Cooking with Kyle: Episode 3

This time we have a double meal special. I will be showing one meal I made for breakfast and one for dinner. Let's start in chronological order.

Breakfast

As usual we begin with a shot of our ingredients.

A proper breakfast is composed at least partly of eggs, and somewhere between partly and completely bacon.

Starting from the left we have the remains of my baguette seen in Episode 1. These posts are more spread out than the actual time between cooking, so that hunk of bread is not completely stale I promise. The bacon is cut in half because... that's the way I found it. It ended up being a good size for my purposes.

I really just like cutting holes in bread.

I scrambled the egg up with a fork. Some may tell you to add milk, I will tell you it doesn't matter. I then sliced up my bread and hollowed out the slices with a knife. Honestly those two should have been done in the reverse order. I had some notion that hollowing the bread first would make the rings squish up when I cut them, but I could have easily unsquished them.

This photo shows that I am, in fact, not a chef.

I placed my bread slices in a good-sized buttered pan. I then put a half slice of bacon inside each bread hole (I had cooked the bacon in another pan) and followed up with scooping egg into each hole. This was the most difficult part of the procedure, because a.) egg is a stubborn... liquid?... and doesn't like to come up in a spoon and b.) most of the egg spilled through the bottom of the bread. I had to scramble another two eggs to fill all the holes. As you may be able to guess, this was far more than one person can eat.

I scraped the extra egg into the trash, 'cause I'm a privileged little shit.

And here is the final product, alongside chocolate milk: the ale of little boys. I put some salt on top and it was quite good. Cooking eggs in a regular piece of bread is better though. There is less spillage, one slice = one egg, and you can leave the yoke intact so you can crack it when eating and get the goopy good stuff all over your plate. (And let someone else do the dishes.) The advantage to this method is the pieces can be picked up by hand and are two-bites size.

Dinner

INGREDIENTS.

White stuff, white stuff, egg (Also white).

From left to right: flour, milk, one egg. The milk and flour are unmeasured, they aren't going into a pot or anything, so it isn't important to take measurements. Although I did have quite a bit excess flour in the end. Same with milk, but you need enough milk to balance the egg. I don't have a photo of the egg mixed with the milk, but that is what you do. It is better to whisk the egg in the bowl and then add the milk.

Did you think my only two ingredients were milk, egg and flour?

Here are the main ingredients. As you can see I used plain Panko bread crumbs, the style and brand are up to the individual but I like Panko. Mixed in are 3 pinches each of salt, pepper, and thyme (pronounced "time"). Different people like different spices, and I mean to experiment myself in the future, but S&P with some thyme is the way I learned it. To the right we have chicken thighs. I meant to grab boneless breast, but my freezer is a conglomerate of different chicken parts that all look the same to me.

It always puts me off how clearly you can see the meat past the crumbs.

The photo above was taken after skipping a few steps. While I was setting up all my prep work, I set the pan to high heat with about 1/3 cup of olive oil (I didn't measure) and two tablespoons of butter. Canola oil and vegetable work just as well as olive, canola being the healthiest. The chicken itself you cover in the ingredients set up earlier, in the order I presented them: flour, egg/milk mixture, and then bread crumbs. Then I dropped my chicken in the pan (lightly, mind you) and lowered the temperature. You want the temperature low to give the chicken time to cook through without overcooking the outside. I didn't time the cooking at all, it's safe to leave on for quite awhile (especially with bones). 

Bread crumbs make everything looks so good.

After, waiting, flipping, and waiting again, my chicken was done. There are only two shone because the others went to my parents. I checked their done-ness by cutting them open, looking for running blood. I didn't make any sides, but the chicken was quite good. You might not think something this tasty was so simple to make, the only difficulty being the knowledge of ingredients.

With that we are finished. What would I do differently next time? For the breakfast: more ingredients. Add anything you think is good in an omelette. I'd like to try salsa next time, it is strangely quite good with egg. The chicken was fine, I would just toy with spices. Hope you enjoyed this episode, I'll try to make one more episode before I leave for school.

Cooking with Kyle: Episode 2

For this episode I shied away from healthy things like broccoli. Because for every vitamin and mineral I consume, there must be 100 carbs and protein and mounds of sodium. Let's get underway!

Pork and beef unite after an age of war and hatred.

So here we have our ingredients: Meat, cheese, and Honey BBQ sauce, the three staples of any decent meal. I have already latticed the bacon into a weave, half of which is turkey and half regular. I didn't have enough of either on hand for the weave. Center we have two patties worth of ground beef (which was too much) and right we have some unmeasured amount of shredded mild cheddar. This is the components of a bacon explosion, but I wanted to try assembling the pieces differently this time.

Close-up of the weave. You are supposed to alternate thin and fat sides of bacon, which I don't remember doing.

We only use the finest instruments in Kyle's kitchen.

After letting the weave bake in the oven for 10-ish minutes I pulled it out, put a bowl on it, and sliced out a circle. I'll let you keep guessing where this is going.

The bowl was just a ruse, I actually just cut the shape of a a head and then uncut the details to make a perfect circle.

That isn't tin-foil, it's a pure sheet of silver.

After making the circle I mushed up some tin-foil silver and placed it on the weave. I actually had to compact it more than what is shown.

The reason this is so fuzzy is because I was simultaneously juggling kitchen knives. That were on fire.

I put the bacon back in the oven to finish and then cooked my beef in the meantime. I added the cheese near the end which in hindsight was a mistake. The shredder I had available made very fine slices and the cheddar tends to easily cling it itself, and in the end I got clumps of the stuff instead of an even distribution.

Won't find these at a fine dining restaurant. (Or any self-respecting one)

In the end, I was attempting to make a bacon taco. The weave held it's shape okay, but the edges broke apart a little and the "shell" was way too malleable to be eaten like a taco. I ended up having to go at it with a fork and knife. It was still quite delicious.

So what do we do to make it better next time? Primarily, cook the bacon for quite awhile longer. I didn't want to cook it that long because I didn't want it to become too crispy and lose all its tastiness. But you sort of have to make that sacrifice to actually create a shell. Making the whole weave turkey bacon may remedy the problem, because the turkey is naturally stiffer and more inclined to hold a shape.There are also probably better methods to giving the bacon it's shape. I saw one guy online drape it over a pair of skewers resting atop oven-safe cups. I'd also like to have more toppings, to make it more akin to a taco, and less like a taco-shaped bacon explosion.

This one was for the meat-lovers, and I already have the photos for the next episode, which actually resulted the way I had intended. Stay tuned!

Cooking with Kyle: Episode 1

So a couple days ago I decided to try and get a little creative in the kitchen, which was likely a bad idea because I don't typically cook. Like... at all. But when I got underway I decided to record the process so I could share it with the world, because what else is cooking good for if not being a conceited bastard about it?

All jokes aside let's start on my first dish. This was pretty much inspired by (and more or less stolen) from Panera Bread. I looked up the recipe online and more or less followed it but did a few things on my own. The end result was bread and cheddar broccoli soup.

For my bread I chose a French Baguette. Say what you want of the french, they make some good bread. The typical fashion of Panera is to use bread bowls, but I had my own ideas.

Here the poor bread victim is already hacked into pieces by the cruel... me.

I cut the Baguette in half, only to surmise that even in half it was too long for the knife I was going to use to hollow it out with. (The far left one) So I skimmed a bit more off.

The bane of any respectable toddler: vegetables.

Some of the other "prep work" as they call it in the biz, other than assembling other ingredients I didn't take pictures of because they were boring, involved dicing up the the stuff that would eventually go in the soup. I didn't use any particular method here, I just kind of hacked at the broccoli from four different angles. The recipe called for a half-pound of the green stuff. I used a head of broccoli, which is more or less a half-pound, but even then it seemed a bit much so I tossed some excess into the trash.

The carrots are supposed to be julienned, which is a fancy chef cut, for you uncultured savages. But I was working with baby carrots, and trying to julienne baby carrots is like trying to balance on a wet twig whilst in stilts.  So, I just hacked at them from four different angles. The recipe called for a cup of the orange stuff, but again, cutting baby carrots kind of sucks, so in the end I got maybe close to 3/4 of that before throwing my knife into the wall. (Not really guys calm down.) 

Pictured in the far right is shredded mild cheddar cheese. The recipe called for sharp, but honestly I just bought the stuff that I thought was supposed to go in while I was shopping before looking up the recipe. I also just don't care, and neither should you. Recipe wanted a cup, I went a little over, because I like cheese.

Would you eat this? I wouldn't.

Skip a few steps and we've reached the picture above. This was after throwing in roughly 2 tablespoons of butter and 1/4 a cup of flour in a pot, mixing for 5 minutes, and then putting in a cup of milk. The recipe wanted half-&-half but as usual, I just didn't care. Milk is where it's at. It really doesn't matter. Also you're supposed to put in onions which should have been cooked in another pan. But I didn't have onions, and even if I did, I probably would have left them out to avoid cleaning another pan. Who needs onions anyway?

15 minutes later, my concoction is looking no closer to being edible.

This photos was taken at some point after adding a cup of chicken stock. Chicken stock is a fairly gross substance, both in appearance and in matter of being acquired. It is also the only component making this recipe unfriendly to vegetarians. However it provides the soup with much of it's flavor.

I tried pretty hard to avoid making dirty jokes about this.

While the soup was simmering (and at one point overflowing) I hollowed out my bread. I just sorta stuck my knife in there and wiggled it around until stuff came out. (I said I TRIED). This was easier than I expected, and the piece of bread on the cutting board is not all that I cut out (I ate the rest).

Now we're talking.

After the chicken broth and other stuff had simmered for 20 minutes, I put in the veggies. This photo was taken ANOTHER 20 minutes after that, after the soup cooked on low heat. By this point my stomach was a cavernous maw of  rumbling spite. For spices there is a pinch or three of salt as well as pepper, and some amount of oregano.

I call it gloop-in-a-tube.

And here we have a finished product. The idea was to mimic the typical bread bowl, but instead put it in a roll so that you could hold it and one hand and just take bites off the top like a bread popsicle, getting soup and bread in a harmonious mixture. Unfortunately whenever I took a bite the bread condensed and the soup had nowhere to go but up and out (and onto my pants). So instead I ate it like a push pop, squeezing with my hand to push goop out of the stick and into my mouth (oh god I'm so sorry). And then just I just bit and ripping of the newly empty piece of bread near the top. It worked just as well, creating an easy to eat handheld bread bowl.

The portions I used could easily feed three people, so I had some leftovers. While I was eating my delicious soup and bread combo, the leftover soup had cooled and half-hardened into a pasty substance. Being the quick-thinking culinary deviant that I am, I decided to use it as a spread, and put it on some sliced (un-hollowed)  pieces of my baguette. (Remember that extra piece I cut off in the beginning? I'm actually just a genius at planning ahead).  I ate this just like cheese and crackers, and the soup is just as good after hardening a bit. It definitely tastes better warm though, so if you have leftovers don't be afraid to microwave them the next day.

In the end, this was a huge success, even though really my only original ideas were putting the soup in a baguette instead of a bowl, and on sliced bread. If I would change anything next time it would be to try and keep the walls of the bread a little bit thicker, because the soup-to-bread ratio was a little off. Also I was afraid the thin walls would burst at any moment and thoroughly ruin my day.

And there you have it, I hope you enjoyed my cooking process and was inspired to make this dish yourself. There are probably several recipes online just Google it and pick one you like. (I picked the second link because the e first was a to Panera's catering service.)

Game Review: Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate (MH3U or just MH from here on out, because there is no way I am typing that whole name every time) is the newest addition to the Monster Hunter Franchise. This game is not to be confused with Monster Hunter 3, Monster Hunter Tri, or Monster Hunter Portable 3rd (This series has ridiculous naming conventions). MH3U was recently released for both the Wii U and 3DS systems. Both versions of the game are exactly the same in terms of content, with some difference between network play (I'll get to that later).

Monster Hunter is one of those series that's always been a huge hit in Japan with only a cult following in Western markets, but in the past years has been gaining more widespread popularity. Of course, now it is widely enjoyed by Westerners, and we can look forward to having access to most future Monster Hunter Games.

One thing to note about this franchise is that every game in the series is pretty much the same game. New games tend to add access to new weapon types, equipment, monsters, zones, and items, but make no changes to gameplay (other than doing some fine tuning and re-balancing here and there.) What this means is after buying one game you are probably good for awhile, and can possibly skip out on the entire next game. I don't really have a problem with Capcom pushing out games with slight additions every time (think Call of Duty syndrome) so this won't be something that detracts from the score, because the only way it could negatively affect my experience is players migrating to newer games leaving older game servers empty in online play (which will not happen anywhere near enough in the future for me to still be playing the game). With all that said and done, let's start the review!
Warning: Blogger destroyed the formatting and I can't get the Heading to re-size.

Story

I decided to get the easy part out of the way first. There is no story. WELL, there is some kind of story, but it is so trite and basic, it really only serves to explain what your role in the game is. You are a hunter who hunts giant village-eating monsters for money. You have been sent to Moga Village to fell the Lagiacrus, a giant Lightning-spewing crocodile. In your quest to fell the beast, you train by fighting weaker monsters, and when you finally kill it... well there's just more things to kill!

The Lagiacrus

And that's about it. The story isn't so much story as it is exposition. Now, is this a problem? No, not really. While I love me a story driven game, a story would make this game fall apart. You see, a story demands character development, progression, and a world to explore. This game does not require you to really progress anywhere, you can sit around and fight the same monsters over and over all day. A story would pretty much remove the repeatable fights aspect part of this game, you simply can't have both. Of course, ignoring story, the writing in this game is actually quite good. Some dialogue interactions between NPCs can be quite funny or charming, which is always nice. In summary, this game is pretty much entirely gameplay driven, if you want a game where you fight huge monsters AND have a good story go play Shadow of the Colossus.

Gameplay

Okay this game is pretty much ALL gameplay, so I will break this down into subsections to prevent a giant blob of text.

Controls

MH has always been known for its crisp and responsive controls, and I can attest to that. I haven't noticed any latency, and the player character is always doing what I tell it to do. The rare exception to this might be underwater combat, where orienting your character in a 3D space often confuses what direction you are facing, what direction you are moving, and what direction the camera is in. This can cause you to dodge expecting to go one way, and go another. I will get more into underwater combat later. Overall, the controls are quite good, but take some getting used to. Being able to customize the buttons (a feature which way too many modern games are missing) would have been nice, but after playing the game for awhile I don't have complaints for the setup. Warning: using a ranged weapon takes the most getting used to.

Pace

Now, to the observer, MH appears to be slow, your character taking long, dedicated attacks, and moving around at a veritable crawl. This puts a lot of people off from the game (myself included until I decided to stop making assumptions and play it). The pacing of combat is one of the things that makes MH what it is. The attacks and movement are slow to create balance, you are not some hack-and-slashing pseudo-god, you are a human wielding giant swords. The sluggish speed forces you to plan your attacks wisely, waiting for the monster you are hunting to leave itself open, and finding an opportunity to strike without suffering a counterattack. Some weapons are quite fast, but you still need to pay attention to monster mannerisms to find the chance to attack or suffer taking a ton of damage. So be warned: this is not your day-to-day hack and slash adventure. Attacking requires thought, precision, and timing, as well as knowing when to get away. Also, once you are playing the game, it feels a lot less slow. You start to get caught up in the heat of the battle,and each individual action has so much weight behind it, that it makes the game very intense, and makes fights feel like they are happening quite fast. One second you could be at full health and the next the monster just tackled you and took out a third of your health because you were too dedicated to your attack.

Preparation

Another huge part of MH is the preparation for the hunt. You are in fact hunting monsters, which have varying attributes and attack patterns. Much of the time your success is determined by the items and gear you bring to the fight. Did you bring antidotes to the monster that spews poison? Did you wear armor that has low fire resist to the fire-breathing dragon? Does your weapon have an elemental advantage against what you are fighting? These are all thing you have to worry about when preparing to fight a large monster (more so later in the game). Preparing can often be a tedious process, hunting down the items you need for potions or finishing your armor set is task that takes time and dedication, and that brings us to our next topic.

Grinding

Another thing that turns people off about Monster Hunter is the grindy aspects to it. There are a TON of items in game. With a huge quantity of gathering supplies and usable items, comes a lot of grinding. You will often have to go out into the field to mine rocks, catch bugs, or gather berries just to make sure you have the essentials you need to make items. Fortunately, the game helps you out a bit with the Felyne farm, where you can set anthropomorphic cat slaves to till the fields and breed bugs for you. Of course, this process costs another resource, actually called resource points. These resource points are also used to hire fishing boats to get treasure and well, fish for you while you are off questing, and to make improvements to your farm and masks for your Cha-Cha. To get these resource points, you must visit the Moga Woods while not doing a quest and... hunt monsters. This is slightly less annoying than gathering resources, because combat is fun and you can often find monsters whose parts you need to complete armor or weapons anyway. That brings us to the next thing, armor and weapons in this game are made from the parts of your dead enemies (pretty fucking sweet) and you hardly ever get enough parts from one hunt to make an entire armor set or a weapon. This means you will be fighting the monsters you want to fashion equipment from over and over, often being required to break a part (basically damage it enough until it gets smashed, torn, falls off, etc) or capture the monster just to have a chance of acquiring the item you need. This isn't as terrible as it sound, because this allows for you to grow as a player, learning monsters inside and out and getting down to a science your ability to attack weak points. The grinding isn't terrible, but making gathering and resource points less of a chore could be an improvement.

Equipment

So once you've found all the pieces you need, you can start forging weapons and armor, with some Zeni (in-game currency) as well. The game usually provides you with enough Zeni from quest regards to forge your stuff (especially considering you will be redoing quests to get parts), however do not expect to make every set of armor and every weapon. There are 12 weapon types, every weapon has a huge weapon tree, and every monster has a light and heavy armor set. Every couple of monster you may choose to complete an armor set,  but I feel like completing every set would drive you crazy. Maybe as a completionist thing once you've beaten all the monsters. A lot of the time you have un-matching armor pieces and just look ridiculous, but complete sets tend to look rather cool, and the design for most armors is very good. In this game, there are no level ups, and all stats and abilities are determined by your weapon and armor. Skills are armor attributes, and a piece of armor will give somewhere between -3 and +3 to a skill, usually giving a bonus at + 10 and +15 and a detriment at -10/-15. For example a level 10 Poison skill will grant you immunity to Poison, while -10 will increase damage you take when poisoned. Completing an armor set from a monster typically yields +10 in at least one skill (usually closer to 3 skills) and getting you to -10 or close to it in another skill. Sometimes you will want to complete an armor set for a skill that will be particularly useful against a boss. You can also equip one accessory, which will usually give a big bonus to one skill. Also some armor and weapons have up to three decoration slots, filled with decorations you can make at the forge that provide small bonuses and/or detriments to your skills. Armor, obviously, provides a defense stat which reduces damage. Finally, armor gives you plus or minus points to your elemental defenses, providing you protection form or weakening you to elemental attacks. Weapons can also be imbued with these elemental attacks, or with status effects such as poison or paralyze. The armor system is very in depth and expansive, and is a huge part of making proper preparations. Bringing the right gear to the right fight makes a world of difference.

Combat

I went over most of what makes combat unique in the Pace section. But basically combat is a third person action affair. You have to control the camera yourself, with no lock on, but a feature to snap the camera onto the monster (it won't stay there). Like I said before, combat is all about knowing when to attack and when to retreat, how to dodge, and where to attack, all of which comes from experience of fighting the monsters. This makes growth in the game largely skill based, not determined entirely by your stats.

Underwater Combat

I am not sure how I feel about underwater combat. It adds a whole new dimension to the game, as well as allowing the addition of a bunch of new types of monsters. Typically more is always better. The thing is, underwater combat is kind of annoying. Camera control and movement is a lot harder underwater, and dodging isn't nearly as efficient. Underwater fighting can be very irritating at times, but I don't want it removed from the game, it simply adds too much to the scope. Just let it be known that, in my opinion, fighting on land is a ton more fun.

Multiplayer

A lot of people would say that the heart of the game is in Multiplayer. I would agree. Nothing is better than assembling a hunting band of friends, getting prepped, and fighting an epic battle with a monster (whose difficulty is scaled for online play). Most monsters that appear online also appear in single player, but sometimes the quests are different, such as hunting multiple large monsters in one run. The online system also has its own quest ranking, and after beating all the quests and an urgent quest for one ranking, you get promoted to the next Hunter Rank. There is also an Arena that allows you and your friends to dive right into combat with some pre-built gear sets. In Arena you pick one of these pre-built sets and fight a large monster in one area, and are rewarded with coins that you can use to forge guild armor or sell for cash.

Difference Between Wii U and 3DS

From what I understand , in Japan, Monster Hunter is more popular on mobile systems because people like to walk around and play on the go, meeting their friends and what not. This explains why Monster Hunter 4 will be 3DS exclusive. While having a mobile version is nice, the 3DS does not have a second analog stick, making camera control a pain. In addition, The 3DS version does not have Network Mode, you can only play with others close by through LAN. To balance things I guess, the Wii U cannot play through other Wii U systems through LAN, but can act as the host for up to three 3DS users (which is how you do cross console play). It seems kind of silly to not give both systems Network and LAN, and to allow multiple Wiis to DSes. I don't really know much about the complexity of implementing such a system but it's kind of annoying. For example me and my roommate both have the Wii U version, but disconnect from each others games without fail around 20-30 minutes in. We've looked it up, no one else is having problems so it's not the servers, and the only suggested fix was changing ports on our router, which we can't do because we live in University Apartments and aren't allowed to modify the routers. The Wii U also does not have an Ethernet port. You can buy a USB to Ethernet for $8 online, but my point is that not having Ethernet and not providing LAN is a headache to users with spotty wireless connections. In summary, the online features are great and expand the game, but usability can be an issue.

Graphics and Animation

Playing the Wii U version, everything looks fine. The game doesn't have super realism, and it shouldn't. The design and aesthetics fit the feel of the game. Textures and shadows in the landscape could use some updating, but it doesn't take too much away from the game, since the focus is on you and the monster your fighting. The monsters themselves have great detail, and the models look very good. 

As for animation, most of the animations flow very well, your characters attacks look natural, swings with large weapons taking a long time to start and follow through. Most of the monsters' attacks are animated pretty well, but sometimes their attacks seem very jerky, almost as if their body is moving but their parts are not. It doesn't happen a lot, but sometimes a monster attack or movement looks wholly unnatural. A good example is the Barioth.

The Barioth

I think these jerky animations are due to an attempt to make the monster move suddenly, giving an air of speed and agility, but come off wrong. Again this case is quite rare, and I can forgive it because, seriously, it's a SNOW SABER-TOOTH DRAGON. That's really fucking cool.

Badassery

So I decided to include a new topic not really used in formal reviews. One thing that always attracted me to Monster Hunter was the idea that you were a small and ordinary human fighting giant, awesome creatures. David versus Golaith type scenarios are always really cool because you feel like a badass taking down these giant, terrifying Dragons, Leviathans, and Bipedal Mound-Bearing Tail-Smashy things.

Pictured: A Giant Bipedal Mound-Bearing Tail-Smashy thing.

Few other games allow for this epic scale of combat. Some that come to mind are Shadow of the Colossus, Lost Planet, Dark Souls, and God of War. But Monster Hunter is unique in that the giant monsters are the entire focus of the game, and unlike Shadow of the Colossus, has a TON of different monsters. Also, as I mentioned before, some of the armor from these guys looks really sweet.

SOUND

MH is not one of those games accompanied by a magnificent orchestral soundtrack because of the lack of story. Music should fit the atmosphere of the game, and there aren't any plot points with heightened emotions to allow for the sweeping instrumental pieces in other games. The little music there is in Moga Village and that starts when you first enter an area does fit the locales pretty well. Monster cries are all fitting and well done across the board. The weapons attacks sound good, but could be a bit grittier or more realistic. Most melee sounds are the sounds of swooshing the air and contact on an enemy doesn't exactly sound like you are cutting flesh. It's fine as is, but it could be interesting to hear more realistic sound effects.

Verdict

Monster Hunter is another niche game, one that I believe that needs to continue to exist to fill its role in the world. Though the barrier of entry is rather high, and the game has brought me to curses, it is a very fun, action-packed, and rewarding experience. The gameplay has been polished and perfected over many generations, and the sheer length of the game is impressive. Definitely a game to get your hands on if you have the new Nintendo systems and the combat sounds like it's up your alley.

Lows:

• Needs work on textures/up-scaling to Wii U's capabilities.
• Good multiplayer, but questionable accessibility.
• Item grinding (not monster parts) provides some variance, but becomes a nuisance.
• A couple unnatural animations on monsters.

Highs:

• Hundreds of hours of potential gameplay.
• Completionist aspects in terms of gear to be had.
• Insanely fun and rewarding combat once you get a hang of it.
• Hunting with friends (and strangers!) is a ton of fun.
• Hunting giant monsters is awesome.

Score: 9/10. This game is very refined, and the problem areas are small to unnoticeable.

MTG: Dragon's Maze First Impressions

For all you Magic: The Gathering Players, the newest set in the Return to Ravnica expansion was fully spoiled today. The Prerelease is this coming weekend, and I'm very excited. Mainly because I love prerelease events and the sealed deck format. But also because Dragon's Maze looks like it will be an awesome set, and a ton of fun in limited. So let's get underway.

Some Notes about this Post

What it is: A first impressions of the cards spoiled on the MTG website. Please acknowledge that no one has played with these cards yet, and often times cards get overvalued or undervalued before release and they perform differently than expected. Also, please note that this review will be geared towards the formats I play in, which will be EDH, Standard, and Limited. Some cards are good in every format, some in one, some in two. I will try to specify whether a card is generally good or if it is only good in one format and which format that is. Please do not assume any cards are being reviewed for Modern, Legacy, Vintage, or other formats.

What it isn't: A full set review. I will be highlighting some cards I find interesting, not all of them. This is also not a professional review. While I consider myself to be above average skill, I am not a professional, and I don't play very frequently now that I am in college. I still stay up to date with Standard through videos and articles and whatnot, and EDH and limited are formats that typically stay the same and are easy to read good cards for.

Okay let's get underway for real.

Guild Champions

Ah, the flagship of the set. The champions are a great idea, giving each guild a rare legendary creature that represents and exemplifies the mechanics and flavor of that guild. Guilds in general are something players get behind, and this takes it to the next level. I will not review each individual champion, all of them except for Emmara are pretty neat, even if they aren't all playable.

Vorel of the Hull Clade

Possibly my favorite champion. This may have something to do with me leaning towards Simic as my favorite guild (tied with Izzet). Having a new Gilder Bairn is really cool, doubling counters being a fairly powerful effect. Unfortunately in Standard there is no +1/+1 counter deck for this guy to find a home with, and I doubt there will be one even after release. Standard decks typically do not follow a theme, instead being an assemblage of spells that are powerful by themselves. Synergy helps, but isn't the primary goal. Nevertheless I'll probably throw this guy in my Mimeoplasm EDH deck, and he's great in limited, providing a big butt and making your evolve creatures much better. I just like +1/+1 counters, okay?

Emmara Tandris and Mirko Vosk, Mind Drinker

These cards are unfortunate creatures that could have been a lot better/cooler with better design. Emmara has already received PLENTY of hate for being so bland and boring, when the Guild Champions were supposed to have neat effects that exemplified their guild. Mark Rosewater explained that this was because originally the champions were mythics, and she was designed with a really neat ability, but when the cards were swapped to rare because Ral Zarek was taking up the Blue-Red mythic slot, her ability and Power/Toughness were swapped with a Green-White rare that was far more boring. Emmara isn't even a big bomb in limited, costing 7 mana, she's essentially just a big dude, and if you have a bunch of creature tokens you might be winning anyway. Oh well, sucks to be a Selesnya player. Mirko Vosk, on the other hand, is plenty flavorful, being a throwback to popular classic Mind Funeral stapled to a creature. The thing is, he's a bad creature. A five mana 2/4 with flying is way below the curve, even with his ability. Also note he has to deal combat damage for the trigger. Making him a 4/4 or making the ability trigger just by attacking would have been very reasonable. Compare this card to Nemesis of Reason, from Alara block.

SEVEN toughness. This thing doesn't have evasion or a lot of power, because it does't matter, it's just attacking to mill, you don't even have to deal damage. That big booty means it's sticking around for awhile. And ten cards right off the top instead of 4 lands is arguably better (and probably statistically better in most cases, I haven't done the math, leave me alone). Still, at least Mirko is really good in limited. I just think that it is unfortunate that these two cards had their potential squandered.

Varolz, the Scar Striped

Along with Ruric Thar, the Unbowed and Exava, Rakdos Blood Witch, this guy is the most playable in standard. Exava has to compete with Huntmaster of the Fells and Falkenrath Aristocrat at the 4 CMC spot, but I'm sure she will make it into some decks. However I'm not sure what creatures that cost more than 4 will benefit from it's haste giving ability. Ruric Thar is obviously just the beats, and an excellent punisher card. Good EDH General for all the Timmies out there. Varolz is my favorite of the three because his flavor seems the best, it captures Golgari magnificently, and his ability screams a build around me deck that uses a bunch of little guys. Another contender for coolest general of the set. Lavinia of the Tenth may also see standard play as a sideboard card against red aggro or mid-range decks. Protection is a very powerful keyword, but I don't think she's quite up to par with these other three.

Mythic Rares

The other most exciting part of the set, Mythic Rares! Where we get to throw all our money at cardboard rectangles that are dreadfully overpowered. Sweet.

Blood Baron of Vizkopa

Wow this card is ridiculous. A five mana 4/4 with Lifelink is on par with the typical curve, but protection from TWO colors is ridiculous. Protection is one of the most powerful abilities in Magic, making cards invulnerable to entire decks at times. White and black are also two very relevant colors, blocking out pretty much all relevant spot removal in standard, the notable exception being Mizzium Mortars. Lifelink with a nice body and evasion against two colors makes this guy really hard to race. The second block of text will likely hardly be relevant, but is always there to wrap up the game. Possibly the most powerful card in the set.

Reap Intellect and Master of Cruelties

Two cards that cost too much mana for what they do. Rakdos's Return is simply better than Reap Intellect. Who needs to gut their deck when they don't have a hand any more? Master of cruelties is bad, costs way too much for that body to be relevant. Sorry guys.

Ral Zarek

The flagship Planeswalker for this set, and one I've been anticipating as a red-blue player.This guy seems really good. I'm still a bit doubtful though, because his +1 doesn't seem all to great, maybe good in mid-range versus mid-range where you can finagle with you and your opponents creatures to swing combat in your favor. Lightning bolt is sweet, there are a lot of 3 toughness creatures around, but there are also a lot with 4. A lot people also highlighted how he can untap a land for mana, or tap an opponents land to shut them off from an instant, making him nice against control. Just remember they can tap the mana in response and leave it floating so tap it in the first main phase, and cast your spell in the second main phase after their mana pool empties. This however uncovers one problem with the ability: you can typically only take advantage of one half of it at a time. You can't tap a blocker and untap your won attacker. You can't mana ramp and deny your opponent mana. Somewhat unfortunate. The -7 seems reachable, and really quite good. While leaving things up to luck is questionable, statistics tell us that most of the time it will be two or three extra turns (some dude on Reddit did the math a while ago, I'm not gonna go find it right now), which can be game ending if the board is a stalemate and you've been using the +1. I did some cross comparison with Liliana of the Veil considering they will probably both come down and kill something. Either's -2 is situationally better, but Ral can do it twice in a row and die. However to me Liliana's +1 seems a lot more relevant, and it can cripple decks that don't have an answer to her while losing their hand. Plus she only costs 3, and also has a very good and reachable ultimate. On his own merits Ral is great, but I don't think he's as good as Liliana. Will see play in Standard, but let's see what happens.

Deadbridge Chant and Progenitor Mimic

These cards are both AWESOME in EDH. While Deadbridge's power level there is questionable, it's fun level definitely isn't. Unfortunately it is too slow for Standard, and while you should play it in your limited deck, milling 10 might be risky and it's not the bombiest thing you could be running. Progenitor Mimic might see play in Standard, and in my opinion Clone abilities have always been sort of underrated in standard, along with Mind Control abilities. It kind of costs a lot for a clone, and if you cloned the opponent's big threat when you had an empty board you don't really want to trade with the creature you just cloned when it attacks you until you start producing tokens. However, this seems like an auto-include in rampy/stompy decks with sweet clone targets like Thragtusk or Master Biomancer. (Oh god if you could pull it off on a Master Biomancer that would be so sweet.)

Voice of Resurgence

This is the card that swapped text with Emmara, and it is in fact, awesome. I may be overvaluing it but free, probably big creatures any time the opponent gets instant happy? A real pain in the early game for control decks that want to be thinking twice and keeping counterspells open instead on main phase killing your Voice of Resurgence. Seems like an auto-include in creature heavy decks because even if the opponent isn't casting a lot of instants you get a Crusader of Odric for free even when it dies. Another one of the very powerful cards in the set.

There are a couple other Mythics I didn't mention here because they are kind of boring. In summary: Savageborn Hydra is too slow for Standard (probably even combining it with Vorel), bomb in limited, probably not good enough for EDH. Legion's Initiative is a nice cheap anthem with added functionality. The color restriction is unfortunate, because there aren't many Red-White exclusive decks. The mass flicker could be crazy, but I don't want to think too hard about it, and most creatures with sick ETB abilities aren't White/Red except for Restoration Angel. Still a good card. Council of the Absolute seems pretty sick, either silencing problem cards or making your spells cost cheaper. Someone will probably think of something crazy to do with the second ability, but it's generally really good to make your huge spells cheap or get some free usage on your X spells (maybe it could make Reap Intellect playable?).

Other Interesting Cards

ZOMG THEY REPRINTED MANA DRAIN GUIZE. But seriously, this is pretty neat. I think the mana cost is too restrictive to see play in Standard, but that won't stop some people from trying, and maybe they'll prove me wrong. Of course, awesome for EDH, where mana cost doesn't matter.

Putrefy

Sick reprint. Unconditional instant speed removal is something Standard is missing right now. Between this, Abrubt Decay, and Dreadbore, Jund (BRG) has a lot of premium removal to work with. Most decks with Green and Black will be picking this guy up. I don't think the Artifact destruction is relevant right now. 

Renegade Krasis

When I build Standard Decks, I build on a budget. One of the two decks I've been looking to build is an evolve tempo deck, and this guy definitely seems to help towards that goal. I don't think he'll get too expensive because he's a build-around-me mechanic card, which usually doesn't spawn decks. This is because in the immortal words of some dude on Reddit (who may have been quoting someone else): "There are no good mechanics, only good cards." I'll test with this guy at the very least. Going back on that quote though, evolve is a very good limited mechanic in general, because most evolve creatures have decent P/T for their mana cost and pretty much always evolve at least once the turn after, sending them above the curve.

Nivix Cyclops, Fluxcharger, and Dragonshift

The other budget deck I want to build for Standard is a Red Blue deck with a focus on instants and sorceries. The creatures above will definitely be underplayed and rather cheap, and I believe the same will be true for Dragonshift, but someone may use it for their finisher and make it popular. Nivix Cyclops has an ability that has appeared on several creatures, the most notable and recent being Kiln Fiend, which was used in some Red Deck Wins variants when it was in standard with mixed success. It was generally regarded to be a good card, but RDW had quite a bit of opposition it had trouble overcoming at the time. The cyclops costs one more, but has a bigger but so can block and attack with more safety. The thing is Standard has some really good over the curve creatures right now such as Loxodon Smiter that Nivix Cyclops just can't compete with, but that is why my deck would have plenty of tricks up its sleeve. It won't be the best deck, but it will be a decent budget decks with my own unique style on it, which is largely what makes Magic enjoyable for me. Dragonshift synergizes pretty nicely with the Cyclops, turning it into a 7/4 with flying for a turn (if I understand the rules correctly, which I'm pretty sure I do). Fluxcharger might not make the cut, because 4 mana is high for my intended curve, and I need the deck to have as few creatures as possible. I will play-test with it, but we will see. Other creatures the deck may feature include: Delver of Secrets, Goblin Electromancer, and Guttersnipe. I had a half finished version of this deck before Gatecrash came out and it worked out pretty well, hopefully I can make something work for this summer as well.

Debt to the Deathless and Possibility Storm

Really these cards just seem awesome in EDH. Debt to the Deathless exemplifies one thing the format should be about: huge swingy effects that cost a ton of mana. Unplayable in Standard. Possibility Storm exemplifies another aspect of EDH: random fun. Possibility Storm might actually see play in some FNM Standard decks that have a bunch of high costing spells to abuse it with. "I cast Flint Hoof Boar and get...... Borborygmos!" Definitely not a pro level deck to be found here though.

Turn//Burn and Catch//Release

The return of split cards is pretty neat, with the added ability to cast both halves! Hopefully not too many players are caught turning their heads or cards sideways and give away information about their hand. Protip: memorize what effect goes with the card image. I chose these two because they are candidates for my UR deck I mentioned earlier. Turn and Burn is nice because you can always hit your opponent for 2. And 5 mana for an instant that destroys target creature doesn't seem too bad (two for one as a combat trick seems better if you can make it happen). Catch makes me really excited, having an Act of Treason that snatches Planeswalkers seems hugely powerful. Opponent just played Ral Zarek and bolted one of your creatures? Catch him and return the favor, two-for-one value town. If you manage to Catch a walker with enough Loyalty to go ultimate, you get to jizz in your pants while the opponent watches mournfully as their dreams and aspirations are crushed. This card seems so good it might be main-deckable (typically Act of Treason is held in the side board for when the opponent plays big stuff). Release is less exciting, definitely fun in EDH though. Some control decks may be able to take advantage of the parallelism by only having lands out, but it will probably only hit a Creature and a Land most times (a walker if you're lucky) and if your board is empty it still doesn't seem to good in that situation.

Well that wraps it up folks. There are definitely other good cards I didn't mention here, but they are either obviously good and don't need an explanation or are somewhat bland in their effects. Hope you enjoyed reading this and excuse any grammatical errors, I'm not the best at proofreading/editing (mostly because I don't do it).

Fire Emblem: Awakening Review

Fire Emblem : Awakening

For my first review, let's do the latest addition to the Fire Emblem franchise: Awakening. I'm pretty sure there is already a general consensus that this game is amazing. Most people who bought it are either already fans of Fire Emblem and so will like it regardless, or those interested in the tactical genre. I'm not sure of who would have bought it and disliked it other than maybe those who don't like the new mechanics (which is crazy). I will also use this review to talk about Fire Emblem in general because let's face it, most of the games are very similar and there are general truths behind all of them.

Gameplay

Ah the meat of any game. The Fire Emblem series sort of fills a unique niche, and holds its own genre, of, well I'm not quite sure what it's called, maybe tactics or strategy. Some other franchises have had spin-offs with the same type of gameplay such as The Lord of the Rings: Tactics and other games with tactics as a subtitle. The other big name in the genre is Advanced Wars. I don't know of many others, either because  like I said, this is a niche genre, or Fire Emblem is lording its position and creating a monopoly. 

Overview of gameplay, skip if you already know what the game is and just want to know my thoughts on it.

ANYWAY, the game is played on a top down grid overlaying a battlefield. You are given a set of units and have to defeat an enemy set of units, usually by either killing all of them, killing their leader, or getting to a spot on the map (that the leader is typically sitting on). Units have a certain number of moves and can move to adjacent squares a number of times as their moves permit. There are sometimes terrain tiles that hinder movement and/or provide defensive bonuses. Combat takes place on adjacent squares for melee weapons and one square away for ranged weapons (some weapons are both). An attack is met by a counterattack unless your unit wins the fight on the first attack, but healing staves cannot counterattack, and ranged weapons cannot counterattack an adjacent attack. A lot more goes into the game, such as certain weapons having advantages over others, ranged weapons doing damage on flying units, magic elements being used for various situations, etc. Every unit has a list of stats that determine their efficiency in battle and in combat two units stats are compared to calculate chance to hit, damage, chance to crit, and chance to double attack. You play as the tactician for your army, and must move the units strategically to combat enemy units and win the battle.

End overview. My thoughts on the gameplay:

The thing about the grid style gameplay is you either like it or you don't, it's not for everyone, and that's okay, not everyone likes strategy games. I however, am extremely happy that Fire Emblem exists. I love the genre it seems to facilitate all by itself. The game is all about thought and planning, and positioning and equipping your units to defeat the enemy without being killed. And the without being killed part opens up the thing that separates this from similar games like Advance Wars. Every unit under your control is a unique character with a name, personality, and back story (more on that later), as opposed to Advance Wars, where you control generic tanks and infantry. This is a huge leg up on other tactics games because your characters level up and carry through from chapter to chapter, and you don't want any of them to die, changing combat from a scenario where you want to win, to a scenario where you want to win without losing any units. This is partially because many units are indispensable, and partially because you grow attached to the units you use. I simply cannot play Advance Wars because it seems so inferior when I can play a game that carries through from battle to battle this way. 

Difficulty

A subset of the gameplay is the difficulty of the game. I feel like difficulty in such a game is hard to implement, since it is not a game based on reaction skill or any active skill, it's all in the brain. Also, a decent amount of the game is luck based, mostly including how good your units' level ups are, but also a very large part of combat is counting on a 30 percent chance from an opponent to miss, your own 70 to hit, or a 10 percent chance to crit not to crit. But sometimes things don't go how you want them to, and it's up to luck. However the designers did a very good job of getting around this, and it is largely possible to engage your units in situations where they cannot lose even if they miss something you expected to get hit. The luck aspect isn't present nearly enough to be frustrating, so by and large it doesn't take away from the game. There is sort of an issue in difficulty scaling though. The game offers three difficulty modes: normal, hard, and lunatic. Normal is really the easy mode, and in my mind far too easy to represent an enjoyable challenge. Hard is the difficulty the game should be played at, with the most reasonable challenge. The problem I have, is the game starts off very balanced, with appropriate difficulty for pretty much the first half of the game. However this is where scaling comes in. This game provides you with many opportunities to grind for bonus experience and get free overpowered weapons, and several units start to stand out as overpowered. For many of the chapters mid game and onward I could simply throw one of these overpowered units into the range of five enemy units, disregarding the weapon triangle, and kill all of them with not so much as a scratch. While it is often enjoyable having bad ass characters, these units can appear as broken, and later on the game turns into abusing these characters. There is still difficulty though, because you don't have enough broken characters to be everywhere at once, and you still have to make tactical arrangements of your team, and most of all, be prepared for surprise reinforcements to butt rape your mages. The difficulty for the most part is good, but sometimes seemed too easy due to my uber units. This leads us to lunatic. I started up a lunatic run because hard left me a little wanting. Before I get into it, let me describe the idea of a pre-promote. A pre-promote is a unit that is already promoted to one of the second tier classes. They usually are stronger than your un-promoted units, but get really low exp, have pretty bad stats compared to naturally promoted units of the same level, and have bad growth rates when leveling up. These units are usually provided to help out for a little while on harder difficulties until your other units catch up. I am NOT a fan of this method of balancing. Being forced to use a unit that I know doesn't measure up to my other units to get through a chapter is not my idea of fun. In Awakening, you have to abuse the pre-promote the game starts you with A LOT, often kiting around the entire enemy team while your weaker units sit in a corner and play with themselves. This is normally not a problem to me, because usually Lunatic is for try-hards and hard is enough challenge for me, but as I've already described Hard mode can be quite easy at times. These balance issues wont detract too much from my final score, but I believe it could be made better.

In summary, the gameplay is great. It doesn't have a fair comparison to any other game I've ever played, the gap between unit usage in this series and Advance Wars is too large.

New Mechanics

This section largely has to do with gameplay, but that was already long and bloated, so I decided to add a section for mechanics new to this game not present in other Fire Emblem games.

My Unit

Now, my unit is present in one other game to my knowledge: Heroes of Light and Shadow, the NDS sequel to Shadow Dragon. But that game was fan translated so who knows how many people played it. Anyway, My Unit is one of the best additions to Fire Emblem, providing you with a personal unit that you create at the beginning of the game with several hair, face, and age options. This unit can be Male or Female and can be any class in the game (with the exception of making your male a Female-only class or vice-versa). Having a way of making the game customizable and personal is a huge upgrade, and I hope My Unit sticks around in future games. Also, My Unit has a significant role in the story, as opposed to Heroes of Light and Shadow, where My Unit is mostly just the leader of the army. The main thing My Unit is missing is dialogue choices and personality selection. All the dialogue is written for you, but it is written well and general enough that everyone will like My Unit's character. I don't expect this addition in future games, but having a lot more dialogue and personality choices could make the game truly engrossing.

Unit Pairing

This game introduces the ability for two units to share the same space by pairing them. In the past, one unit could "rescue" another unit, usually according to some stat about heaviness. In this game, a unit can "pair" with an adjacent unit, moving behind the unit in the same tile, giving the front unit stat bonuses based on the back unit's stats, class, and support level. Paired units also gain more support in combat than adjacent units. Now here's where it gets crazy. A paired unit gets a chance to attack in addition to the main unit, as well as negate damage form an incoming attack, based on their support level and sometimes class skills. (Note: If a unit is not paired, the game checks to see what adjacent unit has the highest support, and uses that unit for dual attacks/guards/stat bonuses, but I believe the effect is not as strong as pairing) That's right, now you can combine your units into a one mega-zord that can quadruple attack opponents, add in brave weapons and suddenly you're attacking 8 times a turn (add in Astra, and just... Jesus Christ.) Also you can use pairing as a mode of transportation, moving unit A, pairing him with B, moving B, and dropping A one square ahead. Or you can pair A with B, move B into enemy attack range, and switch A to be the front unit for counterattacking. Pairing offers up so many strategic options it's just ridiculous. Remember when I said My Unit is one of the best additions to the series, well unit pairing is probably THE best. It increases the scope of the game so much, and doesn't greatly upset balance (in fact a lot of the time pairing is practically the only way to beat a chapter or win a fight, not to make it easy). Also, support in past games has been sort of a mystery to me, working in secret, where in this game it's finally obvious how support works. When a unit fights an enemy unit, after the fight that unit and all adjacent supportable units get a big heart showing their support has grown, and the unit pairing clearly shows the benefits of support, where in past games I couldn't really tell without googling it.

Marriage and Children

Again, this mechanic was present in one the older games: Genealogy of the Holy War, but again, who knows how many people played that game, and this game improves upon the system. In every fire emblem game there has been support between units, and higher support level meant better bonuses in combat if the units are adjacent. In this game, there is a support level of S, which marks that two characters are Married, and give each other very high bonuses when paired or adjacent. (Note: not every unit can support every other unit.) On top of that, most female characters can have children with their husbands that become available as units later on in the game. The Children have base stats and growth rates combined from their parents (not added, I'm not sure exactly how it works, but in theory children should be more powerful than either parent) as well as inheriting all class options from the parents AND the last skill equipped in the parents' skill slots. This makes most of the Children the best units in the game. Children are another great addition to the game, either for creepy match-making type people that want to build perfect relationships to base their fan-fics on, or for calculating power players who build the perfect inheritances from stat calculation and distribution, as well as class and ability inheritance. At the very least it adds new, interesting characters to the game to beef up your team with.

Class Abilities

One more mechanic that isn't new at all, but is refined from previous versions. As your units level up, they get abilities according to the class (two per class) at certain levels. A unit can have five abilities active, and keep their abilities after re-classing. Abilities actually play a large part of this game, some abilities having huge advantages. The most notorious is Galeforce, an ability that lets your unit have another full move if they kill an enemy (once per turn of course). The only drawback is to get it you have to get to level 15 of the promotion class Dark Flier, which has some of the worst growth rates in the game. Overall, abilities are really neat, add more to your units to allow for more personalization, and the fact that they carry over between classes is really neat.

New Classes

There are a few new classes in this game, and they are all pretty cool (in concept if not in practice). Several of them are magic/physical hybrids that allow your units to mix weapons and magic/physical attacks. This includes the My Unit exclusive Tactician and Grandmaster. The hybrid classes are cool, but the growth rates on the War Cleric and Dark Flier are very lackluster, somewhat proving that a jack-of-all trades does not measure up to a specialized unit. In my mind, new classes are always good, even if the hybrids could use some polishing.

Graphics/Animation

Fire Emblem has always used anime-style images for their character portraits and dialogue exchanges. I've always been fine with that, and the current art style reflects the current anime trend, which is very soft faces and noses. It all looks very nice to me, very well drawn and all that, the concept art is pretty neat as well. It may not be everyone's cup of tea but whatever. The 3D avatars that move around in battle look pretty good, with nice little animations to keep the screen busy. The graphics behind the world map and battle maps all look good, pretty modern, there isn't much else to say. CG cut-scenes look great, but for some reason the eyes in them always seemed a bit derpy, and the fight sequences in the cut scenes are often over blown and kind of ridiculous. Combat animation looks fluid and stylish, one of my gripes is that you can hold a button to increase the speed of the animation, but you cannot lock animation at that speed. The normal animation is far too slow for me, so I'm stuck holding the fast forward button all day. Kind of seems like an oversight to me. Overall, everything looks good to my eyes. 

WARNING: MODERN GAMER RANT

On a note with older games: I sort of have a new age superiority complex. I'm not a big retro gamer, so I'm spoiled by modern levels of graphics. I started Fire Emblem with Radiant Dawn, so sometimes when playing the older games, I catch myself thinking, 'why don't I just play the new games that have better graphics, animation, mechanics, and basically everything about them,' and that logic usually wins for me. I have trouble playing older games that I know are inferior to more modern installations. Don't get me wrong, many of the old games are good, it's just, why would I play them when new games just seem so much better? "Well because Kyle it's a new experience, new story, new characters, etc.!" Well it's not really a new experience considering it's mostly the same game just with fewer/inferior mechanics, and usually the story and characters are far less interesting because writing and storytelling quality has largely gotten better over time. I would probably play every Fire Emblem game if it was the only series I was interested in, but I'm not, I've got other things to do. Sorry old people, you're not wrong if you like the old games, I just don't see the merit in playing them.

END RANT

Story

Ah yes story. I may get flame for this, but this is my opinion (as the blog FAQ states). I have never been terribly impressed with Fire Emblem story. It's never poorly written it just always seems so bland. The evil guys are evil and want to blow up the world because evil. THAT'S IT. The main antagonist is pretty much always some blatantly evil guy with dark clothing who wants to DESTROY THE WORLD at no benefit to himself, usually doing it because they serve some dark master who is telling them to do it. What's worse,  often the enemies you are fighting are so obnoxiously and obviously scumbags it's just silly. Like, the enemy bosses are always some combination of old, ugly, fat, and darkly clothed, as if advertising they are evil. And I'm almost insulted that pretty much all ugly people are evil and all beautiful people are good, it just seems wrong to me. And the enemies go on talking about how they are having fun killing innocents and murder is great and yadayadayada. Having SOME antagonists behave like this is okay. Having it be the standard for your ENTIRE GODDAMN FRANCHISE is ludicrous. Now, do these problems plague Awakening? Unfortunately, to some degree they do. It's not as bad as some of the older games, because modern writing and customer expectations have risen, but it is still present. That being said the story is the best of any Fire Emblem game I've played, with a few more enemies you can feel sympathetic for, and some interesting plot points. I still think Fire Emblem needs to move away from it's typical approach to storytelling, but Awakening  is a little better than previous installations. And in the end the story is well written and not a bunch of nonsense(I'm looking at you Final Fantasy), giving you a goal to work for, but it could be more intricate than just fighting overly evil baddies. Oh and the good guy main hero is always a prince. What is this, Disney World?

Characters

This section could arguably by a subsection of story, but meh. As I said earlier one of the best features of Fire Emblem is each unit is a unique character. Other than the effects this has on battle, this makes the game a joy to play for other reasons. You get quite a few units to add to your army, and they all have interesting and unique personalities. It's great that your pool is so large, because you can pick and choose the characters whose personality you like the most. Now, some units are just plain better than others, but this game allows for so much side battles and leveling opportunities that you can pretty much use whomever you want and have a functioning team. Unfortunately, in my mind, there are a lot more likable females than males, which is fine except for the dating simulator part of the game where you pair up your units to get married. I basically sent off females I didn't use to males I thought were kinda lame just to have kids. However there should always be enough characters that you like to fill a whole party. The characters seem to have the best support conversations and background stories of any Fire Emblem game, each character standing out in some way. In many of the older games the royalty and main characters were the only ones given a personality and sufficient back story. While Chrom does receive the most focus in this game, all your units have something unique about them and you have something more to go on for picking units other than looks.

Sound

Simply marvelous. The soundtrack to this game is great. Very mood-fitting music at all points,  no irritating or repetitive tracks. Definitely a soundtrack to invest in for a good listen. Here is probably my favorite track in the game: Don't Speak Her Name! [Youtube]

Aside from music, the game has voice overs for the cut scenes, which is fine and dandy but the cut scenes are few and short. The characters also have voice snippets that they shout in battle or say in conversation. It may irritate some people because the snippets reoccur a lot, but the voice overs themselves aren't bad, some lines are quite good, and personally I feel it adds to the game and enhances character interaction beyond you just reading text.

Final Verdict

I'd give this game a 9.3 out of 10. Nearly perfect. Definitely the best Fire Emblem game to date, and the best game available for the 3DS. Aside from some of my gripes about how Fire Emblem writes its plot, I had very little problem with the game. I likely exaggerated the balance issues I mentioned. As the only noteworthy game in its genre, Fire Emblem is a great series to get invested in, and Awakening has refined the game so much that it is a must play for any owner of a 3DS looking for something strategic. A curious thing I've pondered is that when the next Fire Emblem games comes out (hopefully for the Wii U) it will likely be marginally better than Awakening, deserving around a 9.3. But it will be better, so how do I adjust the scores, Do I inflate the new game to 9.6? Do I lower Awakening's score? Something that is a 9.5 now might be a 9 comparatively to the next generation, that's just how the gaming industry evolves. For example, I would've given Radiant Dawn somewhere around a 9 when I played it, but when I compare it to Awakening, I'd probably bump it down to an 8.6 or some such. Just some food for thought I guess, and something I like to hold as a personal mandate, that just because something was the best thing around 5 years ago, doesn't make it a great game to play today when there are better options in comparison. (Hence my modern gamer attitude and negative inclination towards retro games.)