Fellow Monster Hunter fans unite!

Capcom-Unity is hosting a Monster Hunter Survey currently and I would implore all fans that are waiting for MH games not yet released here to give it a shot. If even on the slight chance Capcom will see its results it will be worth the effort to give them your input on the series. I'd imagine you need to be a Unity member to participate in the survey so if your not feel free to sign up... its quick, easy, and free so there no reason not to.

The survey is very professional and seems like it will be used for something other then the sites "we're just interested" statement.

http://www.capcom-unity.com/snow_infernus/blog/2011/02/17/have_a_minute_take_our_monster_hunter_survey

Have at it!!

In honor of the Release of Fist of the North Ken's Rage I started rewatching the original show that i hadn't seen since i was in my teens. As i sat there, and watched nameless thug after nameless thug explode from Kenshiro's pure manliness, I thought..." wow if you made a drinking game to this you'd be sloshd in no time!" Which brings us to this post made after about an hour of pondering as I played the game. This game should work with both the show and video game and of course works best with friends.  Attempt this game at your own risk and i will take no responsibility for how knackered you get!

 

This is.... "Your Already Drunk!"

- Anytime Kenshiro acts manly take a shot ( This includes downtalking to villains, saving people, stoic stares into the distance, etc.)

- Anytime Kenshiro executes a Hokuto no Ken technique take a shot.

- Anytime someone explodes take 2 shots.

- If Kenshiro is injured in anyway take 2 shots

- When Kenshiro says "Your already dead!" drain the entirety of whatever drink your holding and get another.

&n In honor of the Release of Fist of the North Star: Ken's Rage I started rewatching the original show that i hadn't seen since i was in my teens. As i sat there, and watched nameless thug after nameless thug explode from Kenshiro's pure manliness, I thought..." wow if you made a drinking game to this you'd be sloshd in no time!" Which brings us to this post made after about an hour of pondering as I played the game. This game should work with both the show and video game and of course works best with friends.  Attempt this game at your own risk and i will take no responsibility for how knackered you get!   This is.... "Your Already Drunk!" - Anytime Kenshiro acts manly take a shot ( This includes downtalking to villains, saving people, stoic stares into the distance, etc.) - Anytime Kenshiro executes a Hokuto no Ken technique take a shot. - Anytime someone explodes take 2 shots. - If Kenshiro is injured in anyway take 2 shots - When Kenshiro says "Your already dead!" drain the entirety of whatever drink your holding and get another.   And thats all you need! .....really! .....try and make it through 2 shows or 2 levels! But remember moderation or things could go downhill quickly and you'll find urself.. "Already Drunk!"

Hello retro lovers everywhere.... do i have a game for you!

NIS is a company almost synonymous with quirky rpg games and this little gem is no exception. CladDun: This is an RPG! (short for Classis Dungeon)is a PSN only release and despite the fact you will never get a physical copy of the game I urge you all to take the $19 plunge if it interests you. In a nutshell Cladun is an action-RPG dungeon crawler in a decidedly 8-bit style, but unlike many of its kind the combat and movement are all real time... none of that turned based nonsense like the Pokemon dungeon games. The closest thing I can compare this game to would be if Diablo and Zelda: A Link to the Past melded in perfect unison making the ideal retro combo!



You start off as a character name Pudding, who is hungrily searching for adventure and treasure along with her whiny but believable friend Ryouma. The two get stuck in a alternate world inhabited by the closet- megalomaniac sorceress Despina who basically instructs you on the games basics. After some witty dialogue you pretty much on you own to freely explore the many dungeons.. some very long and pretty difficult to match its old school style. To help you on these long adventures you have a system called "the Magic Circle" which basically allows you to "equip" sub characters like accessories on your main character. With this system not only can you now equip powerful items to help you on these sub characters but the characters themselves add to you defense by pretty literally becoming meat shields for you. the system can look pretty complicated at a glance(proof below) but its quite easy to learn.



The added bread and butter to this game, and admittedly something i love about it, is the ability to customize your characters in a pixel editor. After you unlock this early you can completely get rid of the story characters in favor of your own with no penalty. You pic a base sprite, choose your name, gender, class(out of 5 available), manner of speech, and even who your end boss will be and name them. After that you can customize the pixels of the characters head as you wish. Now i will note this because it was kind of misleading, but you cannot alter your body at all as armors and weapons cover it. You may however add pixels below the head to make a body and that will cover everything else as your head pixels seem to take priority over anything else. You can create up to 10 characters that will all eventually hang out at the town tavern and can be used as sub or main characters as you wish. This alone can make the game replayable to an almost infinite degree as all newly created characters will require leveling to make it through the tough later dungeons. As you characters(main or sub) level up they will learn class related abilities or Magics to help in the dungeon crawling. You may choose between a Warrior, Wizard, Dragoon, Merchant, and Guardian; each will change your play strategy slightly to best utilize their strengths and weakness's.



A few other things of note are the quirky and 4th wall breaking dialogue that is not unlike Disgaea. This game knows its a game and who it should appeal to and doesn't bog you down with a long winded story in favor of actually gameplay. You start the game, you want treasure, you explore dungeons...... go get em! As you make you long treks you have the option of being accompanied by a catchy 8-bit chiptune "RETRO" soundtrack or a epically orchestrated "REAL" soundtrack. If you get tired of one you can switch them as easily as opening the options menu at anytime and honestly both are top notch. There is an online mode available using Ad-hoc (boy am i sick of that cop out move) as well as local multiplayer but sadly no infrastructure, which is really its only big downside as multiplayer on this would be fantastic.

If you have old school retro sensibilities and enjoy a good action RPG this game is perfect for you. Its completely worth the $19 price and comes in at a nice 185Mb so everyone should have no problem with space on their PSP for it.
Do yourself a favor and visit this Classic Dungeon!!

Yep its that time again! Pokemon Black and White is about to be released in Japan and early copies have seen leaks of the Poke's we can get. For every generation of new pokemon its almost tradition to hear people complain about how they look and most seem to use the complaint " They don't look as good as the first gen!!" Personally I like to think that the designers and the ideas of the monsters themselves are growing and maturing as the games reach each successive generation, even if the gameplay doesn't make such leaps, amounting to the more "badass" looks of newer pokemon.

That being said i find that this generation of games that has a full Pokedex of brand new monsters from the start( YAY no more geodude's and rattata! ) is probably the biggest batch of WTF designs yet. Now i dont mean that on a bad way but the designs and themes for these are so odd and wide ranging that it makes my mind boggle a bit.

To see ALL the new pokemon and see what im talking about feel free to go to Serebii.net and browse them.

- First we have the starters....fire,water, grass... as always. This may be the first gen i like all the final evo's of the starters BUT why another Fire/Fighting type? We had Blaziken and then the Monkey King inspired Infernape... now we have a sumo themed flaming pig (which is pretty cool in principle), But did we need another one?
- Among the other odd or notable designs are 3 monkey's that are obviously filling the Evee gap taking on the fire, water, grass theme as well. This i think is actually a good move especially for people who don't or cant trade for all 3 starters, since usually u couldn't find a good type to fill in those blanks until either later in the game or not at all.
- Then we have.... i kid you not... a normal type Scottish Terrier pokemon!! I don't even know what to say to that. It's ridiculous and awesome at the same time.
- To round out the cat and dog theme, and possibly make up for Glameow/Purugly is a dark type cat that ultimately becomes a leopard... a PURPLE leopard!



- Probably one of the weirdest is a new 3 stage evo fighting type like Machop that starts off holding a log as a weapon and as his beefiness evolves trades it up for a girder and then 2 cracked stone pillars!
- One of my favorites is a ground/dark alligator that ends up looking like a cross between a Charizard and evil raccoon.
- There is a pure ghost type that already seems popular with pokemon fans that is basically a floating sarcophagus with 3 giant ghostly arms and a Fawful-like face. I really like this ones design as well.

Most of these really need to be seen to appreciate their craziness and i mean that in a good way. They are definitely the most interesting designs on the series in my opinion. I mean listen to some of the animal themes!
- Polar Bear
- Archaeopteryx
- Electric Eel
- A living trash bag! ( I think )
- An ice cream cone?!
- A blade themed sentai pokemon?!
- A chandelier
- A spectral golem

And to top it all off this gen has like 12 legendaries!! I think that's taking things a bit too far.

So what are your opinions on the new monsters? Better or worse then older gens? Which gen do you think was the best?

I'm sure that title statement will have some KH hearts fans in an uproar , but i very much believe it to be true! Neither are perfect by any means but BBS feels like a more polished and complete game by far despite being on a weaker system then the original KH. I think its that you feel quite a bit more free in this. Free? how so? Well for starters the worlds you visit are not anywhere near as tedious to complete. Im sure anyone who played the original remembers the constant backtracking through areas to start a sequence to continue the story. While this still sticks to that same basic gameplay mechanic it just feels much less backtracky (I made up a new word!), and I'm sure that's in no small part to the fact that the worlds are a bit smaller then in KH.
Secondly.... all the characters go solo in their adventures! That's right... no plodding AI partners trailing behind you trying (and ultimately failing) to help you. Honestly they would be completely useless in this game as well, not because they just are useless, but because your characters can be customized to the point where they will need very little help at all. The combat system in this game is fantastic and I don't think I ever got bored once thanks to the huge amount of moves and spells you can acquire and level up. Its still the basic KH formula but now its been cracked up and highly customizable. I'm sure i spent hours just fighting random "Unversed"(which still basically look like Heartless) just to level up and Fuse moves and spells together to make better ones.



The characters themselves are typical Nomura designs but each has an interesting enough personality that i want to find out what happens, something i never felt to strongly with Sora. Not to mention the series finally has a great Female main character now in Aqua! Yes she may be the typical "she's a girl lets make her a magic user" cliche but she is arguably the strongest personality wise of the 3 playable characters.
Storywise the game focuses around 3 said characters as they each go out on their own to achieve a goal or mission through the worlds of the game. All 3 have different stories and despite going to the same worlds you will experience different characters, bosses, cut scenes, etc. That alone makes the re-playability huge, but if you complete all 3 a final shorter epilogue story becomes playable.
But first you have to get to the end and this game loves to distract you with shiny things on the way. The one i got most distracted by was a mini board game you can play to level up and learn new skills. Think of them as Mario Party Lite( minus the mini-games) but just as entertaining and very profitable. The game has several boards, each based on a world, with different opponents, prizes, and goals. I've read this board game is hit-or-miss with some people but if you enjoy it or can stomach it you can reap many rewards, but none of them gamebreaking so don't worry if you detest it.



I would detail more on the story but i wouldn't want to spoil anything as it does tie heavily into the other games and no one likes a spoiler. Bottom line here is IF you like the KH games at all this is worth the play and I believe is as entertaining if not more so then the others. One final note.... Leonard Nimoy's voice can make anyone an awesome villain.

With Sony's unmistakable lack of support for the PSP its hard for gamers to get excited about playing with the exception for the occasional PS1 classic worth downloading. Fortunately there are a few games coming out relatively soon that may be well worth pulling the fragile brick out and cleaning it off.


Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep


You either love it for you hate it.... The fan service, the confusing plots, the androgynous characters! But its undeniable the time and effort put into the Kingdom Hearts games makes them a quality play.Though this latest release has already been enjoying success over in Japan for some time all of us here in the states will get a chance to enjoy it in a little less then a week. Taking place 10 years before the original game this entry has you following the characters of Ventus, Aqua, & Terra through individual stories as they search for a missing Keyblade master. BBS promises to take you to all new worlds in the disney universe like Lilo and Stitch, Sleeping Beauty, & Snow White as well as old favorites like Olympus Coliseum and Neverland.



3rd Birthday


The long awaited sequel to the Parasite Eve series has been in limbo for some time and even now has a TBA date BUT we know its coming. Seemingly having little to do with the Mitochondria of the previous stories this title has chosen to focus more on action heavy gameplay for Aya to work with. How much of the old game's elements will remain is unsure as of yet but it still seems to utilize some RPG aspects. With any luck as the release of this game draws near Sony will release the first 2 games on PSN for download making it a nice trifecta for the Parasite Eve fan.



Monster Hunter Portable 3rd (Monster Hunter Freedom 3)


Yet another game with no real release date in the US yet ,but with the release of the last 2 Monster Hunter portable titles and the success of Tri on Wii, this is practically a sure thing. Featuring a mix of older, newer, and premiering monsters as well as ALL the weapons classes Portable 3rd seems like it will be giving us the best of all worlds. Set in an oriental town this time the story seems to revolve around the hunt for a large wolf-like Wyvern. Luckily this time you will be able to have 2 Felyne comrades if you cannot find a friend on (what is rumored to have) the REAL infrastructure multiplayer mode.



God of War Ghost of Sparta


This one is practically a no-brainer for any action fan and will in our hands in a few short months. This new adventure picks up after the original God of War, telling the story of Kratos' rise to power as the new God of War. What else is there to say really? There will be action, puzzles, giant bosses, and enough quicktime events to choke a donkey no doubt. If you like the other games its almost a practical guarantee this one will be right up your alley.




God Eater Burst


I for one didn't think this game would ever make it over here but I'm glad to see I was wrong. Very similar to the Monster Hunter series, God Eater instead focuses on more story and character driven gameplay The story revolves around a squad of fighters equipped with living weapons that struggle to free the world from monsters call "Aragami". Lucky for us this is actually the second God Eater game from Japan and is an expanded version of the first with new characters, weapons, and an extended story. Interested ? yeah me too. It will be here just in time for the holidays so start counting the days.



Now technically this next game is already out, and thus not part of the 5 reasons, but is nonetheless reason enough to start dusting off the PSP.
Ys Seven


Ys Seven is a fantastic action-RPG featuring the series mainstays Adol and Dogi as they fight and explore their way through the ruins of the kingdom of Altago. Fast paced combat and giant bosses is the name of the game here and it comes in spades. To help with that you have 3 characters that each have specific weapons, strengths, moves you can switch between on the fly to deal with the abundant badies. This is classic action-RPG at its finest and heavily reminds me of Secret of Mana in many respects. You would be remiss to not give this a try if your hankering for something to fill your PSP void until any of the above arrive.


The future doesn't look quite so dim for the PSP now does it? Savor these games when you can get them because once they are here there are no guarantees the trend will continue.