaving until I won.
What I think may have offset that difficulty spike are the adjustments to the series core features and the inclusion of being able to shift between a Samurai and Ninja loadout to be the one dictating the fight and not being dictated to.
Where I have a “tiny” bit of disappointment with Nioh 3 compared to its predecessors is with the normal enemies. The variety of yokai seems to be reduced and certain enemies were simply adjusted to meet a new environment. There was also a heavy recycling of previous bosses from Nioh and Nioh 2 for mid-bosses. I would have liked to see more new bosses across each area with the reduction of the stage-like format.
But otherwise, I really enjoyed the move to the new hub like format as I wasn’t sure how the “open world” would work. I’m happy that it wasn’t an actual open world but more of larger catered areas that use most of what’s been placed there.
Conclusion
Team Ninja and Koei Tecmo’s Nioh 3 continues to push the envelope of what this series offers. Moving away from a pure stage-like format and introducing area hubs works really well to divide the adventure’s chapters. Combined with multiple enhancements to the already fast-paced gameplay, and the new ability to instantly switch between Samurai and Ninja like combat, I was hooked solid from start to finish.
Score: 9/10
Dragon Spira - PS5 Review
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
Well hello
there, and welcome to another review of a KEMCO title! We’ve been through a few
of these in the past, each with their own charm, and now it’s time to take a
look at a new title: Dragon Spira.
The world
of Dragon Spira is an interesting place, where The Divine created six spirit
beasts to rule over the world, along with different races for most of them.
However that didn’t go over so well when the spirit beasts rebelled, and were
sealed into eggs. The Divine created humans to replace them, and left them with
some relics and wisdom before disappearing. One thousand years later and humanity
is doing pretty well for itself, all things considered. Unfortunately, danger
lurks, and a hero is needed to stand against the coming evil! (that’s you by
the way).
So you end
up with a traditional JRPG party of four plus a mascot creature (who is also
helpful in battle at least) to venture forth. Now, most of you who are familiar
with KEMCO titles should know that they generally come in two flavours: old-school
Final Fantasy like or old-school Dragon Quest like. This time we’re going with
the Final Fantasy like style.
For those
of you new to KEMCO titles, Dragon Spira is a very retro stylized JRPG, but in
a good way. You have a party of heroes that ventures out into the world to
right wrongs and uncover hidden secrets along the way. Getting into random
turn-based battles is a mandatory experience here, all done in a pixel-graphic
and MIDI sounding adventure.
Between
bouts of random encounters and facing off against powerful bosses, you will be
exploring dungeons, towns, taking sidequests from characters or the guild, and
maybe challenging optional areas if you’re feeling confident? You may need to
rethink that last one though. When the game says “powerful enemies here”, it
means you’re getting one-shot.
Dragon
Spira runs the traditional set-up: visit a town, find out there’s something
important to do in a dungeon nearby, find and enter dungeon on world map, clear
dungeon, report in to town, rinse and repeat with the next town. It’s a tried
and true formula of JRPGs through the ages. Thankfully KEMCO tends to do away
with a lot of the frustration of some of the older games when going for their
retro feel. Such quality of life options include: being able to teleport to any
town or dungeon you have previously set foot in, indicators for where quests
are available, the option to warp back to quest giver when complete from the
quest menu, and many other small but handy bits.
Exploration
of dungeons is pretty straightforward, where you walk around aiming for the
depths and the boss that’s sure to meet you there, getting into random battles
along the way, and maybe seeing a cutscene or two. At set intervals there are teleportation
circles that you can use to warp between different zones, as well as braziers
that can summon enemies as a set of three individual battles so you can get
exp, money, stones, and RP more efficiently, more on those last two later.
Combat in
these types of KEMCO games is a little interesting, as player units are in a
vertical line with front and rear options, while enemy units are placed in a
3x3 grid so that they fit. Some enemies will take up multiple squares. Combat is taken in turns based on speed of
units with faster units taking earlier and more frequent turns, as indicated by
a handy turn order bar at the top of the combat screen. When in combat you have
a number of tactical options available to you: attack, job, unique, item,
defense, summon, and if you have the mascot character unlocked summon.
Unique and
Job refer to skills, which cost MP but hold special effects, deal extra damage,
or multiple enemy tiles. Each move has it’s own range, so pay attention when
deciding what skill to use. Unique are character specific and are solely
learned by that character, but Job skills are learned as long as you have the
required job equipped and at the right level. Summon just calls your mascot to
stand in front of the unit that summoned it, which is also the only time you
can use the mascot character’s Wonder Skill ability to help you in battle.
Yup, you
read that right, we get jobs. Now, I feel no shame in telling you I’m an
absolute sucker for a decent job system, and I feel like Dragon Spira delivers
a decent system. You start out with a set of jobs, and a bunch of locked jobs
you can’t access yet. Basic jobs can level from JP earned primarily through
combat, and default jobs will level to 25. Once you hit 25, if you have a
specific item, you can use it to unlock an advanced version of that class allowing you to level it to 50. Some of the locked jobs require hitting that
level 50 with more than one job class. There are both active and passive skills
awarded to you as you level your jobs, and your jobs can be swapped at any time
outside of combat or a cutscene, so feel free to play around with them. It is
important to note that jobs can only equip certain types of items, so if you
make it through a good chunk of the game without getting a decent dagger and
equip a thief job, don’t expect that to go super well. While job levels are not
shared across party, you don’t lose anything from switching jobs, so you can
always swap back if you don’t like the job you’ve changed to.
So, let’s
take a poke at a really weird but interesting feature: the sugoroku board. If
you don’t have any idea what that is, don’t worry, neither did I. Basically you
can think of it kinda like a mario party board, or maybe a Jumanji board if
that’s more familiar. As you pass over or land on certain tiles, you gain the
item or stat associated with that tile. On certain tiles or at the end of the
board, you may distribute all the stats you’ve earned through tiles. Yes, you
can replay boards, so you can do this pretty much indefinitely. Do note that
the higher the player party level the more costly it is to move tiles on the
board.
So how do
you move tiles? Well, you earn RP from battles, or the board, and you spend a
set number of points based on board and party level to spin a roulette wheel
that has 1 to 6 on it. What you land on is how far you go. At intersections
where you have a choice of direction, you also spin to determine where you go.
You can find items to choose a desired roll, so don’t worry too hard about
missing a tile. You can always come back and try again.
So you
KEMCO veterans are probably wondering at this point: does this one have the
store? The answer is yes, it does. For those of you confused, these types of
KEMCO titles tend to have a sort of store where you can exchange kaishin stones
earned through combat or as certain rewards for either permanent cross-save
game modifiers like increased exp earned, or exchange for items or an equipment
gacha roll where you might end up with some ridiculously overpowered gear.
Overall I
have to say I’m quite a fan of Dragon Spira. The combat is pretty fluid and has
a lot of options for you, the job system is a decent mesh of easy to use and
tactical options with a fair number of jobs available, and the sugoroku boards
are an incredibly interesting addition to the game. The story is pretty
engaging, the characters are unique in their portrayal, and each job class has
their own outfit sprite in addition to the general character sprite. I would
definitely recommend Dragon Spira if you’re looking for a really fun retro
style RPG.
Score: 8 / 10
Nioh 3 Demo(s) - PS5 Preview
Nioh 3 by developer Team Ninja and publisher Koei Tecmo America—Sony PlayStation 5 preview written by Pierre-Yves with limited time demos provided on the PSN.
Estimated Reading Time: 8 minutes.
Dynasty Warriors: Origins - Visions of Four Heroes - PS5 Review
Dynasty Warriors: Origins - Visions of Four Heroes by developer Omega Force and publisher Koei Tecmo America—Sony PlayStation 5 review written by Nick with a copy provided by the publisher. #DynastyWarriorsOrigins #VisionsofFourHeroes
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
Dragon Quest VII: Reimagined - PS5 Demo Preview
Dragon Quest VII: Reimagined by developer HexaDrive and publisher Square Enix—Sony PlayStation 5 preview written by Pierre-Yves with a demo available on the PSN.
Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes
Code Violet - PS5 Review
Code Violet by developer and publisher TeamKill Media—Sony Playstation 5 review written by Pierre-Yves with a copy provided by the publisher.
Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes.
Hero Seekers - PS5 Review
Hero Seekers by developer Vanguard and publisher KEMCO—PS5 review written by Richard with a copy provided by the publisher.
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
Welcome to
the New Year everybody. It’s time to kick off with a new Kemco title: Hero
Seekers! A story set in a world of heroes who battle against the evil demon
king to protect humankind. This is a turn-based retro style RPG with a blend of old
Kemco title mechanics and some interesting twists, so let’s take a look at what
Hero Seekers has to offer.
Our story follows Lunette, a girl who fought the Demon King along with her two companions. Unfortunately she awakens afterwards to discover the Demon King is alive and history has changed. As the only one who remembers the past, Lunette sets out to recover the forgotten past and to bring down the Demon King for good.
Hero
Seekers is a fairly traditional turn-based RPG setup, where you have a party of
up to four frontliners and a reserve unit that you can swap out in battle.
Battle is done through a turn order based around unit speed, and every
character can act once per turn, although enemies can have more than one
action. You have your standard attack, skill, defend, and item options, but there
are also some quality of life additions to combat mechanics. There is an
autobattle feature as well as a speed of battle toggle where you can vastly
increase the pace of combat, making those grinding sessions a little easier.
Hero
Seekers takes an interesting twist as you explore the land trying to figure out
what is going on with the Demon King and how reality is different than what
Lunette remembers. She will discover former heroes trapped in a prison of
memory, and then summon them forth to aid her. Yup, you can summon heroes in a
sort of quasi-gacha system. In various chests, as well as occasionally from
battles, you will get memory stones. Ten memory stones can be used at a
monument to summon a hero of the past.
When you
summon heroes, you can get multiple of the same hero, increasing their stats
and passive abilities, as well as improving skills or letting you learn them
earlier. Thankfully for me and anyone else with poor luck, the hero pulls are
from a limited pool, so you can burn through the common heroes to get the rare
ones. Furthermore you can select a hero to “aim for”, increasing the appearance
chance, even if you haven’t gotten a copy of them yet.
The basic
overarching gameplay will consist of Lunette and her party visiting a town,
deciding to help out with something, and then going off to find a dungeon on
the world map to get through, all the while getting into random battles. Pretty
standard fare, and if you’ve played a Kemco game in this style before, you’re
pretty sure about what you’re going to get. Equally fair warning where it’s
due, a lot of the assets in Hero Seekers you can find in other more recent
Kemco titles as well. They aren’t bad, and they do have a dynamic style to
them, but they definitely are reused from other games. The music too. Unlike
some of the other Kemco titles, there is no “shop” for special weapons or
items, although there is a merchant who will trade memory stones for items if
you’re so inclined. This means you can’t turn yourself into a chapter one
walking nuke, but I think I prefer this to rolling a post-game strength weapon
in the “store” and then rolling over all the enemies.
I say this
to let you know that Hero Seekers is a pretty generic title, but that doesn’t
mean it’s bad. I was actually quite fond of the storyline, and found the unique
aspect of the Demon Lord’s power, how it’s applied, and the struggles of the
past heroes to be rather well presented. While the theme around what most of
the past heroes struggled with isn’t exactly unique, I’d say it’s often either
underplayed or not utilized enough in most literature or media, so it was a
refreshing experience.
I should
warn you that some of the bosses can be pretty tough. When they do a sizable
chunk to your health per hit and can take multiple actions, if they focus on
one character you’re in for a bad time. You may need to pay more attention to
the turn order that also indicates what the enemies will do in order to prepare
yourself.
Overall
Hero Seekers is a pretty fun title with some interesting themes about heroes
and their struggles. While certainly not award winning, Hero Seekers also
doesn’t fall flat in any major areas either. The hero lottery is surprisingly
reasonable, the combat system is pretty fluid with some nice quality of life
aspects, and the sprite and music is decent, although somewhat reused from
other similar titles. Overall, I’d recommend picking up Hero Seekers if you’re
looking for an older style RPG that doesn’t require heavy investment.
