Foreword (September 2016)

I must confess it was rather surprising to go back to a proper point and click adventure after a streak of somewhat half-baked ones light on puzzles and perfectly content to hand hold you throughout the entire experience in favor of delivering their narrative. Make no mistake, The Book of Unwritten Tales makes couple of modern concessions but it is, at heart, a traditional genre representative.

Starting off, I have to say this is one helluva charming game even if it does have a few things stacked against itself, as I'll explain later down the road in this write-up. Visuals succeed almost entirely in blending various 3D and 2D assets, with few exceptions here-and-there marring the presentation primarily because age creeps into everything eventually, as well as appropriate use of soft colors and lighting goes a long way in selling you on the locales you visit. Pleasant artwork certainly helps, as well. Standout element I REALLY have to give props to is the soundtrack – it's brilliant. Fantasy fare and nothing you haven't heard before, but packs a punch and I'd bet no expense was spared in putting it together. Polygonal characters are most of the time lovingly animated with, well, character and it comes through especially when they emote.

Speaking of characters you'll be contending with more than just Wilbur the Gnome, who is portrayed as the game's central figure on most of promotional material, but as far as I'm concerned he is this game's genuine protagonist forsooth. Somewhat of a black sheep in his family comprised of a biologist, roboticist and engineers in general he instead aspires to become a mage one day. Sudden turn of events thrusts a great destiny on his shoulders and sets him down on a long road to potentially save the day and maybe, just maybe achieve his lifelong dream. Second character is a she-elf named Ivo who ends up enrolled in this adventure thanks to random chance rivaling that of Wilbur himself. There is a third person involved, but I'd rather not spoil who that is. Well, there's also a fourth. Sort of. Kinda. It's a whimsical game, what do you want?

Now that I've gushed about the positives let's get down to gritty negatives... of which there aren't that many, surprisingly. I'd only list two real negatives, because if you're into point and click adventures you already knows you're signing up for with few nonsensical puzzles and such, even though The Book of Unwritten Tales dispenses with those for [mostly] perfectly logical puzzles, and they are as follows; entire playable cast does not get equal amount of character development and that game ends rather abruptly, following what is possibly the most arduous and tedious section of the game. Which you have to retread twice. I don't know if they simply ran out of time or money, but the ending itself felt rather automated and resolved much too quickly for all the buildup that lead to it. One point that's going to be divisive for most is game's heavy use of references, both playing them straight or ridiculing while portraying how genre savvy developers are. It doesn't get into obnoxious territory and ranges from your classical Discworld to Star Wars and World of Warcraft mentions, but there was one section that served as commentary of MMORPGs and TCGs as a whole which made me bolt a smile on my face for five minutes straight.

So, closing words. Should you get it? If you want a modern game from a genre past it's prime, but one that's long overdue for proper revival I would say yes. It's not a masterpiece but for me game's charm carried it from beginning to end.

I think it would be only fair to point out before I start punching in this review proper that, while I do consider myself an adept of Telltale adventures and possessing of some knowledge in regards to The Walking Dead TV series, I have virtually no idea about the comics and what goes on there. It would lend itself to reason that some of what transpires in The Walking Dead: Michonne might be beyond what I'm familiar with so I'm just putting it out there. Upfront and proper.

Let's get the negatives out of the way first even though I'd say they're closely intertwined with the positives depending on what what you're looking for vs what you're getting. For starters, game is short. Really really short, even by Telltale standards when it comes to hours played, but it also packs a few chapters less so it was expected. Where game really stumbles because I don't mind short games if they don't feel short, is in its pace - it was decided [intentionally] this game would kick it up a notch and keep the action moving, keeping as little time as possible in individual locations. Now, this makes for a mean combination when you pair it with lack of emotional investment because I wasn't really there with Michonne when it came to her personal demons that will never ever go away, and will keep repeating the same message over and over again throughout the entire game. Even with dreaded flashbacks I was getting nothing out of it as it was. Needless to say, Telltale's classic “your decisions are just window dressing” aka game structure in which you don't really get much say in how the story develops is still in, but you already know that at this point.

Let's flip the coin and look at the positives. Ironically, I think faster pace also works wonders for what is essentially the third game in the series, or fourth depending on how you count 400 Days, because you can only tell so many zombie survivor stories before it gets stale and repeats itself. So you might as well take the focus away from that and give the spotlight to more action for a change. Our protagonist is a mean killing machine in this one and it really comes through as you can clearly tell the animation team had a field day making Michonne go full Rambo most of the time and just cleaning house. It also keeps the game moving and reducing those “party stopper”, if that's what you want to call them, moments in previous games where everything would grind to a halt and you were expected to socialize just to activate the correct trigger and advance the story whether it made sense or not. What few of these still exist are usually brusque and quickly over.

So how do I even close this one and explain why I gave the game thumbs up after all of the above? Because it was a change of pace in some ways, because I haven't played a Telltale game in a while and it wasn't nearly as painful to go back to the formula. At the end of the day - because it wasn't Season 2.

Get it cheap or not at all.

What a weird little game Toren is.

And I don't mean it in a demeaning manner or anything - it's a damn weird game that left me thinking "what the hell did I just play through?" and that's something that hasn't happened to me in a long while. I'm not sure how much of that I should attribute to game's quality and how much to simple fact a lot of the game's story is left purposefully obtuse and surreal by design. I guess we have to get into it.

Mechanically, Toren is a jarringly clunky and unpolished action adventure from those olden days when action adventure actually meant something and wasn't just a catch-all term for when the media can't pigeonhole a title with ease. What this entails is some character action, although combat is few and far between multitude of platforming sections and some very light puzzles. Speaking of which, game will have you traversing between and through what passes for the real world and variety dream worlds where you'll be dealing with more mysterious elements such as filling patterns with salt to advance and avoiding ghosts. Like I said above combat exists and aside from very few encounters with some vermin you'll be able to probably count on one hand how many significant uses your sword will actually go through. Aside from some salt puzzles game actually has a surprising variety of content and you will rarely have to deal with identical obstacles multiple times, not to mention it subscribes to quality school of game design by slowly teaching you about various steps and game systems that will come into play towards the end. Speaking of which...

I think story is the real spotlight thief here. Or should I say, lack of story. Or perhaps implied and suggested snippets of story you get through various cryptic quotes and wisdom you come across along your ascent through the tower. I'm kinda wary to say anything else about Moonchild's journey out of fear I might accidentally spoil something so let's just say you're climbing a tower while a mysterious figures teaches you from childhood that it is your destiny to do so. Oh, and there's a dragon who can petrifies people waiting for you at the top, as you see in the intro. I have to compliment this new Brazilian developer Swordtales and hope I see more of their efforts in the future. It should be noted that credits imagery may hold some clues to overall story and how it came to be or what followed afterwards, if you care to think deeply into it and don't skip it.

As far as final scores go I would recommend Toren, but one factor you have to keep in mind is that while there isn't a dull moment in the game this is mainly accomplished because the game itself is really short and you'll probably finish it in one decent sitting. Questionable production values are also immediately obvious despite inspired visuals and art design in that animations are not really on the level. While the game packs a standout atmospheric soundtrack and made-up language, both are used quite sparingly leaving some audibly desolate areas.

Oh boy. Where to even begin with Final Fantasy XIII?

I think it's been meandering on my hard drive for well over a year now, if not year-and-a-half, and I find myself actively forcing some game time to get anywhere. It's not happening and I'm still at Chapter 7 hoping the game will ease up on "split the entire playable cast into multiple groups comprised of two -> lead them by the nose through horribly linear levels ending with a boss -> rinse and repeat as it teaches you game basics over and over over again". It hasn't for a good number of hours at this point and I'm kinda resigning myself to playing through it just so I can criticize the game based on proper first-hand experience. Probably the worst thing is that I am a fan of Final Fantasy so that makes this turn of events even worse. It's just so damn disheartening.

Great game and not a walk in the park one would expect from games these days, but for some reason I find myself pulled away from Hyper Light Drifter. Maybe it's just this weird situation where I had so many other [shorter] games to play while I've had this one installed, but shouldn't it have done a better job at holding my attention in the first place? Then again, it's not like I got that far - I'm still just exploring the right area aka water area and have yet to even fight the first boss as I'm gathering keys to unlock the doors.

So I guess I'm just basing my opinion on an early parts of the game which is unwise for anything except first impressions. It's not difficult to assume it all gets better once you unlock some new moves and upgrades I glanced at in the shops. Gotta get me some of those sweet, sweet gear bits. One complaint I do have though, is the fact game locks you in place while you're aiming with your gun and thus limiting its usability somewhat. One more thing that takes time getting used to, I guess.

I should probably point out I have this ON/OFF relationship with my PS3 and I'm not talking about the power state. There are months when I don't touch the thing and then couple of weeks when I play nothing but PS3 and whatever I have installed on my ancient 60GB hard drive.

With that in mind I also have to say I was kinda too late to the party that are Souls titles, mainly because I decided to hold off on other games before tackling the original, and I've had Demon's Souls for quite some time after I got it digitally but never got around to it. It's probably been nine or ten months since I last touched it and I remember basically nothing of what was going on at this point, except for the fact I started a Priest character and beat that shin-tastic Tower Knight boss before stopping. When you consider all of that one might as well start a new character/game and re-learn things.

There are probably Demon's Souls veterans here so I might as well ask - any tips or suggestions? Starting classes, gifts, etc? I'm sure co-op summoning would be great, but my play time is erratic at best so we can safely dismiss that idea just to be on the safe side and not waste anyone's time. Lone wolf play style works best for my [nonexistent] schedule.

Oreshika: Tainted Bloodlines ended up being an unintentional palette cleanser for me as far as JRPGs go after experiencing Final Fantasy XIII - one makes me wonder where did everything go so wrong, other makes me want to strategically breed my family members with various gods and listen to the wisest weasel girl mentor who ever lived. I'm not that far into the game, only couple of years after the tutorial phase, but I'm also using a somewhat slower paced game mode so it'll take a while and I sure won't be breezing through any of the content. Using Vita's camera to take my photo and apply those looks to your starting character resulted in some pretty horrific imagery, though. Foiled by genetics.

Even if it will take a while, and I got it as part of PS+ package, this one is probably a keeper for the long haul. Although knowing my habits PS+ subscription will probably run out before I get to sit down properly and play the game to my leisure. Such is the nature of JRPGs if you don't dedicate yourself to one, I guess.

I loved the first game and based on what little I've played so far, I think I just cleared out the first hub and beat the boss, sequel is also shaping up to be a great albeit a different game in its own right - I'm primarily enamored by its greatly expanded hubs which were previously only a step above glorified menus and now feel like proper LEVELS in their own right. I missed the original games when they were released for PS2 back in the day because I wasn't into action platformers all that much so I was glad to get the remastered version when I had the chance.

Stopped playing for no real reason and Sly 2 will probably be the first game I finish when I get back to my PS3. Not sure how I feel about Murray and Bentley getting their own actual levels as opposed to gimmick ones they had in the first game, though.

Alright, context time - I've been in this L5R roleplaying game for a while now so I've been catching up on reading various books released for said game. As fate would have it we're running a 1st Edition game based on a ruleset released all the way back in 1997 so I'm reading 1st Edition books in release order and there's a bunch of 'em. What does that mean in practice? Well, it means I won't be talking much about the game itself considering I read the Corebook aka main book containing all the information you need to run the game as is and get setting basics, quite some time ago and it most certainly doesn't fall under this month. Same goes for Hare Clan Adventure that followed after the original book. That sadly means you're out of luck if you want a L5R Primer and will have to put together the pieces of what I'm talking about along the way. If you DO have any questions please feel free to ask them.

So, where does that leave The Way of the Dragon as far as L5R books go? It's the third in release order and one that focuses on mystical and aloof Dragon Clan residing on inaccessible mountains in northern Rokugan where they retreated to contemplate philosophy and esoteric arts little understood by all other Clans. It should be pointed out their founder Kami called Togashi didn't really aim to found any organization, but instead retreated there simply to meditate and few of his most trusted subordinates followed after him, which in turn lead to more and more people joining them. In these 100+ pages book expands on Dragon Clan in practically every way imaginable after the initial fiction piece; starting with foundation and background over the centuries that encompass Dragon history, their lands and how they're organized as well as the mentality its people and tier-based setup, opinions on other Clans and vice versa, extensive additions to Clan families and their lore/mechanics, and finally one of Dragon's main features - monastic orders like the Ise Zumi aka Tattooed Men, etc. There are also notable system additions and changes specific for playing Dragon samurai coming from different families and adhering to different schools, for example Kitsuki Magistrates who use this weird principle called "deduction" in a society heavily skewed toward one's station and glory over actual testimony and evidence. Unique magical tattoos are explained further and how one may go about getting them if he is deemed worthy. Or for whatever other reason engimatic Dragons decide to give one to him.

Book also [briefly] touches on the actual scaly variety of dragons in Rokugan and what their deal is, as well as going into detail about the Dragon Clan's second feature - their dual wielding style unique to Mirumoto family and still frowned upon by most other Clans for going against established traditions of Rokugan. It also deals in Clan's magic, magical items and what would be called chemistry and alchemy in a more contemporary setting, but is otherwise something that remains a mystery in Rokugan for most people and is mainly practiced in secret by members of Agasha family. Finally, we get down to who's who in the clan, starting with a not-so-surprising twist about their leader, and finally end the book with various adventure hooks for players to run across and for clever GM to make use of. Story of pregnant White Woman who turns player's hair permanently white if they fail her task is one of those, for example.

I know this took forever, but I have presented the format of Way of the Clan books and will be able to skip general explanations in the future and focus more on the meat of each clan.

And not a moment passes that I'm not immediately proven liar because we have an entirely different beast on our hands here. City of Lies Boxset is, well, a boxset containing three books and various other things such as maps, etc which require yet another explanation. I'm kinda cheating with this one because I've only read one of these three books in September, but considering they're all meant to be observed as one whole I'll just jumble it all together. Or try to, at least.

Ryoko Owari Toshi. Journey's End City. Or alternatively just Ryoko Owari are all names for what is probably the second biggest city in Rokugan after its capital. It has enjoyed other various names over the course of history, such as City of Green Walls or Reeking Scorpion Cesspool, but it was pretty much always a Scorpion Clan's nest of opium trade and Geisha plying their arts. Long story short, it's a city with tremendously illustrious history behind it dealing with everything from Lion Clan invading, garbage collectors raising up in a rebellion to get better tariffs and right to be called "Leatherworkers", but one thing always stayed constant - it remained a den of corruption and vices, thorn in more honorable samurai's side and challenge to Emerald Magistrates in whose charge city happened to be in.

Looking past all that fluff game goes into exquisite detail in regards to every single one of Ryoko Owari's detailed districts, their major players as well as respective Kajinin - firefighters and gangs in one package with priorities ranging from actually stopping fires to being basically Yakuza and greasing the old opium machine while working for Scorpion clan. Book assumes you, as in the players, take the roles of Emerald Magistrates who function as special agents working directly for the Emerald Champion, who in turn is Emperor's right hand man, and presents multitudes of opportunities, scenarios and conflicts for you to succeed or fail at. After all, last Emerald Magistrate was killed under mysterious circumstances and now it's up to the players to figure out what happened... or follow suite if they get on certain people's bad side. When you take into account there's easily over a dozen of story hooks on the sidebars you can easily see how your newly appointed Magistrates would indeed have a lot to take in.

Book also has a notable adventure called Opium War which can put a great deal of influence in players' hands when it comes to deciding how Ryoko Owari will shape as a city following the aftermath of said events. No matter what players decide to go with; clean the city of opium, maintain the status quo or do something else and unexpected, it's guaranteed they will have made powerful enemies along the way.

Some time after the First War ended and when the Emerald Empire of Rokugan was still in its early foundation period, one of its eight Kami founders called Shinjo decided that her Ki-Rin Clan would take no internal presence in the fledgling empire but would instead scout beyond its borders for potential dangers which could threaten it in the long run just like all those Shadowlands creatures did previously. Heeding her call for volunteers three families of Ki-Rin would join the expedition. Little could they know their roaming across the Burning Sands and other uncharted lands would lead them through many tribulations, have them meet many foreigners and add them to the clan as well as adopt strange customs. It would also take them 800 years to complete this massive undertaking and get back to Rokugan where they would reclaim their ancestral territories and, just as important, change their clan name as they now saw themselves no longer pure Rokugani but as new people carrying both the legacy of old Rokugan and new blood of people they intermingled with across the centuries of travel and wander. They would become Clan Unicorn, original meaning of the word "Ki-Rin" in the old empire they left behind so long ago.

That was a long intro to simply lead into "Clan Unicorn has special horses and they're strangers in their own homeland" so I'll try and be brief from here on take as long as it takes because it's obvious this whole "keep it short" isn't working for me. Basically, they revolutionized warfare in Rokugan by bringing back the strangest of inventions - saddle and stirrups. Up to that point only breed of horses that existed was a sort of pony primarily used for hard labor and bareback riding when absolutely necessary, but return of the Masters of the Four Winds changed all that with not only new riding gear but also thanks to two new breeds of horses; taller foreign horses and warhorses. Both types were much more suitable to war, latter especially becoming a basis for an all-female military unit called Shiotome aka Battle Maidens which comprise the absolute peak of Unicorn's military power.

Speaking of clan structure it's worth mentioning the three families that originally followed Shinjo - that being Ide, Otaku and Iuchi - still remain and they form the backbone of the clan, alongside with Shinjo family proper. Early on in their travels through the wastes Kami Shinjo accepted a foreign tribe into their ranks and these people would call themselves Moto family in the honor of the first one to pledge allegiance to Shinjo. Their tale would become dark following the clan's return to Rokugan, but that's a different story. Among these families you have your spread of strong, smart and cunning archetypes and Battle Maidens who are a more exclusive cavalry-centric "family" which may take some fiddling to get into a regular group.

With all that said and done, book also goes into some detail about Unicorn's tactics and how they utilize their superior types of cavalry against everyone else and how everyone is playing catch-up even after roughly 200 years following Unicorn's return. General sentiment is also that a lot of what Unicorn brought over; technologies such as slings and spyglasses, as well as skills like aiming while shooting from a bow instead of relying on sheer instinct, as well as the Clan's general behavior is still seen with negativity considering they're still regarded as sort-of barbarians. But only when they're not within earshot, of course. Unicorn capitalize on this very well with their diplomats playing buffoons when they can and shugenja using their "gaijin heresies" to great effect compared to more ritualized Rokugani magic.

They still find themselves wishing they were back on the steppes, though. Sometimes.

Finally a proper book I can keep short. It should be noted Imperial Fire is sequel to Hawk Quest, albeit an indirect one. There are couple of characters who will show up again and one quite major plot thread that sees resolution, but this new story is precisely that.

The year is 1066 and Europe is in its usual state of war. As it just so happens our protagonist from the first book Vallon is back and finds himself in the employ of the Byzantine Empire. We also witness their armies get whooped early on where Vallon manages to help Emperor Alexis I Comnene get away safely to his men all the while proclaiming it was a great victory. This puts his name on Emperor's list and after finding out about his previous exploits in the first book our protagonist gets himself a new job which takes him far away eastward in the attempt to acquire a secret weapon which lies at the end of the Silk Road. Will Vallon and couple of his old friends, along with a retinue worthy of a bonafide general, survive the dangerous journey ahead of them? What does this young lad Lucas have to do with the entire situation that he'd travel from France to Constantinople to meet his role model? I guess you'll just have to read the book to find out.

I enjoyed Imperial Fire more than Hawk Quest, to be honest. Maybe because this book spends less time familiarizing you with half the cast and military angle lends itself well to characters you easily hate or love because they're playing up various stereotypes. It reads quite easily and if you have time for a 500+ pages long novel and enjoy the time period as well as globetrotting adventures you might as well give it a go. Makes me wish author spent more time on Byzantine politics, but what few glimpses we get give this obvious enough image.

I suppose it is only fitting for Final Fantasy to keep disappointing me considering my current feelings on Final Fantasy XIII and this Kingsglaive prequel movie for the upcoming Final Fantasy XV certainly lived up to those expectations sadly enough. Huge chunk of these problems really do come to the fact it's prequel and parallel material and as such comes with separate sets of baggage. Main characters you know nothing about and care even less for, especially with the way things develop throughout the movie, while established figures are in the background/flashbacks and used in throwaway manner to ensure events relevant to game's own plot are established in satisfying order. Seriously, I have no idea what relevance this entire movie will even have for the game aside from the McGuffin reaching prince Noctis.

Story opens with a war between the magic using Kingdom of Lucis and its rival Empire of Niflheim which employs advanced technology. I'll let you dope out who the bad guys are and first two tries don't count. Now, Lucis is losing because it turns out flamethrowers do, in fact, melt puny wizards so as a last measure they erect a magical wall around their capital city Insomnia. Movies follows the eponymous Kingsglaive squad comprised of exiles from outside capital walls, an elite unit using king Regis Lucis Caelum CXIII's borrowed crystal power to cast magic and be all dashing with their weapon teleportation gimmick as they try to even the odds with Lucis against Niflheim. But that's merely the premise of the movie as real plot kicks in with Kingsglaives feeling more and more reproachful and alienated by treatment they're getting from the very people they're protecting and as Niflheim offers a surprise peace treaty which clearly isn't all it appears it to be. I should also note that alongside all this there's the establishing backstory that prince Noctis and princess Lunafreya of yet another third faction know one another from childhood. Now process the fact all this information, as well as bunch more names and characters I've left out, are dumped on you in the first five or so minutes. If you know nothing about Final Fantasy 15's promo material going into this you will most likely feel completely lost.

With all that out of the way let's not just leave it at some tie-in product for the game level because Kingsglaive has problems as a movie, too. From really poor script which leaves matters just hanging in the air and never explained, to characters barely getting any identity or screen presence of their own beyond "he's the token MC so you're supposed to care" and probably the most glaring problem I had with the movie - such poor direction where scenes end with no logical endings and camera is all over the place. Even during combat scenes movie's reliance on weapon teleportation does it no favors as I felt lost following who was moving where and why. I think aforementioned teleportation simply doesn't lend itself at all to movie going experience and it shows. Like I touched upon previously the script runs entirely on convenience and ends up delivery a really choppy story where it goes through the motions and hopes you'll be distracted by pretty visuals to not notice. Except even animations and lip-sync aren't that great at times, especially the latter considering this has native English voices. It's just all over the place and shows signs of either rushed development or just plain not giving a damn when you consider movie-only character redesigns are featured on couple of characters. Does Square Enix really imagine anyone but mostly fans of their franchise will check this one out?

Would I recommend Kingsglaive? Hell no. In fact, I just might re-watch Advent Children which is somehow a superior movie.