Monday, May 31, 2021

Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy (PSP)


Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy is a fighting JRPG crossover spin-off game for the PSP.  It is the second game in the Dissidia series but the story is a prequel, and it also contains the first game’s story as a post-game bonus. Dissidia is designed as a fighting game, which serves as the combat system.  Battles are one-on-one fights taking place in a large open area.  It is fast paced and looks great in action.  Winning is slightly different though because there are two types of attacks.  Bravery attacks will not deal damage to your opponent’s HP, but will build up Bravery Points.  HP attacks will damage your opponent’s HP to the value of your Bravery Points.  Thus you must build up enough points and then land a HP attack in order to get somewhere. Furthermore, your character can jump, block and dodge.  Blocking and dodging depends on your timing, which isn’t helped by the fact that it is a combination of two buttons pressed at the same time in order to execute.  Complicating things further, you can call for Assist Attacks where a friendly character will come in to deal damage, and an Ex Mode that gives your character stat boosts, unique attacks and other passive abilities.

All the while you can jump around the place, dash towards or away from an enemy, and climb walls and other obstacles.  This leads to verticality in the area designs.  The game highly discourages button mashing since all attacks aren’t instant.  They have a short starting animation that can be interrupted, which can be annoying and frustrating if you are not used to it.  Dissidia is a difficult game with a high learning curve, even on the Normal difficulty. Despite being a fighting game, it has a meaty story mode complete with all RPG elements.  Each character can gain experience to level up, unlocking new attacks and abilities to equip in the process.  There is a wide variety of attacks and abilities that can drastically change a character’s play style.  The story takes place in chapters and focuses on six characters:  Lightning, Vaan, Laguna, Yuna, Kain and Tifa.

The game’s cycle is that your character is placed on a world map where you run around to go to Gates.  You battle through these Gates, defeat a boss and then move on.  There are frequent cutscenes, which are all fully voiced.  The story mode can be difficult for newcomers due to the complexity of the combat system, and how you need to look out for the enemy’s moment in order you time your actions.  Furthermore, you seem to be perpetually underleveled compared to the bosses and you do not have enough resources to consistently source the best equipment. Bosses can feel cheap when they are able to constantly dodge your attacks.  You’ll fight against the camera since when you are locked onto an opponent, the camera likes to shift around and have a pillar or wall blocking your sight.  This is a limitation of the PSP hardware since a right stick to control the camera would have alleviated this frustration.

The crossover aspect is very cool.  As part of the eternal conflict between the gods Cosmos and Chaos, Cosmos summons the heroes from various worlds to fight for her.  During the journey, our heroes will fight against Manikins which are effectively clones of the villains.  It uses the same music from the various Final Fantasy games and when used as battle themes, it is awesome.  The battle between Cosmos and Chaos are in cycles, and as the title suggests, this is the 12th cycle. The story ends up being quite simple and not that well told.  It seems very drab with a lot of dialogue.  It takes around ten to fifteen hours to complete so it isn’t a long story by JRPG standards.  However, the final chapter requires a bit of grinding since it forces you to use a party of all the playable characters, but they will all be underleveled by the time they reach the final boss, even if you had never skipped a battle before this point.

Once you get the hang of the battle system, the game is very fun.  The graphics are impressive for a PSP game.  The gameplay loop within the story can be a bit repetitive, especially with the amount of battles that you have to do.  It only feels like this because of the constant loading screens.  It does try to stave off the repetitiveness by forcing you to control a different character each chapter, and each character plays differently, you have to change and adapt your tactics. Summon effects during the battle that usually puts the opponent at an advantage or you at a disadvantage and it feels really unfair when that happens.  It happens way too frequently.  Due to the seeming “lag” between pressing a button and the attack actually happening due to the attack animation, it feels as if the opponent dodges your attack way more often than you’ll like.  This is probably due to the game encouraging you to dodge and then counterattack but it is still frustrating at times, especially when it drags out the end of a battle.  These two combined makes it a terrible design choice and makes the game really unfun.

Once you’re finished with the prequel story, you can play through the first game’s story and the difficulty rise is ridiculous.  All your characters start at level one and the enemy far outpaces your level.  You are supposed to make up for it with equipment but it is still unfair when certain opponents spam moves and continues to make the game more and more unfun.  This highlights the flaws of the control scheme where the AI has inhuman dodging reflexes while you’re stuck trying to press two buttons at the same time to dodge, and the movement being so clunky.  Upgrading your equipment is not as easy as it sounds as you don’t gain much money from battles; it makes the game a stupid grindfest. The first game’s story is longer, and feels even more of a grind.  It tries to shake things up a little bit by introducing stage effects but the story is of a lower quality and somehow manages to make an epic crossover quite bland.  It takes around 15 to 20 hours to complete and after that comes the post-game content which is the first cycle of battle.  In this, the enemies are very high leveled.

Sure, there is a lot of content but it is all very repetitive, and the world map ends up not adding anything to the game.  That fact that you’re fighting in the same arenas against the same enemies multiple times (since they’re used as mooks), it’s not great and feels like it is dragging the game way too much.  The story is nowhere near good enough to keep the grind going.  The original’s story has the same concept, which is just the various characters fighting against each other, there’s a lot of dialogue but very little is meaningful. Overall, Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy is fun for the first ten hours or so but then it eats away at you with its repetitive nature.  It is grind heavy, the AI difficulty is broken, being either too easy if you exploit it properly, or too hard as it spam moves and throws massive level differences.  The world map is cool but once you get to the second cycle, it’s like, what’s the point since it is unnecessary fluff.

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Sunday, May 30, 2021

Toy Review: Transformers Generations War for Cybertron Kingdom Cheetor (Deluxe)


Review: 
#660
Name:  Cheetor
Brand:  Transformers
Allegiance:  Maximal
Line:  Generations - War for Cybertron:  Kingdom
Year of Release:  2020
Size Class:  Deluxe (Wave 1)
Mold Status:  new

BEAST MODE:


Cheetor transforms into a cheetah and this is a really good beast mode.


Surprisingly, apart from the blue behind his hind legs and the robot feet sticking slightly out, there are no other visible robot mode.  This is actually quite impressive.


A beast mode is always slightly smaller than vehicle modes given that the latter has the benefit of a large outline (even if it is a hollow shell).


He has red eyes and the mouth can open and close.


Furthermore, there is some poseability with the front and hind legs, although the fixed head limits this somewhat.


As part of the Kingdom line, he comes with a random holographic card / sticker.


A really good beast mode, all the more impressive when you come to realize how good the robot mode is as well.

TRANSFORMATION:

You'd expect the transformation is basically be stand the beast mode on his hind legs and fiddle around, that is only partially right.  The hind legs do become the robot legs, but requires some bits to fold up.  The tail is detached to become a weapon.  The most interesting part is how the torso splits in half to reveal the arms and put the beast's front legs as the robot's backpack.  The cheetah's lower jaw folds down, then the head fold down to snap onto the faux lower jaw.

ROBOT MODE:


The robot mode is great for the most part except for the beast's hind legs awkwardly folded up onto his shins.  It's painted blue to slightly hide it but it's obvious.


He carries quite a bit of kibble on his back, which is accurate to the original toy and animation model.  Unfortunately, you cannot cross the legs in a perfect replica of the show though.


Cheetor's head is nicely painted, although he has a somewhat angry face to him.


In terms of size, it's only when you put him against another Deluxe do you realize how short he is.  Despite that, he's built solidly and doesn't have an abundance of hollow parts, so this is actually preferred over the alternative.


Articulation is impressive, he has joints for his head, shoulders, elbows, wrists, waist, hips, knees and ankles.


Despite his small feet, he is very stable thanks to the ankle tilts.


The tail detaches in transformation to become some sort of ax / whip weapon.


He can hold the weapon in either hand but since it doubles as the cheetah's tail, it is curved really weirdly.  Holding it with the blade facing out makes it curve too far back towards the body.


However, if Cheetor holds the weapon with the blade facing in, then it looks weird that the sharp bit isn't facing the enemy.


Despite the awkward weapon (a gun would have been preferred), this is a strong robot mode.

OVERALL:

Cheetor is a great figure.  He has two stellar modes, with an interesting transformation in between that is involved enough to hold your interest and isn't too complex.  The robot mode's weakest aspects are the beast legs on his shins and the weapon, but is otherwise perfect.

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Friday, May 28, 2021

Old Dogs (2009)


Old Dogs is a feel good family film starring John Travolta and Robin Williams.  The pair play best friends Charlie and Dan.  They'd been friends for over thirty years and are business partners today.  Charlie is the wilder one, while Dan is more traditional, with Charlie often coercing Dan to do some stuff he normally wouldn't do.  Dan was married, then divorced and then hooked up again before that relationship failing as well.  Years later, he finds out that he is the father of twins and through a series of coincidences, he has to take care of them.  This is a comedy film and there are the occasional good jokes.  It is very much a typical family film though, as Dan and Charlie, having been single all their lives, struggle to properly take care of the children.  However, they soon form a bond, and one of the frequent jokes is how Dan and Charlie are partners and the grandfathers of the children.  As expected, the moral of the story is that family first, and everything else will fall into place.  Despite that, it does a good job at making a feel good story so that it is actually quite enjoyable if you go into it with lowered expectations.

Thursday, May 27, 2021

Toy Review: Transformers BotBots Barf Bag (series 5)


Review: 
#659
Name:  Barf Bag
Brand:  Transformers
Allegiance:  N/A
Line:  BotBots
Year of Release:  2020
Size Class:  BotBot (Series 5)
Mold Status:  redeco of Overpack

ALTERNATE MODE:


Barf Bag transforms into a backpack... that is painted like vomit is coming out of it.


Naturally, it's not the most appealing of paint schemes.  The mold itself is pretty good, complete painted straps.


In terms of size, Barf Bag is fairly small, above is a comparison against Legion Barricade.


A good mold but you'll either love or hate the paint scheme.

TRANSFORMATION:

Pull the top up to reveal the eyes, the arms pull out from the sides and the legs from the bottom.

ROBOT MODE:


Again, ignoring the paint scheme, the robot mode is very decent, with good proportions


The interesting part is how the backpack straps aren't split due to transformation, but is still one piece so it acts more like hair, and it works surprisingly well.


The head sculpt is basically two large painted eyes.


While Barf Bag gains a little bit of height in robot mode, he is still much shorter than the average Legion figure.


Articulation is limited to only swinging the arms forward and back.

OVERALL:

Barf Bag is a fantastic mold, just the vomit theme is not that great.  Unless you're super keen for this theme, it is better to get one of the other uses of this mold.

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Wednesday, May 26, 2021

Spider-Man (1994) - Season 2 (1995-96)


The second season of Spider-Man has the subtitle Neogenic Nightmare throughout all of its episodes’ titles.  It is slightly longer compared to the first season, with fourteen episodes in total. The season has a strong opening with a two part arc on the Insidious Six.  It showcases the standard of the second season as not only does it increase the amount of action but the witty dialogue has also improved in quality.  Seeing the six villains team up together to try and break down Spider-Man, as well as Spider-Man using their haphazard team up process to his advantage, made it much more interesting than most of season one’s solo attempts.


The Neogenic Nightmare subtitle is not only a throwaway title as it is heavily featured as the theme for the whole season.  Neogenics created the Lizard and Spider-Man, and will continue to cause more problems in the future.  Early on, there is constant foreshadowing of future problems for Peter Parker as he experiencing the loss of his abilities at random times.  This naturally means life or death since if he loses his ability while swinging around the city, he’ll fall to his death, likewise when he loses his grip while crawling on a high rise building.


The end result is a focused season centered on a theme which makes it feel consistent.  Spider-Man is desperate to find a cure for his ability loss and ends up being a significant plot point.  It is frequently mentioned during the whole season and eventually comes to a boiling point.  The fact that it is a buildup in the background of several episodes makes it come gradually, instead of out of nowhere.


The other highlight of the season is how it incorporates the appearances of several other Marvel characters.  It had already hinted at this possibility in the first season and it is accomplished now.  Their appearances feel natural within the story arc of the episode and are an awesome addition.  Plenty of characters appear from the X-Men to the Punisher to Blade, it’s quite surprising actually on who actually shows up.  They aren’t just quick cameo roles either, there is some effort made to reference their backstories and justify their personalities.


While several villains return to make an appearance, there are introductions of several other villains we haven’t seen yet.  You would hope that they are not one-shot characters and will appear for more than one episode.  The thing is, these villains are really strong and as a result, it feels like they easily defeat Spider-Man.  However, this forces Spider-Man to use his ingenuity and knowledge of science in order to defeat these villains, some of which have supernatural powers. Not all villains are portrayed in a negative light either.  Some of them are depicted as having sympathetic reasons for finding themselves in the position that they’re in.  This doesn’t completely justify their actions but it goes a long way in not having them as one-dimensional evil characters.


The love life of Peter Parker is another focus and he remains in limbo in this area.  It’s a constant cycle as he’ll gain some ground by managing to land dates with Felicity and Mary Jane, but never actually makes it to them thanks to his Spider-Man job.  It’s sad and frustrating to see how being Spider-Man can affect his normal life so much.  It isn’t helped when Spider-Man keeps getting framed by others as the bad guy.  It is annoying how everyone is so quick to blame him, despite all his assistance in the past.


The writing has improved with arcs spanning multiple episodes now being the norm.  These longer arcs are interesting and help flesh out the characters.  At the same time, they aren’t long enough to go to any real depths.  Many of them get resolved easily and quickly which can be disappointing when the lead up was quite decent. 3D CG is still used when the camera pans around during Spider-Man’s web swinging.  There are some nicer usages of it during several scenes, mainly the ones where it isn’t a CG of multiple buildings but rather panning out the surrounds of the character so it isn’t all awkward.  This season has a lot more action and Spider-Man is animated more naturally with his nimble acrobatics.  There was still some cost cutting measures taken such as reuse of animation, especially in flashbacks.


Overall, the second season of Spider-Man notably improves the quality of its animation and writing.  The season opening is a nice taste to set the standards and it manages to keep it up all the way to the season finale.  The change to having foreshadowing and arcs that span multiple episodes help make the season a lot more consistent and less disjointed, resulting in a more enjoyable watch.

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Monday, May 24, 2021

Need for Speed Rivals (PS4)


Need for Speed Rivals is the twentieth installment in the series and was developed by both Ghost Games and Criterion Games. It is a combination of Hot Pursuit and Most Wanted in terms of its focus, with the ability to play as both racers and police in an open world.


Upon starting the game, you quickly go through the tutorial for both sides before being able to pick one to play as. You’re able to freely swap between the two and they each have a slightly different focus. Each side has a rank, which acts as your level. Instead of experience points, you are given a set of tasks to complete. You usually have three sets to choose from so you can pick one that you feel is easier or more suited to your play style. Once you complete the sets, you will rise in rank. Unfortunately, the tasks for rising in ranks are from a very limited pool. It can easily get repetitive a few hours into the game.


As a racer, your aim is just to have fun and win in races. There are four types of events. A Race has you pitted against others for first place; Time Trial has you aiming for a specific time; Interceptor tasks you with escaping from police; and Hot Pursuit is a race against others but with police already on your tail. You will earn SP for everything that you do, from near misses against other cars to winning races. SP is used to upgrade your cars, customize them and buy new ones.


There are a variety of cars to (eventually) choose from. Each car has various stats including acceleration, top speed and endurance. This is important because you may have a fast but fragile car which means you probably won’t be using it for the Interceptor or Hot Pursuit events. It plays like other Need for Speed games, being an arcade racer, you can drift and use nitros to your advantage. Each side has weaponry to hinder other cars, such as EMP blasts and spike strips. Although it does have its own quirks in regards to physics and the handling so you’ll need a short amount of time in order to get used to it.


Driving around as a racer, your Heat Level will constantly increase. Heat Level is what dictates how aggressive the police will chase you. Once sighted, police will try and apprehend you by wrecking your car, or busting you if you end up being sandwiched by them and staying in their vicinity for too long. The only way to decrease your Heat Level is to return to your hideout, and speaking of the hideout, you also cannot pause the game unless you return to your hideout.


SP banking is where the game’s gimmick comes into play. You cannot use your SP until you return to your hideout and “bank” it. Being busted means that you will lose all your points gathered during the time since you last banked it. Losing all points is really annoying and easy in the beginning of the game. You end up not being able to play more than one event without the Heat Level being high enough for police to be persistent. It’s quite lame when all your progress is for nothing especially when Heat Level rises way too quickly. This isn’t about risk and reward; this is about some minimal level of recognition for your efforts when you can’t even finish one race without being hounded by police. Once you’ve either unlocked new cars or upgraded them, it becomes easier.


As you can probably gather, your hideout is one of the most important aspects. In addition to banking your SP and getting rid of your Heat Level, they serve as places that rank you up, buy and upgrade cars, and fast travel. It’s neat that you can easily fast travel straight to an event or to the other side of the map. The load times aren’t bad either. Playing on the police side will give you slightly different events, where you focus on busting the racers.  Thankfully, the cars you use are more robust than as if you play as a racer, so taking down a car is easier. Time trials, or Rapid Response as they are known, require you to do a clean lap which can be annoying when the cars controls like rubbish, as if they are heavy lumps of rock, and the traffic doesn’t spawn in your favor (and it never does).


There is a story mode, one for each side. The game is set in Redview County, which is mainly comprised of open country roads with barely any city elements. As a racer, the story is about how the police are your rivals. The voiceover will explain that it is not the racers’ fault as they haven’t done anything wrong. Rather it is the police who is using excessive force to take them down, although it is very hard to sympathize with the racers’ plight since they did bring it upon themselves. The story doesn’t take too long, probably only around five hours and most of that is just doing the events. Getting the maximum rank however, is another story.


The story mode for the police side is the same story of the police chasing after illegal racers. However, by playing the other side, you are supposed to see what it feels like when you’re the one being accused by the public of using excessive force. Unfortunately, similar to the racer’s story, the dialogue is cheesy as if it is written for kids.


As per standard in a Need for Speed game, the rubberbanding is terrible. There are moments where it is so blatant that it is disgusting. Slamming into other cars to wreck them will take a while, and when wrecked yourself, you will lose precious seconds as a cutscene plays, which can disorient you as well. The most annoying elements is when you make a mistake towards the end of an event that cost you multiple positions, resulting in a loss. The rubberbanding is more blatant when you’re playing as the police. This is because you’ll be right on the tail of a racer, using your nitrous to boost your speed to ram them. You’ll then find that the racer will magically speed up (without using nitrous) and keep being ahead of you.


The game can feel way too luck based at times. When the police literally appears in front of you as you’re racing and you have no choice but to smash into them costing you your position, that is terrible design. It is way too trigger happy with the damage and crashes, making it feel very unfun. There is a severe case of artificial difficulty, the AI likes to cheat and it’s frustrating when you lose like this. The path markers indicating the route is terrible. When the road suddenly branches and you need to take a turn, you’ll probably miss it on your first time. It seems to expect you to have memorized the routes after repeated attempts.


As you play more and more, it is surprising that the game gets worse and worse. Things that you would expect to get better don’t, the variety dies and it becomes repetitive and lame. One notable aspect is that there is obvious product placement from Ford, since there are numerous Ford related achievements / Trophies.


Overall, Need for Speed Rivals is an uneven and flawed game. It can be a fun racer with great moments at times, but there will also be some extremely frustrating times. The handling is weird to grasp even after playing it for a few hours, the AI is artificially hard, and there are too much luck based elements such as the spawn of traffic that affects your performance.

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