![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
So, after weeks of endless pandering and pussfooting about, here's my take on a couple of games and a manga series I've been looking at recently.
Kinnon had told me about Drill Dozer quite awhile ago, and I noticed that the price had dropped substantially since I saw it last, so I couldn't help but give it a shot.
The game is quite endearing. In a nutshell, Jill is a newly-appointed leader of the Red Dozers after her father was hurt in a recent sneak attack. She is allowed to use the Drill Dozer, a machine that doesn't have the best jumping abilities, but has one kick-ass drillbit. The game comes with a small comic book outlining the main storyline and the game itself has tons of cute cutscenes that have a true anime-feel storyboarding to them (especially whenever talking about Jill's father, since they show him in the hospital). Your objective to to recover the Red Diamond which was stolen during that last break-in. Of course, there are other diamonds to find and other people want those ones, too... and then you have the police after you as well...
I didn't know what to think upon starting up the game, but it's really simple - at the beginning of each level your Dozer has the power to only hit "First Gear" which is a quick spin with the drill. The drill can pretty much do everything, though - deflect bullets, destroy blocks and enemies, and has some other abilities such as back-jumping off of blocks. After a short while of playing the level, you'll find a "Second Gear" which allows you to - suprirse surprise - step up the gear to a second level by getting First Gear, then "Shifting" into Second. It's much easier than it sounds, simply, release and re-press the L or R button (which is your Clockwise/Counterclockwise drilling motions). It gives you more power and duration, and can cut through blocks faster. Then you find a Third Gear, which then you'll likely either face-off against a boss or simply complete the stage using the super-powered drill. Once the stage ends, the Dozer breaks down and you're forced to finding the Gears again on the next level.
The game, using very few moves, has an incredible set of challenges which really make the game fun to try. I mentioned back-jumping off of blocks you're drilling simply because in a lot of levels you'll be quickly drilling into one block, only to push away from it and then latch onto another block nearby, and repeat this for a few jumps to get to a higher ground. It sounds complex but it's really fun. Plus, the game has a number of wacky characters and mechanized robots (which, of course, you have to dismantle using the drill) and even a few levels where the direction of your drill (CW/CCW) will affect how you move about. Like I said, a lot of variety from a few simple moves. Plus, there's a built-in rumble feature that really makes you feel the drill as it moves through everything. Another nice touch.
The one thing that really threw me was the ending to the game - I won't spoil it but when I first completed it I hadn't found all the treasures so the ening felt open-ended. So, I went and gathered more treasures and ... well, the ending didn't change. I collected every last treasure in the game and well... the ending still was totally open-ended. Turns out that the game was attempting to create a sequel - and it shows, these characters had a ton of personality and there enough interesting villans that it could've flooded a typical anime TV show. But sadly, due to poor sales of the game, it never got a sequel. Maybe later on, who knows? (The creators of this game also created Pokémon, so I figure they probably just went back to work on creating new super-deformed furry critters.)
Another thing that was really odd about this game was the "code" area. There's a place where you can enter a set number and it will unlock little bonuses, like different clothes for your main character, or change the graphic design of the dialogue boxes. They're neat touches, but I discovered the room purely by chance and didn't think about it until after I had completed the game. I went looking online, and the codes are up on the official Screw Breaker website (That's the Japanese title) and GameFAQs. They translated everything so they must've known about it. This also applies to the "Sound Stone" - once you get that item, and then use a certain code, it unlocks the Sound Test Menu. Nowhere in the manual does it mention this. It's a little frustrating to see the game released here and not given the full polish that the original Japanese version had.
~~~
As this was the release date for Phoenix Wright 3: Trials and Tribulations, I felt it would be a shame for me to not write anything about it, considering that I just finished it today. (I received the Japanese DS release thanks to Kinnon, which has the English translation, but I've read that Capcom USA is correcting the grammatical errors in the North American release. The miracle never happen.)
Here we have five trials that seem to be as different as they could be - for example, our first Trial of this game, we go back six years to see Mia's second trial as a defense attorney. Winston Payne is still there, still attempting to keep his title of "Rookie Killer", and several other faces show up rather quickly as well.
The gameplay has not changed at all since the second game - you're still examining the crime scenes, quizzing people (and using your magatama on them to uncover their secrets) and then facing off in intense courtroom battles. It's actually surprising that there's no new feature in this version, but all the same, the stories are so different from the second game that it feels like a natural continuation of the second volume. (Just to note - in the fourth installment which came out in Japan to great success, there is a brand new cast and different abilities, such as being able to sense if a person is lying in the courtroom by looking for nervous twitches.)
Like Kinnon said about this volume - it's meaty. A lot of stories are fleshed out, and some even relate back to trials played out in the first game. The complexity of these episodes are much more difficult than the first two, though I am noticing a lot of pushes and hints in the dialogue which help the player along. Obviously, with a game that focuses on so much reading, taking in every spoken line is important because it likely will return later on.
A fascinating game. Let me say that there's not a lot of games that I find can bring out emotions in me. the series of Ace Attorney games amazingly does that for me. Who knew being an attorney could be so fun? :)
~~~
I've started getting through my manga backlog from Anime North and CNAnime. Yes, it's been over 3 months since Anime North happened, so obviously I'm feeling a little silly getting through a 3-volume series while most of my anime and manga-friends have managed their way through 30-60 volumes on their own.
Anyhow, I'm currently reading through Kashimashi. A young man, Hazumu, is rejected by the girl he loves and goes off to a forest to think things over, where he is abruptly run over by an errant alien spaceship. Due to their error, they announce their presence and reconstruct Hazumu - however, due to Hazumu's bodytype and the alien's rather limited knowledge of Earth's inhabitants, they guessed and surmised - incorrectly, might I add - that Hazumu was female. Now Hazumu has to deal with being a girl for the rest of his life, and things all of a sudden got very complex...
Okay, we typically believe that aliens are pretty smart beings, right? Not these aliens. Obviously, due to the fact that the female population makes up 51% of the world, their guess at gender might be more right if they reconstruct any odd person they crush with their spaceship into a woman... *rollseyes*
This manga, interestingly enough, is very sweet. Everyone takes to Hazumu as a girl rather well, and sometimes people have a little trouble dealing with the change. For example, his best male friend now has a crush on her, and the girl which spurned him initially (Yasuna) now is quite attracted to Hazumu, and then there's a tomboyish girl (Tomari) who has always been interested in Hazumu since childhood, and is now vying for the attention of the boy-turned-girl... it's a very sweet love triangle filled with awkward/embarrasing moments, and tons of character development. I never understood why Yasuna originally rejected him and then accepted her, but within the first three volumes, it all becomes much clearer.
What I particularily interesting is how they handle flashbacks. Hazumu was very shy before the accident, and tended to the school's rooftop garden. Whenever we see Hazumu in these flashbacks, his hair covers his eyes, and we never see what Hazumu really looked like before the incident occured. In this way, I've found that it feels very much like memories - fuzzy recollections of what happened, remembering the words that were spoken, not the visuals that are no longer important.
I've seen the opening to the anime of this series, and I have to admit - seeing that Hazumu has only recently become a girl, she sure seems to be quite comfortable already during the opening credits. I have to admit that the manga has a few moments like this, too - in that Hazumu almost has forgotten that he was male until recently. Being that the story is primarily about this odd turn of events, sometimes it brings me right out of the believability of the story (heh, it's a manga, Jason)
I like the litte bonus stories, though - one of the first ones features the aliens and the spaceship (which is transformed into another cute female named "Jan-puu") and tries to make her more "moe" by only letting her say "puu" all Pokemon- (or Mokona-)like. It's a cute story regardless and I'll continue to pick it up. :)
Kinnon had told me about Drill Dozer quite awhile ago, and I noticed that the price had dropped substantially since I saw it last, so I couldn't help but give it a shot.
The game is quite endearing. In a nutshell, Jill is a newly-appointed leader of the Red Dozers after her father was hurt in a recent sneak attack. She is allowed to use the Drill Dozer, a machine that doesn't have the best jumping abilities, but has one kick-ass drillbit. The game comes with a small comic book outlining the main storyline and the game itself has tons of cute cutscenes that have a true anime-feel storyboarding to them (especially whenever talking about Jill's father, since they show him in the hospital). Your objective to to recover the Red Diamond which was stolen during that last break-in. Of course, there are other diamonds to find and other people want those ones, too... and then you have the police after you as well...
I didn't know what to think upon starting up the game, but it's really simple - at the beginning of each level your Dozer has the power to only hit "First Gear" which is a quick spin with the drill. The drill can pretty much do everything, though - deflect bullets, destroy blocks and enemies, and has some other abilities such as back-jumping off of blocks. After a short while of playing the level, you'll find a "Second Gear" which allows you to - suprirse surprise - step up the gear to a second level by getting First Gear, then "Shifting" into Second. It's much easier than it sounds, simply, release and re-press the L or R button (which is your Clockwise/Counterclockwise drilling motions). It gives you more power and duration, and can cut through blocks faster. Then you find a Third Gear, which then you'll likely either face-off against a boss or simply complete the stage using the super-powered drill. Once the stage ends, the Dozer breaks down and you're forced to finding the Gears again on the next level.
The game, using very few moves, has an incredible set of challenges which really make the game fun to try. I mentioned back-jumping off of blocks you're drilling simply because in a lot of levels you'll be quickly drilling into one block, only to push away from it and then latch onto another block nearby, and repeat this for a few jumps to get to a higher ground. It sounds complex but it's really fun. Plus, the game has a number of wacky characters and mechanized robots (which, of course, you have to dismantle using the drill) and even a few levels where the direction of your drill (CW/CCW) will affect how you move about. Like I said, a lot of variety from a few simple moves. Plus, there's a built-in rumble feature that really makes you feel the drill as it moves through everything. Another nice touch.
The one thing that really threw me was the ending to the game - I won't spoil it but when I first completed it I hadn't found all the treasures so the ening felt open-ended. So, I went and gathered more treasures and ... well, the ending didn't change. I collected every last treasure in the game and well... the ending still was totally open-ended. Turns out that the game was attempting to create a sequel - and it shows, these characters had a ton of personality and there enough interesting villans that it could've flooded a typical anime TV show. But sadly, due to poor sales of the game, it never got a sequel. Maybe later on, who knows? (The creators of this game also created Pokémon, so I figure they probably just went back to work on creating new super-deformed furry critters.)
Another thing that was really odd about this game was the "code" area. There's a place where you can enter a set number and it will unlock little bonuses, like different clothes for your main character, or change the graphic design of the dialogue boxes. They're neat touches, but I discovered the room purely by chance and didn't think about it until after I had completed the game. I went looking online, and the codes are up on the official Screw Breaker website (That's the Japanese title) and GameFAQs. They translated everything so they must've known about it. This also applies to the "Sound Stone" - once you get that item, and then use a certain code, it unlocks the Sound Test Menu. Nowhere in the manual does it mention this. It's a little frustrating to see the game released here and not given the full polish that the original Japanese version had.
~~~
As this was the release date for Phoenix Wright 3: Trials and Tribulations, I felt it would be a shame for me to not write anything about it, considering that I just finished it today. (I received the Japanese DS release thanks to Kinnon, which has the English translation, but I've read that Capcom USA is correcting the grammatical errors in the North American release. The miracle never happen.)
Here we have five trials that seem to be as different as they could be - for example, our first Trial of this game, we go back six years to see Mia's second trial as a defense attorney. Winston Payne is still there, still attempting to keep his title of "Rookie Killer", and several other faces show up rather quickly as well.
The gameplay has not changed at all since the second game - you're still examining the crime scenes, quizzing people (and using your magatama on them to uncover their secrets) and then facing off in intense courtroom battles. It's actually surprising that there's no new feature in this version, but all the same, the stories are so different from the second game that it feels like a natural continuation of the second volume. (Just to note - in the fourth installment which came out in Japan to great success, there is a brand new cast and different abilities, such as being able to sense if a person is lying in the courtroom by looking for nervous twitches.)
Like Kinnon said about this volume - it's meaty. A lot of stories are fleshed out, and some even relate back to trials played out in the first game. The complexity of these episodes are much more difficult than the first two, though I am noticing a lot of pushes and hints in the dialogue which help the player along. Obviously, with a game that focuses on so much reading, taking in every spoken line is important because it likely will return later on.
A fascinating game. Let me say that there's not a lot of games that I find can bring out emotions in me. the series of Ace Attorney games amazingly does that for me. Who knew being an attorney could be so fun? :)
~~~
I've started getting through my manga backlog from Anime North and CNAnime. Yes, it's been over 3 months since Anime North happened, so obviously I'm feeling a little silly getting through a 3-volume series while most of my anime and manga-friends have managed their way through 30-60 volumes on their own.
Anyhow, I'm currently reading through Kashimashi. A young man, Hazumu, is rejected by the girl he loves and goes off to a forest to think things over, where he is abruptly run over by an errant alien spaceship. Due to their error, they announce their presence and reconstruct Hazumu - however, due to Hazumu's bodytype and the alien's rather limited knowledge of Earth's inhabitants, they guessed and surmised - incorrectly, might I add - that Hazumu was female. Now Hazumu has to deal with being a girl for the rest of his life, and things all of a sudden got very complex...
Okay, we typically believe that aliens are pretty smart beings, right? Not these aliens. Obviously, due to the fact that the female population makes up 51% of the world, their guess at gender might be more right if they reconstruct any odd person they crush with their spaceship into a woman... *rollseyes*
This manga, interestingly enough, is very sweet. Everyone takes to Hazumu as a girl rather well, and sometimes people have a little trouble dealing with the change. For example, his best male friend now has a crush on her, and the girl which spurned him initially (Yasuna) now is quite attracted to Hazumu, and then there's a tomboyish girl (Tomari) who has always been interested in Hazumu since childhood, and is now vying for the attention of the boy-turned-girl... it's a very sweet love triangle filled with awkward/embarrasing moments, and tons of character development. I never understood why Yasuna originally rejected him and then accepted her, but within the first three volumes, it all becomes much clearer.
What I particularily interesting is how they handle flashbacks. Hazumu was very shy before the accident, and tended to the school's rooftop garden. Whenever we see Hazumu in these flashbacks, his hair covers his eyes, and we never see what Hazumu really looked like before the incident occured. In this way, I've found that it feels very much like memories - fuzzy recollections of what happened, remembering the words that were spoken, not the visuals that are no longer important.
I've seen the opening to the anime of this series, and I have to admit - seeing that Hazumu has only recently become a girl, she sure seems to be quite comfortable already during the opening credits. I have to admit that the manga has a few moments like this, too - in that Hazumu almost has forgotten that he was male until recently. Being that the story is primarily about this odd turn of events, sometimes it brings me right out of the believability of the story (heh, it's a manga, Jason)
I like the litte bonus stories, though - one of the first ones features the aliens and the spaceship (which is transformed into another cute female named "Jan-puu") and tries to make her more "moe" by only letting her say "puu" all Pokemon- (or Mokona-)like. It's a cute story regardless and I'll continue to pick it up. :)
no subject
no subject
Gyakuten 3 - Just pure story. I know a lot of people hated Gyakuten 2, but that game was worth it just for the first and final chapters. Actually, I like Gyakuten 2's stories a lot more than most of 1's cause they have a more "adult" feel to them. In Gyakuten 3, the gloves seem to come off, and the whole game just rebuilds on what was previously established.
no subject
I particularly liked the stage where you were shifting forwards/reverse through the pipes :D
Considering that GS4's selling well in Japan (although there has been some strange mutterings about the different direction) I can't wait for the next installment. :)
no subject
for SCIENCE!
It's very true. It's almost odd that we connected so much with the characters that were much older than us - and actually, if I've got my info correct, both Phoenix (http://www.court-records.net/chara-phoenix.htm) and Edgeworth (http://www.court-records.net/chara-edgeworth.htm) are younger than us (24), but they act much more mature. (oddly enough, while Apollo (http://www.court-records.net/chara-apollo.htm) looks much younger, he's only 22. O_o)