Recently completed/finished

[maximo310]

DBZ Budokai for Gamecube. This game's mechanics and graphics defenitely haven't aged well, and the difficulty spikes at certain points make it worse since pulling off special moves is way to difficult. Regular combos are too OP, and you don't get a chance to use different strategies. Not to mention that the story mode cuts out a huge amount of fights compared to later DBZ games.

The only positive here is that the Gamecube version gets cel shaded graphics compared to the PS2 version but that's about it.

[kashell]

Lufia II and Criminal Girls, although I'm not at the platinum yet for CG. ^^

[abe]

Finished up Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes in anticipation of the release of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain in a little over two weeks (September 1st). It's short, but a lot of fun. There's lot's of replay value with some added missions and challenges as an incentive for multiple playthroughs.

Abe's 2015 Completion List
1.   Far Cry 4 (PS4)
2.   Halo 3 (Xbox360)
3.   Senran Kagura Burst (3DS)
4.   The Swapper (PS4)
5.   inFAMOUS: First Light (PS4)
6.   Senran Kagura: Shinovi Versus (PS Vita)
7.   Mega Man X2 (PS2)
8.   Home (PS4)
9.   Lord of Magna: Maiden Heaven (3DS)
10. Mighty Switch Force (3DS)
11. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3)
12. Halo 4 (Xbox360)
13. Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch (PS3)
14. Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA 2nd (PSP)
15. Super Mario 3D World (WiiU)
16. Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes (PS4)

[abe]

Finished up another game today, IA/VT Colorful on the PlayStation Vita. I've played through all of the songs on Normal and have seen the credits roll, but I am far from done with this game. I have so many great things to say about it. It lived up to and exceeded all the expectations I had for it and I'm glad I preordered the game. Naturally, being a Japanese rhythm game featuring a vocaloid, it's going to be often compared to Hatsune Miku's Project DIVA series. Even compared to a well established and very popular series like Project DIVA, IA/VT Colorful hold up extremely well and in some cases I would even say it outdoes its competition. Let's start by looking at the difficulty. Project DIVA has four difficulties, while IA/VT only has three (Easy, Normal, and Hard). While songs on hard can certainly be challenging, the game is very lenient with how accurate your timing needs to be. A "Safe" hit could easily be a "miss" or an "awful" in Project DIVA. You can also still get a perfect chain on a track in IA/VT if you get safe on some notes, but a "safe" will cost you your perfect in PD. It's certainly more friendly to new players than PD can be at times, though I'm not saying that it's a better game because of this. One of the many things I like better in IA/VT compared to the Vita entries in the Project DIVA series is the controls. There's no notes that require any kind of touch responses, like the scratch notes in PD which I found a little annoying. I also enjoyed the track list overall better than Project DIVA f or F2nd, though that's entirely my personal preference. In terms of graphics, IA/VT Colorful is a beautiful game that certainly lives up to the use of "Colorful" in its title. Again this is rather subjective, but I'd have to say that the game's visual presentation outdoes its competition. Hopefully this will be the beginning of a new series, and not just a standalone title.

If you like Japanese rhythm games and own a PS Vita, I very strongly recommend you import the game immediately. The game's producer has said in an interview that the game will likely never see a release in North America due to the difficult nature of dealing with the rights to use the music in the game. There's some English in the game's menus as well so it's very import friendly.

Abe's 2015 Completion List
1.   Far Cry 4 (PS4)
2.   Halo 3 (Xbox360)
3.   Senran Kagura Burst (3DS)
4.   The Swapper (PS4)
5.   inFAMOUS: First Light (PS4)
6.   Senran Kagura: Shinovi Versus (PS Vita)
7.   Mega Man X2 (PS2)
8.   Home (PS4)
9.   Lord of Magna: Maiden Heaven (3DS)
10. Mighty Switch Force (3DS)
11. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3)
12. Halo 4 (Xbox360)
13. Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch (PS3)
14. Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA 2nd (PSP)
15. Super Mario 3D World (WiiU)
16. Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes (PS4)
17. IA/VT Colorful (PS Vita)

[pacpix]

Last night I finished the Japanese PS1 remake of Wizardry V: Heart of the Maelstrom.  I have been slowly chipping away at it all summer, but put in a couple of nights of grinding till 3 AM over the weekend so I could finish before I move up into my college dorm this week.  I have some mixed opinions about it, but overall it was an enjoyable experience.

Things I liked

• The thief is finally not useless with the addition of being able to ambush monsters and use of ranged weapons
• All of the floors are important, there are no useless floors like Wizardry 1
• Fair experience rates, a welcome change from Wizardry 3 which had the absolute worst grind so far in the series.
• More puzzles to solve in the dungeon, some of these were way too obtuse, but the ones that were designed well were welcome additions to the game.
• The boss music was epic, and the entire endgame sequence in general was awesome, by far the best ending in the series so far.

Music starts at (42:55)

Things I disliked

• The dungeon map sizes were doubled to 40x40, but all that extra space was left empty making navigating the maze intolerable
• Way too many essential puzzle items with an inventory system not designed for puzzles.  Sir-Tech's menus were very innovative in 1981, but the fact that they were able to get away with using the same game engine and wireframe graphics in 1988 is amazing to me.  The PS1 remake has updated graphics of course, but the menu system is still the same and does not fit the more puzzle focused gameplay.
• The swimming skill is pretty much useless and poorly implemented
• The light spell no longer finds secret doors, leaving the player to randomly check walls in hopes of finding a secret door.  In many cases there is a secret door and the player will search, but it is randomly calculated whether the party will actually find the secret door.

Overall I think Wizardry V was really close to being something great.  Objectively it should be the highest rated of the original series, but I feel that it is too often held back by an archaic game engine and the size of the dungeon artificially lengthens the game.  This marks the point in the franchise when Bradley took over though, after finishing Wizardry V he began the Dark Savant trilogy which by many is considered the absolute pinnacle of the series and meshes SciFi and Fantasy.  I am interested to see the new direction the series goes, because in someways it feels like Wizardry 1,2,3, and 5 are all one long game which is maybe why I was a bit more negative on Wizardry V.  A change of pace will be nice.

If anyone is interested in checking out the series the PS1 remakes are almost completely in English and have an automap so you don't have to pull out the graph paper.  I was worried maybe some of the puzzles would be broken when translated between languages, but I played through all five games with no issues.  I recommend at least playing one game of Wizardry in permadeath, but these versions do allow you to save.

My ranking of the series so far would be: Wizardry II: Knight of Diamonds, Wizardry I: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord, Wizardry IV: The Return of Werdna, Wizardry V: Heart of the Maelstrom, Wizardry III: Legacy of Llylgamyn. 

[burningdoom]

BurningDoom's 2015 Beaten Games List:
1.Strikers 1945 (PS1)
2. Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen (DS)
3. Monster In My Pocket (NES)
4. Shovel Knight (Wii U)
5. Super Mario 3D World (Wii U)
6. Hyrule Warriors (Wii U)
7. New Super Mario Bros. U (Wii U)
8. Arcade Hits Pack: Gunblade NY & LA Machine Guns (Wii)
9. Rock Band: Metal Track Pack (PS2)
10. Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation (DS)
11. Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (Wii U)
12. King's Field: The Ancient City (PS2)
13. NES Remix (Wii U)
14. NES Remix 2 (Wii U)
15. The Legend of Zelda - 2nd Quest (NES)
16. Red Dead Redemption & Undead Nightmare (XBox 360)
17. ECW Hardcore Revolution (GBC)
18. Resident Evil (GameCube)
19. Resident Evil 2 - Dual-Shock Edition (PS1) - Both Scenarios A & B
20. Final Fantasy (GBA)
21. Dynasty Warriors 5 (PS2)
22. Mega Man Legends 2 (PS1)
23. Final Fantasy 2 (GBA)[/b]
24. Spyro the Dragon (PS1)

25. Star Soldier: Vanishing Earth (N64)



WAAYYYY too easy for a shoot-em up. Beat it on my first play through, ever, no continues used. Granted it was on the easy setting, but I usually always start shoot-em ups on the easy setting and still don't beat it on the first play through, with no continues used.

Cool graphics, though, that uses full 3D polygons while still playing like a 2D shoot-em up. And as easy as it was, it was still fun for the short time it lasted. Generic music, though. Listen to a CD while playing this one.

Gotta say, though, it's quite the step-down from the earlier games in the series on the TurboGrafx-16 (Super Star Soldier and Final Soldier).

[kashell]

Last night I earned the platinum in Criminal Girls. I was very pleased and surprised by that game.

[disgaeniac]

Last night I earned the platinum in Criminal Girls. I was very pleased and surprised by that game.

gratz'

simple platinum, eh?

i'll be looking forward to reading your review!

[turom]

<game review>

If you like Japanese rhythm games and own a PS Vita, I very strongly recommend you import the game immediately. The game's producer has said in an interview that the game will likely never see a release in North America due to the difficult nature of dealing with the rights to use the music in the game. There's some English in the game's menus as well so it's very import friendly.

Thanks for the review abe!

I never imported games on PS3/PS-Vita, how does it work? Do you have to create a different PSN account and use a different memory card for the PSVita? Can you have the trophies on your main account? Can you buy the DLCs?

I see that PS3 and Vita games are "region free" but I wonder what's actually the deal about it.

[abe]

<game review>

If you like Japanese rhythm games and own a PS Vita, I very strongly recommend you import the game immediately. The game's producer has said in an interview that the game will likely never see a release in North America due to the difficult nature of dealing with the rights to use the music in the game. There's some English in the game's menus as well so it's very import friendly.

Thanks for the review abe!

I never imported games on PS3/PS-Vita, how does it work? Do you have to create a different PSN account and use a different memory card for the PSVita? Can you have the trophies on your main account? Can you buy the DLCs?

I see that PS3 and Vita games are "region free" but I wonder what's actually the deal about it.

You don't need a Japanese region PSN account in order to play physical copies of Japanese games you've purchased. This applies to both the PS3 and PS Vita. There's no issues with trophies either, the trophies will show up on your French account, like it does on my Canadian one.

However, DLC is where things change. You will need to have a Japanese account in order to redeem codes or purchase the DLC to use for Japanese games. In the case of the PS Vita, you will need to have another memory card if you want to make a Japanese region account for the DLC. It requires a couple more steps too, but I haven't set up a Japanese account for myself yet, so I can't properly explain the rest. I plan on creating one soon though, since I want to redeem the DLC codes I got for preordering IA/VT Colorful. There should be plenty of resources on YouTube to help you create your own Japanese account, particularly with the Vita.

Another thing to note is that for some strange reason, North American copies of the original Persona 4 Arena is region locked. There's also a Japanese game PS3 called Joysound Dive which released exclusively to the Japanese PSN. It too is region locked. Other than those two, any game from any region should be playable on your (I'm assuming European) PS3 and Vita consoles.

[turom]

You don't need a Japanese region PSN account in order to play physical copies of Japanese games you've purchased. This applies to both the PS3 and PS Vita. There's no issues with trophies either, the trophies will show up on your French account, like it does on my Canadian one.

However, DLC is where things change. You will need to have a Japanese account in order to redeem codes or purchase the DLC to use for Japanese games. In the case of the PS Vita, you will need to have another memory card if you want to make a Japanese region account for the DLC. It requires a couple more steps too, but I haven't set up a Japanese account for myself yet, so I can't properly explain the rest. I plan on creating one soon though, since I want to redeem the DLC codes I got for preordering IA/VT Colorful. There should be plenty of resources on YouTube to help you create your own Japanese account, particularly with the Vita.

Another thing to note is that for some strange reason, North American copies of the original Persona 4 Arena is region locked. There's also a Japanese game PS3 called Joysound Dive which released exclusively to the Japanese PSN. It too is region locked. Other than those two, any game from any region should be playable on your (I'm assuming European) PS3 and Vita consoles.

Thank you for taking the time to summarize this! Adding the game to my wishlist

[abe]

You don't need a Japanese region PSN account in order to play physical copies of Japanese games you've purchased. This applies to both the PS3 and PS Vita. There's no issues with trophies either, the trophies will show up on your French account, like it does on my Canadian one.

However, DLC is where things change. You will need to have a Japanese account in order to redeem codes or purchase the DLC to use for Japanese games. In the case of the PS Vita, you will need to have another memory card if you want to make a Japanese region account for the DLC. It requires a couple more steps too, but I haven't set up a Japanese account for myself yet, so I can't properly explain the rest. I plan on creating one soon though, since I want to redeem the DLC codes I got for preordering IA/VT Colorful. There should be plenty of resources on YouTube to help you create your own Japanese account, particularly with the Vita.

Another thing to note is that for some strange reason, North American copies of the original Persona 4 Arena is region locked. There's also a Japanese game PS3 called Joysound Dive which released exclusively to the Japanese PSN. It too is region locked. Other than those two, any game from any region should be playable on your (I'm assuming European) PS3 and Vita consoles.

Thank you for taking the time to summarize this! Adding the game to my wishlist

No problem, glad to help.

One thing to note that I forgot about in my last reply was compatibility issues with the PlayStation TV, or Vita TV. It works a little different than the PS Vita handheld. While the PS TV/Vita TV itself isn't region locked, due to weird compatibility issues, not just any game from any region will work on it, even if it may be compatible with one region. I haven't looked into this extensively, but I plan on looking into this soon when I buy a PS TV before they disappear from my area and Sony stops making them (since they seem to have given up on the device). IA/VT Colorful says on the box that it's compatible with the Japanese Vita TV, and according to something I found from a quick Google search, it does work on European PS TVs.

[bobster]

You don't need a Japanese region PSN account in order to play physical copies of Japanese games you've purchased. This applies to both the PS3 and PS Vita. There's no issues with trophies either, the trophies will show up on your French account, like it does on my Canadian one.

However, DLC is where things change. You will need to have a Japanese account in order to redeem codes or purchase the DLC to use for Japanese games. In the case of the PS Vita, you will need to have another memory card if you want to make a Japanese region account for the DLC. It requires a couple more steps too, but I haven't set up a Japanese account for myself yet, so I can't properly explain the rest. I plan on creating one soon though, since I want to redeem the DLC codes I got for preordering IA/VT Colorful. There should be plenty of resources on YouTube to help you create your own Japanese account, particularly with the Vita.

Another thing to note is that for some strange reason, North American copies of the original Persona 4 Arena is region locked. There's also a Japanese game PS3 called Joysound Dive which released exclusively to the Japanese PSN. It too is region locked. Other than those two, any game from any region should be playable on your (I'm assuming European) PS3 and Vita consoles.

Thank you for taking the time to summarize this! Adding the game to my wishlist

No problem, glad to help.

One thing to note that I forgot about in my last reply was compatibility issues with the PlayStation TV, or Vita TV. It works a little different than the PS Vita handheld. While the PS TV/Vita TV itself isn't region locked, due to weird compatibility issues, not just any game from any region will work on it, even if it may be compatible with one region. I haven't looked into this extensively, but I plan on looking into this soon when I buy a PS TV before they disappear from my area and Sony stops making them (since they seem to have given up on the device). IA/VT Colorful says on the box that it's compatible with the Japanese Vita TV, and according to something I found from a quick Google search, it does work on European PS TVs.

PSTV's work on a whitelist sort of function. If the game isn't whitelisted by Sony, it won't play, even if it technically can without any problems. This seems to be a licensing/support issue.

The hacking/homebrew scene has a couple work arounds that get past the whitelist. Sadly, the first thing I did when I got mine was update it which broke the exploits they use .

[abe]

PSTV's work on a whitelist sort of function. If the game isn't whitelisted by Sony, it won't play, even if it technically can without any problems. This seems to be a licensing/support issue.

The hacking/homebrew scene has a couple work arounds that get past the whitelist. Sadly, the first thing I did when I got mine was update it which broke the exploits they use .

Thanks for the info. I'll keep that in mind when I get mine.

[maximo310]

Ys Origin was completed with all three characters on Normal, and I've done all of the bosses on Normal/Hard.  The only minor problem that I encountered is a bug for Toal's story, while leveling up after defeating Dalles causes the game to crash for some unknown reason.
I told one of my friends to try it out in the future, especially since he's currently in a Ys : OiF Nightmare run and stuck on Zirduos, the cannon monster right now.