Tekken 7

• Developer: Bandai Namco Studios
• Publisher: Bandai Namco Entertainment
• Genre: Fighting
• Players: 1-2
• Platforms: PC, Playstation 4, & Xbox One
• Release Date: 2nd June 2017
• Microtransactions: Yes

Back to form

I have been a fan of the series since its console birth back in the PS1 days and although my attention waned in the last few iterations, Tekken 7 piqued my interest.

She’s Purty!

The one thing I can say that few will argue with is that the Tekken series has improved aesthetically fairly well with every game in the series and this one is no different, it looks absolutely stunning from the character modelling, to the gorgeous backgrounds, and some really fun destruction that isn’t new by any stretch but a welcome addition nonetheless.

Choices, Choices

After the backlash of Street Fighter V having no arcade mode, Tekken has made sure that it has come out of the starting blocks with plenty of content.  There is now an almost Mortal Kombat-esque story mode, which is bloody difficult in places and is good to keep you busy for a few hours and tells an interesting side of the Mishima story which I thoroughly enjoyed.  There is a standard arcade mode that isn’t massively long but it lets you get a feel for some of the 30+ characters that you may not be familiar with.  Then of course there’s the online mode, I found this to work pretty well not having to wait long for a match.  There is an endless “Treasure Battle” mode which has you fighting over and over again earning you fight money and unlocking various character customisation items which I will talk about more later, this actually made me play this mode far longer than I expected to.  Last of all there are character stories for each character which give a little backstory for each character although these are frightfully short and a little disappointing.

Fight the World

The online battles are where the experience can vary wildly.  I am a fairly competent, albeit fairly basic, Tekken player as I peaked in the days of Tekken 3.  Online I would either do quite well or, more often than not, get my ass handed to me by people who know the long combos that juggle you to death.  You can either play single matches or enter tournaments for fight money prizes.

Normally getting beaten repeatedly would leave me pretty frustrated but fighting games have evolved a lot over the years and I simply have not go the time to keep up and if I devoted enough time into truly learning some of the combo’s and the all important reversals, I could end up as a reasonably competitive player but alas time is a precious resource these days.

Sadly Pointless

I got quite excited when I picked up the game and saw the “Playstation VR Compatible” banner across the top.  I really shouldn’t have bothered.  There are 2 uses.  First one is an endless battle where you simply fight in a vast open space with no health bars just more of a practice arena.  The second is to view the character models.  Both of these are pretty pointless and were a completely needless addition.

Bling!

The last thing I want to mention is the character customisation.  There is quite simply the highest amount of character customisation that I have ever seen in a fighting game, all purchased with in-game currency or unlocked with the treasure battle mode.  You can completely change the look of any of the characters, some pretty drastically which I quite enjoyed.  I ended up with a leather-clad Paul Phoenix wearing chaps and a knights helmet looking like some sort of fetish gimp.  I chuckled to myself with it anyway!

PROS

• Good story mode
• Fantastic character customisation
• Overall lots of content for a beat ‘em up

CONS

• Character stories are woefully short
• Akuma is a bitch

Verdict

8/10

(PS4 Version used for review)

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• Developers: Nintendo
• Publisher: Nintendo
• Genre:  Platform
• Platforms: Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES)
• Release Date: 11th April 1992
• Microtransactions: No

One of the greatest of our time….

Super Mario World.  Easily up there as arguably the best Mario game of all time and is certainly a top ten all-time contender for most people.  A suitable jump forward from the NES
classics bringing everyone’s favourite plumber to the SNES.  Ever since then Nintendo have tried, and on the most part failed to create such a masterpiece.  Back in the days when Nintendo would try new things they had a go a continuing the saga with Yoshi’s Island but that paled in comparison and was generally snubbed as being more annoying than anything.

Now I am concentrating only on the 2D non-paper versions of Mario for the purposes of this, hence the reason that there is no mention of Mario 64.  The closest they came to recapturing the magic was “New” Super Mario Bros. on the DS.  Gameplay was much closer to the Mario world days and it was fun.  Nintendo then did what Nintendo does best and flogged that horse to death releasing similar versions for the Wii, 3DS, and Wii U, but each instalment seeming less and less like the Mario we loved.

Recipe for greatness

So what did they get so right with Super Mario World?  Well if that were an easy answer I don’t think Nintendo would have struggled so much to re-create it.  Firstly, graphically it was superb and still looks pretty good today, hence the reason I own the virtual console version of this game on my Wii U and 3DS as well as playing it on several emulators.  This was also the first time we met Yoshi who has come and gone throughout the series and he is used just the right amount, even being sacrificed on many occasions for an extra jump.

Next it’s the music.  To this day, over a quarter of a century later, I will still catch myself humming the main Mario tune from this game and it doesn’t even annoy me.  I think that was one of the things that did it, all of the music was catchy but never annoying, and that’s a rarity!

Now the gameplay itself was excellent, difficult, but not to the extreme.  In the days before internet guides, the hidden secrets such as the Star levels were phenomenal, with the added surprise of what it did to the world one you had fought your way through the secret hardest levels of the game.  The addition of the cape did make a lot of the levels easily passable but there was none of this crap you get these days where you can skip levels if they are too hard.  Pfft!  In my day you had to git gud!

Star Road

Finally the world map was simply excellent with secret levels and shortcuts aplenty.  The areas weren’t as separate as they seem to make them these days, not quite the desert/ice/fire/water worlds that seem to be the standard road map since.  Each level was named instead of having a number, and the “worlds” were just different areas that you moved between.  This made the entire world feel fuller, more accessible and it made you more inclined to explore areas sections that you had missed via an unexpected shortcut.

In conclusion, Nintendo got this one right and although the subsequent efforts have been enjoyable, none have been able to match Super Mario Worlds perfect balance which is why it still stands up today and I will no doubt be purchasing it again if/when it becomes available on the switch.

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Nacon Revolution

Shooty Shoot

The first “Pro” controller for the PS4 has arrived (23/12/16) and this one, the Nacon Revolution, comes with a hefty £89.99 price tag, but comparing this to the Razer Raiju due at the end of January costing a whopping £149.99, it ALMOST seems like a steal! So after much deliberation I bought one and these are my thoughts.

There are 2 main things we notice about the Revolution upon seeing it for the first time. Firstly, the sticks are in the Xbox style configuration, now personally I have little preference, I like the Playstation layout, I like the Xbox layout, and I can alternate between the two without issue so for me this was not a selling point but I know a lot of people prefer this. Secondly the pad is wired, now the reasoning for this is supposedly input lag reduction etc, but honestly I am not bothered, I have to play with the wire most of the time anyway as my kids never put the pads on charge so they are always dead or close to it every time I come to play anyway.

Touch My Nubbins

Upon closer inspection you will notice that the 4 main buttons, are larger and slightly closer together than the original layout which I was initially worried about due to my huge thumbs but this has not been a problem at all. There are also 4 buttons on the rear of the pad which can either be mapped to any other button or you can assign a macro to each of these, more of that below. There is a ring of light around the right stick which I absolutely love just because it’s shiny and the one thing I am a little worried about is that there is no light bar, which may be an issue with some VR games that use it but I am yet to test that far.

Now for the bits you can’t see. Pretty much the only thing I don’t like about the controller is the vibration. It’s there and it works but it feels a bit off? It is hard to describe but it’s almost too high pitched, doesn’t feel bass like enough for my liking but its not something that bothers me tremendously. Quite a nifty option here is a removable chamber on both sides of the controller that lets you add weights to the controller to suit you, 6 weights are included, 2x 10g, 2x 14g, and 2x 17g.

The chamber can take 2 weights in each so you can change it about to your liking. I like a fairly weighty pad so this was great for me and went for the 10g and 17g in each side so that it was heavy but with the option to increase a little more should I want to. Now be warned, you need to use a little plastic “key” thing to turn each one to pull it out and the chambers on mine were really stiff and I basically mangled the cheap plastic key and had to use a screwdriver but that left a small mark on my shiny new pad.

Programmed For Success

In addition to the programmable buttons on the rear, you can also change the sensitivity of the right analogue stick, ideal if you are looking for extra precision on your FPS games but not something that I can say I need. There are also up to 4 “profiles” that you can set up, meaning you can set one up for some of your favourite games or genres.

I have yet to make the most of this but have so far set up one profile for EVE: Valkyrie so that I don’t have to let go of my left stick to press up on the D-pad to drop a drone, I can press one of the rear buttons instead, and a Street Fighter profile for Cammy so I can Cannon Spike and Spiral Arrow from either side at the touch of a button which is pretty cool and may experiment further with combo’s. When setting up the macros you have to select the delay between each press so there is plenty to play with.

To do all of this you need to plug the pad into a PC and download the companion program. Although this looks pretty shiny it is pretty fiddly and takes some getting used to, and if you don’t switch you pad into “Advanced” mode before connecting then you will wondering why you can’t change anything (like I was!) for a while but you get there in the end.

Electric Company

I have tried this with a few games now and have varied experiences. In Dark Souls 3 I noticed little difference and the only difference with Street Fighter was the benefit of the macros but then I tried it on EVE: Valkyrie and I could really notice the benefit of the 46 degree movement of the analogue sticks, I found it much easier to perform small corrections and it was an absolute joy to control. The sticks don’t feel quite as stiff as the original Dual Shock 4 and this means it is easier to do smaller movements.

The reason I went for this instead of waiting for the Raiju are multiple. Firstly, £149.99 is just a little too extreme. It wasn’t long ago that the console itself was selling for that price. Secondly, the shape and the shoulder buttons are more like that of an Xbox one controller and although I do not mind the shape I really hate the shoulder buttons on those. Finally, 2 of the shortcut buttons are placed just past the R2 buttons towards the centre and these just seem really badly placed to me.

Overall I am happy with this. I don’t think it’s going to make me a better gamer, and I don’t think this is a “must buy” by any stretch but if you are thinking about getting a new controller and fancy spending a little more for something that’s a little different with some nice features, then I would recommend this.

If I had to score this controller I would give it a 8/10.

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Odin Sphere Leifthrasir Review

• Developer: Vanillaware
• Publisher: Atlus
• Genre: RPG
• Platforms: Playstation 3, Playstation 4, & PS Vita
• Release Date: 24th June 2016

The world is awash with remasters these days and while it would be nice to see some new IPs out there, personally I am quite happy with this.  Many games that I didn’t get chance to play first time around are coming back with a little bit of extra shine which I can enjoy without any faff.  Odin Sphere was a cult classic in its first incarnation back on the PS2 and I was always a little sad that I never got to play it, but now I have and I have another Platinum trophy on my list.

Still Pretty After 8yrs

I played through this on the Vita as I can get more handheld time than big screen time so this was the best option for me.  Graphically speaking this is not a vast improvement on the original but given its art style and how good it looked originally I don’t have any complaints.  It is graphically pleasing and fully voiced, which whilst being slightly on the side of cheese, still makes for a good story.  There are 5 playable characters which you play in order, Gwendolyn, Cornelius, Mercedes, Oswald, and Velvet.  As you play through each characters story, they often intertwine revealing more and more of the overall story which in itself is no epic tale, but an enjoyable story overall.

The controls are great, you get a huge amount of skills that can be assigned to a shortcut or used on the fly but I tended to find 2 or 3 favourites for each character and stick with them.  You find lots of ingredients and food which can be used for recovering health, potion crafting and you can use them at a travelling restaurant to make dishes from recipes that you find strewn throughout the world which grant XP and permanent HP which always comes in handy!

A lot of the boss fights get recycled through each characters play through but most have at least one unique fight and these can be quite tactical and although your inventory can be constantly full of the millions of different components that you pick up, it can be incredibly handy to knock together a whirlwind potion in and instant to help deplete a bosses health.  The combat itself is quite repetitive but each character has his or her own particular weapon and style of fighting, the two extremes are probable Oswald and Mercedes, Oswald’s sword is more of a dagger but he is a very close combat fighter and Mercedes is a fairy that can fly (obvs!) and has a magical crossbow so you fire at a distance so different enough to enjoy playing with each although everyone will find their own favourite.

The final chapter you get to choose your character for each fight, the correct order can be deciphered through the lore but you can replay this as many times as you like depending on how bothered you are about getting the best and/or “true” ending.  The true ending can only be seen if you have done the last chapter several times seeing all of the different dialogues.

Trophy Hunting

When playing a game I consider going for the Platinum trophy by assessing the following; how much I enjoy playing it, how much longer it will take, and how much of an arse it is to do.  I was at 28 hours when I reached the final chapter and after looking into what I was missing I decided to give it a bash and got the Platinum to pop at around 36 hours so it wasn’t too much extra hassle, plus I had been very thorough on my playthrough.

Having not played this the first time around it is difficult to make comparisons but after looking at the original gameplay I can say the map system is improved, it is very easy to see where you are and where you need to be by traversing the areas on each map, each with its own secret areas that vary in how hard they are to find.  If they had tried to change too much I think they would have ruined what I consider to be an excellent game and can see why it has kept its following over the years.

I give Odin Sphere Leifthrasir 8/10

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Uncharted 4 Review

• Developer: Naughty Dog
• Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment
• Genre: Action Adventure
• Platform: Playstation 4
• Release Date: 10th May 2016

Those who wait…

After many delays, this final part of the Nathan Drake story from Naughty Dog finally made it to release.  When a game has delays such as this one did I always worry that there are going to be problems and it will be rushed out, half finished with bugs aplenty and needing lots of patching.  Thankfully this is not the case with Uncharted 4.  There was a fairly hefty day one patch but throughout my whole playthrough I didn’t encounter a single problem.

Visually this game is a masterpiece, with character animation that is nigh on perfect (aside from minor lip syncing issues but I have played Bioware games so this gets a pass from me!) it is a wonder to behold, voice acting is spot on with some genuinely funny moments.  At 14ish hours long I found it to be a good length for the game and did not feel that any parts were rushed or padded out.

Gameplay is very natural, the controls feel good and I rarely had any problems remembering what button did what.  The quick time events have been drastically cut down from some of the earlier games and although they are still there, they are not so frequent that they become an annoyance.  The puzzles were good, most were fairly simple and could be figured out pretty quickly, personally I would have preferred a little more challenge but I enjoyed them regardless.  The combat was solid, I played through on the middle difficulty which was perfect for me, challenging at times but rarely frustrating.  I briefly dipped my toe into the online side of this as I enjoyed the action parts of the game very much.  This I found to be quite enjoyable and to those that are into competitive online majiggery I am sure this will give you something to play on and enjoy once the main story is done.

A fine bit of tale…

For me it is always the story that makes a game and this one delivers, with a plausible tale of a pirate colony hidden away for centuries with a trail of clues scattered all over the world starting in Scotland and moving around from there.  Nathan has settled down with his wife and has a fairly normal salvage job when his brother, who Nathan believed to be dead shows up needing his help to get him out of trouble.  A great story with a few twists that kept me interested the whole way through.

The only negatives I can pull from this are the lack of any real innovation, everything has been done before but never with this level of beauty and the other is present in all games of this genre; sometimes you can struggle to find the way to go when there is only ever one way which does tend to annoy me, but this appears to be the trend with this type of game.  It would have been nice to have a little more freedom of movement on some of the stages and in some cases there are multiple paths available but these are always the obvious ones.  Anything else I could say are merely plot points which could have been changed for a slightly better ending but are too spoilerific for this review.

Uncharted 4 is a fitting end to the series and gets an

8.5/10

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Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright

• Developer: Intelligent Systems
• Publisher: Nintendo
• Platforms: Nintendo 3DS
• Release Date: 20th May 2016

The fire emblem series has been going for many years now starting out on the good old GameBoy Advance and being on every Nintendo console since, both big and small. The format has remained largely unchanged through this time and the reason for this is that it works.  Fire Emblem Awakening was the first time I played any of the series and I thoroughly enjoyed it and have since gone back and played some of the older ones. The basic format is turn based, you have a group of people under your command, you get to choose who to take with you and they all have different weapon/skill sets. Each character will also level up in an RPG style gaining ability points and other skills as the characters’ level increases. Each unit can also gain affinity with other units if they battle alongside each other giving added bonuses to various stats depending on affinity level.

The Path of Fates

This time around you create your character and find yourself as a member of the royal family, there are two kingdoms and you have links to both, you play through the first few chapters then at the end of chapter 5 you have to make a choice as to where your loyalties lie.  This is the splitting point between Birthright and Conquest. Birthright is the easier one to go for and this is the natural starting point as there are 3 games as part of this set as a whole, the first two already mentioned and the third – Revelations, was released shortly after these two which has a different path completely.

Easy, only if you want it

In the last few incarnations the game has been made slightly easier if you choose it to be. You can have it so that if a unit dies on the battlefield then they stay dead; you can have it so that they stay dead for the battle but come back after; or and this I believe is new to this incarnation, you can set it to its easiest where the unit will appear back on the battlefield with full health at the start of your next turn. To save myself having to restart battles constantly I went for the non-permadeath option (yes I’m a pussy!). Probably the main difference between this game and its predecessor is the removal of weapon degradation which I personally think is great as previously you would often keep your best weapons in storage, saving their precious uses for when you really “needed” them.  This could mean that your best weaponry could be left unused. You also have your own “astral plane” which is your home/castle that you can build, edit, and upgrade as you please.  You can also visit other castles, rate them and various other streetpass based tomfoolery. That part never interested me but I am sure plenty of people out there will enjoy that element.

Hey Baby…

The story is good, it’s never going to completely blow you away but it was enough to keep me interested right to the end.  You have optional battles that you can choose to ignore or even scout for others if you have done all currently available.  Now these are not just for grinding.  Part of the affinity element is that each character can gain S rank with one other person, and if you get a male and female character to S rank then they marry and have a child.  This is where the excuse is a little thin, the child is then placed in a “deeprealm” where time passes much quicker as they are safer there, you then get paralogue quests to rescue them or some such and after that they join your army. Although it’s a poor explanation it’s nice to get additions to your army which take skills from either the mother or father. You also get small scenes when they gain affinity and it encourages you to have units work together.

In Closing

In total I spent 46 hours on this which I really enjoyed, and although I have not 100% completed it (there are still 2 children I could have but the parents are terrible characters in my opinion) I would say I have done most of it. There are also map packs etc that are purchasable in game but I shall be waiting until I have gone through the others before even thinking about these. The little bits of dialogue between the characters is what really makes this game and can be really amusing at times and is just enough to keep you interested. For veterans and new players alike I would recommend this game and although there is nothing really breaking the mould here, if it aint broke don’t fix it!

I give it a solid 8/10

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Resident Evil 7 – Demo Preview Waffle

Well for a start this is just a teaser, it has been said that this isn’t even part of the full game, but if things continue the same then I would have binned off the “7” as people know Resident Evil well enough to know this is something new. It has clearly been made with VR in mind and I can say that the graphics are REALLY impressive. You play through the eyes of the main protagonist and this is done with such an eye for detail it is a joy to behold; just walking into the wall your hand will go up against it as if you were just keeping your balance.

This says this is the first hour, I managed to do it in a fair bit less than that and I was very thorough. What I found was very promising. The atmosphere was incredible. At one point you find a video tape and play it, whilst watching this you are the camera man filming two guys who obviously have some sort of “Most Haunted” type TV show and they are doing a quick view of the house that you are currently trapped in. The really interesting thing about this is that you are in control of the camera as the camera man and it is easy to miss a vital clue as to how to escape your current predicament but you can re-watch the video and watch for things you may have missed. Cheap jump scares are not absent but are few enough to just keep the tension.

This does feel much more like a resident evil game of old, while playing you find a fuse box with a missing fuse for the stairs and a button that currently doesn’t do anything that is labelled stairs, so pretty obvious what is needed but more of the items and things that you would see in the first gen resi games. The only thing that was missing from the demo was any kind of combat which may well be critical to how well this game will actually play in its final form.

Although this played fine with the joypad and TV I am genuinely excited to play this in VR, although the extra rubber brown safety pants are a must for that!

I am not a fan of horror games and despite me getting a whiff of Until Dawn from this I think that anyone who can, should download the free demo and take the first steps into this new chapter of the resident evil story.

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• Developer: id Software
• Publisher: Bethesda
• Platforms: Playstation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows
• Release Date: 13th May 2016

Doom (4)

Single Player Campaign

If you have read any of my previous reviews you will probably know that I am not one for online gaming, as such most FPS games pass me by untouched as they tend to concentrate on that. Then I heard about the new Doom, was never a fan of the originals, used to get lost constantly and my aim was terrible but I heard a few good things about a decent size single player campaign and having just platinumed Dark Souls III I decided to take the plunge. I am happy that I did.

I’m To Young To Die!

You wake up chained to an altar in the UAC facility on Mars which has been overrun the demons of hell, the facility has been siphoning argent energy from hell itself and someone got a little carried away…….

Firstly I was surprised as how fast this is, there is no run button as your standard walking speed is as fast as run in most games of this ilk and that took a little getting used to. Loading times are a little slow but the levels are pretty big, there are 13 levels and each one takes between 45 minutes to an hour to get through. There are also 5 difficulty settings and even on the easiest setting you will still face a challenge.

Graphically this game is good, nothing that you will blow you away and the only downside is that the lack of variety, you are either in the UAC facility or in hell and they both have their own look and feel but there is little variation between each.

Get Your Ass to Mars!

You can play this campaign however you want, if you just want to blast through and get through to the end of the level then you can but there are plenty of rewards for exploration such as energy shards that let you increase the cap on the maximum amount of health/armour/ammo. There are also collectables that unlock classic Doom maps, along with lots of data logs to pick up which contain a load of lore and story (which was refreshing). Granted I didn’t read all of them, but they added more to the story, which although wasn’t surprising it was enjoyable and kept me interested the whole way through.

My only gripe would be that there is a lack of any real boss fights until quite late on in the game (some of them are bloody difficult!) and I think a few small ones earlier on could have been an improvement.

Hurt Me Plenty!

I also liked the gameplay mechanics. There is no reloading which is the same as the old doom games and the most ammo types are used by 2 weapons so deciding which to use can be quite a tactical choice, for example the chaingun is incredibly powerful but burns through your ammo very quickly but the assault rifle also packs a punch but is far more ammo friendly. Each weapon can also have mods fitted and have upgrades you can purchase using weapon tokens earned for slaughtering as much as possible. So each weapons uses can be tailored to your own tastes, and each one “feels” different.

Hey Not Too Rough!

Then there are Glory kills! This is when an enemy is almost dead but you can melee them to finish them off. Doing these makes the enemy drop health and other items depending on your upgrades. I have heard some people complain about these but personally I liked them, they are mostly optional, carry on shooting and they just die but it comes in very handy if you are low on health and need a boost.

Brutal Doom!

Overall this was a far deeper experience than I had expected and I thoroughly enjoyed playing it. It has not broken the mould in any way but is fun to play. Bearing in mind I did not touch the multiplayer aspect which could well add or detract from your personal experience.

I give it a

7/10

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• Developer: FROM Software
• Publisher: FROM Software, Bandai Namco Entertainment
• Platforms: Playstation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows
• Release Date: 24th March 2016

The (supposed) finale of the series that has been brandishing death and frustration for over half a decade.

I was pretty late to the party having only starting with the release of Dark souls II but after that took my soul for over 300 hours I have been a massive fan of the whole series since. So this review is from a biased perspective. If you are new to the franchise I would see my Dark Souls 2 review as that game is probably a little easier to break into.

Dark Souls III is a great game, but in the same way that Star Wars episode VII is a great film. It is definitely for the fans. There is a heady mix of items, characters and locations spanning back over the whole series, with FROM Software’s other baby Bloodborne having an obvious impact on game core mechanics and enemy design. Combat is faster and straight swords seem to have a slight upper hand this time around rather than the slow and heavy greatswords that have ruled previously. Also bosses now have 2 or more phases to keep you on your toes and poison is a lot slower so cheesing with poison arrows is no longer a viable option.

This is undoubtedly the most beautiful game in the series and the audio is also spot on. From the eerie score, to the thunderous boss music, to the murmurings of beasts that are just out of sight it really is pleasing to the eyes and ears.

Character creation feels similar to previous but for the first time it is possible to create a face that doesn’t look like last nights curry on the way back up. Stats seem to be far simpler this time around and there is no stat that isn’t clear exactly what it does. Main difference this time around is that there are no hexes as such, but this seems to have been melded with pyromancy which now requires a combination of both intelligence and faith. Dying isn’t as punishing as it was, gone is the hollowing of Dark Souls 2 where you lost a little of your total health each time until a Human Effigy was consumed, this time around you have Embers which give you more health and a funky fiery glow, these are fairly plentiful and extras can be gained from helping others out with bosses.

We have a Firelink shrine again, however it is much more reminiscent of the Nexus from Demon’s souls. Andre, everyone’s favourite beardy blacksmith returns and Patches is back just to piss everyone off. One of my main gripes with this incarnation is the NPC side quests. Some NPCs just turn up and you have no idea what to do with them until you accidentally join a certain covenant and make them hostile, other NPCs will up and leave if you don’t go and speak to them and give them items in an allotted time and one, who is tucked away in a corner bloody dies once you defeat one of the first main bosses so is easy to miss completely! The Souls series has always had fickle side questlines but I found this time around it would be nigh on impossible to figure some of them out unguided.

The overall world is massive with a huge amount to explore, with plenty of secrets to keep everyone busy, from icy landscapes to fiery pits with a fitting selection of enemies for each, although some do get recycled towards the end of the game this is done conservatively and not as much as previous games have. In comparison to its predecessors, this is a very linear experience, first timers will think I am insane when I say that, but seriously, it is far clearer where you need to be going next than any of the others. I am still unsure if this is a bad thing or not. Part of me says no, as no one likes wandering into an area that is far too hard for them and getting their arse handed to them repeatedly, but on the other hand, there was a kind of glee that you got going back to an area that beat you in to submission a few levels later and beasting your way through it like a boss. Although main story (ha!) would be unaffected by a little more freedom, the already fickle NPC side quests would be further hindered so this is likely for the best.

Having only seen one ending so far, it does feel more purposeful than previous efforts and looking at the conditions to get one of the three, it better be good! The last area of Dark Souls III is Lothric castle and this is HUGE, it have several areas in one and at least 2 proper bosses. It really feels like the end of the game which pleased me as normally this is not the case.

This is “More Souls” and it should have enough of all the previous games to make you happy no matter where you started.  I wish they had done a little more  with it, as big and enjoyable as it is, there isn’t much that hasn’t been done before, aside from a few bits they shoehorned in from Bloodborne.  That being said, if you are a Xbox One or Pc user, this may feel very different to you as Bloodbornes influence is apparent.

My score for Dark Souls III is

8/10

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• Developer: Square Enix, Silicon Studios
• Publisher: Square Enix, Nintendo
• Platform: Nintendo 3DS
• Release Date: 11th October 2011

Bravely second comes out in less than a week and for a change I managed to complete its predecessor before the new one came out (yey go me!). At 55 hours that was no easy feat and you certainly get your monies worth with this one.

My first thought when playing this was that this felt more like a Final Fantasy game than any recent Final Fantasy game released. The overall feel and art style reminded me very much of the much loved series and although this is made by Square Enix I thought they might have done something a little different.

Without spoiling too much, the plot unfolds much as you would expect; there’s been a disaster, you must band together with a few new friends to save the world, standard JRPG base. What makes this game special is both the core mechanics and the sheer wealth of customization, and I am not just talking costumes here I mean how the game is played can be changed quite easily.

The idea behind the brave and default is fairly unique, you can either store up turns to use in the future, or you can do up to 4 turns worth of actions in a round but leave yourself open for the next 3 rounds whiles things catch up, or a combination of the 2. It’s a fun system and introduces some extra tactical thought to an otherwise standard turn based system.

The next few things are what combined make it pretty revolutionary. Firstly you can speed up the battles, so your characters actions can either be normal speed, around twice the normal speed, or even faster meaning whatever you have instructed your characters to do can be over in a flash. You can also set your characters to “Auto” which means whatever actions you gave them last time they will repeat again. Once you get to a high enough level it means most random encounters can be done on auto and at the fastest speed, they can be over in around 15 seconds! This means grinding for levels is far simpler and quicker than in most other games. The final tweak is your random encounter rate. You can either crank this up by 50% or 100%, turn it down by 50%, or off completely. Found an area that gives good XP but you can defeat the enemies fairly easily, then turn the rate up. If you approaching end game and levels make little difference anymore then turn it down or off. All of these functions combined give you a control over the game that would be a travesty if not applied to every game of this genre going forward.

You start with 4 characters, Tiz, Agnès, Ringabel, and Edea. You stay with these 4 for the entire game, but thankfully this game also has a revolutionary “Job” system. Every time you defat a boss, you receive their asterisk, meaning that each character can take on the role of any boss you meet in the game. You can also use up to 2 sets of abilities; one set from the job you have equipped and one from a job that character has levelled up previously. The max level for any job is level 14, you get both XP and job points after a battle and you will easily be able to max out 2 to 3 jobs per character. There are a total of 24 jobs available and although you won’t bother levelling them all up, it means you can make your characters just how you want them and some have combinations that are pretty much unstoppable.

The story of this game for the first 20 to 30 hours is great, nothing revolutionary but enough to keep you interested. After that it gets repetitive. VERY repetitive, you end up fighting the same bosses over and over and for a game of this size it really isn’t needed. The bosses do start grouping together to keep the difficulty up so there is at least some interest and I don’t want to spoil anything but things in the story do change to mix things up a bit but I’ll be honest the last 10 hours or so were not very engaging.

Thankfully a decent ending stops the downward spiral and I did enjoy the game for the most part, the combination of a varied job system and the customizable battle settings left me looking forward to the sequel hoping they have kept the good and made improvements where necessary.

I give Bravely Default

8/10

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