Ren & Sin's Post Con Preview Collection - Volume 1

Hello beautiful people of the Internet! And not so beautiful ones... hehe. Our sincerest apologies for not writing a post for you last week. (Deal with it.) We've been out at MCM Comicon in London last weekend and it's time for us to share with you some little snippets of the newly released (and of course unreleased) games we got to play out there! So without further ado- Oh just get on with it already!

Persona 4 - Dancing All Night! I'd go ahead and say this is something we've definitely been waiting a long time for. It's been a long time since it's announcement and it's finally almost here, what did you think of the few games we played Sin? Well, I mean it was extremely difficult to play there. Now Sin, the noise of the venue isn't a proper criticism of the game... (I-I know that! I'm not some kind of amateur here!). Regardless of Sin's mindless complaints (What!? Hey hold on I-) the selection of songs is very nice, familiar tunes from all kinds of persona titles. This includes great but more obscure tunes from the franchise such as the theme of Etrian Odyssey spinoff PersonaQ, but these are a welcome inclusion seeing as persona as a whole has a beautiful soundtrack, and sticking with the Persona 4 theme would only serve to limit the game immensely. HEY I wasn't finished talking you know! You all done hogging the limelight at last you pig? W-Well now that was uncalled for... Whatever... anyway from what I can gather the actual selection of songs is only around 30-strong... I'm pretty disappointed... there are many more Persona songs that could have made it in... But Sin 30 is a pretty big roster for a music game... and there's at least three difficulty levels for each. Oh yes of course, but when it feels like 10 of the individual songs are remixes of songs you know so well that they sound COMPLETELY WRONG it's hard to be satisfied by it... Oh...

Oohhh.... Of course... bikini's WOULD be a wearable outfit in this game wouldn't they!?
Well it's a Japanese game I mean it's pretty common for that t- ow!
PERVERT!
What did I do!?

The gameplay though! The controls are great, simple, responsive. You hit all the notes with up, left, right, triangle, circle and X; and the notes consist of single presses, double presses and holds, standard rhythm-game stuff. I just wish playing the game was that standard, I think the layout of the screen is super poorly executed for this. The notes come into the screen from the centre to the outer edges where you hit them, but the Vita's screen is so wide that watching two notes close together on one side of the screen often means you miss a rogue note drifting off the other side and break your combo. The game becomes very difficult off design alone.. but... what I hate more... it suffers from... Parappa The Rapper Syndrome... (Gasp) No... anything but that! But it's true! Ugh it makes me so mad when music games do this! Your performance is measured by some icons at the top of the screen which change colour based on your performance. They range from red to yellow to white, (all of which count as a fail...) to green, and then rainbow, those are passes. Keep hitting notes in a row and you'll go up levels to pass the song.. But what ticks me off is because of this horrible system, even if you get every note perfect up until the very end you'll fail the song if you miss a couple of notes right at the end, especially on hard difficulty, you can kiss that pass goodbye. Oh and of course climbing takes ages so in terms of progress imagine that for every note you miss you have to hit another 30 without fail to get back to where you were and you probaly get the picture and ugh this game could have been so good but I- OKAY MOVING ON!

What's this? Rodea The Sky Soldier? This one was really fun actually... You're kidding? It took you half an hour to get used to those ridiculous controls. Hey that's only because I didn't have a tutorial to teach me and with out that they're very... uh... Unorthodox? Yeah! That! Exactly that! You ascend into the air and use a targeter to lock on and dash towards objects and terrain fast or slow to reach the end of missions. The targeter is fiddly and for once I wish they used motion controls instead of an analogue sick, the reticule slows down towards the edge of the screen as it pans around and gives the reticule itself a laggy and awkward feeling. Oh but it is a beautiful game, and flying through the sky like that feels strangely empowering, even if it's just on screen... Yeah... it seemed simple... but complex, and has a lot of charm to it. I'm still unsure on the quality of the story... It looks... mediocre... but as a game... there's definitely potential... For sure.

It's a game that feels very empty in places...
(Like your heart?)
What did you say!?

D-Disgaea 5... W-Well... It's still Disgaea... So... You know, if you like Disgaea, there's probably a lot of new features in this... and you'll love it, yeah! We never cared for Disgaea. Oh lord no.

Tales of Zestiria though! oh well I mean it's still a Tales game, has that great Tales feel to it. Environments are completely beautiful, characters are unique (well the main character is just as much an over-trusting freaking goody-two shoes as ever... Just like Ren... AGAIN.) You say something Sin? Hm? Oh, no nothing! Ooookay... Well I mean what's amazing about this particular one is how cutscenes and battles transition properly from the gameplay itself, giving the game a very coherent and more realistic feel. There's no shatter-screening or anything to transition into battles so the whole thing feels like part of the adventure. It's only a minor change, sure, but as long running Tales fans something about this little change just makes the experience so much more... Magical... Yeah...

Oh but let's remember this is a Tales game... So it has some strange and difficult to understand upgrade system in the menus right? Yup! I think this one has something to do with elements and like... putting power patches onto equipment or something... but as usual I don't really have any idea. Clueless as always... Hey!

Ladies and gentleman! the cause of the Dodo's extinction!
... Angsty teenagers...?

Well that's it for this week everyone! We hope these little insights of games from the event were worth the wait. We'll be back to our normal schedule starting next week so look forward to it! but until then... Goodbye! And we love you all!

We'll Make A Mario Out Of You! - Super Mario Mker

Hello beautiful people of the Internet! And not so beautiful ones... hehe. Today it's time to embrace all your creative genes because the time we've all been waiting for is finally here! No it's not. Danganronpa V3 isn't out yet. Oh come on Sin you love Mario, why are you never happy with anything? How about because I absolutely hate the fact that Nintendo have released this game? Is that enough for you? B-but Sin... Why...?

Don't get me wrong here I really do adore the Mario franchise, there's a reason such a simple game has stood the test of time so well, but to me, Mario Maker is a game I never wanted to come.... Never... Sin... But you've always talked about wanting to make your own levels... The things you would do... And you've had so much fun making levels with this game... I never thought I'd hear you say anything bad about it. Well yeah that's true, it really is a great game but... don't you think the statement Nintendo is making by releasing this is just saying 'Mario is in your hands now fans'? I mean, with everyone making their own levels now, nothing will ever be new and unique right? With the release of this game, how can Nintendo ever release a new Mario game? it'll always be compared to Mario Maker levels! It'll always be too boring for the really good players, or too hard for then casual players if they go the other way! With this game Nintendo have basically killed their franchise! At least that's the way I see it...

It's great if you wall off or put springs in front of the entrance the the castle, Mario gives up after a while and just crouches all sad looking!
... You are a horrible person. No wonder you don't have a boyfriend.
I-I'm waiting for the perfect guy, okay!?

Uhh... Well... I guess that really is one way to look at it, but don't forget Mario Maker can only do so much. Nintendo are the ones with the real power to create here, they can add new mechanics, new enemies, new powerups... All kinds of things you know? And with games like Mario Galaxy and other 3D titles still very much an option, this isn't then end of Mario forever... okay? Hmph... Just shut up!

Let's just talk about the freaking game! That's what we're here for right!? Okay okay! Gosh... Well, the game itself is exactly what it sounds like, a game to create, play and share the Mario levels you've always dreamed of making, and as far as a game creation tool goes it's as in depth as you could hope for. Yeah basically everything's there, you can choose what kind of level you want to make, from the standard outside levels to caves and swimming and of course Bowser's castles. My only qualm with the tools available to you is that you have to unlock a large majority of the tools you can use... and not even through playing the creator... It's days! DAYS! Finally you can use everything on DAY NINE. NINE! Though I guess this isn't much of a problem it does have the immediate hassle of limiting your creativity from the get go. But that's probably just so you can get used to the creator tools right Sin? Well maybe that's true, but I still feel that not being able to use hidden blocks or even spawn any powerups other than standard mushrooms is just too restrictive. Couldn't seem to control the movement of enemies either Ren, when I look back on my first levels made they were all so boring because I had barely any tools to work with... ugghhh....

They really included everything they could think of huh?
More options than Sin's panty drawer...
WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY!?

But looking at the creator when everything's available? And you really don't have to use it long to finally have everything available at least... and when you do? Well you couldn't really ask for more! Every feature and enemy you can think of is in there waiting for you to use and create truly great levels. Nintendo have done a great job of leaving in all the mechanics from the Mario games we've been playing over the years. New Super Mario style levels have wall jumps and those helicopter hat mushrooms, the Mario Bros World levels let you spawn in feathers for Cape Mario and those blocks that spin and let you pass through them for a while when you hit them. Your chosen style of level gives you a slight restriction on what you can create, but that's understandable, I mean a lot of the code in Mario Maker is probably just ported over from the old games. And props to Nintendo for not butchering the games by making things you couldn't do previously possible. I would so break this game if you could make those giant super mushrooms from NSMB Wii appear in the older games...

Oh and let's just say, if you think you're going to create the hardest most impossible level out there someday, just remember if you want to upload a level online... you have to beat it, one life, no checkpoints, all skill. Thank god for that. I know right? Nothing stopping you from hiding a door to the end somewhere though right? I hope you realise 1,000 unbeatable levels were just released into the wild because of you. Ow!

For some strange reason, sometimes special mushrooms will spawn instead of normal ones turning Mario into this... uh... thing.
(He's so lanky... it's almost as horrible to look at as you Ren...)

Other than the creator, there's not much to the game itself, it doesn't really come with any levels in built for you to play as if it were a proper Mario game, but if you're not cut out for creating levels, or just want to play, you still NEED this game. That's right, Super Mario Maker itself brings us the 100 Mario challenge! 100 lives to complete 16 Easy, medium or Hard user made levels. it's definitely the main thing that keeps me playing this game, you'll almost never see the same level twice and it's really amazing seeing what wonderful creations people can make with its tools. Some of the levels are just so insane and make use of mechanics I didn't even know existed (like the fact that spinning on certain enemies won't actually kill you even if falling on them normally would). The hard challenge really pushes the limits of each Mario version's mechanics and no run will ever be the same due to the sheer number of levels, making it a great game for players of all skill levels and maintaining a TON of replay value. Of course some levels classified as hard are exactly that because they're nothing but unbeatable enemy spam or an impossible level with a hidden door that some kid thinking he's a genius made. But there's a skip button for anything like that. Thank god.

I don't know what the hell is going on here but this is NOT why the phrase 'Power To the People' is a thing!

All in all Mario Maker is every Nintendo fan(boy)'s dream, giving you everything you could possibly want to scream at the world 'COME AT ME' and pose a real challenge. true Mario pros can have all their 'filthy casual' concerns about normal Mario games wavered by taking on the 100 Mario challenge, and with no two levels ever being the same this is truly the greatest Mario package in the world. An absolute must for everyone who enjoys our favourite plumber.

Well that's all for this week folks! We're done? Okay I'm going to make more levels! No wait Sin but we haven't- Shut up Ren! We love you all! Ah! Wait! Sin! Come back!

Easy Rippin'! - Hyperdimension Neptunia U: Action Unleashed

Hello beautiful people of the Internet! ... Sigh... Hm? Sin what's wrong? Not like you to be so down you're usually really angry all the time. I AM ANGRY. Huh? B-but why what's happened? Uhm... hello? Earth to stupid have you forgotten the game we're 'reviewing' today!? The game YOU wanted to review today!? But it's the only game we've been- SHUT UP. Just do you're freaking review.

No 4th wall is safe

Ahaha... ha... uhm... So! This week Sin and I are proud (so not proud) to present to you Hyperdimension Neptunia U for the PSVita. Though the Hyperdimension Neptunia games have always really been lovingly crafted JRPG's with epic long stories, this installment shakes things up a lot. OHHHHH yes it does and oh boy am I pissed about it! Though you could forgive the developers for dropping the JRPG epic genre and turning it into a Dynasty Warriors style slash-a-thon, the main problem I have with this game is that its big selling point is FANSERVICE. The Neptune games have always had a little bit of subtext and dirty jokes in them for sure but never has the girls clothes getting torn and ripped off their bodies been a selling point. So the girls' clothes rip and tear, I admit it's not the most tasteful game mechanic but let's at least remember it does serve a purpose in game, lowering the girls' defenses but increasing their critical hit rate instead. Despite it's seemingly unnecessary implication, at least the mechanic surrounding it makes sense and is well implemented. That may be true, but as the game goes on it reaches the point where the girls' clothes just rip off immediately upon taking your first damage, and you can unlock clothes that make it even EASIER for the clothes to tear if you're some disgusting freak like Ren and like seeing those embarrassing close up shots. Hey we gave them all the unbreakable clothes we unlocked remember Sin? Yeah, reluctantly... you just wanted to see Rom and Ram lose their clothes as much as possible! Hey! They look like they're 10 years old! Them losing their clothes is a very touchy subject so thankfully they have very modest rips compared to all the others, you remember... green heart's one right Sin...? ...Ow! Hey! Pervert.

See look how modest Ram's costume break is!
YOU ARE SUCH A FREAKING PERVERT

Gameplay-wise hey the game does transition as a slash-a-thon very nicely, all the girls attacks are fast paced, look impressive and feel really fluid, linking together super easily to make epic combos and cut the hoards of enemies to dust! Well everyone except Blanc at least, her weapon is a big heavy hammer so her attacks just feel a lot slower and less rewarding for the player, it's a shame because all the other characters work very nicely. There's a very small variety of special moves available (that's three for each girl) and all of the attacks are made with just the square and triangle buttons so combat becomes very samey a few hours into it. The ten different characters generally all feel different to play but it's still arguably too repetitive. Yeah but smashing all those monsters to bits at once feels awesome. Oh definitely.

"Choppy time!"
Neptune doesn't actually say that in this game you know?
S-Shut up!

As for the story well you can probably guess the game doesn't do too much as it's focusing on the 'Action Unleashed' part. The story is simple enough, two game industry journalists from Gamindustri (they really weren't trying to be subtle, the whole Neptunia universe is a game industry parody and they love to bring that to your attention in all their games) want to do interviews with the CPU's and CPU Candidates (that's the main characters and their little sisters), to increase their popularity and spread the word of them to the people of Gamindustri. They do these interviews by making you take on quests. I don't really get it but apparently mindlessly bashing the brains out of endless hoards of the same enemis apparently makes for exciting articles, maybe we should try that sometime... You calling our articles trash!? I thought you didn't like them that much Sin, you only do this because you have to? N-No I never said that...

Each character only has one really good special move so you'll often find you'll touch the other ones about as much as someone would touch Ren.
Hey!

Well there's not much to Hyperdimension Neptunia U Action Unleashed so it's only a short review to have this week. All that's left to say is for fans of the series and it's quirky characters you'll probably adore this shorter installment of simple fun chaos. if you're looking for a great story you'll probably be disappointed but it's a fun little game you can enjoy in short installments for maximum fun! Until next time! We love you all!

Hey Sin... You're not going to say it? ...Ow!
Pervert.

A Story Unfolds! - Tearaway: Unfolded

Hello beautiful people of the Internet! And not so beautiful ones... hehe. Today Sin and I are going to present to you a spectacular game that fills us both with unparalleled nostalgia. It's a 3D adventure platformer full of collectibles and hidden secrets, a game that truly feels like a classic from the mid 2000's, even though it's much more recent.

Tearaway was a game released for the PSVita in 2013. It was made to show off all the different features of the PSVita from its rarely used rear touch pad to the frontal camera. It offered a lot of unique features for a game, even adding your own face into the sun as you play, and letting you take photos in the real world which will appear on objects and walls throughout the game. It was a wonderful game that was a breath of fresh air for a console that had so far been largely underwhelming. A world made entirely from papercrafts... I'd never seen anything like it.... the way it all came to life was so magical I just... ahhhhh (swoon)

I love the parts when you can ride on Ren's back.
Hey. You calling me a pig!?

Uhhh... So Tearaway Unfolded is bringing that kind of innovation to PS4 at last. When a large hole opens in the sun of the papercraft world leading to your world, the home of the You. It's up to You to guide a little messenger to deliver a message and ultimately seal the hole, whilst fighting off scraps, pesky enemies from your world. As big fans of the previous game Ren and I were super excited to experience a sequel. When we got about three worlds in we were needless to say more than a little bit disappointed... it had been so long so we didn't realize before but the new game is almost exactly the same as the previous one. It all started getting so familiar we just couldn't help notice it.

You really wouldn't think a world made entirely of paper could look this beautiful...
You're saying a world of paper looks just like me?
No. No I'm not...

Although it's true the majority of Tearaway Unfolded's beautiful papercraft locations are just the exact same as it's predecessor. Let's not forget this version does contain a few new locations and collectables, so there is a some extra content for first game veterans,with the new worlds specifically designed to compliment the brand new features. I'm still disappointed it wasn't a full new game! I feel cheated... But Sin hey Tearaway Unfolded is on the PS4, so it brings a number of brilliantly implemented brand new mechanics to the table. While opening presents with the PS4 controller's touch pad doesn't feel quite as good as using the Vita's touch screen to actually pull it open, it still feels good to use and works as a system, the same goes for tapping it to use the bounce pads. It also introduces the 'guiding light' a light you can shine on the screen with the controller, pointing and moving it using the motion controls. You use it at certain times to guide the enemies to their doom, but it's a largely unnecessary feature. I quite like it though, it's one of those things Tearaway does that immerses you in it's game world, let's you feel like you're truly in control. The motion controls are (limited and very small scale) fluid and make you feel like a direct influence on the world as an outside force. Heck you can even have your messenger throw stuff out of the screen into your controller and you can throw them back. it feels really good to be involved like that and it's something that games just don't do these days.

Shine the Guiding Light on papers taken over by newsprint to restore their colourful glory.
This is such a slow and dull mechanic I wanna shine a guiding light on the guy that came up with this and throw him off a cliff!

That's all well and good hey sure, but let's not forget some of the more poorly implemented features. The main one being the drawing parts. Tearaway on the Vita used the touchscreen to allow you to draw parts and accessories to attach to characters, it was fiddly at times but oh god it is IMPOSSIBLE to draw anything remotely good looking on the PS4 controller's touch screen, it's small and obviously doesn't leave a mark for you to use as a reference, so you're left to basically guess how your drawing will look: you'll struggle to join the corners of shapes, they'll look horribly deformed and just... just so... ugh... We also don't have a Playstation camera to test it with, but I can probably easily say it wouldn't be as well implemented as the Vita's camera too. At least I don't have to see Ren's ugly face in the game because of that, so if you don't want your not so beautiful face to be in the game this time you're probably in luck too! That's really mean Sin... Shut up this is my segment!

In this installment you can use the touch pad to create winds that will blow the paper and create new paths.
All the paper still defies the laws of physics though. I mean come on just look at that picture! Argh!

Overall this is a great game to pick up that really makes use of all the PS4 controller's features despite the fact the controller probably didn't need them to begin with. It'll be a bit of a disappointment for anyone who played on the Vita, but adds just enough that it's worth coming back to... Just... If you don't have a Vita though and you never got to play this before it's definitely an experience you need to have as a game that lets you get the most out of your PS4 and all it's silly gimmicks is going to be really rare for sure. And of course it really is just a beautiful game, worth playing just for the environments and adorable stylisation. Arguably it could be a bit too childish for you... But even this children's kind of story makes a good fun adventure for adults.

I DON'T KNOW WHO YOU ARE BUT I CHANGE MY MIND I AM NOT DELIVERING THAT MESSAGE STOP STARING AT ME LIKE THAT YOU CREEP!

It was a pretty short review we had for you this week. Tearaway is a game that is pure and simple at heart so there wasn't a lot we could do rather than explain all it's unique features. Everything is innovative in some way and i just have to praise the Little Big Planet creators for coming up with this wonderful papercraft gem. Until next time everybody! We l- Sin... What are you doing?

I'm making a papercraft model of me, what does it look like?
But that's the blue card... Why are you using the b-
SH-SHUT UP REN!