Soul Hackers - Review

I'm a huge Atlus fan. I'm a huge Shin Megami Tensei fan. And when they decided to release Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner - Soul Hackers, I picked it up the day it came out. This game wasn't released in the states before. Atlus didn't just port this Saturn game, but updated it.

What can I say? This game was amazing. Can you think of something more awesome than a Cyber-Punk Pokemon game?

So the story starts off with you, and the girl in red from the first picture, Hitomi, near a phone line/computer station. She tells you a little about Paradigm X, and asks if you're going to hack the server to get your name on the Beta test list. You hack the system, and a mysterious voice speaks to you through the system.

Kinap switches his form through the game, as he guides and helps you. He is worried that a shadowy group of villains are using the Paradigm X program to steal human souls. You, Hitomi, and your group of friends / hackers, the Spookies, try to get to the bottom of this mystery. Kinap sends you on this vision quests to understand more about who and what you are up against. Shortly after your first vision quest, you find a computer system known as a COMP. When you activate the device, a bizarre orb of light flies out of it and fuses with Hitomi, releasing a demon named Nemissa.

She can't remember anything, and she shares the body with Hitomi. they switch who is in control throughout the story. And after the comp is active, you can finally capture demons and use them. Unlike many of the other Shin Megami Tensei games, the demons don't gain level ups. I don't know if it's the same way in the other Devil Summoner games, because I haven't had the chance to play them.

Like the other Shin Megami Tensei games, you can fuse demons together to create new and powerful demons. When I beat the game, I had collected 66% of them. Which was something along the lines of 120 or so.

The music was enjoyable, but nothing too spectacular. I did really enjoy the final boss theme though. Graphically, it isn't the most beautiful game ever put out, but I find that really doesn't matter. The artwork is amazing, even if most of the enemies are static. And most of the battle backgrounds look like they belong in Earthbound.

Like many of the other Shin Megami Tensei Games, especially the main series, you get most of your demons by talking to them during battle. Every demon has a specific personality, and answering questions right can land you a new demon. Answering the questions wrong can give the enemies an attack round where you can't do anything.

In order to use your demons, you have to summon them. You can do this in or out of battle. However, keeping them summoned uses up M, a.k.a. Macca. You get Macca for killing demons, and you use it like a currency, trading it for Yen, or summoning demons from the list at the Goumoden.

As far as the difficulty was, this game wasn't too bad. Strange Journey was far harder. The only issue I had with the game being unfair was in one of the dungeons midway through the game. The Auto-factory. Most of the enemies there knew a spell called Mudo, which is the game's instant death spell. If you don't have a weakness to it, it has about a 10% chance of landing...but when enemies spam it every round, I game overed a lot there. However, once armor that was available to block Mudo was sold, that problem was gone.

There aren't too many choices you make through the game, but the few you do greatly changes certain things. Early in the game, you are asked to explain what Hitomi's personality is like, and depending on your choice, her type of magic differs. Also, the final vision quest you go on, depending on which boss monster you kill, changes how the end boss fights. I chose to kill Tiamat, because she utterly crushed me in Strange Journey...I will have my revenge.

Now below is a picture I took of the final boss, and my team I used.

 

Most Shin Megami Tensei games have a game-breaker character, and I found her. In the game, you get a third free-to use character, called Zoma Zeed. You can fuse your Zoma with various demons, and it grows stronger. But two classes of demons will actually transform your Zoma into a new demon. Deity and Tyrant. I fused my Zoma with Tyrant Tiezietni (or whatever her crazy-ass name was), and created Hero Jeanne D'Arc. Who had the prayer skill. Which restores MP to full...Yep. There is nothing as enjoyable as curbstomping an end boss. 

Ephemeral Fantasia - Review

So, a few weeks ago, I took upon myself a challenge. I've owned this game, Ephemeral Fantasia for quite a while, but neither time I played through it, I beat it. The game is very long, and very complicated. I used a guide to beat it because otherwise it is basically impossible.

The story begins with Mouse, the guy on the left, arriving at this beautiful tropical island. He was called upon by Xelpherpolis, who is going to marry Princess Lorielle (the girl on the right). Well, what he didn't know is that Xelpherpolis can control time. And that he has unwittingly entered a five day time-loop that at first there seems to be no way out of.

It isn't explained how long the time loop has gone on for, but it is referenced that at least several years of it has happened. But for some reason, Mouse is unaffected by the time-reversal, and keeps his memories. So he decides that he will get out of the time loop, and save the princess.

The reason I used a guide for the game is because you can only do certain events on certain days, and the game doesn't tell you a damn thing. It takes a minimum of 12 time-reversals in order to accomplish most of what the game offers. I didn't do it all because I wanted to be the game this time.

Graphically, the game isn't nearly as impressive as many other PS2 games, and there seemed to only be twelve or so musical tracks (excluding the guitar mini-game songs). So the music got really annoying after a while.

Before there was Guitar Hero, there was Lute Master. Yeah, there is a mini-game that is actually plot-important. And it is tough as balls. Some of the songs are so damn ridiculous I could barely hit half of the notes. Good thing is, any time the song is needed for the plot, it doesn't matter how poorly you play it.

The battle system was mostly average, but there was one really cool part about it. If you use certain skills enough, they level up. When those skills reach a high enough level, you'll unlock new skills. And Mouse has the ability to learn unique skills when his allies learn some of their skills. It was pretty nice...until the best skills start to unlock, because it takes forever to level them up.

Look at that guy. Straight up wanna-be Sephiroth.

There is a fair sized cast of characters you can get, but in order to do so, you have to do certain events, which then falls upon certain days, and so forth. You don't have to get every single character, but it is really nice to learn those team skills.

Here is something a little different about Ephemeral Fantasia. You have two sets of levels. Character Levels, and Party Levels. Character levels increase your stats, unlock magic spells, and make gaining skill levels take longer. Party levels increases everyone's HP and MP stats. So if a character is level one, but the party level is 25, they have a lot of HP, even if their stats suck.

Oh yeah, and Mouse's Lute can talk. And is named Pattimo.

So, finally, I reach the final point of the game. Xelpherpolis freezes time, and only members of Mouse's crew can move around. They head into the castle to fight Xelpherpolis. And let me tell you, that fight was a pain in the ass. The guide said mid-forties should be enough to win. I was nearly level 50. Ugh. And some of those dungeons were so damn long, like the Water Dungeon. Freaking spent an hour and half in it. Running a square, over and over.

But I beat it. It feels good to have finished it this time. I'd suggest playing it, but you don't need to finish the game. Cause it took move over 75 hours to beat it. That's almost standard Dragon Quest lengths, but imagine staying on the same damn island the entire time.