Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (review)

Platform: Switch
Developer: Monolith Soft
Publisher: Nintendo
Year: 2017
Players: 1

This game is considered as Xenoblade Chronicles’ sequel althought it has its own context and characters. However, it is very close to the first entry when it comes to gameplay and storytelling.

Xenoblade 2 world consists of a cloud sea called Alrest, which allows life for giant living beings called titans, which in turn are inhabited by humans, flora, fauna and special beings called blades. Blades are living weapons designed to assist people in combat, but only some people have the actual skills to use them, becoming drivers.
At the center of Alrest is the World Tree, a giant vertical structure which summit is said to be Elysium, an ancient paradise according to the legends. The lore says both humans and blades used to live there in the distant past, but they were all exiled by The Architect (considered the Creator) for unknown reasons.
The main protagonist is Rex and his adventure begins when he reaches Argentum Trade Guild in order to do some business. He is just a teenager that works as a salvager, extracting treasure chests from the sea and doing some merchant-related activities. However, his life will take a different course when he decides to accept a mysterious mission to get paid with a great reward, his days as a salvager are about to change…

And this is the beginning of the adventure, it is a story developed with the Xenoblade 1 style: a lot of focus on dialogues, flawless cinematic direction, plot twists, deep characters, unpredictable situations and amazing chapter endings.
This narrative style brings some new features too: interesting flashbacks from the past, cutscenes about the current bad-guys activities, and dialogues that provide a lot of perspective and context about the past and present of Alrest. Overall, it’s quite possitive whan can be said about the plot, and this is one of the game’s main assets after all. However, this doesn’t approach perfection and some issues exist: some cutscenes are left unexplained and designed to be interpreted by the player, instead of providing concrete flow of actions. Besides, if we follow all the game’s rules, some specific situations don’t make any sense at all. But, more importantly: the sum of all these flaws is not bigger than the general result by any means, and the possitive aspects outweigh the little set of issues. In fact, the story is easily superior than the ones provided on many JRPGs on the switch, but still not superior than what was written on Xenoblade 1.

Xenoblade 1 was a masterpiece though it had two serious problems: it required a huge amount of grinding and the combat interface was not that good. The good news is that this sequel solved both problems: grinding is sharply reduced to a little degree, and the combat UI is better than ever: more intuitive, more pratical and with easier controls.
Fortunately, this doesn’t mean this game is easier or trivial at all: battles are actually more complex and tactical, and it includes a brand new blade system that provides a wide range of possibilities for attacking. Overall, combat needs some strategy to succeed and this time, our team needs to balance attack, defense and recovery, so, the best approach may be to simply assign pairs of driver/blade to their matching role.
Some good features that returned from the first entry include: auto-attack, arts, specials, chain attack, aggro, affinity chart and equipment to boost stats.
These mechanics are mixed with new approaches: the blade system allows to set at most 3 blades per driver, improve and boost each blade through chips, aux cores and affinity charts, and the existence of an affinity level and trust level between driver-blade.
In addition to these features, more gameplay innovations include Merc Group (new side-quest system), collection points to farm items, blade gacha system (offline feature to obtain blades), and blades have field skills that allow to progress while exploring in order to discover areas.
All of the previously mentioned mechanics were implemented carefuly to enhance the experience of the game, and this was succesful from a general perspective.

Xenoblade 2 awesomeness doesn’t stop with the story and combat system, the world of Alrest was designed in the best possible way: huge regions are full of details, they are an invitation to exploring them. Any open-world game needs essentially a neat level design, and this one sits at the top among the very best, both from the performance and graphics perspective (considering switch’s limitations, of course). From the artistic approach it can be considered amazing, creative, impeccable and convincing. Landscapes include at least content like this: forests, desert, plains, tundra, villages, military bases, battle ships, futuristic envinronments, cities, caves etc.

Last but not least, music and voice acting are just as good as the first entry, most of the soundtrack is highly enjoyable and according to the situation.

Summary
Xenoblade Chronicles is a masterpiece and this is a worthy sequel, a continuation from all the good stuff. In the end, after evaluating most of the aspects of the game and averaging them, this entry comes as an essential must-play game for every switch owner.

Score: 9.5

Fire Emblem – Thracia 776 (review)

Platform: Super Famicom
Developer: Intelligent Systems
Publisher: Nintendo
Year: 1999
Players: 1

Introduction

Thracia 776 is Fire Emblem’s 5th entry in the series and the last one with the designs of zen Shouzou Kaga. It is also the penultimate Japan-only release and the last Fire Emblem released for Super Famicom. The game follows Geneaolgy’s plot but it’s considered a midquel rather than a sequel or prequel. Although there are common characters and context, there is a very interesting twist in the gameplay.

Gameplay

This entry breaks some FE4’s mechanics and brings a whole new, fresh challenge. Thracia’s style is yet another twist to the traditional TRPG, so it is charged with many exclusive and cool features. For example, the goal of each map moves from the ‘seize all castles’ objetive to a situation where each level requires its own tasks to complete the mission.
This game is considered by many players, the hardest of all the FE series. And there are many reasons why this claim can be considered a fact. First of all, there’s no arena in every map to grind. Instead, only some levels include this and if an ally loses, he/she dies. Then, map designs become really harsher, with many tough bosses, reinforcements everywhere and the enemy uses long-range attacks frequently with ballistas or magic. Recovery staffs may fail if skill is low. The only means to earn gold are to win at the arena or to steal an enemy’s weapon and then sell it. The weapons break quickly and ally units may get fatigued, so this feature may prevent them to deploy them in the next map. Sometimes it’s difficult to get good weapons or rare items and it’s often a challenge to recruit good soldiers. A new feature is the scroll, an item used to alter an ally growth so his/her stats increase according to the scroll effects. There are many scrolls spread across the game and some of them are difficult to get.
Despite Thracia is based on Genealogy’s context, only one character can use a holy weapon, and everyone else is limited to regular weapons. This game also drops the tradition of depending on a strong paladin from the begining to defeat tough enemies.
Thracia used for the first time the combat manuals, a cool feature used many years later in entries like Path Of Radiance or Radiant Dawn. These manuals allow a unit to learn a new skill, and skills are similar to the ones introduced in Genealogy.
Everything in this game is designed to be a harsh challenge, it requires to develop complex strategies in order to fullfil every objective and advance without losing our valuable allies.

Story (No Spoilers)

The plot takes place in the year 776, so most of the world is already conquered by Grannvale Empire and there are only a few resistance groups to fight back. However, this troops are easily defeated and the Empire’s power and reach is growing. In the east, the South Kingdom Of Thracia is already conquered and this fate is shared by other eastern countries as well, including Leonser, Alster, Manster and Connaugh.
Our heroes are barely escaping the Empire’s squads, and the story begins when they reach the village of Fianna. This time, the protagonist is Leif, prince of Leonster, son of Quan and Ethlyn. He is always protected by Finn, a loyal knight who served Leif’s father, and Eyvel, leader of Fianna’s freeblades, a group of mercenaries.

Music

The OST doesn’t bring that epic-orchesrated tunes as shown in Genealogy but instead, it’s full of some addictive melodies that match perfectly the fray. I’m leaving a video for example purposes. To be honest I listen to this cool tracks every now and then, I really love them.

Graphics

Graphics are nearby the results of Genealogy but they include less special effects in combat animations. Still, the presentation layer is quite good to display both outdoors and indoors maps, and the menu interfaces are neat enough to provide a good experience. Character designs also look good and convincing.
So, overall, the visual elements fulfil my expectations for a Super Famicom game.

Conclussions

This game must be played by every FE fan and the recommendation is extended for hardcore RPG players who look for a real challenge. Thracia 776 brings together a lot of cool strategic elements with solid map designs, an interesting plot and enjoyable music soundtracks.
10.0

Play this masterpiece here.

METROID PRIME 2: ECHOES (review)

Plataform: Game Cube
Developer: Retro Studios
Publisher: Nintendo
Year: 2004
Players: 1-4
Rated: T

This is the sequel of the world-class game Metroid Prime, a game which brought back the Metroid series and transformed its gameplay. Follwing Prime’s tradition, Echoes introduced some cool changes and a multiplayer mode.

Gameplay

Gameplay and controls are inherited from Metroid Prime. For example the switch between beams and visors or the morph ball transformation works the same way as before. So it’s quite easy to learn to play if we know Prime already. Nevertheless there’s still some good innovation and changes in the game mechanics.

First of all, the beams have limited ammo, so it’s necesary to recharge them because if ammo reaches zero, then the only possible way for fire dark/light/annihilator beam is to use the charge. This means there isn’t infinite ammo, as in Prime.
Then there’s another challenge: Dark Aether’s atmosphere is toxic and Samus is vulnerable to it most of the time. The only way to fully avoid this is to get the Light Suit or using light fields.
Finally the puzzles are way harder because many of them are about switching between two planets: Aether and Dark Aether, so this implies we need to analyze a lot to solve them.

Samus needs to deal with a lot of challenging bosses and sub-bosses who deliver weapons or abilities when they’re defeated.
Samus’ new arsenal includes the Seeker Missile which allows her to fire 5 missiles at once. The new beams are: Light, Dark and Annihilator. The Dark Beam is slow but can paralyze an enemy if hit by a charge shot, so this works similar to the Ice Beam (Prime). The Light Beam is fast and accurate, and it leaves a burning effect on the enemy so it’s similar to the Plasma Beam. Finally, the Annihilator Bean combines ammo from both beams to shoot a powerful, fast, and accurate attack. There exist charge combos for all beams, but they need to be retrieved first and they consume a lot of missiles.
The Screw Attack returns here and it provides both lethal-quick attacks and a lot of movility to help reach distant places.
Samus can also equip new visors: Dark and Echo. The Dark Visor allows to detect invisible objects and enemies, and the Echo Visor is mostly used to solve puzzles about wave sounds.

Music

Metroid’s music is always good and Echoes isn’t the exception. Well, maybe there is the boring sounds of the Temple Grounds area but overall the OST is really cool. For example, the music in Dark Aether brings an immersive effect to the shadowy, cloudy planet. This is also the case for Sactuary Fortress, where the futuristic and digital landscape is matched perflectly with the music.

Story

The plot occurs immediatly after the events of Metroid Prime. The evil Metroid Prime survived all Samus’ attacks, and it even absorbed her DNA to transform in her nemesis: Dark Samus.
The Galactic Federation sent Samus Aran to search for a missing squad, and the only clue is that they landed in Aether. Samus will find out what happened to them and also learn about Aether’s history and its inhabitants. Apparently the natives called Luminoth are already extinct, in a similar manner to Tallon IV’s Chozos.
In the past, an asteroid hit Aether and it created a twin planet: the Dark Aether. This brought a tragedy because a new race emerged: the ING, who attacked Aether to steal its energy and deliver it to Dark Aether.
So, Samus must face the ING, Dark Samus and her long-time enemies: The Space Pirates, who were chasing the missing GF squad. Then, Samus’ mission is to recover the energy from Dark Aether to achieve peace and help the Luminoth.

The narrative style is better than before because it uses some dialogues instead of just a collection of entries in the LogBook.

Graphics.

The visual quality is similar to Prime’s without going too further. Nevertheless at that time it looked pretty good, specially in all Dark Aether’s details. This planet is like a never ending night which uses a cloudy environment with purple and red skies, full of shadowy areas, toxic lakes, etc. All of this looks great and convincing. The same can be said about other areas like Sanctuary Fortress’ futuristic style.

Multiplayer

This is easilty the most criticized element of the game. The stages have a poor design and there’s just 4 of them in total. They’re not even based on the Single Player areas. Why not create 10 maps instead, some of them located Dark Aether? This would have been a success. Besides, there’s no online multiplayer, we are talking about a GCN game. So there’s just local 4-player matches with 4 maps. The only possitive feature is that the equipment is a bit extended with more weapons like Hacker Mode, lethal Morph Ball or automatic Super-missiles.

Conlusion

I believe this is the best Metroid Prime, but I know this is an unpopular opinion.
Well, at least we can say objectively that this is the hardest one and I already gave the reasons.
The graphics and OST are good.
The plot is better and more interesting than Prime’s.
The gameplay added some cool new features.
The multiplayer just sucks but it was the first time in the series to have it.

Dark Aether is just Aether’s shadow and I feel the same about Prime 2 compared to Prime or Prime 3. It is underrated for the wrong reasons.

Grade: 9.5

METROID PRIME 2: ECHOES (reseña)

Plataforma: Game Cube
Desarrollador: Retro Studios
Publicador: Nintendo
Año: 2004
Jugadores: 1-4
Clasificación: T

Esta es la secuela del mundialmente aclamado Metroid Prime, un juego que puso de vuelta a la franquicia de Metroid y que además le dio un giro importante al transformar el gameplay. Siguiendo la tradición del primer título, Echoes introdujo cambios favorables y un modo multijugador.

Gameplay

El gameplay y sobre todo los controles se basan claramente en que lo que se usó en Metroid Prime. El cambio entre rayos, misiles y visores se hace de la misma manera, lo mismo que la transformación a Morph Ball. Hasta aquí la curva de aprendizaje del videojuego es muy buena si antes jugamos Metroid Prime. Pero hay cambios y novedades que no deben perderse de vista y que son importantes en el gameplay.

En primer lugar, los rayos tienen un límite de Ammo (munición), que debe recargarse frecuentemente o ésta puede llegar a cero y entonces para disparar es obligado cargar el rayo. Entones no hay municiones infinitas, como en Mertroid Prime.
En segundo lugar, la atmósfera del planeta oscuro es tóxica y Samus no es inmune a eso la mayor parte del juego. En realidad sólo el Light Suit y los campos de luz inhabilitan por completo esos efectos.
En tercero, no pocos acertijos se basan en cambiar entre dos mundos: Aether y Dark Aether, de modo que esto implica una buena labor de análisis en el videojugador.

Samus se enfrenta con un sinnúmero de Jefes y Subjefes que al ser derrotados le devolverán armas perdidas. Muchos de estos jefes son bastante desafiantes y originales.
El armamento nuevo de Samus incluye el Seeker Missile que permite disparar a la vez cinco misiles a un solo objetivo o múltiples objetivos.
Los nuevos rayos son el Dark, Light y Annihilator. El Dark Beam es un rayo lento pero cargado puede paralizar enemigos, su efecto es parecido al Ice Beam en Metroid Prime. El Light Beam es más rápido y preciso, y genera un efecto de quemadura que puede decirse similar al Plasma Beam de Metroid Prime. Finalmente el Annihilator Beam combina munición de ambos rayos para disparar algo aún más poderoso y preciso. Es aún más preciso y rápido que los misiles.
Los Charge Combos existen para los tres rayos, y generan ataques muy poderosos, pero gastan muchos misiles en esto, asi que hay que saber donde usarlos.
El Screw Attack vuelve a estar vigente y tiene un efecto similar al de los antiguos Metroids: es letal y permite mucha movilidad.
Los visores ahora son el Dark Visor y el Echo Visor. El primero se enfoca en detectar objetos invisibles mientras que el segundo detecta ondas de sonido y ambos ayudan a resolver acertijos.

Las limitantes de munición, la tóxica atmósfera de Dark Aether y los nuevos y retorcidos puzzles colocan a MP2:E como un juego por mucho más desafiante que el mismo Metroid Prime. Aún cuando Echoes toma muchas de sus ideas de Prime, aún alcanza y propone variables interesantes al gameplay.

Música

El sountrack de cualquier Metroid siempre es un punto a favor. No es Echoes la excepción. Aunque las melodías de Temple Grounds aburren después de un rato, la música compuesta en las otras regiones del mapa es muy disfrutable, fruto de las ideas del mismo compositor que hizo el OST de Prime. Algunos soundtracks son remixes de música de Super Metroid, mientras que otros son completamente originales y muy acordes con lo que se mira en pantalla.
Mientras que la música de las zonas del planeta oscuro suenan lúgubres, tenemos sonidos electrónicos para Sanctuary Fortress que es una especie de ciudad tecnológica.

Historia

Inmediatamente después de los hechos en Metroid Prime ocurre esta secuela. El malvado Metroid Prime resulta que sobrevivió a la paliza que le puso Samus, y ahora ha tomado la forma de ella, convirtiéndose en el alter-ego de esta subsaga: Dark Samus.
La Federación Galática ha enviado a Samus Aran en busca de uno de los desaparecidos escuadrones, y sólo se tiene pista de que están en Aether. Pero Samus no sólo encontrará lo que ocurrió con ellos, sino que hallará que Aether tiene su historia y los habitantes del planeta fueron víctimas de algo similar que ocurrió con los Chozo de Tallon IV: la extinción. Samus encontrará a uno de los sobrevivientes de la masacre y él pedirá ayuda, además de contarle sobre la historia de su raza, los Luminoth.
Un mal día los días de paz de los Luminoth terminaron, y fue cuando un meteorito golpeó Aether y lo dividió en dos planetas, generando el Dark Aether. Luego personajes antagónicos a los Luminoth –los ING– atacaron Aether y robaron la energía de su planeta para llevársela a su casa: el Dark Aether.
Samus tendrá que enfrentar a los ING pero también a su némesis (Dark Samus) y a sus enemigos de siempre, los Space Pirates, quienes acosaban al perdido escuadrón de la Federación Galáctica en Aether. La misión de Samus es entonces recuperar la energía robada de Aether, y devolver la paz a los Luminoth.

Echoes dio un giro interesante en la narrativa respecto de Prime. La trama del videojuego no sólo se lee del Logbook, sino que hay algunos diálogos con personajes, lo que genera un positivo efecto inmersivo.

Gráficas

El detalle visual se aproxima mucho al de Prime sin ir mucho más lejos. De todos modos para la época no estaba nada mal y el engine fue aprovechado para generar un inmersivo ambiente oscuro y lúgubre que es el Dartk Aether. El planeta hermano de Aether es brumoso y nocturno, lleno de nubes color rojo o morado según la situación. El esfuerzo que se hizo en cuanto a diseño es muy grande.
Otros buenos aspectos gráficos fue el diseño de prácticamente todo Sanctuary Fortress, donde la iluminación y motivos coloridos cumplen muy bien su cometido al generar su ambiente futurista y mecanizado.

Multiplayer

Un elemento muchas veces criticado de Echoes ha sido el Multiplayer. Los mapas no son precisamente muy creativos y además sólo son cuatro, y ni siquiera están basados en los mapas del Single Player. Con un poquito de creatividad pudieron generar 10 mapas basados en el juego, algunos en Dark Aether, y hubiera sido un gran éxito. Como estamos hablando de GCN, claramente no había online aún, sino matches locales de hasta 4 jugadores.
Por otro lado el multi incluye armamento adicional que no existe en el Single Player, como Súper Misiles automáticos, Hacker Mode y morph balls letales, además de una gran torreta en uno de los mapas. Esto enriquece mucho el multi.

Conclusiones

Siempre he creído que este fue el mejor Prime, aunque se que es una opinión impopular.
Objetivamente hablando es el Prime más difícil por las razones que ya di. Sus gráficas no impresionan a nadie pero el engine no está desperdiciado y hay puntos a favor. La música es gozadora como en cualquier metroid.
La historia es mucho más inmersiva que en Prime al mejorar la narrativa. Incluso diría que es más interesante.
El gameplay sigue la pauta de Prime pero alcanzó un nivel decente de innovación.
El multi no es ninguna maravilla pero es el primer Metroid en tenerlo.
Así como Dark Aether no es más que la sombra de Aether, Echoes desafortunadamente siempre estará en la sombra de Prime y de Prime 3, aunque para mí sea de los imprescindibles de GCN.

Calificación: 9.5