VGBA Explosion! #4 - GameChops Mega Trio Random Selection

Okay! So this should be the final music-related update before I truly get back on schedule. I do apologize for the delay, but I'm trying to get my gaming palate a bit cleared up before jumping on the next big plan for the blog... However, here is not the place to discuss that. We're here to cover more Video Game Music Magicalness!!!

For this time, I've chosen a few more items from my ever-growing and constantly expanding selection. The chosen albums for today all come from one of my favorite labels! (I don't normally memorize music industry labels like this, but they're an exception in my opinion.) I bring to you three random yet carefully chosen GameChops albums in...

Video Game Band Awareness Explosion! #4

GameChops Mega Trio Random Selection 

As with all the VGBA Explosions!, I'll be keeping this short, sweet, and full of fast-takes of lotsa good video game music you should totally drop down on and get! But first, let's go into the intro of what GameChops is.

GameChops is a netlabel, created by Chris Davidson (Dj CUTMAN), for video game music peoples. All of the music released through GameChops is focused on remixing classic (not necessarily old) video game music. There's a pretty good variety of artists, video games remixed, and styles of remixary. There's just about something for everybody!... Everybody that enjoys video game music. Heck, if you don't believe me, go check out their site and look around at what all they got.

GameChops 

Now it's time to explore a few of those albums and give my suggestions. I tried my best to pick these at random and not follow any specific pattern. Now, GameChops used to be almost exclusively on Bandcamp (my main site for video game music in general really), but they've since moved to Loudr for various reasons. (My understanding is that Loudr offered an easier option for getting the video game music copyrights or whatever.) They still list their stuff on Bandcamp, but it basically points you towards the other site for actual purchase and downloading of it. HOWEVER! Bandcamp still allows you to fully listen to the song whereas Loudr only gives you a sample. So I'm going to post links to both!

Another minor note before I get into the albums, Loudr does this "Get Loudr!" thing where you pay more money for the album that they're asking. In general, it supports the artist more, but with most GameChops albums, if you "Get Loudr!", you're rewarded with an additional album or two depending on how much you're willing to give. It's just something nice to keep in mind, and you generally get a good deal out of it while also supporting the artists more! Hurray! ANYWAYS~

 For the first album, I chose...

Dj Jo - Tales of EDM

$5 on Loudr

Artist - Dj Jo
Sites - Listen at Bandcamp / Purchase on Loudr
Game Choice - Tales of Symphonia
Genres - Dubstep, Drumstep, EDM, Electronica.
Favorite Song - Beat The Angel

Now, I did play quite a bit of Tales of Symphonia back in the day. Unfortunately, I never beat it. Even got to the final boss... (Story for another time.) Tales of Symphonia (and "Tales" series in general) are pretty great RPG time. It's also hella long RPG time, but that's besides the point. Tales of EDM offers a small selection of them Tales' music, but it's been... ELECTRONICA-FIED! The mix here is a lot of Dubstep, so if that's not your thing, I'd say give it a chance regardless. Really, REALLY like Beat the Angel here. It's just so much fun and in your face! To be honest, I didn't remember the music so much until I got this album. I also proceeded to purchase the HD Collection almost purely because of this. Haven't played it much yet, but what I did play really brought back memories... 

Next up in our album selection is a jump from RPGs to CASTLEVANIA!

Joshua Morse - VLAD

$4 on Loudr

Artist - Joshua MorseSites - Listen at Bandcamp / Purchase on Loudr
Game Choice - Castlevania series.
Remixed Genres - Chiptunes, Dance, Dubstep, Electronica, Techno.
Favorite Song - Vampire Snap 2 (Castlevania - Vampire Killer)

The Castlevania series is well known for it's vampire escapades and often highly challenging but fun-to-the-core gameplay. The flagship title in the series still remains to be Symphony of the Night... AND FOR GOOD REASON! It defined great action-platform-RPG-ary with plenty of exploration and pushing you to do better and better and BETTER! Seriously, there's a pair of sunglasses that if you don't get, the game ends on the worst possible ending. If you do get them, you're thrown at one of the greatest ideas ever! You do the entire castle again... UPSIDE DOWN! (The genius of it...) I've nostalgia'd enough here though. Only other statement is to do yourself a favor and play Lords of Shadow. (First one. Second one is just okay in comparison.)

Beyond the actual games, Castlevania has always brought along some great music. I know that several of the first games introduced music that's pretty prevalent in the video game music scene. (Tears of Blood, Vampire Killer, Wicked Child) Now, VLAD brings in some pretty heavy dubstep elements, and I know how people can feel about that.  I'd still highly recommend it though since you get some dope remixed Castlevania beats out of this. (If it's all still too much for you, do yourself a favor and listen to the originals. Too good to miss!)
I believe the kids are saying "epic drops", "totally killer beats", and other various music slang word stuffs. VLAD's an album that even one of my friends, who isn't a VGM nut like me, really enjoys. Get your dancing vampire on with... VLAD!


Now we come to the (previously planned) final album, and it's Final Fantasy-related!

Mykah - Final Fantasy - Triple Triad

$8 on Loudr

Artist - Mykah

Sites - Listen at Bandcamp / Purchase on Loudr
Game Choice - Final Fantasy VI, VII, and VIII.
Remixed Genres - Chiptune, Dubstep, Electronica, House.
Favorite Songs - The Man with the Machine Gun and J.E.N.O.V.A.

That's right. I actually brought around some Final Fantasy remixes to mah Final Fantasy style blog. Triple Triad is aptly named after the card game in Final Fantasy VIII. (Easily the best card game in a game ever!) Alongside FFVIII are various songs taken from FFVI and FFVII. The variety contained within is pretty astounding really, and the title track, although based on the card song, is pretty damn dope. Personally, I prefer my two favorite songs, but I also really enjoy the originals.

Every song has been remixed with plenty of love and care. You get a nice mixture of the old sound which is then dropped down with some great bass sounds. Again, it is dubstep, but I'd say that 90% of the songs are handled and mixed so well with the dubstep-style that you won't even notice. They're just really well done and a great listen for any fan of the games and songs covered here. I'm going to be honest. This is easily one of the best GameChops releases to date. I enjoy almost every album that comes down the line, but this is among one of my favorites albums and offers great repeated listenings. Enough said.


And this final listing is why I said "previously planned" up above. I had planned for only three albums here, but then I realized I could do four. Thus, I end today's little VGBA Explosion! on another great GameChops album that takes from possibly one of my favorite game series of all time... Donkey Kong Country!

halc - Club Kong

$5 on Loudr

Artist - halc

Sites - Listen at Bandcamp / Purchase on Loudr
Game Choice - Donkey Kong Country series.
Remixed Genres - Chiptunes, Electronica, Jazz Fusion.
Favorite Song - Swept Away (Aquatic Ambience)

I'm going to try and keep this one short since I tend to droll on where I shouldn't. Club Kong opens with a nice funny bit from brentalfloss, and then it goes on to cover a couple songs from Donkey Kong Country. Now, that series has some incredibly amazing music to it. Seriously, hit up the Youtubes and look up Donkey Kong Country. (Personal suggestions would say Aquatic Ambience, Stickerbrush Symphony, and Kannon's Klaim.)

The track selection is limited (kinda short album), but they're all really good picks. Rather than doing a huge assortment, we're given a great taste of what music at this "Club Kong" most possibly sound like. I can tell you right now... I'd definitely go to Club Kong, but I also really enjoy the Donkey Kong Country series. Thus, I'm a bit biased.

You'll be happy (I think) to know Club Kong goes a bit different than the other albums in that... It's not dubstep! So if you were shying away from the rest purely for that reason, than look no further! (I'm giving dubstep quite a bit of heck on this review, but I mean it no ill harm. I just know that opinions on it are pretty well split.) Club Kong brings us in with a final club-y style to a great conclusion on an amazing set of albums.


The best part? There is sooooo much more to explore from GameChops! Don't stop here with my paltry list of four albums. You should go out and explore the rest of their library. Who knows, you might find something you like more than what I've listed here.

So! What does this post really say? That GameChops consists of a large amount of Electronica. I'd say that's completely fine, but I wouldn't mind seeing a bit more variety. Of course, this is like 50-60% of video game music remixes in general. The other half is generally rock and metal. I know there's something in the 5% margin that really gets out there with acoustic or something way different, but here's not the time for that. Maybe... MAYBE NEXT TIME! (Or something else, you'll just have to wait and see!)

And so we see the end of another explosion of Video Game Band Awareness. I could go on and on for hours and list a countless number of albums to post up and talk about here, but that just means I've got more for next time! LOOK FORWARD TO IT!

~May the Crystals Guide Me~

News Post! (8/23/2014)

Okay. I realize I'm doing a lot of not-RPG posts, but that should stop soon. Just laying out my new plan for the future of Recurring Fantasy.

First up, I'm going to aim to do a post a week. That seems both fair to me, and it should be more than easy for me to accomplish every week. (This doesn't count as this week's post.)

Secondly, for a bit, I'll probably scale up the number of VGBA and Side Posts to make up for the lack of content recently. Also to give me a bit of time to prepare and ready myself for the next act in Recurring Fantasy history...

Third and finally, I'm in the process of choosing the next RPG to play. Due to similarities, I won't be playing anymore Dragon Quest for now. I feel like going back now will just cause me to relapse and quit again. I don't want to do that... However, I am still feeling RPG-ish. I just need to pick which one to play.

Most likely, I'm going to pick something from the PlayStation lineup of RPGs. Why? I have a huge selection of them already purchased and downloaded on my PS3. (I'm a sucker for the PlayStation classics and sales. I've gotten soooo many RPGs built up on there it's not funny.) I'll make the announcement pretty soon though, so look forward to the game selection!

As always, thanks to anybody who has stuck around and please look forward to a bright future on... RECURRING FANTASY!

~May the Crystals Guide Me~

VGBA 13 - Professor Layton & the Bay Harbor Butcher

I realize I just recently did one of these, but that bullet has been in the chamber for a while. That, and it's been so long since I posted that I've obtained and gone through so many, many new VGBA material! I figure I'll do one more after this one, but this post is special for a few reasons. I'll get to those later since it's mostly irrelevant in general.

And for today... I bring you!

Professor Layton & the Bay Harbor Butcher

I believe this murder can be solved... WITH A PUZZLE!

Buy it here!

Band - Careless Juja.
Sites - Home Page. Bandcamp. Facebook.
Type of Album - Video game rock covers featuring an accordian!
Genres - Video Game Music. Rock. Alternative.
Favorite Songs - Running (Mega Man Battle Network) and Tyrian The Level (Tyrian)

Review - Today is a great day in Video Game Band Awareness! Why is that I might add? Because I get to review another magical and awesome album!

But what's so special about this? Beyond it being pretty damn good, this album and review thereof is hopefully a large fire underneath me to get this blog going again... BUT ENOUGH ABOUT THAT! Let's get on with the review.

First off, what's the story behind the album? I took a bit of time to look into this, and this is what I found out. Careless Juja was originally an act consisting of TWO guys... Codename Careless (of Random Encounter) and Codename Juja (of himself). They met online and began to make beautiful music together. Eventually they met in person, struck up even MORE music, and continued onwards into greatness! Now, keep in mind, they're a duo (and randomly sometimes a larger group) that seems to only rarely meet like when a unicorn fights a slightly rarer version of a unicorn. So they don't often get together, but when they do, it's pretty magical. (There's also a pretty epic/amazing/crazy story that goes into the album's making. You get a PDF copy when you purchase it from bandcamp. I won't reveal it here, but it's worth a read!)

Secondly, Careless Juja threw up a Kickstarter back in late 2013 to produce a new album, Professor Layton & the Bay Harbor Butcher. (link here) Basically, they had most of the material together, but they needed the funding to make their wondrous vision a true reality in sparkling high definition CD! With some help of some cool people (Sad to say, I wasn't part of it this time...), they were successful and created the great musical album I'm here to review today!

Now we finally come to the part where I actually review it!

Starting off, this is a pretty large album! For video game music standards, were' looking at 25 tracks if you get the full experience with all the goodies. Keep in mind, some of these are short-style, bonus-type tracks, but it's still a pretty large selection.

When you first being the trek of this album, you're greeted with a very humorous little track involving various animated characters speaking about the successful Kickstarter to fund the album. It's mostly in thanks but pretty funny what all variety goes down. I won't spoil who is all there, but it's definitely worth a listen while going through the album for a good chuckle. Then you're smacked in the face with the title track... and you realize the journey has just begun.

Now, I'll be honest. I didn't get the reference from the album at first, but I just looked it up. It's a cross-reference between Professor Layton (clearly) and Dexter (not as clearly cause I never watched it). Regardless of the lack of reference knowledge, it's still an enjoyable song.

Then we charge into the multitude of great video game music! I could go every single song in detail, but as per my usual standard and rule, that would be a bit much. Instead, I'll list up the songs on the album and highlight some of the greater awesomes and surprises contained within.

In order by track...

1. An Introduction... From the Future! (Lots of animated character references here. Namely... "future" ones.)
2. Professor Layton & the Bay Harbor Butcher ( Professor Layton mixed with Dexter)
3. Puzzle Theme (Professor Layton)
4. Electric De Chocobo (Final Fantasy VII)
5. Birth of a God (Final Fantasy VII)
6. Devil's Lab (Final Fantasy VI) - Easily one of my favorite songs from FFVI!
7. Safe Chambers (Resident Evil 1 & 2)
8. Ending Theme (Resident Evil)
9. Running (Mega Man Battle Network) - Looooove it!
10. Tyrian the Level (Tyrian) - Super unexpected and a huge treat.
11. Battle Theme 2 (Chrono Trigger)
12. Battle Theme 1 (Chrono Trigger)
13. SeinSnail'd (Snailiad)
14. Lux Lirata (Snailiad)
15. Bout (Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!)
16. Corneria (Star Fox)
17. Protomans' Castle (Mega Man V)
18. Golgo 13: Top Secret Episode (Golgo 13: Top Secret Episode) - Pretty straightforward there. 
19. Miss You (Random Encounter) - It seems that our friends the Random Encounter has made an appearance! Not a surprise considering Careless is a member of that band.
20. Onett (Earthbound) - Earthbound is always a treat~
21. Miss You [Instrumental] (Random Encounter
22. Sherlock Holmes Variety Hour - This and the following 3 tracks are all featured from a web show parody bit involving Sherlock Holmes. I watched it to see what was up. Not really my thing, but I'm not much for Youtube-style shows. The music is good and catchy though~
23. Sherlock Holmes Variety Hour [slow]
24. Sherlock Holmes Variety Hour [rock]
25. Reporter Marcus (Sherlock Holmes Variety Hour) 

There you have it! All twenty five tracks listed out and with identifying parenthesis to identify what they're from. I'd like to say I'm incredibly happy with the variety here. I realize it's hard to resist sometimes, but it's nice to see an album that isn't all just the core set of video game music cover-y. Even worse is when someone does the core set of video games, and then they set up for the even MORE core set. (IE doing Mega Man 2 versus any other Mega Man title or... Maybe I'm just nitpicking.) Regardless, it's nice to see a large variety like those above!

As for special mentions, I'm going to start with a track that came with super impeccable and awesome timing. Running from Mega Man Battle Network was just such a pleasant surprise that I didn't know how to react. On top of that, Mega Man Battle Network had just seen a release on the WiiU online store. (They've been re-releasing GBA games on there because that's such a great use of the WiiU's power.) I was playing through it, and then I got this album and... BAM! Greatness achieved.

Following that track was an even GREAT surprise to see a Tyrian cover! I don't always play shoot-um ups, but when I do, Tyrian is easily the top on my list. That game has such great music that I would start it up right now purely for the music. (You can actually buy that album on Bandcamp right here, or get the full game for FREE on gog.com by simply opening an account.) Do yourself a favor and go play it. Classic shoot-um up that holds up even today!

And like previously stated in the listing, the Earthbound track for Onett makes an appearance and proves that Earthbound is always a treat. That game is easily one of the greater SNES RPGs (among a list of many, many great SNES RPGs), and it's a personal favorite for purely the setting. Not many games have been able to pull off the modern-ish setting without throwing in so much fantasy it isn't funny. Only other series I can think of that comes close is Shadow Hearts. (Great looking series but only played the second one. Need to get back on track though!)

Among the special mentions comes a game I ended up looking into since I was clueless about it. Snailiad is a browser game that plays something along the lines of Metroid with Snails. I wasn't sure when I first loaded it up, but I gave it a bit of time and it surprised me. The game was genuinely fun, interesting mechanics with the snail wall climb-ary, and offered a challenge here and there.  The music was good too, so I can see why they decided to cover it. I'd give the game more time now, but I just can't seem to spare what time to do what I want as is. 

The final mention I'd have is for Devil's Lab. Now... pardon the next statement, but for one who doesn't love Final Fantasy VI as much as the REST of the Final Fantasy community, this is easily my favorite song from the game. I've heard a couple different variances on the cover of the song, and I enjoy all of them! It's a nice evil, brooding laboratory vibe and sound going on. I like it. I really do. Just... not as much in love with the game as other people. /end that thought

Now, as I've said before, I'm not the best at like describe the musical characteristics of the tracks. I will say that, much like in Random Encounter, I do greatly enjoy the accordion being on board. It just works so well with so many video game songs! Beyond the accordion, the song covers are mostly along the sound of rock music.

I can admit... I don't love every song, but that's because I'm unfamiliar with the soundtracks of some of the games included. Despite that though, I will say I enjoyed every single song on the album in one way or another. Just more connected to those I know versus the ones I don't.

Thus, in the end, I'd say that Careless Juja brings us a great video game music cover album. You got a great selection of songs done in the rock style with the addition of the accordion. Once again, I've found myself in another video game rock album that I can't NOT like! I look forward to purchasing their other album (Pixel Glass) and future releases from this crazy duo. If you're looking for a hot new listen in your video game band rock list, then buy you some Careless Juja and prepare to be blown away!

~May the Crystals Guide Me~

Side Post!

A little something I thought of a while back, but now I'm going to organize it into thought and post!!!

Recurring Fantasy Side Post Theater Proudly Presents
The List of Greatness Missed and Regretful Purchases

To sum it up, I've made some bad game purchases in my day. Many games have been gotten and almost immediately eliminated from my collection. Was it the game's fault? Yes. Yes it was. However, in that same vein of thought, I've also looked over games and/or passed some titles by. Only to come back later and realize that a mistake was made in NOT getting that greatness! I could probably make quite a list if I really went at it, but for now, I'm going to limit it.

I will list three games of Greatness Missed and three games of Regretful Purchases. Let's start with the regrets so we can wrap this all up with greatness! First up, let's get a list going...

Regretful Purchases
1. Witch and the Hundred Knight
2. Hyperdimension Neptunia
3. Adventure Time: Explore the Dungeon Because I DON'T KNOW

Now, I could easily go on and on with NIS (Nippon Ichi Software) titles, but I'll spare us the longwinded rant and just say... I do not appreciate them. However, I'm not going to start anything here. Let's focus on the Regretful by starting with #3 and just rising up from there...

Now, I am a fan of the TV show, Adventure Time. Lots of people are. It's a fairly entertaining show with a generally great story, fun characters, and lots of goodies thrown throughout. It's lots of little jokes they make, say, do that entertains me here. When I saw the "Explore the Dungeon Because I DON'T KNOW" coming down the line, I went so far as to reserve it to get a copy. It was to be a dungeon crawler with multiplayer elements! What's not to love?

The game came out, I picked it up, and then... the unfun started. The game follows the show's look and style all throughout while giving itself a game-like look for kicks. (The animated cutscenes are quite humorous and made to look like old-style arcade almost.) Then you start playing the game and try to enjoy it... But it's very slow and monotonous. I expected a bit more fun and expansion as I was going, but you don't really get anything new.

Some characters have special abilities or different attributes that make them different, but that doesn't help anything when the game just feels soooo sloooow and repetitious. Floor after floor of exploration, but it ends up not really changing. Even when the dungeon changes from like a cave style to an ice cave style (or other various palette changes), the gameplay never evolves or grows to be different. Smack this, smack that, repeat... a lot. You get money to upgrade your character, but the upgrades start getting really expensive and would require hours of grinding it up. Combine that with quickly boring gameplay, and you have yourself a super boring game! I traded it in and never looked back.

Up next comes Hyperdimension Neptunia. Now, keep in mind, I'm talking about the very first version of the game, and not the various upgrades or sequels that were released later. (There's like 3-4 of them now, but I think only ONE is an actual sequel.) The gameplay consisted of dungeon crawling mixed in with turn-based input-style battles. (When I say input-style, I mean like you give your character a series of actions, and then they go through them. Kinda like Xenogears or Legend of Legaia?)

It had a customization system in place, but it didn't really seem to do a lot apart from cosmetics. Of course, I may just not have given the game much of a chance. I remember very little of the characters or story, but I do remember not feeling that interested. This came around the time my anime-love side was really starting to fall out. I still enjoy anime here and there, but my love for it is mostly dissipated at this point. Getting back on track, the cutesy little girls that are designed to represent consoles... Got old and annoying.

The only plus of this game is that they did the live-avatar style of 2D displays. Basically, rather than a dead single-imaged box that would randomly change based on the character's speaking style, you got a live image of the character that looked and felt alive. They would appear to be breathing and actively change expressions as they talked. (Of course, I might be thinking of the wrong game... I know Trinity Universe did it for sure! But I won't go into that because I didn't really enjoy it either.) Doesn't matter really. I didn't have much interest in the game, and I never got far enough because it never truly grabbed me. Another game bought (even got the fancy NIS super special edition) and then traded in.

Finally, we come to a more recent game I got. Now, considering all the dislike for NIS, one would think I'd have never touched this game. Well, I reserved this game on a recommendation. The guy acted like it was something good coming down the line, and that it would REALLY be worth the money. So I gave it a shot! That was my biggest mistake yet.

There's really no excuse for me though. I didn't really research into the game, and I was trusting that guy's opinion completely. (He's someone I can almost always trust the opinion of! In his defense, he also greatly regretted the game's purchase as well.) ANYWAYS!

The game starts off, and it's already abundantly an NIS game. The characters, the look and style, the attitude and how everything is going. It's clear this game was their baby. I'm nowhere in the game, and I feel like it's Disgaea... but an action RPG! On top of that, I played for a few hours, and the game didn't explain ANY of the gameplay. I was informed of the controls, and then set loose into the world.

It took time to explain the most basic of mechanics (ones you could probably figure out from just messing around), but then neglected to explain ANYTHING else. Granted, it might have went on to explain these later, but damn it! I gave the game like 4-5 hours of my time, and I was kinda frustrated with all these things around me I had no clue what they did.

The worst part of it all? It was just a terrible action RPG in the end. It did really basic action RPG things, but it never felt new, unique, or even fun. The story and characters started feeling pretty much like previous games from NIS, so... I lost all interest. I recently sold the game and plan to never ever look back.

The main moral of all those? I paid full price for those games, and they didn't deserve even half of what I gave for them.

THANKFULLY! I've also found some greatness along the way, and these games easily make up for what I've lost on the terribleness... The list is below!

Greatness Missed
1. Dragon's Crown
2. Remember Me
3. Naughty Bear

As with my last list, I'll start with the third one first. That brings up the very odd title known as... NAUGHTY BEAR!

I don't really even know how to describe this hilarious and oddly entertaining title. I was informed about it quite some time after its release and was informed of a "Gold Edition" that I needed to play. After the weirdness was described, I took a chance and played the game. And... it's pretty fun times actually!

The game combines stealth with an island of teddy bears and a strange British announcer. The icing on top? You're trying to stealth-ily murder said teddy bears while the British announcer makes commentary. It's pretty hilarious on the outside, and on the inside, it's actually a decent game. You play Naughty Bear. He's the lone bear that all the other Teddy Bears tend to stay away from and pick on. However, you are out to get your revenge! As you progress through the game, you deal with the teddy bears in various ways and do all kinds of hilariousness!

The game combines being gruesome and violent without actually being either one! When bears die/are killed, there is no blood or guts. Instead, they explode into nothingness or ooze stuffing. I honestly can't do the game justice of all the hilarious little elements. (Youtube video of the first chapter)

The graphics may be a bit plain, but the gameplay and the hilariousness involved. You can kill bears in so many ways. Heck, you can scare one of the various teddy bears into suicide! It's a generally pleasing game in a strange package. It's not easy to find a game that generally plays well and fun while somehow being unique. It's got several levels with varying themes (aliens, the army, zombies, and more). It's a game I really wish I could have supported at release... Definitely worth a play if you find it!

Next on the Greatness list is Remember Me. I actually picked up and beat this game pretty recently. I considered this game around its release time, but the timing, money, and unsuredness made me skip it then. I do regret that now because appearance and reviews were deceiving.

Around its time of release, most reviews seemed to look down on the game and claimed it was unrefined and lacked polish. However, despite the lack of polish to the game, my playthrough yielded quite a bit of fun and enjoyment!

It plays like a beat-um-up with platforming, exploration, and parkour (wall-climbing really). Combat is sorta like a beat-um-up, but you are able to configure the combos. Your character has combos based on simply pressing Triangle or Circle. The combos are simple but composed of multiple interchangeable effects called Pressens. You can build your combos to deal more damage, heal yourself, decrease the cooldowns on special attacks, or even simply boost the previous pressen to do more. Despite the simplicity, it allows you to customize your combos in a variety of ways. This made the combat interesting without feeling too complex. (The game only has like 5 different combos, so you get to learn them fast without feeling overwhelmed to keep pausing it or whatever.)

Getting away from the combat, the game has a pretty interesting story and nice selection of characters in a fairly unique setting. Long story short, memories have become a commodity (they're bought, sold, traded, etc), and your character is someone who's able to steal and even CHANGE a person's memory. You get to play a few memory remixing parts, and they're definitely the star attraction in the game. Unfortunately, there are only four in the entire game. (Really, really should have had more)

The game excels in almost every category possible! The story? Interesting and different! Characters? Interesting enough that you want to learn more. Gameplay and mechanics? Simple yet complex enough to offer variety and fun.  In general, it felt like something new and different in a sea of games that just seem to clone each other again and again. Sad about this because it was a great game and didn't do too well on release. Regardless, I've played it and plan to spread the love. (I actually gave my copy to a friend and encouraged him to play it.)

Now, it's finally time for my #1 Greatness Missed.... Dragon's Crown!

Dragon's Crown is a game with so much going for it, and yet... I kinda overlooked it. I remember hearing about it and seeing it, but I never ended up getting it. I only recently acquired the game when it became a free title through PlayStation Plus. (If you own a PS3, GET PLAYSTATION PLUS IMMEDIATELY!) I figured it was time to give the game a shot and... I really really regret not getting it sooner.

I downloaded the game because a couple friends and I were looking for a co-op game. To our knowledge, Dragon's Crown offered couch co-op, and thus we jumped on in. You get to create a character from one of six classes: Fighter, Amazon, Wizard, Elf, Dwarf, Sorceress. With that done, you're slowly introduced into the game. And it's already amazing on several levels.

The design of the game is just so gosh darn pretty! It's hand drawn graphics and backgrounds that... Well they look like this!

Do you see all that pretty!?! It looks just saw amazing! Of course, this particular picture shows off one of the few problems I had with the game. The Sorceress (lady in the witch hat) and Amazon (lady with the axe) are highly overly sexualized. They aren't even sexy... It's just hilariously awkward almost. This gif alone will either excite, disturb, or make you roll around laughing because... WELL LOOK! (link) Plain and simple, they overdid it.

However, going past that, the game's just a pile of fun and pretty. The look is great. The story is pretty good (what I've played so far), and it plays and feels a bit like Dungeons and Dragons. You are questing through this mystical world for various things and together with friends! However, if you don't have friends, you can always pick up the dead bones of adventurers and revive them for NPC assistance. 

The gameplay style is close to that of an old school side-scrolling beat-um-up mixed with some RPG elements of levels, equipment, and perks. It's nothing new persay, but it's all done quite well. Journeying through a delightfully well done fantasy world. It's a great game, and I'm sad I didn't support it more in the beginning...

And that's pretty much it! It's been a while since I've done a post like this, and it feels good to finally get another one out. I realize it's not as sophisticated or detailed as previous posts, but I'm making steps here to rectify all the time I've been gone. 

Hope you enjoyed a little insight into what I felt were gaming selection mistakes for me!

Stay tuned for more Recurring Fantasy and...

~May the Crystals Guide Me~

News Post! (8/15/2014)

WELP, I dropped all the balls. All of them.

Long story short, playing Dragon Warrior III (and this blog in general) started feeling less like fun and more like a job. That really got me down, and then I decided to break out of here and make a run for the hills. Once in those hills, I became too comfortable with just ignoring and not updating or posting. This is bad. I can and will do better. However, here are the most likely ground rules of what is to come...

1. I'm not going to continue Dragon Warrior III at this time. If I decide to continue the series, I'll probably skip over III and go straight to IV. (They start being remakes and less old-school hassle to play.)

2. It's most likely that I pick up either another classic RPG or even a newer one to play through and review. I'm undecided at the moment, but I've got a few bullets in the chamber to consider.

3. Much like before, I won't promise anything, but I will REALLY try to get back on track here. I give mad props to someone who has a site/blog/whatever that they upkeep almost everyday with new content and such to offer. I feel silly next to any of those people, regardless of what their content is. (Personally would prefer quality to quantity, but something is better than nothing. Amirite?)

4. Referring back to 2, I think I will aim for random RPGs rather than doing a whole series. You probably noticed near the end of Final Fantasy that I was really slowing down on cranking those posts out. There's a reason for that. It was a year and a half of playing the series straight through, and the later games were not as great as earlier ones. If I did it again, I'd probably go backwards from the latest to the first.

5. In the future, I plan to buy and play Final Fantasy XV. I will probably go so far as to interrupt what I'm currently playing to pick it up and beat it. (Might as well do SOMETHING with that PlayStation 4 I have...)

6. Hurray for 6! It's just a placeholder.

In summation, I'm going to try better and see if I can't get this blog running again. If there's anybody out there who's still coming around, expect something soon... very soon. (Not that VGBA about History Repeating Red, that's something that was backlogged that I needed to get out first.)

Onward we go!

~May the Crystals Guide Me~

VGBA 12 - History Repeating Red

It's been some time since I posted... No point making any kind of excuses or apologies though. Let's dive into something good! And that good...

Video Game Band Awareness #12 

History Repeating - Red

Buy me here!

Band - The Megas.
Sites - Site. Facebook. Bandcamp. 
Type of Album - Mega Man II Rock/Metal Remix Tribute Album.
Genres - Metal. Rock.
Favorite Song - Harder Than Steel.
Review - I've gotten new music here and there since my last VGBA, but this one is definitely among the top of my newest musical recruits. The Megas have returned with the part two to their epic coverage of the Mega Man 3 soundtrack and story. Now, for those who are out of the loop, The Megas are a video game band (obviously) whose work so far has been to cover a large number of various Mega Man music. This includes several songs from Mega Man 1, the majority of Mega Man 2, and with History Repeating Red, they've wrapped up the loose ends for Mega Man 3.

The goal of the History Repeating combo was the cover the entirety of Mega Man 3. The first album did the first half of the story focusing on Mega Man, Omega, and four of the eight Robot Masters. (Spark Man, Magnet Man, Top Man, and Snake Man). History Repeating Blue was just so much greatness. It did fantastic re-imaginings of the various songs that it covered. However, that was quite some time ago. The original plan was to make one giant album, but they decided partway to release one half then come back around for the final half... And that final half is History Repeating Red!

They've blasted back with the remaining Robot Masters (Hard Man, Gemini Man, Shadow Man, and Needle Man), and to save the best for last... We get some Protoman up in here! Of course that brings us to the obvious question... What did I truly think about this album?

The album starts off strong with a song about Rush and Mega Man. Well... that's if you hear it outright, if you really listen to it, it's a kinda sad song. (I'm not going to delve completely into the album, but much like its sequel, there's more than just the surface.) With that song's end comes easily one of my favorites on the entire album... HARDER THAN STEEL! (Hardman's theme). It takes a lot of inspiration from boxing movies and their themes. It's just a great beat all around here and awesome listen.

From here, the album kinda loses steam for me. I still really enjoy it overall, but most of the songs from this point just don't hold up as well. GeminEye is really cool sound and interesting take on Gemini Man's theme, but it doesn't compare to the previous two songs.

Then we journey through some great Shadow Man and Needle Man covers to find us at the Proto Man songs. The first thing I felt when I heard these was... Didn't the Protomen already do a set like this? (They're really similar some two or three songs from The Protomen's first album, or at least the style and song-story-stuff going on is.) Keep in mind!... That's not a bad thing. Pretty awesome actually.

When the album finally wrapped up, I still really loved it. It's not quite the level that History Repeating Blue brought to the table, but it's really damn close. However, being my style, I can't bring myself to be all berating of it. Is it better than Blue? Nope. Is it worse than Blue? Nope! It's a great sequel and finale to this long tale of The Megas and Mega Man II.

Of course, I no longer "rate" these albums, and I almost ALWAYS love them so... GO BUY IT! It's a great album by a great band. If you asked me to choose between Blue and Red (and not talking about Pokemon), I'd tell you to grab Blue. It's the better album of the two, but it's also only a single piece of a two-part epic. Do yourself a favor and download History Repeating Purple! (The band's name for purchasing both albums together.~)


~May the Crystals Guide Me~