Xbox Demo Blitz
Posted June 21, 2008
Video game demos can make huge impacts on video game purchases these days, especially since they are so readily available through console online stores. Today, we will take a stroll through a few available on Xbox Live.
Ninja Gaiden 2
Developer: Team Ninja
Released: June 3, 2008
This is a sequel to the highly popular action game Ninja Gaiden, again featuring the former main character Ryu Hayabusa, a professional ninja. There are more bad guys on the loose that need a good ass kicking from your arsenal of weapons and magic.
If an enemy has lost a limb, Ryu can perform an instant-kill attack.As the demo introduction movie began, I first noticed how delightfully glowy and bright all of the lighted environments were, and how they contrasted well with the deceitful more shadowy areas. The graphics were quite gorgeous; unfortunately I can not say the same about the mouth syncing. It was rather disrupting during cut-scenes, and disappointing considering many other less anticipated games have pulled off much better. Regardless, any game that offers Japanese voicing with English subtitles gets a plus in my book.
The game play is fast paced and very, very bloody good fun. Initially, you have three types of weapons with which you slice up enemies: a sword, a scythe, and a pair of fist and claw weapons. Each has special combination moves, different speeds, and deals varying amounts of damage; before the demo is over, you pick up another weapon, a staff. Yes, it sounds like something a wizard would use before a ninja, but it is just as gory as the others. They all accomplish the same tasks, cutting up body parts and spraying enemy blood around the area.
The combat, at least in the demo, is much easier than that of the original game, and feels more like a button masher than a challenge; of course that is probably good news to most players as the first game was considered to be a bit too difficult. As you progress, dead soldier’s bodies will teach you new techniques; not quite sure how they accomplish that. Two of the new techniques Ryu will learn are magical: a fire spell and a wind spell. They essentially perform the same animation and deal the same damage, just one is red while the other is green.
This sequel title has had its combat play altered to please more players than the original, and it may have been tuned down on the difficulty setting a bit too much to retain any amount of challenge.
Project Sylpheed
Developer: Game Arts, SETA Corporation, and Anima
Released: July 10, 2007
Flying around the vast universe in your own space ship complete with an arsenal of weaponry and shields sounds thrilling; regrettably it does not seem that this game has much fun available.
The amount of fire in this screenshot is minimal compared to the demo level. Do not forget to send out your wingmen, or they will do nothing.This space flight game demo offers a tutorial separate from the playable demo level. If the game is too difficult to explain through play, then that is a problem on its own. The tutorial was deceiving, and made the game appear to be relatively easy. You pilot your own fighter space ship, with which you shoot down enemies, and you have a group of three wingmen under your control. The tutorial gives you time to move to your next enemy, no one was really shooting at you, and it was actually kind of enjoyable flying around in space. That all changes, fast.
The level that the player is presented with is an escort mission; a transport ship is on its way in and you and your wingmen have to fend off the attackers to ensure its safe arrival. The mission briefing tells you that it will last fifteen minutes, as that is how long it will take for the transport ship to dock. As soon as the level starts you are thrown into an active battle; nothing in the tutorial has prepared you for this. Ships are flying everywhere, your friends are yelling at you for shooting at them, and an enemy is always on your tail. The entire level, I was not even sure where the transport ship was, despite it calling out for help every two seconds. And the mini map radar that the tutorial claimed was going to be useful is far too zoomed in to be able to deliver any useful positioning information. The tutorial offered ended up taking longer than I was able to play the given level.
This title is just another mere space combat simulator with a huge user interface and too much going on to be a decent demo.
Blue Dragon
Developer: Mistwalker and Artoon
Released: August 28, 2007
When you think that role-playing games have developed all of the mechanics you think that they can, a game like this comes around and introduces you to a whole new world of turn-based features. This demo offers two playable levels, each of which has a maximum of one hour’s worth of play time, which is more than enough to reach the boss. The graphics are very smooth and cartoony, quite appropriate; they do not attempt to be too detailed. However, the music felt more in appropriate, especially the victory and boss tracks. Most video game sound tracks should avoid having vocal sections.
The party characters begin at level 23, allowing the player to play around with different attacks and spells without worrying about a game over. Each character has a shadow inside of them that comes out when it is their turn; these shadows are what the player controls. Each shadow has different attributes, skills, and special powers, which can be changed in the party menu.
The blue dragon is the shadow of the main character, Shu.As you run around the areas you will see the enemies available to be fought and can avoid them if desired. Right previous to entering combat, you can select multiple groups of enemies to fight at the same time, and some of those enemies might attack or eat each other rather than focus on your party. Once in battle, you can choose to power-up an attack which will increase the damage done but can also affect the turn order. There is a bar that appears when an attack is selected that will let you know the upcoming turn order; these are almost always useful. Many of the area spells are overpowered and kill most enemies instantly, powered-up or not; the special attacks, or “corporeal attacks,” are similar. To access the corporeal ability of a character’s shadow they must be taking damage during the battle, this raises their tension meter. Once the meter is full the corporeal selection becomes available in the attacks menu, and allows the player to unleash a massive amount of energy. A short cut-scene is played upon a corporeal attack, and unfortunately can not be skipped even if you have already seen it.
As with most demos, not much is said about the story of the game. For role-playing titles, I think it would be somewhat important to draw the demo player in through some sort of plot reference.
A visually-Dragonball-based turn-based role-playing game with features that I have never seen before.
Ninety-Nine Nights
Developer: Q Entertainment and Phantagram
Released: August 15, 2006
You are but one soldier, and it is your job to face the armies of your enemies single-handedly. As cool as that may sound, it does not reflect in this game much at all. A rather obvious Dynasty Warrior clone, this game allows the player to take control of a commanding officer to defend against onslaughts of enemy warriors.
So many enemies around you can not tell what is going on half of the time. Good thing friendly fire is turned off.During the playable demo there are massive numbers of people on the screen, but most of the time they are not doing anything. When the enemies do attack, they all do so at the same time, making them merely clones of one another; simply mindless bodies to be slaughtered. However, running around killing tons of people grows tiring and is no where near as action-packed as one would think.
There are not many controls to the game, and mostly you end up button mashing your way to victory on your own. The non-player characters that you command do not appear to listen to your orders half of the time; even when they do they do not deal or take any damage.
At the end of the playable demo, the main character has a choice to save a city or continue to follow his original orders. Unfortunately the choice is made for you, and I would hope that the full game would allow that choice to be made by the player, as it does claim to be a role-playing game. As with Blue Dragon, there was little evidence of an enticing plot throughout the demo.
Just another hack-n-slash with some potential role-playing elements that leaves much to be desired.
Eternal Sonata
Developer: tri-Crescendo
Released: September 17, 2007
Yet another role-playing title, Microsoft must be bribing Japanese companies into developing role-playing games for the Xbox 360 to boost overseas sales. This game is simply gleaming with color in every environment, character, and enemy. Each character, player and non-player, are beautifully cel shaded. The camera movements outside of combat are smooth and cinematic, which is far superior to the combat camera that is rather inappropriate considering each turn only lasts a few seconds. Most of that time is spent finding the enemies as you can not initially see them.
As each character only has a few seconds to perform actions each turn, items must be equipped for use prior to battle. Your currently equipped items are useable at the press of a button.The turn-based combat has a few new rules; unlike traditional games your “party level” will make combat turns work differently. For the demo, each player’s turn lasts five seconds, and they are allowed to move, or perform any attack or special move during that time. Normal attacks build up combos that are released when a special move is performed, and the more combo points that have been stored the more damage the special move will deal. Special moves are also dependent on whether you are standing in the light or under a shadow as it will change which special move is available. This can alter the special move greatly, as one playable character has a heal when in the light, and deals damage if in the shadows. Healing of your characters is done mostly through the use of items, as only one character in the demo can heal and it is one of her special moves.
Combat also includes a blocking system, allowing both the players and the enemies to block incoming attacks with the push of a button to reduce damage taken. The game also allows for co-op play, as individual party characters can be assigned to separate controllers, allowing for multiple players control during combat.
There is something musical about most every aspect of the game, and on your travels throughout the world your party can pick up scores of music. Once a score piece has been acquired, you can speak with non-player characters and some will offer to play music with you. It seems as though you are looking to match tunes, but the demo does not explain what that actually does or if you are rewarded for it.
Eternal Sonata is a cute turn-based role-playing game with gorgeous graphics but not much else to show for based on the demo.
Operation Darkness
Developer: Success
Released: June 24, 2008
A rather standard tactical role-playing game based on World War II. The player’s team consists of British soldiers and you perform various battle missions against Nazis across Europe. The missions are laid out across a map interface that serves as the out-of-combat area; here the player may hire new soldiers and purchase various items for use on the field.
Briefing before your selected mission.Selecting an area on the map will prompt a mission briefing that will inform you of your mission objectives, including how to succeed and what will cause the mission to fail. Failure includes letting the main characters die, as there is no revival of any sort. The demo battle is a large grid with the player’s soldiers on one side and the Nazis on the other. A list of turns in the order that they will be taken is on the screen at all times, but it did not seem all that useful in this game.
Ten minutes after the start of the mission, after moving all of the players around you may be granted the opportunity to shoot someone. Combat is relatively simple: select attack, choose your weapon, and pick a target. Distance between you and the target will affect your hit chance differently based on the weapon you have selected. Certain party members can turn into werewolves; this raises their attack and speed for a short period of time. Why? I am unsure.
Just as the enemies are easy to take down, the main characters can also die entirely too easy, as all it takes is two enemies shooting one after the other.
I think just writing about this game is going to put me to sleep again; at the very least the demo shows absolutely nothing to be excited about. Not even the Nazi cleavage.
Civilization Revolutions
Developer: Firaxis
To Be Released: July 8, 2008
This version of Sid Meier’s Civilization emits a much more casual and playful feel than the conventional computer titles. The introductory movie is enough to make me want to play this game, as it features a caveman painting the future history on the walls, and then a glimpse of that future is played out in the movie.
The cities are more graphically representative of what buildings have been built than in the PC versions, and the world itself is much more vibrant.For the demo version, only Rome and Egypt are playable empires, and you are allowed about fifty turns. While fifty turns does not sound like very much time for a Sid Meier Civilization game, it is in this world. The game play is fast paced; buildings, units, and wonders do not take as long to build. The worker unit has been removed from the game, and the player is no longer required to build farms, villages, or mines outside of their city in order to obtain resources. Instead that is automatically done for you, and roads can be built directly in between your cities from the city menu.
Animated guides and advisors pop up on the screen throughout play to inform you of technological advancements, Great People births, and other various happenings. While they are voice acted by what sounds like The Sims, their text dialogue is humorous and gives the war game a lighter air about it.
There are four ways to attain victory: Domination in which you kill your opponent civilizations, Technology requires you to launch a space mission, Economic when 20,000 gold is acquired and the World Bank is built, and finally Cultural which requires you to acquire 20 combined Wonders, Great People, and converted cities and build the United Nations. As you progress through the years, which go by quite quickly, advisors will keep you updated and on track to win the game. Each victory is much easier to accomplish than in the PC versions, and allows the game to be picked up and played for short periods of time making it friendlier to more potential players.
The classic turn-based strategy game is born again on the console, offering similar, strategically toned-down game play.
