TVL Magazine #12

10 Reviews | Developer Features | Community Content

The Vita Lounge M A G A Z I N E

Welcome

Hello Vita Gamers!

to it, helped This issue certainly has a risqué feel the latest title along no doubt by the presence of Versus and an val in the Senran Kagura series, Esti khuni. The latter Bhik e: Driv import review of Valkyrie with the fantastic comes courtesy of our new link-up Paul Murphy supported the import website Play-Asia, who also also is ch PMurphy1978 whi , Plus 2 ion review for Civilization Revolut nder es, Fou box r you tick s title se the of in this issue. If either for m the orting you should definitely look into imp ita!

PSV free onregi r you t ll find this month, with the excellen These aren't the only reviews you' r Tyle est within these pages, and Croixleur Sigma, Dreii and SwapQu Steel review, which has certainly Cold FINALLY finished his Trails of divided opinions! interviews! We talk to Ackk Studios This issue also features some new first odern RPG, and we also have our about the upcoming YIIK: A Post-M t tha you of se Tho . nds Out of Bou look at Laser Disco Defenders from e will also be interested to find pag Ram City ro Ret yed enjo played and mic e's sequel; Shakedown Hawaii. Cos out more about Retro City Rampag e som ing gett be l l y' be happy, as the Star Heroine enthusiasts will also l! information as wel managed to get Tim from Latest Rounding off this issue, we finally t Vita channel, and we have a new Vita Games in to discuss his excellen et e with avid PSVita fan Robert Kell Community Voice feature - this tim ANY on e share your community voic sharing his Vita love. If you want to us! with ch topic, Vita-related, get in tou s zed and hope to bring you Vita new I'm getting ready to attend EGX Rez y enjo to you next month, so I'll leave from the leading indie game show on May 9th for Issue 13! here k bac this issue and I'll see you our Top 40 special? If you haven't PS - Did you get around to reading for FREE - and there are still yet done so, you can read it digitally if you want it delivered! a few copies available in our store

PLEASE CONSIDER SUPPORTING OUR PATREON – IT WOULD REALLY BE APPRECIATED AND WOULD GO A LONG WAY TO SUPPORTING WHAT WE DO! FOR $9 PER ISSUE YOU WILL GET A PRINT COPY OF THIS MAGAZINE DELIVERED TO YOUR DOOR! YOU CAN FIND OUR PATREON PAGE AT WWW.PATREON.COM/THEVITALOUNGE 11 Re 11 Re 13 Re 10 Re 10 Re views views views views views ! Dev ! Dev ! Dev ! Dev ! Dev elope elope elope elope elope r Fea r Fea r Fea r Fea r Fea tures tures tures tures tures ! Late ! Late ! Late ! Late ! Late st Ne st Ne st Ne st Ne st Ne ws! ws! ws! ws! ws!

T T The V T T ita Lo he Vita Lo he Vita Lo he Vita Lo he Vita Lo unge unge unge unge unge M A G A Z I N E

M A G A Z I N E

M A G A Z I N E

M A G A Z I N E

M A G A Z I N E

REGULARS 04 BITE-SIZED NEWS

BITE-SIZED NEWS

THE LATEST VITA NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD!

06 NEW RELEASES WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT TO SEE FOR THE VITA THIS MONTH

07 HOT TEN UPCOMING GAME WE SHOW YOU THE UPCOMING VITA GAMES THAT WE WANT THE MOST

08 IMPORT REVIEW

KYLE GETS STUCK IN TO THIS RATHER LEWD BUT EXCELLENT ACTION TITLE

40 COMMUNITY FEATURE

LATEST VITA GAMES FINALLY APPEAR IN THE MAGAZINE TO TELL US ABOUT THEIR LOVE FOR THE HANDHELD

41 COMMUNITY VOICE

VITA FANS ROBERT KELLETT SHARES HIS FAVOURITE VITA MEMORIES WITH US

42 THESE ARE THE BEST GAMES SO FAR IN 2016. HOW MANY DO YOU HAVE?

43 PATREON STARS

THE AMAZING PEOPLE THAT MAKE THIS MAGAZINE POSSIBLE. TAKE A MOMENT TO APPRECIATE THEIR AWESOMENESS!

Latest Reviews | Developer Features | Community Content

The Vita Lounge M A G A Z I N E

5

The Vita Lounge Magazine EDITORIAL TEAM Executive Editor / Paul Murphy @pmurphy1978 Editor-in-Chief / Kyle Wakeling @teflontactics 8 6 7 Deputy Editor / Charlie Large @CharlieLarge Deputy Editor / Jenny Jones @Kitty_has_Klaws Podcast Editor / Tyler Olthoff @imsohappy77 MAGAZINE DESIGN Art Editor / Jhonatan Carneiro @JhoCarneiro

Issue 12 | April 2016 WEBSITE TEAM Liam Langan @liamhangover Colin Byrne @ColinJByrne 9

@PSVitaMag CONTRIBUTORS Latest Vita Games @LatestVitaGames Robert Kellet @RK1283 Zach Price @MyrishMartyr

to your

ES

Magazine!

DEVELOPER FEATURES

OUT OF BOUNDS 16 ACKK STUDIOS GAMES

12 VBLANK GAMES 14 WE CATCH UP WITH THE STUDIO BEHIND THE BREAKOUT HIT RETRO CITY RAMPAGE TO FIND OUT WHAT'S NEXT

18 ZEBOYD GAMES

YIIK IS VERY CLOSE AND EASILY IF YOU ARE AS EXCITED FOR LASER DISCO DEFENDERS IS ONE OF OUR MOST ANTICIPATED COSMIC STAR HEROINE AS WE COMING TO A VITA NEAR YOU, SO TITLES. WE SPOKE TO ACKK STUDIOS ARE, YOU'LL WANT TO SEE WHAT WE WANTED TO FIND OUT MORE TO SEE WHAT WE CAN EXPECT THE DEVELOPERS HAD TO SAY

REVIEWS 20

Senran Kagura: Estival Versus

28

Level 22

34

Dreii

24

Sid Meier's Civilization Revolution 2 Plus

30

Foul Play

36

SwapQuest

26

Earth Defense Force 2: Invaders from Planet Space

32

Cröixleur Sigma

38

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel

thevitalounge.net SPECIAL THANKS Brian Provinciano @BriProv Vblank Entertainment @VblankGames Alexander Birke @AlexanderBirke Ackk Studios @AckkStudios Robert Boyd @werezombie Zeboyd Games @ZeboydGames

@TheVitaLounge COVERAGE Are you a developer? If you are working on PSVita content and want to get it covered for FREE in either the magazine or on the website, then we would love to hear from you! Please send an email to press@thevitalounge.net and add us to your press lists. If you have a game coming out soon and want us to tell other Vita owners, get in touch!

patreon.com/TheVitaLounge DISCLAIMER The Vita Lounge is an independent PlayStation Vita enthusiast website and magazine. All content featured is used with permission, and is used to promote existing and upcoming titles for the PS Vita. We are not endorsed or affiliated with Sony or PlayStation, or any of the companies featured. © 2015-2016 The Vita Lounge

BITE-SIZED NEWS Volume and YIIK getting the Limited Run treatment We are sure you love what Limited Run Games are doing with their physical Vita game initiative and we have learned that Mike Bithell's Volume - which we gave 4.5 stars and the highly anticipated RPG YIIK from Ackk Studios are getting the limited edition treatment. We can't wait to get our hands on these beauties. How about you?

10 Second Ninja X announced As you'd expect from the title, in 10 Second Ninja X, you play as a ninja and you have 10 seconds to defeat every enemy in a level. The game is fast, furious, and frustrating, with players needing to keep retrying a level to get a perfect 3 star rating. You need to nail each level, so be prepared for hours of frustration (in a good way of course) to get the perfect score. The game will be out this summer.

Score-chasing shooter A Duel Hand Disaster: Trackher announced A Duel Hand Disaster: Trackher is centered around two themes; risk and focus. The challenge is to control two ships simultaneously, deciding whether to stay within the level (risking your score), or leave (securing your score). The screen is split in half, with the two vessels completing two different missions - one attacking, one gather resources. Interested?

We will have more news soon!

A Virus Named Tom Each month, those with an active PlayStation Plus subscription will receive at least two Vita specific games to play as part of their Instant Game Collection, and in April gamers will be able to download A Virus Named Tom and Shutshimi: Seriously Swole.

Originally released on PC in 2012, A Virus Named Tom has been a long time coming to the PSVita. In this actionpuzzler you are the eponymous virus on a quest for revenge against the mad scientist Dr. X. Over 50 different levels you'll experience "an animated tale full of dark humour, malfunctioning robots, and little girl screams."

Check back for a review next month!

No review

4

The Vita Lounge Magazine

thevitalounge.net

Atelier Sophie coming in June

XCOM stealthily appears on the store

Koei Tecmo have announced that the 17th game in the Atelier series, Atelier Sophie: The Alchemist of the Mysterious Book, is heading West this year. Taking place during the dawn of the alchemy era, it follows Sophie; a girl who has the special power of combining items together (alchemy), which she constantly fails at. However, when she comes across a book that moves and talks, Sophie must aid the book - and in the process hone her skills.

The game will launch on June 7th (NA) / 10th (EU).

Whilst stealth launches for indie games can be commonplace for the Vita, it was a bit of a surprise to see XCOM: Enemy Unknown come out of nowhere last month. It came too soon to get reviewed this issue though, so if you are on the fence you may want to wait for our review. Have you been waiting for it?

Laser Disco Defenders announced

Skype support to end

Out of Bounds Games has announced Laser Disco Defenders; a procedurally-generated twin-stick shooter that’s on its way to Vita. Inspired by the sci-fi and music scene of the late 70’s, Laser Disco Defenders is a “groovy procedural twin-stick laser dodging bullet hellish disco infused hot podge” where every shot fired bounces indefinitely around the level, hurting everything it hits… including you. Find out more about it on page 14.

The Skype application has now been removed from the PlayStation Store, and support will cease on June 22nd. How do you feel about the loss of another app? Did you use Skype on your Vita?

Breaking News!

The Limited Run Games release for Oddworld New 'n' Tasty is April 25th!

Shutshimi: Seriously Swole

Polls Apart!

Zach reviewied this over-the-top shooter for us when it launched in September, and he said "Shutshimi: Seriously Swole is a game that is worthy of your time if you enjoy shoot'em ups. It'll hold your attention till you beat it, but that's about it. This game, however, does not hold the power to convert a non shoot'em up fan to being a loyal disciple. It's a skip if you are one of these people".

We asked on Twitter if you were happy with these titles for the IGC. The results are:

Yes 25%

No 75%

3.9 @PSVitaMag

The Vita Lounge Magazine

5

A Virus Named Tom

Shutshimi: Seriously Swole

Trillion: God of Destruction April 1st EU

Green Game: TimeSwapper April 5th NA & EU

WE KNOW THAT VITA GAMES CAN APPEAR WITHOUT MUCH NOTICE, BUT HERE ARE SOME OF THE GAMES WE SHOULD BE SEEING THIS MONTH!

Shutshimi

A Virus Named Tom April 5th NA & EU

April 5th NA & EU

Risk of Rain

Axiom Verge

April 19th NA / April 20th EU

Aegis of Earth: Protonovus Assault April 22nd EU

Lumo

Stranger of Sword City

Space Overlords

April 5th EU

April 12th NA & EU

April 22nd NA & EU

6

The Vita Lounge Magazine

April 26th NA / April 29th EU

Assassin’s Creed Chronicles

April TBC NA & EU

thevitalounge.net

Ho eN THE VITA GAMES WE ARE MOST EXCITED FOR! SEVERED

ZERO ESCAPE 3

zero-escape.com/coming-soon @aksysgames

severedgame.com @DrinkBoxStudios

NEW DANGANRONPA V3

@spikechunsoft

ATTACK ON TITAN

@koeitecmoeurope

YIIK

ackkstudios.wordpress.com @ackkstudios

AXIOM VERGE

axiomverge.com @AxiomVerge

YOMAWARI: NIGHT ALONE

nisamerica.com/games/yomawari @NISAmerica

DARKEST DUNGEON

darkestdungeon.com @RedHookStudios

DRIFTER

SALT AND SANCTUARY

ska-studios.com/salt @skastudios @PSVitaMag

celsiusgs.com/drifter @celsiusgs The Vita Lounge Magazine

7

(via a TV of sorts). The girls have been modified by the V Virus (not the T Virus like in the anime) such that they can become either a liberator - a weapon, or an Ecsta - a weapon wielder. To do this however, they must bond with another girl - which is done through touching.

Written by

Kyle Wakeling

@teflontactics teflontactics

3 6 40 PSTV 3.2 GB Publisher

marvelousgames.com

@marvelous_games

Publisher

marvelousgames.com

@marvelous_games

Released

JP: December 10th NA/EU: Not Released

8

The Vita Lounge Magazine

From the mind of Kenichiro Takaki - the producer of games like Senran Kagura, IA/VT Colorful, and the upcoming Uppers - comes a game about seven girls, all with amazing abilities. These girls, enhanced by something called the V Virus, are able to harness their bond with each other and either "liberate" or "exterminate" their opponents.

How, you ask? By groping and kissing each other until one of them turns into weaponry, of course! Valkyrie Drive is a lot more than just the sexual bits though, and underneath the Senran Kagura similarities like clothes breaks there is a game that has both familiar aspects and something that makes it unique.

But before we break it down, there's a little business we have to cover regarding the story.

Unfortunately, this title is a non-English import - so I can't really speak to specifics regarding the story that you get alongside your gameplay. What I can tell you about the premise for the story is this; most of the main bits follow Rinka and Ranka - a pair of sisters - however there are seven girls involved as playable, and an additional girl who serves as your mission commander

That's pretty much all I can say about it at this point - the language barrier has prevented me from getting anything but bits and pieces along the way. It's worth flicking through for some of the fanservice bits if you're into that sort of thing, but otherwise there's a fast-forward button that lets you skip it and get right to the asskicking bits; the true meat of the title.

Moving on from the story to the gameplay, the main mode (and the only mode available at the beginning) is called the Story Mode. In this mode you'll be introduced to the basic gameplay mechanics and tested in a progressive setting. Due to the way things are explained, there is a little trial and error to be had here to figure out what is wanted of you - but aside from that there wasn't that much uphill battling for a non-Japanese speaker to face. You're generally presented with a bunch of low level baddies to beat up, which then opens a path to another area, and things repeat. At the end of the level there's usually some sort of big boss to take out (like another V Virus infected girl or a giant mechanized robot), however aside from that there's not too much variation.

There are two different endings to Story Mode, with the appearance of the "true ending" depending on the scores you get in the first sixteen levels. Scores of SS in thevitalounge.net

the localization community isn't, the fan community is on this one - a welcome sight to us importers!

A press of "Circle" controls your "uppercut" like ability, which can be performed differently depending on the character you pick, but ultimately lifts your opponent off Online Mode is all about creating or the ground. This is the move you should joining a match with other people, battling be using to "juggle," and get the upper hand on your opponents. Alternatively, The story part of the game is not short by it out in a variety of modes. The ones I could discern either had you looking to KO you can use it as a battering ram of sorts any means, though in the same respect an opponent, strip them of their clothes by holding circle - turning you into a it's shorter than Senran Kagura: Shinovi completely, or knock them off a stage (sort lunging fireball of power.

Versus. Part of this is attributed to the fact that Senran has separate stories for of like king of the hill, or Sumo wrestling).

They're all pretty fun if you can get a Holding "Triangle" initiates your charge its characters (of which there are more match, but I often found myself sitting at attack on the ground, or your groundthan twenty) however, which Valkyrie the "searching" screen for hours with no pound attack in the air. If you're high Drive does not. Valkyrie Drive has some opponents. Bummer. enough in the air when initiating it you'll other modes to keep you interested even get a cool view of your pummeling though - ones that might have a little Moving past the standard modes, there's targets below - so watch for it. ;) more longevity for the returning player. also Training Mode. Here you can set the parameters and simply beat the Lastly, "Square" is your standard attack In Survival Mode (which opens up part stuffing out of your enemy - of which button, offering unique combos and/or way through Story Mode) you play you can set to be hostile, or simply stand charging attacks depending on who you're through waves of enemies, with every there and take a beating. This is a great using. ten levels throwing in a "boss" for you to take on. Some levels will have breakables way to learn how to play the game for someone jumping in without the language But that's not all you've got to worry (barrels usually) to aide you in keeping knowledge, and I recommend you spend about, as there are plenty of other buttons up your strength and power, though the a little time here at the start of your that come into play. The right trigger and harder ones opt for less on top of the gameplay.

"X" combine for a dodge move (which looks extra enemies and difficulty. In all there bad-ass on the ground), "Up" on the D-Pad are six different survival levels, ranging "But how does it even play?" you might locks onto the nearest target, and select from a basic 10 level run, to a bone removes the HUD for a clean view. crushingly hard 100 level run. This is the be asking, and that's a completely valid mode for the seasoned player, for sure question; this isn't Senran Kagura, and the Next are the DRIVE and Overdrive and will take skill to complete fully. Don't way the controls are set up is one of the controls. DRIVE is available once you've expect to breeze through just because biggest contributors to that. filled the purple gauge top left, which in you've maxed out your abilities. ;) turn fills the bars top right (and the special To start, "X" is both jump (press) and a moves once in DRIVE). One bar gets you There's also Challenge Mode, where you're super-dash (hold) that can zip you to a given a specific task to complete and a locked enemy in an instant. It works both level 1, two bars level 2 and access to a special move slot, three bars gets you to time to complete it in. Most of these are in the air, mid combo, and on the ground level 3 and a second special move slot, skill or enemy based, and take some trial to make sure you're always within reach and four bars gets you to Final DRIVE and and error to realize, however there are of any enemy you've got in your sights. three special move slots available. translations on the internet that can help you get through them as well. Where the bulk of the levels will unlock the true ending, while scores below SS will unlock the standard ending. Each ending consists of four levels, and as always each level consists of two or three parts.

@PSVitaMag

The Vita Lounge Magazine

9

DRIVE-based special moves are executed by having a slot filled (glowing), and then using the left trigger and either "Square," "Triangle," or "Circle" to modify - the order in which they're written denoting how many slots they need to use. The more slots they need, the "bigger" the attack so keep that in mind!

character's level (Ecsta abilities) as well as the level of your partners (Liberator abilities) you can activate higher levels of DRIVE and achieve dominance over your enemies.

That said, DRIVE levels, additional specials, and even Overdrive must be earned by gaining experience through gameplay. At the start you'll only have the most basic options available, but by raising your

Looking to the graphics, Valkyrie Drive is done in 3D - making it look very different from what we see in Senran Kagura. While That's why I recommend that you don't Senran has a very anime/manga look to it, Valkyrie Drive tends towards a more CGI just take my word for it here. Buy it, play it, and feel it out for yourself; you can thank me later. ;)

Moving away from gameplay, some additional menu options you'll need to be aware of include the Collection Room Overdrive is the last bit we need to worry - where you can check out stats and earned/bought items, the Dining Room about, but can be one of the most useful - where you can interact with the girls ones in the game as using it will render you invulnerable as well as over-powered for some conversation (in Japanese), the for as long as you've got the DRIVE to fuel Communication Room - where you can poke, dress, and play the heart game (a it. Overdrive eats DRIVE just to run, and will deplete any reserves you have to keep touching mini-game) with the girls, the Store - where you can use the lingerie it going. Overdrive is activated with the printer or simply buy things from the shop left trigger and "X," so use it if you're in a pinch! Controls will be normal otherwise, girl, and the Records area - where you can save your game. but all attack power is upped!

style 3D imagery that gives it a different feel. It also has a camera mode that's quite close to your character when not locked on, calling for more detail than the Senran game would require.

So what do I think about all this?

Well, Valkyrie Drive: Bhikkhuni is a game that fills the needs of life and hometown to anyone coming from the Senran series, but is different enough to feel like it's not just slapping a skin on our favourite shinobis. While the Senran series on Vita is very much a medium paced musou title with unique characters and tons of tits, Bhikkhuni is a fast paced action title that's slightly more akin to Devil May Cry. It's all about quick change, grand moves, and being able to close the gap in a moment.

It's a bit of a different beast, and while that's not immediately apparent, it soon becomes so once you begin to play.

This review was sponsored by Play-Asia, who kindly provided the import copy for us to review.

If you like the look of Valkyrie Drive: Bhikkhuni we suggest you give them a visit at www. play-asia.com – both because they’re a quality import dealer, as well as because they’ve been kind enough to help us out!

VERDICT Valkyrie Drive: Bhikkhuni is fast-paced musou action title infused with Kenichiro Takaki's brand of fanservice and strengthened by the roots of Senran Kagura experience.

It may not be in English, but aside from missing what could be an interesting story due to the language barrier, there's tons of great gameplay for the importer.

10

The Vita Lounge Magazine

4.5 thevitalounge.net

Interested in

A new venture brought to you by the team behind

?

Vblank Entertainment vblank.com @VblankGames

Brian Provinciano @BriProv

Hi Brian, thanks for taking the time to speak to us! Can you tell us a little bit about VBlank?

Vblank got going in 2009, three years before the release of Retro City Rampage.

I’m the sole employee, but work with many contactors for art and audio.

Shakedown Hawaii is your follow up title to the well-received Retro City Rampage.

What's new this time around?

Shakedown Hawaii shifts both the tone and gameplay, so while it’ll still be familiar to RCR fans, it takes things in a new direction. The destructible environments paired with super charged weapons gives a new level of interactivity, and the mission structure is more of a cross between Crackdown and GTA than GTA on its own. There’s a lot more to it than that, but I’m going to wait a bit longer to get into that, as to not spoil everything so early.

12

The Vita Lounge Magazine

BRIAN PROVINCIANO IS THE FOUNDER OF VBLANK ENTERTAINMENT, AND IF YOU LOVE INDIE GEMS YOU'LL PROBABLY HAVE HEARD OF HIS PREVIOUS TITLE, RETRO CITY RAMPAGE. A SEQUEL, SET SOME YEARS LATER AND EMBRACING THE 16-BIT ERA CALLED SHAKEDOWN HAWAII HAS BEEN ANNOUNCED SO WE THOUGHT WE WOULD FIND OUT MORE. RCR tapped into many cultural references from the time the game was set. Can we expect the same again from Shakedown Hawaii?

The theme veers away from the references and pop culture send ups of RCR for a more contemporary satire, thus not being branded as “RCR2”. I have many new stories to tell, and wasn’t ready to just do the same thing again by doing a direct sequel.

Has it been difficult developing this game following on from the praise and expectations from a previous title?

As much as I believe in the new game, it’s a risk no matter which direction you take, so I indeed had a lot of anxiety. It was a huge relief to see how well received the announcement was, despite the new directions I’ve taken. Having done an 8-BIT styled game, everyone could imagine what they thought a 16-BIT one would look like, and if it didn’t match their imagination, they could be disappointed.

Fortunately, that hasn’t been the case from what I’ve seen.

Moving away from the references and send ups of RCR, a staple which so many players loved, paired with aging the player to be in his late 50s with a balding hairline, and even not branding it “RCR2” were all big risks. But this is the story I want to tell, the game I want to make, so I just have to trust myself. There was no shortage of second guessing along the way.

What made you want to bring this title to the Vita?

RCR did well on both the PS Vita and 3DS and really gravitates towards a handheld experience, so without question I wanted to continue supporting the platforms. The pixel art really shines on the screens. Also, as a player, I also do most of my gaming on thevitalounge.net

PS Vita, so I want to see the platform keep Do you have a release date in mind for Shakedown Hawaii? going as long as possible.

I’m hoping for this year, but if not, early next. The focus right now is making the Will there be any notable game as good as possible, so it’s all about, differences between the when it’s ready.

Vita version and other systems?

Not really. It will default You offered RCR in a limited edition to the more zoomed in release. Is this something you are thinking about again for Shakedown camera, but you can even flip it over to the Hawaii?

I’d love to do a retail release of Shakedown console style camera if you prefer Hawaii, although I’m not sure if I’ll be able smaller sprites but to do it for launch. It all depends on how much time there is between gold master a larger screen and the ultimate release date. I’d also like area. If at all to polish off and release the unreleased possible, I always PSP version of Retro City Rampage DX want people to on UMD if the factory’s still in operation enjoy the gamer when Shakedown’s done, but finishing to its fullest, no Shakedown first is my top priority. matter which platform they play What games have impressed you the it on, as long as most on the Vita? the system’s I honestly still play Spelunky the most. powerful enough.

Even when I pick up new titles, I keep going back to Spelunky. @PSVitaMag

Our final question is a tricky one! What do you think is the better Vita model, the OLED or the Slim?

The Vita slim is much more comfortable and the lighter weight a noticeable bonus. I do prefer the OLED screen, but if something happened to my OLED one, I wouldn’t mind migrating to the slim.

The slim’s screen is still great, and only nitpicked because we have the original to directly compare to. The screens on so many of the other handheld and mobile devices are LCD too, but the quality is never questioned because they’ve never had anything to be directly compared to.

We want to thank Brian for his time with this interview.

Shakedown Hawaii is set to release later this year or early 2017, and we will bring you more news as we have it!

The Vita Lounge Magazine

13

Out of Bounds Games outofboundsgames.com laserdiscodefenders.com

Alexander Birke

@AlexanderBirke

LASER DISCO DEFENDERS IN AN UPCOMING PROCEDURALLY GENERATED TWIN STICK SHOOTER WITH ITS ROOTS FIRMLY PLANTED IN 1970S DISCO FEVER, WITH THE AIM VERY MUCH TO STAY ALIVE. WE SPOKE TO ALEXANDER BIRKE FROM OUT OF BOUNDS GAMES TO FIND OUT MORE!

Can you tell us a little bit about Out of Bounds and how you got into developing games?

Since I was a kid I always had an interest in being creative but also in science and engineering. When I was in high school I attended a summer school in games development.

The main objective is to reach as high a score as possible by clearing each procedurally generated level to get to the next one. Players destroy the enemies by shooting them with lasers but must always be on their toes because their own lasers ricochet off the walls of the level and hurt them as well.

The game we made was frankly terrible but it was a lot of fun to make and I knew it was what I wanted to do in my life. About 4 years ago I moved to the UK since the games industry is more established here than in Denmark where I am from. I then worked for both AAA and independent game companies before I decided I was ready to strike out on my own last year.

If you play too aggressively you make the game very difficult for yourself! On the thematic side the game is inspired by 70s Disco and sci-fi movies. At the end of the 70s the two things actually started to merge and you got Space Disco as a genre and disco fashion invading the costumes in sci-fi flicks.

ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare32/?action=preview&uid=2550 Since people seemed to like the game so I decided to work more on it. I think the disco theme came about since it was a good fit for a game involving lasers since it reminded me of the light shows you have at dance clubs.

The game also features an outfit system that was inspired by watching Saturday Night Fever. There’s a whole scene where John Travolta is getting dressed for a night out and I thought that would be a cool part of the disco culture to pay homage to.

All this is reflected in the visual aesthetic With the disco theme, there are quite a of the game and the original soundtrack is few outfits to wear to strut your stuff too.

Just how much is there to unlock in the Your upcoming game is called Laser Disco also heavily influenced by Disco. game?

Defenders, can you explain what it is What was the inspiration for Laser Disco At the moment there’s 10 different items about? in the game and more might make it into Yes in the words of the Bee Gees – staying Defenders? the final release version. They all behave alive! It’s a self-inflicted procedural bullet The game started out as a prototype at the online game jam Ludum Dare. I had very differently so you get a lot of variety hell with 4 playable characters and an done a couple of various prototypes with in how you can play the game. We also outfit system that lets you customize lasers and bouncing projectiles in the past hope to put in a system that lets you both how they look and play. and got the idea to combine them. As you unlock artwork and pictures that explains can see on the image from that prototype more of the background story for the it looked quite different back then! game.

14

The Vita Lounge Magazine

thevitalounge.net

Did you have a clear vision with the game as you were developing, or did new ideas evolve as you went along?

I had a lot of core ideas such as the bouncing lasers, the procedural generation and the outfit system I wanted in but exactly how they work has changed quite a lot. For example the lasers used to be calculated as a single perfectly thin line which made it really hard to hit anything if you were playing with a joystick.

I therefore changed it so beams can have different widths and it really made the game a lot more approachable. The procedural generation has also had quite a few iterations. It started out being very random so it was hard to create a cohesive experience. Now it’s based on fixed rules that are activated the further the player progresses which allows me to adjust the difficulty a lot better.

What was your motivation for bringing this to the Vita?

We wanted to bring the game to a lot of platforms including the Vita because its big screen and dual analog stick and shoulder buttons makes it the only handheld the game would really work on.

It made sense to release on the Vita first @PSVitaMag

What's next for Out of Bounds?

Probably some holiday after LDD has shipped haha! After that I have a couple of old prototypes I want to turn into full What are your thoughts on the Vita as a games. One would be well suited for system? What games stand out to you PlayStation VR while another is a 2D and impress you the most? puzzle platformer that would fit well on I think there’s a lot of interesting games the Vita. Depending on how well Laser for the system. I especially like the titles Disco Defenders does we might update that really make use of the hardware it with more content as well since I have such as Tearaway and Metrico. I’m also a lot of ideas for enemies and outfits impressed by the effort porting studios go that we don’t have time to put in for the through in order to get games originally release version. made for PC and consoles to run on the Vita. There was a really interesting Of the two Vita units, the OLED and the breakdown on how Bastion for example Slim which do you think is best? was ported and all the tricks they had to I definitely prefer the OLED due to the utilize in order to do this. better screen but having the longer battery life on the Slim is also nice.

Are there any games coming out that you are excited for on the Vita?

I have already played Darkest Dungeon so getting that out on the Vita will also be nice. I know the developers of Hue and We would like to thank have seen the game take shape over the Alexander and Robert from last year. I think that’s going to be a great Excalibur Games for their time puzzle title. since I’m then sure the game runs well on the platform and don’t put anything into the game that won’t run on a handheld.

with this interview, We will bring you more news on laser Disco Defenders as soon as we have it!

The Vita Lounge Magazine

15

Ackk Studios

ackkstudios.com @AckkStudios

Hello Ackk Studios! Thanks for taking the time to talk to us! Can you tell us a little bit about Ackk Studios and how you got into developing games?

Sure! Ackk was founded by the Allanson Brothers. They started developing games when they were 8 (Andrew) and 11 (Brian.)

They first set out to make a remake of Zelda II based solely on a screenshot of the game and a description in an Ocarina of Time strategy guide... they had never played the game, and didn't until at least three years after this.

The main reason for talking is your upcoming title, YIIK: A Post-Modern RPG. For those that haven't been following the game, what is it about?

On April 4th 1999 a girl went missing.

That night, A video of her last known moments were uploaded online.

All of my friends excitedly watched as she was pulled from an elevator by 16

The Vita Lounge Magazine

YIIK: A POST-MODERN RPG IS ONE OF OUR MOST ANTICIPATED TITLES AND IS QUITE CLOSE TO BEING IN OUR HANDS, QUITE LITERALLY! WE CAUGHT UP WITH ANDREW ALLANSON FROM DEVELOPER ACKK STUDIOS TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THAT GAME. something.... otherworldly.

This is a story about what happens when you look for someone who can't be found... and the strange things you invite into your life when you go every place that's forbidden.

How much gameplay have you managed to squeeze into the game? What can gamers expect to experience?

I'd say a solid 22 hours of gameplay, and since it's a JRPG at least 8 hours of cut scenes! So it's roughly a 30 hour game.

Is there anything new that you can share with us about YIIK? Sure! I can tell you that the game doesn't feature a traditional antagonist.

Interestingly enough we've gotten this far without anyone asking us about the We last spoke to you in Issue 3, how much villain. I can promise you it's very atypical, has changed with the game over the last and going to be a talking point for a lot of people. Both good, and bad most likey.

8 months?

Loads! The game is now almost done. We How difficult has it been to develop the reworked combat, and have changed up Vita version, and are there any notable the mind dungeon. We also changed out differences or compromises? Did you use approach to NPCs. Now, every NPC has a any of the Vita's features for anything? story arc. So, if you go back to them each Audio is kinda an issue. We had a lot of chapter (after major story events), their story will continue and you'll see character audio clips, but we compressed them.

That was a compromise, but honestly you development! This is for every shop can only tell if you hook the game up to keeper, towns person, and whatever.

This story is told in the form of a JRPG with 8 party member battles ! The game features 6 Zelda story dungeons, with a setting similar to Persona 4 and Mother 3.

thevitalounge.net

studio monitors and compare with the PS4 build.

We are starting to see developers drop Vita projects. Was there ever a point where you considered that for YIIK? We wanted to do it from day one. Took a few months to make sure we could do it once we got the hardware. The vita community has been very supportive, so we'll be sure to finish it! ;) During development of YIIK the Vita received an update which opened more options to developers. Did you take advantage of this?

Nope. But we'll be experimenting with it before launch! @PSVitaMag

You are Vita fans yourselves, which games have impressed you the most and is there anything you are excited for?

I'm really excited for YIIK honestly. I made it because it was the kinda game I would want to play! Copout answer, I know...

Can you give us any updates on Chromophore?

One of the team member who worked on the PC build has thrown up a legal road block, so we'll need to figure out all that before we can proceed.

What is it you like most about the Vita?

Console gaming experience on a handheld! The screen really helps.

Our final question, which Vita system do you think is better? The OLED model or the Slim?

I've got the slim, my brother has the OLED. Sometimes I use his when he's not paying attention...

We would like to thank Andrew for his time speaking to us!

YIIK@ A Post-Modern RPG will be out soon and we will bring you a review as soon as we can. Are you excited for YIIK? The Vita Lounge Magazine

17

Zeboyd Games

zeboyd.com @ZeboydGames

Robert Boyd

@werezompire

Hi Robert, thanks for taking the time to talk to us! Can you tell us a little bit about how you got into developing games and Zeboyd Games?

I've wanted to make games ever since I was a kid, but I didn't get seriously into game development until Microsoft started their Xbox Live Indie Games program. I started off with a couple of text-based adventure games before teaming up with Bill Stiernberg to form Zeboyd Games. Our first game was Breath of Death VII, which was followed by Cthulhu Saves the World, Penny Arcade's On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness 3 & 4, and now Cosmic Star Heroine.

We are talking today to find out more about Cosmic Star Heroine, you upcoming game. Can you tell us a little bit about it?

It's a sci-fi RPG starring Alyssa L'Salle, a secret agent for the galactic empire who discovers a grave threat to humanity that she must stop, despite everything being stacked against her. It's our own take on the late-era 16-bit RPG, inspired by games like Chrono Trigger, Phantasy Star IV, and Lunar: Eternal Blue, mixed liberally with our own style.

18

The Vita Lounge Magazine

WE ARE QUITE EXCITED ABOUT COSMIC STAR HEROINE FROM ZEBOYD GAMES, SO WE THOUGHT IT WOULD BE A GOOD IDEA TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT IT. WE CAUGHT UP WITH ROBERT BOYD FROM THE STUDIO TO FIND OUT MORE. Have you experienced much difficulty executing your vision on the Vita? Have there had to be any compromises?

We got the game working almost flawless on the PS4 in under a day, however, the first day on the Vita was rough. We're talking single-digit frame rate, crashes everywhere, the works. We had never really had to worry about optimization before since we were on systems with far more power than we needed for our retro-ish games. Once we started looking at our engine with a focus on efficiency, we discovered a number of places where Exactly how big is the game?

There are over twice as many maps/areas we could improve things. It took hard work and several weeks, but we finally as our last game which was our biggest managed to get the performance on to date. We're guessing the game will the Vita to where we wanted to. I'm take about 20 hours to complete, but we won't know for sure until it's finished and sure if you compared the Vita version to the PS4 version side by side, the PS4 thoroughly tested. version would come out on top with raw performance, but everyone we've shown What made you want to bring the game the Vita version off to has been really to Vita? pleased with how great the game plays on The Vita is awesome and we've never the Vita. released a true portable game before.

Sony came to us wanting our next game on the PS4 so doing the Vita as well was a No compromises - I think it's going to be one of the highlights of the Vita's library logical choice. this year.

What sort of gameplay can gamers expect to encounter as they play?

Turn-based RPG goodness with some twists. For example, we have no MP system - instead most abilities can only be used once and then need to be recharge by using a defend-style command. We try hard for a strong foundation of accessibility (classic games like Chrono Trigger & Phantasy Star IV were very accessible compared to many modern RPGs) while not sacrificing depth.

thevitalounge.net

Cosmic Star Heroine is not your first title.

What are the chances of seeing your earlier projects arrive?

We've talked about the possibility of remakes or sequels/prequels to Breath of Death VII & Cthulhu Saves the World, but the games use a completely different engine than what we're using for Cosmic Star Heroine so it wouldn't make much Is there anything coming up that you like sense to try to port them to the Vita (or any other platform for that matter). And the look of on the Vita?

I'm really looking forward to all the Falcom with the Penny Arcade games, we have the unique situation of being responsible games (going to doing a Trails marathon when I'm done with Cosmic Star Heroine) for the second half of a 4-part series so porting only half the series to Vita doesn't and Stranger of Sword City. A few of the seem like a great idea. In any case, we'd indie games I'm looking forward to are rather look forward to new titles than Rain World, Salt & Sanctuary, and Heart spend time porting our older stuff.

Forth, Alicia.

What are your thoughts on the Vita as a system? Have you been impressed by any other games?

I'm a huge fan of the Vita - next to my PC, it's easily my favourite system to game on. Some of my favourite Vita games are Persona 4 Golden, DJ Max Technika Tune, and Gravity Rush.

@PSVitaMag

Our final question is a tricky one - which Vita model do you think is the best, the OLED or the Slim?

I'm still rocking an OLED, but if it ever breaks, I'm going to switch to the Slim since I've heard a lot of praise.

We would like to thank Robert for his time with this interview! Cosmic Star Heroine will be out later this year and is also getting a Limited Run Games release! Have you been keeping an eye on the game?

The Vita Lounge Magazine

19

Written by

Kyle Wakeling

@teflontactics teflontactics

1 14 34 PSTV 3.1 GB Publisher

xseedgames.com

@XSEEDGames

Developer

marvelousgames.com

@marvelous_games

Released

NA: March 15th EU: March 18th

20

The Vita Lounge Magazine

As The Vita Lounge’s resident “games with boobs” enthusiast, I tend to be the one who gets games like Estival Versus – but I only feel good about taking them because I know I can be impartial. While sexual aspects are great in my opinion, I know that alone they don’t equate to a good game, and I can look past the shine of it (as well as the taboo of it) to see the truth.

So when I tell you that the truth is “Estival Versus is great, but in some ways it feels like they’ve taken a step backward” you can believe me, and take me at my word.

Before we get to why however, let’s dig in and get the details of what it has to offer.

The story in Estival Versus follows the Kagura Millennium Festival, which – on the surface – seeks to reunite lost loved ones with their worthy shinobi relatives for a little bit of closure. That’s hardly the whole of it however, and beneath the surface lies a tale filled with sadness, laughter, bravery, and weakness. This is the story of the meaning behind “Kagura,” and it’s a good one – so I won’t spoil it for you. The story isn’t really something most people come to Senran Kagura for, but they do pretty well for something filled with gratuitous breast jokes and f-shots. I was impressed by their narrative, and I think you will be too.

The stories that follow the individual girls were slightly less impressive and intensive, though a few of them were certainly memorable. These short stories are a series of five levels (for each girl), opened and closed with a little text monologue. They’re what I like to call “surface encounters” and are more of a cute excuse to keep playing than anything else. Unfortunately, how they’ve been implemented makes them a little less useful than they were in Shinovi Versus – due to the way that they now unlock with your progression through the game. While in the previous title you could use them to “buff” your character a tad before taking on the main storyline, now you’re guaranteed to be sent in fresh and vulnerable.

There are however two special missions available, which you can use to hone your skills. They consist of a fight between your character of choice and a team of Homura, Miyabi, and either Asuka or Yomi depending on which you choose. They have their own little “story” and are very useful for practice, zeni (cash) farming, or simply a distraction.

Moving on from the story bits, there’s also a “Shinobi Dojo” online mode available from the main menu – allowing you to fight your friends or strangers via the internet or ad-hoc connection. Online modes include Point Battle, Understorm, Capture the Bra, Shinobi Survival, Walker Battle, and Shinobi Deathmatch – each with their own rules.

Options include leaderboards, create a room, join a room, random join, and online battle tutorials. I played a few online matches when I could get them, and as far as I could tell there were no issues with lag. Overall, a good online experience in my opinion. thevitalounge.net

Aside from the main gameplay modes you’ll have available, Estival Versus also includes a lot of the non-gameplay features that you’ll have wanted to see back from Shinovi Versus – including the Dressing Room, Library and Shop.

The Dressing Room is back with all your clothes, accessories, and style changes still available… though they’ve added in a brand new Diorama Mode. Now you can view one to three of the girls, posed together, and in different environments.

Screenshot heaven!

The Library is simply a more thorough version of its past self, restyled for the new title. It still includes all the stats and media viewing you’d want, but now it also comes with a glossary of collected terms so you never feel out of the loop.

Lastly, the Shop is back with the same ol’ item store features and gotcha machine you’ve come to love – though the name may have changed on the latter. The gotcha machine feature 120 sets of lingerie, while the store contains well over a hundred purchasable items by the end of the game (they unlock as you play).

There’s lots to spend money on here, just like before.

Additionally however, they’ve added the ability to change the view (so to speak) in the menu – allowing you to pick a girl, who then becomes the focus of some creative camera work alongside views of them with the other girls.

@PSVitaMag

Moving past the setup of everything, we have what I considered to be a medium speed – or somewhere between medium and fast speed anyways – musou style action game. You pick (or are given) a girl, and then take on some grunts and/or some shinobi in a real time fight – using combos, heavy hits, launches, lunges, and even special abilities to pulverize your enemy. It uses a lock on system that also allows for free-look, and plays in locales that usually consist of corridors and “fields,” strung together into uniquelooking areas.

The controls work out just like Shinovi Versus; “X” is jump, square is basic attack, triangle is launch/heavy attack, and circle is lunge/sprint. You can guard with the right trigger, lock on with “up” on the D-Pad, execute a “personal space” attack with “down” on the D-Pad, and change targets with “left” or “right.”

Pressing the left trigger will send you into your transformed state, and using the left trigger with either square, triangle, or circle (level 1, 2, or 3) will execute a devastating special move. The level of the attack will depend on the button pressed, as well as whether you have the needed power scrolls to activate it. Level 1 requires one scroll, Level 2 requires two, and Level 3 requires five.

In addition to the basic attacks and those offered in transformed mode there is another “mode of play” you should be aware of, and it’s called Frantic Mode.

Entering Frantic (right trigger and “X”) will relieve you of everything but your lingerie – leaving you closer to being stripped than normal, but upping all your abilities.

There are no special controls for moves in Frantic, just know that all your regular moves are greatly enhanced.

Speaking of the controls and combat, we come to another “step back” moment in the game – the way that attacks are strung together. Unlike Shinovi Versus there’s no continuous flow when pulling off moves, and instead you get a moment of what I like to call “hang time” in between each motion. In the hang time the character isn’t really moving, and is more posing than anything – leading to a very stop/start looking animation.

While I initially chalked it up to nostalgia glasses (I’ve put a few days worth of time into the previous title), I actually ended up going directly back and forth between the games a few times – with different characters – and it’s a legitimate change.

Call me picky, but I’m not a fan.

I’ve apparently strayed into graphics territory, so let’s take on that item as well – and get the thumbs up for the “paint job” out of the way. Looking at any single frame of Estival Versus in comparison to its Shinovi Versus counterpart (or closest to it) you notice a fair difference, the newer game offering a cleaner and less flat look all around. The jaggies have been eliminated in many areas, and the textures have been upgraded. It looks good… it just requires a little extra loading to do so.

The Vita Lounge Magazine

21

Where before you’d have a near seamless experience, now there’s a little “Loading” bar and a wait of between two and twelve seconds to carry on – the most notable “seams” appearing before a character swap-in, and in the middle of visual novel bits. While I can understand the need for concessions in order to give us some better looks and/or areas, the places these loading screens have been inserted are the most obtrusive ones you can think of aside from literally mid-fight.

Necessary evil? Sure. Good execution of that necessary evil? Hmm, maybe not so much.

instead (my preferred method of play, but not everyone’s).

Moving to my final thoughts, they’re pretty damn good for the most part.

Once you get used to the stop/start way they’ve strung together the moves you have a game that’s just as playable as its predecessor; if not just as smooth.

The added benefit of some smoothed out graphics certainly keeps the eye on the ladies instead of the smoothness of the gameplay however, and you’ll be enjoying yourself all the same.

That said, when I say you’ll be enjoying yourself all the same – I mean it. Estival Versus doesn’t really offer anything new to the series on Vita, and basically just gives you another version of the game you already liked. It looks a little better in the “paint” department, but at the same time just doesn’t string moves together quite as well. As a sequel it underwhelms just a tad, but maybe that’s just because it had a lot to live up to. Either way, it’s a great game… just maybe not better overall than the last.

The good news however, is that the sound is pretty much as good as it was in Shinovi Versus. There are some more serious text-based scenes near the end where a certain “continue” sound effect completely breaks the mood – but aside from that, I found myself with the volume up and playing happily. That said, those who are looking for an English voice-over may be disappointed as they’ve kept the original Japanese track and opted for subtitles

VERDICT Senran Kagura: Estival Versus is a much better looking version of its predecessor, and includes enhanced features to up your experience and add more variation to your gameplay. That said, it takes a different approach to stringing together moves than the first (which isn't as smooth), and it opts to add loading screens all over the place to compensate for enhanced textures and bigger areas. Because of this, it's not entirely a better game than Shinovi Versus - and instead comes second, but still very much recommended.

22

The Vita Lounge Magazine

4.3 thevitalounge.net

Written by

Paul Murphy

PMurphy1978 PMurphy1978

1 3 57 PSTV

Whilst we constantly dismiss this notion of the Vita having “no games,” it wouldn’t be true to say that every genre is suitably covered on the handheld. One series that is heavily underpopulated is the strategy genre, but with Civilization Revolution 2 Plus now available to import will it be able to plug an obvious gap in the library?

Publisher

I love a good strategy game, especially a turn-based one; there’s something about biding your time, planning your moves, and executing the perfect battle plan on your way to the ultimate victory. As such, I was very excited to see that Civilization Revolution 2 Plus was arriving on the Vita.

449 MB

2K.com

@2K

Developer 2K.com

@2K

Released

NA: March 29th EU: March 29th

24

The Vita Lounge Magazine

A port of the Android/iOS title of the same name – which is itself a more reduced version of the more complicated PC edition – you are tasked with commanding your own empire whilst expanding, upgrading, and evolving along the way to ultimate victory across the ages. The game is rather simple to pick up initially, not that the lacklustre tutorial explains very much.

You’ll begin by selecting a faction, and the huge number available have a multitude of different traits to suit your playing styles, and different benefits in all of the main time eras. Whether you want more defence, cheaper buildings, or more naval firepower; there’s sure to be a combination that favours your style.

Once you have decided on the civilization you intend to develop, you’ll be deposited in a colourful top-down 3D world in the year 4000BC – a singular city and a unit, or a settler to found your city. By slowly exploring your surroundings you’ll start defeating rivals and discovering new cities to conquer or found.

With each passing turn you’ll also be faced with a choice; do you research and enhance your city, which will reduce the amount of turns it takes to develop units or do you build units? It’s a delicate decision (especially on higher difficulties) because you’ll need units to defend your city. Each turn you will also be tasked with developing new technology, which will then open up new technological advances – leading to enhanced resource collection, unit types, and ultimately game changing enhancements. For example, your enemies may have multiple warriors or even horse back units, but these will all pale in significance compared to the likes of tanks and jets – or you could even just drop an atomic bomb on them!

As you explore your environment you’ll discover other factions, and you’ll have a choice of maintaining a truce, or going straight for the jugular. Do you want to risk your limited resource early game, or are you happy to conform to an alliance (which could then backfire on you)? Many a game I’ve supposedly been at peace, only to find the AI changed their mind and sneakily took my unprepared city… along with the benefits I’d earned.

Those that love detailed environments to become immersed in when playing these thevitalounge.net

types of experiences will be disappointed.

Whilst the world map and units work well enough, it’s pretty generic and there is very little to differentiate the unit types.

The cities, terrain and world in general serve a basic purpose, but compared to other titles in the Civilization series it seems a little more comical, and less realistic.

This carries over to the music and sound effects too; the game is not voiced at all, and the music is very bland, although the sound effects work pretty well.

Because Civilization Revolution 2 Plus is a turn based game, you’ll have restrictions in place such as how far your units can move per turn, how many times they can attack, and what you can build. Balancing all of this will be crucial, especially later in the game as the opposition intensifies their attacks on you and increases their own technological prowess.

As a mobile port, the game can be fully controlled by the touch screen, although the presence of buttons also allows for physical controls to be used. Personally I preferred to play with the buttons, as I found the set up quite simple to grasp; making for a much faster flow during turns. The controls are rather simple, with selecting units, cycling units, and checking terrain all assigned to the face buttons and the shoulder buttons controlling your tech development and cycling through you cities.

said than done, but usually provides the quickest route to success. Technological victories will occur once you extensively research the tech tree and launch a space ship to Alpha Centauri. If you are looking for a Cultural victory then you’ll be developing specific sites to trigger the appearance of great people, and develop the United Nations. Finally, a Financial victory will occur upon accumulating the required amount of gold, to create the World Bank. All of these options will drastically alter the way you approach and play the game.

These victory types and the different civilizations all have trophies tied to them, and will take a significant amount of time to accomplish – you will need to achieve all victory types with all the different factions for starters. In addition to the standard gameplay, there are scenarios to play with specific requirements and three of these are exclusive to the Vita version.

There’s plenty to keep you occupied, that’s for sure, but the game has one glaring oversight; a severe lack of multiplayer.

That’s not to say that there isn’t a lot to enjoy, and you’ll certainly have a lot of fun and with the variety of options and scenarios available to you – I have earned a fraction of the challenges and trophies so I’ll still be playing for a while myself.

It’s an enjoyable experience, fills a much needed gap in the library, and is very welcome on the Vita. It’s just a shame it lacks one vital component that would have made it that much more essential.

The game has now released on the PlayStation store in western markets, and is digital only. You can of course, import the game in an Asian/English version – which this review is based from – but it will cost you more. It just depends whether you want another physical copy for your shelf.

This review was sponsored by Play-Asia, who kindly provided the import copy for us to review.

If you like the look of Civilization Revolution 2 Plus we suggest you give them a visit at www. play-asia.com – both because they’re a quality import dealer, as well as because they’ve been kind enough to help us out!

There are four ways to win against the AI: Domination, Technological, Cultural and Economic. With a Domination victory you’ll have captured a certain number of enemy cities, usually accomplished by destroying all of the opposing forces. This is easier

VERDICT Despite the simplified gameplay elements, Civilization Revolution 2 Plus is an engrossing and enjoyable title, and may well fill that strategy itch you may be having. A lack of multiplayer does impact on its long term lifespan and some may find it too simple.

@PSVitaMag

This is the type of game that is infinitely better with others, and the lack of even a pass-and-play mode ultimately impacts your long term enjoyment.

3.5 The Vita Lounge Magazine

25

at giant ants crawling all over Big Ben. For fans of the shooter genre, familiarising yourself with the controls shouldn’t be too difficult, but I feel on screen prompts in the first mission should have been implemented, just to gently introduce me to the action.

Written by Colin Byrne

@ColinJByrne colinjbyrne

1 3 58 PSTV 265 MB Publisher

xseedgames.com

@XSEEDGames

Developer Sandlot Games

Released

NA: December 8th EU: February 12th

26

The Vita Lounge Magazine

I have played a huge variety of titles during my time as a Vita owner. I have explored outer space, navigated dungeons filled with monsters and even customised a living room for my pet cats. But I feel there is one experience I will never forget, and that is battling giant ants whist navigating the River Thames in central London.

That is what I will take away from my time play Earth Defense Force 2. It is big, clunky and unashamedly out-dated, but the sheer scale of its ridiculous concept is impossible to ignore and admire.

Earth Defense Force 2 is a remake of the 2005 PS2 third-person shooter of the same name, whose story follows the invasion of earth by a murderous alien race, hell-bent on destroying mankind. In a bizarre twist, these aliens looks remarkably similar to the creepy crawlies found on earth, such as ants and spiders. These beasts are attacking major cities around the world and it is up to you to end their reign of terror.

For those unfamiliar with the series, like myself, you’ll find yourself unforgivingly thrown in head first to the carnage. With any form of tutorial no where to be seen, it certainly is a baptism of fire when you are dropped straight into central London, standing on Westminster Bridge staring

Each mission contains a certain amount of enemies, with each level ending once they have all been vanquished. Enemies range between giant insects to robots, with levels becoming increasingly more difficult the further you get into the game. Enemies also evolve the further into the game you delve and you may have to rub your eyes in disbelief at what you’re facing in the games final levels. You certainly can’t fault EDF 2’s ambitious size.

Before each level you choose your weaponry, with there being three different classes of soldier to choose from. The first is Infantry, which is your standard foot soldier, that allows you to be armed with standard weapons, including machine guns and shotguns. Next is Pale Wing, that equips you with a jetpack for easy navigation and less conventional weapons, such as a plasma rifle or particle cannon.

The final class type is the Air Raider, which enables you to use various pieces of equipments to take down enemies, such as trip mines, sentries and air strikes. Each class allows the player to hold two weapons (with Air Raider having an air strike ability enabled as a third weapon), which can be altered before each mission. Sometimes it is worth experimenting with different weapons and classes, having trial runs of levels. Many times I ran in all gun blazing as Infantry, realising once I’d been sent flying thevitalounge.net

the battlefield. Getting a direct hit with a rocket launcher will give you the pleasure of witnessing a sea of destruction, the landscape lighting up with fire. A very similar feeling is experienced by this There are five difficulties to choose reviewer when a particular annoying fly is from in each level, ranging from easy to inferno. Impossible mode is unlocked once swatted after hours of endless buzzing. you have collected a level on all other difficulties. I played most of my missions Although controls are responsive, the on normal, whilst dabbling with hard every same cannot be said for the accuracy now and then. Battles can become hectic of the weapons at your disposal. A crosshair is on screen to guide your shots, very quickly without the right weapons but this more often than not becomes and strategy in place. As soon as you redundant, with bullets flying in random are spotted by a bug or robot, you better directions and grenades missing targets be prepared, otherwise you’ll soon find yourself at the bottom of insect/machine by hundreds of yards. If the Infantry or Air Raider classes are chosen, two based dog pile. vehicles will be available for you to hop in to at the start of a mission. These No matter how manic things get, I was sound great on the surface, with tanks impressed at how well the game played. and helicopters surely making easy work I never experienced any frame rate issues, which was surprising considering of the infestation. Unfortunately you may as well be operating a vehicle made the amount of explosions, bugs and of cheese, as your beloved automobiles spaceships appearing constantly on are quickly destroyed by huge waves of screen. The game really does play enemies. The helicopter was particularly well, and this is complimented by useless, with it being hard to control and a the responsive controls. This really is nightmare to land. Flying above the clouds essential in a game that can very quickly see you backed into a corner. It is clear to may be fun, but dropping like a stone into the middle of hundreds of angry spiders see that a lot of effort went into making certainly isn’t. the game the best it can be on PS Vita. by a angry mob of jumping spiders, that an Air Raider selection would have been more appropriate.

The game was originally released in 2005, which is easily apparent by the games visuals. The art style has not been updated, which although does not harm the overall enjoyment of the game, is a shame when compared with other Vita ports of classic titles that have much superior art styles. Though saying that, the insects you battle are well designed and do look disturbingly creepy. Killing the creepy crawlies is incredibly satisfying, with the bugs collapsing in a spray of green blood, their mangled bodies littering

At random times, fallen bugs will drop weapons and armour upgrades. Collecting these will allow you to upgrade your weapons for future battles. It is important to keep an eye on the mini-map in the right corner, as these will direct you to their location on the map. With the Pale Wing class, you can easily navigate around a map with your jetpack, flying to different sections in no time at all. With Air Raider, vehicles are easy to operate and although these will not last long in battle, they do allow quick passage to different areas.

VERDICT It may not be pretty, it may not be ground-breaking, but what Earth Defense Force 2 lacks in creativity it makes up in the sheer scale of its ridiculous, addictive and fun B-movie style action.

@PSVitaMag

The same cannot be said for the Infantry class, where slow movement can make it an arduous task travelling from place to place. I found this particularly noticeable, as the Infantry class became my go to load out with the weapons available being generally more effective against large swarms. Tip to the Generals at the Earth Defence Force‌ Jetpacks should be standard issue to all your squad.

Although at times difficult to navigate, there is no faulting the brilliant size and beauty of each map in the game. It really is quite something destroying a building covered in giant ants, or blowing up a huge spaceship hovering above Japan. The action reminded me of your classic over the top b-movie action flicks from the past, and I found myself enjoying myself immensely. Seriously, crushing those bugs it just so darn satisfying.

Despite my initial reservation, I found Earth Defence Force 2 a perfect fit on the PS Vita. The level structure reminded me of Unit 13, with the mission-based gameplay making it the perfect game to play on the go in short bursts. It may not look or play the best, but its sheer ridiculousness and addictive gameplay are hard to ignore.

To sum up, the image of hundreds of giant ants crushing the Houses of Parliament in London is certainly something I never expected to witness in a PS Vita game.

3.4 The Vita Lounge Magazine

27

Written by Liam Langan

@LiamHangover liamlangan

0 0 21 PSTV 215 MB Publisher

movingplayer.com

@MovingPlayer

Developer

movingplayer.com

@MovingPlayer

Released

NA: February 11th EU: February 11th

28

The Vita Lounge Magazine

your presence.

The game is split into four worlds, each consisting of five levels, with four levels consisting of puzzles, rooms full of colleagues and security guards, and a fifth level which is more like a boss fight. These stages tend to be considerably more difficult to figure out, but at the same time these levels are also the most fun the game has to offer.

Picture this, it’s the morning after a night out, you wake up incredibly hungover and miss your alarm going off – it’s a Wednesday and you’ve made the fatal Each level has teo collectibles to find, firstly mistake of drinking on a weekday and you’re there are costumes for Gary, which dress him in various attires based on pop-culture running late for work. references, for example there is a Batman costume which is quite enjoyable to use, You’ve got two options, phone in for a although it doesn’t particularly affect the sick day, or alternatively, as Level 22 opts game in any way. Finding each of these for, you can sneak your way into work unnoticed, make your way to your desk and costumes does reward you with a trophy, so they may be worth looking for if you’re a pretend that you’ve been there all along. trophy enthusiast.

You play as Gary, who spent the night Also hidden in each level is a safe that you prior to the start of the game celebrating will have to find the code for, these are a colleague’s birthday party. Gary finds less obvious to find however. Similar to the himself in this situation and, aided by his costumes, if you open the safe and get the friend, he’ll do everything and anything he collectible in them you’ll also be rewarded can to sneak into work past colleagues and with a trophy. Admittedly with my time security guards who’re on the prowl. throughout the game I only managed to solve a couple of these puzzles as the passEarly levels start off basic, with you trying to avoid being caught in the security guards’ codes for them were rather elusively hidden. line of sight, but as levels progress you find that the security guards become more Level 22 is a mobile port and as such intelligent – luckily there are a range of tools allows for touch screen controls, thankfully at your disposal to catch the guards out. though the developer have taken the time to program face button controls into the The various tools at your disposal in game – which feel more natural than the order to avoid detection start off with touch screen and offer a more enjoyable cardboard boxes, paper balls to throw at experience. In fact, if you’d never tried the colleagues and even such a simple thing as touch screen controls you’d never think it a newspaper to help guards not recognise was a mobile port. thevitalounge.net

Graphically the game is an excellent throwback to the days of 16-bit gaming and in turn looks beautiful on a PlayStation Vita screen. Sadly though the graphical beauty of the game didn’t translate quite as well when playing it on my PlayStation TV, which is a shame.

The soundtrack for the game is also comprised of some amazing chip-tune music that has actually become one of my favourite game soundtracks that I’ve heard in a long time. I found myself

humming the tunes whilst out and about, there is some really catchy stuff here.

My main criticism about the game is it’s length, with only 20 levels in total, I found it to be a bit too short for my liking. If you know what you’re doing, or you’re good at stealth games in general then it’ll last you around 3 hours at most, but if you find stealth games enjoyable and challenging then you’re looking at 5-6 hours – which considering it’s price tag isn’t a bad deal at all.

VERDICT Level 22 is an enjoyable and exciting experience that turns what could be a normal everyday problem into a unique and enjoyable game.

Although it may be short lived it's definitely worth your attention if you're a fan of stealth games.

@PSVitaMag

Level 22 is a fun and quirky game that is definitely worth your time if you’re looking for a short and interesting stealth game with a relatable story. Players may be put off by it’s short length but getting all the collectibles and seeing the conclusion to the game is definitely a rewarding experience. Who knows, you may even learn some valuable tips for if ever you find yourself in the same situation one day.

3.9 The Vita Lounge Magazine

29

Dashforth has an apprentice. Instead of recruiting from the pampered snivelling ranks of London’s high society Dashforth saw potential in a common chimney sweep called Scampwick and so has been training him up in the art of Daemonology. Although Scampwick does have some pretty nifty tricks of his own, like the one with the sock and a couple of billiard balls.

Written by Jenny Jones

@Kitty_has_Klaws Deathskitten

5 9 16 PSTV 726 MB Publisher

devolverdigital.com

@devolverdigital

Developer

mediatonic.co.uk

@Mediatonic

Released

NA: February 23rd EU: February 23rd

30

The Vita Lounge Magazine

Foul Play is a side-scrolling co-op brawler originally released on the PC back in 2013 and it has finally made it’s way over to the PS Vita. You get to play as renowned Victorian daemon-hunter Baron Sebastian Dashforth and a friend can join in on the action as sidekick Scampwick.

It’s in Dashforth’s study that the adventure begins….kind of anyway…the game actually plays out on a grand theatre stage. For one night only Dashforth and Scampwick are recounting details of their great adventures in front of an audience. They are of course starring as themselves as they say that they are the only ones who could do full justice to the roles.

Dashforth is a well educated chap who looks rather suspiciously like the gentleman from Monopoly, it really wouldn’t surprise me if they were cousins or some other relation. Dashforth has a sad past, his mother died when he was very young, killed after an incident with a daemon.

Dashforth was raised by his father Horatio, also a daemon hunter, unfortunately he mysteriously disappeared long ago.

I really enjoyed the theatre theme, it’s a unique setting which creates a fantastic atmosphere and brings a great sense of humour to the game. Although Scampwick and Dashforth are playing as themselves in the performance the enemies are just actors; normal guys dressed up in costumes to look like monsters. Once defeated they have to crawl or run off stage. Sometimes they’ll even forget their lines and a stage hand will have to show them a script to get the performance back on track.

Dashforth is continuing his father’s legacy, he has a study filled with books and research on daemonology and travels the globe in order to bind and banish unspeakable monsters. I think Horatio wants Dashforth to pick up where he left off. You know, saving people, hunting things. The family business. It’s all very supernatural…

The game is a bit of a button masher but it does reward performance and style. You don’t actually have a health bar, instead it’s all about the audience. If they get bored then the Mood-o-Meter starts dropping, if the meter drops to zero then the curtains will fall on the evening’s performance. The audience will start booing if you get hit too often but you can make the show more thevitalounge.net

exciting by performing special attacks or by keeping a combo going. If you finish a wave of enemies without losing your combo and without getting hit then you’ll achieve a ‘perfect scene’, which of course the audience just loves. If they get excited enough they’ll even throw their top hats up in the air as a show of approval.

The evening’s special performance consists of five acts to fight your way through. The backdrops of the levels are varied, in one act you’ll be in the harsh deserts of Cairo, the next a small village in Somerset, then the lost city of Atlantis and even the dangerous streets of Victorian London. Backdrops change just like they would in a real theatre and you can see various mechanisms at work to change the scene. All the backdrops and enemy costumes are vibrant and fun to look at. I do however think that the edges of things are a little jagged and fuzzy which can be quite noticeable when looking at something light coloured against a dark backdrop it’s a pity that the graphics aren’t a little bit crisper.

The game is fairly short as there are only

22 levels. Most of the levels have three challenges to complete, consisting of things like achieving a high combo against a certain enemy, performing certain moves or defeating enemies within a time limit. Even with the various different types of challenges they all feel fairly samey. The combat in general is fairly repetitive. You’ll level up and learn new moves as you play but you’ll probably reach the maximum level only halfway through the game. I mostly found myself just sticking with one particular combo move and repeating it over and over in order to get a five star performance rating in each level.

It just feels like there isn’t much depth or skill required in Foul Play’s combat system. The ability to parry and counter an enemy’s attacks could have added some much needed spice to the system but unfortunately there’s a huge window of time between an enemy preparing to attack and the actual moment that they strike. What this means is that it’s far too easy to interrupt an enemies attack and rack up a huge combo without really needing to try. Actually the most challenging thing I found was trying to

VERDICT A unique and fun theatre setting, great dialogue and interesting characters are unfortunately not enough to hide the fact that Foul Play is ultimately quite a repetitive and shallow side-scrolling brawler.

Fun to play with a friend and in short doses but is unlikely to keep you engrossed for long.

@PSVitaMag

work out where you needed to be in order to hit a flying enemy. There were far too many times that I tried to hit a flying enemy but couldn’t work out exactly where I needed to be standing to actually hit the damn thing.

There is a co-op mode where a second player can join in on the action as Scampwick. I tried to host while allowing a PS4 player to join my game but unfortunately I couldn’t seem to get this to work. Using the PS4 to host however worked straight away. The game is great fun when playing with a partner and it is especially fun seeing who’s got the highest score at the end of each level (usually me of course!).

I loved the style and plot of Foul Play and in small doses it’s a fun and charming game. It’s unfortunate then that the combat system is so shallow and repetitive. Combat is pretty much all there is in this game so it’s a shame that there wasn’t a more in-depth system. Although all the various backdrops, characters and costumes are brilliant overall the performance falls a little flat.

3.1 The Vita Lounge Magazine

31

One day during training, a mysterious force attacks the four girls, separating them into pairs and sending the into two different dungeons, and it is at this point where our story begins.

Written by Liam Langan

@LiamHangover liamlangan

2 13 30 PSTV 816 MB Publisher

activegamingmedia.com/en

@AGM__PR

Developer

lost-identity.jp/souvenir

@kagring

Released

NA: March 1st EU: Not released

32

The Vita Lounge Magazine

Hack-N-Slash games have found themselves at somewhat of a stalemate, surrounded by Koei-Tecmo’s Warriors games it’s seemingly rare when we get something with similar gameplay from a different developer.

Of course there’s some excellent alternatives out there, for example Senran Kagura: Shinovi Versus and Hyperdimension Neptunia U provide for some interesting alternatives, Croiixleur Sigma is a game that can now also be added to that list.

Made by Japanese indie studio Nyu Media and originally released on PC back in 2014, the game has recently been ported to PlayStation platforms as a Cross-Buy title, boasting 60fps fast-paced action packed gameplay.

The story centres around 4 girls, Lucrezia, Francesca, Katerina and Sara-Annika, each of them unique in both looks and playstyle.

Lucrezia and Fracesca share their own story while Katerina and Sara-Annika have a seperate narrative.

Both stories eventually come together and center around the ancient kingdom of Irance, which for centuries has been ruled by a lineage of Queens. It is a kingdom that prides on its research into magic thanks to the Vernal Magic Knight Academy, an academy attended by the games cast.

Lucrezia and Francesca’s story mode takes place in a dungeon that splits off into multiple rooms filled with enemies to slash your way through, the dungeon consists of 5 floors with 4-5 rooms on each, and each floor ends with a room which contains a more powerful enemy than what you’ve battled on the floor so far.

Upon meeting the clear condition of the room (which is defeating a certain amount of enemies), two portals will open – these will branch off into different rooms. Luckily there is a map on screen to show you which rooms you’ve visited on a previous playthrough of the characters story so you can got back and visit the room you didn’t choose on a second playthrough.

The second story, which you can play through as either Katerina or Sara-Annika has a set path of clearing 30 floors which don’t change on multiple playthroughs.

Each room, while having a set number of enemies, also has environmental challenges to deal with such as lightning which can cause damage to your character or ice which can slow your character down and make movement difficult.

The gameplay for Croixleur Sigma can be difficult to grasp at first, after all this is a Japanese game at heart, and that’s even reflected in the games menu’s – the Circle button is the key to almost everything this game has to offer; its your select button thevitalounge.net

There is more than just story mode to this game as well, Survival mode throws you in an arena with an unlimited amount of enemies with the only end goal being when you die, a challenge mode which sees you have to defeat a certain amount of enemies under a time limit. The most exciting game mode however is Dungeon Each enemy you defeat will drop coins mode, you’ll unlock this after completing which come in both silver and gold, with story mode with all four playable silver being more common. Once you gather enough coins you’ll be able to buy characters, the dungeon encompasses new equipment for your characters, these 100 floors each with increasing difficulty and getting to the end has a big reward offer changes in appearance for your which I won’t spoil for those of you character as well as stat boosts in order wishing to attempt it. to make your character more powerful. for menus and your attack button for combat. Square allows your character to dash, which is essential when it comes to being swarmed by enemies, and the jump button will help you when it comes to attacking flying enemies.

Weapons are also essential to success in Croixleur Sigma too, you’ll start off with a basic weapon, and each time you clear a floor you’ll unlock a new weapon until you have four at your disposal, however weapon’s can also accumulate damage and will eventually become unusable.

Thankfully, when this happens you’ll unlock a new weapon when you complete that floor, and it’s likely to be more powerful than the one you had previously.

Croixleur Sigma is a beautiful game, it’s fully 3D graphics, character designs and environments look beautiful and size down well onto the PlayStation Vita’s screen and with the game managing to maintain a constant 60fps frame rate performance is never an issue. The games soundtrack is filled with action-packed fast paced guitar riffs which really get you in the mood to cut through hundreds of enemies, the only issue is that there isn’t enough variation in the soundtrack and it can get repetitive after a short while.

VERDICT Croixleur Sigma is a fantastic addition to the Vita's library offering addictive hack-n-slash gameplay with stunning graphics and accessible gameplay all bundled into a very generously priced package, it's definitely worth a look if you're looking for something unique from the genre.

@PSVitaMag

Whilst often repetitive Croixleur Sigma is a tonne of fun, it’s definitely worth checking out if you’re a fan of the Warriors or Senran Kagura games, or even if you’re looking to get into the Hack-n-Slash genre for the first time this is a cheap and worthwhile start, with a Platinum trophy and leaderboards at your disposal, you can do far worse than this.

4.4 The Vita Lounge Magazine

33

Written by Charlie Large @CharlieLarge Chaz3010

1 4 6 PSTV 133 MB Publisher bitforge.ch

@bitforge

Developer

etterstudio.com

@etterstudio

Released

NA: March 9th EU: March 8th

34

The Vita Lounge Magazine

You should never judge a book by its cover or, in this medium, write off a video game before you’ve even played it. I must admit, when I first laid eyes on Dreii my initial thoughts were “this isn’t something I’m going to like” and “here comes another mobile port”. But then I started to play Dreii, and quickly realised that Etter Studio’s simple-looking puzzle game has more to offer than initially meets the eye.

Of course, in a structure building game such as this, the physics in Dreii are perfect. You will find yourself holding your breath as your precariously balanced tower tilts to one side, praying that it holds in place for a few more seconds until the level is beat. The more you play, the more complex the levels get. You will find levels that have multiple goals to them – once you have covered one circular goal for a few seconds, another one will appear in a harder-to-reach-place alongside some more shapes for you to utilise to reach the target. Later levels will also feature wind that will blow your structures over, water that will cause shapes to float and shapes with a magnetic pull – causing other shapes to orbit around these central points.

I found myself getting annoyed at times with certain stages. Imagine building a perfect sand castle and then seconds later someone runs along the beach and kicks The premise is simple (which is lucky given it down – that’s how Dreii makes you feel that the game throws you in at the deep end with no tutorial), you need to rearrange when it snatches victory away from you the white blocks on the screen in such a as a gust of wind topples your tower just way that they cover a glowing, circular goal before you can place the final piece. This will for a few seconds. Although this appears to make you question your approach to some be rather straightforward during the first stages, do you take your time and move few levels, the difficulty starts to ramp up with caution or do you move quickly in order as the game adds new mechanics to provide to complete the stage before your tower you with a challenge. topples?

You control a colourful being that floats around the stage, which you can move using either the touchscreen or a combination of the left analogue stick and the X button.

Pressing X on one of the shapes that litter the levels will see your character pick up the shape via a dotted line – allowing for you to manoeuvre the shape so that you can build whatever structure you fancy in a bid to cover that goal.

One thing that I did like about Dreii’s approach to levels is the way it lets you decide your own path through the game. If you find yourself stuck at any point, chances are you can follow another path and avoid the level that is causing you grief – coming back to it at a later point if you so wish.

There are multiple paths to go down in Dreii, and later on you will find that different paths feature different gameplay mechanics thevitalounge.net

in a way that encourages you to play through each route.

As a single player experience, Dreii is a good physics-based puzzler. It comes into its own, however, when played with other players. You can drop into other players’ games and vice-versa at any time. A small circle orbiting one of the levels on the level select screen indicates another player is currently tackling that puzzle. They say that two heads are better than one and, in Dreii, this saying certainly rings true.

Some stages are so tough to complete that two players (or more) are needed to beat the stage. With no voicechat, you and your companion communicate via pre-set text options that you can select using the right analogue stick. Etter Studio have, cleverly, built a word-wheel from which you can select a single word to say to your companion. The reason these set words are the only way to communicate is so that you can play with anyone in the world without a language barrier causing problems. Dreii drip feeds these words to you, so the more you play with others the more options become available for you to communicate.

I really enjoyed playing Dreii with others, and returning to the game to play on my own left an empty space. You encounter all sorts of players in Dreii, bossy people who like to run proceedings, people that keep saying the same thing (usually “hello” or “sorry”) or those that can work a puzzle out in seconds. It really is interesting and makes the game a lot more fun to play. The big problem with this is that not only is the entry to multiplayer a little fiddly (it doesn’t help when nothing is explained to you) but there doesn’t seem to be many people playing Dreii – even the Cross-Play functionality with the PS4 version can help here.

This means that those later levels that require teamwork can become nigh on impossible, which isn’t exactly great if you’re a completionist. I found myself getting frustrated with some of these stages and felt a little cheated that there was no way for me to complete it on my own. There is one stage where the blocks that you need to move cannot be lifted by a single player, heck, even with two players it was a struggle and right at the

VERDICT Dreii is a clever game that plays great on the PlayStation Vita. It is just a shame that for a game that relies on teamwork there is hardly anyone to play with. This doesn't mean that you can't have fun on your own, but once you have experienced Dreii's multiplayer, going solo will make the minimalistic stages feel even emptier than they already are.

@PSVitaMag

end a gust of wind came along to blow the tower down. Luckily, Etter didn’t include swear words in their word wheel or else the screen would have been filled with multi-lingual colourful bubbles of colourful words.

Still, Dreii is a game that I would recommend as an experience, but I would suggest that you wait for a sale before you pick it up. At £9.49/$11.99 the price is a little steep, especially when you may not get the most out of it with the unfortunate lack of people playing it. A great physics-based puzzle game it may be, but when it is a game that relies on collaboration but lacks numbers – it seems that those that did buy this game soon forgot about Dreii…

3.1 The Vita Lounge Magazine

35

Written by Zach Price

@MyrishMartyr MyrishMartyr

5 15 10 PSTV 74.1 MB Publisher

swapquest.de

@Rebusmind

Developer

swapquest.de

@Rebusmind

Released

NA: February 23rd EU: February 23rd

36

The Vita Lounge Magazine

Swapquest isn’t at all what I expected it to be. Originally thinking it was a spelling-puzzle game mixture, I quickly found out that the name isn’t to be trusted.

The game’s title can be slightly deceiving, but it is a very good puzzle game with RPG tones to add some flavor here and there.

Swapquest takes place in an ancient kingdom, where you are the son or daughter of the Royal family. Your ancestors have fought off an ancient evil, the Horde, and sealed it away within a sword relic.

However, after many years, the relic has now broken into 12 different shards, and you are tasked with collecting them and defeating that ancient evil once more.

As you venture across the lands searching for shards, you will fight enemies and the environment. Swapquest is a side-scroller – the game progresses in a single direction, and you must keep pace with that. As the screen scrolls, you encounter those enemies and fight them for various jewels and health. Where the puzzle aspect comes in is this: the level is divided into tiles, each with its own determined path. You have to make those tiles connect so you can continue on, not fall behind the level’s pace, collect treasure, and defeat enemies.

Now, the RPG elements come into play at the very beginning. You choose your class, each with different benefits and stats, and begin the journey. As you earn those jewels and treasure, you can buy new gear and

level up abilities that you have to make your character better. You also level up your character by defeating enemies found during the level, so it’s important not to ignore them and head straight for treasure.

The RPG system may seem minimal, and at times it can be, but the coolest thing I found during it was the way it leveled up and fused classes together. As I played and gained those higher levels, my class would switch, meaning I kept all my abilities and stats from the one I had chosen, but I gained an ability from the class I evolved into, allowing me to choose the exact ability I wanted and thought would be more beneficial to me.

What I most enjoyed from Swapquest was its bosses. Each is cleverly designed and uniquely challenging. There is a specific method to battling and defeating each – you can’t just rush in and whack the boss, especially since most are immune to that in the beginning. Puzzle games should be challenging and the bosses prove that this one is, while still being fun. I enjoyed figuring out what was given to me and how I must accomplish it. I will give a few words of advice: remember that you can use the touchscreen for everything in Swapquest, even during boss battles – it’s often important, and your only way of gaining victory.

As far as the game’s aesthetic, it’s hard to describe how I feel about the game.

While your character and some of the environments don’t look too amazing, the bosses (enemies, too) and jewels are sharp — really standing out to the eye. Part of this may be due to the game originally being thevitalounge.net

a mobile game, but it wasn’t released too long ago, meaning it should have been developed for hardware of somewhat equal means to the Vita.

The game also has a perfect soundtrack.

Each stage has its own track, which really reflects the atmosphere and tone of the level and what’s going on. For example: when I was playing in a desert level, the soundtrack reminded me of an “Indiana Jones” movie as I wondered through the level; It was also one of the coolest

designed levels I encountered in the game elements would have implemented.

— it scrolls in every directions, simulating you being lost in the desert.

Simply put, if you look at Swapquest and think, “I think I’d like this,” then you All in all, Swapquest isn’t a very hard would – and there’s nothing wrong with that. Again, it’s a good experience overall, game to wrap your head around, and despite the only challenge being those it isn’t long. I found it tedious having amazing bosses. continuously to hunt down the shards, because the game deliberately drags that out when you can go ahead and fight – and defeat! – that final boss. It’s fun and enjoyable, with some great gameplay that I wish other games that use small RPG

VERDICT SwapQuest is a fun game that doesn't offer to many challenges for big puzzle/RPG fans.

@PSVitaMag

3.3 The Vita Lounge Magazine

37

Written by Tyler Olthoff

@imsohappy77 imsohappy77 On the trails again…

2 10 38 PSTV 2.7 GB Publisher

xseedgames.com

@XSEEDGames

Developer falcom.com

@nihonfalcom

Released

NA: December 22nd EU: January 29th

38

The Vita Lounge Magazine

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel is a role-playing game localized for us by the fine people at XSEED. It’s the first in the Cold Steel series of Trails games, and serves to tell us the tale of a young teenage boy named Rian who enrolls into a military academy known as Thors – assigned to the mysterious Class VII. A school meant to teach you about war and tactics, Thors Academy (and your enrollment in Class VII) pretty much drags you into the middle of things right away as you’re put to use learning by doing. As you progress through the story however, the details are filled in – and your missions become more and more important.

Interested? Well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves…

The story often had so many things happening at once that it was difficult to even focus on the main plot. You’d start to learn something about the main story, then something strange would happen and you’d be left with more questions (on top of all the other questions you already had going in). This happened so much in the game that it got quite frustrating. Considering I felt that the game drags on a bit too long for my liking, having all these side stories happening and distracting so much from the plot was a letdown.

Along with that odd choice of progression (or lack thereof), I noticed that the game seemed to have that cliché “everyone must say something” shtick. During any story portion where the characters would talk, everyone had to pipe in and say something.

This wouldn’t bother me as much if I actually had a connection with more of the characters, but there’s a lot of them in the game; making it quite easy to just not care about certain ones.

With all of that in mind however when I finally got near the end of the story things really picked up and I was hooked, wanting to find out what was going to happen next.

If they kept this feeling throughout the game I think it would have been better at holding your attention. It seemed early on that Trails was also trying to get a somewhat Persona vibe with social links where you could use bonding points to experience moments with your classmates, but ultimately it fell a little short and wasn’t anywhere near as good as how Persona 4 felt in terms of bonding. I was always left wanting more to happen between the characters. I was hoping that this would help me to like more of the characters and sometimes it did work but mostly it did not.

A lot of the game involves doing minor quests as well as a main quest to advance the story. Each month your teacher sends you on a field study to a new city with a select group of your classmates. In these cities you do quests for the days you’re there and of course something happens each time. This repetitive mechanic can get a bit old at times, which is something that I wish they would have changed up a bit more. That said however, new locations thevitalounge.net

no different here. To use your arts and special abilities they have a device called the ARCUS. This device has slots in which you can place orbs called Quarts, thereby enhancing your status or adding arts. By With most Japanese RPGs the gameplay using these Quarts effectively you can is pretty similar but of course with really compliment certain character’s different little twists and mechanics.

Trails of Cold Steel is no exception to that. strengths, so it’s something to look into right away when starting the game.

You can free roam the city where Thor’s Military Academy is located (Trista), and when you visit other cities you can do the No RPG would be without weapons, same. When you’re in a dungeon or on an armor, and accessories to upgrade – and, out-of-town road you will have monsters once again, Trails takes a pretty normal route with the idea. You can either buy that roam around, visible on the screen new weapons and armor, or you can and the map. If you get spotted by one upgrade your weapon using U-Material. they will charge you, though if you’re sneaky you can use your weapon to stun One major flaw I noticed in the game was them from behind – gaining an advantage whenever you’d go to a new town and you’d have different classmates with you; in battle. Keeping that in mind can really help you out in time when you’re needing your partners accessories and quarts would be unequipped. Considering how to farm and don’t have many items to often you travel to new cities with new heal with. classmates having to constantly re-equip a lot of the gear can get annoying. I see The battle system is very similar to why they might do it though, as you may any RPG that uses a time based attack have really good quarts you want to keep system. Basically you have portraits on the side showing from top to bottom who with you – but they should have added a “lock” option to negate this, or some other attacks first. Some arts (magic attacks) sort of work-around. can take longer to cast so they will push you down the list while other attacks Graphics have never been an overly like basic attacks and skills require no casting time. Keeping this in mind is very important aspect to me when it comes important as you get further in the game to video games, so I didn’t really have an issue with Trails of Cold Steel’s slightly as more elements are added to the time gauge. Sometimes the bar will have an dated look. Being that it’s a port of a title icon next to a portrait that signifies a that was released in Japan over two years certain status boost. These can vary from ago you can hardly expect the graphics to a 10% heal to a instant kill hit. By using be stunning, however the game has some arts or your S-Break (Special) attack you frame rate issues and long loading times can change the order of the time line that could have probably been cleaned therefore making sure the enemy doesn’t up a bit – and weren’t. While it’s true that get the health boost. the Vita can do better than what’s offered here, you can’t expect a complete overhaul Role-playing games normally have a lot when porting a title like this – so what of deep mechanics, and of course that’s we’re seeing is acceptable, if not polished. and being forced to explore the city you’re in was a good way to see interesting and new places.

VERDICT The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel is a decent game - it has a few flaws that make it hard to recommend to everyone (especially regarding the story), but if you're a fan of the series or genre then it's certainly worth a look.

@PSVitaMag

The sound in the game has equally numerous moments of being both really good and annoying. The best part of the sound system in Cold Steel has to do with discovering a new area. Whenever you’re in a new place the music changes, something that reminded a lot of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (which is my favorite game of all time). The music for each area is well chosen, and every time I ventured somewhere new I felt like the music was a part of the discovery – setting the tone for your exploration.

Now for the bad; for some reason whenever they want everyone to yell something together (like a group affirmation such as “RIGHT!”) the audio is over-powered and poor sounding. The mix seems off as it both breaks the volume range it’s supposed to occupy, and cracks like improperly compressed audio. This kind of oversight in quality control is very annoying, and though it doesn’t “break the game” with regards to experience it’s something you should be aware of.

Another important thing to note is that Cold Steel includes an English voice-over, but doesn’t include the original Japanese voice-over in any way. While it’s nice to cater to the English-speaking world and those who prefer to listen to the game, the lack of the original voice-over is bound to upset some – including our Editor-in-Chief Kyle.

The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel is a long game with many ups and downs. If you’re looking for a deep role-playing game to sink your teeth into then it might be up your alley, but with frame-rate issues and a convoluted story it’s not really something I can recommend to the casual player – or those who need perfection.

3.3 The Vita Lounge Magazine

39

WE'VE BEEN TRYING TO GET HIM IN THE MAGAZINE FOR MONTHS AND FINALLY TIM CAME THROUGH TO EXPLAIN MORE ABOUT HIS VITA CHANNEL, LATEST VITA GAMES! FIND OUT MORE ABOUT HIM AND WHAT HE LOVES ABOUT THE VITA! Hi Tim! Can you tell us a bit about yourself and why you love the Vita?

Here At Last! Hi My name is Tim and I run the popular dedicated PSVITA Youtube channel LatestVitaGames! I love everything about the Playstation Vita. Its incredibly comfortable to use has an awesome quality screen and a massively diverse catalogue of games available for it.

Can you tell us a little bit about your channel and why you set it up?

I set up my LatestVitaGames YouTube channel up in July 2011 shortly after hearing all the information come out about the Playstation Vita. I had already set up my Latest3DSGames YouTube Channel in May 2011 and decided to keep both channels solely dedicated to each console. I was really excited about the upcoming PSVITA although I had never owned a PSP before, I was looking forward to console quality gaming on the go! Although I covered PSVITA games and the odd bit of news / store updates from 2011 - 13 it wasn’t until 2014 that I started uploading on a more regular basis and LatestVitaGames effectively became my main YouTube channel in late 2014. My YouTube content from 2014 onwards has been very consistent and I am still one of the very few totally dedicated PSVITA YouTubers out there!

What kind of content can Vita fans find on your channel?

I cover everything PSVITA related including all the latest PSVITA Game releases from the biggest third party releases to the smallest indies, weekly PSVITA news updates and weekly PSVITA PlayStation Store updates. I also cover the quirkier side of PSVITA information, such as PSVITA news from Japan and even some Japanese PSVITA gameplay!

My PSVITA Gameplay videos include first impressions gameplay of all the latest releases and full Let's Plays of various PSVITA titles.

In 2016-2017 I see LatestVitaGames staying pretty close to its current format with a gradual increase in gameplay & let's play videos.

Who knows what we will see from 2018 onwards!

What Vita games have you enjoyed the most?

I have enjoyed so many PSVITA games its difficult to pick out just a few! However most recently I have enjoyed playing Assassins Creed Chronicles (Out later this month in the West) as well as Persona 4 Dancing All Night , Broken Age , Danganronpa: Another Episode & Atelia Escha & Logy. 2016 looks like an incredible year of game releases for PSVITA and we have already had some great releases like Digimon Story CyberSleuth & Atelier Escha & Logy.

What upcoming Vita games are you most excited for?

The ones I am most looking forward to are One Piece Burning Blood , Skullgirls , Both God Eater Games & a hatful of Indie Titles too numerous to mention!

Is there anything else you want to say to the Vita community?

The PSVITA community if one of the best out there and its great to interact & communicate with everyone who covers PSVITA! The future for PSVITA is looking very bright and positive! Special thanks from me to ALL of those PSVITA channels and websites with special mention to The Vita Lounge and GadgetGirlKylie!

/latestvitagames

40

The Vita Lounge Magazine

/LatestVitaGames

/LatestVitaGames

thevitalounge.net

FAVOURITE VITA MEMORIES Robert Kellett @RK1283

Hello! Name's Robert and a big fan of video games. Love to write, post on forms and play my trusty Vita. Current goal is to graduate college with a teaching degree and getting my English B.A.

owned the retail version. So fast forward to its launch and I discover that through purchasing the PlayStation Plus trails on the PlayStation Network…you not only activated cross-buy with the Vita version, but also got the PS3 version for free digitally! I had to share this with NeoGaf as I was a new member in early 2014…and man was that thread massive. Over ten plus pages of posts with people using this lop-hole to get the game and it was nice, as some people were in my spot, owning When I first got my Vita, my mother and the retail version of the collection and not I travelled to a Target, as the console the Vita one. Needless to say, I felt happy was having a really nice sale (300 for the system but with a 50$ Gift card) in addition contributing some information to the community. to a buy two, get one free sale for Vita games. So, 350+ dollars latter, I walked out of the store with my trusty Vita 1000, three Another memory comes not long after the games (Sonic Transformed, Mortal Kombat second one, and it was when PlayStation 1 and PlayStation Portable games were 10, and Need for Speed Most Wanted) ‘unlocked’ on the PlayStation Store. What an 8GB Memory Card and 3 Months of does this mean? Some PS1 and PSP PlayStation Plus. games don’t run on Vita in North America, mainly the Crash and Spyro games.

Why did I get my Vita? Well...PlayStation They were on sale for a buck per game Plus and the Vita Community on NeoGaf only days prior and then this little glitch really sold me on the platform. So, where do my memories with the system come in? happens; they work on Vita now for North A few times I recall across 2013 and 2014! American gamers!

Hello everyone! Remember when you first got your game systems and enjoyed your time with them? It’s nice to look back on memories time to time. My Vita has been my main gaming system for the past three years since I got it June 2013 and has to be the console I put the most time into. I would like to share some of my favourite memories with my Vita and I hope you all enjoy it!

My first Vita Memory was playing it for the first time after I got it. I sat down in a store my mother and I passed. As she was looking around in the store, I popped in Sonic Racing Transformed to see how it runs on Vita. I love the Sonic series and Racing Transformed is one of my favourite kart racers out there, with some great track designs, lots of SEGA fan service and some really impressive visuals & music. So playing it on my Vita and it mirroring the PS3 version so closely really blew me away.

I got them on my Vita as fast as I could before Sony closed up this glitch and it was amazing, Crash & Spyro run so well on Vita and they look so crisp on the Vita 1000’s OLED screen. It made my week honestly and it pushed me into getting some more games like MotorStorm Artic Edge and Twisted Metal Head On, with me enjoying both quite a bit.

For literally two whole months, it was the only game I played on my Vita and by June, I clocked in over 200 hours into the game. It had to be the longest I put into any game, outside of maybe Ratchet & Clank 3 and the Sonic Series. Why did it grab me so tightly? I supposed it’s from my attachment to the characters.

Yu and his friends are so enjoyable and fully realized people, with emotions, goals, motivations and bonds with you, the player. I loved this and replaying the game over and over again to get all the social links felt so rewarding. Just hanging out with my virtual friends was a lovely experience and the amazing cast outside of the main party was great. Nanako was a child character done right and her scenes with Yu had a nice charming factor to them. Reminded me of when I played with my sister when she was a lot younger.

My time with Persona 4 Golden is one I will never forget and this coming summer, will revisit this game after putting it down since my original 200 hour run. Looking forward to it honestly, as I can’t way to see how my perspective changed after playing more role playing games the past two years.

Now in 2016, I own well over 250+ games on my Vita and the number just keeps on growing. So many great games I am looking forward to playing this year like Axiom Verge, Trials of Cold Steel 2, and Neptuina vs. Sega Hard Girls just being some of the many games I want to get this year for the handheld of life.

My final Vita memory I want to comment on was my first time playing Persona 4 Golden. I never really played role playing I latter got most of the trophies in the Vita games before, with the Super Mario RPG’s Happy to own my Vita and can’t wait to version and I still play it from time to time being an exception. So, after hearing how see what the rest of 2016 holds for the platform! but it was a great experience and showed great Persona 4 Golden was and how it’s the best game on the Vita, my interest me how solid some Vita ports really are.

Shame Sonic doesn’t have a stronger home was sparked. It was on sale for 2014’s on the Vita with Racing Transformed being Golden Week and I got that with a few other games. the only major game in the series on the system, but what are you going to do?

To share your community voice and Can’t complain about getting a great port! I boot the game up and...literally days flew tell your own PSVita story get in by. This was during the summer with no touch via magazine@thevitalounge.

My second Vita memory was in early 2014 college semester going on, so I had days net for your chance to get featured in to sit down and play through games. And when Sony announced the God of War next month's magazine! We want to instead of playing a number of games, I Collection for Vita and announced it was hear and cover your experiences! cross-buy digitally and I was a bit annoyed; just played Persona 4 Golden. @PSVitaMag

The Vita Lounge Magazine

41

DIRECTORY A RECAP OF THE BEST GAMES THIS YEAR

CRYPT OF THE NECRODANCER

4.5

7 5 16 1.0 GB

ODDWORLD: NEW 'N' TASTY

4.5

5 9 22 1.2 GB

SENRAN KAGURA: ESTIVAL VERSUS

4.3

1 1434 3.1 GB

HITMAN GO: DEFINITIVE EDITION

3.6 42

9 3 4 528 MB

The Vita Lounge Magazine

VOLUME

4.5

DIGIMON STORY: CYBER SLEUTH

8 6 10 904 MB

ATELIER ESCHA & LOGY PLUS: ALCHEMISTS OF THE DUSK SKY

4.4

2 8 42 2.5 GB

LEVEL 22

3.9

1 7 48 1.5 GB

CROIXLEUR SIGMA

4.4

2 1330 816 MB

A BOY AND HIS BLOB

0 0 21 215 MB

LEGO MARVEL'S AVENGERS

3.5

4.5

5 9 20 1.3 GB

3.6

0 0 21 1.3 GB

CIVILIZATION REVOLUTION 2 PLUS

3.5

1 3 57 449 MB thevitalounge.net

SUBSCRIBE ON PATREON AND GET A COPY OF THE MAGAZINE DELIVERED TO YOUR DOOR! WWW.PATREON.COM/THEVITALOUNGE

The love for the Vita that some of our fans have is incredible, but the belief in us and this magazine that the following readers have shown is truly incredible. Thank you for your support guys! If you see them on your online adventures, please say hello!

Lates Lates 10 Vit 11 Re 11 Re 14 Re 13 Re 10 Re 10 Re Enth 13 Re t Rev t Rev a Gam views views views views views views usias iews views iews! t Vita | Dev ! Dev ! Dev ! Dev ! Dev ! Dev ! Dev e Rev ! Dev | Dev elope T elope elope elope elope elope elope iews o elope p 10! elope r Fea r Fea r Fea r Fea r Fea r Fea r Fea &5D r Inte r | F tures eature Comm tures tures tures tures tures tures evelo rview |C ! ! ! ! ! ! s p unity !|C s! Gre er Inte Lates Lates Lates Lates Lates Lates o T li t New t New t New t New t New t New o n g Mil rview p 10! & Gre ler! s! s! s! s! s! s! s! g!

The V The V ita Lo itaTLh The V The V The V The V The V The V The V The V Vg unge oeun it it it itea Lo it it it it it ungea Loungea Loungea Loungea Loungea Loungea Loungea Loungea Loun M A G A Z I N E

M A G A Z I N E

M A G A Z I N E

M A G A Z I N E

Andrew

M A G A Z I N E

M A G A Z I N E

M A G A Z I N E

Diehard Vita supporter8 since day zero. Collector of every US physical copy. My top 3 Vita games are Uncharted, Gravity Rush, and Danganronpa.

7

9

@2BFLiam SuperBestFriendsPlay.com

Thanks for your generous support and belief!

Curtis

Thulsa

Matthew Wolfman

Lars Thormeyer

Adam Klarich

Jens Brinkmann

Holt Slack

Salvador

Rick Salas-Velasquez

Lorenzo Samaniego

Liam Allen-Miller

unknownwolf123 @ unknownwolf7

Thanks for your generous support and belief!

kanon8891

@YourPSVita yourpsvita.com

Thanks for your generous support and belief!

ZoSam32 @ZoSam32

Nathan King

Charles Foulk

Brian Goycochea

Nicholas Petit

Thanks for your generous support and belief!

Thanks for your generous support and belief!

Thanks for your generous support and belief!

M A G A Z I N E

levelM toEsee S your name and Bio here!

Cowlauncher

@Cowlauncher

6

M A G A Z I N E

BEST V Support I us at this GA T A

Todd

MuggleMind

My PSN isn't related to Harry Potter, honest.

4 5 3 It was the name of my first D&D character way back in 1976. I'd meant to use "muddledmind", but wrote it wrong (I was only 11, so that's my excuse). Vitawise, I play mine every day, usually travelling to and from work.

M A G A Z I N E

M A G A Z I N E

Thanks for your generous support and belief!

Thanks for your generous support and belief!

Thanks for your generous support and belief!

Andre Busse

Thanks for your generous support and belief!

Bryan

Thanks for your generous support and belief!

Thanks for your generous support and belief!

Also, a big thanks for all you who supported us and made this issue possible!

Wictor, Miguel, Wilson, Chris B, 32BitPlayer, Mark L, Michael, Reckoning, Gary, Matt, Daniel S, Juan, Erick, Tom, Mark D, Gabe, Chris, Steven, Richard, GadgetGirlKylie, Daniel H, Andreas, William, Britta, Seth, Juha, Jared, Brad, Dmitry, Liam, Jose, Ben C, Ryan, Judit, Senthujan, Johnnie, Ben O, Mark T, David J, Troy, David D, Hayden, Garret, Lei, Benjamin, Adam, Nelson, Keith, Pierre, Ethan, Joel and Brett @PSVitaMag

The Vita Lounge Magazine

43