PSP

Valhalla Knights

April 13, 2007

PSP / Reviews / by Jeff Stolarcyk Make a comment! / Tweet it!

XSEED has an inconsistent, albeit brief, history as a game publisher. Shadow Hearts: From the New World is stellar, but Wild Arms 4 leaves a lot to be desired. So Valhalla Knights, the latest XSEED-published game, is a bit of a cipher, at least in terms of predicting its quality. After playing the PSP action/role-playing game, though, it becomes clear that Knights is a missed opportunity.

Between real-time combat, a job system, and a highly customizable party of adventurers, Valhalla Knights finds itself cribbing from too many other, more established franchises. Even the visual design of the game seems lifted from Vagrant Story in some spots, in others Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles. And with a title that evokes Norse mythology, well, I shouldn’t have to spell that out. Valhalla Knights feels so much like a hodgepodge of other games’ ideas that it never manages to define its own identity.

The story of Valhalla Knights focuses on a reticent young adventurer with amnesia trying to remember his (or her) past. Your hero can be any one of the starting classes. Players progress through the game by interacting with the Guild and taking on missions. The Guild is also where you can purchase new characters to fight alongside you, either elf, dwarf, human, hobbit, or machine. Expanding the party whenever possible is integral to progressing through the game; certain encounters simply cannot be done without a big group. It is always better to hire a new party member than it is to upgrade the existing party’s gear, which is an uncomfortable change of pace from the norm. That mentality takes a lot of getting used to, which isn’t necessarily a negative, but is worth noting.

Combat, by the way, is a total chore. Thankfully, Valhalla Knights doesn’t indulge in random battles, opting to let players see monsters roaming on the field. Ally AI is generally good, but combat is a dull affair sometimes broken up by bouts of frustration. If you’re not traveling with a big enough party, you’re dead, as stated earlier, but the real annoyance is the behind-your-back camera perspective, which makes it difficult to judge distances accurately.

This same camera angle proves just as vexing in the field, and can only be moved by toggling the first-person view and turning. In cities, and especially in dungeons, having to do this frequently is not fun. The tendency for sameness that runs through the environments doesn’t help matters, either.

Of all the things Valhalla Knights tries to be, though, it feels like it tries to be like an MMO game first and foremost. Leading a large party through a dungeon to grind levels, anyone? Like the .Hack games, though, the gameplay model seems lifeless without other people to truly interact with. The game does offer ad hoc multiplayer, though, in both co-op and vs. flavors.

Valhalla Knights is certainly not a bad game, but it’s nothing to get excited about, either. If you have an RPG itch and have the few superior role-players already on the platform, it might be worth checking out to you, at least as a rental. If you can overlook the game’s shortcomings there’s enough customization to keep you occupied for a few hours.

Burnout: Dominator

March 30, 2007

PSP / Reviews / by Jason Dobson Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Since it was originally announced, Electronic Arts’ Burnout Dominator was billed as fan service, a gift meant as a tribute to those players who had purchased and followed the series that has, to this day, become synonymous with high octane console racing. However, like a gift given with more good intention than sense of style, Burnout Dominator is best accepted with a smile and a nod before quickly being exchanged for store credit when EA and developer Criterion turn away.

Without question, the Burnout series hit its stride with Burnout 3: Takedown, as the franchise’s visceral marriage of speed and explosive wreckage took console racing and player expectations to new heights. This has proved to be both a blessing and curse for Burnout, as even the follow up Revenge, while entirely competent in its own right, failed to surpass Takedown despite a number of tweaks and new gameplay additives. However while Revenge was called out for its somewhat unwelcome additions to the Takedown formula, in Dominator for both the PlayStation 2 and PSP Criterion has perhaps listened too closely to critics and cut too deep into its engineering, removing many of the features that make Burnout so attractive.

The game includes flashes of both Takedown and Revenge, with the inclusion of rivals and crashbreakers, though the latter feels ‘nerfed’ and largely inconsequential, lacking much of the impact felt in the previous two entries. In addition, while aftertouch has been left in, Revenge‘s controversial traffic checking has been cut out entirely. Also gone are crash events, which had become a fan favorite since Takedown with their almost tactical take on the game’s more destructive elements. Burnout Dominator feels like a rather experimental mishmash of features cobbled together over a weekend as a quick cash grab rather than a self proclaimed tribute to one of the industry’s most noteworthy racing franchises.

This isn’t to say that the game is terrible, just that it feels like an unnatural step backwards for the series. In fact, Dominator comes off as an evolutionary cast away, harboring many elements from the first two games in the series while still exhibiting bit and pieces of what was to come later.

The nuts and bolts of the game lie in the game’s World Tour mode, where a collection of series offer a handful of events to be completed in order to score points, unlock new cars, and earn trophies. Each of these series are broken out by a type of vehicle, beginning with older classics, and progressing through coupes, muscle cars, hot rods, and more. There is a healthy selection of cars to earn in each class, though by forcing the player to use only certain types of cars in every race makes even the most robust catalog of vehicles feel claustrophobic.

Dominator‘s one key contribution to the franchise is what is called Maniac mode, a play on the return of the burnout from earlier entries, whereby a player is encouraged to drive as dangerously as possible in order to build up the boost meter, and then burn through it all in a single go without letting up. Doing so while also continuing to drive erratic will build it up again, creating a burnout chain for more bonus points and multipliers. This makes for not only an intense experience, but also one that is constantly moving at blurring speeds. It’s all about testing your reaction time and ability to look ahead several car lengths while simultaneously keeping your car from ending up wrapped around a pole, ledge, or another car.

The problem is that this mode effectively deemphasizes Burnout‘s niche, and lacks the emotionally purging qualities for which the series’ destructive qualities are known. In fact, crashing in Dominator can spell certain defeat, whereas in the previous two games it could give you a strategic advantage. In some ways, this game is the anti-Burnout.

In addition, other negatives persist, such as the lack of any online multiplayer, an excusable omission for the PlayStation 2, but a glaring oversight on the PSP, which has only ad hoc support.

There is some fun to be had in Dominator, but it’s a pale offering compared to the games to come before it. Seemingly destined to be a footnote in the franchise rather than an entry of any real significance, most players are advised to pass this one up in favor of Burnout 3: Takedown, Burnout Legends, or Burnout Revenge, each of which can probably be had for less than what this game asks for brand new. Only series completionists need consider adding this one to their libraries; anyone else should consider Dominator as a rental if curiosity cannot be satiated, at least until the franchise’s next ‘real’ sequel emerges.

Marvel Trading Card Game

March 26, 2007

PSP / Reviews / by Graham Russell Make a comment! / Tweet it!

The Marvel Trading Card Game‘s main source of enjoyment is being able to use your favorite comic book characters in battle. So, as you would expect, developer Vicious Cycle’s PSP iteration of the title provides entertainment really only to Marvel fans, but it’s okay to have a target market for a game. The real question is: how much did VC get right?

The game suffers from a big case of PSPitis, as it takes almost a minute for the game to load. There are just way too many logos for this game, and portable users have a right to be impatient. PSP owners are used to this by now, though… so just kick back, pull out the power cord, and down a soda.

The presentation is slick. Menus look great, and the added art stands out on the PSP’s screen. The text is small, but most can get used to it after a few plays. As with all card game adaptations, there are a lot of button presses to get things done, but I’ve found that the game’s options can be set to minimize this with no real problems. I know the settings are there to keep new players from accidentally pressing a button, but ultimately I believe many will be frustrated before they can adjust them.

This game is faithful to the real thing, which I’m sure elicits sighs of relief from fans. The single player game is fairly straightforward, though the plot is unsurprisingly weak. The cutscenes are at least entertaining, though, and help to tie the matches together somehow. You can play through the stories of both the heroes and the villains, though nothing stops you from using the other side’s cards.

The multiplayer is of high quality: there are tournaments, online rankings, and such…but there’s one large problem. All of your single player cards are useless online, and buying packs will set you back just as much as the real things. I could see having cards like this on the PC version a la Magic Online, but investing so much on a portable system seems not to be worth it.

All in all, the single player is deep, and the AI is fairly solid. This is good, though, because after all, you don’t need to buy a PSP version to play the Marvel TCG against other people. It’s a good solution for fans of the card game, but it’s not going to appeal to the general population. Give it a try.

The Legend of Heroes III: Song of the Ocean

March 13, 2007

PSP / Reviews / by Brian Make a comment! / Tweet it!

The pedigree of The Legend of Heroes III is very strong due to its developer Falcom. Falcom is the creator of one of my favorite RPG series, Ys. I remember playing the first Ys on the Sega Master System and enjoying every minute of the game. When the Turbo Grafx CD system was released, I made sure to purchase the system just for Ys Book I & II. The series took a stumble, in my opinion, with the release of Ys III and has never recovered. It could be that Falcom has never recovered as well because The Legend of Heroes III just doesn’t achieve the same level of greatness as those earlier Falcom titles.

As the title indicates, this is the third title in The Legend of Heroes series, all of which have been released on the PSP. For those that have played the earlier titles, Legend of Heroes III (LH III) will allow you to import saved character data from earlier games. The characters from the first two LH titles can be used in special battles that you discover in the game. These battles are not connected to the main story of LH III, but the experience points collected in the battles do transfer over. Unfortunately you cannot use characters from the earlier games in the main story of the LH III.

Now for those that haven’t played the first two games, LH III is what I would describe as a tried and true RPG. If you’ve played a Japanese style RPG before, then you will not find any surprises in LH III. The plot, graphics, and game play of LH III will remind you of games you’ve played in the past. A game with a teenager as the main character? A love interest between the main hero and his female supporting character? Turned based combat? Check, check and check to all of these and many more clichA

Monster Kingdom: Jewel Summoner

March 5, 2007

PSP / Reviews / by Chris Massey Make a comment! / Tweet it!

Some might argue that the PSP doesn’t have very many original RPGs. I’m not sure if that is true or not, but in either case, Monster Kingdom: Jewel Summoner is here to give the PSP an original RPG. As some sort of freaky mix between Final Fantasy and Pokemon, Monster Kingdom is a fairly enjoyable RPG with some terrific voice acting to be had, and the game differs from the standard RPG quite well. Unfortunately, while most RPGs live and die by their storylines, Monster Kingdom tends to drag on so much that you’ll be pressing X almost every other moment to get through the story scenes. There’s a good game somewhere in Monster Kingdom: Jewel Summoner, but it’s buried far beneath hours of dialogue.

In the world of Monster Kingdom, abominations plague civilization, and to combat them, jewel summoners capture creatures and then do battle with them. If you’re drawing a comparison to Pokemon, you wouldn’t be very far off in your observation. Monster Kingdom works very similarly to the hit franchise in that you will battle monsters until lowering their health low enough to capture them in a prism. The game also ties itself to most standard RPGs by having three members in your team. Additionally, there are several concepts at work that help to enhance and personalize your monsters’ capabilities, but I suppose I’m getting a bit ahead of myself.

You’ll be playing as the personality-challenged Vice, a guy who is out to avenge the death of his mother at the hands of a specific abomination. That is until he gets sidetracked and joins The Order after his jewel is absorbed by the Monolith. Until he gets it back, he’ll be sent on missions to take out abominations with the eclectic cast of side characters. Probably what gives Monster Kingdom most of its personality are the characters that Vice brings along with him, which in turn are also helped along by the largely phenomenal voice-acting. It’s not often that you see this kind of quality voice acting in RPGs, especially on a PSP game, but the voice acting really is quite good and is also one of the best qualities of the game.

Unfortunately, while the voice acting is superb, you might end up skipping past a lot of it in order to get to the next bit of actual game play. The storyline is almost always the backbone of a good RPG, but here, it ends up being a little overkill. In your first hour or so alone, you’ll probably spend most of your time pressing X to get through story scenes, which consist of still images of characters conversing with each other. At some points you may find yourself glazing over a lot of what’s being said, and when you do actually get to some of the actual game, you’ll end up playing for mere minutes before being assaulted with more story scenes. The whole thing really drags the game down a bit.

Which is unfortunate, because underneath the endless amounts of story is actually a pretty fun game. The concept of using monsters to fight, along with capturing monsters that vary between ice, fire, and other elements is as fun as it was in the Pokemon titles, but here, things are aimed at a much older audience. Each character on your team can have up to three monsters in their arsenal. When damaged, instead of the monster taking damage, the summoner’s HP lowers while the monster could literally never die if not for the fact that they are swapped out with the next monster once their energy runs dry. Should that happen to all monsters in the line-up, the summoner takes their place, which isn’t that good considering that summoners themselves are actually pretty weak.

There is a heavy rock-paper-scissors influence to the battles. Each element has a one-up on another, like water beating fire and electric beating water. Monsters that you summon can gain different attacks according to their element, although you can also choose to fuse your monster’s prism with a quartz to give it powers it wouldn’t normally be able to attain. Doing this with a fire-based turtle can allow you to give it the powers of ice or wind, and it allows you to personalize your monsters to your liking. Unfortunately, the process, known as amalgamating, can be a bit of a pain and takes a long time to work, which led to me not using it as much as I could have.

The quality voice acting makes the sound one of Monster Kingdom‘s better areas, and combined with most of the sounds coming from battle, everything is pretty top notch for a PSP title. However, the hokey dialogue kind of hinders the stellar voice acting, and again, you’ll probably skip past much of it to get back to the game. The drawing of the characters is very good, with nice anime qualities to them, and although they don’t move, they do have a number of poses for different situations. One performance issue I noticed was that the game would often lock up for a couple seconds as if it was quickly loading something, and some choke-ups would last so long I almost thought the game had frozen. Most have been fairly minor events, however.

Monster Kingdom: Jewel Summoner presents a unique addition to the PSP, but the overbearing story spoils the experience a bit. Those who can sit through the seemingly endless dialogue will be rewarded with a fun take on the standard RPG, although it takes a good while for the actual game play to get flowing which may turn off some. Those who appreciate good voice acting will find a lot to like here, and providing you don’t get sick of pressing X to skip through dialogue, Monster Kingdom is an entertaining trip.

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