Nathaniel
May 29, 2017
[dropcap]S[/dropcap]o the first weekend of the Arms Global Testpunch is behind us. Now, we want to briefly cover our first impressions of Arms, based on the Arms Global Testpunch. That is, now that we’ve had a chance to actually play the game, we want to give it a little critique.
Now, you may be aware that the Global Testpunch only covers the Party mode of the game. As such, this critique will be mostly limited to that and the general core gameplay. Until we have a full copy of the game, that’s all we’re going to be able to talk about, after all.
Let’s Take Up ARMS
The party mode for the demo consisted of 1v1, doubles, FFA, and volleyball. This game shows its merit as a competitive game best in 1v1, of course. Based on what character you use movement strategies will vary greatly. As Ribbon Girl, it was easy to stay in the air for extended periods of time. Then I could drop to the ground when I wanted to throw a charged punch.
Prize Money (in-game currency) was handed out with 1 going to the loser, 3 to the winner, and 2 to both/all in the event of a draw.
This game seems to center heavily around the concept of bait and punish, as any punch will leave you wide open for attack. This can lead to crazy scenarios where players connect nothing because they were both uninterested in taking the bait. Or other scenarios where we’ll circle each other for twenty seconds at a time, tossing punches and avoiding the followups. It was frantic and so much fun, but I rarely felt like the game just chose me to be the loser because it could. I always felt that I either got outplayed or simply played myself.
For instance, I came across another player who jumped and grabbed over and over. I grew annoyed with this and even lost to them, once. Then, I realized that this was simply because I was impatient. If I’d wanted to counter them, I could have waited for them to reach the ground and grabbed them instead. Or, if further away, I could shield and just dodge, if they grabbed.
There’s surprising depth, here. Even some hidden techniques to discover, which we’ll take time to explain in greater detail another time. For now, just know that Arms will be able to please both casual and competitive players.
Doubles
Doubles was a mode I was a bit annoyed by, in the test punch. It consists of all the fighting game mechanics you find in 1v1 or FFA, but you’re tied to an ally. This can be a problem if you play a character that moves a lot and are tied to a character that prefers not to. However, I feel this mode has its niche as part of the crazy fun you can get up to playing Arms. I imagine it will also have a place in more competitive scenes, as some team compositions will likely work far better than others and there’s some amount of alternate strategy to be had that separates it from 1v1.
Players are restricted on how far they can move from each other. This means flanking the opponent isn’t really an option.
I do feel that doubles is particularly unbalanced, though. Grabs tend to seem a bit overpowered, as there’s too much going on to react appropriately. On top of that, a successful grab will throw both opponents, interrupting whatever the other person was doing and damaging both. It seems like a lot of reward for relatively little risk and I think players picked up on this quickly.
Volleyball
This game tends to be a bit of a mixed bag. It can feel a bit unfair, at times, as you can’t aim separately from your character’s gaze. You’re locked onto the ball, which means that sometimes you can’t do much about some spikes. This isn’t at all untrue to the actual sport, though, as putting yourself somewhere that you can’t stop the ball from falling means the enemy can capitalize on that. Overall, this mode was a lot of fun, when we didn’t take it too seriously.
Controls and Final Thoughts
This demo also gave us a good look at the control schemes available to us. After playing with it for a while, Pro Controllers may not be as disadvantageous as some once thought. I still personally prefer the motion controls. I find they work rather well and are a lot of fun to use. We can still see competitive players opting for more controlled methods of play, though.
So overall, Arms seems to be coming along pretty well. The title is very solid and provides plenty for both casual and competitive players to enjoy. We can’t wait for next weekend’s test punch or to see what else develops as the game nears launch. We’ll be sure to keep the analysis and impressions coming, as there’s still plenty to talk about.
In the meantime, if you want more, you may be interested in our character analysis from the Arms Direct. You can also look forward to our analysis of the arms and attributes available to them. There, we’ll be able to discuss actual strategies for using your arms to their best potential. See when the next free to play Testpunch takes place here.
- May 26, 2017
Starting from launch, we’ve been playing the new Cooking Mama title on the 3DS. As always, Cooking Mama: Sweet Shop is an assortment of short mini-games played end-to-end in order to make a dish of some sort. You’ll cook one meal and they give you another to replace it. That leads into the most prominent thing about the game. Cooking Mama: Sweet Shop wants you to always have options.
That leads into probably the most prominent thing about the game. Cooking Mama: Sweet Shop wants you to always have options. Whether it’s the food you cook, the clothes Mama wears, or the store you sell your sweets in, this game always gives you a choice. So much so that this is likely the reason the game is so addictive. Because just about every detail is customizable, there are hours of menu-surfing to do until you have everything just the way you want it. This almost seems to overshadow the core gameplay at times, but in the end, that’s kinda what the game is really about.
Core Gameplay and Customization
At its core, Cooking Mama is all about utilizing the touch screen on the 3DS to perform various tasks. This can range from repeating numbers you’ve just seen to whisking a bowl full of eggs carefully. You’ll even need to balance food items at times and on rare occasions, the game even makes use of the built-in mic. As with most mini-game collections, Cooking Mama doesn’t really seem to focus on one thing in its core gameplay. Instead, the focus of the game is somewhere between the lines.
Everything you do in Cooking Mama: Sweet Shop brings you closer to more customization options. Cooking enough treats will unlock more in the store and sometimes unlock bonus mini-games. These bonuses allow you to play one mini-game over and over until you get a high enough score to unlock more outfits for Mama in the store. You can customize the floor, walls, and counter of your kitchen, as well as your appliances and tools. The layout and decorations in your store are yours to pick and choose. You can even change the in-game clock (although I’ve yet to figure out how you get more of those).
Customize your pancake towers~
This leads me back to my previous point: this game is all about giving you, the player, options. And you have those options so you can spend more time customizing. This pads out the length of the game, turning what could be beaten in one day with ease into something that’ll occupy the faster players for a week at best. Players with less focus may be occupied for much longer. Which really makes me feel that the game works best for those that have their 3DS with them for those long train or car rides.
The Charm of Cooking Mama: Sweet Shop
Gameplay is great and usually, it’s what I focus on most in a review, but to do so misses one of this game’s greatest assets: the presentation. Cooking Mama: Sweet Shop, like any other game in the series, is very cutesy and always gives you something to look at. It’s the spectacle that really makes Cooking Mama work as well as it does. You’re given a motherly character who appreciates everything you do. Almost all custom setups will still look good. Everything is stylized and cute.
On top of that, the soundtrack, while a bit repetitive by the end, is very appealing. The game works out well in the sense that it gives you plenty to do without much effect aside from your own enjoyment. Then the cute personal appeal draws you back in for more.
Everything is just so cute~
Conclusion
Ultimately, Cooking Mama is a delightful game that keeps you playing for better or worse. You’re never locked into one path and the aesthetic appeals greatly to a more casual audience. This game works best in a pick-up-and-play setting, which makes sense as it’s on the Nintendo 3DS. If you’re looking for the deepest depths of content, you won’t find it, here, as the game is overall somewhat short, if you’re not into the customization aspect.
For those that ARE into the customization, this game could easily eat a week or a month or longer, just depending on how much you get into it. There is plenty to choose from to make every aspect of the experience suit you. For a more casual audience or younger players, I recommend this game. For core gamers, you can probably afford to look somewhere else unless the aesthetic just suits you that well.
In the end, Cooking Mama: Sweet Shop does nothing that we aren’t already used to. If you’ve liked this series in the past, you’ll probably like it, now. If it wasn’t your cup of tea, you probably shouldn’t expect this one to be, either. And if you’re new to the series altogether, this may not be a bad place to pick it up.
— This review of Cooking Mama: Sweet Shop was based on a review copy given to us by Rising Star. Special thanks to them for making this review possible. - May 23, 2017
[dropcap]N[/dropcap]ikkei Trendy had an interview with CEO of Level-5 Games, Akihiro Hino. During this conversation, Hino praised the Nintendo Switch and said that Level-5 is working on games for the Switch. We’ve included the excerpt for anyone that wants to have a read.
Hino:“I think Switch is good. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is extremely fun. It’s almost dangerous. (Laughs.) Actually, playing with Switch myself, my impression [of the system] has changed a lot from when it was still in development. I was hesitant about its ‘play both inside and outside’ style, but I feel like there is a considerable potential there. “Anyway, Zelda is a lot of fun, so I personally carry it around and play it as much as I can, even on airplanes. The model that Nintendo gave me is the one with the red- and blue-colored controllers, so when I carried it around a lot, the looks I got made me self-conscious. I bought the black controller that they released myself and attached it. (Laughs.) “I think the Style of Switch is a wonderful fit for competitive games. You can play if you’re gathered in real life, as well as online. For example, I think the fact that the game lovers within a company can get together and play Mario Kart is really fascinating and interesting. And while I can’t say the content quite yet, we’re working on game(s)* that support [Switch].”
To quickly summarize, Akihiro Hino was hesitant about the Switch, at first. However, after playing Zelda on the finished product, he’s very enthusiastic about the new system. He chose not to give us details on the content but says that Level-5 is working on new games for the Switch after all.
Speculation
Of course, if you know us, you know that’s not where we’re gonna leave the subject. Akihiro said two important things in his praise of the Switch that may help us better understand where he’s going with this. First, he says there is considerable potential in the play-inside-and-outside style of the Switch. Second, he claims that he thinks the Switch works well for competitive games.
This likely means that Level-5 wants to take advantage of the way you can bring console titles with you on the Switch. As well as using it for competitive titles, as Hino seems fond of the Switch’s capabilities for that.
We’re sure you’ve noticed these two traits are almost at odds with each other. How do you develop a competitive game that you can just pick up and play anytime? Well, you usually don’t. More likely, this refers to separate games. Not just one. Here are a few ideas that spring to mind:
- Inazuma Eleven – Inazuma Eleven: Ares no Tenbin has been announced but has no launch window or selected platform. It could be on the Switch. Alternatively, we could see a new Inazuma Eleven Strikers title, as those were Wii titles and would exemplify that competitive style they suggested.
- Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom – So far, this title is only announced for PS4 and Windows PC. We think it could be ported to the Nintendo Switch. Level-5 Games might be reconsidering. Hino did say that he was hesitant about the Switch, at first. Maybe he’s changed his mind?
- Fantasy Life – Perhaps we’ll see a new iteration of this on the Switch, as it has been out for a while on the 3DS. Not to mention, Hino did say that he thought the inside-outside play style of the Switch had potential. Fantasy Life could take advantage of that.
- Yo-Kai Watch – With rumors still hot that Pokemon will be putting a main series title on the Switch, there’s no reason Yo-Kai Watch won’t follow suit.
- Dragon Quest – While Dragon Quest isn’t Level-5’s game, they HAVE worked on it, in the past. This includes Dragon Quest VIII and Dragon Quest IX, which is already confirmed for Switch! It’s very likely that Level-5 Games is somehow involved.
- Snack World – With the game being made in Unity, it wouldn’t be too hard to see it on the Switch. Perhaps a port might be in the works.
These are, of course, just suggestions. We’re going off of just a few things that line up. We’d love to hear your suggestions, below. If you want to know more about Level-5 Games, we have an article about The Snack World for 3DS. Or you could read about Fantasy Life Online’s Japanese Beta.
- May 20, 2017
[dropcap]J[/dropcap]ust yesterday, we began to break down the characters mentioned in the recent Arms Direct for a competitive analysis. Because each character needed some time to explain, we felt it best to separate it into two parts. The previous part focused entirely on the characters that were revealed with the initial game announcement. Today, we’re going to focus on all the characters that have been revealed since then.
This guide is concerning the characters, themselves. Their signature arms are a part of the character’s design. However, there are many arms each character will be allowed to choose from. With that in mind, it’s best not to assume that this will directly influence more than how the game starts out. Instead, we’ll be focusing on their abilities and the role that the characters will fill in the game. So with that, let’s begin with the first character announced after the initial reveal.
Min Min
Min Min seems like a very interesting character. Perhaps another defensive zoner. Her primary arms include a prolonged laser shot and a long-range curving attack. Her abilities allow her to play defensively and do so serious damage when she’s charged.
Now, during the Direct in May, we got a short explanation of her abilities. Min Min can do a flip kick and knock down an opponent’s arms. On top of that, she can turn her left arm into a dragon arm, which powers it up in some way. The May Direct wasn’t particularly specific, but Biff did mention her performing a throw. However, her reveal in the April Direct gave us a different impression. It seemed as though the dragon arm only needed a “long charge.” And that it would likely keep that arm charged as long as it was still a dragon arm. It’ll be important to put the right attribute on this arm to make the most out of it. She will need to play defensively once that arm is out, though, or she’ll lose the dragon arm fast.
That dragon arm looks sick!
When you look at her arms and abilities side-by-side, Min Min clearly needs to play defensively, potentially walling or zoning opponents out. You can use her kick liberally to avoid taking damage while you let the left arm charge. If you keep it up, you can make sure your left arm always does has its charged attribute in play. Try pairing it with blind, fire, or stun to get the best results.
Helix
This character is understandably weird. Helix has a stretchy body which allows him to pull off some really odd things. In the trailers, they love to show us that he can dodge a rush attack and counter just by moving left and right to avoid punches. However, we aren’t sure how difficult this may be. It also appears that when he dashes or gets knocked down, he sinks halfway into the floor. This can help him avoid attacks if they’re aimed high, but if you expect it, it may not work so well in his favor.
He’s just so WEIRD!
Helix definitely seems like he’ll excel at putting pressure on opponents from up close. His dash has the best chance of helping him if he’s nearer to the opponent, and his insanely mobile upper body can move quickly enough to dodge a punch in this scenario. Add onto this that his signature arms seem to emphasize follow-ups, as we see in the trailer, it’s very likely he’ll be a half-decent combo character when the meta develops.
Helix will be a tough character to use AND to fight against. We suggest you use him when you understand the basics properly, as that’ll be when you can take advantage of his abilities the best.
Kid Cobra
If you’re familiar with fighting game roles, and you watched the direct, you already know Kid Cobra is a rush down character. His abilities really just scream it out. While we can’t be sure if his boa constrictor arms have any real effect, we know his slide-dash does. This allows him to quickly get under an opponent’s punches and punish them. You’ll need to be careful if you see that he’s built up a charge and always stagger your punches.
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What, is the ref blind?! That’s GOTTA be a foul!
We also got to see his signature arms, which seem good for trapping opponents should they attempt to avoid an attack, rather than blocking it. Expect Kid Cobra players to use this as conditioning. Since you’ll try not to dodge, they’ll attempt to grab. More on that in a later post.
We suggest that players look at Kid Cobra as a good character for slipping inside of someone’s wall and dealing some serious punishment. He’s all about speed and strength, but that likely means he’ll be a glass cannon. Kid Cobra is going to be a dangerous fighter, for sure.
Byte and Barq
Readers familiar with Smash Bros will begin feeling a bit of deja vu, right about here. These two are very similar to Rosalina and Luma. Knocking out Barq will disable him for a short time. He will attack in tandem with Byte on his own. Barq can be used as a springboard to give Byte a much higher jump. Finally, when players use their rush attack, Barq and Byte will fuse. It’s unclear at this time what effect that will have, but we imagine it might make Byte’s punches stronger.
Really, there isn’t too much to say about this character besides reviewing the effects Barq will have on the fight. That seems to be the main difference this character has from others. We imagine that timing your attacks carefully and strategically using Barq to escape and counter an opponent will be the primary strategy for Byte players. Much like Rosalina, we foresee this character taking some skill to use to his full potential.
Their cold, heartless gaze pierces your very soul. Chilling!
Twintelle
This may be the character we honestly know the least about from the Direct presentation. Twintelle is another newly announced character that uses her hair instead of her arms to fight. We only know one of her abilities, which slows down punches that come near her when she’s charged up. We also know that Twintelle has some interesting signature arms, including a faster version of Helix’s guardian called the parasol. Her arms don’t seem to directly suggest any one playstyle, but based on her ability and the parasol, we think she’ll be heavy bait-and-punish.
Classy!
Yes, that’s right. Not only does she look like Bayonetta, but she plays like her, too! Twintelle suits the bait-and-punish role nicely. So nicely that this is exactly what they suggest you do with two of her signature arms during the Direct. For that reason, it’s best when faced with a Twintelle that you play patiently and wait for her guard to legitimately be down before you try and attack.
Final Thoughts
At its core, Arms follows a very basic design concept of fighting games. Attacks beat grabs. Grabs beat blocking. Blocking beats attacks. The characters determine how you go about punishing players who mess up in this neutral triangle. Be sure to know about your character choice and that of your opponent. That’s the only way you’ll excel in the online fighting game environment. Not only that, but you’ll want to try and keep up, as more characters will be released for free when the game launches on June 16th.
In case you missed it, we covered the first five characters to be revealed in this article, yesterday. We also strongly suggest players try the global test punch. In the near future, we’ll be revisiting this Direct in order to learn more about the available arms and the stages that have been revealed.
If you missed Part 1 of the ARMS character guide, you can check it out right here.
- May 19, 2017
[dropcap]J[/dropcap]ust recently, Nintendo gave us a heaping helping of Arms details in the form of the Arms Direct. It was a general rundown, but the information we were given revealed plenty about how the game will play. So we felt it would be a good idea to run through some of the choices players will be faced with. This may give us some insight into what may happen early in the competitive scene. If not, it will at least give us an idea of what setups we’ll be seeing most often.
With that in mind, this post is going to focus on the characters that were covered in the Direct. Specifically, we’ll be analyzing the five characters that were revealed when the game was first announced. This includes both new and old characters since the presentation talked about every character’s abilities. Because the signature arms mentioned in the Direct appear to only be what each character starts with and we know there will be more for each character to use, it seems unnecessary to talk in detail about the signature arms in this context. However, they will likely say a lot about the character that uses them. As such, they may come up when discussing the niche a character may fill.
Spring Man
Naturally, it only seemed right we started with the two faces of the series. One of these two, Spring Man, appears to be a very basic character, as you might expect. Even his signature arms support this role. The three arms Nintendo showed off with him cover three very basic options. One for direct punches, one for heavily curved punches, and one for multi-hits. Aside from that, he has two main abilities. When his health is low, he gets stronger, allowing for comebacks for players that can keep a level head. On top of that, when he charges up his arms Spring Man can deflect attacks by dashing to create a shockwave.
What these likely mean is that Spring Man will be a very aggressive character.With his abilities, it may be a good strategy to approach with a charge, deflect an attack, and counter with whatever you like. Spring Man players might hold back a rush attack until they’re low on health, then use this dodge-counter strategy with a rush in order to deal absurd amounts of damage fast. Needless to say, Spring Man will not be a character to sleep on, especially when he’s low on health.
All in all, Spring Man appears to be a character that’s well suited for teaching newcomers how to play. In that sense, he’s this game’s Ryu (Street Fighter), Jago (Killer Instinct), or Mario/Kirby (Super Smash Bros). We might suggest everyone learn the basics with this guy before getting acquainted with a more difficult character pick. However, that decision is entirely up to the player.
Come on, admit it. You totally want Spring Man in Smash.
Ribbon Girl
Ribbon Girl is actually a far more interesting character than most likely gave her credit for. Most likely, people wrote her off as another basic fighter like Spring Man, but that doesn’t seem to be entirely true. Sure, her signature arms are a reasonable variety, similar those of to the other face of the game. However, they don’t vary the direction far less and the style of punishment far more.On top of that, her abilities double down on her aerial mobility, making her really hard to hit.
On top of that, her abilities double down on her aerial mobility, making her really hard to hit. Ribbon Girl’s multiple mid-air jumps and her ability to drop immediately to the ground will create some heavy mix-ups. Smart players will be able to bait opponents into a bad punish, which will give Ribbon Girl a chance to push back.
Most likely, Ribbon Girl will be popular among Smash players and other fighting game veterans who already understand how mind games work. Her aerial mix-ups and decent punish game will very likely result in a lot of newer players getting crushed. Since mobility is her middle name, it definitely seems like she’ll at least be a difficult character to hit reliably, so long as the player in question actually avoids flow charting their aerial movements.
This pop star won’t sit still!
Unlike Spring Man, Ribbon Girl does NOT seem like she’s going to be a good pick-up-and-play character for newcomers. Ribbon Girl will be difficult to use properly until you get the hand of the game’s mechanics, so try to really learn the game before you jump into the ring with her.
Ninjara
It should come as no surprise that Ninjara is going to be a fast-and-light sort of character. None of his signature arms are very heavy, and one of his abilities is his sheer speed. Ninjara’s active ability is his warp technique. When dodging in the air or out of a block, Ninjara disappears for a second. This could very well thwart homing attacks or horizontal strikes that were intended to cover horizontal options. Without a doubt, this character fits into the fighting game niche of rush-down character. This means he wants to get in your face and keep you from doing much of anything.
We’ll likely see Ninjara become a favorite counter-pick character for arms that strike multiple places at once or slow characters that prefer to keep enemies at a distance. If different characters have different amounts of health, Ninjara’s will likely be low, but considering the game’s tank character can heal, we think it’s unlikely that he’d have that AND a larger health bar.
Ninjara is going to be best for players who want all-out aggression. Defensively, he’s going to struggle, but if he can keep the opponent from locking him down, he may be able to gain the advantage.
It’s kinda like Lucio from Overwatch fell into a Splatoon game and became a ninja.
Master Mummy
Slow and heavy are the words to describe this character. Master Mummy is definitively a tank. This guy’s big and slow and based on his signature arms, so are his attacks. It seems that the mummy’s main combat strategy is going to be playing defensive until he has a chance to get in close and completely overpower the opponent.
He’s big. He’s mean. He’ll wrap this up and go home before you know what happened!
Master Mummy has two abilities, like anyone else. His passive ability makes him ignore knockback from regular attacks, meaning you’ll need to charge your arms to keep him at bay. Secondly, he heals whenever he’s blocking. Naturally, this means that character that can’t keep up the aggression or have slow attacks will likely find themselves at a disadvantage.
We think this big lug is gonna be one of the early favorites online. That’s because his ability to completely overwhelm the opponent by getting in close and directly negating their attacks will inevitably cause newer players some pain. However, more skilled players will start to get into the online, soon after. When a Master Mummy user joins them in the upper ranks, they’ll likely start to get zoned out or pressured. Remember to play patiently with this guy.
Mechanica
Mechanica seems like a much more complex fighter, at first. He’s bigger and bulkier, making her an easier target, but she’s not especially slow. Her signature arms, unlike Spring Man’s for instance, have a more focused application and may require a bit more strategy. Note that the arms Nintendo showed off all have a focus on negating movement and general counterplay.
Aside from this, Mechanica has two abilities, although, they were almost presented as just one in the Direct. Most notably, she can hover for some period of time and can seemingly land whenever she chooses. That’ll be good for some landing mix-ups. On top of that, the Direct said that her handmade combat suit has high durability. Now, it’s not 100% clear what this means, based on the Direct alone. Thankfully, the original character overview trailer helps us with this. It turns out that Mechanica doesn’t get stunned by regular punches, allowing her to counter. This is different from Master Mummy, though, as she still takes knockback.
Sometimes, she doesn’t seem so in control of her mech as she’d like.
All of this comes together to suggest that Mechanica will be a more difficult character to use and will likely be based heavily on zoning opponents out and staying defensive. (Spoiler alert: she won’t be the only one.) Her signature arms work well against high mobility opponents, by either locking them in place or chasing them. Also, her abilities allow her to play more defensively. Her hover makes it harder to punish landings while her durability means that punishes don’t get as much mileage on her.
With that in mind, it’s suggested that players who choose Mechanica try to play patiently and block enemy movement. It’s best that players fighting a Mechanica try not to get too aggressive. She’ll capitalize on that painfully.
More to Come
With so much to cover, we didn’t want this article getting too lengthy. So there will be a part 2 to this article, which will be linked here as soon as it’s up. Please check back for it, as we’ll be posting it very soon! For info on battle modes and the global testpunch, try these articles.
ARMS Character Discussion – Part 2 right here.
- May 16, 2017
[dropcap]S[/dropcap]o we recently got the opportunity to play a Strategy RPG on the Nintendo Switch. Disgaea 5 Complete is a re-release (enhanced port with DLC content) of Disgaea 5: Alliance of Vengeance for the PS4. As you might guess, it’s been very different from anything else we’ve reviewed recently. That is, Disgaea 5 Complete isn’t a game that you binge for a week and move on. It’s more of a commitment and time sink than your average casual title.
The basics of the game are simple, although they can be a bit clunky for newcomers. However, Disgaea’s strategy gets deep early on, expecting a lot of players. On top of that, the story and presentation is a bit niche, appealing heavily to the anime crowd. As if that weren’t enough, the content can feel schizophrenic at times, as it expects players to do a little bit of everything to get the most out the game.
As if the art style wasn’t enough of a clue, to begin with!
Originally, I wasn’t too sure I was going to enjoy Disgaea 5 Complete. I thought it was being unreasonable by expecting me to do busy work to make even the tiniest bit of progress. However, I eventually learned otherwise when the game finally clicked for me. Disgaea 5 is a very deep strategy game that will let you tackle things head on only so you can learn the hard way that this rarely works. So let’s dive into some of what this game has to offer.
Story and Presentation
Without a doubt, this game appeals mostly to the anime crowd. It’s full of the tropes that are well-known throughout the medium (genre?) and seems to revel in that fact. In particular, it shares a lot with many modern shonen action anime (think Naruto, Bleach, or One Piece). If you’re familiar with that subgenre of anime, then you likely know what to expect. Thankfully, this hardly works against the game’s presentation.
Here, you can see the brooding male lead, the exploitative female lead, the brainless beefcake, the cunning genius, the adorable little girl, and the try-hard idiot standing in the typical anime intro panning shot. So many anime stereotypes! So little time!
You see, this isn’t all that important to Disgaea 5 Complete. Instead, it actually sets a reasonably strong backdrop for the characters to travel from one netherworld to another. Each of the main characters shares one theme in common: revenge. They all have some reason to seek revenge against the Lost army. Their pursuit of the all-powerful demon emperor leads players through a great variety of locations, which are then used for a variety of gameplay quirks. More on that, later.
So if it isn’t that important, why would I bring this up first? Well, this will almost undoubtedly be the thing that drives you to keep playing, at first. The story and characters are just interesting enough to keep you going while you unlock some of the game’s depth.
Characters
Each of the characters is solidly fleshed out, as you might expect from an SRPG. Each one has a goal, personality quirks, different methods of tackling their problems, and different developments that will occur over the course of the game. They’re mostly likable enough to draw you in, despite their flaws being apparent right off the bat.
With that, however, comes one of the better points about Disgaea 5. The character relations are the driving force for most of the character development and humor. Particularly, many of the jokes are derived from their many personality quirks. For instance, it’s a running joke that Killia eats before every battle. This comes up fairly often, usually popping up at least once in a chapter. Later, this plays off of another character, Usalia, who needs to eat curry all the time to avoid going berserk and getting herself killed.
Seraphina: What are you doing? Killia: …Uh, eating, obviously.
Progression
Story progression is one of my biggest hang-ups with Disgaea 5 Complete. Depending on how quickly you advance through story missions, it can move reasonably fast or just stop entirely. With a game this deep, it’s very difficult to keep story progression at a regular pace. That’s because some players can rush through, skillfully handling every encounter. Meanwhile, others will need to stop and do the hub-world tango between every mission to make sure they can handle whatever comes next.
The game takes almost the entire first half to unlock the majority of its functions. Comparatively, you gain allies like Red Magnus, pictured above, relatively early on.
Thankfully, the Cheat Shop allows you to control how quickly your characters progress in certain ways. It’s possible to crank up the EXP flow to double, triple, or higher in order to keep your characters strong enough to rush ahead. Be careful, though, as this will cost you in other areas. Pacing is up to the player and to a lesser extent, their skill. However, this isn’t really spelled out for you. It’s actually locked behind a strategy assembly meeting, which just means you have to do even more ridiculous faffing about.
Gameplay Mechanics
Now we get to the meat of this topic. This is where the game really expects players to dig their heels in and pay close attention. Everything starts off simple enough, with the game teaching you basic UI functions and how combat flows. It lets you make the first move and the enemy team will react to what you do. Next, the game will give you the general idea of how evilities (passive abilities each character has) can affect the battle. Then it’ll teach you that there can be benefits to arranging your characters a certain way.
Everything runs smoothly for the first few chapters. The game will teach you about hiring basic class characters to fill out your team and introduce new characters. You’ll learn about super moves and deal with neutral parties. You’ll learn about weapon-type weaknesses on enemy characters and how some netherworlds have certain effects that can cause some real trouble for you or even help dictate how you can deal with enemies.
However, alongside this, the game expects you to be experimenting on your own. Sure you can tower one character on another and have a stronger attack ready. But why not tower even MORE characters and deal an insane amount of damage on top of that? Then you find out that this limits you to attacking only one opponent at a time and focuses enemy attacks on just one fighter at a time. Disgaea does a lot of this risk-reward setup. Most moves work in your favor and against you at the same time. So with that in mind, let me share with you the moment my opinion on this game drastically improved:
Personal Experience
So while I was playing the game, as I said, I was having trouble. Even with the 1 million Hel gift packaged in the special content section, I found myself running short on funds, dealing with enemies only a few of my characters could handle because no one was properly equipped and grinding was starting to become a serious chore. This was just past the halfway mark in the story mode, and I really just wanted to push to the end. That’s when everything suddenly clicked.
I realized that my troops were underequipped, but the enemy troops had some very nice weapons, and one item in the game happens to allow you to steal stuff from enemy fighters. So with that in mind, I began pilfering weapons and armor as I went and stocked up my team properly with no more need to go shopping for better gear.
Grouping characters like this will leave them vulnerable to large attacks that can hit everyone at once, but it also makes it a lot harder for these sword fighters to hit Usalia and Izuna in the back.
This would allow me to save money for other things, like consumables and the Strategic Assembly (which I’ll explain later). From there, with help from the Cheat Shop, I began to progress much, much faster. I even began to notice enemy patterns and learned some ways to keep them at bay while my team skirted around problems and lead enemies into disadvantageous positions.
Gameplay Depth
Disgaea 5 Complete truly expects a lot of players on a strategic front. You CAN brute force missions with higher levels than those of your enemies. However, you’d be best off weighing your options. Bunching up in a group can help you travel around more safely and gives you more attacking power, at times. However, doing so also leaves you open for powerful skills that can hit multiple characters at once. If you aren’t careful about this, your team could get wiped out fast.
Maps also vary greatly, forcing you to look around and assess advantages and disadvantages. This could be areas enemies can’t easily reach, natural choke points, effects on the battlefield itself, or even the way enemies are placed. Sometimes a good strategy can overcome even immense level gaps. This is when Disgaea truly shines. The game almost feels like a big puzzle book, at times. That seems to be one of the game’s strongest points of appeal.
In this sense, Disgaea 5 Complete is at least solid. However, this is far from accessible, and you’ll see that’s a theme with this game. The game really does expect players to understand intricately how it plays.
Disgaea 5 Complete’s Seemingly Endless Content
So as I’ve mentioned, this game has a great variety of content. This is because, in addition to the SRPG-style story missions and the JRPG-style quest board, stores, and skill progressions, there’s a myriad of extra things to pay attention to. Near the halfway point, you can also call an assembly to afford more services or affect future missions, capture and interrogate prisoners to help you gain evilities and new recruits, set up squads to help you run the home base and give you neat bonuses in combat, redesign and build the entire hub world as you sink more time into it than you might sink into rearranging your house in Animal Crossing. You can cook curry, alter basic game attributes, set everything, even background music, to your liking. You can even send crew members out to explore other worlds and bring back goodies for you later. There’s an endless dungeon to help you upgrade items. A Mario-Party-style minigame to help you improve your characters, and even that really feels like just the beginning.
Seriously, why a board-game-styled minigame of all things?
Honestly, it really starts to feel like a lot to swallow, and at some points, it almost feels like Disgaea 5 Complete wants you to try absolutely everything between every mission.
Special Content
Disgaea 5 Complete also comes with a slew of bonus content that mostly represents the DLC from the PS4 version. There are new characters like Metallia, Leharl, and even NIS’s mascot, Nisa. Also, there are bonus scenarios involving characters from past games. Even then, some things are just there to help like the helper Prinnies and the 1mil Hel gift.
Of course, the bonus scenarios are the highlight, here. Fan favorite characters will fight against and alongside you in various situations before you can unlock them as playable allies in the main campaign. The levels seem to scale based on your own levels, or at least the bonuses for these missions do. Though there seem to be some tricky situations in play. It may be best to avoid this until you have a hang of the core mechanics.
Final Thoughts
Disgaea 5 Complete is a deep game with a lot of content for those looking for something they need to sink time into. This game really isn’t for everyone, especially pushing out newer players, but it also seems like an effort has been made to help ease this with some of the special content. Don’t get into this game unless you want to solve countless combat scenarios and spend weeks building up your army. This game definitely favors those with the time to kill.
With that said, the game is enjoyable, if you can get sucked into the narrative or the deeper gameplay mechanics. I’d definitely recommend this game to anyone that’s already a fan of SRPGs. Otherwise, this may not be the most enticing title of the year.
With all that being said, Disgaea 5 Complete comes out on Tuesday, May 23rd. However, there is already a demo up on the eShop. You can read more about that, right here.
–Special thanks to Nippon Ichi Software America for supplying us with a review copy of the game in advance.
- May 11, 2017
[dropcap]W[/dropcap]ith a little more than a month left separating us from E3 2017, it was only a matter of time before companies began talking about their big plans. Nintendo is not exempt from this, despite their rather unusual approach to the expo. In fact, Nintendo has just given us an idea of what we’re going to see during E3. So now seems like the perfect time to go over those plans and give you an idea of what to look out for.
Nintendo Spotlight: E3 2017
Naturally, the most important part of their E3 show will be the digital event or video presentation. This is what takes place of Nintendo’s conspicuously missing live stage presentation. Nintendo has promised we would see Super Mario Odyssey during this time, but they specified 2017 releases as the focus. This means we’ll also see Arms, Splatoon 2, Fire Emblem Warriors, and possibly Xenoblade Chronicles 2, as well. It’s also very likely we’ll see some talk of third party support, like Skyrim or NBA 2K18.
The event didn’t mention anything of the 3DS, but it’s not specifically about the Switch either. This means we’ll likely see 3DS titles, but the presentation will likely spend more time on Switch titles. If you catch no other part of E3, make sure you tune in for the Spotlight. It’ll air at 9AM Pacific/12PM Eastern time on June 13th.
Treehouse Live at E3 2017
Of course, that won’t be all. Nintendo is bringing back their now-standard treehouse event. While the spotlight is more tailored to the major announcements, the treehouse event is all about the gameplay details. If a title caught your attention, it’d be in your best interest to watch the treehouse to see if they talk more about it. During this time, we’ll also hear from developers and other people in the gaming industry. This event will begin almost immediately after the Spotlight presentation ends and continues for days afterwards, while E3 is still going.
Invitational E3 Tournaments
Another event that’s becoming a staple of Nintendo’s E3 show is their invitationals. In the past, it’s been upcoming games, and this year will be no exception. However, this year there will be two major tournaments. On the 13th, there will be a Splatoon 2 Tournament involving four pre-qualifed teams from four major regions. That’s right, there will be a US team, a Japanese team, a European team, and a team from Australia and New Zealand. Here’s hoping it’s double elimination or round robin, because this will be too short, otherwise.
That’s not the end of it, though. On June 14th, there’s going to be an Arms invitational, as well. We don’t have as much information about this, but hopefully it’ll feature a wide variety of playable characters so we can get a good idea of how this game is going to work competitively.
It’s important to note that these are the games being chosen. This likely means that Nintendo is truly all-in on seeing these games gain a competitive following. You can bet we’ll be tuning in to see what these tournaments can teach us about the games before they launch.
Nintendo at E3 2017 Website
Finally, we conclude with a link to the E3 website, which Nintendo has recently opened. Feel free to check it out, as they’ll be sure to broadcast everything here.
Nintendo E3 Predictions
You can read our full Nintendo E3 predictions right here.
- May 9, 2017
[dropcap]N[/dropcap]ot enough cute anime girls in your rhythm games? Flyhigh Works has the solution for that! Inside Systems and Esquadra are working on a game called “Dark Witch Music Episode: Rudymical.” This title, published by the same company that gave us KAMIKO and VOEZ, will see players controlling cute little witches in order to fight against other cute little witches. You fight by rhythmically blocking attacks that come at you in order to survive.
Now, the trailer is entirely in Japanese, so we can’t read everything. However, from what we can read in the description, it’ll likely release on the Japanese eShop on May 11th. It may be selling for a price of 800 yen, which would be comparable to about $5 or $6 in the US. This seems reasonable, considering the mobile version only costs about $3 on the apple store.
Character select screen
Dark Witch’s Enhanced Features
While this is another port of a mobile title, like VOEZ, it seems to have some advanced features in the Switch version. For one, the different colored balls are now set to dedicated buttons instead of all being handled the same way. This version also includes a battle mode where you can challenge a friend to see who does better.
All the usual rhythm game standards hold true, as you’d expect. As of this point in time, there is no word on whether or not this game will be coming to the US eShop. However, Flyhigh Studios has a running trend of releasing games in Japan shortly before going global. So Dark Witch Music seems very likely to leave Japan, and if it does we’ll be sure to cover it here. Check back for more info at a later date!
For now, if this game interests you, then you can get it on the Japanese eShop in two days! Check this link for an explanation of how to get there from outside of Japan. We’ve included the trailer below, in case you’d like to see more.
