Bayonetta 2 is the sequel to Platinum Games’ 2009 “Non-stop Climax Action” game, Bayonetta. Bayonetta 2 was originally in development for the PS3 and 360, but the publisher, Sega, cancelled it before it was completed. Nintendo later revived the project with their funding, and it was finally released in 2014 for the Wii U. It is now on the Nintendo Switch with amiibo support and a few graphical improvements.
Bayonetta 2 is set shortly after the first game, and is a sequel, but it also sets up the events of the first game. It starts off with Bayonetta on a quest to save her Umbran sister, Jeanne, from Hell, but turns into a pseudo prequel, explaining a bunch of stuff about Balder, the Witch Hunts, and Aesir by the end. It’s interesting stuff, if you’re a fan of the world of Bayonetta, but the storytelling is just as bad as in the first game. It always feels like they’re trying really hard to make the story more confusing and mysterious than it actually is. It’s not like anyone is playing for the story, though. We’re here for the Non-stop Climax Action!
Where Bayonetta 2 really shines is in the combat. The original Bayonetta set a new bar for over the top stylish action, with smoother combat flow and crazier moves than anything in the Devil May Cry and Ninja Gaiden games. Bayonetta 2 doesn’t revolutionize the genre, but it does improve on the original by refining and streamlining the combat. Bayonetta 2 makes it easier to keep your combos going, gives you more options for launching opponents into the air, and makes it easier to stay in the air. Everything feels incredibly smooth, and I always feel like I have a move that does what I need to do, or gets me where I want to go in the middle of a fight. They also finally put the lock-on button on the left trigger, which makes it much easier on my hands.
The main Story mode has you going through the city of Noatum on your way to the mountain of Fimbulventr, where the gates of Hell are. These are the real gates of Hell, and not Rodin’s bar. Why Rodin doesn’t just let you use the portal he uses when he goes to turn an LP into a weapon, I don’t know. Rodin is even waiting for you in Hell when you get there. As you make your way through the levels, you’ll fight hordes of Angels and Demons, which drop Halos when you kill them, which you can use to buy new moves, accessories, costumes, recovery items, and alternate versions of the weapons, which you can put on your feet.
You might not think of exploration when you think of Bayonetta, but doing so is encouraged and rewarded. Every level is full of collectables, treasure chests, and battles which you might miss if you're not exploring. You can also find portals to the fire realm of Muspelheim, where you can take on combat challenges in an arena. Some of these are timed battles, and others have specific rules, like kill everyone without dropping your combo, or kill everyone without touching the ground. After finishing a challenge, you’ll be rewarded with an item, like a Witch Heart, which will increase your max health.
The other gameplay mode in the game is Tag Climax mode, which lets you play co-op in monster filled arenas, like the ones in the story mode, and against standalone bosses. You can play with someone locally on another system (2 copies required), online, or with the CPU. This mode is pretty fun, and you can unlock some stuff while playing it. There doesn't seem to be a lot of people playing it online, though.
I think the biggest change to the game from the Wii U version is the addition of amiibo support. You can scan up to 32 amiibos per day, and they give you halos, items, and costumes. I only have 29 amiibos, but even with that, I was able to buy all the moves, a weapon alt, and an accessory right after unlocking Rodin’s store. I also unlocked a bunch of costumes in the process. All the Nintendo costumes from the Wii U versions are unlockable by just scanning an amiibo. There's a Link costume, Samus costume, Daisy and Peach costumes, and a Fox costume, which will turn jets into Arwings in one stage. You can also unlock all this stuff through regular play, but amiibos cut out a lot of the grind. Buying all the moves right away does make the game easier, but I think the game is much more fun when you have all the moves. If you have amiibos, I say use them.
The graphics look pretty much the same as they did on Wii U, but the framerate is much better. It still runs at 720p, and the framerate is still not locked at 60, but it is much better than in the Wii U version. I think the design of new characters, like Loki and Aesir, are kind of lame in comparison to the designs of the older characters, but the Noatum and Inferno designs are just as good as the environment designs in the first game. Loki looks like a white haired version of Riley from Boondocks, if you ask me.
Bayonetta 2’s soundtrack is full of great tunes, including new ones and returning ones from the first game, but they're all overshadowed by the 2 main themes. Sometimes it feels like every other song is “Tomorrow is Mine” or “Moon River”. Tomorrow is Mine has a few versions, and plays during a lot of the battles. It's the “Bayonetta is about to kick some ass” song. Moon River is a cover of the Andy Williams song, which like “Fly Me to the Moon” from Bayonetta 1, was also covered by Frank Sinatra, and is played all over the game.
Bayonetta 2 doesn't have the impact that the first game had, but it is still a great game. I think it's a better game than the first one, but it is more of the same. It feels very polished, it runs better than ever, and amiibo support cuts out a lot of the grind to get all the moves and costumes, if you choose to use them. My only real complaint is that the game feels shorter than the first. I wish it had a few more stages and bosses, because the stages get really short towards the end of the game, and fighting some of the bosses so many times had me thinking, “This guy again?”.
Secret of Mana is a remake of SquareSoft’s 1993 SNES action RPG by the same name. It's the second game in the Mana series, following the Game Boy game, Final Fantasy Adventure. The series is not part of any main Final Fantasy game universe, but it does share some things with FF, like Moogles and Chocobos. This remake features new 3D graphics, remixed music, and voice acting. It's available for $40 on PC and PS4, and for $30 on Vita.
The story follows a boy named Randi, who pulls the legendary Sword of Mana out a rock one day, like Excalibur. He was just looking for something to cut some tall grass with, but pulling the sword out unleashed a bunch of monsters onto the world. Now, he must restore the sword’s power by synchronizing it to the 8 Mana seeds, and use it to save the world from evil. Along the way, he meets a girl named Primm and a little Sprite named Poppoi, who join him on his quest. The story is simple and cliche, but it has its moments.
The story is the same as on SNES, but there have been some additions to flesh out the 3 main characters. All-new fully voice acted skits now play at Inns after major story events. After choosing to sleep at an Inn, the heroes will gather around the table and talk about recent events or whatever’s on their mind. Sometimes these skits are funny, sometimes they're serious, and sometimes supporting characters, like Watts the blacksmith and the Elementals, show up for some funny scenes. Inns are where you heal and save, so these skits might play at inconvenient times, but they're very well done and let you to get to know the heroes, so I never skipped them.
The most notable update is the new 3D graphics. The whole game has been recreated in polygonal 3D with “hand-painted” textures. I think the 3D models look pretty good. They are low poly, but they look like 3D versions of the original sprites. The textures do a good job of maintaining the anime look, but they’re displayed in a low resolution, and don't have any kind of effects for specular highlights, reflections, or any kind of bump mapping. The lighting is also very basic, and only a few things cast real-time shadows. The game looks like the low budget Vita game that it is. I don't think it's ugly, but there is definitely a lot of room for improvement.
I don't like the new music a whole lot. I think they took too many liberties with it. Sometimes they add in weird sounds or new parts to it, and none of it actually sounds good. Which is a shame, because the stuff that sounds like the original music sounds pretty good. Thankfully, there is an option to play with high-quality versions of the original SNES music. It still sounds like MIDI music, but it sounds a lot better than it did on the SNES, and much better than the new stuff.
The game also features full voice acting for all dialogue in the game, in both English and Japanese. The English voice acting is pretty bad, so I played with the Japanese VO, which sounds like something out of a 90s PS1 import, but somehow fits the game better. I can at least brush up on my Japanese while playing. You can also turn the VO volume all the way off, if you don't like either one.
Underneath the 3D graphics and remixed music, the game is pretty much the same as it was on SNES. There have only been a few quality of life improvements, like being able to increase the max item limit from 4 to 12 in the options, a new “Action Grid” that's not a grid anymore, and being able to set item and magic shortcuts to the L and R buttons. You still travel from town to town, talk to NPCs, and fight through dungeons to find the Mana seeds. The combat is the same, the weapons and magic are the same, and your party members still get stuck on everything.
The dungeons are usually pretty easy and straightforward. You don't even have to fight many enemies. You can just run past most of them. There are some puzzles, but the most you'll ever be asked to do is find switches to push, or use one of your weapons or magic to get past an obstacle. For example, you can use your axe to break stalagmites in cave areas, and use magic to activate crystal orbs, which act like switches. The first few dungeons are pretty simple, and they get more complex as you progress through the game. Sadly, just when the dungeons are getting really good, the quality of them drops off a cliff in the later half of the game.
Secret of Mana was originally supposed to come out on the SNES CD addon, AKA the Nintendo PlayStation. When the system was cancelled, SquareSoft moved the game from CD to cartridge, and cut a bunch of content to fit it in a cart. Some dungeons in the later half of the game are only 2 or 3 rooms, they reuse a bunch of bosses, and don't have anywhere near the build up to them that the earlier ones do. It sucks that it's still like that, but they obviously were not given the budget to fix this in the remake.
At a glance, SoM looks like some kind of 2D Zelda clone, but it's actually much slower paced, and has more RPG elements. The combat in SoM uses a charging system that lets you perform more powerful attacks depending on how long you hold down the attack button. After a normal attack, your action meter drops to 0% and starts to quickly fill back up to 100%. A 100% attack does normal damage, and anything below does a lot less damage. It's not percentage based. Even if you hit the button at 80%, you just do less damage, not 80% of your normal damage, so it doesn't pay to mash buttons. You can hold the attack button down after a normal attack to charge up and perform special attacks. Depending on how many times you’ve upgraded your weapon, you'll be able to charge up multiple meters for even stronger attacks. There's a lot of behind the scenes dice rolling, so your gear and levels affect your hit rate and damage. It's a far cry from the skill-based combat of a Zelda game.
Secret of Mana also has 8 different schools of magic, represented by the 8 elementals that will join you along your quest. Randi can't use magic, but Primm and Poppoi each get their own set of spells. Primm mostly gets healing and stat boosting spells, while Poppoi mostly gets attack spells. Each elemental gains experience when you use their magic, so you can level them up for even stronger spells. You mostly rescue elementals at the end of a dungeon, so you'll be getting new ones even late into the game. Since every elemental starts at level 0, leveling a late game Elemental to the max of level 8 can be an hour plus grind.
The game has been patched now, but it was very buggy when I played through it. I lost about 4 hours worth of progress because of crashes. I came across bugs that prevented my party from attacking, got my characters stuck in weird poses, and one bug trapped me in a dialogue loop. I almost quit playing the game after the 3rd or so time it crashed on me in the middle of a dungeon. Hopefully the patch fixed these problems.
New graphics, music, and VO aside, this game just isn't as great as I remember it being. It's a slightly above average SNES ARPG. It has lovable characters and decent dungeons, but the story doesn't hold a candle to some of Square’s other SNES games, like FF6 and Chrono Trigger, the combat isn't very satisfying, and the missing content is a real bummer. If you're okay with that and the Vita quality graphics, you might find something entertaining in the world of Mana.
Iconoclast - a person who attacks cherished beliefs or institutions. A destroyer of images used in religious worship. A critic, skeptic, heretic, rebel, renegade, an infidel. That’s the definition of iconoclast. It should give you a pretty good idea of where the story of this game is headed. Iconoclasts is a side scrolling action adventure game from developer, Joakim Sandberg. Maybe you’ve heard of Noitu Love or Legend of Princess. It's that guy. Iconoclasts is available on PS4, Vita, Mac, Linux, and PC for $19.99.
Iconoclasts is set in a world ruled by an organization known as One Concern. One Concern tells people where they can live, chooses everyone's jobs, and decides who can have babies. They're led by a woman known as “Mother”, who is the only person that can talk directly to “Him”. “He” is their God, who lives on the Moon. High ranking members of One Concern have Ivory blood, which gives them superpowers. Ivory rules everything in this world. It's basically a metaphor for petroleum. It's extracted from the earth, it powers everything, and the extraction of it is causing the planet to literally break apart.
You play as Robin, a young woman who recently lost her father, and is following in his footsteps as a mechanic. There are cars in this world, but I never saw Robin working on one, so I don't think she's that kind of mechanic. In this world, only the One Concern are allowed to be mechanics, because mechanics fix things that work with Ivory, and commoners are not allowed to handle Ivory. Robin is a rebel who illegally fixes things for the commoners. She's not going to let the man tell her what she can and can't fix!
The story is kind of a mishmash of different videogames and anime, but it's entertaining, and it has some cool characters. Even though she's a silent protagonist, Robin is very emotive and has a bunch of cute animations that always let you know how she's feeling. All of the characters that join Robin along the way have interesting backstories, and are likeable in their own way. I especially liked Robin’s friend Mina, who's a brash Isi pirate. She lives on ship in the sea, but it's an ancient spaceship underwater, which is more like Atlantis than the Merry-go. The Isi are a sort of Mexican inspired people who revere their dead ancestors, and seem to have Dia de los Muertos style traditions.
My biggest issues with the game are its dialogue and storytelling. Robin and Mina are lovable characters, and the story gives context to the gameplay, but the way the story is told is a little heavy-handed and predictable. If you’ve played games like Half-Life 2 or Xenogears, you’re going to start seeing where this game’s story is going right away. The name, Iconoclasts, is a pretty big hint, too. I also thought some of the acts of violence seemed out of place, like they were there for shock value. The dialogue is full of flowery language, and characters often ramble on and on during story sequences. This, combined with the sometimes awkward translation, made it hard for me to to pay attention whenever some of the main villains were talking.
I think the gameplay is where this game truly shines. Robin’s basic actions include jumping, shooting her guns, and swinging her giant wrench. Robin can use her wrench to hit enemies, turn nuts to open doors and flip switches, and even glide on zip lines. You only get 3 different guns in the game, but you can use them in many different ways, so they're more than just 3 attacks. Robin can combine her 3 basic actions (along with upgrades) in different ways to do everything in the game. For example, after getting the electric wrench upgrade, you can charge up your wrench to add an electric charge to your grenade launcher and shoot electric grenades, which can power switches out of your reach. I love how much mileage the game gets out of these few abilities.
Combat in Iconoclasts feels really good. There's something about the hit stun and flash that happens when you hit enemies that feels very satisfying. It's kind of like the little pause that happens when you attack in some Zelda games. It makes attacks feel like they have weight behind them and have a lot of impact.
The environments always make sense within the story, and they're all full of creative puzzles, challenging enemies, and light platforming. This game is more about the puzzles and exploration, but it mixes platforming in with some of the puzzles in cool ways. A lot of times, you'll be rewarded with a treasure chest after completing a platforming challenge. These chests all contain crafting materials. Robin can use these to craft many different types of “tweaks” which upgrade her abilities in different ways. She can equip up to 3 of them at a time, and they do things like let her hold her breath longer underwater, increase the attack power of her wrench, and make the electric charge of her wrench last longer. I crafted and equipped a few tweaks early on in the game, and then pretty much ignored them for the rest of the game. I never felt like I really needed any of the tweaks I found. This made finding chests much less exciting.
The graphics in Iconoclast are among the best I’ve ever seen in a 2D game. The art style is cute and colorful, and reminds me a bit of Cave Story. The style is simple and cartoon-like, but the environments are full of details. Nearly all space on the screen is filled with something, even the spaces behind walls most of the time. You can see landmarks in the background, leaves falling in forested areas, and weird details that will only make sense once you know the story of the world, like the weird cube shaped rocks and bushes.
The music in Iconoclasts is also very good. I especially like how varied it is. The title screen music sounds like some kind of synth-pop Devo track. The cheerful videogamey music around Robin's house at the beginning of the game sounds like something out of Wonder Boy. There's even a few tracks that sound like they're referencing Castlevania and Metroid music. My favorite track is the desert theme, which sounds like upbeat South American pan flute music.
I had a really good time with this game. It was one of those games I kept thinking about when I wasn't playing it. The storytelling isn't great, but the characters are cool, everything makes sense within the story, and the graphics and music are really nice. This is definitely one of the better indie Metroidvanias I’ve played.
Owlboy is a side scrolling action adventure game from indie developer, D-Pad Studio. It features beautiful 2D graphics, and gameplay inspired by games like Zelda and Kid Icarus. Development on Owlboy started in 2007, and lasted nearly 10 years. Owlboy came out on PC in November of 2016, after multiple delays and development reboots. It's now on the Nintendo Switch eShop for $25, coming soon to PS4 and XBO, and will get a physical release for PS4 and NS on May 29, 2018.
Owlboy takes place in a world where people live on floating islands, and Pirates terrorize the skies on airships. You play as a young Owl named Otus, who was born a mute. The Owls of this world are the remnants of a highly advanced ancient civilization. They're kind of like the Chozo. Lately, the floating islands have started to drift even higher into the sky, and the people believe the technology in the ancient Owl temples is the cause. To make matters worse, Pirates have begun attacking the towns and raiding the nearby Owl temples for their ancient relics, which they plan to use to gain great power. As a result of these attacks, war between the Pirates and the people on the floating isles has broken out.
All this conflict is really just the backdrop for the real story of the game, though. The story of Owlboy is a much more personal one about bonds, living up to other's expectations, and redemption. The characters in Owlboy all have a purpose, and a backstory that has led them to this point. Owlboy is about more than saving the world. These characters have things to prove. It's not often you see a story like this in a Metroidvania. It's more like the kind of story I'd expect to find in an RPG.
Besides having the ability to freely fly all over, the main mechanic that sets Owlboy apart is the ally system. Different characters will join Otus during his quest, and each new friend brings new abilities you can use to attack, solve puzzles, and overcome obstacles. Otus’ friends also do all the talking for him. Because he's mute. One ally has a fiery shotgun, Geddy has a handgun, and another ally can shoot Spider-Man-like web balls and zip around using his web like a hookshot. You can use their abilities to light torches, zip to previously inaccessible areas, and break obstacles in your way. You can also drop allies on top of switches if you need something to keep them pressed down. Allies don't take damage, you can switch between them with the press of a button, and you get an item that teleports them to you at the end of the first dungeon, so you never have to worry about where they are after that. This isn't an Ico or escort mission type of thing.
You start the game in Vellie, Otus’s hometown and main hub area of the game. After talking to a few NPCs, and meeting your first ally, Geddy, you head off into an Owl temple, which you can only get to with Geddy’s shooting ability. These Owl temples are the dungeons of the game, but there are dungeons in places besides Owl temples, like one inside a Pirate airship. The first dungeon is the tutorial, so it’s mostly teaching you how to use your ally to press switches, how to stun and attack enemies, and how to grab, carry, and throw things. I thought most dungeons were pretty good. Nothing mind blowing, but good. There was one I really didn't like, though. One of them takes place in complete darkness, except for a circle of light around you, for about half the dungeon, and you have to go around lighting torches with your ally. The main challenge of the dungeon is not running into hazards outside of your circle of light. I don't think this is clever or interesting level design. It was just annoying.
There is a boss at the end of every dungeon, and I didn't think any of them were bad, but none of them were amazing either. They just weren't very clever or challenging. Every one of them was pretty easy and straightforward. Aside from their big beautiful sprites, none of them were especially memorable.
There are a lot of indie, 2D, pixel art games on digital game stores these days, but few look as good as Owlboy. The backgrounds in Owlboy are beautiful, varied, and full of details that tell the story of this world. The characters are full of personality, and have a bunch of different animations for attacks, movement, and even facial animations. You can always tell how Otus is feeling, because of the look on his face, or the way he walks. Owlboy's graphics are on par with those in games from studios like Inti Creates and WayForward.
The soundtrack in Owlboy is very ambient and subdued. Sometimes, there isn't any music at all, and all you hear is the wind and your wings flapping. You can tell that a lot of thought was put into when music plays, and I like that, but besides a couple of tracks, I just didn't think the music was very memorable. It just kind of blends into the background and doesn't stand out to me.
I must mention that the game crashed on me 6 times during my playthrough. Thankfully, the game autosaves often, so I never lot much progress, but it did kind of ruin the mood. I asked D-Pad Studio about the crashes on Twitter, and they said there's a memory leak, and that there's a patch coming, so hopefully that'll be the end of that.
I was weary coming into this game. Some reviews rated it very highly, but I’ve also seen a lot of people say they were disappointed with it. I guess they were expecting something else. Owlboy is not a fast-paced action game or a super challenging platformer, it's a relaxed, easy to play, story driven game, and that's what sets it apart from the Metroids and Shantaes. The gameplay is good, but the beautiful 2D graphics, bittersweet story, and relatable characters are the real highlights of the game. I could have done with something better than the dark dungeon, but besides that, and the crashes, I had a good time with this game. It's not the masterpiece that some reviews make it out to be, but it's worth checking out if you want to play a different take on the genre.
