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.

Nerd Battle: Leona Heidern vs. Cammy White

She tough, yet still hot.  She has cool hair.  She wears boots.  It's Leona Heidern of King Of Fighters...or Cammy White of Street Fighter.  Well.  It's time for a Nerd Battle.

The fierce Leona Heidern.

The incomparable Cammy White.

Leona Heidern is a member of Team Ikari in the King Of Fighters series.  She's a blue-haired woman who looks tough, but manages to still be hot.  She fighter with knives, grenades, and agility.  She has a lot of moves that look cool while being effective.

Leona shows her agility.  She should have been a dancer instead of a fighter.

Cammy White is from Street Fighter is a well-known character.  She a blonde-haired, hardbodied, Brit with long braids.  She fights with bare hands and...well...agility.

Cammy shows her...umm...agility.  Yeah...okay.

So, whose hotter?  As mentioned, both women have the hot and tough thing going on.  They both have that whole militant aesthetic going.  Cammy, however, wins for one obvious reason; dat butt.  You're going to look at it.  It's just that simple.  Leona's hot, but she can't compete against that backside.  Cammy takes looks.

That rear end is why Cammy is popular, no if, ands, or butts about it.

Have another look and check out Laura's while you're at it.

In case you missed it, here's a third look.

Now then, if Leona and Cammy met in a fight, who would win.  Cammy is highly skilled in hand-to-hand combat.  She has doesn't have the power that Chun Li does, the tools Sakura has, or the tricks Juri uses.  She does have some effective assets, though, including her Spiral Arrow (or Cannon Drill for older fans) and a diving kick.

Cammy's world-famous Spiral Arrow.

What goes up...

...must come down.

Leona on the other hand has neat regular attacks and a number of tricks at her disposal.  She's deft at using her knives, able to them to swat down opponents while she's in the air or to knock her opponents out of the air.  Her grenade may not be the best projectile, but it work.  She also has a projectile that can (but probably isn't meant to) knock opponents out of air, as well.

Leona slaps the piss out of the Queen.

Fire in the hole...

...boom!

Don't be in the air when Leona has her power orgasm.

Leona launches an air assaults to rain down pain. 

Combat goes to Leona.  Cammy is a nice fighter, but she lacks power and doesn't have the tricks Leona does.  Leona simply has more to work with.

With looks easily going to Cammy and fighting going to Leona, things are all tied up.  So to decide to Nerd Battle, we go to allies.  Leona has Team Ikari backing her up.  Anyone who's played King Of Fighters knows what Ralf, Clark, and Whip can do.  Cammy has Delta Red, which is nice...unless you only play the games.  Cammy is the only member of Delta Red in the games.  Who would you rather have backing you up?  A team of well-known ass-kickers like Team Ikari or a team of ghosts who never show up and are barely acknowledged?  Leona wins allies.

Cammy has a lot of good things going for her, including one of the best butts in videogame history.  Leona however has the edge in fighting ability and allies who can actually show up if she gets in trouble.  Leona wins this Nerd Battle.

Nerd Battle: Ayane vs. Lili Rochefort

She's hot.  She has a fighting style that's highly effective with her back to her opponent.  She has a drill kick to level her opponents with.  It's Ayane from Dead Or Alive...or Lili Rochefort from Tekken.  Who the better hot chick with the drill kick?  Until a crossover between Tekken and Dead Or Alive happens, the only way to decide is with a good old-fashioned Nerd Battle.

Tekken's angelic beatuty, Lili Rochefort.

DOA's efficient beauty, Ayane.

Ayane is one of the better characters in the Dead Or Alive series.  She's been around from the beginning.  She was a hidden character in the first game, but (possibly because of her popularity) she's been a readily available character ever since.  A lot of things set her apart from the rest DOA's cast.  She has a fighting style belongs exclusively the her, with no overlapping moves or clone characters.  She also has a very unique appearance and has to be one of the most recognizable women in a fighting game.

Ayane is almost instantly recognizable with her trademark headband among other things.

Lili is a fairly popular character from Tekken who's been around since Tekken 5.  She is blessed with good looks and a pretty unique style, as well.  There's not much overlap when comparing her moveset to other characters and like Ayane, she has no clones running around.  While her look doesn't stand out as much as Ayane's, her overall appearance is much nicer than the majority of the Tekken girls.

Lili's beauty can't be denied.

First, let's get it out of the way and compare how these two look.  Ayane and Lili look vastly different.  Ayane looks a teenage rock star with purple hair and red eyes.  Lili looks like an angel in a miniskirt, sporting long blond hair, purple eyes, and wearing mostly white.  Both girls are hot in their own way and this is where Ayane wins in looks.  Lili has a more realistic beauty and as such, you'll see at least one girl that looks like her in real life.  There's no woman in real life that looks like Ayane (at least not naturally) and she has more outfits to boot.  Lili is hot and her outfits can be customized, but also fairly common in videogames and real life.  Ayane gets the win here for looking unique and still being hot.

Ayane's wardrobe includes ninja gear, swimsuits...

...and school uniforms, among other things.

Lili's wardrobe is deep and highly customizable, but no match for Ayane's.

Up next, come their backstories.  Growing up, Ayane was an unwanted baby, ostracized by those around here simply because of the circumstances of her birth.  The end result is that she is very haughty and better than everyone by honing her skills.  Lili, on the other hand, is a child of privilege who was probably told from birth that she's better than everyone.  Both think their better than the average person, but Ayane actually proves it, whereas Lili just goes out and gets her ass kicked by Asuka.  For being a more sympathetic character, Ayane wins backstory.

Ayane overcame a terrible childhood to become a strong fighter.

Then there's the drill kick, the reason for me writing this post.  Both Ayane and Lili have this move which sends them flying across the screen spinning like a drill, hence I call it a drill kick.  There are difference, though.

Lili's drill kick is one of the most fun and beautiful moves to watch in Tekken.

Ayane's drill kick is versatile and deadly.

First off, Lili's drill kick requires you to hop to the side before she executes it.  You'd better make sure you hop the right way or she does a sliding kick instead.  She does have an unblockable version that doesn't require you hop first, but that when you learn about the major flaw in both versions; the move is kind of hard to hit with.

Ayane, on the other hand, doesn't have to hop into hers.  This means you won't make a mistake and do a sliding kick.  Also, despite being easier to hit with, it feels more satisfying.  If that that wasn't enough, it travels farther and a combo or two actually incorporate this move for added flair.  As long as you don't overuse it or get predictable with it, Ayane's drill kick is a useful tool for attacking while quickly closing the gap between her and opponents.  Lili's kick may look cooler, be Ayane's is infinitely more useful.  Ayane wins here, too.

Finally, there is actual fighting ability.  Ayane is a highly-trained ninja who's probably killed quite a few people during mission.  She's also very effective with her back turned to her opponent, making her fairly unique character in a fighting game.  Lili is (probably) a self-taught heiress who fights for fun.  If they were to meet in a fight (hopefully in a DOA/Tekken crossover) Ayane would likely crush her like a bottle return machine crushing a Pepsi can.  It would take a miracle (perhaps help from Asuka) for Lili to win.  Long story short, Ayane is the better fighter.

Ayane can be deadly when her back is facing the opponent.

Ayane kicks poor Lei-Fang so hard, her feet go through the wall.

Lili can be cruel when she wants to be, but...

...as Ayane says, "the match is decided."

While Lili is hot, talented, and fun to watch fight, Ayane is all that, too.  Plus, she's more effective in combat, as she can actually beat some of her rivals.  The girl herself looks unique and she has a bigger wardrobe to show off (or cover up) those virtual curves.  She's more sympathetic, her actions carry more weight in her world, and she's a better overall fighter, as well as having a better drill kick.  Ayane wins this Nerd Battle.  Agree?  Disagree?  Comment and make your voice heard.

Amu Being Cute

Amu's victory poses is pretty cute.  It balances being girly with being a gun-slinger, minus the gun.  Perhaps she'd have been a pop star if she wasn't trapped in Fillujah.  Anyway, enjoy.

Cute, huh?  A nice sight after blasting heads with her rifle/shotgun/magnum.  Check it out in Summon Night 6: Lost Borders.

Summon Night 6: Lost Borders, Birth of the Brave

The theme that plays when you win a battle in Summon Night 6: Lost Borders.  It's a cool song that just makes you feel powerful and victorious.  In a soundtrack that's up and down, this song stands out as undeniably good.  Enjoy.

Can't you feel the power?  It's the perfect reward after wiping out cute little monsters and beating people into submission.  It goes well with characters like Amu and Nesty.  Hope you enjoyed it.

Tekken 7 Review (PS4)

Tekken.  A long-lived series of fighting games, it is to 3D fighting games what Street Fighter is to 2D fighting games.  That's to say it's the standard-setter.  3D fighting usually doesn't get much better than Tekken.  The series had enjoyed amazing highs (Tekken 3) and depressing lows (Tekken 4), but 23 years later, it's alive and well.  If it wasn't, Tekken 7 wouldn't exist.

As mentioned before, Tekken 7 is a 3D fighting game.  The thing that makes it unique is that each limb is assigned a button.  You have left punch, left kick, right punch, and right kick, all with devoted buttons that you can set up yourself.  This method works well and makes performing combos feel satisfying.  It's been working for 23 years.  Why fix something that isn't broken?

Unlike Josie's leg here, the gameplay isn't broken.

There is a nice number of characters, with plenty of new characters, such as Shaheen and Josie.  There are neat updates on old characters on old characters, like Nina armed to the teeth in a wedding dress.  As you might expect, there are some subtractions.  For me, Julia Chang (not that piece of crap Jaycee) and Lei Wulong  (yay, Jackie Chan) are huge losses.  On the other hand, garbage characters like Alex/Roger and Zafina are gone.  Yet they kept other garbage characters Kuma/Panda and Alisa.  Oh, well.  You win some, you lose some.

We lost characters like Lei Wulong and Julia Chang for a piece of crap like this.  Just look at her.

Here comes the bride, decked out and ready to kill.

Hot women are present and accounted for.

Staying on the subject of characters, the single biggest addition is Akuma from Street Fighter.  He's really there and he's not just passing through, either.  He's a major player in the story and woven into the very lore of Tekken.  In other words, he's canon.  He doesn't play EXACTLY the way he played in Street Fighter, but you won't be able to tell the difference.  He has everything he had in Street Fighter.  Fireballs, hurricane kicks, and even his super moves are all present and accounted for.  His transition was well done for the most part.  He can be cheap and overpowered, though, so bring plenty of patience (and a willingness to sidestep a lot) when fighting him.

Akuma is a bigger fish than any of the original addition, like Gigas and Shaheen.

There are other characters, such as Geese Howard from King Of Fighters, with Final Fantasy 15's Noctis on the way via DLC.  Additions like Akuma, Geese, and Noctis give a sense that literally ANYTHING can happen.  Who will they (and other fighting games) add next?

The story mode is divided into two sections; the main story and the character story.  The main story is short, sweet, and tight.  They involved only the major players (including Akuma), opting not to shoehorn everyone in like Tekken 6.  It isn't without it's flaws, mainly the fact the fighting picks up right where the cutscenes leave off.  I mean EXACTLY where the cutscene ends.  If you're not paying attention, you will take plenty of cheap shots simply because you didn't realize the cutscene ended and the fight began.  Also, they missed the opportunity to perhaps make Asuka a major player like she should be.  She's a Kazama (a family closely associated with the Mishima family), but she's treated like a joke, trapped her in a lame feud with Lili.  Jun was (still is?) a Kazama and Jin's last name is Kazama and are/were major players.  What's wrong with putting Asuka in the family feud?

Learning when a cutscene ends and a fight starts is key to ass-whoopin' prevention.

Character stories, on the other hand, are pretty shitty.  Each character only gets one fight.  ONE!  This may be okay in the case of Nina Williams and Steve Fox, whose stories and relation to each other should be well-known to Tekken veterans.  They do create some intrigue, but one lousy fight is pretty short.  Three to five fights per character would have been nice to build up new character connections and rivalries.

On to the other stuff.  The graphics are among the best in the series.  There is some weird stuff, like hair that defies physics and clothes going through characters' bodies, but as a whole, the game still looks good.

Josie kicks Xiaoyu so hard, her coat phases through her own leg.  I wonder if that hurts.

The music varies from solid to pretty good.  The G Corp Helipad theme and the Mishima building themes are darned good.  Even better is the Jukebox Mode, where you can listen to music from previous games in the series.  You can even put together a playlist (or three), select what music you hear during gameplay and when you here it.  So if you decide the music from Tekken 7 sucks, just select the music from another game or multiple games.  A nice touch.

With TEN games represented, you won't struggle to find good music.

As for other game modes, they are okay.  Arcade Mode is what you'd expect.  Beat ass until the boss comes along, then beat their ass, too.  Treasure Mode is essentially Survival mode and is how you earn money and random items to customize the characters with.  It's BS, though, because you earn so little money per fight and don't what you'll unlock or who you'll unlock it for.  If you can get online, join a tournament to earn money faster.  Sadly, there's no Tekken Force Mode as of yet.  Maybe they'll bring it in via DLC.

Then, of course you have customize mode.  It's weak compared to Tekken 6's Customize Mode, but it works.  Some of the items are decent, while others are silly and plain shitty (like the headwear items).  Much like with the characters, you win some and lose some.  You can still make some solid changes that don't look stupid.

Nothing's hotter than a girl with a rose in her hand and a pizza on her back.

In the end, Tekken 7 is a solid game.  Just solid.  The Tekken gameplay is still there, with miniscule differences you may or may not notice.  There are decent additions, crappy additions, and questionable omissions.  The main story is short yet satisfying, but the character stories are too short.  If you like Tekken, you'll have fun.  Make sure to check it out.