The World Ends With You Review

The World Ends With You was originally released in Japan in mid 2007 for the Nintendo DS.  It was later released in the US in early 2008.  Since then it has had quite a bit of success, a cult following, and hundreds of near perfect ratings and reviews.  So what took so long for a SquareEnix fan such as my myself to play this title?  Well, put frankly, the DS platform really.  However, we’ll get to that later.

Story:
TWEWY follows Neku, a very depressing young boy that seems to just hate everyone. Without warning, he finds himself waking up on the ground of a busy crossing. Noone seems to acknowledge him, and he can’t seem to remember anything. Shortly after regaining himself he’s attacked by strange looking creatures. While fleeing, he runs into a girl named Shiki who tells him to make a pact with her to fight the creatures. After successfully getting out of danger, Shiki reveals to him that he’s part of a “Game.” As part of this game, they are placed in a mirrored parallel world where they face off against weekly challenges and survive against the attacks of Reapers using creatures known as Noise. Failure to win at any of these aspects result in “Erasure” which is to be stomped out of existence.

Fable 3 Review (PC)

So, you’re thinking about buying Fable 3 for P.C.  Well let me help you figure out what side of the fence your on.

Starting the game, you open up choosing either male or female and drop right into your kingdom as a prince or princess.  You’ll quickly find yourself making morality choices and building your character.

Big point to keep in mind is the game’s main storyline progresses severly fast and without spoiling anything I highly suggest if you’re playing “good” and you want to stay “good” make 10Million before heading to Aurora.  You need the money for an army.  The game will give you no warning. 

Uncharted 3 Early Thoughts

The adventures of Nathan begins once again.  The 3rd installment of this great series launches today, and after I’ve gotten through 8 chapters, I’m here to give you a quick review of what I think so far.

Right when I fired it up, the first thing I noticed was a bit of loading, a couple of minutes before even starting the intro.  However due to preloading, the loading screens were non existant after that point.  So fret not when you see them.

After an action packed start, I quickly realized that the hand to hand combat got reworked.  I actually prefer to duke it out now (hah).  Using Square to hit, triangle at prompts to counter, and circle to throw and struggle.  I’m very happy with these changes.

Solatorobo: Red The Hunter Early Thoughts

So, played into my first couple hours of Solatorobo Red The Hunter.  So far I have to say I enjoy it very much.  So here’s a quick summarized overview of different aspects.

Story: Catchy so far.  The world is full of half human half dog/cat people.  Red is an adventurer (or mercenary) that does different jobs.  While on a job he discovers a medallion and a mysterious boy right before a humongous stone creature appears.  After a town is attacked by strange creatures, the mysterious boy hires Red to destroy the stone creature.

Gameplay: The gameplay is pretty smooth.  The combat consists of either grabbing and returning projectiles, or wrestling an opponent and then throwing them to damage them.  The maps consist of puzzles and navigating standard mazes.  While nothing hugely difficult has come my way, it does seem the complexity, challenge, and dynamics are changing.

Graphics: Best I’ve seen on DS.  I’m also enjoying the mending of 3D and 2D art.  It’s done really well.  While some may find some of it offputting, it’s got it’s own flare and I commend them for what they’ve done with this.  5 stars in my book.

Sound: I’m half and half on this one.  The music scores are great.  I think the random voice plugs are cute but some might find them offputting if they arn’t used to the cutesy Japanese style.  One downer, and it’s sort of a consistant one.  I’m running into some sound effects that just seem rough on the edges.  Such as the yelling he makes when Red does certain actions.  It’s not game breaking, but definitely not well done.

Anyways, for those that may be on the fence for this one, I hope this quick early thought can give you the boost you need one way or the other.  I’m loving it, and can’t wait for more.  Stay turned for the full review when I get through it ^_^