Some of you may not know that in my younger game days I was a dual Nintendo and Sega loyalist. Indeed it resulted in me being given the short end of many a stick, many a time. While everyone else was out getting their fancy Playstation: I had a Saturn and Nintendo 64. While everyone was out getting their Playstation 2 and XBox: I was still rocking my Dreamcast; and the same one I had since near its launch date. It's only even through retro collecting that I'm getting to experience what the previous generations had to offer. Mind you I would never have traded any of systems away at the time, even if technically they were the low end consoles of each generation. The inferior models with less robust libraries if you will. To ask me to trade away Pilotwings 64 and NiGHTS into Dreams in exchange for Final Fantasy VII and Metal Gear Solid would be like asking me if I'd enjoy a kick square in the balls. Those were some of my fondest gaming memories.

I would never give those memories up no matter how great the other systems on the block were supposed to be, and these days everyone totes the Dreamcast as one of the greatest consoles of all time. Oh, sure; people say that now, but that wasn't the case back then I can assure you. Kind sirs and madams, allow me to show you a simple equation: "Popular opinion" + "Nobody had one" = "Well how the hell would you know?" I don't want to sound like a snob, and I really hold no grudges despite what happened to what is indeed one of my personal favorite consoles. No matter how much I love my hobby: games are still just games. This much is a social matter. To me it seems like some people are just trying to be trendy. Whenever I see someone doing this whole spiel I have to ask somewhere in the back of my head: "Well where were you at the time if it was such a great system?"

Still, I don't want to talk about the Dreamcast's failure. For me the Dreamcast never was a failure, if not just because it brought me so many fond memories. For years the DC was my baby and we wubbed eachuddah bewwy much. I scoured high and low for new games to play upon the machine. I was always looking for a new title. I would relentlessly look up reviews to find new material; and even when I had played all my current games to death I learned how to turn my Dreamcast into a homebrew machine. By the time I was done with the thing: it was capable of playing SCUMM games like Beneath a Steel Sky, old PC shooters like Quake, and even NES games like good old Mega Man V.

Editor's note: Oh, damn. I totally forgot about this. Any of you folks ever heard of a Treamcast? Those things were awesome.

Surely I could rant about the very same games that everyone else already has. Titles like Shenmue, Jet Grind Radio, Sonic Adventure and even Crazy Taxi: Trust me, I'm familiar with them. There are probably men out there less intimately familiar with their fiances than I am with those games. No, today I honor the Dreamcast with a decidedly more obscure list; because there is a certain point where hearing about how great Phantasy Star Online was gets boring. I truly do not blame you good sirs and madams if you have not played these games or even if you never even touched a Dreamcast, for you had your own digital adventures with which to partake. But in hopes of making this interesting prepare to take a trip down memory lane through the nostalgia goggles of a Sega Loyalist in the the 128-bit age. I'll do my best to infuse a small bit of the overall experience of owning a Dreamcast into each list item.



Let's start with an easy transition and see if we can get on the same page. Really the first survival horror game that I played is Blue Stinger, and logically that should be on this list considering its nature. Most people probably didn't know this game was even ON the Dreamcast though, so we'll give it a pass. Capcom had ported various PS1 horror games to the Dreamcast, and I was quite interested in them thanks to recent samplings of Resident Evil: Code Veronica. I really wanted to be able to play Resident Evil 2 and 3 soon after Code Veronica, but those games are rare as hell on the DC. Instead I settled for Dino Crisis. I was actually pretty happy with this decision.

Everyone asserts that Dino Crisis is just a clone, but Dino Crisis really didn't feel like that to me. It had a lot of its own ideas. Replacing zombies with dinosaurs in itself seems like a lazy decision, but it was just a smart idea if you ask me. I mean, what's really fucking scarier? A slow limping zombie just begging for you to penetrate its thick skull with bullets, or a Velociraptor twice your size that actually chases you? If memory serves some of the dinosaurs would even chase you between rooms Nemesis style, and mixing ammo was one of the core mechanics of the game. In fact; though it wasn't in quite the same nature Dino Crisis even forced you to make quick decisions that altered the outcome of the game. Most of Resident Evil 3's innovations seemed to have simply lifted themselves straight out of Dino Crisis, which was itself released prior. What I really enjoyed about Dino Crisis though was its heavier emphasis on puzzles than what was normal. None of them were huge brain busters, but the interesting scenarios and puzzles you were presented with kept the game memorable and replayable.

In terms of enhancements the Dreamcast versions of all these games were somewhat bare bones but they are the definitive versions. While most people think the Gamecube versions are the best, the Dreamcast versions had all the enhancements from the PC versions; and they still ran in a higher resolution than the Gamecube variants released so much later. What's more you got a health and ammo display on your VMU in the same way Code Veronica offered on the Dreamcast. That's a novelty you just can't replace, trust me. As a Dreamcast owner I often relied on the table scraps of the PS1 by taking high resolution ports with fairly minor enhancements. Dino Crisis is but the beginning of its own sub-list: with other games like Tony Hawk, Soul Reaver, and Spider-Man getting honorable mentions.



Hydro Thunder on the Dreamcast was at the same time a flawless and yet horribly flawed game. The visually incredible arcade release was ported very faithfully to Sega's white box, but the actual interface was god awful. I could probably blame this on the game being a launch title pushed out the door too soon, but I don't really care. A good boat racing game was extremely rare in this time and I'd been craving something new ever since Waverace 64. Man, this game really delivered where it counted. Everyone likes to push Rush 2049 as the definitive Dreamcast racer, but when I compare it to Hydro Thunder's colorful courses, outrageous shortcuts, tight controls and frantic music; man San Francisco Rush just seems boring in comparison.

The thing is the game itself was a blast, but it had some pretty horrid loading times. You had to wait periodically from the title screen to the boat selection screen to the course select screen just about every time. The game was brutally difficult too, and the game did NOT offer you a reset option. Something as incredibly basic as a retry button: it did not have. You would have to back out to the title screen and suffer the loading times all over again if you wanted to give a course another shot. Every time. As for features: beyond a handful of really difficult to obtain bonus boats and courses not featured in the arcade, there were absolutely none. Still, I suffered these flaws and gladly enjoyed the excellent game that rested underneath the awful port.

Hydro Thunder was probably one of the weakest games from the Dreamcast launch lineup, but even some of the most poorly done games at that particular time were still great fun out the door. At least from the moment the Dreamcast came out, you had some pretty entertaining games to play, with Sonic Adventure and Power Stone of course being the highlights. Compare that to something like the PS3's launch lineup and I feel lucky.



MDK2 is a peculiar beast and also the subject of some very specific retro goggles. Because see, when you talk to me about MDK2 you aren't going to be able to avoid reminding me about The Official Dreamcast Magazine. I was an avid reader of the publication and I loved it. It knew how to not take itself too seriously, frequently featuring joke articles like a goofy take off the movie Fight Club; and best of all the magazine shipped with demo discs. Remember those days when demo discs were basically free entertainment because you were too poor to afford the actual games? MDK2 was very much so one of those games for me. I would play the demo endlessly, blissfully unaware of what the game was like after the first stage for each of the game's 3 characters.

You can't help but be charmed by MDK2 if you don't mind some goofy and occasionally crude humor. The game takes its inspiration from old comic books with their absurd plots, and it shows. Among your cast of characters was an emotionally clingy mad scientist, a four armed robotic cigar smoking dog, and a reluctant janitor armed with a flying suit and a sniper helmet. This was one of those very few laugh out loud games, and oddly enough it was developed by Bioware. What I soon learned after getting the full version of the game, though? Jesus, this was the hardest game I'd ever played before I found God Hand. The Playstation 2 version that came out later offered you variable difficulty levels, but on the Dreamcast your only option was to be met with the ultimate challenge. As far as I'm concerned this was the real experience. All 3 characters pushed you to the limit in various ways that could drive some to madness. The thing is this game's difficulty is so incredibly absurd; so mind blowing in its cruelty that there will always be a select few who absolutely must know how far they can make it through this beast of a title.

Before I Wanna Be The Guy, there was MDK2 sneaking onto my console through demo discs. I was one of those curious souls blindsided by the game upon buying it, and I cried a shout of triumph when I beat this game.



Upon departing from this game we will likewise depart from the games that were available on other platforms and go Dreamcast exclusive. Select titles may be available overseas or on the PC, but in terms of US console releases the Dreamcast will be the only real source. That said: Grandia II should be played on the Dreamcast if you have the opportunity. Still this game is so great that even though the game is graphically simple and it's mind boggling that the PS2 version suffers from consistent slowdown, I really think everyone should experience this game any way they possibly can. Then again, it's a nostalgic game for me.

Some opinions are split on if Grandia II is really that great an RPG or not. Skies of Arcadia is the popular RPG choice, and admittedly I love that game as well. Still, Skies of Arcadia was a game that was technically lacking in innovation. Instead Skies made itself so fondly remembered by simply having so many memorable environments and moments. Grandia actually tried something genuinely different from the norm. Random battles are nowhere to be seen, two characters somehow manage to get themselves caught in a love triangle, and the battle system is a hybrid of real time and turn based. There's complaints against the game and surely they're valid, but Grandia II was one of my first RPGs I really got into. Prior to this I was not exactly in RPG territory. The N64 in particular was an RPG wasteland, and the Saturn wasn't that much better. Even the Dreamcast only had a few worth playing.

Still, this game did some really interesting things, especially being one of the first games I'd seen that questioned religious values. I was recently testing out the PS2 version to give to a friend as a gift, and the game's inherent fun got the better of me. Even though the PS2 version is a shoddy port I still stayed up about 4 hours just playing the game before realizing, "Oh, so yeah. I guess this works." Forget the fact I wasted 4 hours on a game without even saving. I didn't really regret it. The game was just fun to experience in an otherwise desolate desert lacking in RPGs.



And now we hit the exclusives. Toy Commander was another somewhat flawed game, but it's a case of a really creative premise pulling the whole package together. The concept of taking miniature toy vechicles on specialized missions through a relatively large house was and still is pretty unique. Toy trucks, helicopters, planes, tanks. You name it, this game had it. I'd say this game was pretty obscure, and it's a shame.

Still, it did have flaws. The controls themselves are difficult to get the hang of, but with time you can become quite adept at the unique way the toys behave. Considering you're controlling a substantially different sort of vehicle in a likewise very different type of environment it's only natural that the game didn't control in a normal fashion. The real flaw this game had was some of its mission structure. While this game had tons of mission ideas, even as early in the beginning of the game they were complex and strange enough to be confusing. While it did stop me from every completely beating the game, it didn't stop me from starting that game back up several times over the years. It's one of the only games on the list I haven't personally beaten, but I surely won't forget it anytime soon.

People always attribute the most creative games on the console to first party Sega itself, but other companies brought some good ideas to the table too. Well, neverminding that Toy Commander was made by a second party developer that Sega had bought.



Ahhh, Treasure. You always seem to make some game that gets overlooked and it certainly didn't help your cause releasing something on the Dreamcast. Some of you may be familiar with the name thanks to the DS psuedo-sequel, but trust me when I say it doesn't hold a candle to the original. Even though you couldn't build your own levels in the Dreamcast version, the level of two dimensional madness is almost unparalleled. Picture if you will: A tiny tiny robot flying around in all 8 directions on your big screen TV. Bullets come at it from all angles as it does its best to weave between the assault and shoot down whatever enemies it can. Suddenly you're completely surrounded by bullets with seemingly no way to escape, and then that tiny robot lets loose over a hundred missiles in all directions. In what can only be described as glorious; the missiles arc around you in cool patterns as a mere 2D game causes what was the most powerful system out to stutter and slow down. This only makes it even cooler, though; for now you can witness all the chaos with a seeming slow motion effect to emphasize all the destruction.

Too awesome. To clarify I say the DS version is inferior because many of the levels suffer this same slowdown at pretty much all times. In the Dreamcast version the slowdown almost felt like a special effect. For the DS it was not the case and I don't really think the hardware was really capable of handling this sort of madness. Either way Bangai-O was terribly interesting and fun across all platforms. Sometimes the levels made you think, but when it came down to it the game was all about explosions. Even the most famous Treasure games like Gunstar Heroes and Ikaruga are only recognized by a small niche. Bangai-O gets more obscure still. For a long time this game was a treasured collector's item worth more quite a bit of money on eBay. These days though very few Dreamcast games are very valuable. Even the absolute rarest ones are becoming cheaper and cheaper. Few people out there care to keep a Dreamcast collection anymore, but I gladly paid the absurd price to get in on this game. We're not even going to get into how ridiculous the story was or how easy the music could get stuck in your head.



This... is admittedly a bit of a copout, but I will contest that back in the day Chao Adventure blew the minds of many Sega loyalists. Why? Because our fucking memory cards played fucking games, goddamnit. Several Dreamcast titles let you download mini-games, among them including Power Stone and I believe Skies of Arcadia. Chao Adventure featured in Sonic Adventure was where it was at, though. For those of you that didn't know, Sonic Adventure had a virtual pet area where you could take care of little munchkins called Chao. You could find animals in all the game's levels and give them to the Chao whose appearance and mannerisms would then imitate that animal, while also increasing the Chao's stats so that it would be more proficient in races. You could likewise download your Chao to your VMU to play a simple mini-game, which by the end of the game's course your Chao could return to Sonic Adventure itself with special food.

The Gamecube versions of the games somewhat continued this legacy with the Gameboy Advance, but it'll never be the same without the VMU. Chao Adventure was monotonous, but the pure novelty of what you could do with a mere memory card was most excellent.



I'm the SNK guy, so you had to have seen this coming. Most know this game by its native title of Garou: Mark of the Wolves, and it is one of SNK's definitive masterpieces. However it is the very last Fatal Fury game, and so on the Dreamcast it was known as "Fatal Fury: Mark of the Wolves." On the box, that is. In the game itself the title screen and announcer even still said "GAROOUH. MARK OF DEH WOLVES."

A lot of people like to call it SNK's Street Fighter III thanks to all the similarities it shared with Capcom's opus. The games came out at around the same time, had drastically improved graphics and animation, ditched most of the series' old characters in exchange for fresh ones, and while Third Strike had parrying Mark of the Wolves had Just Defense. The biggest difference between the two, though? Capcom created new arcade hardware that was used primarily to play the Street Fighter III games. Mark of the Wolves was looking as good as it did using the same Neogeo hardware from 1990. SNK was not joking around when they claimed their Neogeo hardware was superior to the NES, SNES, and Genesis.

That aside, Mark of the Wolves was an extremely good game with a cast of enjoyable characters. Like most SNK fighters it got a fair amount of appreciation in Asian territories, but in the States it was very much so overlooked. The port wasn't absolutely perfect, but none of the inconsistencies really affected gameplay. It was one of the absolute most finely tuned 2D fighting games you could have played on your Dreamcast, and probably the one 2D fighter out of the Dreamcast's massive fighter library that you haven't even heard of.



To be honest I'm still looking for a copy of this game, but I have played the arcade version and gotten some brief time with the Dreamcast version. Hot damn. This shoot 'em up may not be as crazy as some other games out there but it had a hell of a cool idea and it's certainly up there in obscurity. The two most interesting things about the game are that it can be played with a single button and that your ships have a special mechanic that allow you to actually catch enemy bullets and then send them flying back at enemies. This was incredibly essential to beating the game because the screen could literally fill with bullets, giving you nowhere to run unless you redirected some of the fire.

The Dreamcast is known as an absolute shmup heaven, but this is one of the few pieces of that piece of the Dreamcast library we got to see in the States. Really we got table scraps for the most part. Gunbird II and Giga Wing aren't exactly the cream of the Shmup crop. Mars Matrix is one of the few shmups out there that had a variety of single player options. In the home version you actually needed to buy enough lives to get you through the end of the game. Unless you're some kind of master, in which case: screw you, BULLETMAGNET. This game is so obscure even I don't have it. Yet.



Yep, there's actually a Capcom fighter on this list higher up on the obscurometer than an SNK game. What's more it's a 3D fighter; which is pretty impressive when you consider 3D fighters tend to be far more widely recognized. Rival Schools had to be one of the least appreciated series that Capcom had ever produced, and at the same time it was one of the most fun. That's right, this is the sequel you probably never heard of. Compared to Mark of the Wolves this game was most definitely not one you should play competitively, but that's the charm of this game. It's so funny and off the wall that even though it's just a 2 player game, it's great for parties. Nowhere else but in Rival Schools can you see incredibly ridiculous characters that fight with everything from baseball bats to cameras. Some of the absolutely most absurd moves involve three characters doing a coordinated dance.

This game is just straight up amusing to watch and it was pretty solidly built, even if it shouldn't be taken too seriously. The game is most certainly broken if you really want to push it into competitive territory. Project Justice had a sort of floaty jump and combo system to it that made it feel like a hybrid of traditional Street Fighter and Marvel vs Capcom, with some 3D mechanics like side dodging tossed in for good measure. The Dreamcast was a mecca of both 2D and 3D fighters, and both need to be represented on this list. Even moreso than Power Stone I would have called this a party fighter. Even though it was two players, Project Justice could keep a whole room of people entertained with its crazy characters and absurd attacks. Truly not every fighting game need be a serious affair.



It's only right that an actual first party Sega game make its way onto this list. Everyone must have heard about this game by now, but how many have actually played it? Picture a bunch of zombies coming after you, a lone special agent who for some reason is armed with nothing more than a keyboard strapped to his shoulders. Closer and closer it gets and you have no idea what to do, when suddenly you start frantically smacking the keyboard out of fear. You type out "BANANA" "LOL" "KITTEN" "INUIT IN A KAYACK." SUDDENLY THE ZOMBIE'S HEAD EXPLODES. You have a magic zombie killing keyboard! YOU ARE A GOD.

That's Typing of the Dead in a nutshell. Cheesy B Movie acting, ridiculous words and phrases, and a keyboard. In this case I admit I don't begrudge people for not buying the game. Clearly the need for a separate Dreamcast keyboard hindered many peoples' financial motivation to play the game. This game's available on the PC, where of course you would expect its natural home to be; but it was supposed to be fairly buggy. You'd think such a game would have been made for PC in the first place, but oddly enough Typing of the Dead got its start in the arcade. The PC version was created by an outside company. Supposedly they didn't do that great a job.

Failings of the PC version aside, with the Dreamcast you could sit yourself in front a big TV and really get into things. What's more you could play the game with another person cooperatively. Remember when I said Project Justice was a 2 player party game? Typing of the Dead pulls that off just as well if not moreso. Sega must have realized that House of the Dead was a potential comedy gold mine considering how incredibly ridiculous the things you actually type are. The boss battles in particular are very creative and strange. Despite the fact that there's almost no Dreamcast games worth still having a keyboard for, Typing of the Dead alone justifies the purchase of one. Hell, it justifies the purchase of two. It may very justify the purchase of a Dreamcast considering how cheap they are these days.


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Wryviews were created in the face of the illogical manner in which video game reviewers score games. In principle they are meant to strike out the bias inherent in most video game reviews by judging a game on what it aspires to be, as opposed to what the reviewer regards it should be. They are meant to inform the readers, and especially so not try to make decisions for them.

When I first put this game in, I had no idea what I was really in store for. Previously my only real experience with Okami had been trailers and internet hype about almost nothing other than the graphics. Considering nobody seemed to have much to say about the game other than the visuals I wondered if perhaps Okami wasn't that great. I was very pleasantly surprised at how much there is to discuss about the game despite the general lack of internet conversation. It was really nothing like I was expecting, nor like any other action adventure I'd ever played. I got what felt like a real adventure, and what's more probably one of the funniest and most memorable ones I'd ever been on.

The game introduces itself to you with a brush drawing a story onto a scroll in ink, really clinching that traditional Japanese feel within minutes of you playing the game. The drawings tells of an ancient beast known as the Orochi that once terrorized Japan, and how a wolf with mysterious powers fought together with a swordsman to vanquish it. Drawing from real Japanese myth you play as Amaterasu, Goddess of the Sun taken the form of a wolf. The Orochi has been awakened after 100 years and you've returned as well to stop him. Amaterasu herself is an interesting character because she's a God, but a silent one. At times she expresses clear intelligence and intuition and at others she just acts like a normal dog. It's for this reason that a bug-sized artist named Issun accompanies your character on her travels, acting as your voice and general assistant. Don't worry, he has his own interesting personality and is not a pest when it comes to passing out hints. In fact he's even an actual part of the story. Navi, eat your heart out.



Amaterasu is likewise an example of a character who perfectly suits the silent protagonist role moreso than any I've encountered thus far. Her inherent power is the use of the Celestial Brush, allowing you to turn the world into a frozen canvas. That's already a really novel concept, but the sort of things you're capable of doing are pretty interesting. You can make trees shoot out from the ground to act as shields, you can cut and strike things from a distance, and you can even create gusts of wind and balls of fire. All of this is accomplished through simple strokes that are very natural and easy to use. The reason this makes the character such a perfect silent role though is that you're a protector of the world, and to observers it merely appears as though things are just happening magically. What's more you just look like an ordinary wolf to the majority of the world. A meadow of flowers might suddenly bloom around a child, or a lake suddenly fill itself with water just when someone needed it. The people may thank the Gods for their blessings, but nobody suspects the white wolf in the distance as being the one who helped them. It's one of those few cases where I feel this concept would be more fulfilling with a silent character than otherwise.

Visually I'm sure everyone knows this game has a very vivid cel-shaded style meant to imitate traditional Japanese artwork. It really does look great and helps bring the world to life and to me the graphics symbolize a bit of brilliance. Not because of how visually appealing they are, but because of how tightly they fit with the theme of the game. Your powers are completely integrated into the game in every sense I can think of, even graphically. Your greatest power is that of a brush, and the entire world already looks it was born from such a tool as is. There's already a pretty strong sense of freedom just playing as your character without any powers too. She's fast and she's agile and it's just an enjoyable experience running and leaping through the world. What's really satisfying though is jumping over a cliff into a lake, freezing the world and creating a lily pad to land on at the very last second, and leaping off the lily pad back on to solid ground without losing any of your momentum. Having these abilities really puts some icing on the cake of what was already a fun character, and you can pull out your brush techniques pretty quickly once you have the hang of it. Good thing too, because like I said these powers are integrated into every aspect of the game. One of my favorite ways to use the powers in combat is when an enemy jumps in the air, to have a tree shoot up his butt.



Based on the trailers I initially expected the game to take itself very seriously, and for a while that did seem to be the case. Thanks to the Orochi's curse the world starts off very dark and gloomy. All the vegetation has been withered away and many people have been turned to stone. To combat these curses you'll find yourself very quickly gaining new powers and fighting lesser demons. After a couple hours of learning your skills and getting rid of the curses though, you're allowed to meet numerous characters now free and resuming their daily lives. I was not prepared for this. I swear I can't even think about some of these characters without smiling a little. My absolute favorite must be Onigiri Sensei. He's a kind looking old man with a very large forehead and beard. He's very mellow until you ask him for a martial arts lesson in his dojo, then his head literally spins upside down. His huge forehead becomes a huge chin and his massive beard becomes giant angry eyebrows. Meeting Onigiri Sensei was but the first instance of the game forcing me to stop. Stop and just stare, then laugh at how incredible what I just saw was. He's but a drop in the ocean of weirdness that makes this game so much more enjoyable than I thought it would be.

That's part of what's so different about this game. It has many of the aspects you tend to expect from an Action Adventure game like huge open worlds and dungeons, but at the same time it can be very light hearted. The world is extremely vibrant and colorful, as is the appearance and personality of the characters once you save them. Not many of these characters are especially complex, but they don't have to be. Part of the game's beauty is that you come to really care about a lot of the game's cast, simply because of the fact that they put a smile on your face. The characters are what made me decide that this game was more of a whimsical Japanese fairy tale than anything else. Where else but in a fairy tale could you meet a plump and happy merchant who instead of being afraid of a large wolf, would merely assume that this wild animal has come to do some shopping for its master? I couldn't help but feel like it was my responsibility to fix these innocent peoples' problems, even when it came down to doing mundane aesthetic work like lighting a city's torches and making the trees in an old man's garden bloom. In some sense you could consider yourself an omnipotent custodian and caretaker.

That's part of Okami's appeal as well. There is always something to do no matter where you are, and there is always some small thing you've missed or some ability you can come back to an area with. Some of the tasks you can complete like feeding all the animals in the world are fairly mundane, but for those who love to collect this is a boon. You really have no idea how many hidden chests are scattered through the very large game world alone. It's ridiculous beyond belief and just the tip of the collecting iceberg. You will receive small rewards, but not great enough ones that the average person will feel obligated to do them. It's a solid balance, leaving exploration of the world as a matter of choice. You're free to simply have fun using your wolf agility and exploring a very large and beautiful world, seek out sidequests, or simply progress in the game's storyline which is actually pretty stellar sometimes.



I should clarify that at the beginning of the game you'll be gaining powers rapidly and going on some fairly standard adventures. It's still an engaging experience and pretty subtle in what it's trying to do because usually it just feels like you're playing the game and that's it. The reality is that the first quarter of the title is training you for the bigger adventures to come. The absolute most interesting thing about this game is how it works in story arcs. At a certain point in your adventure the game will come crashing into a climax and suddenly you're out of the little leagues. Shit just got real. All those silly and lighthearted characters are met with a great danger and all of a sudden there's this strong sense of urgency in the face of some great menace. Like I said before, you're likely to already like these charming characters and the transition to a serious mood is actually pretty easy to swallow. The game builds to what feels like what could seriously be the ending of most games, and you never know if it really is.

The game really keeps you guessing, because the way it plays out you really do start wondering to yourself "Maybe this game is shorter than people said it would be." Then the game starts back up again with a new story arc, a new part of the world to explore and a once more lighter mood, and a new epic climax to come that will once again make you wonder if this is really the end. The game keeps on building momentum and raising the stakes, presenting you with greater and grander scenarios as time goes on. There's even a point in the game where you engage in a bit of mystical time travel. The initial comedic draw is still there, but the story itself is intriguing enough to the point that it's just an added bonus now. The plot throughout always remains simple, but there is a certain mystery to everything that helps things feel fresh. You never quite know what's going on or if certain characters truly have good or bad intentions until near the climaxes and it's a pretty satisfying experience.

I really want to downplay the graphics in the game since everybody already knows about them, but you really can't say anything about Okami without addressing them. The game really does feel like an illustration; and in a sense it still looks pretty good even compared against a PS3 game. The music which I haven't even had the time to get into is just straight up incredible. I know that's a vague statement but I will say that the melodies of the game always fit the mood and often remain memorable at the same time. Okami's one of those cases where the developers didn't overstep their boundaries; making something that their hardware was capable of doing without aging poorly. Okami is an incredibly tight package. Were you to take away the graphics, setting, characters, music, or even one the gameplay mechanics the game would no longer be Okami.

The puzzles are rarely complex and the concept of the Celestial Brush has so much more potential for interactivity than what this game used, but these are both nitpicks and not even necessarily flaws. What it comes down to is that in certain aspects Okami is simplistic, but that can be argued as part of why this game is accessible. Okami is almost a perfect puzzle, connecting everything together in a masterful manner. I have but one major criticism of the game: The game continues to reach greater and greater heights in a time when so few games can even present us a single satisfying climax, but in the end Okami does suffer from an anti-climatic final battle. I can't bring myself to dock the score considering how many good climaxes there were previously, though. The ending wasn't actually bad, it's just that my expectations were so high and there were mysteries regarding the game's plot that I wanted to have answered.

It seemed clear that Okami was setting itself up for a sequel, and that it was also rushed out the door at the last minute. I'm going to give Clover the benefit of the doubt considering the history of the company and how quickly it went out of business after this and God Hand's release. I'm just going to go ahead and say that the anti-climatic conclusion probably wasn't their fault. Considering the game offered me about 40 hours of great fun and adventure, having the final hour just being average isn't a very big deal. Trying to narrow down what this game sought to accomplish is pretty difficult to be honest. It does so many things that all I can really say is that I had myself an advenchah.

5 out of 5 stars

A 5 is a mark of a game that stands at the very top of its genre and gets just about everything right. It stands apart as unique and interesting without being bogged down by its own ideas. While a 4 is still a well regarded game, Wryviews do not hold a 5 as an unobtainable mark of perfection. In short: The reviewer's calling this a masterpiece. If not just because there's very little he could suggest to make the game better at what it seeks to be.

Okami is available on the Playstation 2 and Nintendo Wii. This Wryview was based upon the PS2 version, and I can't comment on how well the game was ported to the Wii after Clover's abrupt going out of business.


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Welcome back to the KOF Love Letter and our entry on KOF 96. For all you people that think fighting games don't have a story, prepare for a 6000+ word essay on a single KOF game. Nevermind that I had to do extensive research from a plethora of sources because just playing the games doesn't give you the story. The foundation is very much there and SNK puts a lot of time into character motivation and backstory and the like. This one article is bigger than the entire rest of the KOF Love Letter put together.

Before moving on let's mourn for Rugal. After King of Fighters 95 he is gone for certain. Screw that guy. SNK's staff openly speaks of Rugal with affection by equating him to being the perfect boss character. This is totally true if the perfect boss is supposed to be borderline impossible to beat. I don't know what boss actually started the trend but this level of difficulty is so absurd that people actually needed a term for it: SNK Syndrome. The syndrome is infamous enough to even make its way on on the Urban Dictionary. SNK Syndrome describes an incredible shift in difficulty upon reaching a boss, and you can't really say you know what it's like until you've experienced it yourself. Very often the only way your average player can expect to beat an SNK boss is abusing the A.I. and sweep kicking over. Assuming you can even get close to the boss, that is.

All you Capcom guys out there. trust me when I say you're lucky you got Gill as a boss instead of Omega Rugal. Now sit back and be prepared, because this Love Letter is way more extensive than anything that's come before it. Individual sections of this article are probably going to be the length of an average blog. I'd advise sticking around even if you find yourself wearing out while reading this. If nothing else you should skip to the end of the article for something special. For those of you who started this series late, there will be a final recap blog piecing together the entire Orochi Saga before moving on to the special surprise at the bottom of the blog and the next KOF story arc. It'll be at least 15000+ words, though.



Between the conclusion of King of Fighters 95 and the start of 96, Kyo suffers some existential blues. King of Fighters Kyo is a comic that later became a Japan-only RPG, focusing largely on the series' protagonist. In it Kyo has some trouble coming to terms with his fate as a Kusanagi. He spends a fair amount of time acting like a jerk to his girlfriend Yuki, riding and brooding around on his motorcycle, and getting into fights with Iori. Basically acting like a dumb kid. After a while he breaks out of this slump thanks to one of Saisyu's (that's Kyo's dad if you can't remember) insane ideas. Near the end of the comic Saisyu explained the story of the Orochi Legend as well reason for Kyo and Iori's feud. Various characters overheard this. Among them include Eiji, who after snooping through the Kusanagi home became friendly with Kyo's mother; Athena who traveled overseas to attend school in Japan out of interest in Kyo's strength; and Kensou who has recently revealed to be in love with Athena and now proclaims himself as her official fanboy.

The King of Fighters version of the Japanese Orochi Legend takes its own spin on things, so we're not going to concern ourselves with how true it is to the original myths. Long ago there were two martial arts clans that were the strongest in the world. The Kusanagi and the Yasagani, both capable of manipulating flame. 1800 years ago the two clans fought together to slay the Orochi, and afterward for the next 1130 years they endlessly immersed themselves in their fighting arts. This came to lead to the creation of the Kusanagi and Yasagani fighting styles.

Between the two clans, the Kusanagi always overshadowed the Yasagani. Even though the two clans fought and trained together, this bred a resentment that lead to the Yasagani clan trying to undo the seal that held the Orochi. The Yasagani style had reached its full potential and thus the clan tried to use the Orochi power to surpass the Kusanagi. The Kusanagi stopped them and held the Yasagani in custody before the seal was fully released, but enough of the Orochi power was released for the 8 headed demon to make a deal with the Yasagani family. The Orochi offered the Yasagani a blood pact to become Sons of the Orochi, able to use the Orochi's power as their own. The Yasagani accepted and were given one command: Kill the Kusanagi who stand in the Orochi's way. This feud helped ensure that the Orochi would have a new chance to wreak havoc on the world, since to slay the Orocho both the Yasagani and Kusanagi's must fight together and use their unique powers. As a visual mark of their blood pact the Yasagani clan's flame gained a purple tint.

Upon accepting the blood pact the Orochi gave the Yasagani a new name: Yagami. This has lead to a blood fued that's lasted hundreds of years, with Kyo and Iori being the most recent heirs to their fighting styles. Recently the Kusanagi had taken notice of a change in the Orochi seal, likely the reason that Saisyu had challenged Rugal before the KOF 94 tournament. Rugal wasn't completely responsible for this, though. In the world there are a group called the Hakkeshu, otherwise known as the Eight Serpent Heads. They are eight people born as servants of the Orochi, each representing one of the Orochi's heads and gaining one of his powers. Though their blood is basically the same as the Yagami's, they serve the distinctly different purpose of hunting down the Orochi seal and freeing their master. The Yagami in comparison are seemingly not as loyal to this cause. When Rugal found the Orochi seal one of the Hakkeshu appeared and gouged out his right eye, allowing him to use some of the Orochi power when he managed to survive the assault. To ensure that Rugal did not interfere with the Hakkeshu's own plan to revive the Orochi he was also appointed spies to watch over him.

While Iori does continue the blood feud with Kyo, he doesn't fight for the sake of the Orochi. He claims he wants to kill Kyo simply because he hates the sight of him, very clearly resenting everything that Kyo represents. Moreso though, Iori probably resents being a Yagami. The blood pact with the Orochi brought a curse upon the previous Yasagani lineage. In the presence of the Orochi, anyone of the Orochi's blood is subject to entering a state known as the Riot of the Blood. Iori is not immune to this and can go into uncontrollable fits of murderous rage with no control over himself. That's plenty to be bitter about as is, but that's not the end. The Yagami specifically are all destined to die young with every mother of the lineage unable to survive childbirth. Needless to say Iori doesn't have a lot of family, nor a lot to be happy about. He doesn't seem to bear a personal grudge against Kyo, but obviously he hates the fate he's been subjected to and Kyo seems to trigger some very intense feelings. He always talks about killing Kyo with a certain glee, but at times it seems like a farce. It's hard to tell if Iori would ever seriously kill the series protagonist if given the chance.



Much to the surprise of anyone who'd previously entered a KOF tournament, the King of Fighters name lived on even after Rugal's death. While some suspected that one of the original hosts like Geese Howard had resurrected the tournament for their own purposes, the reality was that the tournament had gained some recognition despite its somewhat underground nature. Various corporations showed interest in sponsoring an official world wide tournament and suddenly King of Fighters became a public and big name affair. All the big names from the previous tournaments were being handed invitations, and a few new names were getting in too. With the tournament now offering a chance for fame and money many of the previous entrants have fresh motivation to enter. What's more some downright infamous names are new to the roster, giving more reason yet to check out what was going on. There seemed to be a reason for just about anyone to join the fray again.

Of special significance as far as motivation to enter the tournament goes: Kyo is attacked by a shadowy figure prior to KOF 96. What's unexpected is that even Kyo's strongest attack, the Orochinagi / Serpent Wave is useless against him. Kyo gets put in his place and ends up in a hospital, with the shadowy figure saying that he had overestimated the hero. Kyo exclaims that he hates the idea of somebody like this watching and taunting him, claiming that he'll enter the next King of Fighters tournament to prove his strength. Being beaten was likely the motivation that led Kyo to becoming a whole new fighter. He may as well be an entirely different character in terms of moves now. KOF 96 is where he gained his trademark punch combos and RED Kick.

Interestingly enough the new commercial nature of the KOF tournament had an effect on the game itself, more specifically the presentation. Various stages had much more active backgrounds, with the Psycho Soldiers and Japan team sharing a stage. Screens in the background of this stage would show the profiles of the current fighters, and depending on which of the two teams was using the arena you would either have a group of older college aged students watching Kyo's fights or a bunch of rabid younger Psycho Soldiers fans watching Athena's. There's also a sign in the background advertising a live Athena concert, marking the first time we actually get mention of Athena's character evolving into a pop idol.

As far as actual gameplay goes, KOF 96 hasn't changed that substantially. The most significant changes we have mostly come down to polish and increasing the game's speed. KOF 94 and 95 weren't exactly what I would have called playable by today's standards even though they were rather impressive at the time, and 96 started to push it into that playable territory. All the gameplay changes that were introduced though, stayed with the series. Low jumps and evasion rolls got their start here. While many people don't use them, both are trademarks of the series and important to tournament level play. Probably one of the absolute coolest things in KOF 96 was starting the trend of giving individual characters their own theme music during fights. Everyone in the new Boss Team had their own respective music, with Geese Howard even sporting his famous and badass Raging Storm theme. The music in general saw an increase in quality too, though it wasn't quite to the point where every team had its own distinct and memorable songs yet. It was getting there, though.

Last time we had a direct character swap with the USA Sports Team going out and the Rivals Team going in. This year the roster sees a serious mix as 4 characters from various teams leave and 7 join the fray. This is what I was talking about at the very beginning of the love letter. I went back to check and I was wrong. There's over 100 characters in King of Fighters. Slogans like "No Mai, no buy" are absolutely ridiculous considering this and only go to show when a fan doesn't understand what they're talking about, joke or not. Once again we're going to introduce characters chronologically, going by the order they became relevant to the plot.



Being one of the main villains of three different series, Geese Howard has a LOT of history. We have the events during and between at least 5 different games to cover, so grab a seat and a bite to eat because this is gonna be a long entry. What's more there was apparently an internal conflict at SNK that results in some confusion over the outcome of Geese's fate. I promise everyone else will have significantly less information, and Geese himself is mostly a character who works in the background. If you want to skip this entry just remember "Geese bad, Geese want power. Geese big jerk."

On to the backstory: Some time ago Geese Howard and Jeff Bogard were apprentices to Chinese martial arts master Tung Fu Rue and his Hakkyokuseiken martial arts style. When it came time for Tung Fu Rue to choose an heir to learn the style's most powerful techniques, Jeff Bogard was selected thanks to Geese's power hungry ways. Angered by this Geese began concocting plans to kill his fellow student, which in turn ties into Art of Fighting. His idea to kidnap Yuri Sakazaki and coerce Takuma Sakazaki bore two intents: To prevent the Sakazaki framily from interfering with his criminal uprising and to obtain a strong assassin to use on Jeff Bogard. Despite being something of a joke character Takuma was famed as a very fearsome martial artist back in his day, so you could think of it as killing two birds with one stone. Jeff and Takuma were two of the strongest men in South Town capable of bringing Geese's downfall.

Art of Fighting 2 marks the very first King of Fighters tournament by Geese. While Geese currently seems to be something of a mob boss sitting up in his tower with his nice chair and cigar and all that, he used to be a police commissioner using the KOF tournament to find people to work under him. Despite the fact that he did not actually do any of the dirty work Geese Howard was discovered as the man responsible for the Yuri's kidnapping. The Sakazaki family retaliated in Art of Fighting 2 and forced Geese into hiding in Japan for an unknown period of time. Geese was also informed that Jeff Bogard was investigating Geese's activities. Clearly not wanting Jeff to interfere with his plans: some time between the end of Art of Fighting 2 and the beginning of Fatal Fury Geese succeeded in assassinating Jeff Bogard. Since then he steadily gained power in South Town and without dispute owned the place. After leaving the Hakkyokuseiken he apparently learned from every big name martial artist he could find and became a national martial arts champion. His skill and power are well known, with people apparently equating his power to that of a demon.

Perhaps to atone for his student's sins, Tung Fu Rue took young Andy and Terry Bogard into his care and raised them after their father's death, teaching them the same Hakkyokuseiken style that Geese employs. As we know Terry and Andy went off their separate ways after growing up a bit waiting for the day they could avenge their father. Some time later Geese reopened the King of Fighters tournament. He used the tournament on an annual basis for gambling revenue. As we know Terry, Andy and Joe entered the tournament and gained a chance to confront Geese. Terry eventually avenged his father with a flying kick that sent Geese plummeting off the top of Geese Tower, and for a time Geese was not heard from and was presumed dead. What happened in Fatal Fury 2 can be attributed to Wolfgang Krauser down below.

Come Fatal Fury 3 Geese reveals himself to still be alive. All explanations as to his survival require we take note of this: Hakkyokuseiken is a set of teachings revolving around the manipulation of Chi. Chi is the founding explanation for a lot of martial arts anime, and how people can do things like shoot fireballs from their hands using their spiritual energy. Characters like Kyo and Iori have more mythical powers in comparison. Because Hakkyokuseiken's uses are fairly flexible, we have 4 users of the art with drastically different fighting styles using spiritual energy in a variety of ways.

The workings of Hakkyokuseiken and Geese's history regarding it are definite. Less so are its origins because I don't have information directly coming from SNK. This is what some sites have noted: The teachings of Hakkyokuseiken were inscribed into one of three ancient scrolls, this one scroll being handed down to Tung Fu Rue. There were two other scrolls, one called the Phoenix Scroll which increases one's capacity to recover from physical injury as well teaches to enhance strength. The third called the Jin scroll was said to grant immortality when combined with the others in the presence of intense fighting. Geese supposedly had the Phoenix Scroll, which allowed him to recover from his fall at Geese Tower in the original Fatal Fury.

In Fatal Fury 3 there is a set of scrolls that everyone is looking for, said to grant immortality when gathered together. So this explanation does seem to make a lot of sense. Regardless, what's most important is that Geese officially obtains all three scrolls at the end of Fatal Fury 3. Proceeding to Real Bout Fatal Fury, the scrolls are destroyed and Geese is once again knocked off of Geese Tower. This time Terry tries to grab Geese's hand and save him, but Geese takes the badass route and slaps the and; falling to what was supposed to be his official death. This scene is pretty vividly shown as the intro to Mark of the Wolves, the final Fatal Fury game.

Here's where we come to a conflict. Real Bout Fatal Fury was supposed to mark Geese's official death. If Geese had used the Phoenix Scroll to survive his first fall, this would have been destroyed with the others and logically he wouldn't have it anymore to recover from his second fall. Fairly logical and I'm inclined to believe the Phoenix Scroll is official because it would explain how he survived once, but not twice. The conflict comes when Geese appears in KOF 96. Supposedly this was because the developers of KOF were not aware of the events in Real Bout Fatal Fury, which was in development but wouldn't be released until after KOF 96. The KOF team didn't want to abandon the use of Geese, though. Possibly because the graphical work was already done, and so he still made the cut. Thanks guys. Thanks for giving me a headache.

In KOF games as recent as 2003 it's very obvious that Geese is alive, while in Fatal Fury games like Mark of the Wolves it's very heavily implied but not undeniably confirmed that he's dead. It's pretty heavily implied that in one series he's dead but in another he's not. There's even a "Ghost" version of Geese in Real Bout Fatal Fury 2. Thus we only have one real possibility: Fatal Fury and King of Fighters diverge into split timelines thanks to KOF 96. The split is determined by whether Geese survives his fall in Real Bout Fatal Fury or not. In King of Fighters there are vague hints that Geese is immortal, implying that before the immortality scrolls were destroyed he had used them and thus could survive his fall off Geese Tower. In Fatal Fury Geese didn't use the scrolls prior to them being destroyed, thus meaning no immortality and no Phoenix Scroll either.

Mind you this is speculation and this is a KOF blog. In King of Fighters Geese is alive and kicking, The only real reason this split timeline is a concern is because of Rock Howard, a character very important to both Geese and Terry later on Mark of the Wolves. Mark of the Wolves takes place some 10 years after Real Bout Fatal Fury, though. We don't have to worry about it for a while. Whether or not Geese is actually dead in Fatal Fury thus has some significance, though. I should also note this seems to be the only instance of an inconsistent storyline. For the most part all the SNK series are intertwined. KOF 96 specifically just led to something of a paradox, and I don't know if SNK has ever properly resolved it. Let's concern ourselves with the present and what isn't veiled in mystery, though. In KOF 96 Geese assures Billy to simply leave everything to him and assembles his own team of criminals from previous games. Geese's main motivation for entering the tournament is to learn of the mysterious power that Rugal possessed in KOF 95. Though Geese states he isn't against crushing the Bogards at the tournament if given the chance, he now seems to consider them smalltime compared to discovering the secret behind Rugal.

KOF 96 seems to mark the first time the Fatal Fury team has seen Geese in a while, as all the Fatal Fury heroes are extremely surprised to see that he's alive and well. Neverminding all that confusing split timeline business.



Kasumi is another character that has some history going as far back as the original Art of Fighting more than a decade prior to KOF 96. Her father--a native Japanese man named Ryuhaku Todoh--was the very first opponent Ryo assaulted when searching for his kidnapped sister. I didn't actually know this until I looked it up, but it seems that Todoh had come to America looking to settle an old score with Takuma, which makes a lot of sense. Based on the setting and music the fight with Ryo probably took place at the Sakazaki dojo, with Todoh looking suspicious appearing immediately after Yuri's kidnapping.

Since that fight Todoh had gone missing, leaving his wife and daughter Kasumi waiting at home in Japan for his return. Not knowing what had happened to her father, Kasumi made her debut in Art of Fighting 3 seeking revenge. Right before the climax of Kasumi and Ryo's fight, Kasumi's mother appeared and demanded she stop. She had left without permission and was told to stop dishonoring the family; at which point Kasumi's mother revealed that Todoh was training in another part of the world in preparation for another fight with the Ryo. She asked Ryo to both forgive her daughter as well as some day come to Japan to fight with Todoh once again, establishing a friendly rivalry between the two families. Before leaving with her mother Kasumi established her desire to challenge Ryo again someday as well, handing off her headband to her and saying that one day she'll come to reclaim it. What exactly happened with that whole headband thing I don't really know, but in King of Fighters 96 King introduced Kasumi to the Women's Fighting Team to help them out. Takuma had forced Yuri to join the Art of Fighting team because of his own absence, and King herself almost backed out of the tournament take care of her little brother. This is terribly ironic, because at first Yuri joined the Women's Team in KOF because she wasn't allowed on the Art of Fighting team. Now she wants to be on the Women's Team and is forced off it.

This almost left Mai alone and without a team, but at the last minute King had a change of heart and brought Kasumi along with her. Fun note: Kasumi's father is a recurring joke within the King of Fighters series, appearing in the background of many games. Apparently an in-joke at SNK is "Where's Todoh?" In KOF 96 he even cheers for his daughter in the background. Kasumi herself is actually a fairly lighthearted character. I invite you to check her Art of Fighting 3 ending.



Mr.BIG is a fairly small time crime lord who was responsible for kidnapping Yuri in the original Art of Fighting, back when he was doing Geese Howard's dirty work. At the time Mr.BIG was probably quite useful to Geese, who again started out in the series a corrupt police commissioner. Some time during Art of Fighters 2 Mr.BIG rebelled against Geese and tried to make a name for himself, probably after Geese retreated to Japan in the Art of Fighting 2 endings. Since then he's been running his own crime ring and been looking to increase his realm of influence. Though he and Geese are hardly on good terms, he thus accepts Geese's offer to enter the tournament to see if he can put it to some use. I might add that though Mr. BIG is small time compared to the other members of the Boss Team, he isn't against having hot bitches all over him in his intros. That's got to get him SOME kudos, at least.

Both of these characters have a relatively small impact on the KOF storyline compared to Geese, but Krauser can be argued to have more lasting impact. His influence actually extends back to the original Fatal Fury. Krauser is Geese's half brother and a member of an infamous German family. The exact nature of their relationship isn't quite known to me, but it seems like their mutual father and Geese's dead mother has lead to some resentment between the Howard and Krauser names. Back in the original Fatal Fury Krauser had written a letter informing Geese that he would come to challenge his half-brother to a fight. Geese was well aware that such threats were not to be taken lightly. Before Krauser had a chance to come though, Geese was thought to have died.

It might have been lucky for Geese, as it would seem that Krauser is a significantly more dangerous fighter. What's more Krauser doesn't strike you as being the kind of guy against beating his family to death. Interested in who could have defeated Geese, Krauser started his own tournament in South Town called The Sultan of Slugs Battle Royal. Yes, it sounds stupid as hell but I was surprised to learn it wasn't another KOF. Krauser is an extremely formidable fighter. During the tournament he hunted down many of the participants, among them being Tung Fu Rue and Joe Higashi. He beat the living hell out of them. Eventually Terry confronts him at the end of the tournament and overcomes Krauser, and until KOF 96 not much is heard from him. Likewise he's a member of the criminal underworld but seems to want to enter legitimate society. The fact that Geese was the one who invited Krauser to the tournament is the reason he entertained the idea of joining.

Krauser may or may not represent another time paradox, as there's a short movie called Memories of Stray Wolves saying after being defeated by Terry that Krauser commited suicide. KOF 96 takes place some time afterward and he doesn't exactly look suicidal over the matter. In fact losing to Terry seemed to have significantly mellowed Krauser out. That's just a vague impression based on KOF 96, though. Likewise in the Fatal Fury 2 movie he plummets off a cliff to his death immediately after losing to Terry. If nothing else Krauser dying does seem to be a bit of a running theme. The real question is when he dies, but honestly it doesn't matter since he's of no further significance to the storyline. Fun note: Rugal mentions both Geese and Krauser's names at the end of King of Fighters '94, and likewise has imitation versions of Reppuken and Kaiser Wave; moves belonging to the two half-brothers. It was very likely that they knew eachother in some way, if only just because they all had some pull in the criminal world.



The Ikari Warriors jump back into action, largely in part because of the public announcement of Geese Howard's participation. While Heidern has resigned himself to command, his adoptive daughter Leona takes his spot in the tournament. Like Heidern she has a tragic past and tends to hide her emotions, coming off as a somewhat silent and awkward character. Despite that she's a dutiful soldier, with Ralf and Clark taking kindly to her with time. Little is known about her initially. While on a mission in Brazil Heidern found her wandering the jungle alone in a daze. She had no memory and seemingly no family, which presumably Heidern identified with and took her in as his own. Her fighting style largely imitates that of Heidern with one key difference. While Heidern uses a variety of concealed knives to perform his attacks; Leona can do so with no tools whatsoever. She is literally able to cut with just her hands for unexplained reasons.

Ralf and Clark are rather shocked to have Leona join the team at first. She's exceptionally young still being in her late teens, and what's more she's very silent and avoidant. She almost immediately leaves the room as soon as she's assigned to the team, only staying thanks to Ralf's persistent personality. Heidern informs the two that the KOF 96 tournament will be her first mission. Reluctant to work with a rookie, Ralf and Clark realize they have to do as the boss says and resign to their fate. Almost immediately though Ralf expresses his interest in her. After shaking her hand at their first meeting he's directly quoted as saying he'll never wash his hand again. Considering Ralf and Clark just got done calling Leona a kid, this is borderline creepy. Ralf looks pretty old compared to her in some of his profile artwork. SNK doesn't hand out any of the character's full birth dates, though.



Vice and Mature were two of Rugal's secretaries who worked largely in the background until 1996. They served under Rugal and helped organize both the 94 and 95 tournaments. Mature even personally handed Kyo his invitation in 1995. Likewise in KOF 94 Mature was the woman who guided the winning team to Rugal, while Vice was the one assigned with brainwashing Saisyu before the 95 tournament. While they did serve to help and do as Rugal asked them, they were assigned to watch over him by the Hakkeshu who took Rugal's right eye. After Rugal's death their activities were largely unknown.

Some time before the tournament the two ladies approached Iori in his current home, an old and barren temple. Asking him if he's like to join another King of Fighters tournament, Iori seemed bitter about losing to Kyo in the last tournament and showed no interest. Asking if Iori was afraid of Kyo, the two women were very quickly met with a fight. Iori proved himself more than a match for the two, toying with them and even burning off their blouses. At his patience's end, Iori demanded the two state their business before he burnt them to a crisp. They introduced themselves as Vice and Mature, claiming they wanted to serve him and help him exterminate Kyo Kusanagi. Iori has a change of heart and decides that he will join the tournament with them and use them to his own ends. Soon after the two left and contacted an unknown party, clearly their Hakkeshu employer, assuring him that everything was going according to plan. Iori himself was not fooled, though. He didn't know what the two were up to, but he knew who they were. He could tell they were Hakkeshu themselves; underlings tied to the same Orochi blood as himself. Iori didn't care, though. He now saw the tournament as a new opportunity to crush Kyo Kusanagi.

Being Hakkeshu, Mature and Vice have been granted some power by the Orochi. Their personalities somewhat suit their powers, as SNK created the two with the intent of summarizing them as the "cruel woman" and the "ruthless woman." Really they're just a pair of evil bitches when you get down to it. Vice being the ruthless one inherits superhuman physical strength. She behaves violently and impulsively, on occasion even acting like an animal. Mature is almost the opposite of her, being the calm and collected cruel one. Her power is a bit more vague, simply being described as heightened raw instinct. In a way it makes sense when you compare her to Vice, as her movements are very smooth and elegant in comparison. To clear up any potential confusion: in KOF 98 Rugal has another pair of secretaries for some of his win poses. Nevermind the fact that KOF 98 doesn't have a story and Rugal is dead, SNK has stated on the KOF website that these aren't Vice and Mature. Those are a pair of separate secretaries named Hermione and Aya. While it's quite possible these were the very early designs of the two characters before they became important to the story, as far as SNK's concerned they're separate people.



Upon reaching the finals the contestants were met with an unexpected opponent in the form of Chizuru Kagara. Her movements are strange, all of them resembling different forms of dance; and she has a very strange power, being able to create solid after images of herself. She's not exactly an easy boss to beat either. After the fight she reveals herself to be the host of the tournament and the guardian of the Orochi Seal. Though she's aware Rugal was given the Orochi power and not responsible for unleashing it himself, she wanted to meet the people responsible for his defeat and test them in battle herself. She pleads for Kyo, to help in resealing the Orochi, upon which a fierce wind begins to blow.

The the moment I can't find my old source of information on this, but as I recall it Chizuru herself is the head of a large family corporation thus explaining how she was able to get further corporate sponsors for the tournament.



From the wind appears a man in blue, somewhat resembling a priest. Before our heroes stands the man himself. The man who took Rugal's right eye and allowed him to use a portion of the Orochi power; who employs Vice and Mature and assigned them to watch over Iori; who attacked and taunted Kyo prior to the tournament; and is even later on revealed to be responsible for the death of Leona's family. We have one of the Four Heavenly Kings: Leopold Goenitz. This guy has been busy. Despite the fact that he's already assessed Kyo as not being much of a threat and that Iori is of partial Orochi blood (he appears to be there as well), seeing all three of the Sacred Treasures had been gathered Goenitz feels its time to finally eliminate them.

You may be wondering what a Heavenly King and Sacred Treasure are. The Sacred Treasures we'll cover in the next blog. As for the Heavenly Kings, among the Hakkeshu there are 4 Heads who inherit higher power from the Orochi and likewise have more control over that power. Goenitz has inherited direct control over wind in a similar fashion to how the Kusanagi and Yagami can manipulate flame, and this guy shows you that a maelstrom is not something to be fucked with. He blows away the arena and turns it into a borderline pile of rubble, driving away all the audience. As a side note I'd say Goenitz's case of SNK Syndrome is nowhere near as bad as Omega Rugal's, but he's still pretty damn infuriating. Most people remember how annoying he is to fight because he can make tornadoes appear on the screen, ceasing any advanced toward him.

The official ending to the game requires that you have a team comprised of Kyo, Iori, and Chizuru, but it's not a whole lot different than Kyo's normal ending anyway. We should note that every ending for every team does take place. The only real difference is that one team officially beats the boss in the game and I suppose the others are still close by. Sometimes it's confusing trying to fit all the events together, but all the games do regard all those events as being true. Every character's ending is canon, as some might put it. Now moving on to those endings:

In a struggle between the 3 Sacred Treasures and Goenitz, Iori's flames briefly turn crimson and reveal their original power to seal off evil. Chizuru explains that this is how the Kusanagi and Yasagani clan had originally defeated the Orochi, with one clan sealing off the monster's power and the other slaying it. Goenitz's wind has ceased thanks to Iori's flame and Chizuru pleads for Iori to help in the coming battle and forget the blood fued, saying that relying on the Orochi power will lead to his early death as per the Yagami curse. Iori doesn't listen and claims he'll live as he pleases. Kyo likewise doesn't seem to feel especially cooperative, simply saying that the feud is between the two of them personally and that both of them would individually fight the Orochi if it appears.

Chiruzu does not side with either family, just as she will for times to come as the impartial medium between the two. Most of the other teams this year don't have endings with much significance to the plot, but a few big events do occur. Goenitz claims that he's being called back to heaven in each ending, and either commits suicide or dies through other means. Before he does, though Goenitz reveals to the Ikari team that Leona is of the Orochi bloodline and that she cannot escape her fate; setting seeds of insecurity that'll be with her for a long time. Ralf and Clark of course seek to cheer her up, but Leona had a fragile enough personality as it is. Geese exclaims that the Orochi power was not impressive and all the boss teams go their separate ways. Mr. BIG showing his respect tries to have Geese shot, but Billy intervenes; while Krauser simply thanks his half-brother for the fun time and leaves.

The real shit stopper is the Yagami team's ending. Vice and Mature are impressed by Iori's strength, thinking he may be even stronger than Goenitz. They decide to betray their Heavenly King employer, but Goenitz just calls them fools. Whether Goenitz uses his power as a Heavenly King to do this or is just happened on its own in the face of the Orochi's power, after his death Iori's eyes dilate and he begins to cough up blood. The Riot of the Blood mentioned before has been let loose and Iori enters a murderous rage, brutally killing Vice and Mature. In a most ironic turn they're slain by the very man they decided to side with. And with that concludes all the significant endings in KOF 96.



I've wanted to do everything I can to help people appreciate King of Fighters a little more, meaning I wanted to do an entry on just about every KOF I could. The problem was that a select few KOF games have no story. My idea: hold community tournaments to write about in the place of any plot summaries. Fatal Destructoid be thy name, and 2DF is the medium. I own a physical copy of the game so I'm not ashamed of using emulation. Likewise I doubt anyone will look down upon you for doing the same.

Basically, I consider myself pretty decent at fighting games. I think that I can give most people on Destructoid a run for their money and I likewise think that I could help teach a lot of community members to up their game. Thus I'm gonna do both of those things. I'm gathering up entrants for a tournament where I act as a couch and final boss. Everyone is going to train with eachother long before the tournament begins, and I'm personally going to teach the weaker entrants to strengthen the competition.

Once the tournament begins we'll most likely have every entrant fight eachother to tally up point totals. The members with the highest number of points will enter a semi-final and repeat the point gathering process, at which point a winner will be decided. Anyone in the semi-finals will receive a game swag prize, as will members who show the most improvement even if they don't win. The winner will be awarded the grand prize and then have a chance to challenge me, in the same way that the winners in the King of Fighters games always have a final boss they have to fight. Rest assured that as of right now I am the top player in the tournament, so I don't intend to let myself go down easily. The winner will already have his prize, but if he beats me he'll get a bonus prize.

If you think you suck at fighting games, enter anyway. I'll teach you to get better, and you'll have a chance to bond with your fellow D-Bros. This tournament is all about getting together and just enjoying an under appreciated gem of the fighting genre. You'll have a chance to spar and chat with everyone in the tournament long before the competition actually begins, and we want to do everything we can to make this a community affair.

Just like the Fatal Destructoid logo says: Follow the love letter and learn the plot, train with your D-Bros and expand yo' skills, win some swag even if you don't win the tourney. If you have any interest at all let me know. As of now we have 8 entrants counting myself and a potential anonymous contender. If you have any interest at all, contact me any way you please. My E-Mail is to the right, you're free to send me a message on the forums, and but of course you can comment.

Maybe by the time Fatal Destructoid 98 and 2002 are finished the tournaments will expand into lesser known SNK gems. Even not counting the obvious Mark of the Wolves, there's a fair number of overlooked SNK fighters that deserve to be played competitively. Real Bout Fatal Fury 2, Last Blade 2, and Samurai Showdown 5 Special come to mind specifically. I personally haven't had much time with these games either. They're all substantially different and solidly built games, and I really like the idea of trying to get familiar with these lost gems. Maybe some of you do too.

Later on in another blog there'll be some match video comparisons of the current contestants, showing how well they were doing at the beginning of training and how well they're doing now. Until then, stay tuned for the next KOF Love Letter. The tournament will be poised to begin once we have the KOF 97 letter out of the way. Everyone will have plenty of time to train, though. These Love Letters take a lot of work and I need a break.


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Welcome back to the King of Fighters Love Letter, a series where I ooze out my love for SNK and do my best to share that love. Riding on the wave of feigning interesting and mild popularity that King of Fighters XII has established, I intend to help further blossom that enthusiasm by offering you the story that King of Fighters XII itself did not. Rest assured, this is not perfectly easy information to come across. To be an American SNK fan actually kind of sucks. To this day SNK's a relatively small company, and their efforts to localize the series until recently were mildly effective at best. They are not known for having great translators.

Some of you are probably wondering why I even care about the story behind the series. Tons of games, no official plot summary, and borderline ridiculous translations. Let it be known that I was willing to go through this trouble simply because I love the characters. As written in the original Love Letter; King of Fighters is all about the characters. It's not necessarily the plot itself that draws peoples' interest; it's simply the fact that the plot presents us more information about these characters that we fans have become attached to. Behind all these obstacles, the characters' charm shines through, making everything else seem less important. That said: let's move on.



Now that we've established the existing backstory behind the series, we're almost ready to begin. All that's left to cover is King of Fighters' initial inspiration: Mythology. Rest assured my own knowledge of Shinto--Japan's oldest native religion-is sparse, but I at least know enough to give you a slightly deeper insight than usual to King of Fighters. As I forgot to mention initially: Various King of Fighters characters have supernatural abilities based on myth, though not all of them. Kyo Kusanagi is the series' initial link, with his mysterious command of fire being rooted in several legends. In Shinto Myth the Orochi was a powerful Eight Headed Serpent that would demand the sacrifice of young women from the people. Moved by the peoples' plea the Orochi was felled by Susanoo, Shinto God of the Sea. Upon its death a magnificent sword was found in the Orochi's corpse; and to help settle one of Susanoo's disputes it was offered to Amaterasu, Shinto Goddess of the Sun. Initially this sword was called "Sword of the Gathering Clouds of Heaven."

The sword changed hands until it came into possession of a young warrior named Yamato Takeru. The sword both protected his life and revealed its nature soon after being given to him. At some point an evil warlord had trapped Yamato in an open plain of high growing grass while setting fire to the field, thus surrounding him on all sides with flames. In a desperate plea to save himself, Yamato cut the grass with the sword and quickly discovered it had the power to control wind. As he swung the sword: gusts would fly in the direction of his strike; and in a brilliant move he cut away the grass surround him while simultaneously redirecting the flames to his enemies. After this battle the sword was renamed the Grass Cutting Sword--or Kusanagi. The sword appears frequently in Myth, basically acting as the Japanese Excalibur. Though the Grass Cutting Sword is actually known to control wind, Yamato Takeru's battle appears to be the inspiration for Kyo Kusanagi's control of flame.



And now we are finally to King of Fighters 1995, the true beginning of the Orochi Saga. Most of the story we covered in Backstory Mayhem wasn't very strongly advanced in 1994, with almost none of the endings revealing anything of importance. Because the game has nearly the exact same cast, you could really consider KOF 95 a reboot.

The endings in 95 now reveal some information leading into further titles, and the game itself is a significant improvement. In lieu of the previous game's detailed but poorly animated sprites, some characters got total graphical overhauls. The amount of graphical improvement was subtle, but it really made the game feel ahead of its time. What's more the game plays MUCH more smoothly. There was also one serious change that would stick with King of Fighters permanently: The concept for 3 player teams in 94 was very creative, but not flexible. You HAD to choose one of the pre-made teams. King of Fighters 95 introduced the concept of "Edit Teams." You could construct a set of characters from any three, and they would simply have a generic ending. King of Fighters would not be the same if you couldn't construct your own team. Story be damned, this was a boon for the multiplayer.

Most of the characters created specifically for 1994 were ill defined, with both their move lists and personalities not entirely distinct. KOF 95 rectified this. Kensou and Athena became more distinct: with Kensou in particular developing his cocky attitude and penchant for meat buns. Likewise Ralf and Clark began getting their own moves, with Clark becoming more of a grappler and Ralf a brawler. Again, the changes are subtle in 95. All of the refinements really did add up, though.



The premise is that once again, fighters around the world have received invitations for a King of Fighters tournament. Once more, the invitation letters are signed with a mysterious "R." Each team's motivation to enter King of Fighters 94 is largely identical, even down to the Women's Team being formed out of spite and the Ikari Team being formed to hunt down Rugal. Some of the more offbeat developments are that Kyo's team is personally invited by one of Rugal's secretaries, leaving little doubt to Team Japan that Rugal is still alive. Less sure of this fact are Choi and Chang, who present Kim with the invitation letter in hopes of siding with Rugal and escaping Kim's rehabilitation at the last minute. Meanwhile Geese Howard himself sent the heroes of Fatal Fury a letter informing them that he's leaving a surprise at the tournament for them.

As I said, the game is highly identical in terms of cast. The only new characters we're getting are the Rival Team, and the only team on its way out is the USA/Sports team from the previous year. There's supposedly an ongoing joke among the creators that the Sports Team repeatedly receives invitation letters to King of Fighters, but tougher fighters keep beating them up and stealing those letters. Considering the Rival Team took their place this year, I wouldn't be surprised.



Iori is a mysterious new fighter with a similar power to Kyo Kusanagi's. He has a nearly identical command of fire, however his flames are a strange purple tint. Also of note is that while Kyo wears symbols of the sun, Iori wears symbols of the moon. He starts out being quite the mystery, though he also appears to be from a famous clan like Kyo.

What you mainly know about him from the get go is that he's insanely violent, has a harsh and unforgiving attitude, clearly has a grudge against Kyo Kusanagi, and performs in rock bands. For those people that always complain about Iori's ridiculous appearance: there you go. I think he's even based on the appearance of a real Japanese rock star who was popular at the time, but don't quote me on that. He was summoned by Billy through the use of an assassin, whom he promptly beat to a bloody pulp and dragged back to Billy by his face. He enters the tournament as a member of the Rival Team strictly to challenge Kyo Kusanagi.



Hailing from the Art of Fighting series, Eiji is a ninja from the Kisaragi clan. His martial arts style puts a heavy emphasis on the use of knives, and it's implied in the Last Blade series that his family and style have existed for hundreds of years. The Kisaragi clan are likewise the sworn rivals of the Sakazaki family and their Kyokugen martial arts style, with Eiji carrying on this long standing grudge. Not very much is known about Eiji aside from the fact that he's a ninja that dislikes the majority of the Art of Fighting protagonists, however he doesn't appear to be set on killing any of the Kyokugen practitioners so much as proving his superiority to them.

Compared to the other members of the rival team, Eiji doesn't have a lot of history. In the American version of Art of Fighting 2 it's implied that Eiji is in love with fellow ninja Mai Shiranui, but this was only in the English version. SNK supposedly had some plans to follow up on this by placing him in one of the Fatal Fury movies as a villain that kidnaps Mai, but this was never followed through. After KOF 95 in Art of Fighting 3, we learn Eiji once had a disciple named Jin Fu-Ha. Jin Fu-Ha is preparing himself for the day he exacts revenge upon Eiji for some sort of betrayal. The details of this betrayal are never explained. Eiji is likewise summoned by Billy Kane to participate in the tournament, and he jumps on the chance to enter a fight with his sworn rival Ryo Sakazaki.



Billy Kane is Geese Howard's personal bodyguard and an English punk with a serious distaste for smoking. In the original King of Fighters tournament in Fatal Fury, Billy Kane was the opponent you had to beat in order to become the new champion. Afterward fighters would be allowed to fight Geese Howard. Terry Bogard was one of the few to ever take him down. It's unknown how Geese Howard survived being knocked off a tower by Terry Bogard after beating Billy, but Geese lives on and Billy continues to work as his main agent. Billy himself maintains a grudge against Terry Bogard, though not an especially strong one compared to Geese. He likewise bears a grudge against Joe Higashi for making advances on his little sister, who does not know of Billy's criminal exploits.

Geese sent Billy to the King of Fighters tournament to get some payback on the Fatal Fury heroes, making Billy himself the surprise that Geese wrote about to Lone Wolves prior to the tournament. Billy was tasked with creating a team to take to the tournament and his methods for gathering other fighters were obviously very unorthodox. The alliance set up is extremely flimsy considering each fighter only cares about fighting their respective rivals.



Saisyu Kusanagi is the previous heir to the Kusanagi fighting style and father to Kyo. Though the games never actually show you this, Saisyu challenged Rugal in KOF 94 prior to the tournament. Rugal managed to defeat him and held him hostage as part of his collection; and in order to use his hostage for his own ends one of Rugal's secretaries brain washed Saisyu over the course of the year. Saisyu himself is a wandering warrior constantly traveling the world, which would explain why none of Kyo's family seemed to take notice to his absence.

The creators had originally intended for Saisyu to die in his first encounter with Rugal, but later changed their minds. Kyo's team officially wins the tournament, manages to defeat the brain washed Saisyu, and then confront Rugal for revenge.



After officially being beaten by Kyo's team in 1994, Rugal had supposedly committed suicide aboard his boat: the Black Noah. This leaves most of the fighters to wonder if he could have possibly survived, but very clearly he's kicking in 1995. He's not just back, though, he's back with upgrades. Channeling the same sort of unnatural power he'd been using before, Rugal's sporting a mechanical hand and eye that turn him into one of the most over-powered bosses you could possibly imagine. Kyo once again manages to defeat Rugal, who after the battle is consumed by his own power, vanishing in a burst of demonic energy.

Rugal is gone for good, though various characters make different observations during their endings. Saisyu seemed to have disappeared, with fellow old man Takuma asserting that a fighter like him couldn't possibly have died from his wounds. Heidern finally has his revenge upon Rugal for killing his family, proclaiming that his wife and daughter can rest in peace; however he tells Ralf and Clark that Rugal was clearly just a simple puppet. Iori reveals that the power Rugal was trying to use could only be truly controlled by "The Bloodline," After which Iori brutally beats the hell out of Eiji and Billy; proving what he'd told them previously about how they were just his means to an end. Geese Howard proclaims from his tower that he expected Billy to fail, but next year everyone would have to content with him personally. However now that Rugal is DEAD, you have to wonder how he knew another tournament was going to start unless he intended to revive the King of Fighters tournament himself.

Finally Kyo clearly recognizes the shade released from Rugal's body before he disappeared, with his father proclaiming in the distance that Kyo can't escape his fate as a Kusanagi. A greater battle is soon to begin.

Stay tuned for King of Fighters 1996
My plans keep on being bumped down by just how much material there is to cover in this series. I had to slow down to cover each characters' backstory and again I'll have to slow down and cover one game at a time. There's too much content otherwise. Stay tuned for King of Fighters 1996, and do please let me know how useful this series has ended up being.

I haven't been around the C-Blogs for the longest time or anything, but I have received a pretty warm welcome. I'm quite thankful for that and I look fondly on the community blogs as an outlet for writing; which is quickly becoming a new hobby. One of my strongest motivations for playing games these days is actually to write about them. Still, just because I'm new to the blogs does not mean I'm new to the community. I've been wasting my life way on the forums for years. I--sirs and madams--am a forum veteran with an E-Penis almost 2000 posts long. My Electronic Wang spans several Information Super Highways.

By this point point I know my way around both the forums and the blogs, and I seem to be a minority. Most people seem to stick to just the blogs because of its greater popularity. As a result I often see people post content on the blogs that logistically just shouldn't be there. The forums deserve a lot more attention than they get, and if you ask me the way people treat the blogs sometimes is hurting the community. As quoted from Destructoid's own rules:

"Forums are meant to foster active conversations. Forum readers do not expect you to organize or present an opinion, facts, or even cohesive paragraphs per se. This is a place to talk. Have a brief question? Want to make a quick comment on a topic to get a group discussion going? Forums are the best place to do this."

I can think of one popular type of C-Blog that should immediately get thrown out the window after reading this: The game announcement blogs. Don't lie; you've all seen them. Just to avoid any misunderstandings, I'm not on a crusade. Merely trying to make things better for everyone. Let's sum up some general examples of blog posts I have in mind. Things I don't really think belong around here. See if this sounds familiar to you as you browse the blogs: "Tatsunoku vs Capcom is coming to the States! Awesome!" "New characters for Street Fighter IV!" "Here's some new screenshots of Valkyria Chronicles 2!" "I just bought a Playstation 3!" "Hey guys, I need some game recommendations!"

You know what all of these boil down to? They're the sort of thing you initiate a conversation with, and conversations are a wonderful thing to take to the forums. If you're privy to any information on a game, I'd really suggest taking it to the proper avenue. Trust me when I say it's better that way. The blogs aren't where that sort of content belongs. I've covered this before, but remember that if someone spent a week on their masterpiece of an article and you spent 10 minutes making an announcement blog, there's a good chance you're pushing a very worth piece of reading slowly off the front page.

Am I saying your blogs have to be epic masterpieces to be worth posting? Fuck no. Am I saying I'm going to stop you from making these sort of blogs? I don't exactly have that sort of power. All I can say is that If you have EVER put immense amounts of work into an article or any creative work, you should know how unfair that sort of scenario feels. For the news blogs in particular, you've got to keep in mind that Destructoid itself is a game news site. More than likely the exact same information is going to be on the front page. If you're doing more than just recycling information, of course that's cool in my book. BulletMagnet in particular does very nice news pieces. However when a person writes their article it only has one chance to shine. Let's be considerate and not block the sunlight for some people when you could go stand somewhere else.

Destructoid's a great place, especially because there's different avenues to do different things. What the forums are great for is getting to know your community members better, being able to have a really good conversation, and being able to continue that conversation for as long as it lasts. All these game news posts that we see don't do anything productive on the blogs compared to what they would in the forums. Conversations in the forums can last for days and weeks at a time, and your news would help add fuel to that fire. Your contributions there would last much longer, and have a much greater impact. What's more you don't have to constantly monitor a forum thread. If you go to bed it's not going anywhere. If people keep on talking it'll stick around, and if you decide there's something new to add you can shoot it right back up to the very top of the front page.

The forums are just great in general. Even if I weren't writing this piece on improving the blogs I'd still be telling you to go make a forum account before I kick your ass. There's tons of things to do in the forums. You can arrange meetups, you can dick around in the off-topic boards, you can trade your shit with other people, and again you can have awesome conversations and really get to know eachother. We even have gigantic threads dedicated to talking about ANYTHING in regards to games. What's more someone will probably be interested in talking to you about it. The thread is called "The Arcade." If you see it: check it out.

Be a buddy to your Destructoid and help the community grow. Make a forum account. Enjoy the greatness and help make the place more active. You don't need to write articles to be a part of Destructoid's brotherhood. I've been enjoying it for years without even touching the blogs. I implore to you all that as you write a new article, ask to yourself "Is this an article or a conversation starter?" If you go make a forum account and hit the Meet and Greet section to introduce yourself, I don't think you'll regret it either way.


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Wryviews were created in the face of the illogical manner in which video game reviewers score games. In principle they are meant to strike out the bias inherent in most video game reviews by judging a game on what it aspires to be, as opposed to what the reviewer regards it should be. They are meant to inform the readers, and especially so not try to make decisions for them.



Welcome to another Wryview; my continuing challenge to objectively judge games by what they set out to be, and not what I might prefer they be. For the first time we're going to jump into the handheld ring and go over Fire Emblem - The Sacred Stones for the Gameboy Advance. Before going into this I knew next to nothing about this series aside from one major point: It's a Strategy RPG and when one of your characters die, they stay dead. More so than anything else this seems to be the single tidbit of information everyone knows, and at first glance the Fire Emblem series doesn't do much to jump out and grab your attention. Most people simply know that the series is challenging, and it definitely is; but I don't believe the characters die simply for the sake of making the game harder. What most people won't tell you is that every character--keeping in mind I can only speak from my experience in Sacred Stones-- has a personality and unique traits. It breeds a sense of attachment and personal responsibility when even the weakest soldier in your army has a history. Every one of your characters represents a personal investment; if not in one way, then in another.

As far as the plot is concerned you follow Eirika, the blue haired princess of a crumbling nation. Her country has been invaded by a previously peaceful neighbor, and her father has commanded that she flee and request aid from other countries. Initially Eirika seems to play the role of the damsel, but though she's repeatedly told to keep herself safe she gathers up a small army and takes on dangerous missions to help save her country. There is more to the plot than just that and its by no means bad, but the premise isn't exactly a new concept. That aside, the massive cast present helps fill things out.

The plot is relatively simple, but teeming with new faces that play their own small role in the story. Sacred Stones is actually the sort of game where it's easier to appreciate the story on a second run after you've gotten to know everyone. Thanks to the sheer size and speed of which you're introduced to some of the characters, it's easy for things to initially fly over your head. That's not necessarily a bad thing as the game lends itself to having strong replay value. There's an alternate scenario you can embark on about a third of the way through the game, allowing you to play as Eirika's brother in an entirely different part of the plot. What's more the game has varying difficulty levels and far more characters than you can manage to fit in your party, even with the ability to swap out characters at any time.



The setting is a classic medieval fantasy world. When most people hear that phrase they tend to start thinking of a world populated by Tolkien styled Goblins, Elves, and Dwarfs. Sacred Stones is decidedly more classic, sticking almost strictly to human characters and a rag-tag army fighting to save several Kingdoms. The fantasy is still there with elements like Mages, Monsters, and the occasional Dragon and Pegasus; but these elements are in the minority. These sort of otherworldly elements serve to add variety to what would otherwise be a cast of stylish, but normal characters. I found this a refreshing change of pace. Both the plot and the world have a sort of classic styling to them, and fantasy settings rarely use fantasy itself conservatively. The character design doesn't suffer for it either. As I said, some of the game's designs are pretty stylish.

I'm sure most people are familiar with the concept of a Strategy RPG. It takes all the elements of a traditional RPG and transfers them to a glorified board game where you move your army along a large map. Sacred Stones does its best to likewise make those maps feel like a small part of the world, littering each level with forts, rivers, mountains, treasure chests, villages, shops, and more. Villages in particular are interesting, as the townsfolk within often have information or give you items as thanks. The terrain of each level is drastically different--which again--lends to replay value. Still what really sets this game apart from others is the way characters are approached.



Sacred Stones and Fire Emblem in general doesn't let you touch a single generic unit. Every character has their place in the story and is introduced to your army by the course of the plot. You can expect to be given the opportunity to obtain two or three new units in each mission, which adds up very quickly. Not only do all of these new characters have their own personalities, but they can form bonds with eachother. When characters with compatible personalities spend enough time near each other on the battlefield they can actually converse. Each of these conversations are very well written and greatly expand upon the already existing dialog in the game's main storyline. What's more characters with bonds grow stronger in eachother's presence.

I didn't deliberately seek out the conditions for conversations, and no doubt they would have helped me get through the game much more easily. I only unlocked about 15 conversations, and the game was kind enough to inform there were several hundred I'd missed out on. Close to three hundred in fact. It really goes to show that everyone in this game has a distinct identity, even if in the bulk of the game they amount to little more than pieces on a chessboard. As I keep on saying, this likewise lends itself to replay value. Not necessarily to collect every conversation (that's crazy talk), but to create a different army with different friendships. Even if you don't seek to get to know your army better from a personal standpoint, you will make yourself acquainted with these characters if you intend to see the game through. Through the normal course of events these units must be properly managed, and very quickly you'll become familiar with them on a first name basis if not just for that reason alone.

Each character has one of many classes, their own set of perishable equipment, their own potential bonds with other characters, and their own set of stats and levels. Let one of your units fall behind in experience and they'll grow weak. Let another unit's weapons wear out and they'll be defenseless on the field. You'll really kick yourself if you wear out a RARE weapon while you're at it. You even need to make sure to observe and train a character's weapon proficiencies so they can get more advanced equipment.

Actually playing the game is simple: Move allied unit; attack enemy unit. Thankfully it's not overwhelming at first, but all the information you need to follow and direct may take time to get used to depending on who you are. Eventually though you will have to enter a level of extreme micro-management to be effective. It can happen very naturally should you have a personal interest in the characters, but either way you'll become familiar with dozens of characters and guide them with careful consideration of their unique traits.



It's not going too far to say that when you choose to add a certain character into your primary platoon, you decide to make a personal investment. Aside from the fact that you put time into developing someone in your army; in a game of this fashion it's almost inevitable you'll be happy to see when two of your favorite characters become friendly, and worried when you take any risks that might endanger someone's life. The game isn't easy, and making mistakes can seriously cost you. Eventually any player will be hit with a scenario where they have difficulty winning without a unit dying. Players then have to make the choice to either move on or restart the level.

The level of investment you have to put into your army is actually why if one of your units dies, anyone with a sense of sentimentality is going to soft-reset the game by reflex. The interesting part is that because it's a strategy title, you won't exactly be doing the same thing over and over again even if this happens. You can't just do the same thing twice and expect it to work. Realistically you'll have approach the level from different angles and possibly with different characters. At the very least a dedicated player won't get bored anytime soon, even though it's possible they'll have to overcome a massive hurtle of a battle that can kill them over and over.

In my personal experience there were one or two characters that I let die out of some 30, but the characters are well made and pretty easy to get attached to. I only even let those characters die due to the circumstances. If you become fond of your hand picked army then playing through Sacred Stones will probably become a quest for perfection with no spilled blood. Realistically you could probably make it through the game with only about half of your characters, but I don't think many people would take that route.



There is an absolute massive amount of information to keep track of, and thankfully the game makes sure that all of it is easy to navigate. The R button in particular is extremely useful. Hovering over any unit and hitting the R button automatically sends you to a miniature three page manual of the character's information, and hitting the R button once more allows you to get explanations on just about every piece of that information in that manual to boot. If you ever don't know what an abbreviation means, you can find out. The game has a comprehensive guide available at all times as well. If you don't know how to play this game it's your own fault.

There's a variety of useful options as well, including the ability to suspend the game at any time and resume later. The animations that normally play as your characters fight can also be turned off, though to some this would be blasphemy. The battle animations are beautifully drawn and animated; but for those who want to get down the to actual strategy, turning them off greatly speeds up the game. The game's even kind enough to let you turn off specific characters' animations, in case there's one character whose fight scenes are just too incredible to pass up. The game does about everything it can to make itself easy to play, putting aside its difficulty and complexity. That much is just the nature of the beast.



At Sacred Stone's heart everything comes down to battle. Not counting all the times I restarted the game--which was frequent--my experience with the game amounted to over 20 hours of time on the battlefield. 20 plus hours of extreme micro-management. This is absolutely not a game for everyone. The required extreme attention to detail is a natural trade off for the level of detail each character has. The plot as I said doesn't introduce any really new concepts, but this game is all about the journey. It's an enjoyable experience to see your army fight onward, and the game itself is about as polished as a strategy title can be. Any of my complaints about untapped potential would be moot considering the limitations of the Gameboy Advance hardware, such as the limited manner in which cutscenes play out. Everything this game set out to do, it did so perfectly. Despite the decidedly complex nature of the game, it does everything it can to make the experience easy to enjoy.

I don't know if I could recommend this game to someone without a strong resolve as I never took the chance to play the game's easy mode, which is really only the beginning of what I haven't covered. The actual gameplay mechanics are something I've barely even touched, but that is also something just about any other review seeks to give in excessive detail. Let me just say that despite having a different format, almost all the rewarding elements from a traditional RPG are present in Fire Emblem - The Sacred Stones. What's more Sacred Stones and good deal of Fire Emblem in general adds its own unique touch to the genre. It's not just about a handful of unique characters, it's about dozens. It takes war to a personal level.

5 out of 5 stars
A 5 is a mark of a game that stands at the very top of its genre and gets just about everything right. It stands apart as unique and interesting without being bogged down by its own ideas. While a 4 is still a well regarded game, Wryviews do not hold a 5 as an unobtainable mark of perfection.

In short: The reviewer's calling this a masterpiece.