NIS America

Sit-Rep: Grand Kingdom – Where Combat is Like a Row of Bowling Pins

/ Dustin Murphy / 1 Comment

Pros:
+Lane based combat is fun, exciting, and fresh with its Strategy RPG take
+Amazingly beautiful art style that’s quite enjoyable and easy on the eyes
+An amazingly nice and settling score that is quite enjoyable
+Character classes feel unique and fresh
+Customization options were quite plentiful and unique

Cons:
-Voice acting is ‘meh’ at best.
-Story feels as if it drags on versus being enjoyable

Review Summary: Grand Kingdom is an enjoyable adventure that takes players across a world that is at constant war. Bringing in high-risk with high-reward turnarounds. The game enthusiastic brings in a new and unique form of turn based combat and strategy elements. The title is a hidden treat for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita owners.

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Take a look at any game on the shelves right now and you are probably going to run in on a rather familiar take on the same elements. It’s a trend the industry has grown used to. We’re seeing plenty of game clones when it comes to titles like Call of Duty, Battlefield, Minecraft (anyone else sick of builder games?), and even Pokemon titles. There’s zillion’s of spin-off titles that follow them. However, what happens when a game such as Grand Kingdom comes in and offers a unique twist on the strategy and RPG like elements.

Adding in traditions of the renowned Strategy RPG genre, Grand Kingdom comes in unexpected in every form of its elements that offers up for fans to enjoy. The game is a rather nice treat for PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 4 owners. Getting our hands on the Beta that was sent out not long ago, we got some early impressions in on it, ones that taught us the game takes on the elements of your traditional JRPG while trading out some ideals from strategy titles. If that doesn’t sound familiar, then you are getting ready for a rather large, but enjoyable time sink for gamers.

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If one were to want to get in on the games rather confusing story, it’s easy to break down. The world the title takes place in is a constant war, one that is filled with small militaries trying to fight off groups of mercenaries. Taking its approach as an anime-like title, Grand Kingdom’s turns into a hunt for constant money for our protagonists. The story? It’s too easy to pick apart thanks to its traditional anime-like style where players can face palm rather quickly so that they may be able to work towards a possibility of diplomacy. Unfortunately this takes away from any hope at a rather climatic story, one that brings in the tragic nature of this games visionary world of war or even the ideals of loss and damages war can cause.

Neglecting on these facts, Grand Kingdom is a rather enjoyable form of gameplay mechanics as war remains endless as ever. While there are plenty of characters that may seem rather integral to the world, there’s always the consistent threats of “kicking the enemies ass” as players take to each chapter. If it makes any sense, the whole war isn’t as serious as the game would have you believe in the long run. Sad, huh? The real part of the game that draws eyes isn’t the games lacking story, but the games rather intuitive combat design that takes on old RPG elements, and strategy elements.

Turning away from the games story that can quite easily be ignored, the mechanics, customizations, and even a fresh breath of air in a known genre. If you are a fan of board games, Grand Kingdom takes on a unique spin of a table top game as players will move their pawn across the battlefield that is set before them. Doing so will bring characters into combat randomly or with pre-place enemies if players don’t fall into traps or treasures. Nothing welcomes a player into a tile-set like watching a character getting themselves blown into smithereens by an enemy cannon.

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When merging into combat, Grand Kingdom begins to truly shine as players will find themselves given three lanes that their team will be placed on. These lanes represent rows in which both friendlies and enemies will be placed upon as they duke it out to win. Given a set amount of “action” points, players will find themselves scurrying across battlefields while attempting to beat enemies into the ground. However, it’s not as simple as it sounds. Using characters like the archer, players will find themselves given chances to use certain abilities such as the games archer class using an ability like “Longshot” where the character will nail a single enemy. While classes such as the arcanist can send lightning bolts and fireballs across the lane. The downside? These attacks can actually harm friendly members if they are in the way of their caster.

While combat may seem rather linear with characters such as the arcanist, Shamans, Witch, and even the Dragon Mage offer varied combat – Grand Kingdom is fresh as players will find themselves with plenty to do across the entirety of the game. Thanks to the familiar art styles of Chiz Hashii that brings in beautiful details and character animations, the game offers screen-filled popping life to the entire game while character portraits also remain rather alive as well as animated. This is easily accented with some of the best music you’ll hear within the game, something that was brought to life with Odin Sphere Leifthrasirs composer – Mitshuiro Kaneda. Now if only the actors could have put as much love into the game as the composer and artist did.

Overall, Grand Kingdom is a game that offers a fresh breath of air for players that decide to give this game a chance. This will definitely be a game for PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 4 owners to get their hands on if they give it the chance.

Our review is based on a copy provided to us by the games publisher.  For information about our ethics policy please click here.

 Final Score: 7 out of 10

About the Writer:

dustin_batgr_prof

Dustin is our native console gamer, PlayStation and Nintendo reviewer who has an appetite for anything that crosses the boarders from across the big pond. His interest in JRPG’s, Anime, Handheld Gaming, and Pizza is insatiable. His elitist attitude gives him direction, want, and a need for the hardest difficulties in games, which is fun to watch, and hilarity at its finest. You can find him over on Twitter, Google+, and or you can find him on PSN with RaivynLyken.

Touhou Genso Rondo: Bullet Ballet Arrives in North America in September

/ Dustin Murphy / Leave a comment

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If you’ve been wanting new bullet Hell style games and can’t quite keep going back to the very few their are, no worries, NIS America has you covered. NIS has announced that Touhou Genso rondo: Bullet Ballet will be arriving in North America on PlayStation 4  starting September 9th, 2016. The physical release will get a limited edition that features an artbook, OST, art cards, and some bonus in-game DLC for those of you looking for a little something special when the game launches.

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If that wasn’t enough for you, NIS has also announced that there is now an Official Website that you can visit to find out more about the game. You can check out the games teaser trailers, some pictures, and even get a little bit of backstory about the title before its launch. Stay tuned for our review.

About the Writer:

dustin_batgr_prof

Dustin is our native console gamer, PlayStation and Nintendo reviewer who has an appetite for anything that crosses the boarders from across the big pond. His interest in JRPG’s, Anime, Handheld Gaming, and Pizza is insatiable. His elitist attitude gives him direction, want, and a need for the hardest difficulties in games, which is fun to watch, and hilarity at its finest. You can find him over on Twitter, Google+, and or you can find him on PSN with RaivynLyken.

Review: Stranger of Sword City – Swinging Swords in the Dungeons of the Future

/ Dustin Murphy / Leave a comment

Pros:
+Strong combat mechanics that reflect upon classic row-based fighting
+Character classes offer unique blends in combat and require player awareness
+Difficult to start out, but lightens up as players progress
+Hiding mechanic offers a unique twist to dungeons
+Character portraits are top-notch as well as enemy portraits. Astonishing artwork

Cons:
-Typical “become the hero” plot that doesn’t leave this theory behind much
-Combat gets repetitive after a decent amount of time
-Difficulty scaling rapidly decreases and declines with time

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It’s hard to admit that both the Xbox 360 and Xbox One have been making difficult strides to be hubs for JRPG titles. The Xbox 360 saw exclusives such as Infinite Undiscovery, Lost Odyssey, and a push at titles like Magna Carta 2, which has been reasonably well received all around. Microsoft’s attempts, however didn’t end there, and remain to keep right where they are at. That was until Sony’s beautiful handheld, the PlayStation Vita for those wondering, received a unique diamond in the rough. Luckily for the PlayStation Vita, this isn’t something all that odd nor is it something all that unique since the handheld thrives like a shining star thanks to JRPG games. Unfortunately for the Xbox One, it has not even come close to tapping into JRPG games as it did in the past nor does it seem even close to grabbing onto the JRPG market like the Xbox 360 had. Luckily? Stranger of Sword City managed to slip in between the cracks and attempted to fill this gap, but for the Vita? Does it even manage to fill a much needed spot in the latest of game releases? That’s where we come in to discuss this title by Experience Inc.

 

Be it odd, the world seems almost non-existent when it comes to modern day dungeon crawling JRPGs. Sure we’ve seen a few titles out there, but nothing that really sticks its nose out and tries to be unique. Yea we’ve gotten titles such as Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters, Lost Dimension, and a few other various titles on the PlayStation vita, but none that went back to the traditional look of things. Unfortunately for the Xbox One this isn’t the case, which makes the catalog comparison rather difficult when it comes to Microsoft’s home console. However, the game takes familiar turns for some players that are used to the first person view RPGs that require them to tap multiple times to go in a single direction, block by block, which isn’t seemingly uncommon anymore. If you’ve ever played a title like Wizardy back on NES? These game types are a strong nod to the type of JRPG this one is. However, for some of you? You’ve probably imported the game since it originally released in Japan on PC/Xbox 360 back in 2014 and just now made its way stateside in 2016.

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If you ever watched a show like Lost, imagine it has teamed up and had a child with a good game of Dungeons and Dragons, and that’s what the game delivers, but with an awkward start since players start out with a rather large plane crash. After it happens, the story takes place of our avatar waking up in a dimension unfamiliar to them where creatures known as “Lineage” have taken over and the monsters guarding them have overrun the world around the player. With a fair number of other humans and otherworldly creatures here, the avatar will be teaming up with other humans labeled as “Strangers” who are also strong and talented like your own, but that would be thanks to the lower gravity.

While players get underway, they are quickly going to witness their character being titled the “Chosen One” who will cause players to put into the middle of a rather large faction dispute. One where their new world is run by Three Kingdoms, all ruled by strangers, who are all combating for Blood Gems, which will allow them to gain god like powers that can only be obtained by slaying “Lineage Type” creatures. Surprisingly enough? Players will be able to support one of these three kingdoms in order to obtain Blood Gems and attempting to return home to your world.

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Unlike titles such as New Tokyo Legacy Operation Abyss or Operation Babel, Stranger of Sword City is not an easy title nor is it an entry level JRPG. Instead the game starts out with varying degrees of difficulty that will leave players cringing with each step as they attempt to play. Even on the “Easy” difficulty the game has presented challenges a long the way that will cause players to cringe as they begin to find that even some of the easiest enemies are some of the hardest to fight against. Let alone are fights difficult, the menus for the game alone are quite difficult to explore while players will find themselves struggling to manage through them. Let alone are they hard, players will also find the leveling system is a bit more complex than just achieving the experience needed to level up, but also the fact that players will need to navigate the party menu in order to highlight the character they need before hitting LB/RB or L/R depending on if on Vita or XBO. Once done players can choose a single stat point to place depending on where they want it spent in order to provide a better challenge for enemy characters.

While in combat, players will find themselves cringing in pain while trying to revive party members. Unlike the main character, however, secondary characters can suffer from perma-death after being revived 2-3 times at max. Unfortunately, this mean training new characters. Players will need to prepare rather heavily when attempting to dungeon dive in order to keep party members at full health. This challenge provides a constant new face on the team if players make the fatal mistake that will lead to one of their party members being killed rather quickly. Their revival points? Are also determined on a characters age, which will come at players debating whether they want more skill points to assign of if they want more revives. This weight comes at heavy costs depending on how skilled players want their characters or how many times they want to bring them into combat.

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For combat, players will want to spend a decent amount of time planning out their teams roster. For me? This meant creating 1-2 characters of each class and rotating them out as I went back to town to heal, but also to buy new equipment. The reason behind this? If a party member dies, it means that players will take 24 in-game hours to revive. If that’s not enough, players will find themselves rotating their characters out in order to keep the roster full. While this sounds fun and all, these replacement ally’s will start out on the spot fresh or where they left off in each dungeon, XP itself means that they will be under-leveled for a few hours in. Luckily, if you have back-up party members, they will gain experience while resting and as your main team goes through combat. Luckily characters generated by the player will scale to the players progress. It’s still suggested to get them the gear they need to provide a top-notch experience.

While a lot of these design choices are rather odd and offer a unique combat experience unlike New Tokyo Legacy Operation Abyss, players will find themselves managing everything quite easily within a few hours of gameplay. It is suggested to take some time reading the manual in order to learn controls, status effects, etc while players dig through the game itself. This will lead to payers appreciating these small stalling factors once they get underway with the title. Fortunately the complications begin to go away as players learn to upgrade gear, fetch quests, and take on random encounters that include ambushes that players can set up. These ambushes will carrying loot that players can take if the “boss” enemy is taken out in time. This means players can use the “Check Monster” in order to check their levels and types. This will also allow players to see what loot they are taking on that can include rings, weapons, underwear, and even usable items for player sin order to determine whether the risk of fighting these creatures is worth it or not.

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Stranger of Sword City – PlayStation Vita [Reviewed] and Xbox One [Reviewed]
Developer: Experience Inc.
Publisher: NIS America
Price: $39.99 USD
Released: Available Now

If players decide the loot isn’t worth it, they can pass and wait for the next group, unfortunately doing so will allow for players to be ambushed in turn. If they decide to flee, they can leave this “Hiding” option in order to flee all together. This option can’t run forever, this means a completing a successful or unsuccessful combat means that players will use and or raise their Divinity Points that allow for unique experiences. This will allow players to hide or flee from combat if they are ambushed. While items are obtained in combat, players can use a “Identify” option to find out what items are. This means they can find rings, monster parts, and or strange items that may or may not have any other attributes to them. From here, players can choose to identify them constantly, but this option can fail due to a players luck. If the option fails the item becomes cursed and will be required to be cleansed upon leaving the dungeon so that players can use it with a party member. This doesn’t offset the amazing art styles that can be chosen through the games options menu. While this is minor it does offer a varied experience for those wanting a more realistic portraiture for each character.

While the games mechanics are thoroughly dismissed in tutorials, the options can be quite easily learned if players have the amount of patience needed for it. Even with this unnecessary learning curve, players can easily learn the game as time goes on throughout it. While it provides a unique experience challenges are present at every corner and welcome players to conquer them by any means necessary.

Our review is based on a copy provided to us by the games publisher.  For information about our ethics policy please click here.

 Final Score: 7 out of 10

About the Writer:

dustin_batgr_prof

Dustin is our native console gamer, PlayStation and Nintendo reviewer who has an appetite for anything that crosses the boarders from across the big pond. His interest in JRPG’s, Anime, Handheld Gaming, and Pizza is insatiable. His elitist attitude gives him direction, want, and a need for the hardest difficulties in games, which is fun to watch, and hilarity at its finest. You can find him over on Twitter, Google+, and or you can find him on PSN with RaivynLyken.

Review: The Witch and the Hundred Knight Revival Edition – Some Things Aren’t Worth Reviving

/ Dustin Murphy / Leave a comment

 

Pros:
+Insanely fun hack’n’slash mechanics in late game progres
+Creative Character Designs
+Level designs are beautifully artistic and lively
+Use of item pick-ups is unique and different
+Weapon attack rotation system is deeply intuitive and will require some thought
+Tower of Illusions adds an immense amount of gameplay

Cons:
-Cussing.. Sooo much cussing that it seems to be there just to be there.
-Maps could use a bit of redesigning as many of them seem rather.. The same.
-Major plot holes that just never quite get filled in

 

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Originally released on PlayStation 3, The Witch and the Hundred Knight hit the shelves just a mere two years ago, and gained a decent amount of fans who wanted something new. Like any Nippon Ichi Software game, The Witch and the Hundred Knight has their unique touch of using anime like graphics, and anime-like graphic novel story telling. This time around the game has been launched for the PlayStation 4 with upgraded graphics and framerates, but with only one minor addition – Tower of Illusions that adds around 100 floors for fans to smash through with some difficulty later on.

When playing a game that has been remastered, many of us expect to see a game that has been heavily upgraded. To see a game that has new mechanics, new graphics, more content, and all the bugs and kinks fixed by the time it launches. Issue here? The remastered version, rather the Revival Edition doesn’t see many upgrades, if any at all. Instead it’s rather hard to see where the game has been remastered at all besides frame rate and slight changes to the graphics where rough edges have been decently smoothed out. Besides that frame rate drops intermittently happened when combat became graphically intensive for the games engine, but even caused the PlayStation 4 to significantly warm up, something we’ve not encountered outside of graphically far-more intensive games such as Battlefield 4, Battlefield Hardline, Call of Duty Black Ops 3, Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn and even Bethesda Zenimax’s Fallout 4.

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While The Witch and the Hundred Knight seems to attempt improving upon itself the game is still rather fundamentally flawed in every aspect that was wrong with the initial launch. While the story can be said to be original, creative, and or like an anime, I’d have to disagree at almost every statement to the fact. While it is rather entertaining for around the first six hours, I found myself bored by the three hour mark due to repetitious combat, the overly absurd amount of cussing that comes out of Metallia’s mouth (Metallica in Japan). While the unprecedented use of foul language can be amusing to some, to players like myself, it was a quick turn off, and one that made me want to skip every cutscene possible, but for the sake of the review I didn’t. Fans of JRPG’s such as myself should be used to something that attempts to push the boundaries, in this case, it was a little too much, but nothing near as bad as the massive amount of plot holes, unexplained events, and poor character development that happens. When it comes down to it, Metallia’s reasoning behind summoning our poor character “The Hundred Knight” is to bring revenge upon those who wronged her, without knowing who they are, we assume they’ve wronged her horribly. The first victim was quite easily one that was understandable to not fear, her mother, which she quickly turns into a rabbit, and she lets horny other male rabbits chase her mother off into the woods. Issue here? It was odd, a portion of a story that quite easily made me question the design choice, and even the choice as to what made her hate her mother just this much. Without it being explained, I shrugged my shoulders and continued trucking on to uncover more of the story.

All that I came to really uncover? She summoned the One Hundred Knight in order to expand her swamp due to his power and his strengths in combat. Well also the fact she can’t go where no swamp land is left. With only 100 days to live, 99 if you count out the tutorial, The Witch and the Hundred Knight troubles itself with explaining why Metallia has so little time left. Only assumption we can make is that she is cursed or she screwed herself over completely somehow. While the campaign does have some redeeming factors such as its comedy relief, the title completely breaks the trend we’ve come to know Nippon Ichi Software for, which in ways is a redeeming factor for the title. If they had left the story out? The Witch and the Hundred Knight would be an astonishingly interesting hack-‘n-slash title that wouldn’t need a campaign due to its creative use of combat and puzzles.

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When stepping away from the campaign, as stated, the game has many redeeming qualities that to some can be repetitive, but to others will be enjoyable. When looking at the game mechanically, our titular hero in this story – the Hundred Knight- is rather enjoyable. Combat with him is unique as weapons can be assigned in five slots. If players set these up right, his weapons can unleash a devastating combo that can quite easily place enemies out of combat and force them to become Knights food to regain GCals or Gigacals. These Gigacals are essentially Knights way of staying energized for the fight. Starting at 100 they will quickly begin to be consumed as Knight enters combat, explores the map, or even healing over time upon taking damage. While raiding buildings he will even consume his Cals in order to raid buildings where he can find unique items.

Combat in the game can be creative even though it requires constantly smashing on the square button. But it gets harder than just that when players are looking to dodge, block, and isolate enemies in order to weaken them enough to become food. If done wrong? Players will find themselves surrounded by enemies if the enemy isn’t even fast enough or a button order is messed up. The only issue here? It becomes a game of isolate the enemy only to beat them down as quickly as possible. Unfortunately these mechanics are all that makes the game unique outside of the fact you can’t use items found in the field. They must first be extracted from the Knights gut by returning to Metallia’s little home base before they can be equipped or left unused for the time being. Downside of this? It does begin to become a lot of items to sort through rather quickly.

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The Witch and the Hundred Knight Revival Edition – PlayStation 4 (Reviewed)
Developer: Nippon Ichi Software
Publisher: NIS America
Cost: 39.99 USD
Release Date: Now Available

The last redeeming factor is what many would know as an Endless Tower. Sitting at around 100 floors, the Tower of Illusions is a place where players can attempt to scale it by completing floor objectives. For a short while this includes quickly dispatching enemies through beating them up. As enemies are defeated and floors are scaled, the game grows increasingly difficult, enough to the extent that the game could quite easily make several players beat their heads into walls in an attempt to try and make the agonizing pain stop as floors become too difficult. If that happens? Go back out to the main area, level up some by completing the story, and revisit the Tower of Illusions to see just how good you can do. While this may seem fun for a short bit, again, it grows repetitive as players will find themselves smashing square while they aren’t fighting through hordes of enemies that they may be unable to beat in the long run.

With all this being said, if you are one for a game filled with plot holes that aren’t quite filled, cut scenes make little to no sense, and constantly smashing square; this is a game for you. If you are one for a deeply intuitive game that requires plenty of thought and understanding for situational awareness? It’s advised to look elsewhere, but for those who love JRPG’s like this? The game is right up your alley and will keep you busy for hours on end as you uncover the lands around you, its secrets, and attempt scaling The Tower of Illusions. Unfortunately? Even then this game could be a bit more troublesome as even that might just get repetitive as well. Though if you are one for a game with a 29.99 USD to a 39.99 USD price tag? This one may just be for you. If you have a PS3 and can find it on sale? That might be the better choice as many of the flaws from its original release remain intact and Tower of Illusions seems to be the only addition worth noting in the scheme of things.

Our review is based on a review copy that was provided to us by the games publisher.  For information about our ethics policy please click here.

 Final Score: 6 out of 10

 

About the Writer:

dustin_batgr_prof

Dustin is our native console gamer, PlayStation and Nintendo reviewer who has an appetite for anything that crosses the boarders from across the big pond. His interest in JRPG’s, Anime, Handheld Gaming, and Pizza is insatiable. His elitist attitude gives him direction, want, and a need for the hardest difficulties in games, which is fun to watch, and hilarity at its finest. You can find him over on Twitter, Google+, and or you can find him on PSN with RaivynLyken.

Review: Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls – Where Skirts and Bullets Fly

/ Dustin Murphy / Leave a comment

Ball

Pros:
–A story that fits the franchise perfectly and leads to amazing character development
–The new adventuring in third person as a shooter is a blast
–The soundtrack is amazing well done and fits the franchise beyond perfectly
–The game brings a new and striking visual setup for the franchise

Cons:
–Some mechanics in the gameplay can make the game feel clunky at random intervals
–Visual appeal can be lost at times, which causes a loss of player immersion
–Minor bugs such as sound hiccups and enemies detecting you when their back is turned

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You’d probably not be surprised when I say that I actually love this franchise, but when it comes to having an enemy I absolutely abhor? This franchise made this happen, but in an absolutely perfected way. Oddly? It’s not that awesomely disturbing character we’ve come to know as Monokuma; the villain of this games franchise as well as the most homicidal mechanical bear I’ve ever seen in my life. Instead this game features a set of villains that will make you want to rip your hair out if you ever run into a kid like these. In this title we get to see a set of kids that aren’t just crazy, they are self-absorbed, homicidal, and even just shy of being absolutely freaking crazy enough to send chills down your spine. This is something that will be a consistent theme within Ultra Despair Girls.

The game starts off by introducing us to our everyday high school girl who doesn’t seem to have much going for her, except for the fact she is completely normal, and has nothing special about her. In truth, Komaru Naegi is your average girl who likes to chill-out in her Towa City apartment. However, things go nuts when her life gets turned upside down on its head and thrown into a life gone nuts as she is taken captive by an unseen force that eventually dumps her out in Towa City once more, but it is not what she knew. Towa City has been taken over by a massive army of Monokuma’s and a group of children who become known as the Warriors of Hope who are controlling them. Their revolution has incited children to murder adults and cause the house to become a children’s paradise where adults are not present, but instead very dead.

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If you aren’t a stranger to Danganronpa, there is one theme you may keep rather familiar with, one of them being the fact that the franchise is beyond well known for its unspeakably difficult and cruel motives that every character seems to have somewhere down the road. This can include small things such as saving people or simply choosing routes that may yield painful plights for entire groups of people. For those who are unfamiliar with the titles, Danganronpa games are an emotional rollercoaster, one where players will find moments that the game will come close to their heart and other moments where the game shows a very harsh as well as cruel reality where players will find themselves going outside of their known comfort zones.  This is all charged by the game using a very dystopian feel where all hope will truly be lost in the long run.

The games story isn’t just driven by the dialogue, which is shown off in a graphic novel approach that is uncommon for games such as these. In the game where dialogue isn’t being represented, players will find themselves overcoming exploration as well as puzzles using the hacking gun, which is Komaru’s only tool for survival outside of her wits and cunning. The hacking gun features several unique features such as Blast, which kills Monokuma’s; Dance, which literally makes them dance like a bunch of weirdo’s; Knockback, which does just as it sounds like; Move, which makes things move, and even Reveal that uncovers secret locations as well as hidden messages. This is where the gun is one of the most important tools in the game as players spend time going through leveling, upgrading it, and even making it one of the most versatile utility in the game. With it players will explore puzzles that would otherwise be difficult and purely annoying due to levels of frustration.

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Between these rather carefully crafted puzzles that get more difficulty with time, there is an underlying issue that will leave many players wanting to slam their Vitas down in pure frustration such as the Monokuma’s in each puzzle that can easily catch our overly feeble Komaru who seemed to die rather easily if caught. The downside to this portion is the simple fact that Komaru doesn’t even attempt to use her hack gun to survive, but instead merely dies once one comes near her. This shows her lack of mobility, which in the long run is hard to cope with as the maps are huge, boss sequences can take a while, and even difficult when Komaru is taking off larger enemies that will swarm her. This is where her friend Toko seems like she would be rather helpful when she goes into her killer mode known as “Genocide Jack” who seems to suffer a bad case of Multiple Personality Disorder. Though there is something that is more painful than the mechanical flaws such as the timer on Genocide Jack, bullets for the Hacking Gun, and even Monokuma Balls that will chase you down during your game. This is the game deciding to crash during some of the most taxing fights, and even requiring me to reset my entire Vita before returning to the game. Some of these included my Vita going sluggishly slow, which has surprisingly not been seen as of late, but it does happen on a rare basis. Just keep in mind that when this happens, you’ll notice it, and it will become infuriating.

Unlike previous titles, Ultra Despair Girls is not something that will keep you intrigued to play when it comes to this title, but instead it is the story that is very carefully written and even crafted so that fans will remain as engaging as this one. Instead it’s the very text heavy story that will keep fans indulged thanks to how well written and engaging it is. This includes the fact that both Komaru and Toko aka Genocide Jack both seem to pull off quite a bit with their scripted chemistry that allows for a rather amusing time and well crafted senselessness that is a comical relief. Unlike its previous titles, however, the visuals and even the music both add to the experience thanks to how well coordinated they are together in existence. This follows through quite well with the games use of scenery, 3D models, and even the use of of some 2D novel like moments.

Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls – Vita [Reviewed]
Developer: Spike Chunsoft
Publisher: NIS America
Price: 39.99 USD
Released: Available Now

Much like the previous titles, Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair girls has several things that follow it through and allow it to be a unique twist to the franchise. Such a unique one that the game could easily set the scene for future titles that want to follow suit as a mediocre survival-horror-shooter title that keeps itself unique with the setting, the story, and even the conversations that take place, but to those who liked the interactive novel approach? It seems that this game will be the one that ends this for the series and that is something nice to see as long as the variations keep true to what the franchise is about. Much like the franchise we’ve come to love, Ultra Despair girls is a game that sticks true to its roots thanks to visual dialogue through conversations, insanity, and overall well coordinated character development. This is a psychotic story and adventure that should be enjoyed by all whom own the Vita and love these kinds of games.

Our review is based upon a pre-release of the final version that was given to us by the games publisher.  For information about our ethics policy please click here.

 Final Score: 6 out of 10

About the Writer:

dustin_batgr_prof

Dustin is our native console gamer, PlayStation and Nintendo reviewer who has an appetite for anything that crosses the boarders from across the big pond. His interest in JRPG’s, Anime, Handheld Gaming, and Pizza is insatiable. His elitist attitude gives him direction, want, and a need for the hardest difficulties in games, which is fun to watch, and hilarity at its finest. You can find him over onTwitter, Google+, and or you can find him on PSN with RaivynLyken.

Review: Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance – Revenge Never Looked So Fun

/ Dustin Murphy / Leave a comment

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Pros:
+Insanely large amounts of content to digest, which leads to hundreds of hours of gameplay
+Recruitable characters allowing for an insurmountable set of party variations
+Character class “hiring” allows for unique builds among recruited team members
+Exploding Prinny’s

Cons:
–Series newcomers like myself will be confused due to the sheer amount of content
–Itemization is not very well explained for newcomers to the franchise

Editors Note: This review is a work in progress and could be updated at a later date if any noticeable mechanics or additions were missed during our review.


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Lets just say you’re new to the series like myself, but thanks to friends you have some knowledge of it, and your love for the Prinny hasn’t been lost. Welcome to where I started out when first entering in the review code and assembling my team to take out the Netherworld Boss who just happens to be an asshole. To be blunt, he’s a large one, and one we were glad to see would be our nemesis throughout the game. The question is, what makes Disgaea a series that has gotten such a large fanbase? The truth is – for me it’s the Prinny’s. Who doesn’t love those adorable and explosive Penguins who get tired of being cannon fodder? I know I sure as heck loves them.

Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance is ludicrous. It’s a over-the-top (eagle-eye view) JRPG that has filled itself with tactical combat, and insane amounts of customization to make your characters fit the situation. While this is something that many newcomers to an RPG series would find dumbfounding, but to those who have a sense of humour and a understanding for Japanese comedy? This is right up your alley. As I stated, reviewing this game I came in as a newcomer, someone who had little to no idea of what was going on, what I was getting myself into, or what the Hell to expect, and the game gave me an idea of that fairly quickly with semi-decent tutorials that guided me on how to use vendors, worlds, battle capabilities, Revenge mechanics, and even level advancement before really picking up the pace with the game’s story. Through these first few hours, I did find myself momentarily face-palming to the extent that my face I’m sure was indented, but this was merely because the game is punishing even as you learn the mechanics. It is not odd to see your Prinny’s die or your recruits get thumped to death. Why? It happens if you aren’t prepared to foresee just what your enemies might be doing.

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After a few turns around the bend of dying cast members, it was finally easy to get a hang on the game’s combat system, which to say the least came with some difficulty, but thanks to a few lengthy cutscenes I was on my way to min/maxing my characters equipment and assuring myself that survival would be possible with the right team members. This is done in the game’s central hub area where you will collect characters, items, restocking supplies, and even selling items that are no-longer useful and have basically become a waste of bag space. Thanks to the games approach, I found myself rather happily enjoying the ames progression system since it didn’t just throw me in cold turkey expecting me to get slaughtered and not enjoying the title. Thanks to its complex gearing system, I have found myself at times heading over to Google or hitting up a few of my friends that are diehard fans of the franchise in order to find out what stats I need to benefit certain characters. Thanks to the minds at Nippon Ichi Software there are a few new additions that veterans of the franchise can look forward to, which includes a never-ending foray into the Item World in order to obtain new secrets as well as ultra-powerful rewards or simply going to the mission screen and revisiting old missions when not taking an endeavor into the DLC options.

While the game is an RPG its focus clearly comes from the strategy line of games where players will, as stated before, find themselves planning out important moves during each turn before assaulting an enemy’s offense or defense, depending on the situation. While support cast characters are fun to have, the game does tend to show off Killia seems to take the stage as one of the most powerful characters out there, and remains doing so throughout the game, but with the new advanced class system, it eventually balances itself out to some extent. This includes upgrading abilities, doing quests to assure character progression, and even attaching new items to each of the support characters hired in order to assure their efficiency in combat. The nice part about these recruits? They can be leveled up if players have just enough coin to ensure their existence.

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Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance – PS4 [Reviewed]
Developer: Nippon Ichi Software
Publisher: NIS America
Price: 59.99 USD
Released: October 6th, 2015

One of the systems that comes unique to the combat is the ability to lift characters, items, and even enemies in order to assure that players have an advantage over the battlefield. This even includes attacking crystals in order to assure you keep the offensive or even the “tower” system mentioned before by lifting characters up and launching them across the map to pass by obstacles or to simply get them in place for combat. One thing that shines in combat is the capability to get characters revved up as friendlies take damage and die, this is where both Kiilla and Seraphina show their capabilities. Seraphina can charm all male enemies in an area and cause them to attack each other, this can change the tides of battle quite quickly. While other characters compared to Killa and Seraphina are quite useless when it comes to ultimate abilities – that’s not say that they aren’t useful and can offer tactical advantages in combat.


While Disgaea 5 is no means a shortcoming to the series. Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance not one that is known for an amazing narrative, but instead it is known for its combat, hysterical moments, mind-boggling cut scenes, and even extremely anime-like graphics that are crisp just as they are beautiful. Disgaea 5 is a game that serves up an amazing experience for those who want hilarious dialogue and mind boggling damage counters in a tactical RPG title.

Our review is based upon a pre-release of the final version that was given to us by the games publisher.  For information about our ethics policy please click here.

 Final Score: 7 out of 10

About the Writer:

dustin_batgr_prof

Dustin is our native console gamer, PlayStation and Nintendo reviewer who has an appetite for anything that crosses the boarders from across the big pond. His interest in JRPG’s, Anime, Handheld Gaming, and Pizza is insatiable. His elitist attitude gives him direction, want, and a need for the hardest difficulties in games, which is fun to watch, and hilarity at its finest. You can find him over onTwitter, Google+, and or you can find him on PSN with RaivynLyken.