SOTRPG: Pickup

Oroku Saki  checking in, just picked up a 'new' game, "Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey" for the  Nintendo DS. (A major component of my personal game repertoire).  Knowing it's a SMT title, I'm already prepared for not only hard, but psychologically and physically draining game. I've gotten to the first boss twice, and had my ass handed to me the exact same amount of times. Will do a deeper report on the first chapter over the weekend. Peace out for now!

The 3rd Birthday...

Hey everyone this is C92cool here and I am here to bring you my viewpoint of a game that I feel has been overlooked by the gaming community. That game would have to be...The...3rd...Birthday. The 3rd Birthday is a action role playing game that was created by Hexa Drive and published by Square Enix. It was made for the PSP and was released back in December of 2010 for Japan and March of 2011 for North America. The 3rd Birthday is the 3rd installment in the Parasite Eve series and takes place roughly 10 years after the events of Parasite Eve 2.

Our main protagonist in The 3rd Birthday is Aya Brea who has been the protagonist for the last two Parasite Eve games. As for this game she is a 38 year old women, she was 25 in the first and 27 in the second, who suffers from a bad case of memory lose all while working as an agent of CTI in a desperate fight against the Twisted. In order to fight the Twisted, Aya travels back in time for the first half of the game and spends the second half of the game in current New York city that lays in ruins.

The Twisted is an enemy that the CTI doesn't really have to much information to go off of, which is why the prologue takes place when the invasion first happened in order to collect information on a certain future boss. These monsters come in a variety of forms from the basic floating and slasher type enemies to larger more bulky types enemies and ending with the massive size bosses that can range from easy as pie to annoyingly hard. 

Now The 3rd Birthday has for some reason been labeled as a bad game and doesn't live up to the name of the Parasite Eve series. Now I will admit that yes The 3rd Birthday is not quite like the previous Parasite Eve games, but that does not make it a bad game. Just like Resident Evil 4 and 5, who are different from the other Resident Evils that came before them, The 3rd Birthday is a good game that is just a bit different from the others in its series, but it's still good.
The Good

There are several factors that make The 3rd Birthday a good game.
Length: There is a total of seven missions to be completed in The 3rd Birthday, this includes episode 0 which is the prologue. It will take a fair amount of time to beat the game, but you also have replay to beat the game on higher difficulty levels and as an added boot all your items and levels transfer from one new game to the next.
Sound: The game sounds amazing. The music is broken up into two different categories: cutscene and in game. The cutscene music is overall a light sad like music, which is because you slowly learn about your past or the future dangers, or it can be the start to like a fight scene in a movie, which happens before most of the boss fights. The in game music is a little bit more constant and not to loud, but not to calm. It's something that you might hear in war scenes and that's because you are placed in a war zone for the most part. The music fits the game perfectly and changes when it needs to.
Visual: For a PSP the game looks good, especially when it comes to cutscenes. Now since it's on a handheld the graphics can only get so good, which is why i think people judge to harshly when it comes to handheld's since they like to compare them to console graphics and not other handheld's. I'm not going to stand here and say yes the graphics are something to call God like, but they are certainly some of the best Ive seen on a handheld.
Controls: Their are PSP games that have clumsy controls. The 3rd Birthday is not one of them. Yes every now and then you might accidentally switch to the wrong weapon/enemy/person, but it's not something major that will utterly screw you over.
Weapons/Powers/Upgrading: The 3rd Birthday has a leveling up system that effects both your health and guns. Obviously the health comes into play whenever you level up you gain more health, but the weapons level up based on how much you kill with a certain type of weapon. The more you use a certain type of weapon the more levels you'll gain with it and more upgrades with become available to buy. Aya also has the ability to splice DNA to her own DNA allow boost into several different aspects. Lastly you have certain powers that can of use. The first power Aya has is the ability to transfer from one body to another which helps for when you get low on health. The second ability is when you weaken an enemy enough, or concentrate enough gun fire on it, you can deliver a power blow that does damage based off your level. Overdive is Aya's last power and it allows Aya to become super powerful for a short period of time, it becomes very helpful later in the game against bosses and larger enemies.
The Bad

Every game has a few bad things about it and The 3rd Birthday does have a few.
Unlockables: Unlocking a new costume or cheat code or just art work can feel good because it means that the gamer has accomplished something. The 3rd Birthday has several unlockables, but some of them require things that just are not fair. Most of the unlockables require doing certain task during the missions to get medals and sometimes those medals that are require, and what difficulty they must be done on, is something that seems almost impossible to do at times. There's also an unlimited ammo code, but most people don't wanna beat the game ten times to unlock it.
Plot: The plot it self isn't bad. What makes the aspect of the plot bad for some people would be that you have to pay attention to understand what is going on and some parts of it are easy to guess/are predictable.
Difficulty Spikes: The 3rd Birthday starts off at a slow pace for the tutorial. It then starts off the next mission with a boss fight. Then a fair pacing of gameplay until a certain mission, note the picture of the Reaper. There's a mission, I do believe the second to last or so, that just throws monsters at you until you encounter the Reaper and are forced to fight it with only one weapon being able to hurt it, and it's slow to fire to boot and takes forever to kill the Reaper. The 3rd Birthday just doesn't always know how to balance out the difficulty when it comes to boss fights and monster encounters.
The Conclusion

The 3rd Birthday is overall a good game that will make most people happy, mainly those who wish to constantly compare it to the other Parasite Eve games might not like it as much. Just like any other game it has both It's ups and downs, but the ups clearly outweigh the downs. Seeing how you can find it for around $10 bucks brand new I would say anyone who has a PSP should buy it and enjoy the adventure that it offers.

Zero Hour!

Just Oroku Saki checking in.. just downloaded all the Megaman Zero's (1-4) for GBA. Definitely going to give a play by play for everyone, I hope you all enjoy when I start posting. I'll do an overview of each mission, with tips and storyline so everyone can get up to date when I get a copy of Megaman ZX for my DS. Alright Trifans, I'll catch you all later! Stay thirsty! 

My Top 5 Fighting Game Characters

(Cross Platform/Series)
Now, take this with a grain of salt, as my experience with fighters may be just a tad bit different then your own, but I've compiled a list of what I think to be the crème de la crème of fighters. 


Oroku Saki's Top 5 Fighters!:

Number 5: Guile, from the Street Fighter Series. A red-blooded American, though not completely rare in the realm of Japanese fighters, he is, what I'd like to believe anyway, the best pseudo-american fighter. With nothing nothing but his fists and the power of Sonic Boom, which is the fastest normal street fighter projectile, he hunts down the murderer of his combat buddy Charlie, in a quest driven only by the want of one of his friends back. Back to the glorious Sonic Boom, it stands as one of the fastest, most easily spammable moves in the game, despite Guile's backwards wiring in comparison to everyone else's moveset, an amazing and tournament winning tactic for grinding down on opponents who find it fun to sit in the corner blocking. However, the fact that most of his moves are just fast, and that his hits could be heavier when in comparison to most other fighters in his speed range, leave him the wayside at Number 5.

Number 4: Nightmare, from the SoulCalibur series. As the image above shows, Nightmare is a creature of impending doom, rise of the apocalypse, end of days, 2012, etcetera, the point is that he, as both a character, and a fighter, may be a serious weapon of mass destruction in the right hands. From his overpowered beginnings in Soul Edge, to his...still mostly overpowered continuations now, Nightmare stands  a class alone in comparison to the other characters in his game, as well as to many on this list. For all his power though, he is by far the slowest character in the game, making him fall short of the ideal balance that most seek when looking for a really competitive fighter. Not saying he's all over bad, but if you're playing against someone who knows what they're doing with Maxi or Ivy, you've got your work cut out for you. 

Number 3: Iori Yagami, from the King of Fighters series. A serious competitor, virulent character, and overall Demon Messiah for the SNK series, Iori's quest has never been driven by anything more then his desire to kill one single man; his rival Kyo. Originally introduced as a sub-boss character, Iori soon made his way to becoming a playable character, with great reception by fans everywhere. As with the rest of his clan, his signature flames are tinged a brilliant purple, rather then blue, because of a curse set on his entire family. I mean, the guy has a pretty good reason for wanting to kill Kyo, his whole family got the crap end of the "Seal away the Orochi Demon" stick, your mom will always die at your birth, and your dad has the ability to live to 30 if he's lucky? I'd be out on a quest for revenge too. His fast movements and overall power are good, including a dazzling moveset that showcases the power of the Orochi Demon his family conquered, a good character for competition. However, his very slight health, and the fact that when he uses his full Orochi Iori powers his defense is lowered makes him out to be a difficult character to play with against those who are in tune with other characters, such as Kyo, or Terry Bogard. 

Number 2: Hwoarang, from the Tekken series. One of my overall favorite characters. Of all time. OF ALL TIME. (/End Kanye) How can I say this...He has a definite cool guy persona, loves the thrill of the fight, and unlike other characters that embody that ideal, can actually win them. Hwoarang has been my favorite since a young age of playing Tekken, and continues to be as I grow, originally for his cool goggles and slicked back hair, but now for his amazing kick combos, juggling power, and the fact that unless I am completely outclassed by my opponent, I'm sure to be in for a pretty entertaining match. On top of this, his Korean heritage and backstory make him to be the toughest character without some mystical ancient power in the game. In addition, he boasts being the only character in the game who's taunt serves as an optional dance move/position change that can affect his play style if used correctly. He is number two not out of any bad reason, but if only because he cannot rival my love of number one on my countdown....

And Finally!! Introducing my Number ONE character!

*Drumroll*.......

AKUMA! 

No guys, just kidding. Great Character, but just not one of my personal favorites..

Back to the list. 

Introducing.. a man of wealth and power, the blonde phenom, Ken Masters, My Number One fighting game character. 

Number One: Ken Masters, from the Street Fighter series. An amazing all around fighter, with the perfect offense, perfect defense, just the right amount of hard to master button configurations, doesn't totally rely on a giant energy beam to destroy his enemies, and is as fast or even faster then Akuma, his only real counterpart beyond Ryu. (I discount 4, because 4 introduced an asston of almost create-A-characters that were unusually better then their street fighter 1/2/3/Alpha counterparts, I.E. Yun, or Makoto) The best part of Ken personally, is that he has no story, no need to fight, and trains because he wants too. You run around the world with Ryu, attempting to become one of the strongest hand-to-hand combatants on the planet because you felt like it?? Maybe your master was killed, but after all this, you're just going to go back to L.A. and live life normal until you decide it's time to take another barefoot trip around the world and kick everyone's asses again. Ken is just too cool for school, and deserves every ounce of fanship that he gets, because he always wins, without all the sideline story bullshit that every other character has gone through, he beats the living shit out Vega out of personal interest in the idea, making him my number one video game character of all time. 

My Top 5 Fighting Video Game Characters

Hey everybody its C92cool and I am here to bring you my top five fighting video game characters. So without wasting any more time let’s get this list started shall we.

Number 5…Vega from the Street fighter series. Vega is a man who has the appearance of a warrior and the balls of a god; he tried so hard to get at it with Chun Li only to be beat silly. In the street fighter movie he looked badass and it carries over into the games. Sadly, Vega has the ability to lose his weapon and mask thus lowering his defense and offense capabilities. Also his moves do look nice, but that’s about it and seeing how some of his combos are far to annoying to pull off he lands at the bottom of the barrel as number 5.

Number 4…Scorpion from the Mortal Kombat games. First off…fire is so damn awesome and is better than ice. Scorpion not only has the ability to wield fire, but he’s undead so that just adds to his coolness factor. His weapon selection other than his fist contains two swords and his chain spear used to pull his opponent closer to him. Scorpion is however only ranked four due to his ability to be tricked by Quan Chi into believing Sub Zero killed his clan off and due to his lack of strength unless your good at chaining combos makes him close to last on my list.

Number 3…Link from the Legend of Zelda and Super Smash Brother series. Link is the Hero of Time/Hyrule and he brings his arsenal of weapons to land him the number three spot on my countdown. Link is typically armed with his master sword, hyrule Shield, bow & arrows, boomerang and bombs. He uses this wide variety of weapons to eliminate his enemies and reach goal. Now what makes Link a number 3 spotter is not the fact that he is an awful character since he's a pretty easy character to use and can easily combo people when needed. His long distance weapons is what is able to keep foes at bay and when they get close  Link can bash people with his shield and slice and dice with his sword. Link however is just not strong enough to reach the number 2 or 1 spot on my countdown.

Number 2…Roll from the Megaman and Capcom VS Tatsunoko games. What makes Roll so damn good and ranking in at number two is her ability to look harmless, but packs a punch when used by someone properly. When I first used Roll I didn’t know what to expect…and then I learned how good a broom and a bucket could be against almost any opponent. I would have to say Roll is like a Moral weapon and when someone loses to you because you used Roll then they just won’t focus at all. Now with all these good qualities you wonder why she is only number 2 and that’s because no one can compete with my number one pick.

Number 1…Steve Fox from the Tekken games. Steve Fox is man who uses only his fist and pummels people to a pulp with a series of quick punches. When I first used Steve I had no idea that he was a boxer and couldn’t kick. This news led to a seven round fight with my friend who tricked me into using him. I had won in the end and have been using Steve ever since. Steve Fox is just that one guy who you just don’t want to fuck with.
Well me lads and lasses it seems that we have reached the end of this countdown of mine. I hope that all of you have enjoyed this list and maybe you’ll agree and maybe you’ll won’t, but here is something I should also share with all of you.

Honorable Mention…Bowser from the Mario and Super Smash Bro games. Bowser is the King of the Koopa’s and has been a favorite of mine for years. He’s big, tough and has a variety of moves to kill someone with. The reason he gets the honorable mention is because do to him being such a large slow target and it’s hard to combo with him he falls badly down the list, but he still deserves a shout out as a true blue fighter for him never giving up no matter  how many times he gets his ass beat. 

A Glance Into My Mind

I would like to start out by personally thanking anyone and everyone reading our blog. I hope that you will enjoy our insight into the world of video games. Unique perspective is hard to come by nowadays in the spectrum of gaming, as many gamers prefer to just "go with the flow". What I mean is that most people would rather just stick with what the general populous accepts as a great game, rather than actually developing their own opinion. For example, the world famous Call of Duty series. While I can't knock the series entirely, the current formula is undoubtedly getting stale. But of course, since the general public accepts Call of Duty as "Gaming Perfection", development teams aren't working as hard to improve that formula. As a result, people are starting to forget just how diverse and pure the gaming industry can be. Instead of having an open mind and trying different games in a genre, such as first person shooters, gamers would rather just stick with the same old, same old. And this only further results in dev teams trying to emulate Call of Duty, which makes the entire genre very generic. So what's my point in all of this? Simply put, gamers are starting to forget what made video games fun in the first place. Originality. Games nowadays just don't seem to have a ton of it. Admittedly, some new games do possess great qualities. However, I believe that older games just seemed to rely on innovation, originality, and core gameplay, things that the current industry of gaming just don't seem to provide as much of. And I am here to show you just how great these older games were. They didn't need fancy graphics engines, or massive multiplayer matches. They stressed the importance of innovation and gameplay. And at the end of the day, that's what makes gaming fun, right?

A Slight Introduction

Pat Phenom here, just to introduce myself. I am thrilled to be a part of this blog. My goal is to provide knowledge and insight into the vast world of video games. Whether I am covering issues in the gaming industry, or simply just talking about a game you might have missed, I hope that my writings will be beneficial to all readers. In terms of what kind of games I enjoy (and for the most part will be covering), I do not discriminate based on genre. I will play almost anything, however I am a firm believer in two things, gameplay and innovation. As a result, I tend to veer towards older titles. My favorites include the Mario Tennis series and the Mega Man classic series. I am also becoming a big RPG fan, with my current favorites being the Dragonquest series and also Secret of Mana. But these are just a few examples, I really just enjoy gaming as a whole. In closing, I hope you will find my future writings both helpful, and insightful.