Wolfgg
05-07-2010, 09:26 PM
I can handle playing a bad game and the following title has its severe issues, I am talking about Majesco Games "Kengo Legend of the Nine"
For those of you unfamiliar with Kengo let me tell you a little about the games single & multiplayer, first you play through the games story mode, consisting of 9 missions for each of the 9 samurai, you gain exp to put towards additional combat abilities and a 2 to 3 points you can assign that will increase you characters attack, defense and stamina.
sounds cool right, rpg elements, building a character, but whats this? a box at the end of each level titled "AI Traits" is present, and based on your performance in each level you will see traits fill in, they are supposed to be based on your actions in each level, the game determines what type of attacks you used and assigns an AI trait.
Example,say im fighting a boss at the end of level 1 and getting my ass handed to me, but an opening is found to pin the enemy down and perform an execution,I won, my reward for the near death survival is a trait called "Pushes back from Edge" which we can assume means overtaking an enemy from the edge of death, but is this just a title? Why does it say AI Trait, typically AI refers to the computer, im certainly not a computer, and it gives me no benefit through the rest of the story, obviously I want to survive taking minimal damage, which means im not going to try to find a lucky break intentionally to take damage, survive, and pull out the "Pushes back from the Edge" title ive been assigned as an AI trait
Well, the game has been completed, i've got my character with these weird AI traits and to this day no one has been able to decipher what most of them mean or what it takes to unlock some of the more difficult traits that lead to achievements, its often based on pure chance.(their use will be explained shortly)
the game is short but hey I can take my character into "Xbox Live Nationwide Contest Mode" and challenge other players to fight, granted the game against the computer was lackluster but fighting against 2 players should have some appeal,I hope other people play this game.
before entering a match I am not given the option of selecting Player Match or Ranked Match(this is common in games with an online multiplayer element), it turns out all matches are ranked, which is fine with me I suppose. I quickly notice that the list of AI Traits is present on this screen too, how odd...
Lets see what happens when I select match, BOOM "AN OPPONENT HAS BEEN FOUND" Wow that was fast, it didn't search at all, I see a versus screen and it asks if I am ready to battle I can see my opponent has readied up so I hit A to engage in combat, lets see who the victor is.
well, immediately I find that I have no control over my character, I can't move, attack, block, parry or do anything. You are probably starting to piece this together, the reason I found an opponent to battle so quickly is because they registered a character in the online mode at some point, the game records this and uses that saved character as an opponent for future players, the original creator of that character doesn't even have to be online.
This is where the AI traits come into the picture, since I cant control the character at all, his actions are entirely based on moves I used in the main game, most of the enemies in the game don't block or parry, so if you just button mash through the game your character will do the same online, and the AI traits play some type of role, perhaps my "pushes back from the edge" improves my characters ability to attack at the brink of death.
The bottom line is if someone else plays through the game focusing only on parrying and stunning you into objects they can easily perform executions, so while my character is swinging away at an opponent that is blocking attacks all they(the computer controlled opponent) must do is wait for a predictable swing and parry, push me into a wall and perform an execution the game is over, I am easily defeated.
This actually adds strategy to the game which is one area I commend it on, the AI attempt to replicate your play-style from the the main game is far from perfect, but this means you have to find a balance between attacking, blocking, parrying and engaging the opponent in a grapple, similar to WCW NWO Revenge on the N64, an opponent that blocks is open to a grapple which is the same as parrying except the person initiating the grapple has control of throwing the enemy into the wall to perform their own execution.
This is very difficult, imagine trying to customize a character that can react as close to lifelike as possible, during the 9 stages its not just a matter of changing play styles, such as blocking and parrying on stage 1, all out attack on stage 2, going for the grapple on stage 3, their is an unknown factor and balance you MUST strike so that your AI counterpart will use the appropriate abilities online, if the game determines you leaned heavily into just One playstyle, your screwed. because as the proverbial "Scissors" as soon as you meet "Rock" your toast.
After playing through the game many times, I finally got a character I was satisfied with, he would grapple a blocking enemy, block incoming attacks and parry their attacks. I found myself moving up the leaderboards opponents became harder and for a online game that I had no control over their were many "Edge of the Seat" moments that make you feel involved, even though your simply a bystander.
Let's talk about the achievements in the game, mainly the later ones, their are 10 achievements for winning a set number of battles while being at or above a particular spot on the leaderboard. They are named "Dan 1 - Dan 10". Dan 1, simply requires beating a single character one time, but as you move up and get closer to "Dan 10", it gets much more complicated. For instance, in Dan 9(the highest I have currently reached), you must win 50 online matches while maintaining a rank in the top 5% of all players. Pretty tough, but with the right character I described above it was a accomplishment in and of itself to see a character I had crafted so meticulously overcoming this challenge and reaching that spot on the leader board.
Now "Dan 10" is where the game says, "no more screwing around, your character better be built to near perfection if you want a shot at this one". You must win 100 battles while maintaining a rank in the top 1%, by my calculation that would mean reaching a rank on the leader board of 75-80(since their are 7,500-8,000 recorded players), and players at that level become truly challenging.
But that's enough about that, lets move on to my frustration with Majesco Games, after all that's what this topic is about. I failed to mention that when entering an online battle the game saves itself a ridiculous amount of times, and it always asks if your "OK" with it saving, so thats alot of jamming on the A button, what are they thinking, if I select to battle online obviously saving is a requirement, if I say No I simply cant play, so why require a confirmation of this... theirs also one of those redundant screens that cautions plug pulling the 360 or shutting off if you think you will lose, it still counts against your stats, but you have to view this every single time, if I have seen this screen once and understand that shutting the system off wont save me from a loss of rank, why do I have to hit A before EVERY fight to acknowledge that I am again "OK" with this.
Another thing is, why should I have to hit A to ready up and start the fight when I reach the screen that displays my character and the opponent, am I supposed to be able to back out with the B button if the opposing samurai looks too "uber" and go back to the main menu, NO! you can't do this, short of shutting down the 360 system once you reach this screen you are forced to battle, so why must I hit "A" to confirm that I will battle this opponent. this game begs for a turbo controller, for a game that automates itself during gameplay online, their sure is alot of tedious menu navigation requring player input to just start a battle.
But that is the least of my worries, last night May 6th 2010, after winning an online match that would place me at around 120 in the leaderboard ranking, I am exited to the menu i've seen countless times before, but this time it reads "Failed to record match results, Do you wish to continue". I selected No and it just kept popping up again, as soon as I selected Yes I was shocked by what I saw.
The game went into every nook and cranny and deleted not only my online progress of the leaderboard, but the character I was playing, the 14 other characters I had taken through story mode(more than 9 since some were across multiple difficulties), and anything else it could get its grubby hands on. It was reset to the point as though I was putting the game in for the first time. All because one match could not be recorded, if it couldnt record that match why not just void it and allow me to continue with other matches.
Lets look at the offline progress I have lost, another achievement requires that you beat the game with all characters, but not just once, you have to beat the game with all characters at all difficulty levels and their are 3, lets do a bit of math, if their are 9 samurai with 9 missions each that makes 81 missions to clear that would mean that I have 9 samurai that can be marked as completed on easy difficulty with normal and hard to go. From the start of the game your looking at 27 playthroughs with a total endcount of 243 missions cleared if you want this achievement, and thats what I am looking at now since I have been handed by Majesco a blank slate to start from scratch.
(more to say, but reaching limit on allowable text in a post)/endrant/
For those of you unfamiliar with Kengo let me tell you a little about the games single & multiplayer, first you play through the games story mode, consisting of 9 missions for each of the 9 samurai, you gain exp to put towards additional combat abilities and a 2 to 3 points you can assign that will increase you characters attack, defense and stamina.
sounds cool right, rpg elements, building a character, but whats this? a box at the end of each level titled "AI Traits" is present, and based on your performance in each level you will see traits fill in, they are supposed to be based on your actions in each level, the game determines what type of attacks you used and assigns an AI trait.
Example,say im fighting a boss at the end of level 1 and getting my ass handed to me, but an opening is found to pin the enemy down and perform an execution,I won, my reward for the near death survival is a trait called "Pushes back from Edge" which we can assume means overtaking an enemy from the edge of death, but is this just a title? Why does it say AI Trait, typically AI refers to the computer, im certainly not a computer, and it gives me no benefit through the rest of the story, obviously I want to survive taking minimal damage, which means im not going to try to find a lucky break intentionally to take damage, survive, and pull out the "Pushes back from the Edge" title ive been assigned as an AI trait
Well, the game has been completed, i've got my character with these weird AI traits and to this day no one has been able to decipher what most of them mean or what it takes to unlock some of the more difficult traits that lead to achievements, its often based on pure chance.(their use will be explained shortly)
the game is short but hey I can take my character into "Xbox Live Nationwide Contest Mode" and challenge other players to fight, granted the game against the computer was lackluster but fighting against 2 players should have some appeal,I hope other people play this game.
before entering a match I am not given the option of selecting Player Match or Ranked Match(this is common in games with an online multiplayer element), it turns out all matches are ranked, which is fine with me I suppose. I quickly notice that the list of AI Traits is present on this screen too, how odd...
Lets see what happens when I select match, BOOM "AN OPPONENT HAS BEEN FOUND" Wow that was fast, it didn't search at all, I see a versus screen and it asks if I am ready to battle I can see my opponent has readied up so I hit A to engage in combat, lets see who the victor is.
well, immediately I find that I have no control over my character, I can't move, attack, block, parry or do anything. You are probably starting to piece this together, the reason I found an opponent to battle so quickly is because they registered a character in the online mode at some point, the game records this and uses that saved character as an opponent for future players, the original creator of that character doesn't even have to be online.
This is where the AI traits come into the picture, since I cant control the character at all, his actions are entirely based on moves I used in the main game, most of the enemies in the game don't block or parry, so if you just button mash through the game your character will do the same online, and the AI traits play some type of role, perhaps my "pushes back from the edge" improves my characters ability to attack at the brink of death.
The bottom line is if someone else plays through the game focusing only on parrying and stunning you into objects they can easily perform executions, so while my character is swinging away at an opponent that is blocking attacks all they(the computer controlled opponent) must do is wait for a predictable swing and parry, push me into a wall and perform an execution the game is over, I am easily defeated.
This actually adds strategy to the game which is one area I commend it on, the AI attempt to replicate your play-style from the the main game is far from perfect, but this means you have to find a balance between attacking, blocking, parrying and engaging the opponent in a grapple, similar to WCW NWO Revenge on the N64, an opponent that blocks is open to a grapple which is the same as parrying except the person initiating the grapple has control of throwing the enemy into the wall to perform their own execution.
This is very difficult, imagine trying to customize a character that can react as close to lifelike as possible, during the 9 stages its not just a matter of changing play styles, such as blocking and parrying on stage 1, all out attack on stage 2, going for the grapple on stage 3, their is an unknown factor and balance you MUST strike so that your AI counterpart will use the appropriate abilities online, if the game determines you leaned heavily into just One playstyle, your screwed. because as the proverbial "Scissors" as soon as you meet "Rock" your toast.
After playing through the game many times, I finally got a character I was satisfied with, he would grapple a blocking enemy, block incoming attacks and parry their attacks. I found myself moving up the leaderboards opponents became harder and for a online game that I had no control over their were many "Edge of the Seat" moments that make you feel involved, even though your simply a bystander.
Let's talk about the achievements in the game, mainly the later ones, their are 10 achievements for winning a set number of battles while being at or above a particular spot on the leaderboard. They are named "Dan 1 - Dan 10". Dan 1, simply requires beating a single character one time, but as you move up and get closer to "Dan 10", it gets much more complicated. For instance, in Dan 9(the highest I have currently reached), you must win 50 online matches while maintaining a rank in the top 5% of all players. Pretty tough, but with the right character I described above it was a accomplishment in and of itself to see a character I had crafted so meticulously overcoming this challenge and reaching that spot on the leader board.
Now "Dan 10" is where the game says, "no more screwing around, your character better be built to near perfection if you want a shot at this one". You must win 100 battles while maintaining a rank in the top 1%, by my calculation that would mean reaching a rank on the leader board of 75-80(since their are 7,500-8,000 recorded players), and players at that level become truly challenging.
But that's enough about that, lets move on to my frustration with Majesco Games, after all that's what this topic is about. I failed to mention that when entering an online battle the game saves itself a ridiculous amount of times, and it always asks if your "OK" with it saving, so thats alot of jamming on the A button, what are they thinking, if I select to battle online obviously saving is a requirement, if I say No I simply cant play, so why require a confirmation of this... theirs also one of those redundant screens that cautions plug pulling the 360 or shutting off if you think you will lose, it still counts against your stats, but you have to view this every single time, if I have seen this screen once and understand that shutting the system off wont save me from a loss of rank, why do I have to hit A before EVERY fight to acknowledge that I am again "OK" with this.
Another thing is, why should I have to hit A to ready up and start the fight when I reach the screen that displays my character and the opponent, am I supposed to be able to back out with the B button if the opposing samurai looks too "uber" and go back to the main menu, NO! you can't do this, short of shutting down the 360 system once you reach this screen you are forced to battle, so why must I hit "A" to confirm that I will battle this opponent. this game begs for a turbo controller, for a game that automates itself during gameplay online, their sure is alot of tedious menu navigation requring player input to just start a battle.
But that is the least of my worries, last night May 6th 2010, after winning an online match that would place me at around 120 in the leaderboard ranking, I am exited to the menu i've seen countless times before, but this time it reads "Failed to record match results, Do you wish to continue". I selected No and it just kept popping up again, as soon as I selected Yes I was shocked by what I saw.
The game went into every nook and cranny and deleted not only my online progress of the leaderboard, but the character I was playing, the 14 other characters I had taken through story mode(more than 9 since some were across multiple difficulties), and anything else it could get its grubby hands on. It was reset to the point as though I was putting the game in for the first time. All because one match could not be recorded, if it couldnt record that match why not just void it and allow me to continue with other matches.
Lets look at the offline progress I have lost, another achievement requires that you beat the game with all characters, but not just once, you have to beat the game with all characters at all difficulty levels and their are 3, lets do a bit of math, if their are 9 samurai with 9 missions each that makes 81 missions to clear that would mean that I have 9 samurai that can be marked as completed on easy difficulty with normal and hard to go. From the start of the game your looking at 27 playthroughs with a total endcount of 243 missions cleared if you want this achievement, and thats what I am looking at now since I have been handed by Majesco a blank slate to start from scratch.
(more to say, but reaching limit on allowable text in a post)/endrant/