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Posted: 24 Apr 2015 12:30 PM PDT After meandering deep inside Hearthstone's [Free] Blackrock Mountain these last three weeks, we've arrived at Blackwing Lair, Lord Victor Nefarius' seat of power within Blackrock Mountain. Nefarius tinkers with blood of the various dragon flights to create an unstoppable army (it's not an accident, I think, that Nefarius's name, Victor, is the same as another famous scientist's, Victor Frankestein). This week's Wing is definitely feeling more dragonlike, with the likes of Razorgore, Vaelastraz, and Chromaggus being the first three bosses and their creator, Lord Nefarius, who turns into a Dragon, awaiting you at the end. If you haven't played any of the wings so far, and you are the kind of person who likes to do things in order, use these guides to defeat the previous three wings: Recent Hearthstone News:
Blackrock Mountain Guides:
Now, let's go get Nefarius and his minions. Razorgore the Untamed Normal & Heroic Boss Guide Razorgore (30 Health on Normal, 30 Health 15 Armor on Heroic) reminded me a lot of an earlier BRM boss, Garr from Molten Core, who had ticking time-bomb minions that you had to plan your strategy around. Razorgore's Hero Power "The Rookery: Give all Corrupted Eggs +1 Health, then Summon One," allows Razorgore to drop a Corrupted Egg (0/1 in Normal and 0/3 in Heroic) each turn which, if left on the board, will gain +1 health each turn. In Normal difficulty, Rookery costs 1 Mana, but in Heroic difficulty, it's free, so expect more Eggs to be droping. When a Corrupted Egg reaches 4 health (or 5 health in Heroic), it hatches into a 7/3 Chromatic Drake (7/7 in Heroic). Obviously, since you have a Boss that tries to fill the board with eggs that hatch if not killed, be sure to carry plenty of AOE spells to reset the board often. It's important not to allow the eggs to fill the board because even though their lack of Attack might make them look unthreatening, Razorgore will often play Bloodlust! and you'll end up with barely any health in a single turn. So, get those eggs off the board as often as you can. Trying to use Taunt minions to protect yourself is also not a great strategy because Razorgore carries Corruption, which destroys your minion on the next turn. Bring plenty of low-cost high-attack minions (or minions with Charge) to help you keep the Eggs from hatching. His deck has a lot of synergy because of all the Dragon cards, so expect to have to face Volcanic Drakes and huge Drakonid Crushers. Razorgore's Normal Deck: 1x Dragon Consort Razorgore's Heroic Deck: 1x Azure Drake If you are having a hard time beating Razorgore and his many eggs, try ReganisPrime's Egg Controladin: 1x Tirion Fordring When you defeat Razorgore, you'll receive two copies of Revenge, a Warrior Spell. This spell wasn't very warmly received when it was spoiled last month because it damages all minions rather than just your enemy's. The only place I see it being used is if you want to get those Grim Patrons (or similar cards) running wild. Vaelastrsz the Corrupt Normal & Heroic Boss Guide This Boss was quite fun to play with as he'll try to mill you (not a common strategy from AI bosses). Because his Hero Power will force you to draw 2 cards every turn, plus the one you'll draw normally, make sure you carry lots of ramping up cards (Innervate and the likes) as well as many low-cost minions so you don't end up losing cards because your hand's too full. Of course, avoid any cards that help you draw from your deck since this Boss's Hero Power does the job for you. Vaelastrasz will use Gang Up to keep his deck from running out, so you might want to carry that card too to avoid being Fatigued. He'll also drop Clockwork Giants, so be prepared to face (or copy) some 8/8 minions. In general, this boss is quite easy to beat as long as you have ways in your deck to play lots of cards as often as possible and also ways to force him to draw more cards than you so he can Fatigue first. Vaelastrasz Normal Deck consists of: 1x Clockwork Giant His Heroic Deck consists of: 2x Molten Giant If you're having a hard time beating Vaelastrasz, use DrukMax's Aggro Mill Druid: 1x Dragon Egg Beating Vaelastrasz for the first time will get you Flamewalker, a Mage minion. This minion could work well against Aggro decks that try to flood the board since it gives you some extra removal on top of whatever spell you play. The fact that it damages all minions makes it a bit less useful, but if you are struggling for board control, you won't have many minions on the board anyway. I really enjoy all the different ideas that Blizzard has been bringing into BRM so far, and the Chromaggus Boss is no exception. Chromaggus has 30 health and no armor (60 health in Heroic), and every turn he'll use his Hero Power "Brood Affliction: At the end of your turn, add a Brood Affliction card to your opponent's hand" that will add one of the Affliction Cards to your hand. The Affliction cards do things like "Restore 2 (6 in Heroic) health to your opponent at the start of your turn," or "While this is in your hand, take 1 (3 in Heroic) damage at the start of your turn," etc. As you can imagine, these cards really force you to change up your card plays because you can't keep the Afflictions on you for too long. However, Chromaggus will also be playing Chromatic Dragonkins, which gain Health and Attack every time you play a spell, so you need to be careful when playing the Affliction cards. Silencing is a useful ability in this fight since you can take care of the Dragonkins and the pumped Twilight Drakes Chromaggus will be playing. What you can also do is bring cards that deal damage or get stronger when you play spells so you can gain a benefit from being forced to play the Affliction Cards. I had success using Emperor Thaurissan in this fight because that allowed me to play more cards while still getting rid of the Affliction cards. Any cards that can shorten the fight, like Alexstrasza for example, can also be useful in this fight. Chromaggus Normal and Heroic Deck consists of: 2x Dragon Consort If you are having trouble killing Chromaggus, use Crawford881's Druid Deck: 1x Emperor Thaurissan Defeating Chromaggus will get you Hungry Dragon, a strong 5/6 minion for a low 4 mana cost that will be featuring in many Dragon decks. This card can help strengthen the mid-game of many decks and will probably work best in decks that can take out minions easy (including the one summoned by Hungry Dragon's battlecry). Lord Victor Nefarius Normal & Heroic Boss Guide While you might be expecting to battle Lord Nefarius in the final Boss battle, you'll actually be playing the Dragon Nefarian (30 Health 30 Armor in Normal, 30 Health 50 Armor in Heroic) since on the first turn, Nefarius uses his Hero Power "True Form" and changes into Nefarian. Nefarian's Hero Power is "Wild Magic: Put a random spell from your opponent's class into your hand," so expect to have to face your spells during this fight. In a fun twist, you get Ragnaros on your side during this fight, and he'll give you a random card each turn (in Heroic, you get a SINGLE card at the start of the fight and that's it). The cards you might be getting are Son of the Flame, Whirling Ash, Living Lava, and DIE, INSECT!. Don't expect to be fighting a fair fight with this Boss as Nefarian will always have A LOT more mana than you (10 mana from turn 2 onwards), so expect some dangerous cards very early on. You might need to play control in this fight, hoping to stay alive long enough to get your strong cards in play. Carry plenty of removal spells to keep from being overwhelmed because Nefarian will be playing many minions every turn. Nefarius/Nefarian Normal Decklist is: 2x Dragon Consort His Heroic Decklist is: 1x Dragon Consort If you need some help defeating the final boss, use Celadoncvo's Mill Druid: 1x Tree of Life Defeating Nefarian will give you Fireguard Destroyer, a Shaman minion. This guy will find a place in many Shaman decks because of his strong body and the possibility that he'll become a 7 attack 4-cost minion. However, sometimes you'll hope he gets a lower attack than that to keep him out of Big Game Hunter Range. Defeating all of the Bosses of Blackwing Lair will get you the Legendary Chromaggus, an interesting Dragon card that stays just below Big Game Hunter and has high health, so he'll be a pain to remove from the deck. His ability to generate card advantage by putting a copy of each card you draw into your hand can be devastating for your opponent, assuming you draw the right cards. Combining this card with other card-draw effects will give you plenty of options to take out your opponent. Class Challenges Rogue Challenge In this challenge you'll be fighting Vaelastrasz the Corrupt, and defeating him will give you Dark Iron Skulker, a Rogue minion that can do some good damage if played correctly. Still, his stats are a bit low for his cost (4/3 for 5 mana), and his removal a bit too situational (he hits only undamaged minions), but if decks that flood the board with minions come back in fashion, he'll be seeing more play. As with the Boss challenge, expect to have a lot of cards drawn every turn, so make sure you play cards when you can to avoid burning cards because your hand's too full. You'll be drawing Preparation a lot, which should allow you to get plenty of spells off and avoid having too many cards in your hand. Use your Sap and Vanish spells to clear the board often and save your Gang Up cards to steal any of his strong minions like Molten Giant (and help avoiding Fatigue). Use your Preparations often, keep the board clear, use your Weapons to attack face, and this challenge will be done quite easily. Warlock Challenge In this challenge you'll be fighting Razorgore the Untamed, and defeating him will give you Demonwrath, a Warlock spell that's a good fit for zoo/demon decks and can clear the deck nicely while leaving your demons untouched. In this challenge you'll have to work with this pre-con deck: 2x Demonfire I hope you made it through Blackwing Lair without dying too many times and gotten your hands on those sweet cards. We'll be posting a F2P Guide for this wing soon so keep an eye out for that. I'll see you all next, and final, week when we attempt to take down the Hidden Laboratory. |
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Check Out the First 'Knights of Pen & Paper 2' Gameplay Footage Posted: 24 Apr 2015 11:30 AM PDT Paradox Interactive's Knights of Pen & Paper 2 is coming out next month on May 14th, but we haven't had a chance to see any gameplay footage of the game yet. And we didn't get the chance to nab any gameplay video from GDC. Well, the good news is that Paradox is finally delivering some gameplay footage of Knights of Pen & Paper 2, and they're doing so in glorious 1080p at 60 frames per second, because any lesser resolution or frame rate would just be cruel and unusual punishment for your eyeballs. Click to watch on YouTube in 1080p60, the embed doesn't support 60 frames per second yet: The 16-bit visuals are looking great, though without running away from the "nerds sitting at a table playing a tabletop game" frame that the original game used. Super-cool. You'll be trying to save the world from the second-edition ruleset of the game that threatens to upend everything we love and hold dear. This will not stand. Because we'll be sitting down. |
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'Final Fantasy: Record Keeper' Updated With New Realms, Characters Posted: 24 Apr 2015 11:00 AM PDT DeNA's Final Fantasy: Record Keeper [Free] has been consistently updated on a weekly basis since its release with limited time events that offered the opportunity to unlock a few characters. This week's update doesn't follow the same vein but instead focuses on expanding the game's core content. As of Tuesday night, players can unlock new records in the pre-existing Final Fantasy series records as well as open up both the Final Fantasy I and Final Fantasy II realms. After playing through the Phantom Train record in Final Fantasy VI (which also unlocks Cyan at its conclusion once you beat the boss), Final Fantasy I is unlocked. The first record in Final Fantasy I also unlocks the Knight character, which was the upgraded Fighter class from that title. Play through enough of the Final Fantasy I records (along with the various records that get unlocked through in the existing realms) and you'll unlock Final Fantasy II which offers even more records to play through as well as Josef to unlock. Besides the added characters, precious mythril and stamina crystals are available to unlock. Finally, playing subsequent unlocked records in Final Fantasy VI will eventually unlock the Summoner (but Rydia is still better). We've been playing through most of the content and honestly there isn't much to detail in terms of strategy beyond our generalized guide that was posted at Record Keeper's worldwide launch. If you've been regularly playing the game, upgrading weapons and skills via daily dungeons, and have a good set of equipment for your main party you shouldn't have much problem with the classic dungeons. The same can't be said for the Elites, which require specific strategies for nearly every boss (we'll try and get some guides up on those at a later date). In addition to the new content, Final Fantasy: Record Keeper also has upped the drop rate on a lot of characters' Soul Break weapons for the next couple of weeks. Kain, Rydia, Cloud and Wakka (as well as Aerith) are included so if you've been saving up your mythril now's the time to spend it in the relic draw. The Aerith event is also still in play through the end of April so if you haven't been collecting your Magicite get to it! For folks looking for more ability variety this week's content update also adds a significant amount of new abilities to craft such as Flare, Holy, Barrage (four random attacks at 70% damage!) rand Shrunken (a ranged physical attack). Odds are we'll probably get another limited time event next week, and we'll be sure to cover it when it appears. |
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'Hellrider' review - Ducks of Anarchy Posted: 24 Apr 2015 10:32 AM PDT Have you ever wanted to ride a motorcycle through Hell as a duck? Well, Hellrider [Free] is your huckleberry. Accompanied by a slick set of pixelated visuals and an appropriately chiptune soundtrack, Hellrider sees players riding a motorcycle through a hellish landscape, avoiding lava at two sides and a heap of different obstacles. By default you'll start by veering off into one direction, and a simple tap anywhere will change your course. By tapping rapidly you'll stay in place, but eventually you'll need to commit. The animation is very slick on an iPhone 6, and the controls are pretty much instant. The simple premise takes off when you add in the fact that the screen constantly shifts perspective, from a landscape to portrait after every death. You'll also switch sides on occasion, forcing players to relearn everything they once knew and adjust accordingly, which you'll see in the accompanying screenshots. It sounds like such a basic little thing, but after 10 or so sessions it really does make each run feel fresh, despite the fact that it's technically the same concept every time. Boss fights are a highlight, the first of which involves a simple bomb pattern where you can throw back the third explosive. On paper the mechanic is relatively simple, but getting the angle just right to grab the correct bomb and avoid all the others is extremely tricky. Sometimes you'll undershoot and ride right into an armed bomb, and other times you'll overshoot and head into the lava. It's a testament to how you'll have to plan ahead when changing directions with this simple yet deep control scheme, that can be learned with time and effort. The way the developer has responded to the current IAP marketplace is pretty outstanding. To unlock each character, all you have to do is watch an ad. It's painless and takes maybe a minute, and you're done. The same goes for creating a checkpoint for specific areas -- watch an ad and you're good. The only problem with this model is that there's no "buyout" option for any portion of the game, including the removal of ads altogether. Now this is likely a move to keep ad revenue up for continued support, and it's not like said ads are all that bad anyway, but it's an option that would be appreciated. It is a free app, after all. Hellrider is an engaging little runner that uses ads in a way that most games should. Although it's not as long-lasting as a lot of other similar titles on the market, it's definitely worth picking up for at least an afternoon to quickly unlock everything and ride into the sunset. |
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'Leo's Fortune' Gets $0.99 Flash Sale on Game's First Anniversary Posted: 24 Apr 2015 09:48 AM PDT Leo's Fortune [$0.99] has been out for about a year now, and it's kind of crazy because it won an Apple Design Award almost immediately after release. It's felt like something of an iOS platformer institution ever since it came out. The good news is that now on the game's one-year anniversary, you can pick this fantastic game up for only $0.99. It's being called a flash sale for today, so hop on it while you can, it might be gone once the 24th turns to the 25th. Maybe the rad live-action Rube Goldberg machine trailer will convince you: This is a marvelous-looking platformer, and plays really well, too: we gave it five stars in our review. It's got hints of Sonic games and physics puzzlers in its gameplay, too. The game's hit over a million sales since launch across both iOS and Android, and it's certainly been worthy of the huge number of sales. Plus, it has gamepad support! This is definitely a game to check out if you haven't yet, and especially at this $0.99 price. |
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'Game of Thrones Ascent' Gets 'Fire & Blood' Expansion and New Season 5 Content Posted: 24 Apr 2015 09:15 AM PDT Disruptor Beam's Game of Thrones Ascent [Free] had a cool thing going for it last year, where it tied in events from season 4 of HBO's Game of Thrones into its own game. Well, the good news is that they're continuing it for season 5 with new content drops, and have also launched a big new expansion for the game called "Fire & Blood." You can now grow your dragons, which is a big new feature, of course, and check out a new interactive map. The map will contain some of the iconic events from the show, like Daenerys attacking the slaver cities. The update with the expansion is avaiable on the web and on iOS today, with the Android version coming later. As well, there's the weekly Content Drops coming to the game, with Disruptor Beam releasing a new video each Monday talking about what's been added to tie in with the most recent episode of the HBO series: So, expect more content drops over the coming weeks as the fifth season of the show goes on, and some new features with the new expansion. |
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'Naught Reawakening' Review - A Gravity-Based Platformer that Quickly Grows Stale Posted: 24 Apr 2015 08:31 AM PDT One side-effect of Apple requiring an annual fee from developers is that, if the developer goes out of business, their games drop off the App Store. That's what happened with Spanish indies Blue Shadow and their gravity-based platformer Naught. So while anyone with an Android device can still download Naught and its sequel, they've been missing from the iOS App Store. You can't keep a good indie team down, though, and now former Blue Shadow developers have returned as Wild Sphere, and Naught is back on your Apple device. Naught Reawakening [$3.99] is an iOS re-release of Naught 2. You guide the cat-like Naught through a mysterious underground world, viewed in silhouette, avoiding deadly plants, picking up diamonds to unlock secret zones and collecting seeds to enable checkpoints. Rather than controlling Naught directly, you turn the entire world and use gravity to move the bipedal feline around. In the original game you could spin the world using gestures, virtual buttons, or by physically turning your device, but here you only have the virtual buttons. Naught has also gained the ability to jump. The use of silhouette graphics initially sets Naught Reawakening apart from the crowd, and invites comparisons to Limbo [$4.99], although there is little substance to the art style here. In Limbo, the dark and menacing nature of the graphics actually informed the gameplay, and vice versa, but one gets the sense that Naught is exploring a silhouette world simply because that's the visual style of game that the developers chose to make. Unlike Limbo, Naught Reawakening could have been full-colour without impacting on the gameplay. There is no denying that the game does look good though, especially with the occasional splashes of colour to highlight collectables, checkpoints and dangers. You're joined on your adventure by the Spirit of the Tree, a small orb which floats around above you and points you in the right direction, as well as serving as the pause button. The first time I got lost, on the fifth level I think it was, I started following the Spirit's directions, only to find myself in a dead end with the Spirit gleefully pointing out that the exit was on the other side of a wall. This felt like a cheap trick, and when I eventually tumbled my way back around the level and reached the exit, it was just trial and error with no sense of achievement. It didn't feel like success, just an end to the frustration of being lost. And there we have the biggest problem with Naught Awakening: It is a maze game. Yes there is a degree of skill required in using gravity to pull you around the level, and there are certainly challenges in getting past the deadly plants and traps, but ultimately you are lost in a maze and you have to find your way out, with just a rough direction to guide you. Mazes lose their appeal really quickly. Naught Reawakening also suffers from the fault that can blight any game built around a specific feature: This game is all about gravity, and after just a few levels you'll find that every challenge is the same: You have to turn the world to make Naught fall, and then quickly turn it back to stop him from falling on to something that will kill him. Unless you get some perverse pleasure from repeated deaths, you end up having to nudge him along pixel by pixel, trying to get a peek of what's beyond the screen boundary. Any joy of exploration or adventure is sapped out. The game's frustrating difficulty is exacerbated by a very odd design decision: You collect seeds to enable checkpoints, but each time you die, you lose a seed. In other words, if a level is too difficult and you keep dying, the game punishes you by sending you back to the start. Wouldn't it have made more sense to help the player in some way? The real stand-out quality of Naught Reawakening is its soundtrack, which reminded me of the pacing, barely-rhythmic remix of Nine Inch Nails' Closer used for the haunting opening credits to the movie Se7en. The game's industrial sound effects are a perfect match, not so much complementing the soundtrack as becoming part of it. Top marks on the sound front. There are no social features or Game Center integration, so if high score bragging and achievements are your thing then you'll need to settle for merely competing against yourself in finishing levels quickly. I can't imagine many people wanting to play these levels over and over again though. Getting through them once is relief enough. Naught Reawakening is far from a bad game. It has got nice graphics, an engrossing atmosphere, and a brilliant soundtrack. I went in to it without any particular expectations, and found it a bit boring at first. Then I started to like it, and it really grew on me. But the gameplay got very repetitive, very quickly. |
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Marvel Heroes Will be Landing in Telltale Games in 2017 Posted: 24 Apr 2015 07:45 AM PDT At an event in San Francisco yesterday, Marvel announced that it's expanding its video game plans by signing a deal with Telltale Games, which will develop games based on Marvel's properties. For Marvel Entertainment, working with Telltale seems to be a great fit since, according to Marvel's executive vice-president Peter Philips, "Marvel is about storytelling." I'm not surprised that Telltale has picked up another great franchise for its unique brand of story-telling games. After all, the company has been picking up franchise after franchise, from The Walking Dead all the way to Minecraft. The first game is projected to premiere in 2017, and, unless a weird rift happens, the Marvel Telltale games should be landing on iOS too. Which storylines are you hoping to see in 2017? [Polygon] |
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Naquatic's 'Basketball Showdown 2015' Brings 'CivCrafter'-Style Clans to Basketball Posted: 24 Apr 2015 07:19 AM PDT Naquatic may have ruined your life with CivCrafter [Free] and its inordinately-deep clicker gameplay, but thankfully they're here to calm things down with their next game, Basketball Showdown 2015, releasing next week on April 30th. However, there's an aspect of CivCrafter that's coming to this follow-up to one of Naquatic's most popular games, Basketball Showdown [Free]: the clan system. Rebranded as teams here, because sports, you'll be able to start up your own team, and recruit players to play for you, with a limit of 20 players, just like the CivCrafter clan system. Naquatic's hoping to make their other sports franchises have similar systems, as they think it brings a community aspect to these games that makes them better. The game's all about shooting baskets from all over the court, but unlike other games, you have no shot guidance, you just have to get your shot to be accurate when you swipe to shoot. There's the live online multiplayer to take on opponents with, along with a singleplayer season mode. There will be events and tournaments to take part in with your team, too. Naquatic put effort into making the visuals look great, with detailed textures on the different basketballs you can unlock. And they apparently consulted with an actual physicist to make the game feel as real as possible. Naquatic is going to be handing out early access on the forums, and some Touch Arcade teams are already forming, so get ready for some fierce battles, starting soon! |
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RPG Reload File 035 - 'Final Fantasy Dimensions' Posted: 23 Apr 2015 05:43 PM PDT Hello, gentle readers, and welcome to the RPG Reload, the weekly feature where all of our jobs are classy. Each week, we take a look at an iOS RPG from the distant mists of time and yank it screaming into the future to see if it's capable of becoming a proper member of today's society. It's a little revisiting, a little reflecting, and a chance to take a deeper dive than our reviews usually allow for. I try to present a balanced plate of RPGs from week to week, but everyone can use a little help once in a while. That's why once per month I turn the selection to the readers. Hey, that's you! Here's how it works: just tell me which game you'd like to see by posting a comment below, stopping by the Official RPG Reload Club thread, or by tweeting me at @RPGReload. I'll randomly choose a winner at the appropriate time, and we can all have fun playing and talking about the game of your choice. The next reader's choice will be decided next week, so this is your last chance to get a suggestion in. Do it! Wow, has it really been three months since we last covered a Square Enix game here in the RPG Reload? Maybe we'd have them more often if they'd fix some of their interesting ones that broke in iOS8. Well, no matter, because today we're covering one of the less-broken titles in their selection, Final Fantasy Dimensions [Free]. This game is noteworthy for being the only traditional-style Final Fantasy game that has only seen release on mobiles, and it's looking like it will hold that designation for the foreseeable future. It's safe to say Square Enix was testing the waters on iOS with this game, and my hunch is that they didn't find the outcome agreeable enough to continue along a similar line. Even the sequel, Final Fantasy Legends: The Crystal Of Time And Space, is closer to a social RPG than it is to a traditional Final Fantasy. That makes this game something of a one-of-a-kind. Well, it would probably be more accurate to say it's two-of-a-kind, since Final Fantasy Dimensions truly follows in the footsteps of Final Fantasy 4: The After Years [$15.99]. They share almost the same development team, along with similar hardware origins, overall structures, and even faults. We'll talk about The After Years in another edition of this feature at some point, so I won't go into that game's history too deeply here. Suffice it to say that the game was a chapter-based RPG in the 16-bit style that was delivered piecemeal to Japanese feature phones. It was developed by frequent Square Enix collaborator Matrix Software under the direction of Square Enix's Toshio Akiyama, while the producer duties were handled by the legendary Takashi Tokita, the lead designer of the original Final Fantasy 4 [$15.99] and one of the directors of Chrono Trigger [$9.99]. Starting from February 2008, chapters were delivered to Japanese players at a rate of about one per month, finally finishing up in December of that year. It was a huge success, and ended up being remade for a few other hardware platforms, with all but the original release getting an English version. Although Square Enix sometimes sits on a success, that wasn't the case here. The same team was sent to work on yet another chapter-based feature phone game, announced in July of 2010 as Final Fantasy Legends: The Warriors Of Light And Darkness. The game would use the same engine as The After Years and follow a similar release pattern, with the first chapter hitting in September of 2010 and the last one arriving almost a year later in August of 2011. While its predecessor had received remakes and international releases on WiiWare and the Sony PSP by this time, but Final Fantasy Legends had a different fate in store. Its first and to date only remake would arrive on smartphones, announced at the 2011 Tokyo Game Show. The rest of the world could officially join in on the excitement at E3 2012, when Square Enix officially announced the game, now titled Final Fantasy Dimensions, would hit worldwide later that year. They played coy with the price, but it wasn't hard to work out from the prices of the original version in Japan and of The After Years on WiiWare that it was going to be a bit higher than most smartphone gamers were used to. Even with that expectation, quite a few people were shocked when the price was revealed just days before the game's release in August 2012. The Prologue chapter was free, but the rest of the game was available as a full unlock for $28.99, or a la carte for a total cost of $29.96. There was also an extra $9.99 IAP that give you access to a chiptune version of the game's soundtrack. Now, that price was cheaper than the original game's cost on Japanese feature phones, but you probably don't need to peek to guess that the reaction was vitriolic even among the presumably premium-favoring audience of TouchArcade, let alone the masses. Some were worried it would set a precedent for the App Store if they supported such a scheme. A few years down the road, one can only wish it had, in my opinion. While Square Enix would hit a similar price point on the App Store in Japan a few times after this with Dragon Quest 8 [$19.99] and Chaos Rings 3, they've never done so again internationally. At the same time, the IAP on Final Fantasy Dimensions slowly dropped to the point that you can now pick up the whole thing for a cool $13.99, with that chiptune IAP now a more reasonable $4.99. To make things worse, the initial release had a bit of a problem with its IAP, meaning that for a whole holiday weekend, players only had access to the Prologue chapter. Rather oddly for a chapter that is ostensibly meant to sell you on the full experience, the Prologue doesn't even begin to show you what Dimensions has to offer. Oh, it sets up the story and introduces the characters, but when they said they were trying to make a new game in the 16-bit style, they were obviously thinking more of Final Fantasy 5 [$15.99] than Final Fantasy 6 [$15.99]. The story here isn't bad, even if it leans a bit too heavily on cheap pops for my liking, but the game's main virtues are in its gameplay systems. Unfortunately, you didn't gain access to most of those interesting bits until after the first paywall. I'm quite sure many people tried Final Fantasy Dimensions, but I have a feeling a low percentage actually played it through. What the Prologue chapter did reveal in all its glory was the presentation of this remake, a style that would later be used to make the smartphone versions of Final Fantasy 5 and Final Fantasy 6. It's probably an understatement to say that people are mixed on this art style even to this day. It's too bad that the Prologue does such a handy job of scaring people away. While Final Fantasy Dimensions has some deep flaws, it proves itself to be more than worth its initial asking price over the course of the game. The job system is a smart variation on the one found in Final Fantasy 5, and while it doesn't offer quite the same level of sandbox that game's take does, its limitations make for a much more tactical approach to building your characters. By using an original setting, it avoids the fan-fiction feeling that pervades The After Years, and has a lot better pacing all-around than that title. Most of all, it's exactly what it promised to be: a huge, new Final Fantasy in the style of the 16-bit era games. It ends up being even longer than any of the real Final Fantasy games of that period, and is actually one of the longer games of the entire series. The soundtrack by Final Fantasy 11 composer Naoshi Mizuta, while not quite up to the standards of Nobuo Uematsu's work in the 16-bit era, is still quite strong overall. Even the much-maligned visual style of the game grows on you after a while. The monsters in particular look fantastic, and the spritework on the main characters is quite impressive given the sheer variety of combinations possible. The story starts off well enough. You're introduced to two groups of characters who end up shooting for the same goal. When they awkwardly arrive at the party at the same time, everything sort of blows up, creating two separate worlds of light and dark. Naturally, half of the characters end up in one world while the remaining half are in the other, and the groups are of course mixed up from their original configurations. That's how we make drama, friends. Each side eventually comes to realize that they must collect the crystals scattered around their respective worlds to reunite the two halves and see their friends again. The plot has an odd flow for a Final Fantasy game, though it makes perfect sense in the context of the game's original distribution method. While the iOS version comes in five pieces, the original game came in 13 chapters. Each of the iOS version's chapters includes a handful from the original release, somewhat obfuscating the original circumstances. It's important to keep that in mind, because like The After Years this game very much focuses on mini-stories. With the parties split, you'll bounce back and forth between the two quite regularly. Each episode with one party will typically run about three or so hours and focuses around finding a crystal in the immediate area. This task is without fail tied in with a character who will temporarily join the party, and whose problems must be solved in order to retrieve a crystal. Coincidentally, these crystals will unlock the job classes of each of these characters for the permanent party members to use. This emphasis on vignettes gives the game a cadence more akin to the Dragon Quest games as opposed to Final Fantasy in its classic form, but it's a format that works well on handhelds. There are lots of natural stopping points where you can take a break and work on something else, or you can just keep on going if you feel like it. The flow of Dimensions is one of the big ways it improves over The After Years. While that game's chapters felt disjointed, aimless, and at times wholly unnecessary, everything in Dimensions feels like a comfortable part of the whole while still providing satisfying sub-stories. Sadly, while the vignettes work well, the overall story doesn't amount to much. It's as thin and unrefined as Final Fantasy 5 at its worst, and with none of the self-awareness and goofy charm that game has to offer. Dimensions leans too heavily on dropping references to older Final Fantasy titles, which hurts the game in a couple of ways. It feels like a desperate cry for attention, like constant elbow digs from old friend from high school that you're meeting after years of being apart. It wouldn't be so bad if it didn't lay it on quite so thick, but it's almost non-stop. This ends up choking out the game's own story and sense of individuality, and seriously damaging the game's intended goal. I'd like to say there's no chance an authentic Final Fantasy would indulge in so much nostalgic self-congratulation, but Final Fantasy 9 is a thing that exists, so I'll just have to settle for saying that Dimensions doesn't pull it off nearly as well as that game does. The gameplay end of things fares much better, fortunately. While it's more obviously linear than most of the Final Fantasy games, in practice it's not so different from the 16-bit entries. The game does eventually open up, but for the most part, your task is right in front of you with only a couple of optional stops along the way. The game uses the Active Time Battle system for its combat, which hopefully needs neither introduction nor any additional praise at this point, and the dungeons are designed fairly well, with plenty of good treasure waiting for those who explore thoroughly. That can be a bit of a bear at times, though, since the encounter rate is very high in this game. There are enough random battles between save points that you're always in a bit of danger of running out of MP to keep everyone patched up, which I suppose is a good thing when I'm writing about the game, but fairly unpleasant when I'm playing it. It's a tough game, closer to the challenge of The After Years than the genuine 16-bit Final Fantasy games, but Dimensions gives you far more tools to overcome those challenges than its feature phone predecessor did. Those tools, of course, come from the game's use of the job system, that ever-reliable signal that you are playing one of the more mechanically interesting Final Fantasy titles. In Dimensions, it works very similarly to its Final Fantasy 5 implementation. You start off jobless which might seem rather depressing at first, but it becomes more and more enticing the longer you spend toiling away at various jobs. Which is to say, by spending time leveling up the different jobs, you'll unlock new abilities that can then be used with other jobs. The jobless type has the most flexibility with its equipment selection and open slots for abilities, allowing you to create some powerful combinations. As you recover more crystals, new jobs will unlock, giving you even more toys to play with. Changing jobs is quick, easy, and incurs no penalty, so you can always switch characters around for strategic reasons if you like. That's all the same as in Final Fantasy 5, but Dimensions does a couple of things differently. Jobs are capped at just three levels when you first unlock them, and it doesn't take too long to max those first three levels out. To go beyond that cap, you'll need to use Job Points, which are given out to you in controlled quantities at specific points in the story. Each job maxes out at level 20, and you get 69 points during the main story, so you can only max out around four jobs for each character. You can't respec, either, which might make some players feel that bad sort of anxiety that comes from uncertainty. I can only assuage that by telling you the game is beatable with almost any combination, and that beating a post-game boss will give you unlimited Job Points. You can still max out everything if you want to in the long run, but the game puts some limitations on you for the majority of its run. I actually don't mind that, to be honest. While there's a great appeal in creating all-powerful characters in games like this, I personally find it more fun to have to make careful choices about who will serve which role in the party. If you're still really worried, just stick to the classic roles and you'll be more than fine, I promise. The other restriction is an interesting one that I guess happened as a matter of practicality. The four characters in the light world and the four characters in the dark world both start with the same basic set of jobs: fighter, monk, thief, red mage, white mage, black mage, and summoner. After that, each party is seeking out different crystals. Since they are separated, each party doesn't have access to the other's gear, money, and so on. That 'so on' includes recovered crystals, making certain jobs exclusive to certain characters. This was probably put in so that the sprite artist didn't have to do quite so much work, but it also makes sense from a narrative point of view. Paladins in the light world, dark knights in the dark world. Near the end of the game, you'll have to make some choices about which characters will be in your active party, and this job separation helps spice up the process. There aren't quite so many jobs in Dimensions as there are in Final Fantasy 5, and this game isn't quite as sublimely balanced as that one. You don't have quite the same level of flexibility or customization. Even with those provisos in place, the job system in this game is a lot of fun to toy around with. It keeps the fires burning even in those spans of time where the narrative runs cold and the dungeons begin to grate. Final Fantasy Dimensions doesn't feel as fully-formed or confident as the 16-bit installments it draws so heavily from, but it's a clear improvement over the team's prior game and a very worthwhile part of Square Enix's mobile line-up. It would be worth a play even if all it had to rest on was its enjoyable take on the job system, but its zesty challenge and amusing vignettes certainly help seal the deal. This might be heresy, but I actually had more fun replaying Dimensions this time than my last run through Final Fantasy 6. It's by no means a better game, but there's a lot more potential for replay chicanery here. If you like Final Fantasy and haven't played it yet, it's assuredly worth its current asking price, and if you have played it, it's also pretty fun to play again, especially if you force yourself to try new strategies. It may not have lived up to people's wildest dreams, but it doesn't have to do that to be a welcome part of any JRPG fan's library, I think. It should be noted that while Final Fantasy Dimensions isn't broken under iOS 8 like some of Square Enix's games, it can be a bit finicky about restoring purchases or even selling its IAP on some hardware. I got it to go through on my second try on an iPhone 5S and the first try on an iPad 4, so it's not terrible. Interestingly, the game received an update shortly after iOS 8 launched that was supposed to address this, but it obviously could use another pass. That said, once I got through the purchase restoration, I never had another problem for the rest of the game. It at least works, which is more than we can say at the moment for certain other titles from Square Enix. That's just my take on Final Fantasy Dimensions, though. What do you think? Cheap photocopy of Final Fantasy 5? Unfairly underrated because of sticker shock? I want to hear your opinions, so please leave a comment below, post in the Official RPG Reload Club thread, or tweet me at @RPGReload. Don't forget to suggest a game for the next reader's choice while you're at it. This is the last chance for the May feature! As for me, I'll be back next week with another cool RPG. Thanks for reading! Next Week's Reload Hint: It's a favorite of Archanean archers! |
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Posted: 23 Apr 2015 05:01 PM PDT It's no secret that Marvel is expecting their upcoming blockbuster movie Avengers: Age of Ultron to be a big deal, and there's no shortage of mobile game tie-ins happening to celebrate the movie's release. A brand new game, Marvel Future Fight, is already in soft-launch and will be releasing worldwide the day before the movie hits theaters, but there's some existing games that have recently gotten some Age of Ultron love as well. Marvel Puzzle Quest
 Marvel Puzzle Quest, Free - The match-3 mashup of Puzzle Quest and Marvel is receiving an Age of Ultron in-game event that begins tomorrow and lasts right up until the movie's release next Friday. The event is split into two 2.5 day runs, with the first awarding a Scarlet Witch and the second awarding Iron Man: Hulkbuster as prizes. The events will feature a massive boss fight against Ultron, and leaderboards will be split into the separate Alliances rather than a fully global leaderboard. For more information on this Age of Ultron event, check out an interview at Marvel.com with Marvel Puzzle Quest producer Joe Fletcher. Marvel Contest of Champions  MARVEL Contest of Champions, Free - Kabam's Marvel fighting game has been "infected" by Ultron quite literally. The entire style of the game from menu backgrounds to the spinning loading icon have an Ultron look, and there's a massive new Special Event campaign to play through. The campaign features 3 chapters, a new stage to fight in and Ultron Drone enemies to fight against. Not to mention Ultron himself, who looks bad ass. In addition to the Ultron content, Contest of Champions has received a ton of fixes in its latest update as well as some preparations for future content like Summoner Masteries, which will allow you to progress a fighter in a specific skill direction, and Alliance Arenas which see you team up with your Alliance to take on challenges together. Finally, all players will receive a 2-star Black Widow character as part of the new update. Marvel Pinball / Zen Pinball  Marvel Pinball, $0.99 - Phew, after those previous two games with their in-game events and new features to explain, this one is pretty straightforward: a new Age of Ultron table has been added to both Marvel Pinball and the all-encompassing Zen Pinball apps. As you can see in the trailer above, the Age of Ultron table fits right in with the brand of fantastical pinball tables we've come to expect from Zen Studios. I mean, Ironman and Ultron are basically having a mid-air fight the entire time you're playing, which is awesome. The Age of Ultron table is available in both apps right now for $1.99. |
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'The Incident' and 'Space Age' Developers Working on New Platformer Posted: 23 Apr 2015 04:30 PM PDT Big Bucket Software, creators of The Incident [$0.99] and last year's Space Age [$3.99], are hard at work on another game currently in the early stages of development. Temporarily-titled BB3 (short for Big Bucket 3, presumably), this is looking like a platformer where Frank, the protagonist of The Incident, is running along some Mario-esque platforms. The difference is that you'll be controlling the world around Frank, allowing him to make jumps and collect coins by moving each part of the scenery individually. An early work-in-progress video was shared by Matt Comi of Big Bucket, which you can watch on his blog. I've seen the world-shifting concept in games before, but I'm really curious to see how Big Bucket takes to the concept. Plus, the art seems particularly like Super Mario World in a way that's kind of intriguing. Obviously as this is early on, things can and will change, but this is definitely a game to keep an eye on down the road. |
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Capcom and Beeline Announce 'Ghostbusters Puzzle Fighter' Posted: 23 Apr 2015 04:13 PM PDT
So far, Beeline hasn't mentioned anything we haven't come to expect from games like this: collect a roster of Ghostbusters, level them up, match colored tiles, and fire off special abilities. Ghostbusters Puzzle Fighter will include what looks like a fairly expansive story mode, which includes events from the classic movies as well as the extended universe, so to speak: The rival Ghost Smashers make an appearance, for example. Story mode aside, several different player-vs.-player events are also planned. I think most people have their One True Match-3 Puzzler that they play daily, but Ghostbusters Puzzle Fighter seems fine enough for anyone already invested in the franchise or excited about the two upcoming movies (for which this is obviously marketing). This isn't even Beeline's only iOS Ghostbusters game, for that matter: that distinction belongs to, uh, Ghostbusters [Free], which involved bustin' ghouls to raise funds to expand and improve your firehall. (The last update was about two years ago, however.)
Your thoughts on match-3 puzzle games or movie licensing notwithstanding, it's hard not to side-eye Capcom on this one. Puzzle Figther is one of the company's most beloved games, and attaching it to this project seems cynical and obvious. Either Capcom wants to manipulate our gestalt nostalgia to help Columbia sell movie tickets, or they don't have confidence that Ghostbusters Puzzle Fighter would do well without some shallow branding. Even if Capcom is acting in good faith and had no idea that fans would be excited to see the words "Puzzle Fighter," they're almost surely setting people up for disappointment when they see fuddy-duddy old Egon Spengler instead of Chun-Li. Either way, Ghostbusters Puzzle Fighter will hit the App Store in June. An actual touchscreen version of Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, meanwhile, can be found in the Capcom Arcade [Free] from 2011. |
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Read This: Bossa Studios on 'Spy_Watch' and Game Design for the Apple Watch Posted: 23 Apr 2015 02:45 PM PDT Bossa Studios recently released Spy_Watch [$1.99], a game built for the Apple Watch. Gamasutra spoke to Bossa COO Vince Farquharson to talk about how gaming on a watch should work, and he had some interesting things to say, such as:
 It's a fascinating interview about the challenges inherent with a brand-new platform and interaction type. This is the biggest change to gaming interaction since the smartphone, and there's special considerations as to how games here will work. Or even if they will be worth the time to make them, if the Apple Watch winds up being viable. These are interesting times for mobile gaming. |
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Offworld Games Announce 'Reiner Knizia's The Confrontation,' Set for This Summer Posted: 23 Apr 2015 01:59 PM PDT
The cardboard Confrontation was set in the Lord of the Rings universe and released in 2002, during the height of the film trilogy's popularity. It stands out partly because of its asymmetric win conditions: The Fellowship wins as soon as Frodo enters Mordor, but Sauron's goal is to move three units in the Shire or to kill Frodo. Offworld's more recent digital version strips away all of the Tolkien licensing, replaced by generic fantasy, but the game seems otherwise unchanged: the "Light" faction tries to sneak the Prince into the Shadow Stronghold; "Shadow" players attempt to overrun the Light Capital or defeat the Prince in combat. If you're not familiar with The Confrontation, here's a quick and dirty summary: each player moves his nine units around a diamond shape board carved into regions. You can see where your opponents soldiers are, but not what they are. When two opposing players try to occupy the same region, a short battle ensues that involves resolving special abilities and playing situational cards. From there, you simply duke it out against your enemy until someone meets their win condition. The Confrontation obviously involves strategic planning and troop movement, but it's also about bluffing, guessing, and taking risks in each one-on-one skirmish. Offworld Games, meanwhile, are the team behind Legion of the Damned, another turn-based strategy game we reviewed way back in 2012. Spoiler: we liked it. Offworld first announced Reiner Knizia's The Confrontation—oh yeah, that's the official name, like Sid Meier's Civilization—late last year for Windows and OS X, with an iPad version to follow. Since then, they've set up a Steam Greenlight campaign and launched a Kickstarter for The Confrontation's first expansion. The game is coming to iPad either way, but the Kickstarter would fund development on 18 new characters, essentially doubling the game. Judging from the proposed Kickstarter rewards, Reiner Knizia's The Confrontation should be on the App Store by at least August and cost $9.99, with a $6.99 in-app purchase for the expansion pack (assuming it's successfully funded). |
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New WiFi DoS Attack is Targeting iOS Devices Posted: 23 Apr 2015 01:33 PM PDT Connecting to unfamiliar wireless networks is sometimes a necessity especially when you travel, but The Skycure folks have found something pretty annoying for iOS users. What they found is an SSL vulnerability that causes iOS devices to crash and reboot continually as long as the device is on the WiFi network in question. This certificate exists in a wide array of apps so chances are high that if you are connected to a network utilizing this DoS tactic, you will probably be affected. They have 3 remediation suggestions. First, disconnect from the WiFi if you get hit with this thing. Second, update your iOS version to the latest. Third, be wary of unfamiliar free WiFi. As you can see, there isn't exactly a ton of time to make configuration changes once it hits you, so your best defense is to just stay away from WiFi you don't trust. The silver lining here is that a reboot is only an annoyance while you are in that WiFi area and less harmful than many types of malware/virus/attack activity. This story serves as a reminder that public WiFi is controlled by the person who configures the hot spot, and not everyone is benevolent as we would like them to be. This story also serves to show that operating system updates do have a purpose and I would not be surprised to see a new iOS version that puts this specific issue to rest in the near future. |
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Out Now Part 2: 'RBI Baseball 15', 'Wrassling', and 'Forgotten Memories' Posted: 23 Apr 2015 12:53 PM PDT As always, the Wednesday night App Store releases leave off a few really cool games that don't release at the Thursday midnight time because either the games have been scheduled later than the normal release time, are released manually, or just wind up going through odd App Store problems. It affects everyone, from 16-year old developers, to an organization that was around before television was even invented. All are equal in the eyes of Apple, and must wait to be approved. Here's three of the rad stragglers from last night: R.B.I. Baseball 15  R.B.I. Baseball 15, $4.99 Finally, the latest entry in the revival of this classic baseball franchise is here. It was approved yesterday afternoon, but took long enough to process for the App Store that we missed it in our Out Now post. Well, now you can pick it up, with some improved and expanded features over last year's version. Wrassling  Wrassling, Free We knew that this goofy wrestling game was going to drop this week, but it looks like the release happened a bit late. No matter, you can now wrassle everyone who dares take you on for yourself. And wear hats, too. Gotta have hats. Forgotten Memories  Forgotten Memories : Alternate Realities, $4.99 It took a long time for this survival-horror game to actually become a real thing you could buy and play for yourself. Honestly, it's kind of impressive that this just didn't wind up being vaporware, but hey, Duke Nukem Forever finally came out. All software shall be finished now! |
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