Where is My Heart? Review

     It seems to me like I've been playing a lot of games in the puzzle platformer genre lately, or at least plenty of games in the “get from point A to point B” school of puzzling thought. I reviewed Quantum Conundrum last week, and the Unfinished Swan and Closure are coming up next. This week is Where is My Heart? You already know what I gave Quantum Conundrum (great game tier 3). While all of these games are great, two of the three others are going to get perfect or near perfect scores. Obviously, you'll know by process of elimination by the end of this review, but do you care to take a guess before you get to the end?

     Where is My Heart is a Playstation Mini, playable on PSP, PS3, and PSVita. It's a 2d puzzle platformer done in a wonderfully serene and beautiful 8-bit style. I think it's the color palette that really makes it stand out. There are lot of purples and yellows that are not quite pastel and a lot of browns and grays that almost are. You play as three monsters, a family consisting of mom, dad, and their young child. They are searching for a special tree that has flown away, and seem to be getting lost as they go. Each of the three are really beautiful sprites with great animation.

     In each level, you control all three monsters, and you must get them all to the exit in order to move on. You move with the d-pad, switch which monster you are controlling with triangle or circle, and jump with cross. Puzzles often involve stacking the monsters on each others' heads to reach certain areas, basic platforming, and getting to certain blocks that you can activate to have hearts fly out and fill in silhouetted blocks or clear out blocked off areas, allowing you to proceed. There are also some advanced things you'll be doing, which I'll talk about in a sec, but first we need to talk about what really sets this game apart.

     The game's gimmick (and I use that word without any negative connotation) is that each level is chopped into frames, and frames that are adjacent to one another do not necessarily depict areas that are adjacent or even near each other in reality. Adjacent frames are not necessarily even at the same zoom level. The frames themselves are often times not the same size. Some are large, some are tiny. It's as if the real level is in there somewhere, and there are several cameras on it. Some are at different zoom levels, and some are displayed on smaller or larger monitors. And the monitors are scrambled. It's hard to describe. An example would be a level that is just a straight walk from the entrance to the exit. There are four frames. When you walk forward, you will go through frame 1, then appear in frame 3, then 2, then 4. In other levels, these frames might be on top of each other, or across the screen from each other, and the level might have a lot of verticality (even though you might pop out in a frame at the bottom of the screen after you jump up a bunch of platforms). Once you understand the idea, it's quite an ingenious thing. You might think it's something that you'll be able to play right through, like your gamer brain can unscramble the images and allow you to play normally. You'll quickly see that isn't true, it's going to confound and surprise you the whole way through.

     This amazing concept is executed brilliantly throughout the game in many ways. There are frames that show the same thing, but in different sizes. You might walk out of a frame and into one that shows your character at a bigger size (you can really see the pixelated details of the sprites in these shots). Frames might also show the same thing in the same size. So if you move too quickly, that platform you think you need to jump to in the next frame might actually be the platform you are already on. You might jump forward only to land in a frame behind where you started. Some parts of the level seem to not appear in any frame. Some levels feature teleporting blocks or big leaps that take you to seemingly distant areas, until you discover that you are really right next to where you were and that there is a barrier between the two areas that is only seen in some tiny frame in the corner of the screen. Each level has the frames laid out in different ways and shapes as well. As a way of making you feel lost (as your characters are) this is ingenious. As a gameplay mechanic, this is also ingenious. You may think you understand how it works, but you need to experience it firsthand to understand what it feels like to play this game. And since there are so many implementations and variations of this idea in the game's levels, it's never going to wear out its welcome. It only gets more compelling as you go on.

     Each character can transform to an alternate form by finding certain blocks and standing all the monsters on the blocks on each others' heads in a certain order, which is dictated by colored silhouettes that appear over the blocks. Two of the monsters gain some cool abilities that could be featured in a normal platformer. I'll let you see for yourself what they are. Those abilities are great, but the one that interacts with the whole frame concept is the orange monster's alternate form, the Rainbow Spirit. While controlling the Rainbow Spirit, you can press L or R to rotate the frames. This, of course, does not change the layout of the reality of the level, only your perspective on the level. Simply rotating the screen may reveal frames that were partially offscreen, but is generally just a viewpoint change. The real magic is pressing L or R while jumping. This makes the Rainbow Spirit stay in place on the screen as the frames rotate around her. Meaning when you stop rotating, she will land in whatever frame is under her (unless she lands inside a solid object or outside of all the frames, which will kill her).

     This ability is a whole nother brain bending idea built on top of the first. To get somewhere in this form, you have to go to a place in the areas you can go to that will line up with the spot you want to get to in another frame when it comes around. I'll just stop explaining it now, because once again, even a video wouldn't do this concept justice, you have to actually experience it yourself. And once again, it is brilliantly executed.

     The levels are all very short, but have just the right amount of difficulty. Just like I said in the Quantum Conundrum review, you're never stuck for long enough to get frustrated, but you never get unstuck early enough that you are bored or just blazing through. The pacing is pretty much perfect.

     There is the additional gameplay element of scoring. Each level has a certain amount of hearts in it that you can collect. This is totally optional, as you only need to get to the exit to continue. Getting a heart increases your score for the level by 1. If you die (by falling off a cliff, or hitting spikes), the character you were playing respawns at the beginning of the level, but first their skeleton sprite produces a dark heart, which lowers your level score by 1. At the end of the level, the level score (rounded up to 0 if you were in the negative) gets added to your total, which is tracked on the pause menu. A lot of these hearts are in out of the way spots, and collecting all of them without dying is a challenge. Once I beat the game, I immediately played it again in the quest to get a perfect score. I had a blast going to every corner of every stage to collect hearts and forcing myself to start each level over if I had any deaths, and I highly recommend trying for a perfect score. The game is quite short (which I'm not saying is bad. In this case, the length is perfect), so playing again is totally feasible and just as much fun as the first time. Did I succeed in getting a perfect score though? That's where my one and only complaint about this game comes in. It is glitched so that you can only get a score of 171 out of 172 hearts. The designer, @bushghost, confirmed to me on twitter that one of the hearts is unreachable due to a design flaw or glitch (apparently it's off screen too, as I never even saw it). This may seem like a superficial flaw, but I was surprised at how much it affected my sense of satisfaction and completeness at the end of my perfect run. Not getting to see my long sought after 172 of 172 was very disappointing.

     But like I said, that is literally this game's only flaw. The game's subtle music and ambient nature sounds lend themselves perfectly to the pace of the puzzling and exploring. The games theme of being lost, emotional distress and depression, family, and nature are subtly shown to the player in the short screens that tell you the name of the level when you get to a new one. One of the characters is on this screen each time along with a quote from them. It's less about what is happening in a story (although there are a few events in the story, and those are great) and more about a mood that you get from these on-screen quotes, the graphical style, and the sounds of the game. It's hard to put into words what this mood is, but it's something we've all felt and everyone whose paying attention will recognize.

     To me, that one flaw in the scoring system is kind of a big deal. That's my personal feeling. If that doesn't bother you, then this is a close-to-perfect game. I would give it a perfect score if the scoring system was patched or if a new version comes out with this problem fixed. As is, I have to dock it ever so slightly and give it a score of great game, tier 2. It's really a tier 1 game though if a tiny fix was implemented, which means, in my opinion, it is approaching gaming perfection.

Quantum Conundrum Review (PS3)

      I've never played Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, but from what I hear, you can change dimensions in order to bypass obstacles. In Chrono Cross, you switch between dimensions that are each their own separate reality. Quantum Conundrum is another take on the dimension switching idea. It's a first-person action puzzle game that has you swapping dimensions on the fly to affect the objects and environments around you.

     The controls are your standard first-person scheme (with the notable exception of no shootin' button). The left stick controls movement, the right controls where you look. Cross is jump, square let's you pick up an object or drop it, and circle is throw whatever object you are holding. The four shoulder buttons control your dimensions. Press R2 to switch to the fluffy dimension, L2 for the heavy dimension, R1 for the slow-mo dimension, and L1 for the reverse gravity dimension. Pressing the button of the dimension you are currently in or pressing triangle will toggle you back into the normal dimension, although you can jump directly from one alternate dimension to another without returning to normal.

     What exactly does it mean to be in one of these alternate dimensions? A few examples of some of the basic puzzles will help to illustrate the effects. A common element of the game is pressure plates that need heavy stuff to be on them in order to activate a door. You may have a safe that is heavy enough to way it down, but is halfway across the room and weighs a ton. If you switch to the fluffy dimension, however, everything suddenly weighs next to nothing (and takes on a cute, plush appearance). So you can pick up the safe, carry it to the pressure plate, and then switch back to normal, putting the safe back up to its full weight and activating the switch.

     You'll also be in the same situation where you need to activate a pressure plate but only have a cardboard box. If you put the box on the plate, then switch to the heavy dimension, which turns everything to metal, the box will now weigh enough to activate the switch.

     The slow-mo dimension is maybe the most self-explanatory and familiar, but also the most fun to play around with. Everything moves in super slow motion while you are in it, allowing you to do cool stuff like leaving objects in mid-air, racing past fast-moving objects, and platforming on objects that are falling or flying by. It's very fun to play around with since most games with a slow motion ability put some kind of limit on it, but here you can mess with it to your heart's desire.

     The last dimension is the reverse gravity dimension, which is also kind of self-explanatory. Gravity instantly reverses when you enter it, sending everything that isn't tied down flying toward the ceiling. You are not affected by this (or any of the other dimensions' effects) due to the stabilizing effect of the device you are using to control the dimensions.

     Which segues into the story of the game. You play as a kid who is dropped off to visit his mad scientist uncle. When you get to his mansion, you can hear his voice, but is nowhere to be found. He tells you that he has become lost in another dimension while doing experiments, leads you to his dimensional manipulation device, and sets you off on a quest to try and get the power back on and get him back. There are three wings you need to go through to reactivate the mansion's power supply.

     Each of the wings has a bunch of levels. You have a different loadout of dimensions in each level. You are usually restricted to just one or two, but sometimes you can find batteries in the levels that give you access to the others. The dimensions are introduced slowly, one at a time, and the levels teach you to use the new dimensions you get in tandem with the ones you already have until you get to the endgame and are able to use all four together to do some really neat stuff.

     The real meat of this game is figuring out how to get from point A to point B and complete each level, and there's no way to let you know what that's like without spoiling a handful of these more complex dimensional interactions. Don't worry though, there are tons of these puzzles in the games several hour campaign. One example is throwing a cardboard box at glass, then switching to the heavy dimension so that it smashes through. You can turn safes fluffy while they are on top of a big fan then ride on top of them as they are blown upward. There are these robots that spit out objects throughout the game, and you can ride on furniture they spit out by jumping on it in slow motion. You can make a couch fluffy, pick it up, throw it, then switch to slow-mo and jump on top of it to ride it, then switch reverse gravity on and off rapidly to make it continue flying through the air with you on top of it (you'll be riding it this way while dodging lasers, fyi). Just a sampling of the few hundred or so things you will need to do to get through the game's levels.

     The whole game is narrated by your uncle. His lines are mostly well written and his voice acting is very well done. The voice actor reminds me of John Lithgow or the co host of the D6Genereation podcast Russ Wakelin. (Edit: I think I was actually thinking of Robert Krulwich of Radiolab. But I'm going to leave the D6G shout out in anyway. They all three do sound similar). He gives hints of what to do and how things work, tells you stories and anecdotes, and is generally annoyed at you and condescending to you, but in a nice sort of way. The narration adds a lot to the game.
     The music is nice and playfully mysterious, fitting the gameplay quite well. The theme song, which actually has lyrics, is pretty cool, although kind of goofy.

     The graphics are pretty good, but there is a lot of texture pop-in. I wish games would just take a few seconds longer to load, as I hate starting a level and watching all the textures pop in as I start to walk around. It takes me out of the experience. I can wait 10 more seconds on the load screen if it means I don't have to see that.

     Speaking of load screens, there are funny comments on Quantum Conundrum's. If you die (by falling from too high a height or getting lasered) the loading screen tells you something you'll miss out on because you died young. It's morbid and amusing. Other loading screens comment on the morals of destroying a dimension, and hint at the possibility of a bacon dimension (if there is a sequel, this needs to be in it). Level names are also quite clever (our safes will blot out the sun!).

     Each level of Quantum Conundrum is fun to figure out. I can't remember a single one I didn't enjoy solving. There are plenty of brain bending moments where you figure out a really cool way to manipulate dimensions to get where you are going, press a switch, or avoid a hazard. Walking around the level and puzzling out what to do as you listen to your uncle talking to you from wherever he is is quite fun. I was never stuck for long, but always stuck enough that the solution was a bit of a revelation. The puzzle design is great. The way the game does dimension swapping is novel, yet the puzzles are very well thought out, making you go much deeper than just the primary idea of each type of dimension. I highly suggest you do the “Explorer of All Roads” trophy if you want to see just how smartly designed these levels are, as it will take you through the “Choose Wisely” level with four unique solutions. Very nice.

     There are quite a few things that don't work in the game. First off, I don't like Ike (see what I did there), the inter-dimensional creature that shows up from time to time in the levels. He just seems kind of pointless. There is a part in the game where he is used effectively, and a bizarre secret involving him (look at the trophies for a hint), but in general I just don't get the point.

     The setting is also a little off in some regards. The robots that shoot out furniture and function as Star Trek style replicators seem a little out of place. They work great game-play wise as a way to get you new furniture and objects when you need them to continue and have destroyed your first set, so I guess that's why they are in there. These robots also vomit objects across long distances in some levels, which makes for fun puzzles and levels, but I have no idea what is going on theme-wise in these situations. There are many cavernous rooms and huge areas that make it seem like the mansion must be miles long, but it doesn't really look all that big in the intro. It makes you wonder if there would be a better setting for these levels than the inside of a house. A few elements of the setting that do work include the displays showing your uncles previous inventions and the portraits of family members that change quite comically depending on what dimension you're in (fluffy and heavy both make for amusing portraits: cute and puffy and heavy rock and roll, respectively).

     The campaign is great, but once it's over there isn't much to do. Getting the collectibles (which make goofy noises to lead you to them) is fun, but it doesn't take long to find them all. There are trophies for beating every level within a certain time limit and for beating them while only switching dimensions a certain number of times. I didn't find either of these challenges fun or engaging. Playing to beat a time or dimensional shift goal takes away the main elements of what makes the campaign so great; exploring, experimenting, and just playing around with the different dimensional effects. I love the slower pace of the campaign. I didn't get into those trophies at all.

     I also want to complain about how the game handles saves. If you press new game, it warns you that it will delete your old save file. Why? When I went back and played a little to do this review, I hit new game to see the intro again. I blazed right past the warning that my save would be deleted thinking that it was just the screen that tells me that I'm playing offline so leaderboards won't work. My save was gone. Good thing I don't care about the post game or I would be mad since all my work on getting fast times and shift goals would be down the drain.

     I think you get the picture. The campaign is pretty genius, but there are a few technical and thematic flaws. The post game (with the exception of finding the sound based collectibles) is bad. I love post games and wish this one had a better one. It's hard though, since the magic of the campaign is figuring out puzzles, and once you know how to do them, the thrill is gone. It's a game you experience, and then you can't re-experience it. That experience is great, but could use some polish. And some sort of engaging post game would be great. Maybe something like the handful of trophies in The Unfinished Swan (review pending) which just have you doing some random stuff in the game's levels. With all that in mind, I'll say great game, tier 3.

El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron Review (PS3)

      A good set of trophies is a treasure map to experiencing all that a game has to offer. When I played through El Shaddai the first time, I found it very interesting, both gameplay and theme-wise, but I also found it to be a little shallow. When I came back to it a few months later to try and get some trophies, I was led to new ways to play the game that revealed its true depth and fun.

     El Shaddai's theme and aesthetic needs to be discussed in depth. It is based on the apocryphal Book of Enoch, an ancient religious text. I'm actually reading it now because I got so into it from this game. In the game, seven angels have left heaven and have begun impregnating human women, and also corrupting mankind and directing them away from God. Some elders in heaven decide to destroy the world in a catastrophic, Noah and the Ark style flood to rid it of the corruption and the fallen angels' destructive, immortal offspring, the Nephilim. The player character, Enoch, a human scribe in heaven (whom the Bible says was taken up to heaven by God, presumably without dying) doesn't want this to happen, and petitions God to reconsider. God agrees that he will not flood the earth if Enoch can go to earth, imprison the fallen angels, and return them to heaven. Enoch takes up this holy mission and heads to earth with 5 angels commissioned to help him, including Lucifel. Yes, that is some kind of Engrish version of Lucifer. In El Shaddai, he is still an unfallen angel, one of God's most powerful agents, and Enoch's near constant companion. It's hard to understand why Lucifel is one of the good guys in this game.

     Lucifel seems to exist outside of time. He wears designer clothes (so does Enoch) and is in constant communication with God via cell phone as you are out on your mission. In the intro movie, he seems confused about when the story takes place, as he isn't experiencing time in a linear fashion. Perhaps that is why he isn't Satan yet; events don't have to occur in logical order for him. At any rate, he acts as the game's narrator since Enoch is a near silent protagonist (although he does speak a little). Lucifel speaks to Enoch at the beginning of every level and shows up several times during each level to report to God on what's happening. You only hear one side of these phone calls to heaven, and they are very cleverly done. He says stuff like, “No, I haven't told him about that yet,” and “Something like that exists? You have to feel bad for Enoch,” along with many other clever lines that work really well. His voice acting is amazing, some of the best I've heard. The actor has some great inflection that sounds very natural and real instead of cheesy. Most every line is delivered perfectly.

     Enoch, on the other hand, is the silent type, although he does speak a little throughout the game. He wears designer jeans underneath his beautiful heavenly armor. If you look closely, you'll see his blonde hair is on fire – with blonde fire. Enoch's animation is amazing. There are so many combat moves, and each one is intricately animated. Especially impressive are the animations for stealing weapons, where he grabs, grapples, and spins enemies while stealing their hardware.

     Enoch and Lucifel both have a metro-sexual or male model look to them. Lucifel sports a shirt with the bottom unbuttoned so you can see his belly button. Enoch spends a lot of the time running around with just his designer jeans on if his armor gets shattered. I can see this being off putting for some, but if you think it would turn you off to the game, it helps that their voices are totally normal, not at all like bad anime voice acting, so fear not.

     Each set of enemies that you encounter in the different levels are similar in their behavior, but each has a unique aesthetic to their armor and what they look like as you break their armor down to nothing. Some simply have armor that is aesthetically different and some have a variation on standard armor, like capes and crazy shapes following them around. Others are more distinct, such as the set that doesn't have armor but instead have rings for heads. Instead of breaking their armor down, the parts of the ring break off as you fight them. Also, they are made out of what appears to be an ever-flowing mud. I've heard the enemy design criticized in another review, but I think it's great.

     You'll be fighting these enemies in many different landscapes. These vista's are the stars of the show in many ways. Most of the game takes place inside the fallen angels' tower stronghold. Each of the seven angels has a floor on the tower that represents what they are about. Each one is a drastically different feast for your eyes and ears. Typically, they are surreal vistas unlike anything you've seen before. Trippy visuals are almost becoming cliché to me in video games since so many games seem to have them these days, but El Shaddai's crazy design is far and away some of the totally craziest, and most stunningly beautiful and original. I don't know how to describe it to you really. One level is mainly pastel colors with trees whose leaves are like a fire or a giant piece of fabric blowing in the wind. Faces move through the air and laugh and blow cartoonish wind swirls. Crystalline stairs appear to lead you to the next area. You walk through pools of water on the ground. Giant waves of clouds carry you forward. That's all just part of one level, and each one is totally different. There are some very surprising levels that I don't want to spoil. Really, each time you leave an area and the game loads up another, you don't know what you're going to see next. It could be anything, and it's surprising and beautiful and different so many times in this game you will lose count. I feel like if I wanted to comprehensively show you all the different environments and areas in this game a thousand screen shots would be a good start. They wouldn't do it justice though. Almost every area in the game also has an overlay or underlay of a static or moving design. It's hard to describe, you kind of have to see it. One level has what looks like shafts of dull light permeating it in the foreground. Another has more tangible dots almost blocking your view. Another has an almost graffiti-like jumble of color that moves through every platform. You really need to see it on your tv to know how wonderful each effect looks, I doubt you can even really see what it looks like in a youtube video. The few levels that take place outside of the tower are also really great. Every single area of every single level is aesthetically pleasing, ranging from interesting to wonderful to stunning. I'm not exaggerating when I say it will probably go down in history as one the best aesthetically designed games in the trippy/abstract/artsy category, not to be topped for many years.

     The overall feel of the game's story, being on a mission from God, is also quite unique. It really immerses you in the feeling of being backed by the unstoppable power of God and his agents, the feeling that you will succeed. Part of it is the way the game handles death (you can come back to life many times mid-battle before being truly killed and getting a game over). Part of it is the way the other four angels who come to earth with you, who are represented as geese or swans (I don't know my birds too well) constantly talk to you. They are often out of sight, but as they say they will be at the beginning of the game, they are always with you, and their voices can chime in at any time to give you advice, encouragement, or warning. It actually reminds me of the constant radio chatter in the 2d PSOne shooter Philosoma. The near constant communication was something that really stood out in that game, and it does the same here. Gabriel's amazing, airy voice telling you to “proceed with caution,” is a seemingly small touch that adds tremendously to the experience. There is also this feeling of movement and going forward that the game really nails. A great example (although there are many others) is the first level, which has you searching for the fallen angels' tower. It has you running through frozen, icy landscapes, full speed as the the camera dramatically follows you and the angels give you your initial pep talk, including the amazing line “Show mercy, love, and forgiveness in the name of the Lord.” The level takes many visual and design twists (as most of the levels do) and has a really stunning and unique last few sections as you near the tower. The last time I saw anything like some of these elements was in a Metal Gear game, and I shall say no more.

     As a Christian, I found several elements of the story to line up well with my theology, and I expect anyone of the Judeo-Christian persuasion would find the same. There are also quite a few things that don't line up with my theology (or probably anyone's, for that matter). Keep in mind this is an apocryphal book made into a Japanese style video game, so it is twice removed from what most people would consider canonical. That second removal is kind of a doozy too. Nevertheless, if you are of Jewish or Christian belief, the themes of the power of God, forgiveness, fallen angels, Lucifer/Lucifel, Nephilim, and a catastrophic flood may be interesting and thought provoking to you. Just be prepared to take it all in with several grains of salt.

     As you can probably tell, the theme and artistic design of this game are a big highlight. The experience of playing the game is really something every gamer who is into such things needs to check out. The gameplay is also impressive.

     The basic controls have you moving with the left stick, jumping with cross or circle (pressing again to double jump), attacking with square or triangle, guarding with R1, and stealing a weapon or purifying the weapon you have with L1. You need to purify your weapon from time to time as vileness from the enemies you are fighting builds up on it, weakening its attack strength. It would have been nice to have purify and steal on different buttons, since I had several instances of stealing when I just wanted to purify.These controls sound simple, but actually go quite a bit deeper than they first appear to.

     Pressing square rapidly produces a fast combo. Delaying your button presses so that you tap square a bit after your last tap launches you into a guard-break move that flanks the enemy and breaks through their defensive stance. Holding R1 and pressing square launches your special attack, which launches enemies in the air with two of the weapons, and attacks quickly with slower 3^rd weapon. You can charge up an attack by holding square, and this attack animation cannot usually be interrupted, unlike other attack animations which you can be knocked out of. You can do a dive attack while in the air by holding square, or an alternate dive attack by holding R1 and pressing square while in the air. If you press R1 just before an enemy hits you will perform a perfect guard, stunning them, although you have to be careful as some weapons are better or worse at blocking certain attacks. Finally, pressing R1 and L1 at the same time when overboost is available will start overboost mode. While in overboost mode, one of the angels who is with you mimics your attacks, causing extra damage for a limited time. If you press R1 and L1 again before time runs out, you will perform a flashy super attack. Overboost mode doesn't have a meter to charge up or anything like that, it just is available every once in awhile. On normal mode, it just seemed to show up from time to time. In harder difficulties, it becomes apparent that guarding, especially perfect guarding, helps to make it available more often. There may be other criteria to activating it too, but that's just what I noticed and read about online. If you die, mashing on the face and shoulder buttons will bring you back to life, and cause Enoch to say his amazing, I'm miraculously still around catch phrase, “No problem, everything's fine.” This gets harder to do each time he dies, however, and if you can't mash hard enough, you get a game over.

     The three weapons I've been alluding to are all otherworldly and unique, and all control differently, with a different move set mapped to the same controls. They all also give you a unique movement control. The arch is sort of like a sword. It looks like a bow and arrow, but you hold it by what would be the string side, and the part that would be the wooden part of a bow is a blazing, serrated energy blade that's constantly moving like a chainsaw. Pressing R1 and cross with the arch makes you do a quick hopping dodge. It's kind of useless on normal mode, but invaluable for surviving harder difficulties. You can also hold cross when you have it equipped to slow your descent when falling. The arch is strong against the veil, and weak against the gale.

     The gale is a long range weapon. It consists of a circular control unit that floats behind you, and projectiles that hover around you until you shoot them out. When you have it equipped, you can perform a really fast dash by pressing R1 and cross, which allows you to extend the length of your jump to reach out of the way spots, or to dodge in battle. The gale has the weakest guard strength and is is weak against the veil, and strong against the arch.

     The veil is like a big shield when you are guarding, but you rip it into two gauntlets when you attack with it. It is a slower melee weapon, but has strong attacks. It is also the best weapon for guarding. Pressing cross while holding R1 allows you to move while guarding. The veil has the strongest guard; it's able to block some attacks or strings of attacks that the other weapons can't in similar situations. There are also certain obstacles in the environment that only its attacks can break. It is weak against the arch, and strong against the gale.

     The way the weapons interact using the rock-paper-scissors concept is really great. Attacking someone with a weapon they are weak against can interrupt their attacks. Attack them with a weapon they are strong against, and they'll probably power through and nail you.

     You also fight bare handed in some situations, with a limited move set.

     When playing on normal mode, I preferred the arch, since I could mash my way through with its familiar sword-like attacks with little problem. When playing on the hardest difficulty, Extra, the gale was my weapon of choice, as not getting hit by staying at a distance was paramount. On hard mode while trying to get high scores, I preferred to use either the gale or the veil. The veil is the slowest and most cumbersome weapon, but once you learn how to properly guard with it and when to attack with it, it becomes extremely effective.

     El Shaddai's fighting system is deep and satisfying. You will probably read other reviews that say it is shallow. You will definitely see tons of people saying it is shallow on message boards. And on normal mode, it is shallow. But, if you follow up with the trophies like I was talking about in the beginning of the review, you will see just how amazingly thought out and deep it gets. You can beat normal mode by mashing on square. You cannot beat extra mode or get the high scoring G ranks needed to get the harder trophies by doing anything but mastering the games fighting systems. You'll quickly learn about the paper-rock-scissors nature of the three weapons, and which attacks to use with each weapon when fighting an enemy with a weapon it is stronger or weaker against. You'll think about how to deal enough damage to an enemy to weaken them enough so that you can steal their weapon before they take too much damage and die. You'll think about what order to fight enemies in, both so that they are easier to manage, and to abuse the way enemies spawn in patterns based on what weapon you kill the previous enemy with to get an enemy to spawn with the weapon you want to steal next. Whenever I got into a fight while trying to get the high scores needed for the “conqueror” trophy, I would need to analyze the fight like it was a puzzle (first I have to steal this guy's weapon so I can kill this guy with it, causing a guy with the weapon I need to spawn so I can steal that, then I need to kill this guy even though he has a weapon mine is weak against by using this technique so I can then use his weapon to kill this last guy. I can press L1 to steal his weapon, then hold R1 and press square to launch him into the air, press square twice to combo him in the air, then hold square to do a spinning dive attack as he falls, knocking him into a wall, then as I land I'll hold square to do a charged attack and finish him off before he gets up... and on and on). The combat is challenging, exciting, and thanks to the huge array of great animations and great camera pans and zooms, beautiful to watch. Unfortunately, like I said, normal mode requires little more than mashing square to win, so you aren't going to see any of this depth your first time through. It is good training for the next few run throughs on harder difficulties, but I fear many people will label it as shallow and never touch the game again after beating it the first time. I've heard people say it's worth a playthrough for the visuals, but that the gameplay is sub par. That's kind of true on your first playthrough, but if you go deeper, so will your gameplay experience, and you'll be learning new moves, combos, and techniques many hours into your quest to finish all the trophies.

     It's no spoiler that the boss fights include fighting fallen angels. You get a little preview of these fights from time to time as an angel will show up and fight you for a bit. You can either win these fights by breaking a piece of the boss's armor, or lose if they break your armor first. Either way, the game continues. But when you fight theses bosses for real, you're in for a lengthy slug fest. In order to beat them, you have to whittle their armor down from full protection all the way down to their jumpsuits underneath. This physical representation is the only indicator of hit points, both for you and these bosses (and normal enemies), and it's a really cool way of doing it. There are no on screen indicators at all in El Shaddai (although beating the game let's you unlock the hidden hp meters as a cool little bonus). Watching how much armor is on your body, and how much the fallen angels or the normal enemies have is your only clue as to how much more beating you have to do. There are also quite a few other bosses that are less...humanoid. They are all great fun to figure out and fight.

     You're going to run into a few levels that deviate from the normal pattern of the others. I don't want to spoil what you'll be doing in them too much. The gameplay in these levels can be quite different than the main game. The one that involves driving is not very good. It kind of just happens, you don't have to really do much to pass it, even on the harder difficulties, although it looks really cool. The others are really great highlights in the game, both aesthetically and story wise, and their gameplay is solid.

     There are also a lot of 2d platforming areas, along with many 3d platforming areas. These work ok, but something is a little off with the physics. I missed a lot of jumps while playing, both in 2d and 3d. It's hard to describe, but at times, it just doesn't feel right, and you end up falling. I found I did the least falling when I just ran through at top speed without thinking about it. It's quite lacking when compared to a game like Outland, which has rock-solid platforming that feels so perfect from your first jump to your last.

     The automatic camera is very good. A lot of people have called for the game to have manual camera controls. I disagree. The auto-camera does a really great job. Being able to move it yourself wouldn't add anything to the gameplay. In my opinion the auto-camera is part of what makes exploring the beautiful environments so thrilling. It frames things really beautifully. In combat, it does a great job of following the action and keeping all the enemies visible. I got messed up by it about 8 or so times when it didn't show me all the enemies or shifted unexpectedly. 8 bad shots out of thousands and thousands of camera movements is way better than I would do with manual controls. Integrating the dramatic zoom-ins and angle changes that frequently occur during particularly flashy attacks would also probably not work well with manual camera controls, and seeing the games animations in detail in these automatic camera shots is such a big part of El Shaddai's aesthetic.

     El Shaddai's music includes some choirs, some tribal singing, some great, epic exploration themes, and more mysterious tunes, as well as great combat music that lends a sense of stress and conflict. It's all good stuff.

     The story is really great, but some outside information is needed to understand certain parts of it. At the very least, read the story write up in the instruction manual, and I'd also suggest going online and reading about its topics on Wikipedia or elsewhere. Unless you happen to be a Biblical or religious scholar, you're probably going to miss some of what is going on and what certain events might mean. And even once you've read about it, it's still going to be confusing at parts. El Shaddai isn't really interested in explaining itself to you, but in a good way. Figuring things out, coming up with theories and interpretations and meanings, and reading about other peoples' thoughts on the game was part of the enjoyment for me.

     So, definitely my longest review thus far. It's partially because there isn't much out there that is like El Shaddai, so I have to explain a lot about it to give you an accurate picture of what it is like to play it, which is the goal of all of my reviews. It's also partially because I had so much fun getting into the real meat of the game and getting that platinum trophy. I've thought long and hard about giving El Shaddai a perfect score, but it's going to have to be a great game, tier 2. This is mainly because the first playthrough can be a little boring gameplay wise. I took a long break between my first playthrough and my trophy run, and almost didn't come back at all. I would have missed out on an amazing gaming experience, I'm so glad I picked the controller back up. But it wouldn't be fair to say it's tier 1, since the other game's in that category (which are all games I've played before starting these online reviews) are really just about flawless. El Shaddai is a hair away from the near perfection these other games have, that hair being it's lack of engagement the first time through. Stick with it though, and that nigh perfect experience awaits as you seek out those hard trophies.

  

P.S. What games am I alluding to that I haven't reviewed on Robotic Attack Squadron but are tier 1? Ico, Monster Hunter Freedom, Mana Khemia, Metal Gear Solid 2, and Wipeout HD (in no particular order, don't make me choose!), to name a few.

Outland Review (PS3)

     Outland is easy to describe in videogame-ese. It's a Metroidvania game with an Ikaruga-esque polarity switching mechanic. If you understand what that means, that's probably enough for you to want to try it out. That along with the smooth gameplay I experienced in the demo that's available on PSN certainly sold me.

     Outland is the story of...something. Two sisters are trying to destroy the world and you are this guy out in the jungle and you try to stop them by channeling ancient warrior powers. Something along those lines. After the intro, the story really takes a back seat and it is pretty much just gameplay from there on out. Obviously the story didn't have too big of an impact on me since I can barely remember it.

     The game is divided into five areas and a hub world that connects them all. You enter a 2d level, explore it while fighting enemies and looking for a key to get into the boss room, then go kill the boss to complete it. All the while you will be gaining new abilities that let you get through the new obstacles presented in the level. You can always return to a level through the hub world or through teleport spots that you open up, and the new powers you get will allow you to access new areas in those old levels that you couldn't get to before. I found the set-up to be a little more contained than most other Metroidvanias since each level stands on its own. There's no reason to backtrack through a level if you don't want to, you'll just miss out on power-ups (such as shrines that increase your max health and special attack energy) and collectibles and stuff like that, but nothing totally necessary.

     The controls start simple but soon map out to the whole controller as you gain more and more powers. Cross is jump, square is attack with your sword, and R1 switches your polarity. Your attack changes to an upward strike or a low slash if you press up or down and square. If you jump at a wall, you will stick to it for a second. You can jump off of a wall you are stuck to by pressing cross again. This is really helpful in a game that is refreshingly lacking a double jump. I love that it's not in here. You can jump really high, you can jump off of walls to get even higher, and your character will very effectively grab onto ledges, but no double jumping! I love double jumping, but it doesn't have to be in every 2d platformer ever, and I'm really happy that it isn't in this one. Those are the basic controls, but you will soon add many more. I won't spoil them all, but you get the ability to slide by pressing down and cross, do an obstacle smashing charge attack by holding down R2, and fire a giant Kamehameha wave across the screen by holding circle, among several other powers. Many of these powers take up special attack energy, which you regain by killing enemies.

     The polarity rules in this game differ slightly from Ikaruga's. In Outland, you must be the opposite color of an enemy in order for your normal attacks to damage it (some special attacks ignore this rule). Like Ikaruga, you absorb bullets that are the same color as you, although physical attacks from any colored enemy will damage you. So, for example, if you are fighting a red enemy that shoots red bullets, you should approach it in the red polarity to absorb its bullets, then quickly switch to blue in order for your attacks to damage it. This polarity concept brilliantly carries over to the platforming side of the gameplay as well. Certain platforms snap in and out of existence as you change colors. You can only stand on them when you are the same color they are (although you can always see their outline, even if you are the wrong color). There are also platforms that you can always stand on but that will move if you change to their color.

     The platform and combat scenarios that the different levels throw at you using these polarity mechanics are the game's main strength. There are countless platforming situations where you need to rapidly switch colors to activate platforms and then switch back and forth to avoid the fountains that spew out different colored bullets. Stages are loaded with these unkillable bullet fountains that spray out beautiful patterns of red and blue bullets you will need to absorb in order to advance. Just like in Ikaruga, it's little bit of an epiphany to switch colors multiple times to absorb a screen full of bullets to get though an area where the bullets literally cannot be dodged. It's like these games are breaking a cardinal rule of gaming, and your mind is expanding along with the scope of the situations they present to you. Throw some enemies in there that you need to be the opposite color of in order to kill and platforms that you don't want to activate (such as ones that drop you too low to keep going if you are the same color as them) and you'll really need to put on your thinking cap and then execute.

     Combat situations are similar in the way they make you think, as you'll be taking on multiple enemies with different attack patterns that are also different colors, making how good you are at switching colors and using you special attacks judiciously the deciding factors in whether or not you blaze through the enemies unscathed or take a boat load of damage before the fight is over. Since you primarily use melee attacks, the combat feels somewhat similar to Symphony of the Night. It has the same feel of trying to jump over and around enemies in order to get a hit in on them without getting hit that Symphony does, but you're going to be switching your polarity back and forth as you do so since bullet fountains are often around when you are fighting. There is an interesting variation on the polarity based combat that pops up in the game too to shake things up a bit (no spoilers!).

     Digression: this game also has a playable flashback like Symphony, and a sound effect that is strikingly similar to one found in Alucard's game. Also, the newly released Guacamelee! is a Metroidvania game with a polarity switching mechanic. I guess part of this genre is building on and homaging the games that came before!

     Fighting each of the game's bosses is great fun. I won't even say what they are, you should experience them yourself. Some of them are screen-filling monsters. Others are more human sized but you face them in really crazy situations. The final boss fight is quite epic and challenging, just like I like it.

     The graphics are very beautiful. The player and enemies are silhouettes with colored parts, mainly in the the polarity colors of red and blue. The main character is especially well animated. His running, jumping, climbing, and attacking animations all perfectly compliment the smooth feeling of the controls. I was very impressed with how natural controlling the main guy looked and felt the first time I played the demo. The backgrounds of the levels are also very impressive. There's a lot of stuff hanging by chains and subtly shifting in the background. There are also waterfalls and fires, so something in the background is almost always moving or shifting around. It's a great effect that adds a lot of atmosphere, especially since the backgrounds are very detailed and filled with symbols and architecture to begin with. Also the snow effect in the icy level is really cool. Sometimes you catch a subliminal glimpse of a giant snowflake passing by in the foreground, which is really awesome looking.

     The music is very subtle most of the time, which fits the feel of the game quite nicely. The music is in the background, helping to set the mood, but not really defining what is going on. It works well.

     I played the main game for about 10 hours to get all the single player trophies. It was probably about 7-8 to just beat it. Pretty good length for what it is. The other modes include co-op (which I hear is cool but I didn't get to play), and arcade mode, which gives you a handful of powers and a time limit to get through an entire level. You get points in this mode for killing enemies and picking up gold, and there are online leaderboards. I didn't really get into this mode. I played through the first few levels of this mode many months after playing the main game, and it was a fun way to re-play levels. After the first couple of levels, I ended up getting stuck on the harder bosses. The 4th boss is kind of... cheap... so I blazed through the level and then died to the boss over and over until time ran out. Then I tried the final level. The level was fun, but that boss is so hard... it would take a lot of re-playing to be good enough to beat the boss before time ran out. I love that the bosses are hard, but beating them in time requires more dedication than I want to put in right now. It's a fun mode to play around with though.

     What I really wanted to do was play the game again on a higher difficulty setting, preferably one where one hit kills you. I was expecting Outland to be a hardcore challenge. This is mainly because I played Ikaruga fairly recently, and as you may know, that game is really, really hard. Outland is certainly challenging, but doesn't rise to Ikaruga's level of difficulty. It has a nice pace and progression like a Metroidvania game should, but unfortunately lacks the payoff off the hardcore difficulty of the bullet-curtain games it draws inspiration from. An uber hard difficulty mode would have been really fun, and not overly frustrating due to the frequent check points. Unfortunately there is no difficulty setting. I thought about trying to do this as a self imposed challenge, but I couldn't make myself do it. Maybe I'm stupid, but I want the game to impose this on me and encourage me to play this way with a trophy. That's my main gripe with the game. I think I could have had another 7 hours of fun on super-hard mode, but it didn't exist. Having multiple hit points is great for your first time through, but the difficult polarity switching combat situations and platforming sections are begging to be done perfectly, and I really wish there was a game mode and that forced you to complete them without multiple hit points allowing you to brute force your way through.

     I had a great time with Outland, but couldn't shake a feeling of disappointment while playing. It just felt wrong to be able to keep going after taking a hit from the waves of bullets filling the screen. It's the 2d space ship shooter fan in me that saw all those bullets and wanted a hardcore challenge. Outland is a challenge in the normal video game sense, but not in the hardcore Monster Hunter, Demon's Souls, Ikaruga sense like I was hoping it would be. For that reason, I'm docking it a bit, although I'm sure you can tell from this review that I certainly enjoyed it quite a bit. It's a Tier 3 great game.