Fire Emblem: Awakening Demo

Nintendo has finally awakened to advertise one of their most elusive franchises.  The slew of advertisement is very encouraging.  In fact, I don't think they have done one since Fire Emblem's debut in the U.S.  No matter how bad the game feels to me without its original creator, I will still be buying them.  The big N has done more than just bring it to other territories, but they really put more investments with the title.  There probably is more advertisement than the Metroid series games. 

I am happy that the latest has eventually been given the chance to go outside home territory, the previous installment, Heroes of Shadows and Light, did not even get bothered with.  Especially, given at the time of Heroes release, most RPG's weren't going to be published in America.  Now, most of those games such as, The Last Story and Xenosaga have eventually made it out, thanks to the movement known as Project Rainfall.  In which, Nintendo officially replied the consumers outcry to have an American release, simply by saying "NO!".  Instead, NoNintendo gave us Kirby, but at least now they seem to be becoming like Yes Man.

Since the announcement of Awakenings release, I was relieved and actually less enthused by it.  Though given that all this hype and showcasing all around, I decided to download the demo on my handheld after vacuuming the dust filled box of the 3DS that I have barely opened. 


The demo only contains Prologue and Chp.1 with many features blocked off.  What is the point of showing the options on creating an avatar if they cant be used...?  Most of the in-game play features are usable in Hard and Insane.  Normal and Hard mode are fairly simple, with the latter should take be taking some precaution.  I could barely get passed the second turn in Insane mode.  This makes the game more worthy, and I can practice before the real deal arrives.  

 SPOILERS!!! Given that Marth's identity has been revealed.  They didn't do such a good job of covering up that he is a she.  The voice actress may have deepened her voice, but it is still too obvious that she was trying to cover up.  Just her speaking defeats the purpose of the mask. 

Story wise it felt too much like The Blazing Sword with the details about the world thrown at the player.  The avatar asks what something is so that we can learn, isn't the best way to present the situation.  In the second chapter, I don't know why Marth wasn't available to play as, since "he" is capable of fighting. 

It was nice to here the voice, but why only place few standard lines when they could have the entire script read to us.  Either have voices for all or none.  I am not too fond of the graphics, especially at the characters feet.  They look like they are planted underground and their legs don't move.  Lots of changes in that department need to be made. 



Nintendo has pushed the investments further by bringing the bundled package to us here.  The only difference is that there is no physical game, but it is already programmed on the device.  On the Nintendo's Facebook page, they are doing regular spotlights on the characters of the game.  Also, there is, for the first time, an art booklet for this franchise.  So far only Gamestop is providing.  I am looking forward to these.  The only thing I wish, was the bundle to be an XL version, since I do prefer it better than the clunky fat original. 

Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li

This will be one of those blog through the movie exercises.  My cousin and I were strolling through the library and picked up couple movies to watch.  I picked up Crank 1&2, he picked up this feature.  I was surprised to find that this film made it out last year.  I'm not a fan of the Street Fighter series, nor any of Capcom's titles, but it is interesting to see a translation.

The beginning isn't slow, but it isn't fast.  There is plenty of dialogue, and at least there is action here and there.  The casting is pretty fitting, but I can't say if they accurately portray the original characters.  Kristen Kreuk looks even younger in this film than in the Smallville series, that I've watched often in the past.  Most of the cast is oddly half Asian.  Acting is a little less than standard fare and dialogue is just too typical.

Some of the action is actually new and refreshing.  It's always hard to do something different in martial arts.  Jackie Chan pretty much set the bar and covered all that ground in his countless films.  I don't like the camera angles used during those sequences.  We do see some contacts between the fighters, but most of it is weak and can be seen as a facade.  

Music is quite out there.  Mostly Chinese melodies, and the use of woodworks, for the tension.  Although like most American films.  I won't be commenting on music. 

This movie is satisfying, regardless of the immense amount of material left out.  I liked the fight against Bison most.  It was quite professional.  Some story elements left my head scratched and scared.  Such as, the energy balls, those were never explained, but they're not a big deal.  Anyone can just accept it.  The detectives on case are what I would call the biggest side story ever.  I just see no reason from them to be included. 

The movie is about Bison getting his daughter, but just how he lost her and why the big deal was for him to obtain her was not explained.  That's where the movie failed in terms of plot.  We're dealing with a mafiatic maniac and we are not given much details as his motives, business(what the main characters father was doing?), and goals.  You can be leaving the movie enjoying the action, but then the actual story will be never realised.  It is worth the watch, just don't worry about deep plot because it will leave you hanging.

Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones

Fire Emblem, one of my treasured series.  Look at the cover art its beautiful.  I see that it's work is like done as a painting.  This will be a quick review. 

First, this game was released as, how should I put it, as a decoy.  To keep the fans sidetracked from the upcoming Gamecube title, for the series.  Not a lot of thought went into this series.  The game is fun, but short.  Even with the extra battle modes and unlockables.  Shorter than the more linear games before and after it.  Not a lot to keep you attached.  It's one of those get in/get out, disposable games, that Nintendo does often, to keep the audience busy.  This wouldn't have happen if the original creator Shozo Kaga, had been still involved.  I'll leave him out of this, like Nintendo has.  For another time I will talk about him. 

On to the game mechanics, which I'm not real to critical about like other professional sites, such as my favorite http://www.ign.com/.  Graphical it has no difference then the previous ones.  Certainly, Intelligent Systems made no effort in improving or making new moves in that department.  Musically, it has it's style, but nothing like my gal Yuka Tsujiyoko.  She supervised over Yoshito Hirano and others.  Not much from the short selection of music that I can pick out.  Maybe because three composers were involved, same number of directors for this game.  Can't tell who did what. 

The first half of the game is a breeze.  I find it fun. Difficulty is laughable.  I like the plethora of units to choose from.  Though there were little as one to each category.  The summoner was a real neat class, as I like most of the magic users.  The best feature of the game is the choices, although its not expansive enough.  The places to go, is one of those features, but nothing too attractive about.  Nothing that can make me go Tower of Valni a second or third time after everything is unlocked, or even enough motivation to level up units through the skirmishes.  In fact, all those map choices made the game a bit too convenient.   

What should have been done was, between each chapter, have the ability to have some side plots for the minor characters.  They could have upped the difficulty on the next main story chapter, so that extra skirmishes wouldn't be making the map so easy to clear.  I like the choices available for unit growth. It's not as one way like before, but that feature was soon discarded.  I would actually be hasty as to make Ewan a Sage or Druid.  Though with the mine cheat, you can get all four magics as a sage. 

I would have liked a little more choices on the weapons side.  Especially the magics.  I wanted to see different sprites for each individual and the weapons they use.  Fire Emblem has a lot of variety, but it calls for more. 

 Story wise, it's below standard.  The things that grabbed me most were the characters that either died or the minor ones.  Such as, Orsen's betrayel, and his illusion of being with his dead wife.  Then Queen Ismaire's death, La'Rachael and her gangs quest for justice.  I found that last one to be a comical situation.  For the villians side, Selena and her relationship with the king, to Lyon and his turn to the dark side is most revelating. The twin leads didn't hook me much, but Ephraim was a cool unit to use.  I liked that each nation had dual sets of sacred treasure.  Since this was a decoy game, a vast world was made but little to no information was bothered to be included. 

 Character design was really unattractive.  I've inserted the images above of my favorite artwork.  Minor characters were very weak, in design and personality.  Getting through all their support conversations really didn't help much.  La"Rachel and her gang amused me, as well as the uptight, Lute.  I still don't like her.  The villians dialogues are what made me intrigued.    Selena was a strong character, as were the other generals, but thats normal for me to like such evil characters.  Very few characters had good background stories.  It left the characters and therefore, Magvel, a short one-stop place.

One final note is that I wish there was actually artwork for exlusive weapons and worlds.  I'm kind of tired of seeing just character artwork and the few epic posters.  This is a quality game from Nintendo and Intelligent Systems, though to them, this was bait for us.  I'd get it just to enjoy the short story and have fun with many of the new and exclusive features to the series.