Grimbeard - Buffy the Vampire Slayer (XB) - Review

oh boy I got to rewatch the whole series  before I can make this video and I'm barely at Buffy Scream 2 haircut how much  do you have left a lot why not simply watch it all at once yeah how would I do that  collapse the whole series into a single signal that broadcasts on all known Spectra  what I shoot the show into your brain hole you know there was an episode of Angel  where gun wants to be do you want it or not yeah yeah all right brace yourself what  is this going to hurt beginning transfer

oh good transfer complete that's it yeah you're  good test me uh okay in which year did Buffy Premiere well that's easy it was man huh  that was you may want to take it easy no I'm good I'm just going to grab myself  another can of blood excuse me let's go Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a third person  brawler platformer TV series tie-in and getting uppercut into a wall and then ricocheting  to the floor and then being stepped on and then grabbed and then thrown into a wall and then  ricochetting

to the floor and then being stepped on simulator it was developed by the collective  and published by Fox Interactive in 2002 for the original Xbox Fox Interactive saw the obvious  potential in The Buffy the Vampire Slayer IP as a video game a little late the first signs  of Buffy's console outing cropped up in early 2000 when this game was first announced for  PlayStation Dreamcast and PC this would have been when the show's fifth season was airing  which was around the time it was taking in th

e Magnificent view of the Horizon before glancing  down and realizing the sharp angle of the tracks ahead I mean this purely from a ratings standpoint  but if I could be realistic and levelheaded about the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer  and by extension its spinoff Angel what would be the point you think I got anywhere in life  being modest about my interests no it's [ __ ] incredible a landmark in serialized television  its mark on pop culture endures Rippling wide into the Tangled

J drawer of streaming platforms  that replaced cable TV where seemingly every month I open it to look for something and find a new  thing in there that I swear wasn't there before an IGN article in March of 2000 confirms that the  game would get a Dreamcast release in Fall of that year likening its gameplay to Tomb Raider with a  melee slant but of course it being the year 2000 it also opens with fans of the show Buffy the  Vampire Slayer are now going to be able to live their fantasies and tak

e advantage of the hot  hero and courtesy of Fox Interactive by saying take advantage I mean you will finally be able to  control her that is it must have been so easy to write for gaming magazines in the early 2000s  like just let your teenage ID Take the Wheel it doesn't matter how Meandering the path you take  is as long as you end up at the fruit and its loow hanging I'm surprised they didn't do something  with like joystick or biting it it writes itself really sucking the vampirism angle op

ens up a  whole new Avenues of possibility I'm just kind of getting acclimated to to my joystick the June  issue of official PlayStation magazine covered the announcement of the game with a full page of Sarah  Michelle Geller and a half page blurb describing it as an upcoming third person action game where  Buffy kicks vampire butt with all her TV friends Angel Xander Cordelia Willow Oz and Giles but  according to this they are still shooting for a release around fall of 2000 a month later the 

game even made an appearance at Fox interactives display during E3 2000 typically games that  have me scrubbing through E3 footage looking for any trace of them are quickly passed by as  our hyperventilating cameraman gets distracted by a booth Bape but luckily Fox Interactive  thought ahead and only had Booth babes while an episode of Buffy played on a monitor as late as  the August 2001 issue of gamepro a PC version was still being advertised though I don't think the  author of this update was

all that that familiar with the series and yes you can expect to see  characters from the TV series as well as some of Buffy's favorite hauns such as her school and the  shopping mall bro they showed the Sunnydale mall like maybe two or three times throughout 7 years  of Television just say you're a fake fan also the mall is not in the game so like was this a joke  cuz I'm not laughing ignore that laugh the game this booth was erected to promote May well have  been aand at least partially repur

posed recycled perhaps not only would Buffy not come out for  another 2 years it wouldn't even be released on any of the platforms it was promised on but based  on what few screenshots remain of that version it seems like they still managed to fulfill their  original mission statement all your favorites are here angel Xander Cordelia Willow and Giles  that's everyone right I I think one might be missing also Xander is still there which is is  n ideal a year into production the release of Microso

ft's Xbox was imminent and development  for Dreamcast began to wind down due to what I can only describe as a profound failing in  Gamers on release Buffy the Vampire Slayer was met with a near Universal HH could have could  have been worse even reviews that weren't exactly glowing took time to remark that the developers  at least seem to understand the tone and spirit of the TV series gam spy would praise the games  deceptively simple combat and wealth of quippy onliners Penning even if you kno

w nothing about  Buffy the TV series know this about Buffy the Xbox video game it's unquestionably the best  beat him up for the system game pro would again praise the plot and voice acting but criticize the  game's difficulty spikes and frequent frustrations writing as an action game Buffy mixes a brilliant  fighting system and a sharp graphical look with a derivative platform exploration design fights  range from Annoying to spectacular but the simple platform elements only get in the way than

ks to  the awkward jumping and Camera controls unifying both polarities of opinion was the shared language  of gamer drooling you'd be hardpressed to find an of era review that didn't take time to bring up  the real life Buffy Sarah Michelle Geller and say fellas right you would right following the game's  release there seemed to be a Mad Dash to get more Buffy video games out as the series was coming to  an end resulting in several under cooked servings of quirky Dark Fantasy such as a Game Boy

Color  game again with no subtitle and a full sequel the following year called chaos bleeds which seemingly  attempts to work as a more refined and accessible version of its predecessor adding a new look  of paint to its character models making their eyes more uncanny and weird but it maintains  the majority of its mechanics and enemies its functionally DLC to the original full of numerous  reasons for fans of the series to point at their screens oh Sid the dummy I watched that episode  and I r

emember it the collective also intended to recycle some of the animations and assets from  their Buffy games to make another beat him up with the Witchblade IP but that only made it as far as  a tech demo I kind of respect how they saw nothing in dire need of improvement with their whole  format it takes a real Clarity of self to get the silver and say you know what I could Coast here  for a while being a huge fan of The Buffy verse I'm torn between the two spineless Works within  me when assess

ing this video game adaptation one being hypercritical of its depictions of one  of television's most sacred cannons there is an order here okay there are rules and every time  this game steps out of line it scores me like a spear to the side the intro sequence describes  Buffy as being made a Slayer by the powers that be which I I mean I'm pretty sure that's not true the  powers that be chose a young woman one girl in all the world to combat the forces of Darkness like  they may have just been

using that phrase because it's it's pre-existing but I I kind of doubt it  because the powers that be are specific entities within the buffers by the powers that be powers  of be what and it's like if you don't even have the knowledge of some [ __ ] watching the show  at home what gives you the right to contribute to this world the other part of me is just amused  by the novelty of the game's existence much in the same way that a dog or a child would  be amused by a set of jingle jangling keys s

orry I was just doing that for Foley but they really are something huh huh home of the slaughtering rat people  why would you draw Daria is here good morning good morning Jane glad you got to go out me yeah  you kidding me I'm not Dy in case you have never watched the television show Buffy the Vampire  Slayer and its spin-off Angel and because I made this video so I could talk about it I'm  just being upfront with you I don't actually care if you haven't seen it or not this is why  we're here bu

t you know what I do have a heart in a jar I'm looking back at what I wrote  here and I do talk a lot about this show and this does include some mild spoiler adjacent  things for much of the series nothing major like character deaths or anything like that nothing  you wouldn't forget like tomorrow but this is one of my favorite shows I mean you're talking  to someone with The Buffy tattoo well a faith tattoo cuz you know I keep it 5x5 hang on my  mommy's calling me not now I'm doing something so

I do get in the weeds at certain points and I  would want to encourage people who haven't seen it to watch it I'm not out here trying to make  a market replacement for watching the show do you hear that YouTube this series ran from 1997  to 2003 spanning seven seasons and dealt with a high school girl named Buffy Summers who who  despite desperately wanting to lead the normal life of an American teenage girl was chosen  by an ancient process to become the Slayer a person gifted with increased s

trength healing and  prophetic dreams in order to Aid an eternal ground war with demons that wish to build a bridge from  their hell Dimension to ours within the rules of this world vampires are humans whose Souls have  been swapped out with demons but otherwise the classic vampire rules abide they feed on blood  don't like crosses or holy water can't be in sunlight and die when you stake or behead them  though they are far from the only thing Buffy finds herself pitted against she attends High 

School in the fictional town of Sunnydale which happens to be seated at top a terar in reality  called a hellmouth allowing all manner of weird [ __ ] to spawn and require slayage as Buffy  might quip Slayers are historically secretive lone wolves that forego family and friendship to  fight evil while being tugged on a leash by the Watchers Council by tradition Slayers are assigned  a watcher to train and guide them Buffy's case is somewhat unorthodox in that her Watcher rert Giles  quickly dev

elops a loving paternal relationship with Buffy replacing her absentee father and  allowing her to maintain a relationship with her mother and school friends who all wind up  aiding Buffy on her many battles despite that being expressly forbidden in some rule book Giles  omitted from his teachings while Buffy could be described as embodying a reluctant herot Trope  who would rather be at the bronze having fun instead of patrolling the graveyard for vampires  it is with pretty transparent intenti

on of having her struggles with the supernatural mirror the  Pains of adolescence everything is so traumatic when you're a teenager Everything feels like the  end of the world getting bullied disappointing your parents balancing school and social life  your first relationship your first breakup your first well what if those actually were matters  of life and death a lot of people at one point or another have felt like there was some Cosmic  Force keeping you from being with someone you care abou

t from achieving true happiness Buffy  Falls madly in love with Angel a vampire cursed with a soul possessing the same Buffs and debuffs  of being a vampire only having to live with the psychological weight that he spent centuries  being an unspeakable [ __ ] participating in every manner of atrocity you could dream up and  then suddenly he's forced to have feelings about that Buffy is the first person he feels genuine  love for and per the rules of his curse if they consumate this love he will

revert back to his  monstrous form a great deal of the show centers around two characters the universe simply will not  let this character is also explored further in his own spin-off series that lasted five seasons and  frequently crossed over with Buffy's continuity this is one of many circumstances that display  Buffy as a nuanced imperfect perf character capable of acting selflessly and selfishly the  cast changes a bit over the years but even though the Buffy video game was released around

season 6  airing using context clues it appears to be set in early season 3 meaning Buffy's friend group often  referred to as the Scooby gang consists of Buffy's best friend Willow Rosenberg a timid nerd that  serves as the group's researcher and hacker Old Reliable yeah great there's a sexy nickname early  on she is frequently taken advantage of due to her naivity and Harbor's unrequited feelings for her  childhood friend but she eventually grows into a confident and occasionally overpowered c

haracter  she embodies the nightmare of conservative parents in the '90s she went to college and became a  gay witch Cordelia Chase is a character with one of the wildest trajectories in the franchise  but in the beginning she was meant to embody the type of person Buffy would have been had  she not been chosen to be the Slayer she's snobby and cruel saying whatever floats into  her head without ever attempting to read the room whatever I wonder when I can go whatever  can I go despite this she

often finds herself roped into helping the Scooby gang and becomes  familiarized with the world of the supernatural she's also eventually cut off from her friend  group and parents wealth causing her to somewhat re-evaluate her queen bee Persona you're a lot  smarter than you look of course you look like a re Xander Harris is a perpetually horny but  distinctly normal guy aside from a brief period where he was brainwashed into becoming a  Marine all his struggles are human ones which may have be

en a clever dig at how army recruiters  prey on high schoolers but more likely it was a cheap way of giving Xander some utility in a  handful of episodes I don't know what to say I customize it myself thanks to that Halloween  stent as an army grunt this can create some frustrations in modern viewing alongside his  creepiness being treated as cute however in a moment of charitable leniency I can admit that  this ordinary nons Supernatural perspective is occasionally valuable for storytelling and

  it does amount to some quality episodes such as the zepo which treats him as the main  character and shows his value and Devotion to the group even when he's excluded from an  apocalyptic plot playing out in his periphery yeah I mean who hasn't just idly thought  about taking out the whole place with a semi-automatic and she winds up being Central to  the wish which I consider one of the best episodes of the series in which Ana a wish granting demon  grants cordelia's wish that Buffy Summers n

ever came to Sunnydale after she comes to the  conclusion that all her life's problems began with her arrival this of course brings  her to a version of Sunnydale where the vampire population has flourished and the human citizens  have formed in an ineffective resistance group to protect those who remain there are other Staples  of season 3 that are mysteriously absent such as Faith another Slayer that was called into action  after Buffy briefly died possessing all the same powers and training a

s Buffy but without a support  system as her family abandoned her and her Watcher was brutally killed in front of her by a pig demon  this leads her down a path that waivers from Gray to Black to gray and black again she is one of  my favorite characters so it's a shame she wasn't included in this game There's Something Beautiful  about a character clearly making themselves a villain even though at every turn it seems like  there was a hero earnestly trying to claw their way to the surface like

at any moment she could  just say something and turn it all around but she's terrified of being seen as vulnerable ever  again the other Omission is Oz a lonic werewolf guitarist for a grunge band and Willow's boyfriend  he also provides a van completing the parallel to the actual Scooby gang there is a throwaway line  about his band being on tour I wish o wasn't on tour with the dingos but in truth he was in often  underutilized character nearly everything he says is some kind of dry oneliner I

got to learn  an instrument is it hard to play guitar not the way I play it he has to be chained up every  once in a while but who doesn't uh I mean um I think the hardest thing you have to overcome is  the fact that such an undeniably cool character was written written for Seth Green whose only  other notable contributions to pop culture have been being in Family Guy hey Dad you never  did tell us how you got our house back and one time getting his nft stolen neither of which seem  very cool t

o me what makes the show special to me is that it marries inventive horror and fantasy  writing with funny likable characters where one moment a character reckons with unrequited love  sobbing in a bathroom stall and another a man in a rubber suit is hurled into a swing set taking  the format that the X Files teased and pushing it further normalizing this delicate balance  of monster of the Week episodes and mythology episodes where the seasonal Arc is always there  even during side quests it's

also not afraid to experiment with a wild High concept episode  that was unlike anything on cable TV at the time usually amounting to some of the most memorable  episodes like an episode that's a whole musical an episode where the characters can't speak or an  episode that kind of sucks it was a goofy premise that allowed itself to be goofy and full of goofy  characters but they aren't just their goofiness over the years that the game was in development  Publications would put out little blurbs

that vaguely alluded to the game's progress and a few  of these make mention of the fact that the story was being supervised by Buffy's creators perhaps  this was true in some iteration of the game or it was the studio bending the truth just a little  bit I can't really find any evidence of anyone that worked on the TV show also working on the  video game but two of its three credited writers Christopher golden and Tom sagasi had worked on  some extended Buffy verse novels and comic books so in

a way the writers were indeed familiar with  the world of Buffy just not responsible for any Canon additions to it this video game partially  captures the spirit of the TV series in that it understands that it's quippy and quirky quickly  now follow me to the Bel I found something a bell well yes that but also a secret passageway come on  then but there is an abundance of this leading to Buffy sounding less like Buffy and more like  girl boss Spider-Man sometimes num skull you never should have

walked into my slay ground  it also expresses no interest in the show's more modlin and melodramatic Tendencies which are  just as important in my eyes Sarah Michelle Geller is one of the best TV sesses there are macro  Expressions she can make that have me openly weep at the start of this game Buffy dreams of walking  down a hellish Corridor where she is greeted by three deformed specters and an enemy from her past  the master they are kind of whole cloth reusing a seasonal big bad which in its

elf isn't strange  could be interesting but it's odd that they chose one that was not only defeated by Buffy already  staked turned into a Halloween skeleton but there was also a whole episode devoted to her coping  with the the trauma of this fight by Smashing his bones to dust so that none of his remaining  goons could ever resurrect him so I guess that they found a workaround and he's back as a ghost  in her dreams ultimately I'm not too bothered by this because I love the master I could watc

h this  guy be disappointed in his henchmen all day he really tied together the dichotomy between Earnest  High School Schmaltz and ancient fraternity of demons scheming for the enslavement of humanity  this show had G I'm trying to eat and she looks that night Buffy joins Cordelia in the school gym  to practice cheerleading I think there was some context for this missing because there was only  one episode where Buffy tries out for cheerleading in season 1 and she [ __ ] it up and then never  t

ries again but I guess Cordelia convinces her to temporarily join the squad somewhere in between  episodes they speak about this like a favor is being done a group of vampires brazenly attack  the School cutting power to the building Buffy tells Cordelia and Willow to hunker down while  she clears them out outside she sees a more agile vampire with older looking attire that may well  be a member of the order of Aurelius the followers of the master after Buffy fights her way to the  school's base

ment to get the power turned back on Giles speaks to her over the intercom and timidly  asks her to come immediately to the library I do have to give the writers credit for committing  to Buffy's High School Arc despite the characters already being in college by the time this came out  because we deserve served a game that crystallized this moment in the series while I do still  enjoy Buffy post High School there is something comforting about its original configuration  it's full of comfortable

cozy locations that feel reliable and sturdy the library the walk  and talk staircase who could forget the lit sticker so prominent it's so confounding once she  gets to college there are very few locations to cling on to aside from her dorm room to be fair  this could have been some intentional sub text to illustrate how overwhelming the transition  to college life can be initially so many basic adult functions you didn't have to worry about  before are suddenly your responsibility and it could

be a bit disorienting but also my ability  to reasonably acknowledge the show's flaws is compromised Buffy shows up to the library to find  this iged vampire stealing a book after a fight he flees by jumping through the skylight with no  momentum or sense of weight he sort of beautifully hovers out of the scene Giles for the 100th time  in this franchise shrugs off a concussive Blow To The Head though it is called out in a cheeky way  I believe I'm building up a resistance to cranial trauma the

book The Vampire Stole was about Spirit  channeling and isn't valuable enough to bother retrieving despite that guy's battle dialogue  making mention of the the master needless to say a spirit I don't think anyone should be  channeling they do seem concerned about the markings on the vampire's forehead however it's  actually sort of interesting paying attention to the game's choices in dialogue when you're  aware that it wasn't written by the showrunners and rather some dudes that write more or

less  professional fanfiction Willow says that the police have covered up the attack as a gang high  on PCP a cover which principal Snider actually did employ unbeknownst to the characters in season 2  the dialogue between Willow and Xander is sort of the biggest mile marker for where this story  takes place in the series because it implies that they are carrying out some kind of secret  relationship behind Oz and cordelia's back which would narrow it down to somewhere between the  episode home

coming and lovers walk both by the way fantastic episodes and a fantastic season of  television in the sunken Church the former Hideout of the Master Spike summons a demon named liok who  quickly takes control of drusilla's body oh [ __ ] okay spike is a vampire that was sired by Angel  and often antagonizes Buffy and her friends but also frequently finds himself fighting the same  fight as them Drusilla is a sort of precognitive vampire also sired by Angel back when he went  by the name angelis

but only after he drove her insane by torturing her and killing her family  spike is dysfunctionally in love with her deep lore Buffy fans know he was initially brought  onto the show to be a scenery chewing vampire for all the characters to hate and eventually  kill in spectacular fashion the only problem was that the network and audiences loved him and  insisted he remain in the series even though it went against Jos weeden's strict evil is evil  and good is good rule set which resulted in so

me enduring memorable moments such as lovers  walk where he arrives in sunale in a drunken Rut after Drusilla left him and forces the gang  to devise a love spell for him there is a point in the series where his inclusion becomes a bit  problematic but this is not a space of judgment we welcome all shades of Buffy fan here except  for fans of Xander Drusilla is similarly a very fun chaotic character just a deranged weirdo  through and through the manic insane vampire dream girl who we can all ro

ot for even when she's  luring toddlers to their Grizzly demise she seems to take this childlike joy in being evil and by  that same logic it's very entertaining seeing her having a good time I'm happy when she happy  making it kind of a shame that she never utters a single word in this whole game Spike has  gathered the remaining order of Aurelius goons and has been summoning demons for purposes  unknown but it's also clear that he's doing this in part because they now control Drusilla so  with

thou goest and all that liok Demands a Sacrifice of Flesh so Spike suggests the bronze  where all our characters were headed anyway to blowoff steam after the attack on the school  spikes vampire boys show up to crash the party and immediately kidnap Willow you know for some  reason I just don't think Spike would kill the slayer's best friend now I'm not killing the  slayer's best friend but okay hey what are you going to do you're right in the video game who  gives a [ __ ] while chasing after

them Spike confronts Buffy who makes reference to their  deal at this point in the series they made a deal where Buffy would help Spike get Drusilla  back and in return he has to leave Sunnydale and never return which he did but I guess you  know it wouldn't be uncharacteristic of him to immediately go back on that deal going to make you  bleed oh I've missed hurting you spike Buffy you can't kill Spike you've created a Time Paradox  he slightly concedes defeat and does a tactical Retreat the t

rail to wherever spike is headed with  Willow cuts through a rail yard and winds up at a cemetery a lot of the TV series takes place  at a cemetery not just because that's where vampires rise but because a not insignificant  amount of Sunny Dale consists of cemeteries on count of all the kids dying how many 12 within  the city limit I can't think of another series let alone one that was like aimed at teen girls  that has this many kids dying there's so many dead kids here we have to keep making

cemeteries  to bury them it's a great show it's a great show a necromancer named [ __ ] even summon that  matani fell Macha latte uses a glowing Jewel to raise zombies and impede her progress this is not  entirely relevant to the plot but you're going to start seeing zombies in the footage and there  is some kind of reason for that Buffy is able to catch up to Sila the Aurelius goon that's  got a hold of Willow and the two fight of course they first share some threatening words  with one another

and every once in a while the dialogue in this game is sort of spot-on pretty  accurately rendering something that might well have been said in an unfilmed episode of  Buffy other times there is a line a turn a phrase that's just not quite right that feels  less organic and more like imitation for example it does feel correct that Buffy would enter the  library to confront a vampire stealing a book and say hey what do you think this is a library  a perfectly uh Weeden esque line while I can't i

magine her saying audible thigh out loud unless  this was the voice actor accidentally reading a performance instruction out loud puffy can be  kind of vicious and caddy thoroughly [ __ ] shaming Sila before their fight there's a  fine line between fatal and tacky trap and that tattoo just screams biker sled which is kind  of outrageous given how impeccably designed she is [ __ ] okay now that was a good insult a little  too good syla escaped escapes through a trap door and Willow fills Buffy in

on the reemergence of  the order of Aurelius she is escorted to safety but the order still has a bunch of other bronzers  that have been taken for the sacrifice it's kind of funny how many people Buffy does not save in  this game somebody call for help somebody please half of them I think you can literally save from  Peril and they usually thank you and give you an item as a reward but they're usually like so far  away and unless I make a beline to their pursuer the moment I enter a room like I

'm never going to  do that what do what do you think I am some kind of oh right it's me I am the one chosen by Fate  to protect the innocent from The Vampire Scourge oh no oh no not like this I can't die like this  somebody help [ __ ] Buffy heads down the same trapo and fights her way through an army of  the undead to spoil the sacrifice for liok as the sunken Church starts to crumble Spike  bailes and Buffy faces off against uh the The Necromancer M even summon that matani fell who is  pretty

easily defeated leaving behind his amulet but not before he appears to finish some kind of  ritual bringing forth what looks like the spirit of the master who activates big head mode if you'd  like to experience the rest of this Game's plot on your own feel free to skip to this time where I  will summarize my feelings on the game plot also I don't foresee myself refraining from mentioning  other parts of the buff vierse I enjoyed disliked or merely remembered so if you've not consumed the  franc

hise wholly uh are you like lost or something maybe you meant to click on some kind of regular  game review that consists mostly of taking snarky Jabs at an old game while I stand in front of my  gamer shelf in some kind of dress shirt you ain't from around here are you hey why don't you have a  gamer shelf well that would assume I want people to know that I like killing video games right  okay I seem to be coming down with something could you do a scan for any uh paranormal entities  nearby jus

t to play it safe all right scanning beep well I have detected an alarming Spike of  psychic energy psychic energy what's its origin point of origin is you oh [ __ ] back at the  library Giles explains that even though Buffy crushed the Master's bones a skilled Necromancer  could revive him in a disembodied State and he's baffled as to what Spike would get out of  aiding this campaign which is fair because he has outright stated that he has no interest  in opening the hellmouth unlike a lot of o

ther vampires and demons in the series Spike likes the  world the way it is I'm going to destroy the world It's just tough gu talk Buffy recalls her dream  in the game's opening mentioning the three ghostly figures with symbols on their heads drawing one  from memory Willow offers to begin studying the amulet The Necromancer used which Giles recognizes  as a Talisman of tedar not to be confused with the order of terraa from season 2 to gain some insight  as to why spike is back in town Buffy hea

ds off to visit Angel but as soon as she arrives Angel tells  her to run as he's being attacked by some kind of impish ghouly vampire demons this level is really  odd because it treats Angel's home like some kind of Tomb Raider esque puzzle Mansion but really  we never got to see this much of Angel's home it seemed to stick to around three sets his big  living room with the fireplace and the chain and manacles for a variety of uses there's his bedroom  the place where the magic should not happen

unless he wants to become an Unstoppable murderer and  the courtyard it wasn't until playing this game that I learned he had a pool and a sauna and a  boss fight Arena Buffy faces off against Sila for a final time here who is apparently capable  of transforming into a snake creature not unlike one Buffy fights in season 5 unfortunately it  seems as though the master got to Angel first and is now possessing his body I think they sort  of invent a rule that he can possess anyone who's a vampire a

ctually don't think about it too hard  I I just realized it's like wait so he's the ghost of a Vampire the vampires are already dead oh know  it's hurting my head I can't think oh Spike and the Order show up to prevent further deviations  from the plan and Buffy jumps out a window not unlike one of the times she jumped out of a window  I I didn't really have anything there but hey you know what off the top of the Dome not unlike  the time she jumps out of a window with faith and they land on lik

e a balcony uh and then like  on the widescreen version you see there's just like a guy standing there secret vampire back  at the library giles's research has uncovered something concerning the markings that Buffy saw  in Her Dream belong to three demons known as the dreamers a demon Collective that could potentially  reshape reality through psychic projection the master could be attempting to reunite these demons  so they can rewrite his death at the hands of the Slayer and open the hellmouth

also Xander visited  Willies and learned that the order of Aurelius is expecting a shipment of Supernatural relics by  boat Willie was one of my favorite Side characters that was tragically underutilized just a weasel  of a man operating a sleazy Speak Easy that served humans and demons alike I identify with characters  like this scumbags with a heart of silver just a rat of a person although I feel like they tread  a little too close to just repeating a scene from the series for btim of course

I had to promise not  to rough him up and give him $20 or so 40 let's just say I applied some pressure okay I bribed  him how much 28 bucks the dock level in this game is the most anomalous in that it means the least  to The Game's plot but it's also the longest and most difficult part of the game and thus the  level that will eat up most of your memories of it not unlike the leth's Bramble spell gone aai  in season 6 that had Spike thinking Giles was his father except this level has you thinkin

g that it  was the only level in the game the Scoobies all show up to support Buffy this time around a new  enemy is introduced in these tick likee spiders which may be referencing the ones the mayor has  to eat in season 3 but otherwise it's a series of obstacles and impediments to the Revelation that  the ship was in fact unloading the dreamers one of which finds its way out of its crate thanks to  Xander once defeated we cut to spike returning to the sunken Church where the master in Angel's 

skin chastises him for allowing the death of one of the dreamers however he can work with the two  remaining dreamers to achieve the same goal if they construct something called a Deon sphere  new McGuffin just dropped fellas there's some spotty writing here in that it would make sense  that spike is behaving as libo's lap dog because he has control of Drusilla but he didn't appear  to be until Spike did whatever summoning ritual he did in the game's opening so clearly he was for  some reason a

lready in on this little project that he has already displayed no interest in achieving  why is he pissed that the thing he chose to do is happening Drusilla was already a part of this  ritual he laid her out on a slab and then she began to rise suddenly to my actually I know I  said spotty but I I think the writing may just be bad it's bad but it's like distracting me by  having a decent understanding of the characters it knows how to write them but not how to write  them doing anything fun or

interesting back at the mothering Library the gang discusses their next  step ideally following an order of aelius guy back to their layer when one of the those little  ghouly guys drops in from that same Skylight from earlier and takes a swipe at Cordelia the Master's  underlings clearly attempting to lead Buffy into some kind of trap so thankfully the master is  playing right into their hand by way of us playing right into his it's a win-win and a lose lose it's  neutral something is happening

the order Thug that served as the game's first boss fight Malik lures  Buffy into the school's basement with a bomb which would not be the first or second time a bomb found  its way to the basement of Sunnydale High kind of a missed opportunity that down here are a bunch of  sewer works with aquatic demons in them but it's not the ones from the episode where the school  swim team takes fish monster steroids and turn into creatures from a lagoon of indeterminant  color black perhaps and the coac

h keeps them in a piss poool under the school like are we doing  the most obvious reference points or not fellas back in the Halls Buffy runs into Willow who  lets her know the order is planting a bomb in the Boiler Room despite having AIP about about not  actually being on the bomb squad Buffy manages to disarm the bomb by brushing her hand along its  surface calming it into a state of submission outside Malik transforms into a saber-tooth tiger  monster and attacks Buffy they fight for a while

and she presumes him to be dead until he lunges  at her once more and Spike intervenes to save her bad [ __ ] uh no I I didn't like that  Spike offers a truce and meets with the Scoobies explaining that liok wants to open the  hellmouth but he doesn't know how to so he needed to summon the master who did know how to and  ask him spike is sick of being his Pawn so he offers to help fight the master if they promise to  rescue Drusilla the plan is to exercise liok from Drusilla and the master from

Angel and all players  involved will drink a magic Elixir that prevents possession from Spirits I'm going to sneeze all  the characters meet at The Foundry where the order of aelius is creating the Deon sphere Buffy  heads in and makes her way to Angel as the others perform their exorcism spells which involves a  great deal of finger wiggling I feel like this is a joke they would have made in the show but it  wouldn't actually be the thing they were supposed to be doing the thing that works lik

e this is  something Xander would jokingly suggest they have to do Drusilla is rescued but I don't think they  wanted to bother with getting the actor or a sound alike so she doesn't have any dialogue spike is  pleased that the Scooby gang held up their end of the bargain and heads off to confront the master  who is ejected from Angel and attempts to possess Spike who tells him to S off I don't really get  why this part was necessary Beyond stalling the most useful thing Spike did was lead the g

ang to  The Foundry but after that he just outed himself as a traitor and then left the story the only  bad news from this level is they did manage to make off with that sphere they needed to do that  thing back at the goddamn Library Giles hesitantly suggests that the only way to definitively  get rid of the master in Phantom form maybe to restore his corporeal form and kill him again  the complexity of the spell will make it so that he sort of Fades in and out of Flesh reverting  back and fort

h to ghost form like a flickering light bulb doesn't make a whole lot of sense from  a lore perspective but makes perfect sense as a vulnerability mechanic Buffy I'm afraid you'll  have to jump on his head three times it appears you'll have to catch his bombs and throw them back  at him have a care this does Grant him a few eye frames he says in between him doing that thing  right he like takes his glasses off and pinches the bridge of his nose that's my favorite Gil's  move Librarians now get t

heir own action figure as well says on the packet that I'm a choking hazard  that's good oh now you tell me I've already eaten three of these things was really excited to  get to the Mexican one too put little salsa on it the joke is that I'm eating the toys if you  talk to Cordelia here Buffy checks in on how she's doing after being attacked and she says  that her ankle is injured so she'll never lead the cheerleading squad then why was she leading  the cheerleading squad at the end of season 3

look I'm not going to get many opportunities  to do this so so just let me have it everyone gathers at the path to the sunken Church to show  their support for Buffy and hand her items like elixir and oh okay I'll uh I'll come back for  that later I guess we fight through a gauntlet of everything You' faced so far plus more  platforming as the network of tunnels gives way to Caverns with a cathedral slowly crumbl  in into a river of lava at the center of which Waits a very cheesed off ghost of

the master  who is unable to engage in a physical fight with Buffy so to compromise he uses the power  of the dreamers to launch her into a classic floating puzzle Fortress which culminates to  Buffy facing off against a reskin clone of herself oh you can just knock her out of the  ring you know you'd think that would add some kind of subtext to this not that I'm into that  sort of thing I mean the master was like the only big bad that Buffy faced that petrified  her with fear because he spent w

eeks invading her dreams and tormenting her so that when the  time came she choked this could have been like her conquering her fear or some [ __ ] I don't  know I don't know how to write I've just watched the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer  after snapping out of this dream she faces off against the two remaining dreamers one after  the other officially thwarting the Master's plan to open the hell mouth well I guess it was  technically Li box plan you know I never really thought about

it until now but he's gone I mean  he's removed from the story and I didn't really even understand that happening when they do the  double exorcism the master remains a spirit but liok is [ __ ] dunzo wild that the inciting  villain just kind of blinks out of existence offc screen in favor of the villain we all  know the Scoobies and Angel all participate in the ritual to make the master corporeal which he  seems to see as an absolute win because it would be weird if they did this on purpose but

I think  it's safe to say that whatever baggage buff he was carrying about the master is settled and she's  ready to just beat the [ __ ] out of him with a clear head which she does knocking him into  a makeshift stake not the most imaginative end to the long running feud between the two I feel  like there was plenty of room to do something fun with this final confrontation maybe Buffy picks  up the sledgehammer she used to crush his bones instilling a visible Terror in him turning the  tables

on his terrorizing Mind Games I may be giving them too much credit but it's not like  the show ever refrained from the poetic use of a specific weapon I'm still convinced there was  some kind of worker Revolution subtext happening in the episode an you think it's coincidence  that Buffy frees a bunch of exploited workers from the clutches of capitalist demons running  an interdimensional sweat shop using a hammer and sickle then again I guess they weren't so much  seizing the means of production

so much as they were just you know leaving they were in a Hell  Dimension and I suppose they just wanted out of it even though they had to then return to True  Crime the streets of LA they should have thought about sticking around and uh you know doing their  own thing with whatever it was they were making down here they're moving rocks at one point maybe  they made rocks this isn't a democracy Xander it's a Slayer Archy as the sunken Church begins to  crumble for reasons I do not rightly know

just kind of Mak sense that it would you know Giles  reminds us that evil is always lying in weight but so is the Slayer later at the bronze Buffy laments  not being able to to make it on the cheerleading squad when she sees a vampire luring a woman into  the alley outside before running off because duty calls this cute button on the end partially makes  up for the somewhat underwhelming conclusion one foe dispatched in much the same manner as any  number of nameless vampire goons in the series

and the other just kind of gets deleted from the  plot I feel like the ancient demon aspiring to open a gateway to Hell and flood the world with  unending Bloodshed and death shouldn't have you thinking wait what happened to that dude he may  be the smartest Buffy villain in that he severely minimized his role in a world-ending plot and then  upon it failing just receded into the bushes never to be seen again if you check the game's manual  it helpfully lists all of the enemies you'll come acros

s throughout the story and liok is nowhere  to be seen on here not a single mention not even a footnote in the back I mean you even get a few  extra pages to take notes write down cheat codes and nothing is this fintan asly is is bosen I  don't even think Buffy ever has to confront liok in any form in the whole game North Korea saw  liok more than Buffy did no nobody's going to get I love this song Buffy the Vampire Slayer  the video game defied expectation valiantly reaching its gnarled hand th

rough layers of  Earth breaching the surface greeted with the bitter cold of being pretty all right it's  not so much an episode of a television show that you get to play around in it's more like  a pre-existing video game that's dressed up in Buffy's clothes it doesn't aspire to much but  there are some considerate details that many other games would simply forget even with  these things it's an action game of an era that is mostly preoccupied giving you plenty of  opportunities to Pummel vampi

res and if you're anything like me ample time spent kening through  the air in to bodies of water lava or some other Hazard the fun fight choreography of Buffy is  definitely one of the reasons it's a great show but those moments fill maybe five to 10% of your  average episode there's so many other parts and parts that could be gamified the investigations  the interrogations The Friendly Fire you got to find bu she's going to her place and stop  restricting you to only playing as Buffy also seve

rely minimizes the presence of the  rest of the cast and I mean it's an ensemble show as much as I love the character that is  Buffy the show wouldn't be what it is if she was just talking to herself for 80% of the episode  you know what I'm not strong enough to deny that I would still watch that see it doesn't help  that I'm already a fan of this franchise and can think of a million things I would have loved  to see happen in The Buffy verse and not in like a comic book or podcast both games se

em to  love Reviving former characters so why not pull in Arkham City and just have a bunch of  former villains from the show's history team up you could have the master fighting alongside  the she mantis Robo Mok alongside the Triad of incels armed presumably with some kind of clothing  disintegrating ray gun that backfires and becomes lethal it's certainly not without its charm I do  firmly believe that Buffy should have been a video game and it should have been for this console  generation an

d should have been a little Jank there's something that just kind of feels right  about that that I appreciate the extra optional dialogue given to the characters should you stick  around in the library meetings and that a good 40 to 50% of jokes land if there's one thing these  writers nail it's capturing those little moments where you realize that Buffy is at the end of  the day a show about Millennials written by gen xers full of references only Boomers will  understand you two have seen too

many hope in Crosby Road movies you know what Spanky even if I  was fighting this battle alone I'd take that bet so which one of you is Curly of the outfit buff  Z boom ba when I was in high school I can't say that Laurel and Hardy or Vaudeville came up with  much frequency there are some fun onliners spoken by Buffy and her enemies but they repeat pretty  frequently so their efficacy sort of comes and waves pay attention Quasimoto I'm about to  ring your bell regaining some entertainment value

when you manag to interrupt one that all  you got Carol killed old ladies you fight for a media tie-in game from the early 2000s it's a  miracle that this much thought was put into its plot it's not exactly comparable to a great  or even mediocre episode of the show but it displays a moderate understanding of the writing  style and a sometimes scholarly understanding of its lore which has a kind of double-edged result  you can tell it was written by someone outside the show's writing room becaus

e it almost has  more recollection of the show's event than the actual show name dropping transient figures and  calling back to throw away bits of lore Spike brings up angelis's plot to revive the demon aatha  in season 2 and Xander mentions the episode where a misfired love spell makes Drusilla obsessed with  him even though that was sort of a minor joke in the episode as it made all women in Sunnydale  obsessed with him although I will admit Angel got over being sent to a castless hell dimens

ion  for what would have been like a century for him real fast he was just a gibber ing dog man for  like a week and then he learned how to do taichi and everything was cool again so I guess what  I'm saying is that they probably should have mentioned that a few more times I'm not immune  to the pleasures of pointing at my screen at the sight of a thing I recognize you might say that  was the whole reason I made this video maybe it's worse maybe I'm actually dependent on it in an  unhealthy way

maybe that's why the pleasure of this video game's Nostalgia baiting dissipated so  quickly I needed a stronger dose I guess I can't say they didn't immediately follow up on that  though but for sure that Joy is there the simple joy of a great show being awarded a mediocre  video game adaptation in modern day missing is the accompanying joy of seeing screenshots in  a Gaming magazine and naively thinking this is the one this is going to be the good one of  those the one that changes it all will

this game Rise Above the Rest and prove to be a quality  adaptation well much like the game itself I got no faith this type of action platformer  brawler Explorer game was on its way out of popularity but it's still a fine example  of it while playing Buffy the Vampire Slayer I was reminded of an enduring concept that had  slipped my mind for one reason or another the thought games are hard additionally they used  to be a lot harder I had such a difficult time playing this game I began to worry

that my  ability to play video games had degenerated due to age and energy drink consumption this  is not right I'm getting my ass kicked like all the time I've already gone through twink  death and now I have to suffer through gamer death how did you find me this game plays like a  beat him up with some light exploration elements echoing bits of the Tomb Raider and Soul Reaver  franchises and Primal but with a more complex combat system not only do you have a fighting  games worth of Combos and

grapples you can initiate but you have special Slayer moves  that can be quite devastating if they Land If lost her damn appropriately you can't just kill  vampires with your bare hands you need to stake or behead them cleverly you can collect Stakes by  breaking furniture or crates and once a vampire's health is depleted you finish them off with the  Stak sometimes this looks really cool especially when you do the classic stab backwards dusting  them without even looking at what you're aiming

at but it's also just as valid knocking them down  and wildly shanking them with the steak until you find the heart you can also accomplish this by  impaling enemies on environmental hazards it's pretty considerate how there are just as many  environmental hazards for enemies as there are for you lots of jagged Furniture wooden beams and  even even sunlight to coax vampires into so are you going watch me kite this [ __ ] what the is  combat is going to make up the majority of game play so it's n

ice that it feels pretty good for  every moment I felt like I was just bulldozing a vampire effortlessly dispatching them with Grace  there was at least a dozen times that I was just annihilated like a rag doll Vamps were juggling  me with chain attacks breaking my combos picking me up and tossing me and then spitting on my  bruised body I got real comfortable in that place between frustration and bewilderment  where I was disappointed that I had died but also it was kind of funny how it happene

d I  can fix this though I can reason this into Canon I mean it's not as though Buffy exits any  of her fights without taking a hit or two she's a scrappy fighter that often improvises works with  what's around her and thus she winds up on her ass pretty frequently so yeah you understand I'm role  playing by being bad at the game television Buffy does seem a little more durable than video game  Buffy I mean it's established in the show that she can leap unnatural distances and land like  a cat b

ut this ability seems absent from her video game counterpart I don't really know how you  determine the limits of that sort of thing though I guess Buffy's power level is more so dependent  on what the plot of the episode requires be right down a couple Critic reviews from the era refer to  this game as a button Masher as in you needn't put much thought into the combo system and odds are  you'll come out on top simply by hitting buttons until your enemy falls down and I don't think  that's entir

ely accurate did I wind up button mashing a few times yes was it more like half the  time yes but did it always work out in my favor yes I don't got the hands for console gaming  anymore at least not with this fandal torture device you got to jump there you can definitely perform  better in fights by utilizing every piece of the combat system including blocking and dodging  jumping and breakable weapons it all factors in but I'm a stubborn learner and I just glommed  onto the handful of attacks

that seemed to land the most often and spammed them unto cruel death  at the end of most chapters you'll return to the library where you can talk to the rest of the  C and learn little Snippets about the plot but also receive upgrades from them Giles hands out  new attack combos which is lore appropriate Giles is her fight instructor for whatever reason  Xander gives you new weapons even though his armyman superpowers would have dissipated by now  also I don't think the US army trains you in the

use of medieval Weaponry that's usually what the  people they blow up with orbital strike cannons are using might as well face it right now I  don't have the technical skills to join the Swiss Army these include a holy water squirt gun  and a crossbow it's possible to use the crossbow to take out distant unag gred enemies if you  nail them right in the heart but I don't know how to accomplish this level of accuracy with  a Duke they tended to close the gap between us pretty quickly while I just

panicked and sent a  hail of Pulp Fiction fire everywhere but at them I mean who do you think I am faith God I [ __ ]  wish he doesn't give you the reaper blade though Giles does and that's kind of the coolest weapon  in the game in part because of its Millennial rule of cool design but I'm a sucker for any game with  a throwable knife Willow can upgrade your health and Slayer power provided you bring her crystals  that are hidden throughout levels it's kind of funny if you rush through a level

and only find  one or two of these Willow dramatically conjures Hecate to bless you with increased strength  and vitality now released you did you do it yet around levels are destructible weapons like  shovels and baseball bats that never really gave me the edge in fights that I hoped they would but  I sure did pick them up every time I found them it's pretty neat that they often begin as blunt  weapons that eventually break and briefly become the Ultimate Weapon a pointed stick second only  to

fresh fruit old people am I right though you can still finish off vampires with them before  they even break which is actually more gruesome when you think about it it's one thing to stake  a vampire with a sharp thing but what about the knobbed handle of a baseball bat good thing  most vampires are made of cake you're not even trying in dire moments I found myself really  rationing healing Elixir and holding out to find holy water both can be combined to create  an item that refills a great de

al of Health as well as your Slayer Powers you can also use the  holy water to bless crossbow bolts making every whiffed Bolt even more demoralizing adding  to the game's difficulty is the occasionally brutal distance between checkpoints dying returns  you to the start of a level and during the game's bizarre difficulty spike in the middle you really  feel the frustration of this getting so close to the end only to be knocked into water or meet some  other embarrassing demise undoing a good hour

of playtime this then you become an expert at speed running the  level up to the point where you keep dying but then apathy Creeps in and you start making foolish  errors backsliding your Mastery you start losing it the platforming is pretty forgiving until  the dream world which seems to apply a layer of butter to The Souls of Buffy's shoes I would get  too comfortable and begin [ __ ] up jumps that I had previously done without thinking I suddenly  started overthinking my heart rate Rising wi

th each one it's pretty fun for what it is there  are sort of layers of mental obstacles before you may arrive at that thought though I mean  there's the good for its time layer and even that's after the it could so easily be better  layer but I mean how long can I go on pining for The Buffy the Vampire Slayer the video game  that never was instead of enjoying how neat the one we got is the answer a very really long time  I played this game long enough to eventually feel as though I had gotten i

t and began a replay  on hard and I don't think it's stuck hard mode had me feeling like the episode helpless when  the council makes Giles drug Buffy to suppress her powers and fight a psycho vampire because  obviously you're driving me crazy and I need my pills this was a perfectly serviceable looking  game on release a lot of live-action media tie-in games suffered from a distinct lack  of art style or design sense finding it more important that the Char character models  resembled the actors

from said media and Buffy is no exception and to be fair every  character looks pretty darn similar to how they look on my TV screen and Visually that's  probably the most enjoyable aspect I mean there are some bits of the UI that I think are kind  of sick like the tribal heart health bar but the same Devotion to realism begins and ends  at the main cast Buffy's combat animations are very well done for how difficult the game can  be it sure looks badass when you're winning cheerleader so and re

ally funny  when you're losing oh go kiss daylight [ __ ] damn it there was a part during  the first fight with Sila where I broke a shovel over her and then accidentally initiated a  fanciful little spin with it before whacking her across the face with the handle so it can  capture those moments in the show where Buffy does something that's like not exactly helping  her in a fight but it looks cool environments and enemies have a comic Booky sense of space  and scale almost like I can see the c

oncept art for everything just staring at it places like  the Boiler Room are expanded into wide areas that could stage fights you when in the show it  was just like the proportions of a living room I got a lot of enjoyment out of Simply walking  through digital renderings of familiar locations from the show getting to look at the Sunnydale  High library or the bronze dance floor at Angles I previously did not have access to was kind of  exhilarating ever the pedant the first thing I did was imm

ediately walk over to the Caged off  area that they keep AZ in whenever it's a full moon and checked for the window that Xander  leaves open which was of course not there and that's perfectly okay you know why I didn't expect  it to be there there's plenty of other locations down to insignificant Lial spaces that instilled  a bizarre sense of deja vu hey I know that window something bad happens in front of that window  obviously a huge selling point for this game and Boon 2 Gamers hesitant that

this title was  worth picking up was that every character in the game is voiced by their television counterpart  except Buffy okay so get over it the presence of the original voices I'll admit is doing a lot  of heavy lifting am I the only one wondering why we're still here when there's loud music dancing  and Tatty people watching to be had at the bronze well all this Scooby has left me a tad parched  the bronze anyone to celebrate your cheerleading change of heart let's go to the bronze I rath

er  think I'll try to accomplish something instead all right Mr responsible we'll gate in your stead  please don't it has such a significant impact on the presentation that the moment you notice  one of the Scoobies missing in chaos bleeds it's almost infuriating like some kind of impostor has  wandered on set here hearing someone trying to do an Allison Hanigan impression triggered my fight  ORF flight response Buffy where's terara she was helping Anya with the inventory this place was  already

pretty Vamp infested when we got here so it's actually kind of a miracle that the Sarah  Michelle Geller replacement is as close as she is I don't know how they did it but this jizelle  Lauren person kind of nails Buffy's voice look while everyone bones up on sigils and Resurrection  I'll head over to the mansion and Bone up on F angel I I just straight up forgot it wasn't her  half the time get out while you can if it takes me you'll be the only one who can save me how about  I just save you n

ow I was talking to someone in the mirror I won't tell you who and I was telling  them about playing this game and after I stopped screaming they asked a reasonable first question  did the cast of the TV series provide their voices and without thinking I pared an anecdote I had  heard somewhere in my life at some time and said yeah but not Sarah Michelle Geller she wanted to  be in it but I guess the dev team refused to let her read the full script and so she refused to  participate in this esse

ntially free paycheck handout party the mirror person then said you  got cookies don't you you should go into the kitchen and eat them eat all the cookies like  a little [ __ ] piggy so while researching the game I again found this tidbit in a few places  it's even on The Buffy vers Wiki but it doesn't have a citation and I can't find an inter with  her saying much of anything about the game so I think that story may have come about through a  game of forum post telephone and the reality is prob

ably something simple and boring like she was  too busy filming the liveaction Scooby-Doo movie in Australia we had a a good six and a half months  to live in Australia and you can touch other girls too like you go your boobs look really good in  that top and just Reach Out And Touch them and no it's true no wait a minute probably goes without  saying but the cast of the show does a great job portraying the characters they already had been  for five the only drawback there is the audio mixing ca

n be sort of strange if a character is  still talking when there is a cut bringing them from off screen to on it can create weird little  stereo jump scares here what good am I going to do anyone here well you've been around some  magic in your time perhaps you can Aid Willow and I in our research and preparation something  I didn't entirely expect entering this game was the soundtrack is kind of [ __ ] epic all the  combat tracks are unquestionably my [ __ ] it's electronic borderline industria

l Rock  which was a genre that was booming at the time I should know because I mean my taste and  music solidified there and never quite evolved much further there's a great mix of break  beat samples and the little guitar thrown in if this was compiled somewhere I think  I could easily just enter it into to my rotation I get notes of like lunatic calm  and Prodigy it's giving spawn the album the composer is listed as Ashen Keelan who doesn't  seem to have any other credits in gaming but she was

the lead singer for an ALT rock band  called Scout who you may know by the Miami relatives the fictional band in an episode of The  Sopranos what strange paths this business has you stumbling through one day you're using your  real band as a fake band in The Sopranos the next you're scoring The Buffy the Vampire  Slayer Xbox game you know the scene there in is very Buffy coed there's more than a few  episodes of Buffy when they cut to the bronze and they Linger on the band playing like look  ev

eryone it's Sprung Monkey yo I hear chibo m is playing at the bronze tonight chibo I  love chibo their new album is available right now oh hey did you guys hear that chibo  m is going to be at the bronze tonight chibo M they're playing no well they're going to be  even the non-c combat music when you're just exploring around a cemetery or sewer is great and  completely evocative of Kristoff Beck's score for the TV series the areas between fights are full  of for boing choir vocals Whispers plink

y piano there is a lot of it as well leading me to  think they must have recycled bits from the TV show score I went back and forth on this  thinking because it does just sound like it but not exactly any particular track that I  could remember then when I was getting a clip of the oracles from the opening of the this  video I noticed the track that plays during that scene is either from the same collection of  music or is using like an identical choir plugin not allowed I'm just a lowly messeng

er you're a  warrior your heart is pure and I do this right the important takeaway is that it sounds the  way the Buffy Angel verse should sound which is very considerate I do think there were some  people on board that cared a great deal about making this one Stand Out amidst a wave of  disposable cions because there are far too many ways it could have cut corners or played  it safe and didn't it it kind of did on the cover art though I mean it's just a screenshot of  the game behind a press ph

oto of Sarah Michelle Geller the one cast member not in the game in  any form heang on is she is she doing the you looked paid more for the Liss than to make the  game it's easy enough for a 9-year-old but I don't know stabbing a person is though it's so  easy it's boring I bought it for my girlfriend so she can something to play on the Xbox put it  this way she couldn't throw the ball in NFL 2K3 the graphics are basic even on HD TV the audio is  confusing in 5.1 Dolby Digital you can determine

if people are around you or even there with  digital sound a young fan of the show it's a buy but not for a high school student I don't my  Xbox daily maybe three times a week if not that so don't take me as a professional in game play  this review is really odd because I can detect the tone of elitism but it's so butchered by typos  and missing words because he was so horny to post that I'm a little lost on what the conclusion he  drew was I guess if you're a 9-year-old or this guy's girlfriend

then you'll enjoy this game  hopefully those are two you know SE separate Concepts it's kind of weird phrasing yeah I  guess it's cool for a 99-year-old so I got it for my girlfriend terrible I thought this might  be cool but when I played it was horrible hear stuff about it Graphics 1 out of 10 it was too  fuzzy sound 1 out of 10 terrible gameplay 1 out of 10 very hard coolness 1 out of 10 nothing's  cool about it result terrible maybe rant it but do not buy this dumb game I feel like the game

play  score is informing a lot of the other review stats the rage from the game being too hard clouding  his vision with tears making the picture seem fuzzy the perfectly fine sound being drowned out  by his angry whimpering all of which certainly containing nothing coolo perfo bofy bofy ala Vos  I bought this game I had this game a while back on Xbox and it was real fun until one day my  Xbox messed up and then a few years later my boyfriend gave me his Xbox 360 and I rebot this  game and I tho

ught it would work on Xbox 360 but it didn't all right I kind of like this less  of a review and more of a little story it's like a for sale baby shoes never worn for the Y2K  generation Xbox game repurchased incompatible with boyfriend's console Buffy's great fun okay I'm  not a fan of Buffy and here's why I'm a fan of Paras pychology the study of ghosts and vampires  and other mythological monstrosities has been an interest of mine since I was a child vampires are  my favorite monsters because

when used correctly they can be a very deep and compelling monster on  that serves as a symbol for what we as a Society have become my bookshelves are jam-packed full of  vampire literature from The Works of Bram Stoker to the great works of Anne Rice to the not so good  but still kind of fun work of Laurel K Hamilton to the Masterpiece of Storytelling that is vampire  the Masquerade and its many companion Game books or novels based therein to Hunter the Reckoning  and so on I'm no stranger to

vampire mythology both from a modern and a historical aspect it  is because of my background in this field that I've always detested Buffy and their portrayal  of vampires vampires do not lack a soul if you take away the soul you take away the vampire's  meaning for existence and usefulness in a good story they become wallpaper for action flick and  nothing more I've only watched a few episodes of Buffy and no offense to Buffy fans the show is too  juvenile for my tastes however I'm still lookin

g for a must-have title to sit next to Hunter the  Reckoning in my Xbox collection the game may very well end up being that lucky title this game  does almost everything right the control and Camera scheme is very Soul reav like this made  it easy for me to get into the groove of the game play my only complaint is that the combat  seems a bit simplistic I find myself kicking my way throughout the baddies and the punching  seems pretty ineffective plus I don't want to risk breaking the sharp obje

cts Buffy can carry  another minor complaint is the dialogue since I'm not a fan of Buffy the bad puns are big- time  groaners although she does have a few good ones a lot of the puns are just bad there's also a lot of  repeated lines throughout the game play that are repeated so much it gets annoying it's tempting  to hit the mute and leave it on mute until the next cut scene the lack of variety to the vampire  models is also a complaint how many times do I have to kill that guy/girl the Xbox c

ould have  easily handled a larger variety of models the zombies of Nintendo capcom's Resident Evil had a  great deal of variety there were very few zombies that looked identical to each other more variety  along these lines would have been nice for the vampire bad guys the funniest thing about this  review is that it actually sounds like it was written by an obnoxious meta character from Buffy  that would be killed off in an absurd way like that episode about a group of teens romanticizing  vam

pires and wanting to be turned only to be torn apart by them just a cartoonishly unfun person  to be around I don't think a human being could be more diametrically opposed to me than someone  who would say it is because of my background in this field that I have always detested Buffy what  [ __ ] field are you talking about reading vampire fiction you're talking about an idol interest  like it's something you could put on a resume there are valid complaints here that are buried  under some goofy

[ __ ] very weird to confidently say vampires do not lack a soul buddy I got bad  news for you none of this [ __ ] is real Buffy the Vampire Slayer uses vampires demons and old  magic as a tool to reflect contemporary Horrors I think you're letting your affinity for one  specific use of the vampire instruct a weird elitist attitude about them I know when Twilight  became popular I was kind of miffed that everyone was going nuts for this profoundly unsexy uncool  and ungo interpretation of vampi

res these two look like they're going to puke around each other I  absolutely do not want to see them [ __ ] but I don't know it's not that serious it's not like  it's an IP that's being exploited it's a concept vampires are public domain also you watched a  couple episodes of the TV show and determined it to be juv Den not reaching the whole vampire  main character that is literally a vampire with a soul bottom line I just don't think you  can speak about vampires with any Authority neither can

I really because that would be very  silly of me so actually no yeah yeah I'll do that Buffy the Vampire Slayer is such easy  fodder for a video game and I think a lot of Gamers even those that missed the bandwagon  on the series recogn recogniz that I mean its mission statement and Vibe is kind of summed up in  its title a quippy high schooler is thrust into a horror fantasy Adventure that is in lock step  with her coming of age I came across numerous positive reviews for the game that begin w

ith some  variation of I haven't seen the show but this is a solid game I think that's like the enduring  takeaway at a time when media Tian games were universally understood to be garbage Buffy was a  solid little action game clearing a low but still rare bar considering the treatment other media got  like Charlie's Angels Planet of the Apes and Shrek compared to that this is you know insert whatever  comes to mind as a good game it might deflate my point if I said one of my favorites there are

  tons of things to pull apart especially for a fan of the franchise but one thing I can't take  away from this game is that an atypical amount of effort was put into making it an authentic Buffy  experience does it always accomplish that no is this ignorable no but there's plenty of charm to  ring from this rag of a game I think there should be another more definitive Buffy video game  but also I think a part of me would be bummed out that it came after games looked and sounded  like this besid

es if it was made any later the gaml would be the Batman Lord of the Rings thing  where you just wait for a symbol to pop up over Buffy's head and then you slow motion counter  a ring of vampires at nauseum there's a playful chaos to this game that is yes frustrating but  I can't say I got bored of it how could I I was too busy marveling at how many times I could get  hit before being allowed to stand up again for a fan it's a lot of fun hearing the voices of these  beloved characters and Xander

I also got a kick out of its soundtrack which could bounce around  from gloomy and Gothic to an industrial Workout Mix because it exists in this place of not quite  being a direct adaptation of anything within the show but more of its spirit I can see why it would  be appealing to Gamers that weren't even familiar with the show but of course having seen the show  and enjoying it will probably bump up your score of it you might just enjoy it because it's Buffy  or you might be insens at the miss

ed opportunity of it all I find myself at the Nexus of all  avenues appreciating the thought put into certain aspects but dreaming of a better game for now  I look forward to continuing to think man there should have been a game based on Buffy all right  well one more video in the guts um I think next time I should add more [ __ ] alert psychic energy  event Threat Level five five I I forget is that no psychic energy event concluded  what did I just do looks like you moved that K of Monster Ener

gy Zero  Ultra about 2 cm across the desk what does this mean it means we'll  have plenty of data to submit to The Institute what that is the end of the video  thank you for watching if you enjoyed that video consider watching other videos of mine or  supporting the channel so I can continue to make videos like that one that you just watched there  are multiple Avenues of doing so which you can discover in the description of this video such  as patreon where you will gain access to at the moment

three videos about the Paranormal that are  only available on patreon all three are in excess of an hour and uh very self-indulgent I know what  you're thinking more so than this one well yeah so yeah if that seems like a thing you'd want to  watch uh there's three of those and uh patreon description of video and an extra special thanks  to aing Uncle to password for kids Aaron kolik agine Alexander Smith Alexandra andar oimo Andre  Perkins a parts 89 Ari orison audio video Bayer brown beef lig

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drunken Badger Fiona Summers fix my brain Gareth Pharaoh grass eater grounded Valkyrie  Jacob doy ma deloney James Andrew pea Adams James Snipes Jay Kenny jetsun jle Nang lopsang tenun  gatso J Man DX Jonathan Pence Loda the news elf mad Monte 98 make it RoR neb ofilia fishwife P  Dizzle Persian Heir Raul Garcia Robert Brandon Rowdy Rody peeper s bomb sorry I'm no hero sugar  buo Technica t- Stony ten beat the angry Pebble the cond Droid there are other worlds than this  Trenton will two legs u

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w eban Sullivan  Ethan blue udip every day once a day give yourself a putty eyeball Zilla 15 gargantuan  low poly rats listening to jungle flame 5029 neo8 Frank orifice fried matato frolics with  bunnies fizzy tingle times game is good game in Watching You Gavin General kazara ghoul baby  Bond gloous goofy touch me Graham Ferguson Grim one name change at a time your Legend shall be  told Grim's my big big big baby boy Gumby with a sombrero Gumpy wumpy the Dwarven fingerer  Gerel Haley bobella Ha

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ua David Justin Darnell Captain ketchup car Kieran Walker  Kelly O'Neal Kevin hail kid Charlamagne the FCC can't catch me kind raccoon claru Chris Audi  crust easy kirck the famished one lakasa Lori kubri Leland mocis Leopold Gloom legendary dragon  M magic meow Mandalore gaming mango roxus marqua Matthew St J Matthew Callahan Max Cohen miang  Micah J best Michael Anderson miles Phillips Misha [ __ ] more sharks mother destruction  Mr ducky quack mystical lint no stars next 42 Nick Hill Nick Hoo

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der star tide  suzuya Rose team R tan the clay pigeon there are scaven in your walls Grim don't believe the  Empire propaganda they want to steal your cheese the supervisor Tor Tucker Donovan cant meage  needle teetle unified sleepers v v I've hired this virtual goth to stare at you Vincent Cronin  Wyatt wolf chalice logician wui zanga PF Z Benz Zen zingu zombie fever zde [ __ ] and Zuli the  little blue cobalt for being a patron thank you so much for all of your support your support  keeps my c

hannel going your support keeps me going without your support both will wither and  die hope you like this one if there's any Buffy fans in the audience which I I would assume  there would be uh hope I didn't disappoint you hope I didn't have uh any any takes that  were too spicy and if you've never seen buff your angel maybe uh hey maybe give it a try if you  like television if you're one of them types that likes Kino Buffy's probably on some streaming  platform though the version that's availa

ble is like widescreen and cropped and there's a there's  a fair deal of controversy surrounding you know that being the only available version television  not immune to the same pitfalls of uh remastered video games where it the original is uh destroyed  and an inferior reproduction is propped up in its place Honestly though like yeah you've never  seen the show like you're not going to notice other than sometimes it'll be like why is the shot  composition on this like [ __ ] up but yeah that's

pretty rare uh I will say though around season 4  of Buffy that is when uh the show Angel starts I would recommend watching both simultaneously as  they aired the thing about angel though is that it didn't really receive the same treatment as  Buffy so it's not available many places the clips I have of it in this video were because I ripped  a DVD of it I mean wait that's allowed right I'm not selling it anyway lots of content coming  down the line so if you'll excuse me have a good day there's

a corse in the driver seats high low socities Buffy my research has brought to  light a promising entry concerning a crude weapon we could fabricate to take arms against  the master you mean it will take more than Mr pointy to dust the ghost of fruit punch mouth  the law is quite clear on this according to the text in order to dispel the Master's  power we must refrigerate a glass of the slayer's urine then it's a simple matter of  um I think I may have misheard you there the slayer's what urin

e Buffy we'll need to then  cut the frozen urine into serrated discs and throw them at the master utilizing them as  a sort of piss shuriken get me a Big Gulp