Honestly, I enjoyed this. More than I thought I would. Not that I had thought of anything bad before playing it, I don't do that.
Astonishing graphics for a PS2 game, character models, environment, and lightning, it's all great and polished. But the thing is, it's not optimal enough to get a good look at, mostly with the level structure being composed of like two 3-4 enemies to beat up in a very enclosed area. Except for two levels I think, where you have more freedom and thus are allowed to actually pay attention to the environment. Oh and also, very bad fixed camera angles, I remember in that one level where you have to quickly escape from something, it was horrendous because the sudden change of angle can screw you pretty badly into finding your way. I saw people complaining about this in the BTA phases, well I think it's not too bad if you know what you're doing. Overall, the battle system is alright, and as for the BTA definition... yeah that's not it, because everything is so goddamn slow. I accidentally discovered this game has a chain system. What's the point of adding that if the only occurrence you going to trigger it, is when you simultaneously beat two enemies who had as if by chance the same amount of low HP. Also, the way robots work is pretty stupid. These enemies don't work the same way humans or organic beings work. When you hit humans and co., they ragdoll, and they get i-frames while being in this state, meaning you cannot chain them. This isn't the case for robots. Every time you hit them, they just get stunlocked, allowing you to chain them. I'm nitpicking, of course, I don't mind this, this is just funny to me how you can cheese them.
One thing I didn't like is how the game doesn't give any incentive to rotate between the three characters. Why would I pick this guy when I can grind my current character, and experience his full moveset. When you're in midgame, there is no point in picking another character than the one you've been constantly picking, because that character will be the most fun to play. Because yeah, this game has a BP system, you beat up someone, you get BP, and you enhance a character. This is also tied to another gripe I have with the game. YOU have to beat your enemies to get the BP, YOU and YOU alone, not your CPU-controlled comrades, the player has to deal the finishing blow to get the BP.
Good tracks, if only they were just not on loop. I loved the ending song.
Good voice acting for both English and Japanese, but not so groundbreaking, as some lines delivery was really bad.
Regarding the story... that was ass. Have you played Kingdom Hearts Chain Of Memories ? No, because I think that in its structure, this is a worse iteration of KHCoM's storyline, really. Think about KHCoM's story, being mixed up with the level of stupidity of Stranger of Paradise FF Origins's narration. (Don't make me say what I didn't say, SOPFFO, the story is very good, it's only a disservice by its very poor narration.)
We got Sion Bazhard, supposedly the main character, (No he does NOT look like Sora in the slightest. Stop with that nonsense...) working in a bar with his friends, Volt Krueger, Kou Leifoh (Him however, nearly got the same face as Zell from FFVIII...) and Dominique Cross. Dominique gets kidnapped, and it's up to our Bouncers to rescue her. They quickly understand that the kidnapping of Dominique fuels the dark designs of the main antagonist, Dauragon C. Mikado, leader of the Mikado group. This is how I would summarize this game's pitch. Like I said, the story is a convoluted hot mess. Spoilers ahead.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Dauragon was mad at that one hospital that couldn't lodge her sick sister, Dominique. She died. He brought her back to life. He then built a satellite to destroy the hospital that rejected her sister. For some reason, even though Dauragon was using Dominique to satisfy his desires, he also ceased to treat her like a human. That was the backstory of the main villain! Great...
So then back to our party, we beat up echidna who's uh... yeah. Then some irrelevant stuff happens, and our sensei dies but who cares, we find Dominique and we try to escape. One thing: The main reason Sion is so stubborn to save Dominique is because he already lost someone in the past, a girl named Kaldea. He doesn't want to lose someone else. Classic but neat plot point... or not. Sion and co. come across Kaldea, turns out she didn't die, and she willfully stayed by Dauragon's side because he felt lonely. And oh my god, the real KINO, the real peak fiction is still to come. Dauragon kills Kaldea, like, seconds after her revelation, Sion gets mad, and he literally KILLS Dauragon. Oh my god, he's so bouncy. I thought he would like to try to show empathy towards Dauragon, because he knows what it means to be alone, and I think this is why Dauragon no longer considers Dominique as a human, he's been too much alone. No fuck that shit about character interaction right, Sion kills the bad guy, gets the bitches, and that's the end. No wait, I almost forgot the best dialog ever uttered in all of Square Enix's history. (Don't remember what they said exactly, but that would be something along those lines)
Dominique: "I had a really bad dream, where I killed all these people. SIon, was it real"
(I'm assuming she is talking about the moment when Dauragon blew up that hospital, else I don't know what crack this girl's been smoking)
Sion : "It was not real, and you'll never have any bad dreams again, I promise."
Wow. Speechless. I don't know if the party actually knows Dauragon killed like, thousands of innocent, probably disabled people, and if they do know this, especially Sion, then what the fuck are you doing man. And it just keeps getting funnier, because they [Sion and Domi] say these lines of dialog AGAIN. With Sion iterating the same thing as before. Not sure what the writers were onto about that. Injured and disabled people are the source of all catastrophes in the world...?
Moreover, the hospital explosion scene was an FMV, and it was, in my opinion the best in the game. Yeah. So we get this in FMV, but not Kaldea's death or something? Absolute cinema if you ask me. No notes.
I also thought Sion would forget about Kaldea, but not exactly because until the very end of the game, he slips a little line: "Rest in peace, Kaldea" and that's it. My man already mourned. Now do you see why I say that this is a bad iteration of KHCoM story? Sion and Dominique are Sora and Namine. (No their chara design does not look alike either...) Their whole relationship was something made up, as Dominique already died some time ago, and Namine made all this up through Sora's memories. The thing is Sora actually goes through a journey of growth, he learns what it is to lose someone, to be alone, and even when he learns that all of this was made up, he still understands Namine, and he forgives her. (Namine is also portraying Dauragon's character here, on top of Dominique.) He then forgets about Namine, a bit like Sion did for Kaldea, but in Sora's case, it is set up like so because the plot allows it. Not in The Bouncer, that's just frustrating and expeditive. This game is two hours long, and yeah, I don't think you can cook something with such a short amount of time. But I also don't think the game would benefit from a much higher length. It was just made with a particular mindset I think.
I know I keep coming back to what I say, but this time this is it. You know when I realized this game was an all-timer? When I finished the game and I was still unable to figure out what the fuck a Bouncer is. I mean, not the real job, but why choose the bouncer profession for this?
So yeah. Good game. I'm honestly quite surprised by how much I have written for a game that, I feel, will not stick very long with me. But you should play it, it's just two-ish hours.
Astonishing graphics for a PS2 game, character models, environment, and lightning, it's all great and polished. But the thing is, it's not optimal enough to get a good look at, mostly with the level structure being composed of like two 3-4 enemies to beat up in a very enclosed area. Except for two levels I think, where you have more freedom and thus are allowed to actually pay attention to the environment. Oh and also, very bad fixed camera angles, I remember in that one level where you have to quickly escape from something, it was horrendous because the sudden change of angle can screw you pretty badly into finding your way. I saw people complaining about this in the BTA phases, well I think it's not too bad if you know what you're doing. Overall, the battle system is alright, and as for the BTA definition... yeah that's not it, because everything is so goddamn slow. I accidentally discovered this game has a chain system. What's the point of adding that if the only occurrence you going to trigger it, is when you simultaneously beat two enemies who had as if by chance the same amount of low HP. Also, the way robots work is pretty stupid. These enemies don't work the same way humans or organic beings work. When you hit humans and co., they ragdoll, and they get i-frames while being in this state, meaning you cannot chain them. This isn't the case for robots. Every time you hit them, they just get stunlocked, allowing you to chain them. I'm nitpicking, of course, I don't mind this, this is just funny to me how you can cheese them.
One thing I didn't like is how the game doesn't give any incentive to rotate between the three characters. Why would I pick this guy when I can grind my current character, and experience his full moveset. When you're in midgame, there is no point in picking another character than the one you've been constantly picking, because that character will be the most fun to play. Because yeah, this game has a BP system, you beat up someone, you get BP, and you enhance a character. This is also tied to another gripe I have with the game. YOU have to beat your enemies to get the BP, YOU and YOU alone, not your CPU-controlled comrades, the player has to deal the finishing blow to get the BP.
Good tracks, if only they were just not on loop. I loved the ending song.
Good voice acting for both English and Japanese, but not so groundbreaking, as some lines delivery was really bad.
Regarding the story... that was ass. Have you played Kingdom Hearts Chain Of Memories ? No, because I think that in its structure, this is a worse iteration of KHCoM's storyline, really. Think about KHCoM's story, being mixed up with the level of stupidity of Stranger of Paradise FF Origins's narration. (Don't make me say what I didn't say, SOPFFO, the story is very good, it's only a disservice by its very poor narration.)
We got Sion Bazhard, supposedly the main character, (No he does NOT look like Sora in the slightest. Stop with that nonsense...) working in a bar with his friends, Volt Krueger, Kou Leifoh (Him however, nearly got the same face as Zell from FFVIII...) and Dominique Cross. Dominique gets kidnapped, and it's up to our Bouncers to rescue her. They quickly understand that the kidnapping of Dominique fuels the dark designs of the main antagonist, Dauragon C. Mikado, leader of the Mikado group. This is how I would summarize this game's pitch. Like I said, the story is a convoluted hot mess. Spoilers ahead.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Dauragon was mad at that one hospital that couldn't lodge her sick sister, Dominique. She died. He brought her back to life. He then built a satellite to destroy the hospital that rejected her sister. For some reason, even though Dauragon was using Dominique to satisfy his desires, he also ceased to treat her like a human. That was the backstory of the main villain! Great...
So then back to our party, we beat up echidna who's uh... yeah. Then some irrelevant stuff happens, and our sensei dies but who cares, we find Dominique and we try to escape. One thing: The main reason Sion is so stubborn to save Dominique is because he already lost someone in the past, a girl named Kaldea. He doesn't want to lose someone else. Classic but neat plot point... or not. Sion and co. come across Kaldea, turns out she didn't die, and she willfully stayed by Dauragon's side because he felt lonely. And oh my god, the real KINO, the real peak fiction is still to come. Dauragon kills Kaldea, like, seconds after her revelation, Sion gets mad, and he literally KILLS Dauragon. Oh my god, he's so bouncy. I thought he would like to try to show empathy towards Dauragon, because he knows what it means to be alone, and I think this is why Dauragon no longer considers Dominique as a human, he's been too much alone. No fuck that shit about character interaction right, Sion kills the bad guy, gets the bitches, and that's the end. No wait, I almost forgot the best dialog ever uttered in all of Square Enix's history. (Don't remember what they said exactly, but that would be something along those lines)
Dominique: "I had a really bad dream, where I killed all these people. SIon, was it real"
(I'm assuming she is talking about the moment when Dauragon blew up that hospital, else I don't know what crack this girl's been smoking)
Sion : "It was not real, and you'll never have any bad dreams again, I promise."
Wow. Speechless. I don't know if the party actually knows Dauragon killed like, thousands of innocent, probably disabled people, and if they do know this, especially Sion, then what the fuck are you doing man. And it just keeps getting funnier, because they [Sion and Domi] say these lines of dialog AGAIN. With Sion iterating the same thing as before. Not sure what the writers were onto about that. Injured and disabled people are the source of all catastrophes in the world...?
Moreover, the hospital explosion scene was an FMV, and it was, in my opinion the best in the game. Yeah. So we get this in FMV, but not Kaldea's death or something? Absolute cinema if you ask me. No notes.
I also thought Sion would forget about Kaldea, but not exactly because until the very end of the game, he slips a little line: "Rest in peace, Kaldea" and that's it. My man already mourned. Now do you see why I say that this is a bad iteration of KHCoM story? Sion and Dominique are Sora and Namine. (No their chara design does not look alike either...) Their whole relationship was something made up, as Dominique already died some time ago, and Namine made all this up through Sora's memories. The thing is Sora actually goes through a journey of growth, he learns what it is to lose someone, to be alone, and even when he learns that all of this was made up, he still understands Namine, and he forgives her. (Namine is also portraying Dauragon's character here, on top of Dominique.) He then forgets about Namine, a bit like Sion did for Kaldea, but in Sora's case, it is set up like so because the plot allows it. Not in The Bouncer, that's just frustrating and expeditive. This game is two hours long, and yeah, I don't think you can cook something with such a short amount of time. But I also don't think the game would benefit from a much higher length. It was just made with a particular mindset I think.
I know I keep coming back to what I say, but this time this is it. You know when I realized this game was an all-timer? When I finished the game and I was still unable to figure out what the fuck a Bouncer is. I mean, not the real job, but why choose the bouncer profession for this?
So yeah. Good game. I'm honestly quite surprised by how much I have written for a game that, I feel, will not stick very long with me. But you should play it, it's just two-ish hours.