Level Up: Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories

I really don’t have an intro this week. Here’s Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memory for the Game Boy Advance.

Chain of Memory was the first game in the Kingdom Hearts line that I played since I didn’t have a PS2. Playing this game first is really interesting since both Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2 were out, and this was set in between them. This should mean that the plot would likely stand on its own since it’s also on a new system and would likely be an introduction to new players, right? Well yes and no. While there is a plot that is introduced in this game, it’s not fully resolved at the end (though, I feel like that might be a trend in these games) . There are also many characters and terms which are referenced like they’re normal, but I don’t know who they are or what they mean. But, I’m getting ahead of myself.

The game begins with Sora (main character for most of the Kingdom Hearts games) Donald and Goofy entering a castle.  Upon coming face to face with a mysterious dark figure, they attempt to use some of the skills they would have known at the end of Kingdom Hearts, but have somehow forgotten them. Evidentially, the castle erased part of their memories upon entering and every floor they visit will be based on Sora’s past (whether he knows it or not). Things start getting a little complicated, as Sora realizes he forgets more as he climbs the castle, but remembers about a girl named Namine.

It is neat that this game attempts to explain how Sora, Donald and Goofy could forget all their abilities between games (the same way we sometimes see Samus lose her equipment), but I don’t think it’s something people raged with Kingdom Hearts 2, was it? If I could believe that the whole plot was based around that trope, it would be pretty cool, but that’s probably not the case. That being said, the easy reasoning behind visiting previously used locations and already met characters is appreciated.

The game play is actually pretty interesting, as it’s also based on the whole memory motif. As previously mentioned, everyone forgot all their skills upon entering the castle. All those abilities have been transferred to cards. You’ll make a deck of cards to use in each battle. While you have the expected selection of spells, assist and items, Sora’s basic attacks are also determined by these. The really neat thing is that even the enemy attacks work on cards, and one can actually interrupt the other. Each card has a number 0-9 on it. After someone plays a card, and until its effect is resolved, lower numbers cannot be played. Higher numbers will interrupt that attack. The exception to this is 0, which will interrupt any number (but obviously can be easily interrupted). 3 cards also can be set aside to use all at once in a combo: possibility letting you use a skill and giving you a higher, harder to beat number.

Of course, you’re not stuck playing the cards as they come out, as you can actually cycle through them and get the ones you need, and you can refresh your deck when you want. Yeah, I admit, on paper, the battle system seems pretty complex. In practice, it’s one of those ones where it’s simpler than it appears, and if you can figure out some of the tricks of it, you can do some pretty cool stuff (like nerf a boss’ deck by timing your 0’s right… and yes, that is how I beat the game).

Chain of Memories is an interesting side-story game for several reasons. First off, there were so many games that would come to later reference it (from what I’ve seen), you have to question whether or not it was intended to have that much of an impact. Also even just playing this one game, you can tell it has connections to others. But as for what it does on its own, I think it’s a pretty cool game. I like the card and deck system, along with the graphics and the worlds you visit. One of the coolest things is how they use a video game trope of forgetting all your skills to inspire almost every aspect of the game (whether it was intentional or not). I’ve seen that this game has seen been remade, and I can’t really comment on that version (since it seems to be more like the other games). But for the first Kingdom Heart game available to people without a Sony system, it makes for a good first impression. I give Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories on the GBA 8.5 Levels out of 10.

Level Up: Power Rangers Time Force

As I’ve mentioned in my reviews of the Power Rangers games for the SNES and Genesis, they were HUGE when I was a kid. However, I grew out of rather quickly when Power Rangers Turbo came around. It’s hard to say exactly what caused my loss of interest; maybe I had grown too old for it, maybe I moved to something else (Pokemon most likely), or maybe it’s just that TURBO SUCKED. Without teenage me knowing it, the Power Rangers were still going on even as of today. Let’s take a look at a game from a Power Rangers series that I missed: here’s Power Rangers Time Force for the Sony PlayStation.

As previously mentioned, I haven’t watched this series during its original run, nor have I have I watched it since. However, I have seen Linkara’s synopsis of it in History of the Power Rangers (and it does sound like a really good series). What struck me as odd was when I heard the Rangers were trapped in 2001. This is certainly not the case in the game, as you are time hoping. You play more the role of “time police” in this game, chasing after time travelling criminals. It’s not a BAD idea at all and I’m pretty sure it has been done before, but the way that it’s pulled off here isn’t even done well: they pretty much tell you what a bad guy is doing when, and you go stop him. Along with some of the obvious tasks you need to do in the stages, it kills the immersion and makes you really aware you are playing a video game.

The graphics in this game aren’t too bad for the time, but the character models are very jagged and polygonal. This isn’t unforgivable for the PS1, but what makes it worse is that the Rangers all have the same shape with a different skin on them (with the exception of the pink one). This isn’t helped with the kind of ridiculous martial arts animations that don’t always seem to connect the way it should. But while the graphics faults could be overlook cause “it’s on the PS1”, I don’t think that excuses the poor audio. The music is pretty generic, and I don’t if my disk is just scratched in a weird way, but it would stop randomly (though in some videos I’ve seen, I does sounds like the music fades before starting a loop over). And while Power Rangers isn’t remembers for the acting, the voices are pretty corny here, especially with the stuff you hear over and over, like when a ranger gets hurt.

So far, everything I’ve discussed are things that can easily be over looked if the game play was great. However, this game sucks all around, and it only takes one level to see that. The first thing you’ll be informed of is that there is a time limit on each stage (because time travel?) and by collecting hourglasses, you can pause the timer (reminding me of NES Back to the Future). You might panic to finish a level quickly, but they don’t tell you it’s just for a bonus. The next thing that happens is that you’ll try to move and notice that it’s very stiff. Your Ranger seems to have a hard time moving diagonally (even with an analog controller) and any movement means taking off in a rush. Then, you’ll likely try jumping, but the jump button is rapid fire. If you h old the jump button to get maximum distance, you might jump again upon landing. And finally there’s fighting. Due to poor hit detections and the weird animations I mentioned already, you might suddenly fall to the ground or just swing wildly at nothing. There’s no flow and it seems the best way to win is by being cheap with running kicks. This especially makes the bosses annoying since you also need to fight them in the Time Force Megazord (sorry, but this game makes me not care about the proper name). The problem is it doesn’t control differently, so it feels like you’re doing the same tedious fight twice.

Power Rangers Time Force is not a good game in anyway… but unlike previous bad games, it’s hard for me to be upset by this. First off, I didn’t watch the series before playing the game, so I had nothing to hold it up to. Secondly, I was kind of expecting it to be bad considering it was this licensed game on the PlayStation. It feels like developers Climax Studios and publishers THQ didn’t even put any effort in this and made a game based on just hearing the name and theme song, so why would I put more emotion into it? The one positive I can say about the game is that it’s irritating, but not frustrating (like a fly buzzing around your apartment). You can finish this and probably won’t break your controller. I give Power Rangers Time Force for the PlayStation 3 levels out of 10.

Level Up: Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest

… How to you even talk about a game like Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest? I don’t mean that in an “I’m offended by it, don’t bring it up” way, I mean what can you actually? See, for those of you not in the know, Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest is a game that was designed with the intention to be an easy RPG for the US market that wasn’t too embracing of RPGs at first(this isn’t even a guess: it’s called Final Fantasy USA in Japan). For this reason, this review might be about the things that AREN’T in this game over the things that are in it. Here is Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest for the Super Nintendo.

The game starts off with Benjamin- your pretty bland main character- climbing up a hill. He meets the standard wise old man who tells him about an impending disaster and what he can do to stop it. Benjamin accepts this role and goes off to save the world by finding 4 stones in the sections of (and I kid you not)- Foresta, Aquaria, FIREburg and WINDIA (they weren’t even trying for the last 2).

This story couldn’t be more generic if it was trying. The Crystals, the “Earth, Wind, Water, Fire” elements, having to save the world… It’s pretty much the default RPG story. That being said, there are a couple of things that’s kind of neat. First off, you’ll notice that I said Benjamin “accepts” his role. It’s cool that he isn’t a chosen one for a change, just someone who decided he would help out (it still isn’t the first time this happened though). Also, you only get 1 partner at a time, so the story has to compensate for this and give the characters a reason to leave and come back later on (which is cool that they do that too). It’s not anything deep, but it fleshes them out a bit more. At least more so than our boring hero…

While the story of this game is paper thin, that can be forgiven because its default for a reason (so many other games have done it). However, the basic game play can’t be, as by this point the concept of improving on the basic battle system was set. Here’s where I really talk about what’s missing from the game: you only ever have one partner, your armour is automatically equipped and you can’t sell them, spells are found instead of learned and there is no free roaming on the world map. That last one might especially damning to the game, because being linear is not a good thing for RPGs. If you want to explore, you’ll have to do that in the towns or in the dungeons.

However, this was all to guide the player along (this is an introduction RPG after all). What I really miss though are random battles. Remember I had said in Dragon Warrior that I like level grinding? That’s nearly impossible to do here.  In the dungeon areas, you see all the enemies you have to fight and they will stay still until YOU decide to fight them. The ones you can skip clearly outweigh the ones you need to fight. Level grinding is still possible… but in battle stations over the world map. They really make the fights become tedious, so I guess it works out that they’re so easy to avoid.

So you might think I believe this game to be boring…. But you’d be wrong. There is one thing that this game got so incredibly right that makes it worth it. Yeah, that’s right, I like Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest and I over look all its flaws because of the exploration. Unlike most top down RPG heroes, Benjamin can jump, and this is a mechanic that is used rather well for certain puzzles in a way that reminds me a bit of StarTropics, but less action and more cerebral. Beyond the jumping, you also have you weapons that are used as tools that will let you climb up walls or cut a path through trees (like a simple Legend of Zelda). It actually reminds me of the Paper Mario games, which is also an easy RPG that people enjoy.

It’s an unpopular opinion of mine that Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest is actually as pretty good game, and for one big reason: it did its job. If this game was meant to ease people into playing more RPGs by providing a simple jumping off point, than I’d say that’s exactly what this is. It trims the fat off more complicated games of the genre so that you can pick up another one and easily build off what you already know. But in the discussion of what Mystic Quest doesn’t do, what it does do is over looked, and I think the puzzles and weapons gimmick is great. The music is rocking too and the graphics are fine (I like how the enemies show damage as you beat them). Granted it is hard to recommend this game now a days, as the fighting is boring, the plot almost not there and things are way more complex now,  but it really does have a very simplistic charm about it. It’s too light hearted for me to criticize harshly. I give Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest 7 levels out of 10.

Level Up: Back to the Future the Game

2015 is here! Hoverboards, flying cards and craaaaazy fashions! Hahaha-uuuuuggggghhhh. As a Back to the Future fan, I was tired of those jokes even before 2015. That being said, I do appreciate the reminder that one of my favorite movies is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. But when looking at video games based on McFly’s adventures in time, it sucks to say the one that gets the most attention is the LJN disaster. There’s one that I think deserves more attention: Back to the Future The Game available for the PS3, OSX and iOS, but I’ll be playing it on the Nintendo Wii and PC.

Back to the Future the Game is a point and click title. This should come as no surprise as this game is developed and published by Telltale games (who you might know from the Walking Dead game or the Wolf Among Us). The basic game is clicking around to interact with objects in order to reach certain goals. Some of it might be obvious while sometimes it requires some lateral thinking. Unlike The Cave, this style involves a lot more thinking and figuring out, and a lot less doing. I could see why people into more action based games would find this boring, but alternatively I can see people who aren’t into regular video games but enjoy puzzles more likely to play this.

But how does this game handle its puzzles? For the most part, they are straightforward, but there are times where you have to use an item that hasn’t come up in a while (so you’re not thinking about it). Luckily, this game has a hint system, so you’re not left on your own for those situations. However, there are also times that you’ll need to interact with small, hard to see objects. I have clear memories of being frustrated by them and had to look up where exactly I had to click (the Wii-mote pointing control didn’t help). I have to mention that this game comes after Telltale Game’s Tales of Monkey Island, which had an option to highlight all the objects you can interact with.

And there’s often a lot you can interact with, not just objects for the story. You can inspect things and talk to people that really serve no purpose other than maybe provide a red herring. Your gameplay time might significantly increase from wanting to see every option, but you sometimes just get one shot. I guess this was made so that it feels like your choices make a difference, but this is handled poorly, as McFly often spouts a combination of all choices or gets interrupted before saying it. This is one thing the Walking Dead game did much better. It is cool that your name choice is remembered though.

The story of Back to the Future the Game is really where its appeal comes from for BTTF fans. Taking place the year following the 3rd movie (well, in terms of where Marty is now, you know, due to that whole time travel thing), Doc Brown has been gone for some time and the state is selling off his estate. A disappointed Marty is trying to convince someone to stop it, when the Delorean appears. Einstein comes out, but the only clue to the Doc’s location is a recording he left explaining that he set the Delorean to go to that time automatically if he can’t get to it for whatever reason. After a bit of puzzle solving, you find that you have to travel back to Hill Valley in 1931 (full swing of the prohibition era).

That is all I want to share of the plot, and it really is the tip of the iceberg for the full game. What I have described is just the start of the first episode, and there are 5. The story takes so many twists and turns with its plot that I don’t want to spoil it in any way. Of course, along with all the new stories this game has to share, there are also old characters and recurring story elements that are recognizable for most fans and a joy to see implemented in this game.

To be perfectly honest, Back to the Future the Game is not a game that I enjoy because of the game play. Don’t get me wrong, it can work to get you invested in needing to see what happens next, and figuring out a puzzle can give you a rewarding feeling even if they aren’t the most challenging ever. But the true allure of this game is the plot. This is one of those licensed games where you can tell the makers really cared about the source material. This is shown with certain references and moments that would make most fans really appreciate that it wasn’t over looked. Along with that, I think that the 1931 setting for most of the game was a brilliant idea, the story structure is solid and the twist and turns over 5 episodes surprisingly don’t get old. This game is of course worthwhile for fans of point and click games, but even more so, even the most casual fans of Back to the Future should enjoy this. I give Back to the Future the Game for the Wii and PC 9 levels out of 10.

Level Up: Xexyz

There’s sometime a lot of talk about people buying games just based on graphics, cover art or a licence. However, I have bought a game based on nothing more than the name. Try to pronounce this: X – E – X - Y – Z. According to Wikipedia it is either pronounced “zeks-zees” or “zeks-iz” (I go with the second one). If you’re like me, you just gotta find out what type of game lies behind the name. Let’s find out in this review of Xexyz for the Nintendo Entertainment System.

This review was chosen for Valentine’s Day so there is a damsel in distress. However it feels very tacked on and unnecessary here. I mention this now, because it doesn’t come up in the following summary.

So by the title Xexyz, have any of you guessed that this was a sci-fi game? Taking place in the year 2777, the earth has been changed to the point where only five islands exist. Together, they form the nation of… Xexyz (yay for title explanation)! Not only is Xexyz home to humans, but it also fairies and other spirits, all under the rule of a king. One day Xexyz is attacked by an alien named Goruza (who I assume is related to Garuda from Shadow of the Ninja). Goruza sets up a mechanical fortress on each of the 5 islands, kidnaps each of the island’s queen, kills the king of Xexyz and kidnaps the king’s daughter (damn, normally bosses only one of those). You play Apollo, a battle-soldier fighting back in a “space battle suit” (because it’s not sci-fi unless you needlessly put space in front of something).

Again, the romance doesn’t play much of a part in the story, but the game IS named after the setting. That’s where I feel was the focus here: the world you’re in. It actually creates a neat theme of balancing the old ways (the peaceful but defenseless fairies) and the over bearing but powerful technological future. Apollo, who lives with the fairies but enhances himself with technology, walks the line between the two. Or maybe I’m over thinking a game with a last second romance shoved in there.

The game play of Xexyz is an interesting mix. For the most part it’s a platformer adventure type thing comparable it to Zelda 2, but not quite. You’ll walk around the main area jumping and shooting monsters to get money in order to buy upgrades and better weapons (essential in later stages). You also can’t just walk left to right and get the boss: there is some exploring that needs to be done. As previously mentioned, each island has a fortress. To get into this fortress, you need a star. In order to get a star you need to find the proper room and beat a sub boss. In order to find that sub boss, you must find the correct star block (there are many in a stage) and shoot it five times. All that, THEN you’re ready to enter the castle, and NAVIGATE your way around it to find the boss.

However, that’s the main part of the game play. In between platforming levels, you’ll have side scrolling shoot ‘em up ones, which seems very inspired by Gradius. It’s pretty much your typical shoot things before they hit you affair. While they have their own level numbers, they’re done much faster and pretty much just serve as a means to get you to the next island and mix up the game play. But if you think this change feels jarring at all, then you’d be wrong. You know how modern games have physics, and you can take its engine, put it in a different game and it still feels the same? Yeah, that’s what these sections are like. While the game play is switched, it still feels like the same game.

I was pleasantly surprised by Xexyz. While it can come off as a space rip-off of Zelda 2, the game play works really well and it does make it more engaging than a typical side scrolling platformer. The graphics and music/sounds aren’t anything to rave about (in some cases, kind of bad) but for the world that developer Atlus and publisher Hudson Soft tried to create, it’s fitting enough. There are also some moments where it can get pretty frustrating, like when you need to start collecting money for an upgrade you lost while dying, finding the right star blocks and navigating the castles. But all together, Xexyz is one game where my curiosities about it really paid off, and it comes recommended for any NES collection. I give Xexyz for the NES 8 levels out of 10.