Are you excited for BlazeBlue Central Fiction? Well we have some gameplay footage to show off from our stream last week, showing off two of the new characters. You can also catch our review for the title soon, so be on the look out for that.
BlazBlue Central Fiction is out tomorrow , November 1 in North America. The Title will be available for Playstation 3, and Playstation 4.
Aksys Games and developer Spike Chunsoft has announced Zero Escape: The Nonary Games, a double pack including Zero Escape: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors (999) and Zero Escape: Virtue’s Last Reward, exclusive to PlayStation 4 and PS Vita and launching both physically and digitally in spring 2017 in North America and Europe.
@aksysgames Physical and digital in NA and EU.
— Aksys Games (@aksysgames) October 31, 2016
You catch the overview below:
So what exactly is a Nonary Game? In essence, the game contains nine “players” or participants. You assume the role of one of these participants and compete towards a common goal. “No big deal, I love a good, friendly competition!” you say to yourself. Well, not so fast… The rules of each game vary from title to title, but the end goal is always the same: you must fight for survival and do everything in your power to escape with your life! That’s right, the price for losing this game is death. Did we mention that you’ve been “entered” against your will?
The main antagonist in both games is the enigmatic Zero. Who is Zero? What does Zero want? Why are you in this situation to begin with? Fair questions to be sure, but to answer any of these would simply ruin the experience! A special feature of each Nonary Game is the implementation of a watch-like device, which is attached to each participant’s wrist. Unique to each game, the watch serves a few sinister functions, most notably as the very probable agent of your demise! Needless to say, your quest will focus on solving the mystery of your surroundings and successfully removing the lethal time piece.
The Zero Escape franchise is renowned for its engrossing narrative and complex story, and The Nonary Games collection serves as the definitive version of the first two games. For both the uninitiated and seasoned escapists, The Nonary Games is the perfect gateway into this deadly and thought-provoking world.
Last year Aksys Games released a pretty unique, cute, and challenging puzzle game titled, Ninja Usagimaru – The Gem of Blessingsfor the 3DS. This year, Aksys Games is at it again with the release of Ninja Usagimaru -The Mysterious Karakuri Castle. When I first saw this game, I had no clue what I was getting into. All I had going for me was, that I know I have never touched the first title, but knew I liked puzzle games, and I like titles published by Aksys Games. This then made me jump into the head scratching Ninja Usagimaru -The Mysterious Karakuri Castle, but is this a title you should jump into? Let’s find out with our latest review.
The story begins with the character Usagimaru, “a legendary hero who wondered the land as the wind or his will took him”. Well, the winds decide to take Usagimaru “back to the village he once called home.” where he stumbles upon a badly wounded rabbit he recognizes as Toyoukebime who then tells Usagimaru that the village was attacked and all of the villagers were abducted and it is up to Usagimaru to rescue them.
As you progress though the game the story is the usual hero-saving-helpless-villagers story that we all have seen before. It’s nice but plain, and as anyone who has played puzzle games knows, puzzles games do not need stories. It is a nice touch, I give it that, but it does not really engage the player to do better. What I am trying to say is, the story is there but it isn’t that special to stand out for players, or for even have enough to make players care.
The art style of Ninja Usagimaru -The Mysterious Karakuri Castle uses Japanese water colors and chibi anime style to present itself in such a nice and subtle way. It blends well, which helps make the game match its ninja protagonist and the Japanese folklore enemies. I can not really complain much on any of the visuals, because when first turning on Ninja Usagimaru, the title screen and the gameplay do not mislead players with any of its art and the direction it leads to.
So, let’s just get this out the way: I usually put an audio breakdown in my reviews, but this time I avoided it. Mainly because Ninja Usagimaru: The Mysterious Karakuri Castle soundtrack lacks. Most of the time its just a loop of the same 30 secs of audio.
Ok, since that is out of the way, the gameplay is quite addicting. Players will find themselves playing 60 different puzzle stages without the game holding your hand. A lot of times, players will even be so puzzled they will have to try, and try again, numerous amount of times just to figure out how to take each puzzle on. Whether its saving a villager, getting a block to the right place, or even crushing a kidnapper, Ninja Usagimaru: The Mysterious Karakuri Castle will have you scratching your head a few times per stage
Ninja Usagimaru: The Mysterious Karakuri Castle is game that his hard, and excellent to look at, but lacks in music/audio and story is plain(which like I said before, is not important for a puzzle game).Would I recemmoend it? Yes, Ninja Usagimaru: The Mysterious Karakuri Castle is a nice pick up for the 3DS owners, and I would recommend it to anyone who wants a challenge. As for new players, it’s a nice pick up to jump back and forth into for some pretty difficult challenges.
Starting October 11, players who pre-order BlazBlue: Central Fiction from the PlayStation Store in North America, will gain access to a special demo. The demo will include
BlazBlue: Central Fiction will launch for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3 this Thursday, October 6 in Japan, on November 1 in North America.
Tokyo Twilight Ghost Hunters Daybreak: Special Gigs, or Tokyo Twilight: SG for short, is an Adventure game turn based strategy game about ghost hunting . This game is actually an updated version of another game which means this updated version of the game has extra features the original version didn’t have. Unfortunately, I did not play that game so this review comes from a new-to-the-series perspective.
Visuals
Unlike other Story/Adventure games Tokyo Twilight: SG has moving sprites of the characters. It’s something I’m not used to and was odd at first, but as I got used to it, I felt that they were actually pretty neat. The backgrounds, though, are a different matter. They aren’t interactive; it’s just a background. Finally, the turn based part of the game is nothing to look at its just tiles and symbols which, admittedly, was kinda of confusing to look at.
Story
The story opens with the protagonist transferring to a new school and running into the class president, her friend, the to-be CEO of Gatekeepers (the Ghost hunters), and one of the employees who happens to be a classmate. After a tour with the class president, things quickly escalate into you helping exercise a ghost! Quite a quick move towards the action. So as not to spoil too much, thats all I will say on the story, but overall it was very enjoyable it is definitely the strong point of Tokyo Twilight: GS.
Audio
I was not very impressed with the audio of this game. If you stay on a “page” or battle for too long, the music just gets repetitive, but that’s OK because you can always turn it down; you won’t miss out on anything. The only time I didn’t have the game on silent was when I got to a new area just to hear the new music that might be playing.
Gameplay
The game play was actually pretty hard when it came down to the turn based part of the game. I feel like the battle system was not explained too well and when I was finally given the reigns I found myself really confused. All the game told me was, “Try to anticipate the ghost’s movements.” Really helpful, game! Once I got used to it, I was able to play a little better, but it only really got harder. Outside of battle was even more confusing. There was no explanation, at all, about what the choice wheels meant or did. I had to guess a lot at first and learn from there. There are 2 wheels. The first wheel had an emotion: Love, Friendship, Anger, Sadness, Anxiety. The second wheel had a sense: Taste, Hearing, Touch, Smell, Sight. Combining these resulted in odd reactions from people. For example, the first thing I did was choose touch and love, which just resulted in me trying to touch a character I hardly knew much to that characters disgust. I had no idea what I was doing at first, it could have been explained a little at least, rather than not at all.
Verdict
Despite its short comings I really enjoyed Tokyo Twilight: SG, the story had me hooked even if the battles were so hard that I had to do some of them more than once. If you have not played Tokyo Twilight then I say play the 2016 version instead, unless you want to find out what the differences are between that one and Special Gigs.
Think you will try it? Let us know in the comments!
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