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07 syyskuuta 2003
Publisher:Nintendo developer:Nintendo
Reviewer: Chibi Yuki released: late last year with the GameCube
Gameplay: 89% control: 79%
Story: 89% sound/music: 70%
overall: 70%
Most of you have heard more about this game when it came out than you needed to, and now no one remembers till you say it. Luigi's Mansion (GAMECUBE) is a single player game. You play Mario's brother, Luigi, ( hence title ) searchin a big scary house for your lost brother. Sounds alot like Fatal Frame, huh? It could be. Except it's got the watered-down-so-bad-it's-tasteless-ness that against Fatal Frame, LM looks like it could've been made by Disney.
The game starts out when Luigi's going to claim his prize ( the mansion ) for a contest he didn't enter ( o_0; ). In the mansion he meets Professor E. Gadd ( I swear on a stack of Dragonball manga that's really this guy's name ) trying to capture ghosts. But you both get scared away back to his little lab, where he explains the situation. Turns out that this guy was here for years, the the mansion just showed up a few days ago. As you play the game, you'll understand why, but won't get why they hint that the mansion had a past. Or maybe it's just me.
So E. Gadd bestows upon you a custom-made vaccum, custom-made to catch ghosts ( go figure ). As the game progresses, you'll get Element Medals, and depending on which one you got ( or all three ) you can shoot either fire, water, or ice with the touch of the L button. Then it's back into the mansion, armed with a flashlight and the vaccumm ( no magic camera this time ). Toad is sitting inside crying. Tell Mushroom-boy you've got everything under control and not only will he feel better but the lights in the foyer will come on.
Within the mansion's shitload of rooms you'll find ( besides ghosts ) treasure. Paper money, coins, 3 different kinds of pearls, and 6 different kinds of jewels are hidden literally *everywhere*. In some cases, you might have to vaccumm fans or lights to get cash to fall out. Golden mice appear once in a while, and vaccuming them up gets you *alot* of money, as the same with blue ghosts. This may sound stupid, but at the end of the game, you'll be glad you did.Your job is to explore these rooms. Some of them are fake ( the doors'll squish ya against the wall ), but you can tell which ones they are if you're in a hallway--the carpet won't be split to lead in its direction--and if you have a fire element and enough of it, you can burn the door down. This won't work on the Sealed Room on the second floor--you have to go through the east chimmeny on the roof to get in there.
The Professor will explain alot to you, like how to use the Gameboy Horror (GBH) after you set the Boos free.
You can invest in a player's guide if you *really* wanna find all the treasure, and you get a poster.
A good starter for new Gamecube owners, but if you sit there long enough, you'll beat it in a day. Unless you got skool. Then it'll take you two days.
On a scale of 1-10, this one gets an 8. Very nice graphics, unique storyline, and good for keeping the siblings busy when you're stuck watching them.
And when you're fighting the Boos on the roof and you freeze one, they little like cute little marshmallows. But it could've presented a bit more of a challenge.
-Chibi Yuki
Publisher:Techmo developer:Techmo
Reviewer: Chibi Yuki released: it's for PS2....possibly last year
Gameplay: 98% control: 92%
Story: 89% sound/music: 90%
overall: 97%
Quite honestly, I had looked everywhere for this game since I played it at a friend's house. If you haven't played the first one, Dead or Alive 2:Hardcore is a Street-Fighter type fighting game.....but better. Alot better.
The graphics are astounding. This game has an off-the-edge feature....as in when your ass gets kicked through a wall, you fall through the wall and down to the next level ( or my favorite, when the ground breaks from under you and you fall with the snow ). The only thing you gotta do with this game is get used to using moves with the controller--and that's it. Once that's done, there's a list per character of moves, combos, throws, etc. There are 8 modes of play: Story, time attack, versus, tag battle, survival, team battle, sparring.
Story mode is pretty self-explanitory....depending on the character you choose, you follow a different story in a series of battles. No matter who you choose, the last person you fight is the Tengu (EVERYTHING.....IS MY.......DELUSSION!). He looks intimidating, but as long as you concentrate, you can beat him to the ground before he can do his little delussion thing ( and the only way to get the screen to stay still is to, well, beat him to the ground ). Time attack is also self-explainitory.....just try and get your fastest time in a series of battles. When you're KO'd, that's it, you're done. Unless you want to try again.
Again, self-explanitory....Versus is when you and a friend ( with another controller, no da ) can kick each other's asses in whatever setting you'd like.
Tag battle is when you two can go against a duo of computer players....pressing one of the L buttons twice makes the character playing do a couple backflips so your char. can get in a few hits. Which is fun to bug the piss out of your friends with.
Survival Mode should come with a Surgeon General Warning. All of the characters in the game ( minus the hidden ones and the one you're playing, no da ) come at ya one at a time, and you have to KO them before they KO you. After a few minutes of this, your hands will be holding the controller whether it's really there or not. When you get better at fighting and can KO them faster, frequent trips to the sink to run your hands under cold water won't be so frequent.
Team Battle is again self-explanitory. You fight in teams of one to five against each other or the computer.
Sparring is fun. You and a computer character in any of the settings you wish. You can beat the shit outta the computer player, but that gets old. So you have the option of making the computer fight back with 3 moves. There are no KOs.
Non-Play modes are Watch, ups,battle rec., option modes:
Watch is just watching a computer battle.
UPS--User Profile System--lets ya save and view battle records and stuff.
Battle Rec. lets you save battles and then watch them whenever you feel like it.
Option mode just lets you change settings.
And you can set it so they speak in Japanese.
On a scale of one to 10, I'd give this one an 11, for everything. The character design is near flawless, the music is kewl, has good control, and *will* keep you busy for awhile. Rated T for Teens for suggested themes and animated violence.
-Chibi Yuki
Publisher:Squaresoft developer:Squaresoft
Reviewer: Chibi Yuki released: December 2001
Gameplay:100% control: 100%
Story: 100% sound/music: 200%
overall: infinite
*spoiler warning*
I have never seen a game like this before. To say the graphics are amazing is putting it very lightly.
You start out playing Tidus, the star Blitzball (think a sort of inverted soccer underwater) player of the Zanarkand Abes. His father, like him, was a star player. Jecht has long since disappeared ( 10 years ) and is presumed dead. During a game the city is attacked and as it is being destroyed, Tidus is rescued by his father's most trusted friend, Auron. His story begins here.
After beating your first boss, you wake up in the water. Or rather, the shores of the Isle of Besaid. Tidus makes quick friends with Wakka, and joins him with Lulu and (eventually) Kimhari on Summoner Yuna's pilgrimage. Yuna is the daughter of high summoner Braska, who has followed in her father's footsteps and become a summoner herself. Along the way you'll meet people to aid Yuna in her quest to defeat Sin (the thing that attacked Zanarkand). These are no strangers though.....Auron was her father's guardian, for example.
Yuna, being a summoner, can call upon aeons. Aeons can be obtained when Yuna prays at the temples in the Chamber of Fayth. These powerful beings aid Yuna in battle and thier Overdrives can cause up to 9999 damage (well, sometimes more) They are the blessings of Yevon.
To do this, you must pass the Cloister of Trials. I highly suggest investing in a player's guide. You cannot possibly get through Bevelle easily without it.
Okay enough, I'm letting you find out the rest for yourself.
The graphics remind me of very well done movies (it's really hard to tell the difference), but better, because it looks so real you think you can reach out and hug Wakka.
There are very extensive tutorials to explain the Sphere Grid, so I won't talk about it too much. It's basically a way to sort of "level up" your characters' HP, MP, let them learn new abilities, ect.
The story is beautiful. You learn more about how the fates of your characters and their histories, and how they are all caught in Spira's "spiral of death".
Everything is carefully pre-set...you'll see what I mean when you play this.
I have never played any of the other Final Fantasies (my Playstation was a piece of shit and didn't want to save my FFVIII, so I quit), but I hear this is one of the very best ones to date, if not the best. My only question is, how many monsters will line up and let themselves be attacked on a as-turn basis, let alone stand back and let Yuna summonings???
But the RPG style of fighting does not damper my love for the game ^ - ^
One thing I love is that they have voice actors/actresses, very very good ones too.
Final Fantasy X is the epitome of RPG. The whole game is centered around sorrow and hope. Sin brings sorrow, the teachings of Yevon give hope. Though Sin is reborn everytime, as you get further into the game, you understand what Seymour meant ("Take me as your pillar of strength, as Lady Yunalesca did her Lord Zaon"), and his decisions.
I don't believe in any side sequel of this flawless RPG.
When you hear the music from this game, you wonder who the genius is that came up with the beautifully moving tracks. One of my personal faves is "Suteki da Ne". It's very......I don't think there are words to describe this song enough.
If this game does not move you to tears and stir your emotions, you have no heart you soulless bastard.
I cannot put this game on a scale of 1-10, because infinity won't fit.
If you do not have this game, it is well worth the investment. Fans of the Final Fantasy series will not be disappointed. And if you have it and you didn't like it, you are a soulless bastard. Give your copy to someone who can understand the underlying symbolisim and depth.
I am not giving all of it away, because FFX is not a video game, it's an experience.
Thanks to http://www.happypuppy.com/features/editorials/finalfanta-art-10c.html for the screenshots they don't know I borrowed, so I'm thanking them now. Check out thier site.
Much and more thanks to http://www.fffreak.com/ff10/screenshots.htm for all of the screenshots. I didn't ask so I thank. This place is the perfect place for FFX information as well as their many screenshots.
And finally, thanks SO MUCH to http://ffxpert.cartoonhit.com/screenshots.html, because they have very very very good screenshots that are much clearer.
Check these people out first. They gave me a reason to buy the International Version.
Publisher:Techmo developer:Techmo
Reviewer: Chibi Yuki released: March 2001 ( I think...) titled Project Zero in Japan, and I'm not sure when it hit the States.....
Gameplay: 100% control: 96%
Story: 100% sound/music: 100%
overall: 110%
From the people that gave us Dead or Alive comes a survival horror game to scare the living fuck outta you. You start out playing Miku's brother, but it's short-lived. What really gets you is that it's incredibly dark and your vision is grainy. That and the bloody handprints and ropes hanging from the ceiling and cries for help will do it. He's carrying his mom's old camera with him, and discovers that he can trap ghosts with it by taking pictures [http://www.fatalframegame.com/movie-wmh.html]. When he gets to the rope hall for I think the second time he turns when he thinks somethin is following and there's a white light and more dialogue from Miku. It has been two weeks, and no word from her brother. According to Miku, she found a note leading her to the mansion....
When she steps in she's horrified ("My brother was HERE?!?!"), and after a grim vision she has you take off again playing from the start, armed with your sixth sense and a flashlight. When you get to the Rope Hall, before the mirror is the camera. Miku recognizes it and when she touches it she gets a vision of her brother running down the hallway as what could be hundreds of arms reach out to him from the walls and there's a woman in white at the very end.....
Playing as Miku is a little better. Your vision is a bit more focused, and you can see in color this time. But nonetheless, it's still scary as hell.
Your purpose in the game is to take pictures of the spirits that are bound to the mansion, their prison. It takes awhile to get used to working with the camera, but once you got it, you're good to go. You also have to keep in mind she doesn't have unlimited film. Yeah, you find some as you move through the house, but you have to conserve it for when it's really necessary. Moving might throw you off....you have to walk around using the analog stick.
If you notice, under the title is written BASED ON A TRUE STORY.
*Supposedly*, there's a mansion outside of Tokyo that's been abandoned since the 19th century, and the mansion was used for fucked up Shinto rituals ( ie:
night one- The Strangling Ritual ). As the game progresses, you find out more about the mansion. Example...When you're playing as Miku and you go back up the stairs to the spot where her brother took his first picture of a ghost, somewhere close to the padlocked door is his notebook. In it is a small explaination of the mansion's history (" The last heir killed the entire occupants of the mansion in a single night..........Last family that tried to move in disappeared......")....
One really kewl part of the game is you get to save the pictures in the form of an album. The downside is, that poor little memory card is gonna get full pretty damn quick......
The gameplay is exceptional.....the story, while not too original, will grip you and shock you and horrify you.....I gave control a 96 simply cuz it takes awhile to get used to the first-person view of the camera and I don't the analog stick. But I gave it such a high rating cuz the controller vibrates when your heart's beating really hard/fast. The sound and the music....Techmo made it really quiet, and there's not much but cries for help and people chanting.......but the sound is enough that it shakes you. Overall, 110, because I found this so real and so well-done.....the characters look like they have life in them, and the ghosts are horrible to look upon.........the way your eye will catch slight movements in the dark, and you'll lift the camera......
((( *note: this is after I decided it was time to give up, plus we gotta take it back tonight, so....*
Make a point to NEVER be outta film. Take pictures when the wall moves or yer confronted by a ghost.
Here's how I found out why it's important:
When I took pics of the walls, the developed photo (it's a really old Polariod) would have not the wall but this lion mask by the fireplace. So when I got to the mask, there was this red handmirror inside it. And I had seen where it was supposed to go in the room I had just left. So I go back to the room, no big deal, I'm Miku the Bitch with a Camera, and I open the door. Hello, there's a ghost. < I screamed >
I took a pic, nada damn thing. It goes away. So I get the hint to go back into the room. Except that I knew from 10 minutes past experience it wasn't that smart to walk down there, so I loaded film in (you find it laying around). I go back into the kimono room, low and behold Yuki was right, the mirror goes in. Drawer pops open, there's a pic and a key ( knew where that went ). Took both, but the person in the pic's ghost was right behind me(There's a rope.....There's a rope.....HELP ME.....). And me without any film.
Sucks cuz that's when I found out I was SOL.......the ghost could hold the door stronger than I could bust outta there. So after I got done screaming bloody murder I lunged at the PS2 and pushed the button that makes the disk pop back out. )))
On a scale of 1 to 10, I give this a 12. I highly suggest you rent it first, though. In case you're like this guy I know ( I won't mention names, Ryan ) who gets scared incredibly easy. This one could give you nightmares.
Rated T for Teens (Content may be suitable for persons 13 and older) for Blood and gore and violence.
Do not play this one alone in the dark.
~Chibi Yuki
*impressed by her mad writing skills as she's only played the first 42 minutes of the game*
27 heinäkuuta 2003
Game: Clock Tower 3
Publisher: Capcom
Platform: PS2
Cost: -$39.95 to $49.95+
Sound- 7/10
Whether it's a pot falling from the counter, drawers opening and closing, the sound of crumbling brick as you ever so carefully slide the ledge, or kicking bottles and cans as you walk, each is realistically imitated in this game, and imitated well.
However, noises attract the weapon-wielding fiends, and sometimes you don't see what's fallen till it's too late, and then the last thing you should worry about are soda cans.
But then again, that's what makes it so great.
Music- 9/10
The music is beautiful [at least it starts out that way], changes when something's coming, and stops at the end of the level. The music changes from Alyssa reading a letter or journal entry and is completely different for fighting a boss.
However, it fills the silence that makes FATAL FRAME so friggin scary.
Yet the music can also be creepy, as in the house in the second level--or it can rock, as in the scene with Alyssa surfing the air on a clockface with the Mudvayne-eseque music loud in the background in between 2nd and 3rd levels. I have to give it a 9 for Mudvayneness.
And I'd highly recommend the soundtrack, if there is one available.
Graphics-10/10 [the warning at the beginning contridicts the ESPB rating: M. Yeah duh!]
As promised in the beginning, the graphics are DISTURBING, SCARY, and down right HORRIFYINGly BLOODY, I.e. the scene when Sledgehammer beats little May's head in with his oversized, you guessed it, hammer.
Capcom spared no expense, thank GOD, and the creepiness of Corroder's mask and bloody get up to the doll that "Dark Man" steps on [you'll see] add to the horror of this survival horror game.
Yet the cut scenes can also be beautiful and professionally done, from Alyssa running her hand through clovers [you'll get this allusion at the end of the game, promise] all the way back to the very beginning, they rival FFX's scenes, and are very much a work of art.
Control- 5/10
The control is with the analog stick to move Alyssa, and the smooth moving is what saved this. However, during boss battles, your aim is limited to the direction you face. This can really suck, as you can waste a full-powered super-charged shot because the spray gun guy stepped to the ri-i-i-i-ght. GIR!!
Camera- 4/10
Camera controls suck--you can't change it yourself---the camera controls depend soley on the direction Alyssa is facing, and that really sucks when you're running from homicidal maniacs. No offense, Johnny.
Since avoiding the freak on a leash at all costs is a MUST in this game, it would help if you could see the Corroder dude in the hallway BEFORE you turn. Yah.
Story- 7/10
The story is original and, not having played Clocktowers 1 and 2, keeps me very interested.
With what the game tells me, anyway.
The plot twists like the staircase in the Clock Tower, and is unique. It ends like I couldn't imagine, right down to the top of the tower.
Overall- 10/10
Though it may not play to the tastes of SILENT HILL and RESIDENT EVIL fans, Clock Tower 3 is as good as the best of them.
It doesn't seem like a survival horror game, because, let's face it, where's the horror?
But it IS there!
Sure, just the IDEA of running blindly looking for HIDING PLACES of all things and spray the villians with WATER?
But those are what makes it suspenseful, albeit frustrating at times.
BUT THAT'S WHAT MAKES YOU WANT TO PLAY IT MORE!!!
The story alone should be enough, but for the ones who are only in it for shooting things and showering, may want to leave this one alone. Clock Tower 3 requires intelligence, Ryan.
Playing through for the second time [to show mai friend Corey], I found that the evade points are more useful, how to conserve lavender water, and that I went through levels quicker.
The game definitely has replay value, as the weapons change for the villians, and for the guys, Alyssa immediately recieves a Wardrobe Key at the start of a new game with a cleared game memory card [it's the same file], and you can play dress-up with....interesting new costumes. You can also replay every single cutscene, with the new THEATER option. On the same screen, you have a GALLERY R1> option, and choosing said option turns the screen to Alyssa holding a sketchpad with the words "The Art of ClockTower3" on it.
<-------------------------------------------Concepts and [some] Walkthrough
I hadn't heard of this game before (but then again my memory is fuzzy like Rikku the Hamster) and wouldn't have picked it as my first choice until I rented it for myself.
Claims of it being scary and nightmarish didn't really faze me, having played Fatal Frame.
It was 10 at night, I popped the game into the PS2, and played.
[*the author's note: the story begins the same way and you have to follow the same procedure, whether it's the first or fifth time you play it, to get the game going*]
The story begins with Alyssa Hamilton, fourteen years old and at boarding skool, reading a letter from her mom. The mom's letter has the tone of the usual concerned parent; "How are your studies?", "Are you doing well?" and "Go into hiding until your fifteenth birthday passes"
Wha?
Following the letter is a mysterious phone call from her mom, but when no one answers, she hits the ground running for home.
As she arrives, the house is empty but for one tall dark and creepy man in your dining room.
He speaks with a sort of "I-know-something-you-don't-know" hint in his voice, and then vanishes like an A in Spanish 3.
Still a bit weirded out from being hit on by someone old enough to be her dad, she becomes the main, and single playable, character.
You are free to explore the rooms from then on or save.
I would HIGHLY suggest a player's guide for this one, as I had to start a whole game over cuz I was too stupid to use the hiding spot in Norton's the Tailor, and when I did, had no idea what I was doing.
The maps in the book are really helpful because although the game gives you one, it's hard to distinguish holes in the walls from furniture pieces, and that's the difference between life and continue? when yer being chased by an Asian circus slice-and-dice maniac.
The book also provides pics and sentimental item lists, along with background on every char, from main ones to villians and victims. But I will say that it's probably filler [BUNNY] for the book, because all of the On Files are pieces of notes and newspaper you find in the game.
I bought it because I had to find out the hard way that wherever Alyssa faces is important for whatever locks or puzzles you need to mess with, say like door panels.
Yesh, I spent alot of time on the Hospital level, probably more time than I spent messing with Chopper Man--and I will say this:
The Scissor Twins---Scissor Man/Scissor Woman---are very tricksy, and can teleport. This not only makes fighting Scissor Woman in the JUDGEMENT very hard [I ended up wasting 4 of my good arrows on her] but it makes it hard to know where they are exactly.
Here's what happened to me:
I was running from the brother [Scissor Man], and the single hiding spot is a bathroom stall (of all places...). So I watch the guy walk by the room ["Come on, Alyssa!"] so I sit and wait till I hear him vanish and the music stops, yay, I can leave.
Didn't work out that way.
Scissor Man, the sneaky little bugger, was hiding in the space between the stalls and the walls and the sink. So it's chop-chop-slice-and-dice-Alyssa's-dead.
That actually happened to me twice.
OKAY.
Three times.
My advice is to conserve plenty of Holy Waters for just in case, keep Invisibility Bands until needbe, and only use Holy Water if Alyssa is in a state of PANIC or the baddie is hanging around the hiding spot and she's almost PANICking.
All in all, this game keeps you on your toes, is original of its kind, and has a most excellent soundtrack; and the FFX-like graphics make up for the godawful screens I saw of Clock Tower 2: The Struggle Within. Thanks, Google.
Chibi Yuki gives Clock Tower 3 for the PS2 a 10/10
[destroy everything, born with the start of freedom->L'arc~en~Ciel]
