QCF: Dragon's Dogma II

he ever-growing presence of video games in pop culture meant that it was only inevitable for it to be a hacky trope in television melodramas and sitcoms. And dammit all if the interpretation of gaming on the silver screen isn’t just some of the cringiest shit any time they’re presented, or in some bizarre instances, how people play them (Tony Soprano playing Mario Kart 64 with one-hand lives rent-free in my head.) Why the random contrast though you ask? Well, one of the more frequent genres used for the trope is the fantasy RPG, often for an MMO sort of deal that’s supposed to espouse some sort of moral about teamwork or the dangers of game addiction. It’s common to see the settings for these fictional games that’s used for the TV show plots have some of the most superficial presentations or gameplay mechanics ever seen in games, and I won’t make any bones about it—Dragon’s Dogma II from Capcom looks and plays like one of the most egregious parodies of this concept…

I mean, the notion isn’t entirely a negative thing—there are instances of moment-to-moment gameplay in which Dragon’s Dogma II delivers this sort of absurdity that you’d either hear from another kid spouting off tall tales on the playground from your youth or see in a TGIF sitcom with the most slapdash workshop of combat mechanics. The naked truth of Dragon’s Dogma II being an unabashed remake trying to disguise itself as a full-fledged sequel aside, the potential chaos that you can derive from the surprisingly deep combat and vocation system is where the game really shines, even if it is a glorified “do-over.”

It’s just too bad the game has no real-world or personality to compliment the kind of excitement the action offers. Aside from a few novel twists on the tired medieval setup, Dragon’s Dogma II delivers fewer peaks than valleys, made all the more worse by the world-building in between. Just because Skyrim isn’t crowding it’s release window, doesn’t mean there haven’t been several other titles in recent memory like Final Fantasy XVI or Elden Ring that have done the premise significantly better.

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PPR 141

ven though some Video Games that are so good that you just want to play them over and over again, you can’t help but wish for them to get some tinkering under the hood to supe’ them up with the times. Luckily, there are plenty of titles getting new life again for the High Definition screen and a slew of other improvements for audiences both old and new, especially for some of those “Deep Cuts” that didn’t get their fair shake the first time around like Klonoa Phantasy Reverie or Pocky & Rocky Reshrined.

Still, there are a ton of other titles that could use the Remaster treatment, and we each have our own little personal wish list of software that we want to get a fresh coat of paint to share with y’all here on the latest episode of Press Pause Radio. Join Ed, Ren, and George as they go over a rundown of some cult-classics and sleeper-hits primed for the Ninth Generation of gaming!

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, and be sure to stop by at our Forums if you haven’t already registered and post your thoughts about the show. Finally, make sure to rate and subscribe to us on iTunes and YouTube, follow us on Twitch page and Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

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QCF: Toki

n somewhat of an ironic twist, one of the fondest memories I have with video games from my childhood isn’t a video game that I played on my television, but a show that I watched on my television about video games. As the 16-bit boom kicked off the nineties, Nickelodeon debuted Nick Arcade—a new game show that embraced the gimmickry of its video aesthetic with the grace of cat walking along a floor made of bubble-wrap.

While the show has only gotten hokier with age, it was vital for a Challenge segment that showcased some of the hottest new games in action on my television screen, something no issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly or GamePro could ever do, and one of those games was Toki: Going Ape Spit.

In a climate that was undeniably overwhelmed with action-platformers, Toki managed to stand out from all of the other classics that were lined up for the show with its bizarrely unattractive, yet colorfully sharp visuals, and surprisingly delicate balance of action and strategy for an arcade shooter. Decades later, the lumbering primate has suddenly slouched his way back into 2018 with a remastered remake of the arcade classic that mostly considered to be vaporware at this point, until the development of it was taken over, and then released by a French developer and publisher Microïds.

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QCF: Secret of Mana

ack when RPG’s were barely beginning to pick up in sales with western gamers in the 16-bit era, there was a humble release from a little-known company by the name of SquareSoft, named Secret of Mana—it revolutionized the genre for years to come.

Even 25 years after its initial launch on the SNES, the game has been ported time, and time again for the modern generation, with waves of new players also falling for its vibrant color palate, sprite work, and timeless action-oriented battle system. Strangely enough though, for all of the re-releases that Secret of Mana has seen, the game has never received a full-fledged remastered release on modern consoles up until now, with Square developing a new 3D rendered-revision exclusively for PlayStation 4, Vita, and Steam.

While the core gameplay from Koichi Ishii’s classic has still managed to have aged gracefully, the game engine’s translation over to a 3D-rendered world and models aren’t anywhere near as elegant as it should be, resulting in an admittedly beautiful, but undeniably underwhelming version of the beloved RPG.

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QCF: Crash Bandicoot: N Sane Trilogy

hile there are dozens upon dozens of gaming franchises that are languishing in obscurity these days, none have quite sparked the sort of fiery demand that Marsupial Mascot Crash Bandicoot has. The once revered Sony icon had recently resurfaced as a cameo character in the latest Skylanders entry, and the fan service in response proved that plenty of folks had still held onto their memories of the edgy Jorts-wearing furball fondly, which didn’t go unnoticed by Activison or Sony.

Wisely banking off of the nostalgia of the Bandicoots earlier titles during his prime, the two companies had finally decided to pull the trigger, Crash Bandicoot: N-Sane Trilogy, exclusively for the PlayStation 4, a remastered collection of the first three titles newly developed from the ground up by Vicarious Visions.

The question here however was never whether or not Crash Bandicoot could be brought back but rather, whether or not he SHOULD be—many of the charming elements of the series are also some of the same rough-edged quirks that relegate the games into being the clumsy 3D relics (pun gratifyingly intended) that they ultimately are.

While there are few conventions that haven’t aged well, and a few new glaring issues that weren’t there before, the trilogy still manages to iron out a lot of the wrinkles of the originals, delivering a wonderful compilation of the Bandicoot’s early outings that both fans, and new comers alike.

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QCF: DuckTales Remastered

s binary as the term “remake” would suggest by definition, the reality can actually elicit a variety of responses, anywhere from positive to “this is horse-shit.”  I’ve mentioned nostalgia quite a number of times and the sensitivity that revolves around applying it when you’re remaking a game versus re-releasing it.

The dilemma of mishandling swings both ways, you either desecrate the source material and kick the loyalists right in the childhood, or you over coat your product with the rose-tinted sugar of reminiscence that panders down memory lane instead, isolating your audience from the youngsters who’re late to the party, and just don’t get what the fuss was all about.  There are certain exceptions to this scenario, where the experience is so brilliant that they’re regarded as a timeless treat to everyone who plays them—to be completely honest, DuckTales is not one of those exceptions; and that what makes DuckTales Remastered amazing…WayForward recognized that the sacred cow wasn’t beyond the flaws of time.

The studio famous for injecting whimsy and charm, made subtle tweaks to an admittedly aged but solid formula, and in the process, adapted a twenty-four year old gem into a game that appeals to everyone in today’s video game generation.

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QCF: Y's I & II Chronicles+

This Review was Frelanced by Johnathan Sawyer; you can find his other work here.

 storm had arrived. Nothing could pass through this supposedly impenetrable "Stormwall," as it had come to be called. The land looked as though it would be seeing its final days, until a lone man with fiery-red hair washed up on the shores of Esteria... It is here in Ys I & II Chronicles+ that the saga of Adol the Red begins and puts several memorable marks into the pages of gaming history along the way.

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