Game Review - Silent Hill Homecoming

Went to Atsushi's house to FINALLY test my PS3. The reason why I really need to find a way to play my PS3 is because I want to test it. It's not a first hand PS3; it might not work properly or something. There's only one way to test a PS3, to play the PS3. =]

First, I took out my Tales of the Abyss because I really missed that game -- all time favourite =]. I remembered that I don't have my memory card(for PS2)... then I found out even if I had the memory card, it's useless. I need some kind of adapter to transfer my PS2 memory card stuff to PS3, which costs around $20. Right now, I can barely afford a piece of bread, so spending $20 on an adapter is definitely out of the question.

I ended up playing Silent Hill Homecoming: a game which I have been looking forward to.

Before I start talking about the game, I'd just like to say that I'm really scared of horror genre. It doesn't matter if it's movie or game; I'm just so deathly scared of them. I think it's because I played Residence Evil 4 on the gamecube when I was in grade 4. That really scarred me for a long time. I thought I challenge myself into play this game, but it was kind of a disappointment.

I started the game... kinda scared, but I wasn't alone(Atsushi's with me), so it's better. After I got used to the controls(and turning the brightness to max LOL) I started exploring. This is where I get really frustrated and disappointed.

I'm in a room with around 4 doors where 3 of them are locked/jammed. In other words, you can't open it. Why have the doors there if all it's there for is "It's locked", "It's jammed". I understand if there are a few doors that are like that, but when the ratio of openable doors and inoperable doors are like 1:10... something is really wrong.

I didn't played for very long, but the story is kind of annoying, too. I risked my life in the 'Silent Hill' chasing after this boy named Joshua who doesn't even like getting rescued or anything. He seems to like Silent hill a lot... and since all the nurses doesn't seem to attack Joshua(only attacking me), I'd just let him stay in the 'Silent Hill' and leave. The story is stupid. The intro doesn't make sense. Why would the nurse push him(the main character) into this operation room and leave him there when the nurse can just kill him because he's all tied up. Way too many flaws.

I ended up being more frustrated than scared. I spend 10 minutes finding the right door to advance the story line, and the cutscene is like 2 minutes. Then I have to spend another 10 minutes finding the right door to another 2 minutes cutscene. WOW SO FUN!!!

I might change my mind about the game if I play more of the game, but my First Impression of it is really bad(not like scary bad, but like bad bad). I don't really feel like playing more and finding out the rest of the story. What if it still sucks, then I'd be wasting my time...

Why would Konami make the beginning suck so much that people doesn't want to continue playing it anymore...? Good job =__=

I rate this game a 2/10(as of now, but it probably won't change because I don't feel like playing more of it). 1 point for graphic, and 1 point for the 'Silent Hill' series.

super disappointed.

~Daniel Chou

Breakdown of Tales of Graces without playing the game!

I probably should've talk about this a long time ago, but guess what? I didn't have a blog back then. So too bad!!!

Tales of Graces, part of the 'Tales of' game series made by Namco, came out in Japan on Dec 18, 2009... if I remember correctly. At any rate, it was last year! (Sorry, I had to use the joke) Because it was released in Japan, so of course I can't play it. I don't have an imported Wii, or a modded one... sadly. But that's not going to stop a big tales fan like me! I do what everybody would do, I youtube. I still want the element of surprise when I eventually play the game, so I won't look at people's playthrough or anything, but I listened and watched the opening.

I wasn't really impressed....

I mean the opening SONG was good, but the opening animation is just not there, if you know what I mean. It just seems like there's no climax. I understand that in the beginning of the animation they need to introduce the characters slightly, but their animation won't make me want to play the game at all. During the chorus of the song in the opening, there's nothing big that's happening, just a bunch of people looking into each other's eyes and lots of running. I know that's suppose to be some dramatic moments in the game, but do they think people who's watching the animation for the first time would know what the story is about? Are we suppose to understand the 'moment' the characters are having? Maybe it's just me, but the opening is just not my taste. Tales of the Abyss, on the other hand, has one of the BEST opening of ALL time. Abyss' opening even beat a lot of the anime openings; I wouldn't be surprised if BUMP OF CHICKEN(the band who sang the opening for Tales of the Abyss) made that opening their MV for the song. It's THAT good. This blog's about Graces, so I won't go into details about the opening for Abyss. I'll post the links at the end of the blog so you can look at them and compare.

Enough about the opening, but that's not all about Graces that I know. I watched the trailers at least 50 times, one of the trailers. That trailer was better than the opening (sorry, I couldn't resist). I guessed a lot of the plot from that trailer, but I don't know if my assumptions are correct or not. What I found is that it's similar to the plot in Abyss in some ways.

So basically, the hero in Graces is named Asbel, and something happened to his village/town/city/home and killed everyone in the village(I'm guessing). He found this purple haired girl somewhere near the village at the time of the destruction of his home named Sophie. Since Asbel is alone, and she lost her memory, they traveled together and stuff. Years passed Asbel joined the knights because he "doesn't want to lose anyone anymore", so trained under this master-like person(I can't recall the name right now. Goldfish memory span). Time passed, and someone big died in the castle and the culprit was the master-like person. Yes, the master-like person is a bad guy.

If you pause for a second, and recall the background story of Abyss. Luke, the apprentice(are all apprentice's name Luke?? [Professor Layton]) trained under Van whom Luke calls him master, and guess what? He's a bad guy!

Back to Sophie, the purple haired girl for a bit. I'm guessing that she's not a real person. She's probably a machine, or something is implanted into her brain. I'm also guessing she's the one that destroyed Asbel's village, but something happened which caused her to lose her memory. That's basically the summary of plot I got from the trailer(more info than the opening!).

There's this character named Cherrie(I think), and I really really like her design. But I think I'll hate her personality, she seems like the person who is too... feminine. That's not the right word. You know how in games, drama, or TV shows, there is always this character who is always getting captured. The 'weak' one, if you will. Anyways, Cherrie just seems like she's that kind of character. Even her name suggests that. I'm hoping that I am wrong, but I'm pretty good at guessing what people are like just by taking a look at them... real life or fake (life...?).

I can't wait for the day they announce the release date of Tales of Graces in North America. While they're at it, they can also release Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology 2, Tales of Hearts, Tales of Innocence.. etc. =]

Here are the links to the songs and the opening for Tales of Graces and Tales of the Abyss:

Tales of the Abyss

Opening:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afp4jgCCzxk

Song: カルマ - BUMP OF CHICKEN　(Karma)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pz8A889diyQ

Tales of Graces

Opening:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKW-cHOTWew

Trailer:

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/tgs-09-tales-of/57583

Song: まもりたい~White Wishes~ - BoA (Want to protect)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dHP3ikuJ_A

~Daniel Chou