[weasel]

What I meant by that was that if you sell an item by accident, you have to buy it from somebody else.

[weasel]

Deep Labyrinth

Developer: Interactive Brains
Publisher: Atlus
Platform: DS
Genre: First-Person Dungeon Crawler
ESRB: E10+ (Violence)

Some time ago, Deep Labyrinth made history in Japan by being the first fully-3D RPG designed specifically for cell phones. This isn't entirely unheard of in Japan, where cell phones are powerful enough to support games like this. After all, even Square Enix made at least one Final Fantasy spin-off on a cellphone.

Time passed, and a DS version was made, which included new touchscreen functionality and an entirely new scenario. This is the version that we have in the US.

Deep Labyrinth is a fairly straightforward dungeon crawler. Your only task is to progress as deep as you can, by exploring the dungeon, slaying random beasts, picking up keys, and occasionally stumbling upon a cinematic sequence. Your weaponry consists of various swords (which you can swing around by swiping your stylus across the screen), and a unique (but rather frustrating) spell system.

You cast spells by first entering Spell Mode, which is done by tapping a button on the side of the screen. This presents you with a 3x3 grid. To cast a spell, you have to memorize the exact stroke pattern of the spell, draw it on the grid, then hit the Cast button. The game is nice enough to give you a pattern guide in the status screen in case you forget, but the precision needed to draw most of the spells means you're risking your life most of the time if you need to cast a spell in combat. It's sort of like the gesture system in Arx Fatalis, except you can't pre-cast spells.

The combat system is not extremely deep. You can take down most foes by swinging your sword madly (or, given the game's rather slow combat pace, moving your sword around and tapping people with it). It's fun at first, but eventually it just boils down to hitting things repeatedly, which is never a good turn for an RPG combat system - even in a dungeon crawler. This is only made worse when you learn the Sword spell, which enables you to cast an elemental spell on your sword to do extra damage. You won't even need to use the rest of the spells - just make sure your sword is freshened up and charge on in to battle. The developers do try to limit this, however - you'll need to raise your sword skill to a certain point before you're allowed to use some of the elements.

So with the gameplay category being a little on the lacking side, the rest of the game is actually pretty good on an aesthetic level. Interactive Brains clearly put a lot of work into the graphics engine. Most of the graphics do look quite good, especially the people (when they appear).

But probably my favorite part of Deep Labyrinth is the music. The soundtrack consists of about 20 tracks, composed by Yasunori Mitsuda (yes, that Yasunori Mitsuda). You can download the soundtrack from Galbadia Hotel, and I recommend it.

As for the rest of the game, the awkward control scheme alone is enough to put me off, but the somewhat shallow gameplay will probably be unwelcome to most casual RPG players. If all you want is the dungeon crawling, though, Deep Labyrinth is your ticket.

6.5/10

[CJA]

Contact

Developed by grasshopper manufacture
Released in US by Atlus, Inc.
Platform: DS
Genre: RPG
Main gameplay is 1 player, but can connect via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection to other Contact players for trading.

Story
The game starts out in a cartoonish, isometric environment. This is where you meet the professor, by poking him. The professor then treats you as a sort of supernatural being. The unique thing about this game is that you, the holder of the DS, are one of the main characters. The Professor is chased, and all of his power cells fall out of the ship. One of them lands near Terry, a boy of 10 or so. The professor lands nearby, grabs the cell, and says, "Quick! Get in!" The ship flies back into outer space. But, it's shot, and the two land on a deserted island. You must find the power cell on the island and move onward, visiting a wide array of locations and recovering the cells there.

The story is pretty, uh, captivating. Along with the main storyline, there are sidequests in which you save people. A lot of these just pop up randomly when you revisit an area.

*****

Gameplay
Did you like playing Earthbound? This game has EarthBound's humor, charm, and young, slient main character. It's a nice, bright game, too. And the pop culture references! There is a "massive damage" reference in this game.

Did you like playing RuneScape? No? That's understandable. Did you like its stats system? Well, as you train each of your stats, it will level up. When you get hit, defense and HP rise. When you attack, strength and dexterity rise, etc. Also, there is a very extensive fishing and cooking system. And you can even fight the livestock for ingredients! Unlike RuneScape, no painful clicking system...and hey, it's actually cool to show to your friends.

Did you like playing Secret of Mana? The game's nice weapons system is akin to and probably even surpasses Secret of Mana. There are three weapon classes: Punching(knuckles), Slash(swords) and Strike(bats). Your experience with each levels seperately, just like SoM.

The battle system is "action RPG," but it is by no means a hack-and-slash; your attacking speed depends on, well, your attacking speed stat. Terry automatically attacks the target you choose. You'll just trade blows until the battle ends somehow.

That's where Techs come in. You just press Y to select a tech and it is used instantly; no waiting for the next turn. You'll have access to any two lists of techs at one time. The first list depends on the weapon class (there are Punching, Slashing and Striking techs). The next depends on your outfit; there are four elemental outfits which harness magic, and outfits like Chef which has ingredient-gathering techs like Gut.

*****

Graphics
The graphics are absolutely amazing. They're usually still images in single rooms, but in larger areas, the tile-based stuff is great as well. Terry has no outline or anything, and it's always easy to see him, so they chose their colors well.

The Professor and his ship are very cartoony and contrast nicely to the rest of the game.

The only things I have a problem with are the various art, as in the anime depictions of Terry. They're, well, they just don't work very well.

*****

Music
The music is spectacular and fits spectacularly. Chiptunes for the Professor, and just awesome for everything else.

*****

Innovation
Great. First of all, you are a sort of controlling spirit. The Professor tells you "I won't tell Terry about you" a lot. Next, the weapons system and the punch/slash/strike systems are great. And, I've never seen that stat-specific leveling in a console game before. The cooking system is great, too, although you should be able to vary certain recipes more.

Oh, and another thing; there's a "digestion time" for each food. Each food has stat bonuses. As you eat each food item, a little "belly" diagram fills up. When it's full, you can't eat anymore. But as each food item is still in the belly, you'll recieve the stat bonuses. There are potions, which heal a lot and digest quickly, but things like homemade BBQ have more bonuses (like more Max HP!) and take up a lot of room.

The Decal System. You peel off a decal and stick it somewhere on the screen. There are '?' decals, which transform all things on the screen into things like cows. A ship decal returns you to the ship, a cell decal lets you take a power cell, and a Mochi decal brings down Mochi, the Professor's dog, to help you. Mochi can be played with every time you save by using your stylus and "petting" him. As you play with him, he grows stronger.

*****

Overall

Overall, it's a fantastic game. All the parts combine to create a wonderful experience. That's pretty much it.

I would spend up to $40 on this game, which is a lot for a DS game.

Final score: *****

10/10; perfect.

This post has been edited by CJA: 09 March 2007 - 02:25 PM

[nooodl]

"CJA" said:

The unique thing about this game is that you, the holder of the DS, are one of the main characters.

So... That's why it got the name 'Contact', right? ;D
EDIT: Whoops, maybe it's the 8-player wi-fi function. It must be kinda awesome if you get it to work...

I'm definately buying this one.

This post has been edited by HappyFoppy: 10 March 2007 - 03:09 PM

[CJA]

Yep, actually being the main character is why it's called Contact. You're sort of like the "master of fate" of the game, or something I guess. Well, that's pretty much any game, but this is the only game that acknowledges it.

Also, you use the Wi-Fi connection like in any other game (with either a router, or the USB connecty thing from Nintendo). Guy and I are going to try out Contact wi-fi sometime.

[CJA]

Magnetica

Developed by Mitchell, Inc.
Platform: DS
Genre: Puzzle
Main gameplay is 1 player, and there is also a Wi-Fi mode.

Gameplay: *****
The premise of Magnetica is to use your stylus to flick marbles towards other marbles, which are rolling along a track towards a central pit. If any marble hits this pit, you lose. When a group of 3 or more marbles comes together, they're eliminated. Hitting 2 marbles with a launched marble eliminates them.

Chains happen when marbles, who are attracted to the same color, come together after marbles between them are eliminated. For example:

OO###O
The yellow marbles are hit and explode.

OO O
The red marbles come together,

###
and you get a 2-chain. Of course, this can happen with a lot more marbles. This is basically the premise of the game. Don't get the wrong idea, though--it's very, very addictive.

Graphics: ****
Meh, they suit the game. They could have made the metal bearing marbles more rotation-friendly, and they could have varied marble designs for each color.

Story/Plot: ***
Even though there's a "Quest" mode, there's no story or plot. A story would improve the game, but it doesn't really need one.

Sound: ***
There's one theme for Quest, one for Challenge, and one for Puzzle. A little variation between levels would be nice; for example, when you're over level 50 in challenge, or maybe every 15 quest levels the music could change. But the three established themes work pretty well.

The chain sounds are pretty awesome, and the other sound effects work pretty well.

Overall: *****
Hey, even though there's three tracks, the graphics don't change a lot and there's no plot, this game is pretty fun, entertaining and addictive. A small storyline would be beneficial.

9/10

[Torte]

Resident Evil 4 (PC Version)
Developer: CAPCOM, SourceNext (doing the awful porting)
Genre: Action/Adventure Horror
Rating: I think it's either 15 or 18+ here, and I guess M in the states.

Alright, so it's a bit old now, and chances are you've either played it on the PS2, GC or Wii. This is a review for the PC port.

It's almost entirely (99.9999%) based on the PS2 version, so all those extras come with it.

Righto, so let's get down to it.

Plot (7/10): You're Leon S Kennedy, from RE2. After the events of RE2, you were hired as the president's family's personal bodyguard and went through a lot of training. Just before you were to enter service, however, the president's daughter Ashley is kidnapped and you're sent after her, to a rural part of Europe after she was sighted there. Well there, you realise the villagers have gone totally insane. Something's gone terribly wrong with them, and it's not a virus...

The story isn't all that wonderful, but it's still a good one. It unfolds at a good pace, but it's not a story driven game. Regardless, good enough to warrant a 7 (very good).

Graphics (5/10, 8/10 with mods and patches): The game looks pretty bad with version 1.00, and I'd only advise against updating the game if the performance of the game suffers (shouldn't on any decent computer, really). The textures are very blurry at spots and oftenly pale, the lightning effects are... well non existant, rendering the flashlight totally pointless. The only graphical setting you can change is the resolution, however it does support widescreen if you so wish.

The patch doesn't adress the textures nor the fact that you can only change the resolution, but the lightning effects are brought back into the game making it look a whole lot better. Smack on the texture pack and the game looks great. I'd give it 9, but it's incredibly lazy of the developers not to use the GC version's graphics when the PC is more then capable of handling it.

Note that if you buy the North American version, the game comes with Version 1.10.

Controls (3/10 without a gamepad, 6/10 with mouse mod, 7/10 with a gamepad): Massive gripe here... the game does NOT support mouse aim. This is just inexcusable. I can see that it's sorta troublesome, whatwith you having to press a button to ready the gun or knife, however, this could've easily been fixed by making you hold down the shift or ctrl key to ready either.

Incredibly lazy of the developers, that's for sure.

With a mouse aiming mod, it gets a lot better, however it should be noted that the only one I know off only emulates joystick movement making it somewhat sloppy and hard to control.

With a good gamepad, the control system is just like it was on the console (though you have to manually configure the camera controls), and works just fine. Still, I'd have prefered it to be keyboard and mouse, but for being controlled by the gamepad it works wonders.

Once you get accustomed to the controls, they work wonders. You hold down one button to pull out your gun to shoot, another to hold out your dagger to swing (making it far more useful then previous RE games), and then the usual buttons (action, cancel, inventory, map, etc).

At some points, you get a companion. Controlling your companion/s is easy, one button press for either 'wait' or 'follow'. At certain spots, you can also tell your companion to hide.

Whenever an action becomes available (check, open) it'll show in the bottom of the screen. New to RE4 is also timing games, where you have to press one or two buttons to dodge some form of attack or other thing that'd otherwise either hurt or kill you. Also, if something gets a hold off you, you can usually shake them off by pressing left-right (or if you have a gamepad, moving the steering stick left and right).

Sadly, like in previous RE games, you can't move while holding your gun or knife up, essentialy rendering you a sitting duck. I guess this is to make the game a bit more difficult, but it's kinda silly that you have to stand still to aim your handgun at a giant that's trying to smash you. This is somewhat offset by the fact that most enemies more damaging attacks, especially bosses, can be dodged by pressing two buttons when they come up on the screen. Regardless, it'd still have been nice to be able to move around while shooting.

Another complain regarding the control scheme is that you aim with the same buttons you walk with. I personally would've liked to move the other analog stick to aim, even if I had to stop while doing it.

Still though, the controls are responsive.

Music and Sound (9/10): Excellent stuff. The sounds for the guns might seem a bit weak, but the grunting of the enemies, the music in the background when the enemies have caught onto you, etc, is just spot on. Not much to say here, but I really enjoyed (and am still enjoying) the sound and the music.

Gameplay (9/10): Ah, the meat and bones of the game. Let's get it out of the way - the game kicks ass. It's a lot of fun to play, the action feels right, the game is pretty hard but not Ninja Gaiden hard, and very rewarding.

The game itself is pretty much like the previous RE games, however it's turned from weird camera angle to third person, and it's more action oriented. You have an inventory where you store stuff, however it's a lot bigger then in previous games (and can be upgraded significantly). Items come in more varied sizes that feel more right. There's also stores in the game now. Some puzzles are a bit annoying and vague, much like previous installements. These are few and far inbetween, though.

So let's get down to the changes: First of all, as said, it's a third person game now. You have full control over your aim (a lazer scope on most weapons), making the aiming more important then in previous installments. Some weapons come with scopes (like the Rifle), where you'll switch to a first persion view. This is nice for sniping, but cumbersome in close range, making it a nice tradeoff.

The inventory system has changed a fair bit since RE3. Instead of 8-10 slots where things either took up 1-2 slots, you now have a much larger grid with sizes of things ranging between 2x1 up to 8x2 in size. You can also turn the items around as you please to fit them into tight spots.

Health is somewhat different from what I remember, to. Now, you have a bar instead of an EKG thing in your inventory screen. It still goes from green to yellow to red, and you start limping when you reach yellow and worse when you go to red. However, it's nice to have such a good look on exactly how much health you have. Health can be increased by mixing certain herbs with one another.

In combat, you can now pull up the knife by holding down a certain button, making it MUCH more useful then in previous RE games where you had to go into the inventory to equip it. Reloading your gun is either done by firing the gun when it's out of ammo or pressing another button. It's quite a slow animation for most weapons, making it dangerous to use close to enemies. However, if you are hit during it you'll still have your gun fully loaded when you recover, which is sorta weird. Headshots are MOSTLY lethal (won't spoil much, but there are some cases where you're hoping for their heads not to explode).

The enemies are no longer zombies, though they behave somewhat the same as them. Instead of slowly walking up to you and trying to bite you, they run up and try to attack you with various weapons or grab you to kill you. They do otherwise resemble zombies, however.

As mentioned in the controls section, you sometimes get a companion with you. Believe it or not, this companion is not in the way!

There's also money in the game, which can be used with a mysterious merchant to buy weapons and upgrades to your weapons. Upgrading your weapons makes them a lot better in just about every area, however, not all weapons aren't that useful even fully upgraded, some lacking their own niche. You can't upgrade all weapons either, because you won't have enough money.

Enemies now drop a lot more stuff then in previous games, healing items, ammo and money, which is wonderful as it's very much needed.

The game's fairly long, to. Expect about 20 hours of gametime your first run through the game, after that it'll obviously become faster.

I'd write more but I'm tired.

Overall (8/10): Well, apart from the clunky control scheme if you don't have a gamepad and the shoddy porting, the game's still great. I'd probably advise you to pick up another version of the game first hand, but with the correct mods and patches installed, the game probably has the best looks of any version, and with a gamepad, it controls about the same as the GC or PS2 version. Plus, it's usually cheap!

[scorch3000]

quite a few console to PC ports suck big time.

[scorch3000]

Scarface: The World is Yours!
Xbox version review

Story: I personally havn't seen Scarface, yet i wish to see it. The only time Scarface was on TV, it was really late, and i fell asleep during it. The game's plot may be slightly confusing, but otherwise, follows an alternate ending to the movies story. Instaid of being shot dead in his mansion, Tony escapes Miami, and returns some months later, to reclaim his turf, and can Sosa.

Gameplay: Control Tony is easy enough, left stick controls movement, right stick controls camera pan. B button talks/insults people, a selects options, y enters vehicle/weapon locker and x shoves people. Tony has an impresive arsenal of weapons, including a sniper riffle, bazooka, chainsaw (expecially fun, as you can cut people to bits before they hit the ground) and several other assault weapons and pistols. Missions usually consist of meeting a front owner (a shop, that acts as a drug den behind the scenes), and performing a mission for him/her. When the mission is complete, you can buy the front for a fee. Money can be made by wasting dealers (unadvised, as this raises your gang heat, and cop heat), buying coke and selling to dealers (advised), or running supply missions later in the game (driving from front to front, picking up money, avoiding rival gangs, ect). In addition to your weapon dealers, you have the exotics, where you can buy henchmen, mansion upgrades, furnature, boats, cars and investments.
Henchmen: Driver, weapon dealer, boat pilot, enforcer, assasian. Basis goons, drivers bring your cars on roads, pilots bring boats, drivers, enforcers and assasins perform duties when you switch to them.
Cars: A list of automobiles. Most function the same, except the limo, that automaticly drives you to a selected front
Boats: Same as cars. Float plane flys you to distant docks.
Furnature: Items for your mansion
Decore: Same as furnature
Unique collectables: Same as furnature
Mansion: Basic, modern, elatic. Change your mansions base appearence
Investments: Expensive, but worth it. Montana Legal for instance reduces your police attention by 50%

Shooting: Easy enough, aim, and fire. Some weapons have alternate fire, triggered by the black button. Sniper riffles zoom with L-trigger.

Blind Rage
What game would be complete without bullet time? Gain balls by killing, awsome driving and taunting victims, and you gain balls. Gain enough to fill the meter, and you can trigger blind rage holding any weapon, by holding down the B button. You switch to first person, and kick ass. In blind rage, you're invincible, and you gain 200 HP for each kill.

Game Scorch...sorry, score: 8.5/10

[weasel]

Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations
""You can't cry now. The only time a man can cry is when it's all over."

Genre: Adventure/Visual Novel
Platform: Nintendo DS
Developer: Capcom
ESRB: T (Animated Blood, Violence)

The third and final chapter in Phoenix Wright's trilogy contains five brand new cases for both Phoenix and his mentor, Mia Fey to slog through.

The gameplay in T&T is pretty much exactly the same as the game's predecessors, and I'm pleased to say that this installment does NOT have an equivalent to Justice For All's god-awful circus case. There's not even one returning character from that case, so you needn't fear the worst (no more Moe, no more freaking pepper shakers...).

T&T rounds out the story arc quite nicely, touching on formerly undisclosed facts like Phoenix's first love, Mia Fey's first two cases, and what Edgeworth has been up to since the last game.

Many fan-favorite characters from the last games make return appearances here. Pearl still has the wrong idea about what's going on between Phoenix and Maya, resulting in quite a number of slaps. Larry Butz reappears a couple of times, apparently having traveled the world to chase his latest girlfriend.

But probably my favorite character would be the brand new prosecutor, the mysterious Godot. He's hard-boiled, addicted to coffee, and tends to make strange coffee-related metaphors that make no sense whatsoever. Strangest of all, though, is that he seems to have quite a grudge against Phoenix, for whatever reason, going so far as to call him "Mr. Trite". But mere seconds into his debut appearance, Godot throws forth several choice quotes that just cement how awesome he is, even if he is pretty much a jerk.

I like that they made the contradictions a little easier to evoke using the interface. Where before you'd have to present a very obscure piece of evidence in order to make the obvious objection to a witness statement, now it's possible to object using any of a few different related objects, and there are very, very few instances in which the information you need on an item is not written in its Court Record entry. So don't rely on what the Court Record says too much - make sure you memorize parts of it too.

This game is the perfect way to end Phoenix's trilogy. It's a must-own if you've played the first two games. In fact, I dare say that if you haven't played the first two games to completion, then this game is the best reason there is to do so right now.

9.5/10

[Pyro1588]

F.E.A.R.
First Encounter Assault Recon

Genre: FPS with a healthy dose of horror
Platform: PC, 360, PS3
Developer: Monolith Productions
ESRB: Mature

My first experience with F.E.A.R. was trying to play the single-player demo on my less-than-adequate laptop. My impression was a game with very pretty graphics that took quite a rig to run. In reality, F.E.A.R.'s sysreqs aren't that horrible. It was just that I had a crappy laptop.

Sysreqs aside, F.E.A.R. is an impressive game. Remember all those awesome secret areas in Quake, Quake 2, Descent, and all those other classic FPS games?

Remember the wonderfully-useful bullet time and instant-use medkits that made Max Payne playable?

Remember the atmospheric graphics that made the setting real and the particle effects that ensured plaster pieces went everywhere when you shot plaster (also from Max Payne)?

Remember the story-driven plot of Max Payne, Elfen Lied, and Noir that slowly revealed itself bit by bit and finally culminated in one big "ah, NOW I get it" moment?

F.E.A.R. manages to capture all of these and implement them in a way that feels new, fresh, and hi-tech. The game has tons of secret areas that feel really well-integrated in the environment. It's got the instant medkits that allow you to heal in the middle of a firefight. It has the awesome bullet time and the wonderful graphics to back it up. And most importantly, it has a great plot that takes its time revealing itself.

F.E.A.R.'s gameplay relies heavily on the same slow-mo formula that Max Payne introduced. You can hit the CTRL key and suddenly the world slows down, giving you plenty of time to aim your shots carefully. But where Max Payne had simple enemies that tended to either stay put or rush in a straight line, F.E.A.R. has enemies with decent enough AI to make slow-mo a much more precious commodity.

F.E.A.R.'s graphics are beautiful. The settings are detailed, the enemies are detailed, and even the weapons are detailed. Dynamic lighting adds to the creepy environment by making shadows go wild whenever a stray bullet hits a light. The use of parallax mapping is extraordinary. Every bullet you fire that misses an enemy will take a chunk out of a wall. The bullet holes are beautiful.

The same can be said about the smoke and dust. Firefights are more than just shooting imps with a shotgun over and over again. Real firefights are loud, noisy, dirty affairs that are distracting and scary. F.E.A.R. has a TON of particle effects that add up to realistic smoke and dust flying everywhere when the bullets start flying.

The sounds of the firefights are just as important, and F.E.A.R.'s sounds are pretty solid. The guns sound great and the ambient noises are pretty well-placed. Physics-based sounds tend to be pretty loud, so there are a lot of things that go bump in the night, but this helps to keep you on your toes.

F.E.A.R.'s music is pretty minimalistic. It only appears at certain points, and when it does, it's not really the focal point, nor is it particularly memorable. That's alright, because you really don't want it distracting you from the firefights.

F.E.A.R.'s real strength is in its horror, and there is no FPS that captures horror quite as well as F.E.A.R. does. The game goes beyond zombies jumping out at you and really tries to get under your skin. The key factor in this is a little girl who, as Gamespot said, is creepier than all of Mars put together. The game has many hallucination sequences that are really reminiscent of Max Payne's drug scenes, right down to the crying baby, the long hallways, and the excessive flames. In some aspects, they almost feel like a ripoff of Max Payne. But overall, the variance keeps them original, and they definitely make the game scary.

F.E.A.R. is not without its downsides, however. The first and most obvious one is the chokeup it experiences on lesser systems. As with all games in the past 5 years, F.E.A.R.'s minimum requirements are just the requirements to get you to the title screen. You do need a fairly hefty system to play this game.

What makes this annoying is that the game's graphics are largely at fault, and in many cases, a bit of a cut in detail level would've probably meant much lower sysreqs. Yes, the soldiers are INCREDIBLY detailed, right down to the gazillion polygons in their armor. Are you going to notice this in the middle of a life-or-death firefight? No. Yes, there's dynamic lighting everywhere. Does it need to be everywhere? Probably not.

F.E.A.R.'s gameplay also tends to get a bit formulaic. Most firefights are pretty straightforward. Sure, sometimes you get the drop on an enemy from above, but those times are fairly rare. Most of the time it's just you and an opposing squad of enemies, and all you have to make the battle winnable is your slow-mo.

F.E.A.R. tends to wait on giving you weapons until you need them, or even shortly after. There's nothing more annoying than finishing an annoyingly-difficult firefight only to be rewarded with a gun that would have made it IMMENSELY easier and more fun.

To its credit, F.E.A.R. has managed to incorporate grenades into gameplay in a manner very reminiscent of Halo. No longer are they separate weapons that require you put down your gun. Now you can chuck them out in the middle of a fight to flush an enemy from cover, and the explosions are very impressive.

Please note that this review only covers the single-player game. I have yet to try the multiplayer, but I may have to type up a quick update on it.

So, in conclusion, F.E.A.R. has a couple flaws, but it remains a strong FPS that is a must-play for any FPS or horror fan. I'm definitely ordering Extraction Point =)

8/10

[Dr Lancer-X]

Title: Aster
Japanese: N/A
OP video: http://www.youtube.c...h?v=xmJLMwtHJX0
Company: Rusk



Plot Synopsis
Sakaki Hiro confessed his love to his childhood friend and neighbour, Yuzuki Saya, and they started going out.

As the winter season approached, without warning, an event took place that would change everything for everyone.

There are no miracles. There is only hope.

Introduction
Aster is an eroge by Rusk, released in 2007. It's a romance/tragedy story, which combines elements from both the nakige (crying game) and utsuge (depressing game) genres. The visual novel does not have any choices or branching points - instead, it follows four intertwining stories, each composed of two parts, and the stories can be completed in any order after the prologue. There are four protagonists and five heroines.

Scenario
The story is definitely Aster's strongest point. It's essentially a story about the fragility of human life. While it's not an utsuge because each story ultimately ends in a happy ending, it doesn't hold back from putting every character in the game through torment of some kind. No-one remains unscathed.

The first part of Aster is the prologue, which is unusually long for a prologue, and introduces Hiro's arc. After reading the prologue, the first chapter of the four main stories all become available, and can be completed in any order. After all four are complete, the second chapter of all four stories becomes available. As the stories are heavily intertwined, events that happen in one arc often affect the other arcs, so by playing each chapter you eventually put the entire story together.

My only criticism of Aster's scenario is that some of the conclusions felt somewhat weak compared to the rest of the story, but on the whole it stands up very well. Don't expect any kind of complex, intricate plot, though - it's just a pure-love story written exceedingly well.

Characters
Aster has more primary characters than most eroges, owing to having a number of different protagonists. There are also a number of characters from previous Rusk games making an appearance - which makes sense, as the setting is the same.

Sakaki Hiro is the first (and, essentially, 'main') protagonist of Aster. He works part-time at a cafe/restaurant run by the main protagonist/heroine pair from Kimi to Koishite Musubarete. Lives next to Saya and Saki.

Yuzuki Saya (heroine of Hiro's arc) is Hiro's childhood friend and Saki's twin sister (although she is considered the elder sister of the two). Unlike the energetic Saki, she is not particularly healthy.

Yuzuki Saki (the other heroine of Hiro's arc), Saya's twin sister, is a somewhat tsundere-ish character, but loves her sister dearly. She is an athletic girl - part of the school's kendo club and in line to becoming the next club director.

Odamaki Masato (secondary protagonist), director of the school's kendo club and Hina's elder brother. An all-round good-natured person.

Yamabuki Miyuki (heroine of Masato's arc), Masato's junior and the class representative. She regularly visits her sick mother in hospital. Miyuki is unknowingly the cause of the tragic event surrounding the story.

Yanagi Kyouji (secondary protagonist), Hina's fiance. Kyouji is a bit of a bookish type, but while generally exceedingly gentle, can also be very hot-tempered at times. He is very attached to Hina.

Odamaki Hina (heroine of Kyouji's arc), Kyouji's fiance and Masato's younger sister. She is a member of the school's kendo club, and another direct victim of the central tragedy behind the story.

Hagiwara Mutsuki (secondary protagonist), a good natured, though clumsy character, and another member of the school kendo club. He is also an indirect victim of the main catalyst of the story, where his mother died.

Himehagi Haruna (heroine of Mutsuki's arc), Mutsuki's senior, a gentle 3rd-year student. Her piano tutor was Mutsuki's mother. She works as a part-time model, something that makes her relatively famous in the school.

Visuals
Nice, all-round reasonable quality art. Nothing particularly out of the ordinary, but everything looks good. I appreciated the unusual amount of attention-to-detail in the character sprites/paper dolls, particularly the uniforms. There's a decent number of CGs - plenty for the sort of game it is, and they are generally well done, although nothing special.

Voice Acting
The voice acting is performed quite well, and is generally fitting (but nothing spectacular nor particularly notable). One minor point is that although the male characters have voice actors, they are only voice acted when the current first-person point-of-view is from another character (e.g. the heroine, or one of the other male characters). The female characters, on the other hand, are always voiced whether or not the story is being told from their perspective or not. Although this is admittedly better than omitting male voice acting entirely (as most eroges do), it would have been nice to have all the characters voiced, all the time. Rusk's previous games did the exact same thing.

Music
A reasonable selection of tracks; the music is generally above average. Only real problem is that while the soundtrack has about a fairly large number of upbeat 'everyday' songs, it has a much smaller selection of tunes for the moodier parts of the game (which definitely could do with a bit more variety). Otherwise, nothing much to say about this.

Overall

Scenario: 8.5/10
Characters: 8/10
Graphics: 8/10
Voice Acting: 8/10
Music: 7/10

Overall (not an average of the above scores):
8/10

One of the better 'pure-love drama' eroges around, Aster is a good way of stressing out your tear ducts. If you buy the game you also get copies of Kimi to Koishite Musubarete and Colorful Box, earlier Rusk titles, which are nice stories in their own way. They aren't nearly as good as Aster, though.