Tag: PS4

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Game Ramblings #82 – Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition

More Info from Bandai Namco

  • Genre: JRPG
  • Platform: PS4
  • Also Available On: Xbox One, Switch, Windows
  • Originally Released On: Xbox 360, PS3 (Japan only)

TL;DR

  • Roughly decade old Tales of title remastered for current generation, first time seeing expanded PS3 content in North America
  • Game that has aged well despite some of the improvements to the overall Tales of gameplay since its release

I had the weirdest lack of memory about the second half of this game as I was playing it, as if I hadn’t ever gotten that far in the original release. This is despite me basically finishing all Tales of titles since Symphonia. From playing it this time, I knew it wasn’t because I didn’t enjoy the game – the combat in this entry is probably what I’d consider the best representation of the more classic side-scrolling Tales of combat. I also know it wasn’t because of a difficulty spike as I never really had a point where I felt like the difficulty curve was anything but correct. At the end of the day I never did figure that out and I never hooked up my 360 to figure out how far I had originally gotten, but in my 50 or so hours with this game, I came away knowing that this still holds up as a fantastic RPG worth playing.

Combat is still the main focus here to no surprise.

Combat in Vesperia is about as close as I could point to this series’ classic combat style still playable on a modern platform. Games after this added new elements that really played with the system – Graces removed TP and added a bunch of side stepping, Xillia played around a lot more with a 3D battle space, Berseria played around with swapping characters in real time while pushing further into 3D. Basically, Vesperia pretty closely represents the end result of years of them iterating on a 2D system, and it is still a thrill to play.

The main focus here is still some really fun and fast paced combos consisting of basic attacks and special attacks. Where this game really pushed things is in the use of gear skills. Some armor, and nearly all weapons have skills that can be earned over time. Once earned, the character permanently unlocks the skill as a toggleable item. These can range from passive stat boosts to attack replacements. The real fun ones for combat end up being the combo modifiers.

These can extend your combo, make parts of your combos different elements, make parts of your combo scale better and more. It basically becomes an involved metagame in trying to build out your attack combo in a way that best suits your style in order to maximize both damage, and in many ways maximize the amount of time you can stun lock your opponents. After all, more stuns equals less damage taken equals better chance at winning. The balance here is incredibly rewarding when you find the skill setup that best meets your style, and gives a lot of flexibility to the player in fighting specifically how they want.

Get used to these guys, you’ll be spending all your time with them.

That’s not to say that all parts of the combat system have aged incredibly well, but they’re in ways that are sadly familiar to Tales of players. The AI in general can basically be depended on to do the worst thing possible, even if you tweak their AI setup. In the end my best course of action was usually keeping one person on full time healing, and not allow them to attack, thereby keeping them out of danger and having to focus on healing only themselves. The other AI generally had their best result in using ONLY basic attacks, or they’d sometimes stand around just waiting to use skills. I’d much rather them be doing basic attacks to stun the enemies, and allow me to run around doing larger damage under my own control. The stun locks also work both ways, with some of the later bosses being basically stun lock management and a setup where I spent more time free running avoiding attacks, then doing poke damage when possible instead of actively being in combat. In a lot of points bosses can basically stun lock you 100->0 if you get hit with the wrong thing and your AI partners don’t interrupt the chain.

Visually the game has held up well, with a few more modern enhancements keeping this one up to speed despite its age.

The rest of the experience is unsurprising. Visually, the anime style that the Tales of series has always used has aged really well. The resolution bump on the new consoles has helped out a bit, and some light use of depth of field and similar screen effects has given this a bit more modern flair. The story is a bit take it or leave it, with the usual amount of incoming apocalypse melodrama typical of the series. However, the characters are generally likable and the banter between them is a lot of fun. This one also has pretty solid voice acting, and the entire set of skits has also gained the voice acting done for the PS3 Japan release. Overall, this one really didn’t need to do much to still hold up, but the little pieces done to remaster the title keep it up to modern expectations for the series.

I guess my end recommendation here is basically to play this, especially if you’ve liked any of the Tales of games on modern consoles. The battle system would be a bit different than those, but still has great flow despite its often 2D nature. The gear skills in particular are a customization wrinkle that I wish more games in general would take advantage of. The rest of the experience is typical of Tales of games, and that should frame whether or not you think you’d like it. However, even having played it before, I still put the 50 hours in to finish it again so that should give the best kind of idea of how much I think this is worth playing.

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Game Ramblings #81 – Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown

More Info from Bandai Namco

  • Genre: Arcade Flight Sim
  • Platform: PS4
  • Also Available On: Xbox One, Windows

TL;DR

  • Really entertaining arcade flight sim with solid combat mechanics
  • Gorgeous visuals that are a huge step up since the last main entry
  • Expansive skill tree / equipment tree gives a bit more variety and depth to the game’s upgrade path

It’s been too long.

Seriously though, Ace Combat 6 came out in 2007. There was a PS3 spinoff, some really weird free to play stuff, and a decent PSP title, but nothing in the main line for over a decade. I’ve always really loved this series, and from where I’m sitting writing this I can see the PS2 entries lined up, so I had every digit crossed hoping this game was going to be a great return to form for the series. I’m happy to report that it more than lives up to the quality of the series’ past.


That tweet does more than about anything I can do to explain how gorgeous and exciting it is to simply fly around in Ace 7. The controls are as fluid as they’ve ever been. It simply feels easy to fly around, which is really nice because it allows you to focus on everything else going on. This being an Unreal Engine 4 title though, it comes with some real nice bells and whistles. Diving into clouds is simply breathtaking. Water hits your camera, your vision goes away, and it really feels like you might just get lost. Dive into a thunderstorm like I did up there and you’re in for even more fun surprises if you manage to get hit by lightning.

Combat is still largely what it has been in past titles. Deck out your planes in an assortment of missiles and bombs. If it’s a sea-based mission, maybe setup some air-to-ship weaponry. If you’re diving around through canyons, maybe use some seeking bombs for ground targets. The ease of controls just make it all super accessible. Flying is on your stick, throttle is on your shoulders, and weapons are all on your face buttons. This leaves you always on the right buttons when in a dog fight, and boy do those deliver.

It’s not always going to be small planes you’re up against. There’s definitely larger things to destroy.

This game is a relatively modern take on combat, and weaves a story around the transition between pilot-based combat and drone-based combat, along with the implications of this if the drones are able to operate independently on their own. This leaves a lot of room for drone movement to lean well into the fantastic, and give you dog fights that are well outside the norm. While you’re weaving and bobbing, the drones are sometimes literally running circles around you. The fights become a lot more opportunistic in the past for when you can actually launch missiles or machine gun fire that have a chance to hit, but this all feels pretty fair. There’s still a lot of skill in managing to avoid being attacked, particularly since there’s a lot more room for the drones to come in behind you quickly, and you have to be a lot more on the ball for activating your attacks in really small windows of time to get hit your target. Overall while it felt very familiar, it was definitely a new experience in a lot of ways having to be so quick to react.

The aircraft tree is your new way to buy planes and upgrades, and it’s pretty significant.

It’s also worth mentioning how much I enjoyed the equipment upgrade path that Ace 7 brought in. Past games have always had the ability to buy new planes, but this one goes full RPG and brings in a skill tree. The various branches of the tree have planes and weapons in them, but they also have upgrade tokens that can be purchased. At plane loadout time, these tokens can then be added to your plane via a point-cap system to modify the plane to your liking. Want tighter yaw to really push through turns? Lean into maneuverability upgrades. Frustrated by how slow some of the special weapons reload? Lean into upgrades that improve reload speed. Because they’re point capped, you can’t necessarily build some uber broken plane, but this whole system provides a really nice way to just generally get upgrades as well as provide some nice customization to your planes if you really find one that you like.

Flying is fun right from the start, and it’s never looked better for the series.

Realistically this game isn’t for everyone. End of the day it’s a game about flying and shooting, so it’s gonna hit a limited market. However, it’s the kind of pure joyous action that I always get a kick out of, and never really understood why more games like it weren’t available. Having been 12 years since the last main entry, I’m glad that Ace Combat is finally getting another chance to shine because this is a damn good entry in the series, and finally one that pretty much everyone will have access to play.

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Game Ramblings #80 – Shadow of the Tomb Raider

More Info from Square-Enix

  • Genre: Action/Adventure
  • Platform: PS4
  • Also Available On: Xbox One, Windows, macOS, Linux

TL;DR

  • Consistently good combat, exploration, and puzzle solving
  • Entertaining story involving the legend of the city of Paititi and a mix of Inca and Maya lore
  • On console, nice option to prefer framerate over visual quality. 60 FPS feels really good during the heavy movement segments of the game.

If you’ve played the prior two games in this trilogy, you know what to expect – solid semi-open world exploration, good puzzle dungeons, excellent stealth mechanics, and fun combat when pressed into action. Although this is definitely starting to trend towards being formulaic, there’s a few things here that made this feel like the best iteration on the gameplay that’s come out of the trilogy.

The game is only really a semi-open world experience, but the handful of larger towns are still fun to explore.

One of the reasons that I’ve really enjoyed this trilogy is that it’s only really openish. It’s got some open world trappings in terms of a relatively seamless world and a ton of things to collect in it, but in general this is still a fairly linear experience. The handful of times you get an open-style area, it’s really to allow you to breath between strictly linear story segments and give you a place to return to when a story spot is complete. These larger areas also give you the push to explore to find tombs – after all this IS Tomb Raider – that act as a significant side item to do.

The tombs are the best part of the game, giving you a mix of puzzle areas to engage in.

The prior titles in the reboot series had their share of tombs to go into, but it never really felt like a focus. While the content here is still entirely optional, the quality and count of tombs available in this game feels more significant than before. Its these tombs and crypts that are the best part of the game for me, and pushed me to seem them out whenever I could.

Each open area typically has somewhere between 3-6 hidden areas to explore with a single focus in each one. Some tombs are focused on manipulation of light to open doors to proceed further. Some focus on weight-based puzzles to open up paths to move on. A couple of them really end up being purely about climbing from point A to B without dying. These are entirely optional experience, but they’re worth seeking out simply because they are so much fun to complete. On their own, you could make a game out of a series of these and it would be worth playing, but as a part of the greater experience they still stand out. It also helps that they tend to have skill rewards at the end to really push the need to complete them.

I’m a sucker for stealth games and bow + arrow games, and this gives me both in great supply.

Combat remains largely the same as previous iterations, but is still a ton of fun. That said, the fact that there is less of it throughout the game oddly makes it feel even better. The previous titles had similar problems to Uncharted where almost any story area had obvious segments of a room of bad guys, then a room of jumping, then a room of bad guys, etc. Shadow significantly reduces this, and the game really only ends up having a handful of significant combat events in the entire game. Of this, most of them can also be completed entirely through strong stealth mechanics. When you do end up firing weapons, it’s usually for a strong story-reason, and luckily the handful of weapons (pistol, shotgun, auto rifle, and in particular the bow) all feel solid to fire.

Overall, Shadow felt like an appropriate ending to the reboot trilogy, and probably a good ending for the series on the current generation of hardware. There’s some obvious fluff to the experience that could be trimmed away, particularly with side quests that generally involve running around towns doing nothing in particular, but the overall game feels like it has reached a solid peak. Combat is fun, the puzzle solving is the best it’s been, and the origin story for Lara wrapped up in a relatively satisfying way. I’m hoping the next generation of hardware allows the series to stretch into new directions in a way similar to God of War, but for now I’m happy in where this one has ended up and can’t wait to see where Lara’s adventures take us next.