Fantasy Life

Fantasy Life, Level-5 and Brownie Brown's life sim and action RPG, is a game with a long and storied history. Originally announced in Japan for the Nintendo DS/DSi generation of consoles back in 2009, it spent three years in development, seeing a platform upgrade to the Nintendo 3DS, finally releasing in Japan-only on 27th December, 2012.

Fantasy Life was closely watched by the western gaming press as the companies and staff involved in its production reads like a who's who of Japanese games industry RPG notables. In addition to Level-5, legendary character artist Yoshitaka Amano and early Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu are also credited on Fantasy Life. Most notably, Fantasy Life is the final game developed by Brownie Brown — before a restructuring and name change to 1-UP Studios — a company that holds a special place in JRPG fans' hearts for, among other things, its involvement with Mother 3, a game that was never officially released in the West. Now that Fantasy Life is finally arriving on western shores, does it deliver on the promise of its formidable creative staff? Absolutely.

At first blush the action RPG elements of Fantasy Life seem almost par for the course — the medieval fantasy setting, a dragon threatening the land, a race of cuddly creatures called the Plushies who haven't yet grasped that their name doesn't form the basis of the Queen's English; but the game excels by expanding the scope of the adventurer's journey by integrating it with the game's life sim features. In addition to gaining XP and earning Dosh (the in-game currency) for littering the landscape with creature corpses, each Life has its own series of challenges which award stars.
When enough stars are earned, the player ranks up in the Life they are currently living and gains access to new skills or recipes that also mostly remain usable when a character switches Lives, with one exception. Special Skills, unusually powerful or useful techniques, can only be used as part of the character's current Life. While the game certainly supports focusing exclusively on picking up a sword and going to town on the local wildlife or just hanging around the city selling handmade furniture, the full experience of Fantasy Life lies in developing a well-rounded character that can craft his or her own armour and weapons, potions, stat-boosting foods, and more.

All of this may sound like you're building a personal mobile weapons platform that can knit its own ammunition during recoil phases, but the game's difficulty is handled surprisingly well. You won't find yourself switching Lives and single-shot killing everything in sight, and the monsters of new kingdoms feel appropriately challenging once the areas become available. Combat is centred around using special button presses to execute certain moves, requiring a bit of timing to master but certainly not especially difficult, even to action RPG newcomers.
Fantasy Life isn't a game of statistics, gear dependence, and power grubbing, and this is evident in its somewhat eccentric user interface. While the screens are beautifully laid out and clean, this forces some useful information off of the top-level screens. It takes a few button presses to check out an item's statistics, and while shopping there's no immediately visible comparison between currently equipped gear and the selected item in the shop, again taking a few button presses to access. Fantasy Life is obviously not a title for people in a hurry.

Several of Fantasy Life's Lives involve producing goods, such as armour, clothing, and furniture by means of a short minigame. The crafting process is straightforward, requiring changing your character's position at the workbench and then performing the related task at that station in time with the indicator using the A button, and activating special skills once available. The difficulty is noticeable but not punishingly so — it's possible to miss a few taps or launch your character to the wrong place at the workbench and still make the item in the allotted time. Should you fail, your crafting materials will not be consumed, leaving you free to try again with no penalty; another example of design generous to less experienced players.
In addition to XP for character level gains and and stars for Life ranks, there's a third system, called Bliss, that awards points for other life sim related tasks like exploration, making in-game allies and decorating or buying new homes. As you increase your Bliss, you are awarded things like bigger bags, the ability to utilize mounts from different kingdoms and enhanced shopping experiences. Bliss is administered by Flutter, a talking butterfly that becomes your constant companion and neck piece early on in the game.

Fantasy Life's art is superb, with a beautifully colourful palette and cartoony, stylised graphics that are just unrealistic enough to avoid looking ridiculous; the 3D effect works consistently and adds even more richness to the already pleasing graphics. Unfortunately, it does suffer from some minor visual issues. The perspective, which is midway between a top-down and a side view — combined with the relatively low resolution of the 3DS — means that details get somewhat crunched to fit the available pixels or lost entirely, an issue which mostly affects in-game characters — the environment art is consistently fantastic. There was some obvious slowdown in the main cities at times, but this didn't occur frequently enough to be a major concern while playing. If you're looking for pure graphical heft Fantasy Life won't satisfy, but the art definitely supports and enhances the game world's presentation.
Brownie Brown has created a game world suitable for all ages, but mature enough in its presentation that it won't turn off the legal-to-drive crowd. The game's main story addresses themes of acceptance and cooperation in a way that any pro-social parent would be proud to hector their children with. The in-game cinematics that advance the main story, of which there are sadly few, are every bit as delightful as what we've already seen in the game's many trailers, and the 3D effect makes them feel that much more vivid. The music also supports Fantasy Life's light-hearted and humorous tone, but it's not all kazoos and glockenspiels — the bell and violin theme that plays in Castele's city at night is simply and gorgeously haunting.

It should also be noted, though its level of attraction will vary, that this isn't an exclusively single-player adventure. Fantasy Life's multiplayer allows players to get together locally or online in groups of up to three and accomplish the same tasks and challenges as in single-player mode (although it is not possible to advance the main story in multiplayer). With the variety of Lives to live and the range of tasks to perform, any trip to any kingdom with just about anyone is sure to be productive in some way — and you might just get the right help to finally defeat that challenge monster that's spent far too long in your Life list.
Link mode also allows you to send your online friends messages (both group-wide and private), notifications and applause without actually playing together. The onscreen keyboard is alphabetical and not QWERTY, so expect a learning curve when trying to stylus- or fingernail-tap out a message. Using StreetPass, tagged players' Fantasy Life avatars can appear as residents in your main town of Castele; speak with them enough to become friends and eventually they may reward you with gifts. These are welcome touches that will add a great deal to the experience for some, or at the very least offer a fun diversion.

Conclusion

Given the game's relative age, Fantasy Life isn't going to be the shiniest toy on the 3DS' shelf this year, but it just may be the happiest. Providing quality gameplay in both its life sim and action RPG aspects, served up with all of the colourful wit and charm anyone could ask for, it serves as a jewel in the crown of memory of a games studio that helped create some of the most memorable role-playing video games that ever graced the medium. It may now be 1-UP Studios, but Brownie Brown hit its marks with Level 5 in this game. As a farewell for the company in its old guise this is an excellent game for the occasion. So long Brownie Brown, and thanks for all the fun.

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Murdered: Soul Suspect

Murdered: Soul Suspect plays like a great B-movie.

Murdered: Soul Suspect is the best old-fashioned ghost story I've watched or played in years.

Airtight's third person horror game takes inspiration from folk mythology about ghosts and spirits, as well as the mystery genre. That marriage — and the game itself — works much better than Soul Suspect's jokey title led me to believe. While it treads familiar territory for both genres, it feels fresh in its approach and assured, crafted seemingly with a keen sense of what makes each kind of story tick.

The game begins with protagonist Ronan O'Connor's dramatic death — he's thrown out a window and shot with his own gun. Ronan's a gifted detective and prototypical tough guy with a checkered past. In death, he's determined to solve his own murder at the hands of the mysterious Bell Killer — a serial murderer that is terrorizing Salem, Massachusetts — and stop them once and for all.

The plot plays out like hardboiled detective fiction steeped in horror tropes. Ronan monologues like a disembodied Philip Marlowe, but he also passes through walls, possesses the living and talks to mediums (people who can communicate with the spirit world). While the narrative doesn't break new ground for either genre, it's well-paced and stocked with characters that I immediately cared about, including Joy, a sassy young medium, and surprisingly, Ronan himself. I was invested in Ronan's story from the first moments of the game, despite the tired "tattooed antihero" archetype he appears to represent. There's pathos in his story, lent from a difficult upbringing and the losses he's suffered. He's a criminal-turned-cop trying to atone for his past, and he shows real empathy and even tenderness in the way he deals with others — living or dead.
As a ghostly Ronan, it was my job to play detective. For the most part, investigations are straightforward. I would walk around a crime scene or room, examining objects of relevance, occasionally possessing living bystanders or witnesses to read their minds, peek through their eyes, or influence their memory to find further clues. In one early scene, I needed to break into the Bell Killer "war room" at the police precinct and check for leads on the case. I possessed one cop sitting at a computer so I could look through his eyes and get crucial details about a person of interest.
Once I examined all of the evidence in a scene, I had to choose from a visual list of clues to solve the present mystery. Often, I had to pick the three most relevant details that directly addressed a question — "what was the killer doing in the room," for example. I could click on an image depicting a memory I triggered in a possessed witness, or a picture that showed a murder weapon. Finding the right clues was a matter of simple logic, and Soul Suspect didn't punish me for guessing wrong on occasion. The system let me get inside Ronan's head, and I enjoyed playing amatuer detective. I found myself talking to the screen, puzzling out the various clues and getting excited when I nailed the solution on my first try.

I found the most satisfaction in helping other ghosts resolve their pasts and "cross over" to the afterlife. These took the form of side quests where I'd use Ronan's detective skills to look for clues about their death, then report back and allow them to move on. One ghost appeared on the beach near a capsized ship — I investigated and found that she was a hero who saved people from drowning during a cataclysmic sinking. Another ghost was tormented by the thought that he was driving drunk and had killed his friends. These were tiny stories, completely optional, but they added a great deal to Soul Suspect's fiction. I sought out as many as I could find.
In between investigations, I used my ghostly powers to get around. I possessed cats to get into tight spots and climb up ledges, and teleported short distances. Occasionally, I was tasked with guiding a living companion through a high security area. In order to get her through, I had to posses ("poltergeist") inanimate objects to distract guards so she could slip by unnoticed. These areas were always exciting — there's a simple joy in freaking people out by, say, making a copier start bursting paper from its tray, or turning a TV on and off.

Scoping Salem

Airtight's loving rendition of Salem is a chief reason that Soul Suspect works so well. Salem is a real-life harbor city famous for the witch trials that gripped the populace in the 1600s, as depicted in The Crucible. Airtight built a ghostly version that looks and sounds like the real thing — complete with nods to the town's maritime history, countless seafood houses, and grisly tourist attractions — like witch museums and graveyard tours. The only thing missing? Almost none of the locals in the game sport the signature New England accent.

All of the funhouse antics died down when the stealth situation involved demons. Demons are the only enemies that can "kill" Ronan, so I needed to teleport from shadow to shadow to avoid getting my soul sucked. I could execute demons by sneaking up on them, but they had the nasty habit of turning their ghostly backs the moment I wanted to do them in, which led to frustrating deaths. The whole demon enterprise felt like padding — I was invested enough in the story and the detective mechanics, and certainly didn't need a slow stealth puzzle after every major investigation scene.

Soul Suspect is also held back by a few aggravating technical glitches. On the lower end, these issues were merely annoying. For example, the voiceover audio almost never matched up with the subtitles. But occasionally, a game-breaking glitch would ruin the flow. In my very first investigation, the buttons for examining a clue malfunctioned, prompting a restart. And the game crashed on me once during my playthrough. None of this happened often enough to ruin my experience, but it took me out of the game when it did.
Soul Suspect's narrative and world kept me going despite these irritations. Like any great detective story, Soul Suspect is linear, but that was never a problem for me. In between story sections, I was free to wander about Salem, discover hidden stories, chat with other ghosts and solve side quests. I could possess almost every living person and read their mind, eavesdrop on conversations, and generally take in the rich world Airtight built.

Murdered: Soul Suspect is awash in tropes, but somehow, that's part of the charm. It's a pulpy detective tale remixed as a classic ghost story, and it works as a sort of playable B-movie. It's linear and mechanically simple, but it flows well and keeps a fast pace, at least as long as I wasn't chasing down demons. Supernatural Salem was a rich, sad, beautiful place to visit, and as it turned out, Ronan was the perfect tour guide.

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Review: Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate (3DS)

As much as it will pain Castlevania fans to admit, the series was in a pretty bad state prior to the release of Castlevania: Lords of Shadow in 2010. Although a string of "Metroidvania" entries — produced under the guidance of the enigmatic Koji "IGA" Igarashi — had hit the mark from a critical standpoint, less worthy instalments dragged the brand downwards (Castlevania Judgment, anyone?) and its commercial performance remained decidedly lackluster.

In order to keep pace with the latest action adventure experiences, fresh blood was required — and Madrid-based MercurySteam provided just that. Lords of Shadow may have annoyed purists raised on the likes of Dracula X: Rondo of Blood and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, but it achieved its goal — at the time of writing it's the best-selling entry in the entire lineage, according to Konami. It has also spawned two sequels, one of which is currently in production and the other the subject of this review.

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate takes place after the cataclysmic events of the original Lords of Shadow, and if you've not played that particular game yet and wish to avoid spoilers, we advise you stop reading now. Lords of Shadow protagonist Gabriel Belmont has become Dracula, and his son Trevor — whose existence he is unaware of at the time of his transformation — has been taken under the protection of the Brotherhood of Light as a baby. In time, Trevor has a son of his own — Simon — who is also separated from his parents at an early age and forced to fend for himself. The game puts you in the shoes of several different characters, but the main quest begins in earnest as Simon Belmont enters Dracula's castle to claim vengeance on the one who apparently killed his father many years ago.

It's impossible to elaborate too much on this epic, multi-generational storyline without ruining the game; suffice to say it is one of Mirror of Fate's strongest features. The developer has done an excellent job of re-purposing famous names from the Castlevania series and creating its own self-contained vision of the franchise. The same purists who baulked at Lords of Shadow's re-booting of the Castlevania origin story will no doubt be equally aggrieved at the liberties MercurySteam has taken here, but when detached from the rest of the bloodline, Mirror of Fate ironically has one of the best plots yet seen in a Castlevania title. It helps to have played the original Lords of Shadow, but it's by no means a prerequisite.

Despite the desire to tear up the Castlevania rule book and start all over again, the developer has maintained plenty of solid bonds with previous games, and these are sure to go some way to winning over life-long fans. Names such as Schneider, Gandolfi and Belnades — taken from Castlevania 64, Castlevania: Lament of Innocence and Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse respectively — are bandied about at several points, and monsters such as skeletons, mermen and flea-men all make an appearance, tangibly linking Mirror of Fate to past instalments.
At first glance, you'd be forgiven for assuming that Mirror of Fate also adheres to the tried-and-tested Metroidvania blueprint; the top display shows the 2.5D gameplay while the bottom is reserved for a map, as well as inventory management — just as it was in the DS titles Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin and Order of Ecclesia. However, as was asserted by the game's producer prior to release, Mirror of Fate isn't exactly the same as these esteemed entries. The most obvious change — and the one that even caused us moments of doubt when we previewed the game last year — is the combat. Previous Castlevania titles were all about one-hit kills and dashing through environments quickly, but in Mirror of Fate there's a greater focus on combination attacks and special moves.

The combat engine is lifted almost wholesale from the original Lords of Shadow, and while it does slow down the platforming action a little, it actually adds considerable depth to proceedings. Most enemies take several hits to slay and many will block your blows before countering with an unstoppable offensive. Simply hammering the attack buttons won't do you any good here; you need to learn the various combo attacks, mix in mid-air juggles and unlock guard-shattering special moves in order to succeed.
Grapple moves come into play when your opponent is stunned, allowing you to end their pitiful life with a spectacular finishing move which causes the camera to zoom in for the best view. Experience points are awarded for victory in battle, and as your level increases so too do the number of attacks available to your character. Fighting common foes is engaging enough, but it's the boss battles which really open up Mirror of Fate. Each contest demands a varied range of tactics and it usually takes a few goes before you lock down the winning pattern. Thankfully, generous checkpointing means that failure is never a major irritation.

With combat taking centre stage, the emphasis on exploration is lessened significantly from previous entries in the franchise. While it's possible to backtrack through the castle and visit areas more than once, you're effectively funnelled down the correct path by red arrows on the map screen which show where you should be going. This removes the need to painstakingly cover every inch of Dracula's crumbling citadel in case you miss a secret exit or pathway, but it also speeds things up and prevents players from getting frustrated when they can't find how to proceed — a common issue with the traditional Metroidvania titles.
The limited variety of collectable items is another factor which curtails the need — and desire — to explore. Aside from picking up ammo for your secondary armament, reading scrolls left by fallen warriors and finding chests which expand your vitality, magical power and ammo stock, there's no real reason to investigate every nook and cranny. Enemies don't drop special items either, which means you don't have the "gotta catch 'em all" collectability element which made RPG-inspired Castlevania titles like Symphony of the Night and Portrait of Ruin so addictive. While this might come as a crushing disappointment to seasoned fans, it's actually quite a positive change in some ways; the action is more focused and straightforward, and the already impressive amount of play time available means you're not going to be stuck for entertainment, despite the toning down of RPG elements. Having said that, we did at several points find ourselves wishing there were more things to collect and secrets to uncover.

Visually, Mirror of Fate contains moments of sheer, unadulterated beauty. The 3D effect is astounding, and works especially well with the fixed 2D viewpoint. When navigating the highest points of the castle, you can see distant towers in perfect perspective, while closer objects remain slightly out of focus. 3D is used to good effect to add tension, such as monsters quickly dashing past the player's gaze in the foreground, unseen by the character you're controlling. There are points where the graphical fidelity drops slightly and the frame rate isn't as smooth as we'd like, but these are minor grievances when you consider the standard of the overall package. It's worth noting the quality of the cutscenes, which are rendered in real-time but use a cel-shaded style which we personally think is superior to that of the main in-game visuals. Even so, Mirror of Fate is a fine-looking 3DS title, and no mistake.
Special mention must also go to the music, which is nothing short of sublime. Óscar Araujo's score manages to be brooding, triumphant, emotional and chilling in equal measure, despite not revisiting any of the traditional fan-favourite Castlevania tracks. Araujo is clearly a composer of incredible talent, and while his work on the Lords of Shadow series may be vastly different to what fans are used to, his contribution here is just as significant as the work of Michiru Yamane and Masanori Adachi.

Conclusion

Although the 2D perspective and Metroidvania-style features call to mind past classics, Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - Mirror of Fate shouldn't be directly compared to previous games in Konami's long-running vampire-huntittle differently. While elements of exploration and item collection remain, they are drastically scaled back when compared to the likes of Symphony of the Night and Dawn of Sorrow — which could be a positive or a negative, depending on your personal taste. Instead, MercurySteam's vision of Castlevania is built around a deep combat engine which tries to make each and every enemy encounter a rewarding and challenging experience. Factor in some impressive visuals, gorgeous music and taxing boss battles — not to mention a fantastic story and more replay value than you might at first imagine — and you've got a game which can stand proud in the Castlevania bloodline. Sometimes, a little change is a good thing.

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Grim Fandango - An epic tale of Crime and Corruption

Grim Fandango is a dark comedy neo-noir Windows adventure game released by LucasArts in 1998, primarily written by Tim Schafer. It is the first adventure game by LucasArts to use 3D computer graphics overlaid on pre-rendered, static backgrounds. As with other LucasArts adventure games, the player must converse with other characters and examine, collect, and use objects correctly to solve puzzles in order to progress.

Grim Fandango's world combines elements of the Aztec belief of afterlife with style aspects of film noir, including The Maltese Falcon, On the Waterfront and Casablanca, to create the Land of the Dead, through which recently departed souls, represented in the game as calaca-like figures, must travel before they reach their final destination, the Ninth Underworld. The story follows travel agent Manuel "Manny" Calavera as he attempts to save Mercedes "Meche" Colomar, a newly arrived but virtuous soul, during her long journey.


The game received positive reviews, praising its artistic design and overall game direction in particular. Grim Fandango was selected for several gaming awards at the time of release, and is often listed in publishers' lists of top games of all time. However, the game was considered a commercial failure and factored into LucasArts' termination of their adventure game development, contributing to the decline of the adventure game genre.

Review of Grim Fandango from Gamespot:

Grim Fandango is based upon Mexican folklore, set in the land of the dead. You play Manny Calavera, employee of the Department of Death and travel agent to newly dead souls who are just setting out on the treacherous four-year journey to the ninth underworld. Employees of the DOD, as it is called, are souls who must work off debts from their previous lives in order to earn their own passage to the final resting place. To pay off the debts, agents must accrue a certain number of premium souls, those of the virtuous who have earned more pleasant means of passage, the ultimate of which is the Number Nine, a bullet-train that makes the journey in a more desirable four days.


But the writing is where Grim Fandango earns the most praise. Parodying film noir cliches has become a cliche unto itself, and Grim Fandango thankfully avoids the obvious. This isn't just a faux Sam Spade mystery. Instead, the game draws upon darker and more complex sources, with Chinatown, Casablanca, and even David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross lurking in its shadows. And there are very few jokes in the game, but it is funny. It derives its humor from its situations and characters (such as Manny's oversized sidekick, Glottis) without making fun of itself, helping to create a believable world.


The puzzles help to maintain this believability. While traditional in nature, they are worked into the storyline well. And they are varied, both in style and difficulty. For the most part, you'll have a series of known objectives to complete before moving on to the next locale. These objectives are complex, though, and often the solutions will have multiple parts. You'll undoubtedly be stumped more than once, but the solutions are logical and subtle clues are plentiful.


Grim Fandango is not a typical LucasArts adventure. It's the first from the company to dispense with traditional 2D animation and move to the more cinematic 3D style made popular with Infogrames' Alone in the Dark games, and also utilized in Origin Systems' underrated Bioforge. It uses a keyboard-driven interface instead of the traditional point-and-click, and Manny signals significant objects by turning his head and looking as he passes by. Grim Fandango overcomes the major problems with this style, so only rarely will you be frustrated by disorienting camera-angle switching or feel lost because of an obscure exit.

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Runaway - A Road Adventure

Runaway: A Road Adventure is a point and click adventure game developed by Péndulo Studios, S.L. in 2001. The game follows the long tradition of two-dimensional adventure games like the first two installments of the Broken Sword series. It enjoyed immense popularity in countries like Germany and France, where the adventure genre is still popular.

Overview of Runaway - A Road Adventure:

Without knowing how or why, Brian, a student on the verge of graduating from college, is attacked by Mafia gangsters.

During his desperate getaway, in the company of a mysterious striptease dancer, he ends up meeting a wide range of unusual characters. But which ones are trying to help him and which ones are planning to blow his head off?

You will have to be very ingenious to figure it out, without forgetting that nobody is who they seem in this explosive mixture of murder, money, ambition, santería rituals and deception... a whole lot of deception.

What's cool about Runaway - A Road Adventure:

• Beautiful cel-shaded 3D graphics combined with fantastic hand-drawn scenery
• An involving plot featuring interesting and well-designed characters
• Tricky, but logical puzzles

Screenshots of Runaway - A Road Adventure:

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Fahrenheit - Indigo Prophecy

Fahrenheit (Indigo Prophecy in North America) is a cinematic interactive drama action-adventure video game developed by Quantic Dream and published by Atari for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. The director's cut and uncut versions were later released for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. Fahrenheit has sold over 700,000 units worldwide since it was released in September 2005 and has won several awards.

Overview of Fahrenheit - Indigo Prophecy:

In the men's room of a diner a mysterious murder takes place. The murderer is an ordinary man. He has no idea who his victim is. But this isn't an isolated incident. All over New York regular people are killing total strangers. The only link between the killings is that they all show the same ritual patterns.

Experience this gripping story as you play each of the four characters in this remarkable game. The murderer: Lucas Kane. The smouldering detective: Carla Valenti. The NYPD Agent: Tyler Miles. And the murderer's brother and priest: Markus Kane.

Discover the truth: Why are these victims being killed? What is making people engage in these murders? And who is the mastermind behind it all? This is a unique chance to run from the police and hide from yourself. Welcome to a new form of video game.

Fahrenheit is a second game made by Quantic Dream - studio responsible for masterpieces such as Omikron: The Nomad Soul and Heavy Rain. All their games were very well received by gamers and Fahrenheit is no exception. With superb story, groundbreaking gameplay, and Hollywood-level narration Fahrenheit (a.k.a. Indigo Propecy) has earned its place as one of the best action adventure games of all time.

What's cool about Fahrenheit - Indigo Prophecy:

• Exciting story with science-fiction and paranormal elements, well executed plot twists, and more than one main character.
• Enchanting music, superb voice acting, and professionally directed cut scenes.
• Unique, movie-like gameplay - almost everything you do just fuels the action and builds up suspense.

Screenshots of Fahrenheit - Indigo Prophecy:

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