Blueflower's Gaming Blog and Reviews

[blueflower999]

540 Minutes, 9 Homo Sapiens Sapiens, 9 个门:

OK, I'm done copying Maestro's elaborate titles. For realz now.

Zero Escape Volume 1: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors:

WARNING: The following review is for an M-rated DS game. I do not normally endorse playing games of this nature, but this one I feel is worth the trouble. If you are sensitive to what the rating is for, I would recommend not playing to game, as fantastic and awesome as it is. This includes bloods and gory scenes, drug use, extremely strong language including plenty of uncensored f-bombs, suggestive and sexual scenes, including partial nudity, and an atmosphere that will make your blood curdle. Viewer discretion is advised.

Gameplay: 9/10 Oh boy, this game is a doozy! I honestly cannot believe this exists. But, let's get to the gameplay. For starters, if you think that this game is all story with no solid gameplay to back it up, think again. Likewise, if you're planning on playing this game expecting the gameplay to be your favorite part of the game and completely steal the show, also reexamine your thoughts. After beating the game, I can tell that the gameplay is a lot of fun, and the puzzles are very unique and well-thought out. It's not like Layton (and I'm going to compare these two a lot because they're both excellent DS puzzle based games with great stories that Slow has introduced to me in the past half-year) in that people just present puzzles to you that only sometimes have to be actually solved to continue the story. No sir! This game is a click escape, but it's so much fun that if you don't like the genre, give it a try anyway. The atmosphere is flawless and makes the escapes seem vital to the continuation of the story, although there are times where you have to do escapes more than once, which the sequel fixes. The first escape has to be done all 5 times to get every ending, but it's not that bad if you know what to do. And now, I present to you some of the true brilliance of this game, which there is a lot of: you can fast-forward through text that you've read already. This makes playing the game to get all 5 endings soooo much easier. Oh, and believe me. This isn't a game like Shadow the Hedgehog where if you see one ending you've pretty much seen everything in the game. HECK NO. You NEED to see all 4 of the "fake" endings in order to see the "real" ending. To avoid spoilers, I'm going to call these endings 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 in the order that I did them. But, that's more story material. I would say that this game is about 70-80% text reading and 20-30% escapes (the gameplay portion). DON'T LET THIS STOP YOU FROM GETTING THE GAME THOUGH. You'll see what I mean later. Let's move on.

Addictiveness: 10/10 Oh man, this game is one addictive sucker! Seriously, this is the most addictive and life-consuming game I have ever played. I couldn't stop thinking about it! Let me reiterate: I COULD NOT STOP THINKING ABOUT THIS GAME. I know I'm using caps a lot, but that's just how good this game is! I lost so much sleep over this game that I had to bring it to school several times so I could play it in my free periods and figure out what happens! It does a better job than even the best adventure-action books of immersing you into an environment. If you've ever had this feeling with a book, you know what I'm talking about.

Story: 10/10 With the story, we have another perfect score. With all honesty, if I could give this game an 11/10 for story, I would, simply because it's fantastic. Yes, it's better than Mother 3's storyline, making it the best game story wise that I have ever played, ever. Just in case you want to play the game knowing NOTHING about the storyline, I'm going to put my synopsis in spoilers here. I promise, I'm not going to actually spoil anything, so you can read it if you're the kind of person who reads the backs of books before you start. This is pretty much the info that you'll get from reading the back and in the first 10 minutes of playing the game:

999's basic story as of the first 10 minutes

There are 9 people trapped on a sinking ship. The water is rising, and within 9 hours, the entire ship will be submerged, killing all 9 of them. Junpei (you) is one of the contestants, with the others bearing code-names. Each of which has a bracelet with a number spanning from 1-9, with Junpei being #5. There are also 9 Doors hidden about the ship with numbers on them. There is a door for each number from 1-9, with the 9th door being the exit. Using the digital roots of your bracelets, you (Junpei) must escape with as many other people as possible and uncover who abducted you and for what purpose, while at the same time trying to prevent war and savagery from breaking out among the fellow contestants...

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And that's all that can be said. Wonderful. WONDERFUL. It's so amazing.

Music: 9/10 Like any good game, 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors does a fantastic job of using music to support the mood of the game. Because this game has an enormous fear factor to it, despite there being little to no jump scares, calls for very intense and ominous music. Some tracks I cannot post because their names contain spoilers, but just listen to this one extremely scary song that plays whenever you see something that makes your blood curdle. It's probably my favorite song in the game because of how much it scared me the first time I heard it. The other songs at the end of the game are outstanding, but I can't post them. Sorry!

Trepidation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6ZBoqbupyc

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Character Design: 10/10 And yet another perfect score! Are you guys getting the sense for how outstanding this game is?! I really can't talk about the characters very much for this reason; not much is known in the beginning of the game about them (most of their real names are mysteries, after all), and trying to piece together the puzzle of why you're all doing this "Nonary Game", as it is called, is quite the challenge. It'll hurt your brain trying to come up with all sorts of theories about who did what and what everyone's individual intentions are. The characters are all loaded with personality, and you get attached to them quickly... which isn't exactly the best thing to do in some circumstances, as you might guess!

Humor: 9/10 Here's a good question: why is this game so funny? Here's my answer: I have no idea! But it is! And it's awesome! Layton finds difficulty bringing comic relief in his cartoony world where no-one's life is really in immediate danger for 98% of the two games that I've played. So why, then, are 9 people trapped on a ship fighting for their lives cracking so many jokes that it makes me rofl?! I mean, this game says "Excuuuuuuuuse me, Princess"! How awesome is that?! There are all kinds of sexual innuendos and popular culture references in this game that it's incredibly funny. Like Mother 3, even when the situation is as stressful as can be, someone's always there to make you laugh. And that's awesome.

Difficulty: 4/10 This game... really isn't that bad. The puzzles are all possible and fairly simple until the end of the game. Slow was guiding me (and doing a great job of it too, thanks!) through it and showing me walkthroughs when needed, but it really isn't that hard to figure stuff out if you don't want to use one for potential spoiler reasons. Finding the "true" ending and not getting ending 1, 2, 3, or 4 instead can be challenging as there are many conditions that you need to fulfill, but overall, how can a game mostly about plot be too hard?

Other Memorable Features: There's not really much else to say! The puzzles involve the usage of things like music, Morse code, chemistry (<3!), math, hexadecimal, and much more. There are plenty of escape rooms in the game, probably like 15 or so? I didn't really count. You have to do about like 4-5 per ending for the first four and then a few extra are only in the 5th and "true" ending.

Overall: 10/10 This is the best game I've played in years. It's in my top 5 favorite games of all time, and I need a freaking 3DS.

[SlowPokemon]

Blueflower, this review is wonderful. Also it's very careful about spoilers which is a great thing. I agree with you about pretty much everything you said. It's just a great game, there isn't much else to be said.

Anyone who considers plot an important element in video games, this game is not even an option. It's a requirement.

I am so looking forward to you getting Zero Escape Volume 2. I think that Virtue's Last Reward is my favorite game on the 3DS, even over Professor Layton and Luigi's Mansion. It's simply that good.

Also, for readers, what Blue said is so true: you'll lose sleep over this game, whether it's because you can't put it down long enough to go to sleep or because you're lying awake thinking about it.

[MaestroUGC]

I don't like how you're copying my Review titles.

Score: 6/No

[blueflower999]

End of school year review special!

Mega Man 9:

Gameplay: 9/10 I've discussed it before. 8-bit Mega Man. And yet, this game improves on the formula even more than 2 did. The controls are smooth, and EVERY SINGLE WEAPON in this game is incredibly useful. Every Mega Man game I've played to date has weapon that you only really use during the boss that's weak to it, or even not at all. (I'm looking at you Bomb Man, and Sheep Man) Not this game. It's amazing how amazing the weapons are. Concrete Man's weapon is probably the least useful, but it does have potential, I just don't find myself needing to use it. (It can create temporary platforms) The Jewel Satellite is by far the best shield weapon I've had in the series so far. It decimates pretty much everything it touches, which actually makes it somewhat useful! Hornet Man's weapon is freaking amazing. Ever have an item fall out of reach on the screen? Just fire a Hornet and it'll bring it right to you! Galaxy's weapon is genius: it literally creates a black hole that sucks in everything around it, items included. Plug Man's weapon is similar to Bubble Man's, but it travels so fast and is so powerful that it's actually pretty useful! Tornado Man's destroys everything on the screen, so obviously that's handy. Magma Man's fires 3 blasts at one time, which is incredibly handy on this annoying boss in Hornet Man's stage. Finally, Splash Woman's weapon makes enemies with shields, such as Sniper Joes, look like jokes because it cuts right through it. It has the power of the Metal Blade from Mega Man 2, but it's not cheap. Rush is in this game in the forms of Jet and Coil, but that was added in Mega Man 3, so give your praise to that. You can also use Screws to buy items from a store, similarly to Mega Man 10. This can be INCREDIBLY helpful because it pretty much insures that with enough Screw grinding you can always beat the level. (And yes, I just used two sexual terms in a row. Deal with it.)

Addictiveness: 9/10 This game is sooooo difficult, yet you just have to beat it because it's so much fun. The powers are, like I mentioned above, so amazing that it's difficult to not mess around with them. Because this game has a save feature rather than a password, you won't have to enter something every time, which is so much better. Besides that, though, it is just has hard as an NES game is, so be prepared!

Story: 4/10

Spoiler

DR. WILY'S THE BAD GUY

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In all seriousness, this game takes itself seriously in no way, shape, or form. The opening cinematic is so intentionally corny that you can tell Capcom knows that it's bad! It's so bad, that it's AWESOME, and that's why it's not entirely cliche.

Music: 10/10 Best music in the Mega Man series as of yet and tied for Super Mario Galaxy for my favorite Wii soundtrack. Seriously, just listen to this.

Jewel Man's Theme

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Plug Man's Theme

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Tornado Man's Theme

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Magma Man's Theme

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Hornet Man's Theme <3

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Splash Woman's Theme

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Concrete Man's Theme

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Galaxy Man's Theme

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Wily Machine Theme

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Character Design: 8/10 Like I said above, the Robot Masters in this game are phenomenal. While some like Magma Man and Splash Woman aren't too original (besides the fact that we now have a female Robot Master!), they be unoriginal in a goofy and corny way that makes me love all of them regardless. Personally, I like Splash Woman better than every other aquatic Robot Master I've seen so far, and the same would go for most of them. Outside of Robot Masters, it's the same old Mega Man, Roll, Dr. Wily, Dr. Light, Rush, Beat, Auto, etc.

Humor: 7/10 This game is actually fairly funny because of how cheesy it is. Seriously, watch the opening cutscene and tell me that's not hilariously bad!

Difficulty: 10/10 OH MAN, this is where it's at! You thought Mega Man 1 and 2 were hard? HA! This game is AMAZINGLY HARD. If you're not used to NES game difficulty like I am, don't even bother. This game goes out of its way to make things nearly impossible to beat without trial and error over and over. Every single stage in this game requires loads of practice, and this is why you absolutely need a save feature! The Wily stage is just too difficult for me to even both with, so I don't think I'll ever beat it. By far the most difficult Wii game I've played, but also among the best.

Other Memorable Features: There's some Downloadable Content, but I haven't really looked into it yet. You can also have like a billion save files, which is handy, I suppose. But anyone crazy enough to beat this game that many times must have too much time to waste!

Overall: 9.6/10 Best Mega Man game I've played to date, and from what I can tell by watching videos, this will probably remain my favorite Mega Man. Just don't expect it to be even remotely close to simple to beat.

[Yugi]

I'm honestly going to disagree with you on the Bubble Lead being useless.

• Useful for defeating Heat Man.
• And the final boss.
• And for detecting the fake floor traps in Wily Stage 4.
• And defeating Robbids
• And Springers
• And for defeating most enemies generally below you.

Truth be told, the Bubble Lead isn't a terrible weapon. It just suffers from the same issues that most of the weapons in MM 2 do: whatever it can do, the Metal Blade can usually do better.

[blueflower999]

I agree that it's good against Heat Man and the final boss, but like I said, if it's not used outside of boss battles, I don't consider it a good weapon. Using it in Wily Stage 4 is the only other time I've ever used it. Taking out Robbids is a lot easier with the Metal Blade, and Springers are easy as heck if you use the Quick Boomerang.

[Bubbles]

apparently just reading the word "bubble" really draws my attention

[blueflower999]

Just for clarification purposes, I'm going to make a list of all the games that I've reviewed so far in order of best-to-worst, with best being at the top:

• Mother 3
• EarthBound
• Pikmin 2
• Zero Escape 1: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors
• Age of Mythology
• Super Mario Galaxy
• Pikmin 1
• Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box
• Mega Man 9
• Nintendo Land
• Mega Man 2
• Professor Layton and the Curious Village
• Mega Man 1
• Pokemon Diamond/Pearl
• Portal 2
• Kirby's Epic Yarn
• Super Mario World
• Contra
• Balloon Fight
• Super Mario Kart
• The Legend of Zelda
• Super Mario Land
• Kirby's Dream Land
• Mega Man 10
• Mario Party DS
• Ten-Yard Fight

[MaestroUGC]

Wow, you put an RTS at your number five spot, that's impressive. I should dust off my copy and give AoM another whirl.

[blueflower999]

I also put an RTS at the number 3 spot and the number 7 spot. I love me a good RTS.

That's not to say that the list above is of my top 26 games of all time, oh no. There are still plenty of games that I need to review. One or more of which may or may not be an RTS. *Hint hint*

[MaestroUGC]

I too love me a good RTS. I didn't even notice you had Pikmin 1 and 2 up there as well.

[Yugi]

Blueflower, do you and popo live in the same area?

[blueflower999]

I do not see the relevance of this question. 

[Yugi]

I was going to make popo kidnap you and make you play the Wandar that is Shadow of the Colossus.

[blueflower999]

I would rather die slowly and painfully.