Summon Night 6 Lost Borders Review (PS4)

It's raining men...and women...and chocolate chip cookies.  Summon Night 6: Lost Borders is an ambitious game to be sure.  But is it good?  Let's find out.

Summon Night 6: Lost Borders is a strategy roleplaying game in what seems to be a long-running series of games.  Being an SRPG, it plays similar to games like Final Fantasy Tactics, Fire Emblem, and others.  So, it already has the good fortune of being in my favorite videogame genre.

As for the game's own gameplay, it's not bad.  You trot your characters off into battle and beat on cute little monsters.  The game throws in a badass on occasion to keep you on your toes.  The game has a lot of characters, so in terms of numbers, you'll be satisfied.

The battles can be big, but they're quick.

On the characters, the subtitle "Lost Borders" says it all.  This is a crossover game, featuring characters from previous entries in the series.  You have badasses, bratty kids, a few cute girls, and an idiot or two sprinkled in there.  They all can be upgraded into specialized beast to beat on all the cute little monsters you see.

Badasses and idiots, present and accounted for.

Three problems with the characters, though.  First, most of them come off as childish, immature, or just plain idiotic.  Even the adults seem like kids.  Second, if you (like me) have not played a previous entry in the series, you won't know who the heck these characters are or the worlds and events they are referring to.  Not to worry though, because they explain everything, which this leads to the third problem.  These characters are talkative.  Really talkative.  Too talkative.  There were times I wanted to say, "Shut up so I can kill something!"  They should have called the game Summon Night 6: Too Much Talking.

Even the game admits it talks too much.  Amu's face says it all.

I guess I can still forgive the excessive dialogue because the game's story is a mind-twister.  There's time travel here, alternate dimensions there, a dash of mind control, and confused characters everywhere.  As a crossover game, everyone has to figure out how they got to Fillujah (not Fallujah) and how they can get back to where they belong.  Some characters are different versions of people that other characters know.  The natives of Fillujah, on the other hand, have to figure out how they came to be and what Fillujah is, adding a pinch of mystery.  If (unlike me) you don't care about story, though, you can just skip the cutscenes.

Even a native like Amu doesn't know about much about Fillujah.

On to the other stuff.  The graphic are kind of cute and cartoony.  The monsters don't look intimidating.  Oddly, it's the human characters that will give you pause, as most of them were apparently badasses in previous games in the series.  There music is hit or miss and there is a lot of it.  The voiced cutscenes (as opposed to the text-only cutscenes) make the some of the dialogue tolerable.  There's an in-game encyclopedia call Eucross HQ that can tell you more about the characters (as if they won't) among There's a decent amount of stuff here.

Just a sample of the cute little monsters to be killed.

Summon Night 6: Lost Borders like having a friend who talks too much.  The dialogue can be funny, especially when characters like Amu and Bulrell come into the picture and start acting like assholes.  There's just simply too much of it.  However, when the fighting starts, you'll have fun.  If you have the patience to get through all the talking, you'll find a competent SRPG in this game.  Check it out.

Cool Hotties: Amu

Do you like loners who are good at shooting monsters.  Summon Night 6: Lost Borders may have the girl for you.  Her name is Amu, a badass with a big gun.

Aesthetically, Amu has it all.  Long hair?  Check.  Big gun?  Check.  Short dress?  Check.  Long legs?  Double check.  Physically, she's everything you want in a fictional female.  Plus, she carries herself like that chick you don't want to mess with.

That is one short dress.

This is how Amu deals with cute little monsters.

Look at how she has that gun slung over her shoulder.  Badass.

But she's so much more than looks.  After all, what use is a big gun if you can't use it.  And she can.  Seriously, how many people do you know who can handle a gun that big with one hand?

No matter how big, all monsters fall to her gun.

She's also good at less violent things, like catching fish and cooking them.  She can cook them up in many ways.  She is certainly capable of surviving.  Stupid is one thing she isn't.

Time for a little fishing at the cove.

Growing up alone on Fillujah, she doesn't really know how to interact with people very well.  As a result, she can be kind of a bitch to her friends.

Amu being a bitch.

Amu being a bitch...again.

It's not that she's a bad person.  It's just that she literally has had never met another person before the start of the game.  But she's not completely devoid of compassion, understanding, and emotions.

What a lively victory pose.

See?  She has emotions.

Amu and Quilt share a moment.

And that's Amu, the badass who still knows how to be a girl.  She can be a bitch, but if have patience, being with her will be a rewarding experience.  Check her out in Summon Night 6: Lost Borders.

Otomedius Excellent Review (XB360)

There nothing like a good side-scrolling shooter.  There should be intense action, lots of shooting, and anime girls straddling guns with handlebars.  What?  That's Otomedius Excellent in a nutshell.

Anyone who's ever play the Gradius series will instantly be familiar with the gameplay.  First you select a girl and pick what weapons you want her ship to have.  Then you engage in intense shooting action, trying not to get hit by anything.  Don't let the cute anime girls fool you. It's harder than it sounds.  Unless you have Jedi reflexes, you will get your ass kicked a lot.

Which girl you choose goes deeper than aesthetics.  Different girls have access to different weapons.  You can unlock more weapons as you beat level but you can't use them until you beat the game.  Some even have a special weapon other girls can never get.  Also, the order of the power-ups might be different.  For example, Speed is usually the first power-up. but with some girls, it's (strangely) the third.  So knowing what you'll get and when you'll get it should be apart of your strategy.  There are plenty of girls and weapons to choose from, so you can put together some powerful combinations.

Just one of the many girls you can blast through the game with.

There are a lot of weapons of varying power levels.

Each level starts off with an easy section in space, where you will have a chance to power up your ship.  Then, the real level begins and you'll be torn a new butthole within seconds.  The biggest reason why is because there's simply too much stuff to dodge.  On top of that, every time you die you reset to nothing, making you a slow weakling waiting to be raped.  With practice, you can get through entire levels without getting hit.  Even if you don't, you have unlimited continues and you'll need each and every one of then.

At the end of every level you fight a big battle ship being piloted by none other than...a cute anime girl.  Some are easy, some are hard, but all have your annihilation in mind.  Some are unfairly cheap, with unavoidable attacks (like that trollop at the end of Level 2).  Never fear, though.  If you can't kill the boss in within a certain period of time, she flies away, letting you advance to the next level.  This is bullcrap, leaves you feeling unsatisfied, and (coupled with unlimited continues) takes away the need to actually become better a player.

The graphics can be good or bad at the same time.  As mentioned before, the screen gets awfully cluttered.  Things you can see often mask things that are barely visible.  There are these weird transparent enemies that will kill you unless you realize they are enemies.  This is really a problem in some levels, as the background can even work against you.  Some enemies can travel right through solid surfaces and by the time you realize that, it's too late.  Enemy bullets can blend in with the background.  Sometimes, enemies will just materialize out of nowhere, you will take plenty of cheap shots.  This is BS, but it does keep you on your toes, which DOES contribute to being a better player.

The music is intense and energetic with some cute, girly, and nerdy vibes mixed in for good measure.  The soundtrack also features a few remakes from Gradius for a bit of nostalgia.  Good music is what any shooter needs.  Often times, you'll have to chose between rocking your head to the music or getting shot to ribbons by everything you can (and can't) see.

Now, for the other stuff.  There is DLC you can download to extend the life of the game.  You can also try different difficulty settings.  Obviously, you can try your luck with different girls and weapon set-ups.  There's also the constant challenge of trying to avoid getting hit and kill all of the bosses instead of just watching them fly off.

So, what the final breakdown?  It's it fun, but flawed shooter.  There is a lot of BS (ghost enemies and bullets you can't see), but there is some bona fide challenge mixed in for nice balance.  Good music, lots of characters, and lots of weapons will keep you coming back...if you can stomach the cheapness of the enemies and bosses.  Try it with caution.

Five Sequels/Spinoffs/Updates That Need to Happen

Everyone has a game or games that they loved so much that they wanted a sequel that never happened.  Others have a game they loved that they wanted to see a remaster or even full-on remake.  These are five sequels or updates that would make me a very happy gamer if they happened.

5.  Kensei Sacred Fists

Kensei was an underrated gem of a 3-D fighting game that had the nerve to try to compete with Tekken 3.  No doubt, Tekken 3 was the better game, but Kensei was something a little different.  The game suffered from blocky graphics and a non-existent story.  What the game had going for it was rockin' music, lots of characters and good designs for those characters, and a ton of bone-breaking action.  It also had one of my favorite game girls, the ugly but somehow still cute Saya Tsubaki.  A remaster or total remake of this game with overhauled music and graphics could be good.  Plus, they could give the characters stories so players know why these people are fighting (and actually care for them as a result).

4.  A Third Fire Emblem Radiance Game

Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance for the Gamecube and Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn for the Wii are two of my favorite games of all time and probably my very favorite SRPGs of all time.  Some of my favorite characters (such as Oscar and Ilyana) and music (the Black Knight's battle theme) come from this series.  It would be nice to see this series continue in some form.  Perhaps an old, grizzled Ike could train up the next generation of heroes to tackle a new threat or something like that.  Hopefully, things won't get too convoluted or nonsensical.

3.  Dead Or Alive All-Female Edition

Dead Or Alive is a series where the women take front and center.  The Xtreme Volleyball series is has an all female cast, but that's nothing more than a bunch of hit or miss minigames.  What I'm talking about is a one-on-one fighting game featuring just the females, which a few guest characters to fill out the roster.  It should keep the fast and brutal feel of DOA, not turn into something silly.  This would be a good opportunity to bring in characters like Ikkitousen's Ryofu Housen and Tekken's Asuka Kazama to hint at possible crossovers.  They could also have female representations of the male's fighting styles so those styles won't be missing.

2.  Lost Dimension 2

Lost Dimension is a unique SRPG that tried a few new things that no other RPG (that I've played, at least) tried, most notably the Judgement System.  It would be nice to see a sequel that improves these things and maybe adds new things beyond that.  The possibilities...

1.  Lost Kingdoms 3

From Software and Activision need to get together again to give this series one more try.  The first Lost Kingdoms was flawed and frustrating, but fun.  Lost Kingdoms 2 improved everything from the original and added to it.  It was superior in every way.  How much would Lost Kingdoms 3 have improved things?  Hopefully, an answer comes soon.

There you have it.  Five franchises that I would like to see remake, updated, or continued in some fashion.  Agree?  Disagree?  Have something to add?  Leave a comment and be heard.

Lost Dimension Review (PS3)

Do you want save world?  Yes?  Okay.  Do you want to kill your friends?  No?  Well that's too bad.  Everybody knows you can't save the world without killing your friends.  People who have played Lost Dimension know this.

In this game, you take the role of Sho Kasugai, an ordinary teenager with the power to hear thoughts.  As Sho, it's your job to climb a tower to find and kill a man simply called The End, who has declared war on the entire world.  Sho has thirteen days to save the world or fail and watch it burn.

Sho, our protagonist.

Sho isn't alone, however.  He is joined by ten other teenagers with superpowers.  These eleven kids are the only people in the world who have a chance against The End.  The only problem is that not all of these kids will make it to the top because, according to The End, there are traitors in your little group and you must find out who they are and kill them before they get in the way.

How do you find out who the traitor is?  Simple.  Just take them into combat and fight robot, hear weird voices after the battle, talk to people until they become your friend, and read their minds.  Then everyone votes for who they think the traitor, resulting in them being killed and turned into a crystal by a machine.

As for the characters, some of them are cool, while other boring as piss.  Some say cool things while others say bland crap.  Basically, it's the same mix of cool people, wimps, and yes, cute girls that you should be accustomed to in most RPGs.  Each has their own powers called "gifts" to make them stand out from each other.  These powers can be upgraded using points earned from battle.

Characters include the powerhouse Mana Kawai, pictured here.

Gifts can be powerful, especially in the case of characters like Himeno and Marco, who light up the screen with cool effects.  Gifts work kind of like magic, requiring gift points or GP to use.  You will, however, want to avoid overusing them, though.  On top of draining GP, gifts also drain a character's sanity or SAN.  When a character loses all their sanity, they go berserk, doling out beatings and rape to enemies and allies alike.  This also causes the character's allies to become scared and less effective in combat.  Once the character stops going crazy, they become dazed and weak.  So watch your SAN, which runs out much faster than GP.

The main hub where everything beside combat and judgment are taken care of.

On to the battles.  They're short, turn-based skirmishes against mostly-lame enemies.  There is a level of strategy to these battles, though.  Individual characters will NOT win the day.  It's all about teamwork, here.  Anyone you send out to be a star will be gang-raped by robots.  The key to victory is to position your characters so the more than one can attack the hapless foe you're targeting.  The enemies are a little less strategic, opting to bum rush the closest person they can get to, keying in on one person if they can.  The combat can be challenging when it's boss time.

Survey the battlefield and formulate a strategy before charging in.

Teamwork is the only way to take guys like this down.

As mentioned before, you must root out the traitors.  Things will only be that much tougher later on if you don't.  In simpler terms, you'll have to fight them later if you don't find and kill them now.  This is the crappy if a character you like is weeded out and killed.  Don't worry, though.  Killed traitors live on as materia, crystals imbued with their powers.  In other words, the characters may be gone, but you'll still have access to their abilities by equipping these crystals on a character whose still alive.  You can equip two materia on a character to create a badass with all the answers.

The Judgment System works like this.  You get a Vote Forecast after each battle to tell you who your party members think the traitor is, and hence, who should die.  The person being nominated isn't necessarily always the traitor, so it's up to you to dig deep to make sure you're not going to kill an innocence person.  This is important, because once you go to the Judgment Room, you can't leave until the votes are cast and someone, traitor or not, is killed.  Characters usually approach you to tell you who they think the traitor is or ask you who you think it is.  Others can be convinced to chance their vote, so do everything in your power to save the innocent and kill the guilty.

You can use Deep Vision to find out whether or not someone is the traitor.  This only tells you who is or isn't the traitor and doesn't affect how the other characters vote.  Also, you can only use Deep Vision so many times, so don't waste it on someone who isn't saying suspicious things.

The Judgment System does have a flaw, that being that allies can turn into enemies at the drop of a hat.  Put another way, just because someone isn't a traitor now, doesn't mean they won't turn into one later.  As someone who can read minds, Sho should be able to root out any traitor there will ever be any time he can find them.  It's not a bad thing, but it does seem stupid from a logic standpoint.

The Vote Forecast screen tells you who's most likely to die.  This person is not always the traitor, so be careful.

The graphics are decent enough.  Everything is clear and easy to identify.  That's all you can really ask from a game.  There are times when the graphics have some flash.  For example, when Himeno uses magic, she lights up the screen (and enemies) pretty good.  Sometimes the game stops for a second or two during an attack while the graphics load, almost as if it's is too awesome for the PS3.  I just pretend it's dramatic pause to enhance the effect (which seems to actually be the case for Mana).

The music is pretty good.  From the head-rocking boss theme to the relaxed theme of the second floor, the music is mostly good.  There are some crappy songs, but only one or two.  Put the hardcore ones on your I-pod or mp3 player for a workout or something.

As for the other stuff, the are extra missions and costumes, but they are DLC.  They're good, but you'll survive without them (unless you absolutely have to see Mana half-naked).  There's some miscellaneous DLC, but it's mostly bullshit.

All-in-all, Lost Dimensions is a good game.  It's not what you think and more than you expect.  If you like strategy RPGs and are looking for something different, you'll want to try it.  Play it.

Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2 Review (PS4)

The Guilty Gear series is long-lived series of (mostly) 2-D fighting games.  It may not be as old as Street Fighter or King Of Fighters, but it has been around for 19 years, so it's not the new kid on the block.  It is, however, a bizarre series with an interesting story.  Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2 is no exception.

2-D fighting games have always (and likely always will) be compared to Street Fighter.  This is understandable because Street Fighter is the standard setter.  However, I am here to tell you that this is NOT a Street Fighter clone.  If you're good at Street Fighter and think you're going to come in doling out beatings, you will take many ass-whuppins.  Some of the moves may be performed the same way and some of the same tactics may work temporarily, but get ready to change tactics on the fly.

The first thing you'll notice is the selection of characters.  They are a diverse lot.  You have characters who look normal, characters who look abnormal, badasses, hot chicks, powerhouses, fast-but-weak types, overpowered teenagers and kids, and straight-up weirdos, among others.  The best part is they all play differently.  There aren't any clones here.

Hot chicks...

...badasses...

...and weirdos.  Yes, that is man with a giant scalpel fighting a boy lying in bed.

There are some bizarre moves in here, too.  For example, there is a nine-foot tall doctor who has a move where he attacks you by disappearing and opening a door that materializes out of nowhere.  Another character is a one-armed female samurai who can stomp on the ground, causing a tatami mat to kick up and hit opponents who are unprepared.  Yet another character can summon cute little servants who can attack and level up (yep, like an RPG).  It's craziness at it's peak.

Tatami Mat!!!

This is what happens when you ask Jam for a discount.

After selecting your character and beginning combat, the next thing you'll notice is the speed of the combat.  The rounds can feel long, but the speed of the fighting is fast.  Seriously, you have to have Jedi reflexes to play this game.  If you're a slow gamer, stay away.

This game's graphics are nice, but the presentation is awesome.  Each character gets an intro scene, a winning scene, and a death move cut scene, all of which are anime quality.  The attention to detail is where the game shines.  For example, check out the Edinburgh Magicpolis stage.  There's a lot going on in the background while the characters are fighting, all with no slowdown.  It's quite impressive.

Also, the game doesn't cut corners on the cutscenes.  The characters' colors match up during the cutscenes match up with the characters' colors in-game.  These cutscenes are fully animated for each and every color combination for every character.  Whether they hand-drawn or digital, it must have been painful for the creators to do that for each and every character in each and every cutscene.  Just check out the differences in these shots of the same move.

The music is good, especially if you like rock.  There's some good stuff here.  Unfortunately, there's no sound test, which is baffling.  Seriously, I could listen to I-No's theme all day.

There are other things here.  There's a story mode, which is basically an anime to be watched.  This shouldn't be confused with Chapter Mode, where you pick a character and actually play though their story.  If you're confused about some things or a new player, there is a glossary and a timeline explaining the events and characters important to the game.  It's quite a read, some break out the reading glasses.  You can use money (called World Dollars) earned in combat to buy things from Gallery Mode or fish for item.

Fishing for things potentially gives you items you can buy from the gallery for cheap then it would normally cost.  Fishing is also the only way to get digital figures, as well as poses and colors for them, and backgrounds to put them in.  It's something to do when all the fighting is over.

A digital statue of Millia.

Fishing allows you to create scenes like this and more.

At the end of this day, this is no mere clone of Street Fighter or King Of Fighters.  Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2 has it's own identity and is happy with it.  It's filled to the brim with stuff, including game modes I didn't touch on here.  Throw out every thing you know about Street Fighter before diving into this one.  It's a must for 2-D fighting game fans.  Play it.

Cool Hotties: Ramlethal Valentine

When the Guilty Gear series moved onto next-gen consoles, it brought into existence a truly hot game girl.  The end of the world has never looked this good or been this cool.  It's Ramlethal Valentine.

She may wear a silly hat, but she's hot and strong.

Ramlethal is so hot, they should change her name to Burning Building.  Look at her.  Just look.

Even this dresser can't overcome her power.

She perfectly fine fighting on top of a train in the middle of winter wearing a barely-there top, tiny little shorts, and NO SHOES.  Perhaps that cape (which seems to be a living thing) is good enough to keep in all her body heat.  Or maybe she doesn't get cold.

If you're a game girl, try not to get cold.

Her cape has freaking teeth.  Scary.

Naturally, your eyes will be drawn to her giant swords, a necessity for cool characters.  Rather than handling these sword and risking callouses on her beautiful hands, she let's her ball servants do all the work.  Heck, they even taunt you.

Notice her hands don't touch the swords at all.

Ramlethal is to big to use insults.  She sits back and let's her minions do that.

But she does punch and kick her opponent, so she's not afraid to actually get her hands dirty.

She's agile enough to do a handstand kick...

...yet powerful enough to claw out guts.

Of course she has moves that devastate, destroy, and kill.  You can't start an apocalypse with those.

Let's see M. Bison do this.

Those servants sure are strong.

Once all the fighting is over, you maybe be tempted to let her hug you, but resist the urge unless you want this to happen...

This woman's embrace is not loving or gentle.

And that's Ramlethal, a true cool character and a hottie to boot.  Check her out in the Guilty Gear Xrd trilogy...and prepare to die.