Yakuza 2 (Christmas Special)

Developer: sega
Publisher: Sega
 

The original Yakuza was something of an unexpected success in Japan despite being released during Sony’s Playstation 2 final years. However, this success did not carry over into its western release where sales were decent if unspectacular. Thankfully, Yakuza managed to sell over a million units worldwide, over half of which stemmed from the Japanese market. This sequel launched in the Japanese homeland merely a year after Yakuza’s release, though westerners would have to wait twice that amount. Despite this time-frame increase, the localization process is noticeably less involving than its predecessor, foregoing its star-studded English dub for a humbler Japanese audio with accompanying subtitles.

Taking place a year after the events of the first game, we discover Kazuma retired and leading a simple life as Haruka’s guardian. At first the Japanese was somewhat disorienting, but every actor performs their part admirably, and while I miss voice-acting legends such as Mark Hamill, the new cast quickly grew on me. Yakuza 2 also offers a lengthy recap feature where players can catch up to all the backstory they either missed, or forgotten. One of my criticisms of the original game was its messy, convoluted plot and while videos and accompanying narrations are of great help, they suffer from information overflow. I can only imagine how confused someone who never played the first game would feel after watching this video.

Once past introductions and recaps, the story quickly begins to unfold itself. A weakened Dojima clan finds itself under siege by a rival Kyoto-based organization, and the foreign Korean mafia. Yakuza 2 expertly manages to convey a heavily romanticized and idealized take on the Japanese mafia. Often characters and plot seem more akin to that of a soap opera with dramatic reveals and overly exaggerated reactions. However, this mostly works to the game’s advantage as it maintains a good flow throughout its narrative. This does not mean Yakuza 2 isn’t susceptible to the same pitfalls of its predecessor, namely how ridiculous it becomes in some parts. At one point Kazuma enters the premises of a mob boss who lives inside a castle that opens up to reveal a second castle made out of solid gold. I’m not sure if this is meant to be intentionally ridiculous, but the tone and mood plays it straight which ruins any depth or gravity of the moment. Thankfully these are mostly relegated to sidetracked plotpoints and hold little weight on the actual narrative, though some manage to considerably hinder an otherwise well told story. The most upsetting case occurs at the ending, I won’t go into spoilers, but I will warn readers that it nearly ruined the experience for me.

The entire main cast from Yakuza makes a return, but sadly most of the appearances can be considered as glorified cameos. It’s a shame the dynamic Detective Date and Kazuma shared in the previous entry is hardly felt this time around. On the other hand, Kazuma is now teamed up with the tough-as-nails female detective, Kaoru who shares a well-executed bond with our main hero. It may take some missteps, and at times vary wildly from cartoonishly unbelievable to overly dramatic and serious, but Yakuza 2’s story is definitely one of its strong points despite the poor ending.

Kamurocho has changed little between entries, most of the shops make a return graphically unchanged and selling the same products. Some new stores and mini-games have been added, but the greatest addition is the all-new Osaka district to explore. It may only be a fraction in size of its Tokyo counterpart, but it offers variations on the already established mini-games. For the most part my thoughts on these remains unchanged from Yakuza; they are enjoyable for a few minutes but quickly become boring. Moreover, the rewards offered are not enough to offset the money and time invested to master them. This time however there are two exceptions to this rule. The first is a spin on the hostess mini-game, where this time, Kazuma is the one who must entertain customers. Dialog in these sections is still mostly guesswork of what works and what doesn’t, but this time players must also ensure customers consume a minimum amount of drinks throughout the conversation. This however, pales in comparison to a game where Kazuma owns and runs his very own Hostess bar. Managing prices, decorations, worker satisfaction and scouting for new hostesses was a very rewarding diversion and a welcome distraction from the main storyline.

While exploring the city, random groups of thugs will often attack Kazuma, triggering battle sections. Combat is another instance in which Yakuza 2 remains unchanged, gameplay-wise from its predecessor. The difficulty level was increased this time around as enemy patterns and movesets actively encourage players to engage them tactically. These random combat instances seem to happen at disparaging intervals between storyline chapters. Some chapters will constantly swarm you with random encounters while others remain relatively hassle free.

Returning players will likely get a case of Déjà vu, most of the audio and graphical assets are recycled from the first one right down to visual glitches. The odd texture warping, seaming and clipping issues all make a return with little if any improvements added.

Yakuza 2 improves the experience where it counts, the story despite flawed is tighter and better woven. Combat while still largely the same has been slightly tweaked and in doing so became less of a repetitive chore, and a more engaging experience. Finally, the side-content is immense, featuring Yakuza 1’s mini-games while still adding plenty of new things to see and try. Yakuza 2 may have launched during the PS2’s twilight years, but it became one of the finest titles available on Sony’s little black box. Now if only the ending weren't so terrible

Trivia: Did you know that due to the success of the original Yakuza, its sequel featured even more tie-in campaigns? The Matsuya restaurants for example, replace the unlicensed Akagyu chain of the first one. The game has a total of 17 real brand tie-ins.

Pros:

- A greatly improved story
- Combat slightly tweaked for the better
- More and better mini-games

Cons:

- Terrible ending
- Story still gets very silly in places
- Much of content was recycled from the first game

Final Grade: A-

I'm sad to say Yakuza 2's cover does not look good. It's an almost identical copy of Yakuza 1 only this time the appealing color balance gives way to a black and white image and the tattoo design is cropped. Without these, all we have left is an uninspired cover that blends into the background. Maybe this is why the series seems to struggle outside Japan.

Even the DVD looks plain in comparison to its prequel, what happened?

The manual is does fare a little better, in the sense that it's neither an upgrade or a downgrade from Yakuza. It contains a short paragraph briefly glancing at the events of the first game and goes into a pretty good detail on how to play the game. It features plenty of screenshots as visual aids and even a few hint boxes.

The manual is still in black and white and I did prefer the visual layout of the first one better, but overall this a good manual. A shame about the cover though.

Packaging Grade: C+

Christmas cheer rating: 

Yakuza 2, much like its predessor, is a game which takes place on Christmas but barely ever mentions it. Once again you'll see people decked out in Santa outfits and hear a few jingles at some of the shops but that's where it ends. However, it does have a beautiful 'Silent Night' rendition during the credit sequence, so I'll give it that much. One out of five snowmen.

Yakuza (Christmas Special)

Developer: Sega
Publisher:  Sega

I remember reading a magazine preview of Yakuzaback in the day labeling it as “Sega’s GTA”. Now considering how I stopped caring for Rockstar’s flagship franchise once the series evolved to 3D I ended up ignoring Yakuza, expecting it to be more of the same, much to my detriment.

You play as Kazuma Kyriu, once the most feared yakuza member in the entire Tojo clan, but fell into disgrace after being wrongfully accused of murdering his own boss and spending 10 years in prison. When he’s finally, Kazuma discovers the Tokyo clans are on the brink of civil war due to the disappearance of 20 billion yen from their hidden stash.

As the game begins you’re prompted to explore Tokyo’s fictional Kamurocho district, which is a series of neighborhoods filled with bars, strip clubs, stores, thugs, gangs, yakuza and just about everything else you can imagine. While the general area is relatively small when compared to other sandbox games or even RPGs it makes up for it by being so damn interesting and detailed. Every neighborhood feels different from the last, you can read magazines, watch commercials and have a few drinks, all of which are from real products and brands though most of them are exclusive to Japan. Still, I recognized a few western products like Jack Daniels whisky. You can’t really interact with random NPCs though, nor can you steal or even drive a car, as when exploring Kamurocho, most of the action is relegated to select areas with specific tasks or NPCs to talk to.

There are a ton of shops you can visit, many of them with their own mini-games which can range from baseball batting cages, gambling or even hostess bars where you pay for the time and opportunity to court a woman (wait, what?). These are pretty fun at first, but a lot of them quickly become stale or the rewards are simply not worth the time/money investment especially in regards to the hostesses. I ended up spending nearly 100K on one of them with the ultimate reward being a small animation implying Kazuma slept with her… big whoop.

When you’re not exploring the town it’s likely you’re engaged in combat, this can happen as part of a story/side mission or by random thugs accosting you, which happens way too often. The combat is really fun, playing like a 3D Streets of Rage, you can perform combos, grab your enemies or even use weapons which can be bought or found lying around on the floor and as you beat thug after thug you gain experience points which can be spent on learning new moves or just generally improving your stats. 

Unfortunately as fun as the combat is, it happens way too often to the point of it almost feeling series of random encounters. In one instance I was attacked by three groups in the same street! To make matters worse there’s a loading screen between battles, streets and shops, slowing down the pacing quite a bit. Combat isn’t perfect either as I often ran into camera issues where I couldn’t see myself and/or the enemies, also, it could’ve benefited from a lock-on feature as I often found myself punching the air simply because I was facing the at the wrong angle. 

The story for the most part is pretty good, even if it hinges quite a bit on the soap-opera side. It features plenty of interesting and unique characters, but many of them, as well as the situations themselves are often so over-exaggerated that it feels like I’m watching a Naruto anime (e.g. at one point your character punches someone through the floor). My real gripe with its story however lies with the complete lack of self-restraint towards the later chapters, it throws you a bunch of plot twists and everything just keeps escalating to point where it simply becomes a bit too ludicrous for my taste, though I did enjoy the relationship between Kazuma and his friends, especially detective Date.

It even features a pretty impressive cast of well-established voice actors such as Mark Hamill (Batman: TAS) and John DiMaggio (Futurama) but you wouldn’t have guessed it by the performances we got, with the exception of Mark Hamill’s Majima everyone sounds so bored and lifeless. If I had to guess I’d say all of the actors were given zero voice direction, but hey, that’s just my opinion.

Graphically I was pretty impressed with Yakuza, the city is beautiful to look at both artistically and on a technical level with tons of Neon lights, billboards and dozens of NPCs leading their daily lives though at times I did notice some light texture warping and a seaming issues. I’m surprised to see the latter is still an issue considering this is a late PS2 release.

On the sound department is certainly doesn’t win any prizes, apart from the previously mentioned voice acting there are only a handful of songs and I got tired of the battle music way too fast. I also noticed a few ambient sounds looping every 3 seconds or so especially when visiting K-mart, but these were in the minority as almost every other place did a good job at disguising this.

Overall I feel Yakuza is a much better game than I originally thought. While it can be seen as a GTA-style game I would argue this is a shallow comparison at best. The story, combat and exploration are fun, but they’re all poorly balanced, with too much combat, a plot that goes overboard towards the end and an abundance of mini-games where the rewards are hardly ever worth the time invested.

Trivia: Did you know many of the brands and even some of the shops we see in Yakuza exist in real life? Due to the game's expensive development process Sega secured several tie-in campaigns ranging from the Don Quijote discount stores to Jack Daniels adds.

Pros:

- Fun combat
- The city is small but interesting and very detailed
- The story is pretty good for the most part
- Plenty of mini-games to keep you entertained

Cons:

- Gameplay becomes repetitive after a while

- You'll encounter loading screens a bit too often for my taste
- Towards the latter chapters the story jumps the shark
- With so few worthwhile rewards, the mini-games feel meaningless

Final Grade: B-

The box shows our main character with his back turned to the viewer and displaying his Yakuza tattoo. While the idea itself is a bit on the boring side the nice use of color in the tattoo makes up for this turning it into a pretty eye-catchy box art.

When reading the manual I was surprised at the lack of backstory information or character backgrounds, all you get is a short paragraph that sounds more like a tagline than it does an actual backstory. 

On the flip-side the booklet goes into great detail on how to play the game. It gives you a ton of information, screenshots, tips and NPCs to talk to. On the rim of each of each even numbered page is a different Yakuza styled tattoo, while the designs end up repeating themselves they do a good job at making the manual feel unique and part of the experience, unfortunately the entire booklet is in black and white though, so while it makes for a nice read the eye candy is a bit muffled.

Overall this is a pretty nice package, I liked the cover image and while it doesn't come with any extras a lot of effort was put into the manual, a shame that it comes in black and white and lacks backstory information.

Packaging Grade: B+

Christmas cheer rating: 

When it comes to Christmas, the Yakuza series is like the Die Hard of videogames. They may take place during the Holidays, but they sure don't seem to care about it. Yes, occasionally you'll run into a few people dressed as Santa or some shops play a few Christmas-y jingles here and there but these are easy to miss. Rarely, if ever is the Holiday Season mentioned throughout the story. It's a game whose plot happens to take place during Christmas, that's it. Half a snowman.

Yakuza 2

Developer: sega
Publisher: Sega

The original Yakuza was something of an unexpected success in Japan despite being released during Sony’s Playstation 2 final years. However, this success did not carry over into its western release where sales were decent if unspectacular. Thankfully, Yakuza managed to sell over a million units worldwide, over half of which stemmed from the Japanese market. This sequel launched in the Japanese homeland merely a year after Yakuza’s release, though westerners would have to wait twice that amount. Despite this time-frame increase, the localization process is noticeably less involving than its predecessor, foregoing its star-studded English dub for a humbler Japanese audio with accompanying subtitles.

Taking place a year after the events of the first game, we discover Kazuma retired and leading a simple life as Haruka’s guardian. At first the Japanese was somewhat disorienting, but every actor performs their part admirably, and while I miss voice-acting legends such as Mark Hamill, the new cast quickly grew on me. Yakuza 2 also offers a lengthy recap feature where players can catch up to all the backstory they either missed, or forgotten. One of my criticisms of the original game was its messy, convoluted plot and while videos and accompanying narrations are of great help, they suffer from information overflow. I can only imagine how confused someone who never played the first game would feel after watching this video.

Once past introductions and recaps, the story quickly begins to unfold itself. A weakened Dojima clan finds itself under siege by a rival Kyoto-based organization, and the foreign Korean mafia. Yakuza 2 expertly manages to convey a heavily romanticized and idealized take on the Japanese mafia. Often characters and plot seem more akin to that of a soap opera with dramatic reveals and overly exaggerated reactions. However, this mostly works to the game’s advantage as it maintains a good flow throughout its narrative. This does not mean Yakuza 2 isn’t susceptible to the same pitfalls of its predecessor, namely how ridiculous it becomes in some parts. At one point Kazuma enters the premises of a mob boss who lives inside a castle that opens up to reveal a second castle made out of solid gold. I’m not sure if this is meant to be intentionally ridiculous, but the tone and mood plays it straight which ruins any depth or gravity of the moment. Thankfully these are mostly relegated to sidetracked plotpoints and hold little weight on the actual narrative, though some manage to considerably hinder an otherwise well told story. The most upsetting case occurs at the ending, I won’t go into spoilers, but I will warn readers that it nearly ruined the experience for me.

The entire main cast from Yakuza makes a return, but sadly most of the appearances can be considered as glorified cameos. It’s a shame the dynamic Detective Date and Kazuma shared in the previous entry is hardly felt this time around. On the other hand, Kazuma is now teamed up with the tough-as-nails female detective, Kaoru who shares a well-executed bond with our main hero. It may take some missteps, and at times vary wildly from cartoonishly unbelievable to overly dramatic and serious, but Yakuza 2’s story is definitely one of its strong points despite the poor ending.

Kamurocho has changed little between entries, most of the shops make a return graphically unchanged and selling the same products. Some new stores and mini-games have been added, but the greatest addition is the all-new Osaka district to explore. It may only be a fraction in size of its Tokyo counterpart, but it offers variations on the already established mini-games. For the most part my thoughts on these remains unchanged from Yakuza; they are enjoyable for a few minutes but quickly become boring. Moreover, the rewards offered are not enough to offset the money and time invested to master them. This time however there are two exceptions to this rule. The first is a spin on the hostess mini-game, where this time, Kazuma is the one who must entertain customers. Dialog in these sections is still mostly guesswork of what works and what doesn’t, but this time players must also ensure customers consume a minimum amount of drinks throughout the conversation. This however, pales in comparison to a game where Kazuma owns and runs his very own Hostess bar. Managing prices, decorations, worker satisfaction and scouting for new hostesses was a very rewarding diversion and a  welcome distraction from the main storyline.

While exploring the city, random groups of thugs will often attack Kazuma, triggering battle sections. Combat is another instance in which Yakuza 2 remains unchanged, gameplay-wise from its predecessor. The difficulty level was increased this time around as enemy patterns and movesets actively encourage players to engage them tactically. These random combat instances seem to happen at disparaging intervals between storyline chapters. Some chapters will constantly swarm you with random encounters while others remain relatively hassle free.

Returning players will likely get a case of Déjà vu, most of the audio and graphical assets are recycled from the first one right down to visual glitches. The odd texture warping, seaming and clipping issues all make a return with little if any improvements added.

Yakuza 2 improves the experience where it counts, the story despite flawed is tighter and better woven. Combat while still largely the same has been slightly tweaked and in doing so became less of a repetitive chore, and a more engaging experience. Finally, the side-content is immense, featuring Yakuza 1’s mini-games while still adding plenty of new things to see and try. Yakuza 2 may have launched during the PS2’s twilight years, but it became one of the finest titles available on Sony’s little black box. Now if only the ending weren't so terrible

Trivia: Did you know that due to the success of the original Yakuza, its sequel featured even more tie-in campaigns? The Matsuya restaurants for example, replace the unlicensed Akagyu chain of the first one. The game has a total of 17 real brand tie-ins.

Pros:

- A greatly improved story
- Combat slightly tweaked for the better
- More and better mini-games

Cons:

- Terrible ending
- Story still gets very silly in places
- Much of content was recycled from the first game

Final Grade: A-

I'm sad to say Yakuza 2's cover does not look good. It's an almost identical copy of Yakuza 1only this time the appealing color balance gives way to a black and white image and the tattoo design is cropped. Without these, all we have left is an uninspired cover that blends into the background. Maybe this is why the series seems to struggle outside Japan.

Even the DVD looks plain in comparison to its prequel, what happened?

The manual is does fare a little better, in the sense that it's neither an upgrade or a downgrade from Yakuza. It contains a short paragraph briefly glancing at the events of the first game and goes into a pretty good detail on how to play the game. It features plenty of screenshots as visual aids and even a few hint boxes.

The manual is still in black and white and I did prefer the visual layout of the first one better, but overall this a good manual. A shame about the cover though.

Packaging Grade: C+

Blackguards 2 Preview

I previewed Daedalic Entertainment's Strategy RPG, Blackguards 2 over at Tech-gaming.com. You can also see more of my professional work by following this link.

Company of Heroes 2: Ardennes Assault

I reviewed Company of Heroes 2: Ardennes Assault for Pc over at Tech-gaming.com. You can find more of my professional reviews and previews there as well. 

Resident Evil (Halloween Special)

Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom

Resident Evil is by no means the first survival horror game, but it's generally regarded as the title that popularized this genre. Originally intended as a remake of Capcom's "Sweet Home" for the Nintendo Famicom, it soon grew a life of itself and became its owns series.

I often see a lingering doubt as to whether or not Resident Evil was largely inspired by Infogrames' Alone in the Dark. Both feature similar gameplay styles, controls, combat and camera angles, however, the Japanese market is usually less than accepting of western PC games, leaving many to wonder if this was a case of parallel thinking. 

What many may not know however is that the original Alone in the Dark was a surprise hit in the land of the rising sun, so much so that Resident Evil was not Japan's first attempt to emulate Alone in the Dark's gameplay. That honor falls to Riverhillsoft's Doctor Hauzer, a fully 3D survival horror game launched only in Japan for the 3DO, though it contained no enemies or combat to speak of.

Launched a year after the Playstation version, the Saturn port received a few graphical tweaks and an exclusive battle mode. Despite this, the two versions play very much alike. So with all this said, has it stood the test of time? Well, it mostly depends on what you're looking for, but in my opinion, it most certainly has.

Resident Evil gives you the option to play as either Jill Valentine or Chris Redfield of the elite

task force STARS. The team was sent on a rescue mission but things quickly go astray and the few surviving members find refuge in a nearby mansion only to realize it's crawling with zombies and other monstrosities. 

Players must now uncover the mansion's secrets while avoiding its dangers. To do this you will have to find keys, solve mostly basic puzzles, manage a relatively low supply of ammo and healing items as well as learn when one should avoid confrontations. Despite ammo being a valuable commodity, I found the game overall easier when playing as Jill Valentine. Her larger inventory allowed me to carry more items at once therefore saving me a few trips, she can also lockpick desk drawers for extra items whereas Chris requires you to find the key. Moreover, Jill also has access to a Bazooka which makes short work of almost every enemy in the game including the last boss. I got the feeling Chris was more resistant to damage but that's not nearly enough to offset the advantages you get when playing as Jill.

Many players have always scoffed this series due to what is aptly called "tank controls". To put it simply, your character control so sluggishly it feels as if you're controlling a tank rather than a person. While this is something of an issue it does mean gamers can't just blindly rush at enemies, rather they have to plan ahead juggling the awkward control scheme and the ammo supply.

If a character's inventory becomes full you'll have to find a chest. There you can store every item you find throughout the game. All chests are shared, meaning what you place in one will appear in the other, while this design decision can shake one's suspension of disbelief at first, it does save players from having to backtrack. Saving is also limited to finding typewriters and ink ribbons to use them on. I managed to find 16-18 ribbons through each playthrough which is more than enough to finish the game and still have a few spares.

Graphically, Resident Evil looks good for a 3D Saturn title, all the backgrounds are pre-rendered giving them a nice, detailed look. Enemies and usable items are all rendered in real-time and while our two main characters look pretty good, everything else has a very low-polygon count. This is especially noticeable for usable objects which will often stick out like a sore thumb against the clean photo-backgrounds. These pre-rendered backgrounds can also create perspective and camera issues, often making it hard to aim or completely blocking your view of incoming enemies. In some cases a zombie can be standing right on top of the player but you can't even see him coming, I found this especially infuriating during boss fights.

The story is initially told via a black and white live action cutscene featuring some of the cheesiest

acting you will ever see. Meanwhile the remaining plot progression being conveyed through equally hilarious in-game cutscenes.

In fact, this is perhaps Resident Evil's greatest strength and greatest weakness. It tries so hard to be a scary game but its dialogue is so poorly written that when coupled with the terrible acting magic happens! I would gleefully listen to every character interaction and laugh at the truly awkward deliveries of an even more awkward dialogue. While this may appeal to some it does have the side effect of ruining the tension or any sense of impending danger. This is compounded further by the soundtrack which does a wonderful job at establishing an eerie feeling of unease.

I was pleasantly surprised by Resident Evil. The tank controls and goofy dialogues aren't for everyone, but it does offer a genuinely fun and even tense experience. Blowing a zombie's head is satisfying as is discovering a new key or unlocking a puzzle. The plot won't win any awards but that only makes it the ideal b-movie experience turned videogame.

Saturn vs. Playstation: Having played both the Playstation and Saturn versions back-to-back I can safely say most graphical differences are insignificant and purely academic in nature. I found that the Saturn version features sharper backgrounds and better character models for Chris and Jill. While they still had the odd clipping issue these were much rarer and far less noticeable on the Saturn than its Playstation cousin. 

Moreover, the models themselves had better geometry and proportions. On the flipside, water, smoke and any other transparency effect looked terrible on Sega's 32-bit system. The lack of hardware accelerated transparency effects strikes once again and as a result water and smoke are all dithered. The main character's shadow seems to have a few issues on the Saturn version, namely it "clears" any blood stains being rendered in-engine. I also noticed the Saturn ran at an overall lower resolution, the same goes for FMVs. The loading animations looked more pixelated on the Saturn and generally took longer than they did on the Playstation. Finally, exploding a zombie's head was much more satisfying on the Saturn as the developers added a new graphical effect making the overall combat a bit more gory. I can't say that one version trounces the other graphically, but I did prefer the Saturn port for its sharper backgrounds and better character model which make for most of the experience. 

The Saturn does have an exclusive "Battle Mode" in which you must clear zombie infested rooms as fast as possible. It's a neat little feature but one that I become bored with after only a few minutes. None of these differences are enough for me to score one version over the other. In the end, it all comes down to personal taste.

Pros:

- Good mix of exploration and puzzle solving 
- Blowing a zombie's head off never gets old
- Hilariously cheesy dialogue...

Cons:

- ...However, cheesy dialogue may not appeal to everyone
- Tank controls can be a major turn off
- Combat is prone to camera and perspective issues

Final Grade: B+

I am not a fan of this cover, while not as cluttered as its Playstation counterpart I still have trouble telling what's going on. Chris' face looks off with one eye twice as big as the other. I'm assuming those dark figures are shadows, but it's hard to tell. This cover is just a mess and I am not a fan of its cheap looking orange CD. Why couldn't they keep the clean look of the Playstation disc?

I'm assuming the Sega/Sony rivalry meant keeping the contents of the manual a secret from each other because this version was definitely handled by a different team. For starters it actually has screenshots (even if they're all black & white) but it has none of the background information you'd find on Playstation manual.

The closest you get to a backstory is a page describing the events of the intro video. I'm not sure what the point of it is considering I can just check the intro video at any time.

Overall the cover is a little better than its Playstation cousin and it does come in a sturdy late gen Saturn box, but the manual is a disappointment.

Packaging Grade: C+

Scariness Rating:

Regardless of which version you play, it's not much of a scary experience. The music does a good job at conveying loneliness and you get an occasional jump scare, but they're not particularly well done. One and a half screaming Monroes out of five.

Halloween Feel:

Are B-grade horror movies your idea of a good Halloween? Then this might just be for you. Unfortunately the voice acting is bit too cheesy even by low budget horror movies so I had to dock a few points for that. Two and a half Jack O' Lanterns.

Resident Evil

Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom

Resident Evil is by no means the first survival horror game, but it's generally regarded as the title that popularized this genre. Originally intended as a remake of Capcom's "Sweet Home" for the Nintendo Famicom, it soon grew a life of itself and became its owns series.

I often see a lingering doubt as to whether or not Resident Evil was largely inspired by Infogrames' Alone in the Dark. Both feature similar gameplay styles, controls, combat and camera angles, however, the Japanese market is usually less than accepting of western PC games, leaving many to wonder if this was a case of parallel thinking. 

What many may not know however is that the original Alone in the Dark was a surprise hit in the land of the rising sun, so much so that Resident Evil was not Japan's first attempt to emulate Alone in the Dark's gameplay. That honor falls to Riverhillsoft's Doctor Hauzer, a fully 3D survival horror game launched only in Japan for the 3DO, though it contained no enemies or combat to speak of.

Launched a year after the Playstation version, the Saturn port received a few graphical tweaks and an exclusive battle mode. Despite this, the two versions play very much alike. So with all this said, has it stood the test of time? Well, it mostly depends on what you're looking for, but in my opinion, it most certainly has.

Resident Evil gives you the option to play as either Jill Valentine or Chris Redfield of the elite

task force STARS. The team was sent on a rescue mission but things quickly go astray and the few surviving members find refuge in a nearby mansion only to realize it's crawling with zombies and other monstrosities. 

Players must now uncover the mansion's secrets while avoiding its dangers. To do this you will have to find keys, solve mostly basic puzzles, manage a relatively low supply of ammo and healing items as well as learn when one should avoid confrontations. Despite ammo being a valuable commodity, I found the game overall easier when playing as Jill Valentine. Her larger inventory allowed me to carry more items at once therefore saving me a few trips, she can also lockpick desk drawers for extra items whereas Chris requires you to find the key. Moreover, Jill also has access to a Bazooka which makes short work of almost every enemy in the game including the last boss. I got the feeling Chris was more resistant to damage but that's not nearly enough to offset the advantages you get when playing as Jill.

Many players have always scoffed this series due to what is aptly called "tank controls". To put it simply, your character control so sluggishly it feels as if you're controlling a tank rather than a person. While this is something of an issue it does mean gamers can't just blindly rush at enemies, rather they have to plan ahead juggling the awkward control scheme and the ammo supply.

If a character's inventory becomes full you'll have to find a chest. There you can store every item you find throughout the game. All chests are shared, meaning what you place in one will appear in the other, while this design decision can shake one's suspension of disbelief at first, it does save players from having to backtrack. Saving is also limited to finding typewriters and ink ribbons to use them on. I managed to find 16-18 ribbons through each playthrough which is more than enough to finish the game and still have a few spares.

Graphically, Resident Evil looks good for a 3D Saturn title, all the backgrounds are pre-rendered giving them a nice, detailed look. Enemies and usable items are all rendered in real-time and while our two main characters look pretty good, everything else has a very low-polygon count. This is especially noticeable for usable objects which will often stick out like a sore thumb against the clean photo-backgrounds. These pre-rendered backgrounds can also create perspective and camera issues, often making it hard to aim or completely blocking your view of incoming enemies. In some cases a zombie can be standing right on top of the player but you can't even see him coming, I found this especially infuriating during boss fights.

The story is initially told via a black and white live action cutscene featuring some of the cheesiest

acting you will ever see. Meanwhile the remaining plot progression being conveyed through equally hilarious in-game cutscenes.

In fact, this is perhaps Resident Evil's greatest strength and greatest weakness. It tries so hard to be a scary game but its dialogue is so poorly written that when coupled with the terrible acting magic happens! I would gleefully listen to every character interaction and laugh at the truly awkward deliveries of an even more awkward dialogue. While this may appeal to some it does have the side effect of ruining the tension or any sense of impending danger. This is compounded further by the soundtrack which does a wonderful job at establishing an eerie feeling of unease.

I was pleasantly surprised by Resident Evil. The tank controls and goofy dialogues aren't for everyone, but it does offer a genuinely fun and even tense experience. Blowing a zombie's head is satisfying as is discovering a new key or unlocking a puzzle. The plot won't win any awards but that only makes it the ideal b-movie experience turned videogame.

Saturn vs. Playstation: Having played both the Playstation and Saturn versions back-to-back I can safely say most graphical differences are insignificant and purely academic in nature. I found that the Saturn version features sharper backgrounds and better character models for Chris and Jill. While they still had the odd clipping issue these were much rarer and far less noticeable on the Saturn than its Playstation cousin. 

Moreover, the models themselves had better geometry and proportions. On the flipside, water, smoke and any other transparency effect looked terrible on Sega's 32-bit system. The lack of hardware accelerated transparency effects strikes once again and as a result water and smoke are all dithered. The main character's shadow seems to have a few issues on the Saturn version, namely it "clears" any blood stains being rendered in-engine. I also noticed the Saturn ran at an overall lower resolution, the same goes for FMVs. The loading animations looked more pixelated on the Saturn and generally took longer than they did on the Playstation. Finally, exploding a zombie's head was much more satisfying on the Saturn as the developers added a new graphical effect making the overall combat a bit more gory. I can't say that one version trounces the other graphically, but I did prefer the Saturn port for its sharper backgrounds and better character model which make for most of the experience. 

The Saturn does have an exclusive "Battle Mode" in which you must clear zombie infested rooms as fast as possible. It's a neat little feature but one that I become bored with after only a few minutes. None of these differences are enough for me to score one version over the other. In the end, it all comes down to personal taste.

Pros:

- Good mix of exploration and puzzle solving 
- Blowing a zombie's head off never gets old
- Hilariously cheesy dialogue...

Cons:

- ...However, cheesy dialogue may not appeal to everyone
- Tank controls can be a major turn off
- Combat is prone to camera and perspective issues

Final Grade: B+

I am not a fan of this cover, while not as cluttered as its Playstation counterpart I still have trouble telling what's going on. Chris' face looks off with one eye twice as big as the other. I'm assuming those dark figures are shadows, but it's hard to tell. This cover is just a mess and I am not a fan of its cheap looking orange CD. Why couldn't they keep the clean look of the Playstation disc?

I'm assuming the Sega/Sony rivalry meant keeping the contents of the manual a secret from each other because this version was definitely handled by a different team. For starters it actually has screenshots (even if they're all black & white) but it has none of the background information you'd find on Playstation manual.

The closest you get to a backstory is a page describing the events of the intro video. I'm not sure what the point of it is considering I can just check the intro video at any time.

Overall the cover is a little better than its Playstation cousin and it does come in a sturdy late gen Saturn box, but the manual is a disappointment.

Packaging Grade: C+

Resident Evil

Developer: Capcom
Publisher: Capcom

Resident Evil was by no means the first survival horror game, but it's generally attributed as the title that popularized the genre. Originally intended as a remake of Capcom's "Sweet Home" for the Nintendo Famicom, it soon grew a life of itself and became its owns series.

I often see a lingering doubt as to whether or not Resident Evil was largely inspired by Infogrames' Alone in the Dark. Both feature similar gameplay styles, controls, combat and camera angles, however, the Japanese market is usually less than accepting of western PC games, leaving many to wonder if this was a case of parallel thinking. 

What many may not know however is that the original Alone in the Dark was a surprise hit in the land of the rising sun, so much so that Resident Evil was not Japan's first attempt to emulate Alone in the Dark's gameplay. That honor falls to Riverhillsoft's Doctor Hauzer, a fully 3D survival horror game launched only in Japan for the 3DO, though it contained no enemies or combat to speak of.

Fast forward to 1996 and Resident Evil, a then Playstation exclusive becomes one of the system's first killer apps. The game became a hit with critics and gamers alike and sold over 5 million units. So with all this said, has it stood the test of time? Well, it mostly depends on what you're looking for, but in my opinion, it most certainly has.

Resident Evil gives you the option to play as either Jill Valentine or Chris Redfield of the elite

task force STARS. The team was sent on a rescue mission but things quickly go astray and the few surviving members find refuge in a nearby mansion only to realize it's crawling with zombies and other monstrosities. 

Players must now uncover the mansion's secrets while avoiding its dangers. To do this you will have to find keys, solve mostly basic puzzles, manage a relatively low supply of ammo and healing items as well as learn when one should avoid confrontations.

Despite ammo being a valuable commodity, I found the game overall easier when playing as Jill Valentine. Her larger inventory allowed me to carry more items at once therefore saving me a few trips, she can also lockpick desk drawers for extra items whereas Chris requires you to find the key. Moreover, Jill also has access to a Bazooka which makes short work of almost every enemy in the game including the last boss. I got the feeling Chris was more resistant to damage but that's not nearly enough to offset the advantages you get when playing as Jill.

Many players have always scoffed this series due to what is aptly called "tank controls". To put it simply, your character control so sluggishly it feels as if you're controlling a tank rather than a person. While this is something of an issue it does mean gamers can't just blindly rush at enemies, rather they have to plan ahead juggling the awkward control scheme and the ammo supply.

If a character's inventory becomes full you'll have to find a chest. There you can store every item you find throughout the game. All chests are shared, meaning what you place in one will appear in the other, while this design decision can shake one's suspension of disbelief at first, it does save players from having to backtrack. Saving is also limited to finding typewriters and ink ribbons to use them on. I managed to find 16-18 ribbons through each playthrough which is more than enough to finish the game and still have a few spares.

Graphically, Resident Evil looks above average for an early Playstation title, all the backgrounds are pre-rendered giving them a nice, detailed look. Characters, enemies and usable items are all rendered in real-time but have a very low-polygon count. This is especially noticeable for usable objects which will often stick out like a sore thumb against the clean photo-backgrounds.

These pre-rendered backgrounds can also create perspective and camera issues, often making it hard to aim or completely blocking your view of incoming enemies. In some cases a zombie can be standing right on top of the player but you can't even see him coming, I found this especially infuriating during boss fights. I also noticed our two main characters suffer from an assortment of clipping issues, especially on their shoulders.

The story is initially told via a black and white live action cutscene featuring some of the cheesiest acting you will ever see. Meanwhile the remaining plot progression being conveyed through equally hilarious in-game cutscenes.

In fact, this is perhaps Resident Evil's greatest strength and greatest weakness. It tries so hard to be a scary game but its dialogue is so poorly written that when coupled with the terrible acting magic happens! I would gleefully listen to every character interaction and laugh at the truly awkward deliveries of an even more awkward dialogue. While this may appeal to some it does have the side effect of ruining the tension or any sense of impending danger. This is compounded further by the soundtrack which does a wonderful job at establishing an eerie feeling of unease.

I was pleasantly surprised by Resident Evil. The tank controls and goofy dialogues aren't for everyone, but it does offer a genuinely fun and even tense experience. Blowing a zombie's head is satisfying as is discovering a new key or unlocking a puzzle. The plot won't win any awards but that only makes it the ideal b-movie experience turned videogame.

Playstation vs. Saturn: Having played both the Playstation and Saturn versions back-to-back I can safely say most graphical differences are insignificant and purely academic in nature. I found that the Saturn version features sharper backgrounds and better character models for Chris and Jill. While they still had the odd clipping issue these were much rarer and far less noticeable on the Saturn than its Playstation cousin. 

Moreover, the models themselves had better geometry and proportions. On the flipside, water, smoke and any other transparency effect looked terrible on Sega's 32-bit system. The lack of hardware accelerated transparency effects strikes once again and as a result water and smoke are all dithered. The main character's shadow seems to have a few issues on the Saturn version, namely it "clears" any blood stains being rendered in-engine. I also noticed the Saturn ran at an overall lower resolution, the same goes for FMVs. The loading animations looked more pixelated on the Saturn and generally took longer than they did on the Playstation. Finally, exploding a zombie's head was much more satisfying on the Saturn as the developers added a new graphical effect making the overall combat a bit more gory. I can't say that one version trounces the other graphically, but I did prefer the Saturn port for its sharper backgrounds and better character model which make for most of the experience. 

The Saturn does have an exclusive "Battle Mode" in which you must clear zombie infested rooms as fast as possible. It's a neat little feature but one that I become bored with after only a few minutes. None of these differences are enough for me to score one version over the other. In the end, it all comes down to personal taste.

Pros:

- Good mix of exploration and puzzle solving 
- Blowing a zombie's head off never gets old
- Hilariously cheesy dialogue...

Cons:

- ...However, cheesy dialogue may not appeal to everyone
- Tank controls can be a major turn off
- Combat is prone to camera and perspective issues

Final Grade: B+

I am not a fan of this cover, it's so cluttered I can barely tell what's going on. Chris' face looks off with one eye twice as big as the other. I'm assuming those dark figures are shadows, but it's hard to tell. This cover is just a mess, at least I like the CD's clean look.

The manual has plenty of information on all our characters, including the ones you find dead in the mansion. While that extra bit of information is tad unnecessary I do appreciate the team for going beyond the call of duty and including it. The game's cheesyness extends to the manual too, I chuckled when Wesker's bio names him the team's "cool guy" due to his hair style and shades. (see picture)

Not a great packaging, the cover certainly is confusing, but hey, any manual that can get you to smile gets my thumbs up

Packaging Grade: B-

Phantasy Star II

Developer: Sega
Publisher: Sega
Played on: Mega Drive Ultimate Collection

Over time, the Phantasy Star series has come to hold a special place in my heart. This is why the original Phantasy Star was one of my first blog reviews. Though looking back on it now, perhaps I should have waited a couple years before tackling these games.

Before the 'online' moniker was added, Phantasy Star II was perhaps the most famous title in this franchise. While the JRPG genre had already learned how to walk, it still had some difficulty standing on its own, particularly outside Japan. For reference, Final Fantasy II for the NES was launched just four months before Phantasy Star II hit the shelves. Oddly enough, Sega's RPG is more often than not compared to the fourth entry in Square's Final Fantasy saga despite it hitting store shelves two years prior to Cecil's journey. Moreover it's easy to forget this 16-bit RPG was launched in the west before any of the Final Fantasy games ever did. Yes, even the first one.

If one were to pinpoint the reason as to why Phantasy Star II was so highly praised I would have to say timing played a major part. Bridging the gap between 8 and 16 bit, it gave us a glimpse of what's to come. These days however, Phantasy Star II feels rudimentary and unforgiving with a few bright spots in between which could have shined brighter were the developers not limited by technological and time constraints. For one thing, it was touted as the first game to have been released on a 6-Mbit cartridge (750KB). As time went on, cartridge costs went down and as a result most 16-bit RPGs were shipped on 12, 16, 24 and even 32-Mbit cartridges. With that in mind, it's easy to see just how limited this showcase title really was when compared to later releases.

Phantasy Star II takes place a thousand years after its predecessor. Every planet in the Algo system is now ruled by Mother Brain, a super computer capable of managing every terraforming facility and whatever else is required to keep a stable population. 

It's here we're introduced to our main characters, whom I'd like to describe in greater detail, but the sad fact is, we barely get any information on them save for their profession. Thus, we've reached the first major problem with Phantasy Star II, there's very little story to it. While at certain points we'll see the occasional cutscene or character dialogue, these are few and far between, moreover, many of the interactions boil down to either exposition or the bare basics of what a plot should convey. Yet, Phantasy Star II had more story than most other JRPGs of its time. The original Final fantasy for example had virtually no plot save for a time loop plot twist thrown in a the last minute.

Combat is handled in a turn-based fashion and it's here we can see the major graphical jump we get from its 8-bit predecessor. For starters we get a behind the shoulder view of all our party members, all of which feature an impressive level of detail for the time. Even more astounding are the animations, as characters and monsters feature detailed idle and attack stances. The focus on Phantasy Star II's quality animations can not be overstated, surpassing even most JRPGs launched towards the twilight years of the 16-bit generation. The only real complaint I have on here is the lack of a background scenario. Rather than viewing forests, meadows and technologically advanced backdrops like its predecessor, Phantasy Star II's action combat screen is limited to a single, static tron-like screen.

Players who are familiar with turn-based JRPG combat will likely instantly grasp the basics of Phantasy Star's combat. It even features a useful auto-combat strategy. It may employ questionable strategic combat decisions, but it does provide a reprieve from the heavy grinding. The spells provided in the game all feature non-descriptive names such as "Foi", "Wat" or "Gires". For better or worse this encourages the player to experiment so as to learn their use

Another aspect where Phantasy Star II stood out from other JRPGs of its time was the ability to switch out party members. When in a town, you can catch a teleporter to the main character's home. There, the team is introduced to new warriors who wish to rally behind our cause and may switch out between them. Each character has certain set of skills, strength and weakness. The latter two are never explicitly told to you, rather it is up to the player to discover which party combination fits best for each dungeon.

Speaking of the dungeons, it is here we reach Phantasy Star II's biggest problem (though some would argue this is its biggest draw as well). The dungeons are absolutely labyrinthian in nature and feature an extremely high encounter rate. To put into into perspective, the early stages of the game are about as difficult as the end dungeon for most Final Fantasy titles. In the original Phantasy Star, dungeons were conveyed through a 3D-like perspective, providing both a difficult but fair challenge while still being graphically impressive. It forced players to map out their progress in graph paper thereby creating a more engaging experience. This however does not happen in the sequel. One of the main issues being the sheer size of these locations, some of which have upwards of 20 floors with dozens of paths leading to dead ends. The other setback is the change in perspective to a top-down 2D game. This makes it extremely difficult if not impossible to map out your progress, further exacerbated by the already mentioned high encounter rate.

Sega of America noticed the extreme difficulty of their dungeons and as a result shipped every copy of the game with a walkthrough which featured maps for every stage. However no such documentation exists for any subsequent release on other systems. As a result, new players will likely become frustrated early on as it forces them to memorize massive locations while constantly being interrupted for combat. I've seen some gamers proclaim Phantasy Star II is a more fun and engaging experience without any outside help. While I can see the validity in that claim I would argue it only applies to a very strict subset of its userbase.

Phantasy Star II is an absolutely massive experience. Even if we clear every dungeon at at reasonable time, there is simply so much to explore that it will likely keep gamers busy for quite some time. Unfortunately, the experience becomes repetitive rather quickly, as almost every town in the game looks the same as the last. The same criticism is also valid for the dungeons, as there's very little visual or even musical variation between them.

It's difficult to give Phantasy Star II a rating. It holds historical significance and broke a lot of new ground for the genre, but at the same time it feels very rough and archaic in the worst way possible. When reviewing a game like this one must always take into consideration the limitations and mindset of its time, but also analyze whether it's still a fun experience for a modern gamer. In the end I feel playing and finishing this game requires a certain mindset that is not advisable for everyone.

Those that trudge on through will see how quickly the genre evolved in just a few years, but also how a game as harsh and unforgiving like this can still provide an immersive experience. To this day I continue to look back on Phantasy Star II's characters with fondness, even if I barely got to know them. Together, we faced difficulties, hardships and frustrations, but we pulled through and for that, I'll always remember them fondly.

Trivia: Did you know Phantasy Star II launched a mere three months after Final Fantasy II for the Famicom? Despite this, it's most often compared to Final Fantasy IV for the SNES

Trivia 2: And did you know it was launched in the west before the first Final Fantasy title did?

Pros:

- Strong historical value in gaming
- A unique sci-fi experience in a genre that up to this point delved mostly in fantasy
- Combat animations above and beyond almost every other RPG of its time
- Provides a long, extremely difficult journey that is as frustrating as it is immersive and endearing

Cons:

- Extremely difficult and frustrating
- High encounter rate and labyrinthian mazes will scare most players away
- Very little plot or story is told in the game
- Generally feels very archaic

Final Grade: B-