- Released: 12/18/2014 (Japan)
- Developer: Square Enix
- Publisher: Square Enix
In 2010 Square Enix released its first “Monster Hunter clone”, Lord of Arcana. This was a very popular time for Monster Hunter clones, and theirs was considered by most to be the worst in quality, and was certainly the worst selling of the bunch. In other words, it was a failure. It wouldn’t be until mid 2014 that Square Enix would appear to try their hand at copying Monster Hunter again with Final Fantasy Explorers. It was a natural thing to assume that’s what they were doing, since it was announced as an online 4-player game for the 3DS. What else are games that fit that description other than Monster Hunter clones? Well as it turns out, that isn’t really what Final Fantasy Explorers was at all.
Some people call Monster Hunter an action RPG, but I’ve never really seen it that way, particularly when it comes to combat. The combat in Final Fantasy Explorers feels much closer to an action RPG, and in more ways that of an MMO RPG (this won’t be the last time you hear MMOs mentioned). You have eight slots to fill with abilities for your character, a large amount of which which can be purchased by using skill points, but they generally tend to lend themselves to a specific job class. Speaking of job classes, enter the core of this entire game: The Final Fantasy job system. That’s right, the good old Final Fantasy job system that everyone loves! Whether you know it from Final Fantasy 3, 5, 11 or 14, it will feel quite familiar here in Explorers. In fact it was the emphasis on the job system that drew me to this game initially, as I think it’s one of the best job systems that any RPG has to offer. It feels incredibly good to build up carefully selected jobs over time, and eventually combine skills from different ones together to turn yourself into the ultimate killing machine (or healing machine, etc). It was also touted from the very beginning that you would be facing off against many of the classic Final Fantasy series summons (Ifrit, Shiva, Bahamut, etc), and you would have the ability to use these summons once defeated, referring to that as entering the Trance state (a nice FF9 reference).
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| Spotted by an Adamantoise! |
Volleyball time? |
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- Playstation 3/XBox 360/Playstation 4/XBox One
- Released: 10/23/2014 (Japan), 10/14/2014 (US/PAL)
- Developer: Tango Gameworks
- Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Mikami Shinji is a figure in the Japanese game industry who has always been followed very closely. Creating the Resident Evil series relatively early on in his career at Capcom, and then reinventing it twice with the GameCube remake of the first RE and then Resident Evil 4, he has really ended up as the “survival horror guy”. To be fair though, he did have a huge role in creating that genre as it exists today. Yes he directed non-survival horror titles after parting ways with Capcom, but those would really go on to become cult favorites at best. He never seemed to be able to achieve Resident Evil levels of success with any of his other projects. That’s why when it was announced in 2010 that he would be creating his first survival horror game since Resident Evil 4 (known at this time as Project Zwei) with his studio Tango Gameworks, survival horror fans everywhere rejoiced. Not only was Mikami returning to survival horror after spending his time in the action game world, but he said all the right things that old school survivor horror fans wanted to hear. Particularly that modern survival horror games were far too action focused. He wanted to bring back the feeling of struggling to survive. To bring about even further hopes for the title, Tango Gameworks was purchased by Bethesda later on in that same year. This could, in theory at least, provide Tango with a design sensibility that a lot of Western gamers feel that many Japanese developers lack these days.
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| Old Resident Evil fans will recognize this type of first “zombie” encounter turnaround shot… |
This terrible contraption is how you upgrade attributes and weapons! |
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| バイオハザード HDリマスター | Resident Evil HD Remaster |
- Released: 11/27/2014 (Japan), 01/20/2015 (US)
- Developer: Capcom
- Publisher: Capcom
It’s plain to see that HD remasters of PS2/XBox/GameCube titles were a mainstay of the PS3/XBox 360 generation, and for the relatively short time that it’s been going as of this writing, that trend is proving to continue throughout the PS4/XBox One generation as well. When these titles have been announced though, they tended to either come as collections or just be the latest and greatest entry in a franchise that was featured across that frequently remastered generation. That’s why the GameCube remake of Resident Evil/Biohazard being released as an HD remaster across every “modern” (the PS4/XBox One releases will not be included in this article, since they were actually released slightly later in Japan) non-Nintendo platform was a bit of a surprise. It’s pretty universally agreed upon that the the Resident Evil remake on GameCube (or REmake) was absolutely stunning, and a masterpiece in its own way even when compared to the Playstation original. So what exciting possibilities await in an HD remaster?
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| Showing off the light sourcing with a nearly identical shot to one in my original REmake article |
Well that’s a rather personal question Enrico! |
The answers to that question vary depending on what angle you examine this HD remaster from. The most obvious place to start is the graphics, but how much better could this version of the game look than the already beautiful GameCube original? Well, it really depends on where you’re looking. If the hot rumor that began circulating shortly after its announcement is true, a lot of the non-character model assets of REmake were either lost or unusable in this case. So the actual GameCube assets, at 480p, had Photoshop filters applied to them to make them fit in with the rest of the HD remaster at 720p (For the PS3/XBox 360 versions anyway). I can’t say for certain whether this is true, but there are certainly parts, particularly when it comes to background textures, that this looks like it could be true. There are also parts where it absolutely cannot be true, so perhaps the truth lies somewhere in the middle. And regardless, the game still looks as amazing as it did on the GameCube, with the now added benefit of being able to display in either 16:9 or the original 4:3 aspect ratios. If you play all of your games on an HD TV, this version is worth playing for that feature alone over the older GameCube or Wii versions of REmake.
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- Released: 11/27/2014 (Japan)
- Developer: tri-Ace
- Publisher: Sega
Ever since the release of the original Phantasy Star Online in 2000, each Phantasy Star game has been basically cut from the original PSO template with paper thin stories just to create some purpose for player actions. After all, the real appeal of these games was the multi-player aspect from the start, so who really cared about things like story? That’s why it was so strange when Phantasy Star Nova was announced in 2013 as being a heavily story focused, primarily single-player entry in the PSO family. By this point Sega had probably forgotten that Phantasy Star had an identity before it went online, because it brought about a lot of hope from old fans of the series that this might finally be the return of the original Phantasy Star series in some way. It doesn’t come as much of a surprise that those hopes were very misplaced.
Phantasy Star Nova is essentially Sega letting tri-Ace run with Phantasy Star Online 2, with the guidelines that it must be story and single-player focused. Yes, tri-Ace is the developer! They’re no strangers to action RPGs or working with Sega, and PS Nova certainly also proves that they understand the Phantasy Star Online series well. You won’t really find any of the typical tri-Ace jankiness here, mostly because the systems are largely taken right out of PSO2. Most of the classes and even the character creator are practically ported directly over from that title as well. In fact this whole game really takes place in the same world (or perhaps universe is a better way to put it), though certain plot elements make for some different restrictions and situations.
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| As is usual for a PSO game, the boss monsters generally look pretty cool. |
The crew of the Delta Variant is full of all sorts of…interesting characters… |
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Some big life events happened for me this year, and none of them were really all that good. I won’t go into details since I like to keep those sorts of things off of this site, but given those events it’s very surprising that I managed to play as many new games this year as I did. In fact I probably tried to play too many, because most of the games that I picked up near the end of the year I haven’t been able to spend as much time with as I would have liked. Regardless, there have been some real gems this year that are well worth talking about. More long form write-ups are still coming for several of these, but for now I’ll briefly mention everything I played that came out this year and point out the highlights.
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I really need to start posting some more “blogy” type things on here that aren’t whole game reviews, so this is my first effort in awhile to do so. About a year ago I wrote a post or two detailing the reasons for my “Hunting Action burnout” (or perhaps more specifically my Monster Hunter burnout). Monster Hunter 4 had come out, and was supposed to be setting my world on fire. I played through the single player long enough to see the ending, and just barely got into high rank online, but it just never stuck with me like past Monster Hunter games had. I attributed this mostly to playing too much Monster Hunter in too short of time periods.
Fast forward to October 11th of this year, and I’ve bought Monster Hunter 4G (Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate) mostly out of obligation. I’ve bought every Monster Hunter game since Monster Hunter 3 on the Wii at launch, so why not. I fully expect to play this version for a bit and put it down out of fatigue, just like I did with vanilla Monster Hunter 4. As my game clock on 4G approaches 100 hours and I’ve hit G2 rank, this obviously did not happen. But why didn’t it happen? The non-G Rank content (which at this point still makes up the bulk of my play time thus far) is the same as it was back in vanilla 4, so I could have just played through it as furiously back then as I have now. What is different? I don’t even have a local Monster Hunter partner like I used to, and am only able to sometimes play with friends I’ve met on Twitter.
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- Playstation 3
- Playstation 4
- XBox 360
- XBox One
- Released: PS3 & PS4 – 10/21/2014, XBox360 & XBox One – 10/22/2014 (US)
- Developer: PlatinumGames
- Publisher: Activision
There are a couple of reasons to be excited about a Legend of Korra game that just happens to be developed by PlatinumGames, of Bayonetta series fame. You may be a fan of the Legend of Korra or Avatar cartoons on Nickelodeon, which were extremely popular among kids and adults alike. You also may be a fan of PlatinumGames previous works, particularly those in the third person action genre, often garnering high praise. For these reasons, this game had a lot working in its favor. That’s why it’s all the more unfortunate that it somehow managed to fall short of expectations.
Let’s start with the source material angle. The game was scripted by Tim Hedrick, one of the writers of the original TV series. That’s why it’s a mystery as to why the game’s story feels so empty and soulless. To be honest I have no exposure to the original cartoon, but I am somewhat familiar with the original Avatar series. My understanding from those who are more familiar with the series is that this is an original side story which is not too directly connected to particular events of the series. It certainly feels that way as well: The villain has motivations that are thin and best, and the plot was obviously constructed around finding a way to strip Korra of her bending abilities and then slowly introduce them back into the game for the sake of mechanics.
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| Korra features a typical Platinum shop-based upgrade system. This one features Iroh though, one of my favorite Avatar series characters! |
Plenty of large enemies also make appearances here, including giant robots! |
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- Released: 09/20/2014 (Japan), 10/24/2014 (US), 10/24/2014 (PAL)
- Developer: PlatinumGames
- Publisher: Nintendo
Bayonetta is a game that was not likely to have a sequel. It’s true that the original game was fairly well received critically, but its sales did not measure up. Even though Bayonetta was a complete throwback to what some might consider the golden age of Japanese action games, those numbers proved that we could never go back to that age again. Sega was in no hurry to commission a sequel, so it was a big surprise that Nintendo ended up being the company to do so. It was no doubt a plea to the gaming public to notice that the Wii U did in fact have titles for the “hardcore gamer”, but the reasons don’t really matter. All that matters is that Bayonetta 2 brings Bayonetta back with a new look, new story, a new director (Hashimoto Yusuke, though the previous director Kamiya Hideki is on board as a supervisor), and improvements over the original title’s already great formula.
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| A big draw for Nintendo fans, one of Bayo’s Nintendo themed costumes! The hat doesn’t seem quite right though… |
All weirdness aside though, this is actually a pretty well designed Star Fox costume! |
The first Bayonetta was an incredibly solid action game with fantastic mechanics. So all of the things that made Bayonetta great (or in some cases maybe just “distinct”) are back: The dynamic combo system, Witch Time (slowing everything down to allow for more hits), Torture Attacks, weapon customization (a different weapon can be equipped to each hand and foot), fight-based grading (which is still incredibly rigid), shop-based upgrades and even a limited amount of item creation via a sort of alchemy system. The sequel has even added a new mechanic called Umbran Climax which allows for increased damage and extra attacks for its duration. It also offers a nice alternative for use of the magic meter apart from the usual options. Those who became well acquainted with the finer points of combat in the first Bayonetta will feel like they’ve come home again. The general ramp up and height of the difficulty curve are much more easy for players who are not old action game pros as well, making the sequel an excellent place to jump in for someone who may have been too intimidated by the first game. If you really have no interest in learning the combo system at all, there is even an option to play using touch controls on the Wii U Game Pad (though not in multi-player mode). But fear not action game veterans, there is still plenty of challenge here for you!
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- Released: 03/22/2002 (Japan), 04/30/2002 (US), 09/30/2002 (PAL)
- Developer: Capcom
- Publisher: Capcom
Released exactly six years after the original Playstation version of Bio Hazard in Japan, this GameCube version (often referred to as “REmake”) is nothing less than a rebirth of the original classic in every way. This is no port or slightly updated version: It is a complete remake. And it represents everything that a great remake should be. It adds so much while keeping things just familiar enough to the original. REmake also marks Capcom’s first title released on the GameCube hardware, and the first of three Bio Hazard/Resident Evil exclusives on the platform (though some of them would not necessarily remain exclusives). Director of the original game, Mikami Shinji, also returns to this remake as director despite having taken on the more distant role of producer for every title in the series since.
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| Even just going up some stairs, the difference in the graphics with the light sourcing is amazing. |
The new classic first zombie encounter cut scene. |
The most obvious improvement in REmake is certainly the graphics. The original game looked good for its time, but ultimately is still an early 3D game on the Playstation. The character models in REmake have actual detail, as opposed to the popular technique found in most early 3D games of blurring and abstracting the polygons together to vaguely represent detail. And while the backgrounds in the original were a graphical strong suit, REmake’s backgrounds are far more stunning still. They feature layers of Full Motion Video to produce real-time shadows, and because of dynamic light sources the environments are able to look much more dark yet still detailed. The music still remains appropriately atmospheric, but the sound effects have really undergone a change for the better: No longer do the zombies have the ridiculous and non threatening moans that they did in the original game. The Full Motion Video sequences present at the beginning and end of the original are now gone, replaced by high quality CG equivalents. All of the voice acting has also been rerecorded with new actors, and the dialogue rewritten to be slightly more serious in tone to match. All of these factors result in REmake legitimately feeling like a scary and threatening game this time around.
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- Released: 03/22/1996 (Japan), 03/30/1996 (US), 08/01/1996 (PAL)
- Developer: Capcom
- Publisher: Capcom
Horror inspired games have taken many forms over the years. It’s hard to say what the earliest example of one is, but there were two that very notable influenced the creation of Bio Hazard/Resident Evil: Sweet Home and Alone in the Dark. The funny is that these games couldn’t have been more different.
Sweet Home was a Capcom developed and published RPG on the Famicom back in 1989, based on the psychological horror film of the same name from famed horror director Kurosawa Kiyoshi. It is sometimes argued that Sweet Home was in fact the originator of the survival horror genre, given the game’s heavy emphasis on the concept of survival. The idea is certainly arguable, but the traditional RPG trappings feel far too strong for this to have been what most consider to be a survival horror game. Its influence on Bio Hazard/Resident Evil is undeniable though: Opening door screens for transitions between areas (obviously this was used to cover load time in RE, but was likely just used for atmosphere in Sweet Home), a mansion setting, a heavy emphases on puzzles to progress, story telling through diaries and journal entries, a very limited inventory in which to manage items and just a general lack of fear of using a certain amount of gruesome and horrific imagery. That the original Bio Hazard/Resident Evil was originally planned as a sort of remake of Sweet Home should come as little surprise given all of this.
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| The Cerberus dogs as portrayed in the opening cut scene… |
It takes real effort in hair maintenance to look this good! |
Alone in the Dark’s influence, however, is a bit more of a surprise. The reason that it is such a surprise is that it was a completely western developed game. These days it is not uncommon for Japanese developers to take many queues from their western counterparts, however back then the Japanese were still leading cutting edge console game development and did not necessarily pay much attention to what was going on in the west. None the less, Alone in the Dark was unmistakably a factor in the creation of Bio Hazard/Resident Evil. It not only took place in a mansion, but also was a 3-D game using polygonal characters over pre-rendered backgrounds. It’s considered by many to be the first real survival horror game as we’ve come to know them today.
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