For May I went through at least two games from the backlog.
Completed Game #12 |
Blue Reflection (PS4)
From Koei Tecmo and Gust is an original JRPG game about magical girls and school life. The game can be compared to Persona quite a lot as it has a fair amount of similarities, from interacting with your classmates to managing what to do each day to going out of your way to fight monsters in another realm. The difference here is that while Persona is time-based i.e. you have to properly manage what to do before game over, Blue Reflection gives you infinite amount of time to do virtually anything and there is no game over outside of major boss battles from select end chapters.
This is a turn-based traditional RPG that actually has some very unique and solid gameplay mechanics. It's this where the game really shines the most because the combat, while very easy, is really engaging and the concept is well handled from choosing what to do before the enemy begins their turn to being able to unleash an ultimate attack if you focused on healing/defence for a while. The game has a percentage meter which once it hits 100% allows you to make use of that ultimate attack, but you can do a specific number of special moves at one turn if you have to.
The game also has a fixed team where you control your main character as well as a pair of twin-sisters. Each character has different attack moves and they work pretty well against the enemies, since the enemies have their own weaknesses based on specific elements which is similar to other JRPGs. The biggest issue I have with Blue Reflection is that the game for some reason has a very bizarre approach in that you don't level up through combat, but through the bonds you have with your classmates. This approach effectively makes the whole combat aspect of the game virtually pointless or obsolete. In other words, you could probably get from the beginning to the end of the game without really fighting anyone unless you had to get certain items for a fetch quest.
As for the story, I personally did not get attached to it so I skipped the dialogue. It's a shame but if it ain't going to interest me then I may as well keep moving on. The characters themselves are interesting in their own way, though I am surprised they aren't going to tag along with you during the usual combat parts. That being said, they do assist you during the big major boss battles which is a nice added bonus to the mix.
One thing I forgot to talk about is the visuals. The UI design is actually fantastic and I love the way they have approached them. The artstyle of the cast of characters is also pretty good, though I do wish they put more effort into the combat world because it can be very easy to get lost since there is no map available. You also cannot save during these realms but then again you cannot die either. The music is also pretty good.
Overall Blue Reflection is a pretty decent game, and while I wasn't that particularly interested in the story and dialogue, there is a lot of potential for the franchise so I hope the second game will fix a lot of those issues. I do have the Platinum trophy as it was possible within a 30 hour playtime.
Completed Game #13 |
Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 Fortune (PS4)
Back in November 2018 I was able to acquire a copy of the original version for Dead or Alive Xtreme 3, which at the time got a newer version to include more characters (which can be acquired via DLC for Fortune & Venus) however it was affected by Sony's policy so I decided to stick with the original since it was unaffected.
Fast-forward to present time and I finally decided to have a go at the series since it was one of the older PS4 games I own that has yet to be played. What started off as a volleyball spin-off series eventually became a super fanservice adventure. With new console generations comes newer engines and more realistic characters so Xtreme 3 takes advantage of this a fair bit. Now despite the whole fanservice debate, this game is actually not that bad in terms of what you can expect but it is not a perfect experience by all means.
The general concept for Xtreme 3 is that you spend in-game 14 days with a character, and for each day it is split into four parts (Morning, Day, Late Afternoon, Evening/Night-time). In each part you have a mission objective that can range from buying a swimsuit, playing pool hopping, providing a gift to someone and even accomplish a task within a requirement like no loses during volleyball or climb up a hill within a specific amount of time. The missions come at random but for each character they have seven major missions that are crucial to unlock the best outcome, which if you aren't able to complete within that 14-day period can continue from where you left off in a new playthrough so there's no need to try and perfect it in one sitting.
The characters that are included in Xtreme 3 were chosen by a popularity poll with Marie Rose and Honoka winning the top two votes so they were the feature characters. You can also play Kasumi, Ayane, Kokoro, Nyotengu, Hitomi, Momiji and Helena (Leifang is DLC and also included in the Scarlet version with new character Misaki). I like many of the characters shown here though they are very picky when it comes to providing gifts to them, for instance one missions states they want a specific bikini, so you buy that bikini and gift it to them but for some stupid logic they don't want it, like why must you make me suffer? It's even more daft when they still gain hearts (which is how you build up their satisfaction meter in order to get the best outcome of the game) when they reject it.
Before going over the mini-games, the vacation is split into two modes; Owner and Girl. Owner mode is basically you interacting with the character you've chosen for the vacation, while Girl mode is choosing the mini-games and playing them while also being able to gift other girls to build up the bonds.
Now let's talk about what exactly the mini-games are in this game - it's split into two groups; the activities and the casino. The activities include Beach Volleyball, Beach Flag (lie on the ground and run to the flag before your opponent gets it), Pool Hopping (jump on floating platforms based on the buttons shown), Butt Battle (Keijo basically), Tug of War (give them the rope and the opponent falls off immediately lol) and Rock Climbing. You can also have the character relax which is a quick cutscene of them doing something to slip that part of the day, and also buy items like swimsuits and gifts. I liked each activity and the volleyball gameplay took some use to but I got pretty good at it unless it's on Hard difficulty where the AI will just destroy you.
The second group, the casino, only has three mini-games which are Poker, Roulette and Blackjack. The luck for some of the specific combinations is very tedious but I found a lot of fun and enjoyment playing these three especially the roulette one. That being said, save scumming is going to be needed if you want to earn a lot of money to acquire specific items for mission tasks.
Each vacation playthrough depending on how well you can manage the missions, takes roughly 2-3 hours playtime and if you are able to accomplish all 7 missions before the end of Day 14 you can get an S+ rank to help level up your Owner rank. For the Platinum trophy you will want to reach Owner Level 50 which will take a whole ton of grinding unfortunately but I was able to reach at least Level 35 after finishing all 9 character playthroughs, and 7 of them have S+ ranks at least.
Overall, Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 is a fun time and it's got a lot of fanservice, including the girls getting tanned over time and the ability to use skincare items to alter their physics though they mostly reject your gifts if you do that so no point, especially during your early playthroughs. My favourite girls from this game were Nyotengu (she has a lot of ohohoho energy) and Momiji (nice person).
I don't know about the replayability because it was possible to get all the endings by only playing portions of the game. There's one decision in chapter 5 that leads to two paths and those two paths have 3 and 2 endings that mostly come down to one choice or action. I give them probs for making it possible to just load older save to get the other endings. The game remembers which cutscenes you have seen so it's easy to skip all the ones you don't want to see.
Been highly anticipating a global release for this title and now we're drawing near.
