Backlog Burnout Review of Shin Megami Tensei Persona 3 FES: Face Yourself

System(s): PS2, PSP
Release Year(s): 2007, 2008, 2010
Rating: Mature
Current Amazon Price: $98.70 (PS2 original), $15.16 (PS2 FES), $34.99 (PSP)

The Skinny:

A shining testament to the powerhouse that is the bizarre Shin Megami Tensei JRPG series from Atlus, Persona 3: FES is a lengthy, meaty, dark experience that is chock full of fun, personality, story, and enjoyment. This is a game with a unique idea pouring out of every orifice and its all wrapped up in a super stylized world that needs to be experienced.

The Meat:

Final Fantasy meets The Sims meets Silent Hill meets Pokemon. This is how I would describe Persona 3 to someone who is not familiar with it. If that sounds really bizarre to you that's because it is. It should also sound extremely fun and intriguing which would also be a correct assessment. Persona 3 is one of the most eclectic, strange, and stylish games ever made. Its mash up of genres and ideas should leave it a jumbled mess but instead it comes together to form an exquisite gaming experience that really needs to be played to be understood and appreciated.

Persona 3: FES is an updated version of the original Persona 3. There are several gameplay enhancements, as well as new story content. The entirety of the original Persona 3 is contained in a mode called The Journey, while the new 20ish hour mode called The Answer continues where The Journey left off. The basic story is that you take on the role of a new exchange student who has just arrived in the fictional Iwatodai/Port Island station of Japan to attend Gekkoukan High School. Everything seems normal when you get off the train and begin walking to your dorm, however soon everything takes on a green sheen, pools of blood appear on the ground, and all the people around you transform into coffins. Hurrying into your dorm you are met by a creepy little boy who asks you to sign a contract before disappearing into thin air. Then several other students come down the stairs with guns and begin questioning you. From this strange beginning your character embarks on an adventure that unlocks his ability to use personas, or physical manifestations of his personality. He uses these to battle monsters in the mysterious time known as The Dark Hour, an hour of lost time that exists between 12 and 12:01 AM that is only experienced by those who have unlocked their personas. i won't say any more, as the story of Persona 3: FES is excellent and one of the games many strong aspects.

From a gameplay perspective Persona 3:FES has two distinct styles that it switches between. The first of these is the exploration, persona collection, and combat that takes place around town and in the mysterious tower Tartarus that appears during the dark hour. You explore the tower floor by floor, constantly questing upwards. The tower is populated by Shadows, which are many armed black blobs wandering the floors. If they spot you they will aggressively and quickly charge at you. If you can manage to hit them with your weapon before they reach you then a turn based battle will begin on even footing. However, if they catch you by surprise or you miss then every enemy in the fight will get an extra turn to act before your party. This can be devastating and easily instantly wipe your team because the enemy AI is smart, brutal, and takes no prisoners. On the flip side if you can sneak up on a Shadow without being seen you get the same advantage. Once in battle your character can switch between the personas you have collected or created. Each different persona has different abilities, weaknesses, and stats, much like Pokemon. Magical abilities cost SP whereas powerful physical abilities cost your own HP to cast. This creates an interesting risk/reward system where to damage your opponent you must damage yourself. There are three different kinds of physical attacks (slash, pierce, and strike) as well as a full elemental system. Learning enemies weaknesses and keeping track of your own is key. If you hit an enemy's weakness it will be knocked to the ground and you will be granted another turn. Knocking down all enemies will give your party access to an all out attack where they jump on the downed party in a comic book style dust cloud of dirt and smacking sounds, dealing massive AOE damage. Care must be taken however because the enemy enjoys the same benefits as you. Get hit by an element you're weak to and you lose a turn and the enemy gains another. After battle you gain experience as well as occasionally gaining access to shuffle time. This mini game consists of cards ranging from experience boosts to additional personas. The cards rapidly switch around and it's up to you to track the one you want.

Speaking of acquiring personas through shuffle time, in classic Shin Megami Tensei fashion this game contains a robust fusing system. You can take two personas and fuse them together into a new, more powerful one, providing your character is equal or higher to the resulting persona's level. Mastery of this system is key to beating the game, as your power is directly related to your personas. There is an inheritance system in play for abilities known by the base personas as well, so careful fusing can result in powerful, custom made fighters. As the game progresses your fusion options open up to fusing 3,4,5, and even 6 personas into one powerful new force. Collecting all the available personas in the game is a similar feeling one gets from collecting Pokemon. It's fun, functional, and experimentation with different personas can reveal some fun new strategies.

One thing that may turn some players off is the lack of direct control of your teammates. They are controlled by the AI and you can give them general instructions like focus on healing or focus on knocking down the enemy. Overall the AI does a very good job and makes fairly good decisions. I actually like this system because to me it feels like you're really playing as this one character, and your party members are your friends, acting on their own to help you instead of just being mindless meat puppets tied to your whims.

Aside from the slick and smooth combat that can be found during the dark hour, there is another side of the game. This one involves time management and building of relationships in the normal world. This is an extremely strange and wonderful addition to the game. Aside from being this demon fighting bad-ass by night, your character, along with his friends, attends school and lives a fairly normal life by day. Aside from your combat stats you have social stats as well. These are charm, courage, and academics. These are raised by doing things like studying, standing up to bullies, or helping your friends with homework. These determine things like who you can ask out on dates or what activities you can take part in. The relationships you form with people, be it through dating, hanging out after school, or taking part in music club determine the strength of your social links. Each relationship you have has a specific tie to one of the arcana of the tarot cards (i.e. the magician, death, the hanged man, etc). These act as the class system for your personas. The stronger your social link is with that particular arcana, the more bonus experience it will get when you fuse it. For example, lets say you start dating a girl and your relationship with her is associated with the strength arcana. When you fuse a strength persona it will gain one bonus level. Now lets say you've been dating her for months of in game time and your relationship is pretty serious. Now when you fuse a new strength persona it will gain 6 bonus levels. This system is great because it requires decisions to be made. Do I go hang out with my girlfriend to raise the strength social link or do I go to practice with the swim team to raise the chariot link? And what about the exams coming up? I could either go to Tartarus tonight to fight some shadows and increase my combat stats, or I could spend the night studying to increase my academics stat to do well on the exams. This interaction between your social world and the combat world is the meat of the game and it meshes unbelievably well. It creates choice, tension, risk, and reward perfectly, all while giving the events of the game real meat and gravitas, all while telling a plethora of extremely interesting, interconnected sub stories.

A few final notes about the nature of the game in general and the differences between versions. One thing that must be mentioned is that this game is hard. Like really hard. The enemies are powerful, dangerous, and smart. Oftentimes elaborate strategies need to be planned out to deal with certain bosses. I personally enjoy this sort of challenge but it may turn some gamers off. This is only emphasized in The Answer mode which is significantly more difficult than the main part of the game. The game is incredibly long as well (hence the long delay since my last review). My final game clock, after completing both The Journey and The Answer was 110 hours. If that length of game is intimidating to you then I would recommend you steer clear because once you start playing you won't want to stop.

 Furthermore, there is a PSP port of this game. The graphics of the game were significantly downgraded for this version, however there were several gameplay changes. The option to play the entire game as a female was added which is a nice change of perspective. The story is the same but new character interactions and social links can take place. Also, in the PSP version it is possible to directly control your party members. So if letting the AI do its thing doesn't appeal to you then the PSP version is the way to go. However, this version does not contain The Answer, and neither does the original PS2 version.

The Bottom Line:

Perfectly fusing a multitude of disparate styles and designs, Persona 3: FES is a beautiful, bizarre, dark, wonderful game that I highly recommend. If you've got the time and the desire this game will provide you with an experience unlike any other and one I bet you will enjoy thoroughly from beginning to end. Also the soundtrack is one of the best in the business. All around an extremely solid game, and one I think any fan of JRPGs should play.

Grant Nielsen

Backlog Burnout Review of Shadow of the Colossus: Joy and sorrow in a forbidden land

System(s): PS2, PS3
Release Year(s): 2005, 2011
Rating: Teen
Current Amazon Price: $59.90 (PS2), $19.39 (PS3)

The Skinny:

Holding a very secure spot in my top 3 games of all time, Shadow of the Colossus is a beautiful, fun, challenging game that succeeds at everything it attempts to do. An interactive work of art, this game is an absolute triumph that provides exciting action, perfect art direction and design, and an emotional experience very few games have achieved.

The Meat:

Last week I talked to you about the often forgotten gem that was Ico. This week I bring you the reason that people don't really talk about it anymore. While Team ICO created an extremely solid game in Ico their next offering completely blew it out of the water and out of people's minds. Shadow of the Colossus is a game that I believe anyone who enjoys video games needs to play at some point, and with the extremely reasonably priced Ico/Shadow of the Colossus HD collection for PS3 there has never been a better time to do it.

First thing's first. I will reveal nothing of the story of Shadow in this review. The game is an experience that is best enjoyed blind so my comments will be intentionally vague so as not to ruin it for you. What I will do however is describe what your task within the game is. Your sole purpose in this game is to hunt down and destroy the sixteen giant beings that populate the beautiful, desolate landscape of the Forbidden Land in which the game takes place. That's it. While at first glance this may not seem like enough content to fill out an entire game I can assure you it is. Gameplay is essentially broken into three different categories. Locating and travelling to each Colossi, figuring out how to destroy it, and then executing your plan.

Step one in your quest is locating your quarry. This is done by standing in sunlight, raising your sword above your head, and using the way the light reflects off of the blade to pinpoint the location of your next foe. This is a really cool mechanic because it really provides a supernatural and mystic air to the proceedings and gives the feeling that you're on an epic adventure for a higher purpose. After the sunbeams give you an idea of the general idea of where the next fight will occur your task becomes to traverse one of the most beautiful game worlds ever created. What is so cool about it is how there's really nothing in it, but that doesn't make it any less enjoyable. Aside from the occasional lizard or bird its just you and your horse exploring the remains of what was once clearly a living, breathing place but is now a haunting, empty land. There is so much story that is never said in words oozing out of every ruin, temple, and forest that you traverse. The world sucks you in and captures your imagination. Anyone who says games can't be art has never seen this game.

After you have shaken the feeling of wonder and sadness that the world invokes and actually manage to bring yourself to the lair of the next Colossi the action begins. The music swells and you find yourself face to face with some of the most epic and unique boss fights in gaming. Some of the Colossi are vaguely people shaped, some are animals, and some are just plain terrifying. One thing that they all have in common is that they all have distinct behaviors and personalities that are immediately apparent. Some are passive, some are hostile, and some seem sad. It is truly amazing how unique and unusual each Colossi is and each one brings a distinct flavor to the proceedings that prevents the game from ever getting stale, even for a moment. Their uniqueness doesn't just stop with their looks or personalities either. Each one is fought in a completely different way. While the way you kill them is always the same (climbing onto their enormous bodies like a flea and stabbing their weak-points) the specifics of each fight are completely distinct. Some involve using the environment to your advantage in order to disable the colossus or to get yourself onto it in some way. Some involve causing the colossus to do something in order to hurt itself in some way. Still others require you to fight from horseback while dodging and riding like mad. Each one is fresh, unique, and extremely fun.

Finally, once you've analyzed the landscape, personality, and nature of each battleground and colossus its time to actually do your duty. You climb aboard the giants and locate their weaknesses. These behemoths don't like being climbed on and will do everything in their power to get you off of them. This creates extremely exciting and tense moments, where you're about to land the killing blow but the creature is shaking and roaring, trying to throw you off, as your grip meter slowly drains. Dropping from the head of a 200 foot tall giant is a doom that always is lurking and providing an incentive to find secure rest points and handholds. Its difficult to explain just how epic and thrilling each fight is, but I'll try. Take the most exciting, large scale, and unbelievably crazy boss fight you've ever done in a video game and make it better. That's every fight in this game. Yeah.

The Bottom Line:

Melding aspects of puzzle games, platforming, climbing, adventure, and action, Shadow of the Colossus is a triumph in every sense. Its a beautiful game, with a mysterious story, exceptional art design, sublime gameplay, and an atmosphere that is second to none. This game receives my highest of recommendations and I envy those of you who just might still get to experience it for the first time.

Backlog Burnout Review of Ico: Living in his younger brother's Shadow

System(s): PS2, PS3
Release Year(s): 2001, 2011
Rating: Teen
Current Amazon Price: $74.99 (PS2), $19.99 (PS3)

The Skinny:

Ico is a haunting, beautiful game that is often forgotten due to it's impeccable "sequel" Shadow of the Colossus. Artistic, moving, well crafted, and only occasionally marred by awkward AI or character control Ico is an excellent, somewhat overlooked gem that you should definitely check out.

The Meat:

Shadow of the Colossus is in the top five of many people's best games of all time lists. It's consistently heralded as a work of art and is deserving of all of the praise it receives. But we aren't here for that game. We're here to talk about Ico. The "older brother" game of Shadow that, for some reason, people don't seem to talk about or like nearly as much. Is it just one long escort quest? Absolutely. Is it as good as Shadow? No. Can the AI occasionally drive you up the wall? No doubt. Is the combat kind of meh? No argument here. Do any problems that the game has fall to the wayside while you're playing it and you you realize you've lost yourself in a beautiful, desolate haunted castle and couldn't care less about minor grievances? No question.

Ico was the first major release of a development team inside SCE Japan Studio known as Team ICO. Recently  It is a puzzle/platforming game in which a young boy named Ico with horns is taken to an ancient ruin by the elders of his village and sealed inside a pod and apparently left to die. After escaping his pod he finds a strange girl locked in a cage who speaks in a language neither he nor the player can understand. This girl is hounded by mysterious shadow creatures and has some unknown connection to the decrepit castle our hero has found himself in. Together, young Ico and Yorda (mysterious foreign girl) try to escape the castle.

The entire game is one long environmental puzzle. Your only goal is to escape the castle, but this is much easier said than done. Many doors are blocked by odd statues. These statues react to Yorda and move aside for her, so the goal of most rooms is to get Yorda to the statues. While Ico is very nimble, Yorda is not at all. This creates a really fun dynamic in the game where Ico goes scrambling along tiny ledges and climbing pipes on walls to get to a higher platform, and then reaching down to pull Yorda up after him or drop a box down for her to climb up. It makes you feel like you're really helping her and she in turn helps you by opening the way forward through the castle. I personally grew attached to Yorda throughout the course of the game, which is impressive considering that she never says a word you can understand at any point.

Threatening this new budding relationship are the denizens of the castle, the ghostly shadow beasts. These dark creatures will pop up from time to time and try to steal Yorda away. They will knock Ico down, pick Yorda up, and attempt to force her through a shadow portal. If they succeed a shock wave comes from the portal, that turns Ico to stone. Yorda will also be captured if Ico leaves her alone for too long. Your job in these situations is to fight off the shadow beasts with a stick that you pick up near the beginning of the game. The combat is extremely simple, with one button for swing sword. However, there are subtle layers of nuance to it. Some of the beasts will go for Ico and attempt to incapacitate him while others bee line straight for Yorda. Or a big hulking beast will distract you in front while a smaller one flies around to sneak up on Yorda from behind. It creates tense situations where you're trying to protect her from multiple foes or chase down a flying beast that is carrying her off. While not an impressive or mind blowing combat system, it is effective and enjoyable in its own right.

The puzzle design of this game is sublime. Figuring out how to get through each room is a unique and enjoyable experience and is really divided into two parts. First off, you need to figure out how to get Ico through the room. Then you need to figure out how to get Yorda through. While some of the puzzles are fairly simple, some of them took a little outside the box thinking to unravel. Are there objects in the room I can make a bridge out of? What would smacking this do? The game perfectly walked that line of difficult puzzle solving without ever dipping into the annoying or arbitrary zone that many games fall prey to. If you're the kind of person who uses walkthroughs for games, this is one I would strongly encourage you not to do so for. The entirety of  this game is figuring out how to traverse each room, so having someone tell you how to do it really defeats the purpose and takes away the joy of accomplishment.

One of the most impressive features of Ico is how effective the atmosphere of this game is. I mean that in more ways than one. The environments are both beautiful and forbidding at the same time creating a sense of wonderment coupled with unease at all times. The way that Yorda behaves timidly and strangely, and yet seems to understand far more about what is going on than you do is intriguing and draws you in. The fantastical designs of the shadow beasts hunting Yorda are truly remarkable. Some just look like men whereas others are hulking monstrosities or bizarre birdlike creatures. There is a minimalist attitude to everything that I find refreshing. There is very little music so what is there is all the more effective. The castle is desolate and empty, except for the powerful moments when it isn't. There's no real story being told directly, so every little snippet you can discern for yourself is that much more rewarding.It is just an incredible journey that can't be adequately explained and has to be experienced.

There are a few minor gripes I have with this game. Occasionally Yorda just won't cooperate. You'll stand at the top of a ladder and yell for her to climb up and she'll just stand there for 30 seconds before doing it. Sometimes she'll refuse to jump a gap three times, and then just do it. It's rare but these moments are really immersion breakers because they show that Yorda isn't a person, she's just a stupid AI. Also, sometimes Ico won't do exactly what you tell him. If you've played Assassins creed you know what I'm talking about. Yes of course I wanted you to jump at that angle directly off the platform instead of 2 inches to your left. That's what I needed.

The Bottom Line:

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Ico is a beautiful game that any serious video game fan should play. It has enjoyable gameplay, wonderful artistic design, an appealing main concept, and a fantastic atmosphere. Small technical gripes here and there do break immersion or cause frustration, but these moments are few and far between. Oh and let me save you a major headache and say that you can swing on chains using the circle button. You're welcome. Took me far too long to figure that out. With its recent re-release as part of the Shadow of the Ico/Shadow of the Colossus HD remaster collection you should definitely check it out. And, for its low price of $20 you get this wonderful game as well as its "sequel" which is one of the greatest games ever made. But that's a discussion for another time. Thanks for reading!

Backlog Burnout Review of Dragon Quest: Wait is it Quest or Warrior?

System(s): NES, SNES, Gameboy Color
Release Year(s): 1989, 1993, 2000
Rating: Everyone
Current Amazon Price: $80.00 (NES), $50.00 (SNES), $299.98 (GBC)
(Please keep in mind all listed prices are for new or like new products. Buying used will significantly lower price.)

The Skinny:

This granddaddy of JRPGs, while not unplayable, is a relic of an age gone by. With very little story to speak of and gameplay that is 90% grinding very few modern gamers would enjoy this experience. However, hardcore fans of the genre may find some historical enjoyment in experiencing what many consider to be the genesis of the turn based JRPG.

The Meat:

Not too long ago I did a review of the original Final Fantasy. While that game and series was instrumental in forming the genre we now know as the Japanese Role Playing Game, there is another series which is perhaps even more instrumental. That series is Dragon Quest (known here in the states as Dragon Warrior until its eighth iteration). As an amusing side note, the reason for this name change is kind of a funny story. In the United States there was already a pen and paper RPG series with the name Dragonquest, so in order to not violate United States copyright law the name of the game had to be changed. It seems U.S. copyright law being a convoluted quagmire of handcuffing rules and annoying regulations is nothing new. Anyways, back on topic, published by Enix, this original game in that legendary series had random encounters, turn based combat, an overworld map, grinding for experience and gold, and talking to npc's (non-playable characters) to figure out where to go next and what to do. Basically, all the core elements that are so standard in modern JRPGs were popularized right here, albeit in a much more simple form. Dragon Quest would go on to release 10 more games in the main series across many different platforms, much like Final Fantasy. In fact, in Japan Dragon Quest is on par with Final Fantasy for rabid fandoms. Before taking a look at some of the later entries, some of which are among my favorite games ever, let's dig up this old dinosaur and see how it holds up.

The game opens with the King informing you that you are a descendant of the Legendary Hero Erdrick, who fought demons in ages past using a ball of light. Then the Dragonlord came, stole to ball of light, and hid it away in the darkness. It is your job as the descendant of Erdrick to defeat the evil Dragonlord. That is basically the extent of the story that is present in this game. There are a few more details that you uncover if you talk to every single npc, but the overall gist of it is found in these few sentences. And while its not the most enthralling story ever, I kind of like it for its simplicity. Here's this evil things. Go kill it. It's kind of refreshing in its own way after some of the convoluted messes I've seen in some more recent JRPGs. However, while the story may be refreshing in its simplicity, the gameplay is not.

Doing any kind of action in this game is incredibly cumbersome. Your character moves slowly and there is no run button. This wouldn't be a problem if all of the areas weren't so maze-like and sprawling. Secondly, once you manage to actually get to where you are going interacting with objects or people is more difficult that it should be. In most games, you would push the A button to interact with someone or something like a treasure chest. Not this game. When you press A a menu pops up with the options talk. status, stairs, search, spell, item, door, take. This means that to talk to people, you have to stop in front of them, open a menu, and select talk from the available options. Same with using stairs or opening a door, Nothing is automatic. You have to manually tell the game exactly what you want to do at all times. While this may seem like a small annoyance, it becomes frustrating after the 200th time you have to do it just to go up or down some stairs.

Once you manage to navigate your way out of the starting castle you will find yourself on the overworld and more than likely entering your first battle immediately due to the extremely high encounter rate. Battles in Dragon Quest consist of simple turn based 1v1 combat. It is your hero vs one monster and you take turns whacking each other until one of you dies. If its the player that dies you are revived by the king back at the starting castle with half of your gold gone. If it is the monster that dies then you are rewarded with tiny amounts of gold and experience. And here is where one of my major beefs with this game comes in. The reward you get for killing monsters is far far too low, leading to excessive amounts of grinding. And I really mean excessive. As a fan of JRPGs, I'm used to grinding and usually it doesn't bother me. However, this game takes it to a whole new level. You have to grind for upwards of 2 hours on level 1 monsters outside the starting town just to get enough gold to buy the basic starting equipment. And that is basically the entirety of the game. The monster level jump between towns is massive, so unless you've ground up enough money to buy the best available equipment from your current town you won't stand a chance. On the subject of equipment, this is another area where the game isn't very user friendly. There is no way to tell how a new piece of equipment will affect your stats or combat effectiveness in the shop. You just have to guess, based on the name and price, whether the equipment will be better than what you're wearing. Sometimes this is obvious, like the sword of fire is probably better than this dagger I'm using. However, if you're wearing the mirror armor and you see the holy armor on sale for 100000 gold in a shop, you have no way of knowing if that armor is better than what you're currently wearing and worth saving up for. It can be very frustrating to grind for 3 hours to afford equipment that is equivalent or only marginally better than what you have currently.

On a more positive note, the music is quite nice, especially considering how old the game is. Before doing the playthrough for this review, I hadn't played this game since I was a kid. Immediately when I started the game the music in the castle took me back to playing this on the NES in my grandma's basement as a child. I remembered every note from the town music, the castle music, and the overworld theme. It was a really fun experience and a testament to how well done the tunes were that they stuck with me for more than 10 years. While there are only 4 or 5 different tracks in the whole game they are all enjoyable and entertaining.

The Bottom Line:

While not a terrible game, Dragon Quest is just old. The frustrating mechanics are tolerable for a few hours, but after a time begin to really bog the experience down. From the archaic interaction system to the extreme level of grinding required to do anything at all the game just screams ancient. If you're like me and a huge fan of JRPGs and want to experience a little piece of gaming history, or if you played it when you were younger and are looking for a nostalgia trip then you may be able to glean some enjoyment out of the experience. Otherwise my recommendation would be to look elsewhere for your JRPG fun, because this old dinosaur is long since dead.

Backlog Burnout Review of Dark Souls: If it was easy it wouldn't be worth doing.

System(s): Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PC
Release Year: 2011
Rating: Mature
Current Amazon Price: $16.29 (PS3), $15.30 (Xbox 360), $19.99 (PC)

The Skinny:

While it may be more Stockholm Syndrome than actual fun, Dark Souls never the less has a strong appeal. If you're a fan of hack and slash and aren't afraid of a learning curve resembling the Great Wall then this game may just scratch your itch.

The Meat:

Dark Souls is like an abusive lover. It treats you like dirt, kicks you while you're down, makes you doubt yourself, and expects you to take it, say thank you, and come back for more. And the weird thing is you do. Dark Souls is notorious for its brutal, unrelenting difficulty and the horror stories you may have heard are not exaggeration. Anyone who says "it's not that hard" is full of crap. It is that hard, however it is the best kind of hard that a game can be. At no point in my frustrating, death filled playthrough did I ever feel like the game had cheated me or pulled a fast one. Every single one of the hundreds and hundreds of times I died was completely and totally my own fault. The game is harsh, but fair. Now the reason I'm hammering this difficulty home so hard is that it is an integral part of ever facet of the game's design. The gameplay, the environments, the bosses, the NPC behavior, it all is just HARD. And that's not necessarily a bad or a good thing. It will mean different things to different people. Let's break the game down a bit.

In the story department the game sticks with its theme of not holding your hand at all. You get an opening cutscene outlining the basic history and back story of the terrifying world you are about to be dropped in to, but no real details or explanation. If you want to find out explanations for the events around you then you'd best put on your detective goggles. Very few aspects of Dark Souls story are outright stated. They may be mentioned in passing by an NPC or implied by the design of a derelict castle. However, for all of its subtlety and secrecy I really really enjoyed the story of Dark Souls. It's dark, sad, haunting, and well worth exploring. Just be willing to put a little effort into it. In fact, that is a theme that runs through most of this game. If you don't want to put a large amount of effort into the experience, you should probably steer clear.

Gameplay wise Dark Souls is an immaculate beast of a game. Controls are extremely tight and responsive, regardless of if you're fighting with a sword, spear, bow, or magic staff. And its a good thing they are too because almost everything in this game is trying to kill you and kill you quickly. This is not a Legend of Zelda game where your hero can take more hits than an olympic boxer. If a basic enemy hits you two or three times with a sword like as not you'll find yourself respawning back at the last bonfire you visited. And death is only the beginning in Dark Souls. When you kill enemies you absorb their souls. These souls are used as currency for everything in the game. Buying things from merchants, bartering for favors, and leveling up your characters stats. When you die, you lose any souls you have collected that you haven't used. However, they are not gone forever. You will respawn at the last bonfire you rested at in an undead state and you will have one opportunity to fight your way back to the place of your death and retreive your lost souls. In this undead state you have less health and are vulnerable to invasions by other real life players in the game. If you can manage to stay alive long enough to reach the place of your earlier demise you can retrieve your lost souls. If not, they are gone forever.

The invasion aspect of Dark Souls is interesting. While in your undead, or Hollowed, state other players can invade your game and attempt to end you. Manage to fight them off and you may get a sweet payoff. You can even report their invasion of your world to an NPC who promises judgement and retribution. And there may even be a way to, if you play your cards right, become an agent of that retribution. This multiplayer aspect of Dark Souls is pretty darn cool and adds a unique element. While you may be on edge that someone will invade your world, you can also call upon the help of other players to assist you with a difficult boss. My first playthrough of Dark Souls was done as a solo run, and then I replayed it with multiplayer functionality. Both methods of play have their own strengths and weaknesses. Besting the game without another player's assistance gives a great feeling of accomplishment, however few things feel as good as smiting down an upstart player with the nerve to attack you in your own world.

Combat involves careful reactionary dodges to enemy attacks and near perfect execution. While difficult, the combat is extremely deep and rewarding, involving crits for back stabs and split second evasions. Learning a towering boss's movements and finally besting a titan much greater than yourself is an extremely gratifying experience. No matter your play style there is something for everyone here. If you want to be a massive, armor covered beefcake that is a viable option. Mage and rogue paths are available as well. No one method is more effective than another in my opinion, and they all play in radically different ways. While the combat takes time to master, it is fun and extremely fluid. Just don't expect the game to hold your hand or help you very much.

One last thing I want to mention is the atmosphere of the game. It is absolutely amazing. No matter where you are, from the giant halls of Anor Lando to the scum covered, rotting boardwalks of Blight Town the world feels real. I almost wanted to use the term alive and breathing, but that would be completely wrong. This is a dead world. Every inch of it reeks of decay, degradation, despair, and doom. And for all of that it is beautiful. In its own weird way, Dark Souls is, in my opinion, one of the best looking games ever made just because of how absolutely effective its visuals are. It really must be played to be experienced.

The Bottom Line:

If you are looking for a fun, low effort romp through a fantasy game you really need to look elsewhere. This game is brutally difficult, almost to a fault. I use the word almost because it never enters the realm of unfair or broken. The difficulty will turn many people off and rightly so. If you are a gamer who gets easily frustrated or isn't super persistent this is not the game for you. The tutorial boss killed me 5 times the first time I played. However, if you are willing to put in a little work to learn the game and can manage to beat it even within its own hellish rule set the feeling of accomplishment you will get is unmatched. I would highly recommend trying to beat the game without a walkthrough as well because like any game there are exploits that reduce the difficulty. However, this is really missing the point. Once you see past the gruff, murderous, spiky exterior and get to the burning, molten hot, pain filled interior you may just find that you are enjoying yourself. If you're like me you'll notice you're having a better time than you've had with a game in a long while. Is it "fun" in the really traditional sense of the word? Maybe not. But is it a hell of a good time? Absolutely. You're a dead man walking through a dead world, and it's absolutely breathtaking.

Grant Nielsen

Backlog Burnout Review of Final Fantasy: Far From Final, Still Fantastic

System(s): NES, MSX2, WonderSwan Color, GBA, PSP, PS1, IOS, PSN, Virtual Consoles
Release Year(s): 1987, 1990, 2003, 2007, 2010
Rating: Everyone, Everyone 10+
Current Amazon Price:
$499.94 (NES), $9.99 (PS1), $54.99 (GBA), $9.99 (PSP), $8.99 (IOS), $9.99 (PSN)
 $9.99 (Nintendo Virtual Consoles)

The Skinny: 

While the original version of Final Fantasy is nearly unplayable in the modern day many of the re-releases are still extremely enjoyable and solid JRPG fun.

The Meat:

Final Fantasy as a series will always hold a special place in my heart. This is the series that originally got me seriously into video games. Final Fantasy II was the first RPG I ever played and Final Fantasy VII is one of my favorite games of all time. While the series has had its ups and downs (I'm looking at you Final Fantasy III -_-) it is safe to say that this is one of my favorite series ever and has been the most influential on me as a gamer and a person. It is also debatably the most popular and well known JRPG series in existence. Most people have at least heard about Final Fantasy if they haven't played one before. Also, as you can see from the information provided at the top of the article, the Final Fantasy games have been released and remade on a staggering range of consoles over nearly 30 years. While the main series is about to see the release its 18th major, numbered game I thought it would be interesting to take a look back at the one that started it all.

In the late 80s there was a small software company called Square that was the computer software division of a power line construction company called Den-Yu-Sha in Japan. In 1986 Square became an independent company. They proceeded to release a series of unsuccessful games and were in danger of going under. Then, a part time employee named Hironobu Sakaguchi had an idea to develop a role-playing game similar to the Dragon Quest series (known as Dragon Warrior here in the states) from Enix that was incredibly popular in Japan at the time. The development team raised the funds internally and had complete control over their creative product as a result. No one at the company expected the game to be popular and were all anticipating that it would be their final project before the company closed permanently. As such they decided to develop the game they had always wanted to make, not the game that the higher ups always told them to. If the game was going to bomb, why not do it on their own terms, This labor of love, the team's Final Fantasy if you will, went on to become one of the best selling RPGs of all time. It not only saved the company, it rocketed Square and Hironobu Sakaguchi to the forefront of the video game industry as the people to develop quality JRPGs. Final Fantasy has gone on to become one of the most popular and beloved series ever and the original game has been re-released countless times in many different forms. Some of these versions hold up much better than others.

Final Fantasy was first released in 1987, 1990 here in the United States on the Nintendo Entertainment system. This is the version of the game available on Nintendo's virtual consoles. The setup was simple. Players chose four heroes from a list of available classes. These classes are now known as staples of RPGs the world over. Fighter (warrior), black belt (monk), thief, black mage, white mage, and red mage. The player made party are the four heroes of light, and it is their duty to restore the power to the four crystals of earth, fire, water, and wind which are being sapped by the Four Elemental Fiends. The Fiends of Earth (Lich), Fire (Marilith), Water (Kraken), and Wind (Tiamat) serve as the games primary antagonists for the majority of the experience. While this may sound like a cliche plot nowadays, this is where it started. The gameplay is simple, party oriented, turn based combat. You select your characters actions and targets from a menu and then they carry them out according to their speed stats. Monsters are fought in random encounters that are entered while moving around the overworld map or dungeons. Since this game comes from an older school of RPGs the encounter rate is extremely high. While toned down slightly in later releases of the game, it remains quite high across all versions. These encounters are where the original version of Final Fantasy falls flat. They just haven't aged well in the slightest. Some of the mechanics are so antiquated as to be laughable. For example, if you have all of your characters select the same enemy to attack and the first character kills it, the remaining three will execute their attacks against the now empty space where the enemy was instead of switching to an available target. This wouldn't be too big of a problem if it didn't take 4000000 years for characters and enemies to execute actions. A basic encounter in this version of the game can last up to 7 or 8 minutes easily depending on the amount of enemies and how often your characters waste their time wailing on empty air. While these issues can be explained away or forgiven due to how old the game is it doesn't make them any less frustrating. Luckily, these grievances are fixed by subsequent releases of the game.

In 2003 a compilation of Final Fantasy I and II was released for the Playstation titled Final Fantasy Origins. This is the version of the game available on the Playstation Network. This compilation consisted of updated versions of both games, including improved soundtracks, updated graphics, and vastly improved gameplay. The gameplay went from being a slow plod of uncooperative mechanics to a smooth and sleek experience that is fast, fun, and nice to look at. Characters now auto acquired new targets if their current targets were already destroyed and the overall pace of combat was sped up vastly. This version of the game was a dramatic improvement in every way. The soundtrack especially is worth noting. While confined to the beeps and boops of the NES the original soundtrack was still extremely impressive. Now it was freed from the technological constraints of the NES to soar to its true potential, and its easy to see why Nobuo Uematsu, the man responsible, went on to become one of the best video game composers of all time. In my opinion he is one of the best composers period, in or out of the realms of video games. From chippy MIDI tunes to sweeping orchestral pieces and even operas he never ceases to please and amaze and later releases of Final Fantasy really showcase his early talent. While this version of the game is a vast improvement over the original, it is still far from the optimal version.

The next important North American release of the game was on the Game Boy Advance in 2004. This compilation of Final Fantasy I and II was titled Dawn of Souls. This version of the game is a blast. Slight graphical improvements over the Playstation version are nice, but the true draw of the game came from it being portable and including 4 massive bonus dungeons. These dungeons are awesome love letters to Final Fantasy fans, featuring bosses drawn from Final Fantasy III-VI. These bosses and dungeons are vastly more challenging than what is found in the rest of the game and are a blast to try to complete both for new players and especially for fans of the series. If you're looking for a good version of the game to play this is an excellent choice, however the best is still to come.

The 2007 release of Final Fantasy on the PSP is the crown jewel of the game's existence, released as a celebration of the series 20th anniversary. Featuring updated graphics, updated sound, and a new bonus dungeon in addition to the bonus dungeons from Dawn of Souls, this is the most comprehensive and complete version of the game to date. The gameplay is smooth, fluid, and the animations are absolutely beautiful. While basic, it is a supremely enjoyable and fun experience. Seeing where many accepted and familiar mechanics of RPGs began is a fun experience for game enthusiasts, and casual players will enjoy the simple yet rewarding story and gameplay. This version of the game is what can be found for apple devices from the app store. However I would caution against that version of the game as the controls are not nearly as fluid as the PSP version's.

The Bottom Line:

This one is an oldie, but a goodie. While the original NES version hasn't stood the test of time all other versions of the game are still a blast, especially the anniversary edition. If you are a video game enthusiast or an RPG fan you owe it to yourself to see how the legendary series began and experience this classic. Seeing the origins of Cid (referenced here as the ancient creator of airships long ago) and other such Final Fantasy staples is a major treat as well. However if you're jonesing for Chocobo riding you'll have to wait until Final Fantasy II.

Grant Nielsen

(Also just because I'm a Nobuo Uematsu fanboy enjoy the unbelievably awesome Final Boss music from Final Fantasy I)

Backlog Burnout Review of Fatal Frame: The scariest photos outside of 70s fashion magazines

System(s): Playstation 2, Xbox, Playstation Network

Release Year: 2002

Rating: Teen

Current Amazon Price: $29.99 (PS2) $103.21 (Xbox) $9.99 (PSN)

The Skinny:

It’s scary, plain and simple. Even if you don’t scare easily this game (and series in general) knows how to get under your skin. It’s a truly unsettling and harrowing experience; marred only occasionally by some frustrating combat moments.

The Meat:

Fatal Frame is a Japanese horror series (known in Japan as Zero and Europe as Project Zero) on the Playstation 2 that is a cult favorite among many horror fans. Its trademarks are genuinely scary environments and situations coupled with extremely disturbing storylines deeply rooted in old Japanese mythology. In every game in the series the main characters become haunted by ghosts for one reason or another, be it wandering into a haunted mansion or becoming trapped in a ghost village that stopped existing hundreds of years ago. The only way our unfortunate protagonists can defend themselves is with an occult camera known only as the Camera Obscura. This mysterious box, which looks simply like an ancient camera, has the power to exercise (in the Catholic sense of the word) spirits which it captures photos of. This is the setup for a series that, in my humble opinion, is one of the best and scariest horror franchises out there.

Fatal Frame has three main strengths: its environment/atmosphere, its sound, and its themes. Let’s begin with the environments. Every area of the game, from the dark interior of a haunted mansion to a creepy shrine out in the woods feels soaked and oozing with dread and unease. Things are damp, old, rotten, and just have an aura of doom about them. I cannot think of a single area in the game that is welcoming or feels safe, and in a horror game that is an extremely impressive accomplishment.

Next is the game’s impeccable use of sound. Music will slowly build when you enter a room and you know something foul is lurking waiting to spring on you. The ambient noise and static builds to a crescendo as you raise your camera and look around the room in a panic trying to spot your doom. And then everything goes silent. You let out a breath you didn’t even know you were holding and slowly your heart begins to slow. And then you hear the creak of the kimono cabinet behind you opening and hear a bloody gurgle that sounds weirdly like the laugh of a little girl and you promptly freak out like a child who finally has seen the monster in their closet. No other game I have ever played has used sound as effectively as Fatal Frame, except Fatal Frame 2 and 3. It is truly a masterwork of audio design and is absolutely terrifying.

Finally, there are the game's themes and story. The fact that this game is teen rated completely boggles my mind. This is a story about human sacrifice, body mutilation, dismemberment, suicide, and murder. Lots and lots of death and none of it pretty. One of the ghosts is a woman whose eyes have been stabbed out by giant needles. The imagery is dark, the story is gruesome and disturbing, and it creates a truly horrifying experience. This tale probes the darkest reaches of Japanese mythology and doesn’t relent. It starts dark and only gets darker. All of this combines to create a wonderfully unsettling play through and creates a feeling of dread and hopelessness that has been missing in modern games. It’s why the old Silent Hill games succeeded, and it’s why Fatal Frame manages to capture true fear.

From a gameplay perspective Fatal Frame is decent enough, but I feel the gameplay is not one of the games strongest points. You explore these haunted places in third person view with modified tank controls similar to those found in Silent Hill 2. You have your Camera Obscura that you use to solve puzzles and combat ghosts. When you raise your camera the game enters a first person view trough the camera. The ghosts appear and assault you, and while visually they are pretty grotesque actually fighting them can sometimes go from scary to annoying. They will hide in walls and pop out to hit you giving you maybe half a second to snap a picture of them before they chunk your health. In wide open areas it isn’t too much of a problem because they can’t use their ghostly shenanigans to hide inside solid objects. The problem is that a large portion of the game takes place inside tight hallways and here it can become a major issue. When fear turns to frustration some of the fun of horror is lost. However in small doses the feeling of helplessness imparted by the awkward combat actually helps the game to drive home its points. It’s just when you lose half of your healing items to one ghost’s cheap tricks it can get a little irksome.

The Bottom Line:

Fatal Frame is an excellent, extremely frightening game that any fan of the horror genre must play. It’s disturbing, scary, and most of all fun. If you’re willing to wade through some occasionally irritating gameplay mechanics and an extremely Japanese setting you’ll find true horror through the lens of a camera.
(Also I apologize, I couldn't find a good trailer/video in English so here is a Japanese one. The game is in English however.)