FINAL FANTASY IV THE COMPLETE COLLECTION AND COMPLETE REVIEW ON MASHBUTTONS.COM

It’s hard to believe that it has been 20 years now but yes, 20 years ago Square Soft released Final Fantasy II here in the states on the brand new super cool Nintendo SNES. (Lovingly referred to by many as the Nintendo Sneeze) So many of us now know the lore of this title as it was named Final Fantasy II here in America when in actuality it was Final Fantasy IV since the real II & III which were NES titles that never made it stateside. Through the years we have had the chance to experience what II & III had to offer (or lack thereof) and came to realize that Final Fantasy IV brought the story back to the RPG. Now as many will agree Final Fantasy VII will always be my baby but if RPG’s were to be a metaphoric family of mine, Final Fantasy IV would have to be my Second Born.

Having played IV as I will call it from here out over 7 times now…let’s see. SNES (Twice), a Kanji PC Version,  PlayStation One, Gameboy Advance, Nintendo DS, a questionable cellphone version, and now the PSP don’t leave home without it version, I think it’s safe to say it’s a favorite. But this time we get all the goods, and I do mean all the Goods. I feel it’s my birthday and Square’s letting me get BUSY, that’s not until the 7^th, til then, gotta keep getting busy. So we have the main game that has all the classic story trimmings of good vs. evil, classic betrayal and redemption, all this wrapped up in sacrifice, adding a couple of compelling love stories that would make a romance novelist weep for a week. Think if Star Wars, Camelot, and The Lord of the Rings had a freakish love child through some Triad Union, and you end up with Final Fantasy IV, summed up in a word…AWESOME.

Next, we are given something new, and we all like new. Behold Final Fantasy IV Interlude… Wha What? Yes, this 4-5 hour mini RPG bridges the gap between the main game and its sequel. This little nugget o’ goodness has never been seen, not even on the Wii NES version, so it’s all new just for you. Now the quests seem a little like a Kingdom Hearts retread at times, but I really liked the story aspect as it did make things flow together right, so well done Square, well done. Now on to the piece de resistance… Final Fantasy IV The After Years, well my faithful readers guess what? Its 17 freaking years later and King Cecil and Queen Rosa have a son named Ceodore who is sent on a quest with the Red Wings to discover why a second moon has appeared, the monsters are back and there is the sudden appearance of a helpful but strangely indifferent Hooded Man.

And thus this new RPG has begun and it’s all here, no costly passive aggressive monthly episodic download content to rob you of your lunch money. A whole new RPG, heck, it really is your birthday and Square is delivering! Good lord I almost forgot about the beautiful signature Square Soft cinemas that are a little sparse this time but I will take anything I can get because they are delicious! So there you have it my little RPGers go, run, race, or teleport to your game kiosk or store and get Final Fantasy IV The Complete Collection, your kids will thank you when they sell it on EBay Prime 20 years from now for 70 creds. As always, I will leave you with a little quote from my Dad… He’s gone but always remembered, “There’s a destiny that makes us brothers, none walks this way alone, and all that you put into the lives of others, comes back into your own.” Yeah pretty deep, till next time, Zircon has officially left the Blog. PEACE!!

New SKYRIM screens. You'll LOVE 'EM!

Bethesda has not one, not two, heck, not even 3 fairly high-profile titles coming out fairly soon, no, they have 5!!!

Here's some all-new screens from one of the most highly-anticipated title for alot of gamers.  The fifth entry in the legendary Elder Scrolls franchise, SKYRIM.

SKYRIM will be out on 11/11/11

Zircon's Review of "Y's" Books I and II Chronicles

The Legacy of the Y’s franchise is one that quite simply can be considered to be one that birthed the modern day RPG. Nihon Falcom Corporation which many attribute to be the Grandfather Development house that began the trend towards role playing games started this genre in 1984. Founded in 1981 Falcom as they are known today started churning out PC titles, then they defined themselves with an early RPG known as “Dragon Slayer”. This game exhibited all the RPG elements that we here in America were playing as a paper, pen and a 20 sided dice Game called “Dungeons and Dragons”. These elements of Leveling through experience, Loot collecting, Obtaining new Armor and Magic Spells not to mention the slaying of many a monster was finally played out in a Graphic Video Game Experience. Japanese gamers were quickly consumed by this new questing genre and many, many more copycat titles began to follow. In 1987 Falcom introduced the first game in what was a planned franchise called “Y’s” (Pronounced Ease. Trust me so many gamers still get it wrong). This top down action RPG was originally released for the Sega Master System. And Yes I actually still own that cartridge.

“Y’s” tells the story of a Young Red headed adventurer named “Adol Christin” and later on his longtime companion “Dogi” The term “Y’s” refers to a long lost race of beings whom documented their wisdom in 6 books known as the “books of Y’s”. So “Adol” sets off to save the land of Esteria and recover the ancient books of wisdom.A year later came its Sequel titled appropriately “Y’s” II and the skirmish begins anew with a very similar quest that nearly mirrors the first with some new aspects. The franchise was now gaining a high following in Japan while here in America the quests of “Esteria” seemed to be overlooked in favor of other competing RPG’s. Fast forward to our gaming appetites of today and we now have “Y’s” Seven. Yes “Adol” still continues to be the hero to count on when the monsters come for our lands and Women.

So imagine my excitement when Xseed announced at E-3 Last year that RPG lovers were about to have bestowed upon them “Y’s” Seven , a Remake of “Wanderers of “Y’s” (retitled “”Y’s” Oath of Felghana”) and yes the remakes of “Y’s” Books I and II. Rejoice my fellow RPG’ers Rejoice indeed. “Y’s” Books I and II Chronicles are a graphic reboot of the Classic “Y’s” Originals, the gameplay has remained true but nearly every graphical aspect of these titles has been updated and now looks amazing. The landscapes look very lush and colorful and the townships and the people that inhabit them have been redone to a point where the gameplay feels new and relevant. You start out being washed ashore and saved by a local who brings you to a doctor and his nurse who save you and help introduce you to the perils that have befallen this small little berg. Soon you are off on a quest to find the source of the current monster menace and retrieve the 6 Books of “Y’s”. Once done with this quest you have a calling to save the world again with “Y’s” Book II. Yes, more monsters and more questing await as the weight of this world and its liberation from evil is on your shoulders. Thus is the curse of the True Hero.

Depending on how you play, each game will give you anywhere from 10 to 12 hours of play and you get two games to enjoy, so this package is definitely worth the price of admission. I would recommend that you purchase all three titles as I noticed today that when all the Packages are put together they complete a spinal representation of the “Y’s” Logo. A tip of my hat goes out to Xseed for giving us these fantastic blasts from the past and keeping the world of “Y’s” alive and well. Earlier in this review I mentioned the Granddad of RPGS “Dragon Slayer” well Xseed is not done with us yet as soon we will see “Legend of Heroes Trails in the Sky” which is the heir apparent to the “Dragon Slayer” Franchise. So as you can see the goodness continues and I can only hope to be at E-3 this year to see what the future holds for us and the new releases for the aging PSP and its offspring, the NGP (no not the PSP 2 as we thought but the “Next Generation Portable” from Sony).

Xseed, you are rapidly becoming a contender to be at the top of my Christmas card list.

This is Zircon and I have left the build…. Er, rather I have left the blog. Till next time.

Zircon's review of Lord of Arcana

Well my PSP-RPGer's, Lord of Arcana, a multiplayer guild, fetch, dungeon crawling RPG has been released on the gaming masses. Can it live up to the reputation of awesome RPG's that have come before it? We shall see.

Lord of Arcana is a Dungeon crawler that starts out with the typical story of a land in chaos that was saved when a legendary warrior fought an evil and powerful dragon, saved Mankind, and then passed into myth. You start your journey as the intrepid warrior-savior of old, going on to defeat the dragon. The story then advances a generation and reincarnates you into the present world as the true heir of Legendary Hero, leaving you soon to realize your current vocation.

Monster Hunter! Before I go any further, lets talk about the presentation of this game from our beloved Squeenix. (Square Enix, get it?) The graphics are truly amazing, looking like developers really loved making this title, while taking the time to appease us all, so big thumbs up, way up. Character animation is detailed and clean, not like the pixels on a paper plate effect that many DS RPG's give us. The artistic style behind this title, provides the player are so pretty that you may find yourself just looking around once in a while.

The story continues to release bit after bit as you continue on and guess what? The game gets better! A dear friend of mine a few weeks ago was describing a game he was playing as, "The first hour was painful and I immediately started to hate the game, but hours 2 through 18 have been AWESOME!". Well, I don't know if "awesome" should be the description about Lord of Arcana, but I will say, a job well done. The game had me engrossed for many hours and I am happy that Square has released it.

The PSP has been the portable go to system for these lost and overlooked RPG's so being that I love them, I will always have uber respect for the developers who take the risk and release these for us to enjoy. Lord of Arcana also hails its multiplayer chops with a robust multiplayer aspect, which I tried and it was very fluid with no lag issues so far. Square has also just announced that they are prepping Final Fantasy 4 and 5 for release on the PSP, possibly in time for the release of the NGP (PSP 2), so lets hope they polish them up a bit and not just provide the Playstation One Chronicles or Anthology versions, amazing as they may have been.

Thank you Square-Enix, next up, Mindjack!

NIS lets us know Ar tonelico Qoga is available for pre order

What is that, you ask? Good question, Ar tonelico Qoga is the upcoming RPG for the PS3 and the pre order bonus, well that is going to be a fully illustrated hardcover art book. Is that all? Nope, you also get a soundtrack with over 60 minutes of in game music.

Square Enix releases trailer for next Final Fantasy

But will it be the Final Fantasy you have been waiting for? Final Fantasy XIII-2 has previously been announced and now to go with the news is a CGI trailer if your looking for some serious eye candy. This was done previously X-2 and as I remember, it fell rather short, lets see if XIII-2 will be the redemption that the Final Fantasy sequels need.

Kingdom Hearts Re: coded | Review

Synopsis: First off, thank you Square Enix for sending me a review copy of Kingdom Hearts Re:coded for the Nintendo DS. This new entry to the Kingdom Hearts series is a remake of the mobile title Kingdom Hearts Coded for mobile phones, with improved controls, revamped combat system, and new gameplay mechanics. The premise of the story behind Re:coded is that you once again take on the role of Sora in the “datascape”, called upon by King Mickey to find out how a mysterious message was placed in Jiminy’s journal used to hold the story of the first adventure against the heartless. Will this hold a torch to the console titles that I played through multiple times and even saw its debut announcement at my first trip to E3?

Praise: Gameplay, I can stop there but I am sure you would like me to elaborate. It is fast and action packed with massive, and I mean massive amounts of character development, in which you acquire chips to place on a circuit board to unlock boosts to your abilities. Throughout the story, Sora will also acquire new equipment and keyblades, along with skills that can be mixed to make bigger and stronger abilities and magic. In the beginning of the game you also get to choose your primary and secondary abilities whether it be magic, strength, or defense. The cut scenes look great for a DS title and the boss fights are pretty epic, making it feel as big as the consoles versions.

Gripes: The bad, well I think that would be the story. I wouldn’t say bad is the word to describe it, but it did feel a lot like a Kingdom Hearts 2.5. the reason I say this is because it is a lot of the same worlds and enemies, and the story doesn’t differ much aside from the “datascape” element where you use a radar to locate rifts in the world to enter a matrix like mini level where you have to take out a set amount of enemies per floor to clear it, earning currency, experience, abilities, and chips for the circuitboard. The worlds are also pretty long taking me about two hours on average to complete each, and like the first and second Kingdom Hearts, some of them aren’t so much fun, making it harder to work your way through.

Overall, I had fun with the gameplay and since there is a good recap to the original games, newcomers can pick up this title and start where the previous games left off. Though I did say that the story is a little bland for me since I am still pretty familiar with the events of the last, it does not get old due to the fun and engaging gameplay along with the in depth character development. Whether you are an adult or a child it is still a blast to play through Disney’s bright and colorful worlds with the mechanics that Square Enix has always been great at providing.

Mashbuttons.com gives Kingdom Hearts Re: coded a 7 out of 10.

Kingdom Hearts Re: coded is available now for the Nintendo DS.

Developer Trailer for Two Worlds II trailer to Whet your Whistle before release

We are getting closer to release of the uber large RPG, Two Worlds II, next week to be precise. While you wait, SouthPeak Games has provides it's fans with a developer diary showcasing how the game overshadows the first in graphics, gameplay, and customization in astounding ways. As a fan of the first Two Worlds and just about all of the developer's RPGs so far, I am counting down the days and playing Little Big Planet up until the games release.

Zircons Y's 7 PSP Review/Love-fest

Believe it or not but I was in high school at the dawn of video games, Being the only family on the block that had "PONG" had its advantages (Especially with the girls). So I have forgotten more about Gaming than many will come to know. Early on, my heart shifted to the adventure games and subsequently the ever beloved "RPG" and yes I have played them all. My first ever exposure to "Y's" (Pronounced "Ease")was way back on my Sexy 1987 Sega Master System. So I am no stranger to "Adol Christin" our Red headed Hero of "Y's". So we fast forward 23 years to the Seventh Installment in the "Y's" Franchise abruptly named (Wait for it) "Y's 7" Wow. So each of the past six games revolves around our hero either washing up on shore or waking up in the land awaiting deliverance from evil by the hands of our hero, his trusty sword, and band of Friends. Evil doers beware!!

I have to say that from the moment you slide your PSP's On Switch you are going to be drawn into a 25-30 hour Action RPG that has some of the most beautiful graphics I have ever seen on a handheld system, period. That being said lets delve a little deeper into the Lush World of "Y's. As Y's Seven begins, Adol and Dogi (Pronounced Dough-gie) are aboard a Ship destined for the land of Altago and once they talk with the King they are tasked with discovering the mysteries that have taken hold of the land and his faithful subjects. Your party consists of three characters, but you only control one Hero at a time. Swapping them with the push of a button since certain enemies can only be destroyed by certain heroes. The combat is swift and fast paced as you roam the country side to advance the story and your experience and character growth.

There is so much to love about this game. From the fast paced combat to the story line. This is truly the one of the best Action "RPG's" around and it just keeps delivering to keep you vested. Playing "Y's" you will have to decipher the main boss’ patterns to succeed. (True RPG Brilliance… Delicious). To tell you much more would rob you of the experience of this fantastic title.

Once you finish the adventure you will want more and more to come. The distributor of this excellent title, Xseed, is bringing the other Y's titles to your PSP. Look for the remakes of Y's Books 1 & 2 and Wanderers of Y's later this year and into next. 2010 has been the year of the RPG on the PSP, first we saw the remake of Lunar: Silver star Story, The Chronicles of Mimana, Hexys Force,The Crimson Gem Saga, and now Y's 7; in a word these are all simply "FANTASTIC". Seek them out for your collection
before they are gone.

Till Next Time Grind Mashers...Zircon has left the Blog.
_Z_...Out... (So Cliche).

Twisted Metal and Borderlands' love child?

So I am starting my four day weekend very peculiarly in the way of gaming news. I wake up to a 2 text messages saying Strangers Wrath is releasing for the PS3, and now this. What is this, you say? Well, from the little bit of news and pictures, it is a battle arena game that calls itself Crasher. Boasting strong RPG and teamwork, sounding more like Borderlands by the second, and building up your death ride, wait, now Twisted Metal. I hope to have more news soon!

Etrian Odyssey shows off it combat system

If you are not an RPG fan then this may not be too appealing to you, but for those grinders that love to game on the go and get hours of gameplay with RPG titles, then listen up as I am sure you are wondering how the combat system plays out. Well wonder no more as there is a video short below just for that.

Art book to be included as pre order bonus, as if you didn't already have enough incentive

If you haven't following our coverage of Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City, now is a great time to start. The reason being that if you pre order from participating retailers, you will not only get the title but an art book consisting of 60 papges chock full of design and sketches spanning the Etrian Odyssey series.

Dragon Age 2 to consume my life March 2011

The sequel the uber epic RPG Dragon Age, had been announced shortly after release, but today we get word as to when it will be out along with details to what will ensue. With a new and more responsive combat system along with the story following Hawke's rise to power. Hawke is a survivor of the Blight and is the new hero that will transform the Dragon Age universe FOREVER!!!

Last and certainly not least from E3 is Southpeak Games

Texas based Southpeak Games allowed us over to see them at E3 to show off a little of what they have to bring to the table in the new future and it was fun! Three words, I got nail’d! I will explain shortly, but what they did give us was time with their upcoming off road racer, Nail’d and their upcoming sequel to the massively huge RPG, Two Worlds II. Aside from their patience of having to deal with me after three NOS energy drinks and being in awe from just entering E3 for the first time in ten years, they handed me the controller and let me loose.

As stated above, the first game I got to play was Nail’d, and from having a past with years of ATV riding and my love of racers, I was ready and didn’t need much of an explanation. This title is not your realistic racer with lots of stunts, but more of an extreme over the top racer, focusing on landing huge jumps and avoiding environmental obstacles to gain boost to work your way to the front of the pack. Yes, the developer gave me an ample looking racer which I blame most of my crashes on, but the real fun was hitting massive jumps and the new feature to me, which was the ability to steer in mid air. Along with the fast gameplay, large tracks, and larger jumps, I was ready for more, but they took away my controller and sat me in front of Two Worlds II.

Now I never played the original Two Worlds title, so I had one of the developer’s actually play it for me switching between classes, skills, and environments while explaining changes made between the original and the sequel. We starting in a dungeon to show off how detailed the environments can be and the improvement of collision detection from walking through puddles, rattling hanging chains, and attacking encountered enemies, and it was pretty damn smooth. After the environments and graphics, comes the character development and here is where I am happy I didn’t get to try my hand at this because the number of options are limitless between the three classes as you have the option to customize your abilities, weapons, and armor at any point during gameplay. Here is where I fell in love, with the game of course, you can reassign you ability points towards different attributes at any time to change your character’s strong suits to help take down the harder to defeat fiends.

Alpha Protocol | Review

Synopsis: Well the RPG espionage title is finally here and it is time to see if it was worth the wait as Sega has provided us with a review copy a week early so we can get some quality time with the title for a solid review upon release. Alpha Protocol is a self proclaimed espionage RPG, which places you in the role of Michael Thornton, a highly trained government agent faced with stopping an international threat using his skills and information. You determine the outcome of the game with how you choose to react in conversation with a number of the NPC’s you encounter in the story and skills progress as you choose, so the gameplay is determined by many choices and preferences in shaping who you will become. After seeing a commercial liner shot down by a US missile overseas, it is time to find out how the weapon fell into the hands of terrorists and unravel the conspiracy as part of a secret agency, Alpha Protocol.

Praise: Though this feels a lot like a recently released RPG led by a commander Shepard, the story, plot twists, customization, and dialogue system make Alpha Protocol a technical game that will definitely get a second playthrough from me. Looking at the title as a fan of RPG titles, your skills start generally weak with targeting not hitting the enemies exactly where you are aimed until you level up your weapon or weapons of choice. The dialogue system is a strong feature to Alpha Protocol as you have a short amount of time to pick your response, so you have to think quickly and each decision made affects how the story unravels. Along with being able to focus on your skills of choice, weapons and armor are fully customizable, along with intel available to be purchased from the black market to open up new missions and objectives to develop your very own Michael Thornton. The lack of linearity is nice as you complete missions and progress through the story however you like, whether it be martial arts, shotgun at point blank, silenced pistol from a distance, or just sneaking to your mission objective minimizing casualties.

Gripes: Some things that seem to take away from the gameplay started with the abilities or lack thereof in the beginning as you cannot hit the broad side of a barn if you only have one bullet when starting the game. I noticed myself getting irritated when I can run through a room full of enemies, being shot at, and not be killed, while others times, I would take a couple shots and be dead. Also, it seems that once you level up a weapon or skill enough, that there is no need for variety as after leveling up the martial arts ability, I could play through missions just beating down enemies without having to use weapons at all. Lastly, the bosses lacked the difficulty I would expect from key enemies in a game, it seemed like I would spend a lot of time getting to each “boss” only to use a special ability or special ammo making them no challenge at all, it would have been nice to have to use more of a strategy to defeat them.

Overall, this was a surprisingly entertaining game that was fun from start to finish and then start again. As stated, since there is multiple ways to play through the story so multiple playthroughs are easy to go back and do, especially with multiple character classes available. The action elements add to the RPG feel of the game and though it is not perfect, it is a pleasant change from the normal FPS titles flooding the market. Die hard FPS fans may not like the imperfect targeting, but the RPG fans will like how you must level up before they can perform headshots on the first try.

Mashbuttons.com gives Alpha Protocol a 8 out of 10.

Alpha Protocol is available now for the Xbox 360, PC, and PlayStation 3.

Lunar: Silver Star Harmony Review

Howdee all, XSeed was so kind as to stuff our mail box with a copy of Lunar, Silver Star Harmony on the PSP. Here is my most humble review.

Synopsis: The wonderful tale of Lunar makes its way to the PSP. Harmony is not the first iteration of the Lunar story. The franchise first started on the Sega CD, went onto just about every known video game platform before the time of PS2. It’s a classic Hero coming of age tale where Alex who is on a adventure to be the next Dragonmaster following in the footsteps of his hero, Dragonmaster Dyne. Alex, along with Luna and his flying best friend, Nall, team up with various people along the way to complete the quest to become the next guardian of the goddess Althena.

New Playable Parts...WOHOO

Praise: Lunar: Silver Star Harmony is a great adventure with a great cast of characters. The graphics of the main game have been improved as well as they have added voice over for some of the text. They also added showing the main characters as they are talking with text. This is a new feature that gives you a view of the character and the emotions they are showing during those moments. The original Lunar was famous for likable characters, great character development, and a story that was top notch. The original had animation cut scenes that became the trademark of the Lunar games. Harmony has all of this and more.

The 2-D graphics have been completely revamped as well as they have added a playable Prologue that wasn’t available in previous editions. The musical scores of the game have been improved upon and are really enjoyable. They give you a good feeling as you are playing and as the music changes depending on the situation you are in, will completely submerse you in the game play. The witty commentary by Alex’s flying smart talking friend, Nall, gives the game a lot of humor and I found myself waiting to see what he said next. He insults, he begs for fish (his fav food) and just all around hits on the women.

One Eyed monster and plant dog AAAHHH

A feature that you no longer see in RPG is the Auto-Battle option. You can choose to have the computer choose the choice of your characters, or choose a tactic that will either have all attach, defend, or individual AI for the character. You also have an option to make your own tactics, i.e. one defends, one attack, and one uses AI. This is a great feature that I miss in the RPG games of today. When you are battling a bunch of low level characters, just choose all attack and let it go to work. This will save you time and energy of assigning actions to characters on low level enemies.

Complaints: With new graphics, voice over, and stylish drawing type graphics, comes the load times. Each time you change the current scene you are on, i.e. going into a building, going to a new section of town, gives you a lengthy 5-6 second load time and a drawn fade out and fades in type scene. This might sound petty, but when the towns are only two or three screens big, and you can go into damn near every house, this load time really adds up.

Flying smarty Nall, but don't call him a cat

Another thing that annoyed me, but this is coming from a fan of the original, is they changed the songs at the beginning of the game and a scene on a boat with Luna singing. Believe it or not, these were some of my favorite songs when I was a kid and I was really looking forward to hearing them again, but alas, they were not there. The songs were changed to fit a more, romantic feel of the game. I also felt they could have redid the animation scenes, with changing the songs, they kept the mouth moving to the dialogue of the old songs, giving it a kind of dubbed Japanese kung fu flick.

The voice over is very inconsistent. It goes from good one scene to bleeding from the ears in another. I feel these little issues keep Harmony from being the end all Lunar game. It really will not draw too much away from the game, but for original fans such as myself, it can be really annoying.

Overall: Lunar: Silver Star Harmony is a great game with new features. The story line, though cliché by today’s standards, is still a great tale of Alex and his friends. For anyone that has not played a Lunar game, I would suggest starting here if you have a PSP. Xseed did a fantastic job on everything with a few minor issues that do not draw too much away from the game.

Mashbuttons gives Lunar: Silver Star Harmony a 8 of 10

Espionage and RPG meet in Alpha Protocol on June 1st

Sega recently announced when we can expect to get our hands on the highly anticipated realistic modern spy title, claiming more twist that a season of "24". The story involves taking on the role of rookie spy, Michael Thornton, who has to uncover those behind a missile attack on a passenger jetliner.Along with determining the outcome of the story by your actions, players are also able to determine the skill sets, attributes, and weapons to carry out the mission at hand. We should be receiving a lot more information in the upcoming months, but until then here is a trailer to whet your whistle.

Risen | Review

Synopsis: Our mailbox is overflowing, and this time it is SouthPeak Games that chose to provide the most recent review copy, with Risen for the Xbox 360. Risen is a RPG where you assume the role of a stowaway on a ship shortly after becoming shipwrecked. The game is made up of four chapters in which you choose the side to complete the story on along with making your own decisions as you see fit. The open world also lets you discover new places and people in the order in which you choose, ultimately reducing linear gameplay and eliminating load screens. With the onslaught of similar RPG’s such as Sacred 2, Divinity, and now Risen, die hard RPG fans are having a tougher time trying to figure which game will be worth losing that much sleep, hopefully this review helps with having to make that decision.

Praise: Risen is not your normal RPG, like Dragon Age, Oblivion, or Mass Effect because it seems to target the hardcore RPG fan. After recently beating Mass Effect 2, I gladly welcome Risen to be my next RPG to throw my free time at. The biggest selling point for me is the huge open word, where you talk to anyone, do the missions in the order you want, and fight then rob anyone you please (which is not a good idea to do early in the game as it will mostly likely backfire on you). It’s just refreshing to know you don’t have to do “this” in order to complete “that”, so its easy to pick up and play a few simple tasks while you have some free time, but easier to say, one more mission or one more level, then before you know it, you are either late or realizing you’re not going to get much sleep. Moral paths seem to be a common feature put in games recently, but in Risen, it is harder to determine which side is “bad”, the Inquisitors or the Rebels, I went the rebel route. Looting seems to be an part of the RPG’s we have all grown to love, besides how the game controls and story, but in Risen there is no restriction to what you can carry, it is a dream come true, not having to worry about constantly managing what you are carrying just to make space for something bigger and better.

Gripes: If you can’t remember the last time you saved your game, then it’s probably a good time to save. The reason being, is that the autosave feature does not happen often enough and before you get to the higher levels you will die, a lot, and have to restart from the last point in which the game was saved. The combat is live action, and while you are able to assign hot keys, but in most cases, I used those for items to replenish health and went into combat, mashing the attack button while occasionally blocking. Another thing I found awkward in the gameplay was having to arm my weapon to attack and disarm to loot or pick up items, I got used to it after a couple hours, but missed out on items early on because I forgot to disarm my weapon after killing enemies.

Overall, this is my second attempt to review Risen, unfortunately, my PC kept asking for the original DVD and I still haven’t seen an available patch to fix. However, Risen for the Xbox 360 quickly eliminates flashbacks of frustration with having the opportunity to explore a massive world, loot, answer questions to determine your character’s path, and did I mention loot? Risen has a LOT of gameplay to keep you busy, claiming over sixty hours of gameplay, and with having the ability to choose your own path and the freedom to pass up missions to streamline the story or take your time to try and complete every task you take on and any enemy you stumble upon.

Mashbuttons.com gives Risen 7 out of 10.

Risen is available now for the Xbox 360 and PC.

Ragnarok Goes Gold And Provides Gameplay Trailer As Proof

XSEED games recently announced that their upcoming title Ragnarok DS has gone gold and quickly followed up the announcement with a gameplay trailer. I am all for RPG'ing on the go, but because I have not played Ragnarok Online on the PC, I am reserving judgement until release day. Being that the PC version is enjoyed by over three million US gamers, the DS portable version, which includes multiplayer through Wi-Fi, and judging XSEED's RPG fan base, it should be a hit.

Bioware's Mass Effect 2 named 1st big Blockbuster of 2010

Imagine the new resume Bioware can roll out for Mass Effect 2;

-40 perfect scores

- 2 Million plus copies sold

- Overall average score of 96

- Second Highest rated game of all time on the Xbox 360

- Over 30 Editor Choice Awards

- Was on the cover of more then 45 magazines

This is just the start of Mass Effect Mass Mania. I coined it first all :D

Bioware, a division of Electronic Arts, INC, has created a top notch, blockbuster experience with this gem. This game will stand the test of time as well as make everyone crave the end to the trilogy. When the game was released, Mass Effect was in the top ten trending topics on Twitter as well as the most searched phrase on Google. Mass Effect 2 is just another masterpiece and proving that Bioware does what it does best. Creates a game with Story, Character development, visuals, and most of all, Gameplay.

For all of you that have not read a review (like that is possible) then check out the extremely well done review by fellow Mashbutton writer Dom and get this game as soon as possible.

PSN: Dicegod

XBOX Tag: Dice2thagod