The popular game artist takes a crack at comics.

Here at GotNext, we don't normally talk much about manga and comics, but when a game industry great like Yasushi Suzuki takes a stab at his own book, you take notice. Purgatory Kabuki is the first full-length manga for the prolific artist and he assumes the role of both author and illustrator, allowing us our some insight into Suzuki as a storyteller.

In an interesting turn for an artist that usually departs from Japanese artistic convention, Suzuki seems to revel in his heritage for this Western-market original. Perhaps because he knows he is creating for the American audience, Purgatory Kabuki revels in Japanese culture and tradition, with influences of ukiyoe painting, Japanese mythology, and, of course, kabuki theater.

Using Yomi, the Japanese underworld, as a backdrop, Purgatory Kabuki tells the story of a nameless swordsman, fighting without reason, and collecting the swords of his slain opponents. When he meets his match in the form of a young demon spawn named Enishi, he accepts her as his better, and swears his allegiance. In exchange for a powerful new body, he will assume the name of Imanotsurugi and help Enishi to collect a thousand swords, needed to escape the underworld and ascend to heaven.

Suffice it to say that the grim storyline and hellish setting mean the pages are packed with action. The bloody and intense sword fights are a perfect match for Suzuki's distinctive art style. In a departure from the digital paintings he's known for, the panels of Purgatory Kabuki feature a more minimalist pen and ink approach, with bold, kinetic strokes of the pen that wonderfully convey the energy of each stroke of the sword.

Dialog is quite minimal at times. The plot is at turns a thin vehicle for the action, and at others quite surprising. Suzuki's video game industry roots seem to show here, with a series of "boss" fights against an eclectic cast of foes. But just when you think you've gotten used to the rhythm of the story, some unusual turns save the story from repetition.

Lamentably, there are a few areas where Suzuki's inexperience becomes apparent. While the art is all quite lovely, the continuity is not always easy to figure out. The lack of dialog, stark backgrounds, and very few establishing shots for each scene make it somewhat difficult to follow the action at times. These more subtle aspects of communicating important information to the reader are the things Suzuki most needs to learn.

Despite this, Purgatory Kabuki is an impressive first effort, and there is little doubt that Yasushi Suzuki has the talent and creativity to make a wonderful manga-ka. His art is absolutely one-of-a-kind, and his unique interpretation of Yomi will not soon be forgotten. Fans will not be disappointed, and those just looking for something different in the world of action comics would do well to pay attention.

Hello there, it’s been a long time, hasn’t it?  Sorry about that.  In transistioning from school to full-time work, my spare time has been a bit more loopy than usual.  However, I’ve got a review of the latest DS Castlevania to share. ^_^

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This game was always under my radar, I would pick it up and look at box each time I perused the GBA/DS aisle at Gamestop. After awhile it became a bit hard to come by so I ended up renting it from Gamefly. If you are looking for an excellent and cute RPG for your GBA, then look no further!

The story is nothing new, you have your plucky hero Ein, who just happens to be an angel of death with amnesia. You have his plucky female companions, the cutesy Lina, serious Fia, mischievous Serene, and Cierra the crimson witch. Basically Ein was sent to destroy Riviera but he ends up helping the sprites that inhabit the land. The narration of the story is actually handled quite well as your party members are very chatty with their own distinct personalities. They often have witty things to say about each situation and really fill in the back story. There is also an affection meter with each chick in your harem and what girl you end up with is determined by your actions.

What makes this game different from standard RPGs is how game progression is handled. The game is divided into seven levels with six to seven sub-levels contained in each one. There is also a bonus eighth level that can be unlocked by acquiring an in-game item. After each level you return to the home town and can talk to villagers and possibly upgrade your weapons/items. Exploration in the game definitely takes getting used to. You get “Trigger Points” by fighting battles (by the way, there are no random battles; we will get to that in a sec), and have to use those points to explore the levels. Want to look at a chest? You will need to use TP for that. Don’t have any? Well, tough luck no chest for you. This will drive people who want to explore every nook and cranny in a game nuts.

The way to get around that is do well in battle. You get a grade after each battle, the better the grade, the more TP you get. All the battles in this game are scripted. You will meet the same enemies at the same point every time you play. The battle system is pretty standard turn based stuff. Your heroes have an overdrive meter that fills up as they fight for more powerful “Breakout” attacks, and your enemies have something similar called the “Rage” meter. This game also has an odd way to level up. There are no levels per say, you gain stat boosts by using weapons a certain amount of times. The weapons do break and have limited amount of uses. You can also only choose four weapons/items to take with you into battle which adds a good bit of strategy. The weapon breaking thing isn’t all bad because you can go into practice mode to level up your weapons. In practice mode your weapons do not get used up and it can be quite addicting. As soon as I got a new weapon I always went straight into practice mode to level up all my characters with it.

This game has lots of mini-games to determine if you can open a chest or dodge an arrow somebody shoots at you. They are random and usually consist of pressing certain buttons in a certain amount of time. Sometimes they pop up un expectantly and that can cause you to fail and miss out on a cool event. That is what replays are for, I guess.

This game looks like a SNES game with more fluid character animations. The colors are very vibrant, but the backgrounds in some of the levels can get a bit repetitive. Each character has a well drawn portrait that pops up when they talk. The music is very good, especially for a GBA game. There are even some voice samples when characters do their special attacks! If you don’t dig 2D then you might not like the style of this game.

It took me about 22 hours to beat the game including the bonus level. There are tons of unlockables and due to the random nature of the game you won’t see the same thing twice. There are also multiple endings based upon which girl you hook up with at the end. The game has save points galore and you can also suspend play if you need to turn it off for some reason, which I think is an important feature in portable games. I really enjoyed this game, and I am glad I gave it a chance.

Never has a game made me feel such an extreme variety of emotions. Dead Rising is the greatest and most frustrating zombie game I have ever played. It is a realization of every idea I have ever thought would be awesome in a game about zombies. Zombies are by far my favorite type of monster and I boast a pretty impressive collection of zombie paraphernalia. Dead Rising is a worthy addition.

The story is basic, Frank, an intrepid reporter, goes to a small town to get the scoop of his life. Flying in by helicopter he sees a town gone mad with crazies attacking and eating people. He lands on the roof of a mall and tells the helicopter pilot to come back in 72 hours. This is where the game starts. Time goes faster in this game, so 72 game hours equals about 8 hours (give or take) of real time. Time is more your enemy than the zombies.

This is where the game might piss off some people. The main story is divided into “cases” and you only have a certain amount of time to complete each case. If you miss a case then you will miss out on the rest of the story. On top of cases you get “scoops” which is information about survivors trapped in various parts of the mall. That’s right, every bodies favorite game play mechanic ESCORT MISSIONS rears its ugly head. I personally hate them and in this game it is frustrating as hell. The A.I. is just terrible; your escorts get caught in holes, around corners and they usually just let the zombies eat their tasty innards. It isn’t the worst ever, but it could have been implemented much better.

Luckily, if you want you can ignore the survivors on your first play through and just do cases. There are also boss fights against people aptly named “Psychopaths”, which are regular people gone crazy. These can be really fun and all of them have awesome intros. However, this game has THE most frustrating boss battle I have played in a long time. I won’t spoil it for you, but you will know when you get to it.

There are light RPG elements in this game, Frank can level up to 50 and each level nets him more health, new moves, etc. If you die during the game you can choose to start over again from the beginning with all your stats intact. I actually did this a few times and it made the game a lot more bearable.

Being that the game takes place in a mall, you have many weapons at your disposal. If you can see it, you can bash a zombie’s head in with it. You can also dine on many gourmet foods (to replenish your health), and change into tons of stylish outfits to suit your fancy. Want to prance around in a sundress smashing brains in with a broom? Be my guest. This by far is where the game shines. The graphics allow for hundreds of zombies to be on screen at a time with almost no slowdown. Make no mistake, this game is HARD. There is no difficulty slider, you can and will be killed at anytime. The save system completes the tag team of pain by only allowing you to save in the Security Room or bathrooms scattered throughout the mall. You will be redoing portions of the game.

There is tons of replay value with multiple endings. In fact, I think it is impossible to do everything in one play through, much to the chagrin of completists. This game begs to be played multiple times and is never boring. The 360 finally has its killer app.

Devil May Cry/Devil May Cry 3 SE: Dante’s Awakening (PS2)
Publisher: Capcom/Developer: Capcom
Rating: M/Players: 1

The Devil May Cry franchise has become known for three key things. First off, the very enjoyable gameplay design that spins around stringing together stylish combos. Secondly, the game’s varying difficulty (from straightforward to punishing) leaves plenty of replay and challenges for the novice to experienced gamer. Last but not least, the game’s protagonist, Dante the half-demon bounty hunter, has become a love-or-hate character. His smug attitude, awesome design (despite ripping a page from Vash the Stampede’s design books) and dare I say overexposure (cameos in Shin Megami Tenshi and all 3 Viewtiful Joe excursions on Sony systems come to mind) have made him either likable or disdained. However, in the end the game’s solid execution of platforming, action, RPG and fighting/beat em up elements make both DMC and DMC3 worthy to be on your PS2 game shelf, but both games do have some flaws that are worth pointing out.
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