Bonus Post: Helloween is a Fantastic Man, LPing Nier

I talk about Helloween4545 a lot as we have established in the past, and it's not without good reason.  The guy is a genuinely funny person and a nice dude on top of it.  He also has a copy of Grimoire Nier which earns my eternal jealousy.  All of my eternal jealousy.

Of course, Nier -is- the topic on the table, which is fairly obvious from the post title.  This is just a short post to point out that, as you can tell from the above embed, he has actually begun the undertaking of LPing Nier which, as you know, is kind of my thing.  The Nier part, that is.  It's not a substitution for actually purchasing and playing the game yourself, so I am not advising you to watch this LP in lieu of doing that.  Because look, it's a goddamn wonderful game and it's like $20 if you can find a copy, much like Valkyria Chronicles.  (Unless something happened while I wasn't looking, of course)  It is a game that deserves to be purchased and played, so my plea is that you -do that-.

Though I realize that's not for everyone.  I get it.  I also realize that it's a game you want to experience multiple times.  For both of those situations, the LP is here and I'm not sure of the update schedule (I think once a week?), but it's definitely something to keep an eye out for.  So good on you, Helloween, you are a king among gentlemen.

Bonus Post - Helloween4545 Reviews Nier

Now, I realize this is pretty different, even for me if just for the fact that there is not a post before this one today, meaning that it is not quite a Bonus Post, but there is a reason.  Well, two reasons, actually, but the big one is going to be pretty obvious if you're a faithful reader of this blog.  Before that, though, I just wanted to say that the reason this is a Bonus Post is because I'm writing it to get it posted up before the review of Trails in the Sky that will also be going up tonight, hence the second post.  I want this first because, quite simply, I want my review to be the top post for at least a night, since I don't know how many casual browsers just check the first post and then move on.  I would suggest that it is a number that is more than one, however, and while this post is important to me, clearly, a review that I'm going to spend hours poring over whilst writing it gets higher billing than a post that will, in the end, take me about twenty minutes to write.

This isn't the first time I've talked about Helloween4545, nor will it be the last, I'm sure.  As I've mentioned, he's a fairly well-known horror-centric 'Let's Play'er and is rather funny and good at what he does.  And it just so happens that he is a man of good taste as well, as, not only has he been A-Ranking Valkyria Chronicles missions on his newly-bought (well, refurbished, YLOD got his first) PS3, but he just so happens to be a fellow enthusiast of a little game called "Nier" which as you know, is kind of one of my favorite games ever.  I've only prattled on and on about Nier and Drakengard (the first, with which Nier shares a bit of connection with) for countless posts including three posts dedicated specifically to tracks off of the OST (which is still fantastic, by the way), so yes, it is kind of obvious, and I make no motion to hide it or anything because, well, why would I?

Anyways, lately Helloween has taken to trying his hand at video reviews of games that he's either LPed already or, well, just games that he knows of in some way, enjoys, dislikes, what have you.  They're reviews, so, that pretty much tells you what you need to know.  Having just finished his Let's Play of Cry of Fear, a Half-Life mod (which, despite its many, man flaws, is a pretty comprehensive mod), he put out a call on his Twitter for game suggestions for review, to which I sort of jumped on.  He was pretty receptive and we chatted about it a bit before it was pretty much just set in stone that he was going to do up a little something for Nier.  Now, I'm not so egotistical to think that I had anything to do with his decision to do that (since he pretty much said he's wanted to do something like it for a while), but I do find it rather cool that I talked about it with him and, well, it happened.  (I'm being link-crazy tonight I realize, sorry about that)  Because it -is- pretty cool.

Unfortunately, Nier is a hard game to try and review because, as I've elaborated on several times here, there's just so much stuff that would actually spoil something about the game or the story, that it's worth it to try and dance around that.  Because the story in Nier is absolutely fantastic and definitely worth experiencing first-hand whenever possible.  However, that's not an option for everyone of course and while a Let's Play would be the next best thing, we can't really expect one from Helloween anytime soon as he simply doesn't have the hardware to capture Console video reliably.  At the same time, because it is honestly part JRPG, it would be a really hard game to LP (not to mention some of the parts in the game are....different.  Incredibly so.), but as a labor of love, it would be something to watch.  Maybe some day he'll get the shot at it, but only time will tell.

I strongly recommend that you watch the review/gushing (Yes, I'm linking it twice) because it is really enjoyable to listen to and Helloween does a good job of trying to skirt around the spoilers and the landmines thereof while broadcasting why the game is worth your time.  Because it certainly is, we are in major agreement of that.  Regardless, I strongly recommend watching any Helloween videos if you're a fan of Let's Plays as he produces some professional, quality ones while also managing to fumble around in the games like only a person playing the game blind can.  It's part of the charm of the whole set-up, however, and some of the games he plays are likely better experienced second-hand, rather than first since....well, not all Horror games are well known for their stellar controls after all.  So go on, watch the review if you haven't already, and if you like it, grab a snack and kick back with one of the playlists for his other LPs.  Particularly the ones of Dead Space and Dead Space 2 might interest some of you out there.

A Look Back - Drakengard

Drakengard is one of those games where I'm going to gush about it for quite a few paragraphs here, but I need you to understand here and now that it is actually kind of a not good game.  In that the actual gameplay of it is like a Dynasty Warriors game (well, the ground portions), but 100x more stiff and wooden and just...not fun.  As a general statement of course, I had fun with it, but my enjoyment isn't a statement of fact and my warning that you will likely not have fun playing it should be enough.  So, how is it that I can sit here and claim that there is something to praise about this game, when in fact I have just said the game is not that good?  Easily.

You see, much like you don't go to an action movie expecting a deep, involved plot, you shouldn't go into Drakengard expecting good gameplay; instead, you should simply go into it expecting to have one of the most....unique story experiences any game around can offer.  It's hard to say much without spoiling the game, and I cannot promise that I won't do that, but if I'm going to, I will let you know first obviously.  But something that can be said for the game without spoiling too much is that it has five different endings, each one more insane than the last.  And the way it's handled is quite interesting, really.

Drakengard's story takes place over chapters and verses, not unlike a book, and once you clear the first ending, new verses open up that eventually lead into new chapters that take the game in entirely different directions.  Believe me, when I say entirely different directions, I mean entirely different directions.  Like, things that make you go "What the Christ?!" loudly and unapologetically.  But not in the traditional "Let's throw shit against a wall and see what sticks", but in a way that's....hard to explain, really.  It's very deliberate and while it doesn't make sense, it does.  Again, this is a lot of talking out of both sides of my mouth here, but short of spoiling the game, that's about all I can do.  I think I'll just do a section here in a few paragraphs about it.

On the same level of the story are the characters which, in stark contrast of 99% of the games out there, are in fact designed to be the absolute worst types of people.  And not in the campy sort of "Haha, he's a killer, but it's okay because he has a rogueish grin" or anything of that sort.  Just in the "These are the worst types of people in the world, yet they're trying to save it because they're not wimps" way.

Take our main character Caim, for example.  At the start of the game, Caim's goal is simply to protect his sister Furiae, who possesses (or rather, -is-) the Goddess Seal, one of the six seals that keeps the world together, from the "Empire" who has gone to war with, essentially, the rest of the world who bands together to form the "Union".  Seems fairly standard, right?  Well, it starts getting a little more involved when you realize (almost instantaneously) that Caim's parents were murdered by an Empire's Dragon, so his fighting against the Empire might not be, and in fact isn't, so altruistic.  He hates the Empire so much that, after being dealt an assuredly mortal wound in a battle with the Empire, he decides to enter into a Pact with a dragon that the Union had managed to capture during the battle. Being a non-Empire dragon doesn't make it any better, as Caim still hates Dragons as a whole (who could blame him), but his need for blood was greater than his hatred of the beasts.

This is where I need to stop and explain the principle behind "Pacts" since they are a central focus of the game.  A Pact, in Drakengard world, is when a human and a beast merge their life force into one for any number of reasons, whether they be that the two are friends or that they're both trying to avoid death.  The latter being Caim and the Red Dragon's reason.  Upon entering a pact, both become bound to one another in such a way that, should one perish, the other will as well.  They also gain the ability to speak to one another telepathically, and on occasion, hear the telepathic conversations of other pact-partners.  Of course, there's a downside (as if the whole 'one life' thing wasn't enough of one) where the Human in the deal pays what is known as a "Pact Price".  It's different for everyone, and varies by the person and the pact-beast, but some notable examples through the game are:  Caim loses his ability to speak, another party member loses his ability to see, and a third party member loses her ability to conceive.  (Also, possibly her sanity.)

As I stated, through the Pact, Caim loses his ability to speak (shown by the pact-mark on his tongue, every pact price has a mark) but gains strength, not only in being healed but in having a new Dragon ally, reluctant as she might be.  Now, able to take it to the Empire harder than ever before, that is exactly what Caim does.  Sure, you end up learning their true motives and the like, but the most important part to Caim is that he burns the Empire alive.  And does he ever.

One of the mainstays of the game is that you'll collect an entire arsenal of new weapons to stab, slice and otherwise maim any Empire soldier, beast or....thing that looks at you funny.  And while this is fairly standard, what makes it so nice in Drakengard is that each weapon has a story attached to it that you unlock as you power it up more and more.  Weapons in Drakengard "Level Up" so to speak, after set numbers of kills.  With the level up, the weapon A) Changes in appearance, B) Gets Stronger (usually), and C) Opens up a new paragraph of the story.  (Each weapon only has four levels, which is worth mentioning, so the stories are ~four paragraphs long.  Just enough to be a neat or, in some cases less neat tale.  And they get worse than that.)

The actual gameplay of the game, as I've mentioned a few times, is nothing really to write home about.  The weapons all have their own...'combos' which are, again, akin to Dynasty Warriors and other such hack-n-slash games, but is nowhere near fluid or, really, 'fun'.  At its best, it's tolerable, but at its worst it becomes what can be called with no exaggeration, "a slog", which is unfortunate really.  It does get slightly better, of course, with Dragon-back combat, which takes two forms.  In aerial missions, you have several flying targets and the Dragon controls more like it's in a Star Fox or Panzer Dragoon game than what you'd expect.  You have an aiming reticule, and the dragon has two forms of fireballs:  One standard that you can fire semi-normally, or you can charge that to lock-on to a target and launch several smaller fireballs at it.  The other form of Dragon-back combat is when you can simply jump on the dragon on a normal ground mission and burninate all your foes (provided they don't have a magical shield).  While fun, it does completely neglect your weapons and eventually just feels like you're cheapening yourself out of wholesale slaughter.

It's easy for someone to look at the game and come to the (wrong) conclusion that the game is just being Grim-dark for Grim-dark's sake.  It's not, though, not at all, and there's really not an easy way to say it to you so that you'll know it for true other than just trying to assure you that the game has actual, tangible depth in the story, and it's really not that heavy-handed or poorly done.  And I really mean this; it's easy for me to try and assure you that it's a worthy game since it's a game that is one of my favorites, but I already warned you away from playing it, so there's nothing for me to lose here.

Indeed, the best way, I think, so experience the depths of batshit crazy that Drakengard dips into is by reading the wonderful Screenshot Let's Play of the game by The Dark Id.  He's quick to point out the game's flaws, which are numerous, but he also does a fantastic job of letting the game speak for itself when necessary, even going so far as to let us know some of the details that are exceedingly toned down for the Non-Japan release of the game.  Interestingly enough, he then goes on to do Nier (which I advise you heavily against reading until you yourself have played the game, ironically enough) and Drakengard 2 (which he claimed he wasn't going to do, going so far as to do a whole update at the end of Drakengard to spoil everything about the ill-gotten sequel) which are equally entertaining in their own ways.

I have a lot of fond memories with the game, as well as a lot of not-so fond memories.  One of the latter being that I spent two years trying to beat the last boss of the game.  I don't mean that in the cutesy "Tee-hee, it too me forever" way, I mean that every now and then over the course of TWO YEARS, I put in Drakengard and tried to beat the very last boss, which was jarring not only in setting, but in the fact that it turned into an entirely different game.  Where Drakengard was a Hack-N-Slash, the final boss was....a rhythm game.  Yes, you read that right, and not only was it a rhythm game, but a rhythm game born from the deepest depths of Hell, intent on stomping you over and over until you were its bitch.

The result was possibly one of the most infamous "Trollings" a developer and/or a game has ever delivered unto a player, and again, I won't spoil it for you, but it is, in fact, hilarious.  Whether it was the fact that I had finally beaten it put me in a state of such advanced euphoria that I laughed it off, or because it's genuinely a goddamn good trolling, I could do nothing for ten minutes after finally completely beating Drakengard but laugh and laugh and laugh.

And the truly magnificent part of it, is that that ending is directly related to Nier, which as you may know is one of my other favorite games.  I can't say how, and you might know already, but it's an amazing feat that I can only applaud and appreciate, and it makes the whole experience of both games that much better.

So while Drakengard is definitely a flawed game, to me it's an important one, since it really actually does things with its story and goes places other games dare not go in a way that most games would do nowhere near as well as Drakengard managed.  And that's why I look back on it fondly.

On the Subject of Let's Plays

So, the other day, I kind of touched upon the subject of Let's Plays in a fashion that I haven't before, because before, my talking of Let's Plays basically boiled down to referring you to ones I've read or watched and liked.  Which, I guess is mostly what this is going to be about, or be sort of a 'highlight reel' of my favorites.  And really, they're kind of a subjective thing; some people only like one form, or some people only like them from certain types of people, etc. etc.  I know they've become a broad enough thing that you can actually be a "Let's Play Snob", which amuses me greatly.

Anyways, what a Let's Play is, if you somehow don't know, is basically what it implies.  You, the creator, are speaking to an audience and saying "Let's Play" this.  Of course, it's not usually a multi-player sort of thing, and in fact almost never are.  Instead, you have one person playing a game with the rest of the people watching being 'backseat players', if I may use the term.  Depending on the player, the audience is afforded all or little of the control over what the player character does or becomes.  Think about any game you've played with a big decision, or a lot of 'big' decisions, and then think about getting to that point and letting a vote depend which way you go, and you basically have the LP exchange.

Also tasked to the Person playing the Let's Play (Henceforth to be referred to as LPer) is, obviously, making his or her Let's Play something you want to watch, be it from entertainment, or to offer a look 'into' the game, showing of all the little secrets and tidbits of trivia here and there.  This, as is often the case with any sort of User-Generated Content on the internet, is the part that a lot of people just....miss out on completely.  Whether it be because you're using awful equipment (Like a program with Unregistered Hypercam 2 always at the top of the screen) or because you're just not that interesting, you'll always find a Let's Play of a game you want to see that....you just don't want to see.

Of course, there are plenty of people around that don't suffer from that problem.  I, obviously, have to mention my buddy Kaseius first off because, while he wasn't the first LPer I've seen, he's decidedly my favorite.  But I may be biased because he's a great dude and a great friend.  And it's kind of funny, because without LPs, we might not have even become bros.  Over at the Penny Arcade forums, way back in February of 2009, Kase started a Let's Play of Blood Will Tell which is a really kind of neat Samurai game, where the main character is more construct than man, yet is also a samurai, whose quest is to recover his entire body.  It was interesting enough and Kase was entertaining enough that I followed it and eventually started talking to him outside of the board when I made him a Signature banner to link to his LP thread.

He's done a lot of other stuff, namely Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrraw Dangerrrrrrrrrrr which is probably one of the best games one could ever hope to LP and he just does it spectacularly.  (You'll notice, if you watch, where the above picture came from.)  Also of note is his Jaws: Unleashed let's play that I prodded him to finish for months and it's a damn good thing he did.  Well, damn good thing he LPed the game at all, but that's more of an in-reference than anything.

 

Moving right along, we hit up to Helloween4545, more commonly referred to as simply Helloween, who and I might be wrong about this, might have actually been the first LPer I watched.  I'm actually probably wrong on that, but he's the first one I remember, so whatevs.  I'm assuredly not alone in my like for Helloween, as he's racked up quite a lot of followers, and even has a mention on the long, long list of LPers in the TVTropes page dedicated to LPing.  He's particularly known (as the page will tell you) for LPing Horror games, usually blind (as in, first time playing it being on-camera), but there's been a number of occasions when he's played the game before any number of times.  

His latest LP of Vampire The Masquerade:  Bloodlines (Linked to the first video since there doesn't seem to be a playlist yet) is one of the latter occasions as Helloween has played the game quite a bit and takes a more informative/entertaining approach as opposed to the normal "Be entertaining while running and being generally scared for one's life." approach, which works out equally well.  A great example of one of his blind runs would likely be his Dead Space Let's play, which is the only game he's LPed that I have also played.  Horror is.....not my thing, you see.

Of course, when talking about Let's Plays, you're practically obligated to mention The Let's Play Archive from SomethingAwful, as they're (arguably) the originators of what we know as Let's Play and have refined it to a near artform.  Over there, there's practically too many great LPers to mention, but I'll go ahead and list off some particularly enjoyable ones.  Slowbeef, who I'm told is, uh, pretty important over there did a fantastic LP of Snatcher and then SD Snatcher, as well as the definitive version of Let's Play Super Metroid.  Complete with Guests, challenges and all sorts of other stuff, it's a delight to watch and enjoy.  

The Dark ID is another personal favorite of mine, not just because he LPed Drakengard, but because he's just genuinely funny.  He also does his LPs in the style of Screenshot LP, which is sort of a departure from everything else I've mentioned prior.  He did the entire Resident Evil series up to 4 (is probably working on 5), so at the very least, you've got to give him props for that.  And speaking of LPers to do a whole series, From Earth did Silent Hill 1-4, which are all very entertaining as well.

There's certainly more I can list and I might do another installment of this, but for now, I think that's good.  Let's all raise a glass for every man and woman who plays video games for our enjoyment, folks.  They do actually do a lot for us.

News Dump - Things That Make You Go 'Wat' Edition

There are times when you hear something 'official' and just go...."wat", because it just seems dumb in some manner.  Whether because it's unnecessary, perhaps 'too early' or just plain confusing, you're left with a certain sense of dissatisfaction because you see this big company doing something so dumb.  But, thankfully, they make good fodder for when you have nothing else in mind to post about.

I guess a good place to start is with Sony, who's certainly no stranger to confusing and/or awful announcements.  Just today in the Comic Update post, it was announced that it would actually be the last PSP comic update, as the Comic Team is going to be focusing on bringing the comic service to 'other Sony devices'.  Like, y'know, the PS3.  Which isn't confirmed, of course, but come on.  Now, I'm sure I don't have to point out the 'wat' here, as it's fairly self-explanatory, but I'll go ahead and single-out the 'Why'.  Clearly, the comic store isn't dead, as it's branching out onto other things, like, clearly, the PS3 and hopefully the Vita.  (Possibly Sony e-Readers as well?  Seems logical enough, I mean.)  The thing about this is that it's very confusingly written.

They point out that it's the 'final update for digital comics on the PSP', but don't say that it's the final update of the comic store, which suggests when it's on other devices, it'll update again.  Is it....not going to update on PSP, but update on PS3?  I would assume mentioning PSP and then going to say it'll be on other devices, suggests PSP-only meaning further updates to the Comic Store will be put out for all participating devices (inclusing PSP), otherwise the '4,000+' library ain't gonna cut it for anyone who wants in.  You can buy a comic in a series hoping you'll see the rest of them up in case you like it, but there's very few people who will buy into an incomplete/fully unpublished series knowing what you see is all you get.

Perhaps I'm overly reading into it and applying a little bit too much optimism in the face of such a flub, but I'm not prepared to suggest a service that will never again see an update will be released on other things for the simple fact that there's '4,000+' things to pick from.  Like I'm wont to say, however, time will tell, I guess.

Moving on to another of the Big Three, let's head on over to Nintendo, who has been letting a little bit more and a little bit more information slip out about the Wii U lately.  It's not all bad, but taken together, it isn't really painting that great of a picture here.  Maybe.  I guess it kind of depends on a few things, most of which are your opinions, which I'll explain about after I sort things out here.

So, first off, Reggie Fils-Aime, President of Nintendo of America as we all know, went out and said that the Wii U will offer 'Flexible' online functionality to developers/publishers.  He's also on-record as saying the sky 'might' be 'a color', and water 'may' be 'moist'.  (I'm not going to link Air Quotes again.  You all will just have to deal.)  Okay, he might not have said those last things, but come on, 'flexible' is one of those "I'll be so vague so I can sort of make this sound okay regardless" terms we're all so familiar with.  Essentially, the point to get out of this note is that you're not going to get a PSN/XBL situation with the Wii U, like you don't have with the Wii and you...well, you kind of have it on the 3DS, I think.  So I don't know where the hell the backstep came in.

Anyways, here's the second point here that will lead into the -big- point from these two pieces of information.  Satoru Iwata (I'm not going to remind you who he is, you know this) just let everyone know in an interview with Mercury News that the Wii U will support 3D through 3D TVs (And glasses), but, of course, Nintendo themselves won't be 'focusing' on it.  Obviously, since they've been bleating about how Glasses-Assisted 3D is 'doing it wrong' to push the technology of the 3DS.  While not a major issue in itself, I do find it kind of funny, the thought of playing something in 3D through the Wii U because of the glasses, not only because that's exactly what Nintendo doesn't want, but because what happens if you switch to the tablet?  Will -that- support 3D?  I'm going to venture a guess as to, uh, 'no'.

So here's where I kinda go ahead and unify the point.  And this is more of a personal agenda of my own here, so you can safely skip this paragraph if you really don't care.  As we all know, I love the PSP, so all the reasons people throw out as to why the PSP isn't 'worth it' or that 'it sucks', well, I remember them.  And one of the big things I always hear about the PSP at some point is that 'it tried to do too much' without really 'focusing' on any of it, which I never really understood.  Especially when you consider that the DSi ended up doing everything a PSP could do, more or less (took on a web browser, music/movie playback, etc, -plus- added a camera and photo manipulation).  They more or less akin it to 'throwing as much shit in a box as possible for bullet points', which, hey, kind of sounds like what's going on here.  Offering support for something that you've railed off against in a way especially so.  Not that we have to worry about the Wii U's success, I just take issue with people grumbling about the PSP and then lapping it up when Nintendo does it.

Anyways, one other topic that'd been floating about the internet this week was regarding this new Senate Bill 978, which, from its origins, really doesn't have anything to do with us as gaming people.  The law was made to target people who stream movies and/or post movies up on youtube in parts, as well as TV shows, possibly music even.  Nothing that we haven't seen here, nothing we really have to contest, honestly.  The problem lay with the bills wording of using the blanket term "copyrighted materials", which, as we know, is pretty much everything.  There's all sorts of tenants to the new bill and, basically the hoopla was about the idea that, under the law were it altered to conform to the bill, Let's Plays and Video Walkthroughs would become illegal and punishable with prison.  Which, I guess, technically could be true, I don't really know.  That's the issue, really, is the vagueness.

However, Nilay Patel over at This is My Next seems to think nobody really needs to be worried.  And after reading that, I'm not about to blame him, since he seems like he knows what he's talking about.  His detailed break down of it, which presents the biggest point, that the law isn't making anything newly illegal and is simply increasing the punishment for what's already illegal, seems reasonable enough and the rest of the points serve only to support it.  Regardless of anything of course, at this point it's merely a bill and though it has support from, well, every movie company ever, it might be deemed unfit to actually be made a law, or it could always be immediately contested.  At the very least, that's one reason to love the American Legal System:  nothing ever gets done because it takes forever to do something.

.....Wait.

Anyways, that's about it for this news dump.  I kind of feel weird making a post with absolutely no pictures, but I hope it's not a deal-breaker.  Hey, if nothing else, I can always fish out a few things to put here and there to break up the wall of text.