Trxd

Happy Holidays!

2011-12-25T18:33:00.001Z

Just wanted to take the time to wish a happy holidays to all reading!

And I needed an excuse to show my puppy to the world… look at it! Isn’t she soooo… NAWWWW?!

I’m already half way through Clannad Recap 6 and I have a list of top 10 video game soundtracks coming up very very soon, stay tuned!

Clannad Recap – Episode 5

2011-12-21T05:02:00.001Z

These recaps are still alive, how dare you question my ability to keep promises for even one second! I will recap the entire series! I will! *claps shoes*

Get ready to meet my new favourite cap and my new favourite OTP forever, this episodes a good’n.

The atmosphere is tense, the soundtrack is an edited version of ‘Town / The Flow of People’ (one of my favourite Clannad tracks, it means serious business).

4th cap of Fuuko is great, she’s still a kid, yet she hides her emotions so vigorously. She keeps a mask on at all time, but sometimes it slips, and we can all see the melancholy.

Nagisa and Tomoya decide to go and visit Fuuko’s sister, but Fuuko tells them she isn’t coming with them, she says “there is no point”.

As Nagisa and Tomoya stand by the traffic, they talk about the situation. Tomoya doesn’t believe that she is a ghost a phantom, she is human no matter how you look at her, but he thinks there must be some reason why she thinks she is Ibuki Fuuko, even if she isn’t.

Kouko turns out to be the woman that Tomoya met in the bakery last episode and it seems she has a good relationship with Nagisa. The two greet each other like old friends and Kouko asks if Nagisa and Tomoya are in a relationship, which of course results in an over-the-top panicky blushy “Oh gosh! No!” performance from Nagisa, I still love her, but when a character becomes far too easy to predict its not a good thing.

On another note, Japanese subtitles invading my beautiful caps again! *hiss*

To quickly change the conversation Nagisa congratulates Kouko on her engagement to her boyfriend.

Kouko’s face stiffens and she freezes, her fingers clutching the watering can. She asks them how they know about that as she has only told her younger sister by her hospital bed.

I know I’ve said this a million times and I should just cut it out now, but this is such a fantastic example of how KyoAni make every scene they do look extravagant, we get close ups of expressions, even little details like clutching her watering can in shock, its really well done and really engaging to watch.

Also Nagisa’s Hair x The Sunset forever. They are OTP.

Since Tomoya is the only one of the pair with a functioning brain (I just want to bash Nagisa tonight, okay?!?) he comes up with an excuse as Nagisa flutters about. He says that there have been rumours around the school and that it probably originates from people seeing the pair together.

Kouko sighs and looks up at the sky, an orb of light floats over the sunset and Kouko gazes at it. She tells the pair that she might not get married after all, she hasn’t decided whether to wait for her sister or pursue her own happiness.

The eye close ups, the floating light, the sunset, the angle that enlarges Kouko’s flowing dress, UGH. This has got to be the new most beautiful scene, I’m sorry end of episode one, this episode can take the MBS awards forever! ~~until next time.~~

I love this because it is so real, its such a real dilemma, a dilemma that I think most of us can see ourselves in. If someone we truly loved got hurt and was in dire danger, and possibly could be hanging onto the edge of fate for many years to come, would it be easy to pursue our own happiness? What’s the alternative, drop everything? Drive ourselves crazy waiting to continue our lives?

What Kouko’s doing isn’t right but it is understandable.

The orb of light will be a recurring thing in this series, its meanings are at the very core of Clannads concept and it is a very important element, in season 2 they will be part of the plot, but for now they will hang around and you’ll have to figure out what they mean. They definitely mean a significant even is happening. But what is being represented here? Happiness? Sadness? Hope? Love?

In the park Tomoya says that they should have told Kouko everything, they should have told her that Fuuko is at school. Nagisa says that she feels like she shouldn’t say anything so carelessly. I can see both of their points, I’d say lying or withholding information in cases like this is always wrong, but Nagisa is right, telling Kouko that Fuuko is at school might not have done good for either of them, the situation is very delicate right now, that much they know, even if they don’t understand why.

The second shot is awesome, I just like how Nagisa and Tomoya or sitting parallel to those swings, like if they were propelled forwards on the screen they would be on them. Maybe it represents the childhood neither of them had? IDK.

After tearing up, Nagisa stands and announces that instead of crying she will help Fuuko with whatever she is trying to accomplish. I like the way she does this because its almost childish, she knows absolutely nothing about what is going on, why Fuuko is at school and in hospital at the same time, yet she somehow knows that Fuuko is the one who needs her help, and she blindingly decides that she will dedicate herself to helping her. Nagisa is full of good intentions, all she wants to do is make people happy and stop people from being sad, her decision, though childish, is genuine and good-hearted.

Later on Nagisa, Fuuko and Tomoya are meeting outside the bakery. Nagisa has decided that Fuuko should live with them as she can’t keep sleeping at the school, Tomoya suggests that Fuuko use a fake last name since Nagisa’s parents are acquainted with Kouko.

I often wonder why Fuuko always clutches her star up to her chest instead of simply holding it by her side, even when she is just being casual, it’s almost like its her company, almost like the way she’s clutching it shows just how she is clutching onto this situation with her sister.

As expected Akio and Sanae are welcoming, but when it comes to the point where Fuuko has to come up with an alias, she uses the Furukawa’s neighbours name that she had previously seen outside.

Tomoya objects to this by punching Fuuko in the head, seriously Tomoya, child abuse is wrong, she’s only a little thing.

They manage to convince them that it is a coincidence and Fuuko is happily welcomed into the household.

As Tomoya returns to Sunohara’s apartment as per usual he is almost trampled by a group of sports kids (IDK what to call them) as they run out of the building, it turns out Misae was scolding them for peeping in the girls bathroom.

First of all, peeping in the girls bathroom? Wtf is up with that? That isn’t a common thing, that is like, messed up and you could get arrested O_O

I love Misae btw, she’s a really great character. I can’t wait to recap her arc in the beginning of season 2.

Sunohara walks in and for some reason Misae assaults him.

I’m not sure what to think of that attack position, is she crushing his head with her feet and ass?

In Sunohara’s room Tomoya explains that the theatre club is currently on hold, they’re too busy babysitting a ghost girl (“Not that I believe she’s a ghost”).

Tomoya says that it’s not just Fuuko he is worried about, he is doing this because he is worried about Nagisa too.

I love that throughout the series Nagisa is the one who pulls Tomoya into caring about people, they definitely change each other.

His next destination is the bakery, he walks in to find the entire family crafting wooden stars, Akio screams in pain as he cuts his fingers.

They hear a customer enter and Akio tells Tomoya to go tend the shop, Sanae says that this isn’t a thing he should be asking of his daughters friend.

“Ok, if Sanae-san says she loves me that much, it can’t be helped!!”

That made me lol, have these two ever had a conversation that has been fully received on both ends?

First cap =3 I love it when Fuuko is backlit by foliage =3

Tomoya says the floor looks like a starry sky and Fuuko asks why, he says “Well, they’re stars right?” and she replies “No, they’re starfish”.

And here comes my favourite Fuuko line so far, Tomoya is like “You’ve been carving Starfish all this time?!?” “Of course, Fuuko doesn’t understand why Fuuko would make stars, that doesn’t make any sense” “STARFISH MAKE EVEN LESS SENSE”. xD

When Nagisa enters the room Tomoya questions her on what she thinks these shapes are, she answers that she has always thought they were starfish.

Those 1st and 3rd caps are smexy, Nagisa does a way better job of the “Kawaiii dessssss” face than Fuuko does.

The next day Fuuko is continuing to hand out her starfish to the students, Nagisa and Tomoya approach her.

Tomoya asks if she is planning on talking to her sister personally, and Fuuko steps back, holding her “starfish” closer to her chest. She says she doesn’t know why but she thinks that her sister might not be able to hear her, and that’s why she’s at this school, because she can’t go home.

Sorry for the over-capping (I lie, I’m not sorry at all) but its just… Fuuko. She’s so full of hidden emotion in her little posture and frame, her face tries to hide her feelings and confusion, and she’s trying so hard. She has a strong will, she’s decided that as long as she can continue to work towards her goal without falling to pieces then everything will be alright.

Nagisa asks Fuuko what her sister calls her and Fuuko says “Fu-chan”, Nagisa decides to call her that from now. Tomoya smiles and asks if he can call her that now too and she cringes “That would be horrible!”.

I love how Fuuko rejects Tomoya all the time, because it isn’t even in a Tsundere way, it’s more like, in an affectionate but funny and self-aware way. Maybe I just don’t watch enough anime but as far as me, a non-otaku, knows, Fuuko is a very original character.

The next stop is Miyazawa Yukine’s fortress of solitude to attempt another starfish sale. Yukine is a pretty simple character, reading her route in the visual novel was literally like I was actually sitting and chilling out in a cafe, I’m not sure how I feel about her character or her storyline, I suppose we’ll see as I recap.

I do love how her face is in a constant state of ditz, and I kinda have a thing for long brown unkept hair on girls (<3 Hermione).

She accepts their offer and agrees to show up for the wedding.

Fuuko once again falls into starfish-stasis after being hugged by Nagisa, and Tomoya see’s an opportunity for a prank.

Ryou’s instructions are too tell Fuuko “I am Okazaki, I used to be a man” when she wakes up, and then explain “It falls off every now and again” after that just reply “I guess” to everything.

I have to feel sorry for Ryou, there is absolutely nothing she won’t do for others if her sister isn’t there to pull her out of it. She’s been sheltered by Onee-chan so much she’s never gained any sense of what is and isn’t right. In this instance she isn’t having fun and she isn’t “with the joke” she’s part of it, and she was casually exploited by Tomoya for a laugh. With a personality like hers she’s asking for others to use her.

I hate myself for never realising how amazing the WALLS look in this hallway! I mean, so blue, so shiny! How do you get walls to shine like that?! How?! TELL ME.

Her face is brilliantly done too, so puppyish <3

The way she drops her starfish in shock <3 So Trxd-ish!

The thing that made Tomoya’s laughing comical is that it was actually realistic, the “Just give me a minute, I’m dying here” hand wave is brilliant.

“This is amazing! Fuuko never knew such a thing could happen to people! Ah! Looking at it in reverse, is there a chance that one could attach itself to Fuuko?!”

“I guess”

“IT COULD HAPPEN FUUKO IS UTTERLY SHOCKED!”

I’ve missed Clannad humour so much! The writing is brilliant on both the drama and comedy sides, and that can’t be said for many things. I know many people consider these scenes useless and unnecessary, and I admit when stuff like this gets too frequent in one episode I get irritated as well, but it serves a purpose. The thing Clannad does brilliantly is that it lets you get to know the characters as full people, not just drama devices, you see their regular lives, you see the regular things they go through and you see the funny things they go through, and it makes it a million times more emotional when you see the traumatic things they go through. Fuuko is probably the best example of this, it would have been hard to care at all if this storyline had just cut right to the chase.

Her hysteria really reminds me of myself (yes, I do see a bit of myself in every single character on this show) except I behave like this more when a new game or anime I like is announced.

Tomoya reappears and Fuuko is convinced the whole thing was a dream.

Yay! A new kyou entrance! It’s a Kyoutrance! <3

Fuuko see’s Ryou (who she believes to be Tomoya’s female form), Kyou and Tomoya and is in shock “Three Okazaki-san’s!”

Fuuko decides that the twins look amazing holding the starfish to their chests, and I agree.

When will someone hurry up and write a fanfiction where Fuuko is a photographer?

Nagisa says that they are both very beautiful so they look nice when they are stood together, Tomoya says that they are very different inside though, the younger one is a hamster and the older one is a gorilla. He receives a starfish in the face for this, which he deserves.

That’s something I don’t understand about Tomoya, although he seems inconsiderate most of the time he has a brilliant talent of seeing the good in people, Nagisa, Tomoyo, Misae, Kotomi, heck even Sunohara sometimes, he doesn’t judge and suddenly dismiss any of them because somehow no matter how strange they are he can see the good in them, but these twins seem to be the only exception. I’m not saying he hates either of them because I don’t think he does but he is extremely firm in his judgement on both of their personalities.

I think perhaps its because he seems himself in both of them, and so he is subconsciously rejecting them to an extent throughout the storyline, he refuses to get romantic with either of them, In Kyou he sees who he is scared to become and scared that other people view him as, devoted to protect the girl he loves and hurting others and himself in the process (which arguably is what he becomes in the end), and in Ryou he sees the sweet, kind and overly gentle girl that will destroy him and ultimately be his downfall. It’s very interesting in the light of after story.

As they continue walking down a hallway, hands full of starfish, Nagisa talks about how the gift giving is going very well as everyone is accepting them.

Fuuko suddenly see’s someone she recognises, it’s Mitsui, the only girl Fuuko talked to on her first day of school years ago. The way she spots her and does a little run shouting “Mitsui san…!” really breaks my heart knowing what is about to happen. As Mitsui questions what happened to Fuuko, Tomoya quickly puts his hand on her shoulder and gives her an alibi. He quickly fixes the situation, giving Fuuko the chance to talk to an old friend without having to worry about her past, its a very kind and loving thing for him to do.

I absolutely love what the animators are doing here, the environment is done extremely well, the camera angles are over the head which is creepy and unusual, the environment is dull, lit very dimly by the windows. There is no music, the environment effects are given a chance to take the stage right now.

Brb heart breaking.

After gaining the confidence from the success of her previous endeavours she jumps up to the first friend she ever made and offers her a starfish, there are no masks in this offer, no shields, Fuuko is naked and her heart is ready to be punctured. Even though she knows that she doesn’t mean nearly as much to her friend as she does to her she still gathers all the bravery in her little body and tries, and it fails. Mitsui rejects the starfish, saying she won’t be able to attend the ceremony because she is studying very hard and doesn’t want to lose any time.

“You wouldn’t understand, you’re still a freshman. Goodbye”

I hate that, it just sounded so callous. She refuses to make time for something that means so much to Fuuko and then passive aggressively leaves, treating Fuuko to the sight of the back of her head.

That effort meant a lot to Fu-chan, she stands paralyzed for a minute, face sunk, starfish fell to her side.

Back at the house Tomoya tells Fuuko to cheer up but Fuuko says that she isn’t sad or disappointed, which is a lie to them and herself, because she only talked to Mitsui once so she was glad she just remember her name. She then says she never attended any classes but would love too, and Tomoya jumps up, saying its time to call Kyou and Sunohara.

I love those random shoulder buttons, oh Japanese fashion <3 Looking weird for the sake of it since before Lady Gaga.

The next day as the gang walk through the school they notice students putting decorations up, Tomoya says that this is because they are preparing for the Founders Festival.

Fuuko is following them blindly as usual, then Tomoya and Nagisa enter a classroom to meet Kyou, Ryou and Sunohara. They do their greetings and Sunohara says he is only here because of Nagisa, it seems they have something planned.

That hallway seriously looks like something out of Tron.

“Fu-chan, class will begin soon” Nagisa says, imitating a teacher.

They have organised a fake lesson.

Sanae san is the teacher, as she walks in we see Fuuko and Nagisa share some silent words.

I love the cap of Nagisa turning around to Fuuko, she looks incredibly motherly in it, this is the first time we see this side to her and I’m sure she isn’t even aware of it herself.

Is this the first time we’ve seen Fuuko genuinely happy and content?

The class begins and Sanae instructs everyone to introduce themselves.

I know I say this about the characters so much that my statements have lost all meaning, but Fuuko is the cutest here she has ever been.

Nagisa adorably says that she is going to take the class seriously unlike Tomoya and Sunohara, and Tomoya decides that she should be class rep. Nagisa rejects the offer in a fluster and instead nominates Fuuko.

She introduces herself, still under the alias of ‘Isogai Fuuko’ and says that she likes starfish.

Sanae tells Fuuko to look around, everyone she sees is her classmate, her friend.

I don’t even have any in-depth analysis of this, none needed, you all see it. It’s simple and beautiful, a child's happiness, giving her the chance to live a life we all take for granted but she missed out on because of an accident.

I fucking love you Sanae, you knew exactly what you were doing here, you always know exactly what you’re doing, how to make people feel better, how to do exactly the right thing. That’s why I just don’t understand the running away / crying sequences.

And Fuuko’s smile makes the episode.

Once again a light is flying in the sky, it hovers outside the classroom for a second and Tomoya catches a glimpse of it.

“Ibuki Fuuko, she’s a little weird, but she’s a normal girl no matter how you look at her.”

So fitting with the way this episode ended, Fuuko doesn’t wear her true emotions on her sleeve, she doesn’t act like she cares about spending time with friends, but at the end of the day she is just like every other kid.

8/10

I feel like this episode had just the right amount of serious material and just the right amount of filler. This was definitely a major episode in terms of Fuuko’s character progression, and it is done very naturally, we start to see who Fuuko really is, but not because she has changed, because we see the sad lonely look in her eyes when she is rejected by a friend and we see the hope and love in her eyes when she attends her first class. Clannad magic.

Still alive…

2011-12-13T14:37:00.001Z

Okay so maybe this hiatus lasted a lot longer than I expected it too, and I’m sorry. But my 360 controller broke and since I’m a student I have absolutely no disposable income, so I’m waiting for my mommy to buy me one for Christmas

It kills me every day that I don’t have Skyrim

Cya in 2012.

Final Fantasy X going HD

2011-10-28T23:41:00.001+01:00

Yes I know this is old news, but I just can’t help making a blog post about this. After all Final Fantasy X is my favourite video game of all time, and the series is the pillar that is keeping my love of gaming up, so here’s the skinny on what I think!

I’m so glad this is finally happening, as soon as I realised that HD rereleases were starting to trend (thank you God of War!) I immediately dreamt of a HD package of the Final Fantasy PS2 era, X, X-2 and XII. Obviously only a third of this is happening at the moment, but I’m kind of glad they’ve decided to focus heavily on one single chapter at a time…

MAYBE THIS MEANS THEY’LL IMPROVE THE GAMEPLAY AND PIXELS.

Calm down Trxd. I do love FFX the way it is, but I’m so hopeful of the idea that changes will be made and more pixels will be added, its got to be more than just improved textures and a higher resolution, that isn’t much different to what you can do on PCSX2. I mean, Square Enix has been getting a lot of bad press recently, like a lot, and usually companies like this try to maintain their fan base by rehashing (I hate that word) some of their most loved old material, I think if SE truly commits to this and makes it more than just a rerelase, but a full-blown improved relaunch, they could market it to both old fans and new fans, and even recruit the new generation along the way.

I can just see it now, in lights, on busses, on billboards, on blimps! The FFX relaunch being advertised everywhere! The new generation never have to know its an old game!

ZOMG DO IT NOW.

(Early?!) Impressions of The Sims Social

2011-10-27T14:22:00.001+01:00

I’ve been a huge fan of The Sims for about as long as I can remember, when I was a kid I actually dreamed about a game where you controlled life, to me that makes it seem as though it would be the ultimate game where you could do anything you want, so I was naturally attracted to the series.

Every new base game and expansion is slowly adding to The Sims formula, when I found out that there was going to be a Facebook game I was actually excited, because that’s the one thing The Sims could have been but never was, a social experience. I can see why people were miffed about this though, the series is largely a single-player experience, people like controlling their little neighbourhoods and houses their way and manipulating everything by themselves, but I decided to step out of my comfort zone and give The Sims Social a go anyway.

Everything in The Sims Social has been extremely simplified but none more so than the Needs system. We have our Fun, Energy, Food, Social, Hygiene and Bladder but filling these up to full is no more simple than clicking the icon in question, the Sim automatically fills its needs for us. It just makes the whole thing seem a little useless.

Your max energy is 15 points and you use an energy point for any useful thing in the game (minus filling up motives) this includes all social interactions and all skill building techniques. Energy regenerates 1 point per 5 minutes, this includes when you are away from the game, it basically means you cant keep playing the game non stop, if you want to accomplish something its going to have to be a commitment of coming back to the game after energy has regenerated. Unless you are willing to shed out your ACTUAL REAL-LIFE MONEY for some cartoon energy bars.

There are 4 skills; Art, Music, Writing and Cooking, you can get different types of objects for all 4 but you start off with the basics, this means that although you gain levels in the skills there are many different skill trees for you to follow for each one, for instance after a while of playing the guitar you can choose to pursue piano. Levelling up in a skill requires different items, the items in The Sims Social are very comparable to ‘Essences’ in MySims, they are icons that you collect, they fall from your Sim when they are doing different interactions. Sometimes it is extremely hard to collect these items as they cost Energy to even attempt and they don’t always fall out.

I was extremely impressed by the graphics, they are simply marvellous for a Facebook game, and at the same time they aren’t very demanding even on older computers, the game should run very smoothly and still look great on most PCs.

But of course, there has to be a reason to all this random skill building hasn’t there? The most fun thing about The Sims Social is building your home, your house has a level based on its value, as you gain more money, you buy more things for your house, you gain more value, you go up in the levels. Your Sim themself also has a level, you gain experience by building skills and doing household chores. You’ll want to level up as it gives you access to some pretty awesome unlockable objects.

Overall I’m having lots of fun with this Facebook App so far, its definitely repetitive, but hey *throws hands in the air* its fun, and I enjoy building my house and my Sim. I’d say any Sims fan should give this a good try, not just once but for a few days, it definitely gets better as you play.

Not dead yet

2011-10-26T00:36:00.002+01:00

My laptop and 360 are both currently incapacitated, as soon as I get them back (which should be sometime this week) writing a good blog post is first on my to-do list. Still alive!

Blazblue is epic

2011-10-03T22:51:00.001+01:00

Guess what guys, this weekend I’ve found a fighting game I’ve actually… ENJOYEDEH?!??

The thing that usually turns me off in fighting games is how dull the fights seem, once you’ve seen all the moves your character can perform it loses its coolness, and when the flashy fightyness loses its value you see the gameplay for what it is, two clunky fighters trying to get close enough to the other enemy to hit them. It’s so boring! But Blazblue is different.

I absolutely love that the Japanese aspects of the game haven’t been toned down at all, all breast-jokes, sexual references, incest allusions and other stuff that is usually cut out of western releases are still very much in tact. It was a very brave thing for the publisher to do and I salute them for it. Litchi’s boobs are epic, I literally feel like I’m watching hentai just by seeing them.

Naturally I went into Blazblue not expecting much, I think I was subconsciously just looking for something to whine about on my blog. The first thing I noticed about the game (apart from the awesome as balls logo) is how brilliantly designed the characters are. A lot of fighting games these days have characters that are overdesigned and make no sense, the style of characters like that have no rhythm and nothing to connect with, but all the fighters in Blazblue, whilst looking far from plain, have designs that fit together and create a believable (in terms of fiction) and unique character.

The presentation is absolutely top-notch, it can’t get any better with this in a fighting game, the animation is fantastic, extremely fluid and well put together. The fighting system is very fast paced, usually with the characters flying all over the screen, but it isn’t so fast paced that you’ll lose track of the battle.

I don’t know if I’ll write a review of this, there isn’t too much to say, ,it is what it is. I’ve found it extremely fun and I know I’ll have a blast unlocking all I can.

Play this one, peace out.

I RETRACT MY PREVIOUS STATEMENT, OKAY?!

2011-10-01T22:46:00.001+01:00

Nichijou is gold.

I’ll be making a ‘Top 10 Nichijou moments’ list, also Clannad 5 recap coming up real soon, and I just bought BlazBlue so I’ll be posting SOMETHING about that. Stay tuned.

Early Impressions of Death Note

2011-09-30T12:16:00.001+01:00

Finally got around to watching this!

To be perfectly honest I have avoided watching this for a very long time even though I knew nothing about it, what can I say? I’m a natural born hipster, Death Note is so mainstream. Oh well. Read on for my early opinion.

One of the greatest and most genius things about this anime is its premise, most anime’s I watch I don’t really want to watch until a few episodes in, it always takes a while to get interesting, but Death note was interesting right off the bat and kept me hooked from the first episode. In the first episode a teenage boy finds a notebook dropped from the heavens (or wherever you want to call it) and discovers that if he writes a name in the pages, his target will die. He has a power to kill anybody, all her needs is their name and their face.

It was such a fantastic premise, I think I actually gasped at the end of episode 1 between a mixture of surprise and anticipation. The protagonist, Light, is a brilliant character, he feels very real to me, he comes up with the idea that he will kill all the criminals in the world and create a paradise for only good people, bringing himself to the level of god, this makes the viewer ask themselves all sorts of questions about the morality of what he is doing. It’s hard to label him, I don’t know whether to call him demented, because in a way I don’t think what he is trying to do is so hard to understand and I think there are a lot of teenage boys out there who would do the same thing. The anime itself recognises that this isn’t a black and white case of good or bad, many civilians in the anime thank Light (through his alias ‘Kira’) for his doings, but the government and the general public refer to it as an act of evil. It’s interesting.

Some scenes are hard to watch, particularly the one where he leads an innocent girl to her death via the Death Note after tricking her and gaining her trust. He killed her because she was getting in his way of his “Divine Plan”, he shows no remorse for this at all and you can tell what he’s thinking “The end justifies the means”.

His nemesis “L” is an incredibly smart individual who is out to kill Light, he too uses questionable methods to achieve what he thinks is right. This anime has a clever way of secretly involving the audience, it’s almost like its designed so that we can judge the characters as they go about their activities. I feel like I’m in my Philosophy and Ethics class.

I love the art style, it’s striking, scary and creepy all at the same time.

I’m looking forward to watching the rest of this anime, as soon as I’m done (maybe 3 weeks or something?) I’ll be posting a full, much more detailed and much more organised, review.

Thanks for reading.

Nichijou was okay, I guess

2011-09-30T08:24:00.001+01:00

I didn’t forget about the series after my recap back in April, I’ve watched almost every episode, so I thought I owe it to my blog to briefly summarise my feelings on it.

IT WAS OKAY.

I don’t really know what to say about it, it is what it is, very occasionally it was hilarious, but I’m a very busy student and if you can’t keep me entertained at all times I won’t be watching you for very long. The jokes were very odd, the good side of this is they were mostly unguessable, no easy “I know what is about to happen moments” but often these jokes just wouldn’t be funny enough to be worth it.

Unless you are totally bored and completely stumped for an anime to watch then don’t bother with this one. I’m very rarely negative on this blog but Nichijou was a big disappointment to me.

I just can’t wait until KyoAni’s next project, whatever it may be. ~~LITTLEBUSTERS~~

Boku No Sora

2011-09-30T00:55:00.001+01:00

Hello all.

I got bored of my blog theme again, did you notice? I’m kind of infamous for this. In these 4 years I’ve had 7 completely different looks because I can never settle on the presentation of my creative space. Whatever, I’m young and indecisive.

I wanted to do a quick update to show you all that I’m not dead, and to say if the blog looks a bit odd or funky in the next couple of days its because I’m in the middle of a very confusing redesign period. Blogger has updated everything, to the point where I don’t even understand the HTML code anymore, I’m not a happy bunny at the moment.

My College life is going great, thanks for asking! I was so terrified going into it you have no idea, but now its so much fun and I’m really enjoying every minute of it, I’ve become obsessed with my English Literature class, Frankenstein is one of the best books I’ve ever read. I’ve actually considered opening up a new blog for Literature just so I’ll have an extra place to spew (they don’t give me enough essays!).

I started watching Death Note, my “Early Impressions” will be up very soon so look forward to that, I’m up to episode 10 right now and I’m loving it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an anime that has made me gasp so many times over the course of 10 episodes, it’s fantastic.

If you notice anything wrong with this design please tell me by leaving a comment, I’m not sure how this width looks on other resolutions, if you have to scroll left and right then that’s a problem.

See you soon, peace out

Awesome Steam game alert: Audiosurf

2011-09-14T05:41:00.001+01:00

Finally a way to mix my love of music and indie gaming!

It’s not very often hat I find a game that blows my mind so much that I feel I need to tell everyone I know, but I love Audiosurf so much that I thought I should blog about it. In this game you are using a spaceship to hit the notes of the song that is playing, kinda like Guitar Hero kinda, but the great thing is these can be any song you want. You just have to put any Mp3 file in the Audiosurf folder and bobs your uncle!

Somehow playing a techno themed fast-paced spaceship video game whilst listen to punk rock music makes the experience more intense, who knew?

Obviously the tracks are different depending on the song, the tracks are generated based on the pitch and all that other mumbo jumbo. You can also save your high scores online and see how you do against the rest of the world.

It’s only $10 so don’t be an idiot, buy it.

Peace out.

Saints Row: The Third trailer

2011-09-11T03:15:00.001+01:00

Are they allowed to just straight-up steal Tron like that? These guys must have the best fucking lawyers in the world. I’m not sure if I like the new look of the characters, they have gotten a lot more cartoony, I suppose it fits since Saint’s Row is basically a cartoony insane version of Grand Theft Auto but I never really wanted this to be reflected in the art style, the next step after this would be to cell-shade everything, and as we learned from Ultimate Spider-Man a cell shaded city is not pretty

The combat looks like it has improved, we see someone driving a car into us in a Tron environment as we are in action, I like it when a game bothers with crap like that, there are too many shooters these days that just have you crouched behind a wall the entire time, since when was that considered fun?

The characters and story have improved it seems, that red headed girl told me she wanted to broadcast my subconscious into somewhere or something. If the game has awesome interesting missions like that all the way through then I’m sold.

Overall, Saint’s Row 2 was fantastic and I wasn’t sure how they were going to trump it, it seems they have gone in a different direction with a few things here and pushed the things that have worked for the series at the same time. I’m very excited, it looks like a lot of fun. I just hope it doesn’t become too cartoony.

Final Fantasy XIII-3

2011-09-10T22:13:00.001+01:00

You might be wondering why the new Final Fantasy logo looks choppy and poorly done, that’s because I made it, it was a five minute job, okay?!

This game hasn’t been announced but according to GameInformer (see here) it has been registered, which is pretty much as good as an announcement. Unless XIII-2 does really badly which I doubt, a lot of FF fans played XIII and found they hated it so they won’t be buying this one, but believe it or not it also recruited a ton of new fanboys, you’d be surprised how many people started with XIII and enjoyed it.

I’m pretty excited about this if its true, I know its kind of a big deal because this is a Final Fantasy game but I’m trying not to look at it like that, most games get two or more sequels, let’s just forget it’s an FF game and this is against the unwritten rules. I enjoyed XIII and I have to say XIII-2 looks kick-ass, Chrono Trigger time travelling is awesome as hell, the more info I have heard since its announcement the more optimistic I have been.

And I genuinely believe that the amount of info and detail that was put into XIII could generate two sequels, so this makes sense. Maybe we’ll finally recruit the guys from Nora? Maybe an entirely new cast of characters? Either way I’m excited and hope this turns out to be true, what do you think?

Hiatus for College

2011-09-08T19:44:00.001+01:00

So if you’ve been reading my twitter you’ll know that I have recently started college, I was obviously nervous as frig about it but its been absolutely fantastic so far, I’m loving every second of it. But there is a hell of a lot of work to do, I have to put a lot of hours outside of my school time which means I don’t have a lot of time for both friends and random hobbies.

That kinda sucks but I want to work really hard and get some great A-levels, I also just want to enjoy college life as much as I can, so I won’t be playing video games and watching anime very much, let alone writing about it. I think a small hiatus is in order for the beginning of college.

I dunno how long this will last, my problem is that I am super indecisive, I wouldn’t be surprised if this lasted a week or 6 months, I have no idea, but I just wanted to let you know that there is a reason I’m not posting much anymore.

This definitely isn’t the end, this blog will last me for another 4 years and more, this is just a short break I feel I need to have. Writing reviews is harder than you might think, I just don’t have the time to play through huge JRPG’s and make notes about them and then write it all up just because its my hobby, I’ve decided to be a good student and do my work for reals!

It’s possible I might post a few times about some Video Game news like I sometimes do, but I don’t really like doing that too much on here, this isn’t that kind of blog, I’m not really happy unless the front page is filled with my blood sweat and tears (which means my recaps and reviews).

Although if a Little Busters anime ever gets made, I would sooner drop out of college than not recap it!

Feel free to browse through my older posts (there’s a lot of them!) but please nothing beyond 2009, that is just painful to read >.<

Thanks so much for reading and I’ll see you all soon, watch this space! Bye =3

You mean I’m on the Interwebs?!?

2011-09-02T00:22:00.001+01:00

Trxd has now gone mobile! Click Here to check it out and download!

It's free and it has alerts so that you'll know whenever I have something new and amazing to say! What could be better?

Retro Review: Final Fantasy VIII

2011-08-21T21:15:00.001+01:00

The eighth chapter of Final Fantasy was probably the first in the series to take some pretty risky departures from the RPG rulebook, and with such a popular predecessor it isn’t an easy thing to follow. The storyline is ambitious with the use of possession, time travel and love, but do all the odd gameplay rules and obscure storyline concepts come together to make a classic?

I finally got my hands mucky with the Final Fantasy that I have been so long avoiding and I can’t wait to tell you all what I think of it.

(All existence denied)

The premise of the game’s plot is simple and intriguing, you are a moody brown-haired student at a school for magic and combat, the school is called a “Garden” and after proving yourself in a practical exam you become a “SeeD” which is an agent of the Garden sent out to do specific tasks for the people of your world. You get your other party members rather steadily as you go through the first couple missions.

One thing I wish I could say was steady is the introduction to the new gameplay mechanics. As I mentioned before Final Fantasy VIII really is the first of the series to divulge so heavily from regular RPG rules and it basically just throws you right in there, it doesn’t wean you off all you’ve ever known in role playing games before, it just throws five long and confusing tutorial at you and says “Did you understand that?” “No” “Well you better because it’s happening right now buddy.”

The truth is once you understand and really get into the Junction and Draw systems, which is how you utilise magic in Final Fantasy VIII, it becomes really fun and you enjoy taking advantage of it, but the short while where you don’t fully understand it can be like hell. I actually considered dropping the entire game at the beginning because I was having such a crappy time.

I’m sure you’ve heard that there is no MP in this game, instead you get your magic by drawing it from enemies via the ‘Draw’ command (pictured above), certain enemies will have certain types of magic that you can draw but there is no limit to how much you can draw from one monster, and you won’t be drawing 1 at a time, you’ll be drawing 2-9 times a draw, depending on randomisation mechanics. The weird thing is that in VIII you won’t usually be drawing the magic so you can use it, you’ll be drawing so you can junction.

Another note-worthy feature that was added into the battle system is the trigger command, whenever Squall attacks with his gunblade you are to press the R1 trigger at exactly the right moment to get a critical hit and I mean exactly, 0.2 milliseconds too late and it doesn’t count. I really enjoyed this because it connected me to the battle a bit more, I had to keep on my toes, it didn’t let me drift off. It is genuinely challenging to get a critical hit, which is how it should be in every game in my opinion.

The cast of VIII is as followed; Squall, the protagonist of the story is a gloomy, cold and extremely talkative teenage boy, Rinoa is the cheerful yet calm teenage girl Deauteragonist of the game, and in typical Final Fantasy fashion she has more of a role in the story than the actual protagonist, Quistis is the very mature yet very lovable smart one, and then there are three other dispensable characters called Selphie, Zell and Irvine.

The characters of Final Fantasy VIII aren’t the perfect cast, as I’m sure anyone who has played the game will tell you, some or a lot of them will have a tendency to get on your nerves but if your lucky you will find refuge in more likable characters such as Rinoa and Quistis. Selphie, Zell and Irvine barely have a stroke of delectable traits or redeeming features, let alone any importance in anything that is going on around them. They have got to be the three most filler characters in the entire series.

Having said that I did like Squall, I know he gets a lot of hate but I really don’t think he warrants any of it. I can see exactly why people dislike him, he is cold to the point of being irritating to the player sometimes, he makes stupid decisions about not socializing with other people and it can be frustrating to someone who is trying to invest themselves in the characters. But I appreciated it when his attitude was explained, he has a reason to be why he is, and truth be told he’ll never really be any different because of his childhood, he’s flawed, and I like my characters nice and flawed.

The entire of the world map is accessible fairly early on, although you are given the most inconvenient mode of transportation possible. The first vehicle that you operate can traverse both land and sea but it refuses to float even an inch (though by the look of it, it should be able to) which means even the slightest bump can completely block a pathway to where you need to go. Not to mention that Square decided to place an entire bridge between the two main continents therefore blocking any way to go from south to north in the middle of the map, you have to go around a whole continent to get there. I’ve never known a world map be so irritating and badly done before.

Most random encounters in the game are extremely easy assuming you’ve junctioned yourself well, you won’t have to see them often anyway as grinding in this game is completely counter-productive and useless, the enemies in the game level up with you, the higher level you are the more difficult everything around you becomes. The good thing about this is that bosses will always be something of a challenge no matter what. It gets rid of the whole mechanic of grinding, on other Rpg’s if you run into a boss you can’t handle you would turn back and grind until you were strong enough, in VIII if this happens you’ll just have to try again and again and again. Some of those bosses aren’t easy.

The Summons in the game are a lot more important than in all other FF’s, until VIII they were pretty much just overpriced black magic spells, but in this game they are called Guardian Forces and are junctioned to your characters, as you earn AB your summons learn abilities which are transferred to you. Utilising your GF’s abilities is essential to being a good fighter. Weapons are created by combining different types of items, these items are usually very hard to get ahold of, they can be stole from a very rare enemy or created via a GF ability.

A strange addition this game is the ‘Triple Triad’ mini game, which is a card game that your characters play with other people they meet throughout the game, luckily it is entirely optional but it can earn you some of the best abilities in the game so its worth checking out. I never enjoyed it too much.

Storyline wise the game strong excels, it has a really interesting and powerful main villain, and some extremely surprising and intriguing plot twists. The player will never know what is going to happen next and nothing will ever feel generic. It has a tendency to be confusing though since a lot of it does involve time travel. Sometimes I found myself too slow for the storyline, it throws a lot of things in your face, you’ll have to remember the past, the future, the present and some things that you’re not even sure are real and that the game hasn’t even explained yet, and then you have to tie them all up in the last quarter of the game when the plot begins its conclusion. Nothing a Final Fantasy fan can’t handle, though.

8/ 10

I definitely enjoyed Final Fantasy VIII more than I thought I would and I’m glad I gave it a go, it had an interesting storyline and a unique battle and progression system. What I find this game lacks is charm, it gave me a lot of storyline but not too much reason to actually care about what was happening to these characters. Sometimes I felt the game was acting too big for its shoes, and also since the enemies levelled up alongside you I didn’t feel like any real work was ever needed, just making sure I was junctioned properly was enough to beat the game, I felt almost discluded in what the game had going on. I would recommend this to someone, if they had already played about 10 other games that I would recommend.

Overall though it’s fun with a well written plot, if you’re an FF fan then this one is worth your time.

Silent Hill HD 360 / Comparison Screenshots / New voice actors

2011-08-18T18:21:00.001+01:00

Okay, I may be ever so slightly late with this “News” but I couldn’t resist blogging about it. The first announcement is that the Silent Hill HD collection is now coming to the Xbox 360! As a 360 gamer and diehard Silent Hill fan I am obviously extremely happy and excited about this. The reaction to this announcement has been very positive so far which is a nice surprise, I’m sure there are some Playstation 3 fans out there who are just grief-stricken that millions more people will now have the chance to play the remastered collection, cry me a river.

(Click here for Screenshots and VA’s)

To the left is the Pc screenshots and to the right is the Playstation 3 remake screenshots. You can click them to enlarge.

It is slightly disappointing to be fair, it doesn’t really look any different, and I may have come to the realization that this ‘Remaster Collection’ already happened years ago when they released the two games on PC. The only difference I can see is a higher resolution… hopefully future screenshots will be a bit more exciting?

Oh and if you haven’t heard they are changing the voice acting.

Voice Comparison

I like the new Voice Acting, and this is the point where I get things thrown at me and then kicked out of the Silent Hill fandom (don’t do it! I love you!) but I really don’t see the problem here. It’s new, that’s why people are so damn agitated by it, I could tell the reaction was going to be feral ever since I heard of the change, but just take the time and get used to it. And if you really hate it, it’s just a HD collection that isn’t even much better looking so it doesn’t matter that much!

The new James is infinitely better, everyone else just sounds different and are going to take some getting used to. Other than that I’m slightly disappointed, I was going to buy this but unless I see some exciting new gameplay or graphics then I probably won’t even bother.

And Book of Memories looks like a piece of shit.

Sony Playstation Gamescom Conference

2011-08-16T20:22:00.001+01:00

First of all, they are putting Bioshock and Rayman on Vita and I wasn’t informed? Who kept this from me?!

Most of the new game footage was pretty lame tbh, the only hugely exciting things that happened were the epic price cuts (poor Sony).

(Click Here to Read)

Escape Plan – PsVita Move Fitness – PS3

The first thing that really caught my eye was the new ‘Escape Plan’ game for Vita. It’s a Vita exclusive game where your objective is to use one of the two characters to escape from some kind of facility, presumably jail, the escape methods seem to be quiet random and silly as one character is seen inhaling gas and floating up through a hole in the ceiling. Not enough information was given about ‘Escape Plan’ in the short trailer we saw, I don’t even know if its a kind of ‘Escape the Room’ game that has surprising solutions or a full platformer where you escape at the end.

From first impressions it seems like a dark premise with a light-hearted presentation and gameplay/story that doesn’t take itself too seriously, it reminded me of Oddworld in a strange way. It seems to be a 2.5d game but i can’t say for sure. The graphics look nice, black and white, and what appears to be a bit of blood splatter, that is always a plus.

Move Fitness was announced, what can I say about this one? Generic bollocks. The 360 has Kinect and the Wii has the WiiBoard, the PlayStation is trying to pull off a fitness simulation with just motion controlled remotes. Ugh, such an epic fail.

DanceStar – Ps3 Infamous 2

DanceStar party was announced onto the screen as “Not just another dance game”, which is of course impossible, yes another advertisement where attractive people and beautiful children dance in front of the tv screen whilst holding a Playstation Move remote. Nothing to see here, move along folks.

I would have taken more screenshots of the Infamous 2 trailer, but I blinked and missed the entire thing. Seriously, what was that? Shortest shittest trailer I’ve ever seen. Hopefully the next one is a little better…

Luckily Uncharted 3 comes in and saves the entire conference with its awesomeness. It looks very different this time too, at least now its copying off Metal Gear Solid instead of Tomb Raider.

Joke!

No but it looked very good, although I question that Nathan Drake’s instinctual method of defeating enemies is to jump and hit them in the face with his crotch. Catching up to the plane was exciting as was the fight that took place in the deck, Nathan has good fucking grip, he manages to hang on to the back of a truck whilst being thrown of a cliff, it puts Lara Croft to shame.

Still cutting down the PS3 prices, it’s kinda depressing to see that happening, Sony has already lost so much money from underselling the PS3 but that’s just because they’re trying to die not quiet as hard.

Psp price cut is awesome though 99 euro’s should translate pretty well into British pounds, that makes me seriously reconsider if it will be my next purchase. My one desire in life is to play Dissidia 012 but I was going to buy a Vita for it… now I’m just not sure.

I’ll keep you all updated on Gamescom, thanks for reading.

Early Impressions of Final Fantasy VIII

2011-08-06T10:18:00.001+01:00

I’ve been a fan of Final Fantasy for a long old time but I’ve always tried to avoid this particular title, it just didn’t seem right for me, I absolutely despised the idea that the enemies levelled up with you and the higher level you become the harder everything is. But now I’ve finally bitten the bullet and tried it out, I’m currently up to half way through Disc 2 and here’s a quick run down of what I think.

(Click Here to Read)

What struck me first about the game is the quality of the graphics, from screenshots I had seen I expected it too look just like Final Fantasy VII but if you run it in 16x9 resolution it looks absolutely gorgeous! The character models are incredibly detailed and brilliantly textured, the monsters look and move well too, mix this with top notch FMV’s that intermix with gameplay and the presentation is just great. The best I have ever seen for PlayStation.

The premise was simple and I appreciated that, I’m simply a student at a school that studies fighting / magic, that is much easier to comprehend than any of the other FF set ups. But as soon as it came to the battle systems, in particular the junctioning systems, I found myself with my hands over my face muttering “Oh goddd, hang in there Joe!”. It was all introduced way too fast, we were sent on one mission in which we had to quickly get used to and understand drawing magic, junctioning magic to stats, junction guardian forces, using guardian forces, limit breaks, and using special attacks. I could have torn my hair out, and my battles were just a disaster for the first part of the game.

Once I got used to it and things started to come together I really started to enjoy myself though, drawing magic from enemies can sometimes be a real pain in the bum, especially if your a perfectionist like me and need to draw out 100 shells in one battle otherwise you won’t feel right about it, but it gives a huge aspect of satisfaction. The best thing about this system is that you truly feel like it is up to you to level your characters, in most JRPG’s you simply have to grind, whack enough fiends around the head with your oversized sword until your stronger, but in this game there is none of that, it trusts you with the junction system which is scary at first but makes for a great system as you get used to it.

Story so far has actually been pretty thin for Final Fantasy standards, I’m on disc 2 for crying out loud and only about 2 things have happened that actually matter to the main plot. The antagonist seems great though, very powerful and very mystical, she has a mysterious background which I will enjoy digging into.

I like the main characters even though I know that on the internet they get a bad rep, I can honestly say that I don’t mind Selphie’s quirkiness or Squalls emo treatment, I think it just makes them interesting, I love Quistis and Rinoa but a game of just them (since they are the only characters that are relativley safe from mass amounts of fan hate) would be terribly boring.

Having tons of fun so far, I’ll be reviewing this when I’m done. Thanks for reading!

NVHGB2PUTZ5H

Top 15 Anime Characters

2011-08-04T21:40:00.001+01:00

What? This is an Anime blog too y’no! *points at title*

(Click Here to Read)

Warning: Spoilers for the anime Clannad follow, skip number 4.

15: Kero

The bossy, demanding, gluttonous and adorable flying plush toy sidekick from Cardcaptor Sakura.

Even though Kero is essentially a talking doll he is one of the most three dimensional characters created by Clamp, his general attitude is fun loving and silly, often causing distress to those around him, but in times of dire trouble he acts as the series voice of reason. He understands what Sakura’s mission is much more than herself and therefor is essential in her story. He keeps he going, without him the series would have ended with Sakura curled up in a ball in a corner refusing to accept her fate.

14: Makoto Sawatari

One of the tragic heroines of Key’s visual novel and anime ‘Kanon’, Makoto was single headedly responsible for most of the tears that audiences shed during the programmes run.

She stuck out from the other main characters of the show quiet noticeably, she was a fiery ginger who childishly shouted at others and had a general hate for many things and people, but as the story progressed she sees people for who they are and tragically finds out the dark truth about her past.

13: Fuuko Ibuki

Pass me the tissues cos I’m welling up just thinking about her.

Fuuko is the first character we get to truly explore and conclude in Clannad. We meet her as a balsy girl little girl who is trying to invite people to her sisters wedding, her efforts are hopeless as nobody in the school knows her or her sister, but with her childlike naivety and determination she pushes herself to the limit anyway.

The outcome, reason and conclusion of this are hard hitting indeed. Though the show moves on from her story, the spirit of the young girl seems to follow in the people she influenced.

12: Naru Narusegawa

Okay okay, I know a lot of people would call her a typical Tsundere and I guess she is, but I really liked Naru. You have to be pretty hard headed to put up with all the sexual crap Keitaro pulled, and she was the only one in that entire show that appeared to me like she had genuine feelings. The ending was simply brilliant, it shows that true love can sometimes not be as simple as we hope. *Wipes away tear*

11: Noe Isurugi

Noe is the best thing about the anime ‘True Tears’, its a must watch simply for her.

She is the first anime character I have ever actually felt was realistic enough to actually exist (I hadn’t watched Clannad yet okay!), most are exaggerated and overdone to get their personalities across, but Noe just feels so real, which is what makes her darkest moments so raw to watch.

She’s a weird kid with weird habits, and you can tell she is very comfortable being this way, she doesn’t want to change for anyone and what she wants more than anything in the world is for people to like her for who she really is. In that way she is almost wise beyond her years, most people take decades to embrace themselves and some never do. But at the same time she has a huge child like naivety to her, at the end of the day she doesn’t understand why sometimes things aren’t good and why people can’t always be nice and do the right thing. She doesn’t understand the world yet, and we can see at the ending that she is just beginning too.

10: Kyou Fujibayashi

I feel that Kyou brings an extra dimension to Clannad that it wouldn’t have without her, most of the heroines of the show have extremely dark and tragic pasts that have effected the way they are, they have demons that need to be healed, but Kyou doesn’t follow this pattern, her story is about the destruction she causes to herself and those close to her in a desperate attempt to keep the people she cares about happy. She learns that no matter how unfair it is you can’t protect everyone, and the more you try the more pain you cause in the end.

She is a protector at heart (as shown by Ryou’s tarot cards in the first episode) but she is still just a kid, she makes mistakes whilst trying to make everyone happy.

9: Lucy

Lucy’s backstory in Elfen Lied was so nasty it was almost hard to comprehend how she still functions, she is damaged heavily and the anime takes us right back to the beginning and we see exactly why.

It almost feels like she is some kind of fictional social experiment, what would happen if a girl who was tortured both mentally and physically for her entire life had the ability to rip anyone she wants to shreds and escaped into the world? Does she harbour a grudge against humanity? Does she despise her own existence? Is she out for revenge?

These are all questions that are touched upon in the anime and it gives the viewer enough information to put the mental puzzle pieces of Lucy’s brain in place, figuring out what is wrong with her and what she needs. Its clear early on that she wouldn’t have a fantastic ending, Elfen Lied is an original modern tragedy.

8: Tomoyo Daidouji

The calm, collected and mature sidekick in Cardcaptor Sakura, Tomoyo and Sakura almost complete each other.

I’m going to get into homosexuality here so bare with me. Tomoyo, and a few other implied relationships on the show, are Clamps way of showing they refuse to abide the laws of heteronormativity. Tomoyo has been shown to be in love with Sakura, just as Syaoran falls in love with Yukito and just as Sakura falls in love with Syaoran. The anime shows that homosexual relationships and attractions happen all the time and are nothing to be afraid of or shoved into a corner.

Tomoyo was the first person in fictional media I have ever seen who has had their gay storyline (or sub-storyline) handled in a way that doesn’t different from heterosexuality. Tomoyo isn’t different than any other character just because she is in love with another girl, and that is what makes her so fantastic as an anime character.

7: Konata Izumi

Do I even need to say why? SHE MAKES LUCKY STAR WHAT IT IS.

I think we all have a bit (or a lot) of Konata in ourselves, at least all the people who watch anime anyway, she is pretty darn identifiable. She has her massively geeky side and is not only unashamed of it, but flaunts it as often as she can. She’s a geek and she loves it, don’t you wish you could be like her?

6: Tomoya Okazaki

I was really surprised when I ended up liking the protagonist of Clannad, most visual novel main guys are given almost no personality and zero character so the focus can be on the girls, but Tomoya is different, the story does focus on the heroines but he has a running life and attitude throughout the show that is explained by his family life and past experiences.

He’s a failure at school, something most of us can relate to at least a tiny bit, he just cannot be arsed with any of that so he lazily spends his days going through the same mundane routine and resenting every second. That is until Nagisa comes along.

The truth is Tomoya’s parents made him what he is today, and he was never going to be what anyone wanted him to be. He has been damaged but finds love in the end, but is that enough to repair him?

5: Haruhi Suzumiya

I think what makes Haruhi such a great and successful character is that she connects so well to the audience and touches upon something very real but not often spoken about. We all know the experience of giving up on our fantasies and forgetting about robots and time travellers and superheroes, and I think we all look back on those days and think to ourselves “But what if I didn’t accept that they weren’t real?”.

Well, Haruhi never did. She is clinging on to those beliefs and fantasies because the regular world is “Just too boring!” and who can’t relate to that? It’s such a real modern day issue that kids go through and it is being handled in a really fun and comical way by the anime.

4: Ushio Furukawa

The child of Tomoya and Nagisa in Clannad: After Story. At birth her mother died and her father was too grief stricken to take care of her, she was handed to her grandparents instead who raised her and tried to make sure a relationship was kept between her and her father. It started out as rocky, Ushio felt uncomfortable around her Tomoya but wanted him to be her proper dad.

The scene where Ushio reveals how she has been taught to hold in her tears is the most heart clenching moment of the entire series.

Ushio is the most well-done toddler character I have ever seen in media, she shows aspects of both her mum and dad as well as showing the scars of her past and present situation. You know that she will be damaged for life, but it just goes to show, aren’t we all in some way?

3: Sakura Kinomoto

Ridiculously childish, lovely and naive. Sakura from ‘Cardcaptor Sakura’ is one of many ‘Magical Girl’ type anime characters, a cute girl given magical powers and entrusted to save the world.

Honestly, she’s so lovably childish, but not in a bratty or stupid kind of way. She isn’t clueless, when it gets down to it she has fierce determination and it takes a heck of a lot to wear her down and dispirit her. We see her grow up from the beginning of the series to the end, but she never truly changes, she is still the same person but because of the experiences she went through, both regular things like falling in love and extraordinary things like saving the world, she became a grown up, calm and happy person by the end, which is a good development from being overexcited and nervous all the time.

She is just so lovable.

2: Yuki Nagato

A humanoid interface created by the Data Integration Thought Entity, sent to earth to watch over the SOS brigade and maintain Haruhi Suzumiya’s mental state.

She is just a tool of the aliens, she is sentient only because her creators needed her to be, but does she have feelings like the rest of us do? Does she feel lonely when she’s alone? The people over control of her treat her as a disposable object and Nagato believes that’s what she is, because that is all she has ever known, she doesn’t understand how she is any different than any other tool, a wrench or a hammer. She of course has emotions and this has been shown a few times, but she keeps them hidden remarkably well, this isn’t because she is trying to conceal them its because she doesn’t realize she has them herself.

It’s sad then because I think she does fall in love with Kyon, the whole movie of ‘The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya’ wasn’t about Haruhi at all it was about Yuki and how her emotions have created an “Irregular state” and it is “Accumulating Errors”, that is what she says at the end of the film because that is how she sees her feelings, as errors. I really hope she gets a happy ending but I can’t see one happening to be honest.

1: Nagisa Furukawa

Go read my Clannad Recaps (1 2 3 4) to get the full story on this, I go on for pages about this character.

I relate to her very much, she reminds me so much of myself from years ago. She has absolutely zero self confidence in everything she is and does, she puts others before herself constantly as she is constantly searching for meaning in her life, she wants to feel that she makes a difference and that she matters to people. Life has pretty much trampled on her spirit though, she was born an extremely weak body and has been ill very often her whole life, meaning she missed out on her childhood and is now missing out on school.

What she needs more than anything is someone or something to come into her life and give her central meaning, a place to go a thing to do, a reason to go on, but she doesn’t have any friends. And this is where Clannad kicks off.

Her arc in After Story is the only time any piece of media has ever actually made me cry, its woefully tragic and realistic.

Nagisa is one of the most real and raw characters I have ever come across, she was written with such authenticity and genuine blood that her story feels real, and unfortunately it is real, some people are born this way and have to struggle through life this way, grabbing onto hope. She had a tragic but fitting end.

Top 10 RPG’s

2011-08-03T10:24:00.001+01:00

The Rpg Genre has always been my favourite side to gaming, the thing that separates it so resolutely from other Video Game adventures is that there is genuine work to be done. Fiction comes in many forms, for example, I love Harry Potter, and read all seven books as soon as they came out, simple and easy as that, but I also love Final Fantasy to death, and I still haven’t experienced even half of those stories after five years of trying. In Rpg’s the story is a reward, you finally grind up just enough XP to carve down Omega Weapon and you get treated to advancement.

That is why the plots are always so brilliantly written, through the evolution of the genre, they’ve had to be to keep the audience. Nobody wants to work through a dull twist-less story, you might be able to get away with it in First Person Shooters but not in Rpg’s.

I can’t say I have the most experience with Rpg’s of the world, I’m sure there are far better lists than this, and this is all my opinion.

But I assure you, if anyone tells you that Video Games are not art please feel free to slap them in the face with one of the following.

(Click Here to Read)

10. Fable 2

Fable 2 isn’t terribly unique, in any sense really, it uses classic Rpg themes and gameplay ideas and presents them in its own way, and the result is actually a very solid and fun to play game that can get you a little hooked. I mean, it has everything really, a good story with lots of plot twists, a good job system, a good XP system and a good character building and customization system. The end result is something that seems like it doesn’t even try to do anything ground breaking or different, but does a really good job of being unoriginal anyway.

It isn’t a must play, save that for the rest of the games on the list, but if you need a random slightly brainless role playing game to play sometimes, Fable 2 is really good.

9. Final Fantasy X-2

I know a few people who will crucify me for putting this up here, not to mention that I put it just before Mass Effect *dodges bullet* but I really like X-2, and here’s why.

The battle system is one of my favourite battle systems in any game ever, the game successfully manages to pull of speed, skill and fun all at the same time, which is something that Final Fantasy XIII fell flat on its face about. Changing Job’s within battle means that the combat was constantly being spiced up, no more boring Attack Attack Magic Attack, they had a great amount of abilities to learn, levelling up was extremely fun as it was integrated with the Job system, and sorry but some of those “Sailor Moon” transform sequences were pretty pimp.

The exploration was top notch, you could go anywhere, anytime, and explore. Come at different times in the game and you will find different things, hidden bosses, hidden items, hidden side quests, hidden jobs, hidden spheres you name it.

The most ridiculous thing about the game is just how much it reuses from X, 90% of the environments are ripped straight from that game and 80% of character models. It’s like getting constant Deja Vu and it isn’t very pleasant. But other than that I have to say the game is a solid Jrpg with a fantastic battle system, interesting story (though raping X’s ending a little bit) and strong female leads.

8. Mass Effect

Some say Science fiction is overdone, it does seem like the world has had its fair share of the genre for the past couple decade. Star Trek, Star Wars, Star Gate, Battlestar Galactica, they all focus on travelling across a galaxy filled with other intelligent and humanoid races trying to save the universe and having plenty of sexual politics along the way.

But what if there was another way to experience this?

Mass Effect achieved something truly amazing, it properly and successfully translated sci-fi to gaming whilst not only upholding its many loved qualities, but improving them. The main character Commander Shepard is a nothing, a hollow shell, an empty vessel waiting to be filled with the player. We make all the decisions, we decide who we like, we don’t like, what we want to do how we want to do it and how we talk to people. It gets to the point where it’s actually you that is traveling the galaxy, you are the main character who manipulates the universe and story. It is an amazing experience that I believe anybody with Rpg tendencies should try.

7. Lost Odyssey

It’s hard to spoil this one because I don’t want to spoil it, but it is probably the best Jrpg of this generation. In some ways it was the first Final Fantasy XIII, the graphics are phenomenal and all the animation looks amazingly fluid and realistic, mix this with the excellent voice acting and it is extremely easy to get pulled into this fantasy world.

The battle system is fun but is nothing special to be honest, it isn’t doing anything different than just attacking and casting the standard spells. The plot is fantastic and keeps you engaged the entire way, the side plots are absolutely beautifully written, the experience of the story in general is the games highlight. Another highlight is the characters, they are probably the most likable cast I have ever had the pleasure to meet in a Jrpg, I never doubted a single one of them and thought they all achieved their true potential within the story.

6. Chrono Trigger

Time Travelling is such a great idea for a Role Playing Game, why didn’t anybody do this before? Or after…

The plot of Chrono Trigger is actually fairly simple, at least in comparison to the Final Fantasies that were being released at the time, but the time travelling aspect is what will get you hooked to this one. Pretty soon you’ll have the freedom to travel back to the stone age, back to when the world was young, or the future where the world is ending. Discover the planets secrets and the crisis it goes through both in the past, present and future, the heroes try to find a way to tie it all together in order to save the balance from collapsing.

The battle system is in real time, its almost like Final Fantasy XII. Though really its doesn’t make a difference, you walk up to an enemy and engage in combat mode which feels exactly the same as a random battle, but its a nice touch and one that I didn’t think would have been possible back then. The actually battle system is great and varied, you can combine the different characters magic to create devastating (or worthless) magic strikes. The characters themselves are fun and likable, and the great thing is that none of them take themselves too seriously.

It’s a really fun journey and it has one of the best exploration systems out there, I’d say give it a go.

5. Final Fantasy V

Can you say most overlooked Jrpg in the history of gaming? Good.

I’m going to be honest here and say that neither the plot or characters are anything exceptional, the story twists had me surprised sometimes, not because I hadn’t thought of it before, but because I couldn’t believe they had done something so predictable and presented it as a plot twist.

There, that’s out of the way, now lets talk about how great this game is. The Job System lets you pick 21 different jobs for each of your 4 playable characters, as you battle you gain ABP as well the regular XP, this ABP allows you to advance your job role and gain abilities. The interesting thing is that you can switch to another job whilst retaining an ability from another one you have advanced through, for instance if you have a high level black mage you can use some of its powerful magic as a knight, this makes it so you don’t need to constantly have a White and Black mage in the party and gives you more room for experimentation.

With the possible exception of Final Fantasy X and VIII, V has one of the most evolving battle systems in the series, there are many different weapons to acquire from legendary weapons to secret weapons to special weapons to Genji weapons. Combine that with the brilliant job system and you have simply fantastic gameplay where the battles play as you want them to.

4. Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

Anyone who hasn’t played oblivion is genuinely missing out so much, I don’t care if your a hipster and Daggerfall is more underground, you just have to try this game.

One of the most innovative games of this generation, Oblivion achieved a very large and at the same time very full dynamic fantasy world filled with Fiends, Humans, Humanoid races, Beasts and Mythical creatures. Every NPC character has something to say and something to give, nothing in Oblivion is put there for no reason, its a great feeling to know that you are never wasting your time. Heck, every step you take increases your athletic skill.

It has noticeable imperfections, the human animations are often awkward and clunky looking, and the faces are simply ugly, everyone seems to have a rash. The movement could be better, as well as the main storyline. But at the end of the day you have an entirely open world game where you can go wherever you want and do whatever you want, which you’ll always be satisfied with since there is SO much content in the game. The game is the definition of player-fuelled.

3. Mass Effect 2

So much to say about this one, you should read my review.

It is pretty much Mass Effect 1.5v, but that doesn’t mean its not brilliant. It is everything the first game is only more epic, and a few annoying tendencies chucked out the window. If you’ve played the first one you’ll want to play this anyway.

2. Final Fantasy VII

I’ve learnt from my time on gaming forums that there are a few thing you need to be prepared to say when you publicly tell of your love for Final Fantasy VII. First of, am I a fanboy? Yes, I’m a fan of FFVII definitely, I love it and I’ll always say that if you ask me, and last time I checked I am indeed male. With all the hate I get when I say I like VII people don’t seem to realize that I’m not biased at all, Final Fantasy VII was the sixth Final Fantasy I played and the third one I completed and I still think it is exceptional within the series.

If I had to name all the things I found exceptional within the game it would probably be; The Characters, The Storyline, The Battle System, The Materia System and the Exploration system. So basically everything, it was one of my most brilliant and engaging gaming experiences and one of those times when you’re playing and you think to yourself “I really hit the Jackpot here”.

I realize this is all a little vague, I guess I’ll have to wait and review it to analyse why I love the story and characters so much, I just think they’re brilliant and fit together so well.

I would recommend this to anyone, Final Fantasy VII is one of the most unique gaming experiences I have ever had and I loved every second.

1. Final Fantasy X

I just can’t praise this game enough. I just can’t.

To me this is plain and simple the most epic and amazingly composed in every single way, Jrpg to have ever been created. I found all the characters endearing, yes even Tidus, people always complain about him being whiney which honestly doesn’t make the first but of sense to me, I heard him whine about twice in the game and they were in times of dire circumstance, other than that he was Yuna’s rock (see Lake Scene) and was incredibly brave. His voice sounds a little whiney, but that's just his voice.

Yuna is my favourite character in Gaming, I can identify with her will because it is flawed. She puts absolutely everyone before herself because this is the only way she can feel any self-worth, she ends up hurting the people she cares about more than she helps them in the end because they care about her. And it is in the sequel that she realizes she can’t be so selfless forever or she will destroy herself, I’ve been through all of that and it is so brilliantly portrayed. There is so much more to Final Fantasy character than what’s on the surface.

I could talk for hours, but I’ll save that for a proper review which I swear will happen one day.

Honourable Mention:

Final Fantasy XIII

As you can see from my review here I have mixed opinions about the game indeed. In some ways it is exceptional and the technology and cinematography is simply ground breaking for the industry. A new way to tell stories, it successfully matches and even surpasses both Live action and Cinema 3d.

The gameplay can sometimes be great, but it is largely flawed, as are the characters. It doesn’t all fit together right, and I was left after playing it being not sure what to think. I did enjoy most of my time with it though and I certainly thought the story was fantastic and the presentation was phenomenal. I’d say rent this one.

Final Fantasy XIII Review

2011-07-17T02:22:00.001+01:00

Unlucky for some, the thirteenth chapter of Final Fantasy was released in 2010 to a mixed reaction from fans and critics alike. It comes from a series with standards of epic proportions, some praised it for its originality and emotionally fuelled storyline, and some slammed it for the same reasons. Every Final Fantasy is different, but in many ways this game is a departure from elements of the series.

I’ve been playing and replaying this game on and off since its release, and now I have finally gotton around to beating it. Here’s what I think.

(Warning, the following review is based on opinion)

Let me start by saying that I am a huge Final Fantasy fan, I’ve been playing this series like crazy since I was eleven years old, and the one thing that stands out about the series to me is just how different and original every game is. I love that the developers are constantly mixing things around, they aren’t afraid to throw out things the fans love for an original idea, and that alone is how the franchise has made so much progress.

So I went into XIII with a very open mind, I was never going to judge it based on my previous FF experiences, because they have all been different. In this review I’m not going to relentlessly compare XIII to my most loved in the series, I experience the game for what it is, not what it isn’t.

With Final Fantasy I have very high expectations in the plot, to me that’s what the game is really about, telling a story, I’ve found XIII to be no disappointment in this area, for the most part.

The story of the game is extremely complicated. It is set within two worlds that are at war. Pulse is the wild, feral, mysterious and all natural planet below, and Cocoon is the floating human paradise, filled with technological luxuries. The cast of the game are (seemingly) all from Cocoon and have been chosen by a Crystal (called a Fal’cie in the game) to destroy their home world, if they do not follow their mission, they will have their soul shattered and become Zombie entities wandering the lands for ever, if they succeed in their mission they will be turned into eternal Crystal, which is not a very different fate from death.

Because of this heavy hitting premise the emotions of the characters are flying everywhere from beginning to end, the tension of the journey builds up through the course of the game until it erupts for the finale. I really liked this element as it always gave me something to think about, it was never boring because the storyline quiet literally never stopped or took a break, they are riding through this horrible twist of fate the entire game. On the other hand though it means every single character has a giant black cloud over their head the entire time, each one of them regularly gets angry or emotional to the point where I’m asking “Didn’t we do this already?”. I’m not saying it doesn’t make sense within the fiction but I am saying it can get on the players nerves, there are VERY few light hearted moments which means there is never any comic relief to put the player at ease. It’s a shame really, that’s probably the one thing I’d change about the plot.

The characters aren’t the series best, to say the least, my favourite were Hope and Vanille, and I know I’m going to get egged on the street for saying that but they were the only ones that ever actually interested me, I never agreed with pretty much anything Hope said and got tired of his angst, but at least his angst was interesting and he had an insightful character development, I’m thankful for that. As for Vanille, you just don’t know where you are with that girl for half the game, she has secret, but genuine, motives, and she doesn’t always make the right decisions.

The Battle System is extremely unique, to say the least. You control only one character in your party and the rest are controlled by paradigms which you select, this means putting them in roles such as ‘Medic’ ‘Commander’ and ‘Ravanger’, the AI for these roles was actually very impressive to me, I very rarely got angry at my fellow party members for doing something wrong, they prioritise well and always know what's the best thing to do in certain situations as long as you give them the correct job roles. The annoying thing is that you have to give them their job roles in sets of three only, this means you can only change job roles in battle to all three characters to a previously selected combination. It’s not nice to feel like your restricting yourself, and sometimes unexpected things can happen in battle so I would have definitely appreciated a way to change a character individually.

The ‘Turns’ in Final Fantasy XIII are split up into ATB segments, this means that you can let the ATB bar fill up as many segments as you want (to a maximum, you can get ATB upgrades) to unleash as many attacks as you want at a time. This definitely makes the combat extremely fast, the fastest the series has ever seen, the thing is though sometimes the attacks are going by so fast that you feel like you’re just winging it.

There is an ‘Auto Battle’ feature; I’m not sure ‘Feature’ is the right word since it is pretty much the default and you’ll probably be forced to use it for most if not almost all of the game. It selects the attacks for you and places them in the ATB segments, this feature is a direct result of the gameplay being so fast paced, often you’ll feel like you don’t have time to select the abilities yourself, you’ll have to scroll through a long list and quickly figure out what is best to use, by the time you’ve decided your character’s ATB bar is full and you’re just wasting battle time. It’s hard not to just roll your eyes and say “Why bother? The Auto Battle knows better than I do”.

The really unfortunate side effect of Auto Battle (other than the fact that it exists) is that it makes almost all the attacks in the game seem random and boring. Sure, ‘Flamestrike’ ‘Aquastrike’, whatever you want AB, it’s all the same to me since your the one choosing the elemental weaknesses, it may as well be Attack Attack Attack. It takes so much fun out of it, spells don’t really mean anything to the player any more since we don’t select them.

You’re going to have to learn to do one very important thing in Final Fantasy XIII if you want to survive, and that’s stagger. Once an enemy is staggered it is Each enemy has a stagger meter in the corner of the screen, the more combos you pull of with your ATB, the higher the stagger meter goes, but you have to keep the combos coming because the stagger meter slips down too. The faster the meter fills up or falls down depends on the enemy, it changes drastically, some enemies take the entire battle to stagger, some stagger almost instantly and some you’ll be lucky to stagger at all.

When people tell you that in XIII “Auto battle does everything so you don’t even have to think” don’t listen to them, it isn’t true, very rarely can you go into a battle and just AB your way through it without doing anything, its pretty much the equivalent of continuously using Attack in previous Final Fantasies. Sometimes staggering just happens, you are battling a lot and the enemy has been hit so much that it goes into stagger mode, but a lot of the time you’ll really have to stay quick and alert if you want to stagger an enemy. Ravangers stagger very quickly but they also make the meter fall down very fast, Commandos don’t fill the stagger meter much but they slow it’s falling down a great deal, it is usually best to use two Ravangers to fill it up and one Commando to equalize it. But then of course you’ll occasionally have to sacrifice one for a medic, but be quick about it or the meter will drop, and if the enemy is debuffing you (status alignments) then how are you going to buff yourself (using a Synergist) whilst doing all that? It can be very hard to balance the party since it is all so quick, you need to keep on top of everything to succeed, it’s a different experience entirely from other Battle Systems but it isn’t easy.

Summons are back of course, and they’re pretty different this time. They are called Eidolons, each character has their own specific Eidolon that they obtain at certain points in the storyline, to earn them you have to fight them but they certainly aren’t ordinary fights. You need to fill up a capture meter to the full when fighting them, the way you do this differs between them, but the methods always seem completely random. For instance to build Shiva’s capture meter you have to use Sentinel (a paradigm) to protect yourself from her attacks, the more you protect the more her meter goes up, you do not get told this before the battle, in fact you never get told what on earth you are supposed to do before the Eidolon battles, honestly they are just random and annoying.

Summoning the Eidolons cost 3 TP which are points that you slowly build up through battles, TP can also be used for abilities such as Renew and Quake. Once an Eidolon is summoned it fights alongside the summoning character, it usually has a pretty powerful move set and never fails to protect the summoner, it has a time meter which counts down to how long it can remain fighting, as it gets attacked the time meter goes down faster. It can usually hang around for about 20 to 30 seconds, after this it will switch to ‘Gestalt Mode’ in which it robotically transforms into a vehicle or something similar, from here you can select moves to use as your eidolon runs over enemies, it is pretty powerful at this stage. The Eidolons are very useful early on, but you’ll find that the further you go the less useful they become, even though they are supposed to level with you, they are always good for desperate times in which you need to restore your entire party.

Save points are found very generously throughout the game and give you access to shopping and upgrading. The shops sell basic items such as Potions and Phoenix Down’s, as well as weapons and items to upgrade weapons. To upgrade weapons you can use… well, almost anything. Defeating enemies gains you different items that you can either sell or use on your weapons, most of them are worth very little but are useful in weapon building, the very annoying thing about this system is that as you use different items to build some will change the speed of upgrading, you’ll just be randomly shoving everything in and it will say “Upgrade Speed 0.5x” which means it has been halved, it is impossible to keep on top of since there are hundreds of components, you simply can’t remember which ones are secretly evil.

Once you have maxed out your weapon it will need a special item to evolve into its next stage, these special items are usually very hard to find or cost a fortune, fair enough though, I expect that from a JRPG. What IS irritating is that you don’t find any of the best weapons until way later in the game, this means you have the choice of upgrading your average weapons at the beginning or waiting a long time until you can upgrade the best weapon into some sort of super weapon, you’ll have an easier time at first if you upgrade straight away, but you’ll miss out in the end. Overall I’d say the weapon system is a basic idea with pretty huge flaws, it’s pretty shitty, in translation.

The actual characters level up through the ‘Crystarium System’, it sounds fancy and extravagant but it is actually pretty basic. Each character has a Crystarium path for every Job role they have unlocked and they can follow it using CP points which are gained from battles, the paths are like the sphere grid, only about a million times more linear. You basically only have one way to go, running into nodes which unlock everything, they improve your HP or strength or magic or give you an ability, but there aren’t any real branching paths, occasionally there are crevices which you can either go into or ignore and continue down the main route. It’s not amazing but there isn’t much to complain about, it is a solid way of levelling your character so I was happy enough with it.

I would call the presentation of Final Fantasy XIII a huge technological feat, it’s amazing what it has accomplished, it may as well be using live action footage with the best CG hollywood can buy. Every single movement the characters or monsters do feel completely natural, it isn’t over or underplayed, mix this with excellent voice acting and you have characters and a world that pull me into total illusion, I forget they aren’t real or that I’m even playing a video game, all this stuff just simply is, and no other game has ever fully done this for me before.

The Battles look amazing too, they aren’t the typical ‘run into an enemy and hit it’ animations that we are all so used to seeing, they are directed in the way of a CG movie, they fling themselves in the air and perform all sorts of acrobatics around the field, and it has complete and total natural transitions, there hasn’t been a moment when the character looked out of place, and that is what is keeping me from being snapped out of the illusion.

Cutscnes are very frequent, they’ve shoved one in at every available chance and sometimes it can just seem excessive and annoying, for instance you may simply be walking to another area and a cutscene will decide to show Vanille gasping slightly as the camera pans around the room, I don’t need to see that okay? It’s just irritating when its at random and you have to have those 5 or 10 seconds of pause. Most cutscenes are important and story related though, they are incredibly well done, I have to say they are directed better than a lot of movies I have seen, the game has shown video game cutscenes an entirely new level.

The game is split into two halves, the first half is spent on Cocoon and the second half is on Pulse. Cocoon, as you’ve probably heard, is completely linear. In a lot of games you don’t really have a choice about where you’re going, you have to go from here to here and then from there to over there, but this is a bit ridiculous by even those standards. If you look at the map it is literally just a straight line with a few crevices full of items, walk the line for the first 30 hours of the game and then you can land on Pulse. I do understand where the developers were coming from with Cocoon’s design, the storyline is so heavy that I guess they just wanted half of the game to be linear so the storyline can progress easily, but you can’t go anywhere except forward, it is taking it way too far.

Pulse is the exact opposite, it is HUGE. There are many places to go, many places to grind if you want to continue the storyline, but the big attraction at Pulse is the ‘Marks’, these are extra missions that require you to defeat certain enemies, similar to the hunts of Final Fantasy XII. These are actually very fun, the only downside is that you’ll have to do A LOT of running, there are chocobos which aren’t unlocked for a while (for some reason, I guess SE thought it would be a good idea to keep the player walking for miles?) and they are pretty hard to find, they also keep the annoying quality of running away whenever you dismount.

8/10

This is the hardest score I have ever had to give, I’m still not sure about it. There are some things about Final Fantasy XIII that I absolutely loved, I really enjoyed the plot, I though it was fantastically written and had some amazing twists and turns, with a satisfying ending. It was presented as well as any game possibly could be, and it contained a very interesting setting and lore, I was completely pulled into the world. However, the gameplay side of it was a very mixed bag and in some ways very disappointing, so I just can’t give it too high of a score.

I don’t know if I would recommend this to someone or not, I’d say try it from a friend and see if you can get into it, I wouldn’t be surprised if you despised it though. I like it a lot and I’m glad I played it all the way through. In my opinion, storyline wise it is a worthy Final Fantasy title, but gameplay wise it just isn’t.

Thank you for reading =)

Early Impressions of Final Fantasy V

2011-07-13T17:55:00.001+01:00

Hey guys just a quick update from me, thought it would be a good idea to show people that this blog isn’t actually dead.

I’m definitely not what you would call a retro gamer, almost all my gaming experience is from this and the past 2 generations, so it definitely feels a little odd playing such an old game, and it’s not just that its old, gaming has changed a lot in these years, people expect a lot more, so I just didn’t know what to expect, would it still be Final Fantasy?

(Click Here to Read)

I’m kind of torn about the plot so far, it has definitely seemed a little fin in comparison the later FF’s, basically the main character (with zero backstory) finds a couple of randoms who insist on going to the wind shrine, one wants to go because her father went and never returned, and one has amnesia (It has to be said, I hate ‘Amnesia’ plot element). The crystal in the wind shrine shatters , which causes all the wind in the world to cease, essentially destroying that element, and the heroes realise they must fly to the other shrines in the world to save the elements of Water, Fire and Earth.

I like the set up because its a clear goal, we know what we are doing, unlike in say Final Fantasy VII where it seemed the characters were just wandering around for the sake of it, and it gives us a reason to want to save the crystals. It’s not just “Save this Crystal or the world will explode”, if the Crystals shatter we will see the individual elements of the world be wiped out, it’s very intriguing and I can’t wait to find out what happens, especially considering one has already been destroyed.

The characters are VERY “meh” at the moment, I couldn’t really care less about any of them, there is an interesting development with ‘Faris’ though.

I have found the battle system really fun so far, the game uses a changeable Job system a bit like X-2, only without the sailor moon sequences. You select which character trains as what job, there are no limitations, you can even mix the abilities, for instance I could train as a black mage and have black magic powers but then change to a knight and still use black magic (though it would be less effective). There is a good amount of skills and magic in the battle system for now, you get to use your brain and decide which is the best way to take out an enemy, but not to the point where its like “Okay well I have 25 abilities and each of them do ridiculous thing involving stats damage and field effects, what on earth am I to do?!?”.

I’m very much enjoying it so far, I’m having a good time exploring the world and evolving through the battle system, I only hope the characters become a little more interesting. I’ll be posting a Final Fantasy XIII review soon as I’ve just finished that, thanks for reading

I’m different

2011-06-27T18:25:00.001+01:00

Yes, I’m an Emo now, don’t judge me.

Well, not really, but I do like this new layout. The old one looked way too much like a Toy’s R Us store or something, so I kinda sent it straight in the other direction. The posts are much wider now, which means the pictures on future posts will be much bigger, and there will generally be bigger paragraphs.

It’s just an experiment though, for now. Do you like it? I’d LOVE for you to give a quick comment on your thoughts of it, don’t be afraid to absolutely slam it, I won’t cry (maybe).

Psyconauts review might be coming eventually, it’s a fun game if it wasn’t for the fact there is a cutscene every fucking 2 minutes! Seriously, what does this game think it is, Final Fantasy? Go DIAF Tim Shafer, you’re stories are mediocre to good at best.

Other than that (or, if that) their might not be many posts for a while, I’m at a really important stage in my life right now, It’s my first week of college (It’s a bridging week so technically its before the actual beginning) next Monday, it’s going to be the scariest week of my life so I don’t think I’ll have time to bang on about Video Games and Anime as much as I usually do.

I’ll be back soon enough though, in the mean time I’m using Tumblr to post randomness just in case anybody ~~(HAHA NOONE)~~ is interested in that?

Thanks for reading, see ya soon.

Mass Effect 2 Review

2011-06-24T02:27:00.001+01:00

Mass Effect 2 is probably the best game I’ve played in my life. It’s ambition and originality shows the game industry what video games could and should be. It’s been a while since I’ve played a game and thought to myself “Wow, the people who made this thing are truly talented”, it excels in every single area, which I had forgotten was possible, and doesn’t hold back on anything. It really achieves so much, and is probably the only game in recent years to have truly won my heart.

(Click Here to Read)

You have to be a relatively smart and creative person to enjoy Mass Effect to its fullest, the series is set 170 years in the future where humans have very recently entered the galactic community, they’ve discovered aliens and alien technology, it is a time of radical change.

The Alien species encountered are well varied and are each very unique: The Turians are a smart, strong and disciplined hard skinned race that has definitely met humanity on the wrong foot, but prove to be a valuable ally when needed. The Krogan are a ruthless, war addicted race with many internal problems, they aren’t to be messed with. Asari are a mono-gendered blue female race, they seek spirituality and fulfilment in the galaxy, living for up to 1000 years.

These are just three of the main races that are explored, I haven’t even mentioned the Hanar, Salarians, Quarians, Geth, Batarians or Drell. Each of these races have their own past, their own present, their own problems, their own strengths and weaknesses and their own way of thinking. It is an amazing galaxy, and one that I felt really lucky to explore in the depth that the game allowed me.

The story is an epic save-the-galaxy plot that follows on from the huge events of Mass Effect 1, it is almost entirely through the conversation system which allows you to talk to almost any character and ask them as many (or as little) questions as you want. If you’re the type of player who is interested in the lore then you can ask these people personal questions or questions about their race, this opens up new dimensions to the story and usually gives you better insight as to why certain things are happening. If you are the type of player who just wants to get things done then you can simply use these conversations as a debriefing, to find out what’s happening on the mission and what you can do about it.

The great thing is it’s entirely flexible, Mass Effect doesn’t rub its lore information all over your face, if you find out something interesting or secret about a character or situation then its because you chose too, Bioware understands that some players aren’t interested in this kind of stuff and it would feel uncomfortable to have it rammed down their throat, its really thoughtful and is a great example of how this game is how you make it.

If you want a taste of everything, like I did, then there is a hell of a lot to behold and as interesting as it gets, it can be very confusing, sometimes after a long and deep conversation with an important mission exclusive character there is a lot to get your head around and you just really need to check your journal to understand what on earth is happening. Heck, I did the entire of Jacob’s loyalty mission without knowing what on earth was going on. Their is a codex though, in case certain concepts completely baffle you, it spells it out neat and tidy. I like to call it the encyclopaedia of useless information, because it really is to be honest, the amount of detail but into every single little thing is insane but you can read about it all in the codex.

The game is as difficult as you want it to be, you get the choice of easy normal or hard, luckily this is not simply a case of selecting if you’re going to have to use more bullets to take down the enemies, I dislike difficulty systems when the “difficulty” comes from the bad guys having increased stats, its lazy and not fun whatsoever. In Mass Effect 2 increasing the difficulty will mean increasing the AI and giving the enemies more options in combat as well as more weapons.

The sad thing is though that there isn’t much enemy variation at all, it isn’t as bad as in Mass Effect 1, where literally 99.9% of everything you fight was a Geth and they had about three different forms, but you’ll still find yourself fighting the same enemies over and over and over and over until you just get sick of them. For the most part they never stop being a challenge but you still get the feeling that a much bigger enemy bestiary is needed.

Combat itself is pretty simple for the most part, but fun nonetheless. You go in a team of three, your character (Commander Shepard) and two squad team mates of your choice. You’ll spend most of the time behind cover, popping out when your health and shields have regenerated. You also have biotics, which are basically super powers that allow you to do such things like throw enemies into the air or destroy their shields or shoot them down in slow motion, these are fun as you can also control your team members biotics and sometimes you can pull of some interesting combos. The weapon system is simple but effective, you have five different types of weapons: Pistol, Shotgun, Assault Rifle, Sniper Rifle and Special, it isn’t just a matter of picking any old gun and shooting like crazy, they all play rather differently so chances are you’ll end up picking very carefully for different situations.

The game looks fantastic, in every sense, the models are extremely well done with no sticky-outy pixels, they made the textures in such a way that it feels like there are a lot of different materials in this game, you can generally tell if something is supposed to be metal or plastic just by looking at how it reflects the lighting, it all looks very realistic. The animation is truly a triumph, through the conversation system all the characters look extremely believable as they talk, the lip syncing is perfect every time, as is the way they move and express themselves, hand gestures, facial expressions, they’re all done perfectly which is VERY rare for a video game.

The game is so flexible, the way you progress through it is almost entirely up to you. You start with a beginning mission just to set up the story, and after that you get your own ship to command. The ‘Normandy’ is a ship you’ll probably be seeing a lot of, it’s where you get sent back to after every mission and its how your characters travel through the galaxy, so its basically the players home base. It feels like a wasted opportunity though because there really isn’t much to do, you can talk to your crew members and that’s all well and good, I love doing that, but they could have added a few games or fun stuff to do when your aboard, that would have been great since you are expected to spend so much time on there.

To navigate to new worlds you use the Galactic map system which has changed a bit since the first game. It is a map of the Milky way galaxy with several layers, the galaxy has many ‘Clusters’ which are groups of Star Systems, which of course, contain planets. All this means there is lots of zooming in and exploring to do, there are TONS of planets in total, not that there is much to do with most of them. There really is no point in exploring the galactic map, just go where the journal tells you to go, you aren’t going to find anything anywhere else, they got rid of the random planet exploration from Mass Effect 1 which is a real kick in the balls for me. I really loved that system because you could find interesting things anywhere. They have replaced this with a scanning system where you scan planets for certain types of mineral, it’s as fun as it sounds…

Crew members are a huge part of this game, much more than in Mass Effect 1 and probably a lot more than in Mass Effect 3, I guess it makes sense since this is the middle of the trilogy. They aren’t just random people that shoot beside you and that you can talk to on the Normandy, as in the first game, in this one you have to set out to recruit them which is a whole long mission of its own, the recruitment missions set up a scenario that show what the character is basically all about, what are they, what are they trying to do, why are they trying to do it, what special abilities do they have and what kind of personalities do they have, you’ll feel like you know them as soon as you recruit them which is nice. There are also Loyalty missions which is where your crew members have problems of their own and they need your help to go and sort it out, these character centred missions and stories are actually really interesting for the most part and always add a great amount of depth. If you still don’t like them after the recruitment mission, you’ll probably like them after the Loyalty mission, it means they aren’t just introduced and then forgotten about, they have a second chance.

None of the characters in the game are two-dimensional, they all have their fair share of pain and tragedy, and they all have their own way of thinking, it’s very much up to you if you agree with them or not, sometimes you’ll learn that someone on your crew has done something really horrible, and its up to you to decide whether its been justified or whether it was just malicious, either way you’ll never be bored talking to your crew members.

Your main character, Commander Shepard, is a void, waiting to be filled by you. You decide everything about the character, where they come from, past events that they have done, their gender, how they look, what abilities they have, what type of personality they have and most importantly, what decisions they make. You can choose what to say almost every single time Shepard opens his (or her) mouth, the amount of choice in what you say far surpasses any Japanese visual novel game, which I never thought I’d see. You can play the game as a complete goody two shoes, or a complete a-hole, it’s up to you and the game doesn’t punish you either way.

9/10

I don’t believe in giving any game a 10, because it leaves no room for improvement, but if I had to give one to some game it would be this one. Mass Effect 2 is quiet simply spectacular, it exceeds in every aspect, the story and setting are almost embarrassingly gripping, the gameplay and conversation systems are gripping.

If someone ever tells you that videogames aren’t art, take your copy of Mass Effect 2 and slap them across the face with it.

Bayonetta Review

2011-06-19T20:58:00.001+01:00

I’m going to be honest here, I don’t even know why I bought this game. I was sceptical from the start, from what I had saw of the gameplay footage, this was a game with mindless repetitive action and a boring two dimensional sexualised female protagonist. But something possessed me to pick it up of the shelves and take it home with me, and now, I’m really glad I did.

(Click Here to Read)

The game throws you right in on the deep end and never lets you go, don’t expect Bayonetta to be easy (unless you select easy mode I guess) and never expect to be able to mindlessly bash buttons through a certain area. Combat appears like Devil May Cry at first, you have three combat buttons, one for each type of attack you could do, but it is a much much quicker battle system, because of the dodge mechanic, you HAVE to keep on your toes at all times. The enemies aren’t pushovers, if they attack you then you’d better get out of their way, if you successfully dodge at the right time you are rewarded with ‘Witch Time’ which gives you the ability to do as much damage as you can before the super power ends.

No action hero is complete without a kick-ass arsenal. You can buy, find and earn all sorts of weapons throughout the game, and it really makes a difference when you choose something. It isn’t like some action games where if you buy a new weapon it just looks different and has slightly better power, a new weapon in Bayonetta will work entirely differently and will change combat completely, learning to utilise and mix and match all these different types is really fun and challenging and is a great way to make the battles feel more dynamic. Although just like in Devil May Cry, guns are still pretty much useless.

The combat not only plays amazing, it looks amazing, it manages to be fluid and cinematic at the same time which is a very hard thing for games to do. They got the animation perfect for this game, it feels completely realistic and yet completely stylistic at the same time, you can believe what you are seeing, even if it is Bayonetta conjuring up a giant scarab beetle made up of her hair, because it is animated so convincingly and never looks awkward.

Torture attacks are fun ways to show an enemy who’s boss, however it does mean you have to torture you thumbs bashing against the Y button for a while though, I don’t know why games insist on doing that these days but I wish they would just cut it out.

Boss battles are really a huge highlight for this game, they are really fun to do. To beat these giant monsters you’re going to have to do as much damage as possible and find a way to crawl up their face or place of weakness and tear them a new arsehole. You really get a feeling of how hugely powerful your character is when you completely pwn a creature the size of a building.

The one thing I would say is a bit awkward about the action is how abruptly it ends, this game isn’t a never-stopping rollercoaster of combat, it is broken up by cut scenes, this would usually be fine because a game’s gotta have a storyline, but this game is REALLY cutscene heavy and it doesn’t even have to be, this isn’t Final Fantasy, the plot isn’t even that complicated its just weird for the most part.

That isn’t to say I don’t like the storyline, but it isn’t fantastic, other than the main character it is pretty much mediocre in every aspect. The characters (other than Bayonetta) are very cliche and can get really boring, the story is hard to follow but even when you do have grips with it, nothing even makes compete sense, none of the concepts are fully explored and wrapped in a neat bow, we don’t know what makes any of these crazy concepts, Lumen Sages, Umbra Witches, tick, they could do and be absolutely anything because of how little we know them and that is what makes the plot so uninvolving.

It has its fair share of exciting moments I’ll give it that, but don’t but this game for the storyline.

The actual cinematics of the game are really good, especially when Bayonetta is battling, it is directed and choreographed fantastically and often you’ll find yourself just watching with your jaw wide open. The one thing that baffles me though, is that every so often the game decides it doesn’t want to show stuff in full cinematics anymore and creates a line of stills, this gives a sort of comicy effect which would be fine if the game was anything like that, but it isn’t, it is cinematic, so breaking it up like that is just depressing and comes across as lazy.

Let’s talk about Bayonetta herself for a bit, like I said concepts in this game are very loose so forgive me if I am a bit vague, she is basically a “Witch” who woke up from a coffin in a lake 20 years ago, nobody knows who she is or why she exists, even herself, all she knows is that she has made a deal with the devil (or something like that) that she has to sacrifice so many angels a week so she doesn’t get dragged down to hell.

Her design is very unique and very weird looking, but in a good way. She had guns attached to her wrists and used as heels, which means she can kick you and shoot you in the face with the same leg movement, her costume is made out of her hair (y’no, cos she’s magic and all that) and she wears a very stylish, though useless, pair of Ultraneko glasses.

She stars of the game is a very cool kick-ass beat-em-up-don’t-give-a-shit type of action hero. She seems pretty invincible and unbreakable, she also seems like she doesn’t really have a human heart, but as the story progresses we see her face emotional trials and she has to decide what is important to her, this character progression is done so gradually, so flawlessly, that it’s hard to see that it is even happening if you aren’t paying attention.

Overall the combat is extremely fun, you can play it for hours and not get tired of it, its one of the most engaging battle systems I’ve ever played with. But other than the combat side of it there are a lot of extras to unlock. You have you’re basic healing items to buy, but if you get rich you can spend your money on huge bonuses such as activating Witch Power every time you get hit or having butterflies take damage for you, other extras include outfits (obviously) and special moves you can buy.

Mix all that content with the score system and you have great replay value, I didn’t mind going back and playing a few levels dressed in a kimono with some new special attacks and see how I faired against my previous score.

8/10

So freakin close to a 9, if the storyline was engaging as well then that is what I would have given it. Nevertheless, this is an extremely fun and entertaining game that will keep you busy for hours, if you enjoy action games such as God of War and Devil May Cry, you might just love this one even more.

(images courtesy of IGN)

Skyrim New pictures and Gameplay

2011-06-07T23:13:00.001+01:00

The New Gameplay Footage

~~HOLY FUCKING FUCK ME IN THE FACE!~~

Sorry, but I genuinely don’t think I have ever seen such impressive preview footage in my entire life, it just looks so, so… GUH.

Click the link below to see the HQ new screens, which are really awesome too, and to read my opinion on this new media and my excuse as to why the hell I haven’t been posting properly

(Arrghh… the superlative elude me!)

First of all, the graphics look great, I’m a person who definitely tends not to care about graphics but the great thing about this is that Elder Scrolls FINALLY has graphics that live up to the gameplay. In Oblivion they were nice in a technical way, but the human animation, and y’no, their faces, were just ugly, and it was distracting. That’s definitely gone in the sequel, nobody looks like they fell off a tree.

As far as I can see, they seem to have fixed everything that I could have complained about in Oblivion, and judging from the new information everything is a lot more natural now, which means its going to be a blast to do all those Elder Scrolls things without the awkwardness of the past games.

Every Elder Scrolls player has a style, not necessarily a fixed style but a style nonetheless, I for example am always a thief. I am constantly pickpocketing people who look rich, one of my favourite things to do is to break into people houses at night, sneak around whilst they are asleep trying not to wake them, and steal all their valuables which I sell to make big bucks. To me, this is like eternally entertaining, I’ll do it for hours, but to other players they would probably think that is boring as hell.

So that’s the thing about Elder Scrolls, you can do whatever you want, you don’t have to do this or that, the game doesn’t make you do anything and it doesn’t stop you from doing anything. If you wanna clear every dungeon in the game go ahead and do it, if you don’t want to enter a dungeon once, fine. It is such a rare and unique thing, I honestly can’t think of another series that does this, and that’s what makes it so unique to me.

They’re continuing this in the sequel, and every aspect looks amazing, I can’t wait to sink my teeth into all of these new possibilities.

The combat footage from the gameplay looks fantastic, it is so fluid and it is so natural looking, it just makes you realise how clunky the battling in Oblivion was. I love all the enemies I have seen so far, the Mammoths and Dragons look hugely threatening, they are big and dangerous and not something you can just mash with a sword. Dragon calls look awesome, definitely a good way to keep the combat fresh and interesting.

This is getting to the point of torture Bethesda, I hope you don’t release any new footage until the game is released, because I don’t think my heart can take such a beating, my blood pressure is already through the roof just from these pictures. Getting serious ~~mental~~ health problems, this is going to be the longest 3 months of my life.

Thanks for reading my bullshit opinion

Note

I realize this blog is going a little news focused, but I swear that is just a faze. I am definitely going to get back to posting the things I care about, which is my recaps and my reviews, they are super fun to do, but like I mentioned before, it is getting a bit slow recently.

In my defence, it has just been the most news-full E3 in years, although to me the only things I give two shits about are Skyrim and Tomb Raider (and maybe that new Wii thing).

I’m working on a Clannad recap (as I constantly am) and also probably going to review a game, but I won’t say the name of the game, it’s bad luck, whenever I say I am going to do something on my blog, I don’t do it.

Tomb Raider Trailer – HQ Screens

2011-06-03T12:53:00.001+01:00

I’ve been excited for this reboot ever since it was announced, it is the perfect direction for the series. The spectacular E3 trailer certainly didn’t disappoint, it might be some of the best CG graphics I have ever seen. To read my opinion on how the reboot handles Lara Croft’s sexuality and emotional situation, click here.

To View this full post for the screenshots click below.

(HQ Goodness)

(Click Images to view full size)

Definitely an epic trailer, I loved everything about it. The only thing I can say is, Lara’s voice is… well… very different to how it’s ever been before, and I don’t really like it. I’m sure I’ll get use to it though, but for now it’s creeping me out hearing Lara talk like that, especially since I’m British and have never heard that kind of accent in my life.

First Screenshots of Final Fantasy XIII-2

2011-06-02T18:34:00.001+01:00

Holy Crap!

The Synopsis (XIII Spoilers): "Set a few years after Lightning and the others saved Cocoon, some survivors have decided to start over by rebuilding on Gran Pulse. Lightning, however, is nowhere to be found and thought dead by many, but Serah believes otherwise. When her town is suddenly overrun by monsters, a mysterious man named Noel appears to save her. Together, the two set off to find Lightning..."

Screenshots Below:

(Click Images to Enlarge)

Battle system looks largely the same, and is that Auto-Battle I see making a return? Jesus Christ, you’d think they would learn from their mistakes. Also, Serah I don’t really fancy playing as you, sorry.

This could still be good, who knows? The premise sounds interesting.

Rayman Origins looks amazing!

2011-06-02T18:22:00.001+01:00

Seriously, wow.

The Rayman series is definitely an odd one, in terms of quality, the first two were fantastic, but the rest were arguable (Raving Rabbids? Fuck off.) but the weirdest thing about the franchise to me is the lack of continuity. It seems like with every game the developers pretty much say “balls to what we did last time”, the characters change completely, entire concepts disappear, and the gameplay is hugely different every single time, each Rayman game is unique and this one definitely seems to be following suit.

The thing is, although the art is fantastic, when I look at it I’m not sure how fun this will even be to play. I’ve played enough games where you run, punch, jump and swim thank you, so unless I see any outstanding (not aesthetic) features, I might not even bother with this. What do you think?

Technorati Tags: Rayman Origins,Rayman origins screens,rayman origins screenshots,rayman origins new screenshots

Everyone Sucks but Me

2011-06-01T23:20:00.001+01:00

Hi, I’m not stoned in that picture or anything.

Okay guys, I really need your help, basically, I am running out of things to do for this blog at the moment. That isn’t to say this blog is in any kind of dire danger, it will still stay up, butttt for the mean time I don’t really have anything planned. The Clannad recaps take literally forever and I’m not really playing any reviewable games right now. So first of all, suggestions? I play pretty much any type of video game, but there is so much choice these days, if there is a game or anime with outstanding features that you think I would like, please leave a comment :)

I’d love to hire some people to help out with the blog whenever they want, post reviews and such, or even short recaps, anyone interested in Anime or Video games and that has something to say should contact me at my email address (found on my profile).

I’d really appreciate it, thanks for reading.

Trxd

Top 10 Video Game music

10. Lavender Town (Pokemon Red/Blue)

9. Tomb Raider Legend Main Theme

8. Walking Through the Night (Clock Tower 3)

7. Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness Main Theme

6. Aerith’s Theme (Final Fantasy VII)

5. The Origin (Zone Of The Enders)

4. Kiss Me Sunlights

3. Tomb Raider Main Theme

2. Don’t Cry Jennifer (Clock Tower: The First Fear)

1. To Zanarkand (Final Fantasy X)

Honourable Mention:

The Spyro trilogy

Happy Holidays!

Clannad Recap – Episode 5

8/10

Still alive…

Final Fantasy X going HD

(Early?!) Impressions of The Sims Social

Not dead yet

Blazblue is epic

I RETRACT MY PREVIOUS STATEMENT, OKAY?!

Early Impressions of Death Note

Nichijou was okay, I guess

Boku No Sora

Awesome Steam game alert: Audiosurf

Saints Row: The Third trailer

Final Fantasy XIII-3

Hiatus for College

You mean I’m on the Interwebs?!?

Retro Review: Final Fantasy VIII

8/ 10

Silent Hill HD 360 / Comparison Screenshots / New voice actors

Sony Playstation Gamescom Conference

Early Impressions of Final Fantasy VIII

Top 15 Anime Characters

15: Kero

14: Makoto Sawatari

13: Fuuko Ibuki

12: Naru Narusegawa

11: Noe Isurugi

10: Kyou Fujibayashi

9: Lucy

8: Tomoyo Daidouji

7: Konata Izumi

6: Tomoya Okazaki

5: Haruhi Suzumiya

4: Ushio Furukawa

3: Sakura Kinomoto

2: Yuki Nagato

1: Nagisa Furukawa

Top 10 RPG’s

10. Fable 2

9. Final Fantasy X-2

8. Mass Effect

7. Lost Odyssey

6. Chrono Trigger

5. Final Fantasy V

4. Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

3. Mass Effect 2

2. Final Fantasy VII

1. Final Fantasy X

Honourable Mention:

Final Fantasy XIII

Final Fantasy XIII Review

8/10

Early Impressions of Final Fantasy V

I’m different

Mass Effect 2 Review

9/10

Bayonetta Review

8/10

(images courtesy of IGN)

Skyrim New pictures and Gameplay

Note

Tomb Raider Trailer – HQ Screens

First Screenshots of Final Fantasy XIII-2

Rayman Origins looks amazing!

Everyone Sucks but Me