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Nier Automata - 2B and 9S

4/24/2017

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I decided to take a break from the SNES and Saturn games and jump into something more recent again.  Zelda, while an amazing game just wasn't sucking me in the way I wanted it to.  I'll definitely go back to it, but it's a stressfully big game with endless possibilities... which sounds fantastic if you have lots of time to spend consecutively.
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A Masterpiece of its own, I'll admit that Nier didn't pull me in at the start of it.  The metrics and world are crazy over-scaled and felt out-of-place to me.  Once I progressed to the first boss-battle section of the game it started to show some promise to me.  By the time I made it to the first quest giving town I was loving it - riding a wild boar and all!
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Everything in the game really feels like it fits and belongs, it starts to make sense once you see how the UI plays into the narrative.  The music is great - it sounds like the first Nier but with a flavor of its own.  The start screen has a haunting feeling to it that started to make sense when I encountered the talking robots.  At this point, the story is propelling the game forwards and the flow of content is steady.  I'm ready to play more!
Also: Reversible covers are awesome!
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The Long Winter

4/16/2017

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It's about that time to dust off the blog and get an entry written about some of the games I've played over this past winter...which seems to never end!  With all the cold, story and wet weather this winter I've been holed up making and playing games!
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When I last wrote, I was diving into the epic Dark Souls III.  I spent about 6 months slowly playing this third and possibly final entry in the franchise.  As those that came before it, there was never a dull moment in the art direction, and the world felt rich — with a skin that it felt incredibly comfortable to be in.  The music was some of the best of the series, especially that opening track on the title screen.  I would sit and listen to it entirely sometimes, both before and after playing.  There were a few times where I had to just sit and wind down from a Boss fight.  Boss design was equal parts fantastic and frustration, which I've also come to expect from a Souls game.
As much as I enjoyed plodding through some of the deepest parts of this crawler, I find myself wishing for the days of Demon's Souls when it felt fresh and new.  With the impact the series has had on the industry, I'm almost glad that the franchise is coming to an end.  I want to see something new that is hopefully vastly different.  I'd love to see Miyazaki dive into space and sci-fi and do what he does best with it.
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After Dark Souls III I fired up Xenoblade X.  It took a while for me to get into the game, mostly because it was so different than DSIII, which I'd been playing for half a year prior.  Once I finally got used to the controller and the grappled the scale of the world, the game really started to take hold.  Beyond the battle system I didn't find much in common with the original Xenoblade, and felt like it was closer to some of Takahashi's older games in theme.
Combat is by far the highlight of the game.  There are many layers of choice that lead to hours of time spent looking at super tiny text on the screen [Be prepared with a seriously large TV (I played on 72") to play this game without squinting all the time] trying to juggle the perfect combination of skills, relationships, and augments for weapons and armor.  The amount of systems at play both with the characters and with the world can be overwhelming at times.  There is never a time with nothing to do on either screen.  From balancing geo nodes to get maximum funds and resources on the controller, to buying and comparing Skell parts which you've also guided the construction of.
Just as with Demon's Souls, it was a slog of a game.  Thankfully the story was full of amazing moments, and the world was just a delight to explore.  The world was abound with unique plants, rock formations and water features.  The creatures offered a lot of visual variety and of course offered interesting on-foot and in-mech battles.  The game oozed with atmosphere overall with a soundtrack to match every emotional strum of the guitar.  I could do without a few of the vocal tracks, but the more I played (and fought) the more I found myself listening to the music.
It's the story that really carries the player through to the end, but it was enjoyable overall.  I think I would have preferred the likes of Xenoblade 2 on the Switch, but that doesn't make X any less of a good game.
After the two long-winded RPG's, I decided I needed something "lighter".  Enter Resident Evil VII:
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RE VII is the kind of game that I didn't want to end.  It was over sooner than it should have been, it felt like it was just getting to the really good stuff when the credits rolled.  I really enjoyed the game.  It creeped me out, it really felt like I was back in 1996 playing the original game, slowly creeping around corners in the house.  I jumped a few times when the moulded made their initial appearances!  I loved every scary minute of it - something I usually don't enjoy when playing games or watching films, but something about Resident Evil makes it incredibly engaging.
This installment certainly feels like a return to original form, but through a fresh lens - literally.  The switch to first person really put some people off, but I felt right at home with it.  Even the soundtrack felt like it was harkened from the PS2 era, with a catchy, creepy intro-tune that I couldn't stop listening to.  Graphically it was mostly gritty and unforgiving with the only softness appearing in the save zones, which felt straight out of RE2, along with the music track.
If an 8th entry meant more of this, I would certainly dive in but if the sales figures were any indication of the fate of Resident Evil...  then at least we had this fantastic game :D
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Free Time = Game Time

7/1/2016

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The first page of a several-page expose on the game
Since the closure of gumi Vancouver in April, I've spent the majority of my time catching up with my family, but also playing (and finishing!) games.  I decided to start with a Virtual Console title that I've been going back to on and off for a year now: Gargoyle's Quest II.  In anticipation for the games' release, I had cut out the first page spread in Nintendo Power and placed it up on my wall.
October 1992 came and went, the game was nowhere to be seen at my local retailers.  I was crushed, but as time went on it faded from memory.  The game was finally brought to the 3DS Virtual Console in March 2014, and I'd been trying to complete it on-and-off since then.

I booted it up last week, and finished it in two days.  A far cry from how long it had taken me to beat the original on the Gameboy back in the Summer of 1990.
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Unfortunately, there was no cool ending stats to take a picture of, so I took this shot of Firebrand
After finally checking GQII off my backlog list (24 years later) I re-started a game I'd also started once before but never finished.  My reason for owning a PS4 at the time: Bloodborne.
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A huge fan of the Souls series, Bloodborne had my attention as soon as it was announced.  Structurally it looked the same as a Souls game, but mechanically it is quite different which I found refreshing.  Instead of cowering behind my shield and waiting of the opportune moment to strike, I was suddenly able to give my enemies the beat down they deserved!  For all of it's action-combat however, the world structure is very much the same as the Souls games; plenty of secrets and shortcuts to uncover as long as you explore the beautiful victorian-era world.
I had hoped for a more accessible story with the action-focused gameplay, but that remains deeply embedded in the world.
Next up is the game that I chose to play with my son, Plants Vs. Zombies - Garden Warfare 2.
I picked this up a while back, but didn't have the time to play it, so recently I had the chance to tear off the cellophane wrap with my son and pop it in.  The first thing that I had to explain to him was that it was primarily an online game, and that we would need to spend some time getting used to the game with each other offline before going online.
Unfortunately the offline missions are somewhat of a drag, but we did have fun playing with each other anyways.  Online is where the real fun is, but I ended up having a lot more fun than my son, due to the ability level difference between himself and players online.
We continue to have fun with the game when we can.
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I was somewhat surprised to learn how deeply the in-app purchases have invaded console games, having mostly been away from them while I was working at gumi.  PVZ: GW2 offers paid premium currency which you can use to buy cards of the different heroes in the game.
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Another game that I had yet to complete was Naughty Dog's The Last of Us.  Back when it was originally released I was hard at work on getting Dead Rising 3 and the DLC out the door.  Due to my shift in industry focus after leaving Capcom, I never returned to finish the game...until now.
The game is fantastic overall with an interesting well-told narrative and a deep, moody soundtrack (It really makes use of my 7.1 setup).  For the most part it's an amazing game, but it isn't without it's flaws.  For example, it is always funny to see the AI blatantly out in front of the enemy and not be detected.
Some of the in-game cinematic cuts are strange as well, when a flashing pair of scissors of box of ammo is in the scene, just begging to be picked up.  None of this really detracts from the experience though; I've been playing each night for a week straight and I'm loving every moment of it.
A few others I also hope to take out of shrink wrap soon include, Final Fantasy Type-0, Uncharted 4 and Star Wars Battlefront.
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New Entry For A New Website

7/1/2016

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It's been a while since I posted a Blog update.  My old Blog, located at: https://zerosymytry.wordpress.com/ will no longer be updated (as if I've updated it in years, haha).  Ever since joining Twitter, I have found it hugely inconvenient to write up entire blog posts, when I could easily tweet about the things that interest me instead.  Well, now that I have a brand new website that makes posting to the blog incredibly easy, I plan to update this space regularly.
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    Game developer living in Burnaby BC

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