Game Review: Flashback (The Quest for Identity)

Before I start I would like to say that when I originally started the blip.tv channel and this blog I wanted to play games I haven’t played before, and write up synopsis/reviews for each of the games.

So why haven’t I written anything for previously Let's Play'd games? Well I feel that I would be biased. I have too much love for the “Tomb Raider” series to actually say anything bad or point out things that are broken, assuming of course, that I can even look for said issues without my judgments being clouded, and the same could be said with reviews for the "Myst" series.

I decided that for my reviews I will wait a week or two to let the overall experience sink in before actually writing up my view on it...


Now we can begin.

Background

“Flashback” was created by Delphine Software International (DSI), which was based in Paris. They ran for a good 16 years with about 15 released games and 2 never finished due to Bankruptcy. (However, a prototype ROM of one of the games, which was meant to be the 3^rd game in the Flashback series, was leaked with all levels and some glitches) Which finally made them close their doors in 2004.

This game in particular was the 7^th released game with Paul Cuisset as the Lead Writer/Designer, who oddly did not take part in the 6^th released game with the same sort of engine entitled “Another World”. Paul Cuisset was the in-house programmer and designer, but with the engine being almost exactly the same as the previous game not much needed to be done.

I know this guy isn’t Paul Cuisset. This is Éric Chahi the head behind “Another World”

Flashback was originally released for the Amiga and ported to multiple other consoles and formats.   I first came across this game as a rental a year after its release in 1993. In fact, it was the first game I ever rented. (Short version: Family was poor, and I didn’t get a Sega Genesis until Christmas of ’93 during the bundle that came with Sonic 2) By the time I did rent it, the previous renters ended up losing the manual for the game, and coupled with young minded naivety… I had no idea what the fuck was going on, and was far too confused to get to the first save point.   I ended up purchasing the game for SNES while in high school with hopes to play through it and make it feel like I have accomplished something that I haven't in my childhood. However, I haven’t touched it until more recently which is when I ran into one of my pet peeves.

Editing, *insert Nintendo of America and their editing rituals with every released game here in America* the edits in this game were rather minor, but if you know me then you know how I can’t even stand the slightest changes sometimes. As I mentioned in the LP videos, I decided to use a Sega Genesis emulator and a ROM.



Plot:

The game starts off with a cutscene showing a man jump onto a futuristic hover-bike while being chased by two men in brown.  Although, he doesn’t get away for long as one of the men seem to have commandeered a larger ship and started pursuit only to shoot down the escapee?

This is when you realize that the men in brown don’t seem too bright as they don’t check on whether or not this guy is dead for very long…
Kind of a stupid decision on their part, but you know I’m kind of used to bad guys being like hitmen who always double tap, or put two bullets center mass and one in the head. The game literally gives you no back-story, so playing this again recently; I understand why I found this game so difficult as a child.

This games entire plot, to me, seems borrowed heavily from a John Carpenter movie from 1988, but nothing is known whether or not this is true. However, if you know the movie called “They Live” then you should be able to compare and contrast quite easily.



At the start of the game you see the main character wake up in a jungle that he crashed in, and no memory as to anything that happened. Due to either the crash, or something else… Who knows?

Because THERE IS NO BACKSTORY!

(Unless you count the comic that came with the game, and was missing in my purchase)

Some exploring occurs and minor gameplay mechanics are introduced until you find the plot device, which comes in a nice little holographic cube.
The cube itself opens to show a holographic message left by yourself which explains that your name is Conrad, and to look for a friend of yours named “Ian” in a place called New Washington who will explain ZA WARUDO, or in this case the rest of the missing backstory (Hopefully).

After some more exploring, and accounting you find yourself in a rather dank and dirty area of what seems to be a sewer? I guess?
Regardless it’s a short trip to find your friend Ian who is talking with guys who try to kill you.

The dude works in sewer science. Must be a depressing job.

Ian hooks you up into a chair from “The Matrix” and tells you that you left your memories recorded onto a computer… You know… Just in case your ESP was correct about you getting amnesia in the near future.

OH SHIT PLOT!… Only took like an hour of gameplay!

We learn through the sequence that you found some sort of science project that measures the density of molecules, and other sciencey things… But with this wearable science you were able to determine that the planet was being taken over by aliens.

Oh yeah, and he’s a fucking FBI guy. (I didn’t know this until after looking on Wikipedia, but it was confirmed in the comic)

Conrad wasn’t very good at Metal Gear (Like me) and continued to fail his hide and gather information checks when the aliens realized that someone was looking a bit too awkward. However, he has a slightly higher than average intelligence and was able to figure out that he should record his memories, and send them to his friend.   This is where the exposition should’ve ended since he recorded his memories and shipped them off.

But lasers, and guns.

WTF! He’s…

...Not strapped down?
What the fuck is with these dudes?
How do they… Do they know how to breathe air?
Are they really this fucking stupid to just wipe a dude’s memory to make sure he doesn’t blab about shit, and leave him…?
...ALIVE AND UNGUARDED?!
LET ALONE NOT STRAPPED TO A FUCKING CHAIR?!?!

O-Oh god… Why??? I... Fuck it… I dwelled on this long enough.

I do have a far bigger issue with this sequence that I will get into later…



Back on track now, Conrad ...escapes... which leads to the scene in the beginning of the game of him crashing in the Jungle.
Now with a newfound sense of purpose, he now wants to end these shapeshifters. This is when I learn that he’s not on Earth…

 Oh yeah, we’re on Titan. Saturn’s moon. At least I know that now thanks to Wikipedia.

Anyways, the only way back to Earth is to do accounting. It’s a shame that you need a TON of money to get to Earth, or as Ian puts it, an astronomical amount of money…  

Get it?

IT'S A PUN!

HAHAHA!

HHAAHAHFDSALKJFDALKFDSG!

but there is one way of getting to Earth quick!

MORE ACCOUNTING!

Actually, pretty close to it, but first you’re pointed in the direction of some shady ass motherfucker who can get you papers that say you’re taking part in a TV show competition based on killing dudes… Like actually killing dudes. Not fake weapon bullshit. The real hard-edge shit…

Like crack, which this guy is trying to score with the money you give him for the papers.

How do you get the money to buy the papers? That’s fucking easy. GET A JOB! What job do you find?

FUCKING QUESTING, WUT?!

Insert about a 2 hour length of gameplay here, and one fucking annoying ass quest there, and eventually you get to Death Tower… Or Cyber Tower on SNES (Fucking Nintendo of America)

So this is the game show...

The object here is to get through all the traps and kill everything as you try to find your way to the top. Nothing much else happens on this planet, but you make it to Earth, and find out that the “cops” are entirely corrupt, but you escape into a taxi.

Somehow the taxi driver knows exactly where to find the aliens hideout.

I personally figured they’d have it at a Piggly Wiggly, but… I guess a tittybar would make more sense.
Maybe Conrad wanted to enjoy a little bit of pleasure before getting back to work? Idk, but what I do know is that this place is full of Death Tower guys. Regardless, what kind of evil tittybar would it be if it didn’t have a secret passage?

Or without conveniently laid plot exposition?

So upon falling down a duct, and getting some useful info about the plans of the aliens, our hero Conrad…

Gets caught, and is held for interrogation, but then the guards get the idea that they should probably kill you instead. Assuming, of course, you don’t run out of the room to look for a weapon… OH WAIT-!

That's exactly what happens!

After some well placed keys and exploration we make it to the first Morph enemy.

These guys are a pain in the ass at first, but get extremely easy when you understand the pattern, but if they are in groups of 2 or more then tuck your head between your legs and kiss your ass goodbye because you’re fucked.

Well after some exploration and trap evading you make it to a dead end with a machine. The machine teleports you...

...to the purple/pink bubble planet!
Because?

FUCKING CONVENIENCE!
Any clues as to plot at this point?

I personally don’t fucking know. All I know is that the aliens are stupid enough to lead him to their planet purely on accident… Assuming this is their planet. There’s no inclination as to what the fuck is even happening. I feel like I’m just walking down a long, difficult hallway.

Hey guy! I'll save you... Just... Tell me how please?

OH HEY LOOK! IT’S A HUMAN!? Well so much with helping him out though.

After opening the door to let the guy loose a Morph shows up to immediately kill the man.

Well that was pretty useless right? Not really, since with his dying breath the man hands us a very odd shaped box with the word “Danger” on it.

“Why thank you kind sir. I would be glad to handle your dangerous, yet convenient, plot device as I’m being shot at and thoroughly raped by shapeshifting abominations.”

Oh… More plot? It seems as though the eye device that pointed out the aliens was left behind by the dead man to get someone to investigate and contact authorities. Well… Conrad found it, and he works for the Future FBI… Does that count?

Anyways, the Aliens seem to work via hive mind with a brain that tells them what to do, so clearly we have to destroy it before they kill all the humans. At least the man’s plan is in action after…

1200 days?! What the hell has this guy been doing? So he found out the aliens were going to kill humans on day 519, and about 681 days later the aliens STILL haven’t done anything bad?

I’m going out on a limb here, and say what if…
What if the man was here for those 519 days and went batshit from lack of food, and contact with the outside world that he mistranslated what the aliens said?
Then when the Morphs realized that this man just sent out a distress signal of sorts about this false issue, and the Morphs had a feeling that someone would want to take them out?
So in defense they start going after Conrad when they realize that he was the poor schmuck who found the false report?

This game is clearly about murder and mass destruction of a race of aliens that only wanted to be like everyone else and live a normal life.
So Conrad just kind of nonchalantly makes it to their planet and starts systematically killing them all off

one

by

one...

Conrad is officially pure douche liquid...

No… Not pure douche liquid…

He’s used… Used douche liquid.

What kind of man does this sort...

Of...

O-oh wait 1940’s…

Right…

Bad times.

Well… I guess all that’s really left is blowing up the planets core because a voice in your head says so,

Quite literally.

...and doing away with the rest of the Jewish allegory Morphs.

We’re left with a timer for the planets destruction and a race to the very convenient spaceship that was left here.



The final scenes of the game show the last we see of Conrad as he explains that he doesn’t know where in space he is, or how to get back to Earth. So in order to pass time he decides…

To take a really long nap.

So what do I think of the plot after playing the game?

Fucking atrocious!

Just as bad as the movie it was influenced from. The lack of backstory, and drive to even get through the first stage was completely missing, and had some rather terrible pacing.

However, that said, at the time the game was released?



The plot pacing would’ve been completely fine… What with the limitations of the medium…
I mean most games at that time that had a decent pacing were games that told you to look at specific pages in the manual.

You know, I’m willing to completely overlook that, but what I mainly have trouble with (which I mentioned before) is a key part to the plot.



The entire plot is based on your memory loss in the beginning, so not realizing this plot hole annoyed me a lot. I may be nitpicking, but this! This is something that should NOT have been overlooked.
Let me give you an example as to what I mean. Let’s say this picture…

...is the flow of time.

In part A you're having a good time at a party or something and go home to rest and watch TV ending the day with writing a diary.

In part B you get ready for bed when some psycho busts into your home, knocks you out, and takes you to his special place.

Part C you wake up with no recollection of A or B, but you find your home thanks to the police who killed the psycho and saved you. You get home after some much needed therapy, and find your diary talking about what you did in Part A…



This is how it should go, but in the game you clearly remember being shot (be it tranquilizers, or bullets?) and picked up by aliens which in the example explained above… Would be part B.

Granted during the LP recording I noticed it almost immediately, and had to think about it more while I’m typing this out just to see whether or not I was trippin’ balls and imagined it. Obviously I wasn’t.



Plot Score: 4 out of 10
I may have been nitpicky a bit with that last part, but most of it was based on how much dumb luck Conrad seemed to have, no real motivations or drives, and what backstory I found in the comic that originally came with the game still had plot issues as to logic.




Gameplay Synopsis:  In this section I’m going to talk briefly about the controls, and logic behind learning how to use the controls through gameplay.


At the start of the game it gives you unlimited time to figure out that you can jump straight up, duck, roll, and draw/holster your weapon. However, without a manual to explain button combinations you’re basically screwed. Sure you learn the button to pick up items, check inventory, use selected inventory items, but the combos are where it’s at, and how the animations work in different situations.

Now, before I recorded the first stage for the Let’s Play I was talked into playing it, and looking back now I was kinda glad that I did. Mainly for the fact that I learned how to use all of the buttons, like running, or a running jump. Of course, the latter I learned more about it out of sheer luck when I made it to the next stage in the LP video where I learned that you could tap the direction you want to run in, instead of holding it, and if there is a gap/ledge you will automatically jump and grab.

I always thought you needed to hold UP along with the direction you were holding, but didn’t understand the ledge grab bit. There is also a part where doing safety drops to grab a lower ledge is needed or would be easier to get past a few parts if you knew how to do it. Sadly, I didn’t learn the ledge grab until the middle of the last stage, and tried it out of dumb luck and sheer aggravation.

Speaking of aggravation… There were quite a few parts that took me HOURS to get the hang of. One part was a section on planet Morph where you need to fight 3 aliens at a time. It took me a short time to realize that they don’t like to travel 2 screens away, so I was able to systematically lure and kill each one. However, with a very limited shield and no way to recharge between each one made the fight unbearably difficult, although that feeling when I finally did it made my fucking night so much better. (even if I did die from stupidity a few seconds later)

Then, immediately after, there was the locked door with no switch, button, or anything to open it. The door was the lower door that held the button that kept the man inside trapped.

Through the entire game this has never been a thing. You never have to shoot a door to open it, but for this one single door you just need to get pissed enough to want to shoot the fuck out of everything. At least that was what I did.

Gameplay Score: 9 out of 10
Yes it is pretty hard to get used to, but once you get the hang of it…




Sound:

The sounds in this game are so fucking catchy. To this day I still have the audio clip for finding objects replaying in my head when I successfully find my misplaced wallet or random things I need at any given moment.

But the music! Really really great! Even though the synths used to create the one recurring track is very minimalistic in the composition. It really conveys the feeling of the unknown. Granted in my LPs I do play music over top of it like I normally do, but I’m rather good at differentiating mixed noises. I was mostly paying attention the music in game.

Creature noises, and ambient noises are extremely well made, and help flesh out the feel of everything.

Sound Score: 9 out of 10
Seriously amazing… Mad props to the sound designer.




Graphics:

Now this is really key to the game. The entire game was done using rotoscoped animation. Characters, Backdrops… Everything! The entire set pieces were done by hand, and it shown with how smooth everything went together.

Granted Delphine is pretty good at doing pixel hunting type of stuff

That elevator blended right in before I tried the "action" button

But regardless of the pixel hunting aspect and sometimes trying to find credits on the ground, it didn’t do anything to cause harm to the game over all.

In fact, when this game is talked about, people still think this game is a sequel to “Another World” purely based on the rotoscoping style, even though they have nothing to do with one another.

Graphics Score: 10 out of 10
This is some beautiful shit for a cartridge game.



Lasting Appeal:

Lastly, this game is what, in my opinion, paved the way for games like the original Oddworld series. Even the creator of Ico (PS2) has said that this game was what helped influence him in creating that title.

Sure it has its moments of hair pulling frustration, or controller throwing anger, but in the end (for me at least) it’s a game that I can easily see myself in playing over and over again.

It has everything… even a slight Doctor Who type of plot going on for it (and yes I mean the bad era of Who)

Controls are tough to find out, but not too hard. The controls during combat are pretty bad, but overall this game is completely enjoyable.



Final Tally:

Today I will post up the last 3 videos of TR2, and probably a week or two from now I will be getting my new mixer, and immediately making the Season 2 finale.

So thanks to all my viewers, and you readers for spending your time with me doing my crazy shenanigans, and I’ll see you on the next Let’s Play.

Mirage of Blaze (Episode 1 summarization)

A few weeks ago I ended up buying two months of XBL, and with it comes Crackle and other video apps to keep my brain entertained while I'm doing audio production stuff. It eventually turned to me just having it on in the background for noise. After finishing two TV series and three movies I began to check the rest of the things available, when I stumbled across this cover picture.

Emos

This art style reminds me a lot of yaoi and shounen-ai artists that do softcore porn.

The intro didn't help either...

Suddenly invisi-dicks, invisi-dicks everywhere.

It’s a picture of the two characters above, the 2^nd lead holding a half naked main lead. My gaydar went right off the chart on this one, and I will answer this question now… NO! I was NOT thinking with my penis. Instead I was thinking “This has to be written by a female. Let’s see how bad this turns out.” Now if you’re female, and you found that offensive I apologize. However, I can honestly say from my POV, most female writers I come across do the same standard cliché love story, or pay too much attention to the interaction between the protagonists that the main storyline becomes a standard backdrop, much like a facespace picture where we see your freshly made dookie in the toilet.

A taste of things to come?

With that said I will begin with episode one. (What I’m thinking in my head will be in parenthesis)

Gotta be bad... Just look at them going all super saiyan and shit.

The show begins with two characters standing in front of an old shrine at night, a male and a female. The female speaks about a sacramental mound and how their lord is sealed in it. The male reaches out to it when some magic force field prevents him from touching the thing. (So we’re going supernatural with this shit right off the bat? And the way they keep talking must make them evil). The two go onto talking how they are going to break the seal and get this spirit out of this prison. The male mentions how he already has a host body planned.

In the morning/afternoon (rather hard to tell) we see a large-ish group of people congregate around it seeing the aftermath of the prison break. The statue is broken in pieces and we see the 2^nd lead character putting on his hipster shades saying he was “too late”. (Possible bad-ass character? Too early to tell.)

Cue "Won't Get Fooled Again" by The Who 'YEAAAAAAAH!'

Suddenly we’re introduced to the main character Takaya Ohgi hanging at an arcade and getting his ass kicked at Street Fighter or something. (I must’ve been wrong about the other guy being a badass because this nigga right here… He’s in a school uniform and his classmates are congregating around him mentioning how he has a bad image.) One of the classmate’s mentions how his friend/acquaintance is probably getting his ass kicked in an IRL fight. Very random and out of nowhere, but after learning this Takaya has to go save him! (Ohhhhhh shit… He has a motorcycle… Definitely a badass.)

 Yeah! You keep being reckless!

Luckily, Takaya made it in time to see his demented looking friend who we know now as Yuzuru standing over 3 or 4 guys who got their asses handed to them, but suddenly his face goes complacent and non-psycho. Takaya and Yuzuru eventually walk along the road and he asks him if everything is alright since he’s been absent from school for 3 days. (Damn man, not even I did that in my school days.) Yuzuru mentions how he’d lose his memory and wake up after kicking someone’s ass or just waking up somewhere in town. (Stress from studying this is not.) Takaya responds when suddenly the chick from the beginning of the episode shows up in front of them and Yuzuru stands there frozen staring at her.

All she manages to get out is “You are the-“, before curling in a ball in pain and bursting into flame. Takaya tries to help out the woman while his friend just stands there staring continuously like a bewildered child who first meets santa. (With the crazy shit that happened in the beginning I’m starting to think that he must be possessed be the host body. But if that were the case then the ghost wasn’t released until 3 days prior to now… My god… Time skips ahead)

Suddenly we see hipster main bad-ass number 2 running to the rescue…, or in this case stand behind the growing group of people who are watching this woman burn. However, the flame doesn’t seem to be a real flame at all. It’s not hot, and she’s not burning. Badass number 2 looks at Takaya and says “He must be the-“ when… Scene change!

After school time, we’re introduced to annoying female character Saori who wants to know what’s wrong with Yuzuru. She acts a lot like someone in love with Yuzuru and pesters Takaya to letting her follow him so she can go see their friend. (Something tells me she will either be, A: a fag hag, or B: just a straight up annoying cunt)

Finally at the hospital, the woman who was on fire seems to have amnesia. Takaya, who just so happens to have her handkerchief with a name on it, asks her if her name, is “Yuiko” as written on the cloth. She realizes that Takaya is the man from yesterday she saw. (So another day passed already? WTF! The last I saw it was sunny now it’s after school with a sunset. KNOCK IT OFF ANIMU) Takaya begins to interrogate the woman like a crazy psycho ex, and tells her that she needs to explain why she was on fire, and what is going on with his friend. (Very over dramatic moment for something extremely pointless to ask a person with amnesia)

"Hold me back dawg."

We skip to see Yuzuru sitting on his bed, watching the house as his parents are off working, when he sees a bunch of ghosts congregate around him and latching onto him looking for guidance. He naturally freaks out when bad-ass hipster man appears and starts speaking crazy moonspeak with glowing hands making the ghostly apparitions disappear. He tells Yuzuru that he sensed them and came to his rescue before giving him a wristband which keeps the ghosts away. Mr. bad-ass hipster then leaves mentioning that Yuzuru should never take it off. Even after helping the kid out he never bothers mentioning who he is. (This dude is so bad-ass)

We cut away to Saori and Takaya on their way to visit Yuzuru, and Takaya notices Mr. bad-ass head in the opposite direction. When their paths cross Takaya mentions a burning sensation in his chest, and even after confrontation nothing much comes out of this. (possibly chest Chlamydia) Nothing really comes out of this scene even after meeting with Yuzuru. All Takaya does is ask if he’s alright (yet again) before we’re shoved off to another scene in the daytime outside of school. (Who knows how much time has passed this time? Weeks? Months? My guess is years… Yeah… Gotta be)

Yuzuru asks Saori what a symbol means, which is the shape of 4 small parallelogram diamond shapes that form to make a larger one. Saori mentions it being used by the Takeda family. While this is going on more thugs from the group he fought are watching them both closely.

Yet another jump to Takaya parking his bike and meeting with the bad-ass. Mr. bad-ass decides to make some rocks float off the ground before rocketing at the lead. The bad ass asks him why he’s hesitating, and throws more rocks at him. Takaya freaks out and the rocks stop in front of him. Takaya then acts like nothing really happened. Instead they just talk briefly before asking the lead to follow him.

You're really not gonna act at least a little surprised?

Back to Yuzuru and Saori we see them surrounded by the group of thugs in the middle of a wooded area. (how the fuck did they get there? Why did they follow them to the woods? They were right in front of the school, they could’ve easily just walked right in, and there would be no confrontation. What is this? I don’t even…) One of the 4 thugs tries to take a swing at him when his arm just goes limp (still not sure if it was broken or just knocked and deflected) before he’s thrown on the ground by the bad male characters magic shit. He proceeds to scare the fuck out of the rest of them before approaching Yuzuru and kneeling. Yuzuru asks if he’s friends with Mr. bad-ass. Bad guy realizes something went down and grabs for his wrist noticing the wristband.

Is it broken? Or did it go retard?

Cut to Takaya and bad-ass talking history shit. Now… This part of the story is a little bit drawn out, so I will summarize briefly.

There was an army camped near the town where Takaya lives. During the night they noticed shit was wrong and decided to be bitches and leave the area as it was most likely a trap. Then he rambles about how the leader of the army was Takaya’s father, and that he is “Kagetora”. (I would assume not blood related, but ghost soul crazy voodoo shit related) His underworld army’s sole purpose is to exorcise the ghosts of the feudal wars that should be resting in peace.

Meanwhile, bad guy is watching Yuzuru from outside of his school. Like a creepy pedo.

So far I don’t have too many issues outside of these time jumps. Nowhere on the screen does a title card or text of any form appear mentioning how much time has passed. Instead it's mentioned for a second in random conversation. I honestly didn't know this much time passed after watching it once. It took me a second and even third time to get it. I swear if the next episode takes place a month later I wouldn’t be surprised.

I also really want to know what Saori and Yuzuru were thinking when they decided to go to a wooded area away from anyone. It seems like the writer tried to shove a bunch of crap from the manga together into one episode just to help us learn about the characters. It’s not helpful for this episode.

However, I know I shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but damn seriously? How can you not judge something like this? I don’t even know if I should begin watching the 2^nd episode without first consuming some form of liquid courage.