Showing posts with label Sin and Punishment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sin and Punishment. Show all posts
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Sin and Punishment: Successor of the Skies – Wii
Already out in Europe and due out in the USA on 27 June, and no doubt covered in US mags by now, I thought I’d share my early Euro views on this stunning gem from Treasure. (also, check out that awesome reversible cover art).
Despite owning the cartridge I wasn’t able to play the original Sin and Punishment on the N64 until it was released on the Wii’s virtual console. When I did it was an incredible experience, reinforcing my belief that Treasure is one of the best developers in the industry, with an incredibly precise understanding of good game mechanics.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago, when I saw a UK advert for the release of Sin and Punishment: Successor of the Skies on Wii, where for a rare change Europe received something nearly two months before the USA (well, there’s also Disaster and Another Code R – but it’s not a common occurrence).
Being a proper, old-fashioned shooter, mixing on-rails with 2D hori gameplay (think the original Starfox meets Forgotten Worlds), a lot of people on forums have commented on wanting to wait for a price drop. Personally I traded in some games to buy it at full price and show support for such a maligned genre – games like Uncharted 2 and Modern Warfare, with their slick production values and 60+ hours of gameplay, receive more than enough first-week sales, and it’s sad to think that this, which is technically very accomplished, is likely to be overlooked not just because of the hardware it’s on but also its genre.
NARRATIVE
The story is basically: alien Girl with a tail (Kachi) is hounded by flying Bad Dudes (elite human soldiers called the Nebulox), while being protected by unnaturally powerful Boy (Isa – formerly a Nebulox henchman sent to kill Kachi). Throughout there are several semi-romantic interludes between Girl and Boy, which are interrupted by the Bad Dudes, whereupon Boy promptly saves Girl, until eventually Girl ends up inside Boy... Wait a minute, that doesn’t sound quite right.
My manual was in French so I lost all the backstory, but it’s set some time after S&P on the N64, with Isa being the adult version of the boy you protect on the New York subway train in stage 3-3’s 10-years-in-the-future-flash-forward, who turns out to be Airan and Saki’s child. Kachi in the Wii version doesn’t seem to be directly related to either Kachua or Achi from the first game – though presumably is a similar alien entity to Achi. Who knows?!
Stylistically and thematically the game is extremely reminiscent of the Panzer Dragoon series – and not just because of the on-rails comparisons. Taking place on Earth IV, the world is described as having been ruined by mankind, and is now roamed by synthetic creatures which act as the planet’s immune system, wiping out perceived threats. Stage 1 is a decayed city infested with swarms of flying creatures, and crab-like animals scuttling over buildings amidst human survivors. Stage 2’s underwater tunnels meanwhile are strongly reminiscent of the Ruins of Uru, Stage 4 is like Zwei’s forest stage, while Stage 5 has you flying over a desert highway battling mutated creatures. Stage 6 actually seems like a homage to the Lava Stage in Konami’s Axelay – which might or might not be a cute reference to the two companies’ former connections.
I’ve often read people saying that with a shooter story is unimportant – but I don’t like this view. Although the story doesn’t impact the gameplay mechanics, which has always been Treasure’s strong-point, the company has also always done very enjoyable videogame stories. Take the Love Love Dancing scene from Gunstar Heroes, or the silliness of Dynamite Headdy’s theatrical stages, or the complexity of Radiant Silvergun’s time-travel shenanigans. These are always cool. Although never essential, a Treasure game just wouldn’t be a Treasure game without a funky story (which is why I absolutely hated Bangai-O Spirits).
MECHANICS
Move character, move cursor, jump, shoot, charge attack, melee, dodge and manual lock-on – these are your controls. You’re able to control either Isa or Kachi, which alters the cut-scenes ever-so-slightly. Isa has a powerful charge shot, while Kachi has an auto-lock which proves more hindrance than help, and instead of a splash-damage charge shot can manually lock on to multiple enemies by charging. Both can dodge, which renders them immune to enemy fire, and both can melee attack which cancels out most enemy projectiles and rebounds several of them in the direction of your cursor.
At the time I thought the N64 iteration’s controls were sublimely intuitive, but after clocking the sequel the original seems clunky and barely playable. You can use either the Wiimote/Nunchuck, Classic Controller, Gamecube pad, or Wii Zapper. The Wiimote allows for some very fast and precise cursor control, since it acts like a lightgun, but I also found that some bosses benefited from using the GC pad (my preferred control method throughout). The game allows you to switch between them mid-game, though, which is awesome.
What I love about this game is that it’s not just pure into-the-screen shooting, and like many Treasure games mixes in other genres. In several stages the game switches to a side-on-view with you able to fire in 360 degrees, as well as into the background, giving it the feel of old scrolling shmup Forgotten Worlds. Other stages directly copy Senko no Ronde/Psychic Force’s floaty melee combat, while one later boss suddenly turns into a 2D Street Fighter-esque beat-em-up with you handcuffed to your opponent.
In many instances there’s a beautiful dynamic between aiming and shooting at background elements, while at the same time dodging and melee attacking enemies in the foreground. Needing to concentrate on two separate planes of gameplay keeps the gameplay intense, and it’s tremendously satisfying when you hit the zone, dodging, rebounding missiles and tearing stuff up with a massive score multiplier and not a lick of damage on you.
There are 6 stages, but each is very long with several checkpoints and, assuming you play a perfect game, offer several hours of content. Though if you like the genre you should expect and enjoy replaying stages. Different difficulty levels alter various aspects of a stage – for example in Stage 3’s floating factory, you have to manually shoot the mechanical laser barrier at the halfway mark on normal difficulty, in order to protect yourself, whereas on easy it moves on its own.
Normally when playing a shmup I view it as being either a score attack game, aiming for the biggest number as quickly as possible, or one of survival as you attempt to 1CC it. I normally ere towards the latter, even if means I end up with a very low score, which is probably a cognitive throwback to wanting my arcade money to last as long as possible. I had a bit of a score competition with a guy on a forum who clocked 84 million before dying on stage 4, and I was rather pleased to get 94 million by Stage 6. After someone told me they’d got 270 million by that same section, I decided to forgo score-attacks and return to my 1CC attempt.
There are opportunities for some really insane scoring through. Each time you hit an enemy your score multiplier goes up, seemingly slowing down after 10x, but with so much background fodder it’s easy to quickly hit 10x and then not too long after 16x (my highest, on stage 2). The trick is not getting hit, since this knocks it way down. But if you can finish a stage unscathed, you’re looking at potentially much higher than 30+ million (my highest was about 27 mill on stage 2).
Several sections in Sin and Punishment 2 are extremely reminiscent of Panzer Dragoon. Stage 2's underwater tunnel for example, reminds me of PDS' Ruins of Uru areas.Another cool thing is the medallion system. Doing certain things on different difficulty levels will reward you with a medal worth 200k (normal). For example, shooting the stage 1 boss in the face with a full charge at the outset will net you a medal. The points though are only given if you get the medal and survive the stage, and the score isn’t affected by the multiplier, so it’s mainly for personal satisfaction, but it makes for a lot of fun trying to uncover.
CONCLUSION
There are infinite continues from the outset (making it easier than the original). Using one resets your score and takes you back to a previous checkpoint, which forces you to improve your skill at that section before being allowed to move on – which, according to one forumite’s comments, is better than Gradius V’s system of rewarding continues for prolonged play, which then act as invincibility and allow progress regardless of skill. Even so, you can credit feed Sin and Punishment and see the ending in a few hours.
For many this will incline them towards that price-reduced purchase – but if you like classical shooters, or Treasure games in general, it’s essential to experience and worth supporting. Personally I have so many games to play through, I don’t mind that I can practice and totally rinse it in a week of playing. It’s fun, challenging, and filled some really incredible set-pieces which you’ll want to replay. My favourite was Stage 5’s desert bike-ride, which sees you hurtling along at high-speed, passing explosive gas canisters by the roadside. The trick was to frantically attack nearby enemies while waiting for precisely the right moment to fire a single shot at the canisters, thereby taking out an entire swarm of fodder and boosting your multiplier.The final boss disappointed slightly, turning into Fantavision, and the ending typically leaves things unanswered, but I still want to go back and clock it again. Sin and Punishment: Successor of the Skies is a triumphant hardcore hurrah for a system which is dead to the people who would appreciate it. A PSN/XBLA port is unlikely, but if it happened, I’d buy it again.
For further reading, let me recommend Tim Roger’s ActionButton review, which I think is one of the best things he’s written and full of panache. Also, check out this video interview with the extremely talented people who made the game. In a world where development teams are in the hundreds, I love how they proudly claim to have started on S&P with only 4 members of staff.To finish off, I’m going to quote pieces of Roger’s text which, as he aptly put it, should really be on the American release’s back-of-the-box.
“. . . a veritable monster pancake stack of delicious, sticky frictions.”
“. . . the crunchiest, stickiest, most frictive game we’ve played in ages.”
“. . . graphical effects so freaky you’ll forget you aren’t wearing 3D glasses.”
“. . . the most fun we’ve had with our Wii since the News Channel.”
“It took Treasure to make a Treasure game.”
“Nothing short of masterpiecely.”
“. . . the “Sin” is breathing, and the “Punishment” is death by gunshot wound to the head-equivalent.”
“You are a guy with a gun.”
“The shit in this game gets way too real way too quickly. Get over yourself, and use the fucking Wii remote.”
“ABS: Always Be Shooting.”
“Brilliant”.
“. . . pulls no punches . . .”
“. . . the scariest kind of straight-ahead run-and-gun shooter. . .”
“. . . the most teeth-grinding type of perfectionist boss parade. . .”
“big set-pieces . . . hearty, chunky, soup-that-eats-like-a-meal progression.”
“We love this game.”
“Huge Fun.”
“A pretty great game.”
“Very real, and not at all tenuous.”
“A desperate struggle of two dumb kids with laser guns against all manner of supernatural freakbeasts or bad-science robots.”
“Probably the first foundation building block of the Monument of Games to Come.”
“A bizarre, virtuosic, mishmash-collision of great ideas and terrifying filth, to be later lauded as a turning point in the creative development of some great figure to come.”
“. . . the crunchiest, stickiest, most frictive game we’ve played in ages.”
“. . . graphical effects so freaky you’ll forget you aren’t wearing 3D glasses.”
“. . . the most fun we’ve had with our Wii since the News Channel.”
“It took Treasure to make a Treasure game.”
“Nothing short of masterpiecely.”
“. . . the “Sin” is breathing, and the “Punishment” is death by gunshot wound to the head-equivalent.”
“You are a guy with a gun.”
“The shit in this game gets way too real way too quickly. Get over yourself, and use the fucking Wii remote.”
“ABS: Always Be Shooting.”
“Brilliant”.
“. . . pulls no punches . . .”
“. . . the scariest kind of straight-ahead run-and-gun shooter. . .”
“. . . the most teeth-grinding type of perfectionist boss parade. . .”
“big set-pieces . . . hearty, chunky, soup-that-eats-like-a-meal progression.”
“We love this game.”
“Huge Fun.”
“A pretty great game.”
“Very real, and not at all tenuous.”
“A desperate struggle of two dumb kids with laser guns against all manner of supernatural freakbeasts or bad-science robots.”
“Probably the first foundation building block of the Monument of Games to Come.”
“A bizarre, virtuosic, mishmash-collision of great ideas and terrifying filth, to be later lauded as a turning point in the creative development of some great figure to come.”
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Purgatory Kabuki – can’t give it away!
Quite a while ago Treasure artist Yasushi Suzuki created a manga called Purgatory Kabuki – rather than being the perfect cross-over between videogames and manga that people dream about, it was awful. So awful, I couldn’t even give it away. For free!
(This blog entry comes with bonus IT Crowd script)
Author: Yasushi Suzuki
ISBN 13: 978-1-59796-070-0
Date Published: 12/27/2007
Format: paperback / B&W
Number of pages: 144
Rating: 13+
Price: $9.95
.
.
.
I recently moved house, and with that I sold off, gave away and threw out most of my surplus clutter – so all the manga I didn’t intend to read again, all the anime I disliked, and the majority of my Dreamcast CD-Rs (man, did I really burn a copy of Memories Off?). Most things sold except for Purgatory Kabuki. I then offered it to a games journalist friend who loves Treasure games and had happily accepted a poster for Gunstar Heroes – signed by the Treasure team – which I’d given him previously (which I’d actually had to rescue from the dustbin of my ex-boss, who’d received the signed posters for use as competition prizes and then simply chucked them out). But even he didn’t want Purgatory Kabuki.
The sad thing is, it is one of the worst manga/graphic novels/comics I have ever read.
Since late 2006 I’d been following its production in Halverson’s PLAY magazine (which, I should add, I think is now on the verge of bankruptcy, seeing as myself and several other European subscribers haven’t received the last 3 issues, plus a whole bunch of other things I’m not at liberty to divulge – but trust me, I’ve seen several publisher bankruptcies in my life, I know the signs. You read it here first!).
Anyway, Purgatory Kabuki was released in America and then proved stupidly difficult to get in the UK due to delayed release dates and suppliers running out. No one seemed to have heard of it anywhere, with only PLAY in America championing it. Not even NEO Magazine covered it, despite the Treasure/videogame/manga crossover connection. Not even my local ‘comic book guy’ had heard of it. This highlights an endemic failure in the media to publicise things, much like Agarest. Even if it is awful, it sets a historical precedent.
So anyway, eventually Waterstones orders it from a different supplier and I pay my £6.99 and wait for it to arrive.
So I get a call one day and go in the following morning. Well, the woman who actually handed it to me was one of the most attractive, intelligent sounding, bubbly, nubile strawberry-blondes I’ve ever seen in my life. All wise smiles and bosom. Geeky guy getting served by a young maiden, buying a manga graphic novel... Sorry, comic book. And suddenly I feel like I'm in the episode of the IT crowd.
I can just imagine myself as Moss...
Moss: You’ll never guess what Roy!
Roy: Oh, hello der Moss. What is it?
Moss: I was speaking to such a lovely young woman this morning!
Roy: Oh really?
Moss: Yes! We spoke about this, and we spoke about that, and she asked how things were, and she was smiling the whole time I made light conversation, Roy!
Roy: Oh, so did you ask her out then?
Moss: No Roy, I was buying the first print volume of the new Purgatory Kabuki graphic novel, by Treasure artist Yasushi Suzuki, who worked on hardcore titles like Ikaruga. Man, those were some great games, weren't they Roy?
Roy: Yes, dey were. I really liked Sin & Punishment which I bought on import, I bet she didn't even know that, huh Moss?
Moss: No Roy, she certainly did not know about Sin & Punishment, or who Yasushi Suzuki is, or Treasure.
Roy: So, did she continue speaking to you after you'd bought the comic?
Moss: It's a graphic novel book, Roy. And no, I quickly left the establishment and then ran off. But I think we had a real connection there.
***
Anyway, I finally had Volume 1.
And, like I said, it was shit.
I'm not a massive manga fan, since apart from Welcome to the NHK and Genshiken I can’t actually find anything that’s to my taste. Well, maybe Nausicaa, but I digress. I bought Purgatory Kabuki solely because of the videogame crossover and the fact that it’s by the main artist from Treasure. It HAD to be good, plus PLAY raved about it.
Unfortunately, it might be the worst manga EVER made.
There were only two colour pages at the start, despite the quality of monochrome shading making it look as if the whole comic was created in colour then converted to black and white – meaning you lose a lot of detail.
Worse still, it comes across as a piece of work created by someone who has no understanding of the comic medium, or even literature in general. Large panels are used almost exclusively for posing shots, while kinetic fights are displayed in tiny postage stamp squares, making it impossible to work out what’s going on. Worse still, there are several instances of panels taking up both pages, with the key details (as in main characters), being lost in the book’s gutter – this is a schoolboy error. Plus you’re left with panels displaying only empty scenery.
There’s also very little text. Which is no bad thing, I once read a fantastic graphic novel which had nearly no text whatsoever (it was about a lone wanderer venturing into a city of rats to find his lost wife, in some post-apocalyptic future – titled “The City”, it was by James Herbert). But in Purgatory Kabuki this lack of text makes things even more confusing, because the story is an incoherent, poorly written mess; a veritable rotting whale on the beach of narratives.
The story, of what I can understand, is absolute nonsense. Some guy with no name kills demons and takes their swords, until he kills a headless demon, and a child demon comes out of its belly, cuts his arm off, and then makes a deal with the nameless guy. Kill a thousand demons and take their swords, and I'll give you a new body with a working army. He accepts and is suddenly given a name. It's tough working out the rest, since it's like trying to read text fragments through a bowl of shredded wheat.
I didn’t look into buying subsequent volumes. And while I couldn't give away the first volume, I couldn't bring myself to throw it away either. So I've kept it, on my shelf, as a reminder to in future be more careful about what I buy.
Sad too, since I thought we were on to a winner, and I don’t want to criticise Yasushi Suzuki. His artwork is fantastic. The man is an extremely gifted artist, with a diverse range of styles, able to work in various mediums, and his artwork deserves nothing but praise. His other book, The Art of Yasushi Suzuki, in contrast is a fantastic coffee table read since it focuses on what he’s good at: art.
Purgatory Kabuki stands as an example where being skilled in one thing doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be good in related fields.
Insert Credit had a fascinating interview with him, as did the publisher, DRMBooks. Apparently Suzuki-san wanted to make a game based on Purgatory Kabuki.
On a related note, someone else also raised the question pertaining to another videogame artist who attempted to branch out into manga: Anyone know what's become of Junya Inoue’s (Joker Jun, Cave’s artist) manga? It was supposedly translated into English.
After getting burned on Purgatory Kabuki I’m hesitant to investigate further. Taken from Amazon:
Otogi Matsuri 1: Dark Offering
A demon thirsty for human blood, a young girl who can see supernatural beings and a boy who inadvertently promises his future to the god of the south—all combine to give Otogi Matsuri the speed and power of a runaway bullet train. From the first appearance of the bone-crunching "cat-spider" monster, Inoue gives notice that this adventure story is deadly serious. Its teenage heroes are enmeshed in a realm that has it in for any puny humans who get in the way of its gods and demons. Luckily for plucky high school boy protagonist Yousuke Suruga, he's been unwittingly armed with the bow of Suzaku, a weapon with phoenix-like powers. Together with Ryuuichi Ezo, who's similarly armed with the spear of Seiryuu, and Yomogi Inaga, armed with otherworldly vision, he's able to take on the cat-spider and, later, a horde of monstrous dragonflies controlled by a gigantic eyeball—leading to some amusing absurdist dialogue such as "I saw a big eyeball going down the street!" Eventually, the demons are defeated and order is restored, but tantalizing loose ends have been left dangling for the next instalment, making for a good, juicy adventure with evocative graphics and great promise for part two.
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