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Best of the Rest: Susan's picks of 2014
ATTENTION: The year 2014 has concluded its temporal self-destruct sequence. If you are among the escapees, please join us in salvaging and preserving the best games from the irradiated chrono-debris. Framed Framed is so elegant and simple that it needs not a single word to teach you how to play. If you understand the basic function of the panels in a comic book and are able to poke things with your finger, you will swiftly understand the basics of how to make things happen in this brilliant mobile game. Arrange the panels one way, and your spy makes a daring escape from the police; position them another way, and he emerges from the wrong door right into the hands of the law. From the very first level, which uses just two panels to illustrate how switching the order of the comic can change the outcome of its events, Framed builds on its simplicity, adding more panels, directionality and timing to create more complex puzzles in its stylish spy-vs-spy thriller. Each page of the comic is a puzzle complete unto itself, making Framed perfectly designed for short bursts of inspiration, or restricted play time. It's one of those games that's so damn clever, you wish you'd thought it up yourself.
The best game about depression stars a homicidal toy bear
Whether it's because you can't afford to give the gifts that society says mark you as a good person, or because you're missing someone who used to be at your celebrations, or even just because it's cold and dark, depression can hit particularly hard during the holidays. One of the biggest problems with depression is trying to explain it to people who've only ever experienced the transitory kind that everyone faces at some point in their lives - the kind that hits after a breakup or a loss. They tend to think that depression means you're sad and just need a good cheering up. If you're suffering this holiday season, rather than suffer through another round of suggestions that you "shake it off," consider handing your well-intentioned friends a Vita and copies of Danganronpa:Trigger Happy Havoc and Danganronpa: Goodbye Despair and let Monokuma explain how depression really feels. I'm as surprised as you are that a game starring a homicidal mechanical bear would be a good instructor on the nuances of mental health, and I rather doubt it's what the developers had in mind, but Danganronpa does a surprisingly elegant job of conveying what it can be like to live with depression. In case you're not familiar with the games, they involve a group of exceptional students who are kidnapped, have their memories erased, and are forced to kill each other if they ever want to return home. Admittedly, it's a situation that just about anyone would find depressing - murder someone or never see your loved ones ever again - but the most important part is the villain of the games, known as the Ultimate Despair. Every one of the students is the Ultimate Something-or-other - baseball player, programmer, swimmer, traditional dancer - but the villain's speciality is making people feel despair on such a deep level that they lose all hope. In that state, they become part of the Ultimate Despair's terrorist network because, really, why not? When you don't see the point in anything, does it really matter if you destroy entire cities or kill yourself? Nothing's ever going to get better anyway. It's an extreme depiction that serves the over-the-top nature of the game, but it's a pretty apt description of what it's like to live with depression.
Fan-made Persoronpa Q mash-up looks beary interesting
This fan-made recreation of the Persona Q opening with Danganronpa characters is a little old and it's also quite spoiler-ish, but we figured it's still worth highlighting because, well, it's fantastic. Also, since it's apparently open season on crossovers in Japan, maybe it will nudge Atlus and Spike Chunsoft in the right direction, hmm?
Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair Review: Magically malicious
A game with new ideas, even bizarre ones, can be a refreshing palate cleanser after playing so many shooters, platformers, and RPGs, and Vita exclusive Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc certainly had new ideas. Combining brain-tickling courtroom drama with finger-breaking twitch mechanics, it was an odd game whose story ultimately won out over its discordant mechanics. Its sequel, Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, doesn't stray terribly far from the original, except to add more weird mechanics apparently just for the sake of being weirder. Its well-crafted story still makes it worth pursuing all the way to the end, but it tries its hardest to annoy you with aggravating game styles before you get there.
Danganronpa 2 trailer is 219 seconds of madness
A new trailer for Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair claims to offer a "simple explanation" of the class trial. And it's true, we can't say it doesn't explain the game's Survivor-like twist on its Ace Attorney-esque gameplay. That said, it's also utterly bonkers. Suffice to say, here's a warning if you don't like talking rabbits getting thumped by talking bears, or NSFW content (Teruteru, man, what's up with you?) Anyway, Spike Chunsoft's Vita game hits North America on September 2 and Europe three days later. If you'd prefer something a bit lighter, below the break there's another NIS America trailer for Vita platformer The Firefly Diary, which is due on PSN this fall.
Goodbye despair, hello class of Danganronpa 2
Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair arrives hot on the blood-soaked heels of the original, and the Vita game is locked in for North America on September 2 and Europe three days later. Pre-orders for the limited edition are now open stateside, with the $60 box chucking in a soundtrack, art book, sunglasses and other Dangdan-doodads. Like the first entry released in February, Danganronpa 2 pits you and your classmates in a twisted game orchestrated by a ever-so-slightly unstable bear called Monokuma. The Danganronpa series adds a Ace Attorney-like trial system to Spike Chunsoft's murderous formula, albeit one that's just as chaotic in its own way. Danganronpa 2 takes the series away from Hope's Peak Academy to Jabberwock Island, an exotic former tourist resort and the new home of a school trip gone wrong. Maybe the first mistake was inviting Monokuma along, even if he did bring a ukulele. [Image: NIS America]
Danganronpa 2, Fairy Fencer F, Disgaea 4 dated for Vita in North America
North American Vita owners are going to be busy this fall, with two RPGs and a mystery-centered adventure on the way from NIS America. IGN reports that Disgaea 4: A Promise Revisited will lead the effort on August 12, followed by the narrative-focused Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair on September 2, leaving Compile Heart's Fairy Fencer F to be released on September 23. Each game will retail for $40. While Disgaea 4 is a port of the existing PS3 game, it will offer "brand-new scenarios," all of the PS3 version's DLC, new characters and cameos from the casts of previous Disgaea games. Similar to the style of its predecessor, Danganronpa 2 is an adventure game that follows a highschool student's handling of life-or-death situations. Lastly, Fairy Fencer F is a new, turn-based RPG with character art by Tsunako. It also incorporates concept art by Yoshitaka Amano and music by Nobuo Uematsu, both of Final Fantasy fame. That just leaves the PS3's Battle Princess of Arcadias to be scheduled, which was assigned a general 2014 release window with the other games earlier this year. [Image: NIS America]
NIS America announces four games, including Danganronpa 2 localization
NIS America announced that it has four games slated for North American release in 2014, including a sequel to its recently-released PS Vita adventure game, Danganronpa. Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair directly follows up on Trigger Happy Havoc's murderous courtroom storyline, and is set to premiere digitally and at retail in North America and Europe this fall. An upgraded version of Disgaea 4 also joins NIS America's upcoming PS Vita lineup, bundling all DLC from the game's previous PlayStation 3 release alongside other expanded content. Disgaea 4: A Promise Revisited is due to launch this summer. On the console front, NIS America plans to release a localization of Compile Heart's Fairy Fencer F, a turn-based RPG for the PlayStation 3 that boasts concept art by Yoshitaka Amano and music from veteran Final Fantasy series composer Nobuo Uematsu. Fantasy-themed brawler Battle Princess of Arcadias rounds out the company's announced lineup, arriving as a digital exclusive for the PS3 later this year. [Image: NIS America]
