2305: Fighting Talk

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I spent a bit of time playing some Dead or Alive 5 Last Round online with a friend from Final Fantasy XIV earlier. (Hi, Neon!) I’ve never really played a fighting game online before — it’s a genre that has something of a reputation as being brutally unforgiving to newcomers, and with good reason, since the fighting game genre is one that attracts significant numbers of people good enough to actually get paid to play these games.

Thankfully, my friend Neon appears to be of a roughly equal level of skill to me, since we had a series of matches and we both came out roughly equal in terms of victories and losses.

So far in Dead or Alive 5 I’d been focusing on the Training mode, attempting to learn some combos and moves for characters I liked the look of, because I’d love to get past the “button mashing” phase that everyone goes through when they first pick up a fighting game. As such, I was a bit hesitant to even jump into the story mode, because I didn’t feel like I knew any characters well enough. But I thought I’d give fighting another person a go — and I’m glad I did.

Fighting Neon gave me a potent reminder of exactly why I’ve always liked the Dead or Alive series in preference to perhaps more established, popular fare like Capcom’s Street Fighter series. It’s kind of hard to describe the exact feeling, but I think it’s best described as the game feels instinctive, almost primal. You can spend hours learning the specific button combinations to pull off specific moves at the right time — and doubtless the really good players do that — but at a fairly rudimentary level, which is where I’d generously put myself, the fighting system works in such a way that you can look at what’s going on on the screen, push directions and attack buttons and have something that “feels” right unfold in front of you. Opponent blocking high blows? Get in there with some low kicks. Taunting you? Charge in and tackle them with a running throw. Knocking you off balance with a flurry of blows? Block, block, block dammit, oh for fuck’s sake. (I never have quite mastered blocking in fighting games; given how important and helpful — and tied to the series’ iconic countering system — it is in Dead or Alive, I should probably do something about that.)

I haven’t yet picked a “main” to play with. I will almost certainly end up going with Kasumi, at least initially, because Kasumi is hot and I vaguely know some of her effective moves. Today I also particularly enjoyed playing as Hitomi (who appears to have wonderful reach with her kicks) and Momiji (though I haven’t done any training with her yet, so I was taking wild stabs at her moves). I also discovered that, as I previously thought, I want to steer clear of slower, heavy-hitting characters, because I very obviously don’t know how to handle them effectively and tend to get my ass handed to me if I try and fight with them in the same way as the Kasumis and company of the world.

My few games today were an eye-opening experience, then. I’m definitely up for playing some more; if you, too, suck at fighting games and would like a punching bag to play with, feel free to hit me up on PSN under the ID Angry_Jedi.

2298: Holiday on Zack Island

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I wasn’t just trying Dead or Alive 5 Last Round out of the blue yesterday; I was inspired to finally pick it up after playing some Dead or Alive Xtreme 3, which I’ve been enjoying a great deal.

For those unfamiliar, the Dead or Alive Xtreme series has very little to do with the fighting game series Dead or Alive save for involving some of the same characters — specifically, kickboxer and playboy Zack, who owns the various tropical paradises the Xtreme games unfold on, and a selection of lovely ladies from the series indulging in various holiday-ish activities.

The first Dead or Alive Xtreme game — Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball, which many people thought might be a joke when it was first announced — was released on Xbox and largely focused, as you might expect, on playing volleyball, but there was a curious dating sim metagame attached, too, where you could give gifts to the various girls in the hope of getting them to partner up with you — you can’t play beach volleyball without a partner, after all.

Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 on Xbox 360 was a very similar game but had a couple of additions to the original formula. Most notably, it added jetski racing, which was a hell of a lot of fun, and provided a reliable means of making money for those who weren’t very good at volleyball or some of the smaller activities the game offered.

And so we come to Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 on PlayStation 4, which in many senses is a bit of a step backwards for the series in that it’s closer to the original game in structure, but manages to remain enjoyable regardless. I miss the jetskiing in particular, but I’m enjoying the volleyball and other activities, and the fact that the game is a lot less obtuse about things like what gifts the girls like, what is happening to your relationship levels and suchlike makes it a much more pleasant experience. Couple that with a simple mission and levelling system plus a “grade” given at the end of every 14-day virtual vacation, and despite being pared back in terms of content, Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 is, in many regards, the most well-structured game in the series.

The thing I like about Dead or Alive Xtreme — all of them, but most recently 3 in particular — is that it’s just plain relaxing to play. Gentle, chilled out music plays in the background as you engage in various activities ranging from beach volleyball to rock climbing or a tug of war on floating platforms in the swimming pool. As day gives way to night, your chosen girl heads back to her hotel room and has the option to hang out in the casino and play roulette, blackjack or poker. Then the whole process repeats again.

The reason why it’s so relaxing is that it doesn’t put any particular pressure on you to play in a given way. “Mission” pop up every so often, either from the girl you’re controlling or Zack, and these provide rewards for the overall metagame, but they’re strictly optional. In the case of the girls’ missions, they can provide a good indicator of how well you’re doing on this playthrough, though — in order to get the best score at the end of her holiday, you need to have completed 7 of her specifically numbered missions, ending with “Satisfy [girl] by the end of the vacation”.

Aside from that, though, you can tackle the game how you see fit. You can focus on trying to get a complete collection of swimsuits for a favourite character. You can work on trying to satisfy as many of the girls on the island as possible in a single playthrough — pretty difficult when you first start playing, but as you level up their “excitement level” over time, it becomes easier. Or you can switch to “Owner Mode” and just use the game as an attractive software toy, allowing the computer to take control of your chosen girl in various activities while you play with the camera angles and take photographs.

Dead or Alive Xtreme 3 is notorious for not getting an official English localisation due to some controversy a while back. There is some debate over whether or not publisher Koei Tecmo really believed that the game would be subject to backlash from social justice types when it was released, but you can bet if the game did see an official Western release, we wouldn’t hear the end of it from the numerous holier-than-thou publications and writers on the market today.

The silly thing is, it’s not offensive in the slightest. It’s sexy, sure, but Dead or Alive has always featured spectacularly beautiful women, and this in itself isn’t offensive. Some of the swimsuits are quite revealing, and some of the minigames cause an entertaining “swimsuit malfunction” for the loser, though the suit in question doesn’t actually fall off or anything — it just comes untied and stays magically attached. In other words, there’s no nipples, no fannies, no bumholes, no fucking, no kissing and definitely no holding hands. It’s just an all-female cast hanging out on the beach, playing games and having fun rather than punching each other in the tits like they do in the mainline Dead or Alive games.

To put it another way, Dead or Alive Xtreme 3, like its predecessors, is a game that it’s just nice to play. It’s not a deep game, it’s not a complicated game (unless you want to optimise your playthrough strategies for the fastest progress) and it’s not a difficult game, but it is a game that it’s just thoroughly pleasant to spend time with, and I predict it’s one I’ll keep coming back to when I just want to chill out and enjoy myself without thinking too hard about anything.

The perfect virtual holiday, in other words.

2284: Nights of Azure: Encounter in the Abyss

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I only have a couple of trophies left before I have the Platinum on Gust’s action RPG Nights of Azure, and I’m coming away from the game very impressed. I wasn’t quite sure what to make of it to begin with — though I adored its aesthetic and narrative — but once I got my head around its unconventional systems and subversions of standard RPG mechanics, I was well and truly enraptured.

The game has excellent combat. I was concerned that it would be a little hack-and-slashy when I first started playing, but as it progresses and you open up more and more systems and options for yourself, it becomes really interesting. In fact, oddly enough, one game that I’m constantly reminded of while I’m playing Nights of Azure is Final Fantasy XIV, of all things; while the two games may not appear to have much in common initially, one being an action RPG and one being a hotbar-and-cooldown-based MMO, I maintain that Nights of Azure is what Final Fantasy XIV would play like if it was a single-player action game.

Perhaps I should clarify that. Both are based on making good use of a gradually expanding roster of abilities that you unlock bit by bit as you progress through the game, rather than outright customisation (though Nights of Azure has considerably more customisation when it comes to equipment than FFXIV, with up to four items being equippable, each having both an effect on Arnice’s stats and some sort of special effect). Both are based on a combination of open world adventuring (albeit in Nights of Azure’s case, said “world” being just one town) and linear dungeons with boss encounters. And in both cases, said boss encounters are based heavily on learning the boss’ attacks, how to avoid them, making sure you don’t stand in area of effect markers, and recognising when it’s safe to attack.

This latter aspect is particularly apparent in the later hours of the game and especially the “epilogue” chapter after you beat the final boss for the first time. The “epilogue” is actually a retread of the last chapter with some additional content and the ability to raise Arnice to the level cap of 11 rather than the previous 10; she also gains the ability to transform into Nightmare form as well as her previous Demon, Moon Rabbit, Phantom and Armour forms. More importantly, totally completing this final chapter unlocks the “true” ending, which I haven’t seen yet, since I’m cleaning up the last few trophies first.

Throughout the game, there are a number of boss battles. These are all very good and have a nice amount of variety between them, but for me, the absolute highlight of the game’s battles has been the optional “Abyss” battle in the Arena. The Arena is initially designed as a place to practice the various techniques you’ll need to use in the game, ranging from chaining long combos to defeating enemies using only your summoned Servans. “Abyss”, meanwhile, is the culmination of everything you’ve learned, in theory, pitting you against the toughest individual foe in the game over the course of several phases; a fight that rivals some of Final Fantasy XIV’s raid bosses in its complexity.

Let me explain how I beat the fight and you’ll see.

Your opponent is a demon girl fiend — Yfritte, I believe, though don’t quote me on that. She’s a level 11 opponent — enemies in the game go up to level 15, and your Servans can level this high with an appropriate ability, though Arnice herself can only level to 11. Unlike similar-looking enemies you might have encountered elsewhere in the game, Yfritte (as we’ll call her, even if she isn’t) has about a bazillion HP and, it becomes clear immediately after engaging her, isn’t going to go down without one hell of a fight.

You start across the Arena from Yfritte with no Servans summoned. I summoned all my Servans immediately — my main party consisting of Alraune (healer), Plumie (ranged damage dealer), Toy Trooper (group of damage dealers) and Toy Sentinel (single damage dealer, hits lots of times) — and straight away set off Toy Trooper and Toy Sentinel’s Burst attacks to deal some initial damage to Yfritte.

Using Arnice’s Blood Sword, I alternated between using the Special attack, which knocks Yfritte down for a couple of seconds, and the Weak attack, which, with the Vlad’s Crest item I had equipped, restored Arnice’s SP quickly enough to perform Special attacks almost indefinitely, effectively stun-locking Yfritte. This process repeats until about 80% of her HP, at which point she summons two Manticores.

The Manticores can Paralyse you and your Servans, so it’s a good idea to have status-repelling abilities or equipment on at least Arnice and your healer. They also have a nasty multi-hit fire breath attack, so staying behind or to the side of them is a good idea. Continue alternating Weak and Special attacks to repeatedly knock them down until Arnice’s Transformation bar fills, at which point the combination of Servans I had equipped allowed me to transform into the speedy Moon Rabbit form.

Moon Rabbit’s Special attack needs 100SP, but it’s a huge area-effect attack that hits lots of times — and, with Vlad’s Crest equipped, this means that 100SP is regenerated almost immediately if you hit more than one target with it. It also inflicts Bleed for some damage over time, so it’s good for upping your average damage per second. I repeatedly triggered Moon Rabbit’s Special Attack, taking care to catch Yfritte and the two Manticores in the AoE, until the transformation ran out, by which point the Manticores were dead and Yfritte had a chunk of life missing.

There now follows a short phase where Yfritte is by herself. She flings missiles at you from a distance, some of which home in on you, and sets off close-range area effect abilities when you’re up close, some of which are powerful enough to one-shot Arnice. Distract her with your Servans — use Alraune’s Mega Heal to top up their HP if necessary — and return to the Weak-Special combo to keep her off-balance.

After a while, she’ll summon a huge number of level 1 Shadows. Move away from Yfritte and hack and slash through the Shadows to build up both SP and the Transformation bar. It’s potentially worth unsummoning your Servans at this point, as the Shadows don’t hit hard and if you keep clear of Yfritte (and avoid her missiles) you won’t take a lot of damage. Plus when you re-summon the Servans, they’ll have full SP again, although their HP will be where you left it, so be ready to heal if necessary.

I had a second deck of Servans set up to transform Arnice into Nightmare form, so I took the opportunity to use this powerful transformation once the bar was full. Nightmare form has a wide arc ranged attack that hits multiple times as its default weak attack, so spamming this and avoiding Yfritte’s missiles does a significant amount of damage in a short space of time. Once I was safely in Nightmare form, I switched back to my initial deck, summoned Alraune for healing purposes just in case a shot got through, and prepared for the next phase.

The next phase comes when Yfritte summons a huge blue area of effect marker on the ground. This inflicts poison and is also slippery ice, so having status resist abilities or equipment is a good idea, particularly on Alraune. The Mermaid’s Tear item completely nullifies any area-effect abilities, so this effectively allows Alraune to shrug it off and continue healing you. Don’t summon any other Servans until the AoE disappears, since they’re dumb enough to blindly charge straight into it, get poisoned and die straight away. Once it goes away, however, go nuts; return to the Weak-Special combo to knock Yfritte off balance until the next phase starts.

Next up, Yfritte summons a doll who chucks toys at you, which can be easily avoided, and a spirit-type who we’ll affectionately refer to as the “bullet hell fairy”. Kill the doll first, since it’s not got many HP and will go down quickly. The bullet hell fairy is a little more troublesome, since she repeatedly summons large groups of bullets which then explode for significant damage. You can see where they’re going to appear and get out of the way of them; use the Follow command on Servans to get them out of harm’s way. They’re always in the same formation: one at “twelve o’clock”, then two more at “eight” and “four”. Take care to continue dodging Yfritte’s bullets and close-range AoEs while you deal with the fairy.

By now we’re getting close to the end, but there’s still a couple of phases to go. Yfritte will do another big AoE — red this time — so deal with it the same way: unsummon everything except an immune Alraune and perhaps pelt Yfritte from afar with the Blitz Shooter if she refuses to come out of her little safe space. When the AoE disappears, you’re on the home straight.

Yfritte will summon some Shadows again — level 7 this time, so they don’t go down so easily. Re-summon your Servans and get them to hack and slash their way through the hordes, though keep an eye on where Yfritte is so you don’t get caught out by a one-shot AoE at this late stage in the fight. Build up SP with Weak attacks and clear an area with a Special from the Blood Sword, preferably catching Yfritte on the outside of it so you can knock her down for a bit of damage. Repeat until you charge up another transformation; it’s a good idea to pick Moon Rabbit for this one for the large Special AoE, though Nightmare works too, since its ranged attack covers a wide area. Basically you want to rip through as many Shadows as possible while still hitting Yfritte in order to keep your SP topped up.

Towards the end of the fight, Yfritte will summon a Stone Hellion — the same really annoying ones that were in earlier Arena battles, equipped entirely with nothing but one-shot abilities with huge AoEs. Fortunately this one goes down a little easier than the boss-class ones in earlier battles, so catch him in a Moon Rabbit Special if you can while continuing to hit Yfritte. Take care to avoid all his big AoEs — Moon Rabbit’s speed is really helpful here — and continue pelting Yfritte with everything you’ve got while making sure to stay clear of her bullets and AoEs as well as ensuring you don’t get overwhelmed by shadows… and eventually, hopefully, you will prevail with time to spare.

2277: That Girl’s in Lesbians with That Other Girl

Playing through Gust’s latest game Nights of Azure, I was struck with how… explicit the romantic relationship between the two heroines is. I don’t mean sexually explicit; I mean that the fact that the two of them even have a romantic relationship is acknowledged at all.

Yuri (lesbian) themes are frequently a part of Japanese popular media — an interesting fact to toss back at those who are keen to paint the nation as being somewhat less than progressive when it comes to attitudes towards gay people. Indeed, while “real world” Japanese society in general may not appear to look on homosexuality with as tolerant an eye as we like to think we have here in the West, it’s clear that there’s plenty of the old “public face, private face” going on, since there are a ton of creators who are obviously fascinated with the idea of same-sex relationships — both male-on-male and female-on-female.

The thing that struck me about Nights of Azure’s depiction of its central relationship is the fact that, as I noted above, it’s pretty up-front about it. This is noteworthy because although yuri themes often make an appearance in Japanese popular media, they’re often more implied than explicit, with it often being left up to the audience (and fan artists) to explore these relationships further.

Take something like popular anime Love Live. Even the most casual viewer will notice the blossoming relationship between Maki and Nico by the end of the run, but the show never particularly draws attention to it; it’s just sort of there. Likewise, the Senran Kagura series features a number of obviously romantic relationships between many of its all-female cast members, but it’s rare for these to be acknowledged or not “laughed off” by the characters — though, interestingly, latest installment Estival Versus did feature a scene where one character specifically called out Asuka and Homura for being so obviously gay for each other, even if they’d never properly admit it. And the Neptunia series is riddled with yuri undertones, ranging from Nepgear and Uni’s heartwarming relationship to Noire’s obvious but perpetually unspoken interest in Neptune — and, in most recent installment Megadimension Neptunia V-II, K-Sha’s obsession with Noire, though this particular instance was an explicit admission of lady-love.

Nights of Azure, though… it’s right there from the beginning, and it develops over the course of the game. Several other characters comment on it. And, most tellingly, there are outright romantic scenes between protagonist Arnice and other leading lady Lilysse. The two share moments of intimacy with one another that, on reflection, are actually quite unusual to see so explicitly depicted in games: in one scene, Arnice comforts an upset Lilysse by draping her arms around her neck from behind and holding her close; in another, the two dance together, their devotion to one another immediately apparent from the way they look at each other. And after a particularly heartfelt make-up session after a dispute between the two, we see them waking up in bed together, having obviously slept facing one another holding hands. (There’s no yuri sexytime, though; it’s not that kind of game.)

As with other Japanese games that feature yuri themes, Nights of Azure treats its central relationship with the appropriate amount of respect: that is to say, it’s just there, and no-one thinks it’s anything unusual. A couple of male characters are introduced by hitting on Arnice, but once they see she and Lilysse are obviously involved with one another, they back off — not with an “oh, wow, you’re gay” sentiment, but with a simple recognition of “oh, well, you’re together” that would have been the same if either of the two ladies involved were the opposite gender.

This is the sort of progressiveness and diversity that is a very positive part of the modern games industry — however, sadly, given Nights of Azure’s status as a niche title that a significant number of people probably haven’t even heard of, it’s a game that you likely won’t hear many games writers from big sites talking about.

Consider this my small attempt to acknowledge and celebrate the good that this game is doing, then, and rest assured that Nights of Azure is very much worth your time as an action RPG as well as an interactive lesbian experience.

2274: Holding Back the Night(s) of Azure

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The more I play Nights of Azure, Gust’s latest game, the more I like it.

It’s a slow burn, though, I must admit; although the setup and premise is intriguing, mechanically it feels a little obtuse to begin with — or perhaps I’m just overthinking it and trying to play it like a conventional grind-heavy RPG, which it emphatically isn’t.

There are a whole bunch of unconventional aspects to the game, most notably its progression system. The level cap is just 11, for one thing, and unusually, the protagonist’s level progression isn’t a case of grinding for experience; rather, you collect “Blood” from fallen enemies, and then make use of this in increasingly large quantities to gain a level. Levelling up increases your base stats, unlocks new skills to purchase using the four different types of skill points, and sometimes gives you access to new weapons or abilities.

However, there’s a more noteworthy aspect to levelling up, which is that it gives you access to a story scene between the protagonist Arnice and the “Maiden of Jorth”, a mysterious young woman who looks awfully like Arnice’s ladyfriend Lilysse and hangs out in a dream world. During these scenes, you generally have the option to either find out a bit more about the background lore of the world or a bit more about the relationship between Arnice and Lilysse.

It’s interesting to see level progression and narrative progression intertwined so closely, as this isn’t something that happens very often. In fact, outside of level-locked quests in MMOs, the last time I remember it happening in a single-player RPG is The Granstream Saga on PlayStation 1, though this came at it from the other angle in that you levelled up at predefined moments in the story rather than levelling up triggering story scenes.

There’s a more conventional levelling system in there too in the form of the “Servans” system that forms the main basis for the battle mechanics. During the game’s action sequences, Arnice can take one or more “decks” of Servans with her, and summon them in exchange for her SP. She can have up to four Servans out at once, and each of them have a combination of passive, automatically activated and manually activated “Burst” abilities. They all act independently of Arnice; while you can give them some rudimentary orders such as “Follow me” and “Attack my target”, they mostly do their own thing according to their personality — some loyally attack your target without question; others hang back and attack if they feel like it; others still don’t like fighting at all and would rather dig up items for you.

There was the potential for the lack of direct control of the Servans to be enormously frustrating, but it seems to work pretty well. Arnice isn’t an especially strong combatant by herself, but wading into the melee yourself generally sends a clear message to your Servans as to which enemies you want to focus on. And the more you use them, the more they level up; after an action scene, they gain experience points in a more “normal RPG” style, levelling up and unlocking abilities of their own.

Each of the Servans seems to have a very different use; I have what feels like a good party right now, but I’m sure it won’t be ideal for every situation. Of particular note in this system is the fact that each Servan has a coloured affinity, and the combination of affinities in your deck (or, rather, which affinity has a clear majority) determines what weird and wonderful demonic form Arnice can transform into after charging up through battle. These demon forms are enormously powerful in various ways — some hit hard, some are very fast, some can take a beating. They’re particularly useful when it comes to the bosses in the game, which are interesting, challenging battles that demand successful juggling of Arnice’s attacks, your Servans’ attacks, positioning and well-timed transformations.

I don’t feel I quite have my head around all the mechanics in Nights of Azure just yet, but I’m enjoying it a lot. The story and characters are compelling, and the game doesn’t waste a lot of time with endless dialogue sequences; it’s pretty pacy, moving from one episode to the next in short order, and the action sequences are cut into short, 5-15 minute chunks, making it an easy game to dip into.

There’s a whole bunch of interesting stuff going on in this game, in other words, and I feel it’s probably a strong contender to spend a month on over at MoeGamer in the near future. So I think I’d probably better start taking notes!

2266: Nights of Azure: A Peculiar Game Destined for Cult Status?

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Two of my favourite games of all time are Cavia’s Nier and Ganbarion’s Pandora’s Tower. They’re both gloriously unconventional takes on the role-playing game genre, mechanically and narratively, and they’re both extremely rewarding to engage with. They were also both the recipient of mediocre to middling reviews when they were first released, and have since — at least, in Nier’s case — broken free of that critical mire and attained cult status.

I’ve only played a couple of hours of it so far, but Gust’s Nights of Azure looks like joining these two overlooked classics in “flawed masterpiece” territory, as it has a lot in common with these two ambitious titles.

Nights of Azure casts you in the role of Arnice, a half-demon woman tasked with slaying Fiends and keeping a young woman called the Saint safe so that she can perform a ritual that will seal away the evil Nightlord and prevent the world from falling into perpetual darkness. There have been numerous Saints throughout the generations, but this time around the young maiden who has been chosen happens to be one Lilysse, a woman with whom it quickly becomes very apparent that Arnice has previously had an extremely close relationship with. Like, lovers close.

The two women are polar opposites in many ways. Lilysse is carefree and demure, while Arnice is confident and serious, though she has an easily rattled side to her. Their reunion after what has seemingly been quite some time apart begins with the two displaying that characteristic awkwardness around one another that two former lovers often show, but it’s obvious that there are still feelings there — particularly once Arnice starts finding crystallised memories around the city that forms the backdrop to the story, and when she starts exploring dream sequences that give you the option of either exploring the overall lore of the setting or the relationship between Arnice and Lilysse.

The gameplay of Nights of Azure isn’t your standard action RPG. There’s a bit of Castlevania in regard to the gothic opera aesthetic; there’s a bit of Shin Megami Tensei in the demon-summoning mechanics — the majority of your damage output in combat will come from your summoned demons; Arnice is mostly there to give orders and support; there’s a bit of 3D brawler action in terms of the basic controls; and there’s even a touch of the Souls series in there with regard to one of the game’s two main currencies being “blood” which can be used either to power up Arnice or purchase things.

Combat is fairly straightforward but satisfying. Arnice has a weak and a strong attack — initially with just a sword, but later with three other weapons — and a special attack that consumes her SP bar. She also has four decks of up to four Servans each to summon, and these also cost SP to summon. When a Servan is summoned, it performs a special ability, so it’s tactically advantageous to wait for a good moment to summon them rather than getting them out right away; once they’re out, they also have access to a Burst ability as well as their skills that they use automatically. This Burst ability is strong and tied to the Servan’s role in the party, be it tank, damage dealer or healer, and is limited by the Servan’s own SP bar.

The Servan stuff is interesting because it reminds me of the good bits of Japanese collectible card games on mobile: you collect units, you level them up and upgrade them, you customise them with attachments, and you take a suitable deck into battle with you to deal with any encounters you might face. Unlike Arnice, Servans level up just by engaging in combat — no Blood required — and gain access to more abilities as they reach higher levels. Arnice can find or purchase Fetishes throughout the game, too, and these can either be “actualised” into a new Servan, or given to an existing Servan to buff them up. Servans’ skills can also be customised by giving them various items.

The structure of Nights of Azure is pretty intriguing, too. All the main action goes on at night-time, and you’re limited to bursts of 15 minutes in the action stages before you have to go back to Arnice’s home base. In practice, this never really becomes an issue because you’ll reach a checkpoint or finish an area long before the timer expires in most cases. After coming back from the evening’s adventures, Arnice does some “daytime activities” that can result in the acquisition of skill points in four different fields, which can then be spent to acquire different abilities. She’s also able to take on quests aside from the main story, which are generally either “kill [x] of [y]” or “find [z]”, but reward her with useful items and currency. There’s also a battle arena where she can take on combat challenges with specific conditions to clear, with varying rewards on offer according to what her score is when she’s completed the challenge in question.

All in all, it feels like a very, very odd game so far — though this isn’t a bad thing at all. It feels inventive and interesting rather than being same old, same old, and I’m interested to see how it develops further. The core narrative of the relationship between the two leading ladies is intriguing and compelling, and the whole narrative is dripping with initially unexplained mysteries, supported by the overall aesthetic having a wonderful otherworldly feel to it — drenched in blue mist with character models that look like flowing pencil sketches, somewhat similar to the Atelier series.

And the music. Oh gosh. How wonderful is the music? Combining Michiru Yamane-style gothic rock tracks in the action stages with some distinctly Shoji Meguro-style jazz and funk back at the hotel and some beautiful solo piano pieces during the more heartfelt moments, the soundtrack is absolutely lovely.

It’s a pity the translation is so atrocious, riddled with typos and grammatical errors — and one of the PSN trophies even refers to the protagonist by the wrong name, presumably an erroneous transliteration from the original Japanese — but ultimately even these flaws don’t detract from an immediately intriguing, compelling and downright bizarre action RPG that deserves a great deal more love and attention than I can guarantee it’s (not) going to get from the gaming community at large.

2134: Hyrule Warriors is My New Favourite Musou

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I’d been meaning to check out Wii U title Hyrule Warriors for some time, and my recent Zelda bingeing seemed to be an ideal time to do it. I primarily picked the game up as something to play as a co-op game with a local friend, but I’ve found myself playing through a number of missions this evening and having a great deal of fun.

I’ve always enjoyed the Musou games since Dynasty Warriors 2 on PlayStation 2. Their hack-and-slash nature appeals to the brawler fan in me, but they’ve always had a surprising amount of depth to them — not necessarily in the combat itself, but in choosing the right characters for the job, keeping an eye on the overall battle situation, and responding appropriately to what is happening.

For the unfamiliar, the Musou series covers the various Warriors games, including the Dynasty Warriors, Samurai Warriors and Warriors Orochi series. Hyrule Warriors was an interesting break from the norm for developers Omega Force in that rather than being loosely (very loosely, in some cases) based on established historical fiction such as Romance of the Three Kingdoms, it’s based on an established other property — in this case, the Legend of Zelda series.

It isn’t the first time Omega Force has tackled a licensed Musou game; there are Warriors games based on the popular anime and manga One Piece, Fist of the North Star and Gundam, among others. But Hyrule Warriors is arguably one of the more “accessible” properties that the team has chosen to adapt into the Musou style, since Zelda is one of Nintendo’s properties with near-universal appeal, and much more ripe for adaptation than, say, Mario.

Hyrule Warriors, like its stablemates, casts you in the role of one of several different playable characters and tasks you with turning the tide of a large-scale battle on a sprawling map. Your character is just one part of your “side’s” overall efforts, but you’re considerably more powerful than the rather dim footsoldiers that litter the battlefield, usually standing around looking perplexed. You’re not alone, though; in two-player mode, a second player takes on the role of one of the other present allied generals to support you, and even in single-player you’ll find yourself fighting alongside other characters: they’ll come to your aid, but you’ll be expected to do the same in return.

In what I’ve played of Hyrule Warriors so far, there seems to be quite a bit more variety than, say, the Dynasty Warriors series, thanks in part to the setting being considerably more fantastic than ancient China. But it’s not just about the monstrous enemies and magic flying around — it’s also about varied objective during battle. It’s pretty rare, even in the early stages of the game, to be confronted with a battle that simply involves cutting a path to the enemy boss; instead, you’ll find yourself supporting your troops in various areas, capturing strongholds to gain a foothold and advance into enemy territory, dealing with counterattacks from enemies and, in true Zelda style, occasionally accidentally clipping a chicken one too many times with your sword and inviting the wrath of its myriad friends, who will come and peck you to death in pretty short order.

The game also makes use of its Zelda roots well by adding a number of mechanics based on the iconic Zelda inventory items. As you progress through the game’s “Legend” mode, you’ll acquire various items that can be used in battle, ranging from bombs (blow stuff up, reveal secrets) to a bow and arrow (shoot things) and a boomerang (cut down things that a sword just won’t chop). Fulfilling various secret requirements in battle will also reward you with heart containers and pieces of heart to extend your characters’ life bars, and Ocarina of Time’s Gold Skulltulas make an appearance, too, spawning on the battlefield when you fulfil a specific condition and then requiring you to track them down by searching a marked area of the map and listening carefully for their telltale scraping sounds.

I feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface of the game so far; I’ve only played Legend Mode as of now, but there are a variety of other ways to play, with one of the most interesting sounding being Adventure Mode, which tasks you with exploring a grid-based map based on the original NES Legend of Zelda game and fighting various battles in order to take control of it piece by piece. I don’t yet know how well this is executed, but I’m looking forward to trying it out. Even if it turns out to be bobbins, though, just the battles in Legend Mode have proven to be more than worthwhile and enjoyable so far — and it looks very much as if the game has continued to develop and expand long after launch, if the multiple pages of patch notes that appeared the first time I booted the game up are anything to go by!

I’m looking forward to trying it out co-op later this week, all being well, but in the meantime I can already confidently say that it’s one of the best Musou games I’ve played to date, and anyone who enjoys a good bit of hack and slash should most definitely check it out, Zelda fan or no.