The Video Game Revue

Daisenryaku, God Hand

I have some gamer friends who find it surprising that I still buy and play PS2 games even months after having made the "switch" to Xbox 360. In response, I've occasionally said that this is an ideal time to catch up on old PS2 games, since second-hand titles are now both cheap and abundant. Today I'm going to talk a little bit about a few PS2 games that I've enjoyed recently for very little investment.

Dai Senryaku Exceed VII: Modern Military Combat - $20 (new)

The first is "Dai Senryaku Exceed VII: Modern Military Combat" which, as far as I can tell, is a distant cousin of the Sega Saturn game Iron Storm. Information about the Advanced Daisenryaku series is surprisingly sparse, even on the web, and this apparently seventh installment of it is my first exposure.

Daisenryaku VII, as I'll call it for simplicity, was previously released on the original Xbox back in 2004 and made its way on the PS2 in 2006 (2007 in America). The PS2 version is what I'm playing. My initial impression is that the game is a clone of Advance Wars only on a hexagonal grid playing field and with a greater variety of unit and weapon types. The game is definitely not as user-friendly as Advance Wars, however, and the tutorials provided with you are fairly inadequate although they do provide a starting point. Gamers who are easily frustrated should be wary of this one.

I have a strong soft spot for turn-based war-games, however, and Daisenryaku VII is very appealing to me. It's addictive, satisfying, and not cryptic enough to drive me away. As is often the case with games that I talk about here, I haven't played enough of it to form a definitive opinion, but so far I'm happy to have this game. Initially I thought that since Advance Wars: Days of Ruin is already out, Daisenryaku VII would turn out to be an entirely redundant purchase, but surprisingly I've made time for it anyway.

God Hand - $15 (used)

God Hand is a hilarious PS2 game that I initially read about in a Hardcore Gaming 101 article about it. This game is bad in all of the right ways and elevated by the fact that it doesn't take itself the least bit seriously. It's something of an awkward third-person perspective brawler with awkward controls and level design, and the main objective is basically to string together long combo attacks as furiously as possible. The game gets significantly more complex by allowing the player to purchase new moves and edit not only which buttons perform which moves but also which moves chain into which other moves. In other words, you end up building your own combo chains from various jabs, hooks, kicks, and uppercuts that you unlock yourself.

What really makes God Hand worth playing is the Capcom charm that it exudes. It's not a quality game, and yet there is a sort of quality hidden in the specific way in which God Hand sucks. I think that it's best described as a "raw" game that's unfriendly and unlikely to appeal to most players, but hardcore brawler fans will get a kick out of it and appreciate its sense of humor. I whole-heartedly recommend this game.

Zone of the Enders - $5 (used)

Fritzkrieg recently realized that I haven't played ZoE and absolutely need to, so he lent me his copy of ZoE2 along with the specific instructions to forget about the first one and just play ZoE2. A week later, having not even tried ZoE2 yet, I had already purchased a cheap used copy of ZoE (with the MGS2 demo disc!) and started playing it, much to Fritzkrieg's frustration. :)

ZoE is a pretty sparse game in much the way that a lot of early PS2 games were. It's a relic from the time before the PS2 hit its stride, but as such, I'm actually quite impressed with it. I'm glad I didn't pay more than $5 for it, but given that I'll get at least 10 hours worth of entertainment out of it before I shelve it for eternity, I'd say that was $5 well spent.

As for why I'm actually going to be able to play it for 10 hours before getting bored, I really can't say. It must be the allure of Kojima Productions or something. Fritzkrieg assures me that ZoE2 is a huge improvement, so we'll see how I feel about that when I get around to it.

posted by Parappa @ 4:06 PM 0 comments

Persona 3

I've been making the occasional effort to play Persona 3, specifically when Fritzkrieg is over. On the surface it's an appealing game, and I'm sure I could get into it with a bit more of a time investment, but overall I'm disappointed with this game. It's slick and daring, but fails in some critical ways.

The biggest failing in Persona 3 is its confused gameplay balance. On the one hand, Persona 3 positions itself as an accessible RPG suitable for younger audiences and new-comers to the genre, and on the other hand it is deliberately cryptic and frustrating at times. If you're a fan of games like Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga, you're likely to find the gameplay stripped of its hardcore appeal, such as how you only control one character in combat, and how short the dungeon sections of the game are. On the other hand, if you're new to RPGs and looking for an easy entry point, you'll likely be put off by the obscure names of enemies, spells, and abilities, and you'll be frustrated by how suddenly and easily you can die and lose your progress, as well as how tricky the boss battles can be.

In most areas of the game--such as its story, its presentation, and the overall flow of the game--Persona 3 does an excellent job of striking a balance between accessibility and traditional RPG challenge. The story progresses at a steady, easy pace, and the combat sections are broken up by lots of NPC interaction that isn't vapid or tedious. The graphics and artwork are great, and the overall game design feels very polished. It's only once the dungeon areas of the game start that I feel like I'm being cheated of a good time.

Persona 3 would definitely benefit from an auto-save feature. I've found that the game's non-threatening tone can lull one into a false sense of security that is rudely interrupted at intervals when one realizes that it is, after all, a Shin Megami Tensei game--which is to say that it's easy to die and be forced to start over from your last save. While playing Digital Devil Saga, I enjoyed the challenging combat system in which even random encounters could suddenly take a turn for the worse and wipe out your party, but that Persona 3 shares this characteristic of other Shin Megami Tensei games while discarding so many others strikes me as simply awkward.

It's possible that Persona 3 simply maintains those hardcore challenge aspects that it feels are necessary to prepare newcomers for other, more serious Shin Megami Tensei series games. It's also possible--perhaps likely--that I simply haven't played far enough into Persona 3 to get to a point where the game world opens up and things start getting truly interesting. It pains me to write about not liking Persona 3 because I had high hopes for it and at first it played right into the ways in which the Shin Megami Tensei series is enchanting to me, but the grim reality is starting to set in that I am likely already finished with Persona 3. It's at that juncture now where I'll probably just read ahead about the game in a FAQ to decide whether or not it's worth any more of my time. As for the next time Fritzkrieg comes over, we may end up starting a play-through of something like Okami or Dragon Quest VIII instead.

posted by Parappa @ 11:40 AM 0 comments