Rise of the Guardians

Another game has been struck from my Hall of Shame: Guardian Heroes!

It's difficult to call this one completed: I may have unlocked five of the seven endings but I've unlocked all the characters so that's close enough.

So what can I say about this game that I haven't before? Well it's interesting to see this game from the perspective of time. I didn't play this game during the Saturn era and I am only playing this game for the first time and from a modern perspective.
And the game is a lot of fun: I did enjoy brawlers back in the day and I enjoyed the art style, multiple planes, and story mode. Of particular note is how Guardian Heroes does a lot of things differently with the brawler genre that one can only wonder why it hadn't been thought of before - or how you, the player ever got by without such changes.
Okay so some of the boss fights were annoying with them laying the smackdown without giving me a chance to fight back - but it is an amusing thought to think that whilst I'm spamming attacks, the guy on the other side of the TV screen is doing the exact same thing.

Also of note is how this game's DNA has been utilized with games that have come since. I see the gorgeous anime-style artwork (which still holds up really well today mind you) and I think of the similar art style in Guilty Gear. I see the then innovative use of branching paths and RPG elements and I think of Castle Crashers (I wonder of the makers of Castle Crashers made their game based on the annoyance of not having Guardian Heroes readily available?).

All in all, Guardian heroes was a lot of fun and I sincerely hope Sega take notice to a point where they make more games from their catalog readily available.

Dragon Aged

A new Dragon Age game is on the horizon but I'm not exactly thrilled. This may be a far cry from previous posts on this blog when I was excited about Origins and no.2 but I am older, wiser and wary of EA's handling of Bioware's IP.

The string of announcements that have come about Dragon Age Inquisition seems that somewhat desperate, as if someone looked at bigger games and are trying to replicate their successes. An open world with detailed environments - because Skyrim wasn't enough. And now it has multiplayer - even though Divine Divinity Original Sin proved how it could be done within an RPG environment.

These changes do not sit well for me: With these changes to Dragon Age will there be anything left of the original game? Because I felt Origins did indeed have a personality and identity of it's own - therefore this radical changes that are being promised seem more like a dilution - it makes me wonder what will be left of that original identity when the next game comes around.

Still at least Dragon Age Inquisition makes a a welcome return to the subtitle....

Heroes of a new world

Recently I've been playing a lot of Guardian Heroes.

This is one of the many games that was ported to the XBLA from the Sega Saturn. It is my belief that buying such games will prompt more conversions of some of the other lost gems that were on the Saturn - a misguided belief to be sure but you never know...
What is particularly impressive that this is a conversion that actually enhances the original: Aside from the inevitable graphical update and the inclusion of achievements, the game keeps track of the branching paths that have already been visited, cutscenes are skippable, there's a better translation and the Versus multiplayer has been increased from six to twelve. Truly a shining example of how to make a game from the mid-nineties and making it better whilst staying true to the original (it makes one wonder how numerous other such games got it so wrong).

As for the game itself, this is one game I've come into completely blind - The only thing I knew was that was a Saturn game and one of the best games on the system (and considering the amount of trash that was on the system that's saying a lot). What I wasn't expecting was to seeing some superb anime-esque art - much of which still looks great eighteen years later. Nor was I expecting to a real entertaining brawler with RPG elements and branching paths - granted this is a common sight for brawlers today (Castle Crashers anyone?) but to see it being down in a game from 1996 was a revelation indeed. 

Not much else I can say except that has, so far, been something of a surprise package. I can't say that I'm one to go into a game completely in the dark but in this time I think it has paid off. How fitting it is then that finding a diamond in the rough should be a Saturn game.

How Divine

The recently released Divine Divinity: Original Sin is a game that intrigues me - chiefly because it is an RPG that actually accommodates for two players.

As any RPG connoisseur will tell you, RPGs are strictly a one player genre - it's hard to incorporate a second player when it is one player who builds a character and takes them all the way through the game, killing dudes and making vital decisions. How do you fit in a second player? Granted there have some attempts that have a second player but they are just confined to going along with whatever the first player does. And whilst that may work in some places it is dull in others. It may work from a narrative perspective (Final Fantasy X anyone?) but it must fell restrictive to play an RPG, a genre known for making decisions count, and not have a say in how things go.

Original Sin solves this problem in a clever way: It would seem that the narrative is shared between two players - when they have to make a decision the players are allowed to argue about it before coming to a conclusion through a minigame. That's actually really clever and proof that an RPG can work for two. Throw in the usual RPG conventions of killing monsters for loot and experience - only this time with someone else to back you up - and you have proof that an RPG can work for two. So much so, you wonder why no one's tried it before.

Now if only I had a cool forty bucks lying around....

Kick Start This

Lets talk Kickstarter: It seems that anyone can resurrect a long-forgotten franchise and give it a new lease of life through the backing of an enthusiastic audience. It seems that if anyone can update abominations like Shaq-Fu and Night Trap, then it seems anything is possible.

So why isn't there a kickstarter for Panzer Dragoon Saga?

True Sega are known for hanging onto their trademarks like any other company, true Panzer Dragoon Saga was a poor seller and true it was on a system that crashed and burned in spectacular fashion, but why not? If we are so intent on preserving games for future generations then this may be the way to go. Furthermore, one can;t deny that "the rarest and most valuable game of all time!" would make a decent selling pitch.
Come on, if there is a audience for Shaq-Fu and Night Trap then we can at least Kick-Start a resurrection of something...you know...good

Honour Among Thieves

I recently saw the trailer to the new Tomb Raider game (Rise of) and I still have no idea what the people behind the game are going to do with this game. Did they realize that having Lara constantly have the shit kicked out of her doesn't really present any long term franchise plans? Also, somehow the image of having Lara visiting a psychiatrist seems to be leaning on a parody direction.

And in addition, I see the trailer and, somehow, this comes to mind:

In fact why can't Kasumi have her own game?! I'll play the hell out of that!

Do the Evolution

Not much to say but I would like to draw attention to a new page I've created for this blog.
May I present: the Hall of Fame

This function of this new page is to home to a list of games I consider personal favorites.
But this list however is by no means set in stone: With the progression of time and more games being beaten, the list is liable to change and evolve with each passing year.
And for the sake of historical documentation, I will, at certain times, collect the data as it currently stands and preserve it in a new post. This will effectively replace the Hundred Post milestones I've done in the past (and save me coming up with new ides as to what to do for the occasion in future).
Needless to say, it will be interesting to mark a progression of taste with the passing of time.