Trillion: God of Destruction - Early Impressions

For the sake of keeping focused, and keeping you in the know I'm going to do this early impressions review about "Trillion: God of Destruction". I am free to write/type as I please since there is no embargo, so no worries there. Just take these impressions for what they are. It's not a definitive review just yet as I am still trying to figure things out.

When it comes to categorizing this particular PS Vita exclusive I have found it to be more akin to an interactive visual novel due to it's heavy dialogue, deeply involved character interactions, and deep seeded character development. Sure, it has some gameplay in it, but that RPG style gameplay is very limited. What you'll be doing with most of your time in 'Trillion: God of Destruction' is micro-managing your current overlord during a series of cycles, or weeks. This cyclic training ties in with the story's premise which basically involves a last ditch effort to save the underworld from total destruction. The game's story, as it were revolves around the inhabitants of an underworld that is much like the hell of Christianity, and slightly like the Hades/underworld from Greek mythology. It has a leading demon overlord (Zeabolos), and his overlord underlings which are each seven deadly sin stereotypes. During the games introductory narrative, and following tutorials it is made known that a god of destruction that is called "Trillion" is consuming the underworld in which these denizens of the damned reside from the surface inward. Zeabolos, in his vanity thinks he can deal with the problem easily, but in attempting to do so along with his brother he suffers a near fatal wound. After being fatally wounded a mysterious person of interest (Faust) enters the scene to do some devilish bargaining. For his soul, and flesh she offers to help him exact his revenge on Trillion, and save his underworld from destruction. Thus the underworld's fight for survival ensues.

Street Fighter V - What It Needs To Be Good

From the day I picked up SFV to this very day I have been one of the game's worst critics. I haven't really bashed it outside of the initial shock of feeling ripped off, but I have come up with a laundry list of valid complaints that desperately need to be addressed by the developers. The game, as it stands is functionally flawed. It's missing content, and it's missing features that it should have. Not only that, but it's server dependent, and it features two new layers of anonymity that the online community can, and does abuse. Let me not forget to mention the fact that Capcom also made it cross-platform with the PC. The one gaming platform from which all mods, and hacks originate. A platform that is not governed by Playstation moderation.

To start off with I said in all honesty that "Street Fighter V" deserved a "4 out of 10" rating. That's how I felt at first. The more I played it though the more I realized how far it has fallen from it's origin source, and in realizing this I ended up feeling that it warrants an even lower rating than that. I do realize that SFV is a completely different beast altogether, and that such a fact should be taken into consideration, but at this point I feel it's not even worth recommending regardless of it's new nature. Before you start defending the game like some butt hurt fanboy or fangirl allow me to explain what I mean.

Street fighter V is not what USF4 was, especially to people like me who relied upon the online for training. It is also not what any of the previous Street Fighter games were at base level. It branches off almost completely from that foundation formula, and in doing so forces the gamer to endure the eSports elements that the developer, and publisher are pushing. Capcom made it perfectly clear that they were making SFV eSports friendly. In doing so I fear they have compromised the integrity of the game, and the series by seeking an audience that is not the audience which made said series great, and widely recognized. This whole fantasy that is "eSports" has only caused more problems. It has effectively created scrub pros, and not scrubs turned pro. I can guarantee you that you won't find a lot of SFV's online top tier players going to tournaments, because they cheated their way to the top.

Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest - Impressions

In the past couple of years I have been told by several friends that the "Fire Emblem" games were good, and that I should pick them up for my 3DS. While I usually take such advice to heart I kind of felt that paying retail price for a used version of the older Fire Emblem games was ridiculous, so I chose to wait for the release of ''Conquest', and 'Birthright' to make my entry into the series. After looking at both games, and observing their character inclusive cover art I decided to go with "Conquest" as it appealed more to my artistic interests. The whole "villains look cooler" ideology kind of stuck in my head from my toy collecting days. I think the purple theme may have also drawn me in a bit too. Once I got into the game, days after having purchased it, I found myself impressed by the anime cutscenes, the in-game character design, and the story being told. It's something I've not seen yet with a 3DS game, and in that sense I think the developer worked wonders with the software/hardware they created the game upon. At the same time, I noticed some things that weren't exactly appealing to my RPG judgment standards. For one thing the game was heavy on plot presentation, and didn't really make the battles seem all that important outside of the perma-death setting, battle assessments, and the positioning strategies. The battles felt too cinematic, and out of the hands of gamers for me to enjoy. That, and a few other things have made me wonder if this is all that there is to the game.

MKX XL - Impressions (PS4)

I had seriously thought about not even wasting my time posting an article on my thoughts about this game as my thoughts about MKX XL, and fighting games of the modern age remain pretty much intact despite the addition of new features, and new characters. Even with the new netcode in place in MKX XL it is still a flawed experience due to the developers' oversight when it comes to the problems plaguing competitive online gaming. Why I have to repeat myself so often in regards to this matter is beyond me. I tweet directly to developers with sound advice, and I even send emails about my concerns. None of which is heard, or taken into account. This new generation of online gaming experiences is definitely flawed when it comes to the online portions of said experiences, and MKX XL only serves to echo that fact.

The Witch and the Hundred Knight Revival Edition (PS4)

Instead of rehashing everything from my PS3 review of "The Witch and the Hundred Knight" I will leave you with the following link (http://thegaminginferno.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-witch-and-hundred-knight-ps3.html), and spend this article discussing the new features as well as why it is I back this game with an enthusiastic recommendation. Please visit the provided link before reading any further as it will tell you all there is to know about the game's mechanics, and features ... outside of the new additions.

Sadame - "Assist" (3DS)

In my rush to get the review out to you guys I made a huge oversight. It wasn't particularly my fault though. With the game being digital, and void of tutorials certain things weren't so easily understood. One of said things was the "Assist" menu in the main menu listing. This feature didn't really open up to me until I was almost done with my first character playthrough, and until I had created additional characters to see what the character classes were all about. The 'Assist' function, or feature is pretty much how it sounds. By going into the menu of the same name, and assigning a second character that you are currently not playing that second character will accompany you in your playthrough. The character will kill enemies so long as that character is alive. The higher in level the assist character is the more likely it is to stay alive to the end. I will say that having an assist character to fight alongside you does make the problems of battling waves of lesser enemies easier, but it also acts as a double-edged sword in that boss battles will be even more short lived. In my opinion this feature only serves to add to the game's balancing issues, and in effect dumbs down gameplay even more.