Fat Princess

Fat Princess Developer: Titan Studios Publisher: SCEA Action / Capture the Flag - Playstation 3 1 - 32 players

Fat Princess has gotten a lot of press in the PSN shows like Pulse and Qore. I knew it was an online multiplayer game, but BECAUSE it was an online multiplayer game, didn't think I'd get much mileage out of it. I barely touch my consoles as is. But who could resist a 50% off sale?

The gist of the game is simple:

Capture the enemy princess
Protect/retrieve your princess

All in all, very much like your standard capture the flag game. But there's a twist. Fat Princess so gets its name from one fact: You can stuff the princesses with cake, making them fatter and heavier, and consequently much more difficult to move. You control one of 16 characters on your team, and you are free to change classes similar to a game like Battlefield. The nice thing is, you don't need to die in order to change classes. You just need to pick up a hat of the class you want to change into. Your base generates all of the class types, so you can immediately pick your role there. On the battlefield, you can pick up the hats of fallen allies and enemies. This allows class-changes to be seamless and instantaneous, so you can focus on the action. There's 5-6 standard classes and an additional 3 available via DLC, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Some units are better at front-line combat, while others are better as support.

Fat Princess isn't just action. Unlike a FPS capture the flag, Fat Princess has some RTS elements to it, where you can farm resources to upgrade buildings, ultimately upgrading the units. You can also use resources to construct shortcuts (ladders, bridges, etc) and build barriers to block out the enemy. This aspect gives Fat Princess a little more depth than the standard CTF.

Contrary to what I first believed, there are decent single player options where you play against AI-controlled opponents. There is a brief story mode with different objectives that allow you to understand the different modes and get familiarized with the classes and maps. There's also an arena mode where you pick a class and try to survive through a series of combative challenges. So there's a bit to play around with if you're not as interested in jumping online.

But of course, if you want to play online, it's very easy to jump in. You can host a game and set things up if you want to play a game with specific settings. Or you can just Join a Game and it'll drop you into an existing game going on, where you just replace one of the AI-controlled team members. It all happens automatically, so you don't need to go to any lobbies, or pick a game from a list. And because the game substitutes you in for an AI-team member, if you need to go, you can quit without really disrupting your teammates. It'll just sub an AI teammember back in when you leave. Once an online game is finished, all the human players can vote for the next map. The way the online component was designed makes it incredibly easy to play for just a few minutes or a few hours.

My only complaint about the experience is that the documentation is pretty poor. Yes, the in-game manual gives you some direction into class abilities, upgrading buildings, the available game modes, etc. But many of the finer details are not explained, so even though I've played the game for hours, there are gameplay elements I don't quite understand - particularly with using resources towards upgrades.

Nevertheless, if it's a solid, fast-paced, user-friendly multiplayer game you're after, Fat Princess delivers. Whether you have just a few minutes to spare or want to devote an entire afternoon, you'll be thoroughly entertained.

Half Minute Hero

Half Minute Hero Developer: Marvelous Entertainment Publisher: XSEED Games RPG / Variety - Playstation Portable 1 player

First thing you need to know is that PSN hosts a decent number of PSP demos, and for the most part, made me NOT want to purchase the full game. Half Minute Hero was the exception. It was quirky, brilliant, and most of all entertaining. I was sold after, well... 30 seconds.

Half Minute Hero isn't really -a- game, and more of a collection of games tied together with an overall storyline. The games themselves are all quite different, but they all have the recurring motif of a 30 second time limit.

Hero 30

This fast-paced RPG is the principle mode. The premise is that an evil lord is casting an apocalyptic spell which requires 30 seconds to complete. So your job as the Hero of the story is to race to defeat the lord.

Just like a "real" RPG, you can purchase items, talk to townsfolk for advice, recruit party members, grind for levels, solve puzzles, and explore dungeons. Of course, these activities are much more basic and streamlined than the typical RPG (battles are largely automatic and average 1.5 seconds, purchasing EQ automatically equips, etc), but the content is there.

That begs the question... how can you do all of that in 30 seconds? For the first few scenarios, it's all a matter of speed and efficiency. You have to figure out how much to fight / level up and balance that with the ticking clock. Luckily time stops when you're in towns, so you can take a breather, talk to citizens, heal and improve your equipment. On the world map, you can make mad-dashes which eliminates random battles for the duration, but costs you HP. So there's a time management aspect to making a beeline to your intended destinations, stopping only to fight when it's necessary, and balancing that with how much HP your hero has.

Later scenarios have the same balancing act, but gives you ways to extend your 30 second time limit. There's a time goddess that will reset the clock to 30:00 at the cost of gold. The catch is that the cost of gold increases everytime you use it, so it becomes economically unfeasible past a certain point. But what it does is present you with larger and more complex game scenarios. In fact, this little game has "achievements" that trigger when you meet certain criteria (2 per scenario) and even multi-branching paths that introduce new scenarios. An amusing touch is that each scenario is considered a game in of itself and has its own set of credits once cleared.

Evil Lord 30

From what I gathered, this "real time strategy" game isn't a particular favorite among players. Although it's billed as a RTS, I actually feel it's more accurately described as a summon action game. Basically it's like an ARPG where your character, the Evil Lord, cannot attack directly, but needs to summon monsters to fight for you. You can summon 3 types of monsters, with rock-paper-scissors affinities. That's where the strategy component comes in.

You can summon as many monsters you want and as often as you want, but the faster you summon them, the weaker they are. The monster strength is determined by the size of your summon circle. Once you summon one monster, it shrinks and then grows over time. As you defeat enemies, you do gain experience points. Once you level, your max summon circle expands, allowing you to make bigger monsters. Get hit by an enemy, and your circle shrinks.

The premise of this game is that the Evil Lord is trying to save his beloved Millenia, who has been turned into a bat. But after 30 seconds, daylight breaks and they are doomed. Just like Hero 30, you can find the Time Goddess and turn back the clock. This is a necessity since later stages are all about throwing you in mazes full of enemies, so you'll need every second you can get.

Princess 30

Princess 30 is absolute silliness. The story is that the King has fallen ill, and the naive Princess ventures outside of the castle in attempts to get help. Naturally, this worries her parents, so they give her a strict 30 second curfew.

The actual gameplay is closest to a shoot-em-up. The screen will autoscroll in a predetermined direction, but you can influence its speed based on the path your princess takes. Surrounding the princess is 30 bodyguards which has a dual purpose: more bodyguards = more offensive strength, but more bodyguards = larger hitbox. Enemies will come from all four directions, so you have directional fire mapped to the buttons. But the essential goal of each stage is to collect a person / item, and then race back to the castle before the 30 second limit runs out. The time-extenders here are red-carpets, which turn the clock back a little for as long as the princess is on it.

Guard 30

As you may have guessed, Guard 30 is a protection game. This time, it's your group that is casting the spell of destruction. A Sage is being targeted by all sorts of monsters, and has asked you to provide protection until the spell of destruction has been cast. So within those 30 seconds, a flood of monsters, demons, and bosses will try to thwart the Sage's plans.

You have a few resources at your disposal that can help. You can choose some one-time use tools before a stage begins. These items range from bombs to barriers. You can also pick up weapons on the field. And foregoing that, you can ram your body into monsters to push them away. Unfortunately, monsters don't "die". They only get knocked out for a few seconds, before they start coming for the Sage again. So you'll have your hands full here.

Unlike the other games, there's no time-extender because you actually want the clock to run out. But since the Sage just stands there chanting the spell, it will often put your group in peril. So another valuable tool is being able to pick up the Sage and relocate. The cost of doing this is that the Sage cannot chant while you're in motion, and so the clock is not progressing. But considering the layout of the stages, you pretty much have to move around to avoid the masses of enemies. Luckily, there's another benefit to moving the Sage around. There are hotspots on most stages which double the speed at which the spell can be cast. So there's another positive incentive to move around.

Overall

The games in Half Minute Hero are all quite distinct. I don't think any of them are bad. Hero 30 has the most meat and is the most fun by far. But there were really good moments in each of the games, where the gameplay elements came together in a entertaining, this-is-awesome way. I know that the gamer community was not as enthusiastic about Dark Lord 30, Princess 30 and Guard 30 and to be fair, they are uneven experiences. There generally isn't a progression of difficulty or complexity, so the challenge and design feels unbalanced. They're also really quick to blast through, compared to Hero 30. But as a whole package, it offers variety, a lot of content, brilliant fun and never takes itself too seriously. It resembles nothing else on the market. This is my favorite PSP game thus far.

Killzone Liberation

Killzone Liberation Developer: Guerilla Publisher: SCEA Action - Playstation Portable 1 player / 2-6 player Ad-Hoc & Infrastructure

Killzone Liberation was one of the first titles recommended to me when I purchased my PSP. I didn't know much about the KZ series, other than the fact that it was an exclusive that Sony fans praised. Unlike the first-person perspective of the PS3 series, Killzone Liberation took a different path by being presented top-down. I'm always down for a hearty action game, and because of the view, I was looking forward to something that distinguishes itself from the pack.

Indeed, KZL sets itself apart for a few reasons.
- The top-down perspective did make it play very differently than other shooters. For one thing, there's no jumping. You can still crouch behind objects to gain a defensive advantage, but because there isn't much of a vertical axis to the camera, height isn't emphasized much.
- The game is hard. The enemies are pretty accurate with their bullets, and aren't afraid to spray you. The few bosses that are here are also throw-your-PSP-out-the-window hard, which while frustrating, is quite respectable.
- Although there are some segments with allied AI, which I hate, you have some control by being able to designate your partner to specific locations on the screen or to follow you. The great thing is your allied AI partner listens to you, so if you tell them to protect themselves behind a barricade, they will remain there, even if you wander away from their area. You can also command your partner to do certain things, such as setting up bombs and clearing the way. It's nice to be able to exert some control over the computer controlled characters.
- The game shipped incomplete, so you can only receive the final 20% of the game and the ability to play online through DLC. Luckily, the DLC is free, but when I "finished" the game, I thought it was weird that it ended on a cliffhanger. It was then that I learned that the DLC wasn't a bonus, but a fix for what really ought to have been there in the first place.

Ultimately it comes down to whether the game is fun, and I think this is where Killzone Liberation slips. I never got the sense that it was anything more than clinical and generic. There isn't much variety in the types of foes you face. They only come in a handful of flavors. For the most part, I felt that the waves of enemies were only there to keep you occupied, rather than an integral part of the game design. A common scenario is that you'll face 3 enemies. So you kill them, and out comes another wave of the same enemies. It gets repetitive. That's what made the challenge harder to deal with too. It seemed like it was hard for the sake of being hard, and left me with no satisfaction when I overcame those challenges. It was a soul-less experience.

Probably the biggest complaint of mine is the lock-on targeting system. Theoretically you kinda point your character towards an enemy and then your gun is locked onto that individual. Since you don't have the precision of a 1st person shooter, the lock-on certainly helps a game like this. And this totally works when there's one enemy on the screen. Where things go bad is when there are several enemies in the same direction. It is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to get your gun to lock onto specific enemies in these situations. Worse yet, even if you're targeting one enemy, once you knock them to the ground, your auto-aim will then lock on to another enemy. It is extremely annoying when you want to finish off an opponent, but the game sometimes decides to just shift targets on you. And this is where most of the frustration came in. Your auto-aim goes wherever it wants to. Yes, the game is hard, but a large part of that hard is because you are at the mercy of the finicky targeting system. If the mediocrity in design wasn't enough to ruin the game, the lock-on targeting system definitely did.

On paper, Killzone Liberation is a great game. It's intense, fast-paced, challenging, and relentless - all very good things for an action game. It's got a bunch of challenge stages that make it feel very different from the regular campaign mode too - and more content is always a good thing. But no matter what the game offered, I never quite enjoyed playing it. If the rest of the Killzone series is like this, Sony fans can just keep it.

PixelJunk Shooter

PixelJunk Shooter Developer: Q Games Publisher: SCEA Action - Playstation 3 1-2 players

When I got a PS3, several people recommended that I get all the PixelJunk titles. I'm not entirely sure what the PJ branding indicates, but they seem to be simple 2D games with High Definition visuals. Seems like a fine combination to me. PixelJunk Shooter is the most recent PJ game from Q Games and well... it's a shooter. Sorta.

Although it has bullet dodging and shmup'ing elements, Shooter is more like one of those classic rescue games. Each stage has a certain number of people that you have to fly around and save before the exit is opened. Then you move onto the next stage and you do the same. Although this might seem basic, there's a lot of modern tweaks to make it interesting. The first thing you notice about Shooter is the fluid physics. There are three primary elements you'll encounter: water, lava and oil. All of them have their own attributes to them, but their motion is very realistic in their fluidity. The liquids flow and drip rather than a constant pour, making for some interesting interaction. These fluids are very critical to the game. Lava is a destructive element, and touching it not only harms you, but it can kill people you're trying to save if you don't get to them in time. But lava can be neutralized with water, thus forming molten rock, that you can also use to your advantage or disadvantage.

Therein lies the simplicity, and yet the brilliance of Shooter. You have your classic shooter elements with enemies that try to shoot you down and bosses at the end of each area, but it is ultimately a puzzle game where you have to figure out how to save everyone without losing any of them. Enemy locations, gates you can interact with, the natural flow of lava and water, and various suits your ship can "wear" for special abilities - all of these things are meticulously designed as puzzle tools. And like most modern games, saving people is just a form of collectathon. You don't have to save everyone to move onto the next stage (they could also die, which also accomplishes that goal), but it is far more rewarding to. There are also tons of crystals that you can collect too - many of which are hidden or somewhat obscured until you trigger some events.

I personally loved PixelJunk Shooter more than any other PS3 game I've played. Maybe my love of 2D is hard to quench, but Shooter has that kind of clever gameplay that feels familiar, yet completely fresh. Perhaps more than anything else, that's the kind of game that resonates best with me. Some may complain that the game only has 3 areas (15 stages), but if you actually 100% everything, it'll take some time to get through all of that. Plus, PixelJunk Shooter 2 is already in the works, promising new ideas and a lengthier run-time, so I couldn't be happier.

Syphon Filter Dark Mirror

Syphon Filter Dark Mirror Developer: Sony Bend Publisher: SCEA Action - Playstation Portable 1 player / 2-8 player Ad-Hoc & Infrastructure

I'll be honest. I've never played Syphon Filter, but I always got the impression that it was a sub-par knockoff of the stealth-action genre that Metal Gear Solid created. But the PSP versions were said to be different. They were said to be good. IGN gave Dark Mirror the 2006 PSP Game of the Year award - a dubious source, I know, but it's worth noting. And since I was craving a shooter at the time, it was reason enough to check it out.

From what I can tell, Syphon Filter Dark Mirror is a 3rd person shooter, with some stealth elements at times. MGS has a higher emphasis on stealth, because it's designed to be able to go through each stage undetected, and that aspect of gameplay is fleshed out better. Instead, SFDM might be more like Goldeneye 007 in that certain parts, you are automatically detected and other parts, you have a choice to use stealth techniques or go with guns blazing. Unlike First-Person Shooters though, there's some elements of climbing, shimmying, grappling, etc that you can do which helps for area exploration.

As an action game, Dark Mirror is competent, and generally varied enough to be entertaining. There's a host of different weapons you can collect and use. There is a decent amount of interactivity with the environments that you can use to your advantage, like the typical oil canisters that explode if you shoot them or activating switches that electricute enemies. Scoped weapons allow you to zoom in and make one-hit-kill headshots, or cripple enemies by shooting their legs. All the necessary ingredients are there, but it feels like it lacks something to make it truly special.

Perhaps the defining feature of the game is its use of goggles. You can equip one of 3 different types of goggles and knowing when and where to use them will be monumental in how you approach a stage. The "EDSU Goggles" generally help you figure out what items you can interact with, and can reveal things that are hidden. The "IR Goggles" help you to sense heat, and thus makes enemies visible even behind solid objects. This is very handy for scouting out the next room before you even open the door. Finally there's Night Vision, which helps to see in dark areas. There's also a flashlight, which doesn't illuminate as well as the NV goggles, and alerts enemies that you're there, so I'm not really sure why it's in the game. At first I found the goggles cumbersome, but once I figured out the nuances, strengths and limitations of each pair, I realize they are pretty integral to the gameplay, particularly if you want to use stealth techniques.

One of the things I had to get used to was its mix of stealth and action. On one hand, I feel Dark Mirror doesn't know what it wants to be. It's ok to give the player a choice on how to approach each situation. But there are segments where the game forces an action sequence, so it is inconsistent. On the other hand, what makes everything work together are the "achievements". I really feel like this is the one area where the game shines brightest. For each stage in the game, there are the same six goals. They require you to do things like get 20 stealth kills, or kill 30 people with headshots, or kill 15 people with a knife. If you're obsessive about this stuff like me, it'll force you to play stages over and over but the upside is that you get to fully understand the design of each stage. It is only then that you come to really appreciate each situation. Particularly for the stealth sections, it's almost like a puzzle to figure out how to kill X number of people without being detected. Fulfilling these goals will net you some unlockable weapons and bonus stages, but for me, fulfilling these goals made the game that much deeper in of itself.

The other major triumph of Dark Mirror is its control scheme. It has historical significance on the PSP because it was a huge step forward for having intuitive controls on the awkward PSP. With the standard configuration, the nub controls movement, the face buttons control your aim, and holding the D-pad brings up a subscreen where you can easily pick an item or weapon with the face buttons. It is a control scheme that would be adopted and become the standard for all such games on the system, including the Metal Gear Solid series. And it works. It feels just as intuitive as a dual analog setup, and the D-pad inventory management allows you quick and easy access to what you need, when you need it.

If you play the game strictly for its story mode, Syphon Filter Dark Mirror is a decent diversion. It has its cool moments, but mostly feels like you're going through the motions. But if you take the time to pursue all of the available goals, you will develop a greater appreciation for what the game has to offer. There's a ton of unlockable content to be had, including 5 bonus stages, early development videos, etc. While I'm convinced that SFDM falls short of brilliance, no one could accuse Sony Bend of skimping out on the details.

Miles Edgeworth Ace Attorney Investigations

Miles Edgeworth Ace Attorney Investigations Developer: Capcom Publisher: Capcom Adventure - Nintendo DS 1 player

I admit it. I'm a sucker for this game series. Ever since I first heard about it (a courtroom drama video game? really?!), I've been intrigued. Oh sure, the games have had their ups and downs. But through it all, it generally maintained a certain charm. Miles Edgeworth marks a departure from the previous entries, and even has a different title than the other games (Gyakuten Kenji, instead of Gyakuten Saiban). But if this Miles Edgeworth Ace Attorney Investigations is anything to go by, the original Ace Attorney series is officially irrelevant.

Miles Edgeworth somehow kept everything I ever loved about the series, but ditched everything I hated.

Gone are...
- Mysticism (psychic powers, channeling spirits and the like, magatama)
- Gimmicky touch screen garbage (having to simulate forensic work is NOT gameplay)
- Perceive system in Ace Attorney 4 which has no logic whatsover

Still contained within are...
- Distinct (and sometimes outrageous) character personalities
- Using logic to connect evidence to refute / confirm testimonies
- Plot continuity not only between cases, but entire games

Unlike the regular Ace Attorney games, Miles Edgeworth does not take place in a courtroom at all. Instead, the scenarios in this game focus on detective-work and apprehending criminals, but the techniques you use are very similar to what Phoenix Wright uses in court. You still talk to people, convince them into telling you their alibis, and point out problems in their arguments with evidence. So it's still very thought-based. The investigative parts resemble those in Phoenix Wright, but they're much more streamlined. First of all, movement is now done in third-person. You can see your character visually on-screen and move him around. It doesn't make for a huge change, but some might appreciate the increase in interactivity. To alleviate some of the irritations of previous games, Capcom got rid of the clunky navigation between areas by keeping investigations focused. If you're in a room, the game generally won't let you leave until you've gathered everything you need. Phoenix Wright would allow you to wander through 8 different locations, until you trigger an event that lets you get back to court. In Miles Edgeworth, though, the investigations are contained.

If it stopped here, it would already have the best gameplay in the series, but Ace Attorney Investigations adds a couple of new systems that reinforce the concept of making logical connections. The first is aptly named, "Logic". "Evidence" is the physical clues gathered and documented that you use to point out flaws in testimonies, etc. But new to this game are ideas and thoughts. As you find interesting tidbits or things that don't quite make sense, you keep track of your thoughts. At any time, you can connect two thoughts if there's a link, and it can reveal a new truth. It is may be an extension of what's already in place, but it makes for a great addition. Similarly, the second new addition isn't a completely new game system, but rather a twist on what you already do in the game. In a select few situations, you're able to evaluate simulations of past events and point out inconsistencies. The overall end result is a very focused experience of piecing together logic.

The only slight letdown to it all is that it seemed easier to me than the previous games. Part of it is because the main character is so much more competent than either Phoenix or Apollo, and as such, points out hints, whenever you need to present something. But even without those hints, I generally thought that connections between evidence and testimonies were much more obvious than the older games. I suppose it could just mean I've played too many of these games, so that the formula has become predictable.

Still, I hope Miles Edgeworth Ace Attorney Investigations is the future of the brand. It takes all the stuff I liked from the Ace Attorney games, expands on it, and dumps the junk I wasn't crazy about. The eclectic character personalities are still there, with a mix of old faces and several new ones. And the gameplay is by far the most sophisticated of the series. Even though the overall story wasn't as satisfying as some of the previous entries, it was nevertheless a complete joy to play. I want more.

Dark Void Zero

Dark Void Zero Developer: Other Ocean Publisher: Capcom Action - DSi Ware 1 player

Dark Void Zero is sort of a weird title. Capcom's marketing team calls it an unreleased game from the 80s, that they are releasing at long last on the DSi Ware store. Wikipedia calls it a publicity teaser to generate buzz for Dark Void, a 3D game for the PC, Playstation 3 and XBox360. Whatever it is, people seem to be agreement about one thing: Dark Void Zero is a much better game than Dark Void is.

Dark Void Zero is a NES-inspired action game, and that's a good thing. Visuals and music are decidedly 8-bit, as well as the gameplay. Sorta. Just like Retro Game Challenge, DVZ takes 8-bit conventions, but mixes it up with some modern elements for a slight twist. They don't go overboard with the modernization, and it mostly plays like a classic NES game. And frankly, the result is quite awesome.

You control a character named Rusty, and you're pretty much Earth's last hope. But who cares what the story is about? The game wastes little time and throws you into the action from the get-go. For the most part, this plays like your standard 2D action platformer. You pick up weapons, kill enemies, watch for cannons, jump over chasms, etc. You can fire in 8 directions, which is a definite necessity, given the aggressive nature of the enemies. The level structure is somewhat similar to Metroid in that you have freedom to explore areas, find that you can't proceed initially, grab crucial items, and backtrack to those points once you've found the right item. Luckily it doesn't have any leveling up garbage that plagues modern titles, so it's a pure action game. As a consequence, DVZ offers a decent challenge - quite the surprise for a fogey like me. If you don't utilize your situations right, enemies can easily overwhelm you.

For you collectathon gamers out there, you can search out 100 orbs in each stage and 5 special items for bonus points and extra lives. They're not necessary, but they certainly add a bit of flair to an already solid game.

The twist? You can fly. Scattered throughout the stages are jetpacks that grant you the ability to ascend heights and hover. Considering there are a bunch of aerial enemies and ground hazards, flight is a must. Your 8-way firing ability is even more crucial, as you're trying to position yourself not only to hit enemies, but to avoid colliding into danger. Flight makes the game that much more intense and turns up the action even more. But if you can fly, then what is the point of the platforming? DVZ answers that question with no hesitation.

Dark Void Zero is set up so that there are certain sections of a stage that cannot be traversed just by walking and jumping. But other sections will not allow you to fly. Stages contain antigravity fields that destroy your jetpack, forcing you to walk. So the game walks a fine rope between the two styles of play, and you have to adapt to each style and figure out which is right for each situation. But it succeeds marvelously because of how tight the stage design is. You get the feeling that every situation is very intentional, and all the enemies, barriers, and tools (weapons/powerups) are placed where they are for a purpose. Your goal as a player, then, is to use analyze your options and utilize what's available to overcome whatever scenario is presented. It's brilliant.

With its healthy challenge, two distinct styles of play, and well-designed stages that complement each and integrate both, Dark Void Zero is a surprising gem. It grabbed me from the beginning and was entertaining throughout. Complaints? Personally, I have none, but it should be mentioned that there are only three stages. It probably amounts to about 3-4 hours of trying and retrying to get through the stages. Although that doesn't sound like much in this era of 40-hour games, it's an appropriate length for no-nonsense action games of old. Plus, at 500 points for the download, it's hardly much of an investment. It may be shorter than a lot of games, but for me, it's also that much sweeter.

Suikoden

Suikoden Developer: KCET Publisher: Konami RPG - Playstation / PSN 1 player

I believe Suikoden may have been Konami's first foray into RPGs, and in several respects, it feels like it. Suikoden isn't particularly noteworthy for its visuals nor does it introduce any revolutionary game mechanics for its time. But that doesn't mean it was without its charms.

The one distinguishing thing about Suikoden is the ability to recruit a ton of characters into your army, with a maximum of 108. This is based off a classic Chinese novel, where there are 108 Stars of Destiny. For a RPG, this ability to recruit is a key component to its gameplay. Although most characters will join you when asked, many will not unless certain criteria are met. Depending on how much of a collectathon-ist you are, you can spend a bit of time traveling the world, looking for items, and having key characters in your group in order to collect them all.

I personally never liked having party choice in RPGs simply because managing them can be a pain. Especially since a lot of party-choice RPGs force certain characters to be in your party for story purposes, if you somehow don't balance all the possible members properly, some games will completely screw you over. Although Suikoden does do that too, the nice thing is that balancing 108 characters isn't needed because it has a sophisticated leveling up system. I don't entirely understand how leveling up works in Suikoden but it seems to give tons more experience points to your underleveled people. So if you have a party of level 50 characters, and then the story forces you to have a level 10 character in your party, your level 10 character will probably be level 47 by the time your other members reach 51. That removes that complaint I usually have about RPGs that don't automatically distribute experience to those not in your immediate party. Managing equipment between the 108 ... well, that can be a little clunky, but nothing game-breaking.

The biggest problem with Suikoden is that it's a bare-bones game. The overworld is pretty sparse, with only a handful of areas of interest. Dungeons are especially straight-forward, with little in the way of branching paths or areas to explore. Almost all of them funnel you towards the boss. While there is some merit in cutting out the extraneous stuff, the result was that I didn't care for any place I visited in the entire game. They were just a means to get to the next story point.

The combat is perhaps the simplest turn based RPG system I've experienced, with little more than Attack as an option. There is magic in this game too, but it doesn't work like other RPGs. Instead, each character can be equipped with a maximum of one spell type. And depending on the makeup of the character and their level, can have a maximum of four spells. The game does not use MP, and instead has a limited number of usage per spell. Once you use your spells, you can no longer use them unless you rest at an inn. What this means in practice is that physical combat takes center stage, and simply commanding ATTACK does not make for an exciting game.

But the game does offer different kinds of combat, depending on the situation. In addition to the standard RPG fights, Suikoden simulates epic battles by using a Dragon Force-like view. You'll see enemy troops on one side of the screen, and yours on the other. Then each side issues a command, troops charge each other, and casualties are recorded. It has a rock-paper-scissors system where offensive charges > archers > magic > offensive charges, but you have some additional tricks up your sleeve. There are also 1v1 battles against major enemies, which follows a similar rock-paper-scissors type of format too.

Where Suikoden really excels is in its narrative. Suikoden has a mature story in that tragedy propels it. This is not a fairy tale story. Neither is it an overdramatic emo story. Instead it's a story about war, duty, friendship (and betrayal), and sacrifice. The cost of the war is high, and many people die along the way. It kind of reminds me of Tales of Phantasia in that regard, where the severity of the events compels me to keep playing. It's interesting to see that despite having a whopping number of characters in your party, there's a reasonable amount of back-story to many of the characters, so they're reasonably fleshed out.

What I also love is the way the plot is told. Suikoden bucks the popular trends at the time and does not use FMV other than the movie that plays before the title screen. Instead, scenes play out using the same 3/4 top-down perspective that the game is normally presented in. The character sprites will animate depending on what's occurring at the time. Characters unsheathe their swords, fall on their knees, embrace, all using real-time sprites. Grandia is the only other game I know that relies heavily on that method.

Overall, Suikoden isn't my kind of game. It has an interesting story, and the characters are spot-on. But on its merits as a game, it's merely passable. There's some neat things, such as the clever leveling-up system that helps to lower level characters catch up to higher level characters, and the different types of battles that provide some variety. But the simplistic nature of the overall game design is hard to connect with. If story is all you want in a video game, then Suikoden is fine. I personally prefer more.

Bayonetta (demo)

Bayonetta you're mystery
Jerky cutscenes tell a bad story
The camera lags on the battlefield, I can't tell where you are
Bayonetta you're DMC
With your long hair and nudity
Your combos are long, witch time drags on, it's mashing, it's mashing

Assassin's Creed Bloodlines

Assassin's Creed Bloodlines Developer: Ubisoft Montreal & Griptonite Publisher: Ubisoft Action - Playstation Portable 1 player

Assassin's Creed Bloodlines was released just a week before Assassin's Creed II to present a side story that takes place between the events of the first and second game. I'm told that the game mechanics are also somewhere in between the first and second game. As my first entry into the Assassin's Creed series, I came away with some appreciation of what people enjoyed. Yet, I couldn't shake the feeling that it's not the type of game to appeal to me as a whole.

Let's start with the basics. You assume the role of Altair the assassin. Here the story focuses on his clashes with the Templars in Cyprus. Similar to the main AC games, you will be exploring large cities, climbing buildings, sneaking around and killing as needed. If you manage to get up close to an opponent without being noticed, you can do a quick assassination. If you are detected, you have several combat options as well.

In terms of structure, the game basically has you follow a linear plot line. You are confined to a specific area because of the story, but otherwise you're free to explore the area as needed, move the plot along, or trigger subquests. Bloodlines offers some breaks from the main plot by allowing you to interact with some NPCs scattered throughout. Their tasks generally revolve around making deliveries (generally timed), defending innocent people, and assassinating specific targets. After playing Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars and reinforcing my thoughts with this game, I realize that sandbox gaming bores me. There's an illusion of freedom where you can do a lot of side goals, but ultimately what you actually can do is very limited. Here in this game you can walk and you can kill. Every quest is a some iteration of that.

The exploration aspect of the game is really nicely done though. I imagine that each city in the console/PC Assassin games is one complete entity, but here in Assassin's Creed Bloodlines city areas are sectioned off by districts. Nevertheless, each district has plenty to see, places to climb, and coins to find. Most 3D games with platforming elements have incorporated a form of collect-a-thon and ACB is no different. Here they are coins. Gold and silver coins can be found spread throughout the world. Collecting these coins means more game currency to buy upgrades to Altair's abilities, such as higher damage or more throwing knives. But they also count towards "Accomplishments". Yep, in going with the fads of XBL, there are now Achievements in portable gaming. But what this means is that you have an incentive to explore every nook and cranny of each location. You really get a sense of scale of the environment, as you jump across roof gaps and ascend on vertical towers.

One major downside in this portable version is that while the big city feel is intact, the streets don't feel as lively. Compared to the multitudes of people coming and going in the console versions, usually you'll only see up to 4-5 people on the screen at once here. Where this really comes into play is when you meet other Templars. They show up as a yellow dot on your map, to give you an indicator of when to be more discrete with your actions. But as the game is loading these people into memory as you walk through the city, the Templars seem to appear out of nowhere. You still have enough warning for the most part, but it is a little disorienting and matters a lot when you fight.

The combat is in of itself a high point. It's a very simple system: one button to attack, one button to block. Time the attack correctly and you can chain up to 3 hits. Hold block and hit attack right when the enemy is striking and you'll perform a counter. This timing-based system is very reminiscent of Vagrant Story. It's simple, yet very interactive because of the timing aspects. But where ACB missteps is that each enemy is more or less a carbon copy of the other. They may look different - some with helmets, others hold shields. But the all act alike. That makes the combat really repetitive. For example, once you've attracted attention, all Templars in the area will rush towards you. So then it's just combo combo combo / counter until they're all dead. And because of the memory issue, once you've killed the 4 Templars on your screen, all of a sudden another 3 will instantly warp in. It's really irritating because it disrupts your experience, and you pretty much dispose of all of them in the same way. In a game like this, fighting is supposed to be secondary, because you can assassinate people stealthily and avoid conflict. But in this PSP outing, there are definitely a lot of situations where you are forced to fight.

As a consequence, Assassin's Creed Bloodlines does have a more combat-oriented experience than other games of the series. The major manifestation of this is in boss battles. Unlike the other games, there is a boss to each area that has a health bar. You cannot assassinate bosses in this game. You are forced to fight them. But that's also when the battle system comes to life. The boss patterns are infinitely more interesting than what the regular Templar grunts do, and some of the later ones will present quite a nice challenge. I found myself continuing a bunch of times on certain fights. I just wish the regular encounters were as interesting.

Assassin's Creed Bloodlines is not a bad game at all. I can see glimpses of why people might like it and the main games from the series. There is charm in being dropped in a massive city, getting familiarized with it, exploring it, and taking it all in. The combat too is deeper than I would have thought a game like this would be. But for me, it's less than the sum of its parts. There's not much you can do other than explore and fight the same enemy over and over. That might be fine for some, but the game ultimately left me empty.

DJ Max Portable

DJ Max Portable Developer: Pentavision Publisher: Pentavision Rhythm - Playstation Portable 1 player

I had bought this game when it first came out about 5 years ago, but never had a PSP to play it on until now. I remember it was pretty hyped on Play-Asia because it was a Korea-only import. I often import Japanese games but this was the first time I'd get one from Korea. They have since re-released this game as DJ Max Portable International with English menus, and released a sequel, 2 expansion games, and finally a US release called DJ Max Fever earlier this year. DJ Max Portable is more or less a Beatmania IIDX clone, but with Korean music rather than Japanese. It also sports a different "controller" setup than IIDX, but the game style is still the same:

Notes drop from the top of the screen and when it crosses a threshold, you time button-presses to that exact moment.

There are a couple of things that is different about IIDX/DJMP compared to most rhythm games. First of all, unlike Guitar Hero where you play the guitar parts of the song, these DJ games actually have you playing all the parts of the song. So you might be doing the steady drum rhythm with one hand, and playing the synth melody with another. In easier modes, one button press will set off a string of notes. In harder modes, you may have to play each one of those notes in that same string. The other thing about these games is that they allow for freestyling. In Guitar Hero / Rock Band, the games actively discourage it because if you don't play the right note, your "health" diminishes and you come closer to a game over. Here in IIDX/DJMP, playing a note that isn't on the screen does not affect you in any way and allows you some freedom in creating your own mix to the song. Of course, you need to also hit the required notes too. But there is some creative expression allowed on top of that.

Also like IIDX, DJ Max Portable sports many of the same types of modes. There's your standard "Arcade"-like mode where you play 4 songs sequentially. Only certain songs will be available at each stage. Clear it, and you'll get an overall score for the scoreboard and a Thank You screen. You'll also get a challenge mode where there are certain themes, such as playing a set of Rock songs. Then there's the Unlimited mode where you can choose from any of the songs available and practice them to your heart's content. Finally there's a Gallery mode where unlockable images and goodies go, as you meet certain goals.

Differences? DJ Max Portable is more newbie-friendly in the timing. Beatmania IIDX has a scoring range of MISS, BAD, GOOD, GREAT, JUST GREAT. The DJMP equivalent to these are MISS, MAX 1, MAX 40, MAX 80, MAX 100. IIDX is very strict and nothing other than perfection will give you a "JUST GREAT". But DJMP gives a larger window to achieve its best timing note, "MAX 100". On top of that, a BAD in IIDX breaks your combo and will hurt your "health". DJMP instead allows for MAX 1's to sustain your combo, and as a result, helps you to survive much longer. In a way, this is a necessary step because the PSP controls are not as tactile and intuitive as the turntable controller for IIDX. But it does make DJMP quite a bit easier. You can fudge some of the notes just by pressing everything, whereas IIDX will just fail you.

DJMP does introduce two new things to the mix. They add hold notes, where you must hit a note and hold it down for the duration as shown on the screen. It's intuitive and adds an interesting element to the mix that IIDX doesn't have (but other Konami rhythm games do have). But the other addition is the rotation of the nub during parts of the song. IIDX has a turntable that you turn, so maybe this is their version. Unfortunately, switching from D-pad notes to nub rotation in mere milliseconds isn't as well integrated as it could have been, and I dread these parts as much as I do the spinning wheels in the Ouendan DS games. Luckily I haven't encountered a lot of these. On the other hand, one positive thing about the PSP is that you can vary the scrolling speed of the notes on-the-fly with the L/R buttons, which is very handy. IIDX veterans know that many songs are actually -easier- when the notes scroll by faster. You can change speed on the fly in IIDX too, but it requires a combination of buttons vs. the more intuitive L/R in DJMP.

Perhaps the biggest difference of all is really the controller interface. I don't think the PSP is ergonomically sound and playing a game with such crazy rhythm patterns are probably recipes for Carpal Tunnel. The button pressing is ultimately not as satisfying as the turntable + 7 key setup of IIDX. Still, for a portable, it's the best approximate you can have. In fact, after playing this game, I lost interest in getting Rock Band Unplugged because it just seems so simple in comparison. DJMP sports a beginner 4-button mode that is similar in control scheme to Rock Band Unplugged. It also sports 6-button and 8-button (originally locked) modes for advance play, with harder patterns and more notes to deal with. The interesting thing is that switching to 6/8 button modes totally requires relearning the game and rewiring your brain to recognize which notes go with which buttons. So there's tons of content available.

The songs themselves are a mix of mostly K-pop with some drum & bass, house, soul and techno thrown in. Personally, I prefer both the variety and the compositions of Beatmania because they have some really talented electronic musicians. I miss the trance and more overall synth emphasis from Konami. The music videos are better in IIDX too. In DJMP, they're generally simplistic, partly because the rhythm game part is placed on top of the video, obscuring the middle 50% of it. In IIDX, the videos are never covered. I'm not sure how many songs there are in total, because I'm still unlocking them as I play. One nicety is that there's not only a video view mode, but there's a soundtrack mode where you can just listen to all the songs through like a digital album.

Overall, DJ Max Portable successfully pulls off the IIDX clone. Nothing can truly replicate the turntable controller of Konami's game, but all the other elements are there. Although DJMP is easier than IIDX, it's not an easy game by any means. I think that having my IIDX experience, I was able to easily blast by a lot of the patterns thrown my way. But this is a game that will definitely have learning curves - first as your brain adjusts to figuring out which note is which button, second to process fast strings of notes, and finally, processing simultaneous notes. But a magical thing happens when you practice. Progress will manifest itself. Songs you couldn't possibly imagine ever beating will become easier over time. And once you've learned to adapt, you can't unlearn it. I've found that even when I don't play IIDX for a year, I can get back into it with relative ease. DJMP is no different. So if you're willing to spend the time to learn it, this is one of the most rewarding rhythm games you'll ever come across.

Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars

Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars Developer: Rockstar Publisher: Rockstar Action - Nintendo DS 2 Memory Slots 1 player

These days, it's hard to find anyone who hasn't at least heard of Grand Theft Auto. Notorious violence, controversial locked-out sex mini-games, and many an impatient girlfriend guarantee its place in video game history. But is it any good? I vowed to give the series a chance, and it wasn't until the DS game came along, that I finally became interested enough to do it. Somehow, the thought of old school GTA with new school GTA innovations appealed to me. So here I am.

You begin the game as Huang Lee, the son of a murdered Triad boss. As you travel to Liberty City, you are nearly killed yourself. Chinatown Wars follows Huang's life in Liberty City, as he seeks answers. You'll end up participating in the drug trade. It's pretty much the only way to make decent money. You'll be sent on missions of sabotage and theft for shady people. You'll be evading cops. A lot. Outrun them. Take them out by crashing them into walls and other vehicles. Hide in secluded areas. That's Chinatown Wars in a nutshell.

I have to hand it to the developers. The game looks and sounds very cool. The action is mostly from an overhead perspective, which makes navigating the huge city a lot more pleasant than it could have been. The overall look has a bit of an edge to it, with cel shaded polygons, and comic book-like cut scenes. There's not a whole lot of spoken dialog - strangers will randomly mumble sentences, usually when disturbed. But the voice samples and sound effects are of high quality. Music is only played during cutscenes and when you're cruising around in a vehicle, mimicing radio music.

What's really interesting about Grand Theft Auto is that Rockstar builds a virtual city. Independent of you, the player, there is traffic, passage of time, and random acts of violence. Cars will stop at stoplights, causing traffic jams. They'll signal before turning. The sun sets, and rises the next day. Occasionally you'll encounter thunderstorms too. Neighborhoods have their own look and feel. Gangs have their own territories, and you'll occasionally see warfare break out. On the flipside, police will also make busts. It feels like a living, breathing city. Even after finishing the game, I still can't say I have Liberty City quite figured out. The scale is massive.

But as fascinating as a video game representation of city life can be, it doesn't make for a good game. Grand Theft Auto gives you two things to do:

- Drive
- Shoot

All of the various missions in the game boil down to just those two tasks. There isn't anything else. Oh sure, driving can be a nice diversion. There's about 20 cars in the game that you can mess around with, each with their own power/acceleration and handling characteristics. And the damage modeling is more realistic than Gran Turismo. But it often feels like you're playing a dumbed down version of Crazy Taxi all the time. Because of the small screen size, the action takes place in the top screen, but the map remains on the bottom screen. It can be disorienting to sneak glances at the map, while you immediately affix your gaze back on the main screen to avoid colliding with cops. Many of the vehicles end up being totally useless. I did find it amusing that the car called "Stallion" was a go-fast car that couldn't maneuver its way through anything. Just like the typical American muscle car.

And the shooting? That's generally worse than the driving. Most of the game is an auto-aim affair, where you barely have to do anything other than press the button. It's completely uninvolving and hard to derive satisfaction from killing anyone. That's not to say that the game is easy. The missions can be quite challenging. But the gun-play combat is sorely lacking. The sole exception are the Molotov cocktails. You actually throw them out by using the touchscreen, and the length and speed of your stylus strokes determine their trajectory. These are easily the best parts of the game.

But touchscreen controls are also some of the worst parts of the game. You use the touchscreen for everything from stealing stationary cars (disarming their alarms), to trading drugs to searching dumpsters. After a while, the touchscreen gimmicks wore a bit thin. There isn't a whole lot of variety to these "minigames", making them more tedious than fun. Even worse, since most of the game uses standard D-pad and face button controls, you pretty much have to keep your stylus between your fingers just in case, making for awkward and cramped hands. The game will often suddenly shift from standard controls to stylus-only controls with no warning at all.

The GTA series generally gets praised for its "sandbox" style of game, where you have the freedom to make of it what you will. True enough, even if you don't follow the game's story missions, you can push drugs indefinitely, loot rival gangs, etch tattoos and fight crime. But for all the touting of freedom, there's still nothing to do but drive and shoot. I was a little disappointed that you can't influence the story in any way. All the missions point you closer to completing the game. If you want to stay loyal to a specific character in the game instead of doing a mission for a rival, you can't progress. GTA CW may be a box, but there ain't much sand in it.

Grand Theft Auto was a game series I wanted to understand. I knew that behind all the senseless killings of innocents, meeting up with hookers (on console versions), and stealing of cars, there was more to be found. But while I marvel at some of the little details Liberty City tries to emulate, I also realize the game contained within is extremely shallow. The shootouts are dull, and the driving can be cumbersome. The constant recycling of these two tasks make the game far more mundane than the controversy has you believe. It lacks solid game mechanics. The dialog wouldn't even impress an 8th grader either. Nevertheless, despite all these shortcomings, I couldn't stop playing it. There's something to be said about a game that keeps you coming back for more, even though the experience leaves you unsatisfied every time. Or maybe there's something to be said about the battered wife within me.

Silent Hill

Silent Hill Developer: KCET Publisher: Konami Horror - Playstation Memory Card: Multiple Saves 1 player

Aside from the terrible Resident Evil series, the Japanese really have a knack for horror. Creepy lingering imagery and minimalistic sound are their specialty. Silent Hill is no exception. Sometimes cited as the scariest video game around, I vowed to play through it one day. Does it live up to the hype? Mostly.

The story begins with Harry Mason vacationing in a resort town of Silent Hill with his daughter Cheryl. Right off the bat, creepiness shines through. You start the game following a car accident, stranded and lost. Cheryl is missing, and the town seems deserted, contributing to an unnerving feeling of solitude. If that wasn't bad enough, the heat is really turned up only moments later. Pools of blood and body parts lay strewn throughout the world. I had no idea that Silent Hill would be this gory, but the opening scenes set the stage for the rest of the game. This is unsettling stuff. But Harry's search for his daughter must go on.

The crux of the game involves navigating through this nightmare town for any signs of Cheryl. The town is quite massive, and really gives you a sense of scale about how insignificant your character is. It would be easy to get lost walking around town, except the game keeps the scope relatively simple by blocking off certain pathways. As you traverse different areas, you'll encounter survivors, old newspaper clippings, and other miscellaneous clues to help you figure out your daughter's location and the reason for the town's descent to madness.

Like other games of this genre, you'll be fetch-questing, backtracking, puzzle solving and surviving your way through the game. The survival aspects are somewhat similar to Resident Evil - the limited ammunition, awful un-involving combat and minimal save points are staples here too. But Silent Hill is much more streamlined. For instance, the combat really isn't any fun at all, but I believe the developers realized that, and made it so you can simply run away from most encounters in the game. There isn't much in the way of enemy variety. It's much less of an action game than RE is, and is much better for that. The puzzles, on the other hand, are a mixed bag. The good ones are among the best in this genre, with some clever word puzzles to decipher. But the bad ones can be way too cryptic or have hints that lead you to over-think what the solutions should be. Overall though, the decision to emphasize more puzzle / less "action" is a positive.

The audio and visual direction are to be commended for helping to bring out the horror elements. The game has a generally gritty look to it, especially some of the nightmarish interiors. Grates are broken, glass cabinets are shattered, metal is rusted, and blood is splattered. These are all reminders that something is very wrong. Then there's the music. The soundtrack is very sparse. Sometimes it's an eerie ringing. Other times it's a raging pulsing drum. The music convincingly conveys the mood at every point in the game. It is dreadful. It is ominous. It is terrifying.

But for all Silent Hill's successes at creating and sustaining a mood, its story-telling is its weakest link. Maybe it's because I saw the movie first, and maybe because Silent Hill's story is only subtly hinted at here and expanded upon in other games... but I just felt like the connections were too loose, and the details too fleeting for a lot of the subplots. In the end, it was this aspect that was the least satisfying.

As far as horror games go, Silent Hill does the job adequately. I still have to give the nod to the Fatal Frame series, not only because it's the only series that's actually entertaining to play, but to me, it's scarier too. That's not to say that Silent Hill isn't scary. Silent Hill emphasizes its creepiness primarily through the environments themselves, whereas Fatal Frame has many carefully directed cut scenes. Two different ways of doing things, but both will make you uncomfortable and tense while playing. Silent Hill does come up a bit short in making the narrative fit together with all the eerie imagery. To that end, maybe it's not unlike a typical horror film after all.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2x

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2x Developer: NeverSoft / Treyarch Publisher: Activision Extreme Sports / Platformer - XBox Hard Drive Backup - 3 Saves 1 player

I played the original Tony Hawk's Pro Skater back on Dreamcast way back in the 90s, when it was all the rage. I have to admit. I totally didn't understand it. Controls seemed clumsy, and there seemed to be too many moves with no point. Then the owner of the game showed me how the game was supposed to be played and things were never the same again. Playing this game 10 years later only confirmed my feelings back then: This is the greatest 3D platformer ever.

What most people don't know is that THPS is a 3D platformer disguised as an extreme sports game. It has all the elements of 3D platforming I like, and adds the necessary ingredient missing from most: skill. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2x is an Xbox port of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 and 2, but adds 3 additional stages. Visuals are slightly upgraded for the Xbox, but it more or less looks and plays like the Dreamcast version.

Like other 3d platforming games, the game puts you through different stages where exploration is encouraged. The structure is sort of free-form, but there are 5-8 goals per stage. Complete a set number of goals (not necessarily all of them), and the next stage opens up. Each stage is timed, but as long as you fulfill a goal within the time frame, it's counted toward your total. Goals are generally of the following types:

• Obtain a certain score
  
• Collect / Find Items
  
• Perform a specific trick

The collecting of items is my favorite part of the game. The brilliance of THPS is that often times you'll see the item that you want - maybe in the distance, maybe way up high. But there's no immediate way to get there. Figuring it out requires exploring the stage to the fullest, and experimenting with what you can interact with in order to reach it. Or sometimes you cannot see the item you want at all, which means it's being concealed somewhere. In stage 1 of THPS2, for instance, you have to grind on the helicopter rotor which triggers it to take off and crash through a window, revealing a secret area. In a lot of ways, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater is like a puzzle game. Every stage is a new environment with quirks to discover.

The skill system also keeps things interesting. Being based on extreme sports means that tricks are a major emphasis for scoring. Tricks are pretty easy to initiate, using a direction on the D-pad + one of the face buttons, but executing them requires some delicacy. If you're doing some mid-air trick, you better make sure your skateboard is perpendicular with the ground when you land or else you get docked points for mediocre landings. Even worse, poor landings cause you to fall, making you lose all your points for that trick. Similarly, grinding also requires some precision. If you want to grind, jump and then position yourself in mid-air so that you're aligned with the object you want to grind on. Once you're grinding, you have to maintain your balance, or else you'll fall off. Points are rewarded for pulling off these tricks. The more dangerous the trick, the higher the score. Chain multiple tricks together for multipliers.

Often, performing tricks and exploring a stage go hand-in-hand. There is a secret tape in every stage that is one of the goals. As an example of how to get that secret tape, you may need to perform a couple of tricks to build up speed, launch off a ramp with enough height, land on a set of cables and grind, jump, land on another set of cables and grind until you reach the tape. Doing these kinds of things requires the utmost precision, where a single mistake in a string of maneuvers means failure. That's the sort of thing I love. The game rewards those who master it.

No discussion of THPS is complete without mentioning the gaps. Gaps are optional "discoveries" that are stage-specific. It's hard to explain, but they're basically specific type of tricks such as grinding a particular rail or hopping from one place to another. It's become the series trademark. You'll know when you've triggered a gap, because they're displayed with your tricks and have names like "IT'S COLD OUT HERE" in bold blue font. The game keeps a record of all the gaps you've found for you anal types. They're definitely not required, but they're fun to find, and they contribute to your score multiplier.

If there's any flaw, it's the music. Not that it's bad - most of it rock music, with some hip-hop thrown in. It just plays songs randomly, so you'll be hearing the same stuff in stage 1 as you will at stage 8, so it gets tiresome. They don't even change the music as you play through 2x and 1.

As far as the different games included, THPS2 has larger areas, more goals, and more secrets to discover. It's more challenging too. But the one thing I really like about the original is that there are a few stages that force you in one direction (downhill). That kind of design means that you more or less get one chance to execute what you need to do. I also felt like the overall design (item locations, goals, etc) were better thought out. But 2 definitely offers more of everything, and 1 is so incredibly easy after playing 2. Luckily, with this compilation, you get both, so you don't have to choose. The extra stages are a decent addition, but are quite inferior in quality to the stages in the normal games.

Truly one of the few Western games that I think deserves more recognition than it got. Sure it was popular, but even so, I'm sure it got ignored by a lot of people who couldn't think anything good could come from an extreme sports game. Yet, I can think of no better 3D platformer in existence.

Soul Hackers

Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers Developer: R&D1 Publisher: Atlus RPG - Sega Saturn Hard Drive Backup - 3 Saves 1 player

My first experience with the long-running Shin Megami Tensei RPG series just happens to be a sequel to one of the spinoffs by the name of Devil Summoner. It's been sitting in my collection for over ten years now and this summer, I was determined to give it a fair shake. Being a spinoff, Soul Hackers take some liberties in the game systems compared to entries in the traditional SMT line. Nevertheless, I've been hearing about the latest title, Shin Megami Tensei Strange Journey, and although it sports some additions to the battle system, a lot of the other stuff seems similar to Soul Hackers. So this is a good of a representation as any.

Soul Hackers takes place in a futurustic cyberpunk city, where a mega corporation is piloting its virtual reality world Paradigm-X on the populace. Meanwhile, the main character of the story, and his girl-next-door friend Hitomi are in a hacker group called "Spookies". As they go about their business, a mysterious entity named Redman keeps showing up, and tries to appeal to the main character. Redman seems to know a lot more about the main character than the main character knows about him. Along the way, Redman puts the Main Character in trances and allows him to experience "Vision Quests", the lives of people who have gone before. What do these vision quests have to do with hacking and where does VR fit into all this?

The style of game is similar to what you'd find in other jRPGs. There's a single city, with multiple areas where you can go shopping, talk to people, and enter dungeon-buildings. Consequently, there is also the virtual reality world, Paradigm-X, which is much smaller, and much uglier. The shops in the game will update their inventory as you reach certain story points, so it's rather efficient.

Visually, Soul Hackers is extremely slick. I personally was in love with the entire art direction, visual effects, and atmosphere. One technique that they pulled off really well was transitioning prerendered backgrounds into FMV and back. It's not completely smooth, as the FMV is at a lower resolution, but the overall effect was something that really complemented the unique look of this game. The first person 3D wasn't as nicely looking, I'll have to admit. Still, the look and feel was one of the biggest draws for me.

Soul Hackers retains many of the integral components that make up a Shin Megami Tensei game. The biggest feature that defines SMT is the interaction with demons. Demons are your random encounter opponent in the game, and there are a lot of different types, with their own sets of skills. But they can be convinced to join your party, and fused together to form new and more powerful demons. It's a very interesting concept, and one that has some critical consequences. First off, there's the negotiation. When you encounter a demon in battle, one of your menu options is TALK. A demon will either ask you a question, or will make a comment and ask you your opinion on it. Depending on how you respond and the demon's disposition towards you, the demon will:

• Join your party
  
• Ask you another question
  
• Ask you to give it something
  
• Give you something
  
• Respond to your answer
  
• Leave
  
• Leave with all the enemies
  
• Become angry, and their entire party will get a free attack on you
  

Some of the major influencers of outcome depends not only on your response but whether you have any negotiation booster items equipped, the alignment of your current group (a lawful demon will refuse to join your group if you have a chaotic demon in your active party), the level of your main character, and even the phases of the moon! This adds a unique experience to fighting battles because sometimes you may want to simply recruit a specific monster in order to talk your way out of battles with them in the future. It's a completely valid strategy, and one I've used to get out of some tricky situations.

But it doesn't stop there. Because of the fusion system, recruiting takes on a different meaning than simply adding a body to your lineup. Fusing two demons together generally means that you'll get a superior demon, and often the new demon will take on some special skills from the demons you used to fuse. So that means that even if you could recruit the demon later, the fused version could potentially have more abilities. Unfortunately, it isn't as easy as simply selecting the abilities you want to pass down, so if you want a specific ability on your new demon, you have to attempt to fuse to get the preview demon, and check to see if it's in its list of abilities. That guessing and checking isn't a huge burden, but the interface could have been better improved. I have to admit that I'm not really a fan of fusion in general. It's like the tedious version of the alternative, which is simply to get the end result in the first place. A lot of games are worse because of it, but I suppose that due to the skill inheritence, it has some value in Soul Hackers.

One of the liberties that the Devil Summoner series took is by giving each demon a loyalty rating. In Soul Hackers, each demon has a personality. If you command the demon in battle according to its personality (ie ATTACK with an Violent Type), you build their loyalty. But if you command them to do other things, they might just lose loyalty. You can also give a demon gifts outside of battle to raise loyalty. Once they are maxed out, though, you can command them to do anything and they won't lose loyalty. Whether this is a good or bad subsystem is open to debate, but I'm told it's implemented much much better in Soul Hackers versus the original Devil Summoner. Of course, one of the perks of this loyalty system is that when maxed out, enemies will get some bonuses. The Violent demon will hit harder at max loyalty. Friendly demons will take a hit for you when they're maxed out. For some reason the Crafty demon can be transformed into useful and not-so-useful items at maximum loyalty.

What I find most pleasing about the game isn't this demon stuff, but its core combat. It is similar to the basic setup of Dragon Quest where your actions really do matter. Step into a new area with unfamiliar demons and you could see Game Over easily. Even facing off against previously encountered demons could result in the same fate, if you're not paying attention. Buffs and debuffs matter. Elemental affinities matter. Weapon types matter. As I played more of Soul Hackers, I realized that what I enjoyed about having to exploit weaknesses in FFX was done in SMT first. Perhaps the main difference is that in FFX, you yourself did not really have weaknesses, but here in SMT, your demons most certainly do. Just as you can dominate the enemies you face with the right mix of party members and actions, you can most certainly -be- dominated with the wrong mix of members, or wrong decisions. It's a tough lesson to learn in this game, and one I've had to learn many many times.

Another unique aspect in Soul Hackers that wasn't in pre-Strange Journey SMT titles, is the ability to customize your computer. Here, you can load it up with applications that allow you better negotiating skills with demons, to present a full time minimap on the main screen, to help assist with fusions on-the-go, the ability to save anywhere, stuff like that. There are only six slots, and some of the applications cost more than one slot. There's usually only one or two locations within dungeons, where you can switch out these applications, so you have to choose wisely.

I have to cite some faults though. Being a SMT newbie, I felt as if Soul Hackers was really overwhelming in a lot of ways. When you attempt to fuse demons, you are shown a preview of the new demon and their skills. But all you have is the name of their skill, with no description as to what they do. I'm told that this is because most SMT players are familiar with the abilities, but I don't think it could have hurt Atlus to include descriptions. I had to pretty much fuse, rotate the new demon in my party, and then use the ability in battle in order to see what it actually did. Coincidentally, it is also the only time the game gives you any kind of description at all: when you're about to use it. What's also overwhelming is how many ways you can use demons. You can use demons to fuse up to new demons. You can use demons to upgrade the special demon you're given in early game. You can use Crafty-type demons to transform into items once it hits max loyalty. And mid-game, you can transform demons into weapons as well. I imagine if you are a SMT veteran, you know which demons are good to keep, and which ones would be good as one of these other things. But it's a bit much for a first-timer. I suppose that's my fault for starting with Soul Hackers.

Another thing that's really bad is the battle speed. I played almost the entire game with animation turned off, because battles would take forever. But even with animation off, it's still very sluggish. In addition, it seems odd to complain about this because I otherwise love the battle system, but sometimes I find deaths to be really cheap. You enter a new area and this one enemy casts an insta-kill spell or a stone spell on your main character. Game Over. I'm open to challenges but I question some of these situations. Make no mistake, I died, and I died a lot in this game. Most of the time, it was fair - I made poor decisions. Other times, the game was just plain evil. And what's up with those ridiculous 8 hour long end game dungeons?

But I genuinely do love the artistic direction that Soul Hackers employs. The story and atmosphere was so different from anything I'd played in the past, that I was completely captivated through and through. This is also the first and only RPG I can think of where random encounters actually make sense. And the one feature I love from the battles, aside from its awesome weakness exploitation, is the fact that the game remembers which commands you previously inputted. When you start your turn, your cursor is already on the previous command you did for each character. Not only that, but there's an Auto-Battle feature where "REPEAT" is an option. This is genuinely one of the most user-friendly things I wish would be on every turn based RPG.

Solid and intriguing. I'd love to see how newer versions of Shin Megami Tensei turns things up a notch.

Culdcept DS

Culdcept DS Developer: Omiya Soft Publisher: SEGA CCG/Board Game - Nintendo DS Battery Backup - 1 Save 1 player / 2-4p Nintendo WiFi

Although Culdcept isn't a familiar title to most gamers, it has been growing a faithful fanbase since its original release on the Sega Saturn, and subsequent Playstation port. I was first exposed to the series through the Dreamcast sequel and was completely smitten by its brilliance. A small print run of the PS2 port (of Culdcept II) was the first time that English speakers got the chance to play it. More recently, Culdcept Saga became one of the earlier releases for the XBOX360. Where does that bring us? Back to the beginning.

Culdcept can be best described as Monopoly meets Magic the Gathering. You take turns rolling dice and moving your piece around a board. If you find a vacant space, you can occupy it by summoning a creature. If an enemy lands on it, they pay you a toll. Upgrade your property, and the toll goes up. So the overall structure is very similar to Monopoly. What's unlike Monopoly is that games don't take 12 hours to finish. Although you could win by bankrupting other players, the main objective of each board is reaching a certain mana amount and then "pass Go" to end the game.

The Magic the Gathering part comes in the details. There's deck construction, creature summoning, "sorceries", "instants/interrupts", and even a system comparable to obtaining card packs. You begin the game with a starter pack of 50 cards. But you can gain additional cards just by playing. Regardless of whether you win or lose a match, you will gain new cards. This ensures that even when you've spent an hour on a map, but end up in last place, you wouldn't have wasted your time, because you benefit just from playing the game. I believe you do get more / rarer cards when you win though. All in all, there's over 370 cards contained within. It's important to read and understand all the cards you have and see if there are any card combinations that could maximize to your advantage. The enjoyment comes from creating a workable strategy with the cards you have. It has all the elements of any good Collectable Card Game and that's why I love it so.

What makes the game interesting is the back-and-forth transferring of land. Whereas in Monopoly, you own property until you sell it, here you only own a square on the board if one of your summoned creatures is placed there. Summoning costs gold, and may require other conditions as well. If an opponent lands on your square, they don't immediately pay you the value of the square. They can instead choose to fight your creature by summoning their own creature. That brings up the battle phase where you and your opponent can each play up to 1 skill card from your hand to influence the outcome. Each creature has its own Strength/Hit Point rating, special abilities and casting cost. Skill cards can add bonuses to those stats, or provide additional effects, such as giving attack priority to the defender instead of the attacker. If the attacking player wins the battle, they now become the owner of the square. If the attacking player loses, they pay the toll. So there's an added intensity because the fights make the game much more dynamic.

There's a lot of other components to the game in addition to the basics. For instance, both creatures and land can be neutral or have an element. A water creature on water will gain defensive bonuses. These defensive bonuses will grow when you upgrade the land. Upgrades can be costly, but they're necessary to help you keep possession of your land through the defense bonuses and will drive up the cost of the toll, putting you closer to winning the match. A mismatch of creature element and land element will forfeit all the defense bonuses. So another option is the ability to swap out an existing creature of yours on the board with one from your hand, but it requires some conditions, costs additional gold for summoning the new creature and takes up a turn, which may or may not pay off. That's just scratching the surface of some of the strategic depth in the game.

Since this is the ten year anniversary, Omiya Soft went back to basics for the celebration. Culdcept DS is an enhanced port of the original Saturn game, but with rules from the later games, some new cards, and a rebalancing of the old cards. The developers added in a few extras too, such as art galleries and medals that you get when you achieve certain goals. It pretty much plays exactly like the Culdcept II I have for Dreamcast, but that's a good thing. The DS format is better for this type of game though, because the presentation is simple, the online component costs nothing, and you can play it anywhere. There's a story mode where you face off against 2-3 computer opponents. Of course any story for a board game is pretty silly, and this is no different. But it does give a progressive set of challenges. There's also a versus mode, where you can play against computer or against friends in the area or against random people through Nintendo WiFi. Culdcept is a completely satisfying mesh of board game and CCG that somehow just works.

Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride

Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride
RPG - Nintendo DS
Battery Backup - 3 Saves
1 player / WLAN Knick-Knack Exchange

Dragon Quest IV-VI make up a trilogy, but the starting point of V occurs a bit in the future compared to the events of IV. The games are tied by having the same worldview and history, rather than an immediate continuity. As the first DQ I've played since the first NES game, Chapters of the Chosen was a pleasant surprise. The actual game was solid, with meaningful battle choices, a healthy dose of exploration, a pleasant story, and charming interactions with townsfolk. I was worried that Hand of the Heavenly Bride would be too similar to enjoy, but were my suspicions unfounded?

As expected, when I first started playing DQV, it was a bit disappointing. It's not that the game was bad, but since DQIV did such a good job of everything already, V seemed completely unnecessary. The story is a bit different, focusing on the adventures of one particular person rather than a variety of heroes. This is handled in a different way than most RPGs, because the main hero is completely central, and will diverge paths from other characters he partners with. So the premise is fresh, and is entertaining in its own right. Other than that though, the games are remarkably similar. The only gameplay difference from DQIV -> V is the addition of the ability to recruit monsters and have them as party members. The spells you can choose and even most of the equipment is carry-over, so I was completely convinced that V was the same as IV.

As I played on, it finally hit me. V isn't the same as IV at all. In fact, there are a few areas where V is clearly -worse- than IV.

Most people seem to notice instantly that the musical composition isn't as good as its predecessor. The tunes are less memorable and aren't interesting enough to listen to apart from the game.

Worse than that is that poor continuity in the story. One of the major things in the game is that you have a choice of a marriage partner. Depending on who you marry, I presume people will talk to you differently and events will play out according to your choice, which is quite nifty and helps you feel like you're a part of the game world. What isn't as cool are the huge gaps in dialog-logic, like when my wife goes missing for years on end, and her family never even talks to me about that? It's those gaps that really ruin the otherwise convincing situations these characters are in.

Worser still are the design decisions that handicap the gameplay. One thing that I loved about DQIV DS, and Grandia for that matter, is that you're able to rotate the camera and designers will hide things so that they're only visible from certain angles. In DQIV, some of the mini-medals and other objects were obscured in the default view, but rotating the camera can reveal their presence. The rotating camera felt integrated into the game. Not so with DQV. You can rotate, but there's no point to it all. To be fair, there are some doors and ladders that can only be seen if you rotate the camera, but other than the 2-3x in the game where that occurs, the rotation feature is simply tacked-on. Because of that, I felt as if the exploration of dungeons and towns was far less interesting.

Also the ability to recruit monsters is completely mangled by its sloppy execution. First of all, it has the same problem as other monster-recruiting RPGs. You get a monster, and you have no idea if that monster is actually any good. Just like regular characters, they will gain spells and skills at certain levels. So maybe a monster sucks at low level, but at a certain point, they acquire this one awesome spell. But how do you know? You don't. So you end up grinding that monster and possibly maxing them out to see just how useful/useless they really are. You might level a char up to 30 and find out you've wasted all your time, since their final stats are weak and they lack good abilities. I fail to see how this adds any enjoyment.

Second, the interface to manage your party is clunky. You can only carry 8 characters with you (and use 4 in battle). So you can have your main hero, and 7 monsters if you'd like. Or 5 characters and 3 monsters. Or whatever combination of people/monsters you want. Only problem is... you can only change people in one town in the game. Monsters are similar, although there are about 3 locations in the game where you can swap them in and out. Unless you go to these specific locations, you are stuck with your current cast, and the other characters left behind will not gain any experience.

Finally, the funniest part of all is how you recruit monsters in the first place. It's essentially random! Whereas in SMT games an enemy might talk with you and your response might convince them to join you or in Pokemon, you beat down on an enemy and then toss a pokeball to capture them, here in DQV, you don't do anything. You simply kill enemies and maybe 1 out of 200 enemies you kill might randomly join your party. I've never seen anything so stupid.

Dragon Quest V confirmed my doubts about the series being able to sustain my interest. While I do respect the balanced core gameplay and the lively towns, DQV does nothing to improve on what DQIV already did. In some cases, the design decisions make it a bit worse. I will likely pick up VI just to finish off the trilogy, but I am absolutely convinced that if I never play another DQ ever again, I wouldn't be missing out.

Etrian Odyssey II: Heroes of Lagaard

Etrian Odyssey II: Heroes of Lagaard
RPG - Nintendo DS
Battery Backup - 3 Saves
1 player

I did not want to try this game. I knew that most of my peers were loving the series, but I have never liked 1st person perspective in RPGs, and do not particularly care for the dungeon crawler / survival RPG genre. And when asking someone whether the only thing cool about the game was that you had to draw your own map, the response was: "Yeah!" I thought that was the dumbest thing ever. Little did I know that it, along with the rest of the game, would be strangely compelling.

The structure of the game is similar to most dungeon crawlers. You have but one town and one multi-tiered "dungeon". The dungeon in question is really a labyrinth within a tree, so instead of drab and worn walls, you encounter lush green forests, autumn leaves, cherry blossoms, and other natural scenery. It's in first person, but there's a really nice level of detail to the environments and their vibrant color schemes. Unlike some other dungeon crawlers, the stages here are not randomly generated. The scenarios are specifically designed, which is a huge plus for me. The game is divided into blocks of 5 floors called strata. Each stratum has its own theme, just like you'd expect from a jRPG. For instance, the ice stages have these frozen tiles where if you walk on them, you slide and are forced along the frozen path until you reach normal ground again. It was the first time I experienced something like that in 1st person.

It's hard to keep focused on your surroundings, though, when there are plenty of hostile beings out there. Most of the enemy encounters occur randomly, but an indicator glows red when one is nearby. There are also visible encounters on every floor with boss/mini-boss type enemies called FOEs. FOE battles are generally extremely tough, to the point where you will want to avoid them at all possible costs. When exploring a floor for the first time, the FOEs can often take you out in a single turn. They can be overcome, as you become more powerful later and revisit, but the first time you see them is typically a death sentence. The majority of the FOEs do not even offer any experience when defeated. The only exception are the bosses in each stratum, who are part of the story. For the non-boss FOEs, the overpowering difficulty and lack of experience points (at least in EO2) means that you'll be intentionally planning your routes so as to avoid them. This is actually an interesting approach because it forces you to watch and monitor FOE movements. Depending on the FOE, they do a lot of different things. Some move in a rote pattern. Others will notice your presence and start following you. Some can move through walls. And others are invisible to your map. Their movements are so varied that even walking around is part of EO2's gameplay.

That's not to say the regular random encounters are a cinch. EO2 proves a challenge from the moment you step into the labyrinth. The enemies do more damage than your typical jRPG. The key to it all is how you configure your party. EO2 gives you a lot of choices. You can create your own roster of characters in one of 12 classes. You can arrange your party to include any five of the characters you create. And then when you level up, you get to choose what skills and/or stat bonuses to level up. You only earn one skill point per level. So if you're investing ten of your skill points in a single skill, that means you.re not investing those ten points in other skills. There is a system of constraints at work. That is both a blessing and a curse. While all the skills are useful in some situations, many are not useful in all situations. So the game could make it very playable or very hard for you depending on what you put your skill points in. The game offers a couple of different ways to alleviate this burden. There is the ability to "Rest" your character, which allows you to redistribute all your skill points. It costs 5 levels, but mid-game, 5 levels is a small price to pay to be able to totally redo your character build. The other option is "Retire", in which you trade in your character for a new character at half your current level. The advantage of retiring is that you will receive both stat and skill point bonuses to your new character, which could make up for essentially losing half your levels. These bonuses depend on how high of a level you were when you retired. A level 99 character receives much nicer bonuses than a character retiring at level 30.

The cool thing about the combat is that because of the skill system and your choice of party members, your actions matter a whole lot. You absolutely cannot mow through the game by simplying selecting FIGHT each round. There is a time for that, and EO2 has an auto-fight command for those easier battles. But a lot of the times, you will be up against enemies that want to slaughter you. So using party buffs, enemy debuffs, elemental weaknesses, binding - anything that will give you an advantage, will be an integral part of winning fights. I find it comparable to Dragon Quest, where your options are simple, but they heavily influence outcomes. The other thing that's nice about the battles are the drops. This being a dungeon crawler, the enemy drops are a key element to the game. When defeated, the enemies will randomly/not-so-randomly drop items depending on how you defeat them. For example, defeating an enemy in the first turn may net you a different type of item than if you defeated them in 5 rounds. Or an enemy may only drop an item if you kill them while they're poisoned. Different situations will net different things. It's not the drops themselves that are noteworthy, but how the game builds its structure around them. You will sell the items you get from defeating enemies to the town store, in exchange for money. Then because the shop now has these new materials, new weapons and armor will be available for purchase. It's a really simple and logical system. So it's always a treat to encounter a new type of enemy, because it means a new kind of item, which'll eventually lead to new types of equipment.

What ties all of the dungeon crawling together is a barebones story about a bunch of guilds attempting to reach this shrine in the sky. So you'll get specific missions sanctioned by the city Duke, all with their own monetary rewards. On the side, you'll get optional quests from the city bar, that'll net you rewards as well. Both the missions and quests have you doing a variety of tasks, such as defeating a certain FOE, investigating a subplot, collecting certain items, or further exploration of the floors. I like that there's a linear structure to it all, and that the quests are based on how far in the dungeon you've gotten.

Then we have the mapping. It sounds odd, but being able to draw your own maps on the touchscreen is quite satisfying. In terms of functionality, having an automap feature would be more efficient. But since EO forces you to draw your own maps, this method is far more interactive. The manual method also has some perks to it, by giving you a variety of icons to utilize, different floor tile colors to use as you wish, and notes you can insert into the map for reference. So while it takes a little more work to set up your map, it pays off because it can contain far more information than an automap could ever produce.

I've come to really appreciate Etrian Odyssey in the way it encourages exploration. The mapping feature is great, but it's only part of the story. Enemies, including FOEs, will drop items, leading to extra money and new equipment. You'll want to explore further just so you can experience the new item drops. Quests will have you looking for a special item, so even though you may have mapped out an entire floor, you'll be exploring the floor again to find the quest item. There will be passageways that are accessible only by certain classes, so if they're not in your party, you will have to revisit. There are special character abilities called Force that builds up like a super meter in fighting games. These abilities are extremely powerful when unleashed, but because they build up slowly, will have you staying in the dungeons longer to build them up. There are things here and there that all push you to hold out a little bit longer, go a little bit further, exactly what a survival RPG should do. Etrian Odyssey excels at luring you into a den of wolves with the promise of cotton candy. While the encounters are difficult, all is not lost if your party does end up getting wiped out. One cool trick is that you're able to save your map progress if you die, so it gives you even more incentive for exploring further and further.

But on the flip side, I'm not as fond of the entire skill system, where your choices determine your fate. With only one additional skill point earned per character level, the way you distribute them among all your skills is of utmost importance. You can't simply throw a point into every available skill, because many skills will not even land until you've maxed them out. For example, if your Poison skill is below level 8, you have like < 50% accuracy. That means you don't really know how good or bad a skill is until you've invested 10 levels into it. You don't build levels quickly in the game, so it's a huge investment. Sure the game offers remedies in the form of Rest and Retire, but it reveals that the skill tree is really unbalanced. I also question some of their character balancing decisions. I haven't found a whole lot of use for the Troubadour class, for instance. Atlus apparently removed the two best abilities from this class from the first EO, and as a result, completely crippled it. You also cannot get around the fact that this game is grindy. Because of your limited choices, you can expand your possibilities by making duplicate versions of the same class to diversify your skills. And you can make characters of different classes as well. But unless you rotate your characters into your main party, they will not gain exp. So the only way to maintain level balance is by constantly switching your characters in and out, and grinding until they're at the appropriate level. I much prefer games where exp is distributed to the entire pool of characters. By making you rotate members, it doesn't make the game any more fun. Just more tedious.

Flaws in the skill system aside, what EO does well, it does better than any other game I've played. Every little aspect encourages you to move forward. Even though difficult enemies threaten every step, traps are scattered throughout the floors and the environments are unknown, you will want to progress. The risk vs. reward is exhilarating. For that reason alone, EO2 is the best example of dungeon crawler I've played to date.