Games with character creators are great. If it’s a good one, you easily spend at least 15 minutes putting together a special someone and maybe over a half an hour if it lets you alter all of the details. Xenoblade Chronicles X may not have the most elaborate creation options, but it does reign triumphant in one area. The characters look the same in the creator as they do in the game.
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Yakuza 5 has reached the West today. It’s the end of a long wait for Yakuza fans, and an encouraging sign that the roughest days for American fans of Japanese games are behind us. Secretly, though, it’s the return for a franchise that is just as beloved and missing outside Japan for even longer: Taiko Drum Master, or Taiko no Tatsujin.
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Something unexpected happens the more you play Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival. The game gradually scales in difficulty. The board develops new pathways, as players spend Happy Tickets on additional features like the Cafe or Police Station, as a more minor adjustment. The Stalk Market, however, ends up experiencing the most alterations.
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I was a young goddess looking for something to amuse me. Do you know how boring it is, being a goddess? There’s no one on your level. You look out at the expanse of the universe and wonder if there’s anything out there that can still challenge you.
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Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival does many things, like make you work for all the best content and provide a surprisingly fun survival simulation. Most importantly, it illustrates the need for even more Animal Crossing merchandise. We need tarot cards.
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The last time I talked about Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival, I was pretty negative about the experience. To be fair, I had spent almost two hours playing it so I could unlock the one minigame I really wanted. Tedium weighs on people. It was worth it though, because those two hours were well spent. Now I can play Desert Island Escape whenever I want.
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Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival is many things. It’s a means of tiding over all the Wii U owners craving a full Animal Crossing installment on their consoles. It’s also a part of Nintendo’s kid-friendly charge this holiday season. That isn’t even bringing up how heavily it pushes amiibo, what with requiring constant NFC figure tapping to roll dice or save Happy Points to characters and amiibo card swiping to perform actions in most of the minigames. But, above all else, it’s demanding.
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People starring in Fatal Frame games aren’t going to have the best times. Things happen to these folks. Even if they end up with a good ending, there’s usually some cloud hanging overhead. The original game set a precedent, with Miku Hinasaki being forced to leave the haunted house without her brother, Mafuyu. In the case of Fatal Frame III, the normal ending leaves Kei Amakura dead. Seems like things don’t work out very well for men in this series, huh?
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Fatal Frame encourages love-hate relationships. The lore, premise and scares easily lure people in, leaving good first impressions. Unfortunately, cheap ghosts that pop up out of nowhere for a battle, confusing locations that leave a player constantly consulting a map, constant backtracking and frustrating controls have always held the series back. While Fatal Frame: Maiden of the Black Water doesn’t miraculously fix everything, it makes positive strides forward toward a more healthy relationship.
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