HIGH It’s still one of the greatest games ever made…

LOW …in a barebones port.

WTF I recommend The Bravados if you haven’t seen it. Super underrated western. 

I love westerns. It’s a genre of film I’ve become quite acquainted with in all its different forms and subgenres (neo-westerns, spaghetti westerns — even acid westerns) and one I’ll continue to seek.

In the time I’ve spent playing through the latest port of Rocksar’s seminal Red Dead Redemption, I’ve watched films like John Ford’s Stagecoach and the Coen Brothers’ True Grit in an effort to absorb the Wild West in many different ways, putting myself in the right headspace to review a game as massive and as important as the original Red Dead. 

The truth is, however, I didn’t need to do all that to confirm what I already felt back in 2010 when I first played it. Red Dead Redemption was — and still is — a masterpiece. This latest port to PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch offers clear evidence lot of that, nostalgia be damned.

Taking place in a fictionalized version of the American West, RDR is a third-person action-adventure in which players control John Marston. He’s a former outlaw, now forced to work under the watchful eye of an investigation bureau in an effort to wrangle up former members of the infamous Van Der Linde gang, John’s former posse. It’s an interesting setup as John’s mission is one of desperation — the bureau employing him has his family held hostage to ensure his cooperation.   

Gameplay consists of both linear missions involving combat or open-world exploration. Story missions usually see John riding his horse to various destinations, getting into firefights and performing a few narrative-centric odd jobs like making deliveries or wrangling cattle. 

Traveling on horseback is satisfying and the world still feels lively, even more than 13 years later, and one of the greatest parts of RDR is how often I found myself distracted by different things on the map.

For example, early on I was heading to a story mission in town, when I noticed a rabbit on the road. Seeing as I had to start one of the hunting challenges which involved killing five rabbits, I chased it, shot it, and found myself by an NPC. This character told me to talk to another NPC about some sort of business opportunity. On the way there, I noticed a mythical jackalope. After killing it, I realized I had to get back to the main story mission I intended to complete, but during my return, I was held up and my horse got stolen — I now had to chase after the bandit. 

It may seem like I’m rambling, but I can’t overstate how much I loved moments like these. These mini-stories offer something that very few open-world games get right. Rather than simply offering some boring checklist or arbitrary collectibles, I’m given a world that feels like it’s made up of different moving parts. Animals react realistically to each other, random people in the town or on the frontier are doing their own thing, and I have a choice in how I interact with it all. 

That choice also plays into Red Dead Redemption’s honor system. If the player acts honorably (helping NPCs with issues, returning stolen goods, incapacitating enemies via non-lethal means), the world will take notice in different ways, such as shopkeepers offering discounts on goods or gang members starting to get more violent. The same is true for the inverse as well, allowing players to make a choice in how they approach the world, and how the world will relate to them. 

Of course, it’s not as deep or as extensive as the systems in 2018’s Red Dead Redemption II, but it’s fascinating to see how unique Rockstar’s approach to an open world of this size was in 2010 and still is in 2023.

Mechanically, it holds up well and the gunplay still feels satisfying. The Dead-Eye mechanic that allows John to slow down time and target things remains great and is useful for hunting or taking down multiple enemies. Sure, it’s still an Xbox 360-era game visually, though the locked 30fps and 4K resolution make playing smoother, but one can’t really complain in that regard. 

Narratively, the campaign is exceptional, taking players on a journey to the titular ‘redemption’ that John Marston seeks as he’s forced into violence again after creating a quiet life for himself and his family. In a way, it mirrors Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven, in which the main character Will Munny is a retired outlaw seeking a bounty. 

At the risk of making this review sound like nothing more than me flexing my Western film fandom, I did try to see what other references I could pull from this playthrough. Other than a few aesthetic choices (Marshall Johnson looks really similar to James Coburn in Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid), clear homages (certain parts of Woody Jackson’s score are definitely inspired by Ennio Morricone’s oeuvre of spaghetti western compositions) and some thematic throughlines found across the genre as a whole, RDR sets itself apart from most other westerns. Rather than feeling like a collection of too-familiar elements, Rockstar developed their own revisionist western — a subgenre that deconstructs classic tropes of the American West. 

In that way, Red Dead Redemption’s story is a full realization of that. It’s a darker and more cynical take on the West, showing the ugliness of what life was like back then. Lawmen are corrupt, there’s danger at every corner and prejudices run rampant. The land is desolate and the people inhabiting it are desperate, which is all summed up really well in a line of dialogue. While riding to a story mission, John speaks to another character, stating that “Men are formed, then they’re born.” The world is changing rapidly and those who don’t change their ways are victims of that great change. 

While the narrative and gameplay do hold up exceptionally well after my dozen or so hours of playing, there’s a major caveat with the package — this is a straight port of a 13-year-old game for PlayStation 4 (not even a native PS5 port) and Nintendo Switch. Xbox Series players already have the original 360 titles in backwards compatibility mode (with a full 4K upscale) and PC players are once again left in the dust.

It’s a shame that the package is so barebones without any major enhancements like a 60fps patch or touched-up visuals. The resolution bump is nice and Switch players get a portable version, but other than that it’s hard to justify the package to those who already have access to either an Xbox Series console or even an Xbox One X.

Also included is the standalone expansion, Undead Nightmare. This alternate storyline has players controlling Marston in a zombie-infested version of the RDR map. What’s great about this DLC is that players can jump straight into it from the main menu without having to play the main campaign. It’s a great (and sizable) addition to the package, as it offers some levity and horror schlock in contrast to the main story’s more serious tone. While it’s a bummer that the original multiplayer isn’t included, at least players are getting two games’ worth of content here. Still, don’t expect much in the way of new.

Regardless of the feature-light port and general sparseness of the package, Red Dead Redemption still earns its place as one of the finest games ever made. Even if its follow-up improved upon everything, this was a joyful blast to the past, reminding me that all greatness starts somewhere. For those looking to live out another cowboy fantasy before Rockstar decides to release Red Dead Redemption III, they can certainly do worse than this.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is published and developed by Rockstar Studios. It is available on Switch and PS4. This copy was obtained via the publisher and was reviewed on PS5. Approximately 15 hours were spent in single-player and the game was not completed but the game was completed before in an earlier release on Xbox 360/PS3. There is no multiplayer.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated M for Blood, Intense Violence, Nudity, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, and Use of Drugs. According to the site: This is an “open-world” action-adventure game in which players assume the role of John Marston, a reformed criminal on a mission to capture the remnants of his old outlaw gang. Players roam Wild West environments and perform various missions for criminal figures and law enforcement: destroying bridges, helping individuals in distress, delivering packages of drugs (e.g., opium), capturing outlaws, and eliminating rival figures. Players use shotguns, pistols, and rifles to kill enemies in realistic gun battles. Players can engage in melee-style hand-to-hand combat and trigger slow-motion effects by shooting enemies at close-range or by targeted shooting (i.e., aiming for body parts). Blood often spurts out of characters when shot; head shots and knife attacks result in much larger sprays. In one sequence, a bloodied and mutilated corpse can be seen hanging from the rafters of a barn. Players have the ability to shoot pedestrians in the game; however, a “Wanted Level”-penalty system discourages these acts by triggering a law enforcement response. The game contains a scene in which two characters have sex on a table; there is a brief instance of female nudity. One sequence depicts a man injecting himself with a syringe filled with cocaine. Language such as “f**k,” “c*nt,” and ‘sh*t” can be heard in the dialogue. 

Colorblind Modes: Colorblind modes are not present in the options menu.

Deaf and Hard of Hearing Gamers: There are subtitles and visual cues throughout the game and subtitle size can be adjusted. Enemy positions are always on the minimap, as well as other important things that should be known to the player. Audio cues are not necessary for gameplay. This is fully accessible.

Remappable Controls: The controls cannot be remapped.

The post Red Dead Redemption (PS4) Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH A smooth, intuitive combo system.

LOW A lack of single-player content coupled with an inactive online player base.

WTF Whatever happened to those excellent Shining Force strategy games, anyway?

Ah, fighting game characters… Can’t leave them alone for ten seconds without them grasping at each other’s throats over the thinnest of storyline provocations. BLADE ARCUS from Shining: Battle Arena is no different, taking a bunch of characters from Sega’s Shining series and having them duke it out in order to get their hands on magical orbs that can grant them whatever prize they wish for.

It’s not exactly the freshest script, and the story mode associated with it does little to expand on the motivations of anyone involved. Players simply choose a character, fight a bunch of enemies plucked from the roster, and get the occasional snippet of Visual Novel-style dialogue to move things along in a confusing, unclear manner.

Then there’s the usual versus mode, a training mode, an online mode and bang — that’s pretty much everything the game has to offer. It’s plain to see that BLADE ARCUS was designed for Japanese arcades where the player base would theoretically offer new challengers to offset the lack of this basic, bare-bones content. It’s unfortunate that there’s so little to get stuck into because the gameplay isn’t bad at all.

Players select a main and a backup character before going into battle, and can call on this partner for support mid-battle, or change to them after each round. It’s a cool idea that adds some variety to matches. The combo system is good too, allowing most attacks to link smoothly into one another. Weak hits can go into mediums, mediums chain into strong attacks, and from there it’s but a short hop-skip-jump to parlay specials into supers. It’s fairly easy to perform cool combos even for novices, and there’s additional nuance in the form of EX attacks and the aforementioned support assists.

The selectable roster is pretty decent. As someone who played Shining Force back on the Genesis and laments the lack of any new entries, it was cool to see just how closely Fenrir resembles crazed wolfman Zylo from the original game — retractable claws and all. Tony Taka, character designer and illustrator of many recent Shining games, does excellent work with the cast here. It’s very anime with a slight tilt towards moe, though — there’s a martial artist catgirl and a maid that seems to have fox ears and a tail.

Graphically, most of the game is made up of 3D models instead of 2D sprites, and there’s a certain charm to them that reminds me of a smoother, sharper take on Saturn or Dreamcast era games. The animation is slick, the characters look decent in motion, and the backgrounds aren’t badly done. Oh, and the music isn’t bad either.

The biggest problem facing BLADE ARCUS from Shining: Battle Arena isn’t its incredibly unwieldy title — it’s the lack of singleplayer content, coupled with an online mode that was dead on arrival. I checked at various times of day when the game released and never once managed to get into a random match. It hasn’t improved since then. It looks like anyone wishing to engage in online brutality will need to set up matches ahead of time through forums or whatever — just diving in and finding someone to trade punches with seems near impossible.

Oh, and heads-up — apparently the Steam version removed the console version’s ability to earn points through gameplay to unlock artwork in the Gallery mode, and the Gallery mode itself was also removed just to round things off. Yikes!

BLADE ARCUS from Shining: Battle Arena is a neat little brawler with a decent cast and enjoyable mechanics, but it’s too limited in too many ways to be anywhere near a… shining… example of the genre. Rating: 6 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Studio SaiZenSen and published by Degica. It is currently available on PC, with import versions available on PS3 and PS4. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 6 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed with multiple characters. 2 hours of play was spent in multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game hasn’t been rated yet. There’s little to worry about overall. There’s very little blood (if any), and while there’s occasional flash of a thigh or whatever from the female characters, there’s nothing overly gratuitous.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: I can’t see there being any issues here. Dialogue is in Japanese, conversations are subtitled and the pre-match poses have quick snippets of dialogue that only Japanese speakers would understand – they’re not translated in-game.

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game offers fully remappable controls.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available in the options.

The post BLADE ARCUS From Shining: Battle Arena Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

The original Dark Souls was my least favorite game in the venerable Souls series by a pretty wide margin. The reasons are numerous, but in a nutshell I just wanted to be done with it by the time I got to Gwyn. I was so aggravated that I skipped the Artorias of the Abyss DLC, which is regarded by many as the high point of the entire series. Being as obsessively completionist as I am about these games, I have to go back and take care of it before Dark Souls 3’s final expansion is released. I turned to GameCritics’ resident Dark Souls apologist Mike Suskie for guidance and counsel. The latest portion of our correspondence is below, with more updates to come as I progress through the game. Enjoy!

The Dark Souls Letters, Part 1

The Dark Souls Letters Part 2: Gaping Darkroot

The Dark Souls Letters Part 3: Fournstein and Kingsmough

From: Richard Naik

Hey Mike,

So Duke’s Archives. This place and Sen’s Fortress are what kept me going after the horrors of Blighttown on my first playthrough. Out of all the areas in Dark Souls this is the one I remembered the most about, and the second trip was, as expected, a treat. Between the layout, the location, the enemies, and the boss, I feel like this place tells it’s story better than any other area in the Soulsborne universe.

The story of Seath in particular I think is my favorite piece of lore in the entire series. An outcast dragon betrays his own kind to the human gods, gains fabulous wealth in the process, and then becomes a mad scientist obsessed with immortality and kidnapping young maidens. That’s an awesome myth. Seath has even more significance for me now since the two sequels both reference him so heavily, plus Logan’s state after he begins to learn the unfathomable knowledge in the archives is even more poignant now that I’ve seen what happens to Duke Tseldora and Oceiros in the sequels.

As for the level itself, walking outside onto one of the balconies for the first time and seeing *everything* is the most satisfying moment in the game. The archives plus the Crystal Cave is a great symbolization of Seath’s madness, with the crystals taking over the library like weeds taking over an orderly garden. This isn’t a newfound appreciation since I liked it lot during my first playthrough as well, but once again, DSFix and 60fps make this place absolutely amazing.

And Seath himself, good lord. I know you’re a fan of Gaping Dragon and that’s definitely a good one, but Seath is my favorite monster design in the entire series. He’s a three-tailed fairy dragon for god’s sake, just the right mix of fearsome and majestic. I’m still disappointed that I was never able to find a good Seath statue to put in my office, because if I’m going to have one of those ridiculously expensive things that keep coming out with video games, I want it to be him.

The one complaint I have is that Seath has curse abilities, and without the Cursebite Ring he can be a rough time. One thing I’ve noticed this time around is that Dark Souls has a habit of punishing the player *very* harshly for not having some specific items in certain places. It feels like an illusory way to make things seems much more difficult then they actually are, and I’m glad it mostly went away in the later games.

Still, great level, great boss, great lore, just great all around.

Now all that’s left before the DLC is Catacombs and Tomb of the Giants, which I honestly remember nothing about other than the skeleton dogs and the darkness gimmick. I know this place gives a lot of people fits, but I don’t recall it being all that bad. We’ll see.

From: Mike Suskie

Hey you impatient bastard,

I see you’ve sent me two letters since I’ve had the opportunity to respond, so this one’ll likely be longer than usual. Or maybe not! I haven’t written it yet. We’ll see.

The incongruousness of Ornstein and Smough is honestly one of the things I love about it. The fact that they’re so wildly different makes it easy to focus your attacks on one or the other, depending on your play style. Thinking back on some of the series’ boss fights against multiple foes, my enjoyment of such battles tends to rest on how different they are. The nadir, for me, is the second phase of the Darklurker fight in Dark Souls II, where the guy (gal?) literally just clones himself (herself?) and now you’re fighting two of them, with the same movesets and everything. Just feels like a lazy way of inflating difficulty to me. With Ornstein and Smough, it’s easy to pick a target, and each actually results in a drastically different second half.

As for why they’re together, although there’s speculation as to why they’re still around (they could be one of Gwyndolin’s illusions), they originate as two of Gwyn’s bodyguards, with Ornstein in particular being the leader of the Four Knights of Gwyn (the other three you’ll meet in the DLC). Dunno if you noticed, but the two elevators in the back of the boss chamber are actually different sizes – one for Ornstein, one for Smough. So they do belong there.

By the way, on the subject of Anor Londo, have you forgotten about the Painted World of Ariamis, or are you just not doing that this time? I’d also point out that there’s a nifty little Easter egg if you try to attack Gwynevere. I won’t spoil what happens, and maybe you did it already on your first playthrough, but it casts a very different light on this entire area and makes accessing the Gwyndolin fight a bit less complicated.

Now then, the Duke’s Archives. This is one of the creepiest areas in the series for me – all throughout it, you get the sense that what’s happening here is WRONG, somehow unnatural and impure. The use of crystals to portray corruption isn’t really like anything I’ve seen before, and the alarm that plays when the guards are summoning those octopus monsters on you gives me chills. All makes sense, too – Seath is into experimentation and is trying to cheat death. The buildup to this fight is among the best of the series, as the game teases both Seath himself (in that must-lose fight) and the area where you’ll be killing him (when you first get that balcony view of the Crystal Caves). Even the music that plays during the Seath battle is unsettling, like it belongs in a funhouse. Ugh, just a masterfully done area.

On my first playthrough of the game, Seath was actually one of the most difficult bosses for me, for a very specific reason. Remember how I said that the rapid-fire pace of the Four Kings fight reverts what you’ve learned about taking things slowly and with tremendous caution? Well, the Seath fight inverts another important Souls tactic: staying behind the enemy. In this battle, you absolutely want to stay in front of Seath, because the tentacles at his back and sides will give you an absolute thrashing, especially if you’re between him and a wall.

It was especially frustrating because this battle has one of the longest run-ups from a bonfire in the entire game – every time you die, you’re taken all the way back to the Archives and have to make the long trip back down through the Crystal Caves, past a number of golems and over a couple of damn invisible walkways. And the clams. BAH.

But yeah, on subsequent playthroughs, I was amazed how much easier the fight was when I just stayed in front of him and just rolled away from his curse spells. Now it’s one of my favorite bosses in the first Dark Souls, with some damn excellent accompanying lore to boot.

As for the Tomb of the Giants, I saved that area for roughly the end on my first playthrough specifically because I’d heard so many people complain about it, but by that point, I’d seriously started to find my groove and found it pretty straightforward. Plus, again, you get some unexpected views of other areas. Just be careful with Pinwheel. Snicker.

From: Richard Naik

Hey you timely bastard,

As I received this I was typing up my next letter about Tomb of the Giants, so you came very close to receiving *three* letters with no chance to respond.

Regarding the Painted World, I did go there after beating Ornstein and Smough, though I was so excited to talk about Duke’s Archives I forgot to mention it. It’s a cool area to be sure, made more unique by the fact it has a boss that I refuse to fight on principle. It goes back to Demon’s Souls and it making me murder Maiden Astrea in order to progress — I felt *really* bad after that. Priscilla just asks you to leave nicely, and if she isn’t going to mess with me, I’m not going to mess with her. Beyond that I didn’t spend a ton of time exploring the area since I don’t think there’s a ton of useful items for my build.

Also yes, I took out the Gwynevere illusion and dealt with Gwyndolin just after completing Tomb of the Giants, just to tidy things up. That is indeed a nifty easter egg, and it makes total sense for Anor Londo’s brilliance to be an ruse given the state of the rest of the world.

Tomb of the Giants is a level I actually liked quite a bit. It’s one of the few instances where such an explicit gimmick works well, mainly since it maintains a good balance between tension and fairness. The tension is obviously because of limited visibility, but I feel like it’s fair since enemies have very short aggro distances (IE they don’t just pop out of nowhere in most cases) and the actual level is pretty short. It’s a neat little trick to make such a small area so memorable.

However, I had forgotten how big of a crock Nito is. Forcing you to take fall damage (absent the Fall Control sorcery) is bad enough, but the first 10-15 seconds of the fight can be almost impossible if he decides to spam that blasted screaming sword attack. It’s also another instance of extreme punishment for not having a specific item. Got a Divine weapon? You’re good if you can get past that initial rush. Don’t have a Divine weapon? I can feel the game pointing and laughing. Nito also has *the worst* boss run in the entire series, worse than the Four Kings. As I’ve said before, put a bonfire either at the boss gate a la Fume Knight or give me an easily accessible shortcut. Conveyed hardship through level design be damned.

And with that, it’s time for the DLC. I’ve always somewhat liked the fact that there is still a bit of Souls out there that I haven’t played. As long it remains unexplored, I’ll always be able to look forward to it, you know? However, given my recent mental state I think it’s an appropriate time to break the Emergency Souls Glass and go through it. I still need to finish off a few more upgrades, but other than that I’m ready for it. Any final tips?

From: Mike Suskie

Hey Richard,

I don’t have much to add other than to wish you luck and enjoyment with Artorias of the Abyss. Again, this is my favorite DLC of the entire series (though The Old Hunters certainly comes close) and likely my favorite stretch in any Souls game, and the bosses in particular are spectacular. You’ll actually get hit with one as soon as you enter, and my only advice is that when it pounds into the ground and sends out a big shockwave, lower your shield. Otherwise, you’ll get staggered. Took me a while to figure that out.

My favorite boss of the Souls series, Kalameet, is in here as well, and from what I know about you, I suspect Artorias will rank as one of your all-time favorites. Again, good luck and have fun. I hope I haven’t overhyped it.

The post The Dark Souls Letters Part 4: Dragons and Death appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH These characters are pretty great.

LOW Again with the missable, poorly signposted side quests!

WTF Black hair? I thought it was dark blue all this time…

Reviewing The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II is a bit of an oddity. For starters, it’s less a traditional sequel, and more of a continuation — the first game ended on a cliffhanger. As a result, anyone jumping into part two should play through the entirety of the previous entry before even thinking about getting on board with this one. Of course, the original Cold Steel was one of the better JRPGs to come out in recent years so it’s worthwhile from that perspective, but Cold Steel II is basically one big spoiler to that content, and some of the background and lore will be tough to penetrate for newcomers.

As such, fair warning — spoilers for the first Cold Steel will follow.

Trails of Cold Steel 2 again thrusts players into the impeccably polite shoes of Rean Schwarzer, distinguished student of Thors Military Academy, excellent swordsman, and currently someone who’s stuck on top of a mountain after getting his ass handed to him during the climactic battle at the end of part one. Alone, that is, except for a talking cat and an immobilized combat mech. So yeah, things have been better for Rean, especially since he’s been out cold for a month and civil war has broken out in the meantime.

Since Trails of Cold Steel 2 is a direct continuation of the first game, it’s similar in many respects. There’s no great reworking of the gameplay systems, and returning players will feel right at home with the spells and character techniques. The battles still work on an active time gauge principle where pinpointing threats and wrecking them before they can unleash hell is key, and it all flows together smoothly, and at a satisfying pace.

There are certain improvements and changes though, such as an Overdrive mode where two partnered characters are granted the chance to go nuts for several turns with bonuses to their stats, removal of negative status effects, and the guaranteed ability to unbalance enemies, to name just some of the benefits. Overdrive can be a game changer when used well, and improves upon already-solid combat.

There are also moments where Rean saddles up with the Divine Knight combat mech Valimar to take on enemies that are too large or powerful for the team to confront in standard battles. The difference here is that Rean and his massive mechanical chum now target individual body parts for critical hits depending on their stance and actions. It isn’t a crazy shakeup to the core combat system, but it does add some variety into the mix, and hell, giant robots are always cool.

As for issues with the game, they’re pretty minor in the grand scheme of things.

The Trails games have always been verbose, with tons of dialogue to read and loads of characterization and setup throughout. It may be a little bit much for some players, especially given that the initial task Rean faces is basically tracking down his buddies and stuffing them back into the party instead of immediately heading out on a grand adventure. The writing is generally excellent, but it takes a while before things get going and the pacing sags occasionally where the script hits some serious levels of exposition.

The performance on the Vita is also spotty in places where the hardware just can’t handle the action as well as might be hoped for. There also are a number of recycled assets and environments carried over from the first Cold Steel.

My biggest personal pet peeve? the developers still don’t do a great job of letting players know about missable side missions. I’d like to be able to 100% the game without a guide constantly by my side, especially since players are rated on their performance and completion ratio throughout. More transparency, please!

Minor issues and pacing aside, it’s incredibly easy to recommend The Legend of heroes: Trails of Cold Steel 2 to fans of the original. The storyline stakes are higher than ever, the additions to the battle system are intelligent and deftly handled, Laura’s back with her massive freaking sword, and the team of Class VII are as likeable a bunch as ever. For newcomers, my advice absolutely has to be repeated: start with the first game. It may a huge time investment given that both entries take approximately 70 hours each, but it’s worth it for anyone looking to experience one of the most well-crafted JRPGs in recent history. Rating: 8.5 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Falcom and published by Xseed Games. It is currently available on Playstation 3 and Playstation Vita. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the Vita. Approximately 70 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game is rated Teen and contains Blood, Language, Suggestive Themes, Use of Alcohol and Tobacco, and Violence. Honestly though, it’s pretty tame as far as most of those things go. Not so sure about why anyone’d want to wash Rean’s back, mind. That bit was kinda weird.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: I don’t recall any section of this game requiring audio to play as intended, and subtitles are available throughout.

Remappable Controls: Certain specific functions are remappable, such as how to zoom in or change character.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available in the options.

The post The Legend Of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

The original Dark Souls was my least favorite game in the venerable Souls series by a pretty wide margin. The reasons are numerous, but in a nutshell I just wanted to be done with it by the time I got to Gwyn. I was so aggravated that I skipped the Artorias of the Abyss DLC, which is regarded by many as the high point of the entire series. Being as obsessively completionist as I am about these games, I have to go back and take care of it before Dark Souls 3’s final expansion is released. I turned to GameCritics’ resident Dark Souls apologist Mike Suskie for guidance and counsel. The latest portion of our correspondence is below, with more updates to come as I progress through the game. Enjoy!

The Dark Souls Letters, Part 1

The Dark Souls Letters Part 2: Gaping Darkroot

From: Mike Suskie

Hey Richard,

You bring up a very interesting point about Darkroot. You need to kill Sif in order to complete New Londo, and both of those areas are available very early in the game, so there’s no specific point in the game when you’re intended to tackle that branch. On my initial run of the game, I did it right after defeating the Bell Gargoyles, mainly because it’s right there under the bonfire (whereas the Lower Undead Burg requires some doubling back), and I’ve always stuck with that order because, as you said, Darkroot isn’t very difficult and can be an easy source of experience early in the game. The enemies are manageable, and I can practically sleepwalk through the Moonlight Butterfly and hydra fights. And yeah, journeying through there always left me with plenty of purple moss for the trip through Blighttown.

Sorry to hear that your return visit there wasn’t an improvement. I know you’re not a fan of Lost Izalith either (no one is), but are there any other upcoming areas that you’re dreading having to revisit, or is most of the bad stuff bad you at this point?

On the subject of Lost Izalith, my main problem with it is, of course, the Bed of Chaos, which is probably the most poorly-designed boss battle of the entire series. The area itself is actually super short if you know where you’re going, and since there’s no sense fighting those dinosaur things, there’s no shame in just bolting through it. Even better, if you’re following the Solaire quest, you’ll to open the Chaos Servant shortcut from the Demon Ruins, which actually allows you to bypass the lava section altogether. Completing Solaire’s story, by the way, will net you a Sunlight Maggot (which will make the Tomb of the Giants about a thousand times easier, since it allows you to illuminate dark areas without surrendering your shield hand) and it will allow you to summon him during the Gwyn battle. The only downside is that you’ll have to give up a LOT of humanities to open the shortcut, but since you’re way more experienced with the series now than when you originally played this game, I imagine you don’t need them as badly.

So you’re taking on New Londo Ruins next. Interesting. I initially found the Four Kings to be one of the most frustrating bosses in the game, mainly because the need to defeat them quickly is a total 180 from what Dark Souls teaches you to do the rest of the time (i.e. be cautious and methodical), though Bloodborne finally taught me how to play aggressively, and when I did my no-shield run about a year ago, I found that I was able to beat these guys with little issue. My only solution on my first playthrough was to basically bulk up, by doing EVERYTHING ELSE in the game and saving the Four Kings for last, and then just tank the fight. You have to beat them pretty early in the game if you want to meet Darkstalker Kaathe, though, which I assume is what you’re doing.

I always found that kind of weird, by the way. The big choice at the end of DS1 doesn’t make a tremendous amount of sense unless you hear both sides, and having to beat the Four Kings before placing the Lordvessel on the alter feels rather obscure, and not what most players would do on their first run.

Anyway, good luck with all of that. Still hoping you come out of this playthrough with a positive outlook on the game!

— Mike

From: Richard Naik

The post The Dark Souls Letters Part 3: Fournstein and Kingsmough appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

The original Dark Souls was my least favorite game in the venerable Souls series by a pretty wide margin. The reasons are numerous, but in a nutshell I just wanted to be done with it by the time I got to Gwyn. I was so aggravated that I skipped the Artorias of the Abyss DLC, which is regarded by many as the high point of the entire series. Being as obsessively completionist as I am about these games, I have to go back and take care of it before Dark Souls 3’s final expansion is released. I turned to GameCritics’ resident Dark Souls apologist Mike Suskie for guidance and counsel. The latest portion of our correspondence is below, with more updates to come as I progress through the game. Enjoy!

Part 1

From: Mike Suskie

Richard,

I don’t know if there was an exact point when the combat clicked for me, but playing through Dark Souls a second time, once I was familiar with the game’s surprises and knew I’d overcome everything once, kind of gave me the confidence boost I needed. I also never figured out how summoning worked on my first playthrough. I still have a policy beating bosses solo on my first go (a rule which, I believe, I’ve only broken for Sinh and that three-boss marathon at the end of Ashes of Ariandel), but knowing I can always fall back on summoning if I’m truly stuck gives me some peace of mind.

If you’re doing the NPC quests, I want to point out something I love about the first Dark Souls in comparison to the other entries, which is its relative lack of happy endings. There’s a dark, imposing tone to Lordran, a world that we’re led to believe is on its last breath, and following all of these colorful characters as your paths cross kind of illustrates that no one is safe from the entropic decay of this universe. By comparison, in Dark Souls II, pretty much all of the NPCs you bump into wind up moving to Majula, which turns into something of a safe haven by the end. There’s no urgency. The intense sensation of dread in the first Dark Souls is one of the reasons it’s my favorite. I guess I just like being miserable.

I see a lot of people complain about Capra Demon, though he’s weirdly never been much of a problem for me. I always immediately run up the stairs, which sort of funnels the dogs and makes them easy to deal with, and after that it’s quite a simple battle. My personal brick wall was actually the Bell Gargoyles – particularly the fact that another one shows up midway through the battle and the two start constantly spewing fire everywhere. The fight always seemed to ask way too much of players who were still finding their footing, though it’s possible to put that battle off until much later, after Quelaag is taken care of. That tidbit probably would have helped me on my first run.

Something I’d recommend, just to get a better appreciation for Lordran’s layout, is to download the Dark Souls Map Viewer. Someone collected all of the collision data from the game and assembled an interactive 3D map of the entire world. You can basically view and study the entire game from this app, and it’s kind of astounding how perfectly everything fits together geographically. They didn’t cheat. If, for example, you look at the giant tree that comprised the Great Hollow in the Firelink Shrine skybox, that really is where the Great Hollow is located in relation to where you’re standing.

Anyway, I wish you luck against the Gaping Dragon, which is my favorite monster design of the entire series. Killing that thing was a major confidence boost.

— Mike

From: Richard Naik

Hey Mike,

I realize that the majority of my correspondence so far has been complaining. I do genuinely want to have a pleasant time with this game, but right now I am at the absolute nadir of frustration that I was in during my first go-around. So I am currently in the Depths getting close to Gaping Dragon, and I was careful to avoid the Basilisk holes and their curse nonsense this time. I was exploring the lower areas near where the boss entrance is, and I was jumped by three rats who subsequently killed me. Fine, no big deal, I should have been paying more attention. However, as I am dying a Basilisk comes out of nowhere and curses me *during the death animation*. The most charitable way I can describe my reaction to this is KJLHFKJSNJA:”SLK{!*JASDFUIO(*DS. And such.

It was at this point that I made a deal with the dark side-I loaded up a modding program and gave myself one Purging Stone, nothing more. Curse gone, I got my souls back, and closed the game for the night. Gaping Dragon can wait until tomorrow when I’m in a better mood to appreciate it. I feel completely justified in cheating since the game screwed me over, and I will take that to a jury of my peers. Judge me if you must.

In more positive news, that map viewer is pretty impressive. It reminds me a lot of the Metroid Prime map (and I’m sure you got that as well) and I was actually surprised that I could pick out certain areas. I can instantly recognize Duke’s Archives, probably my favorite area in this game. World design is something this game definitely has going for it. You mentioned the Castlevania influence which is undoubtedly strong here, but how would you stack this map up against Bloodborne’s?

I’m keeping this one short since I need to get to bed and most of my time tonight was spent getting that mod to work anyway. Dark Magic takes some effort it seems.

— Richard

From: Mike Suskie

Hey Richard,

Yeah, as a Dark Souls 1 apologist, whenever the subject of curse comes up, my usual reaction is to just put my fingers in my ears and yell “LA LA LA.” I still wince whenever I run into Basilisks in the later games even though curse has been reduced to just a minor slap on the wrist now. Incidentally, you probably don’t need to be told this, but don’t go down the Great Hollow until you get the Lordvessel.

On the subject of Bloodborne’s map design – and this is good timing, because I just replayed that last week – what I appreciate most about Lordran is the “stacked” and interwoven nature of it. There’s a bit of that in Bloodborne, particularly in the early moments set in downtown Yharnam (which is a really intricately designed place), but I don’t think any of the other Souls quite hit the same high that Dark 1 did in this regard. Demon’s was just split up into static levels, and Dark 2 was kind of divided into “spokes” where the areas shared very little continuity (the most famous example being when you descend a windmill, take an elevator up and somehow wind up in a lava castle). Dark 3 recaptured it fairly well, as you can look off the cliff right after the Vordt battle and see pretty much the entire game, though that one loses points for being the most linear of the bunch.

But, obviously, this is strictly personal preference. I know Brad has specifically fired back on my issues with Dark 2’s geographical continuity as not a big deal, and I have to imagine you don’t mind, either.

— Mike

From: Richard Naik

Hey Mike,

Apologies for the time between replies, it’s been a crazy few days. I did finally get back to the game though and made a ton of progress.

First, the Gaping Dragon. Yeah, this thing is just the right mix of disgusting and majestic. It’s also a fairly easy fight, just a bit tedious since he has so many hit points and you really aren’t doing a lot of damage at this point in the game. That’s one major thing I’ve noticed about the bosses so far-after dealing with the aggressiveness of Bloodborne and Dark Souls 3 bosses, these guys aren’t all that bad. Gaping Dragon in particular has very long periods where he will just sit still, which I suppose is appropriate considering how ungainly it must be for that thing to move around. I had to use Solaire again for the Bell Gargoyles, but other than that the bosses haven’t been too much of a problem.

So Blighttown. Oh, Blighttown. During my first run I labeled this as one of the worst levels to ever be created, and to be honest I still believe that. It’s confusing; the camera getting stuck on geometry in tight spaces is just awful, especially when it makes it hard to see ladders. Enemies also hilariously get stuck quite frequently, so even *they* don’t know how to get around. It’s also unfair; those toxic blowdart snipers are nearly invisible, and two hits gives you toxin even with the Poisonbite Ring. Unless the snipers give you really lucky item drops, toxin pretty much means death at the point in the game when you are told to come here. That’s another thing; the massive difficulty spike makes it feel like Blighttown was originally meant to be much later in the game, but I’ll talk more about that in a moment. Thankfully Queelag is a pretty easy boss. Like Gaping Dragon her patterns aren’t hard to figure out, she just doesn’t take much damage from you.

You weren’t lying about the impressive Blighttown skybox though, so there’s that at least.

At this point I decided to sequence break. On my first time through I did the Darkroot/New Londo path as the very last thing before heading to Gwyn, so I was way overleveled for both areas and blew right through them. I wanted to explore them properly this time, both for completion’s sake and because I know you access the DLC through Darkroot somewhere. So I was surprised to find that Darkroot was *still* very easy. Neither Moonlight Butterfly or Sif were much of a threat either. On top of that, the enemies drop a *lot* of anti-poison items, which got me wondering if you were originally intended to come here before Blighttown. The enemies are much stronger in Blighttown, and all the poison moss stuff would be a big help down there. I’ve never noticed any signposts that tell you to come to Darkroot at any point before the second bell, so maybe I just missed them? Or maybe it’s a reward for players that explore?

In fact, I wonder if my initial negative opinions about Dark Souls would have even formed had I done Darkroot before Blighttown. Darkroot prepares you for Blighttown with a lot of helpful items and beefs you up with a good amount of souls, so if that had happened maybe I would be a Dark Souls apologist too.

In any case, Darkroot is another area that really benefits from DSFix. On the PS3 this place looks like crap, but with proper lighting and textures it looks damn good. And Sif of course is still awesome-it speaks to the artistic range of the design team that they had the Gaping Dragon and a majestic wolf with a sword in its mouth in the same game.

New Londo is next, and from the looks of it this is another area that gets a massive boost from DSfix. Looking forward to the Four Kings as well.

— Richard

The post The Dark Souls Letters Part 2: Gaping Darkroot appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

The original Dark Souls was my least favorite game in the venerable Souls series by a pretty wide margin. The reasons are numerous, but in a nutshell I just wanted to be done with it by the time I got to Gwyn. I was so aggravated that I skipped the Artorias of the Abyss DLC, which is regarded by many as the high point of the entire series. Being as obsessively completionist as I am about these games, I have to go back and take care of it before Dark Souls 3’s final expansion is released. I turned to GameCritics’ resident Dark Souls apologist Mike Suskie for guidance and counsel. The beginning of our correspondence is below, with more updates to come as I progress through the game. Enjoy!

From: Richard Naik

The post The Dark Souls Letters, Part 1 appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

We’re back, a mere 12 years after our last show. No Man’s Sky, Inside, Pokemon Go, Mighty Number Nine, The Fall, and We Happy Few, plus Star Trek Beyond, social media malaise, and a deep dive into Richard’s digestive system. Featuring Chi Kong Lui, Richard Naik, Corey Motley, and Tim Spaeth.

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The post GameCritics.com Podcast Episode 154: Pokemon Go, No Man’s Sky, and Star Trek appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

Please discuss all the latest titles and news in the video games industry.

The post Whatcha Been Playin’ Forum — August 2016 appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

HIGH The new tutorial is a thing of beauty. As is the game itself.

LOW No English dub after the excellence of the last one?

WTF Baiken’s in there and not playable? Sacrilege!

Let’s get something out of the way right here at the start–Guilty Gear Xrd: Revelator is awesome. As the latest installment in the Guilty Gear franchise it’s a superb experience in nearly every aspect, and its quality is so high that it constantly surprises me that the series has only ever achieved niche levels of success in the West.

One possible reason? It’s a series which expects a certain level of dedication from its player base, and therefore has the potential to cause casual fighting fans to run away screaming in terror long before they ‘get’ why it’s so darn enjoyable–hence Revelator‘s new, in-depth and deceptively friendly approach to introducing its brand of hyperkinetic combat.

First, there’s a great new tutorial which eases newcomers into Guilty Gear by having them play minigames which introduce concepts such as movement, gattling combos, air dashing and the like in amusing and unique ways. From bursting balloons to deftly countering the attacks of rampaging cartoon ghosts, it’s a great method of familiarizing new players with this exceptionally complex fighting system. This tutorial goes above and beyond, including combo trials and character-specific advice on how to overcome situations that players may find themselves in. It’s great stuff, but be warned–the skill ceiling is still extremely high in Guilty Gear compared to other fighters.

Perhaps this, then, is why they’ve also added a control option which handles much of the heavy lifting. Simply slapping buttons will launch into some excellent combos, often including super attacks and aerial launchers. There’s a slight damage penalty for using this option, but it might help beginners get an idea of what they should be doing combo-wise.

As an update and semi-sequel to Guilty Gear Xrd: Sign, the backstory reflects the events of the previous game and there have been a bunch of new faces added to the roster. Old series favorites like katana-wielding sky pirate Johnny and Chinese martial artist Jam Kuradoberi return to smash faces once again, and they’re joined by cool additions such as Jack’O and Raven. Jack’O in particular is brilliant, amusingly designed to drop various monster closets around the arena which will both cause trouble for the opponent and level up over time if they aren’t destroyed quickly. Also, I almost choked the first time I saw her Instant Kill in action–she inadvertently obliterates an entire continent after dropkicking her unfortunate victim from outer space.

The story mode lets players watch events play out as a beautifully-animated visual novel with no personal input, and there are even a few action scenes that are more impressive than I remember in the previous installment. There’s one major annoyance this time out, though–given that it concludes halfway through the plot and several important characters get almost no screentime, it comes off as blatant sequel mongering. It makes no effort at all to wrap any of the story threads, and it ends on a massive cliffhanger just as events should be catching fire. Still, everything involving Ramlethal is top notch, there’s a hilarious cameo from a certain down-and-out character I couldn’t possibly spoil, and–perhaps most excitingly of all–Baiken’s in there with a model so lavishly detailed she’s almost certainly going to be joining the roster before long. Finally!

The online is worthy of special mention, as it’s arguably the most important factor when it comes to a fighting game’s longevity. Fortunately, Guilty Gear Xrd: Revelator nails this aspect admirably. The netcode is solid, with even games held between Japan and the UK offering decent matches.

More than this, there’s a whole bunch of little things that make the online a delight. The lobbies have been made into arenas where player avatars can run around chucking dice, slinging out emotes, hopping onto vacant arcade cabinets to play other players and… fish stuff out of a nearby fountain. It also offers a basic gacha style gambling system using in-game currency to unlock new emotes, character and profile customization options, new soundtracks and more. It’s cheap, cheerful, and does a better job of gambling for item rewards than any game I can recall in recent memory–especially ones which demand real money microtransactions and offer nothing of worth in return.

There are some slight blemishes on the package, though. There’s no longer an English dub (curious given how accomplished the previous one was), some of the translation work is spotty in regards to typos and spacing errors, and Jam doesn’t have a storyline in Episode mode despite being playable there. It’s not like the game feels unfinished with these particular omissions, mind, it’s just that when there’s so much generosity on display, even relatively minor things such as these stand out.

The only other disappointment I have with Guilty Gear Xrd: Revelator is that it hints too often of where the series is going next, rather than where it is right now. Story threads are routinely left incomplete, excellent playable characters from the past are hanging out in story mode but not actually playable themselves… and yes, this is the biggest issue I have, since it makes me excited to get my hands on the next installment rather than being content with what’s in them now. Pretty much everything else about Revelator is top tier, expertly implemented by a team of developers who clearly care about delivering a great product to their fanbase. Rating: 9 out of 10

Disclosures: This game is developed by Arc System Works and published by Aksys Games. It is currently available on Playstation 4. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PS4. Approximately 15 hours of play were devoted to the single-player mode, and the game was completed with most of the available characters. 5 hours of play were spent in multiplayer modes.

Parents: According to the ESRB, this game was not rated at the time this review was written. The previous game earned a T rating though, and contained blood, language, suggestive themes, use of tobacco and violence. This one also has some alcohol being consumed in it, but there’s really nothing about it that I’d consider harmful to its intended audience.

Deaf & Hard of Hearing: The game’s dialogue is spoken in Japanese and subtitled, with most of the gameplay remaining entirely playable through visuals alone. Certain audio cues may be missed, but are not overly important to the game’s flow.

Remappable Controls: Yes, this game offers fully remappable controls.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind modes available in the options. Furthermore, while I’m not colorblind myself and can’t tell for sure, the menu system looks like it might cause some trouble for some people. Menus are orange, with a slightly lighter shade of orange used to signify the current selection.

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