Hyrule Warriors: Age Of Calamity – Expansion Pass PART 1 [REVIEW]

I did it for Pirate Warriors 4, might as well do it for Age Of Calamity, since it’s also structured in two part as the Season/Expansion Pass for Breath of The Wild was… and since Nintendo itself didn’t really promote it in anyway, revealed this thing was gonna exist and when to expect the content of the pass to arrive, the price, just a couple of images and text. ….Kinda odd.

As promised in the announcement bullet points, this first part of the Expansion Pass won’t add stories or story content, but new types of weapons, new playable characters, and intriguingly new enemies. Alongside the pass immediate bonus of a new costume and weapon (NOT a new weapon type) for Link, which it’s just them giving you something for buying the whole expansion.

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Fist Of The North Star: Ken’s Rage X360 [REVIEW] | Ai Wo Torimodose!!

I’ve been wanting to revisit the Ken’s Rage series for a while, especially because it seems like a no-brainer to make a Warriors style game about one of the most beloved shonen series of the 80s, Fist Of The North Star, with Kenshiro and his cast of powerful, larger than life foes, with more post-apocalyptic muscle mountains and the array of martial arts that explode people from the inside, cure them from all ailments, and do whatever insane mystical, awesome bullshit they do.

Not that Fist Of The North Star lacks videogames based upon it, but aside from the first NES game (released without the FOTNS license as Black Belt), most of them never left Japan, or did reworked due to licensing into something else. In either case, here in Europe we almost got nothing of that for decades, so Ken’s Rage was actually a nice treat for starving fans that wanted to experience Kenshiro’s post-apocaliptic odyssey in videogame form on their modern consoles.

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Hyrule Warriors: Age Of Calamity NSWITCH [REVIEW]

After the success of the first Hyrule Warriors, it’s no surprise Nintendo become more involved in this seconda Zelda X Warriors crossover project when the idea came about. Actually, even more than expected, the choice to make Age Of Calamity a story prequel to Breath Of The Wild is bold, as in most Warriors crossovers of series like this are non-canonical excuses to get many characters from the franchise together and let them fight in huge hack n slash battles.

Now that i’ve played the base Breath Of The Wild game (so i could give a better assessment) and i know the story enough, i can get to talk about Age Of Calamity and address the first, big question, as in, do you need to have played BOTW before playing this prequel? And it is really a prequel?

“Not really” for both is the answer.

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Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition NSWITCH [REVIEW]

This is like the 4^th time i review Hyrule Warriors overall (and the second i review the Definitive Edition), but it IS the first time in english, and it IS Hyrule Warriors, so….

Since i also wanted to review Age Of Calamity, might as well do the previous iteration of “Zelda Musou”, one that was conceived as most Dynasty Warriors crossovers with other IP are, as in this is just a spin-off where we have an original story made pretty much to have most character from said license/series/brand appear together and fight in a hack n slash manner through opposing armies, through the power of the usual convenient “dimensional portals”.

Still, even there Nintendo was involved in the project more than previous companies “crossing” their properties with Koei’s trademark style of hack n slash, even Team Ninja (which survived the Itagaki exodus better than Itagaki’s career) helped in the development alongside ol’ Omega Force.

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Hyrule Warriors: Age Of Calamity (DEMO) NSWITCH [Hands-On]

So yeah, this demo dropped kinda out of nowhere (i say “kinda” because a listing on a Soutch Corean site basically gave it away) during yesterday’s Mini Nintendo Direct, and since i’m clamoring to play a new Hyrule Warriors, you bet i’m gonna sink me teeth into it, and write a quick hands-on.

The demo is basically the first chapter of the game, and it will let you use the saved data in the full game. So already it sounds a bit more meaty than the demo they put out for the 3DS port-expansion Hyrule Warriors Legends. And it is.

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True State Of Musou (As of 2020)

I teased this with my comment on the Dynasty Warriors 20th Anniversary celebration video, and – as i said in the article – that was just the tipping point, the final push to make me write down an editorial on the musou genre/subgenre, one i had been ruminating about for a couple of years.

And to do that, i will have to start not from the beginning (i will eventually do a full retrospective, in time), but from the last numbered title in the main Warriors series, Dynasty Warriors, yes, Dynasty Warriors 9.

This is a long article, ready your beverage of choice. Continua a leggere “True State Of Musou (As of 2020)”

Dynasty Warriors 20th Anniversary video and the state of musou

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Today Koei released a compilation video to commemorate the series’ 20th anniversary, and while kinda nice, it’s also unadvertly very Koei, as they managed to cut content and recycle too much even in this occasion. XD

The trailer gives a brief compilation of cinematics and gameplay videos from all mainline Dynasty Warriors titles (and some brief logos appearances from the many spin-offs), and even the Empires and Xtreme Legends spin-off/expansions attached to those. All.. except the very first title in the series.

The real reason is because the first Dynasty Warriors wasn’t a musou, but a 1 on 1 fighter, and they clearly don’t consider it because Dynasty Warriors properly started in 2000 with what has been localized as “Dynasty Warriors 2”, but in Japan the first one was called simply “Sangoku Musou”, and to make more clear the change in direction, they called the second one “Shin Sangoku Musou”, so Dynasty Warriors 3 is “Shin Sangoku Musou 2” and so on.

Which highlight how they didn’t even bother to make another version of the video, sure, it would have been a bit odd to show a game that really doesn’t play like all the others in the series, but they also show Dynasty Warriors 9/Shin Sangoku Musou 8 (without apologizing), and it would have been correct. It also would have required more work, so of course Koei didn’t bother and uploaded it as is even on their official european Youtube channel.

Dynasty Warriors 20th Anniversary everyone is here

It may sound petty to make such a big deal out of this, but it’s so typical of Koei’s treatment of the series that they somehow managed to make some of it’s flaws and rightfully critiqued trends (like cutting corners by not dubbing the western releases of most musou titles in english) bleed into the celebratory 20th anniversary trip down memory lane. It’s so typical it’s downright depressing and make the otherwise well meaning “thank you” message at end feel completely hollow.

And i worry, because this is indicative of the state of the series as a whole… but i’m gonna dedicate an entire editorial to that later, there’s way too much to say, and i was planning to anyway, but this video gave me the final push.

Sorry for the teasing in the title, but don’t worry, that editorial won’t be locked behind a DLC or Season Pass paywall, or squirrelled away into an Xtreme Legends expansion at full retail price.

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One Piece Pirate Warriors 4 PS4 [REVIEW]

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Disclaimer: i pre-ordered the Kaido Edition, which means i got the big ass statuines (and i mean big ass), and the pre-order bonuses, which consisted of Dynasty Warriors costumes for Trafalgar Law and Boa Hancock, as well as early unlocks of the Vinsmoke brothers, but for the sake of review i didn’t download their “early unlock DLC” (and played on Normal difficulty), so we’re just gonna talk about the base game, maybe i will do a review of the Kaido VS Luffy diorama, but later.

Strap in and get some rum, we’re gonna be at sea for a while! Continua a leggere “One Piece Pirate Warriors 4 PS4 [REVIEW]”

One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3 PS4 [REVIEW]

After the “Dream Log” scenario of Pirate Warriors 2, Koei did what it usually does, as it basically starts from scratch in order to have a more faithful and complete recreation of Eiichiro Oda’s pirate world, in the name of canon… and so you wouldn’t need to have played the two previous Pirate Warriors titles, because this was released on all Playstation platforms at the time, and Steam as well.

There’s also a Deluxe Edition for Switch that came later with all DLC already on the cart, and it’s not bad performance wise, worth considering. Continua a leggere “One Piece: Pirate Warriors 3 PS4 [REVIEW]”

One Piece: Pirate Warriors 2 PS3 [REVIEW]

After the expected success of Pirate Warriors (which is still the most profitable/successful series of One Piece videogames), Koei made another one the following year, also for PS3… and PS Vita as a japan only release. Continua a leggere “One Piece: Pirate Warriors 2 PS3 [REVIEW]”