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.
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