Massively Multiplayer: Gaming In The New Millennium

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Summer 2005 (Part 10) - iPod Plays With Sega Classics
  • Index

    • RySenkari

    Sonic Blaze

    Sonic Blaze is an action platformer released exclusively for the iPod Play. The game plays quite similarly to TTL's Sonic The Hedgehog 4, in that it's a primarily 2-D game with some 3-D segments, essentially some bonus rooms and boss battles are in 3-D with a few other short sequences also in 3-D, but for the most part it plays like a classic 2-D Sonic game. The graphics are in 3-D, but have a slight cel shading element to them that make them a bit more cartoony than games like Sonic Neon and Sonic Rover. The game takes place across eight stages, divided into four acts each, with four stages being retreads of earlier Sonic stages (such as the first stage, Blazing Hill Zone, being a remake of Green Hill Zone) and four stages being entirely original. As implied by the title, the game itself has a fire motif: Sonic himself has a new fire-themed design change, and when he runs or spins across a stage, he leaves a temporarily fire trail that can burn enemies and objects. Sonic is joined by a new animal friend: Flare the Tortoise, a turtle with flaming nitro jets strapped to his body to make him as fast as Sonic. Flare is a fairly generic "badass" type character in the vein of Knuckles, but has a lot of science know-how as well (a lot of series fans compare him to Dom from the Fast and the Furious movies, and wish that Vin Diesel had voiced him). Flare is attempting to battle the ice queen Agalania, a powerful witch who has frozen Flare's home and who seeks to freeze Sonic's realm also. In order to stop Agalania, the animals who live in Sonic's world have artifically warmed a number of areas, making for the "Blazing" stages that Sonic and Flare encounter over the course of the game. Flare himself is playable in one act in every stage, except for Stage 7 (Frozen Tundra Zone, Flare's former home now frozen over) where he's playable throughout. Flare can shoot projectiles at enemies or run them over, though his powers are limited by how much fuel he has, and needs to refill his reserves throughout the level or switch with Sonic if he's stranded. Despite the game's somewhat retro playstyle, the game features full voice acting and CGI cutscenes throughout to enhance the game's storyline elements. Though Sonic and Flare are the primary characters, other familiar characters such as Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Rouge, and Corona make appearances throughout the story, either helping out Sonic and Flare or being captured and having to be rescued. The game features a lyrical theme song, "Blazing Fast", performed by Crush 40.

    As the first Sonic game designed primarily for a handheld console since the Game Gear, Sonic Blaze was given a lot of hype and anticipation, with fans wondering if the game would translate well to the medium and if the return to a retro playstyle would be a successful one. Ultimately, the game was considered a critical success, with reviews about on par with last year's Sonic Rover and favorable comparisons to 1996's Sonic the Hedgehog 4. The gameplay and fire mechanics were especially highly praised, as was the gameplay of Flare, a character with more powers than Sonic but with a limited supply of that power. The cutscenes and storyline were considered to be a bit lacking, but the CGI cutscenes, which altogether totaled about a half hour and could be skipped, didn't drag the game down too much. Ultimately, Sonic Blaze was both a critical and commercial hit, becoming one of the year's best selling handheld titles and going a long way to convince Sega holdouts to spring for the iPod Play.

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    Gunstar Heroes Galaxy

    Gunstar Heroes Galaxy is a run-and-gun game developed by Treasure for the iPod Play. It features the same classic run and gun gameplay of previous Gunstar Heroes titles, though the graphics are in a more stylistic 2-D style than the 3-D of the Katana's Rerisen. The game itself takes place across nine different planets, with two stages on each planet and somewhat longer stages than those in Rerisen. Whereas Rerisen distinguished itself by featuring a MASSIVE amount of weapon combinations (700+, as opposed to about 150 different combinations in Galaxy), Galaxy distinguishes itself by having more enemy variety than any other game in the series. Each of the game's nine planets has its own contingent of enemies to battle, with different strategies required for each one. For this reason, eight of the game's planets are accessible right from the start of the game, with the ninth being selectable after the other eight planets are conquered. The game also features a new protagonist: Terric, galactic space hero, who wears a cape and spacesuit into battle as he fights across the game's nine worlds. Each of the nine worlds has its own distinct motif: there are futuristic worlds, strange biological worlds, medieval worlds, etc., and the enemy fighting strategies on those worlds corresponds heavily to the world's motif. As par for the course in a Treasure game, each world has multiple boss enemies to fight, each with its own distinct strategy, and many being very difficult: in fact, many fans of the series say this is the toughest Gunstar Heroes game yet. The presentation is a bit of a step back from Rerisen: there's hardly any voice acting to be had, and all cutscenes are done in-game, not via the use of animation.

    Gunstar Heroes Galaxy is considered a solid run and gun, and fans of the series do praise its difficulty and diverse strategic options, but overall it isn't seen as being as good as Rerisen. Sales are a bit slow for the game in North America, and even Japanese fans balk a bit after an initial sales spike at release. Still, it's low budget enough to turn a profit, and it was never expected to move iPod Play systems like Sonic Blaze, so overall, the game is seen as a success.

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    Ecco: The Mysterious Cove

    Ecco: The Mysterious Cove is an action/exploration title for the iPod Play. It continues the Ecco The Dolphin series, and plays much like the series' earlier titles, with a dolphin named Ecco exploring the ocean, battling enemies, and saving his friends. This game takes place almost entirely in and around a cove where strange and dangerous creatures lurk, guarding a secret that can save the ocean from pollution and destruction. The Mysterious Cove, like Sonic Blaze and Gunstar Heroes Galaxy, was designed by Apple to largely mimic the successful games of Sega's past, and on one level it does succeed: the game plays much like the old Ecco games, with beautiful music, strange (and sometimes horrifying) creatures, and a vast ocean to explore. However, in the eyes of many, it emulates those old games a bit too well: exploration gets repetitive fairly quickly, and so does the music. While the music is considered quite beautiful, the game doesn't feature a lot of tracks, and the ones that do get played tend to wind up playing ad nauseum as the player explores areas over and over again. There's not a lot going on in The Mysterious Cove, and players tend to get easily lost. It's got a lot of the same problems that Ecco's Water World on the Katana had, though Ecco's Water World gave players a lot more to do and had more indicators about where the player should go next.

    Reviews for the game are mediocre, as opposed to the overall good reviews enjoyed by Ecco's Water World. This comes at a great disappointment to Steve Jobs, who considers the Ecco series to be one of Sega's most valuable properties, and one of the few game franchises he chooses to indulge in during his free time. Jobs was personally involved in choosing the game's developer, and though Jobs himself enjoyed what he played of The Mysterious Cove, he blames the developer for poor design choices and making the game too confusing. The game is also somewhat of a commercial failure, again, unlike Ecco's Water World which enjoyed success on the same level as Knuckles And Bit. In what is overall considered to be a good year for the iPod Play, The Mysterious Cove sticks out like somewhat of a sore thumb, and is a bit of a sore spot for Jobs, who doesn't want to give up on the franchise quite yet, and looks to retool it for a future game.
     
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  • Index
    • AeroTheZealousOne

    AeroTheZealousOne

    Monthly Donor
    RySenkari said:
    As for Hong Kong 97, they made a version of it for the SNES-CD. It's actually a tad better than OTL's game. Still horrendously awful, but the music is a bit better on CD since they loop the whole song.
    Click to expand...

    I can't help but imagine someone from TTL reading Game Over and replying something to the effect of this:

    WingedTheCynicalZero said:
    Well, it's to be expected that Hong Kong 97 remains in existence ITTL. I didn't know there was a way to make it actually worse. Still, that excerpt from TTL's AVGN took the edge off of it a little.
    Click to expand...
     
    Summer 2005 (Part 11) - The Xbox Is Still An FPS Powerhouse
  • Index

    • RySenkari

    Duke Nukem: Arena Of Death

    Duke Nukem: Arena Of Death is a multiplayer-focused FPS title for the Microsoft Xbox. It plays almost identically to 2003's Duke Nukem XXX, but with additional weapons and combat items geared toward arena play. The game does have a single-player campaign, but it's a fairly bare bones one, featuring Duke going up against increasingly stiff challenges as he kills his way through an interdimensional combat tournament. The multiplayer mode itself is playable locally with up to four players, over a LAN network with up to 16 players, or online, and features a variety of modes, including co-op, deathmatch, Capture The Babes (capture the flag), and others. The game features plenty of the series' trademark crude humor and tons of new one-liners, along with plenty of old classics. Playable characters include Duke himself, a few generic soldiers who serve as Duke's "buddies", an array of villains, and a few sexy female characters. All in all, it's a fairly competent, if cliched, FPS game, with the main attraction being the Duke Nukem humor. It's about average for an Xbox tournament fighter, there's no huge glaring flaws but nothing really stands out as great either. As Duke still has plenty of fans, especially among the Xbox crowd, the game sells decently, a bit less than Duke Nukem XXX did, but still enough to keep Duke alive as a viable game franchise. The game is also released for PC, and does fairly well there, allowing Xbox and PC players to battle one another (Duke even has a few console vs. PC wars lines that he uses when a console player kills a PC player or vice-versa). While a lot of the mainstream gaming press thinks Duke Nukem is getting stale by this point, his loyal fans continue to buy his games, and the series is likely to continue into the seventh generation.

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    Blueboyz 2: Unrelenting

    The sequel to 2003's Xbox FPS title Blueboyz, Blueboyz 2 features more of the same FPS combat action, with improved graphics and gameplay. It continues the story of the elite military squad known as the Blueboyz, and this time sees the Blueboyz sent alone on a war against a massive enemy army. Their commanding officers plan to disavow the Blueboyz after their inevitable deaths, but the squad has other plans in mind as they battle against an overwhelming force. This game covers all the action movie cliches: humorous dialogue, massive explosions, and even a soundtrack heavy on classic rock music. It's fairly light-hearted considering the subject matter, and even features an over-the-top villain who's clearly affecting Raul Julia's M. Bison accent from the Street Fighter movie. The gameplay itself is standard FPS fare, but fairly forgiving compared to most other FPS games on the market: the heroes are bullet sponges for the most part, while enemies die fairly quickly (which is good, since you'll be fighting a lot of them). The game actually gets a lot of praise for featuring more enemies on screen than just about every other Xbox FPS game up to that point, even if the AI is fairly stupid (the difficulty comes from the large numbers of enemies, leading some critics to compare it to Dynasty Warriors in FPS form, though there aren't quite THAT many enemies to fight at once). The game is definitely better received than the previous title, averaging around an 8/10 from reviewers, and sales are fairly good as well.

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    Tribes

    The first title developed by Looking Glass Studios after its acquisition by Microsoft in late 2002 is Tribes, a reboot of the company's series of FPS games developed for the PC. Visually and from a gameplay perspective, the game most resembles OTL's Tribes: Vengeance, though the plotline itself is completely different. Like earlier titles in the series, Tribes is a futuristic shooter, and in addition to weapons, the player has a number of enhancements that can be used in battle, such as jetpacks and a Metroid-style grappling hook. Aware of the popularity of Techno Angel, a similar futuristic shooter game, Looking Glass made a great effort to distinguish the gameplay of Tribes from that series. There's a lot less visual information available to the player, and the combat is a bit grittier and more realistic, making the player deliberate and take their time about where to shoot and when to take cover. The game itself centers around a rebellion taking place on a Venusian colony, and a soldier named Ataskus who raids an Imperial military base to outfit a small ragtag band of fellow rebels. Ataskus' goal is to unite the "tribes" of Venus (more groups of rebel military detachments) to launch a grand war to throw off the Imperial yoke. He gains help from a number of allies, including a bounty hunter named Citrine and a scientist named Raul. The game features 20 missions in all, which gradually ramp up the stakes as Ataskus' rebels achieve more victories. The Empire brings in heavily armored soldiers and eventually massive capital ships to defeat the rebellion. Eventually, the rebels succeed, and escape the planet in an Imperial capital ship, hoping to bring the fight to Mars next and foment a rebellion there. The reception to Tribes is quite good, it's one of the year's best received FPS titles. It sells at about the same rate as Blueboyz 2 initially, though sales would pick up more later on. It proves itself to be a strong exclusive Xbox game, and raises anticipation for Looking Glass' next title, said to be an Xbox 2 exclusive.

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    Long Awaited Team Fortress Sequel Headed To Xbox 2, PC In 2007

    In another announcement from Valve Corporation, which recently entered into a "creative alliance" with Microsoft, the sequel to the company's hit 1999 multiplayer combat game Team Fortress will be released in 2007, and will appear on both PC and Microsoft's Xbox 2. This adds yet another exclusive FPS title to Microsoft's impressive roster, joining Half-Life 2 which will be available at launch. The game looks to be a flagship title for the new console's Xbox Live service.

    Valve has yet to confirm additional exclusives for the Xbox 2. In a recent statement, Gabe Newell said: "We are not locked into an exclusivity deal with Microsoft and may be releasing other games for other consoles if the circumstances allow." It has not yet been confirmed whether or not the game will be made available through the rumored Xbox 2 Steam service or will in fact be its own separate Xbox 2 game.

    -from a September 10, 2005 article on Games Over Matter
     
  • Index

    • RyderWest

    RySenkari said:
    Long Awaited Team Fortress Sequel Headed To Xbox 2, PC In 2007

    In another announcement from Valve Corporation, which recently entered into a "creative alliance" with Microsoft, the sequel to the company's hit 1999 multiplayer combat game Team Fortress will be released in 2007, and will appear on both PC and Microsoft's Xbox 2. This adds yet another exclusive FPS title to Microsoft's impressive roster, joining Half-Life 2 which will be available at launch. The game looks to be a flagship title for the new console's Xbox Live service.

    Valve has yet to confirm additional exclusives for the Xbox 2. In a recent statement, Gabe Newell said: "We are not locked into an exclusivity deal with Microsoft and may be releasing other games for other consoles if the circumstances allow." It has not yet been confirmed whether or not the game will be made available through the rumored Xbox 2 Steam service or will in fact be its own separate Xbox 2 game.

    -from a September 10, 2005 article on Games Over Matter
    Click to expand...
    I wonder if it will be the modern one or the comic one....
     

    Unknown

    woweed said:
    Things that I think would be relevant to his thread: Goggle is currently memorializing Selena Quintanilla, who released her first solo album this day 1989:

    https://www.google.com
    Click to expand...

    Yeah, they mentioned it on the news here in Corpus Christi (since Selena did consider Corpus her hometown). As for Texan cities having a MLS franchise, how about Houston (as per OTL) and/or San Antonio? Both are large Texas cities (Houston is one of the largest US cities, and the biggest in Texas, while San Antonio is the second biggest city in Texas (1)) and both have large Hispanic populations. Besides, if you have Houston and San Antonio in the MLS, think of the rivalries that could result (2). As for San Antonio getting an NFL franchise ITTL (and IOTL), not a chance, not as long as Jerry Jones is still the owner in Dallas (3).

    Speaking of the name Selena, there are probably many more girls named Selena ITTL. Speaking of which, how's Selena Gomez (who was named after Selena Quintanilla-Perez, and was born before 1993) doing ITTL?

    (1) And both are more likely than Corpus to get MLS franchises for that reason, IOTL and ITTL. On a side note, both are probably benefiting from Corpus being a larger city, as there are more visitors to Corpus Christi ITTL and some of them head to Houston/San Antonio afterwards (it helps that both are a couple hours' drive from Corpus Christi)...
    (2) Come on, with slogans like "The Battle of I-10!!!", it writes itself; plus, they could compete for Texan pride (much like the Cowboys and Oilers/Texans do in the NFL, the Astros and Rangers in the MLB, and the Rockets/Mavericks/Spurs in the NBA)...
    (3) Jerry, rumor has it, doesn't want a San Antonio NFL franchise because it would cut into the Cowboys' fanbase in Texas...
     

    RySenkari

    Unknown said:
    Speaking of the name Selena, there are probably many more girls named Selena ITTL. Speaking of which, how's Selena Gomez (who was named after Selena Quintanilla-Perez, and was born before 1993) doing ITTL?
    Click to expand...

    She hasn't gotten into acting yet, but she really enjoys singing and may be headed down to Corpus Christi to start working at Selena's studio fairly soon...
     
    Summer 2005 (Part 12) - Blackheart 4
  • Index

    • RySenkari

    Blackheart 4

    The fifth game and fourth mainline game in Ubisoft's Blackheart franchise, Blackheart 4 continues the chronicles of lethal special agent for hire Sadira Blackheart and her rival/frenemy Messiah (AKA Mariska Zobrist). It takes place after the events of Blackheart 3 and Codename: Messiah, and, in similar fashion to previous games in the series, is a stealth-based third person shooter. Blackheart 4 does update the gameplay somewhat from the previous two games. The tri-combat meter system, like in Codename: Messiah, is gone. Instead, it's been replaced by a new system of visual cues that indicate the physical and emotional states of Sadira and her enemies. Sadira can still perform a variety of actions during missions to get into the heads of foes, such as leaving downed foes alive but heavily injured, laying traps, tricking enemies, and lulling them into false senses of security, among many other things. This will affect the mood of the enemy and the actions they perform. Blackheart 4 has more of a stealth focus than Blackheart 3, and yet is even more fast-paced: Sadira has a wide array of melee attacks she can perform, many of them while in stealth mode. The game features a revamped stealth system, where Sadira can rapidly move between cover, elevate herself into heightened positions, and move in and out of stealth at a very rapid pace. The game can be somewhat compared to "OTL's Arkham series, but with guns" in terms of gameplay, and features a more open-ended structure: there are still missions, but they're divided into stages and take place across vastly larger areas. Sadira can explore some areas before others, allowing her to change the structure of the mission itself on the fly. Some missions will allow her to intercept certain characters beforehand, changing their fates. Others may allow her to avoid a difficult boss battle or stealth sequence. Still others might result in a different end to the mission and a different beginning to the next one. The overall plot remains the same no matter what actions the players take, but there are nuances that can be altered and affected by the player's actions. The player also takes control of Messiah for certain segments of the game, and Messiah has a completely different combat system than Sadira's: because of the events of the previous game, Messiah feels every bit of pain she inflicts. While it causes her no actual physical harm to cause pain, causing too much pain can do things like alter her shot or make her briefly cry out, interfering with her stealth. While this does cause more difficulty for the player, it's balanced by Messiah's empathic abilities: she has an intrinsic ability to suss out the mood of people around her, making it much easier for the player to sense visual cues and tell where the enemy is going. Depending on the player's actions, Messiah can be playable for as little as 10% of the main story and as much as 25%, though ultimately Sadira remains the main character and is the only one playable during the game's final mission. The graphics have gotten a significant upgrade from the previous game, and as good as Blackheart 3 looked, Blackheart 4 looks incredible. On the Wave and Xbox it's stunningly impressive, looking every bit as good as titles like Velvet Dark: Conspiracy on the Wave and The Covenant 2 on the Xbox. It even looks great on the Katana, pushing that system to its utter limits (there are even reports of the game crashing some old-model Katana systems, in the same way Squad Four Eclipse crashed a few OG SNES-CD units back in 1996 and in OTL, The Last Of Us overheated some of the older 2006-2007 model PS3s in 2013). Lana Parilla and Grey Delisle reprise their roles as Sadira and Messiah respectively, and the game features some other outstanding voice actors and even a few live-action stars such as Michael Madsen and Judi Dench voicing major characters. Ubisoft clearly put a massive amount of money and effort into the production of the game, with a budget significantly higher than even the budget for Beyond Good And Evil 2, which is expected to be one of 2006's Game of the Year contenders.

    Blackheart 4 consists of eight main missions/story chapters, broken up into between 3-7 stages each. The game takes place about six months after the events of Codename: Messiah, and sees Sadira still working for the same group of assassins/powerbrokers who have been employing her since the previous game. Sadira has been tasked with arranging a deal between a government and a mega-corporation. The corporation is refusing to give a valuable contract to the nation's government, and Sadira is to "persaude" the corporation's CEO to make the deal by threatening the life of his jet-setting son. Meanwhile, Messiah, who is now being hunted by the remnants of Opalescence, the organization who used to employ her, has decided to hunt down Sadira, presumably to kill her for being humiliated repeatedly and ultimately left for dead by her.

    Mission One: Lap Of Luxury
    This mission involves Sadira attempting to kidnap Robert Sconse, the son of Atlanticorp CEO William Sconse. She pursues Robert to a luxury hotel in Dubai, all the while ducking and/or killing Sconse's hired security. Eventually Sadira manages to capture Robert, but as she's smuggling him out of town in a luxury car, she's intercepted by Messiah. The two immediately begin to fight, but after a brief scuffle, Messiah tells Sadira that she doesn't want to kill her, but that she wants Sadira's help to warn an old friend of hers about an Opalescence assassin. Sadira's not interested in helping Messiah, so Messiah frees Robert and helps him get away, infuriating Sadira. Sadira pursues Messiah to a private airport but the two are both attacked by Sconse's men. Sadira leaves Messiah seemingly for dead and escapes in the Sconses' private jet, though she's lost her target and needs to formulate a new plan.

    Mission Two: Vendetta
    We see that Messiah has recaptured Robert and is grilling him for information about his father's corporation, though unlike Sadira, who started torturing Robert immediately, Messiah isn't hurting Robert at all. She intimidates the hell out of him, though, and gets more information off him than Sadira did. Meanwhile, Sadira learns Messiah is still alive and tracks her to an old historical site in Italy, where the two play a cat and mouse game while Sconses' security comes after them both. Eventually, they're forced to work together, and Sadira learns from Messiah that the Sconses' government contract involves an experimental medicine meant to cure a virus. Meanwhile, we also learn about Messiah's new condition: that she not only has gained her sister's emotional empathy as well, but has also acquired a physical empathy: she can feel the pain of everyone within a 500 foot radius of her, and this is made manifest during the battle, where Sadira sees Messiah noticeably reacting every time someone gets shot. It's a very slight reaction, though eventually Sadira learns that Messiah feels EVERYTHING and thus must have an incredible tolerance for pain (feeling thousands of bullet wounds in every part of her body and barely flinching). Sadira learns that Messiah knows something about the new virus, and after the battle ends (leaving Sconse's entire security team, plus Robert, dead), Sadira captures Messiah.

    Mission Three: Opalescence
    Sadira spends a brief time attempting to torture Messiah, but obviously fails. It's here that one of the game's major twists is revealed: while Sadira is the protagonist, she's a morally ambiguous sadist working for bad people. Messiah, who has grown immensely as a human being over the events of the first two Blackheart games and her spinoff, has become incredibly sensitive, both from her growth as a person and from her ability to feel the emotional and physical pain of others. She's the game's hero, though it's not quite that simple, as it becomes apparent later on. Before Sadira can attempt to extract the information from Messiah another way, Opalescence assassins show up. Messiah breaks free and attacks Sadira, though instead of leaving an injured Sadira for Opalescence, she helps her to escape, and the two spend the rest of the mission evading the Opalescence assassins. One of them, a man named Carter (voiced by Michael Madsen), seems to know Sadira from a previous mission, but Sadira doesn't want to help anyone in Opalescence (she hates them even more than she hates Messiah), and after a brief battle, the two wound each other. Meanwhile, Messiah (after making sure Sadira will be all right) flees the scene. We see a cutscene of Sadira reporting to her boss, Katarin (played by Judi Dench), who gives Sadira a new order: find and kill the person cultivating this deadly new virus that Sadira and Messiah have both just learned about.

    Mission Four: Research And Development
    This mission is split between Sadira (operating in America) and Messiah (operating in Canada). Sadira learns that the virus is being developed by a terrorist organization that the American government has been clandestinely trying to destroy for more than a decade, committing numerous war crimes in the process. Meanwhile, Messiah learns that the virus' chief developer, Dr. Karl Salzmann, is the same person who created the drugs used on both her and her sister Jillian. Salzmann used to be the chief scientist for Opalescence, but went rogue around the same time Jillian did. Messiah uses her sister's old contacts to track Salzmann down, while Sadira gets the information out of a captured Opalescence agent. This once again leads Sadira and Messiah to meet in the same place, but this time Sadira agrees to put their old vendetta aside so the two can track down Salzmann together.

    Mission Five: Something Borrowed
    The two track Salzmann to an abandoned German drug factory in a town in the middle of a forest. The area is crawling with guards, and the two split up to complete their mission. The guards include more former Opalescence agents, and Sadira wonders just how many defectors Opalescence really had. Working together, the two corner Salzmann at the factory, but Salzmann claims that he sold the virus to Katarin, and implies that Sadira herself helped to make the transfer. Sadira calls Salzmann a liar, but Messiah believes him and shoots Sadira. Sadira, too injured to fight Messiah, kills Salzmann and flees. Before she gets far, she is set upon by a squad of Opalescence agents led by Carter, and is captured.

    Mission Six: Something Blue
    During this mission, Sadira has to escape from the sprawling Opalescence HQ, while we also see Messiah learning more about the virus, its effects, and why Salzmann sold it to Katarin. During Sadira's escape (in which every single remaining member of Opalescence, except for Carter, is killed), Messiah gets seemingly incontrovertible evidence that Sadira helped facilitate the sale of the virus, and also learns of its intended effects: it's meant to overwhelm its victims with pain, killing them from utter shock, and is set to be released within a matter of days. Convinced that Sadira is irredeemably evil, Messiah goes to find and kill her. Meanwhile, Sadira learns of the reason for the frame-up: Katarin did buy the virus and is looking to blame its release on Sadira. Sadira's cruelty and recklessness has left a trail of collateral damage, and rather than have her killed, Katarin plans to release the virus in a small, contained area, use the vaccine to cure it, and blame Sadira for everything, simultaneously eliminating a problem while bringing legitimacy to their former "underground" operation. However, when Messiah disrupted the dispersal of the vaccine, it threw a wrench in Katarin's plans, and now Katarin has to run a clean-up operation by destroying Sadira, Messiah, and the remnants of Opalescence. Realizing both she and Messiah are being used, Sadira grudgingly decides that she needs Messiah's help, and goes to find her.

    Mission Seven: Sensory Overload
    Messiah learns that the Salzmann who Sadira killed was actually a body double planted by Katarin. She tracks down the real Salzmann, but is captured. Meanwhile, Sadira is able to find the location where Messiah has been taken, but it's being guarded by a massive amount of Katarin's soldiers, including many of her fellow agents. We learn that Salzmann saw Jillian as his magnum opus, and was hoping Messiah could follow in Jillian's footsteps and become a great agent, but now that she's become soft he sees her as a failure as an agent, but perhaps a success as an experimental guinea pig. There is a scene where Salzmann tortures Messiah, not by hurting her (he doesn't lay a finger on her) but by brutally killing dozens of other captives in front of her. The overwhelming pain nearly breaks Messiah but she manages to endure when she realizes that Jillian left Opalescence because of Salzmann's cruelty, and that she'd be failing her dead sister if she broke now. Sadira fights her way through the compound to save Messiah, and in the end the two manage to save each other, with Messiah inflicting the killshot on Salzmann without even wincing. Messiah earnestly apologizes to Sadira, which surprises her...but then Sadira does something she's never, EVER done before and apologizes to Messiah. Sadira realized that she's been loyal to the wrong people, and that there are depths to which even she won't sink. She then tells Messiah that she knows where Katarin is and asks Messiah to join her for the final mission.

    Mission Eight: Release
    The final mission takes place in Katarin's compound on a massive artificial island in the Pacific Ocean. The island is loaded with security measures and Katarin's best agents, and it will take all of Sadira and Messiah's best efforts to take Katarin down. The player plays entirely as Sadira for this mission, though Messiah helps numerous times depending on the player's actions. The final battle itself takes place in an arena-like room and is just a simple one-on-one battle between Sadira and Katarin, who stalk one another around the huge space while Messiah works to prevent the release of the virus. Eventually Sadira catches Katarin and executes her with a shot to the head. Meanwhile, Messiah has found the containment chamber for the virus, but the only way to prevent its release is to take all of it at once into her own body. She does so, and Sadira finds her writhing in agony. The amount of pain is too much for even Messiah to handle, and she's utterly broken, begging through sobs for Sadira to finish her off. Sadira takes out her gun, but then she smirks. "You once called me a coldhearted, sadistic bitch," Sadira tells her. "Well, you were right. I'm not going to kill you, I'm going to enjoy watching you suffer." Messiah screams in agony, but Sadira only compounds it by starting to beat her viciously and insult her cruelly. Eventually, Messiah's agony and pain turn into sheer rage at Sadira, and she starts to physically fight back, only for Sadira to keep attacking her. After some time of this, Messiah collapses to the floor... and no longer feels any pain. The virus has run its course, and Messiah, through sheer force of will driven by her hatred of Sadira, has survived. "You just saved my fucking life," says Messiah, before breaking out into convulsions of laughter. Finally, Messiah passes out, and in a callback to the first game, Sadira leaves her in the same humiliating position she left Messiah in when she first defeated her. Messiah wakes up, gagged and tied to a chair, and Sadira plants a kiss on her taped lips, whispers "never stop hating me, bitch" to her, then leaves her there (knowing she'll escape eventually). Sadira then leaves, and despite the position she's in, Messiah can't help but smile under the tape, knowing the world is safe (for now at least). The ending implies that Sadira will continue on as a ruthless mercenary, though now she'll be working on her own. Meanwhile, Messiah has gotten free and we see her planting flowers at her sister Jillian's grave. Carter, who hasn't been seen since mission six, gets an assignment from an unseen figure and is presented with a pair of envelopes, one with Sadira's information on it and the other with Messiah's, implying that his next assignment will be to kill one of them, while the unseen figure will hire another assassin to kill the other. We don't see which one he chooses.

    Blackheart 4 is almost universally praised by critics, despite the controversy over the game's content (of which there's quite a bit, considering the violence, harsh language, and sexual themes, including heavy BDSM subtext throughout). The graphics are considered groundbreaking, the voice acting nearly flawless, and the storyline, which essentially has the player cast as Sadira as the villain in Messiah's story for two-thirds of the game, is debated by fans and critics for years to come. It's considered by many to be the best game in the series thus far (and considering that every single game in the series with the exception of Codename: Messiah averaged over a 90 on Metacritic thus far, that's a huge accomplishment), and immediately proclaimed as the leading contender for Game of the Year. It sells massively for all three consoles following its release on August 16, 2005, and makes Blackheart one of the most pre-eminent game franchises, quite possibly the second most popular adult-themed video game series behind Grand Theft Auto. It would be the last game in the mainline series released for the sixth generation consoles (though the Nova would see a Blackheart portable game, essentially a demake of the first, released the same day, the iPod Play and Supernova would get a spinoff in 2006, and a second Messiah spinoff would be released in 2007), as Ubisoft focused its efforts on developing a fifth game for the seventh generation consoles targeting 2008 as a release window.
     
  • Index
    • Summer 2005 (Part 13) - Fullmetal Alchemist
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    • RySenkari

    Fullmetal Alchemist

    Fullmetal Alchemist is an action-RPG developed by Quintet and published by Enix exclusively for the Nintendo Wave. IOTL, it was a popular and influential manga and anime series, but ITTL, Enix liked Hiromu Arakawa's initial concept for the manga so much that the company decided to have it made into a game instead, and would serve as Quintet's follow-up to Revolution Alpha. Fullmetal Alchemist plays very much like OTL games such as Secret Of Mana and particularly Terranigma, with the player controlling a single protagonist (Edward Elric) and battling enemies, exploring dungeons, and visiting towns. Combat takes place completely in real time, and the player has a massive variety of options in combat: Edward is able to use both melee combat and firearms in battle, and this will be the player's primary method of combat for lesser enemies. However, Edward is also an alchemist, and able to use a massive assortment of alchemic spells (more than 80 in all) with all sorts of different effects, including healing, environmental manipulation, defense, and elemental magic of all sorts. All alchemy is governed by the Law of Equivalent Exchange, which requires something of equal value to be given up in order to cast a spell. This works sort of like the alchemy system in OTL's Secret Of Evermore, where the player purchases materials to use to cast alchemy spells, though it's a bit more complicated, with some spells requiring massive amounts of highly exotic materials to cast, many spells having more than one formula, etc. The player is also able to cast spells from the life force of Edward or an available ally, though this is not recommended for difficult fights, as the HP used to cast a spell can quickly add up. Combat takes place extremely quickly, even for an action RPG, bordering on hack-and-slash level speed at times. During combat, players must cast spells quickly: the game doesn't pause while menus are being accessed, meaning that the player will need to cycle through their spells fast, or map particularly useful spells to certain buttons to use in combat. Up to four alchemic spells can be mapped at a time. During the game, the player will fight alongside various allies, up to three at a time, and can issue commands to them, although depending on the ally and on Edward's current level, that ally may not always follow a given command. For example, Edward's brother Alphonse will follow every command given to him, but Roy Mustang will almost never follow the player's commands until Edward has earned his respect later on in the game. Most of the time, the player will not be able to choose Edward's allies, though occasionally that option does exist. Edward's eight NPC combat companions include the OTL characters Alphonse, Roy, Riza, Winry, Lin, and Izumi, and the TTL-exclusive characters Gubler (a blacksmith who wields a thick sledgehammer and specializes in metal-based alchemy) and Kara (a thief character who the Elrics meet while she's on death row for stealing state secrets, Edward and Alphonse bust her out of prison and she eventually becomes an ally, she can steal valuable alchemic materials in battle but isn't much of a fighter). The player does earn experience points, gold, and treasure (sometimes equipment but usually materials that can be used in alchemy) by defeating enemies or sometimes by completing certain side quests. The game itself features a massive overworld map that is traversed in similar fashion to the overworld map in Terranigma and Illusion of Gaia: the player moves between the locations they wish to visit, no enemies are encountered on the overworld. This is a bit of an old-school design choice for 2005, but it gives the game a distinct Quintet feel that many older RPG fans appreciate. The game itself is in full 3-D, and is one of the prettier Nintendo Wave titles, though it doesn't majorly push the system in terms of graphics. It has a slight cel-shaded look to it, and features more than two hours of beautiful anime cutscenes, which appear very visually similar to the OTL anime series. The game's score is a collaboration between Miyoko Takaoka and Yuzo Koshiro, with contributions (including the main theme) from L'Arc-en-Ciel. The English language voice dubbing was one of Enix's first projects to use Los Angeles-based unionized voice acting, as opposed to the non-union New York City-based voice dubbing the company had used for previous games and the Dallas-based Funimation cast who dubbed the OTL anime. Will Friedle performs the voice of Edward Elric, Vincent Martella performs the voice of Alphonse, Christy Carlson Romano performs the voice of Winry, Crispin Freeman performs the voice of Roy Mustang, Kari Wahlgren performs the voice of Riza Hawkeye, Michael Bell performs the voice of Father, Tabitha St. Germain (who moved to Los Angeles in the early 2000s ITTL, while IOTL she remained in Vancouver) performs the voice of Lust, and Andre Sogliuzzo performs the voice of Scar. Most of the other major characters are voiced by fairly unknown voice actors, though a few more familiar names do pop up playing once or more incidental characters.

    Fullmetal Alchemist sticks fairly close to the plotline of the OTL manga and the Brotherhood anime series, though it includes a few elements from the first anime. It begins with a fairly short prologue chapter which chronicles the early years of Edward's alchemy career, beginning with the incident in which the two brothers attempted to use alchemy to bring back their mother, only for Edward to lose a leg in the process and Alphonse to nearly be killed (causing Edward to then lose an arm in the process of binding Alphonse's soul to a suit of armor). The prologue chapter covers many of the events that took place in the flashback segment of the first anime series, it includes a couple of dungeons and a few bosses and introduces the player to many of the characters and mechanics of the game, taking about a few hours to complete. Once this segment is completed, the game shifts to the present day and the adventure proper begins, with Edward and Alphonse serving as State Alchemists under Colonel Roy Mustang, in the service of the Fuhrer of Amestris. They are sent to investigate a man named Father Cornello, who is using alchemy seemingly in violation of the Law of Equivalent Exchange. Meanwhile, a mysterious scarred alchemist is murdering soldiers and State Alchemists, and makes his presence known after the Cornello situation is resolved. The Homunculi also make an early appearance, with Lust and Gluttony being first to appear, and the others (including Wrath, who, as IOTL, is the secret identity of the Fuhrer of Amestris) showing up later on. Lust and Gluttony are initially presented as a dangerous, unstoppable force, and the first couple of times Edward faces them, he has no chance of victory. Ultimately, Gluttony becomes the first of the Homunculi to be defeated by Edward in battle, shortly before the death of Maes Hughes at the hands of Lust and Envy (about a third of the way through the game), while Greed is second to fall shortly thereafter (in a battle where Izumi joins Edward and Alphonse as an ally character). Winry doesn't become an ally character until later on in the game. Like some of the other allies, she doesn't get the ability to use alchemy, but is able to bring powerful mechanical inventions to bear on enemies, and is also able to repair other characters' armor and weapons in mid-battle (and also able to repair Alphonse himself), making her a valuable utility ally. Most battles in the first half of the game are fought with Edward and Alphonse alone, as Roy is somewhat too powerful to be a frequent ally initially (he decimates enemies in the early part of the game), and doesn't appear as an ally in a boss fight until the battle with Lust, the third homunculus to be defeated in battle. After Lust's defeat, the game's plotline shifts back to Scar as the main antagonist (with Envy still lurking in the background) and the events of the Ishvalan massacre are detailed and flashed back to, explaining Scar's motivations. We also learn during this time that the Fuhrer is actually Wrath, and he begins maneuvering against Roy Mustang, drawing Roy closer to the Elrics (which makes him available as an ally character more often). There is a climactic confrontation with Scar that ends inconclusively, while Envy's manipulations (using its ability to shapeshift into various people) come to the forefront.

    The action shifts to Xing during this part of the game, and another villain, one original TTL, joins Envy as the main focus of the game during this time: General Kaiten, who seeks to unite the clans of Xing into a powerful military force. Edward meets up with Lin Yao at this time, and teams up with him on several missions before returning to Amestris to deal with the Envy situation. Wrath rises to the forefront as a villain at this point, and begins taking actions that will ultimately lead to a coup in Amestris. Pride and Sloth both make their first appearances in the storyline at this time, as does Father himself, though only very briefly, setting him up as the game's main villain (but not as the game's final boss). Scar also reappears, but instead of being a villain again, this segment of the game gradually begins to set him up for redemption. Envy is confronted and defeated during this part of the game, but not killed (which sets up Mustang's mercy scene later on in the game). As unrest in Amestris grows, Father continues to manipulate events leading toward his ultimate goal, which as IOTL, is to arrange events in all nations of the world to create a massive alchemic transmutation circle where he can then use the Philosopher's Stone to open the Gate of Truth and become a god. Edward and Alphonse continue to confront and battle the homunculi (defeating Sloth during this time) as events draw nearer to the day of reckoning. Eventually (after further climactic battles with Pride and then Wrath), Edward and Alphonse discover Father's plans, but it's too late, and similarly to IOTL, Father opens the Gate of Truth and absorbs the Eye of God into his being. The Gate of Truth itself is presented as an enormous final dungeon into which Edward, Alphonse, and their allies must venture to find and stop Father. During this final dungeon, Edward gradually loses allies to various events occurring within the Gate (many of which parallel the various events that happened in the later stages of the manga), until finally, he is forced to confront Father with only Alphonse and Winry at his side. This battle is broken up into three phases: after the first phase, Edward loses Winry, and after the second phase, he loses Alphonse (who, like IOTL, sacrifices his metal body to restore Edward's body to its original form). The final stage of the Father boss fight is a one-on-one fight between Edward and Father, after which, Edward attempts human transmutation to bring back Alphonse. This leads the Gate of Truth to open further, and Edward confronts Truth itself. The two have a long dialogue about everything Edward has learned over the course of his travels (which, after 60 hours worth of gameplay, is quite a lot). Truth is attempting to judge humanity based on Edward's experience. He offers Edward a Philosopher's Stone to use to bring back Alphonse and to heal/revive many of his allies who were recently lost, but Edward must be tested first. Edward agrees, and the true final battle, against Truth itself, begins. During this fight, Edward can restore some of his allies to the fight by performing certain actions. Once three of Edward's allies have been restored, no more can be brought back and the player must fight with the allies available to them. Victory leads Truth to judge humanity worthy of alchemy's power, though Edward states that he has learned no one, not even himself, is worthy of such power, and only asks that his friends be allowed to return with him. Everyone returns to Amestris, where things begin to go back to normal. The corruption of Father and the homunculi has ended, and Edward and Alphonse, now restored to their full humanity and at peace with their mother's death, can resume their study of alchemy for the good of humanity. Edward and Winry declare their love for each other, as do Roy and Riza (though in a MUCH more low-key way), and the long ending sequence ends with a post-credits scene of Edward and Winry married with their children.

    Fullmetal Alchemist is released in North America on September 13, 2005. It's universally critically acclaimed after its release, both for its battle system and its storyline. It immediately becomes Quintet's most critically acclaimed title, a game that, according to one reviewer, "finally takes one of the best old school RPG makers into the next generation". It's the best reviewed RPG since Chrono Infinite and the best reviewed action RPG since Secret Of Mana. It immediately becomes a Game of the Year contender upon its release. Sales for the game are brisk, though it's not a blockbuster by any stretch and ultimately doesn't sell as well as later rival title Reverie of Mana in North America (though sales would exceed those of Reverie in Japan by a great deal). Despite this, it still manages to eventually cross one million North American sales, more than justifying the cost of localizing the game. It would become the first Quintet title to receive a direct sequel, and it WOULD eventually see an anime adaptation, though that adaptation would differ from the OTL anime by quite a bit. The game spawns a fandom and community nearly as large as the OTL anime and manga, making it, at least in North America, the most popular non-Squaresoft RPG of all time up to that point.
     
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