Hotel Dusk: Room 215 Review

SOOO, Tsuki is BACK AGAIN for another CAPS-filled review, ON ANOTHER DS GAME! :D Hotel Dusk: Room 215! This is a personal favorite~

Okay, little crappy summary: You play as an ex-cop named Kyle Hyde and the whole game takes place at an old hotel called Hotel Dusk. As an ex-cop, Hyde is a person who digs into things, SO OF COURSE THIS IS A MYSTERY GAME! YAAAY! He’s looking for his old buddy who went missing, and this is the SPECIAL PLACE WHERE WISHES COME TRUE! (There is some amount of truth in that, but you’ll have to play it to get what I mean. :D)

The gameplay, some of it I described earlier, is pretty simple…yet somewhat a little more complicated than simple. VERY DESCRIPTIVE, YES I KNOW. JUST LET ME EXPLAIN. You walk, you talk, you use the menu, you have a notebook, you use items, you can examine stuff, blah blah blah. You can do more or less of this stuff with buttons, but most of the game is touch screen. Hotel Dusk is kind of an intellectual game, with some puzzles and stuff. You pretty much just do whatever the game tells you to do, using your common sense. You have to apply tools and other items to your surroundings to do certain things and…well you get the idea. This is also a game where some choices or actions can change what happens, but it’s all just ‘do this and you move on’, ‘do that and you game over’, ‘do this wrong and you game over’. Taking too long to do something could also get you kicked out of the hotel. There are a few different endings, but all I know is BAD ENDING, NORMAL ENDING, NORMAL ENDING PLUS THIS, NORMAL ENDING PLUS THIS PLUS THAT, even though I’ve played this quite a few times. :P And the bad ending is just getting kicked out, by the way (except for OOONNNE part of the game where you can actually die). And still remember that this information on endings is just based on my own experience. Ahem, so, like I said, choices affect stuff. Hyde is nosy and asks people all these personal questions and this leads to him wanting to know more about people, then ‘boss interrogation, press for the truth’ things. Doings things wrong in those means bad bad, and saying the wrong things even before those means bad bad too. This is a game where it’s good to SAVE. A. LOT. And you get 3 save slots; USE ALL OF THEM. You never know when you did something wrong and have to go back to a past save, yeah?

I looove the storyline to this game. I mean, everyone may think it’s bland and stuff, but it’s the thing that leads to this DEEP GAME OF MYSTERIES AND SUSPENSE. Okay, the amount of suspense depends on you, but I really get feeling when I interact with fiction so. . . But ANYWAYS, I love the kinds of games where EVERYTHING is connected and the mist just gradually lifts from those bonds and then you’re like “OOOOOH THEY’RE RELATED :OOO”; yeah, THIS IS ONE OF THOSE GAMES! 8D (More or less exaggeration on the reaction to the connections, but you know me, HYPERBOLE! That rhymed, I love rhymes. BD And emoticons ;D)

AHEM, so, not much of the 100%ing stuff. I mean, you got the different endings, make sure you do stuff right, you could pick every combination of choices in a conversation to see what each one leads to if you want, but that’ll take forever so GOOD LUCK. And…there’s also this side thing where you have to find numbers on small pieces of paper that are posted on stuff around the hotel. (I was never able to complete this, WAAAHHH T~T) You do stuff with those numbers and another thing and some other things (if you play Hotel Dusk, hint: vending machine) and if you complete it, you get a certain item. You get to use this item later. So there are a few secret stuff…maybe that’s more than the “not so much” that I said earlier. :/

CHARACTERS! There are multiple characters, of course, since this is a hotel. But actually, this is a pretty crappy hotel so I’m surprised at how many people were there. …Oh but there are reasons for that. Hem hem, ANYWAYS, EVERY character has a backstory! YAAAY! (Well, except for like…two? But they’re not super involved characters.) And this is the ‘EVERYTHING IS CONNECTED! :OOOOO’ thing, cough cough. :D The characters all have their own distinct personality and stuff. There’s an old grump, the naggy super maid, a lazy bum, an average father, a bratty little girl, an insolent teenager, a chatterbox that for some reason has a British accent in my head, a nice old lady, a…just plain lady, blah blah blah. MY FAVORITE, is the main character, Kyle Hyde! :D He’s nosy, sort of rude/meanish (not sure how to describe it), casual, doesn’t care what people think, but he’s still a nice guy~ x3 His hard attitude kind of annoyed me before and I was like “ugh, I don’t like you” but then I started to LOVE him! XD His personality makes things funny sometimes, and his behavior makes him convincing. :3 You just gotta love Hyde~ Oooh, rambles rambles.

Graphics and sound… Well, the scenery is pretty realistic and colored and everything while the characters are black and white and have a sketch-like design. They actually move in their expressions and when they’re talking and stuff too. :D There aren’t really any cutscenes…but whatever! The sound is nice, too. There are small sound effects for like, opening/closing doors, knocking, walking, papers, phone, etc. No voices at all :/ Though I really like the music! Some of it is kind of jazzy and some are suspense, some are calming, some are just casual and nice to fit the area you’re in, yadda yadda, and I think they’re all enjoyable.

A couple things bugged me, though. JUST A COUPLE. This first thing wasn’t really annoying but it just made me think. It’s that the super maid who does all the cleaning, cooking, laundry, etc. is FAT. She’s the only one of the 3 employees that does any work and she’s fat. :P HMMMM. The other thing was that the text moves too slow. -_- I mean, it didn’t bother me at first, but y’know when you go back to saves and have to read things over again you’re just like “GET ON WITH IT, I READ THIS ALREADY”, and I also played Hotel Dusk multiple times so…you get it. ALSO, with all this mystery and backstories and stuff, I just happened to notice…that SIX PEOPLE HAVE DISAPPEARED. XD So I was just like “haha that’s a lot of missing people to hear about in one hotel,” y’know?

OVERALLNESS! I did say that this a personal favorite! I. LOVE. THIS. GAME. There’s also a sequel called Last Window: The Secret of Cape West that I need to get to. *soul starts bouncing around inside me* 8D So ja, I love mystery, I love stuff that connects, I love Kyle Hyde, I love the gameplay, I just plain love this game~ (as I said) x3 You may think this rating is a bit generous, but WHAT DO I CARE? I THINK IT’S A STELLAR GAME! 9.5/10 for Hotel Dusk~!

Black Friday

You thought this was a review? Well, you were sure wrong. I'll be out shopping on Black Friday this year. You know what that means. GAMES. I'm looking for PSP and DS games though, seeing that my shit 360 RRoD'd on me and I have to get a 360 S for Christmas. No Kinect though. I'm seeking game suggestions. Ones other than LittleBigPlanet and Bowser's Inside Story. Post your thoughts in the comment box. Manga, out.

Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Sky Review (DS)

Yo, my non-angsty readers, Manga here. And today, I'll be giving you two-bit ninnys my thoughts on a JRPG with out an emo protagonist. But then again, the protagonist is YOU, so...

First off, I wanna say, the game's battle system is turn-based. Like the classics. Not these modern RPGs with button-smashing frustration and overly-long health bars. *drops Keyblade* Anyways, you create your own character from a limited customization feature. You can change the clothes, but not until about 3 hours or so in. Also, you can name your character, if you haven't played an RPG like this before. I named mine Manga, mainly because I had the urge to call him "Cloud" or maybe "Sephiroth" but I didn't have enough letters for the second option. Your character starts off as an angel in this...observatory. And there's this tree there, named Yggdrasil. (Medieval much?) Yggdrasil has fruit called Fyggs, which apparently have magical powers. The observatory is attacked by the powers of...wait for it...DARKNESS!? How'd you know!? But yeah, you get sent back to Earth and you have to find your way back. This leads you on a quest, and...wait for it...there's a PLOT TWIST!? (A predictable one at that.) It took me...about...25 hours to beat this game. Although at the last dungeon I said "fuck it" and popped in my Action Replay. When it comes to EXP Grinding in turn-based games, I have the attention span of a goldfish. The last boss battle was the usual three phase sequence. Gotta love Squenix. I was excited for this game, and played it through until HG/SS came out. It currently sits in a case, collecting dust. Oh and I forgot to mention, a Nintendo Representative has over 200 hours clocked in on this game...nerd. Also, if my reviews are short, it's because I have the attention span of a goldfish as stated earlier. A dead one. I suggest this game to gamers who want some nostalgia, and creativity. Speaking of creativity, you can make party members using the same method as you made your own. And you can do alchemy. Well, time to go get my soul stuck in a tin can and whine about it afterward. Manga out.

8.5/10

TWEWY Review

HELLOOOOO READERS. Tsuki here for the first CAPS-filled review on the great DS JRPG, The World Ends With You! I just LOVE how “review” rhymes with “The World Ends With You”!

By the way, just so you don’t have to rip your hair out for stumbling upon this by accident, I’m just going to tell you, YOU LOST THE GAME. If you don’t know what I’m talking about then just carry on~

ANYWAYS, for a brief summary, TWEWY is a Squenix (Square Enix) game for the DS, like I said. The main character is Neku Sakuraba, who is very comparable to a couple other Squenix doods. SPIKY HAIR. EMO/ANGSTY. JUST THINK ABOUT IT. Ahem, so he’s thrown into “The Reapers’ Game”, a test full of jacked up staff, dead people, too many pins, and monsters for three weeks of hell. If you haven’t played TWEWY yet, just keep wondering. :D

Because now I’m bored of summarizing and just wanna review. Soooo, first of all, I want to talk about the COMBAT. I thought it was clever and really enjoyed it! You have a set of pins to wear, and different pins have their own set power that you use by scratching/tapping the screen according to whatever movement is set for the pin. It’s a lot more fun battling actively like that instead of just clicking on moves or pressing buttons. AND, if you want to, you can control your partner on the top screen with the buttons! Otherwise, your partner will automatically fight by themself. OH HO HO! You can run around in any direction, but I personally didn’t do much moving unless I had to. There is a teleporting pin you can get, and that’s when I started to move more.

Plot, plot, plot. Hmm, how can I even describe the storyline? You’re given missions every Day to carry out in a certain amount of time (you’re not ACTUALLY timed though, thank goodness) and stuff happens here and there. Discoveries and other confusing things unfold, blah blah blah, and they dish out all of the answers in your last week of the Game. I may not sound very happy with the plot, but I really am, I thought it was cool :D I’m just not completely sure how to explain it; play it yourself to figure out how to correctly review it. Uhh, though at the end of the game I thought it was kind of weird. Like, “I did all of this because you want to destroy the city? LOVELY, I could’ve just moved or stayed dead.”

Surprisingly, there is A LOOOT of stuff to do to 100% your game. There are a crapload of items you can get that range from food to pins to music to clothes, and even more. And there are sooo many of each category. -__- PLUS, the full completion of each Day! There are stars for every Day and you get them by doing this and that. So, when you really think about it, TWEWY was done pretty deeply. Every single frikkin’ item created and described and named and given a small picture, you can change your combat difficulty, when you level up you can even decrease your level to make it more challenging for you or just keep at your achieved level (the max is 99). Then there are BRANDS. Pins and clothes have brands, and different brands are popular in different areas of the city. You can raise the popularity of brands by fighting with the branded pins and wearing the clothes as you fight. Though I really didn’t see much difference in combat when I was wearing weak and strong brands. SO GO AHEAD AND IGNORE THAT BUT CONGRATULATE THEM FOR TRYING ANYWAYS. Moving on…to more talk of deepness, because there’s even PIN MASTERY. For every pin, you can raise its level by using it more. OMG. I, AS A PERFECTIONIST, HAD MY SISTER DO MOST OF THE 100%ING GAME FOR ME.

TWEWY doesn’t have many side-quest things or minigames. There’s just one minigame that is so popular among the people even though it’s THROW-THE-DS-AT-THE-WALL FRUSTRATING! ...to me. Tin Pin, it’s called, and you use pins of course. Opponents just have to knock each other’s pins off a platform like 3 times then YAY I WIN! But noooo, the pin is hard to control and aim properly, so if you miss your opponent when you’re at the edge, YOU SIR, ARE SCREWED. Luckily, each pin has a set amount of each of 4 kinds of “Whammies”. Two of ‘em knock out your opponent if successful, one protects you, and one saves your ass if you’re falling off the platform. I depend on the Whammies to win at Tin Pin (RHYMES, RHYMES!). :P

CHARACTERS is also something I wanted to talk about. Not all of them well-done and backstoried and everything, but…wait, none of them are. There are only a few backstories for the Players of the Reapers’ Game and they aren’t really a huge subject (though, I love how 3 of the main Players were hit by a car). But I still really love the characters just for their character! Most of the important ones have their own distinct personality. There’s a crazy bipolar bitch, a couple of laid back doods, some rhino who compares things to food, a twisted guy who loves to mess with people, a skater dood, a girly girl, of course there’s an emo guy (this is a JRPG after all), some serious obedient secretary-like person who’s always like “My analysis was correct”, and MY FAVORITE, A MATH-OBSESSED GUY WHOSE AWESOMENESS JUST BLOWS YOUR MIND. Ahem, but I did say that they aren’t really backstoried, which is true. But they have their goals and whatnot. And for all of you people who DID play TWEWY already, JOSHUA ISN’T GAY. SHUT UP.

The graphics and sound? Well, they don’t really matter. You have your small, sort of pixely sprites when you’re running around or fighting and the regular character looks with the various expressions when you’re in conversation/cutscenes. Now, the cutscenes are pretty short and don’t have much movement or dialogue in ‘em, so that’s kinda meh. But there aren’t many cutscenes anyway!

Over all, I think this is an excellent game and I go crazy fangasm whenever I find out someone has played it. It has a different style in some ways and it was fun! So YAY FOR TWEWY THAT GETS A 9.0/10!

Hitman Four: Blood Money (PS2)

Hyde here to write the first "Hyde Dominant" game review. Yay. Let's get started.

Hitman Four: Blood Money is obviously the fourth game in the main Hitman series, and in my opinion one of the best. That might be be because when it first game out I was astounded by all the new weapons I could kill people with and all the pretty disguises.

When it comes to the planning of the missions and all the targets......Eidos (I almost typed GladDOS) you did a great job. Seriously. I remember some of the main problems in the old Hitman games is that I found the missions to be plain after a while. Not Blood Money though. Every new mission I found myself devising a new game-plan and using all my epic killing-tools to the full use.

I also have to credit the humor/dark irony of the game. You could plan and assassinate by knocking down overly-large tablepieces, dressing as a clown and crashing an innocent six-year-old's birthday party, going in a large bird costume and have a nice chat with a police officers when a bomb goes off, and so on. You could also square-dance. Which is always fun. The more irony sign of it is that you could totally disturb the peace in a small coffee shop by putting poison in his drink.  WHICH IS FUN AS WELL.

Something I terribly hated is the damn camera angles. I always had a strand of futile hope that it'll get better, than Eidos fails. It fails hard. You could easily get screwed over in active combat when the camera decides that it will be freakin' awesome to look towards the pixel-ated grass. BECAUSE GRASS IS AWESOME. And you can tell I still have some left over agnst from those angles.

Most of the problems have to deal with the active combat. Most of the times in active combat, they didn't have nearly as much time-consuming reloading time, and they also had very unrealistic actions. "Oh hai, for some reason I keep a two foot shotgun in my pocket. Also, it doesn't matter if objects are in my way. I CAN SHOOT YOU ANYWAYS." It's very facepalming, as well as annoying. You can always get past it is you are a true gamer though, so my problems are minute.

The soundtrack really isn't important because most of it is as cheesy as a James Bond movies. 'Spect for the opening. That's jus' overplayed and too gospel. The graphics were okay. They did a great job at creating backrounds but, my opinion on that is bias 'cuz I have mai sparkly PS3 graphics. And mai sparkly PS3 graphics are great. Whist my non-sparkly PS2 ones are not. So, I'm going to drop this one.

Overall, Blood Money is great. It's a bit short, but great. I would tell Eidos to work on their issues, but they got bankrupt and bought by Square Soft. (Don't try to correct the name. Don't. Try.)  So, I'm confident that Square Soft is going to try to make Hitman an RPG where 47 has some kind of personal strife involving his insane Mother.  They will also frame 47 as a guy who really does deep down have a heart of gold and a will to overcome. Hitman's story line isn't really there, but it's the type of game that would be too much with a story line. So it's works. HUZZAH.

So, I bestow Hitman Four: Blood Money a 8.5/10.