The Last of Us: Best of the Generation

I hate The Last of Us! I hated the zombie apocalyptic setting, the stealth based gameplay and its survival aspect! I hated it all! Yet, I fell in love with the game. I loved how the game got a hold of me and didn’t let go. I reached a point where I just couldn't tear myself away from the game. What made me forget my hatred for the zombie apocalypse and stealth based game play you ask? It is simple really… the incredible human tale of Joel and Ellie surviving in a tough and brutal new world; the story and characters which hooked me till the end. This is without a shadow of a doubt the best game developed by Naughty Dog!

The gaming industry has undergone a sea of changes in terms of story-telling. In previous years, most action games did not focus much on a coherent plot and much of the emphasis was on the gameplay. But in recent times, game developers especially of the action genre have started incorporating heartfelt and powerful tales and in this regard, The Last of Us has come up trumps. Had the plot been used in a movie, it would definitely have been nominated for an Oscar or a BAFTA! I am serious! The plot narrative weaved a harrowing tale of survival masterfully which made such an impact that I readily overlooked the gameplay (which was amazing but not my cup of tea) as I wanted to know how the story unfolded and how it ended.

Most games which deal with zombie apocalypse, either have a silly plot or has an 'in your face' attitude, but The Last of Us story is what you call muted. It neither was going at a breakneck pace nor brought in convoluted theories, but kept the human aspect at the forefront. What would you do if some kind of horrific plague decimates the human race? How much are you willing to sacrifice to protect what is important to you? To what lengths are you willing to go in creating a world worth living? Such are the questions that the game asks and to be honest this is what got me pegged. Here was a story which wasn't afraid in asking such questions that even most movies don't ask let alone video games! If only the legendary movie critic Robert Ebert was alive to see how much The Last of Us has come to mimic movies he would have been impressed!

Accompanying the incredible plot were the believable characters. In the last 24 years that I have been playing video games, I have NEVER come across a game that had such mature, complex and well realized characters! Joel, Ellie and all the other characters I met in the game were like real people! I mean I felt a connection towards them that I honestly have not felt in most games (being an RPG fan and having played my share of story driven RPGS but even then almost none could match up with The Last of Us).

Joel who plays the disheveled survivor living his life, taking a day at a time, who has been burdened in protecting a little girl he barely knows and has to chaperone her across the country. The highs and lows of Joel's interaction with the girl is what drive the plot forward. At every twist and turn you start to understand Joel's motives and goals and you can only root for the guy. Troy Baker's voice acting for Joel has to be the best male performance this year. Baker in the last 3-4 years has made quite a name for himself and has almost become as famous as Nolan North. His portrayal as Joel ranks as his best as he was able to exude each and every emotion with skill. Joel is easily one of the most complex protagonists around; a male lead whose spirit has been broken and who fears dying in a horrific manner or worse… turning into an Infected. In an industry which shows male protagonists as the alpha male, where nothing scares him, Joel is an anomaly!

Ellie requires a special mention here. She is the girl Joel has to protect for reasons I can't mention for the sake of avoiding spoilers. But Ellie for me has to be the most realistic character ever created in video games! Her mannerisms are exactly what you will expect from a 14 year girl. Her reactions to the unusual circumstance she find herself in made me not only care for the virtual kid but made me brave many scary set pieces because I wanted to protect the child and get her to safety. I have very rarely felt so connected to a game character like how I have to Ellie! Ashley Johnson who voices Ellie has given the industry the best vocal performance, perhaps ever! Sure there are many well known voice actors and actress who have given great performances in the past but even they can't hold a candle to her. Ellie is a fierce kid who wears her heart on her sleeve and Ashley Johnson captured every diverse emotion perfectly which made Ellie one hell of a character.

The rest of the cast and the characters I met were just something to behold. Throughout the arduous trek of the main characters they meet up with different people with different priorities in the messed world they inhabit. I came to loath them but at the same time I understood their abnormal plight. This is a game that builds its foundation on characters, such a trend we only see in movies. While its usually a given that most of the resources would be put in casting good voice actors for the main characters while the non player characters would just ‘get by’, but this is where The Last of Us differ as even the side characters had some amazing voice work behind it. Anna Wersching (Tess), Jeffery Pierce (Tommy), W. Earl Brown (Bill) and the other characters we get to meet all have done sterling work in the game. A special mention to Nolan North’s cameo which just showed the incredible set of pipes the man’s got! The Last of Us makes a credible case that the game industry has found a new focus and personally I like it. I just hope that the next generation can take this focus to new heights.

I have already discussed the voice acting of the main characters but I JUST HAVE to mention the Infected and the Clicker! Whoever came up with these voices was absolutely insane! Its one of the prime reasons I never could muster up the courage to play the game at night! I felt fear, disgust and yes, even sadness as I saw these… things living out their lives in utter agony and pain! Even thinking about it gives me Goosebumps!

The gameplay? Well I will just say that despite my utter hatred for horror, zombie and stealth genres the game still held my interest till the end credits! Yes there were MANY occasions where I would be cussing out loudly at some of the most intense sections yet I came back for more (bitch for punishment I daresay?). As the game picked up and the frequency of hair-raising sequences increased, I finally understood why many gamers love the horror genre: the constant feeling of dread that heightens the senses and edge of your seat stuff that makes this genre so compelling. Having said that if anyone asks me to play some of the classics of this genre I will only have one thing to say to them, NO!

There were 2 features of the gameplay that were quite fun though. First was how well Naughty Dog implemented survival into the game which made exploration a joy. Any new area I would encounter I would be looking in every nook and cranny to salvage items for creating med kits, Molotov cocktails, and other do-dads. While also looking for ‘scraps’ to upgrade the meager arsenal. Naughty Dog really took the concept of survival to another level!

The other aspect was the gunplay. As the ammo was scarce, every gunfight was a tense experience. I had to make every shot count and I just couldn’t spray bullets all over the place as well. This made the gunfights feel real and with consequence.

But perhaps for me the most hated aspect of the game was stealth. For a horror game to make players slink around avoiding hideous creatures was terrifying as well as a stroke of genius. Due to these sections, I would be criticizing Naughty Dog for it but yet I knew if I stuck with the game I will eventually find the ‘rhythm’ and go with the flow and thankfully such an attitude worked for me! Yes there was more than one occasion where I thought I had to give up playing the game, yet I didn’t stop and was eventually rewarded!

Enough of about gameplay and let me just gush my love for the insane graphics of The Last of Us! I have no qualms in saying that this is the greatest looking game ever made! Every cut-scene was as if I was watching a movie. Naughty Dog has unexpectedly outdone themselves especially after the visual tour de force which was Uncharted franchise. I don’t know how this venerable studio does it but Naughty Dog has become the front runner at constantly pushing the boundaries of the gaming industry.

The level of detail was just astonishing. The facial expression especially of the emotional kind has to be the best ever, even beating the much lauded facial expressions of LA Noire. It was as if I was right there with the character feeling what they were feeling. Not many games can do that if any. The animations of characters were so real! Sure enough Naughty Dog has been doing mo-cap work for years now but The Last of Us has to be their coup de grace! The environments’ detail was bordering on excessive and obsessive but that only played into the hands of the game as it made the game so darn immersive and engrossing!

The HD generation brought with it a deluge of incredibly looking games that blurred the uncanny valley but The Last of Us takes a lead so big that it will take some doing by other companies to even come close. And when they will come close Naughty Dog will raise the bar once again!

The sound department was the unheralded hero of the game to be honest. The soundtrack was so subtle almost being non-existent most of the time but once it does rear its head it just creates an amazing ambience… whether it be during tense gunfights or emotional scenes. But the most jarring aspect of the sound track was on how many occasions there was just no music AT ALL. During stealth sections where evading and avoiding the Infected was required there would be no background music and THAT created an aura of horror I have never experienced in ANY game!

As I near the conclusion of this review I will give a small spoiler free mention to the ending. Now one of the biggest criticism of recent Western games is they don’t make endings meaningful. Many a times I would feel as if the developers have left me in the lurch by giving a ho-hum ending! Even one of the greatest game franchises: Mass Effect had a pretty disappointed ending (in my case I felt like Bioware had kicked my gonads! That’s a topic for another post I guess). The Last of Us literally takes that trend and throws it out the window! The ending was nuanced and beautiful yet was so powerful that it took me a while to come to grips with it. It just resonated so well with the rest of the game. I remember how it kept me a daze during the credits! I wish more western game companies had the foresight for concluding a game in the right way. It’s not that Naughty Dog has not been guilty of such a trend as I experienced with the Uncharted series but with The Last of Us they hit the sweet spot!

OK, time to wrap up this long read. The Last of Us embodied every aspect of the HD generation. The last 6 years, very few games can claim to have even come close this game. Yes there are some truly outstanding games which came out on various platforms but The Last of Us stands high and mighty above the rest. 10-20 years down the line when we will fondly look back at this generation, this game will shine out. For me The Last of Us is the best game of this generation! Many people will disagree with me however. The JRPG fan in me is screaming ‘SAY IT ISN’T SO’ but I will stick to my guns. So in the end, this game serves as a fantastic farewell to the HD generation and stands among the pantheon of some of the greatest games ever made and wears its badge of honor with pride!

Time take for completion: 16 hours 32 mins
My final rating: 10/10

Ni No Kuni: Level 5's magnum opus!!

The current generation has had some very interesting trends from downloadable content, system updates, digital distribution and retro 2D gaming highlighting the horizon. Perhaps one of the biggest talking points of the entire generation has been JRPGs. The genre had two bumper decades when the number of games on consoles used to decide the console wars. SNES, PS1 and PS2 had some of the greatest ever JRPGs which gave incredible popularity to these systems. The HD generation was a different kettle of fish. Large production teams and higher budgets meant game companies needed to have block buster titles. JRPGs weren’t given priority like they were in previous console cycles. That led to the false perception that the genre was died or dying. As the generation hit its stride the number of JRPGs slowly started to increase. It’s thus fortunate that some quality games started to roll in onto consoles in the form of Tales of Vesperia, Lost Odyssey, Final Fantasy XIII and Xenoblade Chronicles. Hence this brings me to Level 5’s magnificent Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch!  A traditional JRPG made in the mold of some of the classic games of the SNES era but with all the bells and whistles of an HD generation! Ni No Kuni is the prime example of how a traditional JRPG can turn heads in the new generation.

A couple of years ago when Level 5 unveiled Ni No Kuni for the PS3 after the success of the Japan only DS game of the same name it was clear that Level 5 meant business in giving the HD generation its best traditional JRPG which it required. 2009’s Lost Odyssey was the only game which acted as flag bearer for traditional JRPGs and while it was a fantastic game in its own right, it was a sinfully overlooked. But Level 5 took it upon itself of not only making a great JRPG but to make sure it sold a few copies through aggressive marketing. Coupling itself with the animation giant Studio Ghibli, it crafted a deep RPG with some of the most astounding visuals and art style to grace a gaming console. Screenshots and trailers looked great but seeing the game on a proper TV was something else! So finally after 8 wonderful months of playing non-stop I have finally reached the end credits. Incredible is a word that comes in mind when talking about Ni No Kuni!!

In the following paragraphs I will be jotting down things which I liked about the game and things which I didn't:

LIKES:

Make no mistake, Ni No Kuni ranks as one of the most beautiful and colourful game ever created! The game looks gorgeous when in motion. The level of animation fluidity is outstanding and the vivid colours almost ‘bleed’ off the screen. The towns and dungeons are spectacularly rendered and visiting any new place was an awe-inspiring experience. The current generation has given us some amazingly realistic and mature looking games which blurred the lines of the uncanny valley, but Ni No Kuni is one of the rare games that seem to have bucked this common trend with this colourful bonanza! Level 5 partnership with Studio Ghibli was an inspired one as the studio was responsible for the amazing art style of the game. It was truly like playing a Studio Ghibli movie.!That in itself was a surreal experience and which definitely made the game stand out from its peers! I will be very surprised if the game doesn't win any awards for its visuals and art design.

Level 5 has earned its stripes in the JRPG industry as a seminal game company and the game play of Ni No Kuni once again shows how much the company and its founder Akira Hino understand what makes JRPGs click. The battle system is a hybrid of real-time and turn-based mechanics in lieu Grandia, Xenoblade Chronicles and Valkyria Chronicles. The battle system uses the whole Pokémon/Persona mechanics of using monsters to do all the battling. I know that a lot of people were put off by that and I too have never been a Pokémon fan but Ni No Kuni borrows that feature quite smartly. I finished the game with 90% of the familiars I captured in the first 20-30 hours of the game. What makes the combat involving is how tactics have to be changed on the fly especially during boss battles. The stiff difficulty kept me on my toes. Don’t let the cute exterior fool you into thinking that the game is easy as it’s not.  I had to have good levels and good equipment to overcome tough monsters and bosses!

The length of the game was very satisfactory. It took me 62 hours to finish the main story and 90% of the side quests and bounty hunts (which there were quite A LOT of). As soon as the game finished I found myself back in the game world with new side quests which were tough and complex and an ultimate secret boss (whom I am still trying to fight with, having to go through a long series of hoops). There is also the coliseum to compete in. So basically the game can easily take 80 hours to fully beat.

The sound productions were top notch. Studio Ghibli’s alumni Joe Hisaishi produced the entire sound track which was epic and yet very heart warming. As his first foray in games Hisaishi-san did a fantastic job as his work easily rivals that of Nobou Uematsu and Yasunori Mitasuda. The voice acting has got to be one of the best this year. The last couple years has seen British voice actors coming to the fore: Xenoblade Chronicles, Pandora’s Tower and The Last Story had some amazing voice work and Ni No Kuni once again follows the trend. The entire British cast was pitch-perfect esp. the main antagonists but  the best performance was by Mr. Drippy, The High Lord of High Fairies and Oliver’s trusty side kick, who had a thick Welsh accent which was just wonderful. More games should have Welsh accents as far as I am concerned! The rest of the cast were right up there although I did feel the ‘weakest’ performance was of Oliver as it sounded too sweet and innocent. Guess that is what the aim was in the first place!

Oliver’s journey after his mother death was quite heart breaking and poignant. His quest to bring back his mother from another realm was a very effective plot hook which kept me going on ahead. Not many games have the courage to have such a depressing back ground yet Ni No Kuni wore it as a badge of honour  Yes the plot isn't a complex or epic but had enough charm to pull at the heart strings. What backed up the good plot were the characters; Oliver, Esther and Swaine weren't the most fleshed out main characters but I always felt close to them and egged them up on their perilous journey. The relationship of the 3 heroes really took the simple plot and made it very personal.

While the game was truly fantastic there were just a couple of things which did not sit in well with me:

DISLIKES:

The most glaring negative was the amazing voice acting. As I mentioned before the voice work in Ni No Kuni was quite strong, but there was so little of it! In this day and age a game of Ni No Kuni’s pedigree should have been fully voiced. Namco Bandai was in charge of the English localization and I just feel they may have cut corners. I mean Namco Bandai’s own JRPG franchise: Tales games are 90% voiced yet Ni No Kuni had very little voice work! Sure it isn't a deal breaker but I think more voice acting would have certainly made the game more immersive.

Level 5 was clearly inspired by the SNES era as it lovingly recreated it for the HD era in Ni No Kuni, yet the plot narrative still retained the old school feel. What that meant that sometimes the plot took a back seat and that kind of killed off tension of the plot. Once again this doesn't really affect the game on a whole but it would have been nice if it told the story in a proper way.

Lastly the ending was very VERY disappointing. Without going into detail to avoid spoilers the ending didn't do it for me. I am sure many of you guys will disagree but for me the game’s ending lacked the ‘oomph’ I was expecting.

Ni No Kuni will be fondly remembered in the years ahead as the game which not only stood against the dreaded perception that traditional JRPGs were dead but did amazingly well sales wise. Even the harshest critics of the genre warmed up to the game and its fairy tale aesthetic. Level 5 should be lauded for its effort as it created the company’s second best game (after Dark Cloud 2). The current generation will be remembered for a lot of mature games and themes but Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch will remain the darling of this generation with lush visuals, solid game play, top notch audio and a beautiful setting. If anyone is looking for a deep and fascinating JRPG experience then Ni No Kuni fits the bill perfectly. My rating: 9.3!

Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword: An opinion!

FINISHED LEGEND OF ZELDA: SKYWARD SWORD! 40 pounds very well spent! Skyward Sword, for me at least, is one of the best action adventure games. It is the longest. By the time I killed of the last boss my playtime was nearing 50 hours! And this is NOT an RPG! 

The story was pretty good, esp. the fact that most Zelda games are about the game play and it gets the most attention, but Skyward Sword had a riveting plot. Sure it kept things simple and still used the “Save the Princess’ theme that is synonymous with Zelda games, but the way the story was told was very interesting. There were quite a few cut scenes that had good amount of cinematic flair and kept things moving along. There is where the devs have done a great job in juggling story exposition and game play considering the long play time. For the game to be this intriguing right till the end, esp. for a game plays heavy series like Zelda was remarkable. I loved the fact as it’s an origin story; I didn’t feel as if I was being weighted down by Zelda’s past. This has to be Nintendo’s most story focused game to date.

The characters were pretty decent too. While Link was once again a blank slate and the many of the NPC were rote, but the real stars of the show were Zelda, Fi and the villain Ghirahim. Zelda side stepped the whole damsel in distress cliché and showed her as a strong willed and brave girl, but still retaining the fragile and vulnerable nature of a damsel. Unlike the tom boy version of Wind Waker or the coward type in Spirit Tracks, here was Zelda who, while staying innocent, was standing up to the evil that threaten to destroy the world  and fought it out, in different ways, along with Link. Man I would love to have a girl like Zelda. And did I mention she was quite the cutie!

Fi is Zelda’s very own Cortana! While Cortana had spunk…..amongst other…..assets, Fi was a ‘master’ of stating the obvious made her pretty memorable. At least she wasn’t as annoying as the fairy in Ocarina of Time (played OOT for 3 hours). Ghirahim takes the place of the series regular villain, Ganon and is pretty menacing….in a…queer…kinda way. I have never seen Ganon, but Ghirahim did decent job in me hating him all the same. Had fun beating his ass!!

The game play was a bit of a mixed bag, for me at least. The level designs and puzzles were amazing and very creative. Puzzles found in Lanayru Desert were nothing short of awesome! The entire game world was like a big puzzle which was fun; although a bit of normal exploration would have been good. But for me the most divisive aspect of the game was the use of the Wii Motion Plus, esp. how it was implemented in combat. At first it was fun, using precise attacks to dispatch enemies, but as the game started to get more tough and enemies attack pattern started to change, I started to find the precise waggle to be annoying to the point of almost hating it. My arm would tire very quickly which could had become a deal breaker for me if the game would had been a notch tougher. But during boss battles I would be cursing Miyamoto-san for put Wii Motion Plus in the game. So while it was fun for a while, I am glad and relived that the usage of the device had come to an end!

The thing which really impressed me was how much the game kept on offering in terms of game play. Right when I thought that all of the game play had been displayed, there would be something new.!

The production values were great! The game looked like a Claude Monet’s painting! The colors were bright and vivid and while due to hardware constricts the game textures were blurry but that played right into the hand of Nintendo and the end up giving it a unique artistic touch. The sound track was….okay I guess, but the main theme which used the classic Zelda’s theme arrangement with the new theme was just great! I like the new Zelda theme more than the classic one though. All in all while the production values could not beat the ones found in Super Mario Galaxy 2, Skyward Sword sits very cozily as one of the best looking and sounding games on the Wii.

Ok so now I am putting on my critics cap and nitpick the things I did not like about the game:

I did not like the monsters and enemy designs.  I felt that maybe the artists of the game were a tad lazy. While I appreciate game design that are aimed at a young crowd, but the ones found in Skyward Sword were just not good. I will cite one example: The Imprisoned. Here was a horrendous monster whose sight made me shudder a little, but then I saw its hands and feet! I mean..LOOK AT IT!!

In this day and age where voice acting has become so important in games, to stay so rooted the past ended up hurting Skyward Sword. Nintendo kept the game voice less which I just do not understand. The game would have benefited from voice acting if they had British actors!

The most damning feature of the game was back tracking. No, not your typical back tracking here, but visiting the new environments in the same location..3-4 times was not good thinking. A game that is as lengthy as this, there should had been locations to go to. I just couldn’t fathom reusing the same locales. EVEN IN THE LAST DUNGEON!! I had to deduct a few points.

So in the end I will still rank Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword as quite an amazing game. Having so much content in a game whose genre is action adventure was quite bewildering. The story was decent and the game play was solid as ever. Sure there were a few things that I did not like, for which I will be chastised by long time Zelda fan (this is the first Zelda game I have finished) but I still have loads of fun. My play time at the end was 49 hours and 32 mins. My ranking: 9 out 10!

Mass Effect 3: Magnificent, Awe-inspiring, Insipid!

NOTE: This blog post contains MASSIVE SPOILERS of Mass Effect 3!!!

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What an amazing ride it has been with Bioware’s incredible sci-fi magnum opus, Mass Effect series. For the last 5 years the creative minds at the company has created one of the most expansive sci-fi universe easily rivaling, I’d even go to say surpassing, the heavy hitters of the genre like Star Wars, Dune and Star Trek. Never before has a work of science fiction garnered so much universal praise as the Mass Effect trilogy: A complex and fully realized futuristic setting? Check. A myriad of very interesting alien races each with their history, mythology and lore? Check. A tense political scenario where history and present predicament come colliding in a grand epic plot? Check. It seems as if Mass Effect has become one of those rare game series that transcends from the video game medium and becomes a part of pop culture, something which video games are still struggling with. In the end Mass Effect will always be remembered as the game series that had the heart to become a beacon for video games as being more than a hobby for geeks, and become the game series which truly breaks into main stream with much fanfare.

Mass Effect 3 can be described in one simple word: EPIC!! Everything about the game, from its sense of urgency as the Reaper's threat becomes real and tangible, the grand scope of the plot with planets being overrun by the sentient  Reapers and every race in the galaxy scrambling together to quell the impending doom, right down to the last poignant mission on Earth. The plot moves at break neck pace bringing together all the story elements from the previous games into a rousing crescendo. Bioware’s writers did a fantastic job in knitting a coherent story line which was riveting and packed an emotional wallop and it was joy to follow the entire saga as it unfolded in the 3 games, Mass Effect 3 being the best in that regard. I also loved the way many of the lingering issues that were going on throughout the saga were resolved like curing of the genophage on Tuchanka or settling the 300 year war between the Quarians and the Geth, or being there with Thane Krios as he breathed his last or helping out Miranda’s family issues. Mass Effect 3 wrapped up all such residual issues from the previous games in a neat and satisfying manner bringing all the character threads to a close. Seeing the relationships I fostered throughout the 3 games come full circle was quite something indeed!

Now on to the game play which in my humble opinion took the best bits of Mass Effect 1 and 2 and created a perfect mixture of cover based shooting and micro management in true RPG fashion. I was quite pleased to find that the RPG mechanics had been brought back in the fold as they almost went missing in the last game. Another addition that was appreciated was weapons customization. Each weapon could be outfitted with attachments making weapons more powerful or accurate etc. Sure the customization wasn’t on the insane level of the JRPG, Resonance of Fate, but it was still pretty robust and I could actually tell the difference of any modifications I did on the different weapons.

The combat was near perfect and the action sequences were really intense. The combat moved at a fair clip and taking down hordes of enemies was done like any good 3^rd person action game (unlike the clumsy combat in the first game). The flow of the battles was raw and visceral, I especially had a blast on Rannoch and Earth with droves of baddies to shoot and shred with biotic skills of Shepard and his team (it took me 2 games to come to grips in using these skills and it certainly made for some fun battles especially against the nasty Banshees!).

Now the production values of Mass Effect 3 were once again a mix bag, a sentiment I’ve had for all the 3 games of the series much to the chagrin of a few of my Unreal Engine 3 loving friends. Look Unreal Engine 3 does a great job when it comes to showing shiny space ships or ships interiors or when it comes to showing epic space battles or when showing the grand expanse of an alien home world. But when it comes to character models the engine seems to struggle quite a bit. The eyes of characters would look creepy, there were quite a few instances of shaky animations and the general ‘muddy’ textures just didn’t impress me at all. Another problem I had with the visuals was it was ridden with glitches: I remember this really power scene before going on the Tuchanka mission which was marred by a graphical glitch that made Shepherd eyes all weird and it just killed off the scene and the impact it tried to create. And because I have the example of the incredible looking JRPG, Final Fantasy 13 whose visuals were astounding, and Mass Effect 3 just didn’t have the graphical fidelity that could out gun Final Fantasy 13!

If I wasn’t impressed by the visuals of the game, the audio department picked up the slack. The voice acting was once again some of the best I’ve ever heard and that made for a rich game experience. Hollywood star Martin Sheen once again provided great chords for the menacing Illusive Man, while Seth Green got a bit more voice time. The voice work of the main characters was phenomenal with Liz Sroka (Tali) doing in an awesome job. Keep your ears open for the Rannoch mission for some awesome voice work by her. Ali Hillis as Liara did solid work as did Keith Davis whose portrayal as Admiral Anderson was exceptional. But Mark Meer’s performance as Commander Shepard was the most nuanced and well rounded and Meer easily discarded the cardboard like performance from the previous games and gave a rousing performance. Bioware’s games always have great voice acting and Mass Effect 3 another fine example. The soundtrack was appropriate and uniformly very good.

With that mini review done I will now write a little about the romantic option I took, some of the best moments from Mass Effect 3 and of course the much talked about ending. So here goes:

The Loving Man:

The female friend that I went for this time was Tali, who I also choose in Mass Effect 2. There was something about Tali right from the start. Admittedly I went for Liara T’soni in the first game, but I was always attracted to Tali as I would make it a point to go to engineering and chat with her. Something about her race: the masks wearing Quarians, their history with the Geth and their mass exodus from their home world all added to the mystique of Tali.  And don’t get me started on the sensual exotic accent of her voice! In Mass Effect 2 I went for Tali and was rewarded with some really innocent puppy love relationship (which got marred by the clumsy love scene), but in Mass Effect 3 I was surprised at how maturely they handled the relationship, I actually felt a connection with her character, something which I have not felt since I ended Final Fantasy 10. The mission on Rannoch was where this was more evident. And then true to Bioware’s promise that they would show what Tali looked like and although they messed that up in spectacular fashion, I wasn't that miffed about it. So in the end Tali was quite the video game character, strong willed and determined but also had a vulnerability which to me was very endearing.

WTF!! Moments:

Here are some of the most awesome moments in the game. Enjoy these video clips:

This moment occurred right at the end of the mission on the Quarian home world of Rannoch. After killing the Reaper I had the chance of either siding with the Geth or the Quarians and for some odd reason I sided with the Geth and saw the entire Quarian race being destroyed and my beloved Tali commit suicide. This was one of the rarest moments in video games which really got to me emotionally (my blood spiked quite a lot and I almost broke down). I quietly pressed reset and loaded a previous save. No way in HELL was I letting Tali die off like that!

The Krogans and their sordid history with the Rebellion Wars and then the race getting decimated by the genophage was very interesting. I always wanted an option to be able to cure the virus and this is what Mass Effect 3 let me do. This scene occurs when I managed to release the cure in the atmosphere of Tuchanka and had lost my crazy Salarian scientist team mate Mordin Solus in the process. Just was one of those amazing moments!

This moment occurred on the Asari’s home world of Thessia. Finding the Prothean beacon and getting answers to my questions by the Prothean VI on the history of the Reapers, the cycle of destruction and the Crucible. Give me Goosebumps! (33:45)

Going towards the very last section on during the last mission on Earth, I get to meet up with every single member of my team. Meeting up with Liara T’soni netted me this great scene which I just cannot explain in words. It was just one of the unique moments of Mass Effect magic!

Ok with that done now it’s on to the most divisive part of Mass Effect 3: The Endings. Note: This section of the post is filled with MASSIVE SPOILERS for the endings. So BEWARE!!

It ends here:

Just when you thought that Mass Effect would create something memorable, utterly EPIC, it almost comes crashing down to its knees! I know a lot has been said and written about the infamous endings, but I still cannot get my head around it. How can Bioware, masters of telling a great tale, end their most popular game franchise with such useless endings is beyond me. There were so many plot holes right at the end that made all the time spend gathering up war assets, spending time resolving issues and killing the Reapers a waste of time. Since finishing the game I have watched a few many YouTube clips where gamers highlighted what was wrong with Mass Effect 3 endings, and the worst bit is I agreed to all of them! Here are some of the problems I had with Mass Effect 3’s ending:

First of was the Illusive Man. The guy spend years upon years trying to find ways to control the Reapers and get incredible power and to that end he did succeed (indoctrination or not), but the way he was killed was stupid. One Renegade option, one bullet, BOOM, Illusive Man, Dead! So the guy who was wielding Reaper’s power was shot dead by a measly bullet from a handgun?!?!

OK so everybody agrees that Mass Effect is an EPIC game franchise right? And Mass Effect 3 was to be the best game in the series right?. Well then where the HELL was my EPIC Final Boss Battle?!!?? Where was the ultimate evil guy (or gal) who’s behind Shepard was to kick?!!? Instead all I got was a few Reaper baddies to kill (OK fine, QUITE a few), but where was the last boss??!!? So Bioware ended the Mass Effect saga without a final boss battle?! And when the first and second game had a last boss battle!!  Don’t know about you guys but this just stinks!

During the last stand we got to see representation from all the galactic alien races, from Krogans to the Asari, but where was the Rachni Queen and her army of creepy crawlies? I didn’t see a single Rachni battling it out against the Reapers. So what was the purpose of recruiting the Rachni again?

Why did the mass relays have to be destroyed? Doesn’t this send the humans back years in terms of technology? What about the other alien races those were in Earth’s orbit. Aren’t they stuck in Earth’s orbit with no chance to returning to their home worlds?

The concept of multiple endings is not a new one. The idea behind multiple ending is to give different perspectives to a game’s story. Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross had 5-9 endings and each of them different from one another. So what in the world happened in Mass Effect 3?! There were a total of 3 endings and each ending was ALMOST identical, expect for the color of the blasts and a little difference here and there. But everything else was the same. How can these be regarded as multiple endings?!

But for me the biggest problem I had with all the ending (YouTube FTW) was the lack of resolution. What happened after the Reapers were destroyed? What happened to the crew of Normandy (apart from crash landing on some planet) and its crew? What REALLY happened to Shepard? Nothing was properly sorted out. And what was the purpose of the ending after the credits? Who were those two nondescript individuals? Look I don’t need a happy or bright ending per say, but at least give me a satisfactory one! And why in the world do I need DLC to get to an ending that makes sense?!. That is poor game design right there! Final Fantasy 13 had a confusing story and there was too much of these random words (L’cie , Fal’cie) but at least I did get an amazing ending which made up for the shortcoming of the entire story. I won’t even remember the small details of the plot but I will always remember the ending to Final Fantasy 13. So why was Mass Effect 3 given such a poor send off? I feel I wasted 83 hours I put in the three Mass Effect games. The RPG that will give Mass Effect 3 run for its money for the Game of the Year award this year, Xenoblade Chronicles, had an amazing ending as well. Sure the last 1/3 of the game became confusing and the techno-babble and religious overtones got a little over bearing but the ending put everything on track. While I was smirking at the end of Xenoblade, I was cursing Bioware for the insipid endings. It’s as if Bioware made a magnificent 3 course meal and then pissed on it!!! 

As so this wraps up my analysis of the only WRPG game (franchise) I ever liked. I am an out and out JRPG fan so Mass Effect series inclusion in my JRPG heavy favorite games list was quite an achievement. I enjoyed every minute of all three games I played. I don’t know if any other WRPG would invoke such a passion from me, (quite A LOT of JRPGS do) like how Mass Effect did. But the sour taste left by the final ending of Mass Effect 3 is too much to swallow and it just dented the experience for me. But in the end Mass Effect franchise was one hell of a series and easily ranks as of greatest game series in gaming history!

Legendary Game in Xenoblade Chronicles!

I procured my copy of Xenoblade Chronicles last year and since then have been fully entertained by its solid storyline rife with sci-fi and philosophical themes, true to Takahashi’s form, a bevy of interesting characters who deftly defy the JRPG clichés, a great battle system, which when in full flow made for some really amazing battles especially the boss battles where usage of strategy and tactics is paramount along with some new wrinkles to the JRPG mechanics. Add all this with a HUGE game world to explore! It was bewildering at first because of the incredible amount of exploration on a fantastically realized game world and by the time I prepared myself for the last section of the game I could not help but be amazed at Tetsuya Takahashi's labor of love.

So last night I manned up to the incredibly challenging last boss, and after 'trying' to kill it for the umpteenth time: read: 6 times, I got myself a save file from GameFaqs, uploaded it on my Wii internal hard drive and went on to kick the last boss's butt! What happened after that was truly epic! I was greeted with one of finest ending in a JRPG!

The ending inspired varying degrees of emotions from sense of achievement that I had beaten the game (so what if I cheated right at the end, I played 98% of the game properly), to being awe-inspired at what transpired in the end and then being melancholic and sad as the credits started to roll and I said farewell to Shulk and his gang after spending 68 hours   finishing the game!

Xenoblade Chronicles is easily one of the best RPG experience this generation! Although it was on inferior console but this game should rank amongst the best of the RPG genre in the last 6 years. Yes it competes as an equal with the heavy hitters like Skyrim, Mass Effect to Valkyria Chronicles and Tales of Vesperia. Personally I rank Xenoblade Chronicles in my top 10 RPGS of all time. This indeed is a legend of a game!

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception mini review!

                         

Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception once again proves that Naughty Dog's penchant of creating fantastic games still exists in spades, making them quite the task masters in such a cut throat industry. This year the video game industry is making all the headlines for all the right reason with release of some of the biggest games and Uncharted 3 is one of them. What sets 2011 apart from previous years as a watershed year for the industry is that quite a HUGE number of games are Game of the Year quality, that pitting these games against one another is a really tough proposition! The last time such a phenomena occurred was way back in 2004, but 2011 ekes out in front cause of the sheer number of quality games on show.

                        

Uncharted 3: Drake Deception is a meticulously crafted, superbly paced, explosive action game with some incredible production values yet suffers from 'been there, done that' vibe which doesn't really bring the game down in any sense, but while playing it I could'nt shake the feeing of deja-vu. And because the game will inevitably be compared with the epic Hollywood-esque Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, that Uncharted 3 feels like a TV show isn't a damning indictment for the game but a glowing praise for it's prequel. Having said that, Drake's Deception may be epic-est TV show ever made if I may add! But by all accounts this is a game worthy of the Uncharted moniker and a fantastic action game on its own. My play time 8 hours 27 mins and my rating a 8.8/10. 

The best video game I played in 2011!

1) Xenoblade Chronicles – Wii:

It was maybe e3 of 2009 when I spotted a game by the odd name of Monado: The Beginning of the World on Gamespot’s e3 page. I was very excited when I read the small preview of the Japanese version and saw the name Tetsuya Takahashi, the director of the awesome Xeno series for the PS1 and the PS2, and Monolith Soft, the dev company which made Xenosaga trilogy , at the helm of this new title. And the fact It was coming on the JRPG starved Wii was another reason for my excitement. But as the days and months wore (which brought a change of name: XenoBlade, which resulted in me throwing a tantrum) there was almost no news of an English version anywhere, while the game’s momentum was picking up Japan. When it got released in Japan to very high praise and sold really well, I seriously started to get worried that the game won't make it out in English.

I was expecting some sort of news to come out from the US for an English release, it took me by surprise that game was being localized by Nintendo of Europe, now dubbed Xenoblade Chronicles. Nintendo of Europe's website even had little video snippets highlighting the game world and the music. Slowly small bits of info started streaming out and it all made for awesome reading, and soon enough a concrete release was announced and what was more bizzare that the game was only coming Europe and not the US. Not that I cared that much as long as I could play this bad boy!!. August 19 was D-day and as soon as I got my copy from Amazon UK (via a family friend who was fortunately visiting Pakistan at the time) the game didn't pop out of the Wii for a good 2 months and this was the only game I was indulging in, without even bating an eye for the huge games during that time (Gears of War 3, Infamous 2 to name a few).

Was the game as good as they said it would be? HELLS YEAH!!!!. The game literally came from left field and has gone on to reinvent the JRPG genre which  considered to be stagnating for a while (its a conspiracy I tell you!!). Monlith Software once again proved that they have command over the genre, rivalling the JRPG giants of SquareEnix and Atlus and NIS.

Xenoblade Chronicles is the perfect example of how to meld two different sub-genres i.e WRPG and JRPG and concoct a game which eschews all the fault of both the genre to create something quite unique. For starters the world setting, the melodramatic plot with sci-fi trapping isn't too far from what you get in an traditional JRPG. The melodrama has been toned down quite a bit especially if you compare it with other recent games in the genre, but still have enough twists, turns and shocking revelations which makes for very intriguing viewing.

The characters, too adhere to the mould of JRPGs but the dev team has done a really good job in making all the characters stand out from the crowd of emo-filled, angst ridden young heroes. The characterization is pretty solid where every character can be sympathized with and each adding something to plate to the flow of the story. The best bit is that these are NOT cliched characters that you will find in any X,Y,Z RPGs but rather they have pretty distinct personalities and agendas. Tetusya Takahashi and his cohorts have once again pushed the limits on how to present characters in a JRPG.

So right off the bat the game is following the JRPG blue print quite nicely but as soon as the game goes into high gear the influences from the WRPG genre start kicking in. The game world is HUGE, I mean the game takes place on top of 2 titanic gods for crying out loud!. If recent JRPGs felt claustrophobic then Xenoblade Chronicles will inundate the gamers with a humongous world to explore and discover. Hell discovering new area rewards player with experience points which really takes the cake if you like exploring, which also does away with linear exploration native to JRPGs. Another feature taken from WRPGs is the INSANE amount of side quests to do. Every new area or town have LOADS of NPCs almost lining up for the heroes help, from hunting monsters to finding items to raw material gathering, they are all there.

But it’s the battle system though which fully combines the West and the East game designs. It’s a quasi-real-time/turn based battles system fought on the field (i.e. no more screen shattering battle arenas), with abilities to choose on the fly (coupled with a cool down mechanics). The battles become pretty hectic but its very easy to see a neat turn based mechanic is also at play. This is where I think that Monolith Soft has done an awesome job as Xenoblade's battle system works for both fans of JRPGs and WRPGs. I will even go on to say that this game may be a very rare kind of JRPGs that caters to any sort of RPG player, and this where the game really shines more than its peers. So yeah I consider the battle of game as one of the greatest in RPGs. That is a huge claim especially for a game on the Wii and how JRPGs have kinda lost their steam in the last few years, but the level of polish and genius present in the battle system makes a lasting impression and something which other RPG makers will do well to take a note of. What this also means that Monolith Soft didn't really chuck out the JRPGs mechanics out the window in order to make something new, but stuck to what makes a JRPG tick while incorporating the WRPGs mechanics and that is the real achievement of the developers and the game.

The customizations options are also similar to many of the great WRPGs where every character can be molded into however the player wants them. And that's not all, there is a really good loot system in place as well where the players can gather all sorts of equipment, weapons and trinkets. But these WRPG mechanics are once again balanced with the focus on progressing the story like in any JRPG of the past.

As I mentioned earlier how the battle system merges the JRPG and the WRPG, I will say that the entire game is like that. The perfect marriage of two pretty different genres is a sight to behold. Fans of both the genres have been at logger head for years now. Both set of parties have very convincing arguments, but XenoBlade Chronicles shows if developers are game enough to experiment with both the genres they can end up with something really special and the game is a true testament of that.

Now add all of this RPG goodness with some really fantastic production values, even though the Wii is not an HD enable console likes its competition and you get a game that exceeds all sorts of expectations and as well as silencing the naysayers. Technically the game isn't up to the mark with some of the high end Wii games like Super Mario Galaxy series or Metriod Other M but overcomes that technical deficiency with incredible art style and a grandiose scale unlike anything seen before in the JRPG genre. Though technically it maybe lacking but surprising the game rarely chugs or experiences a hiccup, even with so much happening on the screen. But for me it really is the art style of the game is really carries the game to upper echelon of the genre as it juggles sci-fi motifs with the more earthy aspect of the game world with aplomb.

Even the sound track is top notch with some of the biggest name in the industry in the shape of Yoko Shinumura and Yasonari Mitasuda and the 3-person band ACE+ who basically have produced one of the best sound track of the year!

I don’t know how many people in Pakistan have given Xenoblade Chronicles a look in especially as the Wii is usually considered a 'kiddie' console, its really a shame that this game will not get its fair due in the Pakistani gaming circles.

On a personal level I am of the small percentage of gamers who still revere the JRPG sub-genre and am confused at all the hoopla of the ‘decline’ of the genre. But even then Xenoblade Chronicles has done a great job in elevating itself in a pretty saturated field which is a HUGE accomplishment with the Wii on its last legs. Initially I was kind of worried that the story telling would take a hit considering the criticism Tetsuya Takahashi got for the Xenosaga trilogy, but already having put in more 40 hours in the game I am very satisfied at the balance of storytelling mechanics (i.e. cut-scenes) and game play. Sure its not on the epic level of the first XenoSaga game but its still a lot which is awesome!.

So in conclusion 2011 did have a lot of truly magnificent games across the board, more so on the PS3 and 360, but this unassuming title on a system which is way past its prime took most of my time. Although I still have not finished the game I have loved every minute of it!

Honorable Mentions:

Xenoblade Chronicles was indeed an awesome game, but 2011 was a phenomenal year for the video gaming industry and personally as a gamer there never has been a better time to indulge in medium of video games. Here some of the games I enjoyed last year:

1) Uncharted 3: Drakes Deception

2) Batman: Arkham Asylum

3) Radiant Historia

4) Infamous 2

5) Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky

6) Beyond Good and Evil HD

7) Super Mario 3D Land

8) de Blob 2

9) Tactic Ogre: Let us cling togather

10) Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword