Hello Everyone,
It's time to talk about Gundam Breaker 2 for the PSVita. The game is a recent release by Bandai Namco as well as being a sequel to Gundam Breaker released last year, around the same time. I was always fond of the previous game, and had high hopes for the recent sequel. How will that effect my in depth look into the game? Hopefully nothing, but keep in mind as I try to be objective that I do have an extreme love for the Gundam Franchise and the Breaker series of games.
Also, if you want more information about the gameplay please check my youtube video about it. (Link On Top). Because Bandai Namco have locked screen capture function on the PSVita for the game. Hence why some of my blog posts do not have pictures or images.
Settings:
Gundam Breaker 2 revolves around an unnamed, voiceless protagonist. In a world where Gunpla's popularity started a virtual game involving using these models to fight in a virtual environment to enact different Gundam battles. For those interested to a Gundam anime that is kind of like this check out Gundam Build Fighter.
The game is separated by two modes. Story mode goes through a fairly long game play with a plot line revolving the Archangel, the assault ship from Gundam Seed. I will not go further in to the storyline as it may take away too much from the game. Challenge mode, which I felt to be a bit more bare boned, is a more arena based gameplay style and is has more focus on multi game modes.
Different modes of the game involves: Capture the Points, Survival, Capsule Defence, Team death match. In my experience, Capture the point is the most annoying to win at times if your Gunpla isn't upgraded enough as enemy spawns are random and sometimes your friendly npc gets confused.
What is New:
Gundam Breaker 2's difference from Gundam Breaker is not just more emphasis on the story mode. But also some of the upgrade systems brought up from the original.
1) More emphasis on Gunpla upgrade through the scratch systems. In the previous game, scratch is usually used to change modes ie. Banshee's arm to a stronger version. Different, piece specific EX attacks, Burst attacks, and option attacks can be upgraded through this Scratch system as well.
2) Weapons no longer drop. The weapon building system took care of that. ACE enemies will sometimes drop the necessary cores, upgrade systems to craft your weapons.
3) More Mobile Suits.
4) More Mobile Armor encounters. I really do not like fighting them to be honest, a lot of them are quite cheap and is hard to long on.
5) Long Rifles no longer lock on, you have to use your aim.
Problems with the Game:
Like any game released as of recent years, there are problems. The game suffers from many glitches and game crashes, while I don't know how to really recreate the crashes at all. There was however 1 major bug that involved ACEs not spawning despite having the alarm sound sometimes. Often occurring after a long sleep mode on the Vita this bug pretty much rendered your last mission run null and void.
The Lock-on get's annoying sometimes, though you can deactivate, it really hinders your view at times when a mission involves aiming a specific area or enemy.
Conclusion:
Overall, the game is a solid Gundam experience on the PSVita. While I felt that the game could have been better, the amount of effort and changes Bandai Namco did to the game and some of it's mechanics really made the game quite enjoyable.
Sunday, December 28, 2014
Tuesday, December 23, 2014
Earth Defence Force 2 Portable V2
Hello Everyone,
Today, I am going to talk about Earth Defense Force 2 Portable V2. This is a 3rd person shooter created by Sandlot and published by D3 publisher. On the vita this is the second game to be published as EDF3 released last year, with a few issues in terms of frame rate. For EDF3 the frame rate fluctuates so much on infernal mode that it becomes nearly impossible to play at times and was a main concern when I first bought EDF2 PV2.
Gameplay:
The game plays like all the rendition of the EDF series. The player have the choice of 3 different troop type Ground, Pale wing, and Air Raid and must defend the earth from an alien takeover. The ground troops uses physical projectiles weapons but also have medium mobility within the game. Pale Wing uses energy weapons tapped into the jetpack power source and has the highest mobility but also have the lowest of all the different stats for balance. Air raid uses weapons that requires activation and is the slowest of all the troop types in speed, reload.
Players first chooses a Troop type out of the three mentioned, chooses a stage, and was thrown into a mission of pure giant monster killing fun. The enemy choices of the game has always been the same. Except this particular version being a slightly upgraded version of EDF 2 does not have as much enemy as EDF3.
Graphics:
Graphics really was a problem when EDF3 was on PSV. In terms of graphics, this game has lowered the fidelity but improved the frame rate significantly. There are still moments of graphics lag present with the higher levels, but has been reduced to a playable point.
Conclusion:
Thinking of the game as a whole it plays just fine. In fact, I would say it's a lot more stable for me than EDF3. The controls have this floaty mechanics to it and takes a while to get used to (unless you're a EDF veteran and have been conditioned to the control style). Overall, this is really a great game for any EDF fans to be in their collection. I have spent countless hours this week on this game and had a great time. Keep in mind, if this type of game is not your cup of tea, it will not sway you. The game is just like any other EDF game and is catered towards a very specific fan base and cult following.
Wednesday, December 3, 2014
Phantasy Star Nova
Hello Everyone,
Settings
3) The Drill Weapon is a Melee weapon with Rifle Capabilities
Unfortunately, all of these seems extremely lacking in terms of innovation for the game series despite having the same premise.
Major Problems
So far, I have my riddles of problems with this game. In terms of graphics the game looks old, due to the game being build off of PSO2. The game also felt rushed, and not properly optimised. Note: I am using a Generation 1 Limited Edition Hatsune Miku PSVita for the game. I have hit quite a bit of graphic frame drop during my game play and it is annoying to be fine and then suddenly moving to a crawl.
Conclusion
From the standpoint of a single player game, the game is fine, Storyline is a bit lacking, but retained much of the addicting gameplay that Phantasy Star series have. From the standpoint of current conditions however, the game and SEGA lost the plot by giving the player something they could have easily gotten free from PSO2 on the vita and probably why the sales of this game is not to expectation. I would love to see SEGA update this but the sales probably won't justify it. Had the game been made to have multiplayer there may still be hope for a better turnout in sales.
Today, we are going to talk about Phantasy Star Nova for the PSVita. Before we start, I have said before in my video that I am a huge Phantasy Star fan but that doesn't mean I can't look at this game objectively. SEGA has litterally dropped the ball this time.
Phantasy Star Nova is set around the time of Phantasy Star Online 2 Timeline and it shows. In my video I've talked about how the game is pretty much looks the same as PSO2 (a 10+ year old game by now) and follows much of the same concept.
Settings
The story places the player aboard an exploration vessel Alter and after getting shot down and crash landed on a planet. The player and their partner found out about their inability to use photon arts leading them to find another power source. The story continues by having the player going through many fetch quests and story quests to try and leave the planet.
The game's basic premise is like many of the other games within the Phantasy Star series. Player do quests, follow the storyline, and continue from there. It's a MMO experience, without the MMO aspect. Yes, you just read it, this game does not have a working online mode. Which is a huge downfall for this game as it may have been the reason why the NPCs are as strong as they are, many times "helping" the player fail a capture gigantes mission.
While the ideas of putting huge monsters in a Phantasy Star game is not new, this game really flaunts it and added them to every other levels in the game.
Some of the problems I have faced while fighting these big giant bosses are:
1) Massive slowdown in graphics and control
2) Camera problems leading to unfair death
New Contents
Some of the so called "New" contents in this game can't really be considered new. In fact, many of them are just a tweaked version of things we've seen before.
1) The Buster class is nothing more than a different version of the Rogue from Phantasy Star Portable series.
2) The Halo weapon is a Talisman with Force Capabilities crossed with Melee skills
The game's basic premise is like many of the other games within the Phantasy Star series. Player do quests, follow the storyline, and continue from there. It's a MMO experience, without the MMO aspect. Yes, you just read it, this game does not have a working online mode. Which is a huge downfall for this game as it may have been the reason why the NPCs are as strong as they are, many times "helping" the player fail a capture gigantes mission.
While the ideas of putting huge monsters in a Phantasy Star game is not new, this game really flaunts it and added them to every other levels in the game.
Some of the problems I have faced while fighting these big giant bosses are:
1) Massive slowdown in graphics and control
2) Camera problems leading to unfair death
New Contents
Some of the so called "New" contents in this game can't really be considered new. In fact, many of them are just a tweaked version of things we've seen before.
1) The Buster class is nothing more than a different version of the Rogue from Phantasy Star Portable series.
2) The Halo weapon is a Talisman with Force Capabilities crossed with Melee skills
3) The Drill Weapon is a Melee weapon with Rifle Capabilities
Unfortunately, all of these seems extremely lacking in terms of innovation for the game series despite having the same premise.
Major Problems
So far, I have my riddles of problems with this game. In terms of graphics the game looks old, due to the game being build off of PSO2. The game also felt rushed, and not properly optimised. Note: I am using a Generation 1 Limited Edition Hatsune Miku PSVita for the game. I have hit quite a bit of graphic frame drop during my game play and it is annoying to be fine and then suddenly moving to a crawl.
Conclusion
From the standpoint of a single player game, the game is fine, Storyline is a bit lacking, but retained much of the addicting gameplay that Phantasy Star series have. From the standpoint of current conditions however, the game and SEGA lost the plot by giving the player something they could have easily gotten free from PSO2 on the vita and probably why the sales of this game is not to expectation. I would love to see SEGA update this but the sales probably won't justify it. Had the game been made to have multiplayer there may still be hope for a better turnout in sales.
Thursday, November 20, 2014
Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax
Hello everyone,
Today, I will talk a little about Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax. It is a character action fighting game featuring many popular Dengeki characters published by Sega. There are 2 versions released for household use PS3 and PS Vita as well as a Arcade version used for Japanese game Center. Since I am a handheld gamer, I will be talking about the PS Vita version. (Due to Time Constraints, I was not able to photograph any pictures this week but you can see the gameplay etc on the youtube video.)
This game is part of the 20th Anniversary Campaign of Dengeki Bunko, a Japanese publishing company. All the characters in the game came from their most popular publication like Sword Art Online, Durarara, etc. with the exception of the 2 boss characters from story mode which is SEGA's personal IPs.
Gameplay:
This game has a extremely limited move list. However, in order to fully get good at the game will require understanding of each character's strength and weaknesses. While the move list is small, the characters are all different in terms of fighting style.
An example would be Shizuo from Durarara: medium attack power, high defensive ability, and has the ability to counter. Where as Kirito from Sword Art Online: low attack power, extremely fast, and no range abilities. All characters in this game have different play style and personality to suit the taste of the player. Unfortunately, some characters I felt could be a bit too overpowered in terms of how some skills can take up a huge part of the screen *cough* Tomoko from Ro Kyu Bu.
Graphics:
The Game uses beautiful 2d graphics with a bit of 3d cell shading animation for the dialogue screen for the story mode. The characters look extremely well detailed on the small Vita screen to the point you can tell this originally was ported from the Arcade.
Conclusion:
Due to this game being a fighting game, I do have a bias when it comes to these. But, it is a well designed port for those who enjoy playing them. The animation is definitely smooth due to the game being in 2d so the machine does not need to work too hard to run it. My only problem would be the character list might be a bit too small and would hope that more characters be added in through DLCs as the current state of this game is set at round 14 playable characters and 23 assist characters. This is a game I feel if I was more of a fighting game enthusiast would love even more.
Gameplay:
This game has a extremely limited move list. However, in order to fully get good at the game will require understanding of each character's strength and weaknesses. While the move list is small, the characters are all different in terms of fighting style.
An example would be Shizuo from Durarara: medium attack power, high defensive ability, and has the ability to counter. Where as Kirito from Sword Art Online: low attack power, extremely fast, and no range abilities. All characters in this game have different play style and personality to suit the taste of the player. Unfortunately, some characters I felt could be a bit too overpowered in terms of how some skills can take up a huge part of the screen *cough* Tomoko from Ro Kyu Bu.
Graphics:
The Game uses beautiful 2d graphics with a bit of 3d cell shading animation for the dialogue screen for the story mode. The characters look extremely well detailed on the small Vita screen to the point you can tell this originally was ported from the Arcade.
Conclusion:
Due to this game being a fighting game, I do have a bias when it comes to these. But, it is a well designed port for those who enjoy playing them. The animation is definitely smooth due to the game being in 2d so the machine does not need to work too hard to run it. My only problem would be the character list might be a bit too small and would hope that more characters be added in through DLCs as the current state of this game is set at round 14 playable characters and 23 assist characters. This is a game I feel if I was more of a fighting game enthusiast would love even more.
Saturday, November 8, 2014
My Channel's Code of Ethics (Revealed)
For the first part of my youtube channel's life I've ran without a code of ethics. However, one video in particular have always bothered me: RinniePie Rants: Warriors Orochi 2 Ultimate for the PSVita. Although this video has been quite a while back for me, and my video's format style have long since changed, it was due to this video that has made me discover a need for a code of ethics. I never wanted to mislead the audience and in my blind rage over the game I posted a video I wasn't proud of. After re-watching it several months back, it has caused the shift in my approach to the current First Impressions series style.
I have recently made the video private, not because I am scared of people calling me out on various things mentioned in the video. While I still hold true to my thoughts that the game is nothing more than a cash in and a poorly optimised port, I felt that I cannot allow a video that is so poorly done to remain on the video list.
Enclosed here is a version of my Code of Ethics, which I have written soon after re-watching the video.
RinniePie's Code Of Ethics:
What is the Goal of the Channel-
What is the Goal of the Channel-
1) Promote and Inform Customers of Various Handheld Games. (Mostly Japanese Import)
- Try to answer any questions in the comment section. Due to the nature of the First Impression format, it is not always clear on some of the things encountered during filming.
2) Share my personal interests with video logs.
3) Practice for speeches and reaction
4) Make a living? (Not interested in becoming a youtuber at the moment)
Channel Series:
RinniePie Vlog~
To talk about current affairs for me personally.
First Impressions~
This is the main focus of the channel, 1 Unboxing video to show what is enclosed in the game box. Disclose if any gifts were given during the purchase of the game.
Promote discussion, and provide description on what the game is about, interesting systems, anything that sets the game apart from all the others.
Let's Plays~
Play games, have fun, do commentary.
Paid Promotion:
-I will avoid any paid promotion I do not fully endorse.
-In the unlikely circumstances that I do take a paid promotion. I will inform the audience through verbal statements in the video or through the description.
-------------
The ideas listed above is the code of ethics that I have been following for most of my most recent videos. To be honest, I put the paid promotion part as a joke since I am not really looking for fame or to becomes a full youtuber. The whole reason why I started doing youtube video was because of how shy I was. I was scared to be in the limelight and saw youtube as a platform in which to help me get over my fears and become a better speaker.
-Thank you for reading, I will see you all a little later
RinniePie
Friday, November 7, 2014
Update November 6, 2014~ Upcoming Games I Will Most Likely Buy for First Impressions
It's been a long week for me as I have finally had a little time to take a breather from my real life work. As with that I have been catching up on various gaming news, some bad some good, that's been going on with the industry and upcoming games.
My first impressions videos usually puts me in the eye of a casual consumer to these games. I am not paid by anyone nor am I getting anything free with the games I've discussed. Everything I do on my youtube page is "strickly" opinion based. I have almost never finished a game before starting the camera to record, so it doesn't even constitute as a review than first impression.
Now it has been a long year for PSVita and the 3DS. We've had flops, bad ports, and great games. Looking at the upcoming list of games for the Vita and 3DS. While I would like to buy every game in the market to give everybody the information they want, it will be extremely taxing on my wallet. So here is a list of games I would most likely buy and do a first impression for until the end of the year.
Vita
1) 電撃文庫 FIGHTING CLIMAX (11-13)
2) Phantasy Star NOVA (11-27)
3) Samurai Warriors Chronicles (12-04)
4) Earth Defence Force 2 V2 (12-11)
5) Gundam Breaker 2 (12-18)
3DS
1) Pokemon Omega Sapphire (11-21)
2) Final Fantasy Explorer (12-18)
While these are the games I would like to buy, I am living in Taiwan so you never know which games might not actually release here unless through import means. I will do my best to secure these games for the first impressions.
-Thanks for Reading, and I will see you all a little later
RinniePie
My first impressions videos usually puts me in the eye of a casual consumer to these games. I am not paid by anyone nor am I getting anything free with the games I've discussed. Everything I do on my youtube page is "strickly" opinion based. I have almost never finished a game before starting the camera to record, so it doesn't even constitute as a review than first impression.
Now it has been a long year for PSVita and the 3DS. We've had flops, bad ports, and great games. Looking at the upcoming list of games for the Vita and 3DS. While I would like to buy every game in the market to give everybody the information they want, it will be extremely taxing on my wallet. So here is a list of games I would most likely buy and do a first impression for until the end of the year.
Vita
1) 電撃文庫 FIGHTING CLIMAX (11-13)
2) Phantasy Star NOVA (11-27)
3) Samurai Warriors Chronicles (12-04)
4) Earth Defence Force 2 V2 (12-11)
5) Gundam Breaker 2 (12-18)
3DS
1) Pokemon Omega Sapphire (11-21)
2) Final Fantasy Explorer (12-18)
While these are the games I would like to buy, I am living in Taiwan so you never know which games might not actually release here unless through import means. I will do my best to secure these games for the first impressions.
-Thanks for Reading, and I will see you all a little later
RinniePie
Saturday, November 1, 2014
Monster Hunter 4G, Another Expansion
Monster Hunter 4G feels a bit like that. To be extremely honest, the Monster Hunter games has always managed to prolonged it's relevance by releasing a "G" (Japan) or "Ultimate edition" (NA, Euro, etc) often times putting a few additions and charging people the same price as a new game. Unfortunately, it seems that Capcom's financial woes for the past few years have actually affected the amount of content in this most recent expansion. Let's take a look as some of the additions from the game, I will be citing 1 primary source from a Taiwanese gaming website as well as my personal experiences with the game
For those who wants to know what's new at the release of this game
Dondruma after entering the town through the world map selection
New Contents:
New Weapons Skins (as always)
New Town: Dondruma
This hub seems to be the settings to some of the newer content of the game. I have found that the New G Arena can be accessed in this new town. There will be new characters added in this map ie. Singer, a Mononofu with Afro, etc
The arena menu (as of this video I am unable to start this game mode as I am too low HR)
筆頭ハンター仕様 (Lead Hunter Specification) "Pardon my Japanese translation, I can read it well but translating is a chore for me"
With the addition of Guild Quests there is a new addition of 筆頭ハンター仕様, mainly 4 confirmed types (not sure if Capcom added more or will add more) Lead Gunner, Leader, Lead Lancer, and Lead Novice.
Due to not being anywhere near this content I can only state what I know, These hunters will probably be put into the storyline somewhere down the road so you can interact with them at some point.
Added around 20+ Monsters
Capcom brought back some fan favorite Bosses as well as released some more different variants
The Return of the Desert Map
There was no desert map in Monster Hunter 4, in the expansion this map has returned with a Night and day version. This map will be the arena for some of the higher rank and G class Guild quests.
Added Moves for Weapons
Almost all the weapons have had been tweaked or had 1 new technique added. From my personal experience with the Charge Axe (Sword Shield Hybrid with switching ability to Axe) they added a new technique set which allows the weapon to be buffed by releasing the power in the Shield for a temporary amount of time
Mononofu or Palicoes Buffed
New skills and higher level can be acquired by your feline pals.
Conclusion
Let's face it, this game is designed with one consumer market in mind. While there are fans in other regions this game really is catered towards the Japanese tastes. Sadly, because of the release of Soul Sacrifice Delta (an expansion of Soul Sacrifice) this year which gave us so much more content as well as a complete makeover of the entire game. Capcom's efforts in this expansion just felt a bit lacking for a game that sold with such a high price. 1750NT, 5800 Yen around 50+ dollars in US currency. Granted that SSDelta did not have a town system, the amount of content added (Missions, magic powers, story) just felt like there was more weight towards the game than Monster Hunter 4G
A suggestion to those who are interested in this game. In order to have a better, less frustrating experience you will either need to buy an add on pack for the 3ds or the "New" 3ds (seriously? My 3ds LL isn't even a year old and you guys released a new 3ds) for the 2nd analog stick to control the camera.
This game is Ok, the content felt a bit lacking and the gameplay remained unchanged, I'm sure there will be people willing to shell out the money to buy it and due to the nature of this game, it will provide you with hundreds of hours of gameplay.
-Thanks for reading and I'll see you all alittle later
RinniePie
Hello everyone, I am RinniePie. I have started up this blog in hopes of bringing more information to some of the games I have covered in my youtube series: First Impressions. While the videos are generally what I thought about the game after 3-4+ hrs of game play. I do sometimes forget some of the smaller, finer details. Because of that, I have decided to start up this blog in hopes to put in more information to give my viewers and potential buyers of the games so they could make their decision on whether it would be worth the money.
-RinniePie (rinnouchi)
-RinniePie (rinnouchi)
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