Review - Remember Me

The bulk of the reviews out there all say it in a different way, but they all want you to know that Remember Me is 'forgettable' because it's just so perfect that things worked out that way.  The title of "Remember Me" is almost a challenge that is destined to fail and allow me to add to the consensus in saying that it does indeed do that.  I wanted Remember Me to be so much more than it ended up being and it is a little disappointing, but as disappointments go lately, it's a mild one, so unfortunately it is helped along by that.  Regardless, it promises a lot initially and doesn't carry out a single one of those promises, so what we're left with is a game that honestly feels like it was supposed to be far larger than it ended up being.  And it's a damn shame because the world that Remember Me creates is something that you don't want to forget.

goddamnit, I made a pun already

 The game centers around Nilin (no last name given because it might be important later) who starts the game as an amnesiac memory hunter.  "Irony" (the rain on your wedding day flavor) is actually a core theme of Remember Me and plays key to several important plot points over the course of the game.  It's...honestly a little grating after the first one, as is most of the story as it unfolds.  The story is just not very good, because the pacing is all over the place which ruins what is supposed to be dramatic reveals, and while it shoots for a good Moral Ambiguity on everything, it goes a little too far and simply makes everyone unlikable, including your protagonist.  But to explain why involves a little bit of spoiling, so that's what I have to do here in the next paragraph or so.  It's not that bad and it's an early-game thing as well, but still, it's worth mentioning.

So, as a Memory Hunter, Nilin has the ability to steal memories from people and is, well, honestly what she kind of does.  However, Nilin is special because in addition to stealing memories, she can alter them (the game calls it remixing) and the way you're introduced to this is especially horrifying.  A bounty hunter, Olga, drops in on Nilin because she wants the bounty that's on her head.  Having just gotten her gear back, Nilin decides that now is the best time to try it out and you're thrust into the remix scenario which plays out a particular memory and then tasks you to go back through it and change little things that will alter the course of it.  On its face, that's not too bad even if it has the veneer of being an absolutely shitty thing to do coating it.  Or maybe that's just my perception coloring things here.

Now, Olga's memory is of her husband who's suffering from some sort of memory-related illness that is making him sicker than you would expect.  In the original, she is sent Nilin's bounty poster right as the Doctor explains that her husband's treatment is going to be expensive and she says that she will be able to cover it, so go ahead and do whatever because she's going to get the money for it from Nilin's bounty.  This gives the game the easiest opportunity to show off just how twisted this concept is, because the goal of the remix is a rather rough one:  Make the doctor kill her husband.  It's worth noting that you're simply altering memories, not history, and in fact, that makes it a bit worse.  By manipulating a few things as the memory progresses, it goes down different routes due to what was changed (the doctor injects the husband with a stimulant rather than a relaxer, a wrist binding is undone) and the sum effect is that the husband goes crazy which forces the doctor to hit the conveniently placed "Terminate" button, leaving Olga helpless to watch as her husband is lasered to death in a hospital bed.

Because of that memory changing, Olga's entire perception of things changes to the point where she thinks she tracked down Nilin to team up with her against Memorize (the company who runs the facility he was 'killed' in) rather than take her down to pay for her husband's bills.  Her husband who is, by the way, likely still alive and lays forgotten in the hospital for the rest of the game.  All of this is so that Olga can give Nilin a lift in her ship.  Nilin is kind of a Dick.  Later on, she gives you another lift somewhere (far after you've forgotten who this woman is, leaving you to think about it for a few moments after she drops Nilin off) and your constant companion in your ear, Edge (Nilin's 'boss' who gives you instructions through the course of the game) makes a remark along the lines of "I don't know why I didn't make you 'enlist' her a long time ago!".  Edge, too, is kind of a Dick.  Given enough time and space, I could elucidate why more or less every other character in the game is also a Dick.  Everyone is simply that unlikable thanks to an ill-advised attempt to make a 'grey area' for the scenario to exist in.

While the game's world might not be interesting from a narrative point of view, Neo-Paris in 2084 is stunning from an aesthetic one.  Locales are crafted with thought and care and are exceptionally interesting to look at.  There's an underlying style that's honestly on a level higher than the game itself is on which is almost jarring.  Of course, all of that is brought down a little bit by the linear platforming structure of the game, since it turns a lot of these nice areas into places where you are the only person who can get around in because all the blocks and barricades necessitate some sort of wonky parkour that your standard person isn't in possession of.  I want to say that the -thought- of the mechanics are lifted straight out of Uncharted in that there's supposed to be a weighty feel to them, but they're obviously not executed quite as well.  Nor are they all that thought-out since a lot of the platforming sections feel downright silly in how you get to Point B from Point A.

This is further complicated by the fact that every area, linear as it is, has some little nook and/or cranny here and there that's 'cleverly' obfuscated by the camera because they hide the various power-ups that the game has decided to hide everywhere.  Of course, it's not bad enough that you just have to keep an eye out, no, at every area where this happens (well, not with Scaramechs, but fuck Scaramechs) a little screen materializes itself out of nothing and gives you a screenshot from the game (literally, some of them have little UI things, it's silly) for a location where you can find a goodie.  The game tells you to remember that location so you can find it, which makes you go, "Oh, well I'll just memorize every detail of this because it's going to lead me to treasure and I'll want to kn-oh, it's right over there" because yes, these things are generally placed about ten feet away from the area in question.  Some of them require non-linear thinking to get to, but most of the time it's like a signpost with Plot pointing one way and goodies the next.

I like to think that the attention and thought put into every area means a lot more than them simply having a good set designer.  It feels like every area is so good because it was meant to be something a lot more, something bigger at some point in development, and given the fact that the game did indeed have a rocky way of it, perhaps it's true.  It sort of felt like, to me at least, that the game was meant to be a little more open than it ended up being (a couple other things help me think this) and that every area just ended up constrained thanks to the new direction it took.  It would explain a lot and make me feel better about what it was supposed to be, but it doesn't change what it -is- and what it is is just frustrating.  Particularly in the later areas where you're given the tools to manipulate the world in silly ways to nonsensically achieve small feats in transportation.  Like using two cargo carts to get across an area so you can get to the bottom of it so you can push a couple buttons to call more carts that you ride to push -more- buttons...only to have it take you about halfway back so you can ride one of the earlier carts again in a -different- direction.

Remember Me is not about platforming, thankfully, even though that lends a good portion of the gameplay to it.  Remember Me -is- however supposed to be about its combat system which is the main focus of it, but it manages to fall a bit flat itself.  I heard tale of the focus being the 'build-your-own-combo' aspect and was intrigued by that and how it was pulled off, only to be disappointed in the rather round-about way it is accomplished.  Because it's far less than "Build-your-own-combo" and far more "customize this template with special Squares and Triangles" which is a lot less compelling.  It's also a lot less appealing when you realize that there are four combos in the entire game and each one of them is about as uninspiring as the last.  Unless you think Square, Triangle, Triangle, Square, Triangle, Triangle is something that you'll be excited with every time you use it, of course.  (That's the third combo in the game, by the way)

As stated, the combos are little less than templates that you have to fill out with the actual buttons.  In something that is kind of neat, you have four types of buttons - 'Pressens' as the game calls them - that do different things, letting you have your combos be built around specific principles.  The less neat part of it is that you have to buy these pressens individually with keys that you only gain after getting a lot of points that you earn over the course of the game by punching people with combos that you have already filled out.  The four types are:  Power, Regenerate, Cooldown and Chain and while they're fairly self-explanatory, I can expunge any question as to what they do.  Power pressens hit hard obviously, but they also push your foes towards 'Overload' status in which you can finish them off quickly.  Regenerate pressens restore some of your health.  Cooldown pressens reduce the cooldown time that your S-Pressens have after using them and finally Chain pressens are the most important of them at all in that they take whatever the pressen prior to it was and amplifies it for another strike.  Chain a power pressen and you deal some damage.

This is, of course, supposed to introduce the 'strategy' for battles, but it barely does since I'm not about to re-shuffle my goddamn pressens every now and then just because something is different.  Thus, my combos all ended up with a mish-mash of different types that honestly suited my purposes just fine enough.  Because there's just not that much thought needed for it, unfortunately, since everything dies eventually and all you're figuring out is what you want to get in the meantime since you'll likely need to use those Regenerate and Cooldown pressens more often than anything else.  Also, there are few things more frustrating than seeing that you can have three Regenerate Pressens that are Triangle, getting the last combo that is three Triangles in a row to start and only having Square pressens bought and ready to be allocated.  I'm not quite sure why each pressen is its own thing since it doesn't really fit into any narrative somewhere and just stands alone by itself, and I don't think unlocking just -square- pressen for one type to be used however you wish would've broken the game much, given the template nature of the combos.

S-Pressens are Special Attacks, if that wasn't obvious by the name in a way that sort of transcends what a Pressen is, which is a press of a button by you.  There are five S-Pressens in the game that you collect at plot-specific points because... - and they all have wildly varied uses in a sense.  Fury simply upgrades your melee strikes and takes you out of the combo system, allowing you to wail on Square and Triangle for a few seconds and make things fall over.  Logic Bomb places a bomb on one foe who then explodes and takes out mildly damages everything around that foe, including yourself.  Sensen DOS scrambles (most) enemy sensens (the things that govern your body more or less), leaving them vulnerable for a few seconds.  Sensen Camo allows you to be invisible for a short time, letting you get off an instant-kill attack on a foe.  Finally, Rust in Pieces is specific to robot types (of which there are two in the game...and they aren't very common) and scrambles their programming, causing them to become allies for about two seconds before they explode.  Each of them can be used only if you have a Focus bar for it, and they have a cooldown (somewhere around 120-140 seconds) before you can use it again - as stated earlier, you can shave off seconds with cooldown pressens, but outside of boss battles, it doesn't matter a whole lot.

I have one very specific complaint, however, and it's more of a design complaint than anything, since in the game it's not actually all -that- difficult to overcome.  However, it's something that I simply cannot wrap my head around as being considered a good idea.  Now, in a game where you are more or less just hitting things until they die with no real variation, there's pretty much one thing you probably shouldn't do.  Remember Me does it and it's mind-bogglingly stupid.  There exists in the game one enemy type that deals damage to you for every hit you make on it.  Doesn't matter if it's melee or your Spammer (basically a gun), you take damage.  Now you might be thinking that there's a reason for this, that there's some clever way of taking them out.  There is not.  If you want to damage them without being damaged in turn, you use an S-Pressen, specifically a Logic Bomb or the Sensen Camo (possibly Fury, but I didn't test it and why would that work?).  That is...your only option.  I don't think I can overstate how much of a weird, bad design decision that is, and while you can't kill yourself by punching these types, you can lower your health to almost zero, meaning a stiff breeze will finish the job.

Aside from Boss fights, these S-Pressens are quickly forgotten, but their role in Boss fights are almost minimal as well in that you use them because you -have- to, not because it 'just works'.  However, it's an exercise in frustration, as you simply use the S-Pressen so you can drop a combo or so on the boss until they pull back, unleash mooks and leave you to get the cooldown timed out (and build up Focus if you need to) so you can repeat the process over again.  It's in these times where the Dodging feature proves to be your real enemy, since the game tells you that you can dodge over your foe and continue your combo, but in practice this is up for debate.  In almost every case, you cannot continue a combo on another enemy, which means dodging over a guy only to hit him in the back (putting you not that far away from your initial spot) is..not an effective combat strategy.  So if the pressens you -need- to use (your cooldowns and regenerate, mostly) are buried deep in your combos (for better effectiveness, as per the game's instruction), you'll have a hell of a time actually -using- them, thanks to your combos getting broken all the goddamn time from getting hit or dodging and not hitting the right guy or not hitting the right guy soon enough.

It's this 'combo-focused' theory, however, that also makes me think that the game was meant to be a lot more than it ended up being.  In all actuality, a system like this, especially with just four combos, cannot be a finished one.  This can't have been what the developers were envisioning from the start, and if you think about it, a linear platformer is...obviously not the type of game you would expect to find it in.  Maybe it's just a pet dream, but I have thoughts of a Sleeping Dogs-style open-world with a melee-focus adaptation of Remember Me, with the vibrant, cyberpunk Neo-Paris in all its glory and I can't help but think -that- was the initial goal of the game.  Something big and breathing, something wide to let you stretch and let you play around.  There had to be more combos, and a better way to 'build' them, but I fear that a lot of it ended up on the cutting room floor to simply release.  Perhaps I'm simply giving them too much credit since that, -that- would've been an unforgettable game indeed, and it's what everyone would have preferred, but in any case, it's just not what we got.

The Good

• The actual design of the world is wonderful
• There is a good bit of actual style in the game itself, the menus and the feel of it
• While not great, the combat system is good for the most part, if mostly for its ease-of-use
• Some of the music is really good - particularly Fragments, one of the Battle Themes

The Bad

• The story and characters are just unpleasant and unlikable - Moral Ambiguity does not mean Everyone is a Dick
• The whole "Memories as Commodities" angle is more or less mishandled and poorly thought-out from start to finish
• Platforming in a game that didn't need it and isn't made better for it
• Introducing an enemy type that damages you when you attack it - this is not a good idea
• Boss Fights become battles of attrition regrettably quick
• Only four combos in a game all about customizing combos
• Buying Pressens is horribly under-thought and poorly executed
• The game feels like it wanted to be so much more, which makes it all the more disappointing

Mogs Says
Remember Me isn't a bad game, but it's solidly mediocre at best.  The ideas it had were good ones that just didn't get used properly or given enough room to actually grow into what they were meant to be.  What we're left with then is a game that feels half-finished and confined to something much smaller than it should have been.  All the style in the world, and though the game has plenty to spare, can't cure gameplay ills which litter the title from start to finish.  Combined with a few design decisions that are more than questionable and just a general lack of cohesion means Remember Me simply didn't leave with fond memories.

Mighty No. 9 is Mega Man, Funded, Awesome

It's simultaneously easy and incredibly difficult to believe that you have not heard of Mighty No. 9 at this point - on the one hand, it's been a busy weekend in North America at least, and that does sort of make it difficult to find out about Kickstarter news unless you're looking for it, but on the other hand, it feels like everybody already knows about Mighty No. 9.  So for those of you who don't know what the game it, it is basically Mega Man.  It looks like Mega Man, it has the same general concept as Mega Man, the same general playstyle as Mega Man and the same original creator as Mega Man.  Yes, Keiji Inafune, with his company Comcept USA, took to Kickstarter to get funding for the game known as Mighty No. 9 and did so in quite a swift amount of time - just around two days.  For a $900,000 goal on a busy weekend as it has been (PAX and Labor Day), it's rather impressive and it still has a run of 28 days before it closes down and locks in the exact final amount which, thanks to stretch goals, will more or less decide just how much Mighty No. 9 we're going to get.

The base game....well, why don't I let one of the Kickstarter Bullet Points explain that, yes?

• You play as Beck, the 9th in a line of powerful robots, and the only one not infected by a mysterious computer virus that has caused mechanized creatures the world over to go berserk. Run, jump, blast, and transform your way through six stages (or more, via stretch goals) you can tackle in any order you choose, using weapons and abilities stolen from your enemies to take down your fellow Mighty Number robots and confront the final evil that threatens the planet!

Blatant Mega Man comparisons aside (emphasis theirs, by the way, not mine), it says right there that the original goal is for six stages, but that seven and eight can be added through  the Stretch Goals and is specifically the first one at $1,200,000.  At this point in time, it's -almost- there even, being at $1,141,413 as I'm writing this (and updating constantly as I continue writing, and it wouldn't surprise me if it's fully to that goal by the time I'm finished).  It's not broken apart or anything - that stretch goal is the one that will add the stages for Mighty No. 7 and 8 and thus more or less make it even closer to the Mega Man games we all already know and love.  The other Stretch Goals include Mac and Linux versions (btw, base game is set only for PC, however...), New Game Plus and "Turbo Mode", a Making-Of Documentary and, of course, PS3/360/Wii U versions.  There are also two Stretch Goals which are....mysteries?  I guess?  Perhaps surprises along the way to spice things up or something.

If there's absolutely anything to be disappointed in at looking at Mighty No. 9, it's simply that the Console Versions are the very last Stretch Goal, set in at the $2,500,000 mark, and that there's no 3DS or Vita love, nor Next-Gen love aside from the Wii U.  Of course, Kickstarters are malleable by nature and the feedback on their official Twitter has stated that versions for all the consoles left out are possible, depending on funding and feedback.  The official statement re: PS4/XBone versions is that they're not planning on them due to lack of knowledge about the consoles which....is understandable since they're not even out yet, buy by the time Mighty No. 9 comes out, they will have been and for...a little while.  Obviously, I am that guy, always saying how I want everything on my Vita so this is certainly no exception, but mostly because it's a damn good fit.  Mega Man: Maverick Hunter X (which was free through Plus a while back) played wonderfully on the PSP (and the Vita as well) so Vita/3DS versions of the game just make sense, so long as they can work them properly.

Otherwise, I just haven't looked into it all that much because I don't really....need to.  It's a new, improved version of Mega Man with fun, new little twists and such, but is so much built on a foundation that I already know very well.  Conveniently, that means that I know it's going to be good with some level of certainty, which is nice to have.  However, as much as I like looking at Kickstarter projects - I prefer the ability to actually buy them when they're available or, in some cases, while they're on their way to being released, not when they're mere theories and concepts on paper and computer documents and files.  But I'm old-fashioned like that, it seems, especially when I consider that notion to be a silly one, since there are people who will un-ironically agree with my assertion that I'm old-fashioned because of that.  But that sort of stuff just makes my head hurt anymore.

Anyways, Mega M- Mighty No. 9.  It's going to be a thing and it's likely going to be fantastic.  Let's just see where all it ends up landing and how the Kickstarter plays out.  Certainly going to be interesting if nothing else.

I personally just love how tongue-in-cheek against Capcom the whole thing is

Capcom Hates You - Breath of Fire VI In Development as a Phone/Tablet Game

Alongside a little under a dozen other titles revealed during a Network Game Conference by Capcom, focusing on mobile and social games, there's one that stands out quite a bit for several reasons.  That title is Breath of Fire 6 and though the title of this post has already spoiled it, this is the same Conference where Monster Hunter Frontier G was announced for the PS3 and Wii U, so there was some modicum of hope interspersed amongst the original few to learn of this.  It was for naught, as Breath of Fire 6 is basically being saddled with everything we don't want out of a game these days - It's going to have an online element, if not an outright online/social focus, it's being made specifically for Smartphones/Tablets and PC as a browser-based game and it's designed specifically for a touch interface.  Plus, it looks like the above screenshot that contains what I can only imagine is the main character, maybe.  You will notice that he does not have blue hair, nor is he currently a dragon.

There has obviously already been feedback because of this and none of it is positive in the least, but, well, I don't think Capcom much cares.  This isn't the first time they've gone full-steam into an unfavorable decision about a much-loved franchise and it likely won't be the last.  A lot of the outrage is much of the same, directed at the expectations and thoughts of the platform as a whole that they're taking this to, and they're not exactly unfounded.  I can't find concrete evidence as to -how- this is going to work (if there's going to be a single-player mode at all, if it's going to be an MMO or an MMO-like, if it's going to be microtransaction-based) but there really aren't a whole lot of examples of Tablet/Phone RPGs with online/social aspects working out well an intuitively to the player's direct benefit, and nobody's willing to give Capcom the benefit of the doubt on their attempt.  Least of all me, really.  I, like most others, can feel my eyes glaze over when I hear "browser-based", because....there's just not a lot of faith there when you don't have anything tangible of the game itself.  Even a download, when it comes to your PC, isn't present because of it being played via your browser if you're not playing it on a tablet or phone.

This won't be the first major departure that the Breath of Fire series has seen, as the last instance in the series was exceptionally polarizing - to the point where people took offense to calling it Breath of Fire 5 in the first place.  I haven't played it myself, but I've heard it likened to a Roguelike which is....interesting, but certainly not a classic Breath of Fire gameplay style.  Still, regardless of the opinion of that, I think everyone is more or less united in the opinion that it was at least a proper try, given its platform and the effort behind it (as well as carrying over BoF-specific things) which is hilariously a little bit of a unifying factor for the community for that game against this new one.  While this could be another case of history repeating itself in regards to we people who play games being afraid of change, it's also important to discuss whether or not there's merit.  There's definitely merit here as much as there was merit to question Dragon Quarter - after all, you can't turn Legend of Zelda into a Third-Person Shooter where Link exclusively uses slingshots, bows and crossbows and not expect people to say that it's not a Legend of Zelda game anymore.  There are certain 'requirements' placed on everything that necessitate their design and deviating too far from those sparks things like these.

According to a Eurogamer update, it's still up in the air as to whether or not the game will come to Western shores, and it's no surprise that people are of a mind to wish that it simply wouldn't.  Regardless, Capcom has done something they honestly can't take back - whether or not we like it, this game, however it turns out, is Breath of Fire 6.  Well, I suppose they could cancel it, they're good at that after all, but I highly doubt they're going to do that, nor are they going to drastically change its scope and platform, nor are they going to simply rename it to something else, -completely- divorcing it from the series in all ways and not just stylistic, gameplay-centric and traditional as it stands now.  Maybe.  To be honest, there's very little information about the game, and even less of it is reliable at this point, but at the very least, this was definitely not a good foot to put forward, and as we know from recent experience, that's all it takes sometimes.

I always like making "Capcom Hates You" posts, they're hilarious in a sad way

The Fall of the Arisen

"Master, please don't!"

I heard the voice, but I couldn't place an identity to it.  Regardless, I paid it no heed.  My hand was already gripping tightly the hilt of my new sword and yanking it from its sheathe, perhaps a little faster than I meant.  I missed the heft of my old broadsword, I admit, but what this new blade lacked in density, it more than made up for it in sharpness and speed, impressing even me with the ease that it felled our recent foes.  For that alone, there was no chance that I would not turn this opportunity down, this chance to test my new weapon on an old foe.  Perhaps it was misplaced anger, but since that night that neither I nor my companions spoke of, I found that I could not control my rage when presented with an Ogre.  Seeing one now in the bright light of day, of the wide open space that this cliff-side offered us, it was my chance to slay yet another of them, if only to sate my own irrational distaste.

My feet were running long before I intended to and my blade was already thrust outward - I found myself standing next to my quarry with sword hilt-deep within its thigh before I knew what was happening, allowing me only a moment to pull back as it lurched in surprise and anger.  It wheeled on us in a hurry, growling and announcing its displeasure, but I simply didn't pay attention - I was much more focused on my sword as it re-entered the flesh of the beast again and again.  A frown drew across my face as I realized that it rent flesh from muscle and bone on this creature just as well as my broadsword did, or at least the improvements seemed minimal at best here.  Though this was not, of course, its most sensitive area to strike.  Only then, after realizing that much did I look up, did the voices of my partners start ringing in my ears loudly once more.  Only then did I feel a tinge of regret for my decision.

"They hold the advantage!  We must flee!"

'They' was the operative word, indeed.  I know not how, nor where a second Ogre appeared, but there it was before my eyes, real as the sky was yet blue.  My resolve weakened for but a moment before I gripped harder, set my jaw and grinned a grim smile.

I laughed.  I'm not sure why, really, given the context.

"Bring them all on!  We'll slay the lot of them if we must!"  My boast was near-hollow as I truly worried for our chances with the second Ogre, but as leader, I had to put up a strong front, I suppose.  Or perhaps I simply had to talk myself into it, into the realization that two of them were no match for us, seasoned as we were now.  Though the situation had changed, my desires had not, which I swiftly expressed through another slash at the ankle of the Ogre I fought before my feet left the ground and my hands sought purchase of its flesh.  As I had time and time before, I climbed my way up the creature as I heard the clashing and the clatter of my teammates fighting as well, feeling relieved that they were yet by my side even though my attentions had not been on them for some time.  My hand reeled back and I stabbed forth just as I heard Zero grunt with a similar attack below.  Our coordination sent him back in step, but my assault did not halt until I fell the strength leave my left arm and I toppled to the ground below, shaking my weary appendage to breath life back into it.

It was....a strange battle, to say the least.  I'm not sure how, but we had seemed to communicate a team effort between the four of us, with Zero and I taking one Ogre and Yoko and Aya taking the other on for a time.  After a series of particularly rough hits, I saw Yoko collapse to the ground and rushed to her side once more, finding myself able to bring color back to her cheeks and even life back to her bones.  It had something to do with the connection between Arisen and Pawns, I was sure, but that was where my assumptions ended, unable to surmise anything else about the phenomenon as it occurred.  We both had to roll away as one of the Ogres charged forth and I found myself then teamed with Aya and Zero teamed with Yoko for a time.  Our combat experience seemed to be paying off, as our efforts spoke of a trained unit and not of a mob which surprised me to no end.

I was the one to break rank first, however, as I saw Zero grabbed up in the large hand of the beast she fought, who then began to run off to do nothing I cared to think of.  I gave chase and counted myself and Zero lucky as it stopped and stood straight to gaze over its 'prize' in my companion held firmly in hand.  We were lucky, because it presented an opportunity that I capitalized on, leaping onto its back and climbing around to slash down with the express purpose of separating arm from body.  I failed in my task, unfortunately, but Zero found air in her lungs and ground beneath her once more with energy to spare in battle.  She let out a loud shout as her sword, my old sword, lurched back and struck forward, sinking in deeply to the bone of its knee, causing it to stagger back and even fall to the ground.  I moved swiftly as it fell and found myself level with the top of its head as it was dazed from the fall.  It was simple.

Much as Zero had, I found myself bringing my sword back for a strong thrust forward, sinking my blade deep into the skull, into the brain of our conquest, killing it utterly and completely in one decisive blow.  It had been showing wear, but I shuddered to think of the idea that such a blow would not have been deadly otherwise.  There was no time to rest, however, as the second Ogre was in a frenzy and I turned just in time to see Aya knocked through the air as if she weighed nothing, toppling to the ground with a thud and rolling before finally coming to an all-too-still stop.  While I still did not understand the link I had with these beings, I was thankful that a mere touch awoke them from what would be a deathly slumber otherwise as not only Aya, but Yoko again lay in crumpled heaps on the ground in the wake of the frenzied creature they fought.

I knew it was time to end this, and that simple thought surged through my mind, propelling my tired body forward towards the back of the beast that yet roared and fit, perhaps at the death of its companion or perhaps at its own wounds.  When my blade sank into its back, into its flesh, my thoughts went away as I cared not for its being, its reasoning, but only of its death. 

I was not prepared for how swiftly, nor how strangely, my desire would be met.

The beast lowered itself to all fours which brought vivid flashbacks to my mind of that night in the mines, but I did not get a chance to relive them as it charged forth towards the cliff-face that our battle had precariously took place near the precipice of.  My eyes widened in....surprise, fright, I don't know what, as we drew nearer and nearer.  My sword slashed viciously at the back, the spine of the beast I could not seem to let go of, trying merely to steer it off to the side or stop it altogether.  I knew what was coming, yet perhaps I didn't truly understand it, but then again, what happened was something that is perhaps simply not understandable in the first place.

I'm not sure what is supposed to flash through one's mind when they understand that death is not but a minute away.  For when there was no longer earth beneath the feet, the paws of the Ogre I rode, that is what I realized in an instant.

I was going to die.

I, the Arisen, the supposed hero of the land could see only water below myself and the creature.  Water that we were falling towards at an alarming speed.  Water that I knew held a creature, the 'Brine', would be the cause of my death all the same as it was the death of thousands of others who braved the seas, the oceans of the lands, perhaps foolishly in knowing such a beast existed.  I had seen the beast's handiwork up close when I kicked a goblin off of my sword, launching him into the sea only to witness as a pillar of blood erupted from the depths not a moment later.  It was....terrifying.  Because of this damned creature, that was to be my fate as well.

I suppose it would have been grander if my last visions of this world were of the expansive vista I could overlook from the sky that I was falling through, but my battlelust saw fit to ensure the thing I saw before my death was the demise of my foe.  I'm not sure if the repeated stabs I managed actually finished the Ogre off, but it was a way to vent the frustration I felt in the final moments of my life, in the final moments before our freefall came to a stop.  Though it came to a stop with a lot less of a splash than I anticipated and more of a bone-crushing impact that was thankfully cushioned by the newly-dead Ogre I found myself laying atop.  I stood, frantically looking around to let loose a cackle that surely sounded mad.  We had managed to land on a narrow bank of the massive, deep river that was no more than a foot away from my feet where they stood.  I hurried onto the land as the Ogre was drawn in and disappeared before my very eyes and did not look back as I ran along the narrow earth for I saw a shore and I was going to get to it.  My breath hitched and as my feet stepped in the solid sands of land that offered security from the depths, I allowed myself a reprieve, bending at the waist, hands to my knees as I wanted to laugh, to cry, to retch all at the same time.

I was alive.

I rode on the back of an Ogre as we fell through the air - a distance that I could only squint to see the top of now, it was that far - and managed to survive.  A chuckle escaped my lips after a gasp of breath that was as soothing as the hand that touched my shoulder just then.  I turned to look, expecting the face of Zero, but found that it was Yoko instead and as I straightened and turned fully, I saw only her.  There was a grimness to her eyes that made my question moot, but it had to be asked.  It had to be breathed, to exist, to be communicated that we both knew why it was stated.

"Where's Zero?  And Aya?"

When she said nothing purely because she did not have to say anything, anguish crippled my form and my face dropped into my hands.  Flashes of things I had seen but not registered finally seared into my brain now.  I had looked up during my descent and had seen my three companions similarly falling, though I could not, even now, assume to know why.  Nor how Yoko had survived it as had I.  The Mage spoke now, but I didn't hear it, at least not until her voice was firm, attempting to stem my despair.

"Sir...fallen pawns can be recovered at a Riftstone."

My eyes shot up to hers which seemed to hold confusion in my emotions, but in truth it was my turn then to be confused.  She spoke as if it was nothing, as if their lives were nothing.  I didn't believe her, simply, but I remembered all the times I breathed life into these beings simply by picking them up off of the ground and my doubt wavered.  I allowed myself to hope as we left the beach we had stumbled upon and headed straight for Gran Soren, to the Guild where many Pawns had congregated, had come together for the arrival of the Arisen.  To the Guild that was built around a Riftstone that I had every intention of getting to and nothing was going to stop me.  We made record time, I'm sure and as I saw the odd rock, I almost couldn't approach it.  No, I almost dared not to, fearing the worst.  Still, I drew near to the Riftstone and placed my hand upon it, causing a bright light to shine not only from the stone, but to my left.

I turned to see a form I knew all too well emerge from the light.  With something of a meek wave and a smile, Zero had appeared before my eyes once more, alive as could be.  The rush of emotions surged through me anew and I could not help myself.

I struck her.

She seemed genuinely confused as she straightened from the punch across her face I'd delivered, but that expression melted into one of understanding under my withering gaze.

"Of all the stupid things you could do...", I began, but could not muster the effort to complete the thought.  Nor did I have to as she looked down, understanding the level of disappointment I held in her lack of worth for her own life.  My hand pressed to the Riftstone again and moments later Aya reappeared as well, though I spared her the attack, merely expressing the same amount of disappointment to her in a steeled glare.  All three of the women I had surrounded myself with, entrusted my life with and protected in our travels were back together again.  Our party was complete once more, just that easily.

Yet I made it obvious as I left that I wanted nothing at all to do with them for the time being.

Let Me Actually Talk About Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen

I have really said a lot about Dragon's Dogma:  Dark Arisen, without saying very much -about- it at all, I think.  Mostly that I really like it and still really like it a couple weeks later.  I like those stories.  I liked writing them, I like reading them over, and, thankfully, I don't seem to be the only one who likes them, so I will probably continue to do them.  More as a testament to the fact that a game like Dragon's Dogma can inspire me to write those by simply playing it.  I just really don't want there to be any misconceptions associated with my stories and the game itself, because I understand that someone who has no knowledge of Dragon's Dogma:  Dark Arisen might read those stories and go "Well, gee, I wonder how much of that actually happened in the game?".  It's a fair question.

The answer is 99% of it.  I give myself a 1% margin of embellishment for adding character to the pawns, cutting out the bulk of big-bad fights and the occasional NPC interaction.  Which I'll explain in a bit.

Dragon's Dogma is an interesting breed of game that allows -so much-, and you're not really sure as to how it manages to do it.  It is this living, breathing world in a sense, with so much of a background to it that, at times, it almost asks you to sort of 'know' things already.  I assume some of these things are in the Digital Instruction Manual, but I didn't read that because my time with the PS3 is short when I use it and I can't be assed to 'waste' some of it reading inconsequential things that I will eventually figure out on my own.  However, the point is simply that the game is large and impressive alone for that feat, but it offers so much more than that in a way I'm struggling to really explain.

The easiest way around it, I believe, is simply to point out the embellishments that I made in my two little stories to allow you to re-read them and find the full breadth of what Dragon's Dogma actually has and can do.

• Pawns talk a lot more - Seriously, if there's one singular gripe that every single person to play Dragon's Dogma (and Dark Arisen) has, it's that Pawns do not shut the fuck up.  99% of the time, it's inconsequential nonsense that you wish they would stop spouting constantly, and that 1% of the time is the first time they say something useful about a situation or enemy.  Every instance thereafter becomes part of the 99%.  So while I sort of made Rook seem like a twit with the shit he was spouting, the sad fact is that Zero kept saying the same things too.  They both did.  Constantly.  Over and over and over again.  Through the entire ten to fifteen minutes spent on the Cyclops fight alone.  The absurdities of the context with Rook are why I high-lighted them - while I could've used magic items, I assume, neither my character nor Zero can wield magic, being the melee-focused Fighter vocation.  I shouldn't have to say why telling me the eye of the creature is vulnerable while I am literally attacking it is absurd.
• Big fights take a long time - I sort of allude to it in the latter post at least, but if you come across a big beast, you're in it for the long haul if you don't run away.  The fun of it lies in the fact that every big creature that I've encountered so far has a sort of Shadow of the Colossus quality to it where you -want- to climb on them and attack the weak spot for massive damage.  Not only because it makes them go faster/smoother, but because it's badass.  Only thing is, you'll end up doing that a lot, because your stamina only lasts so long and your weapon doesn't do a hell of a lot of damage, even on the weak spot, initially.  (Mind, I'm not super geared out or anything)  So I cut a lot of time by simply inferring time spent, because I don't want to write something that will have a Minutes to read : Minutes to do ratio of 1:1.
• Your pawn is just as dumb as the rest of them - Worth saying again - I really like Zero, but I more like the -concept- of Zero than anything.  (Yes, she is based on Drakengard 3's Zero and yes, my MC is based on Drakengard's Caim.  They are ~Murder Buddies~)  Functionally in Dragon's Dogma, she is the same as any other pawn - there's no real special abilities or anything granted by having her around as opposed to not/having others around.  It just makes for a better story to have these two characters matter, obviously, so it just makes sense to do it that way.
• You cannot murder NPCs - NPCs are invulnerable to a point, from what I can tell.  So while my second story ended with Caim running that merchant through and leaving him for dead, in reality it was just me being frustrated and striking out at something.  I might as well have hit a wall, all told, because the result is the exact same.  The Merchant didn't get mad at me or anything - just sort of got up and went back to his spot.  It's....anti-climactic, unfortunately.

Really, aside from the personalization bits that I added to my main character, those are the only things I really had to change in the transition from what happened in game to what happened in what I wrote.  Which I think is damn impressive, personally.  Everything you do feels personalized, feels like your -own- encounter or scenario, which allows you to have these little stories in your head like this.  For me, that's one of the neatest things that a game -could- do, so it's no surprise that I'm basing my urging on people picking up the game on that alone.  (Relax, Chance, it's not going anywhere so you don't have to get it -now-)  Really, that's -why- I'm probably going to write a few more of these little stories from my DD experiences before all is said and done.  Not just because I like them and enjoy them, but because it's just that easy, and it's just that possible to do so.  I just wish I had played this game -last year- when it came out.  But I wouldn't have gotten the Dark Arisen version (which adds a host of improvements, I'm told, as well as, you know, the big DLC) if I did, so it's something of a wash.

So, as stated, you haven't seen the last of the Arisen.

oh, okay, so really it was less flowery when I yelled at Rook, too.  "ROOK.  SHUT THE HELL UP.  I AM ATTACKING THE EYE YOU DUMB FUCK" is basically what I said, but that didn't fit too well

In Which I Still Enjoy Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen

I was still a little befuddled as to how this damnable contraption was supposed to work.  It seemed simple enough; I was absolutely sure that it was a weighted plate of some sort, yet even with the combined weight of myself, Zero, and our two other traveling companions, we were not able to push it down.  It occurred to me that all three of the women with me were rather slight, but I have my doubts that four men of my weight would be able to push it down either.  It seemed a little more....specialized, but as to what, I wasn't sure.  All I knew was that it stood in my way and the way of a wayward merchant who had bid me to find a way through these mines for him.  If anyone had coin worth its actual weight, it was a merchant to be sure, so I was rather eager to see his task done.

Still, it was proving difficult and I could only think that there was something to it, something that I was missing.  Something I would have to search for.  As I looked, however, I came across nothing that struck me as different, as out of ordinary, which was still a surreal feeling.  All of this, so far, had become normal for me, for my life as the Arisen.  Yoko's magic enchanted my sword with a sheen of fire before I gutted a dead man walking, setting him ablaze and returning death's embrace to him.  Aya's twin daggers stabbed into the final of a score of bandits we had encountered that set up shop in these mines.  Zero griped that there was nothing worth our effort as she cleft a pesky bat in two with a single slash.  I shared her sentiments briefly, but recalled some of our more difficult battles, and at that moment, I did not hope to relive them.

Of course, fate had other plans for us.  Down one of the labyrinthine paths of the cave, we came across the hulking figure of an ogre, crouched over and not paying attention to us.  Granted, we could have simply left, simply ignored the beast and continued on, but I could see the desire burning in Zero's eyes and I know she saw the very same in my own.  It was not the smart thing to challenge the creature, but it was what we wanted to do and very soon, the simultaneous whine of our blades being drawn rang out through the mines.  Our partners shared in the coordination, as I already heard the low chanting of Yoko, and the similar sound of Aya's knives coming from their sheathes.  But it was brief, as I was already on the move.  We had surprise on our side, and I intended not to waste it.

He heard our approach, but could not react swiftly enough and a leap allowed me onto his back.  Fistfuls of his fur were gripped tightly in my hands, allowing me to scale the beast higher, who was already objecting to my presence.  His flailings were nothing new to me - better creatures had tried to shake me off, and some even succeeded - but they were futile, because I felt the rush of combat pumping through my veins.  I was going for the kill already.  Nearing his shoulders, my hand raised back and prepared to surge forward at the ogre's neck, eager to end things before they became trying.

The sudden movement upward was a surprise, however, as was the disorientation I felt when my eyes saw the roof of the mines and not the walls.  I had only a moment to realize what was going on and let go, a foot allowing me to kick off from his back before it connected with the hard, stone floor.  My landing was not graceful, nor was it painless, but I found comfort in the fact that I did not land with the full weight of that being atop me as he intended.  It was a strange tactic to be sure, one that I had not honestly considered he would attempt, but I cannot argue the worth of the move.  It succeeded in removing me from his back, after all and now as I struggled to my feet, I began to re-think my approach.

"Master!  Are you alright?"  Zero's eyes were on me, not the ogre we fought, and for a brief moment, I felt frustration.  I never disliked the woman's devotion to me, but at times, I wished she would show it when it was more opportune.  Still, she was not in immediate danger, as the ogre was only now getting to his feet, a fact that I thrust my hand towards to point out.

"Yes!  Worry about that for now, not me!"  Thankfully, there was not even a hint of reproach in her gaze as she gave me a single nod and turned her attention to the monster we fought.  The other two 'pawns' in our ensemble did not share Zero's concerns quite so loudly, but I imagined that that was more because they seemed to defer most of that to her, as she was my main companion.  From what I could tell, all Pawns served the Arisen equally, but they were human enough that a pecking order had been created without my input. All it meant to me was that Aya and Yoko were concentrating on felling this creature we had engaged, and that was all I desired.  I was a warrior just as they were, and I could hold my own without any of them fawning over me.

It quickly became obvious that fire was something of a bane to him, which was fairly standard with the monsters we'd fought to this point and soon I found my sword ablaze as it had been so many times before.  Learning from my mistake, I stayed on the ground for now, slashing at his feet and his hands whenever they were available.  If I could not end this with a single strike, I would simply settle for a thousand if that's what it took.  So long as I drew blood, enough blood to kill him, it mattered not just how it happened.  It was combat for survival, not some duel for some petty reward.  This was kill or be killed, and I did not have to be fancy, did not have to be graceful, nor did I have to be merciful.

Our battle raged on for minutes that felt as days, yet we were the only ones tiring it seemed.  He was surely injured severely at this point, perhaps mortally, but there was a fight within him that was almost respectable if it was not detestable as well.  Frustration mounted as I stabbed him once more, wondering to myself why he just wouldn't die after countless stabs, slashes and blasts of fire from our group.  So it was no wonder that I finally gave in, shunned common sense, and repeated my earlier maneuver.  I climbed onto his back, stabbing with every pull before he did something much different than before.  Rather than lean back, he leaned forward, to all fours and began sprinting away from us, or rather, away from my three companions.  I still held firm to the fur of his back, only barely ducking the stone opening that passed for a doorway as he ran under it.  Once more, I let go and kicked off of his back, landing on my feet this time, as I looked around.  The room was familiar somehow, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

Click.

My gaze went back to the ogre and I instantly recognized the device he stood on.  I couldn't help but let out a laugh as I looked to the door behind him and saw it raise up.  His weight was certainly enough to collapse the pressure plate, and thanks to the happenstance of the scenario, the path was now open, even if it wasn't clear.  With renewed vigor, I charged even before I heard the footsteps of my group catching up.  By luck, his charge had worn him out and his head bowed close to the ground.  It was my chance.  I held the sword down instead of up and grabbed the fur of its cheek, as if I could control or limit its movement before my other hand stabbed in, sinking the steel of my blade into his face.  Not once, not twice, not a number of times that I counted, but rather simply 'enough' times, as before he could stand, before he could fling me away, he was finally defeated, and was in fact on the ground, dead, before my hand had stopped.  Only Zero's calming hand on my shoulder stopped my assault, and her gaze not on me, but on the path that had opened to us reminded me of our charge.  It was time to see if this did indeed lead to the other side.

The path was rather long, though all we encountered were overgrown spiders, thankfully.  Hideous beasts they were, they were not particularly dangerous.  I did spot a curious higher path that could be climbed to along the way, but paid it little mind and in time, we came across the wooden door that lead out of the mines.  We all heaved a sigh of relief before a heavy impact shook the very walls around us, coming from the direction we'd just been.  My first instinct was to worry that the door had fallen again - after all, I had not thought to prop it open or anything of the like - but the reality was much, much worse.  We ran back down, expecting the scenario I presented, but instead we ran into a rather familiar sight.

It was not the same ogre, but it was an ogre all the same, and it was not amused.  Wearily, we readied our weapons and entered combat with just as we had the last one, meeting with much of the same success - the lack of it, honestly - as the battle raged.  I could feel the energy draining from my body as we fought.  My vision became hazy, my head light.  It became harder and harder to lift my sword up.  It was no surprise when I opened my eyes to see a rather large hand heading in my direction and I could do nothing but watch and feel the impact of it as it sent me flying, rolling along the ground before I came to a stop.  The world was black behind my eyes shut against the pain, but the sight was hardly clearer when I finally opened them, feeling a wheeze of breath pass my lips as I did.  Perhaps this would be where my journey would end, where I would find death again.  Death from which I would not awake this time.

"Help me!"  The exclamation hit my ears and sent a power through my body, power enough to allow me to stand and look over at the battle.  In one of its gigantic hands, the ogre now held Yoko tightly, much too tightly, as if he were squeezing the very life out of her.  I felt myself gripping my sword tighter, setting my jaw with energy that I simply did not have.  While I did not fancy myself a hero, Yoko was fighting for me and I was not about to let that be one-sided.  I was not about to let this beast take her from me, take anything from me.  It's arm was too high for me to simply slash at, so my eyes went beyond the creature, to the ledge that I only now realized it had come from.  There was no time, so I sprinted towards it and climbed up the rock face.  As I turned around, I could almost see the last of Yoko leaving her body and that alone sent me forward.  That brought my arm up and, more importantly, down on the ogre's arm, causing him to drop her to the cold stone floor with a thud that sent a shiver through me.

I wasn't sure how, but she was not dead.  More surprisingly, as I touched her, I pulled her up slightly, she smiled to me, pleased that I was paying the attention to her that I was.  What I was not prepared for, however, was to see the color return to her cheeks, and to feel her moving to her feet with a strength she should not have had at that moment.  She spoke appreciation to me and instantly turned her attentions back to the beast, to vengeance, leaving me momentarily baffled.  It seemed these Pawns had more secrets to them than I thought, but I simply shook the thought from my head, just in time to see that Zero was carrying in my stead, bringing steel to the skull of our quarry, and bringing a smile to my lips when I saw that it lay still, indicating that it was finally over.

Our path was secure, we learned, as we moved back towards the entrance through which we had come in initially, what felt so long ago.  Yet, I found surprise in the fact that the sky was dark when we exited.  Night had fallen while we fought within, and that fact drew a groan from my lips, knowing just how dangerous the landscape became when the sun set.  Still, the merchant we had talked to was here and he would likely be glad to know he could enter the mines now, instead of stay out here and have a run-in with any sort of creature.  At least, that is what I had thought his opinion would be, but his response drew an ire from me that I didn't know I possessed.

"There were monsters in there, you say?"  He sneered a little at that - he knew as well as we did what lay within the mines, and I cannot fathom why he played stupid - and looked us all over for a moment.  "Well, I'm glad you opened the door, but I'm a little worried that it's still dangerous.  Best not to leave the job half-finished, hm?  Why don't you go back in and clear out the rest of the monsters so I can go through in peace?"  A growl rumbled low in my throat as my blood boiled.  My gaze was smoldering, I'm sure, yet he never shrank under it, which angered me even more.  After what we had gone through to ensure he would be able to pass, and he had the nerve to suggest that our mission wasn't complete?  After I explained to him that he could move from one door to the next unmolested?  This would not do.

It was a different feeling, pulling out a blade against man who did not have weapon drawn.  The fact didn't even seem to register to him that he was the target, not some goblin nor some corpse granted movement.  I am not sure why, and I don't think I will ever know how he didn't realize what was coming before it happened.  Perhaps he simply was that daft.  All that I know, all that I remember is the pure look of surprise in his eyes as I ran him through with my broadsword, clean to the hilt.  He screamed, or tried to, but it was much more of a gurgle than anything else.  There were only a few twitches from his form before he went limp and I brought a foot up to banish him from my blade, looking on with disgust as he crumpled to the ground in a dead heap.

It was.....an overreaction.

Yet, as I looked at my companions, I saw no judgment in their eyes.  They understood.  They wished the man as dead as he was now; I was simply the first to draw steel and see the deed done.  It was only then that our injuries caught up with us and we looked around to take stock of our situation.  The dark of night surrounded us and the scent of rotten flesh wafted to my nose.  I could see the fires of goblins on the horizon.  This was not a place to be in right now, especially not after the battles we'd fought.  The irony was that now the mines would serve as our refuge until morning, when I briefly considered they would be the place that would keep me from seeing a blue sky ever again.  Yet it was the danger we knew very well at the moment, when put against the unpredictable nature of the night.

As we settled in on the crates just inside the mine, to catch the slightest bit of respite, nobody spoke of the merchant that lay just outside.

In Which I Really Enjoy Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen

We were exhausted.

The weathered sword in my hand felt suspiciously heavy as I stared up at the beast more than twice my height, looming over us with a weapon that could have simply been a tree re-purposed, smoothed from days, perhaps weeks of use into a cudgel.  Days ago, I had been a simple man, and yet here I stood among two others, beings who I still don't comprehend, with a Cyclops as our quarry.  And now, locked in battle with it as we were, only now did I consider the notion of it as ridiculous.  Not when my blade had tasted the blood of two foul harpies before our current foe announced itself.  Not when I watched a man, or what looked to be a man, appear from nothing and introduce himself as Rook and as my servant.  Not when I awoke with a hand to my chest, yet felt no heart beating within.

It was a bad thought to have, of course, as I barely noticed the club coming down on a location that would have held me, had I not run to the side to avoid it in time.  I barely had time to catch my breath, knee-deep in the waters of a stream running off the nearby cliff, before a voice I knew all too well already ripped the air about us.

"Be careful!  The beast is wrought with fury!"

I watched with a grimace as Zero did not heed her own warning, finding the wind knocked out of her by a sharp blow that sent her flying feet behind her and intently looked to see if she still drew breath.  The poor girl, I felt for her so.  She had appeared much as Rook, and upon introducing herself as Zero, I could almost see the wince that years had not yet trained her expressions to contain.  I knew that her name troubled her so, that it hung over her head as almost a curse, a silent reminder of what she could be in the eyes of any.  Yet I had come to learn that it was more powerful a motivator than anything I, the Arisen, the man she swore the utmost fealty to, could have provided.  It was her life's goal to see that her name was not an indicator of her being and, much to my benefit, it made her a warrior that was as much my equal as any could have hoped to aspire to.

Relief washed over me, mixed with my anguish, as I saw her struggling to stand, panting heavily with the effort the action took.  The fire burned brightly and hotly in her eyes and said to me that she would die before she ever willingly failed me, even though I had not wished as much of her.  It was that fire, that passion, that brought new life to my body once more, a new grip to the hand that bore my sword and a new intention to every stitch of my being.

Kill.

I am no hero.  I am sure I will be hailed as one, that I will be spoken of as a saint, a God among us, but I am no such thing.  I am simply a man, apparently caught up in the cruel threads of fate, who is doing the only thing I can in these times.  I fight.  I destroy.  I kill.  Any who stand in my path, be they wolves, be they beasts from the beyond, or even a giant as we fight now, I will end them, because it is what I must do.  Because the very tale, the legend, of the Arisen, tells only of violence wrapped in the shroud of 'justice'.  I care not for it.  I care for nothing in this moment but to sever the tie of this Cyclops to this Mortal realm.  Yet it was a harder goal than I would have liked.

"The creature is most dull!  Magic will be effective against it!"

Rook shouted this to myself and Zero, only to find the both of us silently glaring at him.  He knew that he was the only one among the three of us that could weave the arcane and oftentimes I wondered if he touted his ability as a mark of superiority.  Zero and I, we had naught but our swords, our shields for combat, yet he could summon fire from nothing and set our foes ablaze as if it were simple as a yawn.  He could set our blades alight with fire that did not harm us, but made us more deadly, that burnt the insides of our foes as we ran them through.  Truly, magic was something that was all at once amazing and terrifying, and it had not been my boon to bear it.  I am thankful, however, for I would likely see it a curse.

As ill-suited as his information was for us both, the momentary lapse did bring new vision to my eyes as I looked about the field where we fought.  By no small fortune, the creature stood next to a cliff that I could climb to, and I knew that if I timed a jump correctly, I could land upon him and bring him a swift death.  I already knew that my hands could find purchase on the beast's leathery skin, that I could climb his back that I might sink my steel into the flesh of not his legs, not his feet, but his chest, his shoulders.  My earlier attempts had hacked off the two tusks he bore that made attempts at his eye difficult, yet now it stood open.  With my new course in mind, it was almost providence.  This whole battle had been drawing to this very moment, and it was my time to grasp victory.

My feet worked faster than my mind and I swiftly found myself charging towards the hulking brute, currently focused on Zero and Rook below who did their best to distract it.  Perhaps they knew of my intents, or perhaps they simply expected more out of me than I would myself.  Or perhaps they simply only knew of fighting til the end, not of retreat, and that ignorance shielded them from any action but the one they took at this time.  I ran up the rock that almost seemed built for this very purpose, this single moment and leapt as time slowed for me.  The wind whipping through my cloak, my hair, it was if I could feel every wisp that breezed by before I landed upon the shoulder of the Cyclops, gripping tightly to stay attached to the beast.  He thrashed, he fought with rage, but I was unshakable.  I drew my blade, I hefted it back and surged it forward.  I hacked away at the single eye of the beast, over and over again, bringing shrieks of pain to the hills around us.  I was winning this fight.

"Master!", Rook again.  My mind told my ears to not listen, to allow my single focus to remain on my task, but I was too late.  "Its eye is vulnerable!  Strike it!"

I could not help myself.

"Rook!", I shouted through gritted teeth, staring down at the man, the 'pawn' of mine with a look of fury that out-paced that of the creature I was trying to slay.  "I swear by my very title of Arisen that the next blood my sword tastes will be your own if you do not be silent!"  It was the wrong thing to do.  Not because of any effect it might have had on the man who looked quite chastised below, but rather because it gave the creature a moment of respite and that was all it needed.  My hand failed as it shook this way and that, throwing me from it and very nearly off of the waterfall that I could not even see the bottom of.  Drenched in the waters of the river, yet burning with rage, I climbed to my feet once more.  I would not be denied.  My sword would not be denied.

I scarcely remember the details now, but Zero did later describe to me the vigor that I displayed in my assault.  Caring not for his weapon, not for the high ground, for strategy, not even for my own regard it seemed, I charged the beast and jumped til I gripped the flesh of its belly.  I slashed my sword along its skin as I climbed up and up, seeking my prize once more.  She spoke with pride the next part, the three sword strikes to the eye that I landed next, followed by one last strike that surely would've rent the beast in twain had it been a much larger blade.  She described the creature as dead on its feet, yet only for a moment, as my final strike, the final touch that brought our conquest to the ground was a single swipe of steel along its heel, taking the very footing out from under it.  I do remember it crashing down, the sound of it, the shock it sent through us, being so close to it.  And I remember the breath I took thereafter and exhaled in a sigh.

And then I remembered the Guild charge that bid us to slay one more of its ilk.

Valkyria Chronicles 3 Characters See a Western Release This Summer

So that means Valkyria Chronicles 3 is getting localized, right?

No, of course not.  That would be silly.

Instead, Project X Zone, the very Japanese collaborative 3DS project between Namco, Capcom and Sega is going to see a release everywhere outside of Japan this summer under Namco's publishing.  This is only marginally less silly, but less silly is less silly regardless.  Of course, given Nintendo's unfriendliness to importers, this is basically the only way we would be able to play this game over here outside of buying a Japanese 3DS, so it's a victory all around.  I admit, prior to tonight I really didn't pay any attention whatsoever to news of the game since I had imagined its chances for a release outside of Japan were quite low, especially with Sega's involvement and especially especially because of Sega's characters from games which will never be officially released outside of Japan, but Namco apparently wants to make a splash in the whole publishing scene, I suppose.  A PR splash, that is, because let's face it - Project X Zone is going to be a niche title at best.  Best to accept that up front.

So what -is- Project X Zone aside from a really weird title that will hopefully(?) be updated for the localized release?  I...am not quite sure, really.  It's very much one of those games that I suppose you are just supposed to know about since nobody really seems to want to explain what it is.  After some digging, however, I did suss up a bit of a clue to its nature.  Apparently it is a sort of Strategy RPG game with Action RPG elements for the times where you initiate battle on the board tiles.  And when I say it is a sort of Strategy RPG with Action RPG elements, I think I am supposed to switch that, saying that it is an Action RPG with Strategy RPG elements, since it seems fairly light on that and really focuses on the times where you actually fight, as pictured above.  It seems to be an ultra-damage, get your ridiculous number blinders on type of affair if I'm hearing right, so that's certainly a thing.

Oh, it's also a cross-over game, which is probably worth mentioning even though you have probably figured that out by now.  Characters from a multitude of Sega, Namco and Capcom franchises are going to be involved in all sorts of ways, totaling to over 200 characters from all involved, including a few original characters here and there.  The bulk of the rosters will be featured on the field as playable characters, most of them in the battling pairs that you navigate around the map for that portion of the gameplay, though some of them are single combatants, some are simply support characters (or NPCs, I imagine) and some, actually, are probably enemy characters that are in the world solely for you to have someone to fight other than 'original' things.  Probably.  I mean, I cheated a bit and looked at the Wiki Page for the game because I really want some goddamn information now, but I'm not sure what to think.

Notably, the game will see characters from both Valkyria Chronicles 3 in Kurt, Riela and Imca, and the first one in Selvaria Bles, as well as all three protagonists from Resonance of Fate to rep Sega's franchises.  (Yes, there's plenty of others, but I only really care about those ones.)  Capcom brings the usual suspects in Mega Man X (who they still trot out every now and then, see?) and Zero, Dante from Devil May Cry (classic Dante, though it really doesn't matter) and a handful of Street Fighter characters, not to mention some Darkstalkers and Ghosts N' Goblins characters to remind everyone of the older stuff.  Namco, not to be outdone, is throwing in a few Tekken characters, not to mention characters from .Hack, Tales of Vesperia and friggin' Xenosaga, which takes the third place of 'series from which there are characters that I care about' after perusing the whole list of the confirmed cast.  I loves me some Xenosaga...as long as it's the first and third episode.  Jenseits von Gut und Böse never happened as far as I'm concerned, throwing it into a surprisingly large category of 'series where the second game is utter shit'.

Speaking of bad games, we should be careful not to get ahead of ourselves in the whole excitement department here.  Opinions opinions and all that, but in my digging, I did not find super glowing remarks about the game....or even kind of sparkly remarks about it.  It should be noted that the game was worked on by a developer named Banpresto who you probably have not heard of since their main claim to fame is the Super Robot Wars franchise....which has seen precisely three releases in Not-Japan (under the banner of Super Robot Taisen) thanks to Atlus.  Monolith Soft, who had their hands in the Xeno- games (including Xenoblade Chronicles) has also been attached to the title, but I'm not sure it's Monolith Soft proper (possibly like a B team) and I doubt their involvement was very major.  It seems like a Banpresto project through and through which...might not be the best thing one could say about it.

Still, perhaps I'm wrong.  There really isn't a whole lot of chatter about the game on the internet, which is slightly worrisome in terms of how well it will actually do, so it's entirely possible that the people yelling about it are the vocal minority that comes out of the woodwork to complain about everything and anything.  We'll all have a chance to find out the truth behind the quality of the game come this Summer, and, if only because Sega is attached, I do genuinely hope that it does at least decently.  I know there's no real way to tell any one single of the three companies "I am buying this because of you," which is a little unfortunate, because if we could I would consider it just to tell Sega that I want VC3 -that badly-.  Even though they don't care about that.  And they don't care that I've been playing Binary Domain and I absolutely goddamn love it and I will sing its praises from the rooftops one of these nights like I have done with the Yakuza games so many nights here.  So there you have it - a story that doesn't even have that much to do with Sega, and yet I still find a reason to say it.

Goddamnit Sega.

You Have My Attention, Remember Me

I recall Remember Me being announced as a thing some time ago, but I never really put it on my radar for reasons that more or less escape me.  Especially so when you consider that it really seems to have an aesthetic that I am craving, what with being semi-futuristic looking possibly going so far as to being called "Cyber-punk".  It -feels- like an aesthetic that has been done time and time again in games, but I will be damned if I can think of an example beyond the Deus Ex series which, to be fair, might be quite enough for some people.  (Because they play the games over and over again, you see.  Well....the first and third one.  Possibly.)  Perhaps because I have not yet partaken of Human Revolution, I have not met my Cyber-punk quota or something of that sort, but the point I'm making in a rather roundabout way is that, after checking out Remember Me I kind of like the look of it.  Of course, I never would have done that (at least, not this soon) had it not been for a Siliconera article titled Remember Me's Neat Combo Customization System Shown in Action.

Combo Customization?  As in, a melee system that is at least somewhat different than hitting a button a lot to punch a guy using a very under-thought, canned animation?  Well, let's have a look-see.  Ahh......hrm.  Hrrmmmmm.  That was basically my reaction throughout the video since it's....not a very good video, basically.  Or rather, it's an excellent video at showing off the very very basics of the combo system, but it stops there.  Beyond the "Over 50,000 possible combos" line, there's absolutely nothing to suggest that the melee system could be one of those "is as deep as you make it" systems, which are oftentimes the most fun, I should think.  In execution, of course, which leaves the presentation of it completely up to the developer.  I think this is really one of the 'barriers' that stops some games melee short in what's considered 'tedious and repetitive' versus other games' 'deep and satisfying' appraisal.

If you'll allow me a moment to draw some comparisons, I'll do the outlandish and bring up Batman:  Arkham Asylum and the more recent Lollipop Chainsaw in the same breath.  As I'm sure you're all aware, the former was praised (perhaps rightly so) for having 'a deep and intuitive melee system' whereas the latter was criticized (incorrectly) for being 'boring, tedious combat' and, being somebody who kind of has a thing for melee systems and who has played both games, I believe I can offer something of an explanation for why I think they were perceived as such.  Without playing the very obvious cards of the former being goddamn Batman, and the latter being a campy, B-Movie-looking (but amazing, excellent) game, because even though I'm sure those factored in a little bit, I have to believe that we're all always just looking for the fun experience, no matter the framing, and that the latter would be just as touted as the former if it made one very little change.  That change, that reason for the difference in appraisal I believe, is all about presentation.

By that, I mean specifically what happens on-screen when you push the attack button in an attempt to, well, attack a dude.  It seems like a minor, weird thing to think about, but it is -not- and is, I believe, one of the more important aspects you could incorporate into a melee system.  In Arkham Asylum (I can't speak for City since I haven't played it), you push punch and Batman might roll and punch, might take a little hop and punch, might swing around and punch, etc. - my point being simply that Batman, when ordered to punch, does not have just one animation dedicated to doing so.  Let's face it; if you strip both games I mentioned down to their inputs, they're pretty much the exact same thing.  You're hitting Square (on PS3) a lot and sometimes Circle to break it up (when Batman needs to break a block with the cape, or Juliet needs to vault over a dude to hit a different one because it looks awesome) while every now and then you hit the other buttons for auxiliary commands.  As Batman, you're flipping around and doing all sorts of impressive-looking shit that isn't expressly the same because there's just a few variations on just about every animation so while you'll see the same thing over and over again, it won't be right after the other after the other.  Juliet Starling, on the other hand has substantially more variation in her moves and her combos, however every attack more or less just has the one animation.

The result of that is that you end up, likely, settling on one or two different combos that seem to do the most damage and use them again and again, leading you to see the same animations again and again in the span of mere seconds.  The effect wears in rather easily because it's not exactly fluid, it's not, well, different, even slightly.  So, for Batman, because everything is slightly different in context with itself, it's that much more visually interesting, which means you're drawn into watching it, into paying more attention.  It's nothing approaching a question of mechanics, it's purely visual interest, because when you strip that away it is, as I said, virtually identical.  So really, that is kind of my theory on what makes the difference in the wide audience opinion.  I am kind of an outlier in that theory because I know of it, I suppose, since I enjoyed Lollipop Chainsaw much much more than Arkham Asylum, which might seem like heresy, but that's just how it is.  There, I said it.

Anyways.  Obviously, I brought all that up and went through all of that because I am going to use that to address my problem that I can see with Remember Me already.  It is precisely the problem I identified with why I imagine some people are less drawn to a melee system, and that's kind of an issue if Remember Me is really touting itself as a brawler of any sort.  Every single animation for the combos that you can create is the same for that combo and combo type.  Now, while it's likely a difficult task to change it up, I'm sure it could be done, and -especially- when it comes to the finishers for the Power line combo.  You're gonna have to vary it up if you want to attract the wider audience because nobody's going to care about making their own combos if it's just going to be a matter of setting one or two combos to last you the game and seeing those same five animations over and over again.  Because nobody is going to change their combos -just- to make it look different as it plays out.  Still, it's a pretty nifty idea in concept, so it certainly got my attention.  I just hope for their sake that they put a little more thought into it before it releases, because I can see a lot of middling impressions forming already.

Ragequit - Resident Evil 4

Resident Evil 4 (henceforth referred to as 4 Resident Evil because that's what the logo says and typing it that way infers Capcom doesn't know what the hell) is one of those games that, while I hated it, I was sorely alone in that and it became more and more painfully obvious that I was going to remain that way.  4 Resident Evil has transcended that status from "good game" to "great classic" or however you want to phrase it, so with that status, it will never really get panned aside from the outliers like me who just seem bitter about its success or whatever.  And maybe I am just bitter, but I'll tell you one thing I am, and that one thing is "Not Wrong".  I firmly believe that I am not wrong in hating the game and thinking it's a fairly poor game because it has all the -things- that we point at in other games and say "This?  This right here?  THIS IS BAD." and the only reason I think that 4 Resident Evil got away with it is because it was another installment of a beloved franchise that had a very obvious leap in a few areas and had a lot of potential, even if the lot of it was completely undermined and/or unrealized.

So, the premise of 4 Resident Evil (seriously, gonna keep on doin' that) is pretty simple, even though it's really quite far removed from your 'normal' Resident Evil title.  (Re-reading the Let's Play series of 0-4 with Code Veronica in there as well leads me to say that there's no 'normal' Resident Evil game)  Whereas most of the Resident Evil games have you going into a situation caused one way or another by Umbrella with their wacky viruses and the like, 4 Resident Evil sees you doing something quite different in heading what is basically a search and rescue mission directly from the top brass of the United States of America.  The President's daughter (who might actually just be the incumbent President's daughter, since Capcom can't be arsed to really think out dates for this type of thing) has been kidnapped by a crazy cult.  'Are you a bad enough dude to save her?!'  This is basically the entire premise of the game at the start.  Of course, it gets a little, er, 'deeper', but at the start of the game, it's billed as just a simple in-and-out job.

A simple in-and-out job for none other than Leon Scott Kennedy (I don't know why his middle name is important enough to get mentioned, just roll with it) who was last seen in a terrible GameBoy Color game Resident Evil 2 which is still, among certain groups, regarded as the best game in the entire series despite its many many flaws.  Certainly is my favorite of the group, but I'll get into that at another time.  Tonight is negative night.  Now, Leon's been hired by the Secret Service and is then dropped into a location that is definitely not Spain to single-handedly find out where the Incumbent President's daughter is, since I'm sure this is exactly how that type of thing works.  And, of course, since gameplay is -much- more important than story, Leon is handed little more than a handgun and given a pat on the head before sent along his merry way.  Because, you know, a standard-issue assault rifle is too much to ask for or a more convenient drop or anything that somewhat makes sense.

It's worth mentioning that this is a cap of the PS3 remaster.  Thus it's shiny.

So, as soon as Leon gets split up with the guys who are presumably going to drive him to the place he ends up walking to minutes after their death (by the way, if you haven't noticed by now, I'm going to be spoiling the story for the whole game, so if you're not into that, maybe head off now) he encounters villagers who are a little more than hostile towards the American.  In fact, they're downright rude, what with trying to bite him and such and oh, yeah, they're actually just trying to kill him.  Because they are all 'zombies', or at least what 4 Resident Evil calls zombies, which are really just people with parasites in their bodies.  This is sort of important.  I will touch on it more in a couple paragraphs.  Suffice to say, there's at least a reason why getting bitten by these guys doesn't offer an infection chance in theory (since the games prior kind of did and it was never really mentioned outside of something really silly in 3) and it's mostly because to be infected like these guys, you kind of need a giant alien parasite in your body.  Not...you know, a virus or something manageable.

In the village that he walks to (which is, as I assume, the destination goal or at least a stop) he runs into more of these as well as, potentially, one of these 'zombies' who can wield a chainsaw because fuck you.  This whole section is pretty infamous in its own right and it more or less sets the bar for "Will I like 4 Resident Evil?".  It's one of the highest-tension moments in the game, it uses a randomization feature depending on your actions (which isn't used anywhere else in the game) and there is generally just a shit-load of 'zombies' for you to get used to the experimental control scheme that other games have since adopted and made much much better.  Thereafter, the game -really- starts to get weird because it chiefly features Leon just sort of wandering around until he stumbles onto parts of the cult and destroys them and such.  Also a Merchant who is a gigantic asshole because he charges the one guy going around and killing zombies for supplies with which to kill zombies.

Something heavily featured in the gameplay is QTEs which are almost universally reviled by gaming people as a whole unless they're in a game that you like which means they're okay in that game only.  (Notable examples include God of War series, 4 Resident Evil, Shenmue, etc.  Because it's just silly to acknowledge that maybe QTEs aren't the problem, just poor implementation is.)  Said QTEs are, of course, of the "Get it right or die" variety, which is sort of the worst kind, but let's ignore that I suppose.  Adds to the 'horror' and 'survival' elements in the whole 'survival horror' theme that 4 Resident Evil clearly carries.  It also features the QTEs less offensive (Perception-wise) cousin:  Context-sensitive actions, to the tune of "Press button to jump out a window" and the like.  Both are generally not seen as positive additions to any games (with the latter being pretty much overlooked anymore), yet they don't seem to drag 4RE down in opinion like they do in other games.

Also featured is the staple tank controls (admittedly of a different design) and limited inventory space (again, different design) that have been decried in previous titles (while not being enough to outwardly despise them enough to say they're bad games).  Of the former, the most note-worthy thing is the inclusion of the whole "cannot walk and aim" thing that has been series standard since the first game (and is, in fact, only being dropped in favor of good third-person controls in Resident Evil 6, as in they were still present in 5) but generally it's just awkward to get around and, at least personally, I feel the camera is usually a little too tight to accommodate the desired play-style anyways.  With the latter, there's at least a 'neat' idea behind it, in pretending that Leon is carrying around a giant metal suitcase that he is never seen with that has enough space for generally more than the usual inventory, provided you're willing to organize things to eek out those extra spaces.  It is, much to everyone's benefit, also upgradeable through the game, adding more and more space with which to work.

Now, the main thing I take issue with, the main problem I have with 4 Resident Evil, is far and beyond the plot of the game.  What I've already said is relatively tame compared to what the rest of the game has to offer, and I can't even cover the full breadth of -dumb- that the game carries, story-wise.  Not that the other Resident Evil games offer 'smart' plots or anything resembling them, but I daresay that 4 Resident Evil carries one of the dumbest stories of the entire series, just below Resident Evil Zero, which manages to retcon retcons and have the dumbest antagonist ever.  I haven't played, nor experienced Resident Evil 5, so I can't comment on that, but of 0, 1 (remake included), 2, 3, 4, Code Veronica, Survivor and Dead Aim, 4 Resident Evil takes second place handily.  While I'm overstating it quite a bit, also potentially setting it up to be a little less dumb than you might be anticipating, I do have to make it pretty obvious on where I stand on this, because it makes it that much easier for you to get it while I then describe the why.

I would like you to take a look at the above cutscene from 4RE.  I'll offer no real input at this point beyond simply asking you to watch it so that what follows makes a little sense.  And waiting....waiting....Okay, I'm going to assume at this point that you have watched it.  Now I would like to make three points very very clear about what is wrong with that video and, in fact, the entire plot of the game because of it.  First off, Saddler sees fit to just sort of explain the whole plan to both Leon (whom is completely unnecessary to the entire plan, more on that in a minute) and Ashley (whom the entire plot hinges on in -several- ways).  That's probably in the great big list of cliches somewhere, also on the evil overlord lists and such.  It's dumb.  Don't do that.  Because it is dumb.  Under most circumstances, it is only mostly dumb, but in 4 Resident Evil's scenario, it's obscenely dumb, so much so that I had to stress it this much.

Now, the second point hinges on the first because it more or less explains why it is obscenely dumb to do the first point in the first place.  The entire plan is to kidnap Ashley and inject her with a Plagas and then send her back to America so that the Plagas can incubate and hatch so that Saddler can assume control of her to wreck up America from the inside.  Ignoring the glaring ways in which that could go wrong (up to and including the fact that a giant fucking tentacle thing (or an egg of a giant fucking tentacle thing) is likely to show up on an X-Ray which is probably part of the litany of tests she'd be put under upon returning to the States to ensuring her well-being) the problem is that they fucked up halfway through the plan.  The entire game hinges on Leon showing up to rescue Ashely which suggests that she has been held for long enough to warrant Armed Response (barely) which means they got to the part of the plan in which they kidnap and inject her and then stopped.

The half-assed explanation is that they need to ransom Ashley off to the States before returning her so they can wait for her Plagas to hatch and then take control of the States which I'm sure you can read into why that's a half-assed explanation.  That's....whatever.  In that sort of scenario, I can sort of see Leon being just an interloper, even though he's trying to perform the ultimate shared goal of getting Ashley back home, which I would just sort of roll with.  You don't get money immediately, of course (not like you're going to anyway because of the whole "America doesn't negotiate with terrorists" thing, the fact that they clearly know where the cult is operating from, the fact that they actually send an attack chopper to said location and the fact that they kidnapped the daughter of the man who is not President yet) but you get Ashley into the States where, presumably, nothing happens until she hatches the Plagas and shit goes golden for Saddler and his homies.  Since that's part of the original plan.  If you want to really play Devil's Advocate, I guess you could say that they needed to take her back so she could go through channels that would keep her sheltered from American doctors and such until the Plagas was ready, but this is the same cult that is run by a giant, the above Saddler who is loving this shit and is also into the Evil Overlord thing to the degree that it ruins his plans, and a crazy midget.

The third issue, which is kind of the biggest issue is that, directly after explaining his big smart plan to the guy who could safely be shot in the head at any point and disposed of and the girl who needs to not know any of the plan because assuming she gets back to the States, it would be best if she didn't know so that she can't say "THERE'S AN ALIEN IN MY BODY", he tries to kill both of them.  I say 'he' tries to kill both of them because two dudes with Plagas in them (I'm not saying Ganados because those are the villagers, literally 'cattle' and I'm not saying Cultists because that doesn't convey the fact that they have the brain-controlling parasite from somebody's fucking basement inside of them) pop out and he can apparently control people with Plagas, which would suggest that he made them pop out with flaming crossbows and take aim at not only Leon but Ashley, upon whom their entire fucking "Get Rich and Destroy America" plan hinges on not killing.  The worst part is that this is -not- an isolated incident as, in any scenario wherein Ashley is with you (and there are a lot), the Plagas dudes either attempt to re-kidnap her (which as I said is barely acceptable) or just straight-up murder her (like by burying a fucking axe in her head) through these beings that Saddler can apparently control.

The fact is that 4 Resident Evil's entire plot is pretty much made superfluous because the people actively ruining the Antagonist's plans is the Antagonists themselves.  Leon running around and shooting things until they die doesn't help matters, certainly, but the plan is actively circumvented by the ones who came up with it for little reason beyond "Shit, we can't redo the entire story -again-, oh well, ship it".  Being that 4 Resident Evil in its current state was like the fourth or fifth incarnation of the game itself (one of which ended up apparently being Devil May Cry, completely serious) I imagine there was something of a time crunch, especially considering two or three of the builds had been shown off as if they were going to be the game that ended up being released, which they certainly were not.  So suddenly changing it around so that Leon was yet again doing something other than originally broadcast (perhaps something that actually made more sense than single-handedly rescuing the daughter of the incumbent president from a cult that was too stupid to achieve their own goals) would have probably done more harm than good to the thing overall.

Ultimately, what turned me off to the game was simply the controls as they were just too bad for them to actually be usable for me.  I didn't get far enough into the game for it to reveal its stupidity to me (however, I did have a friend over who managed it, so I almost experienced it first-hand) but that's really something that it no more or less egregious depending on the way you're informed (unless, of course, you're simply being misinformed which I do not think I've done) which means I think it's pretty open for ridicule whether or not I beat the game myself.  And while I don't think the game is a good one myself, I certainly don't begrudge anyone who managed to enjoy it because I certainly would have liked to.  When it comes down to it, more people enjoyed the game despite its many many flaws than not, and that's why it gets its spot in success history and whether I like it or not doesn't matter.  Doesn't mean I can't angrily write about it to the internet, though!