Giant F'ing Robots: Fefi's Armored Core V Review

Ah, spring is here, and with it, my long-awaited dose of intense mecha action. I feel as giddy as an anime schoolgirl right about now.

My face when I heard this game was finally coming out.

I will skip my usual introduction, for it is impossible for me to give a fully objective review of this game due to my massive case of mechanophilia. Suffice it to say, this game is for a specific kind of audience, although adjustments have been made to try and allow as many newcomers to adapt to this kind of action. And so, here's my evaluation:

Plus, an image of a cool robot.

Graphics: The game looks quite gorgeous, probably the only good thing it took from its predecessors on current-gen consoles. If anything, I'd say the game relies a bit too much on motion blur to make the intense action look smoother, but seeing as it's a game marketed to a very specific kind of audience, I think we can forgive From Software a little for trying to put as little stress on the console as possible to be able to focus on the gameplay.  The game scores a decent 8/10 here.

Sound: I've never been a big fan of the soundtracks for this series, but usually the fast-paced electronica beats that accompanied your massive robot shootouts were good enough to not be bothersome. This time around... You know what, I don't care much for the soundtrack, you can barely focus on it over the glorious sound of your enemies' Cores exploding. Bland background music gets a 5/10.

Boo for bland background music! Yay, for awesome robots!

Story: In a departure from its predecessors, Armored Core 4 and For Answer, the game decided to give players a bare-bones story. Only 9 story missions with a staggering amount of side missions that give you a small look into how the AC5 universe works without bogging you down in the details. The reason for this is that this game's focus is on the multiplayer, essentially implying that the story is written by the online struggles of the community. That isn't to say that the story missions are easy at all. As per usual, this game continues the series' proud tradition of cheap bosses who have access to equipment you can't ever use and can essentially pilot impossible Cores. All in all, while the plot isn't important, what little details you get are cohesive enough. A cool 7/10 for consistency, if not quality.

Gameplay: Now, here we go. The bread and butter of this particular installment. The gameplay. First off, I'd like to say I skipped over the last two games due to their terribleness. I have no clue what their control schemes were like, except for clunky and so, I will list all innovations I found in transitioning from AC3 to this one. The first big thing I noticed as soon as I got control of my Core was that I could finally use the analog sticks to aim up and down instead of using the shoulder buttons. That was a major relief. Second, one can now use both arm weapons at the same time due to them being mapped to the shoulder buttons, freeing up the face buttons for maneuvering functions such as jumping, emergency boosting and a new recon beacon function that allows you to drop a few drones around the area so you can keep an eye on your opponents, even when they're behind buildings.

The action has been tuned up as well. Core stats have been reworked to make sure everything's balanced out and each play style has it's own advantages, making for a sort of rock-paper-scissors system. Example: You could build a bipedal Core which would focus on frontline assault, but that would leave you weak against a tank-type Core which is pretty much a slow moving impenetrable fortress... except against the ammo type favored by quad-pod sniper Cores, which usually stay well out of range of tank Cores, but can be caught and quickly disposed of by assault Cores. The only thing I don't like about this system is that each category of armor and weapons seem to correspond exclusively to each play style and are hard to mix up.

Concerning the maps and online play, play areas are very varied this time around, from compact urban areas filled with buildings, to vast desert or tundra flatlands, the game has a little bit of everything for everyone. As I mentioned before, this installment focuses heavily on online play and specifically, teamwork. The main aim of the game is to control the 9 different areas on the map and keep your hold on them as long as possible. To this end, you form a clan, and recruit people to help you keep your territories. As clan leader, you get to assign positions of power to others so that they can keep watch over clan activities while you're away and hopefully, keep an eye on the territories 24/7. Maps are large because you're meant to have at least 4 people fighting together at any given moment. Maximum team size is 4 players per team, plus an extra space for Mission Control, which gets to relay map information to their teammates and hopefully help turn the tide of battle. There are still duels, of course, but the size of the maps makes this a difficult endeavor. Connection speeds on the PS3 are hardly an issue. I played on a very heavily restricted connection and found absolutely no lag to speak of. Finally, I must say most every single person I found online has been quite accommodating and friendly. Truly, the warm community I remember from earlier years. If you find yourself playing this game, don't be afraid to join a random team battle or similar activity.

And finally, the customization of one's Core has reached levels of ridiculousness I never though possible. There's well over 1000 parts for you to choose from, and a great deal of them can be quite useful depending on your building abilities. Gameplay has been outstanding so far and gets a lovely 8/10.

And there you have it. The game's charm is not something I can easily explain. You have to see it in action and give it a test run yourself to see what I mean. While this game won't win any awards, it is very fun and fast-paced. Unfortunately, the learning curve hits a spike at higher levels and could get frustrating if one isn't used to these Japanese games. All I have left to say is: rent it, try it out, and if you like it, buy it. Support these small releases (well, small outside of Japan, anyway). We need these games to save us from the waves of Super Awesome War Shooter #35 that seem to be flooding the market, or at least to show developers that they're not the only thing we want.

Fefi's Score: Robo-boners everywhere
'Fair' Score: 7/10

Look at this pimping piece of metal. Don't you want to pilot it?

I'm back bitches! or Fefi's Blazblue: Continuum Shift Extend Review

"What the fuck is a 'Rebel' and why are there more than one of them?" - fellow writer Loz upon seeing me play this game the first time.

Gah! The colors!

Ah, fighting games. Along with FPS's you have become the next cash-cow genre for game developers.

With your constant patches, updates, and new, mostly unnecessary characters, you make sure that you'll throw out three different disc versions of the same game and charge us an arm for every single one of them. Alas, I am not here to rant about the evils of contemporary game developers, I am here to review one of the many ways the clever bastards suck money out of my wallet. And holy fuck they managed to make me feel good about it.

For the uninitiated, Blazblue is the spiritual successor to the Guilty Gear franchise, which was developed by Arc System Works and enjoyed it's fair share of popularity in the fighting game scene as the more obscure alternative to your Street Fighters and MVCs. The games, both BB and GG, are animated in a trademark crisp, clean anime style that made other sprites look lazy in comparison, with the notable exception of the Street Fighter Alpha series, which were on par with them. And of course, the action is/was almost as fast-paced as the Marvel vs Capcom franchise. Sadly, Guilty Gear ended its run (though I hear rumors of a new game) a few years back, leaving many fans sad and heartbroken. Then along came Blazblue and people went apeshit. Mostly because they hated it. Of course, a few revisions later, the addition of around 6 new characters and four different console revisions of the sequel, the fandom calmed down and here we are now. My review will cover pretty much everything from the first game to this latest revision, since the changes are minor, anyway.

My first true 'fighting games' love.

So, as per usual, my standard criteria apply for this game: Graphics, Sound, Gameplay, and Story

Graphics: This being the latest, and hopefully final revision of the second entry in the series, I had hoped for the sprites to be as sharp as they could be, however, it seems that they toned down the graphics quality a bit on the sprites to allow for no lag during the very graphically intense combat. However, the rendered backgrounds are looking their best and do a good job of providing a lot of distraction for spectators should they tire of watching the players duke it out (seriously, every background has at least 7 different things going on at the same time). Still, I would have preferred no pixels on my sprites, but anything for the sake of smooth gameplay. Graphics: 8/10

Tell me it's not beautiful and I will smear crap on your door.

Sound: Daisuke Ishiwatari is back on soundtrack duty and instead of going for Guilty Gear's fast and loose style, which itself was his tribute to the classic rock and metal bands he's so fond of, he's taken a more character-centric approach to the tracks in the game. Seeing as this game's characters personalities are actually fleshed out in-game, their respective tracks are meant to complement them and once you get a feel for each character's motivations, you can see that Ishiwatari-san has done a good job at composing, once again. Certainly, there are still electric guitars and aggressive drums running rampant in the music, but he's added violins and organs where appropriate and given each track a coherent structure with each instrument having it's place in the track and not just throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks. 

As a side note, not sure if he took on this load again for this series, but I believe that when he wrote GG's soundtrack, he played most of the instruments himself. He might never write a rock classic, but I have a great deal of respect for this man's composition ability, at least for fighting games. Sound: 8/10

Gameplay: This is where the game really shines, as well it should, since it's a damn fighting game. The action is very fast-paced, placing somewhere right between MVC and SF. It's fast enough to make fights look flashy, even if it's just button-mashing, but not so fast that you'll lose sight of your character every time you're launched in the air. As for fighting mechanics, the first game did away with the old punch/kick/slash/heavy slash system of Guilty Gear and instead turned it into the three upper buttons being used for low to heavy attacks and the X button used for a 'Drive' attack that is unique to each character, making every character a very different experience (this was before MVC had the wonderful idea of using a similar layout, and possibly around the same time as Tatsunoko vs. Capcom). Some of these 'Drives' are merely combo aides, while others serve to hinder your opponent's mobility and others are additional attacks with status effects such as freezing, electrocution, etc. The game also has the more technical staples of fighters such as cancels and special guards, but that's not something the layman needs to be aware of. 

Almost forgot to mention the new characters (read: DLC that is now finally included with the game). As the latest additions to the roster, we have the squirrel-girl Makoto Nanaya, who plays an aggressive close-range game, and might have been, in fact, inspired by Marvel's own Squirrel Girl character. Valkenhayn R. Hellsing, a badass-grandpa butler who turns into a werewolf and has somewhat slow, if devastating combos and played an important part in the in-game history. Platinum the Trinity, probably my least favorite of the newcomers, whose character design is inspired by the 'magical girl' anime genre (Sailor Moon would be the best example I can give the non-anime fans) and has many nonsensical and cutesy attacks designed to keep the opponent guessing. And finally, Relius Clover, a mad scientist who uses a mechanical puppet made from his wife to do most of the fighting for him. A very technical fighter, and trickier opponent. All of these characters, save for Makoto, were a big part of past events in the story, and their newly-added story paths give a lot of insight into these 'legendary' warriors' personalities.

Final note on the gameplay, the rounds last about as long as an even match in Tekken or even Street Fighter, which is to say, it might actually run you anywhere from 40-99 seconds per round if the skill difference isn't monumental, or if no special characters are being used. All thanks to refined damage buffering, which won't allow you to kill someone in two combos, thus ensuring everyone gets a fair chance at a comeback. Gameplay: 8/10

Makoto, seen here about to engage in some magnificent wardrobe malfunction.

Valkenhayn. Probably about to prepare tea.

Platinum. Just, fuck.

Relius Clover and Fluctus Redactum: Ignis, AKA, his wife.

Story: This may come off as a surprise, but this game actually has  a detailed story mode, and you have no need for supplementary materials to find out things about a particular character. All the story elements are touched upon either through a character's path, or in little extra segments that are non-canonical where the characters themselves take a break from the fighting to explain every little aspect of the Blazblue world, from history, to social structure, etc.

I will say this much, however, the story is mostly character-driven, since the plot is a convoluted mess involving an infinite time loop and a lot of magical techno-babble, but it works, if you have the patience for it. I have played this game since the first one and I have seen the characters grow from trite anime stereotypes, to somewhat-respectable characters with motivations and very human flaws. Of course, it was still made in Japan, for Japanese animation enthusiasts, so don't expect a Pulitzer-winning piece of literature here. Still, if you've always wondered what would it feel like to play through a fighting game that didn't just say "You've entered a tournament to decide the world's strongest warrior, here's some people that you must now fight" (not that there's anything wrong with that), then I recommend you give this game a shot. Bottom line is, the world has a very extensive mythology ready to be perused by the player should they wish it, and that's more than most other fighters can say. Story: 6/10

Final Thoughts: I love this game. I love Guilty Gear. I love it when my characters are more than just mere caricatures or stereotypes. But above all, I love having a good button-mashing fest with my buddies. I think the reason why these games (BB and GG) weren't more recognized is because the characters aren't as wacky (which is horseshit, since these characters are the very definition of bizarre) or just don't fall into an immediately recognizable fighter type (like chick-with-the-huge-boobs, or Asian #1, or Bruce Lee clone, or guy who does that Hadoken-type thingy), or just aren't famous and there's no motivation for you to use that character. For example, MVC has some of the most recognizable characters today duking it out for the heck of it. Shit, who wouldn't want to see Ryu and Wolverine kick each other's asses? Or Megaman and Iron Man? And it's actually easier to get good at than most other fighters! My point is, the style appeals more to the anime crowd, but underneath all that is a fighting game that should be standing shoulder to shoulder with MVC and SF, but isn't. And that makes me sad.

Fefi Score: 9/10

Honest Score: 8/10 (for a fighting game, anyway) 

I leave you with Litchi Faye Ling, another playable character and token pair of tits.