Final Fantasy XIII - Lightning Returns [PS3 Review]

It's been a while since I've done an RPG. I've been meaning to review Tales of Xillia for a long time. But for reasons unbeknownst to even myself I have yet to pen that one. I'd better get it written before Tales of Xillia 2 comes out.

Beyond Two Souls (Demo Review) [PS3]

Two days ago I downloaded the PS3 demo of Beyond Two Souls. I do not normally download a lot of demos for PS3 games. I never played Heavy Rain either, but this game has a lot of hype so I downloaded it.

Time and Eternity [PS3]

Today I'm going to be reviewing a recent PS3 release; Time and Eternity.

The animation is VERY nice.

The game centers around a trio of main characters and begins on their wedding day. No, there is no mistake there. You see, and this is really not a spoiler, two the characters reside in the same body (it actually makes for one of the better mechanics of the game). Their names are Toki (時) and Towa (東和)... I'll give you until after the next line to guess what those names mean.

  Give up?

Clowns with sickles? At a wedding? How deviant!

I hope not.
They mean Time and Eternity.
Yes.

Ok, well lets get things rolling with a slightly better synopsis than that. I won't go too deep as usual, but give a brief overview of the introduction to the game, then we'll talk about mechanics.

You are the mascot character!

Time and Eternity begins the day before you and Toki (redhead above, in the foreground) are to get married. She is the princess of the kingdom and you are but a knight sworn to defend it. You've already got a house together and her three friends are over. Things happen, mostly they raz on you. 

Get used to this view.

The next day you are 'going to the chapel, and you are going to get married.' Or so you think. You and Toki give your vows, and just when you are about the kiss the bride a gang of assassins show up and cut you down. Of course you threw yourself infront of your bride, but still, you took a blade right in the chest.

Great. Game over man!

Or not.

3D landscapes + Cell-shaded Animation? Ok!

You see your bride can manipulate time. Or perhaps I should say your bride is Time (時 Toki). In a fit of panic over you bleeding out, she sends herself back 6  months. You go back too as your spirit is yanked along.

She goes back and ends up as her self, 6 months before you are going to get married. You... you get jammed into the body of her pet dragon, and you can't speak.

Let the hilarity begin.

It's a JRPG. There is a gallery. Unlock it!

 Time and Eternity is actually a pretty simple game when it comes down to it. I mean overly simple at times.

Skill Tree Example.

The game is super simple. You are given a quest, you complete it. Along the way there are monsters. Some quests are irritating, most are easy. Complete the quest get money and GP (gift points). These unlock new skills for Toki and Towa.

You will fight monsters along the way. These are either depressingly easy to defeat or unfathomably irritating. There is no middle ground. Every monster though is actually rather simple once you figure out its pattern. Every monster has a pattern; some complex, some super simple. Memorize, counter, kill. Kill the monsters, get XP, chronos (money), and a small amount of GP.

When you get enough XP you level up, and Toki becomes Towa. Level again and Towa becomes Toki. They each seem to have affinities for certain types of spells and certain styles of attack. Toki is the rifle user, Towa the knife. Both will use both as you fight, but the rifle seems to be used the most. However these weapons are nothing compared to spells. Spells deal far more damage far faster.

Thanks to the skill tree there is some customization that can occur, but not a lot. Customization allows you to max at 12 spells/abilities and a lot of passive skills. Many of the abilities are shared.

Now, just like Toki and Towa look the same (although for some reason switching souls swaps hair and eye color...) monsters look the same too. There might be two dozen monster templates in the game, tops.

Copypasta Monsters. The monster on the left is the same template as on the right.

So as you fight your way through the game you will run into Ninja Alpha, Ninja Beta, Ninja Delta... and so on. The same tactics employed vs Alpha will also kill Delta. Nothing new. Just stronger. Bloody Palette Swaps!

The odd battle style.

That's pretty much the mechanics of the game. No complex crating... oh, but there is a relationship bar. When Drake (you, the pet dragon) helps in battle by healing, and a few other things, Affection and love can increase. I honestly can't tell you what difference Love makes other than the kind of meal your current fiance will prepare for you. Why do I say that... well to see that you'll need to actually beat the game on your own. Essentially, you can see two of the three endings (not really much of a spoiler) from one play through no matter what the love level is. Just make sure to use multiple save slots (always a good idea in any RPG anyways). This helps fill out the gallery for all you Trophy seekers. 

I made sure to get every treasure chest and do every side quest my first time through, for the Trophies! Save the DLC ones. Not really sure if I want to drop more money on the game.

That being said, final review scores after the next image.

Fan Service, even in battle.

I'm going to do this somewhat differently than I reviewed Tomb Raider 2013. I'm not sure which method of review I like best yet. Give me some feedback.

Review Time:

Game Play: Simple combat, simple progression, no real challenge.

1.5 Stars

Graphics: Nice animation (with the oddity in conversations), nice 3D environs... don't quite mesh.

3 Stars

Story: Simple story. Lame jokes. And I met Ray Amuro, Lucy and Linus. Never thought I'd encounter a Gundam pilot with Peanuts characters. WHY?

2.5 Stars

Music/Sound: This is the winner. The music is really good. Nice wonderful songs. I know why it came with a CD. (So did Tales of Xilia... we'll see how that does.)

4.5 Stars

Overall: A bit of a let down. Will I do the second play through for the third ending? Probably. I'm that kinda person. Still there are some serious flaws that should have been addressed.

2.5 Stars

Tomb Raider 2013 [PS3]

Review Time!

This is the first game I've reviewed other than Mass Effect 3 (and I've only really reviewed its endings...) so this will be new.

Anyone else see Natalie Portman?

I suppose thios should be prefaced with me stating very clearly that I have Never played ANY of the prior Tomb Raiders. I've seen one played by someone else, but didn't really care.

This one was different, I kinda knew before I bought it, what I was getting into. I watch other reviews, and videos. So I had an idea that I would be getting an action / adventure game sort of in the vein of Resident Evil 4 (the best RE).

I shot every animal I encountered for XP and more...

Now, with any game there will be good and there will be bad.


I'll start with the good.


It's Beautiful. The scenery is stunning, the graphics are high end powerful and really just blow you away. Everything is very detailed.

Japan. There is a lot of references to Japan from various periods including the Edo period and WWII. Yeah, I'm giving a bit away, but games can always score points with me by using Japanese culture and artifacts. Fun times! The game is loaded with Japanese architecture.

Here you see some Japanese architecture exploding.

Problem Solving. A lot of the game is simple problem solving... path finding, detail finding. The adventure part, only not the old style of adventure games where you tried every item in your inventory with every other item in your inventory. This was more, 'how do I use what I have to get over there?'




It's Fun. Seriously... this might be the most impotant. Games need to be fun and engaging. There needs to be a reason to play them. I was never bored nor was I too often assailed by a stupid 'hit these buttons Right-Now or die' cut scene. Those frustrate and irritate me... because if you do not get it the first time out you can end up repetetively doing the same stupid event-death pattern over and over and over and over... Thankfully, and this is a good point, there was only one of those that really stuck out. Damn you parachute!

And more wonderful architecture...

Now sadly, the bad.




Super Linear Plot. Now I knew there was going to be liner plot, however there was mention of 'extra tombs,' that could be explored. I was expecting involved tombs with multiple puzzles and challenges to overcome. No. Each side tomb presented one puzzle that was never too difficult to overcome. There needs to be a break from the main plot aside from 'fast traveling' to get all the items in earlier regions. All that was needed was involved side-tombs.

Oh look, another easy side-tomb.

Craptacular Multiplayer. Wow, is the MP side of the game a letdown. It feels totally tacked on with no real consideration for quality play. Perhaps I've been spoiled with good add on MP, like that included with ME3. That was good MP, this is bad MP. Glaringly bad.

Rivers of Blood, you swim in them.

Voice Acting. Please for the love of my ears, train VAs in the proper way of pronouncing foreign words, this is very important when a game is filled with foreign words. 'Himiko' is not pronounced like a Dodge 'Hemi.' Thankfully, as the game progressed the pronunciation improved... that or my ears just adapted to the verbal abuse. 

No Replay Value. There is no reason to play this game a second time. The plot is done, the side tombs are simple, and the MP is bad. This is a major blow. I've played ME3 four times, and there has been something new each time. There will be nothing new for Lara in a new play through.


And the worst for last.

Phoning in the Ending. The game is set up as rather realistic (provided that you ignore the fact that Lara Croft would have broken every bone in her body like five times in the course of the game), you hunt for food, you die by falling, you get injured and need medical supplies, you only kill deer, birds, rats, rabbits, wolves, boar, and humans. No ghosts, no skeletons, no zombies. No Fantasy. Scientific journals are found on the island, military divisions researched the phenomenon that the game revolves around... but at the end, it devolves into fantasy mumbo-jumbo. It did not need to. It could have be resolved in a way that fit within the realistic world of the rest of the game. There is no magic until the last 5 minutes. That's as bad the damn Star Child in ME3, before the revised ending. The ending was totally phoned in... and it did not need to be. 

Look! More fire!

Here's the thing. I do not know how much Tomb Raider needs to be a fantasy series. I never played the originals, so I do not know if this is supposed to lead into a full reboot of the whole series.

That in mind, I have to review this as only I know it.


I do not think it is as good as the many scores I've seen on the net, everything from 9.5s to 10s. So I'll rate it in the same way, between 1 and 10.

Tomb Raider 2013 is a solid 7.9 for the overall feel, fun, and beauty. It loses on some wobbly voice acting, a total lack of replay value, and a badly phoned-in ending. Also, lets stop making games where you get bonus XP and rewards for slaughtering all the deer in an area... its a bad lesson.

P.S. I have this sneaking feeling that a lot of this was inspired by Uncharted (which I've never played).

Mass Effect 3: The Crap Ending

Pretty Red Colors...

A little while back I finished ME:3 after getting the Expanded Cut DLC. First time through I chose synthesis, because of all the choices it seems the most 'paragon.' This time I played my careless bad choice Shepard, who at the end of ME:2 had successfully let most everyone on the Normandy die. Garrus, Tali, and accidentally Miranda survived.

So this time I chose what seems like the stupidest ending: Blow up all Synthetics. The Destruction ending. I called the Synthesis Ending the EDI ending because it is told in her voice. EDI is a main character, developed and grown from ME:2 (well... a bit of ME:3 retconning has her descended from ME:1, buts that's another acceptably good story.)

The Destruction Ending is the Hackett Ending. A maguffin character ending for a maguffin character. He serves little purpose other than being a 'motivator' for Shepard to go and do things. This ending was not nearly as good. It suited Hackett, as he was not much in the games, and this ending was not much either. There was not even much remorse over EDI being dead. No, that's not a spoiler - if you kill all the synthetics, you kill them ALL.

Very meh. It was however a completely acceptable end for my careless 'meh' Shepard.

I hope the next ending is better. Why did I choose to go the 'paragon' route first?

Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut 

I finished my first play through of ME3 back right after it came out. I rushed through, kicked the crap outa the Reapers and was rewarded with... confusion, uncertainity, and a very badly scripted ending that left me wanting something more. Much more.

Hell yeah I got more.

 Fans complained. The Internet did its thing - whine long and loud. And then came the Extended Cut DLC. Unfortunately for me, ME3 was now back burner. I had other games to play; Tales of Grace F and Resident Evil 6.

So it would be months before I'd get back to ME3. But I did. I selected one of my five Shepards from ME2, a Femshep, and started it up. Oh, yeah... I bought all the new DLC too. Leviathan and Omega, weapons packs...

I played. I played for 60 hours. Longer than the first time... I did EVERYTHING (except one mistake on Omega).

Do not cry at my grave.

I beat the game, missing only one paragon option (ruining my 100% paragon rating). Going paragon is about peace, unity, cooperation and respect for all life, synthetic and organic. Oh, and they fixed the issue with your squad vanishing in a Reaper blast before the very end... that was good, if you took your romance option (Garrus for FemShep in this play through) it adds an extra touching scene.

The options always throw me at the end: Control, Destroy, Synthesis. Only synthesis seems right for a Paragon - you've fough the whole game for unity and for both types of life. After seeing the Geth plight, you wonder how anyone could choose destroy. And control seems no better... Both seem evil.

So I choose Synthesis.

Holy Crap.

Stuff Is Added. The whole ending is told by EDI. This is the EDI ending, the immediate future is laid out. You see some of your squad mates from ME2 & ME3 after the war. You get more info, you see what was achieved.

This was an ending. Yes, they left the dippy stuff with the old man telling stories of Shepard in the far future... but the rest of the ending, Much Better.

Not yet, but I'm gonna try and see if one of em can get to me.

I'm getting ready to start my next Shepard, my incompetent dolt who got everyone killed last time, and try again. Then I've got at least 2 more to get through... I'm going to experience this ending every way possible. Even shooting the damn Star Child...