Shadow of the Colossus (PS2) Retro Review

Since we saw a release of a Shadow of the Colossus Remaster earlier this year, I thought it would be fun to go back and do a review of the original game on the PS2.  Shadow of the Colossus has been hailed as a masterpiece and I will concede that it is a masterpiece, but it is a flawed masterpiece.  Saying this might get all the fanboys after me with their torches but this is my opinion and they can get over it.

The story of Shadow of the Colossus is told in a rather minimalist fashion.  You, the Wanderer, are led by an unknown being on a quest to slay colossi in an effort to perform a ritual to bring a girl back to life.  Beyond that, it is up to you to piece together the story from the bits and pieces that you learn over the course of the game.  I personally like games that utilize minimalistic story telling because it encourages the player to use their imagination to fill in the blanks which creates a bit more personalized experience.

Graphically, this game was awesome for its time.  The environments, while a bit empty and devoid of life, matched the setting perfectly and were a rather breathtaking view to take in.  The character models themselves, from everything from the Wanderer to Agro and even the colossi themselves, are well designed with the tiniest details taken into consideration in their creation.

For the most part, the game performs admirably but there are times when, in some of the battles with the colossi, that there were some framerate drops.  Due to the size of the environments and the detail when it comes to the colossi models, I can’t say that I am surprised given the limitations of the technology back when it was released.

Musically, the game is a bit minimalist as well, choosing only to use music when it is the most effective in setting the mood for the fights as they are about to begin.  The rest of the sound in the game is fairly high quality as well, though the calls for Agro, the Wanderers horse, and the grunts in the battles can get a bit repetitive.

The gameplay is where this game both shines and fails at the same time.  I say that it shines because the intricate designs of the colossi themselves creates clever puzzles that the player must figure out in order to take down their massive prey and that was one of the things that brought me the most joy.  I also said that it fails as well because of the horribly clunky controls for the Wanderer.  The Wanderer controls about like a greased watermelon and you can never tell if he is actually going to follow the commands that you input into the controller.  On top of that, sometimes the hitboxes are off so that you miss that ledge that you clearly should have grabbed or you die when you clearly weren’t close enough to get smashed by your prey.

All in all, Shadow of the Colossus is a wonderful game that is a work of art but it has a few deeply flawed issues that can, at times, be close to game breaking.  That said, I love this game just as I loved Ico before it and I look forward to one day playing the remaster if I can find a good enough deal on it.

(The scores take the standards of the games at the time of release into consideration as opposed to today’s standards)

Graphics – 10

Performance – 8

Sound – 10

Gameplay – 6

Story – 8

Replayability – 8

Total – 8.3 out of 10

- Arylin Michelle

Final Fantasy VIII Retro Review

For those who don’t know, next year is the 20^th anniversary of the release of Final Fantasy VIII and, just like with the hopes of a remaster of Xenogears, fans of this series is hoping for a remaster to come out on next-gen systems, much in the way that Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy IX, Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy XII have.

Final Fantasy XIII is a rather unique game in the franchises’ history due to the heavy focus on the love story between the main protagonist Squall, and Rinoa, debatably the most important female protagonist in the game.  The game tackles themes about love, time travel, multiple dimensions, and the manipulation of the past to change the present.  There are also hints of memory manipulation within the main story and over all there, are heavy Sci-Fi elements that help to build and flush the Final Fantasy VIII world out, creating a rich universe that I personally think would be interesting to explore further.

The graphics during the gameplay portions of the game suffer by today’s standards considering the game uses 3D character models on a 2D pre-rendered background as did its predecessor and successor.  By the standards of 1999, though, graphically this game was a powerhouse considering it was on the PSX and by incorporating CGI cut scenes that DO stand up to today’s standards into the game, Squaresoft (now SquareEnix) set an incredibly high standard for its competitors to meet.  Performance wise, the game excels, with only a few moments of slowdown and stuttering in a couple of scenes where Squaresoft was experimenting with incorporation their CGI cut scenes into the standard gameplay portions of the game.

The musical score, just as it has been in all Final Fantasy titles, is absolutely beautiful and is integral in pulling the player into the story and the events that are happening at that time.  The score is so memorable that, after having played the game once, most people can picture their time in the game that corresponds with the piece that they are listening and still feel the same emotions as what they felt the first time around.

Gameplay in Final Fantasy VIII is, as has been the standard of the series, tight and well thought out with the exception being the combat.  Combat is, in my opinion, the dark stain on this particular title.  The standard combat is perfectly fine in the way that is works, the issue comes in when you get your Guardian Forces, or GFs if you will, because once you get them (one in particular) leveled up a little bit, it is possible to go the rest of the game with minimal amounts of combat.  Because of this (and the fact that the enemies scale to your character’s levels) I was able to progress to the end of the game and defeat the final boss while maintaining a level around 20, which is incredibly low, by just repeatedly summoning my GFs into battle, making sure my characters were never in too much danger.  One of the places that the gameplay does shine though, is in the Junction System.  This system allows the player to junction magic to the characters’ stats, providing all kind of benefits, which makes for some really interesting combinations.

(The scores take the standards of the games at the time of release into consideration as opposed to today’s standards)

Graphics – 10

Performance – 8

Sound – 10

Gameplay – 7

Story – 10

Replayability – 10

Total – 9.2 out of 10

- Arylin Michelle

Xenogears Retro Review

With this year being the 20^th anniversary of the release of Xenogears on the PSX, I figured it would be a good time to take a look back on it as fans of the game hope for a remastered version for next gen systems.  Xenogears was, and still is, called one of the best RPGs of all time, with its number one competitors in the console world being Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI, both of which came out on the SNES system in 1995 and 1994 respectively.  It tackled religious and Freudian themes with its narration, creating a very thought provoking experience. 

The story centers around protagonist, Fei Fong Wong, an amnesiac young man who was left in a remote village three years prior to the events of the game.  When a battle using giant mechs called Gears erupts between two waring nations and threatens to destroy the village, Fei climbs into an abandoned Gear.  In his attempt to defend the village, Fei accidentally destroys instead and is ostracized by the surviving villagers.  This event is what sets the whole story into motion.  Over its course, Fei is introduced to an interesting blend of characters that join him on his quest.  Each character is extremely well developed and experiences growth over the course of the story and that is a very good thing considering the amount of two dimensional characters in today’s games.

Graphically, by today’s standards, the game suffers but at the time the game came out, they were pretty good, if a bit cartoony.  I believe that is this game were made today, it would probably have been made utilizing cell shading technology which was not available in 1998.  The game world itself is 3D, unlike the Final Fantasy of the time which were 3D sprites on 2D backgrounds, so there are occasionally clipping issues as well as a couple of areas where the environment obscures sections of the screen but, considering the time the game was made, these were very minor inconveniences.

The performance of the game was phenomenal, I never experienced any crashes or freezes, and only got a slight stutter in the frame rate in a couple of area. 

The music and sound were all top notch for its time and even holds up to today’s standards.

As good as the music and the graphics were, the gameplay is where this game really shined.  The environmental movement of your characters was smooth, with a good range of motion and easy to control for the jumping portions of the game.  The combat was an interesting blend of active time and turn based combat that incorporated martial arts move sets which allowed for the creation of powerful combos.  The combat was easy to pick up and learn but took time to really master. 

All in all, I would say that even by today’s standards, Xenogears is still a contender for the top spot as the number one RPG of all time and with this year being the 20^th anniversary, who knows, maybe a HD remaster (and hopefully not a remake that will screw it up like what is currently happening to Final Fantasy VII) is on its way for a new generation of gamer to experience this masterpiece.

(The scores take the standards of the games at the time of release into consideration as opposed to today’s standards)

Graphics – 9

Performance – 9

Sound – 10

Gameplay – 10

Story – 10

Replayability – 9

Total – 9.5 out of 10

- Arylin Michelle