solutions10

Astonishingly creepy and shamelessly violent, with equal and fair indifference to all of its characters, Corpse Party is one of the most, if not the single most, most brutal video attacks on your tolerance for real horror. Outstanding writing, gorgeously violent art, and an exceedingly precise soundscape, with a completely unforgiving, yet appropriate difficulty (you, and everyone else around you, *will* be killed, repeatedly, as it should be--who would want a forgiving horror game in which everything is easily escaped?) makes this any horror fan's wettest dream. Spits on pseudo-horror nonsense like Resident Evil, and even Fatal Frame. The Golden Standard for how to terrify the player.

This game is designed to be a classic JRPG-style dungeon crawler. Much like the Etrian Odyssey series for the DS, these types of games are specifically designed to be extremely difficult, arduous, and by no means something you can just waltz through. As long as you know what you're getting into and realize this is by no means a contemporary-style modern RPG in form or function, it's very easy to eat up that borderline-unfair challenge and realize its strengths, especially over Etrian Odyssey. There is a surprisingly good story, well-written dialogue, attractive character designs, a Save-Anywhere feature (this is the one concession you're allowed, and it allows you to play carefully without getting screwed over by one too many critical hits deep into a dungeon), a great ensemble of voice actors and actresses, and, as you should expect, a slower pace that is rewarding enough to keep interest. It's not perfect--I was not a fan of the constantly-switching perspectives and parties (none of which allows you to keep anything from the items of the previous party, which means an initial drag just to get back up to speed), and the Followers systems of Unchain Triggers and important dialogue choices is too random and its mechanics sometimes illogical, though not to the point of broken. But, if you can appreciate the style of older dungeon-crawling RPGs with an enhanced visual style, anime cutscenes, some welcome new mechanics, and a game that ultimately is a test of the player's abilities, it's easy to get lost in it and start racking up hours just to reach the next level of a dungeon, and reap the rewards involved in doing so. A viciously-difficult, but well-designed classic dungeon crawler that will appeal to those who enjoy accomplishing difficult tasks and working hard for the satisfaction involved. *NOT* recommended for those who like their RPGs to breeze by in 30 hours or less, but for its admittedly niche audience, it's quite a pleasure and one of the most absorbing and hard-but-fair classic dungeon-crawlers I've played.

Everyone's dream simulator that has gone virtually unnoticed until now. Who isn't in line for this? A farming simulator. Farming. This is actually supposed to appeal to some mystery audience that has never, ever played anything else farm-related (unless you count every single iteration of Harvest Moon, except subtract all the character that makes the game enjoyable and you get this--or, heck, play FarmVille) that has nothing that justified the "farming" experience of things. It's there. You can have a fake farm. But you also can on a multitude of completely free Facebook games that are very popular. So...I mean, what else do you need to know?

With a mobile version available on almost any mobile OS, I can't begin to imagine who would need this. Much like Angry Birds: Star Wars was unbelievable in its lack of necessity or justification for existing, this is still, at heart, a very simple mobile game meant to just waste some time. It's simple and fun, sure. But that's why it started as and remains a game to play on your phone or tablet for brief periods. With the game being about $2 on mobile, this is just useless.

Unless you happen to be a complete lunatic who's willing to pay this sort of money for what was originally, and still ultimately is, an extremely simple game on virtually any mobile OS, this release is just staggering in its lack of necessity. The original game, which is almost all this totally is, is about $1.99. A dollar-ninety-nine. I have no clue what audience would buy this, but no one should. An unbelievably unnecessary release.

Considering that you can easily find the original for less than $20 and that the online play is all but totally dead due to NetherRealm's mostly incompetent online (with a staggering amount of disconnects, input issues, poor matchmaking, and overall slowness), the fact that you can simply pick that up and get any DLC you find necessary is sort of hard to justify a $60 all-inclusive price tag. Unless you absolutely must have every single bit of DLC released (which, really, isn't that much, and even if you got every single DLC character, you're still only paying about $25 extra for a total of $45 for six new ones that are mostly incomplete and made only for online--not something for which I really care) and somehow missed *all of it* the first time around, even if you're a new player, it's still just not enough. Really, it's still a dead online game, with almost exclusively online-focused DLC, none of which is necessary to enjoy the experience. If this were $40, it might be more excusable, but at a full-price $60 without original content, and when the original is a third of that...Well, do the math. Definitely not recommended simply for the stupidly high price tag, and for the fact that the DLC just was never all that great--which doesn't even matter, because you get to pick-and-choose for *FAR* less than what they're asking. Just stupid.

This is the first localized Hatsune Miku game, ever. Hatsune Miku is a massively moe part of a series of "Vocaloids", who are highly-manga-ized characters that you can dress up, play with, even pet. You can play with them in their rooms, give them gifts and watch their reaction, and generally just play with them as you see fit. Ultimately, it's a very challenging rhythm game that (thankfully) doesn't require anything in the way of a dance pad or other external controller (thank God, there's just no more space for even one more of those in anyone's basement). You can pick any character and their highly-customizable outfits and play with an astonishingly pretty music video, none of which are boring, and all of which are just joyous, ripe with JPop, JRock, and lots of tempo variations. But you probably know all this already, and you also know whether or not you'll like this or not based on that description. You either like that sort of thing or you just don't. It's not fair to compare this game to other games in terms of design, for the simple reason that there is absolutely nothing like it whatsoever in the States. It is almost completely dissimilar to any other American rhythm game we have. Its themes, styles, stunningly moe and target-audience-specific are only for those who think it sounds good in the first place. And since the game works wonderfully and lets you go crazy with the customization, it's every Vocaloid fan's wettest dream, as they've kept 100% of the original content with virtually zero changes at all. If you want to talk about any real issues, I have two. One, there is no English dub. That's not really a huge problem considering the localization costs would have been freaking astronomical, to hire English-speaking singers and VAs with this amount of content. The second is that songs aren't translated into English in the subtitles, which sort of ****. I would have liked that, at least, so I'd know what the hell they're singing about. But that's it. You already know whether you want it or not. "Professional" reviewers being the crazy weirdos they are, they still try to compare this to other games, which is impossible. It can't be compared to anything. No game, nor any rhythm game, is similar. So it only comes down to whether or not the game simply works, whether or not it delivers on its original promise. It does, almost entirely, sans the English subtitles that I would have liked. So, there you go. Don't even look at the "professional" reviews; they'll give you a freaking headache while they scramble to do what they always do, which is making comparisons. That's generally how they function, and since that can't be done here, it would be like trying to compare a Barbie doll to a Lucky Star doll. Or, to put it another way, just an astonishingly stupid idea that can't be done. It's simple preference. An excellent game with a freaking ridiculous amount of content, unlockables, customizations, and general Japanese-style moe and fun. All it's really missing within reason is English subs, so I feel the need to take off a point for that, since you have no idea what you're listening to. You already know whether or not you'll like it. If you're reading critic reviews, you're missing the entire point, since that means you're trying to compare it to another game, which is an inherently stupid thing to do. You can't be "on the fence" about this, you either like Hatsune Miku or you just don't. It's that simple. So have fun, or stay away. You already know what you want, so go for it.

The GTA series always gets astonishingly high reviews from the same critics every single time. Even GTA IV, which was so awful in pacing that the devs decided to put in *MANDATORY* hanging out with your completely unlikable "friends" to play darts, or bowling, or other things that were apparently what Rockstar believed would create classic GTA moments. Unfortunately, ever since San Andreas, the GTA series has not improved. There is no room for argument here. It hasn't. San Andreas did practically everything right that could possibly be done in a GTA game. It was complex, well-written, and just freaking fun. Then came IV, which got rave reviews across the whole planet. Except it was so obviously a step back from San Andreas that even after buying the entirety of it with the expansion, I was still working my way through it waiting for the fun to happen. Something that justified the emphasis on "realism" in things like driving (because in the Vice City/San Andreas times, the #1 complaint was, of course, the lack of realism in the driving physics, as cars were just way too easy to control, and that was something the series desperately needed. Yes, that's sarcasm, because that concept alone as a "feature" was astonishingly stupid.), the mandatory bromances (they didn't even let you hang out with girls? No reward for even putting up with those things? Not even so much as a cheap dating sim mechanic? Just, here are some people you never want to see again, forcing you to go out with them. Yeah, that was executed brilliantly.), and the idiotic story that not one person can even joke about enjoying. So, despite that IV was clearly worse than San Andreas and lacked a massive number of features that SA had that were awesome, it got better reviews. Okay, whatever. I've never heard anyone in the history of time mention it as a classic, something that redefined gaming to the level that was stated in the reviews, but I know that happens sometimes when the hype reviews itself. So, here comes V, and the monstrous hype-machine to go with it. And, my goodness, did they hype this game. It was everywhere. You couldn't ignore it. It was so pumped up worldwide, they might as well have announced that DLC was a thing of the past, being the dumbest idea that still worked and resulted in games often costing twice as much as their originals for "complete editions". Now that would be something to hype. But here's the thing with GTA V: Not one person really says *WHY* it's good. That's the really astonishing part. Everyone talks about the scope, the scale, the scenery, the graphics, the improved targeting system that was basically Red Dead Redemption's, the nice little features like not needing to drive from place to place to re-do a failed mission (it only took them FOUR past games to figure out that that was annoying), and lots of *little touches* to the basic formula. Not a lot really changed. It's still GTA, for better or worse, depending on how you look at it. But that's the problem. It's still the same GTA you've been playing and, oddly enough, still doesn't come anywhere close to San Andreas. Rockstar realizes they don't actually have to change anything, nor should they, because people see that Roman numeral next to Grand Theft Auto, and that's enough for people to go completely insane and buy copies on day one. The thing is, these people are crazy. They are stone-cold nuts. I can't be kind about this, because these people lack basic pattern recognition on a level that is staggering. I've yet to hear a single aspect I must be missing that justifies the exosphere-high reviews, as if GTA now has the last game it'll ever need--that the formula's been perfected, everything's come together, and something beautiful has happened. Well, I still have yet to see anything besides another sub-San-Andreas GTA game without any really exciting features or even real improvements over anything besides the scenery and a few basic improvements to the controls and interface. To put it simply, it's stupid. It's a stupid game. It wastes its potential carelessly, without regard, but it doesn't take a genius to know why: Rockstar knows they don't really have to put any effort into "improving" the game. That's not the selling point. The selling point is that there's another GTA game, even bigger in scope, even prettier. The fact that the mechanics are still virtually identical doesn't matter, really. People will buy it. And they have. Which makes people with pattern recognition skills like me a little sad, and not very hopeful about the future of console gaming. When GTA improves significantly, I'll totally praise Rockstar for it. There's certainly more than enough room to make improvements. Until then, though, V is only another game in a downhill series. That's all it is. The GTA Online tragedy that screwed absolutely everyone over aside, that's really all there is to it.

I'm certain, after all these bad reviews for games of new styles with manga designs, that reviewers are trying to review it based on terms for which it doesn't need reviewing. This game is, for all intents and purposes, a visual novel and an RPG in about equal amounts. The visual novel part is like a choose-your-own-adventure deal, with multiple dialogue paths complete with permanent consequences--such as death, should you choose a path that leads you right to it. The game is *supposed* to have a lot of text, and what's most important is whether or not the text is interesting--and it most definitely is, with its wonderful localization team doing another fantastic job, to create individual characters with believable personalities. It's very, very well-written work, far from your usual video game fare, and it stays consistently interesting and, honestly, emotionally moving throughout. It's really hard to make an imported game based in a lot of text emotionally moving, but this game succeeds in that on many counts. The RPG part of things, which only happens after class is over and you can enter the Arena, is beautifully original and a joy to experiment with. See, you can't just power-level your way through every week and expect to win the extremely difficult duels at the end of ever week. You absolutely need information on your opponent first so you can maybe find some pattern, or to know what's particularly effective against them. Without knowing those, you have no chance, since it's a given that every duel is brutally unforgiving, and to be unable to predict your opponent's actions is certain death. Having said that, the level-up system isn't static and lets you choose which stats to advance, and you get to wear up to two pieces of "formal wear", i.e., gear, that all do different things. It's equally important to take full advantage of your gear and any abilities they unlock. The bottom line is that the audience for this type of game will have that "just one more day" syndrome, due to its consistent rewards that tend to appear at the beginning and/or end of every day. Anyone with any appreciation for a visual novel/RPG approach will adore this for its excellent localization, intriguing dialogue trees, planning your week ahead of time, gathering information on your opponent, and a far more strategic method of winning every week's duel with more than power-leveling. Very highly recommended for both PSP and Vita owners (the game works just fine on the Vita).

If this game didn't already look stunning on consoles, I doubt anyone would be complaining about the graphics. Unfortunately, in comparison, the difference is obvious, as there is indeed less detail (no flapping tongue left behind after you blow off your opponent's head in Stryker's first fatality, for instance), but it absolutely cannot be ignored that the developers did all they could to keep their "EVERYTHING will ALWAYS be 60 fps" promise. Well, they did, and of course, some corners had to be cut. It's a shame, but totally understandable; to imagine something as insanely gorgeous as the console version to port perfectly to a handheld is just asking too much. But here's the good part: There's still a lot of blood and everything is intact, so the core feeling is still there--and in my opinion, that's all that matters. Fatalities are still extremely satisfying, as are the X-Ray attacks, and the inclusion of so much more than even the Komplete Kollection has just has to be commended. There's an obscene amount of content to be explored here, and all of it is simply wonderful. This is the "true" Komplete Kollection, since it has more than even that edition (there's even rumors of Vita-specific DLC, such as Tremor being playable), and the MK "feel" is perfectly maintained. Because it still feels just as it should, it deserves all the praise it gets. Not needing an external microphone is also an excellent feature, as well as immediately unlocking all the characters, with the developers no doubt anticipating that most of us already have MK9 in some form on a console, and to unlock those characters would be tedious, to say the least. The developers seem to have thought of everything here, and it all works in every way. There are tiny little touches all over the place that improve the gameplay significantly, and the new optional modifiers, such as the blood obstructing your view and needing to be "wiped off" the screen so you can see, are really a lot of fun. Excellent edition of an already-fantastic fighter, especially for something like MK9. This could have easily been completely screwed up, but the developers didn't let that happen. It's obvious that a lot of care is here so that it was perfect coming out of the gate (rather than being an obvious beta or simple port), so I think a 10 is definitely warranted. For anyone who wants MK9 on the go, you just can't ask for more than this.

A quick distraction from other fighters, but nowhere near as robust as it needs to be to compete with other, much more complete fighters. You're better off putting the $15 toward Mortal Kombat or BlazBlue: EXTEND. It's not that it's a bad fighter--it isn't, not by any means, sans a few balance issues and a poorly-done story mode--it just doesn't do anything particularly exceptional, except perhaps the multiplayer, which, if it had more options, would be excellent, and the "frame delay" that compensates for ping is wonderful, making it so you can play with practically anyone, anywhere, using the frame delay as a mediator so no one has a ping advantage. It's basically an amalgamation of other fighters in a very tight, budget-priced package. While there are some neat touches, such as the ability to choose one strong fighter, two medium-powered fighters, or three low-powered fighters versus any other matchup, and some very flashy special moves, the game suffers from just not being enough, with some rather poor character design, to boot. Yeah, the characters are certainly all very different design-wise, but they all feel so random, as if they don't belong in the same game at all. It doesn't seem to work as well as you would think it should. This might be worth a look if, in the future, they make some serious tweaks and add a *lot* more content, but for the moment, it's just Every-Other-Fighter Ultra-Lite.

Despite being very little more than a patch as its own standalone release (albeit one you can upgrade for $14.99 or $9.99 from Super), this is still a disaster. Super SSIV wasn't exactly a shining example of gameplay balance between its roster. Some characters were still very clearly better than others in every meaningful way, while others were absolutely useless. SSIV Arcade Edition does nothing significant to change that. Sure, it's no longer so bad to be Ken Fighter IV as the ludicrously overpowered Ken dominated in the original showed us, but the characters here are certainly not on equal footing. If you don't get what the problem here is yet, I'll explicitly state it: The online scene is dominated by a few select characters, while every other one is ignored for being obviously inferior. After so many iterations of the game, this is totally inexcusable, and it's beyond my comprehension how Capcom can continue to allow this to be the case while seemingly being in no rush whatsoever to fix it. Almost all matches boil down to who can jump over the other and land a quick attack first, over and over again, until someone goes down. The brief second of vulnerability you get when your opponent's back is turned means everyone is constantly jumping at each other. Focus attacks are far too slow to be very useful, and there is no particularly useful way to defend oneself, as this is almost an entirely offensive fighter--the first person to get their combo in is the one who wins. But, in any case, get ready to see all the Ryu clones online, along with Jun and whoever else they added in this version with clear intent to make them superior. This is just awful, as I don't want to see Ryu over and over again online, or any of his clones with the same or nearly the same moveset, but that's what you get. Ryu, Ryu clone, Ryu. It gets old really, really fast, but when the Ryu clones are clearly superior in every way to the other characters, what can you expect? Unless Capcom does something to fix this absolutely ludicrous imbalance in the roster and make defending a jump possible, I don't think I can tolerate this much longer. I don't want to play Ryu or a Ryu clone, I want to try someone new. This game essentially forbids that, unless you want to lose every single time. Highly disappointing. The $9.99 upgrade from SSIV they now charge just isn't good enough, considering that they advertised this as a massive balance patch, but completely failed, miserably and catastrophically, to deliver. Just awful. Capcom dropped the ball hardcore on this.

BlazBlue did something similar to this, if a few people remember its update, BlazBlue: Continuum Shift, which also had a price tag of $40 to start. BB:CS came really close to passing as a whole new game. Mechanics were radically altered, a *massive* new story mode continued that from Calamity Trigger, some extra modes were added, online was vastly improved, and pretty much every single thing was changed somehow, and always for the better, because CT needed it. They added only three new characters and just a handful of stages, which wasn't a big change from the original 12 (I think), but at least they were worthwhile, and useful. They would later add three DLC characters that were horribly overpriced, and which I refused to purchase at $7.99 each, with no story or arcade modes of their own. Anyway, it was good enough to warrant a separate release due to the amount of content added, but not quite enough to warrant being a full-priced sequel. This, however, doesn't come anywhere near that. In fact, in some ways, it makes MvsC3 worse. This is less than a typical expansion pack. There is virtually nothing else besides a few added characters and stages, along with some bizarre new mechanics which make the game worse. Very little is actually improved and added. This is not how you treat your consumers, Capcom. *THREE* versions of Street Fighter IV with minimal additions in each case was bad enough, and it seems you've become accustomed to this style of release. Forget DLC or patches, just release a new version every few months for $40 more. MvsC3 Ultimate is one of the worst disappointments in fighting game history. The insane lack of new content and changing of mechanics that sometimes make the game worse, as well as failing to address the already-overpowered characters (somehow making them stronger, which boggles the mind), which BB:CS did take care of when ArkSys realized the same characters were winning every match for being overpowered as hell. Capcom hasn't done that. Don't support this nonsense; a $40 DLC pack is absurd. Oh, and there's already DLC out *for this version that just came out*. That should already tell you enough of how Capcom is stringing you along for as long as possible. Don't let them. This is disgraceful.

There's only two things really wrong with this game. One: Due to the T rating, any and all fatalities are seriously censored, and can't even really count as a "I beat your ass, you loser!" effect. That really ****, and it even limits the brutality of the "good" DC heroes who don't do fatalities, but instead fo "heroic brutalities", which are identical, but simply aren't fatal (even though some of them would most certainly be). The second thing is that combat lacks complexity. This is a really bare-bones fighter, and aside from the standard special moves and combos and the like, all you get is a "Rage Meter". Once your rage meter is full, you can go into a very brief Rage Mode, which essentially makes you invincible and your attacks unblockable. This "Rage Meter" doesn't work at all, though. It's bad enough that it's simply boring, and just makes your character glow while it's in effect, but in the right hands it's certain death for the opponent. A well-used Rage can nearly empty an opponent's life bar, which they can do nothing about since there is no dodging, and thus should not be. This game really needed anything besides this poorly-thought-out Rage Meter. I don't know what, maybe they could have taken a page from BlazBlue and thrown in special Drive moves for each character or something. In any case, the Rage Meter simply **** as the mechanic that can determine the outcome of a match, regardless of skill level. When you can't block or avoid their barrage of attacks, it's hard to win after losing more than half your life bar. Still, the game's not bad, and still has everything it needs. The story mode is well-done, the roster is good, the fatalities, while censored, are still not terrible (but not exactly Mortal Kombat, 'cause you know, T rating), the voice acting is all there, everyone's special moves are appropriate for each character, the stages are plentiful and detailed, as well as destructible and interactive with some fun things you can do to cause damage in each stage, and while the extras are kind of slim (only two unlockable characters), it works on its own. Plus, I mean, you can pit Batman against Scorpion. That's worth something in itself. Don't expect a classic here, but for what it costs now, it's worth a look for anyone interested. It's definitely not a fighter that'll get any tournament time, but it's a nice diversion, and serves its purpose.

Critics are completely missing the point of this game. This is a classic-style NIS game, which consistently breaks the fourth wall (for instance, during her lengthy transformation sequence in battle, Neptune says, "No attacking while I'm transforming!" Or, for another example, a minor character dies at some point, and someone exclaims, "I figured he was going to die at some point in the story. He didn't even have a portrait." Or, also, "Don't bother arguing with him, Neptune. He's an NPC, you can't fight him."). The general idea of the game is simple, but excellent implemented with some key RPG problems being averted. For instance, you know how in most RPGs, after healing, you lose your turn, only to lose all your health again? Here, you auto-heal and auto-revive with elements if you take enough damage, making it so you don't have to worry about that, and can always focus on attacking. The combat mechanics are very good, and extremely flashy. Random battles really ****, but thankfully, they're sporadic in this game, and you can go a long while without running into one. But, really, let's just forget everything else: This is a game about extremely attractive manga girls fighting in a game that only they seem to know is a video game, where you do quests and advance the story and watch humorous event sequences. It's fun, funny, lengthy, loaded with potential DLC, and the character graphics and animations are exceptional. Transformations in particular are just gorgeous. As long as you know what you're getting into in this game, you already know whether you'll like it or not. Like manga girls in an RPG that makes fun of itself and its own genre, is full of ecchi, and is entertaining and hliarious? Well, here it is. Definitely recommended.

An extremely competent and original girl-on-girl (sans the one male character in the 12-character roster) competitive fighter/shooter with a great deal of flair, color, strategy, depth, and variety, all of which is well worth the ludicrously cheap $5.99 asking price, which even includes a bonus theme and the entire soundtrack. This could easily have been $14.99, and justifiably so. The amount of content present goes far beyond what's expected of a $5.99 throwaway title. This is definitely not a throwaway title. Aside from the different forms of Suguri, who all play fairly similarly, every character plays very uniquely, with their own strengths and weaknesses. As for what makes it unique, while the game does have a typical Hyper gauge that goes up depending on how many hits you get in or how many projectiles you absorb, it also has something called a Heat percentage. Normally, the Heat is at zero, and can go as high as 300%. The percentage Heat that you have is exactly how much extra damage you take from attacks; so if you have a percentage of 100, you will be given twice as much damage as normal. Heat is accumulated for the most part by dashing. Here's the thing: Dashing doesn't just get you out of the way of an attack. Dashing also leaves behind a trail of rings, which absorb enemy projectile attacks. When this happens, you absorb those projectiles into your Hyper gauge. Learning how to manage dashing and your Heat is critical to succeeding. This one particular mechanic is what differentiates this game from others of its type (of which there are few). It forces you to risk greatly lowering your defense to fill your Hyper gauge. Note that dashing also allows you to become invulnerable to some attacks, as does the Shield mechanic. Basically, all I'm saying is that this is one seriously complex game, and way more than what would be expected from a $5.99 fighting game with twelve anime characters, a handful of arenas, only a couple of modes, and some very nice bonuses in the form of story sequences for each major character (Sora, an unlockable character, has a very unique story sequence, and is the only sequence to be animated, despite being very short compared to the others). It's an excellent fighter, the characters all have personality and detailed backstory, the story modes are entertaining and humorous, the dialogue shifts from funny to shockingly macabre (Hae's backstory of being kidnapped and forced to stay in a dark room which she is not allowed to leave is stunningly heartrending, and was especially impacting and incredibly contrasting considering Saki's very lighthearted story involving pudding, cooking, and making people happy), and the game has a huge amount of personality with the cool fighting mechanics and flash to back it up. The added bonus story sequences are a great touch, and the two brief but entertaining story modes are also fun to play through. The bonus soundtrack provided, plus the theme and background, are very well done, and make that $5.99 even more worth it. For anyone with the slightest interest in fighters of this sort, especially those with a fan of manga-style characters and storylines, this is an obvious purchase. Mastering it is extremely difficult, and to learn the ins and outs of its mechanics takes time and practice. Just remember to read the wiki of this to have an idea of where to start. Great, great game. Just unreal value for the money.

Sweet Christ, ouch. Okay, let's get the most important thing out of the way: This game is Continuum Shift for the PSP. The "II" at the end is extremely misleading, as there is a negligible amount of new content, and certainly not enough to warrant that "II" at the end. Unlike Continuum Shift, this does *not* continue the BlazBlue story in any way, and is in actuality a clone of Continuum Shift, virtually word-for-word. Here's what's different: This is essentially CS with most of the DLC built into it. In other words, you get the three CS DLC characters--Platinum, Valkenhayn, and Makoto--which would normally be $7.99 each on the PSN Store. However, you do *NOT* get a story mode for any of these characters. This was extremely disappointing for me, as I was very much looking forward to exactly that, not knowing that all they did was add the characters in with an Arcade mode, but no Story mode to speak of. There's some other stuff to think about, too: There's a rather odd "leveling up" system present in the game, wherein you "level up" based on how much of the game you complete. Along with levels come points, much like the original BlazBlue Portable, which are used in the shop (at least, I think that's what they're used for). There are a few slight changes in Score Attack and Legion, and a new mode called Abyss, which is okay, but not something you'll come back to all that often. Perhaps most important out of all the exclusive new content are the two extra story sequences you can unlock in Story mode. These are all you're going to get in terms of additions to the BB story. They're extremely brief, not particularly informative, and not particularly interesting. They are, however, fully voiced like all the other cutscenes, and there is original art in each. That's pretty much it in terms of additions and changes. Here's something you probably wouldn't expect: Somehow, the audio and visual quality has taken a very significant hit since BBP. The quality difference is immediately noticeable. Character models are horribly blocky, poorly rendered and colored, and honestly, downright ugly. They definitely do not look like the ones in CS, or even BBP. The audio quality has also made a steep drop in quality. This will also be noticeable right off the bat. Every character sounds like they're talking into a pillow. Everything sounds too quiet, muffled, and much lower quality than BBP. Why this is puzzles me, as one would naturally expect an *improvement* on such things, except in cases when there's so much content that it doesn't fit on the disc, requiring compression. I have to use this as a theory, as there is indeed much more dialogue and variety in CSII than in BBP. The video is less explainable. There is no reason the models should look this poor. We've already seen that the PSP can handle itself with 2D fighters with games other than BlazBlue, so having models that look this ugly is inexcusable. Take one look at Noel while she's wearing her cloak, and you'll see exactly what I mean. The cloak is all one color, with no shading, her mouth never moves, and the animation is far less than what we got in CS. So, let's answer the obvious questions now: "If I have CS already, should I get CSII?" The answer is definitely no, unless you must have it in portable form, or you can't live without seeing the two extremely brief and largely meaningless extra story sequences. And, of course, you obviously lose online multiplayer, so if that's your thing, it's not here. Next: "Are there story sequences for Platinum, Valkenhayn, and Makoto?" I've already answered this, of course, but it's worth repeating because the answer is no. You do get an Arcade mode for them, which is better than nothing and allows for snippets of their respective stories, but certainly isn't a story mode of their own. "Okay, so if I don't have CS, should I get CS and buy the DLC characters by themselves, or get CSII?" Well, obviously, the console version is vastly graphically and auditorily superior. CS of course does not have quite as much content as CSII, but the difference isn't that significant. And, of course, you're not obligated to get the overpriced DLC. There is that slight extra story in CSII, but you can probably find it on YouTube or something by now. This one's sort of up to you. If you're like me and you just like playing on the PSP, and you can stand the hit in audio and visual quality, then sure, go for it. Everything's there and more. Basically, this game is for people who either must have CS in portable form, who can't possibly live without even the slightest amount of extra content offered, who are attracted to having all three DLC characters included, or who think the extra changes are worth it.

I was very hesitant to get this game, and wouldn't have if I wasn't stuck at home for three weeks. Owning nearly all of the previous YDKJ games on the PC, I've always been a huge fan, and it was the game of choice in my dorm room with friends. Upon hearing of a console release with a four-player limit, episodic format (which I remember from The Ride), and some altered mechanics to make things more fair, I had a very good feeling for this version. However, I was turned off hardcore upon discovering that the Jack Attack was based on the flash version of the game (Huh?) and that there were no gibberish questions, one of my favorite things in the previous games. I can understand not having gibberish questions in a console game, since there's no keyboard, and typing in answers would take forever, and I'll let that slide. So let's run down the list of things that are important here. One, the episodic format, which you likely remember from The Ride more than anything else, is *not* based on themes. In The Ride, every "episode" had a certain theme, like alcohol, or the government, or celebrities, or something like that. It wasn't a perfect system because right off the bat you'd know who'd have the advantage in the episode. For instance, if the episode was about computers, and one of you is a computer technician while another is a political science major with little computer experience, you know right away who's going to win. So, while this is avoided since each episode has no specific theme, it's still misleading to call these things "episodes" when the questions have virtually no connection. Perhaps the biggest change, though, is the way questions are answered, which is vastly different from any other YDKJ game. First of all, all players can answer, rather than a single player buzzing in and earning the prize. It's conceivable that every single person can get the answer right, and there is no special bonus for being the first to answer. Instead, how much money you get from a question isn't based on the question itself; all questions are worth an equal amount of money (doubled in round two), and the amount you get decreases as the clock runs down. It's very simple: If you buzz in with 14 seconds left, you get $1400, or $2800 if it's round two. Buzz in with two seconds left, and you get $200. All multiple-choice questions have an identical value, sans special rounds. This system actually tends to work, especially for wireless controllers, because if only one person buzzed in and answered, that person might just have the advantage of being closer to the TV, or being wired. It's arguably a nice new mechanic that helps ease the game along. The Dis-Or-Dats have also been changed somewhat. In previous versions, there was nothing complicated about them: You had two or three choices for each word or phrase, and you picked the right one to earn money, or picked the wrong one to lose it. This version makes things a little more complicated. First, the amount of money you earn is largely based on how quickly you can answer all the items correctly, and the time left afterward is a bonus in addition to the regular value of the items. The second thing is that other players no longer totally sit out in this round, and now have a role to play. If the main player of the Dis-Or-Dat gets an item wrong, and other players buzz in the correct answer *before* the main player answers, they will all share the money earned, which is considered a "steal". It's great that there is now an opportunity for other players to join in the Dis-Or-Dats, rather than having all but one player sit out completely. However, not everything here is perfect. Let's just get this out of the way: the flash version of the Jack Attack just isn't as good as the ones that came before it. In fact, it seemed like the Jack Attacks got progressively worse as time went on, and were made less and less intense. And here, we have, in my opinion, the least likable Jack Attack created. It's very busy, not particularly tension-building, and just noisy, but not in a good way. I would have vastly preferred an earlier version of the Jack Attack, maybe even the original, or The Ride. There's also one other really, really huge problem with the Jack Attack: Whereas most games before this one had answers worth $2k each, this one does them at an unreal $4k each, which is simply not right. Keep in mind that questions are all fixed in value, and all things considered, $4k is an obscene amount of money. You can understand, then, that you can absolutely **** at the main game, but come back and win in the Jack Attack. At some point, you just have to draw the line on how much **** a Jack Attack can be. One unlucky category and all your hard work goes down the drain. So, some things are lacking, and some things work. Is it worth it? Sure.

Bring a few tissue boxes before you hit New Game. Video games were never intended to reach the level of emotional involvement that Chrono Cross did. While Chrono Cross fell victim to being criticized for being too different from Chrono Trigger and not very sequel-like, Cross is ultimately the better game of the two in every single meaningful area, and all of its changes are for the better, unless you were one of the aforementioned people who wanted nothing more than Chrono Trigger 2. What separates Chrono Cross the most from every other game is its skill at evoking emotions in the player. Cross will make you sob like a scolded little girl at the sad scenes and grin like it's your first hit of cocaine at the happy scenes. No other RPG has been able to do this quite like Cross was able to. Possibly the most imaginative game ever created, it will literally take you across time and space to reach one ultimate final point that ties everything together. The "true" ending is so mind-blowing and surreal that by the time the end credits and epilogue finish, you'll be sitting feeling like you've changed as a person as a result of what you've experienced. Again, video games were never intended to be this emotionally involving. It just wasn't considered possible. Chrono Cross is easily one of the best if not the best RPGs ever created, as well as one of the best games ever made. The game's biggest drawback is that it does, at some point, end. But it gently takes your hands and helps you up off the floor and shows you a very meaningful New Game+, which is well worth exploring. Cross sits comfortably next to Freespace 2, an emotionally supercharged and story-driven space combat simulator that accomplished what shooters were never intended to do, as my favorite game of all time.