Fable II (RPG)

Genre: RPG, Adventure

After over 4 years of painful and fidgety waiting, the sequel to the highly popular Fable has arrived. Developed by Lionhead Studios, this action RPG game sports much of the same features as the first, along with some of its own original content.

(Image from: thatvideogameblog.com)

Story: (5/10) As a nameless hero, you are destined to rise as a Hero and save the world of Albion. The storyline takes place about a thousand years after the original Fable. You can choose between a boy or girl to start off (a great new addition) in order to embark on your quest. The main storyline is nothing special. A king wants to wipe out the world and start a new one. You have to stop him (yawn). The story is awfully short. If you run at top speed through it, you can walk away in about 3 hours. But the fun comes from the multitude of side quests available throughout the game. These help make the game worthwhile, and easily multiply the playing time. You can get lost exploring the game’s vast free-roaming world, from the coast to caves, tombs and forests, which is 10x the size of the first Fable.

Graphics: (8/10) The graphics are similar to the original to the first Fable in art design but with the power and scope of the 360. Your character and the environment is pretty detailed.

Audio: (8/10)The music is similar to the first Fable in its old world style. The game sounds are fairly good. Yet the true glory comes the game’s infinite amount of verbal audio from the NPCs. All dialogue is spoken and is hilarious to hear their British accents.

Gameplay: (8/10) Those who have played the original Fable should be fairly familiar with the controls. The basic action buttons are easy and fun. A is action, X is to use your melee weapon (great for button mashing), Y is to use your ranged weapon (either crossbows or guns – a great addition to the game), B is to use magic. The new magic system no longer has a mana bar, as so many other games feature. Fable II has a 5 tier system of magic attacks. Simply charge the magic attack you wish to use by holding B and release. You can use any magic as often as you wish as long as you have the time against bands of enemies. The fighting is rewarding, and makes up much of the fun in the game. The camera is also completely controllable.

On the flipside, the game feels a little unpolished. There is a small issue with loading times. There are also certain aspects of the game (at least for my game) that feel really slow and laggy. Often when you perform an action like, say, try to open a door or explore the start menu, it often takes a couples seconds to work. Its kinda like working on a crappy computer.

Overall: (7/10)The game behaves mostly like a light RPG, though not quite as in depth as some like ES: Oblivion. Despite this and small polishing issues, this is an entertaining and overall amazing game.

Replay ability: (9/10) Probably the greatest feature to Fable is its ability of choice. You can mutate into a red devil-like monster through being evil or a halo-crowned shining saint through good deeds. You can be whomever you wish. So, the question is, “Who will you become?”

(Image from: ultimategamerspodcast.co.uk)

The February issue of Japanese trade magazine Kinejun announces a big screen anime version of Namco’s RPG Tales of Vesperia.

The movie version is slated to be released this year by Kadokawa Pictures. Director Kanta Kamei is helming the anime, and seiyu Kosuke Toriumi will be lending his voice to the project.

Source

I have been waiting for this game for so long, and I am so glad that there is finally more information.

Aion is a visually beautiful MMORPG that divides players between those that are “The Chosen” and those that are “The Fallen”. The Tower of Eternity exists as a gateway into the Abyss, and acts as a portal between dimensions. When a great evil opens the gateways, it awakens the Dragons imprisoned within the Abyss, who seek revenge on both worlds. It is here that an epic conflict begins, as you take your first steps on a journey to bring salvation to the world. In this ethereal world, you will have the power to direct dynamic relationships between angels, demons and dragons to control the fate of the world. You will evolve Aion’s storylines through social, economic and cultural experiences that are both interactive and cinematic.

Official North American Website
Official Korean Website Its a Korean game lol so it should have much more info…..if you can read Korean

Scions of Fate Game Review, by Grapes!
A very unique game. =3

Bare with me I havent done this in awhile. =o
Netgames was the company that made that horrifingly painfull and obnocious game GhostOnline.
But this other game they made I also wanted to try out for awhile. It was in closed beta when I found out about it so I had to wait a month or two for it to release officialy.
This game is much better than GhostOnline. You can tell by Netgames style that they like Futal or Ancient China themed games. This is not necessarely my style per-say. =o
Anyways I still wanted to try it becuase it felt like an ADVENTURE! =D
It didnt take so long downloading and installing considering Ragnarok Online or FlyFF. >__>
What I first incontered was a very unique atmosphire. It has a FlyFF like taste to it. The character designs are almost that of DragonQuest or DragonBallZ but cuter. =o
Well immediatly I got used to the game very quickly, and im shure if anybody tried this game without having any MMORPG experience they would get used to it easily too. =3
I love alot of features they add onto this game. Alot of features I wish were on some other games. They say that this game is a comic rpg like the sense of style the characters have. The emotions are accual facial expressions on your character with a nice voice to go with it.

PROS:
1. Great graphics! Which can be adjusted at the options menu. With diffrent color and brightness.
2. Windowed mode is always convenient for me. =3
3. Not alot of lag but I upgraded my memory resently so I dont know if anyone else might feel some lag.
4. Fluent motion. This is very important when your training. The animation is not chopy its smooth and the characters attack with lifelike motion.
5. You can change your characters voice. Like say you get hurt you say “OW” or if you level up you say “SOMETHING IN CHINESE”.
6. Diffrent stats for diffrent classes! This was a cool idea. Insted of ATK AGI DEX STA INT, each class has there own special stat. Like say if you were a bowman you would get stats that increase your attack range or critical hits ect.
7. THIS IS THE BEST FREGGIN THING EVER! They have their own personalizable music player on the game!! Where you can go into your folders and upload your own songs off your computer and into the game and play them as background music!!!!!!! I love it!! <3>:0

Grapes Score is… 9.0/10!!!

RagnarokOnline~ Game Review! By Grapes,

People make such a big fus about this game. Its quite popular. Well, I wanted to play it for some time, but couldnt becuase… well its a paying game. (12 dollars a month).
And that doesnt seem fair for just a sprite based game. =/
So I was like “screw that!” D<
But then they came out with a 7day trial thing. I tried it over and over again. It was pretty fun.
Well now I realized that someone had made a free private server of RO.
It takes like 2hours to download. And my eletricity went out when I was downloading it. So I had to download it twice. D<
Anyways. A game like this is the kind of game you would die for if it was on GBA or DS. It is very enjoyable. Gravity (the company that made RO) did a good job with every little detail. The maps are large, the music and sound effects are so crystal clear and nice to lisen to. =3
I put it in 800×486 windowed mode. =O

Pros:
1. Its accualy fun to train.
2. Lots of background music and sound effects.
3. Lots of classes to choose from.
4. Alot of nice people online. (people have given me things for free. x3)
5. Marrage system. that was neet. =P
6. Although the characters and monsters are sprite based they are very well done sprites. They almost look like characters in an anime. =3
7. Easy stat system!
8. Easy skill system!

Cons:
1. Its easy to get lost. Dx
2. Doesnt show the level or dificulty of any monsters. So you dont know which ones are your level. (you would have to check on the official site to find out)
3. They throw you in the game without telling you anything or where to go. (I dont like to ask for directions D: )
4. Can only move the camera angle right and left. The angle still looks weird to me. I might just have to get used to it but I like to move the camera angle up and down sometimes.

Total Score… 8.7/10 Now I know what all the fus is about. =3

This game looks really cool, from the trailer I have gathered it is in a post-apocalyptic error, and the wandering boy is in search of what has happened, there are elements of fighting, and ghosts, I wonder what they will do with it.

“Fragile: Farewell Ruins of the Moon is a Nintendo Wii RPG that takes place in the near future, in a world that has lost its population. You play as Seto, a young boy who wanders around, searching through the abandoned cities and facilities of this world, trying to learn the truth behind the disappearance of all the people, and to find someone to keep him company. The game was released in Japan on January 22, 2009 and features the theme song “Hikari” sung by Aoi Teshima (Gedo Senki / Tales from Earthsea soundtrack).” - TVKon

Here is yet another new trailer for the long awaited game, that has yet to come up with a NA release month even.

The whole video is basically a clip from a cutscene (with english subs) and it jumps seamlessly into a battle scene, not sure if they edited something out, but it looks amazing. It seems like a big part of the story is going to be similar to FFVII, with a terrorist-like group going against the government, or typically with FF games, the religious doctrine. This trailer doesn’t show off anything all that special, one character that seems like he might be important, the one with the orange hair.

Disc One (before Delphinus)

I honestly didn’t think it was going to take this long to get into disc 2. I was constantly thinking ‘I’ve been playing for a few hours now, it has got to go to disc 2′ But everything time was wrong. I guess you can say it helped me realize how in depth the story was going to go.

I loved the first disc of Skies, mainly because Ixa’taka was my favorite region, and that took place in disc 1, but anyway. Disc 1 Is obviously very important, it introduces most of the main characters, and it ’sets you on your path’. I started hating Valua early in the game (little did I know my hatred was just going to increase.) But it wasn’t really just me, disc 1 really got you in to the story, you fell in love with the characters and sympathized for them, so when things like Dyne and the crew were captured, deep down, even though it was in the beginning of the game, you wanted to save them. Thats is what a disc one of any game is supposed to do, but I feel as if no disc one could ever top Skies’. I have so many memories of the first disc that I wont bore you with lol. I am currently listening to the soundtrack, so everything is coming back to me.

Rating: 9/10

Disc Two (after Delphinus)
Though this disc got to be more tedious with all the larger dungeons, I still loved it. This disc really brought it home for me, for obvious reasons it being the second half and all, but it really completed the story. I begun to really hate Valua left and right, between Rameriz (don’t get me wrong Rameriz is one of my favorite characters in the game) and Galcian, and the corrupt Theodora. I really enjoyed seeing her smashed by falling pillars.

Even though they might not have been my favorite arcs, I still loved disc twos Yafutoma and The Lands of Ice parts of the story. Besides the fact that the game completes in disc two, it was still the most epic disc two of any game I’ve ever played. The battle with Rameriz in Soltis is my favorite battle of the game. Not just because I beat the crap out of him, and his super move was amazing, but because I felt happy for Vyse. I felt as if they game had truly captivated me and I was Vyse, I was there fighting Rameriz myself, trying to use Pirate’s Wrath or Prophecy.

Rating: 10/10

Overall
I think it is quite obviously that I absolutely love the storyline. I love it so much that I have played this game numerous times. There is not a month that goes by that I don’t think, ‘I wanna play Skies, I miss flying.’ This game has affected me on so many different levels. My friends and I have, on many occasions, discussed writing a sequel to Skies, and because of this site we might just do that.

Better of the two: Disc Two

Rating: 10/10 (of course)