Thank You

It's been a while now since I started doing blogging and while I am obviously not the best one out there, I still think that I am doing ok. Thing is I don't like to pat myself on the back. So instead I like to give a solum thank you to all those who have read my ramblings. I'll keep going as long as people are reading, even if you only stumble upon this by accident. I thank you all the same. 

And to any regular readers, if I have any I am not sure, Thank you as well. To people on Facebook, Thank you. To you google searchers Thank you. To anyone who just happened to find this place, Thank you. 

619 views? To me thats a big win. Thank You for those views it means a lot that people would take the time to read it. Thanks Guys and Girls. Thanks Ladies and Gents. Thanks to you for getting me here. 

I'll keep going people. Stay tuned for whatever comes next, don't know yet. Probably more Life is Strange. Thank You all.

^_______^

G

Unsung Heroes

Kingdom Hearts: Unchained X

A light in the dark

Kingdom Hearts has enjoyed a long reign of supremacy among RPG's and while it certainly isn't as popular as some more mainstream titles like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy, it still measures up well when compared to them. Although it can be hella confusing sometimes, seriously even I, a committed fan, have trouble remembering who does what and why to whom. 

So to add to that confusion Square have brought out a new smartphone title Kingdom Hearts Unchained X available for Android and IOS......in japan at least. Through some backdoor trickery I managed to get my hands on this title and I have to say its really fun.

KHUX takes place before the Keyblade war begins. An unknown Keyblade master gave a book to five of his six apprentices. This book, called the Foretellers script, details events that have yet to happen. The Foretellers script has the ability to summon warriors from previous kingdom hearts games as "Fragments" it also posses the ability to bring forth objects from the future as well.

You, the player, awaken as a fledgling keybalde wielder and are asked to pick a faction. One of the five named: Ursus, Anguis, Unicornus, Leopardus and Vulpus.

The aim of the game is to collect individual pieces of Light named Lux to sustain your chosen factions supremacy. These pieces of light are attained from defeated heartless. 

The beginning of the game is familiar to almost anyone who has played multiple Kingdom Hearts games, you awaken in dive to the heart and have to fend off the darkness. All pretty standard stuff.

Reading the script

The game itself is fairly easy to play a simple point and click game. Tap the screen to make your character move and do the same when in battle. While moving around in maps you can find shiny spots that provide you with upgrade materials for your key blade. The heartless also spawn on the map and when you get close you engage them in battle, battles are turn based and the heartless adhere to a certain specific ability, three attributes and one attribute is better than another. Strength, Magic and Speed. Strength beats Speed, Speed beats Magic and Magic beats Strength. So a sort of rock paper scissors system. Attacking with a "Card" that is the opposite of the enemy deals more damage.

I call them cards but you get medals in the game which include characters from all of the different KH games so far, even two bit characters who don't matter all that much become cards. These cards can be upgraded and putting them in certain slots in a deck can boost their power. Cards aren't the only thing that can be upgraded you can also upgrade each key blade you acquire into more powerful forms. 

Your character can be upgraded as well, since I don't know the actual name for this bit I am gonna call it Style Paths. Style paths unlock various features such as giving your character more customisation options which include changing their hair or costume. You may find some of the costumes familiar. Familiar enemies and friends feature heavily in this game. 

Finally you have the option to use up special points to buy more cards for your deck which have varying rarity the rarer they are the more powerful they become.

Even though the game is in Japanese its fairly intuitive and easy to pick up, even if you don't understand it. I find the best way to overcome a translation barrier is to try all your options and see what does what.

Our books are missing part of the story-The lost page. I found the traitor. I don't believe there is one among us. Are we all going to turn against one another? Its written on that page that one will betray all.


As usual, Kingdom Hearts choses to be overly cryptic in its message. The story of KHUX leads into the key blade war as each Union begins to hoard Lux (Light) it inevitably leads to conflict which is what starts the key blade war clearly. Interestingly however there is a clue to the "One will betray all" line. The original holder of the foretellers script gave the script to FIVE of his SIX apprentices and seeing as there are only five unions to chose from I think its safe to assume that the sixth apprentice had a hand in this. Bit of reading between the lines there. 

One Will Betray All.......

One Of The Six.....

Regardless this entry does the one thing that Kingdom Hearts is good at which is screwing with peoples heads, trying to place where this entry ties in. Given that KH III is the next release, well kind of what with KH 2.8, its safe to assume that it will expand a little more on that. After all we know what they're fighting over, the X-blade (Chi-blade some call it). 



If you should have the makings, then through this simple act of taking, one day master of this blade you shall be.

A fun little game KHUX but like many titles skipping it may lead to more confusion later down the line. Its an easy game to pick up and go despite language barriers and though there is some lag in the game as environments render its not taxing on the device, abilities are fun and flashy and its fun to experiment with what works best. The daily bonuses are good as well they give you a healthy amount of SP to spend to increase your card deck. Raid bosses are incredibly easy to kill as they have weak points which when exploited give you a whole turn, sometimes five, to deal more damage to them making for some very easy EXP ( I jumped 8 levels once). 

Kingdom Hearts Unchained X also carries a lot of weight, it solves some issues surrounding the mystery that is the key blade war and expands on the universe as well.

If your looking for an easy but immersive game to just pick up and play then KHUX is defiantly one to invest in. I believe that the title is coming west so soon people can play it and understand it.

PSA

Calling All Hunter's

MONSTER HUNTER 4

ANNOUNCEMENT 

Message

So here's the thing. Right now I find myself playing through MGS5, by the way amazing game defiantly doing a review on it later, but when I've finished on it I intend to return to the realm of Monster Hunting for a while.

Now I have a few friends who like playing Monster Hunter and thats great, but I've always wanted a more steady hunting party. Now I won't always be available to play MH4U as real world stuff gets in the way i.e. work, writing up on here, reading, socialising etc etc. But for those of you who read this and play MH4U consistently know that I am on the lookout for a group.

Monster Hunter has become a favourite of mine and while it is fun playing alone, you can get more satisfaction from working as a group. I am looking to raise my HR and get generally better at the game. I've been watching some videos for MHX and it looks amazing, however Capcom haven't said wether or not their going to be releasing MHX for the west yet, I mean it seems likely given their track record but then again Frontier online never saw the light of day in the west.

If your interested in forming a group then I am HR6. Leave a comment or send me an email if your interested and I'll provide my friend code and Skype details. 

Side note

Me and my friends have been talking about starting a youtube channel, I am currently looking at recording equipment so stay tuned for more details on that. 

Life is Strange

Episode 1: Chrysalis

Let's see how far this rabbit hole goes...

Life is strange is a take on the new wave of multiple choice adventure games that Telltale have become so well known for. Telltale has been dominating the gaming market over the past 4 years and you can't go very far anywhere in the gaming community without seeing a title of theirs advertised. 

Que. Square enix who have decided to profit from this side of gaming. Life is strange is their title and it defiantly brings a new level to the multiple choice, multiple endings dynamic that Telltale established years ago.

Enter Max Caulfield and her bizarre journey

Our protagonist. A shy, nerdy, quirky and relatively innocent girl just turned 18 and accepted into the prestigious Blackwell Academy in her hometown of Arcadia, Oregon. The game begins with a dream sequence in which Max is wondering through Arcadia Bay towards a lighthouse in the middle of a storm. Well I call it a storm, it looks more like an extinction level tornado is tearing through Arcadia Bay. Max gets a front row seat to the destruction of her hometown and of course gets hit by the lighthouse falling on her and then she wakes up. A good start honestly. 

After a weird ass dream, Max awakes in her photography class headed by a famous Photographer turned Professor, Mark Jefferson. This particular teacher reminded me of my own University tutor Richard Billingham and some of the questions I knew the answers to in real life. It made me tell Max the answers even though there wasn't an option to do so. Not at first anyway.

Once class is concluded you have the option to wander around the classroom looking at various things including work from other students. Max eventually decides to get herself together in the bathroom before her next class. Must be pretty stressful being a wall flower. Its only when you enter the bathroom that things get weird.


Butterfly effect 

So long story short, A guy murders a girl in the bathroom and Max is witness to it. She tries to reach out and stop him but ends up reversing time. Max reawakens back in the classroom and is this time able to answer all of the questions correctly instead of looking foolish. Eventually she manages to get back to the bathroom and prevents the guy, Nathan Prescott, from murdering the girl. 

Its at this point that you have your first major choice in the game pop up and these choices really do come home to roast later on. The choices you make even little insignificant ones have big ramifications down the line. As you wander around the campus there are various people you can talk to and decisions to make and thanks to your time powers if your not sure of an answer you can always go back to try a different response. This makes for an interesting mechanic as you can be extra bitchy and then go back and undo it.

For the purposes of spoiler prevention I won't go into full detail about it. Suffice to say stuff goes down and the game begins. 


Its a wonderful life

Life is strange episode 1 does a lot of things right. It sets you up for the duration of the series, it quickly establishes who is suspicious and why, it delivers some hard hitting feelings immediately and has you empathising with most of the characters you meet and the choices you make while not apparent straight away carry enormous weight later on. Max is also a relatable character at least to me she was. She is not strong or stylised as being you typical main character, I always had a sense that she was like glass try to hard to bend it and it will break. The supporting characters are what make up Max as a character, how they interact with her and subsequently how she interacts with them shape the way she is represented. Be a bitch and you're a bitch, be nice and social and you're just that.

The numerous ways in which things are represented as well, the double meanings that get lost in translation are what make the game great. The butterfly that you see at the beginning for example, represents the butterfly effect in which decisions you make even seemingly normal effortless decisions have huge consequences. That is a juxtaposition between Max and her new time powers. Reading between the lines is a big thing in Life is strange as you can learn a whole lot from it. 


Next time on Life is strange....

As is tradition each game gives you a small glimpse of what is to come. Again alluding to the whole time ability.

Life is Strange Episode 1: Chrysalis. As far as game beginnings go it started off really well, with lots of different decisions to be made and despite the fact you can change those decisions it had me really thinking about my decisions. That is the mark of a good game, the ones that make you think. 

This game also shows a lot of promise and charm that others don't and while the title is neutral and doesn't reveal a whole lot it covers up the darker tone that LIS can have. I love the Avant Garde way in which each thing is represented and the photography was a nice touch reminding me of my days as a student. My only regret is that I wish my life was a strange as Max's but I digress. 

If your looking for a simple, fun, deep and interesting experience and somehow find yourself without anything to play recently I suggest giving Life is Strange a run for its money. I promise you want be disappointed.