Persona 4: The Social Link Network

Here at the Backlog, you know it's mostly coke parties and Gangnam-style dancing. That's why we missed a pair of updates in the last month or so. But, with a vacation on the horizon for both myself and my erstwhile writing partner, I suppose our update schedule will be a little more reliable. You know, now that I think about it, I might be confusing us with IGN. But either way, the point is, more posts, and more Korean dancing.

Oppa Backlog Style.

Case in point, before the latest time crunch began for me, I wrapped up Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4. The game was recently remade/upgraded for the PSVita, no doubt following the success of their last remake for the PSP, Persona 3 Portable. I've mentioned in the past that the P3 is one of my all-time favorite games, and I was assured by several people upon embarking upon this fourth entry in the series that it eclipses its predecessor. I'm pleased to report that they were not lying. However, after writing about how Xenogears narrative-heavy style and extremely linear storytelling made it less enjoyable in today's interaction-heavy era of gaming, it feels hypocritical to talk about Persona 4 as being great. So I should point out some of the similarities as well as the differences before I get into the meat of my post.

This game is about 80% cutscene, 15% dungeon crawling, and the rest of the time is split up into running to and from cutscenes or dungeons. Like Xenogears, this game has a lot of talking. A lot of talking. The script for Persona 4 has to be e-freaking-normous. You begin as a transfer student in April of 2011, and every few actions causes the day to move forward until the finale on Christmas Day. Each "day" is essentially a new cutscene, or sometimes several cutscenes, where a lot of the time you'll find you have very little control over what happens. My girlfriend observed me playing this a few different times over a 3-day period, culminating in her asking "So, do you ever DO anything in this game?"

"What do you mean? Can't you see I'm fighting giant strippers? Honey? H-honey?"

But that's the thing - going through those scenes IS playing the game. It's what you play the game FOR. In Xenogears, I played the game expecting a standard RPG that included some giant robots, and instead I got a sci-fi novella with amazing potential, ultimately letting me down because of its glaring flaws. With Persona, I went in knowing that I was going to be spending a lot of time talking to people, and that was what I wanted. Someone once described this set of games to me as "a visual novel, not a game," and for the most part I agree. The difference is that he meant it to deride Persona 4, whereas I find it fascinating.

Xenogears featured a lot of talking and lack of character control because that's what happens when you tell your programming team to build a Sphinx and then take all their slaves over to work on Pyramid #36.

                                                                         egyptpyramidhistory.com

The nose was supposed to be on Disc 2.

Persona 4 is a game where the fighting and dungeon crawling is just a consequence of all the awesome talking you get to do. I'm going to take some time now to describe how this works so well for the game, so grab a snack and prepare to hit the X button a lot as we delve into the world of Social Links.

Faulty Reasons

I've hit an impasse with Nocturne.

No, I'm not bored of playing the game, but it has been on hiatus as work's gotten busy.  I've had a fun time playing it.  Heck, I've grinded to the point where my characters were ridiculously overpowered for a good portion of the game:  For those of you who have a frame of reference, let's just say being level 60 before having access to the 3rd Kalpa of the Amala Labyrinth makes things much, much easier.

But now I'm at the point of the game where I'm faced with a choice:  Nocturne, like many other MegaTen games, has multiple endings based on the choices that you make and which individual(s) you align yourself with.  Each of these characters has something called a "Reason" (or "Kotowari" in the Japanese version), which is the underlying philosophy used as a basis for creating a new world from the Vortex World (basically, the ruins of the former world before its rebirth) the game takes place in.  Allying with any of these characters will shape the new world with the vision of the selected character.

And that's where the problem lies:  I wouldn't trust any of these people to watch after my pet rock, much less with the responsibility of shaping the foundation of the new world.

Let's see my dubious choices, shall we?  Though be warned:  Spoilers abound:

Almost Got 'Em: Suikoden III (Got It)

We interrupt Xenogears to bring you this tale.

Suikoden III. Off the Backlog.

I have to say, I'm happier with this than I thought I was going to be.

But not happy enough.

I was fortunate enough to have left off this game pretty close to the ending, so when some free time unexpectedly popped up for me, I decided to scratch this one off my backlog for good. This meant tackling the challenge that defeated me last time; the final large-scale battle of the game. Now, for all the great work the series does with the political intrigue and personal stories which mark the writing, the flow of each entry is more or less the same. Hero suffers traumatic experience, finds one of the 27 True Runes, is drawn into a war - a seemingly hopeless war - where his inspiring presence and the help of a brilliant strategist turn the tide, defeats the enemy forces in an enormous final battle, and finally confronts the main villain, who summons a giant monster from a different True Rune. Hero kills monster, villain is vanquished, peace returns to the land.

So the nuggets of storytelling and gameplay that excite Suikoden fans are all contained in this basic framework, but since I quit after losing the last major battle all those years ago, I never got to see how the whole giant monster fight worked out.

He looks nice enough, maybe in this one they just talk it out.

After I gleefully crushed Yuber, and I am not kidding it wasn't even close, I think I took him down on accident when he attacked one of my units so suck it Yuber-who-beat-me-that-one-time, I advanced to the final dungeon. Which, to my surprise, was filled with a lot more of that storytelling and character work that draws Suikoden fans in than either of its predecessors.

So let's take a look at how, with everything finally said and done, Suikoden III stacks up to the first two.

AGE: Suikoden III and the Lost Generation

                                                                                                                                          Gamer Limit

When I first began seriously building my video game collection, I was happy if I could keep $1,000 in the bank at any given time. Now I could re-buy my entire collection ten times over and don't have the time to play any of them. So while I had intended to get through my list of Almost Got 'Em titles this summer, I ended up not even making a dent in the last game I was playing, Suikoden III. However, with what I had played and what I remember from my first attempt at scaling its heights (and Ayn's subtle threats of physical violence if I didn't post something while he's on vacation), I've got enough material to tackle one more post about Suikoden III and how it represents a void in the overall Suikoden narrative that may never be filled.

One of the enthralling things about the Suikoden series has been the lore of the world it takes place in. The creator of the series, Yoshitaka Murayama, originally conceived of the second game first. When he was greenlighted by Konami to make a game for them, he decided to put his grand vision on the back burner to test out the waters with a prequel to his concept. So Suikoden, the game so good it was the whole reason I bought a Playstation in the first place, was the game Murayama made because he needed to prepare the world for what he really had in mind.

"4 stars? It's a start."

And what a story he told! In the span of two games Murayama gave us the Toran Republic and the City-State of Jowston. The epic retelling of the classic Chinese tale The Water Margin with its rebel alliance and domineering empire and impenetrable Death Star.

It's a trap!

Through two games, separated by three years of in-game time, a tale was woven of stalwart heroes and tragic villains, of powerful runes and ancient civilizations, of love, sacrifice, triumph, tragedy, all while making a moving statement about the human condition. Suikoden I and II introduced us to the concepts which were at the heart of Murayama's vision; a saga about a world with 27 True Runes as the focal point of not just magic, but the tragic wars and inspiring heroism that envelop their owners, and the power of the hearts of 108 heroes joined together to change the world.

When Suikoden II was released, it thrilled many players almost right off the bat by not only revealing the fates of two heroes from the previous game who had vanished at its conclusion, but then adding them to your party. This set the stage for discovering that the world would be full of previous "Stars of Destiny" still shining 3 years later. Not only that, but people and areas only referenced in the first Suikoden were now revealed in full, building a whole new layer to an already fantastic story. When Suikoden III was released, taking place a full 15 years after the first sequel, it not only followed suit, but introduced more children than either of the two previous games, hinting at another big time jump and a thrilling new adventure in store for all the fans of the series in Suikoden IV.

And then that never happened.

Alright, so maybe I haven't given up all hope.

Well, that happened.

But you know what?  I finally get it.

I finally get why fans of the Kingdom Hearts franchise keep gobbling up spin off, after spin off, after spin off, even when they're dreadfully dull.

No, I haven't hit my head.  No, I'm not suddenly back on the train of ardent support of Kingdom Hearts (I suspect the Enabler would hit me until I wasn't, as she should).  However, after recently finishing Kingdom Hearts II, I'm finally understanding why fans get excited with each new entry into the series that is produced. What I don't understand, however, is that given the frequent teasers and glacial progress in moving the story forward, what I don't understand is why fans haven't crucified Tetsuya Nomura by this point.

Jerk.

Kingdom Hearts II isn't a perfect game by any means.  Furthermore, after hearing a lot of negativity around the game, I went in with low expectations, especially after playing two of the last three spin-offs.  However, my experience was more enjoyable than I anticipated:  Due in part to actually being able to make sense of the convoluted story (playing the aforementioned spin offs helped), but also because, by comparison, the cast was a lot more likeable.

This isn't a post that's about me reviewing the gameplay aspects of Kingdom Hearts II.  Instead, I'd like to first talk about what connected me more to the second game than any of the spin-offs.  Following that, we'll be examining the game through the perspective of someone who's played the prequels and spin-offs, as well as surfacing a few of the questions that would have inevitably arisen if you played the game when it first came out (i.e. before most of the spin-offs came out), or just decided to play it out of chronological order.  Be warned:  Spoilers lie ahead.

But along with those, a whole lot of confusion.

Revisiting Gaming Goals from January..

So in an earlier post this year, I mentioned that my gaming goal for this year was to completely wipe out my non-import  PS2 backlog.  Have I been successful in that endeavor?

..Well, that's kind of a funny story, but the short answer is "no".  The usual obligations have impeded that progress somewhat (oh, pesky job, you always stand in my way), but I've also been sidetracked by games on my other consoles as well (which I also need to write about, I know).  Rather than lament my progress (or lack thereof), let's present what I still have to go through, and what might be hampering my progress there. 

Almost Got 'Em

In the dank and smoke-filled Stacked Deck Club in the grimiest neighborhood in Gotham City, a special table is set in the back. Though the establishment's usual patronage is almost exclusively men of shady backgrounds and ill-repute, not even the toughest, most hardened of them venture near. At the sound of cards shuffling, tapping against the table, and being doled out for a poker game of questionable legality, the patrons try to avert their eyes and pretend they're not paying any attention. Truth be told, they could not be more terrified. For at that table, five of the world's deadliest criminals have gathered to tell each other a tale.

Poison Ivy. Two-Face. Killer Croc. The Penguin. The Joker. As the cards fly and the night grows thick, thicker than the cigar smoke heavy in the air, one-by-one they tell a story. A story about how once, they came close to taking home the biggest prize of them all. Victory was so close, their fingers practically closing around it, the taste of it on their lips, before it was maddeningly pulled away. This is the night they tell each other the story of how they came so close, so tantalizingly close, to finally killing Batman before he grasped triumph from the jaws of defeat. This is the night they talk about how they almost got 'im.

As the other three watch Poison Ivy enter, the Joker stares through the television and into your soul.

Almost Got 'Im was one of the most highly critically acclaimed episodes of the even more critically acclaimed Batman: The Animated Series. One of the few episodes to feature almost every major character (Catwoman, Detective Bullock, Commissioner Gordon, and Harley Quinn also guest-star), it shows the story of being beaten by Batman from the viewpoint of the villains, and throws in a few good twists involving the Dark Knight himself.

So what does this have to do with video games?

It's the inspiration for the series I'm going to be posting here. As I mentioned in my last post about Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, there is a plethora of games I've played and given up on. Some of them, however, I came so close to the end of that it makes almost no sense as to why I stopped without beating them. I reached a point where the final boss was arm's reach away and then . . . nothing. And I'd never play the game again.

That's why, in the weeks and months to come, I will dig up every single one of these abandoned titles and play them again, from scratch in most cases, and get through them all the way. I've already done one, which I'll talk about now, and then give you the list of the rest of the cases where I left a game right on the verge of finishing.

Replace the girl with a copy of Xenogears and you get the idea.

This is the story of the games that got away.

This is how I almost got 'em.

Backlog Begins: Nocturne

Since this is The Backlog, where we discuss playing the games we never had the time or inclination to before, it seems only appropriate that every now and then those problems resurface and bear discussing. After all, this blog is nothing if not a venue for the pursuit of discovery and intellectualism, where you'll find only the tip-top of class and sophistication.

Man, when are they gonna get to Sephiroth's theme?

Several weeks ago, I sat down to play Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, the first offering of the SMT series for the PS2. In the time since then, I've made it somewhere around, and this is just estimating, a fifth of the way through. I've had more than enough time to make it further, I just . . . haven't.

But that's how this whole thing gets started. That's why I've got more than a dozen games I've played, some of them extensively, but still have no idea how they end. You get into a game, you even like the game, but when it comes down to it the distractions which pile up and take you away from it just prove too great to overcome. No matter how fun something is, if you find yourself having to put it down and then try to get back into it again a few days later, over and over again, sooner or later you're going to stop trying.

This isn't the fault of the game. Nocturne is actually very engaging as JRPGs go. It's challenging, like all of the SMT games I've played so far, and with much more freedom to roam than the Persona series allows. The characters have been developed enough thus far that I'm genuinely curious to see where everyone ends up. It's got me wanting more, but things keep coming up, and each setback seems to put me further and further away from the finish line.

It's just . . . it's so FAR.

So what this post is really about, though I will discuss the game, is how a backlog begins.

Tales of the Abyss: Evidence of our Journalistic Integrity

Hey!

Yes?

Fuck you.

Pfffffft!

Tales of the Abyss is as strong a case for video games being considered a work of art as you can make.  If a great novel is artwork, or a great painting, or a great poem or song or play, then all of those things rolled together should qualify without question.  It also presents me with an opportunity to talk about how excellent a blog The Backlog is.  Let's take a look at this review of Final Fantasy XII given by IGN upon the time of its release. 

"Final Fantasy XII is a fantastic RPG. It blows all of its PS2 competition this year right out of the water and is among the all time elite role-players ever made for the system. Kingdom Hearts, Devil Summoner, Xenosaga III, Tales of the Abyss... none of them are on the same level as Square Enix's bold and riveting move in a new direction. Whether you're a fan of the genre or not, FF12 most certainly deserves a special spot on your PS2 game shelf... put it in the front."

IGN went on to give FFXII a 9.5 rating, compared to an 8.3 for Abyss. 

This comes up if you search "skeptical."

Before I go further, I want to be clear.  I loved Final Fantasy XII.  I played it a whole hell of a lot, as evidenced by my previous posts on the subject, and really enjoyed it by the end.  However, to say that this game is not only superior to Tales of the Abyss but not even "on the same level" shows that you can count on The Backlog for quality gaming journalism far more than IGN.  Although, most people know you can count on your neighbor's talking dog for better advice than what is offered on IGN, but I'm not here to disparage anybody.

"Kill the unclean!  Also, Donkey Konga was fantastic."

So let's talk about Tales of the Abyss, and exactly why it comes out ahead of what many others called "the best RPG on the PS2."

Stella Deus: The Gate of Mediocrity

After a solid string of five action platformers in a row, it was time to settle in with a good old-fashioned tactics game.  Looking through my library of unplayed strategy offerings, I singled out Stella Deus: The Gate of Eternity for a few reasons.  First, I know that historically I've always loved Atlus games.  Second, this advertised a run of about 50+ hours, and that seemed like a reasonable amount of time to spend on a game.  50 hours of gameplay amounts to being able to play it start to finish in just a few hours a day, so this would be something I could beat in a week or two and then have a fresh report up for all of you.

What it neglects to say on the back is that 50 hour estimate is only if you play the first game included on this disc.

I'd had my eye on this game for awhile before someone on the BlueGartr forums advertised that they had it for sale.  The Order of the BlueGartr started out as a message board for Final Fantasy XI, but has since grown into a much larger community site, complete with a Buy-Sell-Trade section.  After seeing this pop up on the list of some PS2 games another member was selling for a very reasonable price, I leaped at it.  It came quickly and in great condition, so it looked really nice on my shelf where it sat for the next five months after purchase.  Yeah, I ordered this right around the same time as when I started The Backlog itself, so it got lost in the sea of games I already had lined up to play.

Although, I'm glad it did sit there for awhile, because I really needed something to get back into more RPG-type games after all my action-based outings, and this is a really solid transitional title.  I think of it as like training wheels.  I've learned all I can from it, now I'm ready to cast it aside and get that ten-speed.

I'm gonna be really embarrassed if I fall and skin my knee.

Stella Deus is a typical tactics-style game.  You are given a squad of characters with different classes, with a couple mages, some healers, and a glut of melee.  Assemble a team at the start of each stage and then fight it out in grid-based combat.  The game takes place in the world of Solum, and you control the party by walking them from town to town, where inevitably a battle waits for you as you fight against the evil empire of Overlord Dignus.  That's the first game.  The second is an area called The Catacombs.

Pink is the final boss.

So in that 50 advertised hours, you can easily get through the story mode.  In fact, the last "Chapter" of the game is essentially one long final battle.  The Catacombs are another story.  They have no connection to the plot at all, and serve no purpose other than expedient leveling up or collecting treasure.  However, there are 100 levels to the Catacombs, each representing a unique fight, with enemies in each one the same level as the current floor.  This means you can go through the whole game without ever even touching this increasingly difficult nest of enemies, or you can take the entire time it would take you to get through the game by itself over again - and probably more - fighting your way down to the bottom.

Overall, this isn't a bad game, but it's not exceptional by any means.  It's time-consuming, and has lots of distractions to keep you invested, but there are a number of problems with it that end up making it just "meh."  However, there is fun to be had, and if I can focus on that, I can tell you about a pretty good experience with a game that just needed a little more polish to be great.

Shadow Hearts 3: Going out with a whimper, rather than a bang

I have fond memories of my experience with the Shadow Heart games. It is a series that went from humble beginnings, but eventually spawned two of my favorite RPGs of all times. What some people may not realize is that "Shadow Hearts" formally began with the game Koudelka on the PSX.

I'll level with you: Koudelka was a pretty awful game overall. It was an attempt at combining survival horror with RPG and strategy elements, yet it did none of these effectively. Combat was slow, clunky, and generally frustrating. The load times were absolutely horrendous. For a late-gen PSX game (spanning 4 discs, no less), the graphics were rather subpar. Despite the number of discs, the game was painfully short, as well. For all intents and purposes, the game should have cast away and its continuity ended. Yet beneath all of this, many had to admit one thing: Koudelka did have an interesting story and premise. The dialogue which did occur wasn't that bad.

Someone in Japan saw this, apparently, and the series was revived. . well, indirectly. Some years later, Shadow Hearts was developed for the PS2, which takes place in the same continuity as Koudelka, but with a new protagonist and a loose, yet still significant link to the first game that becomes increasingly clear the further you play. The game maintained the bleak, eerie atmosphere for the most part, yet does away completely with the horrendous battle system of its predecessor, instead spawning an entirely new innovation with the judgment ring system. While the game received somewhat mixed reviews, it still maintains a special place in my heart, but more importantly, it's a marked improvement over the disaster that is Koudelka.

Fast forward a few years later to the next entry in the series, Shadow Hearts 2 (AKA Shadow Hearts: Covenant). While the story is lighter in some respects due to some more comedic elements (I also attribute it to better fleshed out dialogue), it still retains some pretty dark moments. While this is a turn off for some, it's hard to deny that Covenant is a step up from the previous game in every respect: The characters are even more interesting, the story is even deeper, there's much more in the way of additional content and sidequests, customization options have improved, and the combat retains the elements that made the first unique while expanding greatly on it. Hands down, this is an RPG worth owning.

I'm sure you notice a pattern here: Each game represents a marked improvement over the previous. Shadow Hearts 2 was a great game and a tough act to follow, but it would still be possible to make a great follow up. Certainly enough, when Shadow Hearts 3 was announced, I was excited.

Yet when details of the game emerged, I became less and less excited. The game would be featuring a new protagonist, rather than following up on the story of Yuri Hyuga, the protagonist from the previous games, and probably one of the cooler main characters out there. The plot details that I gleaned made it seem thoroughly uninteresting: So much that when the game was finally released and I saw it at Fry's, I shrugged my shoulders and walked past.

I eventually grabbed the game from EBay some months later, as it was impossible to find it in stores after a short time. I had caved in because while the game did feature an entirely new cast, the reviews I read asserted that it still contained the elements that made Covenant great -- certainly this game wouldn't disappoint, right?

Unfortunately, my friends, I introduce yet another game contained in Disappointment Week 2011: Shadow Hearts: From the New World.

Let me state my disclaimer here: As a stand alone game, Shadow Hearts 3 gives you a game with an innovative combat system, decent playlength, a mildly entertaining story, and plenty to keep you busy. It is not by any means, a bad game.

As the final entry into the series, however, one must hold it to a different standard.

While Shadow Hearts 3 features a refined version of the combat system that made its predecessor an engaging game, its uninspiring cast of protagonists, poorly developed villains, and overall weaker story than its predecessors make it a lackluster follow up to one of the best RPGs in the PS2's library. As a result, a series which had shown steady improvement closes the curtain on its life with subdued applause, rather than a standing ovation.

Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando - Double the Murder, Double the Fun

The original Ratchet & Clank was a pretty powerful example of how a simple game concept - 3D platforming - can become deeply engrossing and a whole lot of fun when you combine it with great game mechanics.  Using the gadgets, weapons, and various Clank-related accessories to maneuver through obstacles and blow things up kept me coming back for more.  It's not a formula you really want to mess with, since any significant tinkering might screw up what made people like it in the first place.  Going Commando, though, manages to not only recapture the original magic but add additional layers to make it more enjoyable and rewarding than ever.

I sought this out after buying the original, since as I detailed earlier my thought process was that if I was going to buy one game I wouldn't play, I might as well buy them all.  With the original finally out of the way, that cleared a path for me to go all-out on this one.  Ratchet & Clank was enough fun that it didn't take much for me to get started on this - I put it in the next day and beat it inside a week.

So what was it like?  Well, they threw in some elements that made this a whole lot of fun, but unfortunately the story suffered a few setbacks.  A big part of the appeal of the first game was the sense that you were watching a Pixar film play out with you in control of the protagonist.  Going Commando starts out strong, but ends up lacking the kind of depth and imagination of the first.  So it ends up winning out over the first entry in terms of gameplay, but runs way behind as a narrative.

Like if this were a video game.

Backlogged Till The End of Time

I have an interesting relationship with Star Ocean: Till The End of Time.

Years ago, when I was still doing my B.A., I was convinced that the game would never see a domestic release. After all, this was a point in time where the chances of getting a JRPG localized were slim: The fact that we got the second entry in the series seemed like more of a fluke than anything else. With this in mind, I decided to import the game. However, a few months later, Enix (before the merger that created Square-Enix) announced that they would be releasing a director's cut of the game.

This was before they got into the habit of doing it with every damn game they released.

However, unlike the infamous "Final Mix" series of Kingdom Hearts, the director's cut of Star Ocean 3 wasn't just something that existed seemingly to piss off North American gamers. It was actually necessary. The original Star Ocean 3 was quite a mess: It was poorly received in Japan, due to being notoriously buggy and lacked comparability with older model PS2 units, As an added plus, some bonus content was added in the form of two new playable character (Adray and Mirage, the latter of whom was only an NPC previously). Certainly, this was a much needed improvement.

Meanwhile, the people playing this game hope and pray for a "Final Mix"

Of course, this was discouraging for me to hear. Sure, I essentially had a complete game (and thankfully, one that worked on my PS2), but like any rightful American, I felt totally cheated by not having the additional content in a game that I would have never received domestically in the first place.

Or so I thought.

Ratchet & Clank: Hijinks and Homicide

Ah, Insomniac games.

Since the original Spyro the Dragon Insomniac has shown they know the formula for making a successful action platformer. Make a 3D world with lots of areas to explore and absolutely inundate it with things to collect which will be measured at the end of each level.  Going through one level of a Spyro title is all you need to know why Insomniac is so aptly named.  Did I say one level?  I meant eight, because you'll be about that far before you realize it's 4 in the morning.

"Okay . . . ONE more level."

This one ended up on my backlog after I was wandering through GameStop and saw it without the Greatest Hits label.  You know you've got a problem when you convince yourself it's worth owning a game you didn't want previously simply because the label of black instead of red.  It didn't matter that I was in the middle of playing other stuff (Persona 4 at the time, I think) that was going to take me awhile, or that I already had dozens of other games sitting around waiting to be played.  I had here Ratchet & Clank in the original case, and dammit, I was going to get it.  Not only that, I was going to get the whole trilogy just to prove how committed I was to this idea.  If you're gonna do it, do it all the way.

Above: Precedent

I'll tell you, though, I'm glad I did.  This turned out to be a lot of fun, and gave me a lot to talk about.

Now, Ratchet & Clank is a kid's game.  There's nothing overly complicated about the puzzles, none of the jumps or levels are that challenging (though you will die, many, many times, if you just jaunt along without looking), and really only the final boss is difficult to fight.  The story, dialogue, and even some of the animation seem like they were lifted right from a Disney movie.  That's why it really struck me that this game focuses so much around mass genocide.

Bujingai: There's a reason this game has "Forsaken" in the title.

I've dubbed my first week of gaming in this new year "Disappointment Week 2011". I've surprisingly managed to finish 3 games (admittedly, they were either at or past the halfway mark), and all of them were let downs in one or more departments. Bujingai, while not the first of the titles that marked DW2011, is nevertheless the most timely post, considering David's post on Devil May Cry 3 (a game also on my backlog).

David's post covered one of the greatest action titles on the PS2. While my colleague was still reveling in the glow of Dante's excellent adventures, I was playing a game much like Devil May Cry, which similarly involved trekking through 3D environments slaying a variety of demons and other monstrosities.

You see, Bujingai is a lot like Devil May Cry: Except for the fact that it's much more shinier and fancier with the sword play. Oh, there's also the part where there's less variety in enemies, stages, and weaponry. There's also the part where it's a lot shorter, considerably less challenging, contains considerably less depth, possesses a plot that makes DMC2 look like a work of classic literature and. . .

Ok, aside from the fact that it's a 3D action game with sword fighting, it's really nothing like Devil May Cry.

On top of that, it also has Gackt.

This man has no place near the design of a game. EVER.

And no, the above is not the game's saving grace. It's far from it.

Read on for some background on the game, the (laughable) story, my experiences and observation on the gameplay, and my overall consensus of the game.

Devil May Cry 2 - Devil May Let You Down

As I detailed previously, by the end of the original Devil May Cry I was quite enamored with the game.  Overcoming my initial struggle with the difficulty barrier became an achievement rather than an arduous task, and I reveled in each new victory.  I had heard Devil May Cry 2 was inferior to the first, but I was expecting at least more of the same challenge regarding regular gameplay.

I was let down, to say the least.

Devil May Cry 2 is the game that started my DMC collection.  I found it at GameStop on sale and decided to pick it up, with the expectation that I'd be able to find and purchase the first one at some point.  It's a good thing I waited, because if this had been my first experience with the series I may have never wanted to pursue it further.  Anyway, DMC2 sat on my shelf unplayed for years as I continually passed over the first part of Dante's adventure.  One day, however, I found Devil May Cry 3, also at GameStop, and for about $10 less than what I had purchased its precursor for at what I considered a bargain.  With two of the three in my possession, I finally dedicated a little effort to my search and found a non-Greatest Hits copy of the original.  I don't have many hang-ups about where I'll buy games, but my one caveat is that I won't buy anything not in the original case.

Pass.

My purchasing quirks aside, after Devil May Cry I was excited to pop in the sequel and discover what new challenges it had to offer me.

The answer was none.

The landscape of Devil May Cry 2 challenges.

In thinking about exactly how this game failed to live up to its predecessor, I was reminded of a song which could better describe the situation.  This song makes use of a number of promises of what it will never do, all of which Devil May Cry 2 ignores.  Watch it, and then I'll explain.

The black guy is Ayn.

How it Gave Me Up

The game didn't really give me up, but it did give up on me.  Did Capcom receive too many complaints about how difficult the first one was and decide to just take out everything hard?  Nowhere in Devil May Cry 2 did I feel challenged in the same way as the original.  There were certainly points where I thought "this is harder than other points in the game," but none of those points could hold a candle to the harder parts of the first Devil May Cry.

If you take too long to kill him, he just dies on his own.

Now, I know Devil May Cry made me a better video game player.  The fact that I could even beat it shows that I improved drastically from the time I started playing it to the time I made Mundus suck down a face full of devil-powered bullets.  I got better because the game wasn't about to let me win if I didn't - it wanted me to improve.  Devil May Cry 2 gives its players none of that same credit.  The enemies are weaker, slower, and easier to kill.  The first game didn't make me that good.

 How it Let Me Down

Visually, DMC2 makes the sort of advancements over the original that you would hope to see.  The levels are larger (though not necessarily in a positive way - more on this later), the graphics are sleeker, and the controls are easier.  One-button dodging and the new ability to run up walls and double jump from the start add a nice level of intuitive control Dante that the first game definitely lacked.  That is, until you want to search for something, and end up running up the wall five times before Dante finally looks at it, but that's probably more my issue than anything.

Where it let me down is that it takes such effort to expand upon the environments of the first and then does absolutely nothing to make me care.  In the first game, there were essentially only three bosses before the last fight; Phantom, Griffon, and Nelo Angelo.  They each have a few cutscenes where Dante demonstrates what a badass he is by taunting these demonic foes before mixing it up with them.  As stunted and lacking as the story in Devil May Cry was, at least they made you care a little bit about your enemies.

I invited him to my bar mitzvah, I hope he accepts.

In Devil May Cry 2, the first boss emerges from a building in a great cutscene, stretching out glass and cement until this gargantuan ghoul bursts free, composed of the building itself, and starts shooting bats, fire, and lasers all over Dante.  The fight was disappointingly easy, following the "run away and shoot if it gets hard" strategy that everything in this game falls prey to, but that wasn't my problem.  My issue was that with this epic boss reveal, better than anything they gave us in the first, Dante never says anything, the boss never says anything, and when it's over, that's the end of it.  He never comes back.  He was there just to be an impressive-looking foe for Dante to steamroll over.

Not a noteworthy sight in Dante's life.

This game let me down because in everything I hated about it, I kept seeing the glimmer of vastly more potential which is never realized.

How It Ran Around

It gave ME the run around.  Like I said above, the stages of the game are greatly improved over the original in terms of size and scope.    They took the haunted castle premise of the first game and made it an entire city, an idea that is, I believe, completely without precedent.

So they give you this big expanded world and then they just . . . don't let you do anything in it.  You can't revisit old areas.  Large sections get blocked off specifically to prevent you from backtracking.  They include Secret Rooms you can stumble upon, the equivalent of DMCs Secret Missions - only totally not.  Whereas the first one gave you interesting and challenging requirements to fulfill, the Secret Rooms are just you standing in a square room and killing enemies until a door out appears.

Capcom spent a lot of time making sure Devil May Cry 2 was aesthetically superior to the original, and then concentrated the rest of the design on making sure you were always running straight forward like it was a 2D platformer.

Early concept art for DMC2.

How it Deserted Me

The final estimation of this game is that the creators of Devil May Cry 2 just flat out abandoned their fanbase.  I hear that Devil May Cry 3 is the best of the series, better than the first one and the allegedly also well-done 4th entry.  Maybe they were working on that and shoved this out so we'd have something to fill the gap in between 1 and 3.  This game feels like they just pumped out a quick sequel with marginal improvements to the controls and cashed in.  At this point, I've put more thought and effort into writing this review of my experience with the game than I did actually playing it.

There were parts of the game where I had fun.  There were parts I found challenging.  There were glimmers here and there of a really great game in the making.  It kept stringing me along with its promise and then deserting me after getting me to play along.

An issue not helped by hiring these guys as the lead design team.

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Devil May Cry was a lot of things, and it evoked a lot of emotion in me while I was playing it.  Whether I loved it, hated it, or was somewhere in between, it never left me bored.  I honestly considered just leaving this one on the backlog several times before just cowboying up and beating it.  And by cowboying up, I mean making myself stand the game for more than 30 minutes, because after I sat down and got to it, I went from mission 6 to the end in one playthrough, not dying once until the end.

I think that's the same definition he used.

So now this one is gone and beaten, never to return again.  I won't even get into how atrocious the story is - let's just leave it at that I beat it and now it's over.

I'll be taking on Devil May Cry 3 next, and really hoping it lives up to everything I've heard about it.  In any event, this game is dead to me, and I'm glad its dead.  The only thing that makes me regretful is that Capcom dragged out its tortuous demise in such a brutal, sadistic faction before finally finishing it off.

Until next time, keep playing.