Blogging time once again. Welcome to my blog where I talk about videogames and visual novels, and claim to talk about programming, mashups, anime and other stuff. This might be badly written, more so than usual, because while Giant Bomb was playing a bunch of Super Nintendo yesterday, I decided to play way too much Sega Genesis, because when I was dead broke man, I couldn’t picture this. So much so I haven’t bothered proof reading! I’m living on the god damn edge here folks and we’re all in for the ride! So let’s get this blog on the road!

Bastion

So recently, Bastion came out on Steam, giving me a platform to actually play it on. Due to all the Giant Bomb related hype I pre-ordered it the first moment I could, and similarly started playing it minutes from release. I was really looking forward to this game, and as it turns out, hey this game is pretty good. Actually, more than that, I think it’s one of the best games I’ve played this year.

I should point out here that I’m going to talk incredibly specific about the ending of the game, so if you haven’t played then try to avoid that! The rest should be relatively spoiler free, but the less known about the story the better, just go play it.

There really isn’t much I can say about the game that hasn’t already been said a billion times. The stranger’s voice really adds a lot to the game, and makes the entire game a lot more compelling. The combat is a lot of fun to play as well, though you do get to a point that without the idols you can just mow through everything far too easily. But then with all the idols things can get balls to the wall hard in some levels. I found my sweet spot at about 7 idols, enough to give me a challenge but not enough to feel like the game is just giving me the middle finger of “Oh this enemy is almost dead? Well now you can’t damage it and it regains half its health whoops”. The soundtrack, also, might be the best soundtrack in a game since Donkey Kong Country 2, and I’ve never heard a song use FL Studio’s “Hit 4” as confidently as the battle music does since Snoop Dogg’s That’s Tha Homie.

The game is a little short; the first time through I beat the game in roughly 4 hours. The second time, which I should mention happened directly after the first time, was cut doing even further to approximately 2 hours. The third time, which again, happened just after the second run, I tried to speed run the game, and with 7 idols on I beat it in 70 minutes. Obviously the game isn’t meant to be played like that, but since I love speed runs it’s great that I can do so. I think with some proper weapon management and not outrunning the level and falling off the world as it’s being created I can probably bring that time to under an hour.

So let’s get down to it, the ending. Now this is one of the first times, or at least that I can remember, in which I really had no idea which ending to pick first. At the end of the game, you can choose to either restore the world to a time before the calamity, or just high tail it out of there and go exploring in the world as it is. I spent maybe 5 minutes deciding on the answer, and eventually going with high tailing. The choice before that, however, I never had to even think about. Zulf, a survivor you find near the beginning on the game, ends up betraying you, and tries to destroy Bastion. He returns to his race but as you find out, he is being killed by them, presumably for leading you to them. You then have the option to save Zulf, or leave him be, and every single time, I’ve chosen to save him. When you do this, you drop your weapons and are pretty much defenceless. However, the music changes to Zulf’s theme, quite possibly the greatest track in the game, and the enemies eventually cease fire and let you leave with Zulf. It’s an amazing moment in the game and really solidified just how great this game is.

So the ending choices, I can’t decide which ending is better, in terms of the story. The restoration ending is the best for Zulf and rather tragic for Zia. Whereas the exploration ending is better for Zia, but I can see Zulf being incredibly bitter about the whole thing. General rundown of the back story from Who Knows Where gives this impression. Zulf would rather die, as he lost his fiancée in the calamity, and the Kid actually found him when he was about to end it all. The restoration gives him back his fiancée, but in exploration he still has to live with his loved one gone. Zia’s back story is full of betrayal and solitude, exploration is clearly the best option for her with people she can trust. The Kid could go either way, he may find friendship or even companionship in Zia, but his entire back story is about him working and fighting, he’d be doing that either way. Rucks, the narrator, built the Bastion with restoration in mind, but judging by the endings he’s cool with whatever.

But the best thing I can say is really, this is one of the best games I’ve played this year. In fact at this stage this and Portal 2 will probably by fighting it out for my favourite overall. And in a very similar battle Exiled Vilify and Mother I’m Here will be fighting for the best song.

Which reminds me:

Cthulhu Saves The World

So after completely forgetting about it last week, I went back and beat Cthulhu Saves The World. I enjoyed it, more so than Breath of Death VII, mostly for the graphical improvements. Which I appreciated the minimalist black background style of Breath of Death VII, the backgrounds do make everything look a lot better. The maps are also improved, having two whole layers this time! The combat, however, despite the addition of the insanity strategy, is pretty much exactly the same. Most random encounters could be beaten by just mashing the A button, with only a few requiring selecting slightly different attacks, and then proceeding to mash the A button. I guess I’m ok with that but by the end of the game I was getting burned out by it again, but then again there’s only so much you can do with a retro RPG system like that.

There’s not really much else to say other than that though! I did like the hidden stuff near the end. You eventually recruit a dragon and can fly across the map. At this stage you can go exploring across the entire map, and eventually battle Dem and Sara from Breath of Death VII, which I thought was a nice touch. Once the game has been beaten you get a few new modes, such as levelling up to level 40 in the first match, so you can just power through the entire game to relive the story. The new feature from the Xbox Indie version, however, is a slight retelling of the story. In this mode, all the areas are the same, but the game stars October as the main character, and the story elements are tweaked to include slightly different characters and scenarios. A nice touch but like I said, got burned out, so I didn’t get very far into it. Which is to say, I fought the first battle and went “oh god it’s just this again”, quit out and deleted the game from my hard drive... I recommend it!

Blocks That Matter

Blocks That Matter is an indie game that recently got released on Steam. I heard that and it was already 60% though the installing process. I have a problem. But then again there’s a direct correlation between ‘I play a lot of indie games’ and ‘I have too many amazing games to play’.

So what is Blocks That Matter, I hear you ask, and do the blocks truly matter? Well in terms of that second question I can confirm that yes the blocks do indeed matter, as far as what Blocks That Matter is, yo, you heard of Super Mario Bros.? Yeah? Ok cool, how about Minecraft? Ok great. Finally, how about Battleblock Theater? No? Oh, well than never mind, the first two should be enough.

So this is a puzzle platformer in which you control a robot, and can collect different kinds of blocks, be is wooden blocks, sand blocks, diamond blocks, and so on. Once you’ve collected blocks, you can then place blocks down to create platforms for you to advance through the level. However! You can only place blocks in tetromino shapes, and have to be connected to either other blocks or the level itself. This gives the game a pretty impressive amount of strategy. For instance, your robot can jump up 2 grid spaces, so to access an area 3 grid spaces up, you might place a line piece on the ground and jump up. However, once placing your tetromino, you can then recollect the pieces, and therefore take back three blocks and use them for later tetrominoes.

There are also three things to do in each level. The first is just simply beating the level, which is rather straight forward to start with but by the end of the 40 main levels it can get a bit tricky. Another thing to do is to collect the ‘Blocks That Matter’, which are found by collecting a treasure chest hidden somewhere in the level. These treasure chests either require you to be extremely careful with your block usage, or require power-ups found later in the game to access. These ‘Blocks That Matter’ are all references to other games, for instance, in the second level you’ll find the Super Mario Bros. ? block, or the Creeper’s head from Minecraft, or the Portal Companion Cube. Stuff like that. The last thing to do is starring the level. This involves completing the level with a certain number of blocks still in your inventory, the exact number changes from level to level, but usually means every collectable block in that level, which, can be incredibly difficult. There are also bonus levels that are unlocked by collecting the ‘Blocks That Matter’ to provide even harder challenges.

I also want to quickly mention the story, which I found pretty funny. The game starts off with the text ‘”Sweden, the land of indie videogames”, so already you know you’re in for a treat. The story involves the two developers of the game, making their next highly anticipated indie game. When suddenly, two armed men raid their apartment and kidnap them, forcing them to make games for the man! Or something! As it turns out, however, their next project was not an indie video game, but instead the robot, and then all of a sudden indie video game about rescuing indie developers within their own indie video game. Ow my head.

It’s pretty short with only 40 levels in the main game, but the challenges are really well thought out and the ‘Blocks That Matter’ and star challenges provide a good reason to go back and replay the levels.

Oh look Psy liked an indie game release on Steam how weird what is the world coming to.

Canvas 2 ~Akane Iro no Palette~

This week I went into the world of Canvas 2 ~Akane Iro no Palette~, albeit rather hesitantly. This is the only game in the series to receive a fan translation, a series that is now up to its forth entry, and I was sceptical to start a series with something other than the first entry. As it turns out, at least from what I understand, the entries don’t have very many story links tying stuff together; the only common thread I could see is the idea of art being the centrepiece of every story. So, let’s find out if this game a work of art, or if the entire thing is just all washed out.

Here is where you play the Gametrailers review theme, compulsory after every terrible review pun.

The story starts off with a flashback, the main character, Hiroki Kamikura, and his best friend Yanagi are in the middle of painting a portrait of their other friend, Kiri. Hiroki wakes up from the flashback dream, rather bitterly, and goes to work. He works as an art teacher at the high school he used to study at. His normal life of ignoring the after school art class, of which he is an advisor for, and living with his younger cousin Elis is suddenly turned upside down by the re-appearance of Kiri, who has recently been hired as the school’s P.E. teacher. It is revealed through-out the course of the game that the three friends from high school all went their separate ways after a series of unfortunate events. In typical love triangle fashion, both Hiroki and Yanagi had feelings for Kiri. But when Kiri revealed she had feelings for Hiroki, Hiroki turned her down, knowing that then being together would only hurt Yanagi. Yanagi, annoyed at Hiroki for hurting Kiri, enters the national art competition using Hiroki’s own painting, and ends up winning, and thus becoming a famous artist. Hiroki, having no way to prove himself, gives up on becoming a successful artist, and instead relegates himself to teaching art at his old high school, while never actually painting again.

With Kiri back into his life, however, and a feeling that Yanagi is not that far behind, his life changes and blah blah blah visual novel mode let’s do this. Along with his younger cousin Elis and friend Kiri, there are 5 other girls that you could focus your attention on. Elis and Kiri, however, are the main routes, with Elis torn between an art scholarship in France and being with Hiroki, and fixing past mistakes with Kiri. The interesting part about this visual novel is that even though each heroine does have her own problems, each story is as much about the main character’s problems as the heroine’s, which is great at humanizing Hiroki and not just making him a generic template for the player.

And to be honest that’s really all there is to this game, there aren’t any major twists in the plot, strange character trait reveals or anything like that. This story is very much cemented in some kind of reality, which after a few visual novels of “Well everything is normal except demons” or stuff like that, is perfectly fine. Though a little bit too real in one route really. One of the girls, Kana, is the generic loli “but actually older than the rest of the students because Japan” of the game. When you first try to get it on, let’s just say it doesn’t really work out the way the main character intended. They go their separate ways and then everything is super awkward for the rest of the route until you finally actually get it on. I don’t need that much reality in my visual novels god damn it! There are also some amazing coincidences but that’s pretty par for the course in visual novels like these. Things like “oh the guy I fell in love with when I was younger turned out to be the main character what are the chances”, even if they’re commonplace it doesn’t mean I find them silly any less.

I’d say this is a good visual novel to try out, though with a lot of choices and opportunity for bad ends it might be a little unforgiving. But still the story is pretty good for being incredibly down to earth and the art is really good too. I can’t tell if it’s a good or bad thing that’s nothing incredibly dramatic happens, on one hand it makes the characters rather believable in a way that most visual novels have trouble doing, yet on the other, it makes the story a lot less exciting than other visual novels. I guess this will depend on whoever is reading it, but I felt it was a little too straight forward to be really great, but still worth checking out.

After making two My Little Pony mashups last week... I couldn’t stop. So I decided instead of making a bunch of 2 or 3 minute mashups featuring other My Little Pony songs, I just went all in and made another 40 minute mashup, featuring every single song from the first season. Should do without saying that yo if you don’t like My Little Pony you probably won’t care for this, but where else will you hear ponies singing over Kanye West tracks? Nowhere, probably.

And there you have it! Now that I have that mashup out of the way, it’s time to start on my next mashup idea, a 40 minute mashup comprised only of WWE entrance themes! No wait, I should probably work on Bullet Bill 3, I should really finish one idea before moving onto the next.