Previously on The Final Fantasy XIII-2 Diaries!

Noel, a boy from the future has to get main character Serah, Lightning’s younger sister, to Valhalla via time warp gates! A moogle with a fat head named Mog accompanies them! The Paradigm Shift battle system from Final Fantasy XIII returns with a few tweaks, random encounters with weak monsters happen, and I’m pleasantly surprised by just about everything so far!

Still not sure how QTEs are supposed to improve the game, but maybe we’ll find out today.

After I load up my save file I’m treated to a… oh, what do you know? It’s a “Previously on Final Fantasy XIII-2!” montage complete with TV-style flashcuts and voice clips of a few scenes I’ve seen before. I always appreciate recaps like this, it’s nice to see XIII-2 do it a brief, fun manner.

After a long load time I’m back in. Looks like Gogmagog is back and he brought grating metal music with him. The music in this game’s pretty weird. It fluctuates between great and not so great at the drop of a chapeau. I dispatch Gogmagog easily then look in the menu for HARD mode. Yes, in Final Fantasy XIII-2 you can toggle between NORMAL and EASY mode whenever you like, but there’s no HARD mode! I wish Square had gone to The World Ends With You for inspiration when it comes to difficulty. In that game you can switch difficulty at any time between Easy, Normal, Hard and Ultimate, though I think Hard and Ultimate modes have to be unlocked. If Hard Mode turns out to be DLC of all things I’m calling an open season on moogles.

Thank god there's no Dubstep de Chocobo. Yet.

After Gogmagog, I come across the game’s first chocobo! I actually shake my fists with glee in a goofy manner. Oh, gosh. I didn’t mean to do that. It was an automatic response, like a reflex. Anyway, I need Gysahl Greens to ride this bad boy… do I have any? What luck! A treasure sphere with gysahl greens inside. I remember I took on a sidequest to find a missing medkit at the village, so I hop on the chocobo and ride back expecting that (in)famous CRAZY CHOCOBO metal music. I’m treated to a light nimble version of the trademark chocobo tune instead. It kind of sounds like Sonic CD music, so I must like it.

I’m surprised I can take the big bird into the village. NPCs are impressed by it. They all go “He’s a grand one! He’s huge! Wow, a chocobo!” I know, I know, peasant NPCs. Hands off, now. I can even go in the house with it! What a different game this is than FFXIII. Then I realize, this being a time travel game and all, the medkit is probably in another time or something. Having used one gysahl green already, I tread back to the gate to continue my quest to Valhalla.

Once I get to the gate some dopey conversation with the NORA jerks occurs. Turns out they all did heartwarming stuff for Serah without her knowing. How sweet. I could do without this anime-lite stuff — oh look I can see Lebreau’s panties — but hey. The voice acting’s great, I just wish the writing was a lot better.

Speaking of voice acting, Noel’s far and away the best one of the lot. A lot of actors make pauses and chew on their lines, but all of Noel’s dialogue has a good clip to it. Though a lot of the stuff he says can be super-serious or solemn he never goes in that obvious direction.

OK, let’s enter the gate! Noel and Serah appear in the HISTORIA CRUX, what I assume is now the game’s main hub.

I just talked about how much I like Noel, but how does he know all this stuff about time gates and the Historia Crux? Did Lightning tell him?

Gaspar, Melchior, Balthazar... and Noel. ...Wait a minute!

OK, looks like the Historia Crux is an interface that allows backtracking to previous areas. Shame it’s got such goofy music playing in the background. A lot of these songs would be better without the vocals. The singer’s just yelling “TIME AND SPACE TIME AND SPACE…!” Oh cool, I can enter the Historia Crux from the PAUSE menu? Now that’s nice.

K, let’s go to Bresha Ruins. Oh hey, it’s the area from the demo! Atlas, a big giant that’s in some weird time-distorted semi-invisible state, attacks. “Guess that arm doesn’t wanna shake hands!” Noel snarks. That boy’s all right.

Here the game introduces Wounding Attacks that reduce maximum HP. Wounds cannot be healed by normal potions. Gonna need Wound Potions for that. OK, so this is where the game gets difficult right?

There’s more weird battle music with Engrish vocals… gahhh.

I wonder why Atlas’ stagger bar isn’t going up even though I’m going all-out Ravager on him. Crap, I forgot to use all those Crystarium Points from the last boss fight, I’m probably underleveled. Oh right, it doesn’t matter, this is a QTE battle. I really hope all big boss battles aren’t like this. The cavalry comes in, I press Triangle a bunch of times, we win. I get a Cinematic Bonus item: Silver Gear. Could it be some kind of monster dress-up material?

After the fight, Serah and Noel end up in jail! Full disclosure: That last sentence was almost “Sorah ends up in jail!” Could Noel and Serah, combined, be Sora from Kingdom Hearts? Time travel, distorted dimensions, other worlds — it could make sense. About as much sense as the rest of the Kingdom Hearts canon. Maybe they’re Sora’s Heartless/Nobody/Unknown/Gall Bladder.

OK, more Live Trigger stuff. I get a chance to be a jerk to a prison guard and I take it.

Then a Samus Aran from Other M type shows up. Dr. Hotpants trips over her own feet, gets us out of jail with a lot of smooth-talkin’, then I’m free to walk around. Turns out Samus/Dr. Hotpants is named Alyssa and she runs away even though she’s my objective. That’s cool, I can just like… explore and stuff. Like an RPG! I expand my Crystarium, learn some spells, open the Synergist and Saboteur roles… This game’s coming together OK.

At this point I take a break to let my PS3 cool down some… Sony products, y’know?

I like my women the same way I like my coffee: covered in bright red feathers.

I turn the game on again and there’s UPDATE DATA?! Ooh! I let the game update and DLC is accessible now! Except… there’s nothing to download yet. Huh. Back to the main game.

I explore Bresha, find some treasure spheres, and talk to some NPCs. I appreciate the details in the game, but these guys are just repeating stuff I already know. And lot of them repeat stuff I’ve heard before… hrm. No side quests yet. CHOCOLINA appears and oh man, her voice… it’s peppy all right. I buy some items and new weapons from the bird woman and bid adieu to her chirpy enthusiasm. Best thing about her: all the inevitable cosplaying.

I talk to Alyssa. Noel gets tricksy with her and convinces her fighting Atlas is a good idea. As if that wasn’t the only option! I venture forth and the MONSTER CATCHING part of the game gets introduced! Catching them is as easy as defeating them it seems. I can then slot them in as the third party member. Cait Sith (don’t expect a Final Fantasy VII cameo) becomes my medic while… some other mechanical doodad becomes my new Ravager.

The game lays a lot of  new tutorial stuff on me that all goes into the DATALOG in the main menu. The Datalog is a lot like the one from XIII and it has the same glaring fault: there’s still no Mark All as Read option for all the new unread entries. If I want to get rid of all those glaring exclamation points I have to access each unread entry individually. I guess after researching all those Western RPGs to see how they can fix Final Fantasy they missed this one little thing. It’s little, yeah, it but sure is convenient.

May I, uh, show you to your table, sir?

Besides that though, the game’s coming together much faster than XIII. Only a few hours in and there’s already so much to do.

As I go through the ruins, digging the music all the way (no vocals!), I come across Chester the soldier who gives me a sidequest to defeat a C’ieth monster. The C’ieth are humans who got turned into monsters by the Fal’cie, the gods of Cocoon Lightning and the gang defeated in the previous game. The more you know. Yup, this is the demo we all played not too long ago. Mog can now uncover hidden treasure chests using his little bobble thing. NPCs are talkity and have opinions about things. Personality and world-building appears to be back.

I get through the dungeon, kill the C’eith, get another side quest to find experimental drugs (?!) and catch more monsters. This is… this is almost like a game! I can dress up my new monster companions with items I find, like that Silver Gear I got before. I put a newsboy cap on a monster and it covers his entire head. This… is adorable.

After a few more Live Trigger events and battles I get to a thing that’s supposed to help me defeat Atlas. I access it and it warps me to some other plane of existence where I have to solve a simple puzzle by walking on panels. I have the option to retry it if I mess up, or to quit altogether. I solve it because 1.) it’s simple and b.) I get a reward.

Solving the puzzle weakens Atlas somehow, so I go beat him up and almost have a tough time doing it because of all the wounding damage he inflicts. More QTE nonsense occurs and I still wonder what will happen if I fail them. I should find out the next time.

With Atlas defeated, Alyssa shows up and some sappy story stuff takes place. It’s not awful as I expect, it’s actually kind of depressing when you think about it. I notice the cutscene direction is far, far better this time around with actual blocking in the frame, gestures the characters make and camera movement beyond Having It Sit There.

Final Fantasy, there’s hope for you yet!

Final Fantasy XIII-2 ($59.99, Amazon) is out for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. With this sequel, Square Enix set out to right the wrongs of the previous game, namely tunnel vision level design, off-kilter pacing, and a lack of player immediacy. But this new one promises to be a different beast. Let’s find out together if that’s true. Instead of playing, finishing the game and then posting my final review I will chronicle my time with it. This will be different from my typical reviews. The format will be looser, a bit more free-form. It should be fun! So let’s dive in.

The game opens immediately, without a need to install anything. Thank goodness. More and more it seems console games resemble PC games, in that they require some ridiculous lengthy pre-install. Not XIII-2. It’s starting up all quick-like!

So, the opening cutscene. Director Motomu Toriyama’s name shows up and I cringe a bit. The 3rd Birthday, in which he had a large hand, was a harrowing experience. Some things are tough to shake off. And this game involves time travel, too, so my guard is up. Way up.

Okay, we see a dude putting a girl, presumably dead, into water. Shades of Final Fantasy VII here. The same dude also has the Soulcalibur apparently. His big sword has a big eye in it, I mean, what else could it be?

Theme Song: CHARICE. I don’t think this is the original theme song. The last game’s theme was replaced with “My Hands” by Leona Lewis. I don’t think it really fit what was going on in the game (not that I could explicitly tell what was going on in the game), and it was full of cheese. I don’t know why Square felt the need to switch out the better theme song for something else. They didn’t do that for “Melodies of Life” or “Suteki da ne”, right? I dunno, maybe it’s a licensing thing. And hey, I’m passing judgment on a song I didn’t even hear yet. Maybe it’s great!

OK, that was a neat intro. Full of oohs and aahs and all that anti-gravity goodness from Advent Children.

Oh, all right. We’re at the title screen. Pretty!

Try and make sense of this!

Hey, a Beginner’s Primer. It details what happened previously on Final Fantasy XIII! Maybe the story will make sense this time. Hm. Actually, this primer brings back fond memories of my early moments of the game. The beginning of the game was really good! We were thrown right into the action alongside characters with interesting motivations, primarily Lightning and Hope. There was great music in the Gapra Whitewood…

By Chapter 6 of this primer — about halfway through the game — I’m reminded just how little story there is stretched across FFXIII. It turned out to be a very poorly paced game. And Sazh’s threatened suicide was pretty silly. Oh, Jihl! That Baroness from G.I. Joe-looking girl was a wasted character. Nope, this primer didn’t help me. Things happened in that story, well, just because.

Time to start a new game. It detects my save data from FF XIII! It says there will be new extras and new goodies to find in-game. I wonder what they are?

WHOA. Autosave!? Save ANYWHERE? This is indeed a new and exciting universe.

Here’s the actual intro. Oh. It’s the same thing I watched before, only with dialogue. Guess I could’ve skipped that earlier intro movie. The SoulCalibur-swingin’ dude casts Meteor! Cool! He’s named Caius! And he TRANSFORMS! Whooaa. I’m grinning like an idiot now. And finally playing! I skip the tutorial and go into battle. It’s basic stuff, nothing complicated. I just Auto-battle and mash X until I win. I notice the great music and raise the volume.

Quick Time Events pop up and I roll my eyes a bit. They’re easy to pull off. I wonder what happens if I fail to do any, but I go through with them anyway. I miss the last one on purpose, but nothing seems to change, I still win. The characters’ acrobatics are very reminiscent of Advent Children.

A question we often come across in life: Melee or Gun?

Another battle in the air and again, it’s easy-peasy. It’s the very beginning of the game, so it gets a pass. There’s more cool-looking story stuff, but I have no idea who’s what or what’s going on. I know Lightning obviously, she’s there in Valhalla looking a lot like Lenneth from the Valkyrie Profile games: armor, feathers, exposed thighs and all. We meet Noel suddenly and Mog the moogle, who Lightning just kind of pulls out of nowhere. I like the contrast between super-serious Lightning and super-deformed cutesy Mog.

Lightning gives Noel his mission: take Mog, find Serah, bring her to Valhalla. Nice and simple. Noel’s a good sport and he takes the moogle and his mission and doesn’t ask any questions. Then a METEOR strikes! You want a FF7 remake? You got it right here!

More story stuff. We meet Serah and a few of those NORA losers from the last game. And I explore the first Final Fantasy town in HD. The seaside location’s pretty, and I really like the crystallized Cocoon in the distance, but exploring this first town is a bit underwhelming. Serah can jump, but she can’t jump anywhere cool even though there are plenty of spots that look jumpable. Houses? Can’t go in them except one! I wanna look around and explore! At least there are NPCs here. They’re very talkative and the voice acting’s pretty good so far. The music is fantastic so far. Granted I only heard maybe three or four tracks.

Eventually I get to fighting bad guys. It feels good. The battle system is very similar to Final Fantasy XIII except random encounters are back. Monsters just pop out of nowhere and then the Mog Clock counts down from green to yellow to red. Bash the bad guy while it’s green, you get boosts like Haste. Bash ‘em while it’s yellow, a normal battle occurs. Red: dead. Well, no, but you get debilitated somewhat.

Choose wisely.

I like the return of random battles. It keeps me on my toes and the Mog Clock reminds me of Persona 3‘s approach to engaging battles. Hit an enemy, you get initiative. The enemy hits you and they get the upper hand. Makes sense.

And what’s this? Does the game have a sense of humor?! As I make my way through the area outside the village, Gadot, the biggest NORA doof, shows up and acts all tough around Noel because he’s not from around there. A LIVE TRIGGER pops up. It’s a little dialogue event that stops the action and asks me how I want to respond. It gives me four choices. I ask Gadot “Aren’t you the boss?” and the big galoot acts all bashful and embarrassed and runs away. Fun, silly stuff.

I get up to the first real boss, a beast named Gogmagog that kind of resembles Anima from Final Fantasy X. It’s another easy victory. So far all battles have been. But hey. Beginning of the game.

So far, I’m liking Noel. He seems like a reasonable lad even though he’s from a bleak future. He’s not whining about anything and he’s all about business. I like how focused he is and he’s not brusque either. Serah, so far, has done little to annoy me. I approve of her new role as main character. It’s nice to have a leading lady who actually asks questions and seems interested in what’s going on instead of blindly following the orders of the men around her, and depending on LIVE TRIGGERS she can be as clueless or snarky as we please. She also wields a moogle that can turn into a bow-and-arrow and a sword at will. That’s cool.

Paradigms from Final Fantasy XIII return with a few tweaks. Now I can fine-tune them to target single enemies or wide swaths of them. I don’t find a reason to actually do that yet. The Crystarium returns as well, though it’s really different. Instead of a skill tree for each class — Ravager, Commander, Medic, etc. — there’s a single skill path for each character, so I can build Serah or Noel into any kind of class or mix of classes that I want. Spiffy!

That’s all for now! I’m early in and it’s a promising start. Stay tuned for the Final Fantasy XIII-2 Diaries: Part Two!

See that, Noel? That's our bridge to redemption!

Things didn’t look good for Final Fantasy XIII-2 back in E3 when I wrote the game off as kaput after a lackluster demo that showed little change since the divisive original. After spending time with the new demo at CES (also available to download on PSN and XBLA) I gotta say… I thought I was going to hate it, but I couldn’t. Goes to show, sometimes strides can be made between a demo and the final product, or uh, the second demo in this case. With the game only a couple of weeks away I think it’s safe to say it’s representative of the final game. And strides were made here. Final Fantasy XIII-2 may have potential to bring burned players back to the fold.

Here are the improvements that ought to make us believe again:

The graphics I moaned about before are drastically improved. Most likely in response to complaints that the characters look too androgynous, main character Noel has a more masculine angular face. He still wears a dress and his boots make no sense, but that’s okay, at least he got a testosterone boost. Other special effects like raindrops that slide across the screen during rainfall do a lot to build atmosphere.

Chocolina the Chocobo Chick, a traveling merchant who may be a girl dressed as a chocobo or a real half-woman half-chocobo, replaces the standard shops found in most RPGs. I appreciate the “mystery” that surrounds her, and I really appreciate the return of the traveling merchant. More games need to remind me of Neko from Secret of Mana.

NPCs now give out side-quests, and it’s not obvious which NPCs do, so it’s encouraged to talk to all of them. I was pleased to see a log of accepted quests are kept in order on the map screen.

There are now 150 monsters to collect and recruit in battle, and you can grow them with specialized items and customize them with hats and glasses and things. Even some powerful bosses can be caught and added to the party.

Downloadable content means new monsters, quests, items and who knows what else? DLC usually makes me cringe (especially when it’s for costumes already on the disc), but this is the first Final Fantasy to offer it, so it should be interesting to see how Square Enix handles the situation.

But will your STORY be broken?

The Paradox Puzzles, where you have to navigate mini-mazes, can be skipped but you won’t get the reward at the end. For impatient puzzlers, this is a good thing. Options, typically, are a good thing.

Quick Time Events during battle have been optimized to be faster and they are possible to fail. I almost missed a few myself. Enemies now give wound damage that decrease Serah’s and Noel’s (and monsters’) maximum HP for increased difficulty. Paradigms can now be fine-tuned to hit specific enemies or wide areas of a battlefield. It seems battles now require a lot more finesse.

Chocobo racing returns and there is a sure-to-be-a-time-siphoning casino in the game. Although these two things weren’t in the demo they were in the post-demo trailer, and they look great.

There are also alternate endings and time travel plays a major part in the plot and the game. It will be possible to revisit parts of the game and actually affect change, and not only that, maps are actual environments now with various routes and areas to explore, not to mention accessories, weapons and towns — what do you know, turns out they can be made in HD! — and all that stuff you expect in RPGs come back. This is a player-driven game, not an on-the-leash “cinematic experience.”

In short, the demo hints at a ton of content and it made me hungry for more. Square Enix had a herculean task to win back all the good will lost last year. They just might do it. Find out for sure in our upcoming review and find out for yourselves on January 31st when Final Fantasy XIII-2 hits shelves for PS3 and Xbox 360.

Gigantorrrrr

Avion Foster-Jarvis, News Editor
The Final Fantasy sets the bar for RPGs, with Final Fantasy VII standing alone as the series’ groundbreaking masterpiece. Some will argue that FFVII isn’t the best, but without it where would we be? FFVII introduced us to some of the best heroes ever created (Cloud Strife, Tifa Lockheart, Vincent Valentine) and one of the best villains that has ever existed (Sephiroth). Back when multiple discs for a video game was a badge of honor, FFVII came out the door, guns blazing, with three discs.

Clearly, FFVII takes a lot of its mechanics from previous installments, but it improves on them as well. A more streamlined skill system through the use of Materia, a massive amount of summons and the return of “Desperation Attacks” which have been renamed “Limit Breaks.” FFVII was so amazing that its characters made cameos in several other video games (including the ever-popular Kingdom Hearts franchise) and some even went to spawn video games of their own (Vincent in Dirge of Cerebus). In fact, FFVII was so good that Square took the characters from the video game world to the film world with the critically acclaimed movie Final Fantasy: Advent Children. Final Fantasy VII is hands down the best RPG ever; how could it not be when it’s is known as “the game that sold the PlayStation”?

Neranjan Bisson, Features Editor
My favorite RPG of all time is Final Fantasy Tactics. FF Tactics is a brilliant game that brought even casual gamers into the world of tactical role-playing. FF Tactics plays and feels like a game of chess with its Shakespearean story that involved the church, friendship, class war, and political strife.

One of the things that appealed to me about FF Tactics was its character class system which in a way can actually be utilized as a tool for learning delegation skills in ones real life. Bringing an army of Ninjas and Wizards that you developed on to the battlefield has a great level of satisfaction. FF Tactics is one of the games from the golden era of Square and was Yasumi Matsuno’s first game at the company. The quality game play offered with FF Tactics has lasted till this day and has been one of my favorite games on the go in both its PSP and iOS versions. A brilliant game that led me to my interest in the history of warfare, FF Tactics will forever be my favorite RPG.

Eric Guzman, News Editor
Xenogears is easily one of the most influential RPGs that I’ve ever played. Yeah, I know, its not as acclaimed as Final Fantasy VII or as legendary as Chrono Trigger, but what Xenogears did with its intricate plot, was change the way I looked at science and religion. It raised questions that I would have never thought about asking at such a young age, and did it in a sophisticated fashion.

The battle system was unlike anything at the time. Mixing buttons to create combos during battle was addictive, and discovering new abilities was extremely rewarding. What made this a complete package was the shiny beautifully destructive mechs called Gears (or, as I used to call them, “bootleg Gundams”). The soundtrack is outstanding, as with any composition the main theme (featured on our best video game songs) caused a stir of emotion that is missing from many modern games. I’ll admit that the second disk of the game isn’t the greatest, but you can’t blame the team for the time constraints that were placed on them. Still, Xenogears is one of the greatest RPG’s ever made, hands down.

Alejandro K. Brown, Contributor
My pick for best RPG ever goes to the first RPG I ever beat: Phantasy Star II for the SEGA Genesis. It was not only was the first video game in my house (I had to go to friends’ houses to play the NES), but it was completely different from what I had seen up until that time. Phantasy Star II had faux 3D fields, a mix of static and motion battle sequences, a music score that changed from upbeat action to somber to fit the story, a story line that touches on quite a few social issues, and insane dungeon maps.

Yet, most shockingly for me, it was the the first time I would experience a main party character being killed without any hint, warning or lead-up to the moment. I spent time and equipment on this character. I started to care about them as I did the rest of the team, and not only were they killed off, they decided to heroically sacrifice themselves in a battle to the death to save the rest of the team. To an impressionable kid amazed by video games, this was simultaneously awe-inspiring and devastating.

Tim Torres, Lead Reviewer
Chrono Trigger. Is it such a surprise? It’s the brilliant RPG from the masterminds of Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest at the height of their game. It’s got the best character designs Dragon Ball artist Akira Toriyama has ever done. It continually pelts you with fresh scenery, new characters, and brilliant compositions from composer Yasunori Mitsuda at every turn. It introduced the New Game + feature that lets you revisit the adventure with all your stats, weapons and items from your first way through.

There are numerous branching paths and choices to make: How you assemble your specialized party members to when you defeat the final boss. Yet it remains an uncomplicated, lighthearted adventure about time travel and you can find everything it offers in just about 30 hours, a fraction of the time most other over-bloated RPGs take to complete. I can rattle off what makes Chrono Trigger great in my sleep. I think I have.

If you want to see what the big deal is I recommend the Virtual Console version on the Wii. It’s a perfect emulation of the original SNES version. The next best bet is the pricier version for the DS though it has superfluous anime cutscenes and an awful extra dungeon with a new ending that needlessly complicates things. Whatever you do, avoid the PSN version — load times and slowdown abounds. It breaks the game. It’s supposed to be breezy and fun. Think it’s too cliche? Well, Chrono Trigger gave birth to a good many of them. It’s one of the first games to get every single thing about it right. And it’s still the best.

Bug and glitches continue to plague Skyrim, with Playstation 3 owners facing the worst of them. Players that have logged large amount of time into the game are experiencing game-breaking lag. It seems like the lag is associated with large save files. The current issues have lead many experts with know how on the PS3′s hardware to say that these issues might not be fixable.You see this isn’t the case of a backward flying dragon, or enemies falling through the game world, both of which are tolerable. This is the case of gamers which are also customers, that are not able to play the game at an enjoyable level due to a bug that should have been spotted and corrected.

This issues are also turning fans to point a finger at Bethesda, and accusations and rumblings from gamers all over the net have many believing that Bethesda knew about the issue, and simply ignored it. I don’t want to believe the latter to be true, as Bethesda has always been one of the “good guys” in the industry that really care about its games and the experience users have, but at this point the accusations don’t seem unbelievable.

I reviewed Skyrim a few weeks ago, but was only able to review the Xbox 360 copy. And from all the ramblings, it seems like the game breaking bugs aren’t widespread on the Xbox 360 and PC. I selected Skyrim as my game of the year, but with all the major issues that have arisen I almost wish I hadn’t given it such an excellent honor.

As of now Patch 1.2 has fixed some of the day one bugs, but have created others, like the aforementioned backwards flying dragon. And it seems like Bethesda does have plans to try and correct the problems that PS3 owners are having; its blog has been updated to discuss these problems, but is this all to late?

Let us know in the comments section if you have ran into game breaking bugs, or any other while adventuring.

Dragons!

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim ($59.99, Amazon) is Bethesda Studios return to the expansive world of Tamriel. Your Dovahkinn’s path is a long, grueling, weary, and beautiful one as Bethesda has crafted a majestic world where anything and everything is possible. You can be a leather-crafting Wood Elve, or an Orc that possesses natural physical prowess. The point that I’m trying to make is that character creation and exploration are damn near endless, and each experience is incredibly different from the next. It is only once in a console’s lifetime that we get to witness a game of such large and grand proportions.

Although it’s not quite an Oblivion sequel,  Skyrim’s events occur 200 years after the previous game. Dragons are roaming the world and reigning destruction on the innocent and no one really knows why. But it is up to you, the last of the Dragonborn, to repel the mighty beasts.

Skyrim is the most impressive looking title that Bethesda has ever created. A revamped user interface makes it easier to navigate your inventory.  Bethesda has taken the time to make each item unique and detailed; going into your inventory and zooming in on some of these items will astonish. One of the greatest visual improvements comes to the character animations; the days of stiff running and awkward looking characters are long gone. Battle animations have also been improved and the new killing blows that look both brutal and make you feel like a mighty warrior.  The lists of improvements from previous Bethesda titles are too numerous to list, but what’s here is truly a polished game with precise attention to detail.

Incredible environments.

Skyrim wouldn’t be an Elder Scrolls game without extreme character creation. Players can choose from one of 10 different races. You choose to be a Altmer (magic using High Elves), a disease resistant lizard like Argonian, a nature-respecting Bosmer (Wood Elve), or magic-using humans known as the Breton. If you fancy black magic (but also want to be balanced and use different weapons) then the Dunmer (Dark Elves) are for you. The Imperial are diplomatic humans that favor two-handed melee weapons, which is the complete opposite of the cat-like Khajiit ,which tend to sneak around, and take enemies out before they even know what hit them.  Nords are hardy humans that are indigenous to Skyrim and tend to be resistant to the cold and versed in close range combat. If you want to be feared on the battlefield and also be considered an excellent craftsman, then the Orc is for you. But if you want to stand tall and make your enemies shake at their knees, the Reguard is the ultimate warrior race, made evident by their muscular builds. In terms of balancing all the races have their benefits and negatives, there isn’t really any overpowering after the first ten levels. But during the early levels you’ll find that Redguard’s and Orc’s can take quite a bit of punishment. The character customization is also like no other, everything from frown lines, to jawbone structure can be customized to make each character unique.

From Morrowind to Skyrim. Quite the evolution.

Looking at the skies has never been so important in a game. Your perks (abilities) are all listed in the form of constellations; you gain a perk each time you level up. Each constellation has a set of status bonuses and abilities; you begin with simple things like damage percentage boosts, and the deeper you go into each constellation, the more intricate the abilities become. It is an interesting way to observe the character progression, and gives you goals to strive for in terms of your characters abilities.

The leveling system has also been revamped; series veterans may remember the days where you would have to choose a class when creating a character. The class was the direct effect of your major attributes, and only leveling your major attributes led to level progression. So, if you were a knight, only increasing your blade, block, blunt, heavy armor, or hand to hand led to gaining another level–thus restricting your play style. In Skyrim, however, every skill contributes to your characters level progression, it can be blocking, practicing alchemy, using two-handed weapons, or using conjuration magic. Each skill has its own level progression, and the higher the skill, the more it contributes to your overall level. So if your archery is level 28, increasing your archery to 29 give you more experience towards your overall level than increasing your heavy armor from 13 to 14. This gives the game a much larger variety. If you find that playing one way is lacking or getting boring, then you can switch it up and change your play style. Yes, it does require patience and time, but it’s easier then creating a new character. There are also books scattered around Skyrim that when read increase the level of certain abilities, these are great experience opportunities, and help increase the speed of character progression.

Gaze upon the heavens.

Speaking of books, Bethesda has truly created a living world filled with its own mythology. The amount of time that has gone into Skyrim is evident when you pick up one of the books you find in house and dungeons. Some of them will offer locations to quest, some will help your progression, but a lot of them are just filled with history of the world or folklore. It is truly amazing that they took the time out to create some of these stories. This also serves as a distraction within the game as you can sit down and read some of these well-written books, and lose yourself in the game’s lore.

Graphically, the game is a beauty to behold: Sunlight casts accurate shadows, and the texture and foliage pop in have been decreased to a point that you wouldn’t even notice. Forests are green lush and riddled with tress, and wildlife. Mountains can be seen from a distance, and they can all be traversed. The weather varies, too; depending on the altitude you might have light snow or a blizzard. It all looks breathtaking and helps you immerse yourself in the beautiful world. Yes, the game does have a few glitches. I’ve been stuck in objects like rocks, and trees before, I’ve fell through the game world once, but this all happened to infrequently to be a problem. And in a game of this size and proportion it is almost expected that a few bugs will exist. Bethesda states that patches are a-comin’.

Why, hello there.

Navigating your inventory, shouts, and spells is simple and instead of the abilities reel you can now assign favorites to the equipment and abilities you use most, which you can easily access by pressing up on the D-pad. Crafting plays an important role in Skyrim. Alchemy, cooking, enchanting, and smithing all return and becoming proficient in a few of these can really help your character develop and make some profit. You can also buy property in order to make money. There are many options to increase your purse; you just have to find one that suits you.

The battles are grueling no matter the enemy you should always bring your best. Thank fully, Bethesda has improved the battle system so it is easier for you to handle some of the tougher baddies you come across. You can now dual-wield weapons, have a short sword in one hand and a spell in the other (much like the plasmids in Bioshock) . And with the new animations it isn’t so bad fighting in the third person view (although I recommend first person since it’s easier to observe what’s going on). The difficulty is brutal; tougher enemies will squash you in a matter of seconds. For that reason alone I urge players to save and save often.

And so the hunt begins.

The A.I is superb. Most events encountered in the wilderness are unscripted, so you might see a traveler fighting back a pack of wolves, or guards escorting a prisoner. The world is a persistent one, so each event happens with you around or without you. As such, there are times where you might find a looted corpse laying around. NPC’s will attack common enemies so if your in battle with an enemy and a dragon rears his way towards you, don’t be surprised when your opponent turns away and or runs or joins you in the battle against the dragon. Touches like this really stand out and make the world feel like a living breathing organism.

Dungeons are now intricate pieces full of traps, puzzles, and enemies. At the end of each dungeon theirs usually a valuable item at the end of each one. Each dungeon is decorated differently, and has its own obstacles you must over come, a great change from the stale dungeons of previous titles. You can bring a one of the many companions you meet during your adventures with you, and they do make things easier for you. Luckily you can also direct them which makes having them that much more satisfying.  Finding your way around the world is also simplified, you can mark quest in your quest log, and a marker will be added to your map showing you where to travel. If that’s still too hard to follow, you can teach your character a new spell called Clairvoyance. When cast it draws a path towards your next goal, it is a bit of handholding but it can’t get simpler the that.

Your toughest battles will come against the dragons you encounter on your adventure; there are different kinds of dragons, each differing in difficulty and abilities. Defeating these beasts is essential to your character progression. When you defeat a dragon you collect its soul. These dragon souls are used to learn shouts used by dragons. Being a Dovahkinn gives you the ability to speak the ancient dragon language thus allowing you to use shouts. Some if the shouts can cause storms to rain from the skies, others can push enemies away. You an also increase the strength of each shout by learning full phrase and not just words. It’s empowering hearing your character yell out “Strun Bah Ao!” and watching a thunderstorm soon follow.

The sound effects are amazing. You  hear weapons clash during battle, grass crunches under your feet, and the wind rustles the leaves. In addition, the voice acting is phenomenal.  Bethesda has a star studded cast of voice actors consisting of like Michael Hogan, Christopher Plummer, and Lynda Carter just to toss a few out there. NPCs all have voices and each have unique lines of dialog. The soundtrack is a musical masterpiece; the opening theme is all in Dragon tongue and is accompanied by an orchestrated set of horns, and strings and drums. Traveling the world you’ll hear an assortment of melodies which each one appropriate for the situation. While strolling along a riverbed you’ll hear some of the more peaceful pieces, but during battle expect an energetic sonata.

You truly have the ability to do what ever you want. You can sneak into shopkeeper’s home and kill them in their sleep, and a family member will take their place to run the shop. You can run into a town and kill a few guards and become wanted. If you choose to you can ignore the main quest and just wander the vast world put in front of you, the choice is yours and that’s what makes this an intimate experience.

I’ve had the privilege to review many great titles this year, but The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim stands alone on a pedestal as my game of the year. Any respectable gamer owes it to them to go out and purchase a copy; this is near-perfection. This is a true achievement in gaming, and one that should be experienced by every gamer.

[How To is a recurring feature in which we demonstrate techniques designed to improve your game, and make your skill set more than a little bit awesome. This time out, we’ll help you survive the world of Lord of the Rings: War in the North.]

The Lord of the Rings: War in the North, Warner Bros. Interactive’s action-RPG recent hit store shelves, bringing a grittier take on the Tolkien’s fantasy world to the PC and home video game consoles. If you want to orc-slay with the best of ‘em, check out these tips which were provided by WBI. Have fun storming the castle!

1. Sick of that troll knocking you to the ground? Try using your rolling dodge to avoid unblockable attacks by pressing B (Xbox 360), Circle (PlayStation 3), or Spacebar (PC).

2. Did you know that skill attacks aren’t just limited to melee combat? Enter Ranged Mode to view your ranged skill attacks. Note: some ranged skill attacks can charge up to do extra damage.

3. The Lord of the Rings: War in the North is all about loot. The color of the item’s name will tell you if it’s Common (white), Uncommon (green), Rare (blue), or Epic (purple) – each with better qualities than the last.

4. Did you know Beleram can attack certain structures, like crossbow turrets or towers? Use Ranged Mode to target a structure and then call in Beleram by using a Great Feather.

5. Whichever weapon you use, landing a critical strike on an enemy initiates Hero Mode so you can gain more XP and do extra damage.

6. Missed an on-screen tutorial message? Visit the Log, and select Tutorial Messages to scroll through a list of helpful hints and tricks.

7. One of the best ways to perfect your combat skills is a Challenge Map, unlocked after Sarn Ford. Beat these challenges for extra XP.

8. There are many potions that give your character bonuses. Use Andriel’s racial ability to craft them, and then put them to use in a tight spot.

9. Want to tell your allies to defend their position, or attack a wave of enemies? Press up on the D-pad (or C on the keyboard) to tell your allies to go on the offensive, and down on the D-pad (or Z on the keyboard) to have them hold their ground.

10. Want Andriel to throw a sanctuary around you while playing solo? Move away from the fray and press down on the d-pad (so that your AI companions go into defensive mode). If there’s room from enemies, and she can break away, she’ll come to your aid.

11. Want to move an item around in your inventory? For console players, select the item in the Inventory screen, then hold the Ranged Attack button to move the item. For PC, simply left click, hold, and then drag and drop to a new inventory slot.

12. Keep an eye out for armor sets! If you equip multiple pieces of the same set, your bonuses will increase with each piece you wear.

13. Need to break the block of a tough enemy? Hold your block button then use your normal melee attack to push the enemy back forcefully, allowing you a chance to hit them.

High-flying adventure or nap-inducing tedium?

Solatorobo: Red the Hunter ($34.99, Amazon) is the kind of colorful, earnest game we don’t see often anymore. It calls back to that animated action/adventure genre from the early 90s when anthropomorphic cats and dogs and high-flying worlds with sky pirates and missile-spewing mecha were not uncommon. Think of the old Disney Afternoon cartoon TailSpin crossed with Hayao Miyazaki’s Castle in the Sky, with a healthy dose of Mega Man Legends and you’re not too far from the kind of look and vibe Solatorobo goes for. In fact, developer CyberConnect2, who also worked on Asura’s Wrath for Capcom, said they’d love to take over development on Mega Man Legends 3, which would almost be a perfect fit. Solatorobo‘s creators put a lot of heart and attention to detail in the Disney-steampunk world of Red the Hunter and that kind of attention would benefit Capcom’s belabored blue son greatly. However,  if Solatorobo is any indication, I have my doubts they could craft a compelling gameplay experience to go with all those warm fuzzy feelings.

When it comes to world-building and personality, there’s little problem. The protagonist, Red, is a welcome hero, kind and confident and eager to do the right thing, even if it means he doesn’t get paid in the end. A treasure hunter with little luck, he pilots the Dahak, a wobbly-armed mech that his sister Chocolat performs maintenance on while aboard their yellow airship, the Asmodeus. Together, they go from floating island to floating island as they take on odd jobs until they perform the one that transforms their destinies forever. Naturally. After meeting the requisite mysterious magical child character in Elh, a giant monster, an ancient prophecy and an Evil Empire soon follow. It’s by-the-books RPG stuff with nary a surprise to find in the sloth-like story. It’s a shame considering the characters almost push through the dusty old tropes due to distinctive artwork by Nobuteru Yuuki (Escaflowne, Chrono Cross) and the audio clips of cute gibberish they sometimes make, similar to the goofy chimes the inhabitants of the Legend of Zelda games make. If these cute critters were in a different story, or rather, a different game they might have enjoyed the company of better video game icons.

Instead they suffer from the gift of gab, or curse in this case, in that they say way too much without saying much of anything at all. Plot points and characterization come at a trickle, and it’s the same way for the actual game, which holds your hand like an overbearing parent at every step of the way. Tutorial after tutorial doesn’t just plague the game’s opening acts, but far after the curtain has raised as well. Each new thing you can do with Red and his Dahak, from jumping to hovering to flying to stepping on ever-ubiquitous pressure plates in dungeons, the game stops and opens the textbook for you to make sure you know what you’re doing. When it doesn’t do that, Red and Chocolat talk about how each new puzzle and enemy can be solved before the actual solving or fighting can happen, which is just baffling. Why even be a video game, Solatorobo?

Just ... just be quiet.

This kind of down-talking to the player isn’t new. As gaming continues to get more and more attention from more people — people who don’t play video games — babying and coddling the player has become a sad expectation in nearly everything now. Solatorobo will not get a pass since Red doesn’t have a whole lot to do in the first place, and the things he can do that require all this explanation are simple as hell anyway. The only way Red can attack is to grab enemies and toss them, and both those actions involve hitting the A-button. So guess what you do in every battle: mash the A-button. This might have been okay if enemies took some skill to defeat, maybe if they hit Red for a lot of damage or had some kind of pattern to discern, but no. They usually just sit there or perform one mindless move before Red chucks them across the room. It’s possible to upgrade the Dahak for higher “mobility” and “attack” and whatnot, but I never found a reason to. The game was already too easy. What’s more, there’s a “what’s next” option in the main menu to make sure you always know where you need to go or what you need to do next. This would be a very handy feature in a more robust, feature-rich game, but in Solatorobo it feels like another sign this is a game for preschoolers.

Press A to do everything.

There are lots of quests, side-quests and knick-knacks to collect like photos and music, and various other things throughout the world to find. None of that matters though if there isn’t a compelling central game to anchor it all. There isn’t one here. Button-mashing the same ability over again and trudging through page after page of repetitive dialogue isn’t how I like to spend my time gaming on the Nintendo DS or any other platform, and I can’t imagine anyone else would either despite the beautiful and nostalgic artstyle Solatorobo uses. In that regard, the game’s aesthetic is like a Siren call. Get lured in by the pretty surface, get disappointed by the shallow insides. If there’s any audience for Solatorobo it’s the very young, very inexperienced or very forgiving. But even then, for all the playing there is to do in Solatorobo it’s more akin to a Let’s Play video than a substantial video game.

Skyrim, the fifth entry in Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls series, has hit stores and with it comes a $150 Collector’s Edition for super-fans. What’s in the box, you wonder? Well, quite a bit, my RPG-loving friends. Inside you’ll find the following goodies:

• A 12-inch tall Alduin the World Eater statue that was treated in conjunction with the IP Factory
• A 200-page The Art of Skyrim’ Official Art Book
• The Making of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim DVD

2D-X News Editor Eric Guzman undresses the Skyrim Collector’s Edition one sexy item at a time. Enjoy.

P.S. If you want more 2D-X unboxing goodness, take a gander at our Uncharted 3: Collector’s Edition unboxing video. It’s Drake-alicious.