Baccano! - Review

To be honest, I didn't really notice Baccano until it came out onto DVD. I had heard the name in passing but that's really about it. I somewhat regret not watching this earlier.

To start us off, Baccano takes place in the 1930s when there's a rumor around about a group of people known as the "Immortals." It seems that it's impossible to kill them and no one knows who they are. All people really know is that they exist. In the meantime, a information gathering shop posing as a newspaper company is trying to piece together the truth about a major event that occurred onboard the transcontinental train "The Flying Pussyfoot." Coincidentally, it seems that the Immortal, many mafia families, hired hitmen, and thieves were all involved in this fiasco, and the first episode starts us off with two omniscient characters discussing who the main character is...




It's actually a great starting point and I tip my hat off to the director and author of the base material. Just from the opening alone, the introduction of the characters is almost overwhelming. What's even more unfathomable is the development of these characters and more throughout a 16 episode series. The first episode brings a brief introduction to the cast as well as the setting. It's a bit disorienting at first since it starts somewhere near the middle of the timeline but I'll get to that later.


To be honest, I haven't heard of the animation team known as Brains Base before but their style is really catchy. There's a bit of the original art they have to consider but overall, it's a relatively high budget anime with nice eye candy. It's a bit more gritty than clean but style seems to suit the anime very well.

The music is fantastic. The jazzy themes incorporated really give the anime its 30s feel. It's really too bad that Makoto Yoshimori didn't do much else. I really wanted to more of the music he could think up.


And here we come to the meat of the review: The direction and voice acting.

It seems that every episode had an individual episode director headed by one main director. The way this anime is directed is quite interesting. One could say that it's of epic fashion with pockets of flashbacks, but I'd say that it's more focused towards the characters and time simply flows around them. In that way, it seems to also emphasize the lack of focus on time itself which is a pointless concept for the "Immortals" themselves as they live forever without aging.

In general, it actually takes time for the show to pick up. To be honest, I was a bit.... (fine, I'll admit it) bored with the first couple of episodes. The pacing was dreadfully slow and having to bring in all the characters together to a seemingly pointless point in time seemed bland but I regret putting off watching this for so long because once it picks up, it doesn't stop. Just like a runaway train, scenes change to different times, stories are intertwined, and suddenly characters are brought together before your eyes in the most outrageous situations all the while the Flying Pussyfoot continues to chug along with no one noticing what's going on around them.

The biggest point of interest is how disconnected scenes and episodes are. Rather than following standard convention of following a timeline and going in chronological order (which is something we're more comfortable with, rather than believing it's "better") it forces the viewer to see the show in a different way. "Throw away all conventions of that thought process you know and follow us, just this one" the anime seems to say. It doesn't disappoint. Episodes feel right and seem to follow the pace of the company piecing together information. "Ok, so there was this guy on the train. How far back can we trace his history? What is he doing now? What did he do aboard the Flying Pussyfoot?" It's also a bit disorienting (but in a good way) that the show jumps around in time but it didn't bother me too much. It allowed me (the viewer) to associate relationships and assess character groupings better since these jumps focused more on the characters themselves than trying to impose a sense of linearity.


Voice acting was beautiful by everyone, Japanese and English. Voice acting these characters are particularly hard and I applaud the voice directors who found the matches. Each character brings to the show a different tone and color, and once all mixed together, they create a painting. But the colors themselves need to be rich and filled with an eye (or in this case "ear") catching richness that complements the others. I'm pretty sure every character had at least one monologue that rivaled that of the multi-personality disorder messes that are Shakespearean plays. Every character had a range of emotions to cover and I'm sure it really gave voice actors something interesting to work with.


There are problems of course. Certain characters seemed to have minor cameos despite being a crucial part of the story. It brings the question of "just exactly where the hell were you during all this?" There were a handful of characters I wanted to see more of but oh well. Certain names also didn't ring well with me. Certain first names didn't match last names (conflict of origin of nationality. Mind you this is still the late 20s-early 30s). Something that also happened was that I ended up forgetting parts of the beginning simply because in my mind I considered it to be pointless exposition although I'm pretty sure there were parts that hinted at relationships along with some foreshadowing. Regardless because of how droll the start was, it caused a problem for me to continue. I'm not saying that all shows should start with a bang, but there was a lack of a certain "hook" that made it worth it. When I have to say "You have to watch the first few episodes before it gets good" it leaves a bad taste in my mouth because the rest of the show doesn't really justify a bad start. First impressions are very important and what kept me watching was the opening theme as well as small quips of slapstick comedy from Isaac and Miria...



Must watch. That's all I gotta say. I'm angry that I missed this show.

Dungeon Fighter Online (DFO) - Review

The reason I've been away for a while is because I've been in the Dungeon Fighter Online Closed Beta for the US Nexon. I gotta say, this is a highly recommend from me.

I first heard about this from a korean friend of mine who played it for a while. He said its popularity was mainly based on PvP as it was highly balanced. So anyway, this past week has been spent beta testing straight and here's my review.


Overall (in its current state), Dungeon Fighter has the potential to be an amazing and long lasting game.

The basic story is about how there is a world known as Arad. People from other worlds in someway or another find this word that acts as a hub with no real way to get back out, but each person who enters the world has some purpose.

The artstyle for the game is really clean. Apparently, when the game first came out in Korea, it was looked down upon by other developers for using sprites, but I never understood that. Many famous fighters use sprites and many games still use sprites (Grand Chase to name one). To ridicule a game for its art seems odd. I'd understand if it was poorly done and very choppy but animation-wise, but Dungeon fighter is extremely clean. and the sprites are very nicely detailed. Let's think of it this way, for some odd reason, when one mentions the word "sprite" in reference to a game, people seem to assume it's going to look bad... like the original Wolfenstein. The thing is, fighters have used sprites for one of the longest times and it's been studied by gamers to the point where most mid-pro gamers refer to "clashing frames" referring to the actual coding of when a hit connects and the number of frames certain moves have. Odin Sphere used all handdrawn sprites and it too shows how beautiful sprites can be. To say that 3D and modeling is new gen and therefore rendering everything else obsolete makes no sense to me. One prime example would be Rainbow Six Vegas (the first one). Compare that to Gears of War and you'll notice how horrible the texturing in Vegas is. So is the modeling, I noticed that some trees were using interlaced flat low resolution textures. Even Counter-Strike Source looks better than that.... but that's enough of this tangent.


In terms of character creation, there are 5 characters (6, if you include the female gunner, and 7, if you include the new thief that's announced in the Korean version) each with their own specified job classes that branch out later on. You have a Slayer, Fighter, Gunner, and Priest. Each class is specified in amplifying one specific characteristic of the original job.

Slayers are swordsmen with a demonic arm that fuels his skills and abilities. As he gets stronger he can then branch out to Weapon Master, Soulbender, Asura, and Berserker. Depending on what players eventually choose, the classes go from extremely fast slashes of the berserker to large elemental strikes as an Asura.

Gunners obviously use guns but once they hit lvl 18, it branches off into many different directions. For example, you can have a mechanic who specializes in summoning robots to fight for him or you can be the ranger who specializes in flashy close combat melee moves combined with stylish trick shots. Then there are Launchers who take out big guns (literally) and fire gatlings, lasers and flame throwers to kill the enemy while spitfire focuses on elemental damage and specializing in focused shots.

Fighters are basically masters of hand to hand combat branching off into spiritual Nen Masters who excel at buffs and spirit attacks or Grapplers who specialize in.... grabbing and throwing. There's also Strikers and Brawlers who also are very distinct. Strikers are professional martial artists who link skills together and have some "famous" moves such as a one-inch punch or the chun-li rapid kicks whereas brawlers (or "street fighters" in other versions) use whatever tactics necessary to win (ie. sand, poison).

There are also Mages, who are generally spellcasters but can turn into Battle Mages who excel at linking skills together with combos. I feel that Mages (or Fighters) have probably the most diverse range of classes in terms of gameplay. There are elementalists, summoners, battle mages and witches each specializing in one specific thread of the cookie cutter mage types. Elementalists are the basic toss large AoE spells, Summoners summon mobs of monsters that wipe out entire dungeons, and Witches fly on broomsticks tossing pumpkin bombs and potions and changing parts of dungeon layouts...

Then there are the Priests who I find to be most interesting as they generally veer towards monks than the usual stand back and heal types. There can be Exorcists who case area of effect spells that hinder enemies or they can be monks who lay down area of effect buffs and go hand to hand with enemies.


Here's a nice playlist that showcases all the character classes (with the exception of Avenger)



The gameplay is reminiscent of old school beat em up fighters where players walk on a plane beating stuff up as they advance. It's less like Grand Chase as it isn't a platformer and more like 3D fighters (Like Tekken or Dead or Alive) where players walk along an X and Y axis and jump along the Z. Characters have to beat all the monsters in a certain room to advance to the next and to complete the dungeon, they must beat the boss at the end.

As players obtain skills, those skills can either be hotkeyed to one of 12 hotkeys or activated by inputting the command (similar to a fighter). So it's possible to call more than 12 skills at a time without ever having to bring up the skill menu. I think that this is probably one of the best systems in gameplay that's been implemented. Let's say I was surrounded and wanted to do a windmill attack but my hotkeys were filled with other skills and buffs. All I would need to do is press the key stroke command for it (down+down+X) and he would pull off the skill. I believe the PSP version of Guilty Gear tried it but its execution in gameplay was a bit lack luster.


Instead of managing stats, as a player, you need to manage skills and allocate the SP (skill points) you get properly for a good build. The thing is, players can cancel normal attacks into skills but they need to buy the ability to cancel to skills using SP. These cancels are often twice to nearly three times the cost of the skill itself meaning, that once players reach higher levels where they have to upgrade many more skills simultaneously, they need to consider which skills are important enough to get cancels.

It isn't necessarily possible to completely screw up a character (such as allocating int stats for a physical attacker as an example) but it can hinder your progress, which in turn affects your efficiency in dungeons.

Maximizing efficiency is actually very important in Dungeon Fighter Online. Unlike other dungeon crawlers (such as on consoles or MMORPGS) there's this element known as the Fatigue system. For each new room players enter, it uses up one point of a certain amount of total fatigue points and once a player runs out of fatigue points, they have to wait until the next day to be able to run dungeons. This system then promotes efficiency and opposes grinding. Players who maximize the use of their dungeon runs, and complete as many quests in the fewest amount of dungeon runs will advance significantly faster than those who, for example, do a dungeon run for each quest (or from a review I read elsewhere, did full dungeon runs and waste fatigue on unnecessary rooms). Players also receive more experience in dungeon runs if they are in a party and receive experience according to the number of members there are in the party promoting party runs rather than solo runs.

If someone dies, they're allowed to use coins, arcade style, which are allocated everyday and if everyone dies there's a countdown.


PvP is really fun. Room Masters can choose individual, team mode or elimination mode. Individual is more or less a deathmatch and team mode is team deathmatch. Elimination however is where there are two teams and one player from each team engages in a one-on-one duel survival mode style where a small bit of HP is regenerated for a victory. Elimination mode is where one tests their skills and shows off their ability to juggle, link skills, move well and combo.


The music is great. I'm always entertained by the BGMS that play as I progress dungeons and areas. It is a bit repetitive as multiple dungeons have the same music, but they're always upbeat and keep me energized.



Of course there are some quirks with Dungeon Fighter as well.
Many quests are given when a certain character reaches a certain level, and quests give enormous amounts of experience. Therefore, if there were a group of 4 friends and one wasn't able to play a day when the other 3 were, the result is that they're probably higher leveled than the last guy who had to join up with others and solo and end up gaining less experience for the same amount of fatigue. This results in a near eternal gap that doesn't close until they all hit max level. Therefore, friends that party together need to set up times to play so that their efficiency is the same with other members in the group, otherwise irreparable gaps form.


Although the PvP aspect is well done, the options for rooms are actually quite limited. For example, nearly all individual and team deathmatches involve one life (or two if a specific map is chosen). Roommasters can't change time limits on anything, and the maps are very limited (this might be referring to Dungeon Fighter as a whole). Any elimination map is set to tavern, a small flat map suited for 1v1 deathmatches with no gimmicks. Every other map has some sort of environmental hazard that make the match based more on luck than skill and unbalance matches usually favoring ranged classes. Then there's this one map that's simply stupid. It's a map known as "Motor Fan" and it has two fans on either side of the map. These fans push ALL players on a certain half of the map in one direction (it isn't even top half or bottom, of the fans blow in some area around the middle). Even if you try to run against the fan, you make EXTREMELY slow progress and usually results in a giant cluster on one side of the map. I don't know if the developers beta tested this, but it's absolutely horrible.


Like all other games, DFO also has grinding elements to it. If a party is "too efficient" what usually ends up happening is that all the available quests which are supposed to be recommended for higher levels are completed and party members are stuck dungeon running to get the next level so that they can unlock more quests.

I personally don't mind. Because the combat is so active, the grinding is less of a pain for me. If I were to give an example, I'd say the grinding in Dungeon Fighter Online would be on a similar level to the grinding in a Tales Of.... game. It involves more input from the player keeping them more interested, and so it "feels a lot less like grinding" despite it actually being what it is.


The English dub is killing me. I feel as if microtransaction companies look for people on the streets to pickup to do bad voices, similar to how Dell outsources its tech support to India. I like the Mage and Fighter's voice but that's really about it. I know what you're thinking. "But Zerreth! That means you must like about half the voices in the game! Half is a very big portion." No.... no I don't. I said I like the Mage and Fighter, but unfortunately every NPC in existence has a voice (a repeating one at that) as well each equipped with around 5 lines of earbleeding atrocities that repeat every 10 (less actually) or so seconds. Once again, I'll probably be forced to download the korean version and swap the voice files....

You know... voice actors could at least try to give some effort and the directors could at least try to match voices to the character. For example, there's this one dark elf who says "I like... knoweverything.... about magic-k." Then there are the battle sounds from the slayers who sound like they lack a soul and are reading off of cards..... (Say "hushaw" here.....)


Let me just get this straight. I'm not some purist who automatically thinks that foreign voices are amazing and that the US sucks (partially true). At the same time, I'm well aware that too many voice actors are probably just movie extras who have next to no talent in acting. I'm also aware that there are very talented english voice actors (I think Amanda Winn Lee is outstanding. I know why Yuri Lowenthal is in so many games. He's good, just over used.) The problem is, the degree of effort and skill between actors who are chosen for major and secondary roles, and those chosen for tertiary and extra roles is about the difference in height between those standing on top of the Grand Canyon and those who are at the bottom, and I think that's the major issue here.


Regardless. This is a must play from me. I can't say that casual players could get into this very well, but any sort of gamer that plays more than casual games should have at least a little fun. Of course, if you're not into fighters, that's perfectly okay but it is something that you can do for a few hours (since that's about how much the fatigue lasts) and it isn't something you have to devote vast amounts of time to be good.

Kekkaishi - Review

I consider Kekkaishi to be one of the best shounen anime out there, trumping One Piece, Bleach, and Naruto (including Shippuden) hands down. I can't be sure about how close it sticks to the manga, but the way it's been structured definitely leaves room for more.


Kekkaishi is about Yoshimori Sumiumura, an 8th grader, and Tokine Yukimura, a sophomore, who work as Kekkaishi, a job as protector of Karasumori (a specific area) that's been passed down from generation to generation. Kekkaishi (loosely translated as "barrier specialists/masters") have the ability to control a specific area of space in which they trap ayakashi (a specific word for ghosts from shipwrecks.... but it's been loosely used as something like spiritual parasites) and exorcise them, because they're attracted to Karasumori, an area that has the ability to grant ayakashi power.


Kekkaishi, from front to back (wherever the back may be...) is purely shounen. Even throughout the anime, when characters mention a specific term that may be too hard for children to understand, there's a small box that appears that explains terms. That isn't to say it's bad.


It's well paced, fairly long, and beaming with high quality production. It's one of the few anime where nearly no one looks the same. What I mean by that is, a lot of medium to low budget anime use the same face archetype for an entire genre, forcing you, the viewer, to identify each character by their hair, hair color, and eye color. This is a simple shortcut that cuts a lot of money from expenses. However, tertiary characters and many background characters all have different faces. It's a small detail but an important detail nonetheless. It's rare to see differing eyes, noses and overall facial structures in anime, but it's even rarer to see that applied to nearly everyone. There are some corners that are cut such as panning still shots but I can overlook that for the amount of work placed elsewhere.


I can't say the overall plot is amazing. To be honest, it first sounded pretty generic with the exception of the kekkaishi but it was the small arcs, and mini-stories that had such great writing that it kept me pretty hooked. The story even delved a bit into how the Kekkaishi do what they do, but not in a lecture style. Through recurring bits, the mechanics are fed to you at an even pace. Eventually, there were certain twists to the background story that intrigued me and definitely put this on a different level.


My biggest problem with the anime would be the lack of an extensive soundtrack. Kekkaishi is a 52 episode anime and yet all of its music spans one disc. I understand that I'm not asking for like.... Yuki Kajiura's work (About 4 disks just for Tsubasa Chronicles) but I expected a bit more from Taku Iwasaki and his work on Persona -Trinity Soul-. Though, in hindsight, Kekkaishi was released earlier....



Kekkaishi hasn't been licensed in the US yet, though it seems to have been licensed in the Phillipines. Considering the immense work that went into it, only big companies such as Funimation may be able to acquire the rights for it. Another issue would be the sheer Japanese culture that's immersed into Kekkaishi. Getting script writers for the English dub would be a hassle. Another problem that emerges would be the scatterbrained job that is the ending theme. Although the opening theme is the same throughout, the ending theme changes completely arbitrarily and cycles from 4 total themes resulting in a "What the hell?"


It's a definite, must-see from me, though I believe the best way for non-japanese speakers would be to resort to fansubs....

Read or Die OVA - Review

Based on a manga based series of light novels, Read or Die is probably one of my favorite anime of all time. To be honest, I need to go over what I consider to be the best in my opinion, but this 3 part OVA definitely is high on the list.


Read Or Die is about a bibliomaniac and agent of the British Library named Yomiko Readman. Her codename is "The Paper" as she has the ability to manipulate paper in any way as she pleases. She and two other agents, Drake Anderson (no codename oddly enough) and Nancy Makuhari, codenamed Miss Deep for being able to pass through solid objects, are given the assignment to find information about a set of stolen DNA of historical figures and to retrieve if possible.


What the OVA has done is condense what could have been a 12 episode story into an hour and a half. You get the crucial of crucial information presented as well as unique characterization in subtle hints. Since there can't be a lot of time devoted to pure character development, it overlaps with the progress of the story.

I feel that, in a sense, restricting directors to OVAs bring out the best work on the market. There can't be any time to flesh out characters too much nor can there be any space to simply stall for time. The audience gets what's only necessary and probably has most of the loose ends tied.

In terms of the story itself, there's so much to enjoy. First, there's this underlying tone that Britain looks down upon the US for lacking any tact. Then there's a set of characters who all work well with each other (in terms of character development and interaction), there's are very diverse settings which make moments of the story quite memorable and finally there's the original concept of a Paper Master.


The Paper Master is probably one of the biggest selling points of Read Or Die. Though it's never really explained how Yomiko acquired those powers, what pops in my mind concerning that is "Do I really care?" It seems quite fitting that an avid lover of books becomes a manipulator of paper and often provides comic relief as there are moments when Yomiko pauses to honestly consider whether it's worth using the pages of a rare book to save her life or her complete lack of concern for the value of money (bills to be exact). Still, I have to say that the "Paper Master" is definitely a concept which is quite hard to top. The animation that JC Staff provides to put this concept in motion is a thrill watching. Because of how original it is, you're only left wondering in what ways Yomiko could manipulate paper to her advantage.


The music is great. It's quite memorable and there's a great range from the grand orchestral pieces that glorify the British Library to the hard riff of the electric guitar that opens this animation.

Voice acting in both Japanese and English is great. Kimberly Yates does a great job in portray the seemingly ditzy Yomiko as well as Reiko Miura (who does quite well despite it being her first anime role).



Yes, it does have a major plot hole in that you never find out who started this mess, but it didn't seem like Read Or Die had any intentions of covering that anytime soon. Considering how focused it seemed on stopping the problems at hand, it does seem odd that there isn't any further analysis, at the same time, in the way the adaptation is directed, it seems fine that you don't know and that all that matters is that the issue is resolved.

I honestly believe this is a work that deserves to be studied. Yes, it doesn't carry a very atmospheric tone as "other great anime works," and it does use stock characters. At the same time, the quality of direction and the flow of scenes and transitions is something quite noteworthy. The use of CG is subtle and enhances the OVA quite a bit. Finally, because of Yomiko's use of paper as a primary weapon, it seems quite easy to clutter the frame, however the use of space was well done.




P.S. Ugh... i accidentally set the post time to 12:30 AM instead of PM. Well, no use in fixing it now....

Ookami to Koushinryou - Spice and Wolf - Review

Yes, I know this actually says Wolf and Spice II. That's coming later in July. It doesn't change the fact that they're using the same main characters.
I use both names because they're both introduced in the anime as such. Technically it's Wolf and Spice and in following the naming scheme the episode titles are also "Wolf and....."


Whatever.


The anime is about a traveling merchant by the name of Kraft (Craft) Lawrence who happens to find Holo, the human incarnation of a 250 year old wolf deity, sleeping in his wagon as he stays in the farming village of Pasroe. The deity has been blessing the wheat crop for years since she made a deal with a villager long ago. However, believing that the villagers have forsaken her, she makes a deal with Lawrence to escort her back to her home in the north.


Spice and Wolf is a "smart" anime. I don't mean smart as in it's autonomous and makes good, responsible decisions but that it requires a bit of active thinking to fully enjoy it.

This anime took me by surprise by the second episode. The first episode introduces everyone and sets the premise of the world which is very much like medieval Europe. From the second episode on, you'd be immersed right into the story.

Kraft Lawrence is a merchant, a good one in fact. He's been in the trading business for a while and knows a good deal about economics and and business.

Holo, with her archaic mannerisms, displays her sage-like knowledge acquired over the years. In exchange, due to not keeping up with history, she lacks the knowledge about current governments and money in circulation.

The anime focuses a lot of the relationship between these two as two quick-witted, intelligent people who work together for (technically) a common goal. In exchange for escorting her to her homeland in the north, Holo must find a way to earn a living to support herself. She does so by being Lawrence's partner in trade. What happens then on is a complex story involving governments, guilds, the church, and the entire economy including black markets.


Without knowing a thing about it and simply going off screenshots or a cover, it's easy to believe that this is some one-sided story with a wolf-girl simply acting as an attraction. Since that isn't the case, this anime automatically gets favorable points from me. There's an immense amount of dialogue in each episode and a really big focus on the world around the main characters. With strong protagonists, there needs to be strong antagonists and a world that can support them. The anime very much delivers with great art and direction.

There are "learning sessions" interlaced throughout the anime where Lawrence explains to Holo about the current world and while that does occasionally feel as if it's the creator's way of inserting information and expanding the world for the viewers it also does indicate how much thought has been put in.


The art is great. In addition to really clean characters and animation, the environment looks very detailed. There's an occasional moment when you're wondering where they are because certain sections of towns look similar. While that is true of medieval Europe and using similar architecture, there was a lack of characteristics that stand out for each village.

The music could be better but it's quite well done in certain parts.


There's the occasional dab of fantasy that gets infused into the story to make the anime probably one of the best I've seen in a while. The time it takes place in seems to be an era that's a bit ahead of all those other medieval settings (in general) and actually involves the influence of power in terms of money and religion. Lawrence is old. He's not grandfather old but he's showing signs that he's a bit past marriageable age (in respect to that time period). His wisdom and wit is justified which makes him a more realistic, better character. Holo also has very clear weaknesses which improve the story overall as prodigies, omnipotent gods, and simply over powered characters actually detract from the story telling and complexity.


This is definitely a must see from me.

Funimation recently announced that they've acquired the rights for the US distribution so be sure to buy it.

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai - Review

Warning: Due to the show being a sequel and its premise of taking place of continuing right after the first, there's no way for me to avoid spoiling parts of both series.






Having first seen When the Cicadas Cry in Japan, I was almost instantly hooked onto the show. Seeing that they were going to make a sequel to wrap up the story and have anime exclusive content made me jump for joy. The "kai" in the title means solution and this sequel it will take all the knowledge you have learned from the first season and wrap up the series.

The Higurashi no Naku Koro ni series is a good example of how to do a visual novel to anime right. When considering how much of the actual game and it's characters are preserved, it truly makes you see how complex the story really is. Anime like Fate/Stay Night and Shunsetsugan Tsukihime are bad examples of visual novel to anime. Because they don't spend the time to try and develop the important secondary and tertiary characters, the result becomes a work that feels a bit rushed. But that's enough of the "genre." In addition, a lot of games to anime have been done pretty poorly (an exception is Gungrave), it feels like this kind of anime is similar to our movie games. They're all rushed and either the focus is so widespread that hardly any story is actually covered or they attempt to build only the development of the main hero and heroine and hope that things will work out (which they don't, by the way) but it only results in a half-assed supporting cast.


The first series could be considered the "de-sensitizer" showing the audience the complexity of the story as well as the consequences of one of the main characters distrusting the others. By the end Keiichi, the male protagonist, is somehow able to conjure memories of an alternate world of the same time allowing him to save Rena. After a quick recap episode, you're tossed right into where the story left off. The last episode of the previous series hinted that Rika was able to have knowledge of previous worlds. In addition, she seems to have an alternate personality, rather her "true" personality, that exists who is aware of the repeating story. We are immediately told by Rika exactly why the same story repeats as well her thoughts on the phenomenon involving Keiichi. We are then introduced to a new character, Hanyuu, the god who has been following Rika for about a thousand years. Whether that is to say they went through the scenario a thousand times or the amount of time that should have elapsed is a thousand years, I do not know. The point is that Hanyuu actually has been alongside Rika for some time now.

Because the first series introduced and fleshed out every character so well, the Second series really had no problems just diving into the story. The intensity of the psychological thriller from the first series is gone and in its place is quality story telling. Perhaps of all the characters, Rika was the most important and yet, it was also Rika who got the least amount of development in the first series. Because this is the "solution" chapters, the audience now sees everything from Rika's perspective. Nearly the entire show is shown from Rika's perspective and it changes your view on the story. Using the discussions between Rika and Hanyuu, the viewers gain insight into additional information that help explain these repeating scenarios.


You could say that the show is very "Rika-oriented" but I really have no problem with that. And seeing the show through Rika's perspective doesn't change Higurashi at all. Rather, it's probably about time that they focused on her. It is only because you learn more about Rika and her dilemma that you also gain insight into the roles of the other characters in the story. Her struggle is probably the most important part to the story and yet, it's quite impressive that she and Hanyuu take the role of the tragic heroine. I hate extrapolating a point that would refer to the a more general example as a whole but this show is really about the issues of the lack of supportive characters. Each character plays a distinct role that allows the story to progress in a good way. If any of them back out, the result would be one of the many "bad" scenarios in the first season.


There are bad parts to this show, no doubt. Some of the episodes crawl and there isn't any change in the other characters. They also (probably purposefully) leave one major plothole to leave you confused. There's also the prerequisite of having watched all of the first season required. Without it, newcomers would be confused. So it's really like saying, if you want to get into Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, you need to start from the beginning. I'll admit, that's a bit hard, daunting and not to mention, ridiculous that the second season assumes so much. But I feel that it's better to simply link the two series together into one large 51 (if you include the "cat-killing chapter" special) episode series known as Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. Finally, I have to say that the drastic change from the killings of the first season to the more story refined second season would be a slight turn-off. The intensity is definitely concentrated on something else, but for those who see it as a mindless bloodfest or a horror series would definitely be disappointed.



On the plus side, it's said that Umineko no Naku Koro ni (When the Seagulls cry) is not only greenlit but refers to its predecessor, so hopefully we can see more of the same great quality.

Persona 3:FES - Review

I know I gave a review of Persona 3, but after finally completing FES[tival edition], I noticed how drastic the differences were. The FES storyline is completely different, not in a non-canonical way but in terms of story telling. Also, their fixes to the first game are worth noting.


You all know the storyline from my previous review and you all know about the shooting of selves in heads. Shut up. So I'll review what's changed in the original story and get right onto "The Answer" (the second part of the game).
First off, they let you transfer your game data over to FES, for the first game which actually made me enjoy the game a bit more. Now that I didn't have any qualms about time management, I could focus more on social links and finding hidden quirks in the game.
You're also allowed to start off in the special "Hard mode" difficulty. For one, I'd like to say that the hard mode is brutal. Following suit of all their previous games and current trend of ramping up the difficulty with better AI, hard mode simply makes the game harder. Not in the sense that they're higher levels than you, the REAL harder. They're smart. They exploit your weaknesses, they bombard you with stat modifiers and then take advantage of that. They use specific skills when necessary and some monsters now have the ability to heal. What's been keeping you alive is now one of their powers. The shadows move significantly faster and the the glowing red ones turn surprisingly fast. You can still bumrush the stairs and do all those tricks before (like hugging the walls) to avoid battle, but occasionally, I found a few that I just couldn't shake off. Oh, don't let them go first. If they do, they take their time killing you.

SEES AI was also improved as well. Each character now has a certain quirk in their AIs. For example, all characters now freely knock down monsters first if they can. So, you don't have to set them to "knock down" any more and hope that you'll be able to switch yukari back to heal, however Junpei will have a tendency to attack any monster he can kill via physical after he knocks it down. Mitsuru will apply mind charges and status ailment skills pretty often. Kinda annoying but you'll have to deal. Akihiko likes to do normal attacks. He'll use lightning ONLY when he needs to to knock down, and I haven't seen him use a lot of Polydeuces/Caesar's physical skills. Yukari loves her persona. She will cast Io/Isis for a garu skill more often than she will fire her bow.


I had some qualms before about the detail in Persona 3. Rather, how they talk about certain items but then never elaborate. Fixed. There's a handful of items including summer outfits and casual outfits that not only incite a response but now there's physical proof that incites their response. ACTUALLY having Yukari fighting in a maid uniform? Hilarious.

Everyone talks a lot more. If you thought they said a lot during battles, they talk even more now, and it seems that new lines were recorded. Aigis completely changes her script once she comes to self-realization. It's a short period of time that it's changed, but it makes battling with her so much more soothing. I understand the voice direction was to get a very robotic tone but I never liked how directors wanted broken tones as if it was synthed. The point of Aigis was that she seemed HUMAN, and thus with HUMAN tone emphasis. You could make her stand out by using a wide range of vocabulary that isn't in the vernacular but have a normal tone. That will still come off as robotic. Regardless, her script changed and with that, so did that robotic tone.


The first game now has weapon fusing, which is one of my favorite new features. You can fuse a persona into a blank weapon to get a new weapon with an attack value and effect that's particular to that persona. You can also get special weapons when you fuse specific personas. For example, you can get Mjollnir or Gae Bolg. Each special weapon also has it's own model. For example, Laevateinn is a giant two handed katana on fire. By the time you get to Nyx or if you imported your data, you'll have a party with overpowered, but cool, looking weapons.

Finally, rearrangement of personas, additional cutscenes, additional persona, and Aigis's social link: Aeon.



Now for FES.

(SPOILER ALERT. I suggest you beat persona 3 first. I will also reveal BIG key points in FES which I will label so that you can avoid them if you want.)

FES starts you off in a beautiful, anime cutscene with Aigis fighting Aikihiko. Corners are cut, but the style is still very distinct and there was a nice handful of good detailing that made it worth it. You'll also notice from the opening and music for the cutscene that Shoji Meguro changed up his style a bit for FES.

First off, the difficulty is set in hard mode, no questions, just deal with it. The story is now in Aigis's perspective and thus you won't have a silent protagonist. In fact, you really won't have a choice in terms of story line, it's quite linear.
At first, I thought FES would be that "filler" sequel where it just embellishes characters.

(SPOILER:highlight for spoiler)
And it really did seem like it too. For a good portion of the game, you're just seeing pasts. The only time the story picks up is during the commentary after those pasts. An interesting thing to note. Aigis is obviously based off of Zeus's shield as the "protector." Metis is a bit harder to explain. The greek term of Metis actually means wisdom. The titan Metis is also the birth mother to Athena, goddess of wisdom. Metis's name really follows the greek language as she is the voice or logic and reason throughout all of this commentary. Not only that, she's surprisingly cunning. Just goes to show you Atlus means to put a lot of effort into the games they develop, as if the compendium wasn't enough.
(end Spoiler)

It's only by the end did I start to realize this was so different than what I expected. I'll admit, the exposition and the build up for this was very very long. It covers a good portion of the game. It's fun, and exciting and the bosses piss you off with their really good AI but it was still climbing action. At points, I felt I was just playing it to progress the story. After that though, there's a grand climax and hardly a denouement. It packs all the plot twists and action all the way through.

(BIG SPOILER ALERT)
If you played Persona 3 "properly," you would've learned that Yukari falls in love with the main character (ie:Max social link, Beach scene with Junpei asking "what's your type?", Beach scene with only Yukari, Christmas scene...etc). As opposed to the other characters who have a deep affection or gratitude, Yukari seems to be the only character who actually falls in love. It shows in FES, a great deal. Her love for the main character by the end is so prevalent that at points that it I felt it actually overshadowed Aigis who won his affection (which reminds me, now that I DID see the Aeon social link, it's hard to see the extent of who Aigis really is without it....) I thought little about when finishing the Aeon social link since I thought it was just part of the game, but I realized that the relationship that existed for the main character was much more complex than I expected. Persona 3 requires at least one play through maxing out different links to fully see the environment the main character creates.
(Spoiler end)


In terms of gameplay, it's fairly similar to the original game. The exception is that each "level" is much shallower than the massive Tartarus. Oddly enough, some of the levels were labeled after the levels of hell in Dante's Inferno. Interesting....

Bosses are hard on an unimaginable scale. Fighting each boss truly felt "epic." Almost always the bosses had something up their sleeves. Each boss could successfully support the other in terms of weaknesses and strengths. Certain bosses had specific movesets that is weak alone, but devastating when combined with other skills from the other bosses. All the bosses required a calm mind, lots of thinking and a handful of luck. Sometimes, you had to pray to the Random Number Generator that it wouldn't screw you over. (spoiler:Then there was fighting the main character. Nyx was nothing. we're talking about an enemy that changes persona constantly mid-battle. That's frustrating...Now I know how it feels to be a boss )I ended up actually AVOIDING some of the glowing enemies simply because they were hard. They felt like bosses. Atlus claims it's 30+ hours of game play for FES compared to the 80+ for Persona 3. It isn't that they've copied Persona 3 and made a smaller version of it. They compacted 80+ hours of gameplay into a 30+ game.

The thing that bothers me about it is how it seems to have been built off of the original Persona 3 and not the remade version. Aigis's battle dialogue was that of the old Aigis from P3. The annoying one, but then you could hear the new dialogue when she calls her persona or during certain attacks. I frown a bit to that. Atlus remakes Persona 3 with a new coat of awesome and then you get recycled material in the Festival edition. Oh well.



P.S. It's only around now that I realized Maaya Sakamoto was the voice for Aigis in the Japanese version. That's enough to make me slam my head against the table. Besides being well known, it's clearly obvious that the voice director knew what he was doing. Besides having a gorgeous singing voice she has a lot of voice acting talent as both a blank character and a passionate character. Examples: Hitomi Kanzaki in Vision of Escaflowne, Haruhi Fujioka from Ouran Highschool Host Club, Misho Amano in Kanon (the girl who talks to Yuuichi about Mikoto), Aura in .hack (all of them), Aerith in Final Fantasy VII and Kingdom Hearts (all of them). I honestly believe that she is up there in terms of acting skill with Aya Hirano. Great. Now my fanboydom will kick in, and I'll probably end up importing a copy... Someone shoot me now.

Ace Combat

Sorry for the late post. Party + Sleeping late = not a great time to wake up. Before I get started, I'm just gonna update you guys a bit.

Ar Tonelico 2 has been delayed till Jan, 20 2009. Oh well.
Eternal Poison has now been sent to a distributor within my city at 3:00 AM. That means I should be able to receive it probably by today. The thing that bothers me the most is that Eternal Poison was supposed to be shipped on the 11th. If I went to a store now, and pre-ordered from them, I would've gotten the game faster. I mean, doesn't this kinda defeat the purpose of a pre-order? Meh.




This is another title I can't really understand why I never went over. The entire series so far consists of eight or nine games I believe starting all the way back from the Playstation. The one to really note however is Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere, because it's Japanese release made the players realize Namco was going for a very strong story-based game rather than just a dogfight arcadefest. It had over 50 missions and an enormous amount of anime cutscenes that really wanted you to get involved with the game's story. Unfortunately, I think they removed all of that in the US release. They probably thought US players couldn't understand an aerial dogfight simulation having a story...


So then comes Ace Combat 4: Shattered Skies for the PS2. The first ace combat title for the PS2 that came out in November 2001, very closely after the release of the PS2. FYI, no, it wasn't a blue bottom. It was strictly DVD. For a game so old, it's graphics were actually very surprising. Planes had very crisp detailing and explosions varied depending on which special weapon you used (To this day, the F-15's Fuel Air Emission Bomb has got to STILL be my favorite). I'm not raving about this game because it's my first simulator either. I've played a lot of tank and dogfight simulators, and this just happens to be the most fun.

I normally hate simulators, but Ace Combat really changed my view. I ran the tutorial and did the basics, then started the single player mode. To my surprise the opening scenes, the intense radio chatter, and the progression of the story and how it feels like you're doing something in the game kept me hooked onto it. This game was really fun.

The music is phenomenal. Part-orchestra, part-synth edit, it always fit every mission and each track helped set the gravity of how important certain missions were. It wasn't ambient music persay but it felt nice having a very tense symphony play in the background as you fought.

Like I said before, the story really hooks you. It doesn't feel like a compelling story at first but in Ace Combat 4, you're looking through the eyes of a boy as he lives in his occupied town. He talks about the various things he hears and the people he meets. You also then see some of your own "feats" in their newpapers, which goes to show you that everything is inter-related.

Another great part about the game is that there are difficulty levels for everyone. It can start off easy, and then get to extremely hard where all the enemy pilots have almost about as much skill as you do while some of the aces have as much or even more.


The major drawback to the game is that it's time consuming. VERY time consuming. Each mission on average lasts around 30-60 minutes. Sometimes I think I saw the timer at 90. You'll be playing for a long time on a single mission. It actually may not feel like much since getting from point A to B and then circling around for a better shot at a ground target will kill some time, but you'll play for a long time.

There's also a bit of travel time involved. Most battles don't start you off right in the heat of the moment. Almost always you're launching from your carrier and getting debriefed en route. I'm not bothered by it since the radio chatter is something I actually enjoy but the first minutes or so of a mission may be boring.

Money is pretty restrictive, you have to know be smart in what planes you buy. No doubt you'll get a good feel for what a fighter, attacker, multi-role should do but regardless, you'll need a few good playthroughs bombing key points to rack up the highest score and thus the most money for planes and weapons.

By no means is the "the most realistic game ever." It's a fun game. It's arcadeish. There's no possible way for a plane to carry 50 sidewinders and not crash into the ocean.
It's also a simulator. If you're not into that kinda stuff, I'm not forcing you. It just so happened to be that this game changed my view. That's all I'm saying.

I know I've been talking about Ace Combat 4 for a while, but after playing nearly all of the games in the series the rest are similar. It seems weird that simulation games with a very similar premise could so much fun. I mark 4 and Zero as my top because 4 was the one that opened the road for the continuation of such a good series and Zero has been able to incorporate nearly all the strengths of its predecessors. Here's a brief overview of each game.

4: Multiplayer mode, First game for the PS2
5: Single player, Squadron commands, Choose your path (You can only play 28 of 32 missions linearly)
Zero: Multiplayer, enhanced wing man command, reputation ranking (depending on which targets you destroy and "what you say" in the cutscenes, you're considered a Mercenary, soldier or knight.)


I'd honestly suggest you get all the games to see the difference but I say get 5 first, then 4 and then Zero. I've yet to play 6 (For the XBox 360) I can't say for certain how it's like but with a special edition containing the two joysticks, I'm pretty sure it's also extremely good. Not to mention with a better GPU, the graphics would probably get a nice bump.

Candidate for Goddess (Pilot Candidate) - Review

I remember watching this show years ago on Cartoon Network and I loved it. Then suddenly, it stopped. Right as I began to become very engaged with the story, another show had filled its time slot. Frustrated I went to a local DVD retailer who imported a lot of anime and asked him to import all of Pilot Candidate. To my dismay there were only four volumes, meaning that what I watched on Cartoon Network WAS all of Pilot Candidate.

Typically, I'm not a fan of the "Mecha" genre, rather I'd say that the Gundam series ruined it for me, and so it was by chance that this caught my attention. The characters looked very generic at first, and continued to be so, but at some point, there was development.

Bear with me for a while. I know it's gonna sound really cliche early on.
Pilot Candidate is about a futuristic time when humankind has been able to colonize other planets. But then an alien race known as Victim began terrorizing humans leaving them with one planet known as Zion. Humankind's main defense are known as Ingrids, large mechanical beings (really well modeled if I do say so myself. Rather than the clunky armor everywhere, they all look very sleek) capable of destroying Victim easily. Thus begins the training to have a handful expendable pilots who will steer the Ingrids to save mankind.


So yes. Everything sounds like a basic cookie cutter show. Let me note the differences though. While Zero, the protagonist, is a basic hot-headed guy who has potential and ends up being one of the candidates with better potential along with a generic silent-type rival, his attitude actually ends up being a deterrent to his training. No. Let me restart.

This show is about the TRAINING of Pilots! There is no "I've never touched a mecha before, but now that I know that this is my power, I'm a prodigy." There is no "I DON"T WANNA KILL PEOPLE BUT I'M DOING IT ANYWAY!!!!" There's no annoying side character that tries to inject the main hot-headed protagonist with humanism.
In fact, the character conflict between Zero and his Repairer, Kizuna was interesting since she was hot-headed as well.

The way pilots control their mobile suits are also an interesting twist. They wear a headset that reads brainwaves and reacts accordingly to their actions inside a cockpit that reads their body movements. How does it work? They stand, switch on a headset and control. It's the G-Gundam that wishes it was better and didn't envelop everyone in a very questionable latex leotard.

Every candidate and their respective repairer candidates were also interesting. One of which was really shady. At some point there's this one fat candidate that's like 15 or so kilograms above regulation so he's dragged off for special training by his repairer. He comes back 2 or 3 episodes later, looking much slimmer. Obviously, his fellow candidate friends ask what happened and he says he can't say. There's a flashback memory of him imagining his repairer and her saying "it's a secret." Then it's followed by Zero asking Kizuna something causing her to freak out on him. Maybe I'm taking it the wrong way but the innuendo was very strong.

A strong interaction between the characters made me like the show. In addition, Pilot Candidate took the entire Mecha approach slightly differently, moving towards Zone of the Enders or Super Robot Taisen. Finally, when the show seemed to reach a climactic point, it stopped. Not, the next episodes were then filled with trash, it actually stopped, as if someone pulled the plug.

What was probably the most frustrating part about this show's sudden ending was the opening theme and animation where Zero dons the uniform of an Ingrid pilot and greets his Repairer, Kizuna and eventually enters the Ingrid that saves his life. I feel that teasing the audience with that kind of opening only to have it end abruptly is unfair.


As a person who looks for the mecha anime that shine the darkness, I highly recommend this show. The Mechs are there for character improvement and they're ALL trainees. They ALL suck at actually controlling their mechs. That's right! THEY SUCK.

S4 League - Review

Here's a link for my original encounter:
http://zerreth.blogspot.com/2008/06/i-bring-good-news-sorta.html

Now that I'm at a point where I've played for a bit, I'll give you the review.

To start this off, I'd like to say that S4 is in NO way related to Gunz. I'll explain some obvious differences.
First off, S4 requires a TEAM. Yes, TEAM. In no way can you go in a room full of enemies and hope to kill them all and live. Not only is your HP at 100 or slightly over if you have extra equipment boosts or have the +30 HP skill but weapons deal a LOT of damage.
And nearly everything in the game was intended, meaning that you can't exploit any glitches and link them to create alternative moves to add to the game (K-style). There ARE glitches but none that change the game, they're exactly what they are...glitches.


Now for the actual game.
S4 League is an alternative third-person shooter in that it doesn't follow the standard "rules" of a "normal" shooter. S4 stands for Stylish eSper Shooting Sports. Save the jokes for later.

So as I said before (in the previous post), S4 is meant to be very stylish and very "cool." The game is supposed to be played in a way that is not only appealing in gameplay but to the eyes, and ears. I'm sure we all love watching and playing gun-fu stuff. Think about Wanted, how cool was it to see Westley (James McAvoy) pull of the stuff he did? I'm not going to say, "now imagine that in a game," because that's not what S4 is.

In the actual game you get 3 weapon slots which you can load up melee, ranged, long range, and support weapons (Mind Charge, a healing weapon, and Sentry Gun would count as a support weapon). In addition you must have a skill equipped to enter a room and play. Skills are what change up the game play and add teamwork into it. There are some skills that create shields, while others create physical walls. Then some skills are passive and add stats while others change the way you move: such as flying, and anchoring (think hookshot from Legend of Zelda).

Obviously the European version has yet to have all the content Korea has such as invisibility and bind, along with miniguns but with what they have now is a very good start.

Your character generally revolves around 1 gauge excluding HP and that would be SP. The gauge that determines how many "points" you have to be able to use skills. Almost everything requires SP even the "normal stuff" such as dashing and wall jumping, meaning that you need to balance your normal skills with your specialized skill well.

There are two game types, Team Deathmatch and Touchdown with a total of 12 player slots. Everyone knows what a deathmatch is so I'll explain Touchdown. Touchdown can be either really fun or really frustrating. There's no in-between. The reason for that being this mode is where utilization of teamwork is extremely important. The main goal for touchdown is to get the "ball," (A mechanical creature named "fumbi") which usually starts in the middle of the map, and score it in the goal post at the other team's base, which is usually close to their spawn. Considering respawn times range from 4-7 seconds teamwork is essential is scoring since you would need the rest of the team to keep the other team busy as the ball holder scores. This is where skills come into play. You could try to block the ball by setting up a temporary wall or protect your teammates from bullets by setting up a shield. Some players could be responsible for healing teammates and some could be responsible for rushing by having the SP boost skill. Then you have some players provide long-range support with sniper rifles (railguns) or long range cannons (cannonade). While the European version has disabled it temporarily, S4 League has voice chat which allows strategies to be planned out as well as a "half time" which gives players 5 seconds to switch characters (have up to 3 characters that all serve a different purpose) and then an additional 15 seconds to plan out the next strategy.

This, I believe, is the heart of S4, not the deathmatch. Touchdown utilizes everything S4 has and what it stands for into what I believe is a very good game. Graphics are surprisingly demanding. First of all the characters are given a certain type of cel-shading that seems popular nowadays (Persona 4, .hack//G.U., Team Fortress 2) and has some really nice blur effects along with modeling. The clothes you can choose from definitely define your character. While there are some characters ripped off from DJMax (it's ok, it's from the same company), a lot of the styles are actually from the current "modern" style in Japan and Korea while others have a futuristic look to them.

In terms of networking, I actually think Neowiz did a good job in mixing Peer-2-Peer (P2P) mechanics with Peer-2-server-2-Peer (P2S2P) mechanics. The P2P aspect allows faster chat and a better sense of where players are while the server helps maintain the overall stats (HP, etc.) and takes over a player's connection if the ping is too high. There are some issues where the ping gauge doesn't reflect that lag I see (meaning the interval between pings is much too far) and some players get over a certain point in delay where it borderlines and the server freaks out in taking over and letting go where then the player is temporarily invincible. I'm fine with this as I can just run away, but this seems to be aggravating some of the community.




Now for the bad parts.
While I'm not usually one to compare versions one major issue that comes to mind is the timed weapons in the European version. The Korean version gave two weapons and a 30+ HP skill that you could keep to help start you off however it's timed for 10 game hours in the European version. What this means is that people CAN'T go off and buy their clothes first. They would have to plan out their weapons and skills before caring about style. What does that mean? You get the first day or so (24 hours of playtime) looking like a generic character because you have to save up for weapons. In addition, prices for weapons are very expensive compared to clothes, so regardless of how tempting it is to buy that set of pants that just looks awesome, you can't. This is a major issue as you can't play if you don't have a skill. While you can stall for "time" by buying license and getting a 5 hour trial version of what you just received a license for it just barely helps. Now to me, this isn't too big of a deal since I'm quite good at it (if I say so myself, I'm almost always in the top 3 of any game, not just my team) so I get a decent amount of PEN (the currency in game) and be able to buy the equipment I need. I'm pretty sure others aren't so gaming inclined and probably wasted a lot of game time for a little PEN or blasted those initial 25,000 PEN on clothes and didn't save up an additional 3k or 4k to get a skill.



Next would be how monotonous and uninformative the tutorial is. It does a good job explaining very basic movement and how to fire a gun, and a demo of what TD is like (actually not really). While it does stop players from asking "how you play this game?" I feel there could be more added to it.



Mission lists are very terse. They simply say the objective and that's it. You have to play a trial and error game with it to see what the conditions are. I don't want to have to guess what I need to do when they tell me an objective. For example. There's a "Playing Deathmatch" Mission. It honestly, just says "Play a DM game." No where does it say that you have to be a DM waiting room and be present for the entire game. Nor does it say that conditions for fulfillment include the game time being 20 minutes and that the room has to have at or over 10 players by the end.

Other missions don't explain the terminology they use. One says to faint 3 times. They never explain fainting in the tutorial so there's a large group of people wanting to know how to beat that. No where does it explain that fainting is when you use a dodge attack immediately after a stun to avoid extra damage.


What annoys me a lot however is the way S4 connects to the server and other players in game. It runs a P2P AND a P2S2P connection for each room so that player movement is recorded P2P while all stats, damage, and points are managed by the server. In theory this looks like a good idea. IN THEORY. What ends up happening is that at any point you or another player is experiencing lag, they are now at an advantage since the time it takes for information to travel from player to server to player is longer. It was fine if it was just P2P because you could aim ahead, but now you can hit the avatar regardless of where they actually are and you will die by a lagger. You see, what happens is you see the movement and data manipulation by the server, so any damage you deal to another player is sent directly to the server and then sent to that player (aka. Client-side really). People consider this to be a double-edged sword meaning that you can also kill those laggers with much more ease since all you have to do is shoot them, but this double edged sword is weighted towards you.... In particularly for the counter-sword. The counter-sword is focused on dealing combo damages (think dealing multi medium hits as opposed to a strong one hit by the plasma). Regardless of how well you dodge if for a split second you stand still, the lag will take over and all a lagger has to do is pummel your standing avatar to kill you. This generally drops any effort required to kill with most melee weapons or weapons in general. Once again, this works on a very small scale and fails on a very large scale.

The general problem here is that despite all parties having broadband connections, the distance lag between nations still affects P2P games. In time intensive games such at this fractions of seconds are too important, and unfortunately, not all players of S4 even have 2Mbit connections...

Two Korean Dramas worth looking at

I know I'm stepping away from Japanese stuff and telling you about Korean things but I'm doing this because I think it's really that worth it. The first of which is:




Yi San is about the life of King Jeongjo, the 22nd ruler of the Joseon Dynasty. He's famous in history for being a king who sympathized with the common man and tried to help life for all despite having such a proper upbringing. It starts off with him as a child and follows his life as the crown prince and later king during one of the most hectic times in history.
It's one hour per episode for 77 episodes. I'm not usually keen on historical dramas but this one was really well done. There are parts where the pace gets sluggish and resorts to filler, but overall this was a really great show. The cast is decorated with a handful of famous actors as well as actors from a previous drama known as Dae Jang Geum which took place in the same dynasty 200 years before Yi san. This makes familiar faces mix with different roles and so viewers of both shows can see how well the acting is.

This show does deviate from the actual historical records, but it follows the general line of history well which is interesting. There were something that viewers were worried about in terms of historical precision as some parts are really vague but it was handled delicately and worked nicely. The actors fit their role really well. My main problem is how many females express their surprise in erratic heavy breathing which annoys me beyond belief, but that's a personal thing. Another annoyance is how flashbacks occur as it usually references something that just happened... I guess it's really just the style of direction and I can't really do anything about it.

Wanna know something else that rocked? I watched the entire show on cable with professional subtitles (that needed a type checker) with a single day delay. If only anime came out like that we wouldn't have so many piracy issues.





Soulmate is about 4 couples who are trying to look for their one "true" love, or the missing half of themselves. Some settle with marriages in which they thought they loved, while others are playboys who don't really believe in such a concept. In general, this is actually a very generic drama with a typical story. What's great about it is how it's done well. It's one thing to use a very typical idea, but putting that in a great execution deserves praise. The humor is quick and precise and each character has a very distinct personality that works well when mingling with the other mains.

It's one thing to have a show with a plotline everyone can guess. Because that show normally comes out as a generic run-of-the-mill, low production value show. But when someone steps it up a notch, adds better direction, adds production value, suddenly that show becomes really good. You no longer care if some pairings were typical, the fact is: Effort pays off. The more effort you put into something, the better the result will be regardless of material.
It's broken into 2 seasons each with 12 episodes. The first season is kind of an ice breaker with a twist, while the 2nd season is where the pace picks up and you get a lot of information at once almost emulating life.

Awesomeness this way comes.... PERSONA

Just in (13 hours ago) news for Persona 4 is coming.
P4 Trailer

If you're confused about the first 10 seconds, they're flash backs from previous persona games. From what I can understand. You basically get all the features from P3:Fes and more. Glasses seems to be the motiff for this one, so we can stop with the high school suicide jokes now.

Shortly after an urban youth begins a year-long stay in the countryside town of Inaba, the rural town's peace is shattered by a horrific murder that leaves no clues or suspects. As the lone incident develops into a series of bizarre crimes, he discovers that only he and his friends have the power to solve the baffling case, bring those responsible to justice, and restore harmony to his new home.

Features will include: Party control (While the AI will probably be developed just as much, you'll now be able to take direct control. Yay! Taking a look at the trailer, there might be tactics where you can block attacks with other characters), Persona fusion, weapon crafting, and part-time jobs.
Taking place in the country side, I find it interesting how they try to add more and more to the game to simulate the two worlds. I think they've done Fes really well (You even had to walk Koromaru) and just adding on to that is great. I love how their "if it aint broke, don't fix it" policy and only fix the bugs and issues that players had with the previous versions.

And the music is just as good as always.

Awesomeness arrives: Dec. 9th. for the PS2. IT WILL LIVE ON!

Spiral - Review

I forgot to do an anime post, so here's one of Spiral (which my avatar is based off of).

Spiral is an anime based off a manga (I assume this can be implied by now) of the same name. The story revolves around Ayumu Narumi trying to figure out the link between his older brother, Kiyotaka Narumi, who disappeared two years ago and a group of people known as the "Blade Children." Existing throughout the world, the Blade Children, are those who will stop at nothing to achieve their destiny. While their presence is minute, there are those who shun them for who they are.

This is a 26 episoder with a plot line that uses mystery and logic to progress the story. (Bad analogy ahead) To make it simple, I would call Spiral a "Detective Conan with a solid storyline and character development. It's what Detective Conan should have been." The style of mystery used has that progression of accident/mystery --> investigation --> Conclusion/Solution. It's not a bad way to do it, but it's definitely something that's been done before. I always liked just watching an episode through just to go, "Oooh" or "Now I get it" at the end. In all honesty, it's not a technique I'm fond of, but it works. I mean... Look what happened to Death Note...

There's a good amount of character development for each individual character. The problem is, how the the story and the characters are affected as a whole. There's no meaning behind why they were called "Blade Children" and you're still left wondering what happened to Ayumu's brother. It's for the better that they didn't answer all the questions, but I thought the Blade Children thing was very important. I'm a person that's willing to simply go along with a story just so as long as the writers can wrap it up together, the problem is occasionally there were holes that didn't work too well.

Every character had a solid personality, which is what I loved the most. At first, you think Ayumu is just a "typical" delinquint/slacker archetype, but as you see later on. He actually works really hard. It's not like one of those typical, "works when he has to" types, he has certain triggers that seem to change his thought process. Then, each of the Blade Children are from around the world, each with their own reason as to why they should interact with the "Little Narumi." You also see the relationship between Ayumu and his sister-in-law, Madoka. It's very obvious that they're willing to have a relationship, but you can also see the very fine lines that could easily break it as well.

Rather than talking about the animation, which shows quality, but nothing spectacular, I want to talk about the direction in this anime. The director mixes up the style of mystery he uses throughout the series, which to some may show an inconsistent plot line, but to me shows work. There are parts where, if you were to use a certain style for that scenario, it wouldn't work. The use of humor was also very well done. It ranged from subtle to very blatant depending on how the story was progressing, and my only wish was that there was more of it. At points, there seemed to be too much tension, that a little quick snip may have worked. But I greatly appreciated the subtle humor used as I don't see that as often anymore. What's great about it is how it uses a peculiar quirk of a character to stand out.

Voice acting was generally solid, and American voice acting was generally off. 14 year olds sound like they're 20. 18 year olds sound like their 30, and the others sound like they're 7 years younger... What's even better? There's VA commentary in which they thought they did an AWESOME job. NO joke. I watched the DVDs and looked over the extra features... There were commentaries from the voice actors and they honestly thought they were doing an amazing job. I thought Ayumu was done well, but the other characters were so pompous. It then really makes me realize as to why the American industry has such a hard time getting quality dubs out. Yes, it was interesting to see the insight into what went on in the studio, but it was a bad insight. I didn't want to see that. Or rather, I didn't want to confirm my doubts...

Dead Fantasy

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/usermovies/115884.html

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/usermovies/193489.html

I'd like for you to turn your heads over to these two videos. Normally, I embed them, but since they're user made movies, gametrailers doesn't do that. (speaking of which, are you annoyed that you have to pause the two mabinogi movies on the bottom of the page yet?)They're done by a guy who rips models and then reuses them for his fan movie.


Honestly? It's really good. I don't care if you're not into this kind of thing, but he has done an amazing job customizing and redoing everything. The only thing that is really ripped are the model details and general backstory/premise information. Basically, his characters have a justification for being there (though no justification for fighting, but let's ignore that). A friend showed this to me and I was absolutely impressed. Yes, I saw cutting of corners and almost direct animation rips from the respective games, but they were well implemented. The use of environment is what I liked most.


Review with spoilers:



I'd like to point out some odd details that seemed to strike out at me.

In the first one, there were some lighting issues, it can be most clearly seen 1:27 during the rotation where the stage is very bright but the background seems to lack light, and on 2:33 (notice the floor, or lack thereof). They're minor but all of these have been improved and fixed upon in the second one. There are still some remnants of it but not as much.

Dead Fantasy II:
2:19 Ayame has white eyes
3:37 The way Yuna is holding her guns is impossible. Notice her hands...
6:17 The bottle says Ether on them, just in case you're confused
7:11/7:21 The background lighting issue I mentioned earlier.


The amount of detail placed in this was astounding. You always see everyone fighting except for when the "camera" is zoomed into one-on-ones, and the motion blurring was used just right and very well. His ability to direct is what really gets me though. He knows how to not only choreograph fights, but to calm it down, or add amusing parts to it. The use of the environment, like I said is what I love the most. Fighting isn't just on the street and taking what you have around you and using that is a grand load of brownie points.

Oh and uh... Wall-fighting rocks. That is one huge tower though...

I'm not going to go into detail about "who should've won" or "This balancing is unfair," rather I'm actually still confused about certain parts of the animation. For example, I still don't understand the use of Kairi. While I understand predictability, Kairi is from Kingdom Hearts and the square characters were brought over, not the other way around. I don't I've ever seen Sora in FF XII. So when he was talking about trying to extend the DoA universe, I didn't really understand the "restriction" he may have felt as he seemed to do it already. Rather than surprising, I kinda feel Kairi was random, there was a chance to use Yuffie from FF7. Doubling shouldn't have been an issue since Rikku and Yuna were in it anyway.

I wish he didn't name it "Dead Fantasy" as it seems to limit what he can do. Despite my distaste for Soul Calibur, that would probably made a better candidate for weapon battles. Regardless, this was amazingly done and if you're into well choreographed fight scenes, watch it.

I'm more of a fan of multi-man fights. One on One is always great, but multi-fights show coordination and teamwork. That's what makes the choreography amazing to me.

Plus, I wanna see what he does once FF XIII and FF Versus XIII comes out.

Full Metal Panic! and Fumoffu!? and Second Raid

Sousuke Sagara, Sergeant of the mercenary group, Mithril, is given an assignment: To keep Chidori Kaname safe at all costs. However, living his whole life in the military, Sousuke has issues blending in with the surreal life and struggles to juggle his school life, with his military one all the while keeping Chidori safe from harm.

It's a pretty straight forward anime with the usual generic characters. Both Sousuke and the direct, aggressive Chidori are quite cookie cutter, but have a unique twist of humor that makes this anime in particular good. In addition, it's another mech anime so you can expect the usual action scenes. This anime however, feels different in the aspect of mech anime, because instead of the usual "humanoid mechs are part of society" spiel. Early on, you learn that the existence of the Armored Slaves (catagory for mechs) aren't supposed to be there. An anachronism if you will. So basically, what makes this anime unique is its uniqueness. Yes, you have all the basic characters that we've all seen, but twisted into different ways that I haven't seen any other anime turn.

The art is high quality stuff. There's a bit of cutting corners, but generally it's at a constant high budget. The music fits almost too perfectly. You have the large chain of militaristic themes for Sousuke in and out of school as well as a large array of nice themes for general tension and R&R.
Voice acting on both sides are impressive. As usual, I'm more for the Japanese voice actors since both Chidori and Sousuke seem to fit perfecty (as opposed to the english where there's a noticeable in ages between the actor and character).

What is a bit weak for the first season is it's story. Although, it's quite strong in developing everyone and starts characters off with a strong distinct personality, you get these weird moments where it just looks... off. The story works, and it works well but there's a bit of repetition that I could've done without.


As for Fumoffu?! This is a joke. Seriously. The animation team literally decided to take a break from the high packed action and boosted its ridiculousness. It's clearly obvious that the storyboard writers along with the script writers know what they're doing and know they're doing it well because Fumoffu really boosts all comedy from the first season many times. Yes, it's supposed to be a relaxation season, but that doesn't mean that you can drop the quality and the script. Things stay consistent with Fumoffu?! almost to the point where you think, "are we supposed to take this seriously?" In some cases, yes, and other cases no. We're supposed to understand that this is purely for comedic purposes but as well to be seen as an actual season rather than just filler. It's great. I loved Fumoffu and it boosted my opinion of Full Metal Panic at least ten times.


Second Raid is a great closer for the Full Metal Panic! series. At first, I was worried that it'd be a bit rushed due to many episodes that seemed like fillers, but the storyboard directors did a great job in linking most, if not all, of it together. There are some instances where there are questions unanswered and holes in the plot that makes you wonder "why was it even in there?" but overall, it was a better season than the first. Sure, it didn't go through all the antics of the first probably because it was a closer than an opener, but with Fumoffu?! under their belt, it didn't really matter. There was still a nice mix of comedy and a bit of the most kick ass robot fights I've seen. Let's face it, considering Full Metal Panic! was in 2-3 of the Super Robot Taisen games (including the latest one Super Robot Taisen: W for the DS) whereas most other anime got only one cameo, the team must've did something right.


Note: These screens are from the Second Raid, but generally they're all there.

Higurashi no Naku Koro ni

"When the Cicadas Cry"
Another bad literal translation of the Japanese name I know, but it's another one of those things where it's fluidity over literal.

This anime...is... different.
It is quite different. It is so different I actually recommend this not be for anyone under 14. I know it's not like you people actually care about ratings but don't come complaining that you have an incurable twitch after watching this.


How should I start? Higurashi no Naku Koro ni is a compilation of short stories revolving around 4 characters. Keiichi Maebara, Mion Sonozaki, Rena Ryuguu, and Satoko Houjo (Houjyo) in the town of Hinamizawa.
These short stories are seperate entities and while characters are referred in different chapters, they are actually as different as the stories themselves.

It's a psychological thriller based upon what apparently was a doujinshi computer game (go figure) and has now become an anime series and has had 2 adaptations to manga (though one has been considered dropped.) It's scary, I'll be blunt about it. And it's not the scary you see in those stupid American horror films with surprise flashes and gory dismemberments. This is the Asian culture. Where you see psychological horror at it's best. I'm talking about possessions and demons and unexplainable curses.

Honestly, I shuddered at certain parts of this anime, while it isn't particularly graphic, it's definitely spine-tingling.

A couple downsides are that the animation quality is a bit mediocre. Using exaggerated expressions and a generally low quality rendering (not raw side or encoder side) it's a bit of a turn off there. But still, it doesn't give THAT much of a nostalgic effect. Also, the voice actors seem to be slightly inconsistent sounding like the adolescents on one scene then sounding a couple decades older in another scene. Regardless, this anime is more about the story than anything else.

All 26 are out on DVD. The US Geneon licensing branch has released the few DVDs.