blackrose74

I think I've already mentioned how crap this game is many times by now. And for those who've played it will know exactly what I mean.

For starters, what irked me the most was the camera. It was just goddamn awful. So bloody awful that within the first hour or so of playing the game I had a severe headache that caused me to take time out to PHYSICALLY lie down and wait for it to recover. Like seriously, I actually felt ill! After a while I got used to it and could a few more hours in a row but my head would occasionally hurt from time to time when I had to do some serious surrounding exploration. And don't get me started on some of the glitches. D:

Okay, I'll put aside the crap camera controls for just now since who knows, it could just be me who has this problem. But I mean, what on earth happened to the puzzle adventure element of the game?! The puzzles are far too easy, for example in one of the ruins where you had to obtain 4 colour block keys, you could get one of them by just walking through a door. Seriously. It's just not challenging anymore. It wasn't even worth my time trying to solve them using logic because it was so pointless.

Next up the story. it's a followup to Legends so it talks a little bit about Avalon and Lara's mother. Okay fine, I get the point but to me it felt like the whole game was basically meeting Natla, learning about Thor's hammer, obtaining Thor's hammer then killing Natla. Um...not very interesting guys...what was good about Legends was that it felt very mysterious, the plot was more about "discovery" which made it very intruiging for the player but this...man just wasn't on par.

And I also didn't like the combat very much. It used to be so cool being Lara and whipping out her pistols to kill pests in tombs and whatnot but now it's just....not fun. I can't describe it very well but for me it wasn't a really noteworthy element of the game at all.

Infact, the highlight of the entire game was obtaining Thor's hammer. In which case I had a real good blast zapping enemies with Mjolnir because I'm a sadisitic bitch but even that got destroyed when Lara flung it at Natla. MY MJOLNIR! ARE YOU MAD LARA?! IT'S THE BEST WEAPON EVER YOU DUMBASS! GO GET IT BACK FFS!

And so here concludes my tragic report about this stupid game. I had heard reports it was crap but I didn't know it would so bad to this extent. Now that I've played it I don't even feel like it was worth the £6 I paid for the game. Nevermind the number of precious hours of my life that I wasted to play this, I would have probably been better off reading a plot summary guide online somewhere and just learning the story from there. ;_;

But not all hope is lost! There is an upcoming TR game for the PS3 produced by Square Enix. Squaresoft used to be pretty good before they merged with Enix and then the FF games produced thereon went downhill. I hope this won't be another disappointment from them considering I had a look at some of the promotional pictures and it seems TR is going in a totally different direction. I mean Lara even has a bow! And she looks so realistic and different now which I sure hope isn't just going to be the main thing in the game because focus on graphics means slax gameplay and that is something I DO NOT WANT. When will game companies ever realize that for true gamers who play games most often and are the ones willing to spend the most on games always prioritize gameplay over graphics? Idiots.

Difficulty level: Easy (if you still find it hard google a guide, seriously there's tonnes and they'll get you whizzing through the game super fast)
Camera controls: Shit
Plot: Average. Wasn't exactly that thrilling or interesting
Combat: Wasn't really necessary but being able to use the hammer later on was really fun.

My rating: 5/10 (I don't tend to score things this low but I would never ever recommend this game to anyone. Serious.)

"The sudden death of the young Shun-chi Emperor (Shunzhi) shocked the whole kingdom. The second prince Fuk-tsuen, was originally the successor for the throne, but Empress Dowager Hao-chong (Xiaozhuang) changed the successor to the third prince Yuen-yip, who subsequently becomes the Hong-hei Emperor (Kangxi). Angry with this, Fuk-tsuen dispatchs a spy, Nip Dor-po, and instructs him to gain Hong-hei's trust."

OHYUSH. MORE SPYING! YAY! Not. The series has a very climatic start off in episode 1 with Fuk-tsuen trying to overthrow the current Emperor and slowly they reveal all the lies and deceit the Empress Dowager had been hiding. We also see how Nip Dor-po comes into this power struggle so basically they spoiled the entire series in episode 1 by showing you the ending and the other 25 episodes are there to show you how they reached that conclusion. Bit crappy right?

Not at all. This was precisely the reason why it kept me intrigued. Dramas that don't have a good first episode usually get thrown into the dump pile for me so this was highly interesting. Not only does it show you the process, it also introduces a whole bunch of other characters who aren't shown in episode 1 mainly because...well...they died before they could reach the ending. Yes be prepared for a lot of tragic death moments. But for a historic drama, this is pretty much expected. It might feel and seem stupid to have so many characters but they all play their role in this drama. Each and every character has their purpose for existence, be it to use others or to be used by others. The background struggle between the various consorts and concubines within the forbidden palace, although not emphasized in this drama will always remain a crucial part in these kind of dramas because that's where all the drama originally comes from. There's actually a really good historic drama that focuses on that struggle which was also another big hit in HK except I can't remember the name just now haha, if you're interested then let me know and I will go look it up.

Anyway since we already know the ending in this drama, you ask what's the point in watching it? Exactly my thoughts but it has this irrrestiable charm to it that kept me watching for a whole month and to this day, I'm still unsure of what is is. Maybe it's just that feeling I had that Fuk-tsuen won't be able to overthrow the Emperor despite his army and the evidence to prove his inheritence right and I wasn't to see how he got thwarted in the end and by WHOM. Cause they didn't show this in episode 1, though most of us have already guessed who's mostly likely to be that person. XD I'll point out here that it was thanks to the last episode that made me write this huge long assed review. They left out a HUGE bit in episode 1 that becomes absolutely neccessary in the final episode to destroy Fuk-tsuen's plans. And you will never guess what it is. Heck even I couldn't see it coming despite being a crazy drama fan. At first I was shocked that my mum had guessed it, but then she told me she only knew because the lead actor mentioned it in an interview. Way to spoil things man. So yes, this was a huge factor in me enjoying the show even if it was only the last episode. 

Now that I'm done talking about the surprise element. Let's focus a bit more on the story itself. Basically the story is Fuk-tsuen manipulating those around him to do his bidding(be it killing off enemies in his way or bribing/threatening them to stand on his side) and how those close to him react to his malicious nature. Here I must complement Kenneth Ma's absolutely stunning acting, his portrayal of Fuk-tsuen's two faced nature was absolutely perfect. Expressions like glares, smiles, smirks, shock, you name them, he did them. And he did them EXTREMELY WELL. Despite that, the story isn't anything really new. Within the walls of the forbidden place, it was either to kill or be killed. If you didn't fight and defend yourself, you'd get killed off by some other. Peaceful days? HAH! Never. So while all these people were fighting each other for survival, Fuk-tsuen uses this change to gather supporters and enact his evil plans. What makes it so intriguing is HOW FAR he's willing to go for his plan. He'll stop at nothing even his family doesn't matter much to him when it comes to his big plan. So yep, a huge bundle of complicated relationships to boot.

Other than those few points, this drama doesn't really have much outstanding things I could talk about. Oh, unless you count the detail in the costumes and such but then the other historic drama I mentioned before had even more elaborate designs but since those designs were a huge focus in that drama I guess it was natural for it to be better. Well anyway I enjoyed this drama. It may not be the best one out there, but it's definitely something worth checking out if you have time to.

My rating: 9/10

P.S. The new drama that airs on Monday looks shit in comparison ;_; I am sad. And also I completed Tomb Raider yesterday but I'm too lazy to write a review so I'll delay that a few days so expect it sometime after tomorrow.

First thing I'll say is this game is very very different from your typical RPGs. It's more strategy and tactic based HOWEVER it's layout is very different from a normal strategy game because once you select a character from the overhead map, you get to move this character in 3rd person, walk around until your AP runs out to find enemies and get to attack ONCE per turn. What makes this game so brilliant isn't because of it's gameplay, although the gameplay itself is very interesting and fun to play sometimes it can get a little tactical and difficult without a proper strategy. The brilliance for me anyway, lies in it's very beautiful watercolour anime style graphics and it's touching story on war.

I can't really describe this game very well, it's one of those you have to play yourself to understand why it's so good. There's also an anime for this series based loosely on the game but if you want the full story I would recommend playing the game yourself to understand it better. The game isn't too difficult since I completed it within 50 hours of gameplay, give or take a few hours since I tend to leave the game idle at times to watch TV or during breaks. If it gets too challenging, gamefaqs has a full strategy guide that can take you through the game easily. And although I wouldn't do that, it can be very useful for some of the missions especially the desert duel with Maximillian.

   

Final Mission Rankings - On first playthrough

A: 3 (7 if including report missions)
B: 10 (11 if including report missions)

C: 7

D :3

My rating: 9/10 Now I will go entertain myself by replaying the missions to obtain As while I wait for my new games to arrive. :3

Download: www.megaupload.com/ 
Size: 40.36MB [Compressed RAR]

Credits: Included in download

 

Note: I don't mind if you upload this to other manga sites but please do not remove the credits page because the translations and raws do not belong to me. I only did the cleaning and typesetting and I want to credit the proper people, thank you.

From wikipedia:

Persona 4 takes place in the fictional, rural Japanese town of Inaba, which lies among floodplains and has its own high school and shopping districts. Unexplained murders have taken place in the small town, where bodies are found dangling among television antennas and their cause of death unknown. At the same time, rumor has begun to spread that watching a switched-off television set on rainy midnights will reveal a person's soulmate. Following the rumor, a group of high-school students discovered a fog-shrouded world accessed through television sets infested with monsters called Shadows. They also discovered each of their Shadow Selves, symbolizing their suppressed personalities. Confronting their Shadow Selves awakened their ability to summon beings known as Personas. Using Personas, the students formed the Investigation Team to investigate the connection between the TV world and the murders, and possibly capture the culprit.

I bought this game last summer when Code and Niwa kept advertising how good it was but never got around to playing it until this year and I must say they are 100% correct. The game is FANTASTIC.

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I find this drama highly amusing mainly because...

( Light spoiler and my opinion... )