Dark Cloud

Dark Cloud, a game published by level5, and a small blimp on Sony's PS2 massive rpg lineup. The game wasn't revolutionary, but it sure was fun.

Story:

As....no it's pretty weird. Some guy releases an evil Genie that destroys the world, so you stop him. Simple yes? The weird part is the fact you build the world back together, and the twists at the end. 

For the most part, this is the bad guy:

Now, the downfall to the story is it's knee deep. Other than going into "how you rebuild it" or "what helps you" is irrelevant/spoilish to some, so this is all I can say.

Story: 75/100


Gameplay:


Half bland, half awesome. The weapon upgrading system of building up stats and leveling the weapons up is amazing. The redoing dungeons fifty million times to get jewels with really stale combat is terrible. That kills the game for me. Running around hitting stuff with X and hoping you get jewels, if not, exit and re-enter. It'd be one thing if the combat was fun, but...

It's not.

Building the towns back was a savior to the gameplay, though. The biggest reason probably being the townspeople had requests and favors, so you were a mini architect.

Dungeons as mentioned earlier, are very stale. Self-generated floors that look bland with few options of exploration besides back rooms that are rarely worth it. Not trying to hate on the game, but this made getting the weapons and stuff to have 100% evil.

Gameplay: 65/100


Graphics:


For an early Ps2 game, it looks great. The cel shade is nice, check the two pictures above. (The Genie in particular) It isn't FFXII material, but you have to remember how much older this game is. I saw no problems with the graphics.

Graphics: 100/100


Controls:


Again, no real problem, except for the fact they are stale. Run around, swing your sword, that's about it. The game had a lot of "square" feel too it as well, like everything was on a big grid. Nitpicky, but still.

Controls: 85/100


The bottom line:


It's not bad, but just an rpg. Nothing more, get it or don't

75+100+85+65=81, passable rpg game!




Next time (my day off), Pokemon Water Trio!

Another quick review...no? Update!

Pokemon will start up again on my next day off, followed by Dark Cloud review than SMG2. I know hardly anyone reads this, but it isn't dead. Just been really busy with the holidays.

Sorry~

Holidays

Not really doing much on holidays, just fyi. Next week will star the Water Trio one plus 2~3 more reviews!

Aiming for:

Super Mario Galaxy 2

Dark Cloud

Baten Kaitos

Final Fantasy VII (As a friend said, what we need now to revive jrpgs)

One of my personal favorites, a trend setter, constantly called "overrated" and above all, delivered. This game defines jrpgs, so let us take a look inside what made the game so stellar.

Story:

Quite simple, evil people killing the world, a good guy gone bad, Cloud is the apathetic main character who has a band of "heroes" who save the world. Of course it's much deeper than that, the evil people (Shinra) leading into the ancient history of Jenova and why Sephiroth (the now bad guy) is so bad. It's all confusing at first, especially the Cloud parts, but in the end I find it fitting nicely. Even better, the compilation's story lines actually help clear it up and further refine it. I could go much deeper into this, but unlike 95% jrpgs, this storyline is worth figuring out yourself.

100/100

Gameplay:

This is the main revolutionary point. The game play is an active time battle rpg with commands much like the previous Final Fantasy's. The biggest difference is Materia, which holds magic, skills, abilities, and even summons. You level this up, get new ones, and customize characters. This jrpg was revolutionary for having such a vast way of creating character builds unlike ever before.

As for the rest, it's an exploration non-linear jrpg that Square Enix needs to remember so they can create positive jrpgs once again.

I'd show pictures, but a game this old most know what they're looking at.

100/100

Graphics & Sound:

For the time, good graphics. Not much I can say for that, though I will admit the better graphics in XIII did leave most envious.

In terms of sound, amazing. The soundtrack was beautiful, every song having a special ring. 

100/100 Both

Replay Value:

Amazing. All I can say is, I've beaten it four times at least.

Total: 100!

Sorry for a quick review, need to get some of these out of the way, and well.. this one is a fairly simple one. Everyone knows FFVII, so all I can review is the basics really.

Till next time! 

Pokemon: Episode II

Sorry for the break, but onward with the latest installment of the Pokemon Episodes!

Pokemon Episode II: Fire Trio (4, 5, 6)


4: Charmander(4)

In Game:

In the early installments (the generation he was a starter), Charmander had a rough time being useful in the beginning, but towards the end opted to be quite useful. Brock & Misty frankly would destroy him, and didn't fare too well against Lt. Surge. The gyms after that, however, we're a cake walk for him.(As he evolved!) Anything past Gen I you had to go out of your way to get him, and I can't imagine why.

Aesthetics:

One of the cutest starters to date. You can blatantly see where they got Agumon from, too.

Etc.

Not much else to say, get him evolved and it's pretty straightforward.

96/100

5: Charmeleon(5)

In Game:


Again, anything past Gen I there was no need to get him. The path in Gen I is the same as Charmander, too.

Aesthetics:


I actually never cared for Charmeleon that much. His colors and design do not fit the Charmander>Charizard part of the evolution line.Still, looking at some Gen IV Pokemons, he definitely holds up.

Etc:


Again, not much left I can add except he is my least favorite of the this trio.

75/100

In Game:


In Gen I, he can arguably be the best starter to go with towards the end. Anything past Gen I you'd need to go out of your way to get, which I totally recommend. Now, this is where we can get into Metagame. Due to Stealth Rock he fell down to NU during Gen IV (being decent pre-that), and now in Gen V it seems he may be of use yet again. Stealth Rock appears to be dying out, and dreamworld offers him a new ability.

Aesthetics:


Best looking fire starter Pokemon, hands down. From the wings,  to the facial features, the the flame on his tail, Charizard is a pinnacle of badass in Pokemon.

Etc:


Not much else to say, except in Metagame I hope to see his usefulness rise. I also would like to add Charizard and Jaroda are tied as my favorite starter of all time.

100/100




Overall: 90/100


Until next time (review)~

Metroid: Other M

I was so excited for this. Despite the Prime series being completely epic, I still hungered for a old time Metroid game. And with today's game play and mechanics, this was the closest thing too it. Sadly, with lack of content, odd difficulty settings, and minor define flaws this Metroid makes itself one of the weakest installments in the decade.

Story: 85/100

Really I had no problem with the story. It explains a lot of things that lead into Fusion, and Samus is portrayed as a human being. Most fans say that she acts like a wimp, especially during a certain scene...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPQ5GDld-5w

Regardless if you watch it, Samus freaks out about Ridley. It makes it seem like even though she never had a problem with him in the past 5 fights, why now? I can see this argument, but she's also never had emotion, so I think it fit alright. Also seeing old members of the military probably stirred memories up, but whatever. 

More into the story, it explains a bottleship that was used to create another Space Pirate Army, and the game is about crushing that ship and stopping the revival of a new AI similar to mother. (Revival..more like warfare)

The story is quite simple really, and takes place after Super Metroid..

Metroid > prime 1 > prime 2 > prime3 > M II > SM > Other M > Fusion (for those who didn't know)

All in all the story is an 85, didn't wow me, didn't have Prime's scan feature to figure it out yourself, but it was okay.

Sound: 94/100

Amazing as usual. I love the Metroid themes, though they did sound a bit different on this game compared to Prime, but still. The Ridley theme was as awesome as ever. Memorable music, if you ask me.

Graphics: 100/100

Some of the best on the Wii. I'm stunned the Wii can even go this far...

That looks absolutely beautiful, and flawless for the Wii in my opinion.

Gameplay: 90/100

It has the great third person I wanted, yet it feels too much like Ninja Gaiden (wonder why) I love it, but I wished there wasn't invisible walls everywhere (common Ninja Gaiden theme back in the day, no?) I also wish you didn't stand still in FPS mode. I wish you could just fire the missiles in third person. Other than that, the combat is smooth and flawless. The game's difficulties were also a bit off for me, making the hard runs very different, and not very inspiring.

Value: 60/100

This is where they dropped the ball. It takes twenty hours max for 100%, which is pathetic. Most Metroids take way more, Prime takes around 40 for all three difficulties (55 for me). The Trilogy takes 100+, etc.

Also the cutscenes that make a movie make a very disjointed and annoying movie. So hardly any replay value is installed in this game at all.

Bottom Line:

If you don't mind it being short, or not living up to the other installments, it's a great game, but it's not worth 50 dollars. If it had more content it would've been amazing, but it just feels half made towards the end. Yet you still praise it, because what they did make was pretty okay. 

85+94+100+90+60

Score: 85.8


Next Time: Episode II Pokemon & then Metroid Prime Trilogy!

Pokemon: Episode I

Alright, so before we get into this, know I spent the last four days working/getting my sexy Black Wii installed with all my games files. Had to get an AR SSBB file to replace my 100% file, but ah well. Also finished those crappy hack-n-slash games. (AKA I got 100% on nothing but Dark Cloud) Still, looking good because the games coming up are good, so thats always a positive.

Pokemon I: Grass Trio (1, 2, 3)


So what's going to happen is I will review every evolution branch in Pokemon, and discuss their uses in game, aesthetics, and etc. I probably will skip metagame, as that's Smogon's deal.


1: Bulbasaur(1)

In Game: 


Well, this is the first project Pokemon, and is the first Pokemon ever put on the Pokedex! In Game, he always felt like the weakest starter to me, yet in the first games he was quite a beast. He bested Brock, Misty, and Lt. Surge right from the go. The downfall is that after that he loses his use fullness, and Charizard/Blastoise's stats tended to be better in the end. In the later games, he was obtained by other various methods, and rarely used. I can't recall myself going out of my way for a Bulbasaur.

Aesthetics: 


Bulbasaur is pretty cute. His name implies a sort of dinosaur, and the way he looks makes it out to be a herbivore/plant. I always felt he was the 2nd best looking starter Pokemon, and is the best starting Grass Pokemon until Smugleaf came on by.

Etc:


Not a whole lot to say on Bulbasaur. Get him evolved, and he is a pretty straightforward Pokemon.

80/100


2: Ivysaur(2)

In Game:

As I said with Bulbasaur, you will not go out of your way to obtain one of these in game in any generation past the first. In first generation however, Ivysaur can be the best 2nd evolution of the starters, mainly because he evolves at the early level of 16. That being said, it also feels like he caps out faster than the others in that game. Still, a pro choice for almost half the game.

Aesthetics: 


Ivysaur is my favorite 2nd evolution of the three starters, and my favorite 2nd evolution grass starter of all time. I love how his flower almost blooms, and how he looks more dinosaur than the others. His coloring is perfect, and all around, just an amazing looking Pokemon to me.

Etc:


Not much else to say, won't be used much post Gen I, but yeah. Kinda lacking on the Etc info until I get into Final Evolutions or things like Scyther.

90/100


3: Venasaur(3)

In Game: 


Not too useful in anything past Generation one, and even in Generation one his usefulness dwindles down fast.Usually by the time he evolves (lv32), you're at a grass gym, then poison, then psychic, fire, etc. You have no favor in any of these gyms, so he almost becomes a bad addition to the team. The one positive point is his use in UU metagame (and in Black/White, who knows what will happen). From what I know he can be quite defensive and stalling in UU.

Aesthetics:


He got fat and bland, in my opinion. It's not a bad Pokemon, but he went from a badass Ivysaur to a fatsack.

Etc:


Nothing much to say, but to point out his Metagame usage. That sets him apart from the next Gen grass starter, Meganium(sp).

75/100


Overall, the evolution tree I is:


82/100




Soon, probably Friday night, I'll have a review posted up, and Saturday/Sunday night The Fire Trio I. So stay reading!