Review: Lost Dimension (PS3/PS Vita)

Posted on July 28, 2015 by geelw

Platform: PlayStation 3/PS Vita
Developer: FuRyu
Publisher: Atlus
# of Players: 1
ESRB Rating: T (Teen)
MSRP: $39.99
Official Site
Score: B (80%)

He may be smiling outside, but he’s really going to kill you inside. The End.

Oh, how I do wish there were a Lost Dimension OVA or short-run anime series. Just so I could see the scene at the close of one episode when villain The End materializes outside that strange massive pillar he’s dropped in the middle of Tokyo to address some reporters who’ve popped up outside with their news vans and a moderately sized crowd of terrified (but terminally nosy) gawkers. In my somewhat addled brain, the English dub would go something like this:

REPORTER: Mr. The End! You’ve dropped this massive Pillar onto the city, killed over two billion people around the world and are threatening the human race with total extinction! What will you do now?!

THE END (dryly): Hmmm… I guess I’ll go to Disney World… and kill everyone there as well.

Whereupon The End would smirk, drift high up into the air and vanish as the crowd below gasps and chatters away. As that reporter is making some dopey closing commentary, the camera would pull way back as he or she is talking right before a huge chunk of rubble drops on top of everyone outside. Cut to The End looking down and grinning as we get a freeze frame shot of his face and THE END in big letters fading in before the closing credit theme kicks in.

Hey, I did say he means business, didn’t I? THE END.

Yeah, I’d pay real money to see that. But I’m a bit crazy.

Anyway, my poorly plotted final fan fiction fantasy dream aside, let’s talk about the game in question. Lost Dimension comes to you from developers FuRyu (with an Lancarse assist) and publisher Atlus as a solid, intriguing hybrid of visual novel and tactical RPG. It’s a game that takes a number of genre cliches (and the fact that JRPG fans love them) and flips them onto their heads as it asks you to kill off your team one by one in order to advance the plot. While that’s going on you also need to bond with as many of your remaining teammates as possible before the final showdown. And you need to do this twice in order to get that best ending.

I usually don’t do this, but I’m going to go and gently spoil some of the obvious stuff the game slaps you with hard just to make sure it’s understood how important it is to NOT automatically like the cast from the get-go.

Oh really? Well you’re still getting voted off the island, missy!

The game doesn’t care a whit how cute you think Himeno is or that Marco wears bangin’ headphones and has a snowman or whatever the hell that is on his outfit. In fact, going into the game with notions of “saving” characters you like is a really terrible idea. Not only will you be disappointed that someone you’re attached to is going to get theirs at your hands, you’ll end up in a frustrating loop of trying to reload saves that won’t matter at all as you try to salvage someone who needs to die anyway… Continue reading →

Lost Dimension Update: When The End Is Only The Beginning

Posted on July 15, 2015 by geelw

With Lost Dimension coming on July 28 to PS3 and Vita and yours truly almost done with his second play through for review purposes, it’s tough to keep from doing some bean spilling on what to expect from the game. Of course, you’ll have to chase me down and force a lot of real American dollars into my pockets just to get me to cough up the juicy details. I don’t carry change with me (the rustling of bills in a pocket hurts my follicles), so you’ll have to start with one hundred bucks at a minimum before I cough up some answers. But as I’ve already put a decent chunk of time into what’s here, let’s just safely say that the game has taught me how to lie very effectively. You may not get the truth out of me but you’ll at least get a convincing tale that will keep you entertained enough to believe every single word.

Of course, you just may bribe me and get nothing but dead air. Ever since I got my review code there’s been a black van outside my building with tinted windows and an ATLUS logo on the door. Methinks I’ll end up IN said black van if I talk too much.

Lost Dimension Hands-On: Brain Trust And The Tall Tower of Doom

Posted on July 4, 2015 by geelw

Don’t plan on getting too attached to your party members in Lost Dimension, developer FurYu’s new RPG headed to the PlayStation 3 and Vita on July 28 from Atlus. Among the cast of powerful teen agents of SEALED are a number of traitors aligned with spiky-haired villain The End and the game rather effectively randomizes who those traitors are on each floor of the enemy packed tower you’re ascending.

While it’s yet another game in which Japan gets partially destroyed and it’s up to a cast of youths with special skills to save the day (and the planet), there’s an added layer of tension here that builds as your party gets whittled down based on your decisions. Even worse, choosing your allies based on how you as the person playing the game feels about them can have some pretty drastic in-game consequences.

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Ember Update: N-Fusion’s Late Baby Gets Bigger and Better

Posted on March 13, 2015 by geelw

Yes, Ember was supposed to be out last fall, but as CEO and creative director Jeff Birns explained at 505 Games recent NYC event, the team at N-Fusion has been a bit busy making things even better. The game looked fantastic when I first saw it, but it’s even more gorgeously detailed and as noted in my previous article, the best-looking isometric RPG on any device. Many new areas have been added, older areas have gotten changes and parts that needed work have indeed been worked on. Ten years of work and a proprietary engine that won’t quit go a long way in realizing a dream, is all I’ll say about the art and vast, carefully detailed open world players will get to explore.

I’ll even go out on a limb to say it definitely gives some PC role-playing games of any era a run for their money. Apple clearly has an exclusive to be proud of (the Steam version will most likely be released at some point after the iOS version), but how do you market such an amazing game on a device where most of its games really haven’t been marketed to the masses like AAA console games are?

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Review: TRI: Friendship and Madness

Posted on October 26, 2014 by geelw

Platform: PC

Developer: Rat King Games

Publisher: Rising Star Games

# of Players 1

ESRB Rating: N/A

Official Site

Score: A (95%)

It’s very hard to believe two people (Jana Reinhardt and Friedrich Hanisch) programmed the stellar TRI: Friendship and Madness, but that’s what it says on the official site and in the game credits. This family-friendly first person puzzle game plays like a hybrid child of Portal and a very well made Minecraft mod where you soon find the only limitations to solving the increasingly challenging levels are your imagination and sense of exploration. The game starts off small as a simple, somewhat straightforward Point A to Point B “find the keys to clear the level” experience, but once you get to drawing triangular platforms that can send you almost anywhere on a map, the game opens up into pure brain expanding territory.

Despite the often high level of challenge in reaching some really out of the way items, once you get the hang of things, the game is always a joy to play, particularly when you’re making your own route around the expansive and often gravity defying maps that have you moving around at seemingly impossible angles… Continue reading →

Minecraft PlayStation Vita Edition: Well, I Just May Need This After All…

Posted on October 22, 2014 by geelw

Yes, other than dinking around for about two hours on a friend’s PC a while back, I’ve avoided playing Minecraft. But with the Vita version ~~on the way~~ NOW available on PSN (the retail version is coming a bit later), I can finally see what the fuss is about on my platform of choice. It certainly looks pretty darn goon running on the handheld and I trust Aram (Hey, wasn’t he at Atlus for a while? Yes he was!) when he says it’s the best version of the game. Hmmm. I’ll probably need to shell out for a new memory card as well, as my current one is just about full and it’s time to pay the piper, grrrrr. I wish those things weren’t so expensive, as it’s one thing that’s keeping a very small segment of gamers away from the Vita as a viable handheld. The system has plenty of games on it, but it gets hit by some folks for having not enough variety, being underutilized by some developers and so forth and so on. Eh, I like mine just fine, thanks. I just wish Sony knew how to promote the thing a bit better…

How To Survive: Storm Warning Hands-on: Oh, You’ll Die Anyway (And Love Every Minute of It)…

Posted on October 11, 2014 by geelw

Okay, so I’d not played EKO Software’s How to Survive at all on the PS3 because it was a digital-only title, I was fed up with zombie games and figured missing one wouldn’t be a total loss. Boy, was I wrong on that front. When 505 Games invited me to see and play the enhanced PS4 version, How To Survive: Storm Warning Edition (along with some really stupendous mobile titles I’ll need to write about soon), I popped up with no expectations (a good way to approach any new game, folks) but came away very impressed with the brutally challenging game with the most fitting name. If you’ve played this on other platforms and love it, you know the drill and this one’s been keeping you busy for a while. If you’re new to the game and happen to have a PS4, you’ll be pleased to know this version will bring you the original release and DLC in the same download… Continue reading →

After a Too-Packed Wednesday… Comes the Writening! Well, Not Just Yet…

Posted on October 9, 2014 by geelw

Yeah, there’s a bit of delay of game as I’m kind of stuck here for a bit with my slow connection and holding my breath for a package I was supposed to get maybe a week ago. Bleah. Anyway, I may take this waiting time to get in some more progress in Alien Isolation from an older save, as I made a rather interesting mistake that’s done nothing but made me curious as to what would have happened if I didn’t do what I did in that old save. PROTIP: don’t kill off ALL of the people shooting at you in one early area, as they’ll be fine Alien bait when you need to revisit that spot. Scope out the map carefully BEFORE you pick up that key item and plan a route to that exit, THEN pick up that item and make a mad dash for an upper hiding spot before working your way around to that temporary escape point.

Ehm, anyway… I’ll be posting hands-on reports for Dragon Age Inquisition (it’s fantastic, shut up and buy it), a bunch of Kabam’s incredibly addictive mobile games, and some great stuff coming from 505 Games including Ember, a mobile RPG that NEEDS to bee seen to be believed, a spiritual successor to the Puzzle Quest series by the same team, a super-cute matching monsters surprise and the updates version of How to Survive that’s going to make fans of that game run out and grab a PS4 if they haven’t already. Between that and some other stuff I’m fiddling with finishing, it’s going to be a mostly quite day in terms of posts. Hokay, let the boring begin! What’s the sound waiting makes again? Hmmmmm… I’ll ask that Alien when I see him, I guess.

TRI Hands-On: Rat King Games Wants You to Go After the Fox…

Posted on October 5, 2014 by geelw

Okay, my preview for TRI is a bit late (the game drops onto Steam this Tuesday), but this is one of those wonderful indie gems that NEEDS to be played and enjoyed. Developer Rat King Games has made a fun and very challenging first-person puzzle/platformer that’s got influences from Portal and Okami to even a teeny-tiny bit of Minecraft. The build I spent some time with offered up some fine and challenging large levels that grew progressively trickier and from that simple tutorial, opened up into a game that’s going to surprise fans of quirky visuals and complex gameplay that keeps you hooked in. Come meet the Odd Gods and stay for a while – you’ve got a fox to catch (if you can)…

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Kromaia Hands-On: Blasting Cool Looking Stuff Four Ways ’til Sunday (Well, Any Day of the Week)…

Posted on October 1, 2014 by geelw

Kraken Empire’s upcoming space shooter Kromaia is going to be one of those games genre fans will be more than pleased to see thanks to the stellar visuals and intuitive control scheme (provided you use a keyboard/mouse or decent game controller). Rising Star Games has wisely snapped this one up for a Q4 2014 release and I recently got my paws on some preview code to take for a spin. And spin I did, as the ships in the game are all kinds of maneuverable thanks to the six degrees of movement through the game’s enemy and obstacle-packed levels..

The preview build had four different levels and four types of ships to play around with, each linked to one of the stages. While I could sit here and make comparisons to Star Fox, Panzer Dragoon, Rez and other excellent sci-fi or fantasy shooters where you’re set on a path without much deviation, Kromaia outdoes those games by allowing you to go anywhere you point that ship you’re flying. There are clear goals in each map, but you can choose to go off what you thought was a predetermined path and zip around at your leisure while trying not to get blown into plenty of pixels by the nicely aggressive enemy AI…

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