toho kingdom's review of the new Godzilla game.

Review:
Godzilla (Playstation 4)

Author: Steve Johnson
Published: July 29th, 2015

This is going to be a tough review to write, I want to get one thing out of the way right away; your enjoyment of this game will likely be directly proportionate to your love of the Godzilla franchise. If you're, like me, a die-hard, lifelong fan of the Big G through all his ups and downs, then I suspect my review will resonate with you. If not, well….I'll try to put things in the perspective of a non-Godzilla fan, a regular gamer, if you will. I've been a videogame enthusiast nearly as long as I've been a Godzilla fan, so hopefully you'll give my review a read, and hopefully I can establish the trust and credibility that the mainstream reviewers fail to secure with their nonchalant, and sometimes disrespectful, approach to the franchise. I, like many of you, have seen every movie multiple times, played just about every game released in the US (and some that weren't), but enough about me, this review is about GODZILLA…more specifically, Godzilla for the Playstation 4. I'm going to tackle the different categories that make up a game (story, controls, graphics, sound, and gameplay), then judge how accurately I think it represents the Godzilla series, then present you with my final score.

Before diving into the meat of the game, though, let's cover the story. The narrative of the game, much like almost every Toho film made post-1995 starts off in 1954 with the original Godzilla's rampage in Tokyo. This serves as the tutorial portion of the game, as you are taught how to move Godzilla, as well as use his light, heavy, and grapple attacks, not to mention his trademark atomic breath, to destroy a small portion of the city. This portion of the game is in black and white, but sadly you don't control the 1954 Godzilla here, it's the 1989ish Godzilla you play the main story mode with. After completing your objective in this level, we are told this Godzilla was only driven away by the sacrifice of Dr. Serizawa. They don't specifically mention the Oxygen Destroyer or say that Godzilla died. The game then explains that over the past 60 years, Japan learned to harness the energy Godzilla left behind, "G-Energy" to use as power for their nation. Japan also created the "G-FORCE" organization in case Godzilla or any other giant monsters ever returned, under the guise of a normal disaster response unit.

In the present day, Godzilla does return, though it is not specified if this is the original Godzilla or another one. Godzilla is attracted to the G-Energy Generators, as they just happen to be his favorite food source, according to one of the three Prime Ministers who oversee Japan during the game. The path you take through the game's levels determine which authority figure is in charge. The only real difference here is one of them is a pushover who thinks Godzilla deserves to be treated with respect and dignity and could be a friend to humanity if we left him alone, another one wants to do everything by the book, the other wants to destroy Godzilla. How does this translate to gameplay? Via the disaster level, a mechanic somewhat similar to the "Wanted" meter in Grand Theft Auto, as the higher it is raised (By order of the PM in response to the damage Godzilla causes) the stronger military weaponry you will face. Various other monsters appear during the course of the story to challenge Godzilla, as the human characters speculate they are drawn to him somehow. G-FORCE responds to these kaiju with maser tanks, Super-X 1-3, the Gotengo, Super Mechagodzilla, and once all the data on Godzilla is collected, Kiryu. Should Godzilla conquer all these challenges, he becomes Burning Godzilla and faces his final opponent, Godzilla 2014. That's really the only story we get. I'm glad they gave us a story, at least, but I can't say much about it beyond that.

Here is where things get tricky. If you're not a Godzilla fan, you won't appreciate the pace in which Godzilla and company vent their frustration on major urban areas. To me, however? It just feels RIGHT. I never felt 100% comfortable running through arenas, jumping across the screen, etc, in Atari's Godzilla games. There is none of that here. You won't see Gigan teleporting or Anguirus shooting a laser barrage from his spikes. This is the truest, most authentic Godzilla experience put into the medium of game thus far. Sadly, one of my favorite aspects of the film series, team battles, are totally missing here. You will encounter 3 way battles, both in single player and online, but the few I've had playing single player were 2 on 1 the entire time with the CPU targeting me. So you won't get to recreate that Godzilla/Anguirus vs Gigan/King Ghidorah fight here, unfortunately. I have nothing but my own suspicions to base this on, but I truly think this game was designed to be nothing but a single player, solo Godzilla movie simulation along the lines of Godzilla Generations at first, as the gameplay feels much more at home trashing buildings than enemy monsters. I am certainly glad the monster combat was added in, it just doesn't feel quite as natural as it should. Another reason this feels like a movie simulator is the emphasis on special camera angles, or "Data Collection Points" triggered by standing in a certain spot on each stage and allowing video footage to be taken of Godzilla. There are 4 spots you must find in each level. I suspect all these collection sites must be activated, as well as destroying each level 100%, to unlock the later stages in the game….sadly this is nothing more than a guess right now as the game does not tell you why these are locked, it simply tells you "To Be Continued…" then kicks you back to the title screen, once you get to a certain point in the game. Nor does the game make it clear how new entries in the Kaiju Guide are unlocked, which is frustrating to trophy hunters because trophies are tied to unlocking and reading all of these entries (Which I recommend doing, they are informative and entertaining.)

You can also choose to Invade or Defend Japan using other kaiju, unlocked by defeating them in the main story. Sadly, you don't get to choose your characters alignment, as monsters such as Godzilla, Rodan and Anguirus are always "Invaders" (evil monsters) and Mothra, Jet Jaguar, Kiryu, Mecha-King Ghidorah and Super Mechagodzilla are Defenders. Invading works much like the story mode with Godzilla, advance through the stages, battle other monsters, trash the generators. Defenders must try to minimize damage to the city and defeat enemy kaiju before they can take out the generators.

The fighting itself can be tough with no block function to speak of (save for certain moves with defensive capabilities such as Godzilla's Nuclear Pulse or Mechagodzilla's Force Field, though these will deplete your beam gauge, and roaring which can negate damage to a degree), which leads to being caught in many frustrating attack combos from your enemies, unless you have your energy meter filled to execute your monster's "escape" move with the R2 button, which includes the previously mentioned pulse and force field moves, as well as hurricane winds from the Ghidorahs, spinning weapon assaults from Kiryu and SMG, and all out spazz attacks from the larvas. This is especially problematic when playing one of the larger, slower characters against one of the smaller, quicker ones. Mothra Larva in particular can have a field day against SpaceGodzilla or Destoroyah up close and just demolish them before they can even respond, which certainly goes a long way in taking you out of the authentic atmosphere the game strives to create. Speaking of size differentials, at random points throughout the game, a 100 meter tall monster might appear while the player's monster is still in the 50-70 meter tall range at random. Unless you are incredibly skilled and lucky, this matchup will basically be unwinnable. Fortunately, should you lose and continue, the monster will be normal sized when you try again, it's just an annoying challenge without a real reward should you pull off the upset.

I tried out the game's online mode with a friend and was pleasantly surprised for the most part. Our sessions were basically free of lag and there is fun to be had, but again, monster mis-matches take a lot of fun out of the game. Unlike more traditional and balanced fighting games, some characters are just so frustratingly over-powered, and some under-powered, that I suspect playing with strangers will be nothing but aggravation. The two Ghidorahs, for instance, have a diving move done by pressing triangle when flying that has tremendous range and hits several times for massive chunks of damage. This could easily be spammed to win without taking much, if any, damage yourself. Biollante players need only repeatedly mash X and occasionally R2 to completely dominate an entire battlefield.

At the other end of the spectrum, SpaceGodzilla has a nice arsenal of moves, but is far too slow to execute any of them against most of the characters, and the range needed to pull some of them off, such as his telekinetic throw, is simply too short. Jet Jaguar is fairly useless as his only "ranged" attacks to speak of are short ranged flight and a lucha-libre inspired springboard moonsault that require energy to pull off, though his R2 move sees him shrink down to normal size and fly about annoyingly. Ironically, the worst character in the game may be Godzilla himself, at least the 1964 incarnation of the beast. Not only is he ugly, but the skills you unlock for the main Godzilla do not seem to carry over. His Showa inspired breath is sadly ugly looking as well, short ranged, and does negligible damage to enemies.

There is also a Diorama Mode where you can place unlockable figurines of the monsters on a stage (stages are unlocked by achieving a 100% destruction level on them during the game) in a variety of poses and take pictures, but the interface is very clunky here; I preferred to just take screenshots during the actual game using the PS4's Share feature.

Evolution Mode is where you unlock new moves (which pretty much only applies to Godzilla) or purchase diorama figures and upgrade your special weapon energy meter (all monsters). The system isn't the best as you need "parts/cells" from all monsters to upgrade (For instance, Godzilla may need Mothra Larva cells) which are obtained by beating said monster or winning the game with them, and some monsters show up far less frequently than others.

Even with these shortcomings, judging the game as I believe it was intended to be judged, as a simulation of a tokusatsu film, it succeeds. That certainly won't appeal to the average gamer, but I believe Bandai Namco accomplished what they set out to do. It may just not have been what we all wanted or expected.

Let me go ahead and say that everyone comparing this game's graphics to a Gamecube, PS2 or even PS1 game (and yes I've read all of these) are in serious need of an eye exam. The monsters are looking their absolute best here. That's not to say they are perfect; I am very much put off by King Ghidorah's hunched over posture, he doesn't stand tall and proud like he does in the movies, Mechagodzilla's tail is strangely flexible, etc, but, those are nitpicks. The odd monster out may be Godzilla 1964, as Bandai Namco scanned the "dirt/dust" reissue S.H. MonsterArts figure of the kaiju depicting him at the moment of his emergence from underground in Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964), resulting in a strange, splotchy color scheme. Honestly, he's hideous, and rather useless as a character and reeks of a last minute, thrown together waste. Buildings actually explode when you hit them and crumble into pieces unlike the buildings of previous Godzilla games that seemed to sink into the earth (sadly, speaking of buildings, you can't pick them up and throw them anymore, one of the few plusses the Pipeworks Godzilla games have over this one, that sure was fun). Levels look nice enough, as the outdoor environments span both day and night, and the water is pretty as well. You may spot some buildings you recognize (The giant ferris wheel from Godzilla vs. Mothra, the new Godzilla Hotel featuring Godzilla's head, etc), and there are also stationary gun/laser firing turrents as well as the G-Energy Generators. My main complaint about the graphics is that it can be very hard to get your disaster level all the way to 100% in every level, I often find myself stuck at 99% unsure of what tiny piece of rubble the game is waiting for me to find and step on. Some of the bonus objectives (Destroy 8 trucks, Destroy 10 police cars, etc) can be tough because many of the levels are filled with smoke and the dark terrain can obscure these tiny targets. With that said, let's be clear; this is not a "AAA" title, and was never meant to be. There are no real time weather effects, the clipping is problematic, but I'd rather have body parts going through buildings than not have enough buildings to smash.

Let me start with the bad news; the greatest feature of the PS3 version, in my opinion, was the custom soundtrack support that allowed you to import your own MP3's and assign them to every level, monster, and special military unit in the game to use as their theme music. This ability is completely, bafflingly removed from the PS4. Instead we have a mix of run-of-the-mill new music and the occasional (3 in total) classic Akira Ifukube song that usually cues up when the military ramps up their attack. Strangely, the Ifukube tracks seem to play at a lower volume than the standard music, and they don't play for very long. The lack of authentic music really hurts here. When Mechagodzilla appears, he has a perfect representation of his reveal from 1974'sGodzilla vs. Mechagodzilla; he is first bathed in flames, then we get close-ups of his missile launching hand, the "MG" logo on his arm, his jaw openining and closing, etc. I almost fell off the couch in fanboy glee when I saw this, if only the AWESOME music that accompanied this on film was present.

With that said, every roar and attack is pretty much spot on. The monsters footsteps even sound different; Mechagodzilla has his "stomp" sound for every step he takes on land, which is totally different from Godzilla's! The beam attacks seem to have the correct sound, everything here is on point…except the voice acting. The English actors predictably phoned it in, especially annoying are the "Data Collection Squad" voices that seem to only have 3-4 lines you'll hear on loop. But, much like Godzilla movies, you're here for the monsters, not the humans, so don't let this bug you too much. You CAN use Japanese voiceovers during the game, but I have it set to English because I don't believe all the military chatter, etc, will be subtitled. Had custom soundtrack support not been removed, this would have been a 5, but as is, the lack of fully authentic music really takes me out of the presentation…but the accurate sound effects deserve high praise.

Almost everyone (myself included at one point) were concerned when it was revealed Godzilla would utilize "tank controls", where the left stick would move him forward, backwards, and side to side, the right stick would manipulate the camera, but to turn Godzilla you'd need to use the R1 and L1 buttons. Honestly, it doesn't take much getting used to at all, for me anyway. It seems natural. I suspect this game was meant to be a "Godzilla Simulator", with the emphasis they put on different camera angles (more on this later). I've worn fan-made Godzilla suits before, and you know what? They are TOUGH to turn in! I suspect the same held true for Mr. Nakajima, Mr. Satsuma, Mr. Kitagawa and everyone else who donned the official suits over the years. Godzilla and friends SHOULD feel cumbersome to a point.

Square is your light attack button, and can be pushed multiple times for short combo attacks. Triangle is a strong attack, which for Godzilla is a tail swipe. Up and triangle is a grab, and a handful of moves (throw, bite, point blank atomic breath, though some of these must be unlocked) can be performed once you grab the opponent. X causes Godzilla to lower his head and charge, covering a short distance quickly, and circle controls Godzilla's atomic breath. Pressing R2 allows you to detonate the "Nuclear Pulse" attack, though the game calls it an emergency dodge. I suppose it is more of a defensive maneuver, as Godzilla is invincible while performing it, and it is capable of knocking away enemy kaiju and dealing light damage to any buildings or weaponry in range. R1+L1 at the same time allows you to roar. Energy beams and certain other attacks become stronger while roaring. The other unlockable monsters all have their own nuances with controls; MechaGodzilla for instance fires finger missiles with the Up + Triangle command instead of grappling, and pressing O while roaring allows you to unleash his All Out Assault with finger missiles, eye beams and the chest laser all at once. The controls are responsive enough for my money, remember, these are giant beasts, not nubile tomb raiders or karate masters bouncing about at high speed. Once you get the hang of it you'll have no problem turning Godzilla, rotating the camera, and fighting all at once. The major annoyance to me is that you'll find yourself at times hammering on a button with no response as your character is too busy staggering about being hit; I'm hesitant to call this a flaw because it's not entirely unlike the actual fights we've seen on screen, just doesn't translate to a fun time.

Here it is, two weeks after release, and I've probably put upwards of 30 hours into this game. That's not bad, right? Well.....as we're learning, appearances can be deceiving. It is true there are a great many monsters to unlock....but excepting some of the trickier ones to find (Jet Jaguar, Biollante, Destoroyah and Kiryu among them), you'll likely unlock them all in your first couple of playthroughs without much difficulty. True, Godzilla (Heisei) has a host of unlockable moves, including three alternate breath attacks (A weak vapor breath, a stronger, curiously purple spiral breath, and strangest of all, Minilla's "ring" breath).....but he's basically the only one, as the other monsters' abilities are unlocked from the start, you only level up their "temperature" gauge for their special attacks, the rate the gauge charges, and unlock their figures for diorama mode.

With the sad omission of any sort of local versus feature (meaning you cannot play with a friend on the same console, nor can you pick your monster and pick a monster for the computer and battle it out) and the fact that the traditional "tournament fighter" mode, King of Kaiju, doesn't offer very much in the way of rewards for Evolution Mode, you'll find yourself replaying God of Destruction/Invade/Defend, over and over, for perhaps one reason only; trophies. The game has several, ranging from the simplistic (Complete the tutorial, Grow Godzilla to a certain height, defeat all four versions of MechaGodzilla) to the frustratingly time consuming (Unlock all diorama figures and fully evolve every monster in the game). The last two are the only two I still need, along with the platinum trophy that comes with...gathering all the other trophies. Evolution is a very time consuming process. To fully level King Ghidorah, for example, you need to beat the game multiple times with Ghidorah to store up his "Evolution Energy". He'll also need multiple cells from various monsters. For instance, you may need 500 evolution energy points, 3 Biollante cells, Mothra larva cells and Jet Jaguar circuit boards just to increase Ghidorah's temperature gauge rate by 1. Now imagine doing this 10 more times to fully "evolve" the meter. Now imagine doing this for every monster in the game. It is incredibly monotonous and time consuming. True, the game offers branching stages, but they always appear in the same order, and the same monsters will usually appear every time. Once you learn the most powerful attacks for your character you will no doubt find yourself just using those to plow through the game as fast as you can, which ruins a lot of the enjoyment of simulating life as a giant monster and taking in the scenery as you destroy it. Not to mention the frustration in some of the mis-matches you'll encounter along the way, such as Destoroyah's inability to hit the larval Mothra with 99% of his attacks, the slower monsters taking on the Super-X family and Gotengo, any time you're ambushed by a 100m monster.....

Online mode is unreliable at best, as I've recently gone back and played some random matches that were full of lag, and once people figured out who the most powerful characters are (Biollante, Burning Godzilla, Mecha-King Ghidorah and Godzilla 2014) , those are pretty much the only ones you'll face. In other words, if you aren't a "trophy hunter" you'll likely be done with this long before you invest the time to fully evolve the entire roster of kaiju.

Now for the, um, Godzilla-ness of the game, as well as my final judgment. All through this game's development process it was described as a game "by fans, for fans". I couldn't agree more. Previous Godzilla games from past generations seemed like quick cash-ins made by those without a certain degree of reverence and familiarity of the franchise and its characters. Abilities were added to, and in some cases removed from, characters to the annoyance of fans. Not so here, with the lone exception I've noticed being Rodan, as his shockwaves and sonic booms have been made visual, though it isn't distracting in the least. The first time you encounter each character (and oftentimes after that) they will be introduced in a brief cinematic that mirrors one of their on-screen entrances; Anguirus burrows up from the ground, shaking off dirt as he did in Godzilla Vs. MechaGodzilla, Space Godzilla flies down to earth landing in a cloud of dust, Mothra hatches from her egg or emerges from a silken cocoon depending on whether her larval or adult form in chosen, and so on. Hardcore fans will even pick up that each monster's footsteps are accurate to the films. This is a level of accuracy other developers could only dream of achieving with their past efforts. That's not to say I don't have complaints; the playing field is still curiously fenced in, in this instance with a flashing "hazard line" that the monsters are simply unable to cross, and buildings past that line cannot be damaged even if they are touched. I don't know what the right answer to this is, short of every level being bordered by the ocean, but having giant monsters unable to step over a line that doesn't come up to their ankle just doesn't feel right. The levels could have stood to be bigger and more diverse. I'm still hoping for a game with a Monster Island level that actually looks/feels like Monster Island (as a Heisei-era tribute game, it doesn't have Monster Island at all), a Children's Land level with a firing Godzilla tower, a Planet X level….one day, perhaps…

Obviously, the game isn't perfect. Being cornered by a rampaging Mothra larva while pounding the attack button, unable to move at all, is no fun. It seems to me that sometime during the game's development, it was decided to make all the monsters playable, but the proper testing and fleshing out wasn't done, leaving almost everyone other than Heisei Godzilla feeling unbalanced at best, and unfinished at worst. Though I still do believe the developmental team's vision was realized, at times you have to wonder exactly what that vision was, and when it changed. The game received virtually no marketing or promotion, and while I'm certainly not excusing that, perhaps Bandai Namco wasn't sure how to promote a city destruction movie simulator that switched to a fighting game halfway through development (again, purely my personal speculations)?

Now let's talk about the characters themselves. The Heisei Godzilla is obviously the star of the show, as the true "God of Destruction" mode is designed around him, he looks the best and has the biggest arsenal of moves. I can't overstate how disappointing Godzilla 1964 is, in both appearance and execution, while Godzilla 2014 is sufficient, if still a bit bland compared to Heisei G. Burning Godzilla is a less diverse version of the main Godzilla, but possesses the most powerful energy beam in the game. The 1992 Adult Mothra animates nicely and has most of the abilities you'd expect, save for her "energy seal" used at the end of Godzilla vs. Mothra (also seen as her "Fury" move in the SNES Godzilla brawler: Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters), ditto for Battra, and their larval forms range from weak to annoying as hell depending on the matchup. King Ghidorah is handled a bit strangely; the 1991 representation of the character is used, but his intro cinematic is obviously taken from Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964) where he forms from a burst of flame in the night sky. It has been said many times that the S.H. MonsterArts figures were the inspiration for this game and were scanned for many of the characters, but it would've been very nice to the Showa Ghidorah, woefully underrepresented these days, to further differentiate him appearance wise from Mecha-King Ghidorah, and to get away from Toho's annoying habit of every monster in the early 1990's having a variation of Rodan's roar. Gameplay wise, however, both Ghidorahs are beasts to contend with, and MKG has the added bonus of the shocking Machine Hand, a video game first I believe.

Speaking of powerful monsters, Biollante basically breaks the game with her ability to continually punish anything on the screen with her wide reaching vines, but I found her moveset fairly boring as all she does is flail those about, her massive, crocodile-like maw only used in a dash move, and her acidic sap is curiously short ranged, I suppose to compensate for her melee abilities. Mechagodzilla is fully on display in this game with a mind-boggling 4 roster slots being taken; the Showa version inexplicably gets 2, the only difference between the 1974 and 1975 versions seem to be in their missile attacks and the fact that Mechagodzilla 2 as he is called in the game can apparently lose his head in a grapple and keep fighting; a neat touch, but one that should have been combined into one roster slot, as fully evolving both of them is a huge chore, and perhaps we could have gotten another new character. Super Mechagodzilla is handled well, as energy attacks from other kaiju fuel his own special meter, in a nod to his ability to absorb and redirect Godzilla's atomic ray in 1993's Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II. All his skills seem to be present as well, the Mega-Buster, the Plasma Grenade, even the not-quite-as-deadly in game form G-Crusher, and also much like the film he is fairly useless in melee combat but a tough foe indeed at long range. Kiryu, one of the most tedious monsters to unlock, is a bit of a curious case as well. During development it was said that he possessed the Absolute Zero weapon which could instantly win any battle; perhaps this was removed when the other monsters became playable (or was a mistranslation from the start) as it's the Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. (2003) version present for this battle, and he's loaded for war with his rocket launching backpack, hyper and tri-maser weapon and wrist mounted rail guns.

Destoroyah is a bit of a mixed bag, he looks fantastic but his roar is lacking (They didn't seem to include his evil, screeching laugh-like version of his cry) and he fights solely with his horn katana and tail, his micro-oxygen beam has an annoying habit of hitting the ground and the sky more than the enemy, in my experience. Another curious thing in early game previews detailed him using his unused chest beam from deleted footage from Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995), but this doesn't appear to be present in the final game either. I've already touched on SpaceGodzilla (in short? Looks great, plays bad). Rodan and Anguirus, probably the two most celebrated additions to the PlayStation 4 version of the game, feel sadly lacking. Rodan is incapable of true flight and only uses a slow, hovering jump. Anguirus is just…there…and his backwards leap attack is much slower and short ranged than it appeared on screen in Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972). Speaking of Gigan, his Godzilla: Final Wars (2004) form is present in upgraded fashion with dual chainsaws, cluster ray and razor discs, and is one of the faster characters. Not much of a fan of Jet Jaguar or Hedorah in this game, I've touched on Jet Jaguar already, Hedorah is slow and just not much fun to play as, and for those curious, only his standard form is present, no flying form here.

On the unplayable side, Super-X I, II and III are reporting for duty along with the 2004 version of the Gotengo; the Super-X battles can be terribly annoying until your weapon energy is leveled up due to their tendancy to avoid EVERYTHING other than a quick beam shot, but they don't deal much damage so they shouldn't give you much trouble. The Gotengo is similarly unenjoyable, as it spends most of its time outside of the level boundaries, your only opportunity for attack is while it zooms by to either drill you, blast you, or both. Again, ranged attacks are called for, but you may find yourself frustratingly targeting the ground as the game doesn't consider Gotengo in range.

I've covered just about everything, I suppose, so, time for what I've been putting off…my final judgment. As a gamer, I'd turn up my nose like the gaming press and give it one star. As a lifelong Godzilla fan, I can see the beauty in the details, and understand this was a labor of love, if a bit of a misguided effort, and give it high marks. I believe a compromise is in order, and award a final score of 3 out of 5 stars, dangerously bordering on a 2.5 the more I play it. Your mileage may of course vary, but unless you are an extremely hardcore fan, wait for the inevitable price drop, $60 is just too much to ask for this game, considering the only real "replay value" is unlocking all the game's monsters, only to realize they are disappointingly implemented when compared to Godzilla himself.