Katawa Shoujo – No Money No Problem

This is more or less the last thing I’ll be posting for a while – circumstances have changed and I won’t be focusing much on blogging anymore.  Regardless I wanted to make a review of this game for quite a while, so here it is.  Katawa Shoujo is a freeware visual novel created by independent developer Four Leaf Studios, released on January 4, 2012.  It is squarely within the dating sim genre, and has a premise that can be off-putting to some.  The protagonist is Hisao Nakai, a high school boy in Japan, who is forced to attend a high school for physically disabled children after being diagnosed with a serious medical condition.  Unless the player makes stupid choices, Hisao will enter into a relationship with one of five girls that attend the school.

The game is far more than an excuse to put the player in explicit situations with disabled girls, despite what you might think (though said explicit situations are there).  The game treats the girls and their disabilities tastefully and realistically… to a point.  Four out of the five girls the player can romance practically laugh in the face of their disabilities – you’ve got the mute student council president, armless artist and legless track star, among others.  All the girls have problems that run deeper than their physical disabilities though, many of which are barely even related to them.  Helping the girls (and the protagonist himself) work through their issues are of the same importance as romancing them.  I can go ahead and recommend Katawa Shoujo to anyone even remotely interested in visual novels right now, because it is absolutely free to download and play.  Just look it up.

The story begins in the snow, with a beautiful backdrop of snowflakes and trees.  Hisao receives a love confession from a girl in his class… it doesn’t go well.  Hisao suddenly suffers a heart attack, leading to a hospitalization and a diagnosis of cardiac dysrhythmia: a rare heart condition that causes the heart to behave erratically.  Almost any sort of physical stress or overexertion can lead to heart flutters or even a fatal heart attack, thus severely weakening Hisao.  On top of that, all of Hisao’s classmates, including the girl that confessed to him, eventually stop visiting him during his long hospitalization.  Unsurprisingly, all this causes him to become insanely cynical and bitter.  These feelings almost boil over when he’s told that he won’t be able to go back to his old school, and instead will be attending Yamaku Academy: a high school for physically disabled children (and a 24-hour nursing staff).  Despite Hisao’s grim expectations, Yamaku is exceptionally well funded and is more like a college campus than a high school.  The Yamaku campus, in fact, is based off of Brown University.

Of course, that’s far from enough to snap Hisao out of his bitterness.  It takes the forceful duo of Shizune and Misha, two girls in his class, to do that.  They introduce Hisao to Yamaku’s culture and values, and present the player with the first significant choices that will determine their fate later on.  Encounters with other students and the borderline eccentric staff of the school reveal that Yamaku is just a relatively normal high school that just happens to focus on disabled students, not a hospital that doubles as a school.  That is as far from Hisao’s (and the player’s) expectations as you can get.

As mentioned before, there are five girls that the player can pursue in Katawa Shoujo.  Shizune Hakamichi is the student council president and the representative of Hisao’s class.  She is also deaf and mute, relying on her overly loud and energetic sign language interpreter Shiina “Misha” Mikado to translate for her.  Misha doesn’t actually have a disability; she is attending Yamaku under special conditions.  There is also Shizune’s rival: class 3-2’s representative Lilly Satou.  Class 3-2 is for visually impaired students, and Lilly herself is blind completely.  Next is Hanako Ikezawa, a girl in Hisao’s class with major scarring on the right side of her body.  This doesn’t affect her too badly physically, but she suffers from debilitating social anxiety.  Emi Ibarazaki is a headstrong girl who had her legs amputated, and then preceded to become the star of Yamaku’s track team after re-learning to run on prosthetics.  Lastly is Rin Tezuka, an especially spacey girl with no arms.  Needless to say she became an extremely skilled artist using only her feet, par for the course in Katawa Shoujo.

Act 1 of the game always starts the same way, but starts to branch off shortly after Hisao arrives at Yamaku.  Nearly every choice in Act 1 gives the player invisible “points” with one of the five girls, or otherwise branches off completely into a new scene or onto a specific girl’s route entirely.  Keep in mind that some of these occur before you even meet the girl that you are earning points with.  Act 1 takes care to show plenty of each girl, their personalities and what they value, without delving too far into their inner thoughts and motivations.  An attentive player will be able to somewhat steer themselves towards the girl they want based on what they see of them, but I would recommend reading up on the five girls and choosing one to pursue before playing.  I say this because taking a neutral path (intentionally or unintentionally) can open the player up to a number of traps, also known as bad endings.  Endings where you fail to follow any girl’s route… and die.  I mean, that’s the whole point of the game, to enter a relationship.  I’d advise that you be wary of choices that seem hilarious at the time, and to JOIN THE ART CLUB if given the option.  Trust me, it makes sense in context.  Knowing which girl to pursue in advance really helps, and to keep plenty of backup saves in case that doesn’t work and you DO end up dead.

Because you haven’t chosen her route yet of course!

Considering how Hisao, the poor new guy, gets plopped down in the middle of a vicious feud between Shizune and Lilly, it makes perfect sense that much of the early game is dedicated to giving you “points” with one or the other with its choices.  On the other hand, it only takes two specific choices to lock you onto Emi’s route no matter how many points you have with either of them.  She’s the type to drag you into her world like that.  Hanako is best friends with Lilly, and not outgoing, to put it lightly.  Thus a single choice right before you are locked onto Lilly’s route will lock you onto Hanako’s instead.  If you don’t manage to get onto anyone else’s route (and avoid all the bad ends), it’s a one-way ticket to Rin’s route.  No matter which girl Hisao ends up going for, they will help Hisao (and the player) realize how narrow their mindset previously was and undergo a bit of revitalization by the time their route officially begins.  That doesn’t mean that Hisao won’t fall back into old habits, unfortunately.

Players can expect every girl’s route to shatter their expectations of character archetypes, as well as common visual novel and anime tropes.  The “spirited competitor” Shizune, “incomprehensible artist” Rin, “plucky girl” Emi, “yamato nadeshiko” Lilly and “shrinking violet” Hanako; all of them will defy and deconstruct what is expected of them from both Hisao and the genre savvy player.  Even characters without routes such as “genki girl” Misha and “conspiracy theorist” Kenji end up doing this.  All the major girls also tend to come in pairs: Lilly and Hanako are incredibly close, Shizune is basically connected at the hip to Misha, and Rin and Emi are friends (but they aren’t as close as the other two, so their routes are completely separate).  The meaning behind these pairings become very apparent as you play through each route, specifically for Lilly and Hanako.  In fact, I would strongly recommend that you play Hanako’s route before Lilly’s, as certain plot points from Hanako’s route are addressed in Lilly’s as well.

For Hisao himself, each route is as much about him overcoming his condition and truly moving on from his trauma as it is about the girls.  He’ll also find his own plans and aspirations for the future, which change depending on how each girl inspires and, to a point, rubs off on him personality-wise.  Sometimes, however, taking on aspects of a particular girl’s mindset is not a good thing for him at first.

“Can you tell me what you think?”

Shizune’s route has you finally give in to the energy of Shizune and Misha, and join the Student Council.  The good news is that you will probably avoid her bad ending (every girl’s route has a bad ending, and some also have neutral endings).  The bad news is that there is only a single choice for the player to make in the route.  Hisao certainly is not mistaken when labeling Shizune as pushy and competitive in an almost child-like manner.  Since she lacks the ability to speak, everyone else she does is excessively loud to make up for it, from her actions as the Student Council President to her exaggerated facial expressions.  And from anything she can’t express directly, she has the world’s loudest translator in Misha (not to mention the owner of the loudest hair in the game).  As a result though, her personality comes off as especially abrasive to others, and Misha tends to put her own spin on translations and leave things out at her own digression.

In Act 2 of Shizune’s route, Hisao learns sign language, becoming fluent in an insanely small amount of time.  You can’t have an entire relationship through an interpreter, right?  Hisao essentially gets to know Shizune and Misha again afterwards, this time as separate individuals.  Shizune is actually much sweeter than she lets on, but is still pretty obsessed with competition and conquests of all kinds.  Once into Act 3, Hisao (unfortunately) meets Shizune’s family.  Act 3 is quite different from any other part of the game: it’s a slice-of-life segment featuring some of the most dysfunctional characters in Katawa Shoujo.  It’s fun, but it’s not for everyone.  Especially considering the lack of player choices and potentially unlikable characters.  But don’t fret; there’s plenty of drama in Act 4.

“Can you stand up for yourself?”

Emi’s route has you… take up exercise and dietary plans.  Hisao becomes the running partner of the adorable and chronically outgoing Emi Ibarazaki, who calls herself “The Fastest Thing on No Legs”.  She’s hardheaded and determined to a fault – she ended up FASTER than she was before she lost her legs, after all.  Emi does have some major personal issues too, but she has a hard time confronting or confiding said problems with anyone, Hisao included.  She tries to handle everything herself, to the detriment of everyone around her, and has a ton of related complexes.  Luckily, the player’s got plenty of help from side characters in this route, including Emi’s mom and Yamaku’s head nurse.  One thing that I admittedly found frustrating in this route was that Hisao never picks up on the heavy-handed foreshadowing, nor does he make an effort to work around many of Emi’s clearly defined complexes until near the end of the route.  It does make a degree of sense that Hisao isn’t too perceptive in this route, thanks to Emi’s hardheaded nature rubbing off on him.  While it does take some determination on Hisao’s part to help Emi and bring stability to their relationship, he also needs to listen to advice from others.  A direct approach is not always the best one, as this route will teach.

“Can you face your fears?”

In Hanako’s route you… well, you do something.  Arguably the most distinctive character in the game, Hanako’s crippling social anxiety and shyness are very deceiving.  Through her stuttering speech and deep-seeded shame over her appearance, Hanako proves to be very perceptive and sensitive to social cues, especially when it comes to Hisao.  Speaking of Hisao, he doesn’t so much become like Hanako in this route as much as he wants to protect and help her through her issues.  This may become the mindset of the player as well, considering Hanako’s incredibly sorrowful past and how fragile she appears at times.

But how much protecting does Hanako need?  She has a very close friend in fellow main girl Lilly, and endured through some very tough times in the past.  Solving this dilemma requires you to listen to Hanako, and listen WELL.  Even the smallest comments or details about her past can prove very important, especially considering how tough it is for a quiet girl like Hanako to talk about such things.  She won’t let you know if you piss her off, after all – Hisao has to figure out that out for himself.  A perceptive player will find that Hanako’s story is in fact very similar to the situation that Hisao found himself in – read into that as you will.

“Can you seize the day?”

In Rin’s route you join the art club, just because you can.  Just like Rin paints despite having no arms: she does it because she can.  To the surprise of no one, Rin is by far the most difficult girl to understand.  She’s prone to speaking in cryptic, fractured and incomprehensible ideas, usually with a questioning stare that gives away no feelings one way or the other.  She rarely shows anything with her near-perfect poker face, in fact.  Which she does without even realizing it.  Add to that her word-finding difficulties (she doesn’t know that “swarm” is a word), and you have a perfect storm of incomprehensibility.  While she says a lot of weird and flat-out hilarious things, the player has to look further into meanings and implications.  If no one can understand her, how do you think she feels whenever she tries to be understood?

Hisao unsurprisingly struggles to understand her, but at the same time empathizes with her and her self-identity issues due to his own mindset being similar early on.  Even though Rin is rather out there in her ideas and philosophies about art and just about anything, she has a shocking amount of determination that comes out when she dedicates herself.  Thus she throws herself into her art when given the chance to take her skills to the next level.  This occurs at the same time as Hisao’s decision to move forward in his life past his heart attack and condition.  They both decide to change, for the better or for the worse.  Hisao ultimately has the hardest time building a relationship with Rin than with any of the other girls, but the end of the route is quite rewarding considering how grim her bad ends are.  Rin’s route tends to fall into more extended prose and descriptions of sights, smells and the like, especially outdoor environments.  This can be a good or bad thing depending on the player’s attention span.

“Can you see what I see?”

In Lilly’s route you drink a lot of tea and get to see some of the prettiest art in the game.  This route is pretty much set up to be the “final” one; it is the only one that resolves multiple characters’ issues, and is the only route to feature an epilogue.  This is also the only route that really resembles a romantic drama, which makes perfect sense considering Lilly’s old-fashioned ideals. That said; the transition from Act I to her route happens rather abruptly and without a strong lead-in, partly due to her and Hanako having many of the same Act I scenes.  Lilly’s route continues to have issues dealing with Hanako early on, with many of the major plot points from Hanako’s route being covered in a compressed format.  As mentioned above, Hanako’s should be played first.

Throughout the entirety of Act I, Lilly appears to be the definition of perfect, discounting her blindness and bitter feud with Shizune.  She is never phased by anything, never shows outright anger or reveals any inner turmoil, and is perfectly ok with people poking fun at her disability. Not to mention her attractiveness.  But it becomes more apparent throughout her route that her perfect and proper behavior is her flaw in itself.  As intelligent and cool-headed as she is, as much as she plays a motherly role to characters like Hanako, she has issues of her own.  She isn’t too forthcoming with talking about her problems (that’d cause needless worry in her mind), but that isn’t the biggest problem in her route.

The problem is that no one thinks that she HAS any issues, Hisao especially.  Thus they become complacent in relying on her for support, but not the other way around.  So she never gets the help she might need, or anyone to stop her and Shizune from getting at each other’s throats.  Complacency is actually a really big theme in her route in general, along with honesty.  Players have to be honest with Lilly if they want Hisao to have an “equal” relationship with her in the end.  Whether it’s due to Lilly hiding her troubles to a fault or Hisao hesitating to push her on the subject, players don’t get to learn a lot about Lilly until late in the route.  It’s probably easier to just go to another girl… Lilly’s older sister, Akira.  A much more matter-of-fact and forthcoming person, she won’t hesitate to let Hisao into the loop.  Or to buy alcohol for underage students, for that matter.

Lilly’s route arguably has the most dramatic and heartwarming ending of any route, and the most surprising one too.  Yes, it’s really saying something when the most straight-forward route manages to have a more surprising ending than those of Hanako, Rin and Shizune.

The girls themselves aren’t the only interesting characters in the game, not by far.  If you were worried that there might be a lack of comedy in Katawa Shoujo, Hisao’s borderline paranoid-schizophrenic shut-in dorm mate Kenji provides plenty of it (technically he’s legally blind).  He tends to appear at the most inopportune times to share his thoughts on THE GREATEST THREAT TO MANKIND: FEMINISIM.  Usually that loudly too.  He’ll rant on and on like a lunatic, reducing all but the most stone-faced player to laughing fits, and reducing Hisao to the most deadpan responses ever made.  It really is surprising that the guy hasn’t killed anybody… that we know of.  Despite his insane logic and conspiracy theories though, he really does value Hisao as a friend, and shows genuine wisdom and insight at times (and doesn’t actually think all women are evil either).  But then there’s the alternate name for the Act I bad end… the Kenji route.  Kenji may or may not be dangerous on his own, but he IS a crazy guy obsessed with feminist conspiracies in a dating sim game with 5 girls to pursue.  If you’re into dark humor though, the Kenji route is worth taking at least once for kicks.

What.

Getting into the quirky school staff, the most prominent adult in the game is assistant librarian Yuuko.  She often shows up to give helpful advice to Hisao about his various relationships, which is surprising, since she herself is painfully neurotic, overworked and tends to freak out at the smallest provocation.  Perhaps it’s because of her problems that she can help other people with theirs.  Like Hanako, she’s also shockingly perceptive of others’ feelings despite her own anxiety.

There’s also Hisao’s homeroom teacher Mutou, a stereotypical absent-minded professor (even Hisao calls him that) who teaches science.  While the game’s current drama often throws him to the side or plays up his scatterbrained tendencies, there’s no doubting his dedication to his students.  He usually plays a big role in helping Hisao plan for his future, and shows hidden depths when dealing specific students like Hanako or Misha.  Mutou has a rival and polar opposite in the form of the outspoken and dramatic art teacher Nomiya, who only appears in Rin’s route.  Last but not least is the head nurse of Yamaku, whose name they never bother to tell you.  He’s a genuine example of a “funny” doctor (and one that is occasionally actually funny), never hesitating to look on the bright side of things or tease Hisao.  On the other hand, he never hesitates to hand out verbal beatdowns if his advice isn’t taken seriously.  He also happens to have a close relationship with someone who makes ignoring advice a lifestyle: Emi.  Unsurprisingly, he appears a lot in her route to give advice, both medical and romantic.

Somebody stop this man!

The remaining handful of notable characters are related to the 5 pursuable girls.  There’s the afore-mentioned Akira Satou, Lilly’s older sister.  She’s everything Lilly isn’t – direct and outgoing, somewhat loud and lacking in… certain assets.  But she’s definitely pretty intelligent and insightful; she works as a lawyer and, quite shockingly, has a good relationship with Hanako.  On the opposite end, there are others who are SCARILY similar to the main girls they’re related to, like Shizune’s little brother, Hideaki.  He’s got a strange monotone matter of speaking, and is even more direct and to the point about things than his deaf-mute sister (which should probably be impossible).  He has the same competitive streak too.  In Emi’s route you have her mom, Meiko.  Just imagine a grown Emi without the hard-headedness.  And then there’s Shizune’s dad.  Let’s just say if there’s anyone in the game you want to punch in the face…

Possibly the biggest issue with Katawa Shoujo in general are the choices leading to the bad endings.  In most cases, players have to make Hisao be a complete jerk to get a bad end.  This does make it fairly easy to avoid bad endings, but as a result, the endings themselves often involve Hisao being a complete moron who is DETERMINED to make the worst decisions possible over and over until the logical horrible conclusion happens.  Hanako and Shizune’s routes have the worst cases of this.  This is also present in most of the paths to the Act I bad end, but it’s more understandable due to Hisao’s bitterness at that point in the game.

But luckily Hisao does.

Before wrapping up this essay posing as a game review, I’d like to point out how good this game, a FREEWARE game, looks and sounds.  The character sprites and artwork are very well done and look realistic in general, making you feel like you’re really looking through Hisao’s eyes (though if Hisao is involved in the scene himself, you’ll get another perspective that shows him).  Even though Katawa Shoujo is certainly an anime-styled game, the anime influence on the art style is limited to characters’ faces and expressions.  The expressions are pretty varied and accurate too, which is extremely important for visual novels and their focus on individual characters.  The developers didn’t take the easy way out either: they made the effort to come up with specific designs and implied personalities for many background characters that don’t play a role in the story.  And as mentioned before, Lilly’s route has several amazing pieces of art that show up at just the right moments to make an impact.

There are a couple of issues with the consistency of the art style at times.  Hisao himself looks different in a few scenes, particularly at the very start of the story (that first piece of art could’ve been made years before anything else in the game).  The biggest issues with the art turn up in Emi and Shizune’s routes, respectively.  Emi herself went through a major redesign late in the game’s development, and thus ends up looking significantly younger in some scenes than her character sprite.  Shizune’s honestly makes a huge mess of this at times, most of which can be blamed on a change in artists at the time.  The new artist has a much rougher style, and the characters in particular are barely recognizable when compared to their sprites or scenes in other routes.  Aside from those two routes, the art is very consistent.

She looks what, about 12 in this pic?

Aside from the actual art, most of the background images are just that: images.  It’s obvious that they consist of actual photographs with a filter placed over, but they still look rather nice nonetheless, and they’d probably needlessly stand out without the filter.  Possibly the most shocking thing Katawa Shoujo has are fully animated cutscenes.  Yes, a freeware game with animated cutscenes.  One rather basic one appears at the start of the game, mostly to serve as opening credits and set the restless mood surrounding Hisao’s hospitalization.  The others appear at the beginning of each girl’s route to introduce their issues to the player in a rather abstract format.  You could say that they’re opening themes for each girl.  The art style is a more simplistic anime-esque style than usual, but that’s practically a positive considering their purpose – it makes them seem more dream-like and gets players thinking about the meaning behind them.

The game does feature a scattered few instances of animation in scenes and sound effects, the most prominent being Hisao’s heart flutters.  After experiencing major flutters and a heart attack in the first scene, repeated cut-ins of a heart along with loud, strained heartbeats are all it takes to fill players with dread, and make them fear the worst.  At times they’re the only things to remind players of Hisao’s condition – it’s all too fitting at the moments Hisao pushes his condition to the back of his mind and ignores it.

The music in Katawa Shoujo is rarely complex, but does its job of setting the mood of scenes, and does it well.  The menu theme is the foremost indicator of this: the first song players hear when starting the game may not seem important, but it’s such a low key, soothing track that it’s the perfect musical chaser to calm players down after a potentially dramatic or heartwarming session.  In most “neutral” scenes (generally during Hisao’s internal monologues) and those lacking in drama, the music is soothing and pretty out-of-the-way, focusing on light strings and occasional piano melodies.  And that’s when it isn’t even trying to do anything: more introspective and calmer moments with the girls feature cushy and heartwarming songs like “Comfort” and “Air Guitar” to touch even the most restrained players.

Each of the girls has their own light-hearted motif that shows up during establishing character moments, excluding Hanako, who has a much more rarely heard dramatic motif.  Lilly’s is more calming than light-hearted too, but it’s perfect for her personality.  It always helps to cast them in a positive light, even for Emi after she nearly gives Hisao a heart attack by crashing into him.  Moments of silliness and general fun are perfectly accompanied by tracks like “Hokabi” or “Generic Happy Music” too.  For maximum hilarity, the Kenji-specific “Out of the Loop” is there for his crazy ranting.  The Nurse also gets his own motif, perfect for when he shows up to mess with Hisao.

When the dramatic moments do come, that is where the soundtrack really shines.  Songs like “Stride” or “Caged Heart” are pretty much just unsettling enough to bring up the same thoughts of insecurity and tension in the player that Hisao is likely grappling with at the moment.  And then you have tracks like “Shadow of the Truth” and “Cold Iron”, which hit you right in the heart and let you KNOW that something bad is going to happen.  The pure impact of the music in those scenes simply cannot be overstated.  There is one other track that matches those two: “Moment of Decision”.  Seeing as this is a visual novel with both good and bad ends, the title should say everything about the scenes it accompanies.

Let’s say the player succeeds in winning the girl – they’re rewarded with the most beautiful and sweetest tracks in the game, such as end credit theme for every girl’s good end: “Romance in Andante”.  Somewhat related to said tracks are “To Become One” and “Letting my Heart Speak”, which play during equally… enjoyable scenes.

Sex scenes.  Anyone with knowledge about the visual novel medium, particularly dating sim games, would not be at all surprised to know Katawa Shoujo has them.  Those who are queasy about viewing such scenes has the option of turning them off, but should be aware that doing so does NOT censor all instances of nudity for character sprites, just the explicit scenes.  About half of the sex scenes are actually plot-relevant: they don’t exist just for the sake of it.  So I wouldn’t recommend skipping them if you want the full impact of the story.  They’re done (in a manner of speaking) in a rather tasteful and realistic manner, highlighting the struggles of the act as much as the pleasures instead of glamorizing it.

As players complete the game and play through every route, the menu progressively fills up with images of each girl and Hisao himself, representing each chapter the player reaches.  It ends up looking like a hastily stitched together patchwork of images, just like the new life Hisao stitches together in each route.  There is also a reward of sorts of completing the entire game (viewing every possible scene), but its only one image that can be seen in the Gallery section of the menu.  I really wish there was more myself.

Katawa Shoujo is a game that values realistic conclusions.  Thus even the good endings leave some uncertainty at the end.  Will the relationship really work?  The player can form the relationship and stabilize it, but the ultimate ending is whatever you imagine it to be.  Happy or not so happy, that’s how real life is.  Hisao can’t make his condition go away after all, and neither can the girl he ends up with.  It’s imperfect, but at the same time makes the relationships all the more real and effective.  Katawa Shoujo is not without its flaws, but is compelling and beautiful nonetheless.

“Our pasts may be scattered and at times overshadowed by sadness, but they’re also an irrevocable part of our lives and personalities.  Even if I could change a single thing, I wouldn’t, because my past was what led me here.”  “That’s why, even with all that’s happened to us before, and all that may well befall us… together, we’ll keep walking forward.”

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 – The Longest Review Ever

It feels bad to have to apologize AGAIN for a delay, but circumstances pretty much forced me to put my reviewing aside.  I had to deal with some added responsibilities, and I was sick for most of this week to boot.  It didn’t help that this is by far my longest review to date – although warranted due to the sheer amount of things that I need to cover with this game.  I simply ask that you bear with me on this one.

Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 is a 2008 role-playing game developed by Atlus.  It is the fourth game in the Persona series, one of many offshoots of the main Shin Megami Tensei series.  Both this game and Persona 3 are arguably the most popular games in the entire SMT series: Persona 4 has received both an anime adaptation and a recently released sequel in the form of the fighting game Persona 4: The Ultimate in Mayonaka Arena.   Persona 4 has been heavily praised in both Japan and worldwide, so let’s see if it lives up to the hype.

Persona 4 starts with the player-named protagonist moving into the small Japanese town of Inaba, to spend a year living with his uncle Ryotaro Dojima and his daughter, Nanako.  Not long after arriving, a series of mysterious murders start occurring in the town, which leave the police (including Ryotaro, a detective) stumped.  Meanwhile, the protagonist learns of an urban legend called the Midnight Channel – supposedly watching a switched-off TV at midnight will reveal the viewer’s soulmate.  But as the protagonist and his new schoolmates find out, the Midnight Channel doesn’t reveal one’s soulmate, it shows the murder victims prior to their killings!  And what’s more, the protagonist realizes he has the power to go through TV sets like a portal, transporting him and his classmate Yosuke to another world on the other side!

No, you have to actually fit through the screen to go in

The fog-filled world contains mysterious places and items related to the murder victims, as well as a strange bear-like inhabitant called Teddie, who informs them that he has sensed people being thrown into the other world and asks the pair to find a way to stop these events.  Besides Teddie, monsters known as Shadows inhabit the TV World, becoming notably aggressive after people are thrown in.  Initially powerless to fight the Shadows, the protagonist and each of his friends end up confronting “Shadow Selves” of themselves: Shadows formed out of their inner thoughts that wreak chaos in the TV World (the majority of those inner thoughts cover rather mature subject matter – the main reason this game is rated M).  Once they come to terms with the thoughts that gave birth to their Shadow Self, it transforms into a Persona, a manifestation of their true selves that they can commend in battle, allowing them to combat the Shadows.  The protagonist and his friends form an Investigation Team in order to find the link between the TV World and the murders, and catch the culprit behind them!

Considering all that information is just an introduction, the beginning of the game drags on for several hours before you get into your first battles and are allowed to choose your own actions.  The bulk of the game consists of the Investigation Team’s missions to save those that appear on the Midnight Channel, and thus become targets of the murderer.  The mysteries behind the TV World and the murders are revealed very slowly, leaving large sections of the game devoted entirely to character development.  Though in a game where character development directly leads to the ability to fight, it’s quite appropriate.

Following the long introduction, Persona 4 plays like a cross between a visual novel and a dungeon-crawling RPG.  Players are free to wander around Inaba after school and spend time hanging out with other characters, working at part-time jobs, completing various quests or developing their character stats (courage, expression, understanding, knowledge, diligence).  The game operates on a calendar system – players are only allowed one action after school and one action during the evening.  Certain days have pre-determined events, and sometimes the game sadistically steals an entire week from you in the form of midterm exams.

Persona 4’s small town setting really sets it apart from most modern RPGs

Each person that the player can hang out with has their own Social Link, which increases as the protagonist forms deeper bonds with them.  This of course includes all of your party members.  Some Social Links require character stats to be at certain levels before they can be started (annoyingly high requirements in some cases).  It is very important to develop Social Links, for a reason I’ll explain soon enough.

As for the dungeons, they consist of 8 to 10 maze-like floors to fight through to get to the boss, with the enemies becoming progressively tougher as the player progresses.  The floors are randomly generated, so it’s difficult to predict where the doorway to the next floor will be.  The dungeons unfortunately have only one save point in them, right before the boss.  However, there is a purchasable item that allows players to exit the dungeon at any time, and they can start off at the highest floor they reached upon returning.  A battle will start upon contacting any of the shadowy enemy avatars, but unless the player themselves initiates the fight by “attacking” the enemy with their weapon, the enemy(s) will get a preemptive strike.  I found this particular part of dungeons very frustrating, since it is almost impossible to approach the shadows without alerting them, and missing with the weapon attack almost always results in the enemy catching you off-guard.  Each dungeon has its own particular theme (most being rather out there), and manages to stand out despite every floor looking almost identical in appearance.

And your party follows you in some sort of awkward formation

The dungeon’s treasure chests are also randomized: some of them yield weapons and armor, some have SP (magic points) recovery and others have completely useless 10 HP recovery.  SP recovery is hard to come by for most of the game, unfortunately – that fact alone makes it necessary to set aside several days to finish a dungeon.  It doesn’t help that most of the dungeons have several enemies that can’t taken out with physical attacks, thus forcing you to spend SP to deal with them.

The battle system of Persona 4 seems rather simplistic at first, but holds a deceiving amount of depth, especially once you build up a full party.  With the exception of the player’s own character, the player can choose to directly command their party members in battle or just give them orders on how to fight and let them choose their own actions.  I personally didn’t bother with the orders and just controlled them directly.  The key to fighting in this game is exploiting enemy weaknesses, mostly through the elemental magic present in every RPG ever, which knocks them down and allows an additional attack.  If all the enemies are knocked down, the player can order an All-Out Attack, which deals heavy damage to every enemy.  The problem with this though, is that there’s no logical method to figure out enemy weaknesses, reducing the player to simply guessing in most cases.  And the OTHER problem is that your party members have weaknesses of their own, which the enemies can exploit for a free turn of their own.

As you develop Social Links with your fellow party members, they gain the ability to perform certain actions in battle – such as shielding the protagonist from attacks, the ability to endure killing blows and the ability to wake up knocked-down allies when they themselves knock an enemy down.  The REAL key to battle in this game is teamwork, becoming closer to your allies equals better teamwork potential.  I’d advise not to change your party members around too often unless you plan to do a lot of level grinding; being underleveled substantially increases the difficulty of fights.

Stating the obvious is a common theme in battles too

My biggest complaint about the battle system is a simple one: it’s an automatic game over if the protagonist falls.  This is REALLY annoying if you’ve progressed through half the dungeon and just ended up in a bad situation with a powerful enemy and/or got caught off-guard.  You can buy an item that lets you instantly escape from battle, assuming you can recognize when you’re in a tight spot.  The battle system’s ultimately a lot of fun, but the possibility for unfair enemy advantages is very real (thanks a lot, preemptive strikes).

Let’s finally get into the namesake of the game: Personas.  While the protagonist is a special case, every other party member has a single Persona, which possesses specific strengths and weaknesses.  With one exception, each Persona lays claim to one specific element of magic.  The protagonist starts with one Persona like his allies, but can possess up to 12 different ones – additional Personas can be earned through the “Shuffle Time” game that takes place after victories in battle.  Two or more Personas can also be fused together to create a new one in The Velvet Room: a type of dream world that exists in the protagonist’s mind.  Just for the record, no, this isn’t optional.  You’ll likely get destroyed in the first dungeon if you don’t take a timeout to fuse Personas about halfway through, and this applies for just about every subsequent dungeon too.

Fusing 3 Personas usually yields a better result than 2 as well

Fusing Personas is where all your Social Links come into play.  Each Persona and Social Link has an Arcana, such as “Magician” or “Strength”, associated with it, and developing the Social Link of a certain Arcana boosts the player’s ability to create Personas of the same Arcana.  There is a formula of sorts to fusing Personas, but it becomes very complicated when fusing more than two together.  Fused Personas can inherit up to four skills/magic from those that are combined to create them at random, but it’s rather time-consuming to get them to inherit the exact skills you want.  That aside, it’s pretty fun to experiment with fusions and see what new Personas come out of them.  The Persona Compendium expands the potential for experimentation – it allows you to register any Personas you possess and pay a fee to resummon them after they’ve been used in a fusion or discarded.  Helpful if you want to use a specific Persona in multiple fusions.

Now that all THAT’S out of the way, we can move on to the characters.  The player-named protagonist can’t really be considered a character though, as he only communicates via player-chosen speech choices.  He is essentially a player avatar (his canon name is Yu Narukami, also).

Yosuke Hanamura is the first ally to receive a Persona and participate in battle alongside Yu.  He and his family moved to Inaba 6 months prior to the start of the game, and opened the megastore Junes, which is despised by some for stealing much of the local shopping district’s business.  Yosuke himself leans towards being comic relief and establishes himself as a wannabe ladies man – but he proves to be an insightful and reliable (if sometimes hot-headed) team member.

Chie Satonaka is another classmate of the protagonist, a steak-loving tomboy who is interested in martial arts.  While very hot-headed and pushy, she shows occasional moments of insight and is gifted with physical attacks in battle.  She is very protective of her best friend Yukiko Amagi, and has no problem kicking Yosuke around when he says questionable things.

And man can she kick

Said best friend Yukiko Amagi is a very reserved girl whose family owns the Amagi Inn, a traditional Japanese inn that is the pride of Inaba and a well-regarded vacation spot.  Yukiko is set to eventually take over the inn, and is incredibly dedicated to her current job of helping out there everyday.  Perhaps too dedicated, as Yukiko can come across as rather oblivious at times despite her high intelligence.

Teddie is the lone inhabitant of the TV World, a strange being who appears as a person in a bear costume.  He is very emotional and a bit of a worry-wart, aspects of his personality that are often played for laughs along with his unfamiliarity with certain real-world concepts.  A more serious aspect of Teddie is that he himself doesn’t know what kind of being he is, which leads to major problems later on in the story.  He eventually becomes a guide during battle, remembering the strengths and weaknesses of Shadows for the player and giving advice during battle.  At the same time though, he NEVER shuts up when your party members have low health or are afflicted by a status effect.

A bit later in the game, Kanji Tatsumi, Rise Kujikawa and Naoto Shirogane are introduced.  Kanji Tatsumi is an infamous delinquent who allegedly beat up an entire biker gang on his own.  Rise Kujikawa is a teen idol that goes by the stage name of “Risette”.  She moves back to her hometown of Inaba after announcing that she will be taking a break from showbiz.  Naoto Shirogane is a 15-year old detective prodigy, who is sent to Inaba to assist the police with their investigation of the murder case.

Ryotaro and Nanako Dojima are also major characters in their own right.  Ryotaro is so dedicated to his police work that Nanako is often left to fend for herself.  Though the bumbling of his assistant, Tohru Adachi, is sometimes to blame as well.  He does manage to figure out parts of the mystery despite not knowing about the TV World, and eventually comes to suspect that the protagonist is involved in the murder case in some form.  Nanako is initially quite shy, but opens up to the protagonist before long.  She is mature for her age, doing most of the housework that her father isn’t around to do.

She’s absolutely adorable too

The main cast of the game has great overall chemistry, leading to some memorable and hilarious moments, and none of them are unlikable.  They also go through some further development via their Social Links.  I won’t go over the Social-Link only characters, but many of their links can be started via joining clubs at school or accepting certain part-time jobs.

Considering Persona 4 was made for the Playstation 2 system, it looks really nice.  While there’s nothing particularly impressive about Inaba itself, the dungeons are always beautifully rendered and the battles look great.  The bosses are for the most part very imaginative in design and are quite memorable, if a bit out there in the themes they personify.  Each character’s personality is clearly shown in their idle and attack animations – it’s really quite awesome.  The occasional anime cutscenes are a real treat too, especially since they’re usually saved for the most visually-appealing scenes.  I still wish there were more of them though.  The one thing I can criticize would have to be the visual novel-style headshots that pop up whenever a character speaks in-game.  They really, really need to have a wider range of expression when the difference between “normal” and “pissed-off” is very minimal.

You don’t look tired at all!

Persona 4 mostly uses J-pop songs for its music (performed in English).  The game achieves varying levels of success with its soundtrack – while I do enjoy most of the songs, some of them, particularly the dungeon themes, need longer loops to avoid being repetitive as hell.  The boss themes are not J-pop; they’re just awesome.  However, you won’t hear any of them besides “I’ll Face Myself” until pretty late in the game.

The voice acting is, for the most part, really good.  Chie sounds like she should, Teddie sounds appropriately silly and so on.  I don’t feel that Yukiko’s voice is that fitting, however.  It sounds too overly nasally and is more suited to silliness than anything serious.  While doing Social Links, the voice acting becomes just horrible, if you can even call it voice acting.  Only small snippets of dialogue are actually voiced during Social Link activities, which come off as really unneeded and awkward, especially since what they say rarely if ever matches up with the shown dialogue.  This even applies to the Social Links with major characters.  I honestly don’t see why those aren’t fully voiced, in the least.

Overall, Persona 4 is an incredibly engaging game that has sometime for everyone.  Whether you’re interested in the moderately-challenging battle system, solving the murder mystery, fusing cool creatures or watching a varied cast of characters develop before your eyes; there’s never any lack of things to do in Persona 4.  I would recommend this game to any RPG fan of any age. . . well, not really.  The mature subject matter the game covers at times doesn’t make this a game I’d recommend to anyone under 17.  And the visual novel aspects of the game on their own aren’t particularly well presented: don’t buy Persona 4 just for that.  If you happen to own a Playstation Vita, I would recommend you buy the updated version of the game – Persona 4: The Golden.  Aside from including another playable month and new Social Links, it allows the player to actually choose which skills their fused Personas inherit.

Unfortunately, Super Teddie is not a playable character

Blazblue: Continuum Shift Extend – Fighting with Style

I’ve always been a big fan of fighting games, and I just recently picked up the Blazblue series. Blazblue is considered the spiritual successor to the Guilty Gear series of fighting games, which were made by the same developer: Arc System Works.  Extend is the third expansion of Blazblue: Continuum Shift, which added one new characters and new game modes.  The developers could be accused of being money grubbers if you look at the first expansion, which required players to pay extra for DLC characters, more colors for characters and the “Unlimited” versions of the characters.  With Extend, these along with a huge amount of artwork and sound options, are unlockable in the Gallery.  Players earn points for the Gallery by playing through Arcade, Story and all the other modes, rewarding players for continued play instead of rewarding those who are willing to shell out extra money.

The character select screen with new character Relius Clover selected.

Like Guilty Gear, Blazblue is renowned for its diverse and colorful cast of characters.  Ragna the Bloodedge is the main protagonist, who wields the Azure Grimoire and is a bit of a hothead.  Jin Kisaragi is a major with the Novus Orbis Librarium (NOL) who wants to kill Ragna.  Noel Vermillion is a timid NOL officer who finds herself a target for the game’s antagonist.  Rachel Alucard is a vampire who is much older than she looks, and tries to steer the heroes of the story in the right directions.  Taokaka is a carefree and childish catgirl of the Kaka Clan, who’s obsessed with food and not very bright.  Carl Clover is a child vigilante who believes his Nox Nyctores, Nirvana, to be his sister.  Arakune is a man that was transformed into a slimy monster after a reckless experiment went awry.  Litchi Faye-Ling is a beautiful woman who runs a medical clinic in Kagusuchi’s Orient Town, and seeks a way to reverse Arakune’s transformation.  Iron Tager, also known as the Red Devil, is a robotic agent of Sector Seven’s Kokonoe, a scientist who transformed the formally human Tager into a robot when he was on the brink of death.  Bang Shishigami is a hot-headed and somewhat dense ninja who (loudly) claims to fight for love and justice.  Lambda-11 is another creation of Kokonoe, who she utilizes as another agent.  Hakumen is a mysterious warrior who follows his own idea of justice: he is one of the Six Heroes as well.

Hazama is a captain in the NOL, a man whose cool and calm behavior masks something darker.  Tsubaki Yayoi is a First Lieutenant in the NOL and Noel’s friend and former roommate, who is ordered to execute an assassination in Kagusuchi.   Makoto Nanaya is an NOL officer who reports to Hazama.  She is part of the beastkin race, and a friend of Noel and Tsubaki.  Valkenhayn R. Hellsing is Rachel Alucard’s aged butler who is part-werewolf.  Platinum the Trinity is a young girl whose body contains the consciousness of 3 individuals, one of which is in fact male.  Relius Clover is the newest playable character: Carl’s father and a polite yet cold-hearted scientist with the NOL.  Mu-12 is the embodiment of Kusanagi, whose only purpose is to destroy.

The characters’ playstyles are as varied as their personalities, each possessing a unique set of moves that are controlled with the “drive” input.  The drive input allows Carl to control Nirvana, Hazama to extend his chains around the field and for Rachel to exert her control over the wind.  This really simplifies the process of learning each character, making them easier to learn than one would think.  Players with any sort of familiarity with fighting games such as Street Fighter should have no problems hitting the correct inputs and advancing to an intermediate level of play.  The only control-related issue I ran into was with Carl.  In order to attack with Nirvana, you have to release the drive button and immediately put in another command with it.  I had a difficult time coordinating attacks between Carl himself and Nirvana as a result.  His father Relius has a similar weapon in Ignis, and he does a much better job of controlling it.  When it comes to high-level play, intimate understanding of the barrier and other defensive options are vital, and of course, knowledge of combos.  The fruits of working on such combos are easily seen in high-level matches, with players pulling off longer and more impressive combos on each other.  The game maintains a tight balance between offense and defense, with a wide variety of defensive options weighed against punishing players who run away too often.  Thus matches boast endless action and reward the truly skilled.  The super attacks, or Astral Heats, are also incredibly satisfying to land.

Relius attacks Ragna using Ignis. I did find him quite a lot of fun to play as.

This is not to say that you won’t run into some problems here or there.  I did every playthrough of Arcade and the Story mode on easy, but I still had some problems defeating certain opponents.  Arcade’s final boss found a way to be very tough even on easy.  They probably could have toned down his AI a bit.  Also, when first encountering the “Unlimited” versions of characters, newer players can be confused by their purposefully overpowered moveset changes and end up losing many times.

The Story picks up where Blazblue: Calamity Trigger left off, several days after Ragna the Bloodedge reportedly raided the Novus Orbis Librarium branch in the 13^th Hierarchical City “Kagutsuchi”.  As Ragna lies in wait, both old and new characters descend on Kagutsuchi in pursuit of their own goals.  What few of these warriors know is that the plans of a mysterious, evil being have already been set in motion: plans that will cover Kagutsuchi in darkness and threaten the entire world’s existence.  The game’s story is told in a visual novel format: each character having a brief storyline of their own.  Each storyline veers in a different path than the last, but they often intersect.  Some questions are answered, while others are left for the next installment.  Thankfully, Blazblue’s story doesn’t take that long to play through, unlike most visual novels.

While Blazblue’s story stands head and shoulders above that of pretty much any fighting game out there, there are plenty of clichés involved.  The legendary Six Heroes, who saved the world from being consumed 100 years prior, end up playing vital roles in the current story, and were not quite as “heroic” as they have been made out to be.  Nox Nyctores, powerful weapons that many playable characters possess, are known for having negative effects on the wielder’s psyche and senses over extended periods of use.  Said weapons directly influence many characters’ motivations and behavior patterns (most notably Jin Kisaragi’s).  Blazblue also loves time travel.  Both this game and Blazblue: Calamity Trigger deal with continuous time loops, and characters such as Rachel Alucard directly tamper with time: putting characters into “continuum shifts” they do not belong in.  Finally, the theme of tampering with things that should not be tampered with is used a lot in the storyline.  The character of Arakune is a monster, a living example of the dangers of tampering with The Boundry.  Despite the use of these cliches, Blazblue manages to have a deep and somewhat compelling story that can keep players hooked.  This is mostly thanks to the game’s varied and interesting cast of characters that drive the plot along, and the extra story segments that give players a bit more information about the Blazblue universe.

Yes Relius again. He makes everyone uncomfortable.

Extend boasts an extensive amount of game modes to keep players interested.  Aside from Arcade and Story, there is Tutorial mode: a series of exercises designed to teach new players about the game.  These very in-depth lessons are narrated by Rachel Alucard, and delve into general fighting game strategies as well as advanced techniques and individual character playstyles.  This does a very good job of getting newcomers up to speed regardless of how many fighters they’ve played before.  At the very beginning of the Tutorial, players are urged to use the “Stylish Layout” if they’re completely new to fighters.  This simplifies the inputs and allows players to easily execute combos, making the game accessible to players of all skill levels.  The other modes include standards like Score Attack alongside Unlimited Mars, which is only for more advanced players.  The Abyss mode is also a lot of fun, making characters’ attributes customizable as players make their way towards the final fight.  One thing I didn’t like is how some parts of Arcade and Story mode were left unchanged.  Some characters were kind of shoehorned into their final Arcade fight, having the same opponent as Ragna and company when it would have been more fitting for another Unlimited character to be their last fight.  As for Story, it felt awkward when fights against newer characters such as Relius were not added into older characters’ stories (Carl does not fight his father in his mode, but does fight Litchi).

The game looks and plays very smoothly.  The backgrounds are detailed and the character models have obviously had a lot of care put into them by a skilled team of artists.  It’s tough to not love the over-the-top Astral Heat animations too.  This is an anime-styled game, however, so some people might be turned off by the character designs (or the images and themes that push the game’s T rating).  The game’s story and arcade modes are fully voiced, and the actors do an amazing job of bringing the characters to life.  In the new story mode additions however, some of the actors have been changed.  Bang Shishigami in particular got a new and far less impressive actor.  And there are some moments where the audio messes up: either the characters say something different from the subtitles or say several lines in Japanese when their voice has been set to English.  Blazblue, like Guilty Gear, has amazing battle music that really hypes up matches, including many themes that play for matchups between certain related characters.  Some of the Story Mode tunes aren’t as memorable, but they’re still very high-quality songs.

The game can be tough at times and there are a few small issues, but Blazblue: Continuum Shift Extend is an immensely fun game that I highly recommend to fighting game fans, as long as they aren’t completely turned off by anime or visual novel-style games.

And then a magical girl gets Squirrel Punched.

P.N.03 – Sexy Suits and Not-So-Sexy Level Design

For my long-delayed first post, we have something a bit older than what I will normally review.  P.N.03 appeared to be an interesting video game: a low profile game from Capcom that received extremely mixed reviews.  Released in 2003 for the Nintendo Gamecube, it is the least successful member of a series of games dubbed the “Capcom Five”: a series that includes the difficult but very fun Viewtiful Joe, Killer 7 and the hugely popular Resident Evil 4.  I bought both P.N.03 and Baten Kaitos: Eternal Wings and the Lost Ocean for 20 dollars at a flea market, so I was pretty excited to add them to my collection.

P.N.03 puts you in the role of Vanessa Z. Schneider, a stylish and sexy freelance mercenary who fights with a full-body Aegis suit (that shows off her assets, of course).  She is tasked with infiltrating a CAMS (Computerized Armament Management System) robot facility, and destroying a literal ton of berserk robots.  Vanessa’s client, who constantly stays in touch with her via unvoiced Metal Gear Solid radio conversations, keeps their identity a secret.  Considering what happens at the end of the game, there’s a legitimate reason the client’s identity is kept under wraps the entire game.  That said, there isn’t much enjoyment to be taken from Vanessa’s interactions with the client, and the plot is kept to an absolute minimum (the first instance of voice acting occurs about three-quarters into the game).  P.N.03 thus has to rely on gameplay and visuals to keep players interested.

Unfortunately, the gameplay is slow and somewhat underwhelming at best.  Vanessa moves much slower than her appearance indicates, and cannot strafe and shoot at the same time.  While platforming isn’t too important in this game, Vanessa’s awkward jumping brings back memories of playing as Shinobu in No More Heroes 2.  Shinobu’s jumping was much worse, but I still found myself overshooting platforms often.  There is an emphasis placed on avoiding the robots’ laser fire by dodging constantly and taking cover behind or under parts of the environment.  This type of gameplay could be interesting, if most of the levels didn’t reuse the same types of rooms over and over.  Vanessa herself possesses the ability to shoot energy bolts from her hands, and her upgradeable suit has powerful attacks called Energy Drives built into it.  These Drives have unique animations and effects, and are among the games’ most impressive visuals.  The player has to alternate between shooting and dodging to progress through the levels, making the game feel like an old school shooter or a more involved on-rails shooter.

It is perhaps too involved; as Vanessa cannot strafe long distances without mashing the L or R buttons, and her suit lacks rapid-fire capabilities until you earn them.  It’s not too bad at first, but when the level layouts start to repeat themselves, the game becomes a strenuous and repetitive exercise in button mashing.  It’s kind of a shame, since the game would probably be more enjoyable if only they didn’t insist on repeating the same level layouts and bosses over and over.  The enemies are all robots, but they are all pretty different in terms of appearance and attacks.  It is sometimes hard to tell one type of enemy apart from another though, since most of the combat takes place from a distance.  The part of the game that allows for the most versatility, though, are Vanessa’s suits.  Players are able to upgrade Vanessa’s default suit, and purchase different suits at checkpoints or between missions.  Each suit has its own upgradeable capabilities and Energy Drives (1 of which must be bought separately).  For this purpose, players collect money from defeating enemies.  The amount of money increases if you destroy enemies quickly, and if you make it through a room without taking damage.  Players can also accept trial missions between levels to earn more money.  The ability to upgrade suits and customize them to fit your style of play creates a system that handsomely rewards continued play.  I stuck to the more defensive suits myself, since I wasn’t very good at dodging.

Graphics-wise, the game looks nice and smooth, though the environments are rather plain otherwise.  The enemies and Vanessa herself look quite impressive for their time, and it’s obvious that a lot of time was put into Vanessa’s graceful animations. I can’t say the same for the sparse cutscenes, however.  The majority of the robots that the player has to take down often teleport in out of nowhere or are otherwise tucked away where they can’t be seen, leading to many frustrating moments when Vanessa is suddenly hit by lasers from unseen enemies.  The game’s difficulty is somewhat high and fluctuates greatly, especially if you start the game on normal mode.  With the exception of the tough end boss, the bosses are pretty easy to defeat once you get the hang of the controls.  It took me several tries to defeat the final boss: I would urge players not to take him on without a fully upgraded suit.

There are a few other small things that make the game more of a chore than it needs to be.  Whenever you exit a room, the game insists on showing you a stats screen detailing the enemies you defeated and your score for the room, even if there were no enemies in the room.  This is particularly irritating when you have to backtrack to get health or Drive energy power-ups.  Vanessa tends to turn around very slowly unless you remember to use the Z button to perform a 180 degree turn; I never got the hang of that myself.  The game’s music is all fairly forgettable, though the sound effects are particularly good and alerts the player to incoming attacks.

Overall, I can call this an okay game at best.  The gameplay is mildly enjoyable, if a bit repetitive, and the customizable suits and special attacks provide players with some variety as well as an incentive to keep blasting away at those robots.  The game looks really good too, despite the uninspired level design.  But with how sleek and sexy Vanessa looks in her movements, I was a bit disappointed that they couldn’t incorporate more speed and agility into her moves.  P.N.03 doesn’t offer much of anything in terms of story, though, and the characters are bland.  Unless you’re a big fan of old school shooters or sexy full-body suits, this game probably isn’t worth the trouble to find.

To top off this review, here’s a video of a (skilled) player taking out some enemies in P.N.03.