So I managed an apartment building (in a game)

There are a few games I want to take some time to talk about, but since I don't quite feel like any of that yet I'm going to just quickly mention a game I recently gave a shot. The game is One Piece Mansion for the PS1 and one thing that can be said about it is it's unique. If you are familiar with the Japanese manga and anime called One Piece, it's important to note this game has nothing to do with them whatsoever. I understand the word mansion in Japan is used to refer to an apartment building with thick walls, and that's about the extent that I can explain the game's name.

Anyhow, in the game you are a landlord who manages their apartment building by placing and moving tenants and rooms. Some tenants have positive effects on their neighbors, others have negative effects. If a tenant's mood takes too much of the latter they leave and you take a monetary penalty. So at first glance it becomes a matter of placing everyone so all their moods are more or less balanced, but another twist comes in with criminals who come into rooms and cannot be moved. You essentially need to "attack" these criminals by placing unpleasant tenants near them to get them to leave. Since the criminals are always coming and going, the need to constantly move tenants around never really ends. You can also take direct control of the landlord and move around the building, which is necessary when criminals leave their rooms and need to be shooed away before doing something like set fire to a tenant's room. Things can get frantic and chaotic quick.

I don't usually feel the need to give a detailed explanation of a game (since such descriptions can easily be found elsewhere typically) but an exception here is that this game is a rather unique puzzle game and also a pretty obscure one as well. When I heard about the game I was intrigued, so I thought it was worth sharing. Unfortunately, this may end up being somewhat of a tease because at time of writing it's not easily available like many PS1 titles in the Playstation store, so you would actually need to get access to the PS1 disc to play. It's also a very short game. Over the course of a few days of light playing I've finished off the story mode twice and tried the equivalent of a survival mode a few times, and that's about the extent of what the game offers.

So if it sounds interesting and you get the opportunity to try it, have at it.

Review: A new Castlevania approaches... in 3D!

So I guess I'm going to talk about another game for the Nintendo 3DS, that game being Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate this week. A few times now I think I've mentioned that Castlevania is among my favorite series. However, I don't feel that completely includes the Lords of Shadow games, which are practically a different beast altogether. Lords of Shadow is a reboot essentially, although I like to think of it more as a project of some new hands trying to get in and do their own thing and then get out before they overstay their welcome.

All that said however, I enjoyed the first Lords of Shadow game and I enjoyed this one as well. Yahtzee's Zero Punctuation review of the game on The Escapist heavily compared this game to God of War and at one point jokingly calls it 'God of War: Germanic Mythology Edition'. Honestly, that's relatively accurate. It does feel like God of War in many ways. While there are token Castlevania elements like a guy whose last name is Belmont and many of the standard vampire hunter weapons, a significant portion of the game felt like it had no business being named Castlevania.

I mention this because Mirror of Fate feels significantly more like a Castlevania game. There are familiar faces like Simon Belmont and Alucard (not the same versions of them but still), and now the entirety of the game takes place in and around Dracula's castle. That's actually a pretty bad explanation of how it has the good old Castlevania feel, but maybe it will become clearer as I go along. You explore the areas of the game in a method similar to the 'Metroidvania' titles like Symphony of the Night. Unfortunately, although there are many side paths and little nooks tucked away, most of the areas of the game are very linear. It's more like if a series entry such as Super Castlevania IV were mapped out but the game allowed you to backtrack to earlier areas, with the added utility of things like unlocking shortcuts and the rare teleporter. Also unfortunately, the most interesting things you come across in the trouble spent exploring and backtracking are mostly boring old upgrades to your maximum life, magic and item capacity.

What didn't change from the first Lords of Shadow was the combat, which I didn't really mind. Granted the combat is now in a side-scrolling environment and you don't need to worry about enemies coming at you from every direction, but it still has the same combo-able feel and it's pretty fun to just wale on things. Attacks chain together fluidly, they feel like they have some real power to them, and it's easy to go into and out of aerial techniques. I didn't find the game very challenging overall and most enemies are easy to deal with. Keeping an eye open for a white glow (signaling an un-blockable attack that typically also cannot be interrupted) and a finger over the dodge button is enough to casually deflect most of the danger the typical enemy offers. Bosses are another story as their massive amount of life and powerful attacks mean memorizing their attacks and looking for openings is the way to go usually. The frequency of checkpoints does offset the difficulty the bosses offer by a lot though.

The look of the game is one of its' strengths I think. Plenty of interesting architecture, varied areas and relatively detailed environments along with some nice enemy design all go toward this strength. Castlevania games are generally known for looking and sounding pretty good, but I didn't think as highly of Mirror of Fate's music. I'm not saying it was bad, but I found almost instantly forgettable. Sound effects were better.

Mirror of Fate's story is relatively interesting, although difficult to talk about without revealing certain things. You play Simon Belmont, Trevor Belmont and Alucard, taking different paths through the castle and dealing with different challenges. After the rather unique ending of Lords of Shadow, I went into this game expecting something similar. In this I was disappointed. I saw the story's big twist coming a mile away. Other parts like the explanation of the masked creature and the titular Mirror of Fate itself fell completely flat for me.

I have my complaints with the game, but I will say I enjoyed it for what it is. I wouldn't be against seeing another game like it. However, it in no way replaces the 'Metroidvania' games of the series. These offer a certain something that Mirror of Fate just can't.

My rating: 7.5/10

Retreading the legend... in 3D?

Obviously, it has been awhile since my last post. So, that said, moving on.

Awhile back I went and played some game called the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Apparently it has some name recognition. Okay, to be more technical I replayed it for... I don't know, somewhere in the vicinity of the fourth or sixth time? But ah ha - it was the first time I played it on the newfangled Nintendo 3DS doohickey (says the guy who bought it nearly two years after it came out).

So how did it stand up? Approximately the same, which is to say approximately the same amount of awesome. I mean, it's Ocarina of Time, it really doesn't need to be elaborated on too much unless I'm talking to someone who really needs to brush up on their Zelda's.

The most noticeable thing about the 3DS version is some highly polished visuals. Then I looked between the new polish and what it looked like on the N64, and I realized just how significant an upgrade it was. The textures are now greatly improved and look much nicer. Overall the game looks more detailed and less murky. Many objects also have quite a few more complex polygons for their model. A good example of this is to compare the roots of the tree-like houses in the Kokiri village between the versions. Yet, it struck me as odd that so much was done on this front but the angles and such of the environments themselves were essentially copy and paste. It doesn't bother me really and I guess it goes along with the game providing a more perfectly accurate translation of the gameplay, but I wouldn't have minded if the very unnatural angles in the mountains, hills, cliffs and the like were given a more stylized look.

The only thing that really bothered me is there are a few icons on the bottom screen that must be touched to use - there is no button for them. Considering there are three directions of the D-pad that more of these functions could have been mapped to (in addition to being functional as touch screen icons), this was a baffling design choice. My hands hurt playing this game due to the way I naturally hold it to use L targeting. Although some extra button mapping probably wouldn't change that, it might have helped a little.

To kind of undermine the praise and fanfare I introduced Ocarina of Time to in this post, I will say it's not my favorite Zelda game. That honor goes to Wind Waker on the Gamecube. It's not even my favorite Zelda title on the N64. Gasp! That goes to Majora's Mask. But, you know, Ocarina of Time is still up there. Wind Waker I love for so many reasons: the unique art style, the ocean setting, the finely tuned gameplay, the fun exploration, the merging of new and classic ideas, and more. Majora's Mask... is harder to define. To simple it up, I'll just say it fits my tastes better. Also, I love the creepy moon, the mask transformations, the day/night passage combined with the schedules of people in town, and all the bizarre moments the game offers.

I haven't talked about the 3DS before, so I guess I'll go ahead and say I think the 3D functional is an unnecessary gimmick (again, says the guy nearly two years late to the 'party'). I don't hate it, but it's not something I'm interested in. From my experimenting with the 3D slider and after careful analysis, I've determined it results primarily in headaches. I also am not sure my eyes pick up the 3D in an optimal way. Still, I think it can have some extremely marginal value so I keep the 3D on the most minimal setting possible. That way there's some visual addition from this gimmick that's supposed to be a selling point on this thing and it doesn't seem to cause the headache effect. Other than the stupid 3D, it's basically a more powerful DS, which is far from a bad thing.