A ghostly compelling tale
Beautiful. Stunning. Breathtaking. The Japanese countryside of Tsushima can only be described this way, and this is being modest. Immersion in the struggle and burden of a samurai lord in 13th century Japan against invading Mongols is stupefying once you realize that it’s intricately crafted in a video game. You are the ghost, the Ghost of Tsushima.
Wandering around the real island of Tsushima, Japan, in 1274 is a fairytale. Every 
location and nearly every blade of grass or tree tells a story. That story is of samurai lord Jin Sakai, a man desperate to save his home from an invading Mongolian force led by the grandson of Genghis Khan. Jin gathers a counterforce, only to be defeated and nearly killed. In the process of healing, Jin finds allies to rally to the cause and petitions for help from the shogunate to defeat the Mongols. You become Jin in your quest to save his home and gather weapons and supplies, learn skills, acquire alliances, and fight to repeal the invaders. There is much to learn and see in the open world presented to you even if you aren’t a history buff or care about the politics, economy, or goings on of feudal Japan. There are no time limits for tackling missions, and you are encouraged to free roam and explore the land.
Much like any other open world game I’ve ever played, what I like to call the “Metroid 
instinct” kicks in and I find myself searching every nook and cranny to find hidden supplies and other goodies. During my exploration, of course, I come across people who don’t like Jin. I note the presence of bonfires, which generally indicates who I like to refer to as “dudes.” Dudes are the type that are generally hostile to me and my interests. Those interests involve investigation and saving people in the general populace who require the services of a skilled samurai and contract killer. This is usually how the fight starts: Dudes notice me in my finery and my magical horse frolicking in the countryside and now they want to get reckless about things.
In an absolutely fun mechanic, I tend to get into standoffs with bandits. Now, my fighting skills here with a katana and tantō are not the best, but I have been known to make dudes meet their maker quickly. Similarly, I’m not great with archery, but I make the best of a bad situation and stealth kill my way through the countryside cleanly and quickly. My grasp of the controls is tenuous at best, but that’s on me and my lack of skill and “older folks’ reflexes™”. Ghost’s control mechanics are sound and easy to pick up with a little practice.
As I explore after my fights, looting what I need, I take in the scenery. Ghost of Tsushima is quite possibly the most beautiful video game I have ever seen. I’ve been 
playing games a long time, and I can’t say until now that I’ve ever been just wowed by a game where I specifically take in-game photography to use as a background. This is what you buy the latest console for and the best TV for: marveling at the graphics. I’m not even on the latest PlayStation model (I’m playing with a PS4 Pro), and Ghost makes almost everything else look like stick figures from the Atari 2600 era.
With a masterful audio experience, Ghost has the sound and feel of a Kurosawa masterpiece. You want to feel like the epic Seven Samurai? Turn on the Japanese dialogue and English subtitles. It’s that type of experience. The natural ambiance is also nice. It’s comforting to know that paying attention to sounds in the environment can save Jin’s life when I’m exploring. I’ve lost count of the number of times listening for audio cues linked to bears or dudes has helped me avoid an ambush.
While it’s a great experience, Ghost is not without its problems. The camera work doesn’t always help when it’s time to fight. Often, I’m fighting the camera to see my enemies and avoid taking massive damage. The camera could use some refinement in later updates. And my other issue is the Legends mode, added after the game’s initial release. I was all geared up to play with my partner and then realized that this long-awaited co-op mode does not support local play. We were hotly anticipating being able to roam around Tsushima together as we’re gamers, engrossed in the tale of Jin who absolutely love samurai. But we were highly disappointed to learn that the only co-op supported is online. Though the mode is free, it was a massive letdown to realize that we weren’t going to be playing this epic together.
Despite some minor technical issues, Ghost of Tsushima hits the mark in a lot of areas. A competent narrative, open world exploration, stunning visuals and an easy-to-grasp system are just some of the goodies awaiting engrossment in Jin’s tale of revenge and revolution in 1274 feudal Japan. Ghost of Tsushima scares up a great adventure worthy of all the praise one can muster.
the others in the series. Little did I know, I would be learning a valuable lesson: Not every popular franchise will always have best-sellers. An excellent example would be Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 2.
universal century timeline and you can interact with various characters from other series. As you move along, you gain experience points to increase your level and collect various mobile suit parts. There is also a chance to earn new skills just like 
Gundam 2 also special missions where you can fight against other opponents to earn licenses to pilot different suits, earn the trust of other characters to fight beside you and acquire higher-level parts for mobile suits. The mobile suit lab and terminal features help you to keep up with changing events and current developments with different mobile suits.
clan have arisen to take advantage of Kamurochō’s suffering. The fate of Kamurochō and Japan rests in the hands of four men: Shun Akiyama, a loan shark trying to save his sick receptionist; Goro Majima, a feared yakuza and construction company owner who is fighting his own infection; Ryuji Goda, a disgraced yakuza and takoyaki chef whose clan has a tie to the outbreak; and, series protagonist Kiryu Kazuma, who runs a children’s orphanage and returns to Kamurochō when his adoptive daughter is kidnapped.
though there’s room for improvement. Though, compared to other games at the time, Yakuza: Dead Souls doesn’t necessarily outshine the competition; it just merely competes. 
Forever, the fifth game in the quirky series. Whether or not you’re into the “if it’s not broke then don’t fix it” method of gaming will determine if you can stand another trip to the cosmos with a katamari.
repertoire of the Prince, such as the Prince Hop and the King Shock, but otherwise you’re still rolling along to pick up items to make your katamari grow. The series isn’t known for its growth and this is a major reason why. While it’s easy to control the Prince and maneuver the Katamari, there still should be some innovation at this point, five games in.
soundtrack relentlessly throughout our lifespan at 
much like playing any platformer of the past 20 years and the control scheme is simple and intuitive in letting you figure out what to do and how to apply it later. Where it falters is the jumping mechanics. While obvious and simple, the jumping does feel slightly off and floaty, which is a problem in a game that relies on that mechanic to carry it. It’s annoying to have to re-do sections of a level solely because of a missed jump, and that detracts from the core experience.
of the board game mode and the character creation mode that plays out like an eroge simulation are some of the goodies that we’re missing out on in the U.S. There’s also the addition of three new characters: Ran, a photojournalist who uses her camera to attack; Nagare, a swimmer; and, Chairperson/Iinciyo, who leads the charge for Taiyo High School students to defend themselves. Other than these gifts, there’s not much different here than the first game. You’re still fighting to defend your chosen school, and there’s still fun to be had in a slightly deep fighting game system. There’s not too much different aesthetics-wise, in that there are a few new stages and new stage themes. The older stages are still here and it’s fun to play against the newcomers with older characters or a created character.
I have two caveats with recommending the game to others. The first is the fact that it’s in Japanese mostly and reading is a must to get through the character creation and board game modes. That’s a bit much if you’re not into the language or know enough to navigate through menus. The other issue is the fact that, as usual, Capcom has seen fit to deny American gamers the best of a series, 
shortchanging loyal money-spending fans who would pay a high price for the goodies of the character creation mode and the board game mode. The dirty truth of it all is Capcom has never thought highly of its American audience. We’re not going to see something awesome like either mode because “we just wouldn’t get it anyway.” A fun fact is that both modes were to be included in the first game but were left out in America because it would have been too much trouble to include them for Americans, according to Capcom of Japan. But we’re smart enough to make cash grabs off of for multiple version of Street Fighter, though, right?
times and keep eyes on the product. At its core, it’s a game about samurai and other warriors fighting to the death. What sets it apart from the competition — even from within its own stable with brethren King of Fighters — is its production values. The games have always been gorgeous and there’s a level of detail that hasn’t been seen in other series except for the likes of Tekken. Within the collection of that is Anthology, all of the naturally gorgeous artwork and level of detail is on display. It’s important that this be emphasized because that’s what Samurai Shodown is about at the end of the day: Samurai fighting to the death while looking fantastic.
soundtrack is an excellent concerto of Japanese bamboo flute and shamisen. This may not float your boat, but for a package that focuses on samurai, this is an excellent choice to make up the backing soundtrack.
PlayStation 2. For decades, 
with, the music, characters and graphics are top-notch and the story is simple. My only complaint is that there’s one cheap-shot character that loves to pounce. For all of the SoulCalibur clones flooding the market these days, I proudly say Samurai Shodown Anthology has great replay value, and it 
unethical scientific experiments. You assume the role of Dante, a demon hunter/investigator who uses his skills to exercise demons for profit and to avenge the loss of his family from said creatures. One night while working, Dante is hired by a mysterious woman named Trish, who after a brief but amazing test of Dante’s skill, hires him to go to an abandoned castle where Mundus, the demon who is responsible for the death of Dante’s family, is planning a return from hell. Unknown to our badass hero, he has taken on a a job that starts out as an opportunity for vengeance, but soon will unlock an ancient birthright and his true destiny as mankind’s newest protector against demonic forces.
The graphics are beautiful as Capcom developed a great game engine and made great use of the PS2’s technological capabilities to bring out the action without using the god-awful camera angles found in Resident Evil. I personally liked how each cutscene brought DMC’s storyline together without any over-the-top drama. The enemy variety is good, too, ranging from demon marionettes to giant owls and other demonic creatures. I enjoyed the voice acting because it was not forced, flowing in sync with the game’s plot. I am proud to say that I would definitely replay this game when I’m feeling like I want to rip some demons apart.