276
Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 582: A Disgusting Hello Kitty Relationship
« on: August 02, 2018, 08:34:50 AM »
Everything was said with love.
Except Jon. Jon's a prick.
Except Jon. Jon's a prick.
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277
Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 582: A Disgusting Hello Kitty Relationship
« on: July 31, 2018, 12:55:50 PM »
He would be required to have a coherent position for it to be impacted.
278
Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 580: The Best Wrecks of Dr. Stewart's Dream Course Vol. 1
« on: July 17, 2018, 10:38:51 PM »
He has tubes directly attached to his nipples...
279
Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 579: Immortality Means Never Having to Pay for Fortnite Levels
« on: July 11, 2018, 11:40:56 AM »
I'm a lightweight.
280
TalkBack / MUSYNX (Switch) Review
« on: July 05, 2018, 09:35:33 AM »Fall into the music, earn the EX Rank, become “King of Anime Lunchroom.”
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/47684/musynx-switch-review
MUSYNX is pretty easy to dismiss out of hand. A Chinese-language rhythm game, that is also a mobile port, heavily leveraging still images of anime girls and Chinese-language Vocaloid-style music. It’s the kind of game that would turn-off most people. I can’t claim to be any more accepting. After originally signing up to review it on a whim, I planned to backout of the obligation following a demo session at E3. I was so bad during the demo the PR rep was visibly embarrassed for me, and I felt as if the game had “melted my brain.” I’m glad I didn’t, MUSYNX has made me a big fan of a game in a style I usually don't enjoy.
If you’ve never seen a “note highway” game before, the basic gameplay is a bit like reading sheet music. Indicators for what notes to hit come from the back of the screen, towards the front, and the player needs to “play” the note once it reaches the very front of the screen. Different tones each have their own “lane,” hence “highway,” and the note’s duration is represented by the length of the indicator. In good games, the indicators on the highway really mesh with not just the beats of the music, but also it’s notation.
MUSYNX excels at how it represents its music. It offers a number of options to fine-tune the difficulty: four keys vs. six keys (which it confusingly calls 4k and 6k mode), customizable speed at which the notes move (allowing either more time to see notes coming or faster moving notes so there are less on screen - the music’s actual speed is not impacted), and even an Easy and Hard mode for both 4k and 6k. This means each of the game’s 50+ songs have four distinct note patterns - and all of them feel like they are clearly related to the music.
Despite melting my brain, I was able to adjust the difficulty settings to a point that even I could get into the groove. Since then I’ve slowly sped up the notes, and continued to see improvement. I’ve dipped my toe in both the hard mode and the 6k mode, but it’s pretty clear I’m not ready for that just yet. The game is also fairly forgiving on timing, which can even be adjusted to account for lag. In a way, this is the most welcoming game of this style I’ve ever played, but the difficulty can still be turned up so only robots could ever hope to succeed.
As a mobile port, the original version of MUSYNX had the player tap each lane in sync with the notes. This interface persists on Switch, when used undocked, but the move to consoles also adds controller support, mapping a lane to each of the top 3 buttons on the D-Pad and face buttons. After a little practice it feels automatic, but once I got comfortable with the controller I found it impossible to move back to touch. Both control schemes work, but it’s probably better to pick one and stick with it.
The musical selection is key to this genre, and in the case of MUSYNX it’s going to be the biggest factor in determining if this game is for you. Despite the game’s appearance, it isn’t just a collection of Vocaloid electronica and saccharin-sweet music disconcertingly sung by robots, although there is no shortage of either. Instead, the game buckets its tracks into a handful of loosely-defined genres ranging from rock music infused with Chinese-traditional instrumentation, to piano music, to the aforementioned sweet robotic pop. The songs, sourced from a number of online composers, are diverse enough that there should be some that appeal to you, or at the very least surprise. There’s nothing more delightfully surprising than a Vocaloid shifting from normal singing to Chinese “Screamo.” Some tracks even have human singers, although they are the exception. Each genre gets its own skin for the note highway, from a calligraphy-inspired look for the Chinese-traditional themes to a roll of toilet paper with crude crayon drawings for the “joke” songs.
There are moments where the game becomes a trance-like experience. Determining what button to press is sublimated to subconscious thought. Eyes, ears, and fingers work in tandem to the point it isn’t clear what information is being used to hit the right notes, and yet the score keeps going higher. At the height of this focus it can seem as if closing your eyes wouldn’t impact performance in the slightest, eyes can defocus, and there is a feeling of the entire process becoming automatic. In spite of how unappealing that might sound, this is all that could be asked of this type of rhythm game. Achieving this kind of locked-in state is the best way to earn the game’s highest ranking: EX, and the pursuit of EX rankings can become its own addicting experience.
I have very few complaints with MUSYNX. There is some imbalance in the number of songs included in each genre, and many of the huge number of the electronic/dubstep-style songs sound very similar. Some of the menu prompts, such as the 4k/6k being a reference to the number of note lanes, are not clear. The art associated with each song often seems like either a random anime drawing or the output of generic sci-fi 3D renders. Some of the note highway skins aren’t as easy to read as others: especially the 8-bit anime cafeteria that is used for the chiptune-inspired tracks.
With all that said, there isn’t much to negatively impact my enjoyment of MUSYNX. The rough edges stand out mostly because the game can otherwise become an engrossing way to evaporate free time. Mileage may vary based on your ability to enjoy the game’s music, but with its highly customizable difficulty and excellent representation of the tracks as note patterns, this game will welcome in anyone who can find themselves lost in the music.
281
TalkBack / Dragon Ball FighterZ (Switch) Is a Final Flash to the Face
« on: June 20, 2018, 01:19:29 AM »It looks like we're heading to a future where you can dunk Gokus wherever you want.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/hands-on-preview/47594/dragon-ball-fighterz-switch-is-a-final-flash-to-the-face
At last week's E3, Bandai Namco was demonstrating their upcoming port of Dragon Ball FighterZ for Switch. The game was announced for Switch during the E3 Nintendo Direct. FigtherZ took the world by storm when it came out on PC, Xbox One, and PS4 earlier this year, and it looks like those who opted to wait for a Switch version will be rewarded with a very solid port.
I'm not going to break down the game's systems, as this is a port of an already well-documented title and I'm hardly qualified to do it anyway. What I will say is the game felt fast, fun, and looked great in motion. Of all the games at E3, it was one of the few I kept finding myself returning to for another round. Fans of the Dragon Ball universe are sure to find this game a treat, but the speed and responsiveness of the game should appeal to non-fans as well.
We were able to capture some direct feed of my terrible play, and have created a comparison video between it and the PS4. Besides some obvious visual differences, it seems like Bandai Namco's promise that the Switch version would be comparable will be fully realized.
Dragon Ball FighterZ for Switch is coming out later this summer.
You an see more of our direct feed footage below.
282
TalkBack / Wolfenstein II Takes Nazi Hunting on the Go
« on: June 19, 2018, 04:29:00 PM »We went hands-on with Panic Button's latest Switch port.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/hands-on-preview/47576/wolfenstein-ii-takes-nazi-hunting-on-the-go
Panic Button is at it again; the team that ported Doom to Switch was showing off another Bethesda shooter that they've brought to Switch - Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus. It's shaping up to be another good port.
A couple notes: I've not played Wolfenstein II on another platform, and the demo was running on a Switch in portable mode.
I played an unguided demo, that I started part-way into a level. The mission was to escape a facility on-board a rocket-powered train. Right away, the game feels quick. B.J. Blazkowicz, the series infamous Nazi-slaying hero, moved smooth and inputs felt really tight. Even as enemies on screen piled up, the game didn't seem to perceptibly slowdown or become less responsive.
Of course, as Adam Creighton of Panic Button Games noted in our interview, Wolfenstein isn't Doom. It's not meant to be a run-and-gun shooter. B.J. isn't able to just run head-long into fire and shoot everything. The game demands some degree of stealth and tactics. Unfortunately for me, I had no experience with the series, he demo started in-game, and I hadn't had my interview yet. So, I tried to run-and-gun, and the game told me resoundingly that this was not the way. A few deaths later, I was able to execute a more tactical approach to navigating the stage and eliminating enemies.
It's still tempting to go all-out; it just feels good to shoot, and B.J.'s close-up hatchet attack is especially satisfying. So, I still probably played a little recklessly, but if you can't be reckless against a Nazi cybernetic doberman, than when can you be? It took me a while to get a handle on the game's cover mechanics, but that's likely because I missed the tutorial for it. Once I had a handle on finding cover and leaning out to fire, I found my groove.
When Wolfenstein II was released on other platforms last year, it was an impressive looking title. Moving it to the Switch, especially in portable mode, poses obvious challenges. Panic Button seems to have lived up to it. Obviously, it doesn't look as good as it would on an Xbox One, let-alone a high-end PC, but it still looks really impressive on Switch. The stage in the demo is fairly dark, so it isn't the best judge, but it still stood out in the many games I saw this week.
The demo did have some oddly-long loading times, however this is an E3 demo and that might improve by the time the game releases.
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus looks like it's move to Switch is going to be smooth. Panic Button seems like they're going to add one more success to their resume when it releases June 29.
283
NWR Forums Discord / Re: NAME THE FUNHOUSE
« on: June 17, 2018, 11:23:00 PM »
It's been almost a week, what's next?
284
TalkBack / Killer Queen Black (Switch) Hands-On
« on: June 15, 2018, 08:20:00 AM »The arcade legend strategy, resource management, snail riding title is a chaotic blast on Switch.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/hands-on-preview/47532/killer-queen-black-switch-hands-on
Killer Queen is an multiplayer arcade game that looks a little like Joust, but actually contains a lot of unique ideas. It's been rebuilt for the ground up, and Liquid Bit, LLC has it for show this week at E3.
Killer Queen Black is an eight player, 4v4, best of 5, team action game. It's also about bees: one player is the queen, who can fly about the stage gracefully and is equipped with a sword and a lethal dive attack and the rest are worker bees, who possess the ability to evolve into weapon-wielding warrior bees.
It's kind of hard to explain, but basically each round is settled when a team achieves one of the three victory conditions: collecting berries, killing the enemy queen three times, or riding a very slow snail across the screen in a sort of push-pull between the teams. There's a lot of craziness to the game's proceedings, as some players might try to take on a combat role to deny the enemy berries or to hunt down there queen, while others might try to specialize in collecting the berries (the so-called "economic victory"). With each team having three ways to win, it can be tough to track what's the surest path to victory - and what situations demand immediate attention in order to forestall defeat.
You can take a look at the NWR team playing in the below video.
It looks chaotic, and in many ways it can be. However, that's part of the charm. It took a round to get a feel for how to change classes into warriors, how to fly, and all the ways you can win or lose the match. While I won't say Team NWR were world-beaters in our second round, we clearly had started to understand the game better. While we don't have audio of our conversations, everyone was engaged and chirping out strategy and coordination. With a full group of friends, this game is a joy.
You should really check out the video above to see why this game turned heads when it was first announced for Switch, because it sure turned ours this week at E3.
Killer Queen Black will be available late this year or early next.
285
TalkBack / Bad North (Switch) Hands-On
« on: June 13, 2018, 10:10:00 PM »The war against the viking hoard has never been so adorable.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/hands-on-preview/47533/bad-north-switch-hands-on
NOTE: Bad North is coming to Switch, however it was being demoed on PC hardware.
Plausible Concept was showing off their upcoming strategy game, Bad North, at The MIX LA 2018 alongside this week's E3 events. The game asks the player to command small squads of soldiers to protect an island from viking invaders.
The fight to defend an island's villages works somewhat like the phases of a tower defense game. Periodically, viking longboats will approach the island, often from different direction. The optimal outcome is to move a squad or two to meet the enemy at the beach, as an unimpeded landing will result in the raiders making a bee line for the nearest village, and burning it to the ground.
Protecting towns are important, because each town contributes money at the conclusion of a battle. These coins can be traded to upgrade squads or to change their classes. The demo had the base soldiers, archers, spear men, and swordsmen. It wasn't clear during the demo how each class impacted how best to use them. Obviously, archers gained range and the ability to attack safely from the top of cliffs. Swordsmen seemed particularly effective at taking out enemy groups, but there is likely some nuance that I wasn't getting from the demo session.
It was also important to protect your forces; losing a squad's commander wiped them out. As long as a commander lived, he could recruit new solders from the villages. Once he was gone all the money spent upgrading them is lost. Because this is a war being fought over a series of islands, and not just a single home island, the game even presents the opportunity to beat a hasty retreat to a previous island.
It took me a few failures to figure out how the game plays. Your forces move across a grid, that's cast over the island. Geographic barriers, like cliffs, will deny free movement and create barriers to stop enemies. Shoulder buttons select a unit, and from there you can order them to move to a spot on the grid or or use a skill. On encountering the enemy, they'll fight until one side is either eliminated or flees. I wish my forces were a little more active in pursuing enemies; often they would let a viking raider or two slip by, despite having the upper hand.
Bad North has a minimalist but evocative style. Seeing longboats break the fog around an island is a great, and sometimes scary, image. The need to reorient forces to meet the impending invasions gains an extra tension due to the sudden emergence of enemies. The character designs and world look more than a bit like a cartoonist's take on Medieval art, like an animated modern Bayeux Tapestry. A great choice for a game about repelling the viking invasions.
The camera control could stand to be a bit better. The camera is looking down over the island, isometrically. Triggers allow zooming in and out, and the right stick allows panning around. Sometimes it's just hard to see everything at once. Things are occasionally out of view, and finding a comfortable viewing angle a challenge. Having camera controls that are easy to use is important, since moving the camera to watch for incoming ships is a constant.
There's an interesting depth in spite of Bad North's overall simplification of the strategy genre. The character progression and perma-death of units add an extra layer to the game that makes losing the battle not the worst outcome - a rarity in the strategy field. Bad North is a game worth keeping an eye on, when it comes to Switch this summer.
286
TalkBack / Valkyria Chronicles 4 (Switch) Hands-On
« on: June 13, 2018, 03:04:14 PM »We return to the battlefields of not-Europe at E3.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/hands-on-preview/47525/valkyria-chronicles-4-switch-hands-on
Sega is showing the upcoming Valkyria Chronicles 4 at E3 this week, both on PS4 and Switch. We played the game undocked on Switch and on PS4. For the purpose of the impressions I'll be focused on my experiences with the handheld Switch version of the game.
The Valkyria Chronicles series tasks the player with commanding a rag-tag unit of soldiers in a World War II-inspired existential fight against an evil Empire. The game styles itself as a turn-based strategy game, not dissimilar from games like the 2013 XCOM reboot and Code Name: S.T.E.A.M.. The player moves characters around a 3D battlefield, using cover and terrain to their advantage, in order to attack their enemies. Like those games, Valkyria Chronicles features a number of character classes, each with different ranges an skills. Unlike XCOM (and similar to S.T.E.A.M.), Valkyria Chronicles controls more closely to a third-person shooter, including tasking the player with lining up the shot - although stats will impact the accuracy.
The demo was of the tutorial stage, so a limited number of classes were at my disposal: scout (a fast soldier with a medium-range rifle), trooper (a short-ranged, slower infantry solder with a machine gun), sniper, and a tank. The demo mostly focused on how to move those forces across the battlefield, and utilize their skills while maintaining cover and setting up your forces to intercept the enemy with they move on their turn.
As a veteran of Valkyria Chronicles, I didn't need the tutorial, so the pace felt pretty slow. However, there is a demo on the show floor of later stages, and that seems to better reflect the Valkyria Chronicles gameplay that I loved. Utilizing the specific maneuverability and weapons of each class to effectively advance on the objective, while remaining safe, is still core to this game. Late in the demo, the tutorial gives the player a tank, which can be used to destroy the low walls the enemy can use as cover. It can also move much further per turn, and with it's powerful canon can deal massive damage to enemy armor.
Vakyria Chronicles 4 is a return to consoles for the series, after spending the previous two iterations stranded on the PSP. Even undocked on Switch, it shows why this is an exciting development. The game is pretty, using an art style designed to evoke hand-drawn sketches. Member's of the game's localization team promised that the experience on Switch is comparable to its PS4 counterpart. Obviously, there are some resolution and framerate differences - and that is noticeable on the show floor - but at no point did I feel that playing Valkyria Chronicles 4 on the Switch in handheld mode was a compromised experience.
Valkyria Chronicles 4 looks like a return to form for the series, and the Switch version looks like it's shaping up to be a great way to play it on the go. I'm looking forward to playing it when it comes out this Fall.
287
TalkBack / SNK 40th Anniversary Collection (Switch) Hands-On Impressions
« on: June 13, 2018, 09:27:00 AM »SNK had a life before the Neo Geo, and this collection seeks to bring light to it.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/hands-on-preview/47523/snk-40th-anniversary-collection-switch-hands-on-impressions
NIS America is demoing SNK 40th Anniversary Collection this week at E3 2018. The collection contains a selection "over a dozen" of SNK's pre-Neo Geo titles, both from the NES as well as arcades. There's no Metal Slug or Fatal Fury in this collection. Instead classics like Ikari Warriors and Guerrilla War fill out the line-up.
It was assembled by the team at Digital Eclipse, who brought us both the Disney Afternoon Collection and Mega Man Legacy Collection vol 1, and that lineage is immediately noticeable. If you've played either of their previous collections you'll see their clean menus for selecting games and options are intact. Although the demo is not complete, there are a handful of features that caught my eye, including the ability to play different versions (Arcade/Home) and regions (Japan/North America) of the same game.
The E3 demo has 13 of the games available, although at least one isn't demo-able.
I played a lot of Ikari III, TNK III, and Athena. All of these games' arcade origins shine through in their crippling difficulty, but being able to rewind mistakes, and not having to drop in quarters every minute, makes the brutality more charming than frustrating. The collection being shown is mostly comprised of brawlers, platformers, and scrolling shooters. However, the sight of an NES-perfect version of the long-absent Crystalis ended up demanding much of my time.
In docked mode the games felt good. The action, visuals, and sound perfectly matched with my memories of many of these games. The team at Digital Eclipse is obsessive about "perfect" emulation, and it showed when docked. However, the E3 demo was showing obvious signs of slowdown when played in handheld mode. The demo isn't final, and there were multiple other bugs pointed out to me by the staff demoing it, so expect these issues to be ironed out by the time the game launches November 27.
288
TalkBack / Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Pokémon: Let's Go, Eevee! (Switch) Hands-On Preview
« on: June 12, 2018, 07:55:00 PM »Game Freak's bold new take on what a Pokémon game can be is finally in our hands.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/hands-on-preview/47514/pokemon-lets-go-pikachu-and-pokemon-lets-go-eevee-switch-hands-on-preview
Announced a few weeks prior, Nintendo brought Pokémon: Let's Go! to E3 2018. This game takes liberal inspiration from 2016's mobile mega-hit Pokémon Go! while re-imagining the series' first "Third" game, Pokémon Special Pikachu Edition (Yellow). In these new versions, Pikachu has been joined by series-favorite Eevee as a featured starter. Like Yellow, your Pokémon friend follows behind you on your adventure.
The E3 demo lets you run around Kanto's Viridian Forest, capturing bug and flying type Pokémon and battling a few trainers. Unfortunately, Nintendo did not allow capturing video, but while the battles against trainers were largely the same as always, the battles against wild Pokémon consist of a version of Pokémon Go's Poké Ball-throwing mini-game. You can't "weaken" wild Pokémon by fighting them first, instead you use items to bait their attention, before tossing Poké Balls in sync with a visual indicator on screen. A throw that's off center, too hard, or too soft will miss the mark entirely, and even a properly thrown ball can be escaped.
This is where the Poké Ball Plus, Nintendo's odd Poké Ball-shaped accessory comes into play. The game is entirely playable with a Joy-Con, but we were able to try the demo with the Poké Ball Plus. Check out the video below to see how it looks.
Basically, the Poké Ball Plus has two buttons and a motion sensor. On the front of the Poké Ball is a short analog stick that can be clicked, and the entire backside of the Poké Ball acts as the second button. The stick is used to move the character around the world and to navigate menus, while clicking the stick is the primary interaction. For the purposes of our demo, this was the only button we used. Nintendo cautioned we not press the back button, noting that it only launched some menus that were not currently part of the demo. The motion sensor in the Joy-Con or the Poké Ball Plus are used to detect the throw of a Poké Ball in the capturing mini-game.
While both the Joy-Con and Poké Ball Plus vibrate during a capture attempt, the thing that differentiates the experience is how the Poké Ball Plus flashes and emits the captured Pokémon's Game Boy-era cry when caught. It adds a nostalgic flavor to what is already a very nostalgia-heavy game. While it doesn't impact the gameplay, "throwing" a flashing, growling, vibrating PokéBall greatly increases the drama of waiting to see if the capture was successful. It's an expensive accessory, priced at $50 US, but it was clearly the star of the demo. It also allows taking a Pokémon "with you" by transferring it to the Poké Ball, where it acts as a pedometer, awarding the Pokémon experience with each step.
Trainer battles largely work as they always have in the Pokémon games: turn-based affairs where you pick the skill of your Pokémon, use an item, or swap them out. The fights strongly resemble the old Pokémon Colosseum games. There's a large increase in the quality and cinematic animation of how a trainer battle looks, but attacks continue to use symbols (like the outline of a foot for a Double Kick) rather than showing one Pokémon directly attacking the other. Models of the Pokémon look quite good, but the trainers seem a little flat - although admittedly much better than any previous iteration.
Given the limited scope of the demo, it's hard to draw too many conclusions, but Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Pokémon Let's Go, Eevee! seem like a very nostalgia-fueled take on the Pokémon franchise. If Pokémon Go! felt a little too thin, this game transplants much of its gameplay mechanics out of an AR game and into the more normal Pokémon template. Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Pokémon: Let's Go, Eevee! release November 16.
289
NWR Forums Discord / Re: NAME THE FUNHOUSE
« on: June 12, 2018, 09:18:35 AM »
WE HAVE OUR FIRST WINNER
290
NWR Forums Discord / NAME THE WORST NWR POSTER!
« on: June 10, 2018, 07:16:27 PM »
Let me save you the trouble.
You guessed it! It's me! Crimm!
I truly am sorry for how terrible my posts are and how much at suck at contributing to these forums in any meaningful way.
Please heap all your scorn and derision on me because I deserve it.
You guessed it! It's me! Crimm!
I truly am sorry for how terrible my posts are and how much at suck at contributing to these forums in any meaningful way.
Please heap all your scorn and derision on me because I deserve it.
291
TalkBack / Defoliation (Switch) Review
« on: June 07, 2018, 03:32:53 PM »The hardest puzzle to solve is why this game is on Switch.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/reviewmini/47411/defoliation-switch-review
Remember those old “escape room” Flash games from the late 90s-to-mid 2000s? Usually the puzzles weren’t very good, the translation was dodgy, and they all had this same gritty filter applied to the otherwise-unremarkable art? At some point they made the jump from Flash to Mobile, but now you can pay for the exact same unsatisfactory experience via the Switch’s eShop! Defoliation is a poorly translated, uninteresting, ugly, and generally unenjoyable puzzle adventure - in a genre full of titles that render it completely irrelevant.
There’s a real lack of elegance to the puzzle design. Most involve clicking around, often with no visual indicator that “this spot” has something, until you find enough items to solve some puzzle. In some cases, it isn’t clear if you possess all the information needed to solve these puzzles, as the puzzle design isn’t clear enough telegraph a missing component. The translation is poor, often converting the hints the game offers into their own sort of puzzle. In multiple cases this mistranslation actually renders puzzles unsolvable - unless you assume the game lied to you. In more than one case I had to watch Chinese-language Let’s Players on YouTube in order to progress.
Many of the rooms have a success and failure path. In some cases the difference is as slight “solve the room” versus “solve the room but also decide to make tea for some reason.” Not making tea results in a grizzly murder, and the even more grizzly prospect of replaying the entire room. I very quickly made it a habit to write down solutions, in the very likely event that I had to replay the entire room.
These kinds of games often involve some kind of life-or-death escape scenario for the heroes, who have to solve a mystery in order to achieve freedom. In this case, I’m actually at a loss as to what the mystery is, but it certainly isn’t compelling. Our trio of teens are trapped in some kind of alternate-reality because they killed an old woman, except they didn’t actually kill the old woman - because she is very much still alive. At least she was well after they almost hit her with a motorcycle. Also there’s a disappearing house and some kid was trapped under the stairs. He kills you if you don’t drink tea. I’m at a loss.
There’s nothing to recommend Defoliation. As a point-and-click adventure game, the lack of indicators for things that can be interacted with is especially annoying. As a puzzle game, many of the puzzles are both poorly constructed and afflicted by a defective translation. As a story the plot is nonsense. Play a Zero Escape game instead.
292
TalkBack / Milanoir (Switch) Review
« on: May 31, 2018, 06:00:00 AM »A brutal Italian crime-drama, accompanied by brutal and unrefined enemy encounters.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/47297/milanoir-switch-review
“No! There can’t possibly be more!”
Raspy and distorted by frustration, I barely recognized my own voice as I shouted at the TV. It was my fifth attempt to shoot my way through a blockade of super-fast vans, each lobbing grenades at my car. My little Italian coupe lilted around like a wounded elephant, while their supernatural maneuverability allowed them to navigate the traffic as if on a rail. Boxed in, I was at the mercy of their superior firepower. Their ironclad skin absolutely absorbed punishment of my comparatively puny armaments. After firing every bullet to ever reach the Italian peninsula, I finally eliminated the fourth set of these vans; the road cleared and it looked like only progress lay ahead. But after a moments relief, the cycle began anew with three more vans screaming into the screen. I died and, predictably, found myself right back at the start of the sequence. It was yet another of Milanoir’s poorly balanced gameplay sequences, a game replete with poorly balanced gameplay sequences.
Milanoir sells itself as video game take on the ‘70s Italian crime films, a genre collectively called poliziotteschi. These movies were gritty, dark, and took no issue playing out vivid - almost nihilistic - revenge plots. In that regard, Milanoir hits the mark, embracing these films’ corrupt and bloody worlds filled with sadistic and unmoving killers. It even goes so far to even borrow character names from major films in the genre. Our hero, Piero Sacchi, is a mafia lieutenant who’s brutality upsets even his peers. Sent away for life after the particularly savage slaughter of an entire family, his release is ultimately earned not by rehabilitation but by the political maneuvering of his boss. Once out, he returns to his life of crime, swearing to figure out who turned him into the police - only to be betrayed yet again.
This game ties itself so tightly to cinema that it’s important to underscore that it ultimately doesn’t do a great job telling its story. Piero is a terrible hero. His genre-appropriate unrepentant nature only works when we see him held up as an example of all that’s ill in the world, and here he’s often shown with a collected but flat personality. The reason so many of these films star sadistic, but uncorrupted, cops who bend the rules to bypass their corrupt bosses was that the genre reflected a frustration with crime and corruption that had taken hold in 1970s Italy. Granted, Piero slays a huge number of mafia-types in order to affect his revenge, but you never want to cheer for him or his mission and he lacks a “law and order” foil to make Piero the anti-hero. The larger cast float in and out of frame: hitmen, bosses, prostitutes, and other ne'er-do-wells show up, say a line or two, and then start shooting. None ever really establish much character of their own, with maybe the exception of the the unwilling prostitute-turned fellow revenge seeker Luca. One former-enemy just shows up out of the blue to help Piero because she was “betrayed” completely off-screen. Piero, unconcerned that he’s about to team up with a former foe merely shrugs and lets her tag along.
For whatever issues I have with the story, it would be at least somewhat engaging if the gameplay didn’t constantly let Milanoir down. The above driving sequence is broadly representative. At its heart, Milanoir is a twin-stick shooter. The left stick moves Piero around and the right adjust his aim. How the cursor moves gives away the game’s PC origins, it would feel more natural with a mouse, but it works. Unlike more console-specific twin-sticks, you aren’t just aiming in direction, but also distance. The soft lock-on engages with the cursor moves onto a target, and disengages when it’s moved away. Guns have effective ranges, and the cursor changes when it moves beyond them. The majority of the game is Piero moving through seedy locations, shooting everything that moves. Eventually you reach a boss encounter, and after the boss’ defeat you drive to the next story beat. There are light stealth mechanics, a combat roll, and cover shooting.
The problem is the game stacks far too many situations that just don’t feel balanced. There’s a sequence where Piero is shooting his way through a subway car. Each car has three enemies in it, and more continue to board the car as he kills them. The confined spaces of the subway car make use of the combat roll to dodge especially difficult, and the limited real estate with no effective means of cover gives enemies with shotguns the ability to coat the entire car in lead. One particular arrangement of enemies in the third car took 20 minutes of failure to clear. Spamming the roll and fire button, with some help from a seemingly distracted AI, finally let me reach the fourth car. Checkpointing in this game is about half as frequent as it should be, and in this case death would result in a return back to car one. This was disheartening. Boss battles are predictably unbalanced.
Two tweaks would fix most of the encounters. First, more aggressive checkpointing would reduce the frustration of not making progress. This game asks a lot of you, frequently in succession. Making some progress, even slow, is infinitely less aggravating. Secondly, boss fights should be more focused on getting your shot, rather than pure attrition. The respawning enemies do those fights no favors, especially when the boss themselves take so much punishment and are so frequently invulnerable.
Mechanically, most of the game is perfectly functional. The only major tweaks the game needs is for the combat roll to automatically move you towards cover (rather than drop you inches from safety) and a better ability to lock onto the enemies so you can aim for the guy sporting the one-hit-kill gun, rather than the guy with a knife - and maintain that lock as you dodge. It really is just the encounters, their difficulty and lack of polish, that mar the game. So much of my total playtime is just long sequences of frustration that the taste it leaves is intensely bitter.
Milanoir shows true craft in its presentation. The world, the color, the music, and the characters are all right out of poliziotteschi. Many characters look cool and have great designs, filling their archetype flawlessly. The moody, seedy, and otherwise unwelcoming settings are perfect for a crime drama.The ‘70s-sounding soundtrack is full of hooks that work well with the tone, and 16-bit inspired art looks fantastic. The color palette is perfect for ‘70s film, and even includes period-appropriate effects like a color gel “over the lens” when the decidedly powerful magnum is used (accompanied by the pleasurably piercing twang of its shot). The only real knock is the fact character’s have a pallid, gray complexion in their portraits. It’s minor, but I’d rather my mafioso not look like stereotypical space aliens and it stands out in the otherwise well-realized art.
Milanoir is a disappointment. It’s frustrating stage and boss design mar what was obviously a work of pride by people who care deeply for this period of Italian cinema. But, Piero’s misadventures simply aren’t fun to play. When things are working well the game is at best “good,” but it’s never an elevated experience. At its worst, Milanoir is a frustrating test of patience. 20, 30, even 40 minutes might be required to hit the right combination of luck and skill to skate past some encounters. To be sure, some of this is my own incompetence - failing to notice the street signs that can be used to ricochet bullets. But much of it is the fault of the game - the eight-person ricochet off stop signs only hitting two of eight foes in a scene designed explicitly to tutorial that very feature. For that reason alone, I cannot recommend Milanoir. If you want to experience the story of a sadistic killer who’s plans have gone bust, you’re better off watching one of the game’s inspirations, the 1973 film Almost Human. Just know it, and Milanoir, are not for the faint of heart.
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Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 573: The Eighth Wonder of the World
« on: June 01, 2018, 07:25:25 PM »
WHAT A COINCIDENCE
294
NWR Forums Discord / Re: Which of the following do you think will happen first?
« on: June 01, 2018, 08:20:02 AM »
I fixed the poll
295
NWR Forums Discord / Re: Operation: Get Zap a Switch
« on: May 28, 2018, 10:54:41 PM »
Is this what you all do when I look away?
296
NWR Forums Discord / Re: The funhouse god has returned to pass judgment on us all.
« on: May 28, 2018, 10:49:22 PM »BREAKING: Funhouse God revealed to be a false diety who is has been using tithes to fund an unhealthy Ogre Battle addiction. More at 11.
I can put many 9s in the fields
297
Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 573: The Eighth Wonder of the World
« on: May 28, 2018, 03:20:44 PM »
I'm afraid to look at the Fallen Legion review's stats.
It makes me sad since I busted my ass to try to hit embargo on it. Ah well. If some people read it, and decide if it makes sense for them, then it was worth it. It's not like when you're reviewing straight trash that everyone knows is trash. That is a Keynesian Job!
It makes me sad since I busted my ass to try to hit embargo on it. Ah well. If some people read it, and decide if it makes sense for them, then it was worth it. It's not like when you're reviewing straight trash that everyone knows is trash. That is a Keynesian Job!
298
Podcast Discussion / Episode 573: The Eighth Wonder of the World
« on: May 27, 2018, 09:31:03 AM »Vaudeville's got nothing on us.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/rfn/47302/episode-573-the-eighth-wonder-of-the-world
I'm not going to top last week for irreverent ways to mention that Jon isn't able to join us this week, so just imagine I rewrote a passage from James Joyce and we'll proceed.
James begins the proceedings with a look at Fallen Legion: Rise to Glory, for Switch. Yet again, he's giving impressions for a game he's already reviewed, but at least he liked this one! Greg just got Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon, so of course he's already beaten it. As an experienced hand at the Castlevania oeuvre, he's well suited to take a BITE out of this game. I am without shame; come at me. Guillaume took a look at the new content in Gorogoa. He then gives his impressions of Runner3, and the wisdom of pre-ordering digital merchandise. Lastly, he looks at the well-produced by seemingly bog-standard puzzle game Sushi Striker demo.
After the break we get through a staggering THREE emails. We stream Resident Evil 7 to Switch, forget eras of Nintendo history, and design a game that would make the ESRB raters sweat. You can send us your Pizza Pasta-lead spin-offs via our inbox.
We are two episodes away from our RetroActive on Henry Hatsworth. You know the deal, impressions go in the talkback.
299
TalkBack / Fallen Legion: Rise to Glory (Switch) Review
« on: May 23, 2018, 04:32:57 PM »Saving an empire is a lot harder than ripping one apart.
http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/47283/fallen-legion-rise-to-glory-switch-review
I’m tense, my fingers are getting tired, and I’m watching my odds of victory slide from near-certainty towards impossibility. I’ve been playing for an unknown number of hours, it’s now well past bedtime, and I’ve been hammering on this crystal golem for 10 minutes. I’m sending my three units into the fight over and over - like a machine, issuing the attack pattern X,X,A,B,X,A,B,A,A with a meter maximized for effect. Keeping the beat is getting harder; this thing hits like a tank so I have to interrupt my patterns to defend, and now the game’s framerate is regressing into a slideshow. I can’t see what’s going on - I’m playing this thing only by feel. It’s time to finish; I’m going all in.
Fallen Legion a bit difficult to succinctly summarize. You play as one of two claimants to the recently vacated throne of a fraying empire, a title neither previously desired. Your race to secure the crown has you moving your army across a map, stopping at nodes along the path to either do battle or to receive plot.
Both claimants, Cecille, the late Emperor’s daughter and Laendur, one of his finest generals, have come into possession of the power to summon the “platonic ideal” of weapons. This magic has the weapons take the form of dead heroes, called Exemplars, in order to fight for their new master. In battle, that means selecting three such units and leading them into a series of fights. The would-be emperor and their retenue run through a hall, stopping intermittently to either clash with a group of foes or to answer a moral question.
The questions are scenarios, such as a captured spy or a disloyal division, and each presents three choices. At a minimum, these choices will change the stats of some of the units in your party for the duration of the fight. Some choices are larger, asking the “emperor” to take sides in conflicts in their army or to wade into the politics of the empire. These choices create branching plot lines, and impact the role of secondary characters in the larger plot and can change the circumstances of battles.
The combat reminds me just a little bit of Xenoblade Chronicles 2. You can absolutely get by most of the time by hammering out buttons mapped to each of the three party members as their relevant meters fill, but there are layers of complexity to it all. Each class has a specialty, be it the hulking knight Zulfiqar, or the petite riflewoman Winchester. Creating the right combination and layout of three characters allows layering their strengths.
One of my go-to configurations involved Zulfiqar in the front, the speedy spearwoman Longinus in the middle, and the mortar-wielding Dardanelles in the rear. Zulfiqar protects the team, Longinus hits frequently and builds the combo chain and meter, and Dardanelles has a skill that draws the enemy’s rear character (usually a mage or a healer) out from behind the protection of their front line. Learning how each character reacts, how fast they can attack, and how to combine them to build up combos - denying enemies a move while increasing a damage multiplier - can let you absolutely steamroll enemies. Learning to block, and how to use blocks to launch other combos keeps the party going deep into some of the longer engagements. It can look like chaos, and often feels like it, but there’s an art to keeping it all going.
Exemplars themselves grow, but not via normal RPG leveling up. They unlock stat modifiers and evolve into new classes based on the decisions you make during battles. Overall, they get stronger as the game goes on, but it isn’t a straight line. Change can be halting or sudden, and requires assessing how the change impacted optimal use.
When things are tense, and the enemies difficult, managing all these systems is absolutely mandatory, and the game often does a very poor job of explaining it - offering the briefest of tutorials and no “gate” to check that you learned the lesson. Instead, I learned through failure and experimentation.
The bosses have a devious power: slowdown. In moments, it is the worst I have ever seen - with the action on screen coming to an absolute halt, a trait that apparently showed up on other platforms. Under normal circumstances Fallen Legion performs without issue. The animation of both enemy and ally characters are smooth and planning to execute a guard is totally an issue of skill. However, against bosses the game can very suddenly turn into a slideshow, with one-quarter of a second or more of dropped frames.This means boss fights, which require mastery of combos and blocking, have to be done without any visual cues and with timing impacted by an inconsistent game clock. I usually was able to hit the timing based on feel and sound, but more than one failure can be attributed to the slowdown.
The way Fallen Legion tells its story is really enjoyable. This world has lore and a history. This war isn’t the first over this now-ragged empire, though there’s a sense that it might be the last. Reports stream in of the actions of minor factions and aspiring politicians. I stepped into this world by first picking the campaign of the once-confident, affable, and broadly loved Legatus Leandur. Reluctantly recruited into a campaign for the throne by his brother and a devoted subordinate, the stress of war unwinds both his confidence and morality. His evolving mistrust impacts his relationship with his allies, turning what looked like rule by acclamation into a struggle for survival.
Difficult decisions have repercussions for his relationship with his subordinates. A long-running subplot constantly demands Leandur decide how to inject himself into a dispute between a blood-thirsty centurion and a cowardly quartermaster. In an effort to prevent his rival from launching more ill-advised adventures, the coward invented fake supply “shortages.” Already distrusting the centurion, I partnered with the quartermaster to stimey his ambitions, and the story made me live with the consequences.
The game looks nice, even though the art style isn’t always to my personal liking. Dialog is presented using well-drawn 2D character portraits. Combined with the writing, the cast is able to stand-out. The sprites and 2D game world they run through look good, though the attack animations sometimes looks a bit like paper puppets. The performance issues dramatically impact the visuals - in that they’re not moving. Story sequences overuse some of the same backgrounds, even when they’re not the most appropriate (using the war-tent setting inside a castle, etc).
The sound work in this game is really strong. The music is fantastic. The game has a relatively small, but varied, soundtrack that sets the mood for each sequence. The boss battle theme, “Blood and Roses” explodes with bombastic instrumentation, quick changing parts, and shifts in tempo and volume. Away from the intensity of battle, the game’s soundtrack can range from triumphant to the somber tone of a song like “Rain.” The sound effects are good at cueing timing during battle, especially when the game’s visuals are taking a few frames off. Some of the voice acting isn’t great; there are attempts at accents that just don’t work, but there’s not much narrative voice over, so it isn’t a big deal.
Fallen Legion is a neat game, but one that’s tough to explain. The combat is fairly simple on its face, but has a lot of intricacies that are fun to learn and execute, which makes it a shame only boss battles really take advantage. It features strong player-driven storytelling and a compelling cast of characters that evolve with the situation. It looks good, and sounds great. However, the slowdown can’t be ignored. At the worst of times it renders you blind. It can gate progress, and occurrences are is so predictable that this should have been fixed. Fallen Legion is a fun, but flawed. If you have the patience to learn these systems on your own, and a willingness to put up with moments of “play by instinct alone,” this game is worth picking up.
300
Podcast Discussion / Re: Episode 572: Nintendo Franchise Executioner
« on: May 20, 2018, 07:25:15 PM »
I DID! Good catch!
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