Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age - Reviews Inbound!

With only a couple days remaining, Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age is set to release on Tuesday, September 4, 2018. As such, major video game journalism outlets such as Kotaku, Polygon, and IGN have presented their reviews of the upcoming title, with generally favorable accolades.

Players begin the game on the continent of Erdrea as the Luminary, a reincarnation of the legendary hero Erdrick (or Loto if you go by Japanese naming). Accused of being a fraud, he is hunted down by agents of the kingdom and must team up with other unique characters in order to rid it of the dark influence lurking just beyond the bend.

Kotaku journalist Tim Rogers makes the bold statement that "This is the best Dragon Quest game" in the series. Granted, Rogers himself mentions that he has had prior exposure to this particular iteration of the franchise in that he's also logged well "...over 300 hours, starting with the release of the Japanese version in July of 2017". As such, he may be a bit of biased commentator, but perhaps noting that very fact, in and of itself, is a recognition, no, a testament that this game lives up the high standards of longtime fans. Despite this praise, another contender in the video game journalism corner reports that this game may not live up to the hype or current expectations of most other games.

According to his testimony and that of Jeffrey Parkin, Polygon journalist, the main game takes approximately 70-80 hours to complete.

Tim Rogers praised the game for its depth and intricacy. In particular, he noted that the game has a dubious amount of hidden arithmetic and structure.

Jeffrey Parkin claims that Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age "...is the best example of a Japanese role-playing game", yet criticized the overall length of the game, noting, that at times, it felt "shallow" and limited in scope. Ironically, Parkin admits that he "found himself [sic] rushing past intricately detailed locations just to get to the next waypoint." Thus, he wasn't truly taking the time to appreciate the aesthetics of the world before him.

His main argument is that many of the cities felt too similar in structure and that the NPCs tend to only provide "vague hints of where to go" and broad descriptions of the town or city in which they reside. However, this is typical of most JRPGs and despite his arguments that "Dragon Quest 11 is a linear game" most games have a beginning, middle, and end like any other linear plotline.

His further arguments seem to be that of a person whom is not particularly fond of turn based RPGs or those that involve certain nuisances or tropes. Instead, he seems to chastise that very aspect claiming that "frivolous dialogue" and text based menus bog down the experience as a whole. It's rather confusing that he states that "fighting monsters becomes an annoyance" even though there are no random encounters. That's a monumental change from typical RPGs! You can dictate when you want to hit the grind hard before and after a boss fight!

He even concedes that "It’s been a long time since I played a turn-based JRPG,". With this in mind, Jefferey Parkin perhaps was not the most appropriate candidate for this genre of game to review. Even so, he seems to at least acknowledge that those with an appreciation for Dragon Quest games will enjoy it nonetheless.

Nonetheless, I myself will be posting my own review upon completion and I for one, am excited to play this tantalizing title. (especially considering that I have only ever played one game in the DQ series, Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies for the Nintendo DS when that first came out in 2010. It's been eight long years. I need my JRPG fix.)

Works Cited

Parkin, Jeffrey. “Dragon Quest 11 Review.” Polygon, Polygon, 28 Aug. 2018, www.polygon.com/2018/8/28/17763578/dragon-quest-11-review-ps4-pc.

Rogers, Tim. “Dragon Quest XI: The Kotaku Review.” Kotaku, Kotaku.com, 28 Aug. 2018, kotaku.com/dragon-quest-xi-the-kotaku-review-1828646512.

Shantae: Half Genie Hero - All the Fun with Half the Fat!

Hey everyone! I hope you're all enjoying the holiday season! I'm back to drop a quick post regarding the release of Shantae: Half-Genie Hero. The game came out officially on December 20, 2016 for PlayStation 4. The Wii U version will also be available on December 27, 2016.

I was fortunate to have gotten my backer code about a week earlier, so I made sure to hit it hardcore and I have to say that I truly enjoyed every moment of it, even the parts where I got slightly frustrated trying to figure out how to progress. (A platformer actually challenged me! Gasp!) Utilizing Shantae's transformations in tandem is absolutely crucial and from time to time, you may forget that she has a specialty for certain situations. (At one point in the final level, I kept trying to do a "Flappy Bird" subtle tap through a spike death trap using the harpy dance, failing spectacularly, each time I might add, for several minutes...forgetting I could've used another transformation entirely specific for that EXACT scenario saving a boatload of time...).

The music composed by Jake Kauffman is absolutely brilliant, catchy, and upbeat. I started humming the theme as I went along. There is a fair bit of backtracking throughout the levels, but the warp dance makes it far less cumbersome to explore the new areas you could not reach before and there were some really clever level design mechanics. There were plenty of comedic moments and times where I wished the game had been a wee bit longer. Overall, it's a fantastic adventure.

The only thing I could think of that I would have liked to have seen would have been Shantae doing an aerial somersault. I think that should be a move in her repertoire *wink* *wink* *nudge* *nudge* (I wanted SO badly to do one...).

In all seriousness though, I felt that a mild in-game tutorial of sorts would've benefited newcomers to the series. (It took me about an hour or so to realize that Shantae had a menu option using the PS4's touchpad...and the game completely floored me when there were options to deselect power-ups and that there were consumable items). Also, I wish that if there was only one thing only to take away from the Mighty Number 9 project, it would have been the search-and-highlight option for backer's names. Other than that, this was an excellent game and I heartily encourage everyone to give it a try!

Review Score: 9.0/10.0 A-
Definite Buy!

Please take a moment today (and perhaps a few throughout the week, if you can manage it) to post or retweet videos, fan art, reviews...or make use of the Fan Kit available here. Anything you can do to help promote the game that WayForward has worked so hard on, would be greatly appreciated!

The Suicide Squad - Review

Movie: The Suicide Squad

Rating:
PG-13 (for sequences of violence and action throughout, disturbing behavior, suggestive content and language)

Genre:
Action & Adventure

Directed By:
David Ayer

Written By:
David Ayer

In Theaters:
Aug 5, 2016 Worldwide

Runtime:
123 minutes

Studio:
Warner Bros. Pictures

The Suicide Squad is a story from the DC Comic universe that depicts convicted criminals such as Harley Quinn, Deadshot, Captain Boomerang, and Killer Croc (among others) as reluctant heroes.

The movie's pacing (to me at least) felt very...off. I would've preferred a bit more screentime into each character's backstory (in particular, Adam Beach's character "Slipknot" also known as Christopher Weiss who, SPOILER ALERT, ends up proving that Amanda Waller wasn't kidding about the bombs in everyone's necks).

Amanda Waller (portrayed by Viola Davis) and Captain Rick Flag (portrayed by Joel Kinnaman) manage to make the unlikely heroes seem more human than the media lets on as the move progresses. The problem I had with this movie is that from my moderate understanding of Amanda Waller's character, it was far too predictable for her to be the cause and solution to the plot's premise.

*SPOILERS FOLLOW*

It was somewhat similar to the Batman: Assault on Arkham (2014) animated film in that the Enchantress, ends up being an asset and a liability much like the Riddler would've been in the Asylum. Thus, she sends Task Force X to essentially "eliminate" the problem that she herself had a hand in creating. So, it was a bit predictable to me after about a third of the way through the film.

Other than that, I enjoyed watching. Well, for the most part, I suppose. To be honest, I had a largely mixed reaction (much to my chagrin). I had to really ponder whether or not the time was well spent on the production. (Also, I decided to see the film in 3D because if fit my own personal schedule far better than a later viewing time so that may have put my perspective in a more positive light.) There was quite a bit of action and I rather liked the dialogue at times from characters such as Will Smith's Deadshot and surprisingly enough, Jay Hernandez's Diablo, however, many of the problems from the film end up being due to poor execution. Katana doesn't appear until the action just about starts.

The Joker felt far too homicidal and not so much "Clown Prince of Crime". I would've preferred more cynical comedy rather than a poor imitation of violent Heath Ledger.

Overall, it's definitely worth a rental, but I'm not so certain about say, a DVD or Blu-ray purchase for repeated viewing. On a scale of 1.0-10.0 I'd give it a 6.5 (D+ grade).

Tom Clancy's: The Division - Together We Rise! or Divided We Fall?

Title: Tom Clancy’s The Division™
Genre: Action, Adventure, Third Person Shooter
Developer: Massive Entertainment
Publisher: Ubisoft
Release Date: Mar 8, 2016

My Rating: 7.0/10.0 Average C


The BETA Test for Tom Clancy’s The Division™ took place on January 28, 2016 - January 31, 2016. I happened to participate in the closed BETA and unfortunately, it was not up to par with my expectations. Although the brief story mission regarding the Memorial Field Hospital drew me in, I was rather uninterested in anything else. I only enjoyed speaking to Kandel after she was rescued about who might be responsible for the weaponized virus.

After you've completed the ONLY available story mission for the first time, you can opt to replay it again on a higher difficulty (which, to me, seems extremely repetitive, monotonous, and reminiscent of Destiny's Raids). Even though this is just the BETA, which doesn't provide enough to really give us a glimpse at how good the rest of the campaign will be, I felt that it was quite "cut-and-dry" in that there was little else to do except wander the Dark-Zones and streets of New York aimlessly. I did manage to complete a virus scan time trial, as well as a side mission for Faye Lau, which is to locate her lost sister, Heather Lau using an "echo" or security surveillance camera information from the cloud, but it felt commonplace and rather dull.

The Dark Zone plays almost exactly like the regular game environment. You are still exploring the area, still looking for additional items and gear to add to your inventory. Occasionally, players run into AI opposition that respawns in certain areas periodically. These enemies are tougher to take down, and thus, their drops are of a higher quality. The only noticeable difference is that these zones become highly contested areas of player versus player combat.

In order to actually use these rarer pieces of gear and weapons, players must make their way to extraction points within the Dark Zone to have these items “decontaminated”. These items are stored in a yellow haz-mat bag on the player once obtained. Once a flare has be shot, the helicopter transport is signaled to arrive. In the meantime, enemy AI is being drawn to the flare and the player(s) defending that position until the chopper comes. Once it arrives, the players put all of their gear onto a rope and send it up. At any point, players can "go rogue" and attack one another to steal loot. Those that do can gain much more experience and "Dark-Zone Dollars" by doing so, but for every kill the rogue agent gets, the higher the bounty rises on that player's head.

"The Seven Deadly Wins" From Left to Right: Delgryn, Valcrith (Me), and TheLoanSurvivor

Often, while patrolling the streets, players can encounter civilians in need of aid. If they happen to have what they're asking for on hand (medkits, water, food, etc), they can offer to give it to them. Not only will the player earn some easy experience points, but these non-player characters (NPCs) will usually drop some sort of reward, often in the form of a new customization item.

I felt that at times, the PvP was a tad one sided, so I tried to avoid engaging with other players and while I myself didn't shoot anyone, one of my teammates made judgement calls that I did not particularly agree with (as you have a lot to lose by going rogue). Irritably enough, I lost quite a bit of experience as I was gunned down after my friend decided haphazardly to shoot up some other Division agents in order to steal their stuff. So, needless to say I wasn't thrilled with the notion that the group leader or any member of the group shooting others causes the whole team to go rogue.


While my playthrough was fairly short (upwards of two to four hours), I got a pretty decent feel for what this game will be like long term. I was rather disappointed in that for such an expansive open world environment, it's not well-stocked with enemies, and the enemies that you do encounter don’t have all that much variety. On the positive side, there are almost no loading screens, no lobbies, and the game looks appealing on a graphical scale.

Regrettably, I no longer have any profound interest in this product. If anything (and perhaps most ironically), Ubisoft has somehow managed to make me more invested in getting my friends involved with Destiny: The Taken King.