Dragon Ball FighterZ PS4 Review

 

Dragon Ball FighterZ is a 2D Fighting Game based on Dragon Ball franchise for PS4, XBONE, Switch, and PC, and it was developed by Arc System Works and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment.

Dragon Ball is a Japanese media franchise created by Akira Toriyama in 1984. It was started out as manga series was serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1984 to 1995. 

As manga series has been adapted into two anime TV series such as Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z which together were broadcast in Japan from 1986 to 1996.

Dragon Ball follows the adventures of the protagonist Son Goku (which mostly we referred him as Goku) spends his childhood days of training martial arts. He then meets a young girl named Bulma who persuades him to join her quest in exploring the world to find an mysterious seven orbs known as the Dragon Balls which summon a wish-granting dragon, while Dragon Ball Z continues the adventures of Son Goku as an grown adult, who along with his companions, defend the Earth against villains ranging from aliens, androids and magical creatures.

Since the release, Dragon Ball has widely become one of the most successful manga and anime series of all time with the manga sold in over 40 countries and the anime broadcast in more than 80 countries.

It was highly praised for its art, characterization, and humour of the story, as well as many manga artists citing Dragon Ball as a source of inspiration for their own now popular works.

Many people had talked about Dragon Ball Z which is the reason why it became popular across the world and is considered one of the most influential in boosting the popularity of Japanese animation in Western culture has impact on global popular culture such as artists, athletes, celebrities, filmmakers, musicians and writers across the world.

It also spawned into films, both animated and live-action, collectible trading card games, numerous action figures, along with several collections of soundtracks and numerous video games.

From my childhood, I remember first time watching Dragon Ball Z when its aired on channels like Cartoon Network in late 90's, as well as CNX in 2002 and Toonami 2003. 

I was blown away with over-the-top battle scenes between the heroes and villains start beating the shit out of each other with many rapid fists, quick teleporting, charging up their power level with loud screaming (becoming Super Saiyan form), shooting numerous of projectile blasts, launch them into destructive environments, and making whole world collide with finishing blast (such as spirit bomb and KAMEHAMEHA!!!) is what made the whole show entertaining.

In video game series based on Dragon Ball franchise, I've been previously playing some of the titles back then such as Dragon Ball Z 2 -Super Battle for Arcade (via Mame 32), DBZ: Supersonic Warriors and DB: Advanced Adventure for GBA, and Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limits for PS3 which these are the game that I ever played except most of DBZ games on PS2 such as DBZ: Budokai and DBZ: Budokai Tenkaichi which I heard most of the DBZ fans really liked these games a lot back then. 

I couldn't get into with games like DBZ: Raging Blast and DBZ: Battle of Z which aren't as good compared with DBZ: Burst Limit, and I don't mind the DB: Xenoverse 1 and 2 which is kinda okay but it's not perfect fighting game based on the franchise that I wanted till Dragon Ball FighterZ came around in 2018 which is 3 on 3 fighting game similar to Capcom's fighting crossover series such as Marvel vs Capcom.

I did not expect the game turns out to be one of the better fighting game based on Dragon Ball series which I am glad that I found the right game that I wanted so badly over the years since I haven't had any decent Dragon Ball games after DBZ: Burst Limit. 

It's one of the game developed by a same team behind their talented work on unique fighting game titles such as Guilty Gear, Blazblue, Persona 4 Arena, and the most recent title Granblue Fantasy Versus.        What made Dragon Ball FighterZ destroys the competition is the inclusion of recognisable rosters, well-written story arcs, 3 on 3 matches on both online and locals, and the art-style visuals is what really beating the shit out of Capcom's recent fighting game title such as Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite which is the crossover fighting game had suffered with lackluster story, missing favourite roster, and less stylised art direction got horribly flopped at the release with low sales target as opposed to this game had sold over 6 million copies worldwide becoming one of the commercially success video game title based on everyone's favourite manga franchise is the reason why the game got it right so far.

After spending whole week of playing this game, I am so happy to see how the game turned out with many surprising results that made me very pleased the most, while I will explain some of the bits further on this review.

So without go further do, let's start the review.

Presentation

The game takes place sometime between Universe 6 and Future Trunks arcs of Dragon Ball Super.

It focuses on the game's main antagonist Android 21 was started out as human researcher but she is now Android created by the Red Ribbon Army.

She had a son who became the model for the design of Android 16 and uses the 7 orbs of Dragon Balls to resurrect Frieza, Cell, Nappa, and the Ginyu Force as well as seals away the powers and souls of all Earth's strongest warriors.

It splits in 3 story arcs such as Super Warrior Arc which focuses Goku and his friends reunite together to find their way of regaining their powers as well as finding the truth behind the Earth's current crisis, while Enemy Warrior Arc focuses on Frieza recruits with the Nappa, Ginyu Force, and Cell to battle the clones and eventually confront the true culprit, and lastly Android 21 Arc focuses on mostly Android 21's saga. 

The story in the game is basically a different timeline sets in universe of Dragon Ball Super. Unlike the whole season of Anime TV series, this game is rather has their own original storytelling such as the introduction of Android 21 and splits with 3 story arcs which I got to say the story concept is pretty amazing as being highly faithful to Dragon Ball franchise.

You have Goku and his team reunite together to battle out against clones as well as restoring their normal abilities, but I'm kinda surprised that the long-time villains such as Freza and his crew are originally attends to kill Goku and his fighters, but instead they had no choice to agreeing with them to fight against not just clones but confronting the mad scientist who was responsible for the disastrous crisis.

You have link-up system which is shiny-orbs souls can possess the warriors by speaking to them deep inside and provide them important strength which really helps them to change their heart for its decision making and acceptation which works pretty well during the in-game conversation with 2 possible outcomes affecting the game's story.

I also liked the in-game conversation on linked event where you as a inside soul and your characters getting to know each other which is nice for them to make their opinion and thoughts about you in general. 

The game has many memorable cast of characters such as everyone's favourite kakarot Goku is one of the most ironic anime characters that we all love him as a great fighter and personalities, and of course he has 2 sons such as Gohan and Goten are included in the game as well except his angry pissed-off wife Chi Chi which thank god she's not in the game to yell at them just like she did on the Anime TV series. 

Then you have Vegeta, a former villain but later now heroes, sure does have an anger issues especially he didn't like being roasted by Goku's trolling jokes, and of course he's married to Bulma as well as he has a son called Trunks who is a half-human saiyan.

I also liked the tiny bold-headed Krillin who is a best friend of Goku as he fights every villain along with Goku or before him and is often depicted as the comic relief due to his baldness.

He is not the only bald headed character in Dragon Ball series, so you have one-eye Tien, big brute Nappa, and green humanoid Piccolo.

Then you have Krillin's blonde wife Android 18 teamed up with her brother Android 17 and high-ranking soldier Android 16 under Red Ribbon Army to battle against the clones. 

One of the character that is ridiculously cringefest is Yamcha are by far the weakest fighter in Dragon Ball history which really adds his silliest humour such as his infamous death pose that made me laugh a lot, jeez what a f***ing noob.      

Then you had big round fat Majin Buu who was known for taking joy in fighting and scaring people as well as turning people into candy-like food such as sweets, lollipop, cakes, and doughnuts where he gobbles it ups so fast which is the reason why he is big rounded fella.

It has Frieza and Cell who are well known for being Goku's all-time nemesis as well as their intense abilities and their evil personalities which made them an recognisable villains that also got popular in Dragon Ball franchise.

The game introduces Android...what's 9+10? 21...ah yes Android 21 is one of the first villain that never featured in any Anime TV series not even the manga book, so instead she's more of the original antagonist for video game title.

First of all, she started out as human-like android from the beginning acting out as innocent scientist who struggles to control her hunger till she's becoming even wicked as she's turned into true Buu-like form which causing her to become a power hungry monster just like most of the Buus did a same thing like turning people into candy and eat them.

What made me more surprised about the character is that she's one of the most strongest of all-villains supressing the likes of Cell's and Frieza's power level which I got to say that she's ridiculously powerful than ever was.

The presentation in the game is fantastic thanks to art direction and designs which is faithful to not just most of the Arc System Works fighting series, but also a whole Dragon Ball universe that fits perfectly in the game as you can tell the settings is heavily based off the Anime TV series like Dragon Ball Z with exact same locations and designs. 

It has stuff like world tournament arena which is a martial arts tournament filled with cheering audience, cell games arena which is one of the cell's constructed area, outer space with planet earth and moon seen at background, land of the kai's sets on a grassy land with waterfalls, west city is an urban street area with multiple buildings and cars, wasteland has huge crater, cavern takes place inside of cave with lake and pillars of rock, rocky field has noon and evening time with multiple rock formations and plateaus, islands is an ocean forrest stages, planet namek is namekian's home places, and galactic arena is a futuristic fighting arena.

I got to praise the overall design of visual novel during the cutscenes which feels more refreshing and refinement than any of Arc System Works games with added character animation that can move and talk as opposed to games like Blazblue and Persona 4 Arena, it shows more details of backgrounds and environments in each locations to make the whole scenes well presented, and the style of camera work with more than 10 angle.

I got to say I really love the finishing sequences known as destructive finish where one of the player finishes the opponent with deadly special attacks causing the whole world collide with huge explosion of Ki blaster projectiles is looking fantastic. 

I got to say this is by far one of the best art direction of all fighting games they created making it a highly faithful to Dragon Ball franchises as a whole.

Overall, it has amazing story, beloved cast of characters, and fantastic art direction.

Gameplay

The game gives you an option to select any of game modes such as story mode, arcade mode, practice mode, local battle, battle dojo, and online matches.

You can select either single or 3 vs 3 match with different time limit, difficulty, and win points. You will have character selection to pick any 3 of your roster against either player or bot and then select any stage to fight.     

At the in-game match, you have the health bar at the top of the screen as well as special meter bar on the bottom screen which I will explain it for later in this review and then you have 4 basic attacks such as weak attack, medium attack, strong attack, and Ki attack.

The weak attack are basically much quicker to perform combos but has low damage attack, the medium attack are just mid-balanced which is easier for player to perform low-range special attack, the strong attack has high damage which you able to launch them in mid-air, and then finally Ki attack lets you shoot projectiles known as Ki blast which worked effectively in long-range attacks.

Then you will have 3 different dash attacks such as dragon rush can break through an opponent's guard if successful which offers a choice between an aerial combo or forcing the opponent to switch to a different character, while the super dash is an flying attack will home in on the opponent's lead character and is able to pass through weaker projectiles, and lastly you have vanish attack as a shortcut which instantly teleport behind an opponent's character and strike them in the back.

Your character can be switched with one of the other characters at any time by holding one of the assist button, while you can also call one of their other characters to perform an Assist move by simply press the assist button which allowing you to perform simultaneous attacks and combos with the entire team.

On the bottom of the screen, your special meter level can expand up to 7 so you can able to perform an finishing combos or projectiles resulting with the most powerful attacks on opponents with ambitious damage hits, so you will have special cutscenes of dramatic finishes that appear at the end of a fight depending on the characters involved and stage which can be applied after using special finishing moves.

The game includes 7 orbs of Dragon Balls that allows players to gather these together one by one as your specific dragon balls can be obtained by successfully performing a multi hit combo with the amount of hits demining which ball is given. Having all 7 Dragon Balls fused together which summons Shenron the Green-Dragon which gives you an 4 options such as restoring health, making you immortal, bring back ally, and gaining ultimate power.

On story mode, you will have map selection where you can freely navigate the locations to fight against any of clone enemies or bosses. On the ally menu, you get to select any of playable ally can be unlocked throughout the chapters and you have an option to add the enhancements such as attack, defense, Ki charge, EXP points, and etc. benefits your player's abilities. 

Speaking of beneficial, you can improve your character's skill level by fighting many of clones in each map which resulting levelling up your skills adding reduced damage hit and increases attack making you feel stronger enough to fight against any enemies and bosses with higher skill levels. 

      

So far, each of the game modes are pretty damn amazing. I had blast with the arcade modes as well as the local battle which includes tournament matches and 2-player versus plays pretty well for most of the part and you can also enjoy the online battles which includes ranked match, casuals, arena, and world match.

I also liked the practice mode for its training practices and combo challenge tutorial which encourages player to learn all the advanced moves and techniques to become a fighting game expert.

The story mode is filled with not just has the excellent battles and skilling up players, but it has an amazing stories throughout the game.

You will be awarded with Zeni points per match which you can spend these from shop to unlock stuff like stickers, messages, icons and etc.

As each of the game modes are quite fun to play, the fighting controls plays outstanding because it feels very smooth and responsive throughout the game thanks to button mashing combos and destructible special moves keeps the ongoing pace of the fighting system feels more impacted.

Despite all the positive parts in the game, there are one things that I feel annoyed is that it has tutorial being repeated in some 1 or 2 levels on Super Warrior Arc which kinda get tiresome pretty quick but thank god it didn't happen to rest of the levels.      

Overall, it has amazing story modes, enjoyable local matches, and outstanding fighting system. 

Graphics

Dragon Ball FighterZ definitely has the best looking graphics of fighting game genres thanks to Arc System Works was very known for its anime-style visual design that ran really well for modern PCs and consoles with no major sign of slow-downs and delays. 

As the game was based off Akira Toriyama's beloved franchise still retains a same visual art style as the manga series, it looks everything beautiful for its nice background details of landscape and the environmental levels on foreground feels bold and colourful that gives the game's personality look refreshing for the modern fighting games. 

The use of special effects looks stunning on most of the parts such as shooting out Ki blast, charging up your Ki power, the destructible explosion, and the teleporting vanish looks very faithful to it's franchise.

The character's design is just like we know from the franchise which is the reason why they are so recognisable with familiar faces and their awesome haircuts made them so memorable.             

                    

Overall, it has great visual design, stunning special effects, and amazing character's design.

          

Music and Sounds

We all know Arc System Works made the best original soundtrack of each fighting game series mixed with epic metal sounds and some orchestrated style. It was composed by Toshiyuki Kishi, Hiromi Mizutani, Kenji Katoh, and Reno did a marvellous job creating the soundtrack mixed between the likes of Guilty Gear and Dragon Ball TV series that really makes you feel ready to pump up for super saiyan action.

I also liked the sample of sound effect they used it from Anime TV series with recognisable projectiles sounds and POW fist effects during the battles and I gotta give the game credit for voice casting from the Anime TV series such as the likes of Sean Schemmel voiced Goku and Christopher Sabat voiced Vegeta in English dubbing, while the original Japanese voice of Goku, Gohan, and Goten was voiced by Masako Nozawa.     

Overall, it has rockin soundtrack, classic sound design, and has original voice cast.

Special Features

The game does have 3 unlockables rosters like Goku and Vegeta as Ultra Instinct form and Android 21, and shop places to unlock icons, stickers, and messages.

The game does have 19 additional DLC rosters which is cool, but unfortunately you had to pay all 3 fighter pass to unlock these roster which is not worth for £64.97 where as you can also buy DLC characters like Master Roshi, Broly, and Android 17 individually just for £3.99, but thankfully you didn't lose all your favourite base roster like Goku, Vegeta, Frieza, Cell, Piccolo, Krillin, Gohan, Buu, and Android 18 which I am glad the developer team has fully understands the importance of Dragon Ball characters in their fighting game.

Overall, fine features.

Advantages

Fantastic art direction

Great selection of base rosters

Amazing story modes and 3 on 3 matches

Outstanding fighting system

Stunning visual effects

Rockin soundtrack

Classy sound design

Disadvantages

Tiresome tutorial levels

Overpriced fighter pass

Final Verdict

Presentation 9.5/10 - amazing story, beloved cast of characters, and fantastic art direction.

   

Gameplay 9/10 - amazing story modes, enjoyable local matches, and outstanding fighting system.

Graphics 9/10 - great visual design, stunning special effects, and amazing character's design.

Music and Sounds 9/10 - rockin soundtrack, classic sound design, and has original voice cast.

Special Features 7/10 - overpriced fighting pass, but has 3 unlockable rosters and some miscellaneous stuff.

Overall 9/10 - Dragon Ball FighterZ is clearly not just being one of the best fighting games released in 8th generation console era, but also one of the better video game title in Dragon Ball franchises that got it everything right what I wanted.

It's one of the fighting game that Capcom should have been done it same for the first place after their disastrous of Marvel vs Capcom: Infinite couldn't give their series an justice for lacking many content and has lackluster story mode as opposed to Arc System Works putting their OVER 9000!!! magnificent effort for adding memorable base roster, enjoyable 3 on 3 matches, well-written story, quality visuals, and smooth fighting gameplay is what makes the game epically fun. 

I highly recommended to not just the fans of the Dragon Ball franchise, but also a fans of the 3 on 3 fighting games in general should feel much appreciate to play this awesome super saiyan fighting game action.

KAMEHAMEHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!

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Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise PS4 Review

 

Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise is a Action-Adventure game only for PS4, which was developed by Ryu Ga Gotoku and published by SEGA. It is based on the manga franchise Fist of the North Star (A.K.A Hokuto No Ken in Japan), and features the gameplay and mechanics of SEGA's Yakuza series.

Fist of the North Star started out as a Japanese manga franchise in 1983 which was written by Buronson and illustrated by Tetsuo Hara. The series set on a post-apocalyptic Earth after a nuclear war which the story focuses on a warrior named Kenshiro sets out his adventure to fighting against the various gangs, bandits, and warlords who threaten the lives of the defenseless and innocent citizens, while he also travels through the apocalyptic world to find his beloved his fiancee Yuria who was kidnapped by the leader Shin.

The manga franchise had became one of Weekly Shōnen Jump's most popular titles during the 1980s as it is one of the best-selling manga series in history, having sold approximately 100 million copies which the franchise was adopted into 2 anime TV series produced by Toei Animation in 1984, several anime films, a live-action film, OVAs, video games, and a series of spin-offs centering on other characters from the original story.

In my early days of 2010s when internet became a main thing like social media, flash animation, web-games, and of course watching videos, I've discovered and began watching the 1984's anime TV series on YouTube when I was 19 at the time, so I was really impressed how amazing the show looks for its early 80's era. 

It sort of like Mad Max in anime form where you had Bruce Lee alike dude beating shit out of these biker gangs with his multiple rapid fists till their whole f***ed up body started to explode in brutal way is what made the Fist of the North Star so recognisable over the years thanks to storylines, characters, several fight scenes, graphical gore, and of course the memorable catchphrase by main protagonist "Omae Wa Mou Shindeiru" ("You Are Already Dead") which also became one of the most popular anime-based Internet memes in 2010s. 

First of all, I haven't played any of the games based on manga franchise besides Black Belt on SEGA Master System which is a localization of the Japanese Mark III game Hokuto no Ken without the franchise license which is a decent side-scrolling beat-em-ups for SEGA's 8-bit system, but except the atrocious Genesis/MD title Last Battle: Legend of the Final Hero which also did not retain the franchise license are no where near good as the predecessor on Master System. 

I was originally looking forward with the Koei Tecmo's F.O.T.N.S: Ken's Rage on PS3 till I realised it's just another Dynasty Warrior's spin-offs which is not the Fist of the North Star game that I wanted, until I heard the exciting news from E3 2018 where SEGA confirms their new title based on the manga franchise coming to PS4 and I was so glad to hear that the game will be developed by a same team behind Yakuza series that I grew up playing these by starting from my early days of PS3 to nowadays PS4.

I haven't had a chance to bought it till around 2 an half year after the game release, so I have finally played the game for a week of brawling, exploration, levelling up, and tons to do in game.

My thoughts on the game is remarkably positive for its own original story events, memorable characters, solid gameplay and visuals, and numerous of both mains and sides-story, while I will discuss about some parts in the game like the open-world design choices and limited combat moves in this review.

So without go further do, let's start the review.

Presentation

While the game has its own original story without continuation of events in the manga, the story takes place in a post-apocalyptic Earth due to worldwide nuclear war has caused the whole world turns completely wrecked with the shortages of supply food and water, broken homes and buildings, and lack of energy source power left all mankind homeless and starved for life.

The story follows martial artist named Kenshiro went on his quest in wastelands to find his fiancee Yuria which is rumoured that she could be found in the city of Eden, a dome-shaped palace known as Sphere City filled with energy sources and water supply where all citizens of Eden live in a comfortable life.

It is really interesting that the game does not continue the events in the manga or you could say 1984's Anime TV series which I don't really mind having its own original plot seems to be working just fine as a video game title.

You have a kung fu warrior helping out defendless citizens in needs who are being encountered by these biker gangs under the organisation Army of Ruin was led by the leader Kyo-Oh, a heartless crime lords are responsible for thefts and murdering innocent human lives. 

It's pretty much similar to most Mad Max films that involves protagonist helping out settlers to defend themselves against hordes of marauders to save the humanity is just much as Kenshiro helping out those who protects the city of Eden to keep the humanity safe as possible is what made the story in the game quite good.

I got to say Kenshiro is one badass fighter that resembles early kung fu actor Bruce Lee which is the reason why he kicks a lot of thugs ass with his fighting style known as Hokuto Shinken which allows him to weaken the enemy's pressure points causing their body to explode amount of blood.

I also liked his recognisable moves such as rapid-punching Hokuto Hyakuretsu Ken (A.K.A ATATATATATA HO WATA!!!!) followed by his cool catchphrases "Omae Wa Mou Shindeiru" ("You Are Already Dead") before enemies instantly dies in 1 sec which is reason why I F****ing liked this guy.

Then you had some great side-characters like Jagre the mohawk dude, who worked as captain of Eden's Watch, originally as being an jerk to Kenshiro at first till he became unlikely partners when he finally begins opening up his mind as he is one crazy guy mostly had an hilarious anger issues that made me laugh a lot in entre scenes.

Xsana is one of the respectful ruler of Eden has given support to her people as she promises to make the whole city a better place to live up to her father's legacy as a great leader. She accepted Kenshiro's help while he searches for Yuria's whereabouts in City of Eden.

Lastly you had purple hot chick Lyra, who runs her nightlife job as nightclub manager and colosseum battles announcer, had a sassy personality and her intelligence as Xsana trusts her to handle all the city's financial matters.

What makes the game more interesting is that it also included most of the characters from the manga such as Raoh (A.K.A Ken-Oh), who is a eldest of 4 brothers including Kenshiro, takes his power to conquer this land of chaos and take total control, while the second called Toki, a pacifist uses his healing power, offer to help Kenshiro with the training.

Then you have Rei who blamed Kenshiro for his kidnapped sister Airi, as he mistaken him with the unknown man had the same seven scars on his chest.  

I also liked the 2 of the cameo appearances from the manga such as Bat and Lin who used to be Kenshiro's little sidekick are featured in this game.                    

I got to say the villain in the game is pretty awesome like Jagi who seeks revenge on Kenshiro due to his jealousy as his younger brother had become a successor of Hokuto Shinken.

Then you had Holy Emperor Thouzer who is a successor of Nanto Ho-Oh Ken and lastly master marksman Targa who is responsible for their crime behind their attack on City of Eden which I got to say these assholes are quite the baddest bad guys of all villains.

The presentation in the game is quite amazing for its cinematic design and concepts. I really liked the post-apocalypses settings which I believed the manga series took inspiration from Mad Max movies that made the locations and scenery looked appealing.

It has junk yard shop, the old fashioned bazaar, the bars, the diners, arcade store, playground parking, the nightclubs, colosseums, gas stations, the garage, and large area of canyon which I really liked how the game really looks in terms of design choices.

It did really had awesome sequences of all secret techniques during the in-game battles such as throwing them in the air, placing two guys together, smashing their brains outs with single hand, placing two thumbs on head, knee kicks their faces in mid-air, two-finger strikes on their head, and so on.

Overall, it has great original story, memorable characters, amazing presentation design, and cool sequences. 

Gameplay

You take control of Kenshiro in open-world area of City of Eden as well as Wasteland, so your goal is to beat all story missions which can be located on map screen.

You move the player with the left stick and rotating camera with right stick, while pressing the options button lets you access at the menus such as inventory screen, upgrade abilities, and tailsman abilities.

Pressing the touchpad button lets you access at the map screen where you can able to navigate the locations filled with many icons.  

You're began to explore around the area where you can talk to NPCs for info or they might offer you with the side-missions, and then you can visit any places like bazaar, junk yard shop, clubs, bar and diner during your free-time.

At the outside of Eden where it gets very interesting, you are riding on the heavy vehicle to drive around the wasteland where you spent time collecting an randomised materials and visiting the new locations, but there might be the enemies encountering you with their vehicles nearby so be prepared to battle against guys with 12 thugs.

On the driving section, you use these triggers to accelerate and brake, while the left stick controls the vehicles as well as auto-drifting, but you can also perform the boost by holding the square button to make your vehicle drive faster which can get depleted quickly but your boost turbo can also regenerate slowly.

You might also keep an eye on the fuel level where you can able to refill it at the gas station somewhere at save locations in wasteland.

On the battle segment when you're being encountered by groups of thugs, you have the weak attack by tapping the square button which is quicker but uses less damage, while pressing the triangle button for strong attack are slow but uses powerful damage.

You can also use charged attack by holding the triangle button longer which results not just higher damage but stuns enemies too and you can evade and block the enemy projectiles by using the X button for sidestep and L1 to block.

Holding the R1 button locks on into enemies makes it easier to strafe and facing at the opponent without losing the target.  

You will have seven stars gauge meter at the top-left screen where it gets fully maximised which let you activate the shining star of death resulting with increased attack power as well as performing deadly secret techniques.

What makes the combat system interesting is that you can able to use channelling points by pressing the circle button to stun them but pressing the same button again lets you perform a cool techniques filled with simple QTE resulting a severe damage at the enemies dies quickly.

Killing most of the enemies during the battles increases your EXP points, so the more you gained enough EXP points the more it reaches to higher level which rewards you with abilities orbs where you can add these star orbs to upgrade your fighting abilities such as skills, mind, body, and fate.

For example: skill tree applies to techniques in combat requires both star and skill orbs, mind tree focuses mostly on burst system and accumulation of seven star gauge meter requires both star and mind orbs, body tree uses the passive upgrades for health and attack requires both star and body orbs, and lastly fate tree designed for destiny talisman does not requires any much of orbs.

The golden ring spots on 4 ability trees will unlock when you earn the shining orbs by completing upon the chapter.

These abilities benefits your health points, fighting techniques, burst defense, attack enhancement, and tailsman that makes your character becoming stronger, the easier you can beat any of the tough bosses and enemies with their higher level. 

At outside of the main missions, you can also take part in side-missions such as helping the kid and old man cooking the hamburger, doing a craftman favour with shoulder pads, challenging kanna for race, searching for 4 missing arcades, becoming bounty hunter, and many weird side-stories which also gains your EXP levels.

The game does have a mini-games such as bartender ken where your job is to serve the customers drinks, Kenshiro's Clinic involves healing people with his hidden channelling points, death batting is sort of baseball mini-game, manager Kenshiro working in nightclubs dealing with drunk customers, colosseum is a free for all battle against martial artist, and even racing mini-game.  

The game also involves treasure hunt segments after you're defeating any of the nearby enemy's encounters as you start drive around the wasteland where item can be located on map screen till you found the destination, so it rewards you with the rare collectables such as cassette tapes, arcade machines, and home consoles.

You can also enjoy playing SEGA's arcade classics like Space Harrier, Outrun, and Super Hang-On, as well as bonus home console titles for SEGA Mark III such as Hokuto No Ken which I got to say this is pretty cool to have a Japanese version of the original game rather than the western version despite the localisation issues with the US/EU release are officially known as Black Belt for SEGA Master System aren't featured in this game.

So far, I did manage to enjoy most of the story missions including fighting more than 10 thugs, some mid-bosses, and fighting with the main bosses which I got to say it's pretty entertaining for its overall difficulty and learning curve, as well as intense fighting sequences while performing the secret techniques is gruesomely epic to see many of guys getting their body exploded.

While the fighting controls worked absolutely fine for its combo system and fighting style, the combat itself can get little bit tiresome when repeating the same techniques over again felt a bit repetitive which is not quite as engaging as any SEGA's Yakuza games (such as Yakuza 0 and Yakuza Kiwami) which has many fighting moves and has 3 variations of fighting styles as opposed to this game which is more of the simple beat-em-ups brawling which is okay for the game at least the upgrade system is pretty neat.

The design of the open-world is quite smaller in City of Eden which could have been looked better by making it bit larger for the size-wise, but as you are in the wasteland the whole map is ridiculously big to drive around, but you can also use the save area as the fast travel which you have the option to select any of the locations marked with save points icon is the quickest way to travel faster at destination which helps you save times from traveling too far.

I really liked the idea of customising the buggy car such as changing appearances as well with upgrading parts that requires your buggy car being able to use their abilities such as breaking through blocked heavy rocks, increases turbo boost, and stability strength which is kinda cool.    

I also liked the free time which keeps you more busy with the game with many strange side-quests as well as several of mini-games to play, and having to drive around the wasteland during the exploration and discover new things which I can appreciate the whole game enough. 

Overall, it has entertaining story missions, solid gameplay, great learning curves, gruesome techniques, and epic boss battles. 

Graphics

The graphics is pretty decent for its manga-style presentation. The characters in the game is looking fantastic feels well animated for its facial reactions and personality giving the game a new style of character's development. The open-world settings is quite appealing for its bold looking environments and posh textures which brings the new art of game's designs itself, and lastly I also liked the use of the graphical gore effects where most of the bad guys dies in explosion causing their particles of bodies splatted around like hell followed by their blood spurts out scatted on the floor is pretty f***ed up, but rather looking quite awesome.

Overall, it has well animated characters, bold environments, posh textures, and graphical gore effects.

Music and Sounds

The soundtrack in the game is just as good as you expected from this game especially with kick-ass rockin tune during the in-game battles as well as driving in wasteland that makes you feel pumped up for kung-fu action.

It's kinda shame that it didn't include the original theme song from the Anime TV series such as Ai Wo Torimodose (You Wa Shock) by Crystal King which could have added an nostalgia throwback to this kickass game, so why the hell not SEGA!? HOW CAN YOU NOT INCLUDE ONE OF THE GREATEST THEME SONG FROM ONE OF THE BADASS ANIME TV SERIES FROM THE 80'S!? WTF SEGA!!!!?, uhhh excuse my rage quit everyone let's move on with the sounds. 

The sound effects does have a good use of impact effects during the fight and motor sounds for vehicles.

It's one of the first game featuring an English voice dub since the first Yakuza game for PS2 2005's release, so I got to say it's rather sounds bland compared with original Japanese voice which sounded feel more professional in the cutscenes than having an cringy English voices. The reason why I've chose Japanese voice over the English dub because it was voiced by same actors who previously voice their role from SEGA's Yakuza series which is the reason it sounds lot better in my opinion.

Overall, kick-ass soundtrack, impactful sound design, and preferred more on Japanese voice casting than English dubbing.

Special Features

The game comes with extra content such as Kazuma Kiryu skin as paid DLC, the launch edition DLC includes 6 destiny tailsmans, and 8 free DLC packs. The physical copy of launch edition did come with an amazing reversible cover art based on Japanese release which unfortunately it did not include on Playstation Hits release sadly because it looked f***ing awesome with black and white details, but at least I had a free sticker of Ryu Ga Gotoku logo which is nice.

Overall, a solid package.

Advantages

Great original story and characters 

Amazing presentation design                 

Solid gameplay with entertaining missions and boss battles

Great learning curves with upgradable fighting moves

Bold visuals with gruesome death sequences 

Kick-ass soundtrack 

Disadvantages

Repetitive combat techniques

Limited open-world size on City of Eden

Poorly voiced English dubbing

Missing original theme song (NANI!?)

Final Verdict

Presentation 8/10 - great original story, memorable characters, amazing presentation design, and cool sequences. 

Gameplay 8/10 - entertaining story missions, solid gameplay, great learning curves, gruesome techniques, and epic boss battles.

Graphics 8.5/10 - well animated characters, bold environments, posh textures, and graphical gore effects.

Music and Sounds 8/10 - kick-ass soundtrack, impactful sound design, and preferred more on Japanese voice casting than English dubbing. 

Special Features 8/10 - decent DLCs, amazing reversible cover art on launch edition, and free sticker logo.

Overall 8/10 - Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise is a solid video game adaption of manga franchise that I can fully appreciate it enough, but it may not be the same masterpiece as the wonderful SEGA's Yakuza series which has more originally and creative when it comes with clever story-writing, cinematic design, and full of crime drama action which I am much more preferred on as my opinion, so don't get me wrong because I am glad that I love this game for many good reason.

This game still has a charm for its own original story, badass protagonist, impactful fighting segments with many foes and bosses, adventurous single-player missions including mains and side-stories, driving on buggy car, and has shares with cool mini-games which makes the game quite fun.

You could say it's much more better than any of Fist of the North Star titles such as Koei Tecmo's Ken Rage for example, so it maybe harder to recommend everyone unless if you're the fan of this particular manga franchise or anyone who have previously played SEGA's Yakuza series should able to pick up and play.

Who knows when this game ever gonna get a re-release for PC and Xbox? maybe just maybe someday it will make happen in the future just like SEGA did a same with whole Yakuza games being on the other console platforms.

That being said, I really love this game and I am hoping for the developer to make another future sequel someday.

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Kid Icarus Uprising 3DS Review

 

Kid Icarus Uprising is a Third-Person Shooter only for 3DS, was developed by by Project Sora and Sora Ltd, and published by Nintendo. It is a third installiment in the series since Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters for Game Boy in 1991 and the original game titled as Kid Icarus for NES in 1986.

The original game on NES started out as a 2D action-platformer where you take control of heroic angel named Pit set out his quest to rescue the Greek-inspired fantasy world known as Angel Land and its ruler, the goddess Palutena.

While it received mixed response from gaming press, the game did become a cult-following title of NES libraries which was praised for its music and its mixture of gameplay elements from different genres, but criticized its graphics and high difficulty level.

The original game did receive a sequel on GB which received slightly positive overall than the predecessor has to offer, but it still remained as a forgotten title that didn't get much of attention it deserves.  

Then finally the series makes the returning of the franchise with another installiment for the 3DS titled as Kid Icarus Uprising in 2012 which is a game mixes with two different playstyles such as Rail-Shooter and On-foot Shooter making a huge departure of the 2D Action-Platformer from the previous two installiment had gained mostly positive reviews and sold over a million copies worldwide.

First of all, I did manage to enjoy the original Kid Icarus when I had NES Classic Mini pre-loaded with 30 games for last 3 years which is a fun cult-classic title that didn't get a attention what it deserved, and I also wanted to point out that I never played the second installiment for GB, but don't get me wrong because I also heard a good feedback from the fans alike who has managed to enjoy the game pretty well.

When I had 3DS for 2 years since I have played many of great 3DS libraries that I've previously covered on this blog, I was looking forward to reviewing a third-person shooter that plays really well on the 3DS system which is Kid Icarus Uprising because we all acknowledge that the 3DS itself was not highly designed for shooters which is a troublesome for those who owns the 3DS console, so this game is the best way to play it on the 3DS which features many great things that the game itself has to offer such as over-the-top gameplay, lengthy single-player action, strong overall story with humorous lines and memorable characters, and solid overall design which I will discuss further more on this review.

So without go further do, Let's start the review.

 

Presentation

The story takes place in a world loosely based on Greek mythology and is set 25 years after the events of the first game. It follows heroic angel named Pit, who is the servant of the Goddess of Light named Palutena, set off his quest to battle against the twos such as Medusa the Goddess of Darkness and Hades the Lord of the Underworld are threaten to destroy humanity.

The game itself does have an interesting plot that involves the war conflict between the light and dark forces due to Goddess of Darkness has fully makes return to destroy a peaceful home of Earth once again thanks to Lord of the Underworld has resurrected her to join forces with him. 

Then you have an angel fighting off against them to save the world with the full support of Goddess of Light who is the ruler of the Angel Land. 

Incase you wanted to know what's history behind these characters is that from the first game that been said on the instruction manual involving two goddess such as Palutena and Medusa who became the ruler of the Earth as Palutena shines her light to human nature leading into happiness which opposes Medusa hated the idea and decides to destroy mankind which causing Palutena angerly thrown her into the underworld leading Medusa seeks out for her revenge by plotting to steal the three sacred treasures and attempting to capture Palutena which is the reason why Pit was chosen to rescue not only just Goddess of Light, but also saving the mankind's homeland from Medusa's wicked power that harms the nation.

Aside with the story presentation, I find the cast of characters are quite memorable for most part, so you have Pit welding with the angelic bow and arrow is not just about being an hero, but he also has an comedic personality with almost-like humorous lines mostly on in-game action which kinda reminds me of how Tom Holland's main role loves to talk a lot and made a cool jokes during the fight scenes mostly in later two Spider-Man movies. 

Then you had supportive characters like Palutena which I am glad she not like another typical damsel in distress like Princess Peach from Super Mario series, so looks like Goddess of Light hasn't been captured since 25 years after the first game events. I say Viridi is one sassy blonde girl with intelligent attitude started out as an antagonist, but decides to join forces with Pit which I got to say she is definitely one of the cleverest in this game.

The Dark Pit (A.K.A Pittoo) is the darker version of the Pit which is kinda much like saying Shadow the Hedgehog is the darker version of Sonic which I liked the idea of having two same guys with different personas. 

The villain in the game is actually pretty decent especially with twos like Medusa from the first game which I really liked her appearances with squiggly hair and haunting face, while Hades is quite an villainous character who is gigantic dude with disturbing smile on his face is just a imitation of Tim Curry impression which is the reason why I liked them.

I also liked the conversation between the characters putting out with funny dialogue and has cool gaming pop culture that really adds the sense of humour which made the whole story presentation quite entertaining.

I got to say I liked the Greek mythology in the game filled with sky palaces, historic statues, water fountains, and the ancient settings of both overworld and underworld which is well made for its presentation design to give the game a mixed with light and dark atmosphere, so you have the specific locations such as town, temple, forest, sea, and castle which I finding it quite appealing for most of the in-game levels.

Overall, it has interesting plot, entertaining characters, and very good presentation design. 

Gameplay

You take control of Pit in third-person perspective as your mission is to fight the enemies through out the levels before reaching to boss battle in order to complete the stage. 

The game has two different segments where you will start off with the rail-shooter style similar to SEGA's Space Harrier, while later switching to free-roaming third-person shooter.

Pushing the circle pad will control Pit, while using 4-buttons or touchscreen stylus for aiming. You will shoot the enemy by pressing the L shoulder button which I've changed it to R shoulder button as my preference, so you can able to re-map the controls through option menus to suit your preferred playstyle.

You can perform melee attack by tapping the attack button in close range, while tapping the circle pad lets you sprint around the stage as well as evading the enemy's projectiles. 

The d-pad button are used for switching and using the item icons which each of these icons that are used for such as healing your health, performing counter, confuses enemy, and etc.

Each of the weapons has 9 types of different combats under the category such as Blades are good for balance between melee and ranged, Staff is effective for longer range but has poor melee system, Claws has better speed melee, Bows can perform decent amount of damage with fast homing arrows, Palms uses as shock waves followed by rapid-fire capabilities, Clubs has powerful melee as well with charged shots, Cannons can bounce off walls and floors, Orbitars has very high shot rate allowing to shoot multiples of enemies, and Arms has impressive amount of melee damage.

You have an option to spend hearts currency at the shops to choose which weapon are best for your combat and then you can also fuse two weapons into new singular weapon from Arms Altar resulting with different attributes to create which benefits the weapon's overall melee and range levels making it easier to kill enemies faster.

So far the combat in the game is pretty solid thanks to having a choice of available weapons and ability to fuse twos together which is the reason it's easier for enemies to take damage from the player's weapons with highest level as well as having a large range of combat including stuff like charged shots, rapid-fire, shock waves and etc.

The item icons are also comes in handy which you can add and customise at the Arms Altar, so these are the icons that worked effectively on mostly enemies and bosses as well as benefiting the player's health and unique ability. 

The controls is pretty playable which the game gives you a choice of customising the control preferences such as camera sensitivity, invert look, and button layouts making a suitable accessibility for those who mostly played third-person shooters in general. The touchscreen is better for aiming at the enemies quicker, but I'm much preferred aiming and looking with the 4-buttons instead.

The game also works well with the circle-pad pro attachment for old model 3DS as well as the pointing stick for New model 3DS which seems to be more flexible and precised than just the regular 4-buttons.

The character's movements and attack system worked absolutely flawless with no issue with evading, dodging, and attacking during the gameplay which feels quite smooth for most part of the game except the annoying part where you sprint around the level too hard causing Pit getting out of breath for 5 seconds to recover is not an necessary for player to slow down their pace, so don't let the tiresome gets to you during the in-game action.  

Most of the chapters in the game is genuinely fun that keeps the overall impact quite astonishing to play especially fighting with the bunch of enemies and bosses, the overall difficulties, the length of the whole campaign, and playing on two gameplay segments is what made the game quite special.

The game also has 6 players multiplayer mode on both online and local play where you can complete against the players or even computer bots in two deathmatch modes such as team-based and free-for-all which I got to say this is pretty neat for Nintendo's shooter titles.

Overall, it has customisable controls, solid combat, choices of weapons, epic campaign, and fun multiplayer.    

  

Graphics

The graphics in the game is visually impressive as a 3DS standards which the game developers were hoping for the quality design running on small portable system. 

The character's model is well structured with great use of facial animations and body figure looked pretty good in both cutscenes and in-game action, and the level environments is looking solid for its posh textures details, use of special effects for lighting, crispy visuals backgrounds, stable frame-rate, and showing many enemies on the screen at one time which took the development team a long time to being able to fit the whole game's design into limited 3DS cartridge as well as utilising the hardware capabilities resulting a ambitious development cycle that can leads into the most technically advanced game that they ever done on the 3DS console.

The 3D stereoscopic effects does look fine for the cutscenes sequences, but it's not highly designed for the combat play which can get distracting during the gameplay action which is better off without having 3D effects on all the time because the whole game looked absolutely fine without it.

Overall, it has great character's model, posh textures details, use of special effects for lighting, crispy visuals backgrounds, stable frame-rate, and showing many enemies on the screen.

Music and Sounds

The original soundtrack in the game is sounds fantastic with the Greek-style orchestrated music which really fits the game's personality. It was composed by Motoi Sakuraba, Yuzo Koshiro, and Yasunori Mitsuda did a tremendous job of making the finest score of the series.

The sound effects in the game is pretty good for most of the parts with ambient sounds, atmospheric effects and overall sound design just about right for the 3DS game, and I was really surprised with the choice of the voice role for the characters especially with the cast like Antony Del Rio as Pit, Ali Hillis as Palutena, Hynden Walch as Viridi, Troy Baker as Arlon, Cree Summer as Medusa, and S.Scott Bullock as Hades had nailed their performance really well in the game.

Overall, it has fantastic soundtrack, fine sound design, and magnificent voice role.

Special Features

The physical copy comes with AR cards where you can able to scan them into additional NPCs devices which lets you play AR card game where you have the Idol displays able to fight each other with battles revolving around a stat-based rock-paper-scissors mechanic which is cool features.

It also has unlockable treasure hunt section such as idols, powers, hearts, music, and more, and then you have idol toss at the Arms Altar where you can place the eggs into bowl and launch them in the air will reward you with the new idol item.

The game also has new mode called boss rush mode where you need to fight out many bosses as possible. 

Overall, a great features.

Advantages

Interesting plot

Entertaining characters

Great game modes

Customisable controls 

Solid combat

        

Impressive graphics

Fantastic soundtrack

Magnificent voice cast

  

Disadvantages

Unnecessary out of breath when sprinting too long

3D effects may distract gameplay action

Final Verdict

Presentation 8/10 -  interesting plot, entertaining characters, and very good presentation design.

Gameplay 8/10 - customisable controls, solid combat, choices of weapons, epic campaign, and fun multiplayer.

Graphics 9/10 - great character's model, posh textures details, use of special effects for lighting, crispy visuals backgrounds, stable frame-rate, and showing many enemies on the screen.

Music and Sounds 9/10 - fantastic soundtrack, fine sound design, and magnificent voice role.

Special Features 8/10 - AR Cards mini-games, Idol toss, unlockables treasure hunt section, and additional game mode. 

Overall 8/10 - Despite the previous two games had struggled to gain success from the past, Kid Icarus Uprising is genuinely a much more impactful and engaging than it was before thanks to lengthy single-player action, two different styles of gameplay, additional game modes including boss rush and multiplayer, overall visuals and presentation had stepped up in the right direction making it the finest third-person shooter that you can find on your 3DS libraries.

I am so glad that Nintendo finally brings the series as a comeback since the previous installiment and being able to give Kid Icarus a newly treatment for the 3DS is what made the game so good to play.

I say the game is cost around over £25 is likely becoming very pricey in later years, so grab it while you can because it is an obscure title that is harder for the 3DS owner to get a hands on with the game unless you're rich enough to afford it or you're lucky enough to being able to find it on random stall market for less than £25. 

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