Fans of Dark Souls come in all shapes and sizes. From the die hard gamers to the sadistic masochists and even the musically gifted. Well popular YouTuber Smooth McGroove is a perfect example of the latter and has put his musical talents to good use with his acapella rendition of Premonition from the soundtrack of Namco Bandai’s upcoming Dark Souls III.
through careful and clever audio recordings and layerings, Smooth manages to create a downright epic rendition of the song, and you can check it out below. You can also check out our recent hands-on preview of Dark Souls III by clicking here. Remember that Dark Souls III is set for release April 12th so make sure you stay tuned to Capsule Computers for all the epic news as it becomes available.
Overview A couple of years ago Nippon Ichi Software tried something a little bit different by developing and releasing The Witch and the Hundred Knight which was quickly localized and released in the West. While the original left many fans wanting, the company wasn’t about to let the title fall by the wayside and have returned with a re-done PlayStation 4 release of the game, The Witch and the Hundred Knight: Revival Edition. Is this upgraded version of the original game worth your time?
Story The Swamp Witch Metallia has been unable to grow the borders of her swamp for an incredibly long time to the point that she has been held in check by the Forest Witch Malia. Finally pushed to her limit, Metallia chooses to summon the powerful champion, The Hundred Knight in order to push back against any force of good and transform the entire world into a swamp that she can rule over.
Hundred Knight is as malleable of a creature as they come since it cannot speak nor really question any orders it is given and thanks to being incredibly powerful he is a force to be reckoned with and unfortunately for everyone else, his master Metallia is as evil as they come. Throughout the course of the storyline players, as the Hundred Knight, will encounter a number of different characters but unfortunately there really isn’t a whole lot of detail spent explaining much of the world or delving into these characters other than to occasionally display Metallia’s evil demeanor and try to get players to see what motivates her.
One of the first acts she performs helps set herself apart from a standard cartoonish villain and sets herself up as a disturbing villain which is a bit unique considering how most NIS games like to portray themselves. It is worth noting that outside of the new Tower of Illusion, players shouldn’t expect too much revision to the game’s storyline here so don’t expect anything fresh in that regard for The Witch and the Hundred Knight: Revival Edition even if you go through a few times for the multiple endings.
Gameplay Similar to the story elements, the gameplay elements of The Witch and the Hundred Knight: Revival Edition have also remained the same with some additions to help pad the game out a bit and make things easier. Players spend the game controlling The Hundred Knight as he set sout into the field and takes on opponents in an action RPG styled game that sees him conquer opponents using a stylized multi-weapon combat system.
The Hundred Knight brings five weapon types with him into combat and can swap between them in mid-combo to try and unleash as many attacks as possible while also targeting an enemy’s potential weakness considering certain foes can be incredibly resilient to certain weapon types but desperately weak to others. This means that swapping from a magic staff to a hammer, spear, sword, or pike often allows for a flurry of devastating attacks that can annihilate groups of opponents if set up properly. This is done by setting up your combo strings and weaponry in the menu prior to a fight of course and then simply attacking away at the foes as the weapons are swapped in order.
It may take a bit of time to understand how certain weapon combo strings work together, since improper combos can be rather slow and leave the Knight open to counter attacks but once you learn how to properly set up your weapon combos then things will be much easier as your attacks will flow faster. In fact, players can even set up three different weapon combo stacks at a time, swapping between them with the L2 and R2 buttons to best fit whatever opponents your facing off against.
There are also various Facets that the Hundred Knight can use which change the attributes of your fighter to boost various stats and even Tochkas that serve as support units to help provide the player with plenty of options in combat. This is something that is essential thanks to the punishment that death brings and an ever-persistent Giga Calorie counter.
These Gigacals start at 100 and continually tick away for every action the player takes out in a field. This means fighting enemies, recovering health, attacking buildings, and everything else uses these Gigacals and while it is possible to consume opponents to restore some points, doing so at the wrong time leaves you open for attack. That being said, there is some risk and reward here as the longer the Hundred Knight is out in the field the more rewards the player will likely stumble across and the stronger the Hundred Knight will become, as any time he returns to Metallia’s home to rest and eat, these bonuses will vanish.
This doesn’t become too much of an issue however thanks to the Tower of Illusion that unlocks a little bit into the game. This is the entirely new area that allows players to sacrifice a weapon to unlock a set of levels to battle through with the difficulty set to the level of the weapon sacrificed. The tower serves as a useful tool to help test out what your Knight’s current equipment is capable of handling against numerous enemies but it also serves as a way to easily overpower yourself as the Tower of Illusion generally rewards the player with high powered equipment as well as experience that can make formerly challenging enemies a cakewalk.
The Tower of Illusion also allows players to take Metallia, though not your Metallia, into battle at times as Metallia can be summoned to the battlefield once filling up a meter. She has quite a few powerful attacks and it is nice to see her actually fighting for once, something that I hope is continued in the planned sequel, but ultimately doesn’t offer too much variety since most of your time will be spent in the Tower either gaining gear and catalysts to enhance that gear or simply leveling up.
Visuals & Audio One thing that is a decent upgrade for The Witch and the Hundred Knight: Revival Edition over the original PlayStation 3 version is that the graphics this time around are far crisper than they were originally. The original title featured areas that made it incredibly difficult to follow the action especially in areas that featured overgrowth that would often obscure the action and with everything being improved a bit, keeping track of the diminutive Hundred Knight and all of the enemies is much easier this time around.
As for the rest of the graphics, there doesn’t appear to be any noticeable difference in the character portraits and the like other than appearing a bit more colorful. The voicework found in this title is very similar to what was found in the first game and there is a nice mixture of background music to keep things feeling fresh throughout the title.
Overall The Witch and the Hundred Knight: Revival Edition is a satisfying upgrade to the original PlayStation 3 release that offers a bit of extra content and cleaned up visuals but those who are have played the original won’t find much in the way of new content here. The combat system remains enjoyable and thanks to the Tower of Illusion allowing players to grow stronger without grinding older areas the pace of the game flows much better than before.
These types of adjustments have made the Revival Edition a decent upgrade to the original game, though there are still plenty of nagging issues from the original, and if you haven’t picked up the original version, you’ll find that The Witch and the Hundred Knight: Revival Edition offers a different style of narrative than what one would usually find paired up with an enjoyable, albeit somewhat repetitive, combat system. Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Overview There was once a time when first person dungeon crawlers had practically vanished in the West. Now in recent years this particular style has made a triumphant return on handheld devices as the 3DS and Vita both have a growing library of these titles. That being said, there is still something of a complete lack of these types of games on home console. As such when Experience, the team behind titles such as Operation Abyss and Demon Gaze, announced that they were bringing Stranger of Sword City to the Xbox One it was something of a surprise. So now that this title has arrived on a console, is it worth delving into?
Story The player is aboard a flight from Japan to Alaska and seemingly out of nowhere the plane explodes and crash lands in a mysterious land. There are no apparent survivors outside of the main character at first but they soon come across a mysterious escort that helps them escape the area they woke up in. Of course after a minor betrayal, a rescue by a knight, and a fight against a boss the story begins as the character arrives in the main city.
It is here that they are informed that they are not the only ones that have ended up falling through a dimensional gap that has left the stranded in this land. Those who have however find that they are incredibly powerful now thanks to the land’s reduced gravity allowing them to wield incredible equipment with ease. Those capable of these feats are called Strangers and in order to help pay for their room and board, they must venture out into the dungeons to defeat creatures ranging from simple opponents to powerful special foes called Lineage in an attempt to gather their Blood Crystals, for if a crystal is left behind, the foe will just regenerate and continue its rampage.
Those familiar with Experience and dungeon crawling RPGs such as this will know that there really isn’t a whole lot driving the storyline here which is unfortunate as it is something of a step back from other title’s they have worked on in the past. Stranger of Sword City may have a number of interesting sounding themes but most of the storyline is told through standard still animations and many of the characters that you meet in your journey aren’t explored in any meaningful way. While the story does serve as a solid enough set-up for what players will be spending their time doing, it would have been great to see more done with the lore of the world.
Gameplay One of the first things players will do when starting the game is create their character in a very D&D style manner. This includes selecting a starting race, ranging from humans to dwarves, elves, and more, and then classes that these characters are then based off of. Players will then be able to even select the age of their character which will affect how many bonus points they can roll for to boost their stats and how long it will take them to recover if they are downed.
The biggest aspect in Stranger of Sword City is exploration and battle. I say this because outside of the time spent in the hub city used to rest up, change party members or recruit new ones, purchase equipment, sell loot, etc. the majority of your time will be in the first person dungeons traveling through maze like labyrinths filled with monsters, traps, and plenty of secrets to discover. Thankfully, as with past games from Experience, the auto-map feature clearly marks out locations that players have visited in the past as well as the shortcuts they have unlocked which is quite useful since many of these dungeons are incredibly long.
As such it’ll be quite common for players to have to eventually retreat back to town in order to fully recover and potentially purchase better equipment for the road ahead or swap out a party member with one that may be better suited for a specific task such as a thief to reveal a secret or a mage to deal damage to opponents that can only be harmed by magic or enchanted items. To go along with this helpful map is the ability to select a previously visited part of the map and set the character to “auto-move.” While your party will travel on their own to the selected destination the random enemy encounters will still occur but thanks to the way battles are entered, players won’t be caught off guard if they aren’t paying attention at the time.
When fighting against opponents the combat is handled in a turn based manner and is still presented through the same first person view found while traveling. Players will select whichever actions they want to take and then go back and forth against the foe. Things have been streamlined a little bit as players now have the option, which I highly recommend you only use on sure-win opponents while grinding or traveling through a previously conquered area, to automatically use the previous turns’ commands once more in an effort to hurry the combat along.
The reason I gave that warning about the quick battle option is because Stranger of Sword City is an unforgiving game, far more so than many other first person dungeon crawlers. This is driven into players early into the game as their first task to hunt down a Lineage creature can easily put them in the ground if they don’t plan properly and make retreats back to town to recover from time to time. Rushing things often leads to an early death which is something that is quite harsh in Stranger of Sword City as all party members, except for your character, can be killed off permanently.
When downed in combat, a party member can be brought back to life by bringing them back home but this is at the cost of a life point, of which most characters only have two. There is the option of allowing that fighter to then rest for an even longer time to recover a life point but this will put them out of commission for quite some time and if that party member happened to be one of your best, then you’ll need to head back to the grindstone in the meantime.
As such it is useful to keep track of the various weaknesses of the enemies you come across and the various techniques that they use. There are often times that Stranger of Sword City can feel a bit unfair as some foes will constantly attempt to call for back-up and bring in more enemies to fight, so players need to be prepared for anything, even if it turns out to be something incredibly cheap. That being said, there is something quite satisfying about pulling off a dangerous victory or easily trouncing opponents that gave you trouble when you head back in with a better kitted party.
You see, party and equipment management plays a big role in staying alive in Stranger of Sword City and this game allows players to try it every way possible. Each party member can be created from scratch, allowing for the selecting of their race, bonuses, weaknesses, class, and more. There are even certain locations in the dungeons that provide certain levels of risk and reward by allowing players to wait in ambush for their foes. This mechanic allows players to “watch” monsters travel by and either peak at who the foe is or what they are carrying with them. If they feel like taking a risk, they can attack them with an advantage but if you choose to pass and wait, you also put yourselves at the risk of being caught and attacked while unprepared.
Visuals & Audio One of the main points that has been advertised for the release of Stranger of Sword City is that there is an updated visual style to be chosen this time around. At any given time players can opt to switch between the two styles, with Type A being the updated anime styled designs and Type B featuring a Western fantasy style approach, but regardless of which style you choose both of these art styles are gorgeously drawn and presented here.
It Is worth noting of course that since this is a first person dungeon crawler, that as far as special effects go there isn’t much to be found here outside of some of the more stunning looking attacks. That being said, the character portraits and monster designs are incredible to see and with almost every dungeon offering some new theme, players will never feel like they are simply trudging through the same scenery over and over again, unless of course they had to retreat and are heading back in.
It is worth noting that there is no English voice work for Stranger of Sword City however the provided Japanese voice track does a great job handling the few characters that make up the main storyline. Thankfully while there isn’t much in the way of voice work, the title offers an incredible soundtrack consisting of tense atmospheric tracks that are perfect for battles and exploration as well as gorgeous pieces of music for simpler scenes.
Overall Stranger of Sword City is the type of dungeon crawler that you must advance through at a slow and methodical pace by playing it safe when needed and taking risks when possible. With a formula that has fit the genre well enough throughout the years tweaked a bit to feel a bit fresher and plenty of content to explore, Stranger of Sword City may have its weaknesses but offers players a challenging, but rarely cheap feeling, RPG. Considering this is something we don’t see very often these days, those looking for a satisfying console experience will find themselves pleased with what Stranger of Sword City has to offer. Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Tom Clancy’s The Divisionis finally out. After more than two years of delays, Ubisoft Massive’s shoot ‘n loot sandbox game is out. The game is set in New York City after a weaponized smallpox virus is unleashed on the city during Black Friday. The agents of The Division are activated by presidential order to help stabilize New York City and bring back government order to the streets.
Story
This isn’t the New York City Christmas people dream about seeing. After the weaponized smallpox virus ravages the city during the holiday season, the city is in ruins. The dead are piled up on the street, the city is in quarantine, the government has no control, and rogue factions are roaming the city. The remaining police, National Guard, and medical teams have formed the Joint Task Force in hopes of restoring order, but the JTF and along with the first wave of activated Division agents have been battered. Players take on the role of a Division agent that is activated as part of the second wave, tasked restoring government services and investigating the cause of the outbreak.
The story is pretty entertaining and definitely feels like it would have come out of a Tom Clancy novel. The writing is excellent. The cast of characters are entertaining and it feels like a lot of work went into creating a city that feels full of individuals with their own stories. The collectibles go a long way in reminding players that there were a lot of normal people caught in bad situations.
Gameplay
Tom Clancy’s The Division is a third person cover shooter with heavy RPG elements. As the player rebuilds the JTF Headquarters, they gain access to new abilities to improve themselves. Skills are active abilities players can trigger to give them the edge in combat, these have modifiers that can eventually be unlocked to add extra bonus abilities to the skill. Talents provide an extra passive bonus for skills. Perks are permanent bonus that are a little more utilitarian in nature. Once a perk is unlocked, it is always active, unlike talents which only allow a few to be active at one time. Although the game allows for multiple characters to be made, one character can be respecced easily and quickly, which makes having multiple characters a matter of convenience rather than necessity to experience all of the game’s roles.
The game’s gunplay is probably the least realistic any Tom Clancy game, as everything is tied to individual weapon stats. The recoil is pretty severe, encouraging players to fire short bursts on the assault rifle or selecting a more controllable weapon. Even with level appropriate weapons, things take a good four to five rounds to deal fatal damage. Both the player and the enemy can soak about the same number of rounds, meaning staying out in the open is a quick ticket to a dirt nap. To survive, everyone ducks from cover to cover, popping out to unleash a barrage of bullets before ducking back into safety. What really tips the battle in favour of the players are the agent skills, these range from the commonly used skills that can give players a quick leg up to the devastating signature skills that can even turn the tides in a PVP battle.
The game is split into two major areas. Most of Manhattan is a PVE instance that will only hold the player and their immediate party members. Here, the standard RPG buffet of side quests are scattered across the city. The main missions are in the form of short dungeons that push the story forward. The missions are all pretty standard shooter fare, and I’m quite pleased to see the “Kill X number of enemies” mission is not present in the game. Besides dropped and scavenged loot, gear can be purchased from the vendor or crafted by the player. The crafting system is extremely simple, but it provides a good alternative to the PVP Dark Zone for loot.
The Dark Zone is a free for all area where the PVP happens. The experience and currency here is completely separate from the rest of Manhattan, though players are organized into level brackets for fairness sake. Enemies are tougher in the Dark Zone, but the rewards are definitely better. The only problem is that everything that drops in the Dark Zone needs to be decontaminated, forcing players to gather at extraction zones where helicopters will extract and decontaminate up to four players worth of loot at a time. This of course becomes a major battle zone where players go rogue and attack fellow players in hopes of stealing their loot. Dying in the Dark Zone incurs a credit and XP penalty, with greater penalties for dying as a rogue. Of course, if the player survives the rogue timer, they get bonuses too. All in all, I found the risk and reward of entering the Dark Zone and going rogue to be pretty well balanced. It isn’t the friendliest place for solo players, but the constant fear is part of the area’s charm.
The controls are excellent. The default controls are intuitive and work well. If you don’t like the defaults, the amount of customization available will almost guarantee some configuration that you will like. The only thing that is missing is the ability to toggle Aim Down Sight mode, which is strangely missing from the game.
Visuals
Ubisoft Massive has done an amazing job recreating New York City in Tom Clancy’s The Division. Every detail has been considered, even down to the believable, but fake advertisement that dot the city’s bus shelters. There is a ton of customization options. Players can essentially play Barbie with their characters with the amount of weapon camouflage and character clothing option if they so desire. Mix the attention to detail with the gorgeous graphics of the new Snowdrop engine and you have probably the closest thing to New York City without actually being there.
Audio
Tom Clancy’s The Division delivers an excellent audio experience. The sound effects are stellar and the soundtrack is a joy. The voice acting is excellent, as expected from an AAA title. The only problem is that the number of lines is a little lacking for some of the NPCs, with the same lines being uttered within 10 or 20 second timeframe at times. It seems like the game has a little problem deciding what line is appropriate to trigger in game, as often times agents will sprint past civilians and that will panic as if agun was trained on them or JTF NPCs will call out the wrong faction name. It’s a minor annoyance, but its one that does break the game’s immersion a bit.
Overall
Tom Clancy’s The Division was worth the delays. The gameplay is insanely fun. It hits the right balance of addictive loot grind and good old tactical gunplay to keep me playing for hours on end. The Dark Zone PVP areas are tense and an absolute blast to play, especially with friends. New York City has been meticulously recreated in the digital world and the game is gorgeous. Tom Clancy’s The Division is possibly the best new IP Ubisoft has put out in recent memory.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Sentai Filmworks has just announced its acquisition of the 2006 Japanese live-action film Arch Angels. The film was produced as Warau Michael (Warau Mikaeru) and is based on Izumi Kawahara’s 1987 manga of the same name. It will be available on home video in the near future. Sentai Filmworks provided a synopsis of the film:
St. Michael’s is an elite Catholic boarding school nestled on a beautiful remote island, and it is the quintessence of sophistication. Within the grounds of this aristocratic haven, high school students Fumio, Kazune and Yuzuko discover that they have something in common: they just don’t fit in. After several girls from wealthy families are kidnapped one after another, everyone becomes wary and apprehensive. When an unexpected force infuses the three girls with special powers, the fate of the school and its attendees might just be in the hands of these misfits.
Issei Oda directed and co-wrote the film, and also supervised the visual effects. Dai Miyazaki and Issei Shibata produced the film, and Hirofumi Okada handled the cinematography. The album “St. Wonder” by Japanese rock duo Metalchicks was used as the soundtrack for the film. They produced one album prior to “St. Wonder”, and also composed the soundtrack for the anime series Heroman.
Sentai Filmworks has just revealed the English dub cast list for the Tonari no Seki-kunanime. The series is set to be released on DVD and Blu-ray in North America on April 12, 2016. The English dub cast is as follows (character/actor):
Brittany Deans is directing the English dub. All 21 episodes are included in the upcoming release. The textless opening and ending animations are included as on-disc extras. The DVD edition has a suggested retail price of $39.98 USD, while the Blu-ray edition has a suggested retail price of $49.98 USD. Anyone interested in pre-ordering either edition can do so from Sentai Filmworks’ official online store, which can be found here.
PLAYRAVEN ADVANCES REAL-TIME STRATEGY FOR MOBILE WITH THE WORLDWIDE iOS RELEASE OF WINTERSTATE™
Former Remedy, Rockstar and Supercell developers continue to explore uncharted territory with their second App Store release of 2016
HELSINKI – March 16, 2016 – PlayRaven has released Winterstate™ – a real-time strategy game built for touch from the ground up – now available worldwide for iPhone and iPad. Dubbed as a “Tactical Combat Trader,” Winterstate takes the hardcore real-time strategy genre and kick-starts it for a new wave of mobile players.
“We wanted to capture the thrill of AAA real-time strategy in a form that would entertain and delight a whole new generation of mobile gamers,” said Lasse Seppänen, co-founder and CEO at PlayRaven. “Winterstate has unique line-drawing mechanics, allowing players to battle with their vehicles in a way that feels completely smooth and natural on mobile touchscreen devices.”
Winterstate takes players to a world where a global climate disaster has torn apart the very fabric and economy of the USA, leaving ragged bands of survivors to roam the frozen landscape in all kinds of makeshift attack vehicles. Now it’s up to players across the world to join Knuckle Sam – a gritty homage to America’s famous Uncle Sam – and fight back against the bandits to protect the Winterstate. Draw and execute battle plans in real-time 3D conflict while raiding other players around the world. Trade precious goods and collect iconic yellow cabs, monster trucks and even fire engines, and fit them with massive flamethrowers, cannons and a whole arsenal of different weapons. Raid, trade and get paid!
Winterstate is the second of three all-new releases from PlayRaven launching in 2016, following the arrival of the galactic real-time strategy game Robocide™ in February.
Winterstate is out now as a free download via the App Store on iPhone and iPad devices. More information about the game can be found at www.winterstategame.com. For the latest news from PlayRaven, follow the company at www.facebook.com/PlayRavenInc or @PlayRavenInc on Twitter.
About PlayRaven
Based in Helsinki, PlayRaven is an independent game development studio founded in 2013 by five game industry veterans with AAA console, mobile and free-to-play experience. PlayRaven has a best-in-class creative team with years of experience from renowned studios such as Supercell, Remedy and Rockstar. PlayRaven’s first title was Spymaster®, launched worldwide in September 2014. PlayRaven currently has three teams developing three new titles – the objective is not just to create new games, but whole new genres of games. PlayRaven is proud to be backed by venture capital funds Northzone and Creandum, as well as early-stage Supercell investors Jari Ovaskainen and London Venture Partners.
Yesterday we learned that Marvelous has been working on a different style of Fate game for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita and now Famitsu has released some of the first screenshots of Fate/Extella through their online preview. As was expected given the earlier information, Fate/Extella is going to play like a musou title and the story will take place after the Holy Grail War.
The screenshots that have been released focus almost entirely on Nero Claudius, a Saber style servant who won the previous Holy Grail War of the Moon with her master and this causes her to act arrogant around others. One image has also been released showing off Caster Tamamo no Mae and you can them below.
Through a little bit of leaked information we learned that Guilty Gear Xrd: Revelator would feature a number of upgrades to the game’s standard online lobbies and at the time, we didn’t have any actual images of the upgrades, which consisted of a fully 3D lobby and the ability to fish for cosmetic items and character colors, but now Famitsuhas posted a full preview of these upgrades.
As you can see in the images below, the lobbies aren’t exactly what one may have imagined at first but it still does offer something different from before and also shown below is a look at the game’s two story modes. Guilty Gear Xrd: Revelator will offer an “episode mode” that will follow the arcade story of Revelator while the new story mode can be accessed separately, with a brief recap being provided for the story found in Sign so new players can access the updated PlayStation 4 title without being too lost.
Today Atlus USA released a new video for Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir, or should I say a new English version of a previously shown Japanese character trailer. The character being focused on today is the Valkyrie princess of Ranganival, Gwendolyn. The video, found below, gives viewers a chance to listen to her English dub voice and check out some of her updated combat skills.
Though she is the daughter of the fearsome Demon Lord Odin and a child of the cold north, Gwendolyn is a sweet and compassionate young woman. All she wants is to protect her home and to earn her father’s love, but destiny, as it so often does, decides to interfere with her plans.
After the death of her older sister Griselda, Gwendolyn is bestowed the powerful Psypher Spear. With the spear and her esteemed Valkyrie training, Gwendolyn is a force of righteous fury — from the ground or sky, she’ll pierce, slash, and thrust enemies with unmatchable grace and precision.
