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Thursday, 10 November 2016

Valkyria Chronicles PS3 Review



Valkyria Chronicles is a Third-Person Tactical RPG game for PS3, PS4 and PC, both developed and published by SEGA. It was originally released in 2008 with the original PS3 version and then it was later released the PC Version in 2014, and PS4 version in 2016 as Valkyria Chronicles: Remastered. 

SEGA made some of the great RPG's games like Skies of Acadia, Shining Force, Phantasy Star and of course they have two of the best open-world adventure series like Shenmue and Yakuza that I'm the big fan of these two series. I decided to give a try with the Valkyria Chronicles for PS3 to see if this game actually made me enjoy to play because I love playing SEGA games. I've played it for a week to complete and so far, I really loved this game because it's one of the best Tactical RPG games for the PS3 titles. It has beautiful cinematic story, gorgeous looking visuals animation, well presenting cutscenes, outstanding orchestral soundtrack and well made combat gameplay tactics that made the game so incredibly epic. It received highly positives reviews and earned numerous awards from several video game publications, which led a success of the game spawned a media franchise, such as anime series and manga titles. They were later released two sequel for PSP, such as Valkyria Chronicles 2 in 2010, and 3 in 2011.       

Without go further do, let's talk about the game's overall.


Presentation

The game set in 1935 E.C and takes place in Europa, which is fictional region based on Europe during the early World War 2. It's starts off with the small narration of Second Europan War 2 history where it involved the evil empires of East Europan Imperial Alliance declaring the war on the Atlantic Federation, which causes the Second Europan War 2 happening.   

In March 1935, the town of bruhl was under attack by Imperial Alliance troops invading the hometown of Gallia. After fighting against the Imperials, Welkin and Alicia are managed to escape to the capital city of Randgriz and joins the army group Gallian Militia. Their mission is to defeat the evil empires in order to save Atlantic Federation and Gallia.      

The story in the game is sounds really stunning with excellent storyline, amazing dialogue text, and impressive cinematic scenes that keeps the game well presented and so entertaining to watch. The set of the presentation has World War 2 influence with the mix of fantasy and realistic war settings which makes the whole concepts worked really well in the game. I really liked the whole characters in the game. Welkin Gunther has interesting hobbies on natures, Alicia Melchiott has really nice bakery headwear, Largo Potter has badass sideburns and loves eating vegetables, and Bridgette Rosie Stark is more like a bad girl type, but great fighter. I say it's by far has the best story-written, fantastic presentation settings, and brilliant characters that increases the overall atmospheres. 

Overall, the developers team have stepped up in right direction with outstanding overall presentation.



Gameplay

It is in third-person perspective with tactical RPG elements, which uses the turn-based battle system. you can add and select any of the playable units on the briefing options, which has different kinds of classes, such as scouts, shocktroopers, lancers, engineers, snipers and tank commander. It also has mission objectives which has a list of goals to beat a level and what to prevent from failing missions. In the gameplay, your mission is to capture the enemy's base in order to complete the mission, so you will have a overhead map view in command mode where you can select any of the units with limited command points, so both of yours and enemy's team has turn taking each is depending on the remaining command points. In the action mode, your character has limited action point which has gauge bar that tells your character's movement that can only move around till it ran out the gauge bar meaning your character won't able to move around during the in-game. You can also take cover on the objects such as grass are used for stealth combat and hiding behind the objects are also useful to protect yourself from enemy's hit projectiles. 

The combat gameplay works absolutely great for the range of weapons and hit collisions. During the target mode, you can aim freely while your character still standing, allowing for head shots and other maneuvers depending on how many it's takes to kill your enemy. The scout class unit has simple balanced rifle, which is good for mild combat range, while stocktroopers has machine guns can give much damage to the enemies. The lancers and tank commander are quite good, which you can easily damage the tanks instantly if shooting on behind the enemy's tank generator, but your tank commander can also use mortar and turret gun are also useful during the battle. The engineer uses the tool kit, which allowing to recover your tank's health and giving the ammunition to different class units which is quite helpful during the battle. The sniper has better ranged weapon which can give a instant kill to the enemy, if aiming correctly on the enemy's head. You can also give orders to increase your class unit's status allowing them to have stronger attack and defence abilities at once and you can bring more reinforcements in your base depending on your remaining command points is also helps for bringing backup to your team in action.
In training field, you can improve your class units by increasing their EXP points allowing to level up your class, so you'll get some kinds of awards such as new class weapons, new orders and having better class abilities to improve your overall character's status, which is very helpful for the later chapter missions. 
You can also purchase the weapons, items, armour and tank for upgrades from the R&D section to boost the overall performance allowing to make it even better and stronger. 

Overall, it's plays really well with the excellent combat system, great use of tactics, challenging missions objectives, and more variety of gameplay makes the game playable, but even with the harder difficulty can be bit frustrating sometimes due to overpowered enemy's status takes a awhile to beat the level, but it's still fantastic game to play.


Graphics

The whole graphics has colourful scenery background and well designed environments that made the whole level design look totally magnificent for World War 2 settings. It has soothing visual effects that gives a game a nice fantasy look. I also loved the anime art style design that really fits for whole presentation and in-game battle which has outstanding character's design, great textures format and high quality animation that made the game look fascinating for PS3 era. I heard the PC and PS4 version is looked exactly the same as the original, but it's adds better overall performance with 60FPS and runs on 1080p to give a game more cleaner look. 

Overall, it's by far the best graphics for the PS3 system that made the game looked absolutely gorgeous. 


Music and Sounds

I got to admit this game has the most amazing orchestral soundtrack ever made by the composer Hitoshi Sakimoto, who are best known for scoring Final Fantasy XII, Ogre Battle, Radiant Slivergun, and Devilish, did such a ace job that really fits the game's settings. It sounds like the World War 2 vibe with dynamic instruments and atmospheric quality music that gives the game more heroic feel of the game's mood. It has great boom sound effects and impressive background sounds that really fits for cinematic cutscenes and in-game battles. The voice actors did a fine job for most of the characters with both English and Japanese audio.

Overall, it has outstanding music, impressive sound effects and fine voice cast. 


Special Features

This game has two playable guest like Vyse and Aika originally from Skies of Acadia, skirmish battles, some extra chapters, downloadable content, and of course it has some unlockables stuff like music, glossary, character's biography, and weaponry. I heard the PC and PS4 version are all definitive which has all included downloadable content.



Advantages

Best written story

Beautiful cinematic scenes 

Fantastic gameplay

Gorgeous animation

Outstanding soundtrack

Great special features


Disadvantages

Frustrating difficulty 

No trophy support on PS3 version



Final Verdict


Presentation 9.5/10 - Best story-written, fantastic presentation settings, and brilliant characters.

Gameplay 9/10 - Excellent combat system, great use of tactics, challenging missions objectives, and more variety of gameplay.

Graphics 9/10 - Colourful scenery background, well designed environments, soothing visual effects, and quality anime art style design.

Music and sounds 9/10 - Outstanding music, impressive sound effects and fine voice cast.

Special features 8/10 - Two playable guests, skirmish battles, some extra chapters, downloadable content, and of course it has some unlockables stuff.


Overall 9/10 - Valkyria Chronicles is definitely one of the most surprising tactics RPG games for PS3 titles. The developer teams did a such a ace job that puts the game more epicly fun and entertaining to play. It has best presentation that really puts the story and characters sounds more interesting. The gameplay is well played for excellent combat system and great use of tactics that increases the fun factor. It has magnificent graphics design and outstanding music that increases the overall atmospheres.

This is definitely must own hidden gems PS3 games for the fan of the RPG genres because it is one of the best RPG games for PS3. You can also get the game for PC and PS4 as well, if you want to have definitive game performance and all completed content. 

          
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Thursday, 3 November 2016

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories Wii Review




Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is a Survival Horror game for the Wii, PS2 and PSP, which developed by Climax Studios and published by Konami. It is a reboot of the 1999's original Silent Hill for PS1.

I really enjoyed playing the original Silent Hill is one of the best horror game ever made for PS1. It's has impressive psychological horror style, deadly graphic imagery with full of scary enemies and bloody environment, disturbing ambient soundtrack, excellent story written, and dramatic gameplay with great combat and puzzles that made the game so awesome in late 90's gaming. It's a shame that I won't able to play rest of the sequels like SH 2, 3 and 4 because I don't have the PS2 or original Xbox, but I heard a lot of good things about these games. Unfortunately Konami did later butchered the later silent hill games like HD collection, Homecoming and Downpour for the PS3 and X360 and then later Konami made a terrible decision by cancelling new Silent Hill game, after the 2014's P.T demo had received much praise for the atmospheres, visuals and gameplay until in Spring 2015, Konami decided to remove the P.T demo from the PS Store after the cancellation of Silent Hills development, which is a huge middle finger to the fans of the series, so that means I won't have a chance to download and play P.T Demo after I've bought my PS4 on last year Summer. F*** YOU KONAMI, JUST STOP KILLING YOUR OWN FRANCHISE!!!!!!

Okay, enough my rage quit, my apologies, let's start my game review right now. My thoughts on Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is actually pretty decent Survival Horror game for the Wii console. The game was quite looked different from the 1999's original game, which the developer team wanted to make a different approach of the game. It has same premise as the first installment, but with the different plot and retains same characters along with new ones. It has pretty good story and characters, impressive visuals, outstanding soundtrack and of course the gameplay plays great, but it does shares with some flaws, such as frustrating chase sequences, short single player length and the atmosphere is not nearly looked scary as the 1999's original, but it's still looked okay so far because it has some of the good moments in this game. So far, it's still pretty impressive game for the Wii titles and without go further do, let's talk about the game's overall.



Presentation

The story takes place in American town of Silent Hill, it's starts off with Harry Mason is driving to the town with his Daughter named Cheryl Mason for vacation, until he ends up having car accident and loses consciousness. When he finally woke up in town, he realises that his daughter is missing, so he starts to set out to find her in town.

The story is similar to the 1999's original, but the plot of the game seems to be sound different, as the game begins with a psychotherapy session conducted by Dr. Kaufmann, which acts as a frame story for Harry's quest and of course the game has a many variation of the cutscene depending what scenario you'll end up with and the multiple endings does adds the nice replay value that keeps the story so refreshing. So far, the story in the whole game is quite well done that really puts much effort to make it sounds pretty decent. The characters in the whole game are quite pretty good in the game because the developer teams wanted to make the characters in the game acted more realistic than the rest in 1999's original, so it's makes the whole characters becoming more interesting.  
I also liked the part where the town have shifted to different dimension between real life and nightmare. The game's atmospheres is still pretty not that bad for the use of static noise, enemies design choices and the setting of the game style, but it wasn't sounds scary as the 1999's original version, which has slightly better enemies creatures, darker horror elements, and creepy ambient sounds which I liked the original more better, but at least this game is still has a great moments to enjoy the story presentation.

Overall, It has stunning storyplot, decent characters, and replay values.



Gameplay

The game divides with two different settings, so you start off with the psychological test with the Dr Kaufmann to complete with the questionnaires and other activities, which alters the gameplay aspects in the second setting, such as available areas. In the second setting, you take control of Harry Mason to find his daughter in the snowy town.

You get to use some of the equipment, such as flashlight which is used for darker area and the smartphone are used for map location to find where you supposed to go during the exploration, taking photograph, checking voicemails and text message, and making phone calls are quite useful for finding clues and puzzle solving. Unlike the original game, the combat gameplay is pretty absent in this game instead your character can only run, hide, and knocking down object to block the enemy's path which is not that bad thing as long the game focused on the different horror style than just the common survival horror that uses the combat gameplay.

The controls are played great with the Wii remote and nunchunk controller. The Wii remote worked really well when using the flashlight, which you can point anywhere in different direction, but you can also turn the flashlight off when you're not in the darker area. You can interact the smaller objects to find the key to unlock the door and you can also collecting the mementos which is quite cool to collect stuff in the game. Controlling the character works pretty fine with the nunchunk controller, so your character has ability to run around and climbing over the fences which is pretty basic for character's movement.
I'm finding the chase sequences are quite hard is because finding a way to escape from the nightmare dimension takes sometime to get used too, but I find the enemies are quite annoying which is becoming quite difficult to push them away. Sometimes the places can be too confusing when attempting to escape, which took you awhile to find a right area instead of heading a same wrong places. I really liked the puzzle solving in the game especially with finding clues makes the game challenging and enjoyable to play that keeps the game fully playable.

Overall, it has impressive controls, good exploration levels, and decent puzzle solving.


Graphics

The graphics looked pretty great for the Wii titles. I really liked the looks of the level environment with fully covered snow and wracked places town in the real life dimension and the icy area in nightmare dimension is fully crystal and dark which looked great in the setting of the level design that fits the mood of the game. The special effects are looked amazing with snow particles flying down and the realistic looking water are looking so damn impressive in the levels. The character's design are looked quite outstanding for the whole game with great use of animations. It tends to be looked a lot better than the PS2 and PSP counterpart is due to Wii's quality graphics has lot more cleaner look that made the whole game looked absolutely marvellous for the overall graphics.

Overall, it's by far the best looking graphics for the Wii's titles with excellent level environment, amazing special effects and outstanding character's design.



Music and Sounds

The game really has a great soundtrack by Akira Yamaoka, who did composed the previous Silent Hill game, did a great job on the music. It has haunting soundtrack that fits very well for the horror genre and the sound effects are quite sounds great with the static noises and the phone calls conversation on the Wii remote's speaker which sounds pretty cool. The voice acting fits very well on every characters, but I find the enemy's voice and ghost's stock scream are sounds pretty weak compared with the 1999's original version are slightly sounds better in my opinion.

Overall it has great music, good sound effects and decent voice acting for characters.


Special Features

It has collectables mementos, but it's lacks unlockable features.



Advantages

Excellent story

Great characters

Decent gameplay

Outstanding graphics

Great soundtrack

Nice replay values


Disadvantages

Short single player length

Frustrating chase sequences

It wasn't scary as the 1999's original game

Lacks unlockable features


Final Verdict


Presentation 8.5/10 - Stunning storyplot, decent characters, and replay values.

Gameplay  7.5/10 -  Impressive controls, good exploration levels, and decent puzzle solving.

Graphics 8.8/10 - Excellent level environment, amazing special effects and outstanding character's design.

Music and Sounds 8.7/10 - Great music, good sound effects and decent voice acting for characters.

Special Features 3/10 - Collectable mementos, but has no unlockable features.


Overall 7.9/10 - So far, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is definitely a good game for Wii titles. I'm impressed with the story, replay values, visuals, soundtrack and of course the overall gameplay that made the game enjoyable to play, but even though the single player feels kinda too short, the chase sequences can be annoying to get used with, and they could have done something better with the overall atmosphere, but still it's a decent reboot to the original.

Overall, this game is definitely for those who are the fan of the series or got into with survival horror genre will able to enjoy it.

In my second opinion, I liked the Shattered Memories, but I definitely prefer the original Silent Hill for PS1 a lot better.    


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