Firstly a Thanks to Tom Champion and Eurogamers who are providing the Tickets for the Expo,
As you guys know Eurogamers Gaming Expo is one of the largest gaming events Held in the UK every year since 2008 and as the years have passed it has increased in Size and the number of people who attend each year increase.
Over 50,000 people attended last year and tickets always sell out within days
So this is your chance to Get hold of Tickets for Thursday the 26th
You will Get Two Tickets for the Day to attend Eurogamers with anyone of your choosing, you don’t want to be enjoying such a gaming Event on your own now?
You will get to play some of the latest Games to be released and soon to be released
Enjoy the Developer Sessions.
So the Question you must be asking,
How do you get hold of these great tickets?
Simple Register at http://www.gamingrev.com/forum/ and Say Hello (Introduce yourself in the new member section) and then enter the competition in the giveaway section
You have to be a Resident of the UK to Enter and Be able to Make it to London on the 26th of September
You must be 16 or over to Enter this Competition
Winners will be notified that they have won on the 1st of August
by Participating in this competition you agree that your Name, Date of Birth and Email Address can be shared with Eurogamers if you win, As they will be sending you the Tickets.
Darksiders is quite a unique breed of monster. While it adopts many game play mechanics from multiple series, such as The Legend of Zelda and God of War, the game offers up an entirely unique experience when it mashes these styles together. Combining that with a new vision of Earth’s end, along with some great environments and combat, and Darksiders becomes a highly entertaining and grisly vision of Earth’s bleak future.
New Zelda, Wind Waker Reborn, Mario Kart U, New 3D Mario, Yarn Yoshi, Fire Emblem x Shin Megami Tensei;
It was a good day to be a Wii U owner.
Nintendo once again hosted a livestream yesterday, with a plethora of news about upcoming Wii U releases; Bayonetta 2 and Wonderful 101 both showing off new, unseen gameplay. The interesting part of this livestream was the announcement of 6 new releases coming to Wii U in the future as well some other surprises;
So the New Year has arrived and I thought to myself, why not start it off with a nice review on a classic game that I still enjoy to this day.
It has been well over a Decade since Final Fantasy 9 was launched in 2000 and the game was a great hit then and it’s still a great hit now.
The game was produced and developed by Squaresoft (before they went belly up after producing the most epically failed Movie Spirits within)
This was Squaresoft and when they produced a Final Fantasy movie, you would have thought they would carry on their great development and production that they put into their Final Fantasy games. (they failed to do this and the movie sucked)
so they flopped big time with this movie and lost a lot of money in the process and had to merge with Enix creating Square Enix which saved them from certain doom.
So that’s a quick recap on how Squaresoft got rebranded.
The story for Final Fantasy 9 was great as you follow the lives of not one person but multiple players; you get the privilege of using different players as you progress through the game.
Zidane Tribal
“Virtue – You don’t need a reason to help people.”
Garnet Til Alexandros XVII also known as Dagger
“Devotion – Someday I will be Queen, but I will always be myself.”
Vivi Orunitia
“Sorrow – How do you prove that you exist…? Maybe we don’t exist…”
Adelbert Steiner
“Dilemma – Having sworn fealty, must I spend my life in servitude?”
Freya Crescent
“Despair – To be forgotten is worse than death.”
Quina Quen
“Indulgence – I do what I want! You have problem!?”
Eiko Carol
“Solitude – I don’t wanna be alone anymore…”
Amarant Coral
“Arrogance – The only dependable thing about the future is uncertainty.”
Story of Final Fantasy 9
The Main player is Zidane Tribal who has been sent to kidnap the Princess (Princess Garnet) of the Kingdom of Alexandria by regent CID.
Simple task get into the kingdom and kidnap the princess under the rogue of a play being performed by Tantalus.
But things aren’t as simple as one would think in the world of Final Fantasy as the story slowly unravels it’s self
you find yourself in the middle of a growing conspiracy and deception, your goal to get to the bottom of it all.
Now you find yourself protecting the Princess and on a mission to save the world from imminent destruction.
As you progress through the game you learn more and more about the individual players and their origins.
The one great thing about Final Fantasy games are the story lines as they always contain depth full stories which you can immerse yourself into.
Game Play
Final Fantasy games are very simple and basic and doesn’t take long to master
Fights
The battle engine is basically a turn based system. You control the actions of four players on the battlefield.
Each player has different abilities,
for example would be Dagger and Zidane
Dagger is a summoner
Her Abilities are being able to summon Eidolons and cast Magic (healing and so on)
Zidane is a Thief
Zidane can steal items off the opponents
While in battle mode you select what moves your player makes, this is done every turn until the opponent is killed.
in the previous Final Fantasy Games where if you used a summon the gauge would freeze until the Eidolon had come in and attacked the opponent, in Final Fantasy 9 you can carry on issuing commands instead of having to wait for the previous commands to take effect.
Unlike the previous Final Fantasy Games where ever member of the party could summon, in Final Fantasy 9 only summoner’s can summon, this is the same with Magic, Vivi the black mage can only use Magic along with Steiner when in the party along with Vivi.
So the battle engine is very easy to master.
Abilities
Abilities are contained in equipped weapons and items which give your player extra boost in fights, this can be the following for example
Auto-Regen which when caste regenerates the players health periodically during the battle,
This is gained through an item equipped by the player, with abilities they can also be mastered, (this allows you to continue to use the ability and learn new abilities from equipping new Items)
Each player has different equipment but do get the same abilities as each other, some abilities are only available for certain players to increase their skills in their field, for example Zidane would be Thievery which does physical damage when he steals from the target.
World Map
The world Map hasn’t changed that much and is very basic and simple, you control your player and move them to the desired destination.
With Final Fantasy 9 like other Final Fantasy games you can’t access the whole map until you have passed a certain point in the game and obtain the transport required to be able to move freely.
there are three types of Transport in Final Fantasy 9
The Blue Norris (Escape pod used by the Queen which was salvaged)
this is used to cross the oceans but limited to only being able to access beaches
Airships
The Hilda Guard
The Airship is used to access almost all parts of the map but can only land on green fields.
Invincible
The Invincible canland anywhere on the map apart from forests.
The last of transports is the humble Chocobo which can be trained to fly the skies of world.
Map from http://www.uffsite.net
At the end of the day it’s been well over a decade since I picked up my copy of Final Fantasy 9 and even after all these years I still enjoy playing the game.
The story is still great to see
even so I have seen it about 40+ times now, I know it’s a lot but hey what can I say its addictive game.
The cut scenes are still great and even for a game that was developed in 1999, the graphics is still up to par with most games sold these days, the game was developed to Push the Sony PlayStation to the Limit and that’s what made Squaresoft great, they kept pushing the boundaries of the console to get the most out of it.
I have spoken to many people who have said they have heard of Final Fantasy but never really played it, I would have been one of them if I had never played Final Fantasy 7, and thankfully I gave it a go and got hooked to the series.
Until you have played a Final Fantasy Game you will not understand the quality of the game and what it brought to the generation of gaming.
I would tell anyone that hasn’t played Final Fantasy 9 to get it and try it out and in can promise you will not regret it.
As 2011 passes for the Zelda franchise, it will be remembered for a number of reasons, namely the long-awaited release of Skyward Sword and the 3DS remake of the classic Ocarina of Time. For me, though, 2011 brought the concept of flea markets, with all their nostalgic appeal, into the spotlight.
Some of my prized retro possessions I gained this year include Metal Gear Solid, the N64, a still-working 3DO with Dragon’s Lair…and what is universally considered the immortal Ocarina of Time for Nintendo 64. We all know of Ocarina of Time‘s reputation as the “highest rated game of all time”. The question is, does it still deserve that title, after over a decade and multiple re-releases?
Gameplay
First things first, for those who haven’t ever played Ocarina of Time in their lives (a terrifying thought) or who haven’t played it in a decade or more (like me), here are the basics: Ocarina of Time is a 3D action-adventure game where you, acting as the silent hero Link, travel across the fantasy land of Hyrule, undertake many sidequests for many interesting characters, hunt for special items and treasure, and defend the land from evil.
I’ve heard this game referred to as a “walking patent office”, and I agree. Name a modern convention of action-adventure games, be it a lock-on mechanic during combat or shifting day-night cycles, and it links back to Ocarina of Time. This game also features the removal of certain other abilities, such as jumping, and compressing all interaction functions to the N64′s A-button, but it doesn’t detract from gameplay. If anything, it enhances the gameplay ten-fold: players can worry less about how to do something and more about what they want to do.
Speaking of what to do, there’s plenty of content to keep you going. The main quest will take a good chunk of time, but there are collectables like Gold Skulltulas and Heart Containers to be found, the former of which provide players with useful items in a certain quest and the latter increases the player’s health for every 4 found. Every dungeon is full of enemy to fight and treasures to uncover, every town and village has a wide range of interesting characters with tasks for players, and there are even minigames to simply mess around with, like fishing and a musical game with Skull Kids.
Story
Now, to the actual plot. Without giving away every aspect of the magical experience that Nintendo expertly crafted, suffice to say Link is destined to once again save Hyrule and the eponymous Princess Zelda from his long-standing foe, Ganondorf. The story is simple in theory, but in execution, it’s an endearing tale of loyalty and courage as Link faces conflict after conflict in his quest to thwart the evil that is Ganondorf’s desire for world domination (typical of manical villains with such creepy demeanors).
This game also introduced, or brought into the mainstream, the idea of cinematic gameplay, where the player would become invested in the game world while experiencing a thrilling, action-driven story. There are twist and turns in the tale, with time travel playing a factor in the form of the titular, playable Ocarina of Time (not to spoil it, but it’s important), and it manages to engage and entertain to its conclusion.
Presentation
Finally, the presentation of this package. Yes, there is a noticeable difference in graphics and sound between this and Crysis, that was to be expected, but this game is about more than just outer beauty. The shallowness of modern society floods out of you the moment you truly stop and take in this game’s massive scale.
Imagine, for a moment, that you playing this game and are standing in a field and you see a mountain in the distance. When you eventually reach this mountain and climb to its peak, and you look out and see that very field where you once stood mere hours ago, it hits you: that this game isn’t just a great game, it’s a masterpiece that defines masterpieces. It’s a message to the world, not just gamers, that gaming is an expression of emotion and soul, a true art-form. Every area you travel to, including that very mountain, has its own sense of scale and emotion, with a wide palette of colours and light that fits each and every one.
As for sound, Ocarina of Time trades speaking characters for a truly moving soundtrack and well-implemented atmospheric effects. Every instrumental blends perfectly with its associated area, truly immersing the player further into the experience. The weather and other sounds are commendable and Link’s grunts are simple but likeable.
Six years ago, Roger Ebert began his “Video Games aren’t Art” speeches, preaching that an interactive experience, no matter how popular, could never achieve the greatness of its cousins in film, literature and television. That is a complete and utter lie.
If there was any game that could act as the ultimate rebuttal for this, Ocarina of Time would surpass even that game. Its massive variety of quests, its simply elegant storytelling, its well-crafted items and control system, and its awe-inspiring scale and atmosphere ensure that it is, almost unanimously, the single greatest achievement in this industry’s long history.
Play it on the 3DS or the Wii if you must, but if you truly believe that videogames are so much more than sheer entertainment, this is essential for anyone labelled a gamer. This is a game for the ages. This is…Zelda.
Score: 10
Very rarely will I ever give so much praise to a video game. But this is so much more than a game, it’s an experience that defines the essence of gaming. It will challenge and entertain you to no end. This is a true classic and I would recommend it without a doubt.
In the next Few Months we can see titles from the past brought back to life in HD quality
up scaled using the latest software and computers to give that extra bit of oomph.
So far we have
Metal Gear Solid HD collection Kingdom Hearts HD collection Jak and Daxter HD collection Devil may cry HD collection
and much more
In my opinion This is great as the originals aren’t compatible with current systems by porting them over to the latest generation of consoles
as older classic games are revamped and up scaled in graphics it will give the ability to play older games of latest releases, gamers can get a sense of feeling of the game and its history then having only the option to play the current game and then judging the game from that release.
at the end of the day old school games in most cases have more depth, Character.
and that’s something I miss in most games which are released in this day and age.
maybe with the rise of the older games, game developers will return to their roots and produce games which enticed and made gamers keep on coming back for more.
This will also revive most companies by giving them extra revenue from game sales increasing the chances of them producing more and better games.
So A few week’s has passed since Metal Gear Solid had been relaunched in the US and Canada, Thank you Konami for being Jackasses and making the Rest of us having to wait till February 2012.
The Game has been Released on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 (Thankfully the Playstation games are all Region Free) so I was lucky enough to get one exported from Canada on the Playstation 3.
Apart from the short Rant at Konami and them acting like as mentioned Jackasses for giving us Brits and the others across the channel a three month wait for the game.
Anyhow
Metal Gear Solid, one of the highest grossing Games of the last 2 Decades (well more than that since its been around since the 1980s)
So what do we get in this HD collection
Metal Gear Solid 2 Sons of Liberty
Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater
And finally Peace walker
You may ask why the HD collection doesn’t have Metal Gear Solid Tactical Espionage, the reason for this is due to the game being somewhat impossible to scale up in terms of graphics or to re-master without going full out and recreating the whole game from bottom up.
So hopefully in future we can see a remake of Metal Gear Solid as it would be great to play in HD quality (even better maybe we can see it in 3D)
Even Though Metal Gear Solid isn’t in the Collection I still feel it needs a couple of Paragraphs on it.
History of Metal Gear Solid (List of Titles and Year of Release)
Metal Gear Solid Tactical Espionage
Metal Gear Solid was released back in 1998 on the Sony Playstation after almost a decade since the Original was released on the Snes; this was a great decision by Konami as they finally had a platform where they could push the boundaries of game design during that period and make a game that provides a game with more realistic environment and graphics then any game on the market.
Well they succeeded
The reason I say that is Metal Gear Solid pushed the boundaries when it came to gaming in that era,
Almost Full unrestricted 360 Degrees of Control.
The Game was created using the latest 3D Computer technology with artists using polygonal sculpturing to ensure as much realism as possible.
User Interactions were above par compared to other games. (Hiding Bodies, Hiding in Card Board Boxes, Avoiding Obstacles, Hanging off ledges)
Great Back Story, Metal Gear solid had a great story to it and it was great how it unfolded and had a nice twist to the end.
Weapon selection was great, Nothing like running up the communications tower with the Famas and mowing down the bad guys (they had technicians and advice from experts on how a weapon should work and how the user can interact with it)
In all Hideo Kojima along with Konami were able to create a game with an environment that allowed the player to immerse themselves into.
My only issue with Metal Gear Solid was the weapons collection, I say this because it was a pain to always have to go back to the storage room and collect the weapon before progressing any further.
This was done after each boss or event in the game where Snake would acquire a new pass key which allowed him to open higher security level doors.
So apart from that Metal Gear Solid was basically flawless to me.
Metal Gear Solid 2 Sons of Liberty
Metal Gear Solid 2 sons of Liberty was probably the most anticipated games on the Sony playstation 2, This was mostly thanks to the success of Metal Gear Solid and the cinematic trailers before release which were made in true Hollywood fashion with Graphics and Music to match composed by none other than Harry Gregson Williams.
Metal Gear Solid Provided couple of new things to the Sega of Metal Gear Solid which were greatly welcomed by the fans and gaming community.
One of Many was the ability to use first person view on all weapons and at any position, this is a change from the original metal gear solid where this was mostly restricted to the sniper rifle but that also meant having to go prone while shooting.
This new feature allowed more control of the weapons and how they were fired and in which general area the user wanted to shoot. (Great for torturing the guards by shooting them in the arm and then Leg and watch them limp in pain; yes I can be a cruel bastard in the game)
Metal Gear Solid 2 also had a Twist to which some fans found disappointing as you didn’t get to play as Snake from the start to the end but also as a new face to the game, (Raiden)
His Back story is a bit iffy and as you play through the game the story behind him starts to unravel its self and you get to learn about the true agenda of Solidus and that of the Patriots.
By playing as a second character in this game somewhat gave a new look at solid snake from the perspectives of someone else, which was a good thing in some ways as you got to see snake for who he is as you try and reach your final objectives of getting to the bottom of the high jacking of The Big Shell clean-up facility.
You have Snake guiding Raiden in somewhat as a mentor.
One quote I liked from Metal Gear Solid would have to be when Snake quotes Red Fox.
Solid Snake: “We’re not tools of the government, or anyone else. Fighting was the only thing I was good at, but at least I fought for what I believe in.”
With True style Hideo Kojima was able to get a game designed and produced that didn’t fail; the game lived up to all the expectations and was a great success.
Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater
now time for some time travel as we go back to the cold war and the origins of Big Boss and we get to play as the legendry solider that spawned the hero that we have come to know as Solid Snake.
Metal Gear Solid 3 has had a complete revamp and the changes are pretty much noticeable when it comes to game mechanics as it introduces the players to new environment and game mechanics.
1. The introduction of camouflage which allows the player to blend into the back ground allowing greater ease when it comes to evading enemies or to just hide in plain sight.
2. Limit on Weapons and Items, In Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear Solid 2 players were able to quick select from a list of weapons, In Metal Gear Solid 3 this has changed completely where the inventory has been restricted to the number of weapons and items that can be selected from quick select.
This means the user has to choose which weapons and items he or she will most likely use and then select them from the inventory and put them in the quick list.
3. The Introduction of Stamina to the game, this BAR reduces as the time goes by or when you get snake injured. This is replenished by killing wild animals or eating fruits.
4. Introduction to CQC (Close Quarter Combat) this new ability allowed the user more than the usual punch and kick but with a verity of moves to take on an opponent unarmed or with just his knife.
5. As mentioned Snake can get injured and unlike the previous Metal Gear Solid where it was eat a ration and you get back to full strength and carry on the fight, in Snake Eater you have to Heal your wounds by using the medical supplies collected as you progress through the game.
By ignoring injuries and just carrying the health Bar will be restricted and can’t heal above a certain point.
So as time has progressed so has the metal gear solid Sega and with that the game has evolved to its surroundings allowing the user a more immersive environment to interact with.
one Issue with Snake Eater was mostly the camera control which was a royal pain and thankfully this was addressed on the re-launch on Metal Gear Solid Snake Eater Substance (Unlike the Previous Metal Gear Solid 2 which was ported over to the Xbox 360 console as substance, Snake Eater remained on the Sony Playstation 2)
Peace Walker
Peace walker was originally designed and created for the PSP so don’t be shocked when you play this and you find the environment and Graphics not that much up to Metal Gear Solid standard you would expect on a Playstation 3/ Xbox 360 let alone Playstation 2,
It’s great that Konami have ported this over to the Sony Playstation and Xbox 360 and allow people to play peace walker without having to buy or borrow a PSP.
In Peace walker we get to play as the Legendary Snake (aka Big Boss) as he is on a quest to find out if his mentor that if she is still alive and get closure on the actions he took all those years ago.
The weapons selection has changed considerably and made simpler to organise and select which is always great when you are playing the game on a PSP, so it’s less fidgety then it would have been if they had used the old school style of weapons and items selection.
As you are on a mission to free Costa Rica from CIA control.
Peace walker also has Multiplayer mode where you can team up with friends and strangers to go out and kill each other, like most online multiplayer games as you progress through the game you unlock items and weapons which you can use to customise your inventory for different maps and objectives.
Items are also unlocked as you progress through the game, these items can only be used in multiplayer mode.
At the end of the day it’s great to see a game like Metal Gear solid revamped and up scaled in a way that Metal Gear Solid Fans and those who never played it to relive the original Games on a HD TV with great Graphics.
If you are a Metal Gear Solid Fan I would say go buy it or if you are like me and impatient Import it as you will not regret this Purchase.
This is a US Import Version for those that don’t want to wait, only avalible on Playstaion 3 as Sony havent region locked their console.
For my first look back through time into gaming’s varied history, I will be looking at a game that many over looked. Chris Sawyer’s Transport Tycoon, to be exact. If the name sounds familiar, then you have probably played the more widely known RollerCoaster Tycoon, or his other leading game, Locomotion.
Transport Tycoon was released in 1994 by MicroProse onto the PC, Sony Playstation and Sega Saturn. It sold very well in the States for a short period and did averagely over here. The graphics were good considering what other games were around at the time, and the game-play was very fluid and easy to follow.
The basic principle of the game is to move something from one point, to another using any means necessary. For example, taking coal from the local mine, to the power station (remember, this game was set in the days before we were busy carbon counting) using trucks, trains, ships or planes. The size of the maps were quite large, featuring roughly 40 towns, each with their own surrounding businesses, for you to make money.
The attention to detail in this game was something not really seen before in a video game. The amount of vehicles available was staggering, you unlocked them gradually as time went on though, making you persevere at the game, to keep the profitability of the company high. Worrying about running costs, speeds and capacities weighing up all of the options to get the most out of each vehicle.
When you first start up the game, you can select all of your options, making the game as hard or easy as you’d like it, and choosing if you want any competing AI’s to face up against. When you start the game, you’re given a £100,000 loan, and a map filled with towns and industries, with no roads connecting towns together. You then name your company and manager, choose a face and a colour scheme, but don’t feel too tied into these choices, as they are all changeable later. Then you place your HQ and get to the business of transporting cargo.
The building tools in the game were very easy to use, although road building could end up being a pain, as the corners require “half-tiles”, meaning you’d usually end up with a junction where you don’t want one, making it look messy. Building train tracks is super simple, and the bridges make the game look stunning. Leveling the terrain took some practice, but when you’ve mastered it, it makes building tracks and roads much easier.
When placing stations, or docks, a display would show you what cargo is accepted by this station (what it will allow you to drop off) but not what is dropped off (general rule of thumb, is to look at the surrounding businesses, and if you build it in a town, it will accept passengers). A handy feature of placing stations, is you can turn a catchment grid on, which allows you to see from how far away these goods are accepted, only one tile needs to be touching the industry/town for there to be a link, which can save some unnecessary road building.
The money management system was very good too, it would always pop up at the end of a year, and was accessible from the menu. You could borrow more money, or repay your loan, and could also see how much profit/loss you made in the last year. There was also a selection of graphs to look at your progress over time in different areas, such as profit, total running costs, and income, which could be compared against the AI.
The AI players could have a whole host of restrictions placed on them, such as slowing their construction speed or restricting how long after you they could start up. The AI could be very easy to compete against, creating highly unprofitable routes, or very hard, running rings around your own service.
This brings me to the town councils, these can be accessed by clicking or selecting the town name. A box pops up showing the town’s name and population. You can access the “ratings” option to see your rating and your competitors ratings. These ratings just show you how good you are at moving cargo around, judged by the local population. There is an option to give the town council money to advertise your company, to increase the amount of cargo that waits at your stations, or you can help them redesign the town’s road layout.
This game has given me many enjoyable hours play, over several typical rainy British days, I would highly recommend this game to fans of the SimCity series, and fans of Theme Park. Best of all, you can now get this game for free, here are the download links, and happy transporting!
Transport Tycoon: http://www.abandonia.com/en/games/44/Transport+Tycoon.html
Transport Tycoon Deluxe: Same game, some new features, http://www.abandonia.com/en/games/240/
Open TTD: An opensource remake of Transport Tycoon Deluxe http://www.openttd.org/en/
SMT: Digital Devil Saga as it’s name may suggest is a member of the Shin Megami Tensei series, despite it’s Japanese title lacking the SMT name it’s very much a Shin Megami game in every sense that it could be. One big difference is that instead of befriending or summoning Demons to assist you in battles, your main characters are the demons. DDS also offers a very different skill system to other SMT games.
How it works is that you buy a ‘Mantra’ at Karma Terminals (Save points) and then devour enemies in battle to earn AP. The character that devours the enemy gets the AP and it goes towards them learning their skills. This is very similar to Final Fantasy V’s job system and is a kind of simplified version of Final Fantasy X’s sphere system. When you master a Mantra the more advanced Mantra becomes available. Ice Wolf > Ice Lord > Ice God, for example.
It's not as complicated as it looks
As you can see from the picture above, Digital Devil Saga has tons of options for you to customize your character, something I like to do is level a character up in their opposing element so they learn an ability to nullify their weakness. As an example, the main character Serph uses ice magic, because of this he is strong against Ice and weak to Fire. If you were to have him learn the mantras related to Fire magic he would eventually learn a passive ability to resist Fire, meaning he no longer has a weakness.
The Mantra system is very easy to get into and incredibly rewarding depending on how far you want to go with it, if you want to go crazy and get the ultimate abilities you’ll be rewarded with such things as complete immunity to all elemental magic, the ability to absorb physical attacks and even the ability to devour every single enemy in a fight! Adding to this there are also hidden bosses that you can take out to unlock hidden Mantras that will give you even more powerful abilities.
Digital Devil Saga’s battle system is near identical to it’s predecessor’s battle system, this is great if you played the previous game before as you’ll be able to jump right in. If you haven’t played the previous game then there’s absolutely no problem, the battle system is incredibly simple. Every character in the battle gets a turn, the most your party can have is 3. Certain things affect the turns, however. For instance say you’re fighting an enemy that’s weak to ice skills, if you hit it with ice magic you’ll get a ‘half turn’ this will also happen if you score a critical hit. A half turn basically an extra turn, if you get another critical hit or hit another weakness you’ll get another half turn. However, you can’t have more than 3 half turns: if you critical again or hit another weakness the turn marker will just end.
The Turn Markers are displayed at the top right
The Turn Markers begin to flash if you gain a half turn. The reverse happens if you hit an enemy with it’s strength or miss, you’ll lose two turns! If an enemy absorbs or reflects your attack then your turns are just ended outright. This also applies to enemies, so use it to your advantage!
Digital Devil Saga is set in a place known as the Junkyard, which is a place where several different clans compete to be top dog, all residents of the Junk Yard are adults: there are no children and there are no animals. Adding to this all inhabitants are also emotionless, everyone wears grey clothing with the only colour being their Clan colour. This is until a strange object crashes during a skirmish between the Embryon and Vanguards (The Embryon being the clan you are in control of.) The strange object turns out to be a black haired girl named Serah, after she crashes all the graveyard inhabitants gain the ability to transform into demons, and their emotions also awaken. This is shown in a very simple form: Their eyes regaining colour. I really like the game’s style, while most games today are colourless and boring just for the sake of being ‘realistic’ Digital Devil Saga’s setting is without colour to show the loss of humanity within the Junkyard.
Cielo, Gale, Serah, Serph, Heat and Argillia
Adding to this, the characters hair and eye colours are very strong contrasts to the grey they wear and the grey that’s all around them. I would like to be all snobby here and say that it symbolizes how the characters no longer belong in the Junkyard, that they should now be in Nirvana, which is the location that the winning clan is permitted to go.
This is all that really drives the main characters in DDS, to protect Serah and get to Nirvana. The only plot only really ‘starts’ in the second to last dungeon, at the very end of it. There’s then quite the big twist when you encounter the final boss. Really that’s all the noteable things that happen plot wise. DDS1 really just exists to get the player used to the characters and set up the sequel, the game even ends on a huge cliffhanger and after the credits it pretty much just says ‘Gotta play the sequel now!’ It really felt like I had been playing half of a game the entire time, and that the game should be saying ‘insert Disc 2′ rather than ‘The End’
I don’t really like talking much about the plot to games in reviews as I see spoilers as the ultimate sin that anyone can commit, so instead I’ll move on to talking about the music, which is fantastic. The composer for Digital Devil Saga and by extension the SMT series is Shoji Meguro, unlike most of his newer work Digital Devil saga lacks the incredibly weird j-rap. While I enjoy much of Shoji Meguro’s work, the J-rap isn’t very…well, good. Digital Devil Saga’s music is very atmospheric and conveys the tone of areas and battles very well. My favourite track in the game is named ‘Blade‘ which plays during a Field Hunt, which is a mini game you can play to encounter a rare enemy. The song conveys the feeling of urgency incredibly well, the timer ticking down would probably drastically add to this, too.
Another thing I would like to mention is that like most of the other SMT games, Digital Devil Saga has random encounters.
I hate random encounters.
Hate them.
The Random Encounters in DDS just love to pop up at the most annoying times, as do most random encounters in any game. Even by the time DDS came out (2006) Random Encounters were incredibly dated and they still are! Persona introduces a much better system for encounters that actually lets you see the monsters on the map, and you can even net yourself a pre emptive strike if you manage to smack them from behind. The random encounters would be slightly better if you could at least know when you were about to trigger one, or if you could at least cancel them as you can in the newer Wild Arms games. I guarantee that by the end of the game you will loathe the transaction to battle. Adding to this there’s also the fact that higher level enemies can kill you in one go if they get the first attack in, if you’re ambushed you also start in human form, apparently not having the time to transform.
God damn it, not again!
Speaking of enemies being able to kill you in one go if they get the first turn, I would like to mention a little something about the final dungeon of the game, mainly that it’s horribly designed.
This is a good time to mention that Large Karma Terminals allow you to teleport between other large Karma Terminals. Small terminals also let you teleport, but it’s a one way trip. In the room before the final boss there is a small Karma Terminal and a Healing Terminal.
Both of these together are in essence a Large Karma Terminal, but they do not allow you to teleport TO them, only FROM them. Why is this horribly designed? The nearest large karma terminal is several floors down, meaning you have to redo all the puzzles you already did to get up there if you have to leave the dungeon, and trust me: you will have to leave the dungeon once or twice. The thing that annoys me so much about this is that they really could have just stuck a Large Terminal in rather than the two seperate terminals, yet they didn’t. This means you have to trek all the way back up! This also means you’ll be subjected to the incredibly cheap attacks that the final dungeon monsters have to offer. Just a few examples:
A group of monsters that put you to sleep and then use an ability that instantly kills you if you’re asleep.
A group of monsters that use an attack that deals heavy damage and petrifies you, which is an instant kill if your entire party is petrified.
Two ex mini-bosses that you fought quite literally just before entering the final few floors of the dungeon.
Ex-mini bosses from the previous dungeon that now appear in groups.
Get used to seeing this.
You’re gonna die.
A lot.
While DDS isn’t without it’s flaws it’s still a fantastic game to pick up, both it and DDS2 go for incredibly cheap nowadays so if you have some spare cash I definitely recommend picking them both up and giving them a try, just try to be patient and save often.
