Holiday game reviews

[RogueHart]

so far ive gotten final fantasy 7 crisis core, castlevania symphony of the night(playstation network for psp), and chrono trigger DS. heres what i think of each.

Crisis Core:

this review is going to be very biased because final fantasy 7 has been my favorite game of all time since i first played it as a kid. nothing has ever come close to it and nothing ever will. that being said crisis core is a pretty good game. the story is what i wanted out of it more than anything and its not bad so far. the graphics are beautiful for a psp game(especially the cutscenes but its square. they are well known for their beautiful graphics). the gameplay is where i think it lacks. the gameplay id give a 6/10 because its a little stiff. the game is basically running and fighting.

that doesnt bother me since i wanted it for the storyline anyway but if you just want a fun game then this might not be for your. however the gameplay isnt bad at all. just new and stiff. heres a breakdown of the battle controls which is all you really need to know.

L and R cycle through your options(similar to casting spells in kingdom hearts games) and pressing X uses them. all the attacks are slow which is why its so stiff to me. its not like kingdom hearts. pressing triangle will guard which lowers damage. pressing square does a dodge roll.

the limit break is literally a random thing. there is a constant slot machine going in the top left that you have nothing to do with. it has 3 pictures and a number by each. if the left and right picture are the same then it goes into what is called limit verge. where the gameplay is halted(decently done though. its not completely abrupt and doesnt screw with the flow) and you wait as the middle wheel finishes spinning. if the middle picture matches the others then you get to do a limit break. which limit break depends on which picture it is. the power of that limit break depends on the number beside the center picture

now here comes the weird and irritating part. there is no xp system for leveling. you have leveling. but its not xp based which is new to me and im not that fond of it myself. the system is random and its based on the slot machine mentioned before. if you go into limit verge and the numbers are 777 then you level up zack. if there are 2 of any other number then it levels up the materia in the corresponding slot. the upside to this is that theoretically if your lucky you could jump 10 levels in a fight. the downside is ive played 6 hours(total gameplay) and im only lvl 13 and since i believe you start at level 7 thats not very far. although ive mastered 2 materia so far which materia hits master at lvl 5.

the materia system is odd too. instead of the ff7 system where you equip it based on your weapons and armor you are given 4 slots(later becomes 6) to fill with materia. thats it. you are given 2 accessory slots as well. you do not change weapons at all. leveling up materia increases its power and can possibly give it a stat boost as well(mag+1 str+1 ect ect).

this is very different because unlike ff7 your materia doesnt transform. ie it doesnt grow from fire to fira. it just increases in power to a certain point and stops.

but i believe this is because of the introduction of materia fusion system. you pick 2 materia and fuse them to make a new one. luckily you can see what materia would be produced before you actually go through with the fusion which will save you rare materia hunters a lot of money and grief.

im not completely certain how the system works because ive only fused a dozen or so materia(not much if you really think about it) but from what i can tell fusing 2 identical materia produces the same materia with higher power. while fusing 2 different materia can create new materia. i combined 2 materia(not sure what though. cant remember) and made dark thunder. dark thunder is identical to thunder but it causes adverse status effects on the enemy.

overall id give the game a 9/10. but like i said. very biased.

now as for chrono trigger. its improved over the original release since you have a touch screen to navigate menus. but its the same game you know and love with some added areas and side quests that were left out of the original due to cart memory restrictions.

9/10

castlevania sotn:

alslo biased. one of my favorite games and an instant classic. definitely the best castlevania out there. for those of you who dont know. castlevania symphony of the night is a ps1 game from back in the day. a 2d side scroller that was beautifully done. it was the second game(i believe) in all the castlevania games up to that point to use a non belmont character. it was also the first to include a weapon system other than the "grab the upgrade" system. this game is great and not much damage was dealt during the port to the psp(dont have a ps3 to try on but for $10 you get psp and ps3 use for it). psp is only missing 2 buttons and they are now mapped to the analogue stick(with left being L1, right is R2, and up is L1+R2)

other than that its the same classic game. just hit the home button for system settings for it(ie full screen, normal screen, control scheme, memory card management, ect, ect)

9/10

well thats all ive got for now. if i get any more games then ill post my opinions of them as well