Neue Rezensionen von Lipucd

But what if it was PURPLE?
But legit dropping a skin color that both recolors everyone via the blight, along with face emblems people into the Nihilla corruption that Angra Mainyu does doing Chapter 9 has to be the most selective move right at me and my taste.

Announced back in 2016, and first released in 2021, Megaton Musashi W: Wired as the rest of the world knows it is by all accounts the '3rd' revision for this game, predated by it's first release, and Megaton Musashi X after that in 2022. As a result the game you're buying today is best described as "3 games stapled together as a single product" and it really does SHOW in so many different ways. From the largest laundry list of different systems to go about taking care of for unit improvement, towards the insane amount of loot to take account of, with 3 huge core storylines each playing out in sequence yet the 'breaks' become rather obvious in turn, it's hard to at times call this fully coherent, but what is here is a wild ride only Level5 could try to make work.

As some direct context, this game is a post-Yokai Watch 4 product and it shows, from it's first release not selling the best, towards X pivoting into a Free-2-Play game (with all of the gotcha systems one would expect from such), towards a global release that scraps the F2P nature outright (yet their direct systems still remain) it nearly screams of the time Level5 was struggling to stay relevant, and in some ways this bleeds into it's story as well given the first 8 hours (The first story block) feels like a very trope heavy anime plot playing it almost a little too safe at times given the stakes and situation it sets up. Though by the 'X' plotline things start going off the rails hard and I really can only say that how this game starts in tone and where it goes are two very vastly different things, but if you're willing to put up with an almost dry start with a few nifty key points, you'll be pleasantly surprised by how it develops.

As for the game itself, this is a case of needing to break the game down into two major parts, as the first half is a very beefy single player experience that from start to finish will keep unlocking some new system after another that effects your endgame output in some manner, and by the end you need to worry about your gear, mods on your gear, your motherboard, mods and skilltree on that, your pilot skills and weapon proficiency, your Kakugo and Kabuki Functions, and tons of other things all to make your numeric 'Battle Power' value go up to declare how 'ready' you might be for the challenges ahead. Much like the recent Granblue Fantasy Relink before it, I feel like this half of the game is well worth the introduction price and gives quite a lot to chew on at that before you start to feel the content start the dry up and the story at last come to an end, leading into the second half. A 3 co-op experience all about "Making big number bigger" by endless refinement and grinding of systems to reach higher difficulties of content bit by bit. As I'm rather a fan of these myself since the PSO Dreamcast era days, this game gives me a MAJOR scratch to an itch that's been biting at me, yet I know these style of games aren't for everyone, and even still by a key point in this is a major difficulty spike that nearly demands having friends who'd also be into this as it's clearly made with direct multiplayer in mind.

On top of all of this though, the game somehow also offers it's own secondary PVP mode separate of it's story/co-op campaign, needing it's own fair amount of grinding in turn to get anywhere fast in. As you can guess, turnout for this post-launch is tiny at best. Along with things that could give the wrong impression such as 'Daily Login and Battle Pass' systems that hand out materals and elements you honestly get in far greater volume just by playing the game then by opting into caring about such, on top of the huge DLC list that the -only- 'buy for power' option is the deluxe version...that even still is just the premium pass rewards...that -also- doesn't give much more then a normal mission clear...the F2P elements still stapled onto this can really give the wrong impression of what kind of product this is, and in this current climate of games is nearly it's own killing blow in a way. Though I think if you can look past that, and if you've got an itch for a rather fun mobile mecha looter game, it's really hard to go wrong here.

Back in 2016 when this game was announced, it honestly sounded almost too good to be true. Platinum Games being called in for gameplay, Cygrames on systems and art, with Nobuo Uematsu on music, all tied together to become a hybrid action RPG in the Granblue setting. What was planned for a 2018 released though ended up being delayed, Platinum games was removed from the project, and the entire project was in heavy radio silence for the last 6 years before at last coming out. So it's easy to think and feel that there was a lot of issues to get this finished, more less on top of that it's painfully clear concessions had to be made to get it at last out of the door, yet for it's extremely troubled history the end result is honestly a case where you'd be hard pressed to notice it on first glance.

From my own way of phrasing what is here, Granblue: ReLink is 2 different games combined to make a single experience, even if it's a touch clunky at times as a result. The first 15~20 hours is what Platinum games very clearly had worked on and ironed out, with a single player campaign that while the story is very clearly "The plot being excuses to go towards key locations and do selective things in them", the sheer set peaces and scope for all of them will remind you so much of Metal Gear Rising and The Wonderful 101's greatest hits collection in many ways. If anything this first half I'd even dare say is worth the price of admission alone as it's a very Platinum games experience minus a grading system.

Then after you beat all of that you unlock the second half of this game more leaning into a "Phantsy Star Online-Lite" experience. Tons of the gatch systems start to unlock one after another, before you know it you're juggling 8 different ways to improve a single character to micromanage and push stats higher and higher to do higher difficulty battles and challenges that seem to ever be increasing in rank requirements at that. THe sheer resource grind and middle management just for -1- character is rather insane, and while you can aim for the single player case of ranking up your AI's to stand on their own...You'll progress far faster and smoother doubling down on a single character and then joining others online to make a full player controlled team that way instead. This half though I feel the weakness of the battle system start to crack at the experience somewhat, as progress is more about making numbers bigger and skills just 'better' then per say new options/attacks. Add on how much it takes just to get a single character kitted out, more less -another-, and it can become somewhat tedious as a result within the limiting movepool and always over before you know it missions.

Overall though, I can 100% say the first half of this is an experance I'd for sure vote anyone being a fan of Platinum's previous output to give it a look see and playing, while the second half I feel more scratches the itch of the gatcha's gameplay loop, but as an ARPG instead of a mobile turn based game. If that sounds appealing towards you, then for sure pick this up and enjoy Granblue!

Wizardy. A game that has had an everlasting impact on the gaming world since it graced the world back in 1981. As an attempt to take the tabletop pen and paper RPG style of game and make a digital version of it, the style of making a team you create yourself based off of race, classes, stats, with a final flourish of a personal name to call your own to only then delve deep into trap and puzzle filled dungeons that are punishing at the best of times has had such a lasting appeal you see things mimicking elements from it if not taking from it wholesale like say the Etrian Odyssey series or The Dark Spire being a heavy handed reference. Path of the Abyss in turn is much like those kinds of game, yet for as much as it takes, it brings so much new and unique that it turns what you know about this style of game on it's head.

As you expect at the start you need to create a team of 4 characters to start exploring with setting them each as one of 4 races, putting skill-points into one of the 8 styles that help define a character's role and options for your team (while increasing stats), and then raising one of the 5 core stats that have the largest effect on your character's output and gives passives at key investments. From there it's just a matter of gearing them up at the store, deciding to delve into the beginner mini dungeon or take your hand at the core and go from there. All of this is pretty basic stuff anyone used towards a Dungeon crawler of this style is used towards, but the big mixup is how combat works both ways with the attack grid. At any given time you can only have 9 skills set up for combat, with these skills in turn originating from one of your 4 characters, with some skills giving buffs to other skills when placed next to or around them, with other skills effecting members that are 'in range' on your 9 placement grid. What this means is that -each- slot is important to how you think about your movelist. Do you set up skills that give extra damage to boost one attack to insane extra %'s to have a major nuke option? Do you eat up a slot for a passive that gives everyone higher defense?

And the biggest factor for this 9 slot grid is how foes attack -you-. Different enemies have different slots they favor to attack, and by placing your attacks in slots, those characters are then prime targets to be hit as a result. Now it becomes situations like putting 2 'Basic Attacks' from your tank just so they'd get hit when those slots get focused instead of the backrow. Or having to keep in mind the dead center, while wonderful for linking as many skills as able to one empowering skill, is where a LOT of attacks will aim for making your squishy healer super vulnerable if one of their buffs is placed there....Suddenly placement becomes a very large scale thing you're -always- tinkering and shuffling about to find that 'perfect fit' of doing what you want/need, while also still ensuring you're not having to revive ashed characters.

Overall as an Early Access game, what's here is utterly impressive, and I've been happy I kept my eye on this over the last year as it's clear looking over early footage to now there's been clear clean up and heavy consideration behind how this grid system works, and I feel like if you can get over the limitation of only 9 attacks behind it, you'll start to really get hooked on what this has to offer next towards others of it's kind. Also just my 2 cents, but this entire games OST is UTTERLY worth the price of admission alone.

Granble Fantasy Versus was already a rather decent...if perhaps -limited- at times fighting game that worked really well as what one could call an 'introduction' towards a lot of core fighting game elements with some spice with it's large diverse cast to let you find a playing style you'd enjoy. If anything it was held back by the fact that it's online would just SLOG with anyone not even in the same city, more less state with you, and if one pal was on PS4/5 and another on PC, you'd have to double dip or just not play together. Rising in turn is this games second lease on life and it for sure ensures to solve these two major issues outright. Though it's not -perfect- and in many ways things where lost between revisions.

To start off Cross-play and rollback are both here, and both work extremely well at that. I've played with people all over the globe doing the Open Beta, and even with the little bit I got to do after obtaining this and writing the review, it's only stayed as solid at that. The few times it really can't hold a connection the game does it's best to still be playable instead of a river of lag, and for that it just makes for a far better player experience. Lobbies are now a snap to make, more less the larger scale lobby has far more to do in it then just que up for best of 3's. Add in some new features that make the pacing of fights far more faster in turn, and the game feels like it's gotten quite the glow up indeed. Then we start talking about the offerings for single player/co-op and the hammer falls...

Long and short, a lot of the hours I put into the first revision of the game was in due part of it's RPG Story mode. Unlock characters, use them in beat-em-up side scrolling stages and get gear that in turn became both cosmetics for the vs. mode experience along with items that where used to enhance your stats doing said RPG Mode. It all fed into each other quite well and progress in RPG never felt like it wasn't rewarding you with something that also carried over to normal gameplay. You even could co-op with a friend online to beat epic scaled bosses and it gave you a way to play with a friend that wasn't just about beating each others faces in. Come Rising though, this mode has been greatly downsized into a very barebones story crawl with some story fights, but you no longer can use 'anyone' for these fights, hard locked to key characters at that. Yet the greatest sin is that for all of the work you do in this mode, nothing but achievement clears matter in the full game. All of the gear is from the gatcha in online lobbies, all of the other stuff is via character progression by playing online vs. matches. IMO this much of an axe cut towards this mode felt like a concession to try to make it just 'easier' to see the story w/o the gear and grind gimmicks of before, yet as a result it feels vastly more lukewarm and it's only passable story can't carry the experience.

Does losing out on a far more robust story mode suck? Yeah, it really does. Is it worth going back to the more slower paced base game for this mode? That's where I still have to give Rising the thumbs up as for this major loss, it still refines what was there and does so much -right- it's going to kill me to ever go back to base ever again. So I could still vote this as a wonderful 'entry' fighting game with a LOT more spice to go around learning and getting used towards, and things you learn/master here can springboard into the large pool of other fighters out in the sea of games. Yet as a single player/co-op game, I feel like this ends up more of the same you'll see in so many other fighters and as a result can leave you waning. What I can suggest is give the F2P trial a go, and see how it feels to play and if you enjoy what you see, go for it.

So what if you took the 'gatcha' system out of a gatcha game, and left just 'the game' it was built around as a result. Would it still be fun? Would it still have merit to even play it anymore? X DiVE I feel like is a good answer towards this question coming out with a rather decent 'yes' all around, even if it comes with some caveats as a result.

Outright, if you played X DiVE while it's Online half was still going, this is more or less the same game but a lot of the fat trimmed and experience tuned more for ~20 hour clear time of it's (sudo) extended story mode, it's large swath of Event quests, and huge roster of characters to unlock and play as you see fit with only a few real limits imposed onto the player. The biggest factor is the resource grind, that in Online had a huge assortment of bits and bobs for crafting, enhancing armor, and unlocking skills with DNA's. Here nearly all of it's been simplified towards either a single real resource, along with a Zenny cost making the entire process far more cut and dry. On top of that, the 'Power Requirements', an overall stat number declaring how strong you are for content, for stages has been drastically lowered in turn, removing a fair amount of the grind Online had. Add on some extra small refinements like characters getting a few new extra voice lines, some small detail clean up on a few troubled Live2D animations and 3D models, and altering a fair amount of skills that where made for PVP in mind to better enhance a large amount of the cast for easier PVE clears really does make this entire thing not feel like they just ported the content from online and called it a day.

In turn though, it's not perfect either. The biggest gripe is how unlock progress is weighted and timed, with a few notably OP characters (S Rank X and Zero) being given at the dead start of your experience nearly trivializing most content already, yet then a lot of only sub-decent to outright clunky to use characters doing unlock till well farther, towards nearly the dead end of the story mode experience. As a result the start feels far too easy, and depending on your favorites you might not even get to enjoy them much till 'post-ending' content clean up. Also beyond gallery improvement, there's little real benefit towards unlocking everyone beyond achievement gaining/self satisfying as the one area that would require multiple character use, Jakob's Orbital Elevator, has been altered to let you clear everything with just a single character without limit.

Overall though, as a -game-, X DiVE is overall still 'fun', given it's short burst platforming stages with clear callbacks towards the X series of games design layouts (along with hiding hidden elements in reference towards armor parts placement), and the general 'run and gun' nature and flow of things is still rather snappy with a controller (and passable via touchscreen for mobile players). At worse I think for some they might not feel challenged by the content on offer (Mostly in part due towards said OP units given at the dead start), and for others the more 'bite sized' stage designs will make you wish instead of a stage broken up into 6 chunks, it was more of a single run from start to finish without a break. Yet beyond those issues, I think what is here really shows the Taiwan Capcom team was really trying to make a 'game', but had to also aim for profits doing the time as well, and while I can't say the base $30 bucks is what I'd call a 'desirable' price for the game on offer, I can't help but admit that was is here isn't at least an enjoyable experience including if you're a Megaman fan.

You don't buy TTS for it's baseline game options, and in earnest while an option, you don't really buy TTS for it's DLC tables either...What you really buy TTS for is the sheer interactive modifiable elements. Being able to make card games of your own, the ease of integrating custom models and materials, the ability to script out interactions as well. In earnest you're more paying for access towards this games near endless workshop, then anything else.

Back in 2017 a little shump got released by the name of Graze Counter, and while it wasn't doing a ton to set the world a blaze, it did offer a nice entry level title for 'bullet-hell' style shumps with a robust training mode and very engaging Bar duality via the Graze Counter (A bomb you fill by grazing bullets) and the Break (A 'hyper' mode that nets larger score). Graze Counter GM in turn in 2023, 5 years after the first game's release though feels more like a 'refinement' of the older title, then perhaps it's own game, for better and worse.

Long and short: This is by all accounts a 'retelling' of Graze Counter in both storyline and stages, though the entire experience I could say has been made overall easier then it's base release (Things like the crystal blocks can now be destroyed, there's less bullets in general at the same rank/difficulty levels, some stage gimmicks in general where overall toned down). Yet it does make up for this with it's newest difficulty that aims to be -vastly- harder as a result, along with it's inclusion of -16- ships in total. I can also say where in the base version, there was 4 'original' ship playing styles, with 4 'alt/hyper' modes of those in turn, while here pretty much each ship brings it's own new gimmick towards the table altering the playing experience vastly making them each stand out vastly more.

Sadly though for those that played Graze Counter already, this all still feels like retreading old ground, and while things like the 2 new alt stages, a 'All' stage mode and even 'Extra' stage help add towards this package, a fair amount of your experience is going to be treading ground you chances are know by heart. For those still looking to get their feet wet with a not hyper punishing game though, it's really hard not to recommend this outright as it does a lot to help teach and ease people into these style of games.

Outright got this due towards all of the artwork, more less inclusion of Red Earth, and this release brought clear fan interest into Darkstalkers/Vampire once more with fresh eyes so overall while the price-point's always been higher then I could welcome suggest others to buy, it overall did -exactly- what it set out to do very well and I have no real complaints with it.

Have you ever played a game where 40 hours after starting it you can go "The way I play and do things now, is so vastly different then how I started, it might as well be 2 different games?". If not, you really should give Vampire Survivors a look at last just for that kind of experience. The sheer difference between your first hour, and your 30th is so drastic I don't think I can put it into words, and all done with a rather simple gameplay loop and control style to boot making you think "There's legit no way this could drastically change".

Starting off, you have no attack buttons to speak of, you only move. The different items you gain via level up does the real work for you, all of them attacking off of timers, or other ques like length of movement, to deal damage towards the endless hordes moving to enclose on you at all times. From there the goal is simple, kill stuff so they drop EXP crystals, nab enough to level up, to then be offered a selection of either new items, or level up's towards the ones you have, but at random. So your first few runs are very much dice rolls of what you'll end up getting and having to work with, and as you start unlocking things from meeting goals, you'll gain new features on top of this core. Things like being able to outright remove choices from the RNG table, reroll your results to pick from a different list, even upgrades that go beyond the level up upgrades, item combos that lead towards new and more powerful items, and characters that each have their own perk changing how they interact with these systems. So by that 30th hour, there's a large swath of things you have at your advantage to make your runs all the better, all the more optermized and longer lasting.

But then what use is there to just play once the games 'figured out'? Why, the secrets, the mass amount of unlockables, the sheer volume of content on offered for a game at this price point is rather insane to put bluntly. And even still, even after you've seen 'it all', the sheer charm of the style on display, and it's very quick and easy 'pick up and play' makes it a wonderful time killer when you don't want to devote a lot of time towards something.