So here we are at the third issue of WNU. I know that in past editions I've gone over some of my personal choices for games that I felt should have been brought over to North America. But this week, I'm going to give you guys something I promised when I first started this:

Requests

That's right. This will be the first of several entries into the WNU series based solely on your suggestions. The two games highlighted this week come from Necros and Agent Embryo.

As a result, the games that we'll be looking at this week are:


Code Age Commanders


Evil Twin: Cyprien's Chronicles
Since we're doing this in order, Evil Twin comes first.



Now, the first thing I noticed is that this game is most certainly in English. It's also old. About six years old to be exact. Released in late 2001 for the PS2, it was ported to the PC and *gasp!* the Dreamcast in late 2002. It boasts a unique art style as well as an intriguing storyline. In the game, you play as a young orphan named Cyprien who gets trapped inside his nightmares and must fight across eight different dream islands to rescue his friends and confront his nightmares once and for all.

I'll admit, details on what specifically is going on with this game are pretty sparse (or I'm not looking hard enough) but from what I've seen, it's got the platforming/puzzle vibe going for it. For the first part of the game, you're forced to fight off enemies with a slingshot that comes equipped with infinite ammo, but eventually you unlock the ability to morph into Super Cyprien, the powered-up, nigh invincible alter-ego of the main character.

Overall this is one of those games that seems fairly easy to get a hold of considering that it also saw a PC release. Granted, I can't be too sure of whether or not PC games can be region-specific or not (if anyone does know then feel free to chime in). In the end though, this game proves to be one of the more story-driven titles featured here.


Now for the second half of our article, Code Age Commanders.




Now the first thing that you might notice is that this game was made by Square-Enix. Yes believe it or not, there are actually original games only being released in Japan because Heaven knows that we Ameri-cans don't like anything but the Eff-Eff Seven. Personal gripes aside, this game was released in 2005 and was created and produced by one, Yusuke Naora. He's was character designer for the SaGa series and art director for just about everything having to do with Final Fantasy VII.

Seeing as how I don't speak Japanese, i have to say that I have no idea what's being said in the above video. However, because of the handy Internet at my disposal, I was still able to dig up details about the story.

Via Wikipedia:

"Code Age Commanders is set in an "intraglobular world" (球内世界, kyuunai sekai?), a fictional hollow world similar to a Dyson sphere, with people living on its internal surface. The center of the sphere is occupied by the "Central Code", a spherical structure which goes through a transformation called "Reborn" about every ten thousand years, destroying all life on the globe and allowing for the birth of a new one.

The game begins near the end of a Central Code cycle, while mankind has learned about the impending disaster and built "Arks", flying stations intended to float in the sky and house most of them in a deep sleep state for the duration of the Reborn. The operation works for one hundred years before objects falling from the Central Code hit the Arks and cause them to crash to the surface. Its passengers die or awake, now at the mercy of those who remained on the ground as well as the Otellos; a new, warped species which arose from the dropped pieces of the Central Code. The Otellos seek humans to turn them into mindless puppets named "Coded", although the mutation fails on people from the Arks and results in free and extremely evolved hybrids called "Warheads".

Knowing this, several humans seek Otellos voluntarily to become Warheads and try to protect mankind with the powers gained from the mutation. Several armed factions form with differing points of view on the way to save the world, while the Reborn still has not been completed."

Another important part of the story is that it features four playable characters: Gene, Fiona, Gerald, and Haze. At least three of the characters are connected in some way or another, so you can guarantee that the fourth is just a badass loner anyway.

Coming from Square-Enix, this is obviously going to be RPGish. It's more of a hack and slash RPG in that the gameplay revolves around missions that have the player running across a map, defeating enemies, absorb others, and just generally kicking ass.



A couple of the RPG features that the game include are stat customization as well as weapon and character upgrades. By using specific abilities in the field (i.e. attacking with a specific arm or running) you can increase the characters skill in the actions related stat; arm strength and speed in this case. This is known as "Self Evolution" in the game.

The second half of the system is called "Code Points". It pretty much breaks down to a stat boosting system based on the amount of "code" that you pick up from enemies and your overall grade at the end of the mission. These points can be spent on improving either one of the characters arms or to increase stats and gain new abilities.

One of the biggest issues with this game and it's not-likely release in the U.S. is its backstory. The story is told through a manga of the same name and while the game scored fairly well, a few reviewers felt that being able to understand it fully meant having to go back and read the entire manga.

There's another game in the Code Age series, but it was for cell phones. Whether or not this is really relevant to the game not being released here, I'll never know. What I can tell you is that the chances of seeing it on this side of the ocean are pretty much nil. Much like what happened with Berserk from last time, the game has been out for several years already in Japan and seeing as how we're hearing the death knell of the past generation of consoles, I'd give it a zero percent chance of ever being ported.

Of course, with Square-Enix's line-up of games coming out for the DS, maybe one day they'll make a Code Age game for the system.

and never port it to the U.S.


That wraps it up for the third edition of WNU. With some luck, the next one won't be far behind (within a month). As always, critique away and offer any suggestion that you have for future issues.


P.S. Alternate titles for this post:

"When I Get Around To It" Edition
"Forgot This Was Here" Edition
"Teims Ta Boozt Ma Rhanks" Edition