Suda51 and Mondo's girls!

From most left, Scarlett, Suda himself, Vivian, Mika and lastly Betty. Koharu and Natalia are missing though. I am guessing these girls are from Asia as the picture is taken during a promotional event for Killer is Dead in Asia. Among the four, Betty's cosplayer has the best looking face. I could not find details for each cosplayer but I promise I will hunt them down!

Sorceress (Dragon's Crown), perhaps sexiest video game character?

When I was asked the question, the sorceress from Dragon's Crown is the first character that came into mind. That woman IS the definition of sexy, at least in my opinion. Despite having a 2D model throughout the game, the character arts illustrated by Vanillaware has managed to portray a different view of the sorceress rather than just a 2D model. Having played the game, the 2D animation of the character is definitely glorious.

Yes I know, big bouncy tits!

Killer is Dead : Episode 51 and gameplay mechanics

Episode 51 is an additional mission for those who bought the premium edition of the game. Don't worry guys, I won't be spoiling the story for those who pre-ordered the North American or Europe release of the game. 

I played KiD on the PS3 and the frame rate for this episode is significantly bad. There are slowdowns when multiple enemies come charging at you. You can relate this scenario with Bayonetta on the PS3. Other episodes run fine with stable frame rates from what I can observe.

Other than that, I would also like to share some thoughts on the combat mechanics now that I've finished very hard mode for all episodes. The Blood you collect from slashing enemies is extremely useful. Unless you already have a level 5 attack speed, you can fasten Blood collecting by executing a series of counter slashes upon successful dodging.

 Number on the bottom left indicates attack speed level. Level 5 is max

 Mondo punishing the enemy upon successful dodge

 Some enemies drop Blood upon death. Find Scarlet and she will reward you with full Blood. Besides being able to shoot faster with your subweapon, Blood can be used to recover HP (you need to learn the recovery skill first), 1-hit-ko enemies (Mondo cuts the enemy into half). 



 Even on very hard mode, the faster way to finish off an enemy is to stun it by using Mondo's left robotic arm to repeatedly punch the enemy. We can easily do this by tapping the triangle button repeatedly until the final blow is dealt and then proceed to hold R1 -> Square button to execute Adrenaline Burst. This however requires one icon of Blood.

The girls in the game are awesome too. They will be mentioned in the next post!

Killer is finally Dead

I finished all episodes on hard mode, skipped optional gigolo and challenges as they felt repetitive. The game recycles stages for these challenges and in all honesty it doesn't drive me to complete them. The episodes are great. Many thought the game will be purely fan service due to the way it was marketed. This is however not true. The core of the game actually lies in the combat. As mentioned in the previous post, dodging and parrying are very rewarding. Mondo attacks with increasing speed provided the attack combo is not dropped and this gets my adrenaline pumping every time. Having subweapons adds a little spice to the combat and it is pretty well implemented.

The bosses are nowhere as difficult as bosses in the Ninja Gaiden series or Devil May Cry series. Similar to NMH and Lollipop Chainsaw, most bosses can be defeated easily once you figure out the attack patterns of the bosses. Best boss in the game is probably David. The pacing of fight is much faster compared to other boss fights and thus very exciting.

Killer is Dead is AWESOME!

I've been reading a lot of comments on Killer is Dead (mostly bad ones) in the Internet. I'm currently on Episode 12 and I must say.. The combat is fluid. Despite not running at 60 fps as an action game, the combat gameplay is fast and responsive. It gives me the same vibe from MGR-Revengeance. The excitement from repeated enemy slashing is definitely present. Dodging and parrying allows for counter attacks which is extremely fulfilling as well. 

Gigolo missions are optional. If you're mentally tired from mashing the square button, why not take a break with these missions? :)

Those who are still considering if they should purchase Killer is Dead right now should do so. In Suda51 we TRUST!

Dragon's Crown - A must play co-op PS3 game.

We had a great time last night. Every aspects of the game is way above my expectation. Thank you, George Kamitani.





First of all, we played co-op locally. We change weapons/armors/spell books/items by pressing the start button. The player who hits the start button into the start menu will be able to change his equipment while other players will have to wait for the current player to exit the start menu before they can hit the start button again. This is somehow a little time consuming as we prefer to be able to switch equipment without having to wait for a turn at the start menu. Learning skills works the same way. When a player enters a guild, only that player will be able to learn skills while other players will have to wait until the first player exits the guild. This is again time consuming. I would like to highlight that these are not rants, just personal thoughts.  I wouldn't say this is a bad technical aspect of the game because whenever I am selecting skills to learn, my friends would give their opinions and eventually it turned into a discussion on what skill combinations we should go for as a team.

I am not sure how this works with online play but I will try it out with some of my online friends soon. Also, I am main-ing the Elf class for now. More adventure awaits!

Finally!

Finally done with outstation work and came home to find both Dragon's Crown and Killer Is Dead already delivered to my doorstep!

Tonight, I will be gathering some friends to play Dragon's Crown together and hopefully able to share the technical aspects of the game as promised. The game has an optional install which reduces load times. Well, off we go exploring the wonders of Dragon's Crown!