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Shin Hyakuji High School Tvtropes
The Book that is Hyakuji's Story has come to a close. However, there are still plenty of stories left to be told in the madcap Anime Universe it inhabits. As one book closes, so too does another open. Presented by veteran Hyakuji Staff Members, check out the next generation EVOLUTION of "Anything-Goes" Anime Roleplaying at Senki Academy
The Book that is Hyakuji's Story has come to a close. However, there are still plenty of stories left to be told in the madcap Anime Universe it inhabits. As one book closes, so too does another open. Presented by veteran Hyakuji Staff Members, check out the next generation EVOLUTION of "Anything-Goes" Anime Roleplaying at Senki Academy
| Crow's review corner | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Sep 25 2010, 12:37 AM (3,077 Views) | |
| North | Dec 12 2010, 03:12 AM Post #46 |
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Go find U3 for me please? <3 |
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| Kura | Dec 12 2010, 03:13 AM Post #47 |
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Here we go.
Edited by Kura, Dec 12 2010, 03:15 AM.
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| Crow Hiroshima | Dec 12 2010, 02:14 PM Post #48 |
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Thanks Kura. Didn't expect to see it up so dang fast. Can't wait to get my hands on it, and Uncharted. Wonder what naughty dog has in store for Drake this time around? Also where the hell is Elena? |
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| Kura | Dec 12 2010, 02:43 PM Post #49 |
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Ha, they were actually tossed up a couple minutes after each premiere. Being a hardcore Mass Effect fan, I had to find the video to share it with all those unfortunates who couldn't see it on TV. Also because the stream I was watching wasn't exactly quality. Can't wait for either game. This coming year certainly has promise and is going to do a number on my wallet. D: |
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| Dominique | Dec 12 2010, 06:13 PM Post #50 |
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IZUNAAAA DROP!
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My ears caught fire from sheer ecstasy the moment they heard the word Elder Scrolls. I'm still floating~ |
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| North | Dec 12 2010, 06:44 PM Post #51 |
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From what I've been hearing, Uncharted 3 is set in the Arabian Peninsula, and has something to do with "Atlantis in the Sands.". Someone took the thirty-second teaser trailer and went through every clue from every item on the table. It was interesting stuff. 11.1.11 baby. |
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| Crow Hiroshima | Dec 12 2010, 11:19 PM Post #52 |
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Its bedtime! Bed=Ethnic Time=Cleansing
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*Taps foot* Dom still waiting on that review... |
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| Dominique | Dec 13 2010, 12:54 AM Post #53 |
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IZUNAAAA DROP!
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Crow, I'm saddened to inform that setting my own shop to review video and playing from the perspective of a reviewer had completely disillusioned me to modern gaming as a whole and I realize now I'm not capable of impartiality with this subject matter. While I hold out hope for companies like Bioware and Bethesda who have given me thousands of collective hours of joy they are a few shining light among a din of dark, dismal, boring companies. As for the reviews I was going to put out, I'll sum them up for you. Dead Rising 2: More of the same of Dead Rising 1 only without the celebrated camera snapping feature. The added weapon combining is a nice addition but quickly becomes tedious when coming up with new combinations is difficult and confusing and even managing to put stuff together barely seems worthwhile as there are only a few batches of weapons worth using. Also I can't even begin to express the burning hatred I feel for timed campaigns and putting me on a constant timer for LITERALLY EVERYTHING is just annoying. Everytime I'd feel a little pride for finding a cool weapon combination it would BREAK after like seven uses and so I'd get back to the plot only to CONSTANTLY GET PHONE CALLS ABOUT MISSIONS I DONT CARE ABOUT but staring at the constantly shrinking time bar just put me on edge the entire time. I got so pissed I gave up and ran around killing everything in sight not even caring about the campaign like a GOOD SANDBOX GAME SHOULD BE. Thankfully it seems to count on people doing this and includes a reset button on your campaign that lets you keeps your levels and achievements so...I guess the developers actually REALIZED how annoying their own time system was BUT LEFT IT IN ANYWAY. Halo Reach: Did you like Halo 3's multiplayer? Did you like ODST's plot? Did you buy both those games despite the glaringly obvious flaw that ODST literally reused 3's multiplayer and the campaign could be finished in two hours? K, go ahead and buy this. It's the same multiplayer with one or two new game modes, FEWER weapons and an armor purchasing system that frankly seems to BEG for you to play the irritatingly short campaign over and over again yet offer no benefit in return other than looking slightly different than the guy next to you. Either way they seem to bank you wanting to do the same stuff over and over again for achievements and unlockables that are COMPLETELY MEANINGLESS but that's how shooters work anymore it seems. The plot is fine, I guess but I hate being able to finish a game in a couple hours because they think I care more about the multiplayer than the story. CoD: Black Ops: See above. Mostly. The plot is much better, albeit equally disappointing in its brevity. I keep hearing people telling me its an incredibly epic plot but frankly I found it bland and over the top but people said the plot of the last game was epic too and I found that one equally bland and over the top. If you're into deep political conspiracy intrigue stories like the Manchurian Candidate (the remake) you'll somehow manage to get a kick out of this. As for the multiplayer well...it's CoD, what did you expect? Innovation? Fable 3: Fuck you Peter Molyneux, I trusted you. I still think the first game was amazing (though not what you promised) the second game was a slight improvement and the third was...the second game again. Only WITH HALF AS MUCH CONTENT. Fixed a lot of the traveling problems, load times are better, graphics are nicer but it felt like they gave up with everything else. In the second game you had cleavers, cutlasses, hammers, axes, katanas, you fucking name it! And all in varying weight classes! You had four different kinds of guns too! Now you have two types of each. And they all look the same, I don't care how much they pretend like fighting with them makes them all unique. Customization is practically dead it seems, you can't even name your hero anymore and the sidquests are utterly pointless, the main plot is worthlessly mundane to the point where the main villain turns out to be...? I don't fucking know, they never explain what the damn thing is! The first two had an amazing amount of lore stored within them: histories, stories of other heroes, rumors that you could hunt down and may or may not be true. I remember in the first one reading so many books about heroes and famous battles and being able to find traces of that in places even to the point where might find a legendary weapon wielded in the story you just read! How fucking cool is that?? You felt like a real adventurer. They had a little of that in two, albeit significantly less. Then in three they just said FUCK IT. You're in a desert now, nothing famous happened here, now go to the swamp! It's just a swamp, what do you want, backstory? To be regaled by legends of heroes long past that defeated some evil lich here in a tomb you might be able to find if you explore enough? Sorry, no can do. Castlevania LoS: Konami...why? Metal Gear Solid is a dying franchise, Silent Hill is a dying franchise and now Castlevania too? I remember there was time I could look forward to platforming around a sandbox-style victorian castle hunting undead horros of the night, not playing Kratos, son of Arathorn, running across the the plains of Rohan hunting Warg Riders down a linear path to ANOTHER linear path to finish the linear forest level and get to the linear ruins to fight fucking goblins, trolls and giant! The story isn't even interesting! The entire plot rests on a lame fucking twist ending which I can almost GUARANTEE is going to be used to spawn a bunch of shitty sequels just like it! The gameplay is weak and way too easy, the controls are irritating at best, the camera sucks and though they admittedly change the quick time events for every new boss fight (except the mini bosses they seem intent on re-using over and over again) they're still retarded fucking quick time events! Why I was expecting a 3D sandbox version of Aria of Sorrow or Circle of the moon, I don't know! It wasn't worth the time it took to get to my mailbox. EDIT: The only other games in my GameQ are Force Unleashed 2 (high hopes for this actually), Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage (I've had that in there for MONTHS, I think they just don't want me to play it) and Dead Space 2 which comes out Christmas Day. Might be good, I loved the first one. If I don't review them, it's because they all sucked but these are niche games that I'm expecting I'll enjoy with little reason to be disappointed since my hopes aren't TOO high for them. Edited by Dominique, Dec 13 2010, 01:04 AM.
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| Crow Hiroshima | Dec 13 2010, 08:35 AM Post #54 |
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Well folks there you have it. So get off my ass! I at some point may give a second thought on these games, but until then consider Doms judgement. The final word....she has spoken! |
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| Crow Hiroshima | Dec 16 2010, 10:17 PM Post #55 |
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Its bedtime! Bed=Ethnic Time=Cleansing
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Ok well as we all know, the end of the year is coming, and unlike past years the gaming industry will not finish december off strong, so there will be no more reviews until January. Although my reviews may be later coming, due to the fact I will be working full time at Fed ex, and will still retain my part time gamestop endeavor, combine that with school, and what not, and my reviews may be shorter. But I hope to keep them to a great quality. But onto what I'm here to say. With more job hours means more money. And with more money that means great things! And now you may ask " What great things Crow?!" And to that I say...shut the f*ck up and let me tell you. First of all I may rename this thread to fir Dom in, if she still wishes to review, and be my partner in crime. Secondly my first review of the new year will probably be Dead Space 2. (Dom it comes out Jan. Not Dec...hehe) Unless I feel the need to really review KH Coded...but doubt it...let me know if you want it reviewed.. Third and this is where the money comes into play. I will be holding contest, and giving away games and what not, well depending on how things go, and my budget. The prizes can range from games, to microsoft points (sense I'm going to assume everyone here has 360, I must be the only person who loves sony more....I feel so alone.) Soooo that's all of it. Questions comments, ideas for reviews of old ass games you want reviewed so you can see my thoughts on them? |
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| Hiro_Tsukasa | Dec 17 2010, 05:48 AM Post #56 |
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NICE DRIVE!
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I dare you to review Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde on the original NES! That being said, I spoke to Crow and he okay'd me being a FEATURED REVIEWER in this fine thread. I won't be stepping on his toes any so you'll still be looking to him for fine reviews of the latest and greatest. Instead I'm going to cater to a random niche that probably not many care about but I do so I'm going to show some love. I'm going to be reviewing X-Box Live Indie Games. Maybe you've heard of them, maybe you haven't. They're hidden off in their own spot in the Game Marketplace and are plagued with a horrible reputation of cloned Avatar-based games, fart machines and sex to-err I mean MAKE THE CONTROLLER VIBRATE apps. However, among all that blatant trash there are some great gems that have gone overlooked. After I bought my first Indie Game I became hooked and started checking there every day I turned my X-Box on trying games that looked promising and buying the ones I really enjoyed. Currently, I own around 15 or so Indie Games. Since these are all games made by small studios or sometimes even single people doing it as a hobby I'm sure they need more love and I'm virtually an expert at this point, so I thought I'd review the ones I've found to be truly great games. Why should you care? There are some great games on there and if you happen to fancy a particular genre it's worth checking relevant games to that genre out. Also, if you ever get MS points and spend them on something that's not all averaged out right like avatar clothing or wallpapers or gamer pics or some DLC there's a good chance you'll end up with some odd remainder you can't spend on anything. Sure, you could save that for next time but a lot of times you end up with a little bit of MS points you never seem to get rid of; that's actually why I bought my first Indie Game. So yeah, you could just save it... or you could pick up some cool, good and cheap games all the while supporting people working hard to make games despite the odds. All Indie Games have an eight minute trial too so if you are curious from my review you can at least sample a bit of the game first as well. I should also add that, unfortunately, certain regions don't get access to the Indie Game service. I'm not sure why or if this will change but you'll need to check for yourself and if not sorry, write Microsoft and let them know you want it too. Another important warning of note, to play any Indie Games you buy you must be connected to X-Box Live. Before you HUH WHAT rage let me explain. These games don't get ESRB rated and you know there's that whole thing about games officially released through certain channels have to have an ESRB rating. Instead, they get a scored rating on stuff like Violence/Sexual Content/etc. from other creators using the service and by requiring you to be online it works off that whole loophole where companies aren't responsible for online content blah blah. They also don't have some typical features of Live Arcade games such as achievements or leaderboards/online play by default (some skilled devs have actually added in-game achievements that don't contribute to Gamerscore but function the same, online leaderboards and online play to their games). They won't show on your game list but it will show other people that you are playing it when online. That sounds like a big string of bad but consider the pricing (most games go for a buck and beyond that you're looking at three or five) and the fact these are small studios or hobbyists before you judge. If you'd like to learn more in depth about X-Box Live's Indie Game service or how it works (such as how the creators get paid, etc.) the wiki entry is pretty straightforward with what you need to know: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xbox_Live_Indie_Games I have a pretty big backlog to work through so there might be a big burst from here on but once I've caught up this will be a very irregular feature popping in whenever I find a new gem. So, without further ado.... ==== Hiro's X-Box Live Indie Game Corner Aphelion: Episode I - Graves of Earth Alright to kick things off we're starting with one of my favorite game genre and one of the few hallmark RPG's available in the Indie Game service. Aphelion is actually a series being worked on indie dev team Lunatic Studios and if the "Episode I" didn't give it away this is meant to have more than one game involved. Episode II will conclude the story began here. Here is the back of the box description that shows in the marketplace: Aphelion is a Sci-Fi RPG featuring fast turn-based combat, a 5+ hour main storyline spanning the galaxy, rich characters, combo attacks, NewGame+, ability trees, crafting, and lots more. RPG veterans will enjoy the deep game mechanics while its accessibility reaches out to new comers to the RPG genre. It's a pretty precise summary that hits the nail on the head. Aphelion's plot, set in a future of space travel, focuses of humanity and their encounter with a mysterious race known as the Crimson. Out of the blue the Crimson attack one of humanity's colonies in a bold display of war. You control a young cadet in the military named Savion. What starts as an all out struggle for survival eventually leads to a quest to stop the Crimson and along the way you dig up a conspiracy even more threatening to humanity than the Crimson themselves. Savion is accompanied by Ashley, filling both the childhood best friend/pseudo love interest and healer role, Rita, another young cadet, and Drake, a crooked thief that gets swept up in their adventure. I'll be honest, the start of the story and early part of the game is nothing to write home about. The story seems overly cliche and trite and the characters are torn from the pages of Anime Characters 101. However, as you progress the plot begins to make some nice and inventive twists that totally redeem that aspect for me. I'm more than willing to forgive cliche'd characters given the nature of J-RPG's in general so your mileage may vary there. Again, like the plot, the characters do grow on you as time passes. Personally, if I had to compare it to any one series I would select Phantasy Star. If you're familiar with that series Aphelion packs a lot of the same vibe and the retro-system calls up fond memories of playing Phantasy Star IV in me. The battle system is your traditional turn-based affair with 3 party members. I will say, since you only get 4 potential characters limiting the party to 3 seemed a bit silly. Why not expand it to 4 and just use everyone? You have a window that shows you the turn order a lot like Final Fantasy X and by manipulating your speed stat with the Ability Tree you can actually work certain characters up to taking multiple turns for every 1 turn enemies get. There's also a Limit Break type feature that fills up as you take and deal damage and can be used to unleash mass destruction when needed. The battle system is probably the most solid portion overall. There are a few flaws, however. The encounter rate is ridiculously high and and after awhile it started to feel like a chore to explore for chests; especially when said chests didn't turn a big pay off. This also makes new locations a bit rough as you constantly slug through tougher enemies when not yet up to snuff in levels. There's also a bit of inconsistency with the boss battles. The first boss is a cake walk but shortly after you get another that can stamp you out in a turn or two if you're not on your game and prepared. There are a few random difficulty spikes like this. It's nothing to make one give up the game but always be prepared. The next best aspect is the Ability Tree. Taking a page from Mass Effect each character has their own Ability Tree based around the type of class they were designed to adhere to (Savion is all about tanking and damage, for example). The tree has several categories of Primary, Secondary and Tertiary skills. The higher in rank the more specialized and "class" related the ability is while once down to the 3rd category you have generic stat-boosters that every character's tree has. Still, there's a good amount of choice and customization available. You can gear Rita towards different roles and Drake especially has a lot of choices with a lot of debuffing and item theft-related skills. By focusing on Abilities all related to select stats you can get some pretty different builds. For example, Savion can be worked into a tank, glass cannon or even some mix in-between or you can lock onto speed raising abilities and start taking multiple turns over the enemy and overwhelm them. Personally, I think it was a nice twist ontop of what primarily has the vibe of a retro J-RPG just without the pixel-look. The graphics are acceptable but aren't the most pleasing thing to look at. It feels like their entire world is drenched in blues. Maybe this was a style choice but I wasn't a fan of it. They look nice though and it was a nice surprise to see a mostly retro-style RPG game but with more modern looking graphics. It needs to be said upfront that Savion's walking animation is horrible and I'm pretty sure the devs will be fixing that in the next game. There's also something to be said for the loading screens. Despite packing plenty of flavor text for the game's world they also feature the 4 core characters fully drawn in very gorgeous anime style art and it was never a hassle loading new areas as they loaded plenty fast and there was always something nice to look at and info to read if I chose to. There's also not much variety to the music and sound effects. I'm sure that's related to budget but I would have loved to have a bit more sound in combat. Also, none of the music seemed to really pop or stick with me. I think a good retro styled J-RPG like this needs a really catchy battle music such that it makes you want to hum it later like the old Final Fantasy's. All in all, I consider it a great game if you're a fan of RPG's and especially J-RPG's and/or retro ones. 5 hours might not seem that much but they are a fun five hours spent and for the price tag that's a good deal of content, along with a NG+ mode and there's the promise of more on the way (with improvements). Pros +Interesting, if cliche, sci-fi storyline with likeable characters. +Tight and fun retro turn-based battle system +Very high quality loading screen with flavor text and anime-style artwork of the core cast. +Plenty of bonus content like a New Game+ Mode, ability trees a la Mass Effect in lieu of some traditional leveling system and a Item Crafting system. Cons -Weak in-game Graphics. -Very awkward walk animation. (It's bad. It needs its own entry separate from above) -Could use more interesting and varied music and sound effects. -The knob for encounter rates is dialed a bit too far to the extreme, in my opinion. In summary, this is a great throwback to the 16-bit era style of RPG's you might have seen on the SNES of Sega Genesis but with more modern graphics. If Episode II breaks out with some nice story development and some polish placed on the general presentation it could go from a nice series to a MUST PLAY for RPG fans. As a note, Episode II is due out before the end of the year. Once I'm able to obtain it and work a good deal in or finish it I'll review it as well to see if they delivered a worthy successor. Aphelion: Episode I is available on X-Box Live for any regions with access to the Indie Games service and goes for 240 MS points. You could do a lot worse for 3 bucks. Marketplace Link: http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/Aphelion/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d8025855059d ==== I opted for a no-score system where I simply discuss the game, what I liked, what I didn't like, etc. and then summarize with a Pro/Con segment and conclude. If anybody doesn't like that or would prefer I add a solid score that people can go with just let me know. I'll also be glad to field questions on Indie Games, suggestions for review or questions about the game that has been reviewed. Hope you enjoyed it, look for the next one~ Edited by Hiro_Tsukasa, Dec 17 2010, 05:53 AM.
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| Hiro_Tsukasa | Dec 17 2010, 08:17 PM Post #57 |
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NICE DRIVE!
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AS FORETOLD IN THE DAYS OF OLD (Read: Yesterday) IT CONTINUES RAPIDLY... Hiro's X-Box Live Indie Game Corner AXEH Today we're going to talk about a Japanese developed Indie Game. That's right, one of the strong points (in my opinion) to this entire service is that games released by Japanese devs are also available for English speaking gamers to play as well. While this means a lot are in Japanese there are actually quite a few who think ahead and ensure the game has an English option as well. The game in question is a unique part board game/part CHILDREN'S CARD GAME experience called AXEH. This is what the marketplace description has to say: This game was classified by the community with the following category scores - Violence=1/3, Sex=0/3, Mature Content=0/3. Dominate the board with the card! AXEH is a new style game that is board game with flavor of card game. Read the next move of the opponent., and make full use the card to neutralize enemy castle ! You can play with various of AI to grow your skills at solo-mode. Of course, also supports online matches of XBOXLIVE! AXEH was created by a single dude named Pekoyama Kikaku and as far as I know it is his debut effort; I'll be glad to retract that if I find proof otherwise. He clearly knows the kind of gamer this sort of game would appeal to and plays to its strength. It has attractive anime-style art for the marketplace "box" art. Loading game gives you a interesting sci-fi title screen but, a big detractor in my book, there is no sort of title screen music. However, once you go to the main menu the title screen becomes animated and music kicks up really catching your eyes and ears. AXEH has four game modes available. First, there's a tutorial that will take you step by step through a typical game of AXEH and teach you the ropes. I highly recommend doing so as though I will try to explain the game it is a bit confusing at first and seeing it first hand really helps. Beyond this there is a Single Player Mode which has several boards with their own plot of varying difficulty for you to challenge the CPU. You can gain experience and level up adding slight RPG elements. At level up you are awarded points that can be spent into stats which effect the types of cards you have available to draw. Next is a Local Match Mode handled via System Link. This is a pretty nice feature to see in an Indie Game but it's also a bit of a problem. We all know about 360 LAN parties for stuff like Halo. But unless you convince a friend to buy it then lug over a TV and a 360 this will be an unused feature. Still, I imagine it would be quite fun to play at a LAN party if you had enough people invested in doing it. Finally, there is an Online Match Mode via X-Box Live. Yes, like I mentioned before this dev took the time to add Online Matches. However, I don't have a Gold Membership currently so I can't test that nor inform you if it has some form of global matchmaking or if you just have to play via friend invites. Plus, I don't have any friends with the game nor can I convince anyone to chip in the dollar to test it so I've got no answers here. However, I will say if you did have some people with the game and willing to play it could be a fun time for board and/or card game enthusiasts. Now, as for the game itself. When you start you're shown your stat screen. You have several places to raise stats Offense Ritual (which covers attack magic cards), Defense Ritual (which handles defensive and healing magic cards), Offense Tactics (which covers different types of soldier cards), Defense Tactics (which covers different types of defensive solider cards) and Building Cost Reduction (a sort of general stat that lowers the mana cost to draw cards). Early on you can only get a few points spent so until you have finished out all the scenarios or grinded to max level you'll probably want to focus all your points towards some build. Personally, I went for a speedy build not unlike a Beatdown deck in Yu-Gi-Oh pumping the Reduction stat so I could draw and ultimately play cards faster. There are 5 scenarios you can play that have little flavor text plots but these are poorly written and really this is more about the game than any kind of the plot. You've got one Easy scenario to ween into playing, 3 Normal and two Hard once you've got the hang of things and have leveled up. When you start a game you're greeting with an interesting looking Hex game board and some upbeat techno music. One quarter of the board is green and the other red and each side starts with a single card on the field representing the main base or leader. These are the two armies at combat with each other and there's a blue field in the center that is something of a neutral zone. The ultimate goal of the game is to destroy the other person's Base/Leader card and by doing so achieve victory. This can be acomplished by several means. Each player has a Mana stat that gets contributed to based on the number of bases you've created. You spend mana to draw and play cards. Playing cards can be used to either make new bases of varying types (barracks that produce soldier cards, shrines that produce magic cards, etc.), attack other bases (again via soliders or magic) or fortify the defense of your bases. As you create and expand your influence the cap of your mana will increase meaning that you can play more powerful cards. You can hold 3 cards at once (with a 4th slot holding a special event card that can be used once per game for crazy random effects) and can hold onto a card as long as you want or discard it to free up space. So, the gameplay pans out like this. You draw cards and play them. There are two types of tiles in the board. Normal and Base tales. Normal tiles can have any card played on them to make an Infantrymen Base. These bases will increase the health/defense of adjacent bases meaning you can lost longer from attacks and also give a slight raise to your max Mana. Base Tiles are the core of the game, however. All base tiles have a higher mana cost to play a card on them but making more bases is how you gain more mana and win the game. Playing a General card, for example, will make a base that churns out more solider-related cards. As far as combat there are two ways to go about it. Once you have a Shrine created if it churns out damage dealing spell cards you can cast them and target enemy locations to deal direct damage. Once a base's health is depleted it is destroyed (also lowering the opponent's available Mana pool in the process). The other way to destroy bases is through the use of the General card making Forts for soldiers. If you have a Fort adjacent to an enemy location then you can play another General card to have the soldiers in that Fort attack the enemy and deal damage. Like before, once their health is depleted then their location is destroyed. So, the ideal way to achieve victory is either by blasting their home base with spells or building a supply line of Forts across the neutral area expanding your influence until you reach the enemy home Base and attack it directly with soldiers. Once you start factoring some of the higher level cards that can boost defenses or do other neat tricks the game becomes surprisingly deep and feels a lot like a proper card/board game you might sit down with friends and play. There are some issues, however. Regardless of the mission's difficulty you always get the same XP so the harder missions are a chore to near impossible to do early on until you've leveled up. This promotes quickly grinding the Easy Mission (which becomes a cake walk after a few levels) to power up to max and then wipe the other missions off the map. Still, it's a fun game for those that enjoy board or cards games or even just games that involve a good deal of strategy. There's not much animation to speak of either. You get some little flashy graphics for the spells or using a Fort to attack but I would have really liked to see maybe some still cut-ins or something of actual soldiers in the same style as the anime girl for the box art. The game also features a nice menu system in-game. When you highlight a card or open tile all the information you might want to know is very clearly and plainly given to you so there's little guessing as to the mana cost to make a certain action or what the results might be for your actions. All in all, AXEH is a fun game with a lot of potential but falls short on delivery. It would make an excellent game to play with friends but the obscure nature of the Indie Game service and the only options being System Link or Online Play hinder it from the full use it might have seen appearing as a true Live Arcade game. Pros +Deep and unique strategic gameplay mixing elements of both Board and Card games harkening to the likes of Yu-Gi-Oh or Culdcept Saga +Interesting Anime art style for the cards that become easily recognizeable +Nice Multiplayer options for an Indie Game including Local System Link and Online Match Cons -Lack of story or progressive depth promotes grinding for the Single Player Mode. -Could use better presentation such as battle animations as currently it truly feels like sitting at a virtual table with a real life board game. -Though a boost there is also a downside to some features: the nature of Indie Games with X-Box Live means for most the System Link and Online Match features will go unused. AXEH is available on X-Box Live for any regions with access to the Indie Games service and goes for 80 MS points. Overall, it's a pretty mediocre game. Interesting, but nothing spectacular. If you're a fan of Culdcept Saga (another 360 game that merges board and card games), Yu-Gi-Oh or some of the more strategic war-like board games such as Risk I would say AXEH is at least worth a demo. If you decide to take the plunge it won't take long to get the dollar you invested back out of it, in any case . Marketplace Link: http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/AXEH-%E3%82%A8%E3%82%BB/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d802585505f5 ==== Get ready because next installment I'm going to take on one of the biggest and best known Indie Games to hit the service~ Edited by Hiro_Tsukasa, Dec 17 2010, 08:19 PM.
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| Crow Hiroshima | Dec 28 2010, 12:29 AM Post #58 |
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Its bedtime! Bed=Ethnic Time=Cleansing
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That's right! I got Hiro on my review corner!! F*ck IGN, and Game informer!! Well anyway its been a minute since I did a review of a movie, so later today or tomorrow I'm gonna do one of my new fav movies. True Grit, so look forward to that. Also Hiro why you gotta break balls?! There is no way I can find that game!!! Well anyway get ready for my review of Mass Effect 2 for the ps3 next month along with my Dead Space 2 review. |
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| Cypriss | Dec 28 2010, 01:41 AM Post #59 |
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lol, hiro is so word strong in his reviews but they are pretty spot on with my opinions. |
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| Crow Hiroshima | Jan 18 2011, 03:09 AM Post #60 |
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Its bedtime! Bed=Ethnic Time=Cleansing
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Welcome to the new year folks! And my first review of the year is not a pretty one....*sigh* here we go.... Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded The world of KH drops another entry into this slowly dieing franchise. After BBS ( Birth By Sleep) I had such high hopes for the franchise and where they were going in the future, and then this drops in my lap. I would have took this game right back after the first world, if it wasn't a gift from a friend who knows how much I love KH. Love or not, I am greatly disappointed by Nomura, and his need to put out this crap. KH opens up with Jiminy Cricket going through the journal from the gangs first adventure, and after finding the pages blank, and a mysterious message at the end, he rushes to King Mickey to report the mystery. After some investigating they discover that a virus has invaded the book, and erased all evidence of the gangs first adventure. Its not long after this that they call on the help of the only person who can help them with something like this...Sora!...Well a computer version of the young hero. You take control of the young 'data' Sora as he travels the same worlds from the first game again...and then in a lazy ass attempt to extended the game time for Coded....again.... The game play for this game makes me miss 358 so damn much. You will travel to each world, repairing the back doors, and getting rid of the viral bugs, and setting the worlds back to normal. The controls seem worse this time around, but the biggest problem that seems to plague all hand-held versions of the KH series, is the camera. They did a shoddy ass job this time, and to be honest something needs to be done quickly before it translates to the console games. It just feels clunky, and worth-less. The one part of this game that is fun, is the upgrade system. This seems to be the one part of the game where they actually put thought into it. Its fun, and is actually easy to navigate and use. I honestly wasn't expecting it to be this easy, but that just goes to show they somewhat think things out. The battles in the game play out across many genres. From turn based, to side scrolling platformers, to the tried, and true real time system that the game uses. While most of the game play is ok, the change up makes some of the worlds exciting. Concept: Watch Sora trek through the same worlds that he did in the first, again, and again, and again.....Only this time with a back story that makes little, to no sense. Graphics: No where near as good as BBS, but for DS I guess its ok. Sounds: No voice-overs in the cut scenes really hurt this game. Prepare to listen to the same laugh/moan track for every character while reading. Playabilty: The game feels sluggish, and unbalanced. The camera is this games biggest problem, but I don't remember it being this bad in 358. Entertainment: If your like me and love KH no matter how much they put out crappy games then by all means get it. If not I can direct you to a youtube page where you can watch someone else go through the pain. By far this is the worst entry in the series. Final Score: 2.5/5 |
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