Uncategorized

In Defense of the 7: PlayStation Vita Exclusives

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 02/08/2023
Posted in: Uncategorized. Leave a comment

Many people use video game reviews to determine how to spend their hard-earned dollars. While as an adult I don’t take this as seriously and I now make my own money I am more forgiving of games that aren’t perfect. As kids or teens, we have limited money and are usually picked through gaming magazines to determine if that one game was worth the money because we only got a few a year. For me, it was only during Christmas time that my parents bought games. I mostly rented mine throughout my childhood and teen years. Even for rentals, I was picky as I didn’t want to be stuck on my weekend with a dud of a game. Even a 7/10 or 3.5/5 would be considered a waste of time. This was the last generation in which AAA title after AAA title would be considered fantastic and with so many exclusives it was hard to keep up with. The HD era of gaming would see budgets balloon to insane heights and game releases slowed down as a result.

In my eyes, 7/10 or 3.5/5 games are mostly ignored. These aren’t always considered hidden gems either. Some are, but some are just considered forgettable. Not awful or good, but just passes under everyone’s radar. These aren’t the “so bad it’s good” games either. A few of these games have cult followings; a few I had only heard of while compiling this list and some I played myself growing up. I compiled this list from Metacritic with games between 74-70. I feel that’s the true blue 7 range. 79 and 78-rated games usually only have about 25% of the critics giving it a 7 to bring an otherwise 8 score down some. These games are at least rated by half the critics as 7/10. While I know many people don’t listen to critics and some might feel this game should be rated higher or lower is subjective. Like it or not, critic reviews drive sales and it may be the reason why you might find a few games on this list you’ve never heard of, thought was talked about worse than you remember, or something along those lines

Tokyo Xanadu – 2017

An acceptable original JRPG that was released late in the Vita’s life. While the repetitive dungeons and predictable plot are nothing to write home about the world and characters are well crafted, and it looks great.

Most Recent Entry: Tokyo Xanadu eX+ – 2017 (PS4, PC)

Frobisher Says! – 2012

A fun launch title that was only released in Europe. This free title showed off the Vita hardware and was hilarious to play. The game isn’t very long, but it doesn’t cost you anything either.

Collar X Malice – 2017

The end of the Vita’s life was stuffed with visual novels. This is a great one with a deep plot, lots of twist endings, and great art, but it’s a slave of its genre. There’s almost no gameplay. The cut scenes can stretch up to 30 minutes long with tens of thousands of lines of dialogue to read. If VNs are your thing then you got a good one here.

Most Recent Entry: Collar X Malice: Unlimited – 2018 (NS, VITA)

Baboon! – 2015

A frustrating but still fun puzzle platformer. It has a cute art style and an addictive nature that keeps you coming back despite its difficulty.

Freedom Wars – 2014

This game was so close to being the next big portable Monster Hunter clone, but the gameplay and combat fell through. It has a great world, characters, and story, but the combat is the weak link here. It looks good, and if you’re sick of Monster Hunter in portable form give this a shot.

Dungeon Travelers 2: The Royal Library & The Monster Seal – 2015

If you love ecchi fan service and traditional anime tropes in your dungeon crawlers then this is for you. It’s a bit dry in terms of environments, and the story is complete nonsense, but it does serve its niche audience well. This would be the final entry in the To Heart series as well.

Earth Defense Force 2: Invaders from Planet Space – 2015

There’s no story here. You just go from mission to mission for quick pick-up-and-play action, and it’s best played with friends. This severely limits the game to solo players, but it’s dumb fun that the series has always been known for.

Most Recent Entry: Earth Defense Force: World Brothers – 2020 (PC, PS4, NS)

Valkyrie Drive: Bhikkhuni – 2016

If you love the Senran Kagura series you will love this. The abundance of ecchi fan service, decent combat, and fun characters, but a lot of anime tropes, and nothing in the game ever achieves greatness.

Smart as… – 2012

This was Sony’s attempt at the Brain Age games that sold millions of DS systems. Sadly, the bland presentation didn’t attract anyone, and the high price point did. It has fun brain teasers and can pass 10-15 a day, but that’s about it.

Hyperdimension Neptunia U: Action Unleashed – 2015
Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;Birth3: V Generation – 2015

Closer to a hack-and-slash and less of a JRPG like the games in the past. The interesting characters and funny script will keep you hooked, but it lacks an overall sense of polish.

Most Recent Entry: Neptunia Virtual Stars – 2021 (PS4, PC)

Soldner X-2: Final Prototype – 2015

A fun if generic feeling side-scrolling shooter. It’s short, but hard and will keep you coming back for awhile. It’s a port of a five-year-old PS3 game but done very well.

Toukiden: The Age of Demons – 2014

Another game trying to take a piece of the Monster Hunter pie. This game was much faster-paced and simpler to learn. It looked great but had a shallow story and uninteresting characters. Come for the combat and great art design.

Most Recent Entry: Toukiden 2 – 2016 (PS3, VITA, PS4, PC)

Unit 13 – 2012

This isn’t SOCOM for Vita. Everyone thought that was what this launch title was going to be. What we got was a great looking if generic design military shooter. The story sucked, and the online component was underbaked, but the mission was fun in bite-sized chunks and it played well.

Escape Plan – 2012

This downloadable launch title was praised for its great art style and fun puzzles, but it was way too slow to play and had clumsy controls. If you can stomach that, and skipped this puzzler, then go for it.

Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation – 2012

The game was held back too much. More development time and this could have been a great game, not just an okay one. The world felt cramped despite being fairly large, and the plot was a mess despite Aveline being a great character. It’s a technical marvel on the Vita, but don’t expect greatness.

Most Recent Entry: Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla – 2020 (PS4, XONE, PS5, XSX, PC)

Demon Gaze – 2014

This highly anticipated dungeon crawler lets a lot of people down. Sure, it looks great, but the dungeons are boring, the combat is average, and the game is a serious grind. If you love planning until you’re broken and love that feeling after a hard battle then this is for you.

Most Recent Entry: Demon Gaze: Extra – 2021 (PC, PS4, NS)

New Little King’s Story – 2012

A port of the 2009 Wii game was surprising. Sadly, the game took a few steps backward, and if you played the original there’s no reason to play this one. If you like Pikmin you will probably enjoy this.

Big Brain Academy – 16 Years Later

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 12/02/2022
Posted in: Uncategorized. Leave a comment

Publisher: Nintendo

Developer: Nintendo

Release Date: 06/05/2006


Available Exclusively On

Brain Age was an incredibly popular game for the DS. It was the system’s Wii Sports. Everyone young and old got a DS just to play this game. The portrait style mode plus needing to only play for a few minutes a day was great for casual gamers. While this is seen regularly on mobile phones these days it was a new concept in 2006. Instead of expanding on that game more, Nintendo thought it was a good idea to make another game that’s just the testing part and you can do it all day if you want. Sure, that’s great, but it needs to have a lot of content due to the gimmick being taken away.

You’re going to notice this just 30 minutes into playing. You set up your profile (not as robust as Brain Age either) and you take your first test. You are tested in five different categories to see how much your brain weighs. Thinking, Memorizing, Analyzing, Compute, and Identifying. Each category has three mini-games that are mostly similar. The memorize category has you matching things from the top screen or playing a form of Simon Says. Thinking has you drawing lines to solve fast puzzles, analyze has you doing similar tasks such as solving math problems. There are other mini-games such as counting currency as fast as you can and picking the one with the highest amount. They’re simple problems, but the game loses the charm from the Brain Age games fast. No portrait mode, less handwriting, no use of the mic, and the analysis of your brain seems silly and trivial. It doesn’t feel like a brain training exercise.

That’s also quite a shame because this could be the WarioWare of thinking games and it could work. With only 15 mini-games the content feels old fast and the puzzles are dry and not very fun. I felt like I was doing an entrance exam due to the lack of pizazz and flashiness that dresses up these kinds of games. Sadly, there aren’t even any other modes besides verses and practice. It feels like a demo or a portion of a much larger game. The difficulty is adjusted on the fly as you play. Answer correctly and harder questions appear but fail and they get easier again. While you can’t memorize answers due to their randomness of them you can at least get better at these tasks over time.

The presentation is also lacking. It looks colorful but dull and boring. There are minimal sound effects and music and it feels like an early mobile game to be quite honest. I can’t see this being fun for kids and adults will grow tired of it quickly. The best part about this game is multiplayer as these kinds of games are best played with others. However, solo players will grow bored in about an hour. The staying power that made Brain Age games so great is gone here. Anyone who paid full price for this game would probably be upset due to only having a couple hours of gameplay if that. At the end of the day what you’re left with is a brain teaser sampler with fun multiplayer.

Ys I+II Chronicles+ – 9 Years Later

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 09/13/2022
Posted in: Steam Deck Unknown, Steam Deck Verification, Uncategorized. Leave a comment

Publisher: XSEED

Developer: Falcom

Release Date: 02/14/2013


Available Exclusively On

Ys I Chroniclces+

Ys is a series I have barely dabbled in. I rarely finish JRPGs either due to their insane difficulty spikes, incessant grinding, or boring story and characters. Ys I is a game that’s older than I am. It’s also incredibly short because of this and due to the cryptic nature of games from the late 80s, I decided to play this game using a walkthrough guide. This is sadly one of those JRPGs that has a specific way to play or it becomes an incredibly hard game. There are so many things you can miss, but also encourages multiple play-throughs. For a game this old, I don’t see any reason to play it other than to complete the Ys series from the beginning. It is as basic as JRPGs come due to its age as well.

The story is pretty decent despite the short playtime. I actually enjoyed the characters as well. There isn’t a lot of talking that drags on forever. The game does get to the point with some short and sweet dialog. You play as series’ main protagonist Adol Christin who must collect the books of Ys to save the world from evil. It’s pretty typical, but I enjoyed the small little world they built around the books of Ys. They were interesting to read and I felt this was a world you could get sucked into if it were to progress (which surprise, it did). The art is amazing with beautiful backdrops. The music is also fantastic thanks to legendary composer Yuzo Koshiro. Lots of rock and beautiful orchestral music. The Chronicles+ version contains both the chiptune versions and the arranged versions.

Ys‘ main combat system is called the “bump” system in which you just walk into enemies and are dealt knockback damage if hit straight on. The idea is to hit them on the edge of their sprite kind of like speed jousting. It’s a weird system but keeps the pace of the game moving and I like that. Again, the game is really hard unless you quickly level and are constantly acquiring the best equipment. You can get some for free if you do things in a certain order or find a certain key for a certain chest. These are JRPG tropes that I absolutely hate because most of the time no one will know this without a guide or accidentally coming across it. Easter eggs and extra dialog are fine, but essential things to play are something that really irks me.

Due to the short length, you can easily hit the level cap in a few hours. The cap is 10 and you quickly acquire money and XP as you advance to more powerful enemies. For such a short game there is a large variety of them as well and their design is really cool. I always looked forward to seeing what was next. The dungeons are also varied such as a mine (which is dark), an ice floor with mirrors, a 20-floor tower that you must climb towards the end, forests, and other places. It’s crazy just how much unique content was crammed into a 4-5 hour game. One thing I was relieved by is if you keep up with the equipment and level up to maybe 4-5 before the first boss you can easily fight each boss with just a few hits. I know that sounds crazy, but there’s only so much balancing in a game this short. The final boss is notorious for being impossible to beat, and even with the best armor/weapons, level cap, and on Easy I still had to try nearly a dozen times to beat him. You also can only fight him with a specific weapon.

Overall, Ys I is a memorable JRPG if you play it the way it was supposed to be played. Many will get frustrated due to needing to constantly level up fast and always have the best weapons, and the weird boss difficulty spikes will turn many away. I only recommend this game if you’re a fan of the series or really want to start from the beginning like I am. It has fantastic art and music and is a well-contained and fun JRPG…if you play it right.

Ys II Chroniclces+

Being a direct sequel to Ys I, and being the late 80s, I came into this not expecting much. While content-wise it’s completely new, with new locales, new characters, new weapons, and armor, otherwise it looks the exact same and plays the same way. You still play as Adol Christin trying to save the world of Ys from another evil source and rescue the Goddesses Reah and Freena.

The game even starts out the exact same way. You wake up in a house in a quiet village and must start your adventure in a green forest area like before. Sadly, the game is just as cryptic and obscure when it comes to figuring out what to do. I followed a guide through my entire playthrough, but if I hadn’t there would be so much backtracking and aimless wondering. Some of the dungeons are more improved layout-wise, but the final two dungeons are a labyrinthine mess, more so than anything in the first game. I had to resort to a map online to figure out where to go, especially when I had to backtrack and start learning shortcuts.

The bump system still exists but seems a little easier and more forgiving this time around. You don’t need to hit enemies off center, but it’s still not a fun combat system. It makes the game fast-paced and I like the lack of random battles, but it’s still not engaging in any way. Thankfully, this time around, you don’t need to rely on hidden obscure equipment and can just buy stuff as you can afford it. Only the short sword, in the beginning, can be had for free in the first dungeon, but everything is to be purchased. I liked the addition of magic wands in this game. It helps add a layer to combat, but sadly it’s abused with boss fights. All but the final boss need to be beaten with the magic only, and the only offensive magic is fire. Which I found a bit weird. Everything else is passive magic such as being able to turn into a Roo to talk to enemies to pass certain areas, Light Magic which is used to see secret doorways and light dark areas, and Time Magic which slows enemies down. Unfortunately, a lot of items, required or not, are hidden in obscure areas and can be easily missed without thorough exploration or a guide.

I did find the boss fights more manageable this time around and less frustrating. The leveling system is also improved, but only slightly. While the cap this time around went from 10 to 55 you can easily reach the first 30 levels in the first two hours of the game. Before the first boss, I was already almost level 20. Bosses are a lot more reasonable and I only struggled with a couple of them, but once you learn their attack patterns it becomes much more manageable.

Overall, Ys II is a good sequel to the first game. With enough new content to explore and an interesting story and fun characters. While I wouldn’t say the story itself is memorable, the adventure itself is fun I just wish the magic system was more expanded and there was less backtracking. Most of the game’s fault comes from the cryptic items and confusing dungeon layouts, but it’s manageable with a guide. It’s a fine Ys game to send out with the 80s and still remains a solid RPG today.

The entire series is well worth playing, but only if you’re curious about the beginning of the series, want to start the series from the beginning, or just like 80s JRPGs. Expect basic combat, cryptic progression, confusing dungeons, and unbalanced bosses in the first game. If you play with a guide you will most likely have a great time.