Atlus games to obsess over this year

If you've never heard of Atlus, a videogame publisher notorious for their unique and usually hard-to-find games, don't worry. You'll most probably be hearing a lot about them this year, as they will be coming out with 4 RPGs: Etrian Odyssey (DS), Luminous Arc (DS), Odin Sphere (PS2), and Persona 3 (PS2).

Etrian Odyssey seems to be your typical turn-based RPG, but instead of having your map filled in as you explore, you have to draw it yourself. Map icons are available for you to mark off items such as treasure chests, stairs, doors, etc.

In the screenshots you can see how well the handdrawn backgrounds look in the game, and you can also see the 3D-rendered environments looking a bit pixelly but still gorgeously done and interesting.

Then there are the character classes. The characters for this game look so bad ass and yet so cute at the same time. This girl to the left for example. She has a blank look on her face that says, "I can do nothing wrong!" yet you know she wouldn't hesitate to kill you. There are also quite a few male characters in the game who look like psychotic killers (especially the black-haired Alchemist with the twin-blade looking weapon) and those are always fun.

Top reason to get this game: Dominatrixes (known as Female Dark Hunters in the game.) Coming May 15.

Luminous Arc is a strategy RPG, much like Disgaea and Final Fantasy Tactics. The character art is beautiful, with clothing styles similar to those of Ragnarok Online and the .hack series. The game uses highly detailed sprites and unique animations for each team-up attack, which vary depending on the character.

Top reason to get this game: Didn't get enough of Final Fantasy Tactics and don't own a PSP (yet anyway). Coming out, according to Gamestop, August 14.

Odin Sphere. The graphics, the animation...amazing. Even Tycho of Penny Arcade fame says so. While this game still has that cute factor similar to that of Etrian Odyssey, there is also sexiness.

This witch garbed in red? Hot. Yes, draw them (whoever they are - probably huge robots with tentacles attached) away with your chain and red lights. Do you see those stockings and high heels? Top reason to get this game right there. Coming out May 22.

Persona 3. I've never played the Persona series before, but it's a good time to start. With a description of "an occult-themed RPG set in a Japanese high school" how can any anime fan resist?

And resisting will be hard to do, as this game is filled with anime-style art and animation. Persona 3 uses a turn-based battle system and although you do all of your fighting at night against bloblike ghouls (like No-Face from Spirited Away) and other monsters, the mood doesn't seem to be too horrific. Upbeat music starts playing once you get into battle and nothing is scary when you're dancing! Although you have to shoot yourself in the head during the game, multiple times even, it isn't suicide at all because this releases a "persona" or a summon that will help you in battle.

Top reason to get this game: Looks really fun if you love anime and have a morbid sense of humor. Coming out Q3 2007.

God of War 2 Preview

God of War 2 is being developed by David Jaffe and his crew. The same person who made God of War. Its being released onto the Playstation two on March 13th.

For those who haven't played God of War 1, it was amazing. To describe it, I would have to say it is an intuitive, powerful and puzzling game all at once.

God of War 2 doesn't seem to stray far from this and may even improve on the original formula. Using chains and an orb healing system popular in other games, Kratos, the God of War dispatches many different mythological enemies.

There is magic, which uses a large blue bar. The large green bar is your healthy, I'm assuming.

There seems to be a lot of history and almost humor involved. At one point, you're fighting the Colossus of Rhodes, which was a very very large statue on the island of rhodes in the mediterranean. History has it that an earthquake broke the huge statue, but War destroyed it. The earthquake toppled it in 226 BC, leaving it broken on the ground but still intact for the most part. Then, the Arabs conquered Rhodes in 654AD and disassembled it completely, selling it off to a merchant from Syria. Broken by nature, and Obliterated by War. Perhaps it was Kratos leading the way, huh?


Other battles include a large Rock Golem, the Barbarian King, Medusa and Cerberus as well.

Most of the more creative parts include a button-tapping minigames instead of cutscenes. Just make sure you press the right button or you could lose a good chance to really hurt your enemies.

And now, a video, courtesy of GameVideos.com.


Hope this gives you an inkling of what the game is about. See you in stores March 13th!

Bully (PS2)

Bully for the Playstation 2 was developed by Rockstar Vancouver and published by Rockstar Games October 17th of 2006.

• User Interface

• Pros: The User Interface on Bully was fairly easy to use. A lot of the time I did find myself fumbling to find which button was the right one for what I was trying to do. I liked picking the lockers and stuff, and the fact that they usually highlighted where you needed to stand to do certain things was cool. Other very good things they did was to make the world easy to get around in. If you jump high enough to reach the top of the fence, generally you can climb over it. Or, there are other things you can climb too. You can go almost anywhere, but it tends to become useless. The maps were very nicely constructed and polished.
  
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• Cons: The whole thing about sneaking around was cool for a little while, but I got tired of it. Especially when you get caught right when you're about to finish a mission. The skateboarding I found frustrating as well, because I was trying to run away, and then I'd have to like hop off the board to open a door and that's when, of course, the camera angle decides its gonna spin 90 degrees which makes me accidentally go the wrong direction away from the door. Yeah, camera angles definitely got old.
• Graphic Detail
• Pros: In most games, you tend to find one or two spots where everything just gets all crazy, rendering-wise. I didn't come across any spots where I was looking through a wall, or through the back of someone's head. But, that's because of what they did with the cameras. Also, since it was a PS2 game, its possible I didn't get the full graphical hit that would come with playing it on a better system, so I'm going to refrain from saying too much about it. It looked just fine for the PS2. The screenshots from GameSpy looked better than the game itself. Lot more anti-aliasing issues than shown.
  
• Cons: When you get close to a building, it forces you to spin if you're looking back on yourself so you're not looking through the inside of the building at yourself. Why didn't they just make this transparent or something? I got caught more than once because of the camera issues.
• Storyline
• Pros: The storyline was long enough that I doubt many of you would complain about it being too short. Also, it did include seasons as the story progressed, so the graphics changed to snow and such. The storyline wasn't linear either, which was nice. It had a nice thing where if you wanted to do some missions, you could, but you didn't have to. If you want to hate the nerds, go ahead. Don't help them out, instead just beat the crap out of them and take their money. Man, some of them were trying to be hideous.
  
• Cons: Maybe some people are into the whole going back and doing things over again, but I really didn't enjoy revisiting my high school years. I thought the other students were all a little too agressive. I became frustrated. I was trying to do a mission for them, and they were all like, "I hate you, Jimmy, F*** you." And it wasn't just one nerd saying it, it was like all of them, saying just one or two lines. You'd think there'd be more than just two lines for them to say about hating you so much.
• Fun Factor
• Pros: Not for me.
• Cons: I guess maybe this game wasn't targeting me, but I really didn't enjoy it. Most of the time, I had to keep telling myself, "It'll get better soon, just play it a litlte more and you'll unlock something really cool, I'm sure." I tried to stick with it, but cherry bombs, sticky things, marbles, and everything else just didn't do it for me. And, as I've reiterated several times, Bad Camera Angles Ruin Games. That's BCARG.
  

The Wrap-Up! This game, while polished and clean, tends to be frustrating because of camera angles and unsatisfying combat/bullying. It is intense to run away from the good guys/bad guys, right up until you get caught because the camera angle swings around to some awkward angle. That's when you breathe the Last Sigh. The sigh the signifies that this game will not be being played much longer if it keeps up this bad behavior. Severe Intensity must include Perfect Gameplay or it will achieve Complete Disappointment. And that's where I put this game. Intensely Disappointing.

Definitely worth a rent.