After finding listings on both Amazon and Barnes & Noble, we reached out to One Peace Books for confirmation that they have indeed licensed The Rising of the Shield Hero light novel (also known as Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari) for release in the West. They have licensed not only Angeko Yusagi’s light novel series but also the manga adaptation that began back in 2014.
Current listings show that the first volume of the light novel will be released on September 15th while the second volume of the light novel will be released on October 20th and finally the first manga volume will be available on November 17th.
Originally starting as a web novel before being adapted into a light novel and manga, Aneko Yusagi’s The Rising of the Shield Hero follows Naofumi Iwatani, an otaku who is suddenly summoned to a parallel universe and told that he is one of four heroes chosen by legendary weapons in order to protect the world from imminent destruction.
A summary provided by Barnes & Noble can be found below:
Naofumi Iwatani, an uncharismatic Otaku who spends his days on games and manga, suddenly finds himself summoned to a parallel universe! He discovers he is one of four heroes equipped with legendary weapons and tasked with saving the world from its prophesied destruction. As the Shield Hero, the weakest of the heroes, all is not as it seems. Naofumi is soon alone, penniless, and betrayed. With no one to turn to, and nowhere to run, he is left with only his shield. Now, Naofumi must rise to become the legendary Shield Hero and save the world!
Overview Ever since the first Atelier title from Gust was released in the West back in 2005, every year has seen the release of a new title in the series. Over the course of this time we’ve seen various trilogies end and numerous ideas be attempted only to be replaced or refined in subsequent releases. Now with Atelier Escha & Logy introducing a two lead-character system, Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea takes the same route with a number of new additions, including the removal of a notable system that defined the series. Are these changes for the best in what appears to be the final game in the Dusk trilogy?
Story Roughly six years after the events in Atelier Escha & Logy, the world has continued to suffer from desertification to the point that many areas are soon to be inhospitable. With the land becoming destitute, a girl named Shallistera, the heir of her clan, sets out on a journey in order to try and find a way to restore the land and prevent her tribe’s water from drying up. At the same time, a spunky city girl named Shallote is trying to find her place in the world and a goal she should strive for.
With both girls nicknamed Shallie, and calling each other Lotte and Stera, it is up to players to decide which of the two characters they wish to be the main character of their game. It is worth noting that while a number of aspects and various events in each heroines’ storylines are unique, which means the game is ripe for a second playthrough to see the story from a different viewpoint and experience new events, that a large amount of events take place when both Lotte and Stera are present.
Interestingly enough, it is also worth mentioning that Shallistera’s storyline is a bit friendlier for newcomers to the story as well as some mechanics while Shallotte’s events feature numerous references to past events in the series. That being said, the story still remains rather strong here thanks to a likable core cast and well developed main characters.
That being said, there is a certain lack of urgency now that the time limit has been removed entirely from the game and despite seeming like the final game in the Dusk saga, a number of answers regarding the situation of the world and the causes are either handled poorly or simply are left hanging which is disappointing, unless of course we are looking at the first set of Atelier games to move beyond a trilogy.
Gameplay Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea is fairly similar to its predecessor, especially in regards to the combat system and alchemy system which, both of which retain the same basic changes made in the last game only to be refined a bit more this time around. As usual with these Atelier titles, players will be spending most of their time gathering ingredients through gather points as well as a few new mechanics added into Atelier Shallie, fighting enemies to gain ingredients from them or to complete quests, and synthesizing items using all of the ingredients you’ve gathered and the recipes you’ve learned in your journey.
The alchemy system remains continues to be streamlined with many of the basic mechanics being very familiar to those who have played the titles before. Through the use of using high quality ingredients and aiming for special elemental values, players will be able to unlock special enhancements that will make them more effective while Shallie can also use various abilities she has unlocked to modify the outcome of the synthesis and give players more control than before while presenting it in an easy to understand manner.
As far as the combat goes, the combat remains the same six player affair as before; with three combatants fighting at one time while the other three wait in reserve. Now unlike the past system, a number of enjoyable changes have been made to make combat flow faster and offer players more options. Rather than force players to resort to a single support meter, each back-up character will have their own meter that will fill up over the course of the battle and can be brought in either to defend an ally from an attack, add extra punishment by attacking after an ally, or switching into the fight making combat even better than it was before.
Another new feature is the Burst mechanic. At the top of the combat screen a meter will fill up that will allow players to trigger a Field Burst when filled. The Field Burst allows the player to select a certain member’s special ability to take effect during the fight and this can drastically change the way combat unfolds as these boosts range from auto-reviving from death, to recovering large amounts of health and MP, to buffing the party’s statuses and even triggering a large Variable Strike with a unique animation.
Now earlier I mentioned that the time constraints that the series is known for had been removed and that is indeed the case. No longer will players have to worry about balancing their time properly while worrying about if they are taking too long of a journey in order to gather materials or face off against a boss. This does open the game up a bit for those who were concerned about the time constraints limiting their options but it also removes any sense of urgency or feeling of structure to the game’s storyline as players can gather ingredients and synthesize in a manner that would have sacrificed a two weeks’ worth of time in past titles.
What replaces the time system is a far less restrictive “Life Task” system that will see the player taking on requests (including side-character expanding quests) and accomplishing various goals in order to progress to the next chapter in the story. These goals can be anything from synthesizing a certain number of items, to cleaning up garbage or harvesting items, to slaying a boss enemy in a dungeon. Many of these tasks reward the player handsomely, so much in fact that overdoing these tasks can lead to the player being a bit overpowered which leads to some disappointing fight sequences until the enemies catch up to the player.
Visuals & Audio I can easily say that Gust has made some remarkable improvements to their 3D character models with the release of Atelier Shallie. While Escha & Logy featured some impressive looking character designs, the detail put into the characters found in this title are presented superbly with a wide range of emotions on display. There is also something to be said about the return of a somewhat brighter color palette used in the character designs as well as the way they have handled a certain returning character’s growth over the course of the trilogy.
This release comes with both the original Japanese voice track as well as the newly recorded English track and thankfully the English voice actors fit their roles perfectly, leaving it up to the player’s personal preference on which dub they’d prefer to listen to as both are handled impressively. The same can be said regarding the game’s soundtrack. You’ll be hard pressed finding a bad sounding piece of background music throughout the game. Whether it is calming exploration music, tunes to listen to while battling enemies, or providing atmosphere to important scene, every track feels like a perfect fit for the situation.
Overall Atelier Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea is an enjoyable entry in the series with a great cast of characters contained in a weaker story than normal. It doesn’t help that there is a lack of urgency due to the removal of the time limit that fans have always planned around, making the title feel like it has lost some of its identity. That being said, the enhancements and improvements to the already fun combat and alchemy systems have make Atelier Shallie a solid entry in the series that is friendlier than ever to newcomers while still having enough familiar elements to entertain longtime fans.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Overview Episodic gaming has become quite popular lately with numerous stories with simple gameplay mechanics popping up everywhere. Now while the Resident Evil franchise has seen a number of changes throughout the years, few could have predicted that Capcom would initially be releasing the latest game in the franchise, Resident Evil Revelations 2, as an episodic game with multiple purchase options. So now that the entire game is released at retail with various bonuses, is Resident Evil Revelations 2 a worthy entry for fans of the franchise?
Story Claire Redfield is attending a party for TerraSave, an organization focused around helping those who are affected by bio-terrorism and other issues and this time around she has brought Moira Burton, the daughter of Barry Burton, to the party. When the event is raided by an unknown group of well-equipped soldiers, the pair end up kidnapped only to awaken in what appears to be an abandoned prison which they later find out is on a mysterious island filled with mutated B.O.W.s, traps, and puzzles.
On the other end of things, we have Barry Burton arriving on that same island six months later in an attempt to try and find Moira only to come across a strange young girl Natalia who possesses the ability to see things that normal people such as Barry are incapable of. Throughout the game players will see the story switching between both narratives and in an interesting twist, the way that Claire and Moira handled enemies will have some effect on Barry and Natalia.
As far as the storyline goes, Resident Evil Revelations 2 establishes a fairly predictable pacing as the entire game is still set up in an episodic form at retail which means players will be witnessing various cliffhangers as the story swaps from Claire to Barry and the other way around. This is hardly a bad thing however as this pacing helps the storyline stay concise and entertaining while not keep drawing things out too much, though some episodes do have a problem with poor pacing.
With the return of Barry after such a long time and even Claire, fans will be interested to learn a bit about his past as well as his daughter Moira who undergoes the most development throughout the storyline, even though Natalia is the key to everything. It is worth noting that there are two extra episodes contained in this release that expand on Natalia and Moira during certain sections of the storyline and while these extra episodes aren’t very noteworthy, they do help fill in a few small blanks in what becomes a solid story that fans will enjoy.
Gameplay Since both sides of the story feature a pair of characters, players will find themselves paired up with an AI partner that can be swapped to at will. Unlike past games in the series with mechanics such as this, only Barry and Claire can actually deal massive damage to enemies since they are the only two capable of using firearms. Moira carries a flashlight to reveal hidden items and she also has some effect on enemies as she can blind opponents with the flashlight as well as hit them with a crowbar and even finish them off if they are on the ground while Natalia can point out enemy weak points, reveal invisible enemies, and throw bricks at foes.
This creates an interesting balance that sees players generally focusing on dealing out damage but occasionally switching to their partner when needed, though I must say that the AI on Moira and Natalia is actually rather intelligent in combat but the same cannot be said for Claire and Barry’s AI. Players will be facing off against hard hitting and fast creatures and zombies and the best thing to do is aim for weak points and headshots as the gunplay in Revelations 2 is surprisingly heavy hitting with enemies smaller enemies reacting to damage as you deal it.
Throughout the game players will gain various points that can be used to upgrade the core characters in ways that not only increase their deadliness also more deadly finishers that can prove quite useful considering the enemies in this game are not a cakewalk. Players will also come across various gun upgrades throughout the game, usually hidden in chests that require a small mini-game to unlock, that range from simple damage upgrades to adding the ability to shoot more than one bullet at a time.
As mentioned before, the enemies can be quite dangerous in Revelations 2 so you cannot be too frivolous with items as healing herbs and ammunition can be rather scarce especially since players can only carry so many items with them at any given time, though both Natalia and Moira can also carry items and can pass them to the main character if needed.
Now once an episode is completed, players have the option to retry the episode and try to complete special goals that are revealed once the episode is finished the first time or even aim for beating it in an Invisible Mode where all enemies will be invisible, raising the tension another notch. The bulk of your spare time however will be spent in Raid Mode where players will find plenty of enjoyment as they take on a wide-range of foes all while unlocking new weapons, abilities, and characters to face off against the hordes that only get stranger and more difficult to beat as you advance.
Visuals & Audio One thing that many so called horror games tend to forget about is the creepy atmosphere and dark feeling to the places players must navigate. Thankfully Revelations 2 has pulled it off perfectly while finding a nice balance of light and dark moments ranging from players traveling through dark winding halls only illuminated by a single flashlight while enemies roam around to navigating above ground during the day in a long abandoned area or an extremely familiar looking area all while providing suitable sound effects to help complete the tense feeling of some areas.
This atmosphere does wonders in providing a sense of fear as players deal with the various monstrosities that they will encounter throughout the title. While some may be a bit standard looking, the creatures players come across have a wide-range of designs and the actual character models themselves are rather nice looking but nothing more than that.
As far as the voice acting is concerned, players can expect the characters be voiced quite well though there are still a number of painful sounding lines that pop up from time to time in the game. A few of these tend to be references to lines from the past Resident Evil games, including Barry’s famous line from the original Resident Evil, though some of them are bad writing that the voice actors simply did their best with.
Overall Resident Evil Revelations 2 may have been given an unconventional release schedule but now that the entire package is out it is clear to see that Capcom has managed to put together an enjoyable title with a solid storyline that brings back two fan favorite characters and pairs them up with two new characters that put a twist on the game’s co-op focused combat. While there are some issues with the pacing and ultimately this final retail release may not add much to the experience, Resident Evil Revelations 2 offers plenty of content with its enjoyable story mode and fantastic Raid mode and is what Resident Evil fans should hope for in the future.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
What better way to cap off a restful Easter weekend than with an indie bundle designed to scare the pants right off your body. Indie Gala and Capsule Computer’s Every Monday Bundle #54 is available now. The bundle contains seven indie horror games.
Pineview Drive– VIS’ innovative horror title challenges players to manage their fear to survive the haunted mansion on Pineview Drive.
Astray– A first person horror-puzzler set in a sinister museum full of puzzles.
Urban Legends– A terrifying horror adventure starring PJ as he hunts for the clues to his past inside a hospital while being relentlessly pursued by an assassin right out of an old urban legend.
Project Night– A horror game inspired by the slower paced horrors from the 1990s.
Goro indeed lives. Not only is the Shokan Prince back in Mortal Kombat X, he is playable as a main roster member for the first time in 8 years! AND, he can perform Fatalities and Brutalities, and have them performed on him! In the last article, I asked why anybody would not have pre-ordered Mortal Kombat X by now…watch this massive Twitch stream presented by Warner Bros. Games and Amazon Games, embedded below, and you’ll see why getting Goro for free is truly reason enough.
As for his variations, Kuatan Warrior adds the ability to Ground Pound (classic Goro) and Chest Charge, which is essentially a rush down throw that allows a juggle opportunity. Tigrar Fury calls upon the dragon blood in Goro as he gains the Flame Ball and Fire Breath. He can also shoot the former at the ground to bounce the opponent up for a juggle…Goro likes to juggle (heads), and you’d assume so having four arms! Lastly, there’s Dragon Fangs, which alters a couple of his specials to incorporate more damaging blades on his gauntlets: his Punch Walk turns into more of a punch slice and dice, and his command grapple, where he beats your heads like a drum, turns into a merciless barrage of stabs.
9 days kombatants. Mortal Kombat X will soon be upon us, for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC.
It’s pretty amazing where sequels are up to these days. From humble beginnings on the Nintendo 64 with the original Mario Party, three generations of consoles later and now the Mario Party series has entered HD with Mario Party 10. The last time I really partied with Mario was back on the GameCube with Mario Party 5 and while there are still some recognisable elements from those past games, Mario Party 10 is fairly different from the titles of old. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, just different. There is still fun to be had at this party, it just might be short lived.
Gameplay
Unlike all past games in the series where a small story would tie the game together, there is absolutely none of that here. Instead we have a main menu with three modes (two modes if you don’t own a compatible Amiibo), a store which you can spend Mario Party points in that you earn simply by playing and a few separate games that are in the awkward middle area between mini games and being their own game. You’ll have a little fun with those games but they are largely forgettable, especially badminton.
The game’s main mode is Mario Party. All four characters are placed in a vehicle and attempt to reach the end of one of five game boards (the lowest amount of any Mario Party to date) and defeat the boss at the end with the most mini stars to become the winner. Nearly every space gives some type of reward or punishment, such as a special dice block, mini game, lose half your mini stars etc. so the whole random fun element is in full effect here, you just don’t feel fully in control of it thanks to the car mechanic where you are simply along for the ride for three turns.
The main problem with the linear boards in comparison to past titles is that the game plays out the same way nearly every time, ruining the unpredictability which Mario Party is best known for and limiting replay value. That’s not to say the boss battles aren’t fun however, as just like the mini games which I’ll touch on later they are well balanced and require skill/smarts or sometimes both for you to be successful. A cool feature that helps mix it up a little is the GamePad which displays Bowser trapped behind a cage. When one of each number is rolled over the course of the game Bowser is set free and wreaks havoc on the board and player who freed him. One cool effect Bowser can bring on is reverse mini games, where you’re actually encouraged to lose instead of win, completely changing the way that mini game is played.
Another gripe is how freely the game hands out mini stars. The game simply places them on the board and whoever is the leader of the car at that time and passes through the space can award up to eight mini stars. In comparison, mini games which largely require skill only hand out five to the winner in a free for all. In a similar vein, gone are the set bonus stars rewarding players who accrued the most coins or won the most mini games, replaced by a random selection of two bonuses from five that can include rewarding the person who simply rolled the lowest total amount. The real underlying problem of course is luck seems to be rewarded over skill.
This doesn’t make Mario Party 10 bad, just different. It’s still fun, especially with friends as players get poor dice rolls or have to lose half their stars to someone else and the leader still changes constantly. Most importantly, the mini games are fantastic. They are well balanced and require a good mix of memory, reflex, strategy and skill. Unfortunately, they kind of take a back seat to the game board in every mode outside of Amiibo mode as you don’t play them in Bowser party and you seldom play them in Mario Party outside of landing on a mini game space or hidden block. If you don’t have friends to play with though rest assured the A.I. provide a good challenge, especially at harder difficulties.
Bowser Party is a completely separate mode and rightfully so. Here one person uses the GamePad and controls Bowser who rolls four dice at once. Your goal as Bowser is to take down the opposing team of four players who are using Wii Remotes and trying to reach the end of the board before you reduce each member of that team’s hearts to zero. It’s a simple concept and one that works well and is a lot of fun. Being the overpowered Bowser is fun especially as he stomps through the course and can place traps in some locations on the board. You also get a unique perspective of most mini games where you do the most damage to the other teams heart totals.
Sadly, there are only 10 unique Bowser mini games and two are luck based with little input. The rest do make good use of the GamePad’s unique features though, such as breathing into the mic to shoot fireballs. Another negative is only three of the five boards are available in this mode, decreasing the replay value of this mode. Again the mode seems to come down to luck which weighs a little too much in Bowser’s favour. Bad dice rolls will lead to Bowser catching you each turn and stealing too many hearts. Once one player on the team goes down it’s pretty much game over as your dice rolls are then limited. Bowser being able to re-roll doesn’t help the situation nor do the many traps placed for the team in the home stretch. Overall it’s a fun mode just lacking in variety and a little unbalanced.
Amiibo Party is really just too bland to be anything special. Sure it brings back the classic coin and star system and mini games in between rounds, but at the expense of any sort of uniqueness or strategy within the board itself, which is literally a square board like monopoly with a few very repetitive events sprinkled around and one special type of space such as warp pipes on the Mario board. The game only lasts 10 turns with no option to change it. Cool things can happen with the tokens that are spread about the board but because they are so limited and the games are so short you would be lucky to even get to use one or two a game. Anyone without a compatible Amiibo really isn’t missing out on much here.
Surprisingly, there are some annoying user interface features present in Mario Party 10. Constantly being told to turn my controller back to the upright position after a mini game, which isn’t necessary in order to take your turn is incredibly annoying. In Amiibo mode you are constantly bugged to tap the Amiibo to the NFC device on the GamePad which always has a slight delay to it and I can imagine it being a huge pain with four players all trying to do so, juggling their remotes, Amiibo and the GamePad. It should be noted a lot of people are saying it is required to tap the Amiibo to role the dice, that is simply not true you can just press A, the game just doesn’t tell you that for some reason even though it gives you heaps of other obvious advice. Most other actions do require the Amiibo tap though.
The game is also overly child friendly, displaying notes over the game board literally telling you the dark purple stars are bad or that the gold stars are important and you want to reach them. In contrast, basic controls and mini game instructions are not clearly detailed, instead a single line of text that scrolls so you have to wait to read it sits along the bottom of the mini game video and no tips are offered either.
Visual
Mario Party 10 is a great looking Nintendo game that seems to be running off the Super Mario 3D World graphics engine. Characters are well modeled as are the game boards and the signature bright and colourful ‘Nintendo’ style is in full effect here. Textures are high resolution, menus are cheery and all the special effects and lighting also look great. The only slightly odd thing I noticed was DK’s arms when he lifted up the Superstar at the end of a Mario Party, it’s like he’s wearing a shirt with long sleeves as opposed to normal fur but if that’s my biggest problem with the games visuals then you can tell I didn’t have much to complain about.
Audio
Like the visuals the audio is also pretty classic from a Mario Party series view. Audio is mostly forgettable but it all fits the mood of the board/event/mini game perfectly and there are a few stand out tracks you might find yourself enjoying quite a bit. Bowser’s challenge theme and the 2nd theme for the spooky ghost board stood out to me as hits. All the characters sound as they have in past titles and all retain that charm we know and love. There’s really not much else to say here, the Mario Party series has always looked and sounded good and Mario Party 10 is no exception.
Overall
I was admittedly a bit apprehensive coming into Mario Party 10 due to the car mechanic but I can’t deny I had fun playing the game. The mini games are top notch with great balance and variety, Bowser Party is a good take on asynchronous gameplay and a fun mix on the formula and having the car in standard Mario Party allows for quicker games, albeit at the expense of non-linearity and less emphasis on skill and strategy in comparison to luck. The question for me lies in how much more fun I will have with this title as the minimal amount of boards and lack of outcomes within them don’t really encourage multiple plays. Small user interface issues aside, solid visuals and audio along with a few extras make Mario Party 10 a decent sized family fun package offered at a fair, cheaper price point.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
This past week’s ‘Kombat Kast’ (you can watch the ‘Kombat Kast’ in its entirety, embedded below) revealed two exclusive skins made available to players who download and play the mobile edition of Mortal Kombat X, and sign-in with WB Play in order to gain access to said skins on console. Just like with Injustice: Gods Among Us, NetherRealm has other special skins for us to unlock, cross-platform, should we choose to play the mobile edition of Mortal Kombat X. It’s free, and c’mon, ‘Ninja Mime’ Johnny Cage and ‘Farmer’ Jax should be enough incentive!
Other than that announcement, we know what to expect from Mortal Kombat X mobile: it’s a card battle game just like the studio’s past offerings, although Fatalities will be featured, with touch-screen gestures integrated to make them more interactive. Now, before moving on to the gameplay breakdowns for Sonya and Kenshi, the usual ‘Kombat Kast’ hosts, designer Derek Kirtzic and community specialist Tyler Landsdown, also broke down a new Stage called the Sky Temple. Featuring the best lighting and environmental effects, Raiden’s place of worship seems to be in the midst of a gigantic storm. You can leap off a gong on the right side, throw a ceremonial fire pit and flammable, hanging lantern, and finally, toss a monk at your opponent ala Blanche in the Outworld Marketplace level, at which point a lightning strike will hit and scare the others into a state of fervorous begging and prayer. They’re just hoping for FRIENDSHIP Lord Raiden!
Onto the character gameplay…blind swordsman Kenshi is back and deadlier than before. Kenshi seems to be a great character for beginners to pick up, because his main specials don’t differ too much across all three variations. In Balanced, Kenshi gains the ability to project spectral versions of his common special attacks that give him more range, along with a projectile reflect. His second Variation, Possessed, sees Kenshi summon a demon from his now cracked and corrupted Sento sword to do his dirty work. Again, his specials are altered here, with the demon adding a hit here and there, and also changing the positioning of the opponent for different mix-ups and combo possibilities. Finally, Kenjutsu grants the telekinetic abilities that also define the character, including the TK Push, Slam and Toss, which throws the enemy over you to the other, perhaps if you’d like to back them into a corner.
Now Sonya’s variations, on the other hand, drastically change her play-style. Covert Ops focuses on parries and timing, adding garrote parries and military stance, from which you can pull off multiple added attacks, much like Erron Black’s ‘Gunslinger’ stance. If you pick the Demolition variation, Sonya will have three grenades at her disposal. They can be set to frag or stun. If she needs them replenished, she can call upon a Special Forces drone and reload, so to speak. Speaking of, her last variation is named Special Forces, and allows her to use said drone as an actual offensive tool. The player may shoot a homing blast, a low shot, mid-air level shot or order it the drone to go kamikaze on the opponent for even bigger damage. The drone has a timer on how long it can stay in play, and the player can even park it to set up traps, or play on the mind of the opponent, potentially affecting their game. Check it all out in motion below.
Mortal Kombat X is only days away from release for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC. If you haven’t pre-ordered already…what are you waiting for?!
Right Stuf, Inc. and Sunrise, Inc. have just announced the North American DVD release of Turn A Gundam Part 2. This is the second and final release of Turn A Gundam, featuring episodes 26-50 with English subtitles.
On-disc extras for this release will include a three-part interview with the Mechanical Designer Syd Mead and the textless opening and closing animations. Syd Mead may be known among sci-fi fans for his work on Aliens.
Part 2 will be released on August 4, 2015, with a suggested retail price of $49.99 USD. Pre-orders can be made here for $33.49 USD. Part 1 is available for pre-order here for the same price ahead of its release on June 30.
Overview Two years ago, NIS America released what can best be described as a spiritual successor to Z.H.P. Unlosing Ranger in the form of The Guided Fate Paradox. An enjoyable story with a likable cast of characters combined with interesting gameplay elements made The Guided Fate Paradox a worthwhile title. Now NIS America has brought the game’s sequel, The Awakened Fate Ultimatum, to the West. A number of changes have been made to the original game’s formula but is it still worth picking up?
Story Shin Kamikaze had a difficult life growing up and because of this he distrusts those around him and never really interacted with the world. While he may be a loner, he did have a fairly normal life until one day while walking home from high school he is attacked by a group of devils. Before he is able to understand what is happening, he is grievously wounded by these devils and only with the help of an angel named Celestia and a devil scientist named Ariael is he able to stay alive.
This is only the beginning of the story as the only way Shin was able to remain alive is thanks to a Fate Awakening Crystal being inserted into his body and given half of an angel’s soul and half of a devil’s soul. Thanks to the crystal in his chest, Shin now has become God and must enter into the battle between angels and devils in a story that may have less humor than the first game but makes up for it by keeping a tighter focus on the storyline.
Both Ariael and Celestia are developed well enough for players to care about what is going on, especially since they will be spending a lot of screen time with each girl in rather long conversation sequences. Now there are still a few humorous moments throughout the story and most of this humor comes from interacting with these two girls but it is worth noting that the tone throughout the story is far more serious this time around and also not quite as complex as the previous game, though an interesting choice mechanic has been implemented instead.
Over the course of the game players will be presented with numerous decisions that they will have to make and while some may seem rather innocuous there is a lot of gray area on play here. The core aspect of the decision system is to show whether the player is leaning towards the Angels or the Devils with each choice providing the player with Crystal Points that will be used to upgrade skills on the corresponding side.
What makes it interesting however is the fact that the outcome of these decisions are usually not as one would expect. Choosing to try and do something good may result in a much worse outcome than if you had chosen a darker route. At other times there isn’t even a good option to choose from as players will know that someone will need to be sacrificed regardless of the player’s choice. That being said, many of these decisions don’t seem to carry long lasting consequences outside of the immediate results until the end of course, but even then there is always a ‘True’ option to pursue.
Gameplay Not only is The Awakened Fate Ultimatum a bit of a darker title; it also is one that has shrugged off nearly all of the mechanics of the past title and most of the complicated systems at the same time. While still a roguelike that will punish the player if they die, it is far simpler to control this time around as everything has been streamlined, making the title far easier than the earlier game even though you always have to prepare for the worst when you enter a dungeon.
As you enter a dungeon, Shin will now be by himself with no companion fighting alongside him and players will need to explore dungeons with each one having a set amount of floors while battling against the enemies they come across. Combat works in an easy to understand manner, especially now that the equipment has been limited compared to the original. If you happen to fall in combat, players will lose every item they have equipped and anything they may have been carrying with them. While this is a punishment, players will also no longer have to worry about their levels being reset to 1 at the start of every dungeon as Shin will now level normally and retain his level no matter what dungeon he is entering.
New to this system is the ‘Deitize’ mode. Since Shin now has part of an Angel and Devil soul inside of him, he can now transform into an angelic form and devil form in combat. As you travel through dungeons you’ll encounter enemies that are angelic as well as demonic and while you can choose to fight these enemies in base form, transforming into the opposing form through a simple tap of a button increases the damage you deal while also taking less damage.
These forms level up separately from one another using the Crystal Points mentioned earlier (gained through choices and basic leveling and fighting) and players will be able to choose how they wish to level these forms through a level-grid system that is easy to understand and contains a number of skills that can be unlocked. Another notable thing about these forms is that the various stat boosts and focus are built around different aspects and their skills match that. The angelic form features abilities and boosts dealing with destructive power and wide-ranging attacks while the devil form is more defensive, boosting the player’s defense and featuring skills that allow for easier running away and draining health from opponents.
Despite being more streamlined and easier than before, players will still need to prepare for random spikes in difficulty that occur throughout the title, especially after a few hours in. As players navigate the floors looking for the way down, they’ll need to worry about traps, enemies that can and will try to surround you, especially when they are two different types meaning that death can and will happen even if you are prepared. That being said, those looking for a harder title will find The Awakened Fate Ultimatum a far easier experience than the original game.
Visuals & Audio While I am unsure whether or not the shift from the original sprite based dungeon gameplay to the new 3D chibi form was Nippon Ichi dealing with a smaller budget this time or attempting to go for a different look (or both), I can say that the shift to the 3D forms is a downgrade compared to the original title. While dungeon exploration is much easier thanks to the view players are presented with, the actual designs of the dungeons, the enemies, and Shin, in any of his forms, will leave players wanting.
This is especially true thanks to the limited customization system as well as how well designed the actual character portraits are during the visual novel sequences. These dialogue sequences are the same as one would expect for a game such as this and the character designs and backgrounds have a nice level of detail which is found lacking once you enter a dungeon.
The Awakened Fate Ultimatum comes with a newly recorded English dub as well as the original Japanese voice track which will please both types of gamers as the English voice actors portray their characters well. As far as the soundtrack is concerned, there are tracks ranging from heavy rock music for combat and boss encounters to simple background music for dialogue sequences to grand dramatic pieces for main story moments meaning that there are some great songs here, including the opening theme.
Overall The Awakened Fate Ultimatum may be the sequel to The Guided Fate Paradox but just like how there is very little story crossover between the two games, very few of the original mechanics have survived in this release. Instead the experience has been streamlined and made more accessible to newcomers and in no way does this make The Awakened Fate Ultimatum a bad game as it still provides a solid experience with a serious tone, but one that is watered down and far easier than fans of the original will expect.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
After a slight delay the second DLC pack for Dragon Ball Xenoverse now has a release date and it’s not too far off. The pack will be available in the Americas beginning April 14th with a European release either on the same day or a day later. You can view the full details of DLC pack 2 in our past article along with some cool looking screenshots but the basics of the pack include
– Four new playable characters including: Eis Shenron, Nuova Shenron, Mira, and Towa
– Three episodes and three quests from the GT Saga
– New Master “Pan”
– 22 new moves, five new costumes, and six new Z-Souls
The details of DLC pack 3 including Golden Frieza, more costumes and more mentors were also leaked recently. Dragon Ball Xenoverse is available now for PS3, Xbox 360, PS4, Xbox One and PC. The season pass is available now at a price of $37.99 AU.
