Category: Video Games

2189: Reflections on the Last Five Years, Or: Life After Games Journalism

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I've had a whole lot of thoughts swirling around in my head for some time now about various matters, and I feel as a therapeutic exercise — not to mention an opportunity for some of you to get to know me a bit better — it's important that I express them somehow. I know all too well how frustrating, stressful and ultimately unhealthy it can be to have unresolved emotions and thoughts surrounding things that have happened to you — particularly bad things — and so this is my attempt to reboot my mind and try to move on a little.

Consequently, certain aspects of this post are more than likely to rub a few people up the wrong way. To those people whose jimmies are rustled I say simply: fuck you, I don't give a shit, and if you really cared you wouldn't have done the things you did in the first place.

In the interests of at least a facade of professionalism, I will not be naming individuals who have had a negative impact on my life in this post, though it will doubtless be extremely obvious to anyone who has been following me for a while who the people in question are. I will, however, be naming the companies involved, since that is less personal; everyone knows how unpleasant it is if you Google your own name and find something not terribly complimentary, whereas, unless you own a monolithic corporation, you probably care a little less about someone talking smack about your monolithic corporation. That's how I'm going to attempt to justify myself about this, anyway.

Also, this post is crazy long, so for the benefit of those who only read on my front page, here's a Read More tag.

Continue reading "2189: Reflections on the Last Five Years, Or: Life After Games Journalism" →

2188: Neptunia Games I'd Like to See

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With Megadimension Neptunia V-II and Megatagmension Blanc and Neptune vs. Zombies on the way to the West, hopefully with Neptunia vs. Sega Hard Girls to follow in the near future, a Neptunia fan such as myself has to ponder what might be next for the series, particularly now it's made the jump to PlayStation 4 and PC as well as Vita.

With that in mind, I had a think about some Neptunia games I'd like to see, particularly in the vein of "spin-offs" such as Hyperdimension Neptunia U Action Unleashed and Hyperdevotion Noire. Here are said thoughts, expressed in the style of a overly excitable PR blast, overuse of exclamation marks and all.

Hyperdimension Neptunia Infinity Dungeon

Gamindustri is in peril once again… and the CPUs are nowhere to be seen?!

Top Guild agent IF is assigned to the mystery and quickly discovers that the monsters pouring out into Gamindustri appear to be coming from a new dungeon that opened in the vicinity of Planeptune. Not knowing what to expect, she begins her quest to uncover the fates of her friends, the CPUs and the CPU Candidates. Just how deep does this mysterious dungeon, whose walls seem to shift and twist before her very eyes, really go?

FEATURES

  • The first Neptunia roguelike! Explore an infinite array of procedurally generated levels as IF and your favourite Neptunia characters as you attempt to discover the source of the Infinity Dungeon's power!
  • An all-new twist on Neptunia's crazy combat! Tactical turn-based movement allows for seamless transitions between exploration and combat; meanwhile, for the first time in the series, make use of the environment in creative ways to defend yourself and inflict massive damage on your foes!
  • Looking for a more direct route? Make your own! All of Hyperdimension Neptunia Infinity Dungeon's levels are fully destructible, with IF and friends' special moves just as likely to bash holes in the walls of the dungeon as they are to smash their enemies into oblivion!
  • Mix it up with Irregular Quest conditions! The Infinity Dungeon works in strange and mysterious ways; some floors will challenge you to clear them against the clock, while others will task you with defeating the enemies as stylishly as possible. Uncover and fulfil the Irregular Quest conditions to maximise your rewards!
  • A wide cast of playable characters! Explore the dungeon as IF, Compa, Neptune and the rest of the gang — plus a few special guests!

Coming soon to PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 4, featuring Cross-Save support. Pre-order your Limited Edition now, featuring a 2CD soundtrack, artbook and fully poseable IF figurine.

Hyperdimension Neptunia U2 Action Unchained

Peace reigns once again in Gamindustri, but the world — and its CPUs — are restless.

Enter, once again, intrepid journalists Dengekiko and Famitsu, who once again have an offer for the CPUs and their Candidates: a means of entertaining both themselves and their people, plus a way to keep their fighting skills in shape.

FEATURES

  • Hack, slash… and think?! Hyperdimension Neptunia U2 Action Unchained's dungeons are like nothing you've ever seen in the Neptunia series, combining challenging combat encounters with head-scratching puzzles that will require you to use your smarts, dexterity and a bevy of interactive items to progress. Nep-Nep might need some help with that last bit!
  • Custom combos GET! Edit your favourite fighter's moves and abilities as you see fit from a wide palette of options that expands as you progress. Develop your own personal fighting style for each character and display your skills with a selection of different weapons, each with their own movesets!
  • Fight one-on-one or go toe-to-toe against the horde! Hyperdimension Neptunia U2 Action Unchained's combat encounters range from challenging one-on-one battles against both monsters and incarnations of Gamindustri's great heroes to large-scale battles against overwhelming odds. Can you stem a seemingly never-ending tide of monsters?!
  • Fight smart, and fight cool! It's not just about beating your opponents; it's about making yourself look great! Mix up your combos, SP Moves and EXE Drives to impress the audience and earn more Shares to maximise your favourite character's abilities!

Coming soon to PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 4, featuring Cross-Save support and Cross-Play online co-op for 1-4 players. Pre-order your limited edition now, featuring a 2CD soundtrack, huge wallscroll and collection of chibi Neptunia figurines.

Hyperdimension Neptunia Gamindustri Idol Project

"Is anyone else getting a distinct sense of deja vu?!"

A new foe threatens Gamindustri — and this time it's not the fault of the monsters. No, the CPUs' very power is threatened by the rise in popularity of idols — and this time there's no Producer to help them out! Fortunately, old friend 5pb. is on hand to give the CPUs and their Candidates a bit of advice on winning the love of the people back…

FEATURES

  • Rhythm action gameplay developed in collaboration with SEGA and Crypton Future Media, developers of the Hatsune Miku Project DIVA series! Enjoy 35 songs, including classics from the Neptunia series and originals composed specifically for this game, as you challenge taxing note charts at four levels of difficulty!
  • Customise the CPUs as they aim for idol glory! A huge variety of costumes, accessories and stage props are on offer for both the CPUs and the Candidates; some even have special effects, but you'll have to experiment to find out what works best for you!
  • Two ways to play! Take on a new story of the CPUs and the Candidates attempting to win back the support of the people of Gamindustri, or play for fun in Arcade mode as you try to top your best scores!
  • Take the battle for best idol online! Join the Guild online to track your progress and best performances against players from all over the world! Share your customised CPU Idols and stage setups as you attempt to dominate not just Gamindustri, but our world too!

Coming soon to PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 4, featuring Cross-Save support and Cross-Play online functionality including social features, sharing and leaderboards. Pre-order your limited edition now, featuring a 2CD soundtrack, commemorative concert programme and collection of pendants, allowing you to proudly show the world who your favourite CPU Idol is!

Note: I know these games are not real. I also know that Hyperdimension Neptunia: Producing Perfection is a thing. Thank you in advance for your time and your desire to point these things out to me, though.

2187: Entering the Caves of Qud

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It's been a while since I delved into a full-on proper roguelike — and by "proper" I mean none of that "roguelite" nonsense — so I was excited to give Caves of Qud a go after picking it up in the Steam sale a while back.

So far I feel like I've barely scratched the surface of this game — largely because it's very fond of killing players off even in its introductory quests — but I like it a whole lot already, simply for the sheer amount of depth there is to it, while simultaneously remaining pretty much as accessible as it's possible to be for an almost-ASCII roguelike.

Caves of Qud is a far-future roguelike in which you play the part of Some Dude/Gal who shows up in a small settlement one day and… well, there's no real initial goal beyond finding out what interesting things there are in the mysterious and far-off region of Qud up in the top-right corner of the map. The inhabitants of the first village are more than happy to present you with a few quests, however, and it's these that will provide the motivation for your initial explorations.

Caves of Qud gets interesting before the game proper starts, though. Being set in the far future, we're not in a land of elves, orcs and goblins here; we're in a land where horribly mutated individuals are the norm, and indeed it's entirely possible for you to play the game as a four-armed furry narcoleptic esper who is good at butchery and first aid, and perhaps beneficial to do so. For those who prefer slightly more "conventional" characters, you also have the option of playing as a "True Kin", who start the game with better attributes, but less customisation, and as such are, in theory, better for beginners.

The mutations are pretty interesting, since many of them have attached game effects, not all of which are directly related to dealing or soaking damage. A character that is able to spit slime, for example, doesn't do so to damage enemies — instead, slime causes anyone who steps on it to have a chance of slipping, including yourself. In this way, it can be used as a defensive measure when gobbed out between you and the enemy while you're attempting to sprint away and heal the wounds you've taken.

That's not to say the more conventional aspects aren't interesting, though. The game has an intriguing twist on the usual roguelike formula of having unidentified items: as you progress, you'll occasionally come across "artifacts", which you can use your character's intelligence to attempt to make some sense of by examining them. Sometimes these artifacts are useful pieces of equipment; at other times, they're a folding chair. You can, however, use this knowledge to your advantage by offloading the aforementioned folding chair to a character that isn't all that bright on the grounds that it's a Mysterious and Wonderful Artifact From the Old World. There are lots of wonderfully subtle touches that the game doesn't explicitly tell you about, too. Little graphical effects may look like glitches until you realise that they're raindrops, or water splashing as something moves beneath the surface; characters, enemies and monsters can get splattered with blood during combat; and not every enemy is worth engaging "just because it's there". Stumble across a Slumberling in a dungeon, for example, and you'll discover that poking it with your sword is a very bad idea indeed; take a moment to examine it before poking it, however, and you'll discover that these are creatures that spend most of their time in a deep hibernation, completely oblivious to their surroundings — and that they really don't like being disturbed.

As I say, I feel I've barely scratched the surface of all the possibilities this interesting game offers so far, but it keeps me coming back for more despite its high level of difficulty — rather than easing you in and then spiking after an initial "tutorial" area, Caves of Qud starts hard and stays hard — and one day I might actually get beyond that first dungeon… until that time, however, I shall enjoy building new characters with increasingly outlandish combinations of mutations and watching them die at the hands of a swarm of snapjaws as they bleed to death after tripping over a thorny plant in the floor having been terrified by a nearby piece of Dreadroot.

2186: Hyperdimension Action

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I'm well into the post-game of Hyperdimension Neptunia U Action Unleashed (or, as certain parts of the Vita interface refer to it, Hyperdimension Action Unleashed Neptunia U, and I'm pretty sure there are a few other combinations too) and enjoying the game a great deal.

It's not the deepest game in the world, I'll be the first to admit: while there are a few levels that take place in "dungeons" — in true Neptunia fashion, these are, of course, recycled from the mainline games — on the whole, it's mostly an arena-based brawler in which you hack and slash your way through hordes of enemies using a few different moves with each character.

It is a game where you can win most of the levels by hammering the Square button repeatedly, but experimenting with the combos and special moves somewhat produces a much more satisfying experience. In many ways, I kind of wish there was more reward for doing so — some sort of style bonus, or a bonus for completing a level particularly quickly, or even a time limit — but seeing the combo meter rise into ridiculously high numbers is, to be honest, reward enough for me.

What I like about the post-game is that there's several different things to do. Firstly, there are some extra quests in the game's story mode that, in a twist on the game up until that point, only allow you to use a single character instead of the usual duo. This means you don't have the safety net of a partner if you get knocked down, and make these missions actually quite challenging for the characters you haven't levelled quite as much as the others. I had a bit of difficulty with Famitsu's mission, for one, but actually rather enjoyed this, as it forced me to figure out how her moves actually worked and use them effectively rather than just, as previously mentioned, hammering Square.

Once you're done with those, there's the Gamindustri Gauntlet, which is a tournament of one-on-one fights between a character you choose — in this mode, the characters' HDD/goddess forms are treated as separate characters — and a random (or player-chosen) selection of others. There are three difficulty modes, with the first being ridiculously easy (like, one-hit-kill easy if you've levelled your characters even a little bit) and the middle offering a decent but not insurmountable challenge. I haven't tried the top one yet. This mode reminds me a little of Neptunia U's stablemate Senran Kagura Estival Versus, which was a similar kind of game with a strong focus on one-on-one battles rather than hordes. It works quite well, though I do find myself wishing for a lock-on system at times. This mode does nicely highlight the fact the characters do all play rather differently from one another, though, with the contrast between ranged characters such as Rom, Ram and Uni and the rest of the cast being most apparent.

After you clear Gamindustri Gauntlet once, you unlock Neptral Tower, which is a string of 50 arena battles that, if you want the Platinum trophy, you're going to have to do with every character. Thankfully, a pair of characters reaching the top does count as them both having cleared it, regardless of which one you were playing as when you won, and Neptral Tower as a whole acts as a solid means of grinding out both levels for characters and Lily Ranks for bonuses — the latter, of course, being essential for the Platinum trophy, too, because what would a Neptunia game be without an epic Lily Rank grind?

Neptral Tower is quite interesting to play through because progress is recorded on a per-character basis, meaning you can't just take your strongest character all the way up and change partners as you max out Lily Ranks. Instead, you can voluntarily reset progress at any point and start bringing another character up as you so desire. While you could get that Platinum trophy by clearing all 50 floors with each character one at a time, it's much more efficient — and interesting — to make strategic use of this reset function to grind out the Lily Ranks you need and level your characters before making a break for the top floors when you're good and ready.

Neptunia U is a good game, then, and it makes me rather curious for the upcoming Megatagmension Blanc and Neptune vs Zombies, which is coming later this year. It's also been reminding me quite how much I love Neptunia, and it's got me very much in the mood to finally get around to playing Re;Birth 2 and 3 when I'm done — just in time for Megadimension Neptunia V-II, which looks quite likely to release next month.

Nepu!

2185: #WaifuWednesday

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I don't really have the mental capacity to write anything particularly deep or meaningful today, so here are some pictures of pretty girls.

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This is Purple Sister (left) and Purple Heart (right), the HDD/goddess forms of Nepgear and Neptune from the Hyperdimension Neptunia series respectively. This is one of my favourite pieces of official artwork for the series.

ikaruga

This is Ikaruga from Senran Kagura, displaying an uncharacteristically exhibitionist side of herself. Normally very prim and proper, we can probably assume that she is in private while this is going on, but I also have little to no doubt that Katsuragi is hiding somewhere just out of shot.

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The three Deviluke sisters from the To Love-Ru series. Lala (centre) is the original and best, but she was somewhat sidelined after the first series in favour of her two sisters Nana (left) and Momo (right).

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Miia from Monster Musume, who simultaneously encapsulates the inherent sexiness and strangeness of the lamia while also fulfilling the "doting girlfriend" trope nicely. Darling!!

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A pleasantly candid shot of Asuna (canonical girl) and Lisbeth (best girl) from Sword Art Online.

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Nozomi from Love Live, who might be my favourite…

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…although it might also be Maki.

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Hanako from Katawa Shoujo definitely deserves a mention.

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And we'll close with Amane from The Fruit of Grisaia, who adorns my actual real-life wallet, and so I guess probably tops some sort of waifu leaderboard somewhere.

That's your lot for now. Hopefully I will be feeling better tomorrow and have something a bit more substantial to share with you all. In the meantime, enjoy the pics.

2183: Why It Would Be a Mistake to Not Localise Valkyrie Drive Bhikkuni

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Earlier today, a tweet from Senran Kagura creator Kenichiro Takaki did the rounds, apparently indicating that his newest video game creation Valkyrie Drive Bhikkuni — part of an ambitious transmedia project that involves anime, mobile games and conventional games — would not be localised.

Takaki's wording is a little ambiguous, due to English not being his first language, but if I'm interpreting his words correctly, it seems that there are no current plans to release a localised version of Valkyrie Drive Bhikkuni, but that he does want to release a localised version.

In other words, there's a shred of hope in that tweet thanks to the word "currently", particularly as the creator himself has expressed a desire to bring the game over. However, the final decision will be in the hands of Marvelous and their frequent localisation partners XSEED Games and Marvelous Europe, and this is where things become a little worrisome.

You might recall that a few weeks back there was something of a hoo-hah over Dead or Alive Xtreme 3, with a widely quoted comment apparently from a Tecmo Koei employee seeming to indicate that Western territories would not be receiving an official release of the game due to the unwelcome influence of loud-mouthed outrage megaphones in the games press and on social media at large. Whether or not those comments were actually true is beside the point; plenty of people believe them and have no reason not to given recent happenings. As a result, import specialist Play-Asia scored something of a coup by pointing out that there was an Asian English version available, and that, conveniently, they were offering it to those who wanted it — along with a cheeky biting of the thumb at so-called "social justice warriors" along the way, too. Fine with me.

The thing Valkyrie Drive Bhikkuni and Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 have in common is that they're both provocative, sexy games that feature exclusively female characters in cute outfits, suggestive poses and varying states of undress. The similarities end there, of course, with DOAX3 being a beach volleyball/dating sim type affair, while Valkyrie Drive Bhikkuni is more along the lines of Takaki's successful Senran Kagura franchise, but to the eyes of those who thing everything involving depictions of the female form — particularly in works of Japanese origin — is somehow worse than ISIS, there's little difference; these are games for neckbeard basement-dwelling virgins, they'd say — games for desperate losers who'd never get their hands on a real woman.

This is enormously reductive thinking, as I've argued on a number of occasions in the past. I think it's extremely important that video games as a medium feels that it is able to explore sex, sexiness, sexuality and deliberately provocative aesthetics. And, over the last few years, we've started to see more and more developers, publishers and localisation outfits apparently feeling the same way, with PlayStation platforms in particular getting more than their fair share of games that are unafraid to revel and delight in explorations of sexuality. Sure, a few have made it over with some edits here and there in the name of differing cultural norms — particularly with regard to the depiction of young-looking ("loli") characters in provocative situations, even if, canonically, they are of an appropriate age to be engaging with such activities — but for the most part, the last two generations of hardware in particular have been a wonderful time to be a fan of Japanese gaming and sex-positive titles.

What the loud-mouthed outrage megaphones threaten to do, though, is undo this amount of progress we've seen over the last few years. Because yes, it is progress, whatever you may personally think of the games in question. These games seeing a successful release to a passionate audience in the West demonstrates that it is possible to release games to a niche rather than a mainstream audience — and, thus, if it's possible to run a successful business catering to those who enjoy games involving pretty anime girls (which isn't just white cis heterosexual men, I might add, as my Twitter Following list will attest) then it is certainly possible to cater to other audiences too: gay men, heterosexual women, gay women, asexual people, bisexual people, trans people and even the genderfluid otherkin bullshit that Tumblr seems to make up on a regular basis.

As such, seeing a relatively high-profile title from a high-profile niche-interest creator like Takaki at risk of not coming over for reasons as-yet unknown — but you can bet it's something to do with the recent controversies, along with the amount of outright ill-informed abuse that has been spewed at the Senran Kagura series in particular over the last few years — is both saddening and worrying, but perhaps understandable. To be honest, were I in Takaki's situation, as a creator who clearly loves both his work and his creations, I would feel enormously demoralised every time the mainstream press covered my games and wrote them off without, in many cases, even playing them — though I would take heart from the fact that there are plenty of passionate fans out there willing to spread the good word, even if the press isn't. And in this age of social media, as the traditional games press becomes more and more irrelevant, sadly, it's word of mouth that really counts more than anything.

I sincerely hope that Takaki, XSEED and Marvelous are able to reach some kind of arrangement where Western fans are able to pick up Valkyrie Drive Bhikkuni officially, without having to resort to possible Asian English imports, because refusing to release this sends a message to the wannabe "progressive" bullies of the world that their tactics — shaming creators and audience members of niche-interest products rather than being the change they want to see in the world and creating their own media that better reflects their interests — are working. And I really don't want them to get that message, because for all their bleating about "diversity" and "representation", nothing good ever comes from denying groups access to the media they want to enjoy; in fact, if anything, it makes the world a less diverse and representative place overall.

So fuck that. Takaki-san, XSEED, Marvelous: you announce an official Western (preferably European — we're a lot more open-minded over here!) release of Valkyrie Drive Bhikkuni, and I — and numerous others I know — will more than happily pre-order it immediately, particularly if there's a lovely limited edition on offer with, say, posters, figurines, soundtracks, dakimakuras and the like.

Do the right thing. Don't let the crybullies of the world win. Take a stand. Show that you believe in your work, and in your audience. Tits are life, ass is hometown — and your games are happiness.

2182: The Comforting Familiarity of Nep-Nep

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There's a reason I frequently quote the Hyperdimension Neptunia series as my favourite game series of all time. And it's not because any of the games are particularly outstanding — though, it must be said, each and every one is far better than most reviews give them credit for — or because they're particularly impressive. In fact, technically speaking, outside of some excellent character models and animation, the Neptunia series as a whole is fairly flawed, though since making the jump to Vita, PC and PS4 rather than PS3, its average framerate has gone through the roof.

No, the reason I love Neptunia so is its comforting familiarity. Firing up one of these games is like meeting up with the sort of friends you always have a good time with. The kind of friends you might not see for months or years at a time on some occasions, but the kind of friends who allow you to pick right up where you left off when you do meet up again.

There are a number of ways the series achieves this. The first and most obvious is through its main cast: the combination of Tsunako's gorgeous character and costume designs, the excellent voice acting (in Japanese, anyway; I haven't spent long with the English dub) and a sharp, witty script really brings these characters to life and, over the course of all the games they've starred in to date, they've developed and become distinct. The Neptunia writers and localisers aren't under any misconceptions that these characters are particularly deep, flawed or, for want of a better word, "literary", but this adds to the series' charm; it's infused with a gentle sense of good-natured humour and an aesthetic that combines the bright, primary colours of a children's TV show with a strong sense of self-awareness and recognition that yes, grown-ups play this and appreciate a few dirty jokes here and there. It's unpretentious and casual; you never feel like you have to make an effort to enjoy spending time with the Neptunia characters, and, perhaps paradoxically, this makes you want to spend more time with them, to find out more about them.

The second way Neptunia brings a sense of warm familiarity to me is through its aesthetic. Developer Compile Heart frequently gets lambasted in reviews for recycling graphical, sound and music assets wholesale from game to game, but somehow this has never mattered to me; I like the fact that you know what a Neptunia game is going to look and sound like before you boot it up. I like the fact that the series has developed its own kind of non-verbal language using its soundtrack to denote what is happening on. And the fact that the same dungeon maps are used from game to game — or even, in some cases, recycled within the same game — has never mattered to me; on the contrary, these places are now familiar and comfortable to me, even if the occupants may differ from visit to visit and occasionally incorporate superbosses that splatter me up the nearest wall.

The third reason Neptunia makes me happy is because the whole thing is clearly infused with such joy and love for these characters and the setting in which they live that it's hard not to smile all the time you're playing. While it's questionable as to whether or not Compile Heart knew precisely how popular the series would become when the original Hyperdimension Neptunia was released in 2010, it's clear to see today, six years later, that the creators still adore their creations as much as the audience do. And, more to the point, the various spinoffs in the series allow fans to celebrate their favourite characters in a variety of different ways, be it through the clothes-ripping hack-and-slash action of Hyperdimension Neptunia U, the strategic battling of Hyperdevotion Noire or the purely "social" gameplay of Hyperdimension Neptunia Producing Perfection. We've seen these girls at work, rest and play over the course of these games, and it doesn't take long to fall in love with them.

Me, I'm at a stage where I honestly think I might be quite happy playing nothing but Neptunia games until the end of time, assuming that Compile Heart continued to explore collaborations with other developers such as Sting (Hyperdevotion Noire) and Tamsoft (Hyperdimension Neptunia U) as well as producing strong mainline installments in the series. Of course, this is an exaggeration, but one thing is true: I never have a bad time playing a Neptunia game, and I never feel sad while I'm playing a Neptunia game; I hope we continue to see them for many years to come.

2180: Action Unleashed

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I had a sudden and irrepressible urge for some Neptunia today, so I fired up the Neptunia game I was last working on: Hyperdimension Neptunia U: Action Unleashed. Having figured out that yes, it is indeed possible to stop the PlayStation TV from recognising accidental clicking of L3 or R3 as simulated touchscreen touches (which had previously made getting overexcited in this game somewhat hazardous, since I have a habit of clicking one or both of the sticks in when gripping the controller tightly) I decided to play it on the big screen. And I was reminded what an enjoyable game it is.

For those unfamiliar, Neptunia U, as I shall refer to it hereafter, is a collaborative, non-canonical entry in the Neptunia series (inasmuch as Neptunia even has a coherent canon, which is perhaps questionable) developed by both series creators Compile Heart and Senran Kagura developers Tamsoft. The latter's influence is very much evident in the game, since it plays rather like their other Vita game, Senran Kagura Estival Versus, right down to the characters' clothes getting ripped as they take damage.

Much like Senran Kagura, Neptunia U presents you with a series of missions to undertake, some of which are purely designed to challenge you and/or allow you to level up your characters, while others advance the plot. Neptunia U also throws a spanner in the works in its second chapter with "Irregular Quests", which generally have some sort of condition to you beating them rather than simply killing everything. The twist is that the game doesn't tell you what this objective is outright; you're expected to figure it out for yourself, though starting and quitting the mission does trigger a scene where the characters give you a few hints as to what you might want to do. Irregular objectives range from killing all of a specific type of enemy (while others respawn infinitely) to swapping characters in order to temporarily be able to deal damage to otherwise-invincible enemies.

Neptunia U's systems are fairly simple — like Senran Kagura, each character has both a fast, weak attack and a strong, slow attack as well as a couple of limited-use special moves. And, again, like its titty-ninja counterpart, the challenge is not necessarily in being able to perform these moves and combos — pretty much all of the combos in question run Square 4 or 5 times followed by Triangle — but in understanding the animations and movements involved in the abilities in order to deal damage most efficiently and clear levels quickly. Efficient performance results in bigger experience rewards at the conclusion of the level, as well as providing you with more Medals that drop from monsters. Collecting medals unlocks permanent stat boosts for the entire cast as well as new equippable items to boost (or, in some cases, deliberately penalise) their abilities.

Neptunia U is a game made for people who love the grind. It's not a particularly difficult game for the most part — at least its rather short, sub-6 hour story mode isn't; I'm yet to get into the substantial endgame involving the Neptral Tower dungeon — but in order to unlock everything and see everything, you'll need to grind a fair bit in various ways. You'll need to grind missions to gain enough experience to level up the characters. You'll need to grind specific missions in order to collect the enemy medals you need to unlock all the equipment. You'll need to grind specific partnerships of characters in order to raise everyone's Lily Rank to maximum — always the most time-consuming part of any Neptunia game, but pretty much everyone who calls themselves a fan somehow cannot resist this task every time it comes up — and you'll need to make sure said partnerships are levelled enough to clear the few character-specific missions throughout the game. In other words, if you're not up for a bit of grinding, this game will last you about 6 hours; if you are, however, it will push into substantial double-digit territory at the very least.

Mostly, I just like it because it's an enjoyable, simple brawler with quick, snappy levels and my favourite characters in the world smacking the shit out of all manner of different enemies. Of particular note is the game's implementation of the series' iconic "HDD" forms for the characters: in some of the mainline installments, these transformations didn't feel substantially more powerful than the characters' "human" counterparts, but here, their new movesets, animations and massively increased damage potential makes them feel as they should: earth-shatteringly powerful, cutting through enemies like butter. They are goddesses, after all.

I'm going to try and bash out the rest of the story mode in the next few days and then investigate the endgame. Whether it will crush my soul like the Lily Rank grind in Hyperdevotion Noire remains to be seen, but it's Nep-Nep, so of course I'm going to see it through to the bitter end; spending some time away from my favourite goddesses has only reminded me how much I love them. Absence makes the heart grow fonder and all that.

2178: Some Love for Marvelous Europe

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I received a package from Marvelous Europe today, containing five adorable chibi Senran Kagura figurines depicting Homura's Crimson Squad at play (or, in Hikage's case, as close to "play" as she could probably figure out). I was the lucky recipient of these figures because I retweeted or favourited something they posted on Twitter a short while ago, and I was fortunate enough to be selected as a "winner" of one of the prizes that was up for grabs at the time.

To be honest, I'd completely forgotten about it, since "RT to win!" Twitter posts are ten-a-penny, and also I very rarely win anything that involves the luck of the draw. I was delighted that Marvelous made good on their original offer, though, since I really like the figures a lot, even if they were a bit fiddly to put together. (There's a teeny-tiny accessory for Yomi that I have no idea where to put, for example.)

This pleasant little interlude got me thinking about Marvelous Europe and how they appeared out of nowhere a little while back. Previously, games such as Senran Kagura made it over to Europe via a convoluted string of people and companies — Senran Kagura Burst, for example, was localised by XSEED and then brought to Europe by, if I remember correctly, PQube Games. Senran Kagura Burst actually got a physical release in Europe through this convoluted process, however, which made Americans super-salty because it only got a digital eShop release over there. They got their revenge with Vita follow-up Senran Kagura Shinovi Versus, though, since this was digital-only in Europe but had a special edition physical version in the states. Vita games are region-free, though, so fans such as myself simply imported.

Anyway, I recall being particularly aware of Marvelous Europe once Senran Kagura 2: Deep Crimson was first announced for Western release. Preorders for some ambitious-looking limited editions went up early, and I decided what the hell, I'll jump in. After all, the limited editions put out by Idea Factory International — a very similar operation, bringing niche Japanese games to the West and giving them plenty of love and attention — had proven themselves to be rather lovely, so I had a good feeling about Marvelous Europe's offerings.

So much so, in fact, that I also preordered both Corpse Party: Book of Shadows and Senran Kagura Estival Versus when they became available. Estival Versus is yet to be released, but both the Senran Kagura 2 and Corpse Party special editions were gorgeous, and both are releases I'm very happy to have in my collection.

The main reason I feel Marvelous Europe sets a great example for other publishers is that they clearly know their audience well. Their Twitter account is very "human", often sharing irreverent, dry humour — particularly when the prudes of the games journalism business start whingeing about boobs, as they are so often wont to do these days — and interacting with fans rather than acting purely as a news outlet. Their positive attitude towards the games they release, their pride in their work and their total lack of shame in bringing controversial titles to an eager Western audience means that I'm more than happy to keep supporting them for as long as they keep releasing quality games for me to enjoy.

Keep it up, Marvelous Europe. You're doing a marvellous job.

2177: Black Screen of Death

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I've noticed something annoying about technology, particularly entertainment technology: the moment you want to revisit something you haven't played/watched/listened to for a while, the technology that makes doing so possible is almost certainly going to fail somehow.

This has happened to me on numerous occasions ever since I was a youngling. From games that refused to boot on our old Atari 8-bit to… well, today, games that refuse to boot on my Windows PC, it's an inordinately frustrating experience.

It's more frustrating than something just normally not working, because the fact that you haven't indulged in the thing in question for a while means that you build up a certain degree of anticipation in your mind for the first time revisiting it in weeks, months, perhaps even years. As such, it's extremely disappointing when you find yourself unable to satisfy your hunger for the thing you were craving.

Today, I had an extremely strong desire to play Bizarre Creations' swansong Blur, one of my favourite racing games of all time. I own both the Xbox 360 and PC versions of this game — the PC version being something that I'm actually seemingly rather lucky to own, since it has been pulled from the Steam store at some point in the last few years — but I was keen to play the PC version, since it runs at a superior framerate and resolution to the 360 version. Plus I'd been having idle thoughts about doing a "racing games supertest" series of videos, and Blur was one of the games I particularly wanted to highlight.

Blur has run fine on my machine before and I don't think I've made any significant changes to it since the last time I ran it. I've perhaps replaced the graphics card in that period — which may be the issue, though I don't see why — but that's about it. But no; I was to be denied. I fired up Blur via Steam, saw the familiar noisy Activision logo followed by the now somewhat forlorn-seeming Bizarre Creations logo… and then the menu music started.

And then nothing happened. No spinny thing in the corner saying the game was loading. No main menu. No prompt to login. Just the menu music, and a Steam popup with the CD key that I was unable to dismiss.

I tried again on the offchance it was a random crash; no luck. I took to Google in an attempt to find the cause of the problem, or indeed if anyone else had had it — note to game developers: if you name your game a single word, please don't name it after a common graphical setting, because it really makes situations like this a lot more difficult than they need to be — but I was ultimately disappointed, since this was, inevitably, one of those situations where lots of people in the last five years have had this problem, but none of them have come up with an adequate solution.

I tried the few solutions that were offered, and swore silently at Yahoo! Answers commenters making inane, generic comments about Windows updates and checking video drivers, but none seemed to work. As I type this, I'm restarting my PC — a rare treat for that machine, which tends to stay on most of the time — in a last-ditch attempt to see whether or not that works. If it doesn't, I guess I'll have to be satisfied with the 360 version; no great loss, since that's the version I originally "discovered" the game with, but it would be nice to run it at 60fps and 1080p.

Oh well. It's getting late now, anyway, so probably no Blur for me this evening. Fingers crossed I can get it working eventually though…

EDIT: Restarted computer. Game now works. Maybe those Yahoo! Answers idiots weren't such idiots after all.