SG/ZH Review (PS4)

In SG/ZH, you get a three way collision of epic proportions.  Short for Schoolgirl Zombie Hunters, schoolgirls, zombies, and guns all meet in what could be a dream come true.  Miniskirts, blood, and low intellect are all present and accounted for.  What's right and what's wrong?  Let's see.

The first thing you see is a cute anime girl with a big gun.

This game answers one question that's always been eating me alive (no pun intended) when I play an Onechanbara game.  Is there anyone else fighting for survival in this twisted world or is it just Aya, Saki, and whoever else the creators feel like trotting out?  With this game being set in the Onechanbara world, the answer is yes.  It is kind of neat to see who else is out there killing zombies.

You'll be happy if you like killing zombies.

Now being a part of Onechanbara comes with two things.  The first is zombies.  The second thing is T&A.  You take the role of five schoolgirls, all armed with guns and skimpy outfits.  You can put these girls in a variety of outfits, including just their underwear.  So, if you ever wanted to fight against the zombie apocalypse with five underdressed anime girls, this is your game.  In fact, sometimes you're encouraged to strip to "distract" zombies.  However, these girls aren't nearly as hot as Aya, Annna (or is it Anna?), or Kagura.  Perhaps they beat out Saki (though she still wins in terms personality and fighting style).  If you're looking for eye candy, the main series offers better girls.

You can use the girls as they come...

...trot them out in their underwear...

...or tart them up any way you like.

The gameplay, however, is slight departure from Onechanbara.  Whereas Onechanbara is mainly hack-and-slash action, this game as mostly a shooter.  For those who've play the Xbox 360 game, it like playing as five slightly different versions of Annna.  There is a melee attack, but you be using guns to blast heads for the most part.

As for the shooting, it feels...off.  The gun selection is fine and the guns all feel different, so that's not the problem.  Aiming is the flaw.  The reticle is feels slippery.  It moves too fast and just doesn't seem accurate.  And you can forget tracking down a moving target.  Even slow-moving enemies are hard to hit.  For the fast moving enemies, all you can do is spray and pray.

The melee attack is good for getting enemies off you when you're surrounded.  It knocks enemies down and away.  It can even one-hit kill annoying little bastards a particular type of enemy.  It's useful, but has its flaws.  The first is that there is no combo melee attack.  The second is that it won't knock down big, lumbering types.  The third and most fatal flaw is the stamina bar. which effectively limits the melee attack to a desperation attack.

Use the melee attack to nail zombies that get to close...

...but it doesn't really work on these big guys.

On to the other stuff.  The music is meh.  You may recognize a song or two from an Onechanbara game, but for the most part the music is a step down from that series.  It's not total garbage, but lacks that the charm the main series has.  The main series had catch songs like "Danger In Disguise" and head-rockers Saki's theme.  This game has...yeah.

The graphics are okay.  Some of the zombies look creepy, like the "dog" types who look like two S/Mers torsos sewn together.  You'll recognize some from the main series, like the cops and the ravens.  Some zombies have "buffs", which you can easily be identified by what color they are.  Runners are red, those who explode upon "death" are yellow, zombies who explode and poison you upon death are green, etc.

These "yellow" guys are really dangerous unless you're near them when they "die".

There is plenty of length and challenge to go with it.  Unlike most Onechanbara games, which end right at the peak of fun, this game goes deep.  The challenge picks up after mission 1-7, giving hardcore players something more to look forward to than just girls in their underwear.  Naturally, in a game where you're getting swarmed by endless foes, there are going to be cheap shots and sucker punches.  Be prepare to take plenty of them.

I have a few pressing questions about the game, though.  What exactly is an "oufit"?  Why is there an underwear timer?  Why do some of the girls do something in the story that's completely stupid or totally lacking in logic?

This is where you change a girl's "oufit" and view the underwear timer.

In the end SH/ZH is just meh.  The action is intense, the graphics are decent, and heck, the girls are even kind of cute.  There are, however some flaws that keep it beneath Onechanbara.  The aiming is trash sometimes, the music is weak, and cheap shots are aplenty.  There is nice length and decent challenge and the gameplay isn't bad.  It's worthy of playing.  Give it a try.

Nobunaga's Ambition: Sphere of Influnence Ascension Review (PS4)

First off, let me say that I am fairly new to the Nobunaga's Ambition Series.  This is only the second NA game I've ever played.  My first was Iron Triangle, a game I wanted to love, but wound up hating with every fiber of my being.  The game was simply impossible to beat, no matter how much food and gold I saved up or what force I started off as.  Even creating officers didn't help.  It was a nightmare.  That said, I kept giving Iron Triangle a chance because I have a soft spot for strategy games and like this particular time in Japan's history.

Considering my experience with Iron Triangle, you'd figure I'd be turned off to the NA series.  A number of things lead to my purchase of Sphere of Influence Ascension.  One, I was looking for a strategy game for the Playstation 4 and I hadn't been impressed with what I'd been hearing and seeing about Romance of Three Kingdoms 13.  Then, there were gameplay videos (thank God for Youtube).  Also, for as bad as Iron Triangle felt, I still attempted to play it, so I was willing (even wanting) to give the series another try.  Finally, the price was low (I got my copy for twenty dollars) so it wasn't too risky.  Simply put, I thoroughly researched the game and decided the risk was worth taking.

As of this writing, I haven't play the original Sphere of Influence, so I don't know how it compares to that, but compared to Iron Triangle this game is a dream.  First, let's talk about the premise of the series before we get into the meat of the review.  Your goal is to pick your favorite Sengoku-period warlord and conquer Japan.  It's just that simple.

As you can see, conquering Japan is no small feat, as you have many enemies trying to do the same thing.

This game takes this formula a step further.  You can play as any officer in the game and control him or her until the game ends.  From the lowest scrub to greats like Nobunaga Oda himself, you control this officer's fate.  You can climb the ranks and make your officer the greatest warlord Japan has ever seen or you can make him stay a lowly ass-kisser.  You can keep him loyal to one master or jump from daimyo to daimyo.  The choice is completely yours.

This leads us to the ranking system.  You can play as a daimyo (the warlord) or of his underlings from regent (second only to the daimyo) to a retainer (the lowly ass-kissers).  Gameplay is different at every rank (and fun to boot).  As a retainer, you are given land by your daimyo to build up.  Along the way, you need to fulfill missions (if you wish) to earn honor.  This is how you climb ranks.  Eventually, you'll be offered a promotion, which you can refuse.  If you take it, you'll gain more powers to help your ambition.  Beware though.  Each rank has clear strengths and weakness (even daimyo), which I won't get into here.

Starting off as a retainer net you a house and a plot of land you can develop to your liking.

Eventually your plot will grow into a bustling town.

As mentioned before, you can betray your daimyo by going to another clan.  Once you acheive a certain rank or popularity level, you can even break away from him and start your own clan, taking all the land he gave you control over.  Needless to say, this is awesome, as it gives you a sense that you truly control your own fate.

Speaking of starting your own clan, you can create an officer and plop down a clan in any free city on the maps.  Yep.  If you don't like the options you are given, you can make an option of your own.  This had it's advantages and disadvantages which I won't get into here, but it adds a layer to the gameplay that simply didn't exist in the series before.

About the created officers.  You can create over 1,000 of them.  Feel free to create as many gods and/or scrubs as you'd like.  You can create entire families and kingdoms of your own, deciding when they're born, when they die, who's a legend, and who's lucky to be alive when all of the fighting as over.  You are only limited by how much inspiration you have.  Heck, sometimes your created officers will just pop out a random, computer-generated kid for no reason, adding to your strength.  It is worth noting that even though you can create 1,000 officers, your can only have 350 of them active at once (minus their random children).  That's still plenty, though.

On to the other stuff.  The graphics are okay, but really show the scale of the game.  As you might guess, conquering Japan is no small task and hence, the map is not small.  There is decent detail and you'll know what stuff is.  When units are on the battlefield, they appear as an arrow when moving and as a Tetris block when fighting.  However, when you zoom in, you'll see the individual soldiers (which is sometimes overrepresented).  On the bad side of things, when starting off as a retainer, the plots of land you start with tend to look the same, no matter which daimyo you serve.

A tactical view of a castle battle, but you can...

...zoom in to see the action...

...and the carnage thereafter.

The music is solid to good.  For the most part, it does what it should do, which is give you a sense of your situation.  When you're at peace, the music is relaxing and peaceful.  When marching, the music takes on a heroic theme.  When the enemy is marching 15,000 soldiers on your small castle housing only 1,000 soldiers and 1,000 HP, the music says, "Uh oh, you're in deep shit now."  Even the title screen does what it's supposed to do, with a theme that's peaceful while also letting you know how big of quest you're about to embark on.

There are multiple time periods to start in, ranging from the birth of Nobunaga in 1534 to the final battle for unification at Osaka Castle in 1614.  There are also quite a few difficulty settings.  You can decide who your created officers serve (if anyone), where and when they show up, or if they are used at all.  You can create events and set the conditions for them to happen, as well as the fallout from said events.

When all is said and done, NA: SOIA is a massive game that can be tackled in many ways.  There's no limit to how you can conquer Japan or who you can conquer it with.  The graphics and music are solid at worst.  Plus, there are lot's of things I didn't touch on here.  There's simply too much to cover in this one review.  The title is quite niche, so it's not for everyone.  Only tacticians need apply.  If you happen to be a fan of strategy games, don't miss it.

Trails Of Cold Steel Review (PS3)

Embark on an epic quest with a group of talented high school kids.  Magic, civil warfare, and class exams all come together in Trails Of Cold Steel.  Well, let's get into it.

Trails Of Cold Steel is a part of the Legend Of Heroes series, focusing on Erebonia and a coming war.  It's up to a class of high school students to figure out who starting it and, if they can, stop it.  Enter Class 7.

Class 7 has many similarities to a certain class of students in a legendary RPG series.  They're mostly kids (the teacher gets in on the fun sometimes), they're all badasses, and (most notably) they wear red capes.  Unlike that other class, though, Class 7 is filled with lively and likeable characters.  Not really a dull one in the bunch (Alisa is kind of a bitch, though).  The one you'll be seeing most is the protagonist, Rean Schwarzer.

Rean Schwarzer, our protagonist.

Class 7 is the best of the best, a team of ass-kicking specialists.  Each character has (mostly) unique weapons and fighting styles.  They can also punish enemies with arts and crafts.  No, not paintings and toy models.  Arts and crafts are basically a character's magic and skills.  They also have impressive looking super moves.

Character interactions can be funny or confusing.  The rivalry between Jusis and Machias might make you laugh.  The rivalry between Fie and Laura make you say, "That's stupid."  And Alisa will make you want to say, "It was an accident!  Shut up and get over it!"  For the sake keeping things spoiler-free, I won't say why these rivalries exist or how they turn out.

Machias may look like a nerd, but don't tell that to his shotgun.

Gameplay is interesting.  Going to school and building links with Rean's classmate almost immediately reminded me of the awesome Persona series.  Fortunately, that's where the similarities end.  Combat is an interesting mix of RPG and SRPG.  You move your characters around the battlefield, positioning in ways that will allow them to kick them most ass possible.  With good observation and planning, you can pile mountains of hurt on your foes.  It's a close as you can get to being an SRPG without actually being one.  The one bad thing about combat is that it takes so long to get to it.  This game has a bad case of Too Much Talking Syndrome.

How bad is it.  I actually fell asleep during some of the talking sections.  It's not that the conversations are bad.  They are just too darned long.  The story and meaningful sections (particularly when they're talking about the underground tower) kept me engaged, but the miscellaneous scenes were like an electronic sleeping pill.  At least there were no side effects.

Another bad thing is that you can't always put together the party you want.  There is a story reason behind this, but it still sucks.  For example, you may want Fie in your party, but the game will stick you with that douchebag Alisa instead.  The parties they force on you are still pretty good though.

On to the other stuff.  The graphics are cute, but nothing special.  The music, on the other hand, is pretty good.  From the relaxing overworld theme to the energetic battle theme to the epic boss theme, there's a lot to like in the music department.  There's also some DLC if you like that type of thing.

The graphics don't exactly push the PS3 to it's limits.

In the end, Trails Of Cold Steel is a neat little RPG.  If you like RPG's, it's a good experience.  Story-heavy (with too-long cutscenes), strong gameplay, excellent music, and graphics that aren't terrible make this an RPG to play for those who haven't moved on to the PS4 yet.  You'll need patience (and perhaps a lot of coffee) to get through the cutscenes, but your patience will be rewarded.  Play it.