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Note: 'Post-Game Summary' is a new feature I wanted to try where I write a quick summary of the feelings and the experiences I've had for a game after I've had a bit of time to let it sink in, in this case right now it's the morning after the evening I finished Eternal Sonata. This can be treated as a mini-review but please note that it's still entirely possible that I will make a full length review later on. So with that out of the way I will commence with the post. Also, this post might contain minor spoilers.

When going into Eternal Sonata, I didn't know what to expect. I didn't have particularly high hopes since it's been mocked repeatedly by other individuals for it's slow pacing and tedious cutscenes, plus it didn't help that I saw it in a bargain bin for $9AUD, which in Australia is a damn good deal for any game worth noting. I had finished my last JRPG, Persona 4, a few months back and I was ready for another.

The first thing I took note of was the art style. It went for '3-Dimensional Anime' that I had previously experienced from the short demo I played of Tales of Vesperia. It was a nice look for a game that had so many similarities to anime. The game is also very beautiful but after about four hours into it I began to mock the vibrancy of it. I even took note that places in real life that are supposed to be dirty would be presented in this game as a colour-filled paradise. For example, the sewers in this game have clean, sparkling water and rainbows. RAINBOWS!

I noted in the last paragraph that this game has a lot of similarities to anime. It doesn't stop with the art style. The story is very slow, which is something that anime is also known for, and is constantly filled with slow-paced establishing shots in the cutscenes that bare no significance to the action. The characters also have a tendency to soliloquise every chance they get. Even one of the characters halfway through the game is stabbed and it takes her 6 minutes in actually die because she's too busy blurting out all of her feelings.

There are a lot of things in this game that didn't need to be there and the time taken to create those things should have been better used in fleshing out the characters and the story. There's almost no character development in this game. There is a predictable romantic sideplot during the game that isn't established very well but you don't really care about it because at the end, all the characters are unlikeable and forgetable.

The story in this game is very unique and interesting at first but soon turns tedious and predictable. The game is centred around Polish pianist and composer Frédéric Chopin in his death bed and takes place within a dream that he is experiencing before he dies. While this is a neat concept at first, this idea is tossed out the window as the game centres around political espionage and rebellion.

Finally, the combat is something I want to mention. The combat is a mixture of real-time and turn-based with each character in your party taking turn to wail on the enemies. Each character is given a limited amount of time of run around the screen and perform their actions. I really liked this combat system at first but it soon turn into another cheap, repetitive way to do turn-based battles. I like turn-based combat if it's done right, eg Persona 4, but in this game it felt like a boring cluster of combos and quick-time events.

Overall, the game, while it looks and is presented beautifully, never lived up to what it was trying to do and ended up being a poor game because of that.

(Image © Namco Bandai)

Originally posted on my new site 300 Word Reviews.

Indigo Prophecy is a paranormal thriller presented as an interactive movie. Released in 2005, Indigo Prophecy follows Lucas Kane, man whose life is turned upside down when he unwittingly murders a stranger in a New York diner, and two detectives, Carla Valenti and Tyler Miles, who are investigating the murder.

The game progresses using cutscenes with some quick-time events thrown in to keep the player's interest. This isn't so much a game as it is just a five hour long machinima. When you do actually control a character it turns into a kind of adventure game where you have to interact with your surroundings using gestures, such as dragging down the mouse to pull open a door. While these gestures provide a small amount of immersion, they come off as tedious when you're put under the pressure of a time limit, which happens often during the game. The quick-time events are performed with eight lights that are shown and you have to keep up by pressing the corresponding keys. This degrades the game's quality because not only do they come off as misplaced and awkward, they distract you from some of the game's best action moments and since this is a 'movie' that's not a good thing.

The story starts off as your average murder mystery but a couple of hours in the story will turn towards an ancient Mayan cult and a mysterious power called the 'Chroma' which is just the smart man's way of saying the 'Force' without getting sued. In short, the plot progresses fairly well but be prepared for insanity that only anime can rival.

Indigo Prophecy was a good original concept but it would have been better if it were just an hour long cutscene with no interactivity what-so-ever. You should at least try it.

The Xbox Live Arcade is renowned for having cheap, short indie games that are produced and played by people to tide them over until the next major gaming release. It is also known for containing innovative and creative concepts. When something like Shadow Complex comes around, boasting that it's taken the 'metroidvania' style of gameplay and reworked it to suit today's gaming industry, it might raise a few eyebrows. This isn't the most original game on the Xbox Live Arcade but it certainly goes about it by pretending it is.

In Shadow Complex you play as Jason, an average twenty-something guy who is dragged along to go explore some cave with Claire, a girl who he just met in a bar. Jason soon discovers that the cave is actually home to the 'Restoration', a fairly large and technologically advanced terrorist group who are planning an attack on San Francisco in a matter of hours. When Claire is kidnapped by them, Jason must ultimately save her and prevent these guys from attacking the country. To do this he will need to use every bit of technology he passes by, even though I'm a bit perplexed as to why he doesn't just pick up the assault rifles dropped by early enemies, against the Restoration including grenades, missiles and a battlesuit.

If there is one aspect of the game that it wants to boast the most about then it would be exploration. Everything you do in the game is about exploration. Hidden items, secret doors, power-ups, it's all to do with exploring every part of the game world. This may sound like a hassle at first but the possible frustration is quickly eased by the flashlight, an item you get right from the start that lights up secret doors where hidden items may be and which item has to be used to open it. Since this game boasts so much about exploration and secrets it comes across as a bit strange to have an item that you can use almost all the time that tells you exactly where all the secrets are.

Another thing the game wants to boast about is replayability. The short single-player adventure helps this by not making it tedious to play the entire game again the moment after finishing it once. A leveling system is also used here to help make the game feel less repetitive. Every level brings a slight upgrade to your character, usually through increased firing precision and every ten levels bring a major upgrade like infinite foam or the entire map being unlocked. If you do eventually get bored of the main game then there is a challenge mode, called Proving Grounds, where you are pulled into a series of challenges where you are only permitted certain items and weapons from the game.

Combat in the game isn't something to get excited about. Shooting is performed by aiming with the right stick and firing with the right trigger. A laser pointer is used as your aiming guide but it feels as though it makes the game far too simple. With this laser you can easily pop headshots with almost every enemy in the game making combat quick, easy and boring. These encounters are broken off with the occasional boss fight where it has a specific weakpoint but if you're not really in the mood to carefully observe the boss and it's surroundings then you can just unload all your items onto it and defeat it without much trouble.

This game is most reminiscent of Super Metroid which boasted exploration and replayability but Shadow Complex lacks the functionality of Super Metroid. The jumping feels awkward, some items are overpowered or difficult to use, such as the hyperspeed, and, overall, the game just doesn't have the same charm and atmosphere that Super Metroid had.

Shadow Complex is a nice attempt to bring the 'metroidvania' genre to the current generation but it lacks the depth that most of those games had. Maybe if Shadow Complex was larger, more complicated and challenging then it might have stood up as a spiritual successor to Super Metroid. Get it if you liked those games but don't get your hopes up too high.

I just didn't give it enough time for my computer to get used to it. Team Fortress 2 works fine on my computer (with some 'minor' lag due to my crappy video card) so I've been playing that over the last few days. The lag only seems to happen wwhen there's 10 or more people on screen at once or if I'm swimming so it's not a huge deal.

I also stated in my previous post that I played TF2 on my Xbox for a bit so I already knew all the classes and how to play the game. The first thing that surprised me was the amount of content in this game. The class updates that Valve have been bringing out over the past few years have given me a lot of things to do. Like the 245 achievements. Also yesterday Valve released the Classless update so not I got even MORE to do in this game, like King of the Hill mode.

There's nothing else I want to add to this post except this picture of me getting pwned by a sniper ;P

A few days has passed since my last update. Firstly I'll tell you of my two purchases. On Sunday, I found Assassin's Creed on sale for $24 AUD (Trust me, that's good in Australia) and sat down and played it for a few hours. I've already played it before so I knew what I was doing.

A problem I have with the game is that the guards are either too suspicious and/or stupid. I have several occasions where I kill someone and the guard discovers the body and tries to identify the person who killed him. I stand next to him using the 'blend' ability which doesn't look to much different to what I usually look like and he doesn't suspect a thing. Next, I'm on a horse going through the kingdom and I jump over a log and the guards mark me for death. Let me repeat that: I jumped over a log and the guards want to murder me but I assassinate someone and stand next to the body and they don't do anything. Just something to think about...

The next game I've been playing is one that I didn't buy recently and I've had for a few years now would be Kingdom Hearts 2. I've never been able to get into the series through playing it (which is a bit odd because the combat system is effin sweet!) but I've always watched my brother, who's two years younger than me, play the second one to completion and half of the first one. This way I was enthralled by the story. I've never finished a Kingdom Hearts game but hopefully this time I might actually do it. Odd that I'm expecting to finish the sequel before the original but oh well.

Finally, I bought a game a few hours ago off Steam that I'm a bit skeptical of using. Team Fortress 2. Firstly, I want to point out that I have The Orange Box for Xbox 360 so why I bought this in the first place might seem a bit strange at first. I can sum up my feelings in a couple of sentences: Team Fortress 2 is AWESOME and FPS' on the PC are AWESOME! I still don't know why I bought it but oh well. I also am a bit skeptical about whether it will run on my computer or not. I have a crappy little laptop that can run a few Source games. Just a few. I also went to a website that shows you if your computer can run a game and I said that TF2 will work. The reason I haven't tried it yet is because it's still downloading. 2 hours remaining. I'll update if it works or not.

One last thing about the Persona 4 second playthrough, I might not do it. When I realised that I can summon my level 70 or so personas from my previous save it ruined the experience because it's going to make the game a pushover. I might still do it slowly though.

UPDATE: Team Fortress 2 does NOT work on my computer. Might start saving up for a better one. *sigh*

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 for the Playstation 2 is a stylish Japanese turn-based roleplaying game. The game follows a group of high school students as the discover the truth behind a string of serial murder cases that are occuring around the once peaceful country town of Inaba and the truth behind the mysterious Midnight Channel that appears at midnight on a rainy day.

The style of the game is very unique and interesting. Sharp graphics and colourful displays makes the game play like nothing you've played before. The fast-paced battle system works with a trial and error approach as you find the enemies weakness and exploit it. The absense of random encounters gives this game an automatic thumbs up.

The characters are memorable and well established. During your 60 hour stay at Inaba, you will become attached to most of the main characters and will be saddened when the game eventually ends.

The soundtrack involves catchy J-pop with English lyrics. The insertion of a free soundtrack cd was a good move on behalf of Atlus as you will want to listen to the music when you want to.

Every day in Inaba you will have to decide what you will do for the day. Will you hang out with friends and get stronger or rescue people who are in danger? Even though there is a time limit almost constantly above your head, it will never feel like you are wasting your time as you seem to be always getting stronger in the game no matter what you do.

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 is an interesting and enjoyable experience and it proves that the Playstation 2 can still pack a punch. My recommendation is that you should definitely seek this game out.

Earlier this morning I started a second playthrough of Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4, a game that I finished roughly a week ago. This time, however, I'm not doing it on Normal difficulty but on Expert.

I'm not noticing too much of a difference in difficulty yet and I think it's nice that all my money from my last playthrough was carried over to this save.

Every now and then I want to record my progress here which I'll do right now.

In-Game Date: April 17th
Last Major Event: Chie gained her Persona