Video Game Review #242: Nier: Automata

Nier: Automata

PlayStation 4

Nostalgia Factor:

This is the first time I have played Nier: Automata, so I don’t really have any strong nostalgic feelings for this game.

I had never even heard of Nier until a friend of mine at work played it and said that it was really good. I looked the game up and saw that it had received generally favorable reviews, so I asked if she could loan it to me when I was done with a couple of other games I was playing. And that’s what happened.

Story:

There’s a lot to unpack here. I’m not sure I really understood everything that happened in this game, so I will give you a pretty basic recap of its events. Sue me if I don’t get everything 100% right.

It is the future, and Earth has been attacked by an alien race that uses machines as its form of attack. Humans have been driven from the planet and have been forced to take refuge on the moon. From the moon, they created a base in outer space known as the Bunker. They also created a fighting force of androids - the YoRHa - to take the planet back from the machines. The game begins in the middle of a massive battle. You control 2B, a YoRHa model launched from the Bunker. After winning the battle, 2B and her counterpart 9S head to the surface of the planet to work with the android resistance cells on the planet and investigate some strange happenings that have been taking place in the vicinity.

It is discovered that the machines that were once controlled by the aliens have started to gain their independence; building villages, having parades, running an amusement park, putting on plays, etc. A massive cave-in after another big battle reveals that the alien forces have been hiding underground while letting their machines do all the dirty work. Further investigation reveals that these aliens died off a long time ago, and the machines have been controlled by Adam and Eve, physical manifestations of the network. The main goal of the rest of the game becomes killing Adam and Eve and freeing the Earth from their oppressive control.

Before we continue, I should say that this game requires three separate playthroughs in order to get the full story. Remember in Resident Evil 2 when you play Leon and Claire A and B scenarios? It is sort of like that. The first playthrough of the game takes place from the perspective of 2B. The second playthrough shows events from the perspective of 9S. These playthroughs conclude with the destruction of Adam and Eve. A third playthrough reveals the aftermath of what happened after the first two playthroughs (which interweave to create one storyline) and gives a resolution to the conflict at the end. I don’t want to veer too much into spoiler territory here, but the third playthrough has two different endings. Unlock both of these endings and you get the “true” ending that wraps up the game once and for all.

That’s a lot to unpack, but it all makes sense in the end. As for the story itself… it veers into wild Kingdom Hearts-style nonsense from time to time, but for the most part I liked it. I wasn’t as drawn in as some people (who think the story is just AMAZING), but I still thought it was pretty decent. Being a fan of Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Westworld, and other things that deal with the theme of sentient machines, however, I was not too blown away by it. Many of these themes I’ve seen dozens of times already.

Gameplay:

I have mixed feelings about Nier’s gameplay. I’ll start with the good.

The hack and slash fighting mechanics are pretty decent. Attacking, jumping, dodging, countering, attacking with your Pods – all this is very smooth and natural. As you make your way through this game’s three separate playthroughs, you will learn how to hack your enemies’ network and defeat them without having to lift a finger. The game often throws different styles of gameplay at you. The perspective might switch to a 2D perspective where all of a sudden it is like you are playing a platformer. More frequent are the bullet hell shooter segments of the game that play out like Asteroids or Galaga with a hint of Star Fox or Panzer Dragoon thrown into the mix. I thought these were quite fun.

So yeah, the action of the game is a lot of fun. The fighting, the hacking, the platforming, the shooting. I always had a good time when I was doing one of these things. Now we’ll get to the negative.

Much of Nier resembles open world games like Red Dead Redemption 2 or Horizon Zero Dawn. You’ve got a big, open map. There are points of interest on the map. Some things you have to check out, others are completely optional. Some things you’ll just happen along as you play. All this is fine and dandy, until I realized that this game does nothing, and I mean literally NOTHING better than those other games I mentioned. There’s a lot of fetch quests. A lot of “can you deliver this message for me?” A lot of backtracking. The game is exceptionally dry and devoid of personality at times, so the appeal of finding these points of interest and completing these quests rapidly diminished for me. And by rapidly, I mean RAPIDLY. At least the worlds of Red Dead and Horizon Zero Dawn were filled with fun, colorful characters and missions. Everything is just so drab and lifeless here. There’s no joy in exploring this map and meeting the NPCs. None.

I’m not a graphics snob (we’ll get to the game’s graphics soon), but the gray, lifeless look of the world is really a downer, and it translates to the gameplay experience for me. I was often disconnected from the game. I wasn’t interested in its world. I lost all desire to unlock 100% of this game’s map. This is easily the most joyless open world game I have played. Normally I want to see, do, and experience everything. In Nier, I just wanted to complete the main storyline and get the game over with.

That sounds a bit harsh, and makes it sound like I didn’t enjoy the game, but it is what it is. Like I said, I have mixed feelings about this title.

Graphics:

Nier: Automata easily looks like it could have been a PS3 game. Aside from some cool lighting/atmospheric effects, I was never too impressed by this game’s graphics. Everything is dull, lifeless, and gray. The city, the forest, the seaside, the underground caverns: it’s all so drab looking. The only visually exciting area in the whole game to me was the amusement park with the fireworks. Even that area, while cool, still isn’t too horribly impressive when compared with other games released in the last few years.

If I want to get really mean, I could even say that this looks like it could have been a PS2 game. Some areas of this game reminded me a lot of Shadow of the Colossus for PS2. Lots of grey, lots of dilapidated old buildings, lots of trees and vines. While Shadow of the Colossus had a cool, unique atmosphere to it, this game lacks even that. But still, things are a lot sharper and a lot more detailed here than they were in that game. So I won’t say that this looks as bad as a PS2 title. But it is close.

If I had to give props somewhere, it would be in the game’s epic battles. Some of the machines you fight are like Transformers times 1000. They’re huge! The scope of some of these battles are very grand, to say the least.

Also, although the characters that you play as look kind of dull and lifeless (like the game’s environment), I do have to give props to the makers of the game for giving the female androids such… interesting physiques. If I am going to be looking at someone’s backside the entire time I’m playing this game, at least they made the backsides nice to look at.

Sound:

I’d heard a lot about this game’s soundtrack coming into it. I must say that it is pretty good. Whether you’re digging around in an abandoned sector of the city, taking place in a massive scale battle, or exploring a machine village – all of the music fits the occasion perfectly. Expect to hear some nice orchestral tunes, some calming singing, some quiet and refrained melodies. The game does have a solid soundtrack, I’ll give it that. Is it spectacular, however? I don’t know. 

The sound effects and voice acting are equally as good. The dialogue can be a bit corny at times, but being a Kingdom Hearts/FF7 fan, I’m used to it. I’ve seen MUCH worse. As far as sound effects go, everything sounds great. Explosions, weapons firing, giant machines crashing to the ground, it all sound exactly as it should. No complaints here.

As far as production values go, Nier’s music and sound effects are much more well designed than its graphics.

Overall:

This game is hard for me to grade because as much as I’ve complained about it in this review, there was always something about it that had me coming back for more. Mainly, I wanted to see what was going to happen with the game’s story. I had heard that there were some major twists, turns, and jaw-dropping moments in this game. While I wouldn’t really go that far, it kept me entertained and offered a new spin on the old sentient machine story trope.

Many of the gameplay elements were a lot of fun, mainly the combat and the shooter segments. The open world aspect of this game, however, did not live up to expectations. I found myself skipping side quests and not exploring the map, just because I wanted to advance the game’s main storyline. Playing through this thing three times to get the full ending is a daunting process, and I quickly learned that none of these side quests were worth it in the long run. I couldn’t help but feel fatigued and a sense of “been there done that” while exploring the game’s map. Combat, as much as I liked it, started to get pretty repetitive too. You can only slash and shoot and hack so many enemies before it starts to wear out its welcome. Play through this game three times like you are supposed to, and you will likely find yourself with battle fatigue like I did. Often I would resort to the game’s hacking mechanic in order to bypass the battles, but even those get repetitive after a while.

I’m torn on how to assess this game. It does so much good, but so much bad at the same time. I’m going to let the good and the bad balance each other out and give this game a score that’s smack dab in the middle of everything: a C. I didn’t hate this game, I didn’t love it. It does good things, it does bad things. It has interesting story elements, it has boring characters and environments. I have a feeling this is a very polarizing game for most people – you either love it or hate it. I, however, could go either way. Would I recommend this to someone who has never played it before? Personally I would not, but the game has such a strong following that I can’t really dissuade you from playing it either. Maybe you would like it. You just have to play it yourself and make your own decision. Am I ever going to play it again? No.

 

Final Score:

C

If you liked this review, check out some of my other game reviews:

Final Fantasy VII Remake

Xenogears

God of War

Horizon Zero Dawn

Red Dead Redemption 2

Video Game Review #241: Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy

Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy

PlayStation 4

Nostalgia Factor:

If you’ve been paying even the slightest bit of attention to this blog, you have probably noticed that I’m big on gaming nostalgia. The era of the original PlayStation is one of my favorite eras of gaming EVER. Logically, you’d probably think I was a giant Crash Bandicoot fan. It was a popular series at the time, Crash was the PS1’s mascot, I had a love for 3D platformers, etc. But what if I told you I actually didn’t care much for Crash Bandicoot? It’s true. I never owned a Crash game. In fact, I barely even touched any of them. I remember renting the first and second game in the series for one weekend and coming away unimpressed. I never bothered with the third Crash Bandicoot game, and I haven’t touched a game in the series since then.

Recently I played and reviewed the remastered Spyro trilogy and I had a decent time with the game. I noticed that the Crash trilogy had also been remastered, and I made it a point to check the game out. Sure, I didn’t care much for the series back in the 90s, but a lot of time had passed. Maybe my opinion would change and I’d come away pleasantly surprised.

Well, not really. Despite the graphical upgrades, the series is still pretty much the same as I remember it. Challenging, linear, and – to be honest – really not that fun. Let’s break things down, shall we?

Story:

Each game in the series has its own separate storyline, but honestly these storylines don’t matter. They’re generic and horribly boring. What they boil down to is: you are the hero, Crash Bandicoot. Doctor Neo Cortex is the bad guy. It’s Crash’s job to fight through a bunch of levels and defeat Neo Cortex at the end of the game. The end.

Sure, there are some random story elements thrown into the mix involving energy crystals, evil masks, and (another) evil scientist, but these are secondary. No one plays these games for their stories. No one.

 

Gameplay:

These games are pretty easy to pick up and play, but at the same time very challenging to master. You control Crash from a behind-the-back 3D perspective. You run through a series of levels, collecting fruit, smashing boxes, and damaging enemies by either jumping on them or using your spin attack. There are multiple branching paths to take and a lot of stuff to collect. Despite this, things are pretty linear. This isn’t Super Mario 64 or Banjo-Kazooie where you have big, open stages to explore. You are mainly limited to hallways in this game where your only option is to run forward.

Every once in a while the game mixes things up with a stage that is different from your usual stage. You may find yourself riding an animal, flying an airship, or controlling an underwater submersible. These stages can be fun, but they are few and far between. The meat and potatoes of Crash Bandicoot are its traditional platforming stages. As luck would have it, these are the stages I have the biggest problem with.

When the game is clicking and everything is working, some of these stages are pretty fun. Run up to an enemy, hit him with your spin attack, jump over a pit while collecting some fruit mid-air. Smash some boxes. Kill some enemies. Jump on a series of lily pads over a pond. Kill some more enemies, collect some more fruit. Break some boxes. Sounds fun, right? Just wait until things start to get difficult.

Now, I am okay with games that offer a stiff challenge. I’m a child of the NES era. I have no problem handling a difficult game. But Crash Bandicoot can get absolutely ridiculous and at times unfair with its difficulty level. Timing jumps and measuring distance is very problematic, especially given the game’s behind-the-back perspective. I suffered so many cheap deaths falling to my doom on routine jumps that should not have given me any problems whatsoever. If I fell so many times on easy jumps, imagine how many times I fell on difficult jumps with moving/disappearing platforms and enemies attacking me at the same time. There are levels where I died 20, 30 times trying to complete them. No joke. As I played I constantly wanted to throw my controller out the window.

No level epitomizes this frustration more than The Road to Nowhere. In this stage, you have to cross a rickety wooden bridge that is falling apart. Red planks will fall if you stand on them for more than a half second. Planks with cracks in them will send you falling to your death if you even do so much as step on them. You have to take your time as you cross this bridge, making sure every single jump is aligned perfectly, down to the very pixel. Mess up even slightly and you die and go back to your last checkpoint. I made it to The Road to Nowhere armed with nearly 30 lives, and I lost ALL of them trying to pass this stage. I have never been more frustrated playing a game in recent memory.

If you can make it through this stage, the rest of this collection isn’t that bad – particularly Crash Bandicoots 2 and 3. The original is definitely the most difficult. People must have complained about this when the games first came out, because 2 and 3 are noticeably less challenging. It wasn’t until I started playing the second and third games that I started to have a good time. I was miserable playing the original Crash Bandicoot. It’s sequels aren’t too bad. I wouldn’t say they are amazing or anything, but I wouldn’t say I hated them either. They definitely saved this trilogy from getting a really low score.

 

Graphics:

The N-Sane Trilogy definitely shines in the graphical department. The animations are great. The characters are like Saturday morning cartoons brought to life. The stages are beautiful. Everything looks really amazing.

It’s crazy going back and looking at old clips of the original PS1 versions of these games and then looking at them now. The difference is night and day. The 90s games have their own charms, sure, but this updated version looks breathtaking.

Sound:

Crash Bandicoot is definitely no Sonic or Mario when it comes to the music department, but it still sounds really good. A lot of the stages have some really catchy tunes that you’ll catch yourself vibing along with. I don’t think there are any big, iconic musical tracks to be found in this series like there are with the other games I mentioned, but it is what it is. Everything still sounds really good.

The sound effects are great too. I love the twirl sound Crash makes when he does his spin attack. The sound of breaking boxes, the sound when you collect a piece of fruit, the countdown of the TNT boxes, the “oogabagga!” noise when you collect a new mask – it all sounds fantastic. If there is anything iconic about the sound of Crash Bandicoot, it is not in its music but its sound effects.

 

Overall:

If I was going through and grading this trilogy by each individual game on the disc, the original game would get a very low score while I would have looked upon the other games more favorably. I have to find a way to balance this out, though. I did not have any fun with the original Crash Bandicoot. It made me question whether I even wanted to keep playing this collection. Luckily, I did. Crashes 2 and 3 are much better games. Did I love them, though? I can’t say that I did. They offered me an occasional fun time, but overall I found them to be overall pretty lackluster. I guess that sums up my thoughts on the Crash series as a whole: lackluster. They are missing that special something that make other games of its era (Sonic, Mario, Gex, Banjo-Kazooie, etc) so memorable.

I didn’t like Crash back in the 90s, and even today I’m finding my reaction to this N-Sane trilogy to be very lukewarm. I just could not ever find the energy to get excited about playing these games. I recognize their importance in the history of the original PlayStation console. I understand that there are a lot of people out there that grew up on these games and probably really love them. I’m just not one of those people. Did I hate the N-Sane Trilogy? No. Did I think it was a blast to play? No. I’m right smack-dab in the middle with my opinion on these games, so I guess the score should accurately reflect that. I’d give it a normal C, but the first game in the series is just so frustrating I feel I have to knock my overall score down ever so slightly to reflect that. So that’s what I’m doing. And I don’t feel bad about it one tiny bit.

 

Final Score:

C-

If you liked this review, check out some of my other game reviews:

Spyro Reignited Trilogy

Nights Into Dreams

Bug!

Gex: Enter the Gecko

Sly Cooper and the Thievius Racoonus

Video Game Review #240: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Nintendo 64

Nostalgia Factor:

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is often referred to as one of the greatest video games ever made, and I have to say I agree with that statement. I first got this game back in 1998, right when it initially came out. Normally I am the type of guy to wait until a game goes down in price before he buys it, but not in this instance. I wasn’t too big of a fan on the Zelda series (I had played the NES version of the game a handful of times, but had never played its sequel or A Link to the Past), but all the video game magazines at the time had been hyping the hell out of this game. I read the previews and I saw how groundbreaking it had the potential to be. 

I waited in line at Best Buy the day it came out, and was lucky enough to come away with a fresh, shiny (but not golden) copy of this game. For some forgotten reason, we had a family get-together at my grandma’s house right after I got this game, and I specifically remember reading through the instruction manual a countless number of times, tapping my foot and repeatedly asking my mom when we were going to go. I wanted to play this game so bad!

Ocarina of Time did not disappoint. In fact, it was far better than I ever could have imagined. I was obsessed with this game, playing it day and night. I don’t remember how long it took me to complete this game, but as soon as I finished it I fired it up from the beginning and immediately did it all over again.

 22 years since I first got my grubby little hands on this game, I still pop it in and play through it every couple of years or so. Each time I tell myself I probably won’t like it as much because of how old it is, but each time I end up loving it just as much as I did the very first time. Let me just say, I just finished the game the other day and that opinion still holds true. In fact, I may like this game right now more than I ever had at any point in my life.

Story:

You start off as a young boy named Link. While Link is sleeping, he is awakened by a fairy named Navi. Navi summons link to the Great Deku Tree, who appears to have fallen ill. Link enters the Tree and defeats the corruption inside, but it is too little too late. Before dying, the Deku Tree tells Link how the world is in jeopardy, and how he must travel to Hyrule Castle and seek Princess Zelda for answers. Link does, and it is from Zelda’s mouth that he learns of the history of the Triforce, and how the evil Ganon is attempting to get his hands on it in order to conquer the world.

Link goes on a quest to claim the Spiritual Stones, which allow him access to the Sacred Realm where the Triforce is held. Little does he know, he is being tricked by Ganon, who follows Link and claims the Triforce of Power for himself. Link awakens 7 years later, only to discover that Ganon has used the Triforce to take over Hyrule. As an adult, Link must awaken the sages of Hyrule, who can use their combined power to seal Ganon in the Sacred Realm forever.

After visiting the game’s various temples and dungeons and awakening the sages, Link takes the battle to Ganon’s lair. Using the Master Sword and Zelda’s Light Arrows, Ganon is defeated and sealed away by the sages. A massive celebration filled with music and dancing ensues, but not for Link! Link is sent back to his childhood seven years ago, where he once again makes contact with Princess Zelda in her castle.

Does this version of Zelda even know who Link is? Do the two have a future together? The game ends before we can ever find out.

 

Gameplay:

Ocarina of Time is really easy to pick up and play. The game takes place from a behind-the-back 3D perspective. The action follows Link around, resulting in very few problems with camera angles that plagued games like this back in the mid to late 90s. The Z-trigger locks on to your enemies. Once locked on, you can circle your enemies while hacking and slashing at them with your sword. This doesn’t seem like a big deal nowadays, but this was a massive innovation for its time. This is the first game I can ever remember with lock-on mechanics like this, and shortly after this game’s release I began to see it emulated in a countless number of titles. Such a game changer, that Ocarina of Time.

There is no jump button in this game. Instead, run up to a ledge and run off it, aiming yourself in the direction you want to go, and Link should jump in that direction. Took me a while to get used to this when I was a kid, but it quickly became second nature. Your two main buttons are used for attack and examining/picking up items. As you play, you gain accessories like slingshots and boomerangs. These accessories can be mapped to the C-pad, where the simple push of a button brings up the accessory you wish to use. You assign these accessories in the game’s pause menu. If I had to make one minor gripe about Ocarina of Time, it is that three inventory spots aren’t enough. I had to keep pausing the game to switch accessories out, and honestly it really breaks up the rhythm of the game. I guess that’s my only complaint about this game. It’s that freaking good.

As you play, you’ll find that Link is capable of more than just attacking, using accessories, and picking stuff up. You can climb, swim, block with a shield, ride a horse, and much much more. One thing you’ll find yourself doing quite often is playing the Ocarina. You have to use the Ocarina to solve puzzles, unlock new areas, and warp around the game’s map.

The puzzles you solve in this game are very clever and intuitive. While you are in dungeons, they are often challenging, but never TOO challenging to the point where you get stuck. Yes, I am saying that the Water Temple isn’t very challenging. I know that the difficulty of this dungeon is legendary, but honestly I’ve never had too much trouble with it. I cruised through it on my most recent playthrough in about an hour or an hour and a half without getting stuck or having to look for help. I find the Forest Temple to be a lot more difficult, because all the crumbling rocks and vines look the same to me.

Puzzles in this game are actually a lot harder (at least to me) when you are NOT in a dungeon. At least when you’re in a dungeon you have an idea of where to go and what you’re supposed to do. As a kid, I got stuck QUITE often in between dungeons while exploring the world map. Often it is not made clear where you are supposed to go next, or what you are supposed to do to gain access to the next area. That’s part of the genius of this title, getting the player to explore and discover these things themselves.

All in all, the different pieces of this game come together wonderfully. I had an absolute blast as I played, rarely encountering a dull moment along the way. Exploring, fighting, solving puzzles, it’s all just so FUN.

 

Graphics:

I expected this game to have held up a lot worse than it actually did. Sure, some of the textures are a bit grainy. You notice dungeon walls kind of “smear” as you are running through them from time to time. Character models obviously aren’t going to be as advanced as they are on, say, the PS4. And I forgive that. I forgive all of that. This is a Nintendo 64 game. Of course it is going to have aged. There is such a classic charm to this game’s look and feel that I can’t hold any of these things against it.

To me, where this game shines is in its atmosphere. Kokiri Village with its green décor and the little river running through it = charming as hell. Some of the dungeons, like the Forest and Shadow Temple, are quite eerie. The inside of Jabu Jabu with all its swirling lights and colors = amazing. Give me this over anything you’d see on a current console any day of the week.

This game is bright and vibrant when it needs to be. Dark and moody at other times. Whatever is happening on screen, you always feel like part of the action. If you play this in the dark with headphones on, you can easily lose yourself in the world of Hyrule. This is an amazingly immersive game.

 

Music:

Nearly everything about this game is perfect, and its music and sound effects are no exception. This game has SUCH a terrific musical score. Everywhere you go you are hearing an iconic Zelda tune playing. Seriously, this game’s musical score is GREAT.

All the atmospheric sound effects help add to the immersion. The noises Link makes when he jumps around, the clunking sound of Epona’s hooves on the ground, the sound your sword makes when you swing it and accidentally hit the wall… it is all just perfect. That subtle shift in the air when day switches to night, the wolves howling, the eerie music that plays when skeletons start popping out of the ground… I mean, it is all just great. Perhaps my favorite thing about the game’s audio, however, is that little tune that plays when you open a chest with a key item in it. It always gets me so pumped. Also, there’s that mysterious jingle that sounds when you unlock one of the game’s secrets.

Everything about this game’s audio is just so iconic to me. It is sheer perfection.

 

Overall:

Speaking of sheer perfection, I can’t give this game anything less than a perfect score. The fact that it is so fun and so enjoyable to play even 22 years after its initial release speaks volumes. There is a reason people say that this is one of the best games ever made: because it fucking is!

People will still be playing this game 20, 30, 50 years from now. It’s that good. I can’t wait to introduce my 4 month old son to this game when he’s old enough. It is a timeless classic that will always be fun. I’ve always considered Final Fantasy VII and Xenogears to be the two best games I have ever played, but after replaying Ocarina of Time I may have to re-think that evaluation.

 

Final Score:

A+

 If you liked my review of Ocarina of Time, check out some of my other game reviews:

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

Golden Axe Warrior

Star Fox Adventures

Video Game Review #239: Final Fantasy VIII

Final Fantasy VIII

PlayStation

Nostalgia Factor:

I had such high expectations for Final Fantasy 8 when it first came out. The only other Final Fantasy game I had ever played was FF7, which I thought was an incredible, life changing game. Surely they would take the formula that made FF7 so great and improve upon it to deliver a truly breathtaking sequel.

That didn’t happen. Not only did I not really like the game, I never even bothered to finish it. I didn’t like the combat. I wasn’t a fan of the story. I made it to the fourth disc and gave up because I couldn’t beat one of the game’s final bosses. There it sat on my shelf for nearly 20 years when I finally picked it back up again and completed it back in 2007 or 2008.

Fast forward to 2020. If you’d asked me a couple months ago what I thought about Final Fantasy 8 I would have responded with a thoroughly unenthusiastic “meh.” I still don’t think the game is as great as 7, but I have to say I now like it much more than I ever did in the past. I tempered my expectations and came into it with an open mind. I didn’t want to come into the game hating it or holding a grudge because it wasn’t FF7. I wanted to enjoy it for what it was. A lot of people love this game, and I think I was finally able to see what it is about this game that people enjoy so much.

 

Story:

Admittedly, this game’s storyline is a bit of a mess. I’m not going to recap the entire thing, but instead I’ll offer a quick summary.

The main character of Final Fantasy 8 is Squall, an introverted student at Balamb Garden, one of multiple Gardens that act as schools that raise young people to be mercenaries for hire. The game opens with you and your classmates embarking on their final mission before graduation. In this mission, you have to stop invading Galbadian forces from taking over the city of Dollet. Your mission is successful, and you later attend a graduation party for your class. It is there that Squall meets Rinoa, a happy and bubbly young woman who acts as his complete opposite. She forces him to dance and attempts to get him to open up a bit (unsuccessfully).

Now that Squall and his friends have graduated, they become official members of SeeD, the mercenary group. They are sent off on a mission to help an underground resistance fight off Galbadian occupation in the small town of Timber. Turns out this is where Rinoa is from, and Squall is reunited with the young woman he met at the graduation party. They team up and fight off the Galbadians once again. In order to eliminate the suddenly aggressive Galbadian threat, Squall and his fellow SeeDs are sent to assassinate their leader, a sorceress by the name of Edea.

The assassination attempt is a failure and Squall and company get locked up in prison. While they are locked up, Edea launches an offensive against the Gardens, believing them to be the cause behind the assassination attempt.  Squall escapes from prison and arrives just in time to save Balamb Garden from destruction. The other Garden is not so fortunate.

While surveying the damage, Squall and his party come to the sudden realization that they all grew up together in the same orphanage. Due to their use of GFs (which act as this game’s summons), they’ve forgotten that they were all childhood friends. They also realize that the former mistress of the orphanage was Edea, the woman who would go on to be the very same Sorceress that they just tried to assassinate. This is one of the “questionable” twists of this game that people often complain about. Seems a little convenient but also unnecessary that these people all are connected and grew up together. But whatever. It is what it is.

The rest of the game becomes a quest to stop not Edea, but the Sorceress Ultimecia that has taken control of her body. Ultimecia is a time traveling sorceress from the future who is attempting to master the power of time compression to flatten time and make past, present, and the future all exist at the same time in a universe that she has complete control over. Again,  this is a really bizarre and questionable plot twist that people often complain about. The game’s storyline just kind of seems to meander from random event to random event.

Weird stuff ensues. Rinoa is infected with Ultimecia’s power and goes into a coma. She is blasted off into space in order to be treated far away from people, I guess. But this backfires as Rinoa is possessed by Ultimecia and made to free the sleeping body of the evil Sorceress Adel, which has been suspended in space. A lunar event is triggered and all kinds of monsters spout from the moon and start coming down to the planet below. We have now officially gone completely off the rails.

Rinoa’s body, free from the influence of Ultimecia (who has transferred her power to the newly awakened Adel) floats helplessly in space. Squall rescues her and brings her aboard the Ragnarok where the two share a touching romantic moment. The game doesn’t show it or even really hint at it, but they totally get it on. I know they do.

Squall pilots the Ragnarok back to the planet and a final plan is drawn up to use time compression against Ultimecia to defeat her on her own ground. The plan is successful, and our heroes live happily ever after.

Yayyyy!

This is a very over-simplified plot summary and I know I am leaving a lot of stuff out. I didn’t even mention how periodically Squall and his party black out and have flashbacks to the life of a young soldier named Laguna and his friends. These flashbacks were instigated by a woman named Ellone, who was attempting to get Squall to change the past to alter the present… unsuccessfully. In the end, this whole side plot seems a bit unnecessary and useless. I always thought it was going to go somewhere amazing, but it just kind of peters out eventually and gives way to all the Ultimecia crap.

So yeah. I mean, it isn’t necessarily a horrible story but it is a bit meandering and directionless. The orphanage twist seems a bit forced, the Laguna stuff goes nowhere, and I just couldn’t bring myself to care about the quest to bring down Ultimecia the same way I cared about the quest to bring down Shinra and Sephiroth in Final Fantasy 7.  There is a very real lack of cohesion to be found here. Even the ending is a bit vague and ambiguous.

One thing I did care about was the relationship between Squall and Rinoa. I first played this game when I was in high school. I was a quiet loner who heavily identified with Squall. It was always my dream to have a fun, bubbly young woman like Rinoa swoop into my life and completely change things for me forever. That never happened to me as a pimply teenage kid, but it was always something that gave me hope. Playing this game in the present day really brings back a lot of those memories for me.

Gameplay:

This game shares many similarities with Final Fantasy 7, but there are some major, major differences that set it apart. Here are the similarities: You run around. You talk to people. You can buy items and upgrades at shops. Combat is turn-based. There are random encounters. On the surface, this game is very similar to its predecessor.

Here is where it gets different. Everything is based off of your ability to junction Guardian Forces (or GFs) to your character. When a GF is junctioned, it allows you to select four actions you can assign to your character during combat. At the beginning of the game, these options are attack (which is an absolute must), magic, item, GF, and draw. The first three options are pretty self-explanatory, so I won’t bother going into them. GF calls your Guardian Force to attack your enemy. This works basically as a summon from past FF games. Unlike past games, there is no limit as to how many times you can do this in battle. In the game’s early going, I found myself just calling GFs over and over again to do my attacks for me. The only downside to doing this: their animations are really, really, REALLY long and drawn out.

The Draw command is what sets this game apart from every other entry in the Final Fantasy series. Instead of coming equipped with a set of magical spells or having the ability to learn new spells as you level up, your characters start the game as blank slates. You have to use the Draw command to pull spells out of the enemies you fight. For example, a random encounter starts. Select your enemy and pick the Draw option from the battle menu. Your enemy should have a number of spells (cure, thunder, fire, etc) that you can draw. Once you draw spells from your enemy, you can then use these spells in battle. Not only can you use them in battle, you can open the in-game menu and junction them to your parties character attributes. For example, junctioning fire to Squall’s attack attribute raises your attack value and also does fire damage to your enemies. The more spells of a certain type you have junctioned (say, you draw 100 fires from your enemies), the more powerful these effects will be.

As the game goes on and your GFs level up, the more junctioning options your characters receive. Your GFs also learn new abilities as they level up that you can assign to your character, like strength +20%, Boost, or HP +20%, etc.

The combat takes a while to get used to, but once I got the track of it, it became very easy to handle. I think this is one of the reasons I never liked this game as a kid: I never really figured the junctioning system out. Now it is like second nature to me.

 

Graphics:

Final Fantasy 8 can be a bit rough to look at in present times, given how far graphics have come in the last 20 plus years. Characters are jagged and messy looking. Backgrounds are static and 2D. The world map is plain looking and not too horribly impressive. But you have to remember that this game was considered cutting edge in 1999. At the time it was certainly a step up graphically from Final Fantasy 7.

One thing that does stand the test of time: the cutscenes. They still look really good, really cinematic. They give the game a little flare. Also, the backgrounds and environments have a lot of character. Whether you’re walking the halls of Balamb Garden, taking in the sights at Fisherman’s Horizon, or checking out the nightlife in Deling City, each area has its own unique and distinctly Final Fantasy 8 feel to it.

Sound:

FF8’s musical score is really good. Lots of catchy tunes everywhere you go. I don’t think this game’s music is as good as other games in the series (FF6 and 7 definitely have this one beat), but that doesn’t mean it still isn’t pretty freaking good. Sound effects are good too. Love it or hate it, the little chiming sound when you make menu selections is pretty much the same as it is in FF7. Other than that, nothing really stands out as far as sound effects go.

 

Overall:

My opinion on Final Fantasy 8 has definitely changed for the better. I had a really fun time with this game. No, it’s not Final Fantasy 7, but then again what is? Now that enough time has passed, I am able to look at this game on its own merits and stop with the constant comparisons. This is a good, fun game. It has its flaws, most notably with its plot-hole filled wacko story, but it is still a fun game.

One gripe I guess I should bring up is just how slow-moving the game is. I am not talking about the pacing, I am talking about the speed of your characters. Running from one end of Balamb Garden to the other is a slow, torturous affair. The characters talk really slowly. Some GFs can take several minutes to launch  their attacks in battle. I never noticed this back in 1999, but in present times the slowness is almost painful. If you are going to play this game, I would suggest getting the remastered version for the PlayStation 4. Not only does the game have  smoother, sharper graphics, you are also given the opportunity to speed things up to three times the speed of the normal game. A walk that might have taken you a full minute or two before can now be done in a matter of seconds. It makes a world of difference.

If you are a fan of classic JRPGs, you can’t go wrong with Final Fantasy 8. I almost feel bad for hating it so much in my youth. It is a ton of fun. If old school turn-based JRPGs aren't your thing, however, I’d suggest you take a pass on it. 

 

Final Score:

A-

 If you liked this review, check out some of my other game reviews:

Final Fantasy VI

Final Fantasy VII

Final Fantasy IX

Final Fantasy X

Xenogears

Video Game Review #238: Goldeneye 007: Reloaded

Goldeneye 007: Reloaded

PlayStation 3

Nostalgia Factor:

I have a bone to pick with this game. Look at the back of its case. “The Bond adventure that began it all returns. Refined. Recharged. Reloaded.”

Having never even heard of this game before, I jumped to the only logical conclusion there was – that this was a remake of the original Goldeneye for the Nintendo 64, but with updated graphics. The pictures on the back of the box even seemed to support that theory.

I loved the original Goldeneye. It’s one of my all-time favorite shooters. Take that game and give it updated graphics and gameplay? I was in. I was so in. I gladly shelled out my hard-earned dollars to pick this game up. It was like a dream come true!

It took me about five minutes of playing to realize that I’d made a horrible mistake. Aside from a few incidental similarities, this game was NOTHING like its Nintendo 64 predecessor. It wasn’t a remake at all. It was a completely different game entirely. And a shitty one at that.

Before I get too far ahead of myself, I guess I should break this game down for you.

*sigh*

Story:

This game is a reimagining of the original Goldeneye, but set in present time as opposed to the 90s. Pierce Brosnan has been replaced by Daniel Craig. All the old and outdated technology in the original game and movie have been replaced by sleek modern day equipment. Bond uses a smart phone, if that gives you any indication what kind of game this is.

Reloaded follows the same basic, BASIC plot of the original Goldeneye, but with massive liberties taken, to the point where it isn’t even recognizable anymore. The second stage takes place in a dance club where you have to walk around and scan people’s faces, looking for one person in particular. It’s fucking stupid and I hate it. Where was this in the movie or the N64 game? This isn’t Goldeneye. If you wanted to make a Craig Bond game set in modern times, don’t manipulate people using the Goldeneye name to do it. Make a new fucking game. It just gets worse and worse the longer you play.

Yeah, I’m getting angry already. The rest of this review is going to be fun, isn’t it?

Gameplay:

OK, so they took major liberties with the original game’s storyline. At least its gameplay is good, right?

RIGHT?

No. It’s awful. The original Goldeneye broke barriers with how interactive its game world was. Unique missions, bullet holes in the wall, equipment that blew up when you shot at it, enemies that reacted differently depending on where on their body you shot them. This game takes away all those fun little touches. You run around you shoot people with no nuance whatsoever. Shooting them in the middle of the body does the same amount of damage that shooting them in the arm does. It’s stupid. The game holds your hand too much too. Just point in the direction of your enemy and shoot, and the game’s auto aim will take care of the rest.

Hordes of enemies swarm you, so you shoot them a couple times until they fall over and they are all dead. Then you move on to the next section of the game and you do the same. Every once in a while you have to pull out your phone and walk around at a snail's pace looking for something to scan, so that you can pass your mission. There’s no variety. There’s no fun or joy to be found here. It’s a by-the-numbers boring and generic shooter with no personality whatsoever.

Oh wait, I lied about there being no variety. There is a tank level that plays out similar to a rail-shooter like Star Fox or Panzer Dragoon, and it isn't that bad.

Graphics:

I guess I can finally say something good about this game. Daniel Craig looks fine as Bond. The environments and the interiors of this game look really nice. There is nothing eye-popping or beautiful about this game’s graphics, but they do the job. If the game was any fun to play – these graphics would suffice 100%.

My main gripe is what they did with the character models. Alec Trevelyan (006) is just some boring and generic looking white guy with no discernible traits whatsoever. Xenia Onatopp is a boring and generic looking white woman with no discernible traits whatsoever. Natalya Simonova is a boring and generic looking white woman with no discernible traits… are we noticing a pattern here? I’m sure noticing it. They did these characters dirty. They truly did. No personality, nothing distinctive about them, they’re just plain boring. It’s a shame.

And Boris…. don’t even get me started on Boris. Oh wait, Boris isn’t even in this game – so I can’t get started on him.

*sigh* 

Sound:

I mean, this game’s sound is fine. Nothing stood out to me as particularly good or bad either way. Music and sound effects: serviceable. Certainly no music tracks are as iconic as what you’d hear in the N64 game, but that goes without saying. Just like everything else in this game – its music is boring and doesn’t do anything to make it stand out from the crowd.

Credit where credit is due: I loved hearing the Tina Turner Goldeneye theme at the beginning of the game and during the end credits. This is one of my favorite Bond theme songs, and I totally didn’t expect to hear it in this game. I was pleasantly surprised.

Perhaps the only pleasant surprise this game has to offer.

Overall:

In case you can’t tell, I didn’t enjoy this game. It’s painfully boring and generic, and it does nothing to advance the first person shooter genre. I would have had a much better time just going back and playing the original Goldeneye than playing this. This game brings nothing to the table. NOTHING. Seriously. I played it just for the sake of beating it, not because I actually enjoyed it. Now that I am done with the game I plan to trade it in and get rid of it. I am certainly never going to play it again. Why bother?

The only thing keeping it from a failing score is that if you strip this game of the Goldeneye title and all its Bond elements, I probably wouldn’t have hated it as much as I did. I mean, it still wouldn’t have been very good, but at least I wouldn’t be angry at it for trying to trick me into thinking it was going to be as good as the original.

Don’t play this game. Whether you like the original Goldeneye or not, it is just flat out not worth your time. There are so many better options out there.

Final Score:

D-

If you liked this review, check out some of my other game reviews:

Goldeneye 007

Wolfenstein 3D

Duke Nukem 3D: Megaton Edition

Quake 64

Doom

Video Game Review #237: Ecco the Dolphin

                                                  

Ecco the Dolphin

Genesis

Nostalgia Factor:

Back in the early 90s, I remember being quite intrigued by the premise of Ecco the Dolphin. What ten year old kid wouldn’t be interested in a video game where you play as a dolphin? It was such a fascinating concept to me.

I knew a couple of kids at my school who had played the game before I ever had the chance to, however, and none of them liked it very much. The list of complaints was long. The controls sucked. They couldn’t figure out what to do. The game was too hard. There wasn’t enough action. Blah blah blah.

The complaints were almost enough to turn me off from even giving the game a try. Luckily, I got the game either as a birthday or Christmas present and quickly fell in love with it. All the complainers were wrong. Ecco the Dolphin was a great game!

Does it hold up in 2020? It actually does. I had a really good time revisiting this game. Read on for more details.

Story:

I have to say, this is one of the most unique video game stories I have ever encountered. You play as a playful, happy dolphin named Ecco. Ecco is swimming along with his pack and enjoying life when one day all nearby life is sucked out of the ocean into a giant funnel cloud. Ecco is left as the sole survivor, and he swims off to explore the sea in the hopes of recovering his lost pack.

Ecco’s journeys lead him across the ocean to the lost city of Atlantis. Reading ancient glyphs, Ecco discovers that a mysterious alien civilization named the Vortex has been feeding off of Earth’s oceans for 500 years. Ecco uses ancient Atlantean technology to travel 55 million years into the past, to help his friend the Asterite find his missing orb.

Returning to present day, Ecco gives the Asterite its missing orb and is rewarded with the abilities to both breathe underwater and to damage the Vortex with his sonar ability. Ecco returns to the point in time where his pack is sucked into the funnel cloud, and makes sure he is sucked up with them this time around. Fighting the Vortex on their own turf, Ecco defeats the Vortex Queen and vanquishes the threat once and for all…. (or at least until this game’s amazing sequel).

Pretty different, huh?

Gameplay:

This game takes place from a 2D side-scrolling perspective. Controlling Ecco, you can move through the water in all directions. One of the buttons increases your speed as you swim. Another is an attack that launches you toward enemies so you can smash them with your bottle nose. The last button control controls your sonar. You can use this sonar to talk to other sea creatures and interact with ancient glyphs. Hold down the sonar button to use echolocation, which gives you a brief, undetailed map of the area. As the game goes on, you can use your sonar to damage enemies. Just don’t expect this ability right away.

There is a learning curve to this game. You will need to jump out of the water and over obstacles from time to time, and the trick to this involves building up speed and timing your charge attack at just the right time (and the right angle) to launch yourself out of the water. All my friends struggled with this when I was a kid, and I think that’s one of the main reasons none of them liked this game.

Another thing that makes life difficult is your oxygen meter. Ecco is a dolphin, and dolphins need to come out of the water to breathe oxygen. As you play, your oxygen meter will slowly deplete. Run out of oxygen, and your health bar will start to rapidly drain. So if you want to be successful playing this game, you’re going to have to keep that oxygen bar replenished or you will not last long. Not only are you solving puzzles, exploring, and fighting enemies, you have to do it all against the clock. Another reason people probably think this game is just SO difficult.

I hate to be that guy, but I never found this game to be that hard. You have to be patient, you have to make sure you’ve got enough oxygen, you’ve got to keep track of where you have been and where you need to go. It really isn’t that bad at all. I do have to acknowledge that the end of the game is pretty tough. The Vortex tunnel and the ensuing Welcome to the Machine stage are extreme trial and error and can get frustrating fast. If you die against the game’s final boss, you have to go back and do it all over again, too. Oof.

Graphics:

This game has aged pretty well! The graphics are bright and colorful. The backgrounds are vibrant. The sea creatures you encounter are well-designed and look like they belong there. Ecco himself is well-designed and well-animated. The deeper into the game you go, it develops a very atmospheric, almost haunting feel that I think is just really fantastic.

Two thumbs up to this game’s graphics.

Sound:

The game sounds really fantastic, too. Ecco’s soundtrack is very iconic to me. So many awesome tracks that I had forgotten all about. But boy did they bring back memories. As I played I looked forward to hearing each stage’s music. It’s very atmospheric and works perfectly in tandem with the game’s graphics to deliver a wonderfully unique experience.

Sound effects are good too. It’s really easy to believe you’re really a dolphin zooming around on the bottom of the ocean. Who would have thought a 16-bit video game about a dolphin would deliver such an authentic marine experience?

Overall:

I think this game gets a bad rap. It’s fun. It’s so much fun.

The controls are perfect. The graphics are great, the music and sound effects are great. The story is fascinating. The world of the game is just so haunting and beautiful.

I loved exploring the big stages. I loved solving all the puzzles, I loved finding the nearest glyph to unlock the next area. I enjoyed the big variety of enemies you have to fight. Yeah it can be tough to figure out what you are supposed to do sometimes, but once you figure out how this game works and everything clicks, it quickly becomes second nature.

Each stage is a unique challenge in its own right. You can’t just blast your way through them like most early 90’s Genesis games. You have to use your head. Need to get to the ocean floor but there’s a strong current pushing you upwards? Try nudging a boulder over the edge of the cliff and following it down. A pile of rocks blocking your way? Look for something you can use to knock them over. The feeling of satisfaction you get when you solve a particularly difficult puzzle can be quite rewarding.

I was worried that I wasn’t going to enjoy this game very much when I fired it up earlier in the week. But for a game that is nearly 30 years old, it is still very enjoyable to play. The only reason I don’t give it an A+ is because I still have to play its sequel, and if memory serves me right I enjoyed the sequel much more than I did the original game. So as much as I love this game, I know that it can get even better. And for that I am really excited. I CAN’T WAIT to play it. Such an underrated series.

Final Score:

A

 

If you liked this review, check out some of my other game reviews:

Toy Story

Vectorman

X-Men

Aladdin

Michael Jackson's Moonwalker

 

Video Game Review #236: Panzer Dragoon Orta

Panzer Dragoon Orta

Xbox

Nostalgia Factor:

I am familiar with both Panzer Dragoon and its sequel for the Sega Saturn, Panzer Dragoon II: Zwei. I rented and played through both of these games back in the late 90s at some point. While I liked the games, I was never too crazy about them. I preferred other rail shooters like Star Fox and Solar Eclipse instead.

After the Sega Saturn’s unceremonious death, I thought that the Panzer Dragoon series was gone forever. I really, REALLY wanted to play Panzer Dragoon Saga (a much heralded RPG released at the end of the Saturn’s lifespan), but limited copies were shipped out, and I was never able to get my hands on it. I still haven’t been able to play the game, and now copies of it are selling for over a thousand dollars online. No thanks, I don’t want to play it that bad!

Much to my surprise, Panzer Dragoon Saga would not be the last game released in the series. In 2003, Panzer Dragoon Orta was released for the Xbox. I would end up finding a used copy of this game a few years later when I was dating my ex-girlfriend, Jessica. While I never owned an Xbox myself, she did. We lived together, so I figured I’d buy the game and give it a shot.

I played through the game and I beat it, but I never gave it much of a second thought. I’d say this was back in 2006 or 2007. Jessica and I ended up separating. She took her Xbox with her. I kept my copy of Panzer Dragoon Orta. Up until just recently, I haven’t had an opportunity to replay this game, because I didn’t own an Xbox.

Well, now I do own one – as of a few years ago. I always knew I would get around to replaying Panzer Dragoon Orta at some point, it was just a matter of time. Well, now that time has come! What would I think about the game? Let us begin.

Story:

I’ve always struggled understanding the storylines in Panzer Dragoon games, and this one is no exception. Let’s just say it is very abstract. I’ll do my best to break it down for you.

This game takes place in a post-apocalyptic world filled with fantastic creatures, mystical technology, and flying dragons engineered for the purpose of being living weapons. There is some kind of evil Empire controlling all the technology and trying to take over the world. Everyone speaks German and moves in slow motion from time to time. The whole tone of the game is very surreal and dream-like, and for some reason this makes it very hard for me to understand what the heck is supposed to be happening on the screen. It is hard to put into words. Best description I can come up with is David Lynch meets Mad Max, but with flying dragons instead of cars.

Panzer Dragoon Orta begins with a girl locked up in a tower. The tower is attacked and the girl is about to be killed when a giant attack dragon swoops in and annihilates her attackers. She hops on the dragon’s back and blasts her way to freedom. You play as this girl (Orta) and her dragon.

After escaping, Orta meets up with a pack of hunters and helps them kill a giant creature. They take her back to their city to show her gratitude. The Empire attacks the city to get their hands on Orta, and she attacks the enemy fleet head-on. She’s shot down, her dragon badly hurt. There’s a level where you run on the ground (like a tank) and shoot your enemies before jumping off a cliff just in time for your wings to heal up and allow you to fly again.

You fight the Empire. A creepy bad guy takes you into an ancient computerized relic where you learn secrets about your creation and your past. You have some kind of destiny. I don’t know. The game had lost me at this point. I can’t even tell you what happens at the end of the game. Surreal and dream-like is a bit of an understatement.

You fight a bunch of giant monsters. There’s cutscenes, there’s credits. Game over.

I wish I could recap things better, but like I said I’ve always struggled to understand the story in Panzer Dragoon games. You kind of just play them for the experience. Or maybe that is just me.

Gameplay:

Panzer Dragoon Orta is a rail-shooter, so its gameplay is make or break. You’re going to constantly be locking-on and firing at enemies as they streak across the screen. If the controls suck and are sluggish or unresponsive, it will break the whole game.

Luckily, Orta’s overall gameplay is about as smooth as you can get. The aiming reticle is accurate. Controls are responsive and crisp. This game is very easy to pick up and play, but very difficult to master. When I first started playing, I came in expecting Star Fox, only to quickly learn that Star Fox is a walk in the park compared to Panzer Dragoon Orta. Not only is this game more difficult, there are so many more intricacies to be found here. For example: the camera. You mainly fly on a fixed course, but enemies will attack you from all directions, not just from in front of you. As a result, you have to constantly swivel around and look in different directions. Make no mistake, they are coming at you from every angle.

Like I said, this game is challenging. You have to be alert and on your feet from the very first level on. When I first started playing this game, I struggled a bit to adapt to this game’s style and I died a bunch of times. Your dragon has three different attack modes, and knowing when to switch back and forth between these modes is critical if you want to do well with this game.

Standard attack mode is what I would tend to use the most. You have a regular gun, you have missiles that can lock on to your enemies. You have a boost meter of two. Boost gives you a burst of speed you can use to dodge enemy attacks or gain angles on bosses.

You have Glide mode, which showcases a very weak rapid-fire attack. It has a boost meter of four. Mainly you want to use Glide to shoot down enemy projectiles since it locks on to them and fires so quickly. It is so weak though, it is pretty much useless against bosses and tougher standard enemies. The boost meter of four comes in great handy, however.

Then you have a heavy attack mode with strong weapons, but no ability to boost whatsoever.

Like I said before, switching back and forth between attack modes is key. Say you are fighting a boss who fires homing missiles. Switch to Glide mode to quickly shoot down the missiles. Switch to heavy attack mode to pummel the boss while his defenses are down. The boss starts to accelerate, so you switch to regular mode to boost a couple times. Then you switch back to heavy mode to continue the beat down. It fires homing missiles at you. Switch to Glide mode to take the missiles down.

Etc.

Master the strategies of the game, master the game.

Panzer Dragoon Orta is challenging, but balanced and fair. Whenever I died, I knew it was because I wasn’t alert or fast enough and I had let my defenses down. I struggled mightily with the first few levels of this game when I first started playing, but that is because I wasn’t switching attack modes appropriately at all. Once everything clicked and I started to understand the strategies involved. I began to enjoy the game much, much more.

Graphics:

This game is over 15 years old, but it still looks really good. Being an Xbox game, its graphics completely annihilate the Saturn games. Bright, vibrant colors. Unique, mystifying creatures. Stunning and surreal game environments. What really makes this game tick is the dream-like atmosphere it creates. 

Sure if you look really close, there are aspects of this game’s graphics that appear outdated. I’m sure a remaster or an updated HD version of the game could smooth out of its some rough edges. But I think these rough edges add to the game’s gritty charm. I may not understand this game’s story, but I fully appreciate the work that went into giving its world such a unique look and feel.

Sound:

Panzer Dragoon games have always had strong soundtracks, and Orta follows suit. Nothing is too iconic or memorable here, but the grand orchestral scope of the game’s music is impressive and gets the blood pumping in battle.

Like I said about this game’s graphics – Panzer Dragoon Orta creates a stunning and surreal dream-like world for the player to inhabit. This game’s music and sound effects play a massive part in bringing that vision to life. The battle sound effects, the distorted voices, the otherworldly whirring and wooshing magical sound effects – they all play their part.

Overall:

My journey with this game was weird. I came into it with high hopes, carrying mainly fond (but very vague) memories of enjoying this game back in 2005 or 2006. I actually didn’t care for it at first, and nearly turned it off so I could play something else. But I stuck with it. Once I figured out the intricacies of the game, I was able to relax and really enjoy it.

I played this game off and on over the course of a couple weekends (why did no one tell me how much having a baby would cut into my video game playing time???)  before finally beating it and combing through the extra chapters just a few nights ago. The extra chapters add a few hours of gameplay. Some bonus missions that fill in the story blanks. An extra mode where you play as a kid who fights for the Empire. But the most important extra, for me anyway, is that the entire version of the original Panzer Dragoon for the Sega Saturn is unlockable. Sweet! I shall have to play through it and review it in the near future.

So this game is truly worth the 15 bucks or whatever I paid for it back in 2006. It doesn’t have the personality or the heart and soul of Star Fox. It is not as fun as Star Fox. But its not Star Fox. Panzer Dragoon does its own thing. It feels a bit serious and overly challenging at times, but it is rewarding if you stick with it. The graphics are beautiful. The music and sound effects help create a very eerie and different fantasy universe. The story: who knows what is going on here, but I am sure some people like it.

This game may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I enjoyed it. I am not necessarily jumping up and down for it, but I understand it is a unique and very well-crafted game. Could it have been more fun? Yeah. Sometimes it felt like a chore to play, particularly on challenging levels where you’d repeatedly die and have to play the level over and over again. It’s missing that certain fun and joyful element that Star Fox has – that would have put it over the top. Instead of a great game, I simply look at this as a good game. And there is nothing wrong with that.

This is a good game. But that’s it.

Final Grade:

B

If you liked this review, please check out some of my other game reviews:

Solar Eclipse

Star Fox 64

Virtua Cop 2

Star Wars: Rebel Assault II: The Hidden Empire

Heavy Fire: Shattered Spear