Cerise Magazine

Warhammer 40,000 Fifth Edition, Tabletop Wargame, Games Workshop, 2008

Few things are easier to make a complete hash of than combining fantasy with science fiction. To grossly oversimplify, but hopefully still make a point, science fiction is about taking things apart to see how they work, about finding a rational explanation rather than taking the world purely at face value. Fantasy, on the other hand, asks us to accept that symbols have power in and of themselves, and there’s no need for any further explanation. Asking the audience to accept both modes of thinking at once, though, makes for a jarring, internally-contradictory mess. Why, for example, should the sun be special when we know that there are billions of stars out there? Is there one underworld for the entire universe, or a separate one for each inhabited planet? If we accept that we came about through evolution, then at what point did we evolve souls, and do other primates have them?
(more…)

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, PS3, Konami, 2008

Finally, Metal Gear Solid 4 is here! Like many enthused fans, I’ve been waiting about six years, since I finished the complicated MGS2, for answers to the many questions left hanging. Anticipating that awesome would manifest. And it did.

The game itself is laced with a generally bleak atmosphere; much different than the other Metal Gear Solid titles in this respect. Snake doesn’t simply go kick ass (though he certainly does so) through a tricky plot. The “Yeah! Lets do this!” feel of previous titles has vanished, though this mood change does not detract from the game, but adds to it in a new and unique way.

Snake’s future hangs in the balance from the menu background on, the ramifications of which tie into the theme of not only MGS4, but previous titles as well. (more…)

On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Mac, Hothead Games, 2008

On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness is the first episode of the game inspired by Penny Arcade, the world’s most popular gaming comic. It is a game where you can distract robots by throwing oranges at them, whereupon they are overcome with passion, plunge their juice chutes into the moist orange flesh, and pump their steely hips.

If this doesn’t appeal to you, do not read the rest of this review. Also, we probably shouldn’t be friends.
(more…)

Munchkin 6: Demented Dungeons, Steve Jackson Games, 2008

I’ve been a fan of Munchkin since I was a teenager, and though I’ve been playing for years it hasn’t lost its charm. I haven’t been as impressed with the expansions as with the original game, though. When I add a couple into my deck, the number of cards starts to become unwieldy, and while the individual cards in each expansion usually give me a chuckle, they don’t really alter the overall gameplay experience that much. The sixth expansion for Munchkin, Demented Dungeons, is something new, however.
(more…)

Final Fantasy VI, Squaresoft, Super Nintendo Entertainment System , 1994

Final Fantasy VI is, as everybody knows, one of the greatest games ever made. Everybody happens to be right for a change, so heaping praise upon the thing is quite magnificently redundant. Amidst this praise, though, precisely why the game was so successful isn’t discussed; it’s something we simply take as read, occasionally fishing around for phrases like “epic story” and “three-dimensional characters”. The argument that it’s the story and characters that make the game a success, however, simply isn’t supported by the game’s content. Looked at in isolation, without making any allowances for nostalgia, the story is revealed to be juvenile, cliche-ridden and often just plain illogical, driven by characters whose choices frequently defy all reason. Remake it as an Anime and, quite rightly, nobody would consider it in any way special. Why, then, is it recalled so fondly?

The answer is that we’re not remembering the story itself, we’re remembering the experience of playing the game, because - in a way that the subsequent games in the series spectacularly failed to emulate - the game and the story are both functioning as part of the same aesthetic. It’s not a game with a story attached, or a story that lets you control the characters while they walk between town, it’s an experience where the game and the story are the same thing. It’s not surprising, then, that even those of us who couldn’t care less about the story of later installments still feel as if we’ve got a personal stake in the story of Final Fantasy VI, because the characters and the player are always working toward the same goal. Yet it only takes two games for this approach to completely unravel, and by Final Fantasy VIII the magic-fuelled time-travelling war in which the characters take part is constantly sidelined to allow them to whine about their preternaturally tedious love lives. It’s no wonder that, after the hype had died down, criticism of the story became increasingly vocal and divisive. The problem isn’t that the story is any more banal than we’re used to, it’s that, for the first time, it’s surplus to requirements. There’s simply no reason to care about the love story between Squall and Rinoa, because it’s wholly independent of the player’s actions.

In contrast, look at the rather more low-key relationship between Celes and CId in Final Fantasy VI. Stranded on an island together after a cataclysm which all but destroys the world, they become a surrogate family, with the elderly Cid referring to the much younger Celes as his “Granddaughter” despite not being a blood relative. He is, however, overworked and on the verge of dying of exhaustion. Taking control of Celes, it’s the player’s job to travel from Cid’s hut down to the beach and catch fish for him to help him regain his strength. Cid’s health is declining at a steady rate, and each fish he’s fed restores a portion of it, but - and this is what makes the sequence nerve-wracking, even to saddos who’ve played through the game dozens of times already - there are different kinds of fish, and their placement is random. Celes, not being able to walk into the water, must wait for them to come close to the shore before she catches them. This forces the player to make snap decisions; is it worth waiting at the shore for a particularly tasty fish to swim up, or should you save time by catching a less valuable one, then running back and hoping the layout is better next time? It sounds by turns tedious and irritating. And so it is. But because the player is forced to struggle against overwhelming odds in order to keep Cid alive, because there are no other characters on the island, because there is (literally, since his health declines regardless) no time to pause for breath, we’re involved in the relationship anyway. It doesn’t matter that the dialogue is ridiculously overwrought (”Hack, wheeze… I’m not long for this world”) or that “Grandfather is dying because he took care of you at the expense of himself” could only be more trite and sentimental if it involved puppies, because the player has a genuine stake in what happens next. We don’t need to be shown or told that Celes is frantically trying to keep him alive and that the world has gone to Hell; we experience it directly. You get the horrible feeling that were it done today, we’d get a twenty minute unskippable CGI sequence followed by Cid dying regardless, probably in slow motion with full orchestral accompaniment.

This approach goes beyond simple story events and into the actual game mechanics themselves. Each of the twelve major characters has a unique combat ability, but these aren’t arbitrarily assigned and help reinforce that character’s personality. In later games it’s de rigueur to have a similarly large cast whose can all draw from the same “pool” of abilities, but more often than not this simply renders the least-used characters pointless. If you need to steal a certain item in Final Fantasy VII, for example, you can just stick the “Steal” ability on one of your strongest characters, even if he happens to be a large, slow, clumsy man with only one hand. There’s a character that the story tells us is a thief, yes, but why bother using her when anybody else you happen to pick up along the way can do the job just as well…? The story and the game are doing different things. Final Fantasy VI, however, gives us a thief who’s the only character capable of stealing (overpowered hidden ones don’t count), a samurai who’s the only character capable of using fancy sword techniques, a wizard who’s the only character capable of accessing a certain spells… These abilities aren’t complicated, either; they’re written on the command window in big, bold letters, signaling to the player that THIS IS WHAT I DO. Even if a character’s ability is mostly useless, we’re never confused as to who they are and what their place in the world is. By defining the characters through how they relate to the act of playing the game, the cast remain well-defined and memorable where they would have seemed superfluous had the focus been entirely on their dialogue. The magic system works in the same way. The crux of the story is that the Empire is using magicite, the remains of magical creatures called Espers, to infuse its soldiers and war machines with magical power, but this is also how we teach our characters spells in-game, so the threat isn’t an abstract, it’s something we have to deal with if we want to succeed. Even if you ignore the dialogue completely, you can pick up the story simply through the act of playing it.

We should also consider how little the gameplay of Final Fantasy VI repeats itself. While the core of the game remains “Explore dungeon, encounter monsters, kill them”, we rarely do this in precisely the same way twice. We begin the game riding inside nigh-on invincible robot armor, nonchalantly storming a town and slaughtering the defenders without breaking a sweat. Our next objective, however, is to break out of the town, now robot-less, vulnerable and armed only with a knife. When that’s done with, we’re asked to control three groups of characters simultaneously, using them to defend an unconscious woman from advancing enemy troops. It’s not until this part of the game is over that we experience our first “straight” dungeon, and that’s immediately followed by white-water rafting through a maze of rivers. A later section takes place in a town occupied by the Empire, where the objective is to gather information through the use of disguises, rather than confronting the enemy head-on. When some characters are trapped on a haunted train, what could have easily become a combat-heavy slog from the caboose to the engine is livened up by little touches like friendly ghosts who’ll join you, a dining car where you can order food and puzzles requiring you to derail cars. All of this takes place within the first third of the game, and it’s more variation than we got in the previous five games put together. “Variation” is the key word, here: These aren’t gimmicks, they’re simply different ways of employing the core gameplay we’ve been dealing with since we started. Instead of relying on contrived, simplistic minigames to break up the monotony, Final Fantasy VI simply avoids being monotonous in the first place.

But most of all, the success of Final Fantasy VI is due to its ability to be all things to all people. The compulsory parts of the game are easy, with weak monsters and simplistic puzzles, while anything complicated is on the periphery for the player to explore at their leisure. The ability to control how the characters’ statistics increase through equipping magicite as their level increases, for example, is not remotely necessary if your only goal is to finish the game, but is immensely rewarding if you learn to exploit it. The best weapons, armour, spells and items are also found by ignoring the story completely and experimenting, but again, this isn’t strictly necessary, and if something’s too difficult or confusing then you can easily ignore it in favor of something else. The people playing purely for the story are happy, the obsessive collectors are happy, the algorithm freaks are happy, and so is everybody in between. You can’t say this of later games in the series, where combining items and spells together, drawing abilities out of weapons or navigating mazes using magic spheres was required to survive for any length of time.

Because this is Cerise, a brief note on the female characters: It’s traditional for Final Fantasy games to feature a virginal young woman with healing powers and some connection to an extinct race, but who ends up getting sidelined in favor of the hero being angsty / rescuing her. The obvious candidate in Final Fantasy VI is Terra, a half-human half-Esper who acts as a bridge between the two worlds, only… She’s never depicted as especially pure or nice, her magical speciality is fireballs rather than healing, and while she’s pursued by a few of the male characters, she ends the game happy on her own. Most interestingly, she’s also the one who gets to fall over and have cryptic flashbacks to her Dark Hidden Past, which is traditionally the domain of the male lead. Come to think of it, Final Fantasy VI doesn’t even have a male lead - female characters are scarce, but they’re the ones whom the game revolves around.

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, Square Enix, PSP, 2008

After sequels that, while met with a general positive response, did not thrill as the original 1997 Playstation title, Crisis Core brings hope for a game that will finally recapture Final Fantasy VII’s appeal. This PSP title again takes the series away from turn-based gameplay, introducing fans to the action-RPG.

For the devoted fans who just want to know now, this game easily meets the standards of its predecessor and is an excellent addition to the Compilation of Final Fantasy VII and the PSP.

I’m a hardcore FFVII fan and played it so many times I lost count; Crisis Core is the reason I own a PSP. Anticipation was sweet, but not comparable to the excitement of plunging into a worthy game. Fans will encounter many familiar places, people, and allusions: a gratifying balance of old and new. Seeing even a small portion of the original remastered is enough to make me want to pull out the PS1 game yet again. Ah, nostalgia!

Story

Crisis Core’s story revolves around SOLDIER, an elite group of combat experts working for the Shinra Electric Company. Shinra controls a good portion of the world through its base in the cyberpunk dystopia Midgar, and is branching out by building reactors in rural locations. The game follows SOLDIER member Zack Fair, who was a minor (though significant) character in FFVII, as he rises through the ranks and gains the trust of SOLDIER’s most renown member, the legendary Sephiroth, antagonist of FFVII.

Familiar plot points from FFVII are revisited from a new perspective, and are excellent additions to the story. Anybody familliar with the story of FFVII knows of Zack’s fate, but foreknowledge of the ending does not detract from the story, as the focus is on characters and events within SOLDIER that we were previously unaware of. Following the plot may require more attention from those new to FFVII’s world, but all details are explained in some manner.

The ending is a beautiful, emotional, and a unique combination of all the game’s mechanics. Superbly done. I wish I could describe it further without spoiling it; by far one of the best conclusions to any Final Fantasy, and easily tops other games as well.

Gameplay

Crisis Core deviates from standard turn-based RPG battles, a necessary change given that players now control one character throughout the entire game. Zack’s equipment is fully customizable to suit your style of play, whether it’s offense, defense or the use of magic.

Despite all these options, almost all battles play the same way. I found myself using the same equipment setup until I forced myself to try something new; basic attacks with occasional offense and healing magic will get you through most of the game. There are many useful skills available, but once you find your niche there’s not much reason to abandon it. However, gameplay did not annoy or bore me; the quickness battle and the joy of mowing through bad guys outweighs the repetition.

Digital Mind Wave, a new mechanic, creates more interesting gameplay. It consists of three numbers and character portraits, and spins during battle, periodically stopping and potentially granting bonuses. When the left and right portraits match, DMW enters “modulating phase,” during which a matching center portrait triggers a powerful attack, and matching digits increase Zack’s power. While this enhances a simplistic combat system, it tends to make many battles too easy.

Battles occur in predetermined spots, typically in the center of walkways or near treasure chests. At times, taking a step backward triggers a battle from a spot you just left, quite an annoyance until you learn to adapt. Zack moves freely in battles that occur in real time. Blocking greatly reduces damage (even magic damage), and dodging allows Zack to easily avoid large attacks.

Players can also access extra missions at save points. Rewards include accessories, items, and more powerful magic. Some missions also have a small story, and reveal interesting tidbits of information about the world and chararcters. As the missions increase in difficulty, players may need to draw upon more and more of their stockpiled magic.

The RPG elements easily break up the combat, and offer side quests far more interesting than the extra missions. Players can glean quite a bit of detail by taking a few minutes to explore. Zack periodically receives emails from his friends, giving additional layers to his character.

Crisis Core is extremely mobile. Literally everything in the game can be paused, and the lengthy DMW animations can be skipped entirely. The extra missions provide hours of additional gameplay, their short length making them perfect for traveling.

Graphics and Sound

Everything looks spectacular. The FMV cutscenes are of comparable quality to the Final Fantasy movie Advent Children, the environments and in-game graphics match or best current PSP games. Square Enix renews their renown for excellent visuals with this title.

Characters move and show emotions fluidly and believably, worlds away from the cumbersome, low-polygon models of FFVII. Environments feel too large at times, though the open space is required for some battles. I came to hate the “Shinra Basement” area after about three missions; the open halls, stairs, and rooms of nothing make it the epitome of tedium.

Takeharu Ishimoto’s score captures the essence of the story, environments, and mood. Some of Nobu Umatesu’s tracks return through excellent remixes of the original versions. Fans will also recognize a couple tracks from the anime Last Order. The soundtrack contains several heavy metal pieces, which compliment the combat as well as the character of Zack. Most of the cast retains their voice actors from Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, and they deliver their lines well despite some of the dialog being oddly-phrased.

Overall

Excellent presentation and story drive this title through fun but repetitive gameplay. Zack’s compelling story leads directly into the events of Final Fantasy VII. The new characters fit in seamlessly in and enrich the history Shinra and SOLDIER, adding even more depth to one of the best-loved RPG worlds. Both fans and new players will find Crisis Core a well made, highly satisfying RPG experience.

Ikariam, Browsergame, GameForge, 2008

After reading about this game called Ikariam that “plays somewhat like Settlers meets Civilization” (Japanmanship blog) I wasted no time signing up for my own account. While I was put off by the lack of female models (the only one I’ve seen so far is in the background of the market screenshot that you can see on their main page), I find the gameplay to be intriguing and the overall experience to be fun. (more…)

Diner Dash 4: Hometown Heroes, Mac OS, PlayFirst, 2008

The latest addition to the popular Diner Dash game series is an ambitious effort that combines traditional gameplay with online and interactive components. (more…)

Mario Is Missing, The Software Toolworks, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, 1993

There are several words in my native tongue that I despise. “Surreptitiously,” “Toasty,” “Loo,” “Gainsaid.” The list goes on and on, much like my paragraphs, and I cringe every time I hear them.

There is one, though, that stands out over the others, and that is “Edutainment.” Seriously, just read it. Say it out loud. It sounds just as awkward as it is spelled. What kind of foul-minded monster would create such a word? It’s fitting when you learn what it applies to: education + entertainment. They’re the bottom of the barrel video games, attempting to force kids to have fun and learn at the same time, which we all know is impossible. (more…)

By Stephanie Bader
Dynasty Warrior 6, KOEI Corp, Xbox 360 & PS3, 2008

Dynasty Warrior 6 is the latest installment of the Dynasty Warrior franchise and the first designed solely for next generation consoles. It pretty much sticks to the same formula as the previous games but tries a few things out in hopes of improving that formula. (more…)