Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon

Apparently, some kind of undocumented planetary alignment is upon us, because lately I have played some video gameS that I actually rather loved. Yes, after a string of games that I decided (or decided for you) were sub par came and went, I stumbled upon a few older titles for the Nintendo Wii that I quite enjoyed. Today's game is my favorite kind of hidden gem as it is a game completely forsaken by the internet, and it allowed me to prove once again to myself that I, James, am the only person I can trust to be right about anything. So without further narcissism, I give thee Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon.

Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon - Nintendo Wii

     First off, has anybody ever fucking heard of this game? I sure as hell hadn't before I found it featured in this youtube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhl6Tn3Kf1c. Fragile Dreams is a...game. You see, I found Fragile Dreams to be a game containing elements from most genres of video games albeit with an extremely ambiguous core around which each element orbited. At its heart, I suppose it is an exploration game, but it was linear, which means you didn't really explore anything more than what was in front of you. There was combat, but no more than what was necessary. Fragile Dreams was entirely story driven in such a way that I actually referred to it as a "drama game" for about an hour and a half before remembering that I am an aspiring critic and I have to be careful about using my knowledge in such fields to say stupid garbage like that. Ultimately, Fragile Dreams boils down to a linear exploration experience with elements of survival horror, JRPG, stealth RPG, and action games. It is also very artsy with great graphics and music, and every single thing that is on the disc contributes to the game's carefully designed story driving the entire game.

Good Things
       Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon was another short game, clocking in at around 11
hours. I like shorter games because the longer a game is, the greater chance it has to become boring or fuck something up. Short games decrease their risk of becoming boring because they seldom overstay their welcome. It's like how the cool guy at the party stays cool because you only see HIM for a little bit before he leaves to have sex with twins or something, as opposed to the women who get to the party an hour before it starts and leave once they sense that everyone has been sick of them for 9 hours, if you'll excuse my misogyny. Fragile Dreams is a great example of a game whose story ends at the same time the original ideas do. 
      Now I guess I should talk about this story for a second, since it's the only reason to play this game. The first thing that happens when you start Fragile Dreams is you get told that the grandfather of Seto, the protagonist, just died. Like, JUST died. You also learn that Seto's grandfather was the only human that Seto has ever seen or known in his life. You then control Seto, wandering around his home for a bit before you find a note left by Seto's grandfather in which he tells Seto to seek this red tower in order to potentially find more "survivors". About two seconds after leaving his home, Seto accidentally startles a girl who upon being startled, falls, and blacks out long enough for Seto to approach her and touch her cheek to make sure she is still breathing (or something). The girl awakens upon being touched, and flees. Seto is then in shock because he has lived something like 14 years and has never seen another human being before. Fascinated by her, Seto spends the rest of the game seeking the girl instead of the red tower, although as you can imagine, the red tower eventually returns. Along the way, Seto meets a number of non-human characters, mostly androids, robots, or ghosts of humans who perished in the disaster that killed mostly everything and the game ends at the red tower with an explanation to and conclusion of the mystery of how the world got to its post-apocalyptic state.
   

Gameplay involves you walking from one location to the next while the story justifies your doing so. Seto wields both a flashlight and weapons to be found laying around. Of course though, this world has been destroyed which means the only things laying around for you to wield are sticks, pipes, and brooms of various varieties. Good news though: swings of your weapon are executed by pressing the A button instead of by swinging the Wii Remote. Weapons can break if the A button is spammed though, so timing your combos properly is essential, and although it seems annoying and arbitrary at first, you come to love it once you accept that you can't do anything to change it. Of course, with broken weapons comes an inventory system, which is the same as that found in Resident Evil 4.
     The flashlight illuminates the dark path that lays before you while also stunning enemies. Flashlight, intuitively, is controlled by pointing the Wii Remote to the location you wish to illuminate. Using different types of flashlights will make hidden messages scrawled on the walls of the subways, hotels, and sewage pipes you navigate appear, and most of them when accompanied by the low piano scores played in the game, are pretty unnerving.
      Killing enemies will increase your max strength in a basic level-up system, and a crawling system is implemented to get past certain enemies or obstacles, making stealth always a conceivable option in case you decide to become curious about what life would be like if you were an enormous pussy.
      Fragile Dreams also makes great use of the Wii technology without using the motion controls. The speaker in the Wii Remote can be used to receive information from other characters by pressing the Wii Remote up to your ear at any point while playing, and creepy laughter of little girls gets pumped through the controller's speaker when ever you're near a hidden enemy.
      Really, you're in this game for the characters. The gameplay is fun, as it is pretty freaky and upsetting sometimes, stimulating an emotional response from me, but the story and fondness for the characters is what will keep you coming back. The story also has great pace; as soon as one character leaves you, another comes to its place almost immediately. Also, the voice acting is stellar.
   
Short-Comings
     Most complaints about Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon regard the fact that the developers clearly cared more about the story than they did about the gameplay. According to professional reviewing companies, the story, while beautiful, overwhelmingly overpowers the bland gameplay. In response, I offer my opinion that the fight choreography in Toby McGuire's Spider-Man 2 overwhelmingly overpowers the personality of Mary Jane. Some aspects of some games are better off being pushed to the background in order to emphasize the game's strengths. In this case, the game's story shines more than it's gameplay does, so if you have a problem with a strong story being supported by average gameplay, then this game will not blow your mind the way it blew mine.

Conclusion
      Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon is a game for gamers who like a good story. This is a hardcore game simply because it is a hidden gem, even though it is an easy game. It tells a great 11 hour story, so I recommend this game to anyone who is interested in that. I don't recommend this game as much to people who NEED rich gameplay in order to be engaged, because you won't find it here.

Gotta Go Fast

This is review is going to be written in what I think is the ideal format - no numbers, no bullshit.

The other day, I was in Gamestop looking for something cheap that could hold me over until Smash Bros comes out on Friday. I just bought a brand new Limited Edition Smash Bros 3DS XL and I didn't want it to sit there while I tried to amuse myself with some outdated Wii games for the next week so after almost no consideration, and almost completely impulsively, I decided to try out Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed for the 3DS. 

Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed - Nintendo 3DS 

Intro + Summary



Branching paths lead to the same end, but allow access to unlockables.

Although the idea of Sonic the Hedgehog, who can canonically run at the speed of sound, driving a car that tops out at 120 mph was originally offensive to me, turns out that I think Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed is actually a pretty damn good game. I was seriously surprised. This cross-over racing game features 25 of SEGA's most famous or likable (which ever comes first) characters, of whom you might know 7 - this is totally not a bad thing, I'm just pointing it out. As of now, I only have about 12 characters unlocked, and I actually know about 10 of them, but only because I am kind of a video game buff. Anyway, single player features the racing-game-staple Grand Prix, where you race across 4 tracks and earn points based on your performance in each race individually, which get added up at the end with whomever having the most points being the grand wiener. I honestly have only done a couple of Grand Prix races because the game also features a totally separate Career mode. Career mode starts with a single challenge. You select the challenge and difficulty for the challenge. If you complete the challenge, you unlock the next challenge, rinse and repeat. Career mode = beat all of the challenges. I dumbed that down for simplicity's sake, especially since I am going to put a fucking picture right here, which will effectively obsolesce any wordy description, but it's definitely worth noting that each challenge features a different track, and different objective within the challenge. Sometimes you just have to place 1st in a race, other times you have to complete 1 lap within a certain amount of time, etc. Branching paths in the career mode challenge selection screen will allow you access to secondary objectives whose completion will award you with new characters and collectibles. Finally, EXP will be gained by the character you choose before each challenge should you complete it successfully. Every time a character levels-up, you unlock a "Mod Pack" for that character. Mod Packs allow you to select the same character, but apply different set of stats for his/her car. About to race on a track with a lot of turns? Use the handling Mod Pack. 

Good Things

I thought this game was going to be a blatant Mario Kart rip-off. It's not. It IS another mascot, kart-racing game though, a bit redundant in a genre dominated by the famous Italian plumber. However, there are certainly enough distinguishable features in Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed for it to earn a solid A for effort, and maybe even a little bit more. S&ASRT features extremely fun, bright and colorful track designs inspired by SEGA's most famous games of which you probably know more than you think you do, some of them being Sonic the Hedgehog, Monkey Ball, Crazy Taxi, Golden Axe, Nights, Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg, and Skies of Arcadia. The main attraction to this game is that even though each race features 3 laps on a track, the track changes (or transforms) each time you complete a single lap, offering track variety out the ass, and you can bet that same ass that when the track transforms, your vehicle transforms! The word "Transformed" in the game's title refers to the transformations made by your vehicle when racing. Driving on a boardwalk that suddenly gives out? Your car will turn into a boat! And does the river you're now trying to traverse give way to an enormous waterfall? Boat --> Airplane. Not every track uses all 3 forms of vehicle, but when your vehicle does transform, it is totally appropriate, feels good, and is really fucking fun. The Career mode is particularly effective in making me want to play more. I don't always have time for 1 more Grand Prix in Mario Kart, but another 4 minute challenge is seldom an issue with my personal schedule. Items in Sonic Racing are also fun and balanced. If You want to win in this Kart Racing game, you need more skills behind the wheel than you need Red Shells. I can truly say that no item in this game feels copied from Mario Kart (I didn't mean to spend this review comparing this game to Mario Kart, but I KNOW that's what you're doing so I'm just responding to how I know you're responding). The Career mode isn't too long, but earning the maximum amount of stars for each challenge means that you'll have to complete each challenge on HARD mode, as opposed to Easy or Normal, which is not an easy feat. You can only unlock certain characters by obtaining a certain number of stars, so although the Career Mode itself is a bit on the shorter side, obtaining every star to unlock every character will probably satisfy any need to play a medium-lengthed game. Finally, the 3DS's bottom screen is used to display an over-head live racing map. Having it on the bottom screen is nice, obviously because it doesn't obstruct the racing-action. It's also handy because occasionally the "track" during the boat or flying sections can be a tiny bit ambiguous, so having a map when you're threatened to get lost is un-ironically the perfect solution. This is a fucking fun racing game. 

Short-Comings 

Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed on the Nintendo 3DS doesn't suffer from any lag technically, but like, it runs at what feels like 15 frames per second. Keep in mind, this is a straight port of a game that was originally sold for XBOX 360 and PS3, as well as the Wii U. The game performs impressively after knowing that, but ONLY after knowing that. My eyes immediately felt the difference between playing Sonic & All Stars and playing the Smash Bros. demo, but I would be such a bitch if I didn't admit that I totally got used to the frame rate after playing for, like, 2 minutes. You get over it. Also. perhaps 3% of the time, I can't tell what is 10 feet ahead of me in the game, which wouldn't be a problem if we weren't discussing a racing game. Remember though, I said this happens rarely, although when it happens, it totally happens. Graphics are also a bit pixely, but again, nothing a determined gamer wouldn't be able to brush off. This game is also out, like I said, for the 360, PS3, and Wii U. I plan on buying it for the Wii U when I get home from school. I played the demo and the graphics were appropriately gorgeous, and now that I know the rest of the game is awesome, I am confident that the Wii U version will hold up. I am playing this game on the 3DS XL. I cannot imagine this game on the small screen of the standard 3DS, and when I do try to imagine it, I imagine, like, a nightmarish, nebulous, chaotic, vague image of like, 10 guys driving play-dough cars through a guillotine testing factory. Not sure - never played it on the standard 3DS. I could be wrong, but I could be totally right.  

To Whom Would I Recommend This Game?

Of the 2 viable kart racing games out there, Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed is not definitely  the best one, but it could be. Though Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed is hella fun, don't be surprised if you find yourself pondering this game asking yourself "Do I really need to play another Kart Racing game?" if you've already played Mario Kart 7 or 8. I admit though, I haven't played Mario Kart 7 and thanks to this game, I don't think I will anytime soon. I feel like the demand for kart racing games is strongest after not having played one for a long time. If you have played Mario Kart 7 or 8 recently, there is no pressure to play Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed, but it is still a killer game. 

So to whom would I recommend this game? SEGA fans, die-hard kart racing fans, anyone who needs to play something on the 3DS and has already played all of its first party-titles (barring Mario Kart 7), and anyone who is opposed to playing this on a home console. 

Number 2 Favorite Gamecube Game

Only 1 more!

Number 4 Favorite Gamecube Game

Number 4, fo' sho.

Number 5 Favorite Gamecube Game

Half way there, boys. Half way there. 

Number 7 Favorite Gamecube Game

Enjoy the Number 7!

Playground Series: What the Hell Am I Playing?

I'm sure by now, you guys are sick of hearing me say things that aren't about video games, so fuck me apologizing for not writing in a while. Let's just roll the next review out.

Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg


I've recently acquired about 20 new Gamecube games. So, where do you start playing? I figured I would start up 1 or 2 long games and 1 or 2 short games at a time, and just collect other games to save for later in between. One game that I wound up playing during all of this gaming madness was Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg. I only read a little bit about this game in Gameradar's list of top 50 Gamecube games http://www.gamesradar.com/best-gamecube-games/ before I decided to never think about it again, simply because I could not imagine what I was reading actually being a real game. Well I am here tonight to discuss how I formally withdraw my original opinions of this game, and replace them with a whole new perspective on the concept of hatching eggs.

Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg is an addictively ridiculous platformer developed by SEGA Sonic Team shortly after they released Sonic Adventure 2 in 2003. You play as a young boy named Billy who is thrown into a world ruled by chickens after he displays "great courage" by punching a small bird in the face in order to save his friends. Almost as soon as Billy arrives in Morning Land, he equips himself with a sacred Chicken Suit. This suit allows Billy to arm himself with giant eggs. Without an egg, Billy is pretty worthless, but WITH an egg, Billy is able to jump really high, ground pound the floor around him, ride on tracks meant to move eggs, and take out the evil crows by rolling the egg into them. The eggs, although are fragile, easily broken, and easily replaceable, utilize a basic upgrading system. It's nothing immersive, but it is important to know that when enemies are destroyed, they drop fruit. Roll an egg over the fruit, and the egg will grow. Eggs do more damage with each size-increase and a fully matured egg can be hatched by Mr. Billy Hatcher himself. A quick cock-a-doodle-doo will pop the egg open and potentially reveal 1 item from a large collection of possible egg-inhabitants. Different colored eggs hatch different items. More commonly found eggs can contain extra lives or collectables, but rarer blue or red eggs can contain animal assistants whose powers become yours to command upon hatching them. These animals help you solve puzzles or attack enemies once you befriend them in the ever-classic quest to reach one side of the level to the other.

The story is...well...it's a god damned kids game so who cares? There's an evil crow who wants to cast Morning Land into an eternal nighttime. Stop the evil crow, and do whatever everyone else tells you to do in order to beat the game. But if there is one thing everyone knows about kid's games, it's that they're fucking stupidly difficult. Unfortunately, poor game mechanics are responsible for a lot of the difficulty that this game has to offer, but they are not so plentiful that the game becomes unplayable (*coughSonicTheHedgehog2006cough*). So with any platformer, you really only have to consider a few different elements. Platforming video games date all the way back to 1981 Donkey Kong in the arcades, so when looking at modern platformers, you have to consider the factors that separate the games made today from the games made 30 years ago. You must consider graphics, originality, music (I guess), playability, and most importantly how much fun the game is to play. Well in my opinion Sonic Team spared very little cheese or tomatoes in this egg-wise adventure. Ill discuss each element separately.

Originality. So I don't know if you guys heard when I said it before, but your weapon...is an egg. A giant egg. It is important for those holding magnifying glasses to this game to note that the abilities you gain while holding an egg are not very original, as we have seen the ground pound/ butt bounce/ whatever you want to call it for years, but if rolling an egg into enemies in order to vanquish them isn't creative enough for you, then stop letting Stephen King set your creativity bar too high. You could say that this game is original because you roll an egg around in order to play, or you could say it's unoriginality is disguised by an egg, but either way, someone over at Sonic Team was ballsy enough to suggest that a game whose main attraction was rolling an egg would sell, and it did...at least...to me. Moving on.

Graphics. Let's see, 2003 graphics. Well we got Metroid Prime, F-Zero GX, and The Legend of
Zelda: The Wind Waker. Okay so the bar was set pretty high for graphics even in 2003. The visual importance of video games really became most noticeable upon the arrival of Playstation 2 games during the climax of it's career. Graphical legacies were also continued by Microsoft's Halo and Gears of War series, but if I had a dollar for every time someone mentioned how the graphics in Metroid Prime could rival those of modern games, I wouldn't have to go to college. That being said, graphical feats were not easily attainable in 2003, and unfortunately, it seams that Sonic Team missed the frying pan in this area. However, having average graphics will never mean that the game looks bad. Average graphics are a great canvas for a great art style. Wind Waker is the perfect example. While Billy Hatcher doesn't feature graphics of any impressive quality, it is a delightfully bright and colorful game, complimenting it's playful, light-hearted gameplay, and REALLY catchy music. You're god damn rolling an EGG. Does anyone really need goodgraphics for this?? What was really necessary for this game, were bright colors, and Sonic Team nailed that.

Like I said before, the game feels a little underdeveloped. Perhaps it is Sonic Team tradition to leave dumb mechanics in their games, or maybe it is the fact that Billy Hatcher is run by the same engine that ran Sonic Adventure 2 - a game whose glitches are almost as famous as it's level design, but like I said before, the difficult sequences of BH:GE are the result of a few poorly designed game mechanics. Some enemies are just too annoying, maintaining control while moving with your fragile egg is about 20% harder than it should be, and small mistakes are often extremely unforgiving to the point where you question why you're playing this game even more than you are intended to. The game is still very much playable, as these annoying mechanics are not found in every level, but when they do show up, you will die in your heart a little bit for every time Billy dies as a result of their bullshit.

Overall, Billy Hatcher really is a fun game. The level designs vary greatly from stage to stage, and are always a pleasure to look at. Sometimes the game can be too hard for all of the worst reasons, but in the end, you never really did expect a game that featured weaponized eggs to be 100% solid, did you? This game is 15 dollars on Amazon. Considering the fact that 15 is enough to get Metroid Prime, Resident Evil 4, Viewtiful Joe, SSX 3, Wave Race: Blue Storm, Mario Golf Toadstool Tour, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time or F-Zero GX, I would say that it may not be worth getting immediately, but if you ever run into it at your local Play N Trade like how I did, it may be destiny telling you to either play this title, or grab an omelet.

81/100
-10 Points - occasionally clumsy controls
-5   Points - occasionally dumb stupid mechanics
-4   Points - sometimes the game feels a little boring, as levels tend to be a bit too long, resulting in the witnessing of the same music and visuals for up to 15 minutes at a time
50  Points - originality
10  Points - visual appeal
6    Points - Audio appeal
10  Points - the game is not very long, but the amount of optional levels, in addition to the main story, makes the game feel like it is how long you want it to be
5    Points - the multiplayer is EXACTLY what you want it to be

Hang In There

Hey guys. This post is more of an apology than anything. Maybe I'm being too hard on myself, but I fear I will not be able to post my next review for a little while longer. I have been very busy with my band recently and I haven't had much time to get my Gamecube on. What I do have, however, is a website I just discovered. If you didn't already know about this site, I suggest you check it out.
http://www.howlongtobeat.com/index.php

Ever wonder if you're going to get the best deals on your games? Ever fear that you are going to pay up to 60$ for a game that you'll finish in a week? Well fear no more! http://www.howlongtobeat.com/index.php is a website where numerous gamers from all over can submit how long it took them to complete any video game you can think of! Simply type a game into the search bar, and BAM you have everything you need to know about how long any game will take you to complete. Separate times are provided for those who like to beat a game quickly, or for those who like to 100% a game. This site is the best way to make sure you're getting the most game for you buck.

Top Ten Favorite Gamecube Games: Number 6

As promised, I did say at the beginning of this series that my list was going to be the result of intense research and Gamecube experience. As you have seen already, my list is a good mix of classics and curveballs, but this next game just hits a homerun like no other game does. Though it may not be my number 1 game of all time, it is definitely the first game I would recommend to anyone looking to play something that would make you think "how the hell has no one ever heard of this before?!" And that game is Lost Kingdoms 2.

6) Lost Kingdoms 2
Never heard of it...

Ill try to be concise- In Lost Kingdoms 2, you play as an attractive young rebel named Tara. Tara is part of a nomadic group of freedom fighters who basically just drift. Tara is in possession of a runestone. A runestone is a mystical device that allows it's user to bring the images of monsters printed on magical decks of cards to life. Once these creatures are brought to life, they only obey the owner of the runestone by which they were summoned. Each creature has a different ability and capability to defend Tara from the threats of wild monsters or other runestone holders. In Lost Kingdoms 1, the type of runestone that Tara has could be found more commonly, but by the time that Lost Kingdoms 2 occurs (approximately 100 years after LK1), "original" runestones, like Tara's, were almost extinct. The runestones found most commonly in LK2 are man-made and are admittedly pretty shitty, as they are unable to control monsters flawlessly. So what happens when you have a beautiful young lady in possession of a weapon that almost everyone wants? You have a damn good video game on your hands, that's what.

Okay gameplay. This game features a hubmap. What is that? It is basically a menu where you are shown a map of the world you are playing through and at any point during the game, you can select to play through the next level in the story, or a level that you have already completed. Basically it means that once you complete level 4, you can either play the newly unlocked level 5, or you can replay level 4, 3, 2, or 1. Why would you want to do that? Because it may be that items you acquire in level 5 may help you beat level 1 easier. This type of gaming is called "non-linear gameplay". It is when you are encouraged to backtrack through previously completed levels in search of items that you may have missed the first time around. It really can make or break a game, but Lost Kingdoms 2 puts very little pressure on you to backtrack through long and difficult levels, so you never feel like you HAVE to search every inch of the level, because honestly, in this game, if you miss a treasure chest or two, it will never hinder your ability to play.

Anyway, with this hub map in mind, I will explain the adventure/RPG elements of the game.
Essentially, the entire point of the game is to navigate each level entirely. Each level is shaped like a small open world with relatively simple puzzles that you must solve in order to continue on. However, during your navigation, you are very often attacked by large collections of wild monsters who stand between you and your to-be-solved puzzles or between you and the end of the level. So how do you fight them? With monsters of your own! Tara's weapon of choice in Lost Kingdoms 2 is a collection of up to 30 monsters that she can use to solve puzzles, navigate levels, and fight other monsters. These monsters are contained within a deck of cards. Tara has the power to release monsters sealed within her deck of cards in order to defend herself against really almost anything. This is the appeal of the game. What makes this game different from other adventure games- your weapon, the deck.

So I said that Tara wields a deck of cards during the game. Did I mention that you get to build her deck yourself? That's right, in order to play this game successfully, YOU, the player, need to assemble a deck of 30 cards. You get to choose from hundreds of different cards, all with different strengths and attributes and effects during battle. This customizability to a fan of adventure games is equivalent to you being able to choose not only your sword in a game, but it's length, width, weight, grip, color, material, bust size, favorite food, flavor, and favorite Super Smash Bros. character.
Customizability is something that a lot of adventure games really lack, and the way Lost Kingdoms 2 counters this issue within the genre is by giving you a weapon that REQUIRES customization. You make the deck your own as you become familiar and in love with the cards that YOU chose to use. You can also make up to 10 different decks, and change from deck to deck between levels. Getting bored of using the same cards? Switch them up for an entirely different style of playing! As each card is used during the level, it gains experience. Collecting experience for cards grants you several different opportunities. The first thing you can do with an "experienced" card, is make a copy of it. Do you really love 1 card specifically? Well how much do you think you're going to love TWO of them? Moreover, you can exchange experience collected on a card in order to upgrade that card to an even stronger card. Love your Baby Dragon card? Well with enough experience, that Baby Dragon can be upgraded to a fully realized Zombie Dragon! The upgrading system is also completely optional, although it is encouraged. Just like any other game, you will be demanded to keep your weapons strong enough to handle the enemies being thrown at you. Your weak monsters that may have cut it in the beginning of the game won't necessarily be as effective towards the end, but as you use your cards, they can either be replaced by buying better cards at the Card Shop, or upgraded to stronger cards for free. As you may have realized, the ability to customize your very weapon makes for completely unique gaming experiences. The near limitless ability to customize your shit establishes the guarantee that no two play-throughs will ever be the same.

I love side quests. I think they separate those who play a game from those who are hardcore fans of the game. Have you ever heard of a Legend of Zelda fan "casually" get the Biggeron's Sword? NO! Lost Kingdoms has 6 different hidden levels. These levels are uncovered by completing optional tasks throughout the main, required levels. For example, defeating a hidden boss in the Forest level, without being asked to, will unlock the Sacred Battle Arena. The completion of these hidden levels either unlocks new and powerful cards for you to harness, or dark opportunities for you to enhance your gaming experience. You see, I don't want to give anything anyway, but if you complete the difficult level known as "Sacred Battle Arena 1" and "Sacred Battle Arena 2", then you will be given the (literally) once in a life-time chance to upload every card you've collected in Lost Kingdoms 1 into Lost Kingdoms 2. A game-to-game copying and gaining of cards EXCLUSIVE to the original game? Incredible. Just damn incredible, and MUCH cooler than getting an "Achievement" on the XBOX 360.

In order to beat it completely, this game took me about 16 hours of playing. Not bad, especially
nowadays. The length of the game combines with the game's difficulty level in order to assure that no hardcore gamer is able to just blast through this title in 2 hours. You see, Tara can only summon monsters if she has a sufficient supply of magic power stored up. If your magic meter has 8 magic in it, and you summon a monster that requires 6 magic, then you have 2 magic left over for your next monster. However, if you have 6 magic and you summon a monster that requires 10, then your magic reserves will be depleted, and the rest will come out of your health. Magic stones restore your supply of magic, but they are usually only found of you strike another enemy (Imagine Coin Battle in Super Smash Bros. Melee). So in order to collect magic stones to refill your magic meter, you must use a combination of monsters that require small amounts of magic and monsters who require large amounts of magic. Typically, the stronger the monster, the more magic it requires, so it is up to you to build a deck that always has an ample supply of magic at hand because if you run out of magic, each monster you summon will take a chunk out of your health. This feature sets the difficulty level of this game at about a 3.5/5.

TL,DR- Lost Kingdoms 2 is a refreshing spin on the classic adventure game. You will spend hours customizing your "weapon" and even more time using it to explore levels and fight other monsters. It's fun and takes strategy, and even a little bit of time in order to beat this game. It has very high replay value, and I will recommend it until the day I die.