Blogging the experience of gameplayhttps://www.gamelog.cl/gamers/GamerPage.php?idgamer=630https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3005Gameplay 2 Since the first game is a straight trial episode, all of the evidence was introduced during the trial without an investigation period. Don't even begin to ask me about the way the justice system works in this game, where there is no discovery period for new evidence, nor is there a jury of peers. The trial is not even structured in the conventional method of segmenting the trial into portions allotted to the defense and the prosecution. It is best to leave that to creative license. The music is not as catchy as I thought it would be, but you get what you get. I maintain that the first game's music was still the best of the series, but that may be a biased statement. This game's music is less dynamic than those of the previous titles, but luckily the game recycles some older tracks for nostalgic purposes. The investigation portion of the second episode has been a bit frustrating so far. The type of progression I have been doing lately is that of item collection. I need to instinctively go back to Phoenix Wright for more clues on how to conduct the investigation, even though I know what I have to do. He just keeps giving me options that weren't previously available, even though I knew exactly where I needed to go to progress the story. The names of these new character have transcended wackiness, while some are just downright lazy. There is a specific character I have targeted for this criticism: a man named Mr. Eldoon. If I told you to flip his name backwards, would you know what his profession was? Odds are you said "noodle-maker", so you would obviously be correct. Something like that just makes you feel that the designers were trying to be witty, but failed miserably. I was mildly disturbed by the inclusion of the fact that there was a thief in the game stealing women's panties, as well as the nonchalant attitude of the female victims' in their openness about the crime. Have you no shame, women? Feeble attempts to censor adult themes fall of deaf ears for simple reasons. They attempt to avoid the fact that Phoenix Wright is an alcoholic by stating that a bottle of wine is a bottle of grape juice, but do not seem to care about the fact that every case is a murder mystery, there is a guy stealing a 15 year old girl's panties, and that a disheveled man who looks like a crack addict is recognized as a doctor and has an unhealthy obsession with attractive young females. Quite an imbalance in adult themes I would say. They should have just let something as simple as alcohol slide if they planned to include all those other vices. The series seems to have some tendency of using twin siblings or extended relatives as characters. This is another example of laziness when it comes to new character design. Instead of drawing a new character for Klavier Gavin, a new prosecutor, they just redressed his brother Kristoph Gavin in a leather jacket a made him into a rock star bike rider. It just feels a bit lazy to skimp on something so fundamentally obvious.Wed, 05 Mar 2008 07:21:42 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3005&iddiary=5650https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3005Summary Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney is a point and click game from the Phoenix Wright series, made exclusively for the Nintendo DS. The player takes the role of Apollo Justice, a rookie defense attorney tasked with defending several unlucky clients in a court of law. Taking testimonies and finding fallacies in witness statements are Apollo's main tools in determining who the real criminals are, in order to free his clients' from prosecution. Design Apollo Justice follows the exact same menu system and gameplay as the other games in the Phoenix Wright series. The top screen shows all of the cinematics and story, while the bottom touch screen is utilized as a tool to scroll through text shown on the top screen. The bottom screen also has buttons that allow you to present evidence, examine items, press for more details, and choose between decisions. The game is separated into two different kinds of gameplay. The first kind deals with investigation of crime scenes and digging for clues; the player controls Apollo through a first person point of view, talking to people by asking them questions. The player also uses the stylus to point at the bottom screen to look for possible pieces of evidence. These pieces of evidence are used in the trial as proof against a contradictory statement made by supposed witnesses to the crimes. The second portion of the game is the style most associated with the series. Here, Apollo Justice is pitted against several different prosecuting attorneys, each attempting to indict Apollo's clients for murder, under the supposed conclusion drawn from their own police investigations. They use every bit of evidence and attempt to discredit Apollo's evidence in order to trap the player in logical arguments. Only by listening to witness testimonies and finding contradictions in their statements can Apollo find out the truth of the crime. You can either present evidence to object to a statement or you can press the witness to expand on a detail. There is a very linear progression in the way you can expose the witnesses' lies, so you must choose the correct sequence of statements and present evidence at the right time to proceed to the next portion of the story. The HUD is very simple to understand and all the options are laid out to the player in a straightforward manner. The first trial is made to act as a tutorial for first time players, so you play as you go, which is a very successful way of teaching. One large addition to the Apollo Justice entry in the series is the utilization of 3-D graphics. In the previous titles, the use of 3-D graphics and interactive tools was extremely limited. It was almost non-existant in the previous games, due to the fact that they were essentially direct ports from the Gameboy Advance to the DS. Now the player can do activities such as getting fingerprints from a murder weapon or examine items with 360 degrees of view. Gameplay 1 One thing I've noticed immediately with this addition to the series is that YOU ARE NOT PHOENIX WRIGHT. I was shocked to learn this at first, but it turns out that he is your first client and that you interact with him for the duration of the game, so all is not lost. It turns out that Apollo acts and talks almost identically to Phoenix as it is, so he is essentially Phoenix Wright with a different avatar. This makes playing the game more comfortable, as you see a familiar face here and there. I have always been a fan of this series because of the genuine twists and turns the stories offer the audience. This particular game has already intrigued me with the introduction of Phoenix Wright as a supporting character, rather than the protagonist. Even more strange are the seemingly mysterious happenings since the last game; there are allegations that he is a murderer, he has apparently been disbarred from being a lawyer, and that he has a daughter. However, from his exceedingly cool demeanor, you can be certain that he is not the killer and that something fishy is afoot. Navigating the HUD is just as easy as the other games, considering that it has not changed at all since the first game. This seems a bit stale at times, but I guess its hard to improve upon perfection! The art style has not changed at all, besides the updated images of the courtroom, as well as the redesigned characters. The game is supposed to take place 15 years or so after the events of the last game, making it reasonable for characters to age. Using the stylus more often is a great idea for a DS game, as the last two Ace Attorney games had barely any stylus-related activities. The story is just as shocking as those of the previous titles, never failing to keep me on the edge of my seat. Some of the seemingly "obvious" logic tends to be incredibly nitpicky, as the game requires you to specify which portion of witness testimonies require presented evidence. Even if you know a certain piece of evidence will solve said problems, the game maintains that you need to present at the right time or else the game will not progress. Frustrating to say the least.Wed, 05 Mar 2008 07:03:19 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=3005&iddiary=5649https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2695Gameplay 2 There are many levels to play through, including constellation levels where you only collect certain animals in the level to create the star pattern, such as bears for Ursa Major or crabs for Cancer. After unlocking unlimited mode, I have become a god. A freaking god. I just absorbed a RAINBOW. It is possible that I have been laughing non-stop for an hour. This game is like some kind of infection or neurological parasite that constantly stimulates my serotonin producers. I feel as if the only negative criticism I have for this game is the relatively short length of the game. I hope they make many many more of these games. Many. The negligible side story regarding the Kubrik-looking Japanese family can be totally disregarded, as they only exist in short movies placed in between levels. However, the aloof and awkward humor exhibited by the characters are so timed so well that I could not help but laugh just as hard as I would while playing the game. They really do grow on you, even though it is a short-lived relationship. Sometimes the movement scheme can be a little frustrating when the katamari gets stuck in an archway or just some obstacle, requiring a mandatory expelling of most of the clump. This forces you to scramble to recollect the lost pieces, negatively affecting your ability to finish on time. However, I suppose it is a perfectly logical effect of mistakenly analyzing your ability to move in between tight spaces. One incredibly noteworthy aspect of this game is the soundtrack. It is rare that you encounter such an appropriate listing of songs tailor-made for a game as wacky as this. It sets the mood and actually adds to the experience, creating a symbiotic relationship between the game and the soundtrack. The two are inseparable, becoming a single entity in which neither can exist without the other. Yu Miyake is a fantastic composer. Genius. In a final analysis, I recommend this game to anyone who wants to have silly and mindless fun. It exudes creativity and breathes life into anyone it touches. I feel as if the game has helped me to recapture some of the mystique of being a child again.Wed, 20 Feb 2008 06:42:27 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2695&iddiary=5082https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2695Summary Katamari Damacy is an unconventional and innovative third person puzzle/action game for the Playstation 2, where the player takes the role of the 5 in Prince of the Cosmos and embarks on missions given to you by the almight King of the Cosmos. Your goal is to roll a “katamari” across a sandbox type level and pick up items to increase the size of the garbage ball until it reaches a desired goal size, measured in metric length of diameter. These garbage balls will eventually be transformed into new stars to fill the sky with, as the former stars were destroyed by the King in a drunken accident. By rolling the ball while it is larger than the desired object by a certain factor, it is possible to pick it up; if rolled over an object larger than that factor, the katamari will crash into it and cause pieces of the garbage clump to fall out. Each level is timed and requires the player to reach the desired size before time runs out. Gameplay 1 Wow. I have to start off this review with a simple utterance. What the hell am I playing? What did I just pick up? Was Namco smoking LSD when they came up for the concept for this game? Well, whatever the hell they were thinking, I am glad they followed through with it. Never have I encountered such a game as non-sensicle as this, filled with a seemingly never-ending number of things to astound me and make me burst out in impromptu laugh-choking. Besides the surprising elements of crazy art and direction, the game is unbelievably fun. The addiction factor of this game is inconceivably high, never dropping the proverbial ball or giving the player a reason to put down the controller. It reminds me of the old days of Pokemon, where I kept going from town to town to look for rare and undiscovered Pokemon to add to my collection. I get that same kind of nostalgic feeling when I try to roll over as many things as possible just to see how they would react when they are added to the katamari. This game is fantastic in the way that there is such a fluid mechanic for progression and difficulty. The learning curve is so small that I believe anyone could enjoy this game after about 3 minutes of play. The fact that you can see everything in the level as you are rolling along gives you this feeling of indelible power, an almost megalomaniacal desire to conquer the level. Basically, everything you see can become part of your katamari; it is only a matter of time before you can accomplish this. Nothing is denied to you. There are no keys or special weapons you need to collect as a condition to absorb that Godzilla or Ultraman fighting in Tokyo bay. It is similar to many Zelda games in the way that Zelda games have very open worlds, allowing you to see various locations you could possibly go to if you had a certain item. With Katamari Damacy, these locations are larger objects, and the key items are just a series of smaller items needed to add onto the clump. This is such a refreshing feeling, much like being a kid again and not having any limits to what you want to accomplish. There is a trial and error process you develop when trying to roll over objects you think are small enough to roll over. Sometimes it will be too large and bust up your ball, forcing you to pick up the pieces and reclaim your glory. Back to the trenches with me. Hold my calls. I’ll be busy with this for longer than I would care to divulge. Design While the game seems to exist solely as an adventure game, the entire concept of rolling and collecting towards a goal under a timed condition adds an unmistakable puzzle element that encompasses it under said genre. The player must logically ascertain what is the most efficient way to collect the largest items in as short of a time as possible, by the systematic collection of smaller items and the natural progression into larger items. The player must also navigate around the level and get a feel for his surroundings in order to quickly move to places with larger items. This game is extremely stylized, being the second most important element of the game, with the gameplay being primary draw of the package. The art direction is wild and fun, setting it apart from most games today that settle for simulation and imitating real life scenarios. Katamari Damacy looks past all that and gives you an off-the-wall kind of entertainment that only an insane or heavily drugged person could imagine. Character models and their movements resemble Lego toys, while buildings and other settings are detailed just enough for them to catch your eye right before you roll it into your collection. Colors are vibrant and reactions of the things you roll over are hilarious. Imagine a tall man with Vanilla Ice hair walking down the street, only to be swallowed into a gigantic rolling ball of garbage. His legs are flailing helplessly as only the lower half of his body is visible from the ball, with his screams being muffled by those of his pet cat and the loud mooing of a cow that was at the wrong place at the wrong time. There is a very scant HUD, composed of only 4 icons located in the corners of the screen. One is the countdown timer, informing the player of how much time is left before the level ends. An icon of the direction the ball is rolling relative to the position of the Prince helps the player to orient themselves in case they are stuck in a precarious situation. Another icon has a visual representation of the size of the katamari relative to the size needed to complete the level; this is shown with a pulsating rainbow shaped globe encompassed by a larger circumference. The last icon is an indicator that immediately shows a rotating model of each item you roll over as you do it. This function adds so much to the gameplay because it lets you identify the things you do not see yourself roll over, eliciting a “WTF” response every time you realize you ran over something as extreme as a hot air balloon or as diminutive as a trout. The control scheme could not be any simpler, due to the use of the analog sticks on the PS2 controller. Moving in a straight line is accomplished by pushing both sticks forward, while strafing is done by pushing both sticks left or right. Turning requires one stick to be pushed forward while one is pushed backward. A charge move that gives the katamari a burst of short speed is done by quickly pushing respective sticks backward and forward in alternating intervals. Clicking down on the sticks allows the player to bounce the ball slightly, pushing the ball over curbs or stairs. This control style makes it easy for anyone to just pick up the controller and start playing immediately, without forcing the player to have to go through tedious and complicated tutorials on how to play the game. The game’s main menu takes place on what is called “The Home Planet”, where game modes and options can be selected. The planet is a small rotating globe on which the Prince can quickly traverse atop of, able to move in all directions to get to locations placed at various points on the globe. You can view gifts that you pick up on different levels, which are basically costume pieces the Prince can wear while playing. Another option is to view the constellations and stars that you have already created, located all around the sky above the Home Planet in 360 degrees of view. There is also a multiplayer mushroom where two players can challenge each other in a quick game of rolling in a smaller room.Wed, 20 Feb 2008 06:32:40 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2695&iddiary=5081https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2398Gameplay 2 After several puzzles, I think I have become addicted to this damned game. How can something so simple be so fun? The music is infectious, even with only 3 tracks. The sense of accomplishment is what really seems to drive me to continue playing this simple game. There are 10 levels with 15 puzzles on each level, making a total of 150 puzzles. I have done only 5 in the span of an hour because I keep trying to get the lowest possible time on each one that I do. The replay value on this game is phenomenal. Sometimes, the puzzles can be extremely challenging, while other times you can almost solve them with your eyes closed. The puzzles with a ton of empty space, such as the flowers, can be very frustrating. Because of the fact that there are many empty spaces, it becomes hard to determine what the pattern is. You can sit there and just stare at the puzzle for minutes, trying to figure out your next move. When you finally decide to make that move that has been in your head for 3 minutes and it turns out you were wrong, you scowl and wag your finger at the DS, thinking “you tricky bastard”. I may be here all night. Don’t leave the light on. Design The puzzle is draws a very heavy influence from “Minesweeper”, a game everybody knows and loves. The mechanics are very similar in the way that the goal is to determine where the filled in blocks are. You must try to avoid making a wrong guess or else time will be added to your upward counting timer, which you are aiming to keep as low as possible. The only way in which you can deduce the locations of the filled squares is to follow the numbers listed on the outer edges of each side on the grid. For example, if a line had the sequence “3,4,1”, there would be a sequence of 3 filled squares, 4 filled squares, and 1 filled square, separated by at least 1 blank square. The only thing that is not outright described is how many blank squares are in between each sequence. Only by looking at the sequence of the perpendicular lines and by using logic can that be determined. The game’s levels are divided into difficulties, separated into categories of picture types. Each set of levels has a theme, such as birds, flowers, sea creatures, and safari wildlife. The reward system of the game is to find out what the pictures are of at the end of each successful puzzle. Easier puzzles are on 5x5 grids, but the harder the difficulty, the larger the grid sizes. Some of the hardest puzzles are on 20x20 grids. The use of the DS touch screen is very helpful in play a puzzle game such as this. You simply point the stylus at the spot you want to fill in, making it very efficient and interactive, instead of the other option of manipulating a directional pad. There is also a zoom in/zoom out function for larger grid puzzles, in case you want to focus on a specific set of grids within the big puzzles. There are several extra functions on the menu screen, such as Daily Picross, which selects a random puzzle once a day for the player to solve. This can satisfy the daily fix for a Picross junky, in case he/she has some place to go and can only manage to play once. There is also a custom level creation option, where the player can make their own pixilated pictures and turn them into puzzles to be uploaded online via wi-fi. You can also go online to download other people’s custom puzzles for new content. There are even puzzles where you do not have to complete a picture, but rather test you ability to quickly touch upon a disappearing dot flashing across the screen, or recreate an image shown on the top screen.Fri, 08 Feb 2008 07:18:42 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2398&iddiary=4559https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2398Summary Picross DS is an innovative puzzle game designed for the handheld Nintendo DS, where the player must mark where filled spaces and empty spaces are located on a grid by logically following the numerical clues listed on the edges of the grid. When the puzzle is completed, the filled spaces juxtapose the empty spaces to make an animated pixelated image. Gameplay 1 When you first turn the game on, a very delightfully stylized menu pops up and is very approachable. Navigating on it is straightforward and easy; there are only a few choices, but it seems pretty intuitive that you should choose the blinking bar that says “Picross” to play a game of Picross. The tutorial is well structured and offers many options. I learned the basics of the game in about 5 minutes, allowing me to play the first few puzzles with relative ease. They start you off with only a 5x5 grid puzzle to simplify the concepts. The use of the top screen is well implemented, as the puzzle remains on the bottom while all the important text is situated at the top. The lines are divided into a monochromatic color palette to make it easy for the player to differentiate between lines. The game itself is timed, but it counts up instead of down, so there is no feeling of pressure. One of the best aspects of playing so far is the whimsical music that sets the mood of each puzzle. I found myself humming the main theme more than once while playing the game. The blue colored theme of the menus and puzzles are also very soothing. The puzzles themselves are somewhat challenging, but at the same time very simple. You have to think for a moment, but when that spark appears in your head, you know you have it solved.Fri, 08 Feb 2008 06:08:28 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=2398&iddiary=4556https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1986Summary ----------------- Shadow of the Colossus is an epic third-person adventure game revolving around the premise of defeating gigantic monsters that roam the countryside as gods among ants. The token is a young journeyman who agrees to kill these monsters in return for the resurrection of his beloved. He roams around a lush landscape in search of sixteen towering foes, armed with only a bow, a sword, and a trusty steed. With these, he encounters the monsters and devises way to dispatch them, using wits and a very sharp blade. Gameplay 1 ----------------- There is surprisingly little backstory for something as grandiose as this game; the cutscene basically tells the player that a young man’s lover has died and in his attempt to revive her, he discovers a temple that houses an entity that claims to have the power to bring her back to life. However, the resurrection will only occur under the condition that the man rids the world of its monstrous colossi, inconceivably large creatures that dominate the world. There is no tutorial, so the game forces the player to pick up a controller and experiment. The best way to describe the control scheme is with the word “wonky”. It is not entirely intuitive, but luckily, it can be totally altered to whatever preference the play has. The number of commands seems a bit confusing and superfluous; there are two buttons dedicated to different view types, but a button dedicated to holding the sword up to determine the location of the colossi. I found it quite strange that there was a button to make the horse move forward, whereas they could have just made the left analog stick have a dual purpose of moving forward as well as controlling the direction. There is the basic set of 3-D adventuring commands, such as jump, slice, climb, and roll. In addition, there are also more complicated combinations of buttons that allow the player to stand on the horse while it is moving, jump upward while climbing, or grasping onto something while downwardly stabbing. It just takes a bit of practice before the movements become second nature to you. Finding the first colossus is pretty straightforward with the use of the sunlit blade. Climb a few rocks on the side of a mountain and there he is in all of his purple mountain majesty. The first time I saw this beast, the hair on my arms raised and a chill went down my spine. Standing in front of my token was an immense monster seemingly from a nightmare, composed of rock-like armor, grass-like hair, and soil-like skin. He stood at least fifty feet tall, holding a stone club that could decimate a small town with a single swing. It was my goal to mount this beast and somehow take him down by striking at his weak point, which was a glowing blue sigil. After some basic detective work, it became clear that I had to climb up certain portions of his body and grasp onto the area of the blue mark, where I would thrust my sword into his body and cause massive bleeding. After taking him down, a black energy engulfs the man and teleports him back to the temple from the beginning, where the statue of the defeated colossus is destroyed and the entity gives you some vague details about where the next colossus is. When playing this game, I feel a very strong sense of familiarity when I think of Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Granted, there are many similarities between the two, but they are actually very starkly different. Zelda is a much more linear and story-based adventure, while Shadow of the Colossus is light on story and heavy on presentation. Gameplay 2 ----------------- After playing though three colossi, I have to say that I am hooked. The entire goal of the game is to track and take down these monsters, without having to fight any regular enemies in between. The colossi are the only goals, making the game much more straightforward. This is a unique style that I have never seen before in any other game, as regular enemies are used as filler to build up the hype for the boss fight. In this game, you know that each colossus will be amazing regardless, so adding in regular enemies would just detract from the effect. Each colossus is distinctive visually and behaviorally; some will tower over you in height, while other ones intimidate you with flight, aqueous mobility, energy blasts, etc. Every colossus will leave a stunning impression on you and the background at which you fight them also set a very appropriate mood. These fights force you to observe the monsters’ attack patterns and behavior in order to figure out to how kill them. Sometimes you have to stun them before mounting them or trick them into moving into a position from which you can attack them. The use of the “colossus view” button is extremely important, which I found out after much pain. The L2 button fixes the camera on the colossus, regardless of which direction you run toward, making sure you can see the colossus’s actions even while your back is turned to him. The best parts of the battles are the very beginning and end of each one. FMVs show the colossi erupting from their homes to do battle, along with a video of their defeat and death. These sequences capture the grandest displays of cinematic storytelling and triumph in the game. After each victory, I am left with a desire to face the next monster and the one after that. Design ----------------- The world has a very beautiful sandbox-style, with landscapes as far as the eye can see. In fact, as long as you can see it in the background, it is possible to venture to that area. Magnificent temples, aged castles and ancient bridges are only a few of the incredibly detailed pieces of backdrop in the game. Ambient lighting effects, wonderful cloud cover, and beaming sunlight with active shadow positioning really add to the experience quite dramatically. There is very little reward in actually exploring, other than finding silver lizards that increase your life bar and fruits that increase your energy. The only real motivation for roaming the world is for the sake of seeing all the beautiful scenery rendered. Maybe if there was more story to be told in general, there would have been a better reward system, but this is not the case. There is really nothing to say about the characters, as there is only one: the journeyman. He has no backstory, other than wanting to bring his dead love back to life. The only other characters are the entity that tasks you with killing the colossi, and the colossi themselves; therefore, any relationship between them is superficial. The only question I am left with so far is why the entity seems to be so intent on killing the colossi, besides the fact that they are seriously misappropriating the world. The start menu is a gray map of the overworld, overlaid with a grid. The map is intentionally archaic in order to capture the spirit of the setting. A well-illustrated but non-specific map details the topography of the world, while keeping track of the colossi that you have killed with a symbol of a statue head. Rivers, mountains, and save point shrines are also illustrated to help the player recognize the placement for reference. The grid helps simplify portions of the world by dividing them into sections such as “B-7” or “D-4”. Although this seems to help, the map fails to capture the grand scale of the actual world; therefore, many nuances are left off the map, forcing the player to look at the world directly instead of relying on the map. The horse animations are simply astounding. Never have I seen such a wonderfully realistic horse in a video game; the way it neighs, rides, changes direction, responds to a whistle, or simply shakes its head makes me wonder if they motion-captured a real horse and translated its motions onto a digital template. This horse named Agro is the best example of a video game horse I have ever beheld, even more so than Epona from the Zelda series. The sound effects are very polished and realistic in the way that I would never have noticed them at all. They seem so natural and non-artificial that I get the impression that I am actually standing outside in a field while the wind is blowing through the trees. The sounds of Agro galloping on a dirt road are noticeably different from when he is trotting on a rocky path. The drawing of an arrow and the release are the exact sounds I would expect a flying arrow to have. The HUD of the screen is incredibly simple. When fighting, an icon tells the player what weapon is being used at the moment, along with a life bar, and a circle graph indicating the amount of energy the player has left. When idling, the HUD fades away and does not return unless the player swings his sword or fires an arrow. This prevents screen clutter and simplifies gameplay in a very positive manner. The motions of the token could use a bit of work, as they seem a tad bit glitchy when interacting with the environment. While his running is well animated, his jumping ability leaves much to the imagination. His swords swings have only a single animation, which means he can only swing from his upper right shoulder to his lower left thigh every time. When he stumbles, his feet seem to be moving without having any effect on the balance of his torso, which seems very unrealistic. Otherwise, I feel like he successfully imitates human body language. The biggest flaw of this game is an unavoidable one: framerate. The framerate of this game is piss poor, hovering at around sixteen fps. Logically, with a game this graphic intensive on the PS2, it seems unavoidable. The animations of the colossi alone would bring most computers to a snail’s crawl. One would wonder how a company would release a game that operated at less than a standard of thirty fps. Fortunately, the slowdown is well hidden by the presentation of the game, which uses fogging, slow movement of the colossi, motion blur from the fast movement of the token and large scenery to overshadow this poor framerate. Midway through the game, you stop caring about how slowly the game runs as compared to how fun it is.Wed, 23 Jan 2008 06:17:43 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1986&iddiary=3875https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1790Second Log Gameplay 2 After some more progress, the fluidity of the game becomes more intuitive, albeit in small doses. You are still left with tedious clicks on the same responses, hoping to get a reaction from the characters. However, when you actually get a needed response, a helpful chime tells you that you have discovered something of relative importance. Most of the characters are believable as murder suspects, but some characters are just plain off-the-wall. My one biggest gripe about the game is the lack of freedom. It seems that the game itself is very linear and adheres strictly to the storyline, with no room for deviation. If I choose the wrong question to ask, the game will not progress until the right one is selected. This leaves no room for exploration whatsoever, with little reward outside of following the track rails. The story has taken a turn for the INTERESTING however. It is now possible to interact with random insignificant characters in the backgrounds of locations. Another design flaw is the way the game highlights supposedly important questions. When something significant happens, a choice is highlighted yellow. However, when choosing said question, nothing occurs. Nothing. Quite a tease, wouldn’t you say?Mon, 14 Jan 2008 04:56:12 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1790&iddiary=3571https://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1790“Famicom Tantei Club 2” for the Super Famicom Summary Famicom Tantei Club is Japanese for Nintendo Detective Club; ergo, the subject matter of the game is basically a murder mystery where the player takes the role of a 16-year old orphan who investigates the grisly murder of a sophomore schoolgirl. The genre is essentially a point-and-click, where the gameplay style is based on a 2-D background with a considerable amount of text. The game is heavily story-based, as there is no real action to absorb the players. It is the player’s goal to navigate through the story through a series of character interactions. Conversations driven by questioning witnesses and suspects are the only way that the player can progress through the story; only when the right series of questions and answers is selected, a reaction is elicited and the plot continues. The game is structured into chapters, with a section at the end of each chapter to review the previous events. And now, the talent portion… Gameplay In practice, the game works quite fluidly. The menu is very straightforward, which is incredibly important in a point-and-click game. The token is a 16-year old runaway, searching for his parents while encountering a friendly adult detective. The game gives you choices from which you select questions to ask. When the correct answer is given, you know to drive the conversation in a certain direction. On paper, this may sound good, but in practice it is much clunkier. The conversations are not very straightforward, considering that you must select the same topic several times to get a full response. Sometimes it takes an extraordinary stretch of logic to arrive at the next response, forcing the player to randomly click through every single question. The story itself is exceptional; it is a keen murder mystery with twists and turns at the right places, with great pacing. The characters are multi-dimensional and forces the token to look at the situations in a broader scope. Another neat addition is the concept of the “review”, in which the token recaps all the events that have elapsed in the finished chapter. When you save and restart the game, the review is presented in a dramatic black and white noir-style cutscene, reminiscent of many murder mystery movies. The only real problem with the game is the somewhat non-intuitive gameplay. Otherwise, it is an excellent play for those who enjoy a taut and edgy thriller. Design The menu is composed of several functions, such as "ask, examine, move, and think". Each of these functions plays an important part in finding out clues and drawing conclusions on the various motivations of the characters. The "think" function in particular is a very useful tool; think of it as a deus ex machina for helping the player realize what he has to do next. The "examine" function is essentially a mouse cursor in the shape of a hand, navigated with a directional pad. The use of a directional pad as a cursor makes movement imprecise and difficult, but I assume this was the extent of hardware at the time. The cursor is used to click on particular items of the screen for analysis, but more often than not will your efforts be fruitless. I reassert that the game is very unintuitive and will force the player to do a lot of random clicking before anything actually happens. This menu is overlayed on the numerous backdrops that the player can move between. For example, the school is the scene of many events and characters; different character models will pop up all over the school and can be interacted with. The backdrops and characters are prerendered 2-D pictures drawn in an anime style influence. The whole game plays like an anime mystery series, with a considerably larger amount of dialogue. I feel the art does a good job of connecting the story with the player, making it seem believable enough as a show, while preventing it from becoming too cartoony so that it would detract from the experience. The facial expressions are very important in setting the mood, which is done quite well for its effort. The characters embody a lot of personality, such as the token, a young private investigator who inspires fear in those who try to hide the truth. He is accompanied by a sophomore high school girl Ayumi, who was the best friend to the murder victim, racked by guilt for being unable to prevent the murder, which motivates her to conduct a parallel investigation with yours. The murder victim herself is quite a mysterious character; Yoko Kojima, a junior detective who somehow solved the crime that the token is forced to, except she was killed as a result of the findings. These vibrant characters all contribute to the creation of a well-rounded and interesting story. (This entry has been edited2 times. It was last edited on Thu, 17 Jan 2008 03:50:54.)Mon, 14 Jan 2008 02:39:57 CDThttps://www.gamelog.cl/logs/LogPage.php?Log_Id=1790&iddiary=3546