Final Fantasy 7 Remake Demo Thoughts

I'm not usually one for demos.  When I'm even remotely interested in an upcoming title I try to avoid as much of the hype and marketing as possible and then just go into it on release day completely blind.  However when I caught news of the Final Fantasy 7 Remake demo dropping onto PSN my curiosity got the better of me in a BIG way and I practically ran home from work to download it.  Now having played it through I'll share some of my thoughts on it.

The game kicks off with the old opening that everyone whos even has a passing knowledge of the game is familiar with only this time its an absolute trip to see all that 1997 FMV done in all new PS4-O-Vision.  Not long after that cutscene ends you're in control of Cloud and are set upon by a couple of dudes to hack at.  I was playing with the combat on Normal mode but when you start the demo you are given the option of Normal, Easy and Classic and I will be going back to the demo very soon to try out the classic option but at time of writing I've not tried.

There's not really a lot to do in this demo since its just the bombing mission from the start of the game so the focus is really on getting some hands on experience with the combat.  At the start of the demo you have just Cloud to play with.  He can hack away at things with this Buster Sword in 2 modes, one for speed and one for damage or he can do an ability or cast a fire spell.  As you hack at things you fill up at ATB gauge which lets you use those spells an abilities and you can store up to two.  So for example, using the fire spell, a potion or hitting something with Braver uses up one of your meters and then you either have to wait or do some more regular hacking and slashing until you can do it again.  The more you hit things the more you fill up a little stagger meter and when that gets full you do extra damage to your opponent and exploiting weaknesses of enemies helps raise that meter even faster.  Things get real interesting when you get Barret into your party and you then have to manage a second character.  You can freely switch between your two guys and while your inactive guy while wander around the area killing enemies for you, their ATB fills up at a much slower rate than if they are actively fighting under your control.  So while, at least for the demo, its perfectly viable to control Cloud pretty much the entire time (outside of a tutorial when Barret first joins), if you really want to maximize damage then you'll want to be switching between your party members to fill up their meter and then take full advantage of a stagger when it happens. 

The one thing I didn't like about the demo was the English voice work for the characters.  It was hammed up and every time Jesse opened her mouth I got the pangs of cringe through my chest.  I'm sure the full game will have selectable voice tracks but the demo version just uses whatever language your system is set to.  My Japanese PS4 is set to English so everything was in English which means that if you're living in Japan the game will probably have full English support but its a little concerning for those that want the English text but the Japanese voices as there are no language options in the settings for the demo.  

Either way, the more I see about this game the more excited I'm starting to get.  I'm still a little skeptical of the whole, being split into multiple games thing but as far as gameplay is concerned its a solid action RPG experience and I'm looking forward to getting my hands on the "full" thing.

Tau Plays Ruin Demo

Resident Evil 7 Demo

So recently I streamed the Resident Evil 7 demo so I thought I'd take a moment to talk about it here since I was too sleepy on stream to really sum up how I felt about it.

The Resident Evil 7 demo feels like it suffers from the same problems that PT did.  The idea being to give us an idea of the plot while trying to freak us out rather than being a demo indicative of the final game.  Or at least I hope that's the case because if the final game plays like this it's going to be a fucking mess.  The Resident Evil 7 demo plays a lot more like one of those walking simulator type games that I fucking hate and while it is somewhat more enjoyable than your average walking simulator, if the final game ends up as a creepy, first person "stealth" horror game, I'm going to be rather miffed.

The demo tries insanely hard to be creepy and scary but fails mainly because we've seen this kind of horror a million times before.  It does look rather nice on PS4 hardware and creates a good atmosphere but ultimately falls flat because you very quickly realize that the scary dude teleports behind you based on certain flags you hit rather than stalking you around the house.  Aside from scary dude the general imagery is too overt for it to be scary and ends up being almost funny instead.

Interestingly enough, the demo has multiple endings which you can discover by taking slightly different paths through the game.  However this has led to something particularly frustrating and thanks to this one item the demo is more of a time vampire than an enjoyable demo of the latest Resident Evil.  The dummy finger, which I pictured above, is an item you can find while exploring and NO ONE can find a use for it.  The devs are also being intentionally douchy about it and not giving us any hints as to why it was included.

My personal theory is that it doesn't actually have a use but the demo will be changed nearer to release and then we will be able to do something with it.  The demo is ultimately a forgettable experience but this mystery gives the devs an excuse to reignite the hype near launch when we are allowed to solve it.

Hopefully the final game will be good and judging from the direction the demo has taken its gearing up to be leagues better than the hot mess that was Resi 6.  Hopefully it'll be more survival horror than walking simulator and we can go back to taking about this series with a sense of excitement and joy rather than disgust.

Pokken Demo Impressions

About 5 minutes from my house there's a department store that is home to the Nagoya Pokemon Centre.  In case anyone is unfamiliar, the Pokemon Centre is a shop where people can go and buy all sorts of Pokemon related merchandise.  There's other stuff you can do there with these weird arcade machines and people always have their 3DSs out too so I guess people can congregate around there for trading and whatnot. 

A while ago I commented on my outrage at the announcement of "Pokken".  A fighting game carrying half the Tekken name where two Pokemon get in an arena and beat the shit out of each other until one falls down.  Since me and my buddy tried it, we'll both be sharing our thoughts on the game.

Tau

I initially thought the game was going to be a complete waste of time.  Maybe this is because I hold a great dislike for the Pokemon franchise but upon getting a go with the thing I found myself pleasantly surprised. 

For almost everyone in the store it was their first time with the game and you weren't really given enough time with it to figure anything more advanced than just standard attacking and blocking but even on a surface level there is quite a lot going on.  Each Pokemon can attack, jump, grab and all that standard stuff as well as a special attack specific to each character.  Along side that you get a support pokemon who you can call in for an extra attack or some kind of support ability.  When you take too much damage you can "burst" which makes you stronger, faster, stops you from getting hit stunned and allows you to perform your "ultra".

The game itself is actually pretty fun and I can totally see myself popping into the arcades for a couple of rounds every now and again but I do have one major problem with it.  WHY THE FUCK IS IT AT ALL RELATED TO TEKKEN?!  There are NO elements from any of the Tekken games implemented into it AT ALL.  Everything down to the fucking perspective of play is completely different to a Tekken game so why make that reference at all? It's not even like the demographics of Tekken and Pokemon cross over all that much so I have no idea what the fuck is going on.

Anyway, not counting my rage towards bringing Pokemon into the Tekken series it's a pretty good game.  Let's say I'm pleasantly surprised.

Gibdo

To those of you coming from the Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire page, it's Polibro here! I'll keep it short and sweet considering Tau has covered most of the technical details above.

Not being a particular fan of Tekken, I luckily don't hold the same problems with this mash-up as Tau. That being said, I do agree it is an odd combination of what would initially be thought of two completely disparate games. As many of the fans know, however, Pokemon is fundamentally a fighting game in as much as they do battle, albeit in a turn-based RPG style in the main series.

Fans of Pokemon have wanted a game where you could actually control your Pokemon utterly and slog it out against your opponent and this meets that need to a certain extent. Going back to Tau's point, it is an odd match but I think it is an interesting in its concept. If this game were released as a console release, I think it would be interesting to add the team element from the main Pokemon series, where you could build a team and battle it out akin to Marvel Vs Capcom. As an arcade game, however, the simple one-on-one style of fighting is perfect.

I'm not a big fan of traditional arcade fighting games, but I'd certainly give this a go now and again. But then again, I am slightly biased.

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So there you have it, and just to top the whole thing off, here is some game play footage from the demo we played!

Finally Tried The Oculus

So today I was walking around town doing some retro game shopping (video incoming) when I discovered a building that was running some Oculus Rift demos for people to just line up and try out.  At the time me and my group were fucking starving but of course we put that aside to test out some VR goodness.

For those that don't know, the Oculus Rift is a VR headset type thing and it's being used to do all sorts of cool gaming shit with.  Think the Virtual Boy but with some really good displays instead of just some red and black faux 3D bullshit going on.  It also doesn't give you nasty headaches after a short time of use or at least not to my knowledge.

The demo that I was able to try today wasn't a game as such more like a little first person movie of a roller coaster.  The roller coaster wasn't just any kind of roller coaster though, it was impossibly high and did all sorts of weird twists and turns that would kill you if put into a real coaster. 

Before I continue I would just like to say that I have a fear of heights and therefore I dislike roller coasters greatly.  When I was lining up to try the thing I could feel myself getting nervous despite that fact that I knew it was just a wooden chair in a dark room.  Just to give you a good idea of how bad I am, last time I went to Universal Studios Japan I freaked my shit on the Snoopy themed roller coaster designed for children, it's not good.

Anyway, I put the Rift on feeling only slightly apprehensive and I was met with a view of the coaster making it's climb.  I could turn my head and view the surroundings which was really cool and as it got to the top I got that same feeling in my chest that I get when I ride the real thing.  I found myself grabbing the chair pretty tightly despite the fact that I knew it wasn't real.  Once it started to fall the feeling subsided and it was a good bit of fun but I thought the fact that it was able to get that kind of response out of me pretty amazing.  At the end of the ride the coaster flies off a slope where the guy showcasing the demo then runs behind you and rocks your chair back to simulate the feeling.  I freaked out a little there more because I felt like I was going to fall off rather than the feeling caused by the rift.

Still though, if this is VR in it's early stages then things are going to get really good when the thing is released to the public.  Playing a horror game or a First Person Shooter in this thing will be mind blowingly fun and I can't wait to try.  If VR really is the future then sign me up!

10 Minutes of Yaroze! Haunted Maze!

I've had a very busy and very drunk weekend, which is why there hasn't been much content recently, so sorry about that.

To make up for it, have a nice shiny new Net Yaroze video.

Now our usual scheduled ranting can resume

Tau's 10 Minutes of Yaroze! Cat Game!

Jesus christ......just watch.....

Tau's 10 Minutes of Yaroze! Blitter Boy!

Well, here is another episode of the old Net Yaroze stuff.  This time we have Blitter Boy Operation: Monster Hall, enjoy!

Tau's 10 Minutes of Yaroze!

Well here we are, the new feature for this blog!  Basically how this works is that I fire up an old Net Yaroze game and play it for 10 minutes while sharing my thoughts about it and maybe any memories that I had associated with it.

After 10 minutes I'll cut the video and if you want to see more then you just have to go try it for yourself.

Today I'm bringing you my first Net Yaroze experience, Pushy11b, a puzzle game about pushing things.  Enjoy!

Dark Souls 2 Gameplay Demo!

So today I watched the Dark Souls 2 game play reveal, here is the video for you so you can too!

So basically the video is 12 minutes of a character running around some environments and doing things while a guy talks over it.  I think it is safe to say that Dark Souls 2 is in good hands here folks and it is perfectly safe to go and get all hyped.

Some people have been complaining about the health and stamina gauges being high and enemies not doing all that much damage but do keep in mind that it was a game play trailer to show off the game, so they were probably just playing with a levelled guy so that they aren't getting destroyed while trying to show you the game.

The enemies are doing cooler things now too, like in that scene where he shoots a dude in a cage and he busts out or that guy who uses his curved armour to roll on you if you get behind him.  It'll be great on the first play through when you have no idea just how a certain enemy is going to ruin your shit even when you may think you have the upper hand.  Also deflecting projectiles with your weapon is fucking RAD.

There are a couple of things I would say are a little concerning, like the environments being a little empty, but it's hard to make any kind of solid comment yet because it is just a specially designed game play demo to give us an idea of what it's going to look like.

From Software do good work, I don't think they will let us down.

Dreadout Demo (With Video)

First of all watch the video of me playing the Demo

Right, now to discuss some of my thoughts.

First of all, I was really impressed by the graphics, it looks real slick considering that we're dealing with an indie developed horror game.  The last indie developed horror game I played was Lone Survivor and that had fucking pixel art, so it's nice to see a small developer going the extra mile with the graphics.

Mechanically it works very well, the controls are nice and slick and easy to figure out without looking at the tutorial.  Basically if you have played a game on the PC ever, you will instantly be able to figure out how to control your character.

The puzzles in this game I both enjoy, but have sort of a problem with.  For example there is a bit near the start of the video where I get stuck for a short while because I wasn't able to figure out right away that I had to walk through the wall.  One thing I am glad about is that the game didn't tell me what to do, it let me work it out for myself.  That said I feel what it should have done is maybe made the hole in the wall pop out a bit, like having vines growing out from around the edges or something to indicate that it's something you can walk through.

The other problem I had, puzzle wise, was the candles.  There is an edit where I wasted a shit ton of time trying to figure out what to do, and this is because I think the objective was badly put forward.  What I was doing was trying to use my camera to light the other candles.  I was clicking around, pressing buttons on my keyboard to try and activate the flash and all sorts of shit.  I was even convinced at one point that there was something in the sky I had to snap in order to make the puzzle work.  At the end of the day it wasn't a puzzle, it was trying to make me go back and fight some enemies.

You see the problem is that a blue border pops up when you get near the candles, which means something important is there, so I was convinced for a long time that the key to those candles was in that area.  You could argue that the music was an indication of something being there that I had to go kill, but I thought the music was playing because of the big hangy dude.  If they had just played a sound of something crawling out of one of the nearby graves or ANYTHING.

Finally, is it scary?  Well to me, no, not really, but the potential is there.  The scene with the ghost facing the wall in the room was quite effective as you can probably tell from my reaction in the video, but I find there is no tension in the combat music when you fight the dudes in the graveyard.  The dudes are slow and crap, probably because they are there to teach you about combat, but the sound design for these encounters is a little weak.  Take Silent Hill for example, where the monsters sound truly horrible and the music that plays does a good job of making you panic. 

It's a good demo worth checking out and there is the potential for something really good here I think,  With it just being a demo and no release date in sight, I'm hoping that they will be able to put out a finish product that will rock our socks and fill our pants with large volumes of wee.

Net Yaroze

Above is not a picture of a PS1 like you might think.  Well, it sort of is, but not really.

What you are looking at up there is something called the Net Yaroze (as in Japanese やろぜ, as in "lets do it") which was basically a mail order development kit where fans could make their own games for the playstation.

I never had one of these, but according to wikipedia these things at the time would set you back $750 and on top of that you had to provide your own PC to actually code the games on.  Still, you bet your ass that coding hobbyists at the time got a kick out of this bit of kit.

So how did one get their games out?  Well back in the day, before you could hook a system up to the internet, demos used to come taped to the front of magazines.  The Official Playstation Magazine would have a demo disc every month, and bundled in with the demos was a couple of Net Yaroze games.  I would get excited for these demo discs because even though the games were kind of ass, these were full games and the prospect of getting video games to play at that age would make my head spin with excitement.

The games were actually sort of ass but they did have a sort of charm about them that made them fun to play.  The first Yaroze which I remember playing was something called Pushy2b

A little puzzle game where you had to push blocks on to X's to clear the level.  The sound effects were sort of annoying but it was pretty fun, and it was nice to get a free game inside a demo.

So what  I've decided is that when I get some time I'll record some footage of these games and put them up on youtube so you can get a feel of what I experienced in my younger days, so keep an eye out for that!

A Demo Cuts Sales? I Don't Think So

Before I start, let me tell you about something called D.I.C.E.

This is basically an event where a bunch of gaming bigwigs sit around and discuss that state of the industry as well as other things.  So now with that out of the way, I can tell you about a guy who spoke at DICE 2013 and pissed me off.

http://www.vg247.com/2013/02/11/releasing-a-game-demo-can-cut-your-sales-in-half-warns-schell/

In the above VG24/7 article lies a video of a man called Jesse Schell giving a speech at DICE.  I'm not really pissed off at him in the same way I'm pissed off at someone like Tomm Hulett, but he still rubbed me up the wrong way. 

As part of his speech he talks about the sales figures of games with demos, and games without demos, and he backs it up with a graph too, take a look

So, if you watch the video he explains it, but the four lines are four different types of games.  The bottom line is a game with no demo or trailer.  Next up is a game with a demo only, and a game with a trailer only.  The top line is games that only have a trailer.

Wow, OK, seems pretty solid right?  Well he's pretty vague about what these "types of games" are.  His graph really gives no thought to the quality of said games.  His argument is that the more curious people are, the more likely they are to buy something, which is fine I guess, but it's still complete dog shit.

The guy knows his stuff, I'll give him that, but just because a game has a demo doesn't mean it's going to cut your sale. I'm going to be quite blunt here, and say that there is a lot of shit on the market right now.  I can't move in a games shop for shit games just clogging up the shelf, and THIS is why sales on certain titles are poor.

If your game is ass, and you release a demo, people then know its ass and they won't buy it, but at least you don't piss them off.  If you take away the demo and release a shit game, all you are going to do is anger people and potentially lose sales down the road because they will lose any way of testing your game and may just end up assuming that everything developer X produces is crap after wasting money on the demo less piece of garbage that you first put out.

I remember back when demo discs used to come on the front of fucking magazines and up until this guys speech, I've never even heard the idea that having a demo is going to kill your sales, if anything it would cause the opposite if you ask me, providing that the game is actually good.

Games with demos lose sales because the game is ass, not because of the demo.  If you are seriously suggesting that demos are to blame for poor sales, and the only way to increase sales is to leave gamers in the dark regarding the quality of upcoming titles, you are nothing but a greedy fuck stain hoping to earn a quick buck by shovelling shit into the mouth of consumers.   Still, that's about the state of video games today really, isn't it?