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‘The Science of Deduction’ – Sherlock Series 1 (UK) Blu-Ray Review

March 20, 2012
Blu-Ray, Castle Co-Op, Review
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A review article written for Castle Co-Op, a website dedicated to Film, TV, Music and Culture – Published  20-03-2012

The inspiration behind the latest adaptation in the Sherlock Holmes genre has a slight Strangers on a Train vibe insomuch that two writers from the long-running UK series Dr. Who, Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss discussed over many train rides to into Cardiff, their mutual adoration of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s masterpiece Sherlock Holmes and deliberated how to breathe new-life into the Holmes fiction through a modernization of the much beloved series.

The Blu-Ray release (UK import) of Sherlock includes the three feature length episodes (plus the un-aired pilot episode – which I advise viewers watch first, for an interesting comparison to the first episode) – ‘A Study in Pink’ (loosely referencing the original story ‘A Study in Scarlet’), ‘The Blind Banker’ (‘The Dancing Men’ and ‘The Sign of the Four’), and ‘The Great Game’ (an adaptation of ‘The Bruce-Partington Plans’ as a sub-plot and takes on various other stories from the Holmes library).

‘A Study in Pink,’ the duo’s first case acts as an origins story that carries the menacing threat of a serial killer masking each homicide as a suicide. Introducing the infamous Sherlock Holmes (Benedict Cumberbatch) – the self proclaimed, world’s only consulting detective – and Dr. John Watson (Martin Freeman) – a military physician, haunted by his service in Afghanistan, invalided home with a bullet wound and a psychosomatic limp – establishing the sharp and savvy dynamics of the pairing sees the actors Cumberbatch and Freeman outshine their recent Hollywood counterparts with superior style, substance and an authoritative authentication of the Holmes mythos.

It’s here that the series does well showcasing Benedict’s portrayal of the enigmatic Sherlock Holmes – an endeavour that has him (at least in my mind) cemented as ‘The Quintessential Holmes’. A high-functioning sociopath with a superior intellect, eidetic memory, sharp wit, substantiated arrogance and incredible deductive abilities, epitomised in Sherlock’s personal website, ‘The Science of Deduction’. The characterisation and the relationship between the protagonists is endearing to watch unfold; even exploring the slightly abstract homoerotism shared between Sherlock and Watson adds a little quirk and a great deal of levity to the layered dynamic of their partnership and the series a whole.

‘The Blind Banker’ is the weakest of the trio, yet still retains the stalwart Sherlock momentum of the series that sees Holmes and Watson examine two seemingly disparate deaths, connected with a series of ancient Chinese ciphers. By no means is this a failure of the series as this subsequent case held my attention from start to finish and further explores the emerging characterisation of Watson, portrayed exceptionally well by Martin as the everyday man in light of Sherlock’s genuine brilliance – as Sherlock’s prowess is detailed in the first episode.

While each episode serves as a brilliant stand-alone murder mystery, there is the ubiquitous puppet master lurking in the shadows that emerges as the main focus of the third case, ‘The Great Game,’ pitting Sherlock against his true arch-nemesis – an easy guess for those well versed in Doyle’s work. This case provides a thrilling cloak and dagger exercise of deductive agility as Sherlock solves a series of riddles to satiate a mad-bomber hell-bent on destroying our two protagonists. The writing surround this particular episode is a standout success for Mark Gatiss (who also portrays Mycroft Holmes) that intertwines a myriad of sophisticated stories into a cohesive narrative that culminates in the series cliff-hanger finale.

Visually, modernisation is at the forefront of the entire series and plays well into the aesthetics, almost fetishising modern London in its portrayal. The location shoots of famous London landmarks – Trafalgar Square, Gherkin and Piccadilly Circus – add to Holmes authenticity however I’m particularly fond of the stylised approach having text from mobile phones and computer being projected on the screen, rather than a cut-away to the device.

For Sherlock Holmes aficionados it’s very interesting to see the serious considerations in upgrading this genre from the 19th to the 21st century. Particularly how the Holmes iconicity permeates the entire series with an overtly supplanted homage to Sir Arthur Conan’s original work, most notable with the ‘221B’ impractically emblazoned on their front door in Baker Street, the memoirs of Dr. Watson now an internet blog, and the reimagining of Sherlock’s infamous network of street children to the roving homeless on the streets of London who sell the Big Issue.

Even the iconic subtleties pay homage to the source material such as Watson returning from the war in Kandahar to the jack-knife transfixing his mail in place on the fireplace mantelpiece  – the little things that pay homage to Doyle’s original works that true fans can appreciate.

It’s easy to dismiss this series as just another Sherlock Holmes adaptation; however you would be wrong to do so. This release is a successful rebirth of the Sherlock Holmes mythos into the 21stcentury. Being new to the franchise I’m simply enamoured by the contemporary retelling by Moffat and Gatiss. The clever original writing coupled with the perfect blend of humour and iconicity that genuinely respects its source material whilst creating their own unique identity. BBC’s Sherlock is a brilliant series that I cannot recommend highly enough.

Mass Effect 3 Review

March 11, 2012
Castle Co-Op, PC, PlayStation, Review, Xbox
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A review article written for Castle Co-Op, a website dedicated to Film, TV, Music and Culture – Published  12-03-2012

Fulfilling a 6 year promise to gamers, BioWare has concluded its three part space-opera with the release of Mass Effect 3 (ME3) – an ambitious production where choice and consequence permeate each title release.  Tasked with the near impossible goal, developers aim to satiate die-hard fans with an endearing ending to the brilliant series steeped in rich lore and tethered emotion to the Commander Shepard story – Your Commander Shepard.

ME3 picks up back on Earth, a first in the Mass Effect series, being able to explore this beautiful blue marble. A bittersweet introduction as the 50,000 year purported Reaper ritual provides the perfect cadence for the plot, with the invading Reaper armies bombarding the globe, eager to start extinguishing all organic life in the Milky Way.

Your mission sends you galaxy-trotting the known universe in search of War Assets to potentially boost your Galactic Readiness as zero-hour fast approaches to face the Reapers head-on. These diplomatic endeavours are critical factors in the war and have players engaging in the age old socio-political grudges amongst the alien races known in the Mass Effect universe.

Wether over the Krogan Genophage or the Quarian-Geth rebellion cum exile to the Flotila, your duty as the heroic peacekeeper (paragon) or ruthless warmonger (renegade) is to navigate these tricky – albeit superficial (in light of an existential galactic genocide) – differences to form a united armada against the Reapers. This unusual dissonance is also echoed with the numerous side-missions encountered in the game that doesn’t reflect the immanency of the crisis, instead focusing on simple ancillary tasks. Even when faced with ominous death and destruction, folks in the Citadel still squander over petty crimes and simple fetch requests despite the ongoing catastrophe.

The story ends the Shepard trilogy and wraps up a lot of peripheral stories from former teammates aboard the Normandy – even if they didn’t survive the suicide mission at the end of Mass Effect 2, scene’s still play out regardless, sans the actual characters effect over the sequence.

Achieving galactic readiness through diplomacy is the driving force behind missions in ME3, with a host of dialogue options and actions heavily influence the story as you careen towards the end-game. For the best and most personal experience, players are urged to import their Shepard from ME2 not only for aesthetics, but for a character you’ve engaged with for 5 years – a familiar face to guide you through the inevitable battle ahead.

Claiming any emotional attachment to a save file is a weird and difficult thing to admit – but an immensely gratifying felling when you’ve been swept up in the vast Mass Effect fiction – hence an emotional investment is more likely inevitable. Especially when BioWare seems determined in its Mass Effect finale to emphasise consequence with the potency of death lingering over every choice made. In ME3, people will die. Because there are no more decisions to carry-over, the burden of each decision weighs much heavier on Shepard. Lives will be lost with their blood on your hands – ultimately what is the price you’re willing to pay for the greater good?

The moral dilemmas faced throughout ME3 are increasingly relevant and navigating these decisions will drastically alter the plots course and outcome. Seemingly inconsequential decisions made hours ago can often haunt players wishing they’d chosen the second dialogue option. The triumph of Mass Effect comes with the seemingly innocuous butterfly effect that ripples through each Mass Effect title. Each event culminates organically as you approach the stories climax with the sum of all parts, each decision made intricately woven into the story to provide the appropriate ending to your Shepard’s journey.

The combat mechanics are fluid and familiar to Mass Effect veterans, and widely accessible to newer players with some minor platforming additions. Unfortunately with familiarity come the usual problems associated with the hit-and-miss cover system. The ‘take-cover’ and new ‘dive-roll’ commands are mapped to the same button hence it can lead to some unwanted response during an intense fire-fight. Overall, while decent enough, ME3 falls short of some more recent standout third-person cover-shooters like Gears of War and Vanquish.

The elegant myriad of weapons, skills and abilities are more customisable with progressive upgrades, custom mods, and branching skill-trees for each class and weapon to tailor your Shepard to your liking. The variance in each distinct class (adept, engineer, infiltrator, sentinel, soldier, and vanguard) can lead to some very distinct custom builds. This streamlining is also noted with the omission of any dedicated hacking sequence, clumsy vehicular missions and planetary scanning for minerals; instead, scanning may lead to further War Assets, fuel and supplies, or trigger your known whereabouts to the roaming Reaper scouts.

The brutally difficult enemies are more attributed to enumeration rather than an intuitive AI. Enemies flood the narrow battlefields in seemingly endless waves constantly converging on your position; punishing players who aren’t aware of their surroundings. Gratefully the new Omni-Blade (unique to each class) sees a much welcomed melee option for the overly frisky AI. But tactical squad-based combat is the name of the game.

Squad-mates available in ME3 come in a more manageable 6-pack (with more possible through additional DLC) instead of the cast of 12 from ME2 – to me it’s a mixed reaction. While I appreciate the familiar faces and cherish a more intimate relationship, a few more familiar faces wouldn’t go astray. Continuing in fashion with ME1 and ME2, romancing ship-mates and crew-members makes a return with the inclusion (or re-inclusion) of a same-sex outcome. The system seems ostensibly more complex this time around with some romantic interests may only be possible with a prior ME2 save import.

In a Mass Effect first, multiplayer will be included in this release. While its inclusion is arguably unnecessary, the multiplayer experience does interconnect with the plot, offering a robust experience to complement the Single Player; each mission acting as more of a primer to give some context to the N7 side-missions. Apart from the Shepard arc, multi-player offers another perspective on the galactic war – fighting on every front.

An experience best endeavoured by players who’ve played the previous titles in succession (albeit difficult for PlayStation owners), ME3’s does well that every decision distinctly shapes my Shepard; my experience.  That my efforts in shaping the universe manifest such because of my choice, my decision, my humility, my selfishness – it’s all about my choice, consequence, and contribution over the course of the entire Mass Effect trilogy.

It’s truly a shame that this near pristine masterpiece of story-telling is marred with frustratingly common technical issues such as lip-syncing, texture drop-ins, mandatory disc-swapping on more than one occasion (Xbox users) and the shameful framerate (especially noticeable on the PS3 version), dipping well below 30 fps when the action really heats up. What’s unacceptable – in a game that prioritises your efforts in past titles – is the import function from ME2 to ME3 is not fully functional, but is promised to be addressed in a future patch.  Disappointing as these are the exact same complaints inherited from its predecessor.

Mass Effect 3 is truly a wonderfully melancholic experience through a masterfully told story bringing an end to one of this generation’s best sci-fi saga’s – with an ending that Mass Effect fans will be discussing long after the credits roll. I’m still not quite sure how I’m supposed to feel with the trilogies conclusion. Now let’s see how badly Hollywood can botch up this superb story through a videogame-to-screen adaptation.

DISCLAIMER: This was a PlayStation 3 review and didn’t use the Kinect feature. But have heard from trusted sources it’s a neat construct – but ultimately fails to be practical when barking commands ensue instances of delayed reaction in lieu of a more immediate and simpler process is to just use the face buttons. 

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DEVELOPER: Bioware

PLATFORM(S): PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
PUBLISHER: Electronic Arts

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning Review

March 9, 2012
Castle Co-Op, PC, PlayStation, Review, Xbox
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A review article written for Castle Co-Op, a website dedicated to Film, TV, Music and Culture – Published  12-03-2012

When you think ‘Indie Game’, you think about the plethora of 99 cent apps available for your Smartphone and Tablets. Never would you imagine the massive open world that is Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, the debut title from the upstart independent game developer 38 Studios. Founded by ex-pro league Baseball pitcher Curt Schilling, and backed with the incredible creative minds of R.A. Salvatore (New York Times best-selling fantasy author), Ken Rolston (executive game designer from the Elder Scrolls series) and Tod McFarlane (the comic book genius behind the Spawn series) – a celebrated team with an illustrious pedigree to breathe life into this fantasy realm.

This ambitious game offers players the perfect blend of an expansive fantasy world with an incredibly satisfying combat system other Western RPGs have been severely lacking. This noticeably absent element is felt in The Elder Scrolls and Fallout series that are fully capable of building a superb narrative and universe, only to stumble with clumsy and unappealing gameplay mechanics. Reckoning aims to rectify this with an in-depth and intuitive combat system combined with an immersive narrative that could be the makings of a new first-class RPG series.

In the world of Amalur, fate defines all. It’s not something you can escape, and the residents of the world seem contempt to their condemned fate. This is the catalyst that justifies your characters presence in the world. Newly resurrected from the Well of Souls, unbound by fate you begin your journey – the only being in the Faelands capable of shaping the fate of the world.

Powered by the creative writing of fantasy novelist R.A. Salvatore, there is an impressive 10,000 year history of Amalur that the game tends to emphasise – the vast lore and compelling historical backstory is interesting yet somehow takes precedence over your interactions with the world.

Now despite this free and unbound premise, how you engage with the inhabitants of the world is deceptively linear. Different dialogue options and moral choices give the illusion of choice, yet no real consequence manifests from your decisions or actions (ala Mass Effect) – just different responses invoke a preordained reaction that feels more obligatory than necessary. Reckoning contains a wide array of well scripted conversations that unfortunately has little difference in its impact on the story as a whole.


Be forewarned, exploring Amalur can be a costly endeavour. The main quest can occupy roughly 30 – 40 hours, but aiming to see and do everything in Amalur will have players sinking well over a hundred hours of gameplay – and being an EA publication, I wholeheartedly expect more of the world to be expanded via upcoming DLC.

The world is set up with a distinctive MMO structure rather than a traditional RPG, with areas divided into clusters that are free to roam at any time, considering you can survive long enough to enjoy its splendour.

The environment varies from dense forestation and arid deserts, to a bustling medieval metropolis populated by gnomes. There is an intrinsic endearing aspect to each locale and some of the NPCs that despite my adoration for the lush environmental design and stunning artistic styles, the world feels empty and somewhat forgettable. While there are townsfolk to converse with, enemies to slay, and the dungeons to explore do well occupy the open realm, there is an understated lack of dimension for players to invest.

The amount of task and quests initiated through Amalur are vast yet not varied. They conform to the familiar tropes of the sandbox RPG; hunting the hidden nasties in a cave to fetching particular items from the clutches of bandits. These quests serve as a welcome distraction and a provision for players to explore the lovingly crafted world of Amalur.


Customisation and preference is at the heart of everything you do in Amalur. The levelling system lets you tailor your character to suit your personal play style. Skill points can be distributed amongst Might (strength and defence), Finesse (speed and stealth), and Sorcery (magic and support) as well as a set of peripheral abilities ranging from lock-picking and potion-alchemy to blacksmithing and improved stealth.

While investment solely into the Might, Finesse and Sorcery skill trees grant players to a bevy of powerful skills unique to that discipline, players can instead mix and match skills from each discipline with the diversity not providing any real disadvantage for players. The skill-point allocations unlock different destinies that confer unique bonuses to your character.

In these instances I generally choose the stealth, ranged type character – so my time with Reckoning saw a pretty nifty fast-striking magical-nuke, spending my points to master Finesse and Sorcery skills. Even if you make a mistake or find yourself wanting to experiment with different combinations of weapons, skills or ability preferences, you can always visit your local Fateweaver to have all stats and skills reset to be redistribute points as you like – this takes away some of the pressure of building your perfect hero as your never tied down to any one particular play style.


Choice, customisation and preference aren’t limited to the plot but naturally lend itself to the immersive dynamic combat mechanics. Combat is fast and the controls are very responsive, allowing the seamless switch between weapons and a range of magical skills that feels fluid and organic – allowing for a satisfyingly string of attacks for a devastating combo.

The range of weapons isn’t diverse, yet each fulfils a unique role in your arsenal and caters toward any preference. Your standard hack-and-slash Sword for close-ranged moderate damage; for speed, players can master the Daggers and Faeblades; Bows and Sceptres for players with an affinity for ranged attacks; Chakrams and Staffs for devastating magical AoE and the mighty Hammer for crushing damage at an insanely slow speed.

On the surface, combat seems shallow with the single button execution of attacks, but I’d define it more of a delicately choreographed dance against an innately aggressive AI – a flurry of metal, raging magic, dexterous dodges and well-timed blocks and parries complete the dynamic combat mechanics necessary for survival. Reckoning mode is the another unique battle mechanic introduced that grants players a tactical time slow-down, increased power, and abilities whilst reaping the benefits of better loot drops and increased experience.

Animation and sound effects from art director Todd McFarlane is superb, especially the Quake animation and the crushing Ice AoE sound effect from the staff. You can feel the distinguished weight and power of the hammer and the speed and swiftness of the daggers (especially when you achieve a stealth kill) with the obsessive detail apparent in the animation and sound design, matched perfectly to reflect the reality of the world.

It’s disappointing to see the usual pitfalls of the massive open world RPG ubiquitous in Reckoning considering the immense scope and ambition of the game. The minor technical performance issues (occasional framerate drops, overlapping dialogue and texture drop-ins) can easily be forgiven, and the lack of investment in a vast and empty world can be tolerated, simply because the combat, story, and RPG elements are superb. Not since Diablo II have I enjoyed combat in an Action RPG.

It cannot be understated how amazing this debut game from an upstart studio is. It has all the staples and the makings of an amazing Action RPG with an incredibly satisfying combat. Mix in the amazing talent and experience of R.A Salvatore, Ken Rolston and Todd McFarlane, you can bet this will be a contender to 2012’s Game of the Year.

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DEVELOPER: 38 Studios, Big Huge Games

PLATFORM(S): PlayStation 3, PC, Xbox 360
PUBLISHER: 38 Studios, Electronic Arts

Castle Co-Op’s Guilty Movie Pleasure and Discussing the Guile Meme

March 6, 2012
Castle Co-Op, Feature, Film
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A Co-Op joint article written for Castle Co-Op, a website dedicated to Film, TV, Music and Culture – Published 06-03-2012

Street Fighter (1994) was part of the first generation of videogame-to-screen adaptations that started the growing trend of horrible video-game movies.  It’s a cringe worthy experience that simply ignores the incredible depth of lore the franchise has developed over numerous game iterations. Without too much detail, the garishly inaccurate casting, costume design, acting, dialogue and martial arts choreography was woefully sub-par, yet can still redeem itself as a great movie – considering audiences are keenly aware how ridiculous the movie actually is. To think an American flag tattoo strategically placed upon a layered muscular bicep turns the Belgian Jean-Claude Van Damme into the all American Captain Guile (Colonel in the films adaptation), but hey, it still works for me. But what epitomizes this as extraordinary is the legendary Guile speech that’s set to rival that of Braveheart, Gladiator and The Lord of the Rings in sheer awesomeness and morale.

Anyone notice the young bright-eyed Aussie icon to the left?

The hammed up acting is most notable with the late Raul Julia (M. Bison) who tragically passed away upon the films completion. Despite the movie being less captivating than its source material; Street Fighter is just plain fun and still remains in my top five videogame-to-screen adaptations, ranked alongside Mortal Kombat, Final Fantasy and the eye-candy fest, D.O.A.

Street Figher Movie: Win Pose; (from left to right) E. Honda, Sawada, Ken, Balrog, Cammy, Zangief, Guile, Chun-Li, Ryu, and T-Hawk 

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I’d thought I might use this space to also share one of my favourite meme’s – the ‘Guile’s Theme Goes With Everything’ which began as a series of YouTube Poop’s paring footage with Guile’s Theme from Capcom’s flagship franchise,  Street Fighter. Guile was first introduced in 1991′s Street Fighter II and since the franchise has seen many different composers including Yoko Shimomura, Isao Abe, and Yoshihiro Sakaguchi – but the fans would agree the main Guile Theme has to be the one from Hyper Street Fighter II.

Since this meme utilises seemingly incoherrant footage with the dissonant theme to create an uncanny compilation that often proves more successful if not hilarious than the original score.

 
Kicking off with Guile’s Theme appropriately appropriated for the 1994 Street Fighter Movie; ‘Colonel Guile vs. M. Bison.


Next we have the epic scene from the movie 300 – Spartan King Leonidas vs. the Persian Messenger (a.k.a Oenomaus from the Stars original series, Spartacus [blood and sand, gods of the arena and vengeance])


Enter the more ridiculous appropriations of Guile’s epic theme to the ridiculous ‘family-friendly’ mechanic of gaming that makes me embarrassed to be call myself a gamer – the Xbox Kinect game Dance Central. This clip’s incredible accuracy and in-sync dance moves is the only reason it makes my list.


Another fan favourite from Star Wars Episode I – Then  Phantom Menace; Qui-Gon Jin vs. Darth Maul and Obi-Wan Kenobi vs. Darth Maul


While not on an epic scope of a battle, this is the scene in cinematic history in which Guile’s theme was made for; Dutch and Dillon’s epic handshake.


From epic to adorable – cats mauling it out to the tune of Guile’s theme.


And here I’m thinking no other sountrack could beat Bruce Faulconer’s work on Dragonball Z, I may be mistaken; Goku’s Kamehameha vs. Vegeta’s Galick Gun


My favourite version of the Guile theme meme comes from the Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring – Boromir on his final stand vs. the horde of Uruk-hai orcs.


Finally, we have the most controversial albeit most effective use of the Guile theme – a cautionary tale for bullies everywhere, all people have their breaking point; the Zangief Kid with Guile Theme.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 Review

February 28, 2012
Castle Co-Op, PlayStation, Review, Xbox
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A review article written for Castle Co-Op, a website dedicated to Film, TV, Music and Culture – Published 28-02-2012

With Orphan defeated and the fal’Cie gods thwarted, the levitation systems supporting Cocoon are failing. Cocoon’s path of devastation is clear as it plummets towards Pulse. Fleeing the crumbling remnants of Eden Hall, Vanille and Fang accept their fate, fulfilling their 500 year long focus and transform into the true form of Ragnorak. Becoming the ’destroyer of worlds’ in order to save it. A noble sacrifice made, forming a pillar to crystallise the plunging Cocoon. Lightning, Snow, Hope and Sazh reunite with Serah and Dajh as they awake from their crystalline slumber. With l’Cie brands removed, their focus fulfilled and the world saved.

Ohh, did I not mention this review contained some serious spoilers?

Final Fantasy XIII-2 (FFXIII-2) is set 3 years after the events of Final Fantasy XIII (FFXIII) and is developer Square-Enix’s second direct sequel to a Final Fantasy game since its all girl power predecessor Final Fantasy X-2. It seems Square has taken it upon themselves to peruse the mass criticisms of FFXIII and use this sequel almost as an apology; FFXIII-2 attempting to disperse any preconceived notion that this juggernaut JRPG franchise is waning, whilst attempting to mend its broken relationship with disheartened fans.

The story’s opening scenes begin very epic with a lofty premise and an arbitrary introduction of Valhalla, a realm unbound by time. A familiar face; Lightning – guardian of Valhalla – is pitted against our new antagonist Caius for reasons unknown. A mysterious stranger; Noel – a young man from a dying world travelling through the Historia-Crux – drops in during the battle. Saved by Lightning, he is sent on a mission to change the past and protect the future. To save the cheerleader, save the … (ohh wait) – I mean, to find Lightning’s younger sister Serah and bring her to Valhalla.

The basic premise of the plot has Serah, Noel, and their mascot Mog (the moogle) travelling through time via the Historia-Crux. Borrowing the time-travelling mechanic from a Square classic, Chrono Trigger, instead of roaming an open world traversing town to town, players use the Historia-Crux to travel through time, visit relevant locales to save the world one paradox at a time.

It’s unfortunate that the intertwining time travelling plot don’t lead to a cohesive narrative despite successfully building on FFXIII’s plot. The dissonance between character and plot isn’t tethered with any emotional weightand the dialogue too needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Expressions and mannerisms can be lost in translation, but that used to be one of the joys of a JRPG, the minor nuances in dialogue often proved hilarious. Not the case with the bubbly and scantily-clad merchant Chocolina who seems to unexplainably follow your journey through history who I guess was designed to audibly irritate players into purchasing her sundries.

Whilst Chocolina represents the pinnacle of terrible audio in this game, the soundtrack is definitely a mixed bag. Why they didn’t approach veteran Final Fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu is beyond me. The elegant sweeping harmonies are replaced with a vocal intensive track that’s hauntingly beautiful at best, but a cacophony of screeching banshees at its worst, especially during boss battles. The sound design simply doesn’t work in concert with the rest of the games audio. The sound-track often is a smorgasbord of overlapping vocal harmonies, NPC dialogue and sound effects that’s overwhelming and infuriating when you’re trying to decipher pertinent story dialogue.

The battle system is relatively the same as its predecessor with some minor tweaks. Players still conform to the shifting Paradigm deck which personally feels underwhelming. The Auto-Battle function is a god-send to the lazy gamer, but it fails to deliver the same sense of strategy and satisfaction of commanding your party to victory through manual input and vast contemplation like other JRPG titles.

In battle, the most players can interact with is the shifting paradigms system. Thankfully changing roles no longer require a dramatic camera cut away. Instead streamlining the process with an immediate paradigm shift to maintain fluidity in an intense battle – to which there aren’t many. It seems the battle system has been reduced to a habitual mashing of the Auto-Attack button, occasionally shifting paradigms to defend, heal or to dish out a shit-tonne of damage.

Cinematic actions make an appearance during boss battles. This dynamic brings a little cinematic flair to an otherwise mundane battle; however this feature can be ignored as a glorified QTE (quick time event). Less so is the Live Trigger Dialogue events that seem inconsequential at first but prove to be valuable for collectors hunting for Monster Adornments.

Speaking of which, as Serah and Noel are the only 2 playable protagonists throughout the game, the third slot in your party is occupied by a tamed Monster. This brilliant albeit labour intensive system is one of the games highlights and the most confusingly addictive function of the game. Especially if you’re like me and enjoy grinding party members to inflict godly damage with every blow (maxed out sphere-grid anyone?).

Monsters are ‘caught’ by defeating them in battle, with a chance they’ll leave behind their crystal soul. Each Monster is tasked with an inherent role (Commando, Ravager, Saboteur, Synergist, Sentinel or Medic) and evolves on the Crysatrium alongside our human protagonists with consumable items instead of CP (crystogen points). Monsters also can be sacrificed through infusion in favour of unlocking skills and abilities in another. Catching and training Monsters, this addictive new system gives me a nostalgic ‘gotta catch ‘em all’ vibe from another popular Japanese franchise – especially with Mog constantly spouting ‘kupo!’

Final Fantasy XIII-2 proves the better approach to a JRPG, but not necessarily the better game. On one hand it’s apparent where the game has improved on its predecessor. However the open world, NPCs, side-quests, mini-games and puzzles were all staples of the JRPG 20 years ago – but it’s easy to see how players would treat them as brilliant innovations compared with FFXIII. It’s a comfort to know Square-Enix is actively listening to the community at large, yet equally disappointed at how easily susceptible developers bend to public opinion.

Famitsu, the Japanese gaming-gospel, has already given their local release the coveted perfect score of 40. My personal equivocation puts FFXIII-2 on par with its predecessor despite the vast improvements and an addictive monster system. It seems the Final Fantasy XIII-2 has taken two promising steps forward from FFXIII, yet remains barely on par with JRPG’s from the 90′s.

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DEVELOPER: Square Enix

PLATFORM(S): PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
PUBLISHER: Square Enix