Gamer--freakz

So you all will probably have been wondering about what I think about Persona 4 Arena (the english name of the game for Ultimate in Mayonaka arena). Being such a huge persona fan and the fact that there have already been numerous updates, why haven't I posted anything? Well there is actually no need for me to post anything about Persona 4 Arena, because without a doubt...

It will be awesome.

That's right, when they first announced Persona 4 Arena I was already nuts about it. As updates went by about character reveals and gameplay mechanics, I didn't give them a lot of thought, not like for Marvel vs Capcom 3. The game is already shaping up to be amazing. The fighting mechanics are developed by Arc system works, the guys behind Blazblue. To me Blazblue had the best fighting mechanics amongst most of the modern day fighting games. It may not be as easy to pick up as Marvel 3, but its definitely more satisfying when you master it. I have high hopes for Persona 4 Arena, and I do not think it will disappoint.

The game includes characters from both Persona 3 and Persona 4. I have played Persona 3, Persona 3:Fes, Persona 3 portable, Persona 4 (cleared it twice) and watched the Persona 4 animation. Needless to say I am a huge persona fan, and I am super hyped for this. The character cast looks to be quite awesome as of now. The entire persona 4 cast is here (I'm still hoping for Adachi or Izanami) and from Persona 3 we have Aigis, Mitsuru, Akihiko and Elizabeth. Labrys, a character from the Persona 3 drama CD, also makes her appearance as a playable character.

The character list may be not complete yet, but I am hoping for a few more from the Persona 3 side. Minato could be the final boss or something, and adding Yukari or Ken will make my day. Still, if this is the final list, I won't complain, because I already found a ton of characters I would love to use. 

Elizabeth will be my top pick. Not only is she the boss in the arcade version, she looks so badass. In a way, she reminds be of Rachel in blazblue. She is powerful as heck, and when she loses a match, its like shes just sitting there looking pretty, instead of writhing in pain like every other character. Her persona is freaking thanatos, one of the main badass personas of persona 3.

Elizabeth is a badass addition to the game, and she is definitely my day 1 main. In addition to style and beauty her posture and fighting method is too awesome to overlook.  

Naoto is my next pick. Being my favorite girl from persona 4, it should be obvious that I would want to use her badly. She looks to be the speedy kind, and seems to be fun to play. While everything about her looks good, I totally wish she has an alternate costume of her in a female school uniform, that would be so moe! Naoto would probably be my sub main.

I don't want to go on for too long, but here's my point. Persona 4 Arena will be awesome, bet on it. If its not, something must have went terribly wrong. Alright, that's it for this post, really looking forward to Persona 4 Arena!

Gamespot score: n/a

My score:7.2

(+)Pros:-3 games in one,-Gundemonium recollection and Gundeadligne are fast, frantic and fun,- bullet hell action is over the top,-some ridiculous boss fights,-provides one hell of a challenge,-different playable characters with different playstyles.

(-)Cons:-Graphics don't look very polished,-happa64 is downright insane in terms of difficulty,-poor storytelling.

 

Gameplay time:Less than 10 hours

I love indie games for the PC. Games like super meat boy and Limbo always crack me up and get me all excited. Gundemonium collection isn't exactly the most popular of games, and when I picked it up, I didn't know what I was getting myself into. These 3 games are some of the most ridiculous, frantic and nonsensical games I have ever played..that is a good thing. While I never got into the bullet hell genre, this was quite the trip. While there are many things unimpressive about Gundemonium collection, it is still something that is undoubtedly fun and crazy to play.

There is a story going on, but its very minor and poorly told. It basically talks about a bunch of girls going on missions to stop the 7 sins from devouring the world. Its hard to grasp, and all story is told in text..plus they don't really go in depth. Each game has its own story of course, and Gundeadligne is the continuation to Gundemonium. Happa64 is just a "spinoff" game.

Gameplay in Gundemonium  recollection and Gundeadligne is simple and fairly similar. Basically you pick a character (each having different playstyles), and go on the game's basic campaign, depending on what difficulty you choose. Both Gundemonium and Gundeadligne are fast paced, frantic and fun. Enemies fill the screen, jamming your screen with projectiles, bullets and obstacles of all kinds. The objective of the games are similar, you just kill all that stand in your way, get to a boss, kill it, rinse and repeat until you face the level's true boss. This is also the case with Happa64, though in happa64, its more like a retro style plane game, where you pilot your character left and right instead of up and down.

Of course you are allowed to imply various special moves varying on your character. You can stop time or fire at rapid speeds, switch weapons, charge shots and many more. Plus, the most important thing in bullet hell games, the bomb. Since you die in one bullet, and bullets fill up 90% of the screen majority of the time, the bomb is your insurance. Bombs clear all bullets on screen, and deal massive damage to your enemies. The games becomes intense when you are fighting bosses or swarms of enemies filling up your screen with dangerous hazards, then clearing them all with a bomb saves your ass and gets you right back to the fight. Still, bombs are limited, and spamming them will only lead to your certain demise.

In these 3 games (or any bullet hell game), dodging bullets is key to your survival. And since bullets are filling up your screen all the time, it soon becomes intense and over the top. Dodging waves of bullets, decapitating enemies, and living through without dieing is a satisfying experience. As levels get more challenging and you actually start getting game overs, the experience only gets better. Same goes to the bosses. While some of the mini bosses die almost instantly, the real bosses of the game are insane and incredibly fun to fight. Most have multiple forms, and they generate bullets faster than any of the minions you have faced. They are crazy as hell, but nonetheless, they are good fun and are just part of the experience.

Its obvious that the graphics of the game don't looked very polished. For a remade collection in HD, I kind of expected more. The games look like old PS one classics. Another is the poor storytelling. This was already explained earlier. There is nothing more than occasional walls of text and in the ending, all we get are additional pictures to explain the ending scenarios (with text of course). The games felt like they had something going on, and its a shame that they explained the story so poorly. Lastly, Happa64. Happa64 is a masochist's game. Its so hard, its torture. Its on a whole different league from the other 2 games in the package, and I must say, I never finished it. ITS JUST TOO MUCH!

For a 3 in 1 package, Gundemonium collection is good. Gundemonium and Gundeadligne are good, frantic and fun games, but Happa64 is little too punishing for the likes of me to enjoy. Its a good choice to get this if you're a fan of the bullet hell genre, or if you're in for a good challenge, otherwise, this may not appeal to many others. Check it out if you want to taste what bullet hell games are like. 

  

Opening songs

OP 1-Ma ke se te tonight (Iori Nomizu)

Ending songs

ED 1-Kizuite Zombie-sama, Watashi wa Classmate Desu (Rie yamaguchi and manzo)

Genre: Comedy, Romance

Episodes:12

Due to my workload, I won't be having a lot of time to post anything that takes too long to write out, so bear with anime reviews for awhile since they are easy to cough up and take the least time to type out. So those who keep up with anime seasons should know that Kore wa zombie desuka 2 has been released. Nonetheless, its great, because you really cannot expect less when the first season is that awesome. Kore wa zombie desuke is a gem of an anime, and while it is just a harem, its over the top, its funny and it is absolutely insane. There is a "hint" of love involved, but its really not that big of a deal to turn into romance. Still, this is a kick-ass anime that should not be overlooked by any decent otaku.

To complement with the awesome anime, we have some awesome songs used in Kore wa zombie. The opening song is "Ma ke se te tonight", and its sang by Iori Nomizu (Haruna's seiyuu). Its an awesome tune, and it fits extremely well with the anime. Badass opening visuals make it all the more entertaining to watch. The ending's name is ridiculously long so I won't type it out. Basically its another cute-sy ending with a catchy tune, not as awesome as some I have heard in other animes, but its still good enough to put a smile on my face :).

Rating:8.5/10

Its not easy for me to like an anime that much, but Kore wa zombie made me adore it. Not only was it funny as hell, it has interesting characters, a cool setting and amazing character background stories. It was indeed a hell of a ride, and for the most part, the serious sections of the anime got me pumped up. The comedy is definitely top tier material as I laughed my ass off for the majority of the funny parts (not as godly as baka test though). With so much good content, its really hard not to like Kore wa zombie desuka, especially with such cute girls too :). PLUS, THERE IS A KANZAKI LOOKALIKE THAT GOES BY THE NAME SERASPHIM! Godlike. To top it off, this is one of the few harem types anime that has a likable main character.

Ayumu is your regular high school kid with a regular life. He likes it that way, however, there is a problem. Ayumu is a friggin zombie. He can't die, he regenerates every time he is cut up, banged by a car, or beat to a pulp. Yeap, that's the life of a zombie. How did he turn into a zombie? He befriended a nercomancer by the name of Eucliwood Hellscythe, and when he died, she revived him. Now she lives with Ayumu, leeching off him. One day though, he is confronted by a monster, and he is saved by a magical girl by the name of Haruno. Haruno is cheery, noisy and full of spunk. Due to complicated circumstances, Haruno saved Ayumu and lost her powers. Her powers now reside in Ayumu, and he becomes the next magical girl. Now a cross dressing magical girl zombie guy, Ayumu lives a life extreme misfortune, but is surrounded by cute girls in return!

Kore wa zombie desuka is a great watch. Season 2 is underway, and its great as well. For season 1 though, its a great anime filled with serious moments and extremely funny ones. Throw in some wonderful girls and you've got a crazy harem that is over the top insane. As I am now, I can easily Kore wa zombie desuka to anyone. As long as you've watched anime, you will love Kore wa zombie desuka.

Peace.

Opening songs

OP 1-Toki no Mukō Maboroshi no Sora (FictionJunction)

Ending songs

ED 1-Tsukishirube (Yuuka Nanri)

Genre:Horror, Mystery, Magic

Episodes:12

Confusing and boring stuff in anime always get to me. I'm actually okay with them as long as the following explanations or scenes provide some satisfaction, but in this case, Okami Kakushi does not. It attempts to give off a feeling of horror or mindf***ery, but completely fails to do so. It is boring in almost every aspect, and while final 1 or 2 episodes may be a little entertaining, it doesn't nearly make up for the shit we had to put up with. If you want something that can fk your mind up, Higurashi is for you, this doesn't even come CLOSE. Now this is what we call disappointing. I suggest giving yourself second thoughts, even if you're a fan of the horror/mystery genre, there are just better animes than this.

Despite me not liking the anime, the opening song is rather likable. While it is the only opening song to the anime, "Toki no Mukō Maboroshi no Sora" by FictonJunction is pretty kickass and since I have been quite a fan of FictionJunction's songs for quite a while now, this sounded pretty good to me. If only the anime was as good as the opening animations made it look like. The ending is yet again another song joining the ranks of the other songs not hitting my radar, so lets not go too in depth.

Rating:6.0/10

Yep, this pretty much says it, I do not like Okami Kakushi (as if my opening paragraph wasn't enough). Its boring, uninteresting and there is too little "action" going on it almost makes me want to pull my eyes out. Most of the anime is just needless explanations without much scenes to back it up. Gay interactions and retarded main character aside, there's not much to make this a likable anime. If they actually focused more on their actual "people disappearing act", it would have been SLIGHTLY more interesting. Whats there now is just boring, and not something I can recommend at the moment.

Hiroshi is your regular nerdy/cowardly loser of a boy. He is transferred to the rural village of Jogamachi because of his father's work as an occult researcher. There he is well received by the students of the school he just transferred to, and he does not know why. Not just the students, almost everyone accepts him, and life goes on as per normal. However, things go wrong as people start disappearing, and while that was the case, the others are acting just as though it did not happen...or are just desperately trying to cover something up. While he tries to ignore all these strange happenings, things start to get sticky as he is dragged into some village matters that would soon threaten his life.

Okami Kakushi has a good solid plot ground, but fails on its execution. It would have fared better if they focused more on what happened during the "action" scenes, like in the final few episodes. Sadly thats not the case. Its boring, and the final 2 good episodes aren't enough reward to cover everything. There is a fan service episode at the end which is pretty alright, but when it all boils down to it, Okami Kakushi just isn't interesting enough to hold its own.

Great Grey Wolf Sif

HP:3432

Skills: Sword swings, Sprinting lunge*, Uppercut clash, Spinning slash*

Souls:40000

Difficulty:3.5/5

Times dies on 1st play through: 5-ish

Its time again for another Dark souls boss profile! Following on our journey, after the Moonlight butterfly, I ventured deeper in the realm of Darkroot and found the Great Grey Wolf Sif. Now I was amused, this is actually a pretty cool looking boss, and the wolf DOES have the skill to back it up. She (yes its a girl) will slaughter all who are not used to her attack pattern, and those who underestimate her will pay dearly with their lives and souls. She is actually pretty tough, no joke. Sif is the 2nd and final boss of the Darkroot garden.

So Sif does not have alot of attacks, and she gets easy to read after a few attempts, but she can potentially kill you after landing 2 successful hits with her signature attacks. She does have quite a lot of HP, but she holds a hefty amount of souls. It'll take awhile to cut her down, especially if you don't have a good weapon (Drake sword of Dark knight weapons are good). Now lets get straight down to her attacks.

Sword swings- The least threatening of her attacks. She swings her swords a few times, forming a short combo. While these swings do decent damage, they are slow enough to dodge easily. You can block them as well.

Sprinting lunge*- One of her moves that always gets me. If you stray too far from her, she will sprint to you at an insane speed and lunge at you with her sword. This is supposedly unblockable, since I always get sent flying, and have died a few times to this attack. When you see this coming try to roll away, or even better, completely prevent her from using this by sticking close to her.

Uppercut slash- She swings her blade upwards and back flips away. This does little damage, and this is her "get away" tool when you are slashing her under her belly. Not much to worry about here.

Spinning slash*- Ah, the feared spinning slash. This is her signature move that gets many players. She puts her blade on the ground and spins twice in two full circles. Unless you have godly endurance, you will not be able to block both slashes and will take stupidly high damage. Its hard to see his coming because she pulls this off rather quickly, even more so than her other moves. Roll away, enough said.

Okay, so fighting her at this point is probably a bad idea, but I did it anyway. I died quite a few times, but not as much as I did during the bell gargoyles. There are to key points to take note of when fighting Sif. One is endurance, keep an eye out for stamina and see if you have enough to block for her next attack. If you don't dodge away and recover your stamina, since keeping your stamina UP is crucial for this battle. The second is to get under Sif at all times. When you are under her, you can hack away at her ankles without being in too much danger.

Of course, the problem is getting under her. She'll not sit there and let you run under her to chop her. Depending on what attack she does, you can either have this easy, or have it hard. If you approach her and she begins her sword swinging combo, you're in luck. Block or dodge the 1st hit, then go under her and hit her, you will have time to deal quite some damage before she finishes her combo. If she does spinning slash however...abort mission and roll away. 

Most people mistake her spinning slash animation for her sword swings, and get slaughtered as a result. The thing is, Sif's spinning slash does crazy good damage, and is virtually unblockable. If you are hit by it, you'll understand what I mean. One slash can easily cut down 1/2 of your health or more. Dodge the spinning slash, back off, and approach her to try again once she finishes that attack. Either way, once you hack her under her belly for awhile, she'll use uppercut slash to retreat. You'll probably be unharmed by this anyway, since you're under her.

Her other dangerous move, is the deadly sprinting lunge. This is another reason why you'll want to approach and stay close to Sif at all times. If you wander too far off, whether is it to heal or shoot projectiles, she'll sprint towards you and lunge in your face. Its unblockable (to me anyways), and it does crazy damage. Not to mention if she immediately catches you with spinning slash after the lunge, you can kiss yourself goodbye.

As you can probably tell, ranged attacks won't do you good (unless you have homing soul arrow, which you probably don't at this point), so stick to brawling up close like a man. Arrows are the worst choice for this fight. You have a big area to fight in, so don't worry about space constraint. Concentrate, get used to her patterns and take her down nice and slow. 

Note that once she gets exceptionally low, she starts to limp around. This means that her end is near! But don't relax yet, she can still very well kill you as she retains her spinning slash move! When she starts to limp, back off and heal abit just in case something stupid happens (her patterns tend to become a little unstable when she starts to limp). Wait for her to attack (it'll be slower than usual), and take her down. Well done, you have bested a powerful foe!

Overall, he is quite the boss. It'll take awhile to get used to his patterns, but when you do, its all a battle of reflex, and acting appropriately to whatever move he throws at you. This will be quite a fight no matter what method you choose to take him down, so best of luck to you! You get the covenant of Artorias for beating Sif, something you need later on in the game.

Peace for now!

Opening songs

OP 1-Now loading...Sky!(Sphere)

Ending songs

ED 1-Kokoro no Madobe night (Kana hanazawa)

ED 2-Omoide ga jama suru (Haruka tomatsu)

ED 3-Happy sunshine (Kanae ito)

EP 12 ED-Smile peace (Kana hanazawa, Haruka tomatsu, Kanae ito)

Genre:Comedy, Romance, Science fiction

Episodes:12

When it comes to anime, cat girls are an absolute necessity. Well I'm not really into the whole cat ear thing, but well, it can't really be helped since they are everywhere in anime. Asobi ni ikuyo looks like a high production anime with lots of effort put into it. The animations are pretty good, and the seiyuus are pretty popular. Visuals are top notch, and some CG scenes are done pretty well. Still, it all just boils down to a regular harem with cat girls thrown in, nothing special. At least the plot is not a complete throwaway like most harems, some scenes can be heartwarming or at least slightly touching. The comedy is there, but not entirely memorable as I don't remember laughing my ass off to anything particular in this anime. Well, if you like harem and cat ears, this is something you'll enjoy.

For such an anime, you can expect really really cute-sy songs that aren't epic at all (in other words, not something on my radar). That is the case with the endings, but the opening song is surprisingly not too bad. "Now loading...Sky!" is pretty catchy, and while it may not be too fast on the beats, it easily fits as an opening theme for an anime like this. The endings are sang by the respective seiyuus of the 3 heroines. The 1st ending is by kana hanazawa (Futaba), 2nd ending by Haruka tomatsu (Manami) and 3rd ending by Kanae ito (Eris). All 3 are unappealing and too seiyuu-ish for my likings. The combined effort for the final episode ending works well for the situation, but still not something I would listen to on a daily basis :X.

Rating:7.5/10

Well, I'll give Asobi ni ikuyo some credit. The plot is slighty better than most existing harems, and the fact that there  is still no REAL romance involved makes me a sad panda. Sure, the love rivalry tension exists, but there is no real romance going on between the guy and the girl, and that's just fail on a romance basis! Well, no point whining. There are a bunch of funny characters, and the concept of cat people coming from space to make peace with humans is kinda different from what we usually see. The show also goes more in depth with the 3 heroines, which is good as we get to see character development. Aside from that, everything is just same old same old.

Kio is your typical otaku, stay-at-home kinda guy. There's absolutely nothing special about him, and he likes that. One day however, a discovers a cat girl, and she introduces herself as Eris. Eris is a curvy young women with a body any girl would kill for, but there's just one thing. Cat ears. Yep. Eris has cat ears, and she introduces herself as an alien from a distant planet known as Catia. It seems that she crash landed on her ship, but it was discovered. Speculations fly that an alien has disembarked on earth, and soon things esculate out of hand. Due to circumstances, the people of Catia land on earth, and before they knew it, humans had cat people living alongside them...and it just to happens that the Catia girls use Kio's home as their base of operations. Harem time.....

To me, Asobi ni ikuyo isn't anything too special. Being funny is one thing, but it doesn't go over the top with that. The focus on only 3 heroines (instead of like 5 or 6) really helped , seeing more of the tension between Manami and Futuba is sometimes interesting and gives the anime some much needed serious moments. Still, the conclusion is super cliche and that's another point that drags Asobi ni ikuyo down. If you do like harems and cat ears (I recommend this if you found Nyan koi enjoyable), this is one you can enjoy.

Gamespot score:7.5 (Good)

My score:7.8

(+)Pros:-Solid story that keeps getting better and stretches into two parts,-interesting  overall theme,-nice visuals for a DS game,-lots of different areas give the game a lot more visual variety,-some interesting and funny characters,-tons of nice collectables,- some sidequests are fun and interesting,-cool puzzle elements,-epic conclusion.

(-)Cons:-Battle is too simplistic and doesn't evolve until much later in the game,-sometimes sidequests bog down the game's pace,-no challenge at all.

Gameplay time:10-20 hours

Okay, so Solatorbo isn't perfect. Its a strange game with its own flaws, but I love it. Yes, Solatorobo:Red the Hunter is a strange game indeed, but in a good way. Its unique, unlike anything I have ever played (the closest thing is Tron bonne on the PS1)/. Its solid story, interesting theme and lovable characters make it a game I never regretted playing. Like monster tale, you can't judge a book by its cover. While Solatorobo looks like a stupid animal game up front, its something that I won't be forgetting soon....and definitely something I won't ever regret playing.

There are some things that make Solatorobo so likable. The story is one thing, but the overall theme and characters add to the goodness. The whole game revolving around this world of beast kin is a nice change of pace. It might look kiddy and unappealing, but when you're in the game you will grow to appreciate it. The characters are also worth mentioning. Its hard to find someone I actually hate (other than the trio of losers), Elh and Red get insane character development, and even minor characters from sidequests get interesting enough that we might actually LISTEN to their back stories. Solatorobo really did the story and settings well.....and it even goes all out with their characters. A very good effort!

The gameplay and combat is simple. You go around towns and islands, and each one of them has a quest broker (all the quest brokers are Flo, don't ask me why). You accept sidequests or story quests there, complete them and the story progresses. Sometimes if you haven't done enough sidequests, the main story quest won't show up. Its not too bad though, since the sidequests actually FEEL like they have some story to them, not like in other games like Tales of the world, where you only kill or collect stuff. The sidequests here introduce their own characters and stories, boasting unique objectives unlike other games. Its always interesting to see a quest from the same client, as they will actually remember you, and doing more quests with the same client builds his/her friendship with Red, and future quests from them become more fruitful.

Some times during these quests (okay I lied, most of the time), you will have to fight. Combat is simple, basically you grab enemies, pick them up, and throw them. You can also throw other objects at them for damage. Picking stronger enemies up require more force, by rapidly tapping the grab button, your further increase your grabbing strength. This can be further enhanced by upgrading your robot with buy able and collectable parts. Easy right? You can do this to the many varieties of enemies in the game... though that's not saying much, there are other games with better monster variety. This game however, does have a nice variety of areas to visit. Ranging from floating junk islands to forest islands, there is a good lot of visual variety.

Another nice thing about the game is the simple puzzle elements it has going. You'll spend an equal amount of time tossing your enemies as much as solving puzzles. While these aren't terribly difficult, its actually more interesting to have them around. Lifting objects, pushing buttons and finding keys...you name them, Solatorobo throws them at you. Of course some of the more tedious and annoying puzzles aren't compulsory, but they net you nice collectables. Like tune points for making music, or missing picture pieces to complete existing ones (my favorite). By the way the collectable art in this game is awesome, I actually went out of my way to find a guide and locate all those pieces.

Unfortunately its easy to find flaws in this game, and one of them is the battle system. For something with such an epic story, its saddening that the combat is so stupidly simple. For a majority of the game its just lifting and throwing, and that is just sad. I expected more, like a skill tree or something. It gets better much later in the game, but that's not saying much as they only give you a couple of new moves. Another thing is the sidequests. I said earlier than you have to do some sidequests for the story quest to open up, this gets annoying towards the end of the game, where the world is about to end. I mean, HELLO?! I got a world to save, and you want me to run errands? DAMMIT FLO! This totally ruins the moment. Oh yes, and lets not forget that the game is stupidly easy. Not gonna lie, I didn't even die once...THE WHOLE GAME. I lost a couple of coliseum matches, but meh (come on, winning without jumping? Without getting hit once?).

The verdict? Solatorobo:Red the Hunter is an easy buy for casual gamers. The steady pacing is good, and the story is something to look forward to. Most of the game is easily likable, but it has no challenge and the combat is far to simplistic for my tastes. Still, Solatorobo:Red the Hunter is a gem of a game, unlike anything I have ever played. If you want a change of pace, this is the game for you.

 

Opening songs

OP 1-Brave your truth (Daisy x Daisy)

Ending songs

ED 1-Yasashii uso (Chrome shelled)

ED 2-Ai no Zuellni (Chrome shelled)

Genre:Action, Fantasy, Science fiction

Episodes:24

Sorry for not posting during the previous few days, I'm afraid school work and laziness are piling in....I'll try to get back to regular posting intervals, but until then, bear with me if I'm posting lesser than usual. For today we have an anime with one of the best settings ever made. Chrome Shelled Regios has an interesting premise. I loved the world it took place in, and it was intriguing from start to finish. It had great characters and superb combat scenes....plus big ass monsters! It was truly a treat to get this anime started, but the further the story advanced, the more of a pain it became to watch it. Basically they threw a whole lot of shit at once to us viewers to digest, which was not a good idea since during that period of the anime, the action became more scarce. Nevertheless you're going to get a good time out of Chrome Shelled, just do not expect it be consistent throughout.

The opening song is  great, truly a song worthy of the anime. It was so good it made me actually look up Daisy x Daisy for more songs. "Brave your truth" is a solid opening theme, and it has great opening animations to back it up. Every time I listen to this I cannot help but feel moving my body to the groove...yes, its that good. Still Daisy x Daisy's more recent song, Bouei no Honou is much better, nothing from her discography stands up to that. The ending songs are, once again, slow and uninteresting. Both are by a fictional band Chrome shelled, and they throw in the seiyuus of Nina, Felli and Leerin once in awhile to mix it up, having them sing the endings.

Rating:7.5/10

It deserved more, it really did. I loved the idea Chrome Shelled Regios had going, but it just fell too short. The premise was great, the idea of an academy city always gets me (Index/Railgun are still the winners of having a truly awesome city), and they even threw plenty of other cool shit. There were other cities and they would battle it out for territory, and there would be monsters that these schools would do their best to avoid. It was truly, a remarkable experience. I was actually okay with the black and white parts with english voices, but in the end, it felt like it was all pointless as they didn't explain much about it. There was too much left unanswered, and they ending was like a big slap in the face, telling us that a season 2 wouldn't be coming (I kinda spoiled a little, but fck it, it had to be addressed).

For the star of the show, we have Layfon Alsief as our protagonist. Layfon came to the academy city to look for a peaceful life to study mechanics. But upon his arrival amongst other freshmen, he spots two dite user students fighting it out during the opening ceremony. He decides to ignore it, but the destruction of the fight caused a pillar to come crashing down on a poor unarmed girl. Everyone expected her to get hurt as they all gasp in horror, but Layfon dashed in at the speed of light and saved her. With this, his cover was blown. He was immediately transfered to become a combat student, and was thrown into an indie squad, with a bunch of rejects without much teamwork. So begins Layfon's new school life, but little does his team know, that they had just recruited someone so powerful that he would change their lives.

Chromed Shelled Regios is a waste. If they actually did a good job explaining the many existing plot holes AND making a better ending, I would be recommending this to pretty much everyone (easily an 8.5 if that were the case). But what we have here is a half-explained anime, with a ending that pretty much crushed most of my hopes for this anime. The 1st half of the anime is awesome enough to save it, and the characters are so lovable you can't hate them (Layfon is a badass main character). Its a shame, Regios had the potential to be one of my favorite animes... but oh well. Still quite a good show though, do look into it if you're interested.

Opening songs

OP 1-One Life (The pillows)

OP 2-Instant music (The pillows)

OP 3-Happy Bivouac (The pillows)

OP 4-Runner's high (The pillows)

OP 5-Carnival (The pillows)

Ending songs

ED 1-Ride on shooting star (The pillows)

Genre:Comedy, Drama, Science fiction

Episodes:6

Okay, so I'm probably going to get hated for this shit, but I don't care. Seeing as how well FLCL is received all around the world, I am probably in the minority. This is a stupid show. Crazy, but stupid. 99% of the time you have no freaking idea what the hell is going on, and watching this at the current time is a bad idea. With the increasing standards of anime, watching something with such an  old visual style only made the experience less appealing. It may not be total garbage, but its really not something people would want to watch nowadays. Plus, it only has 6 episodes, how are you going us to understand the shitload of stuff going on in 6 episodes? 

Okay, so I wasn't aware this had opening songs, so I went to listen to all of them again on youtube. I'll be honest, I'm not a fan. I didn't go to listen to the songs over and over again just to get a feel of them. Its the same with the ending, since they are all by the same band, "The pillows". Not my style, probably more fit for some who like more old school music.

Rating:6.0/10

I said it before, I did not enjoy FLCL. Its probably lower in my scale than stuff like "Rio-Rainbow gate" or "Ladies vs Butlers". But, since it has some insane scenes, I'll just leave it as below average (anything below a 7 in my scale is pretty much bad already). Some of the stuff going on can be mind blowingly crazy, and it can be kind of fun to watch. Still though, its pretty lame seeing an entire robot or monster pop out of a kid's forehead through an idiotic lump. And, I'm not gonna lie, the voicing is terrible. Other than maybe Haruko or Naota, the entire cast has voice acting so bad that's its almost hard to stand....

The story stars a young troubled kid as our star, and his name is Naota. Naota's brother up and left one day, and leaves his girlfriend behind, Mamimi. Mamimi, seeing something in Naota, starts to flirt with him everyday, and Naota still stupidly goes to see her everyday (out of pity I'm sure). However, shit gets real when a crazy girl by the name of Haruko knocks Naota on the head with her vespa. This causes a lump to grow on his head. Not long after that, a crazy space alien attacks, and the lump on Naota's head grows into a robot and starts to CLIMB OUT OF HIS FKING HEAD TO FIGHT THAT ALIEN. From then on, things get even more crazy as that robot lives in Naota's home and the lump on his head refuses to disappear. Crazy.....

Yeah, I do not like FLCL. The craziness of the anime is what saves it from failing epicly. With so much other anime out there nowadays, save yourself the trouble and skip this, go watch something else. BUT....if you want to see some insane mind blowing shit, go ahead and give this a go, its only 6 episodes. Chances are though, you'll be wasting your time.

Gamespot score:6.0(Fair)

My score:8.5

(+)Pros:-Tons of heroes to play,-frequently updated via patches (addition of heroes and gameplay changes),- addictive competitive gameplay,-3 gameplay modes,-interesting character designs,-does not force players to use real money to purchase stuff in game,-COMPLETELY FREE!

(-)Cons:-Stupidly imbalanced,-no way to penalize leavers of afkers in game other than to report them afterwards.

Gameplay time:Infinite

No posts in the previous 5 days, my bad. Been playing games like a boss lately, especially a new MMO I picked up, Battle of the Immortals. Enough about me though, on to today's game review! I'm sure I don't need to introduce much about League of Legends, its so stupidly popular that the playerbase is so insanely huge. I'm playing the asian server, under Garena. With millions of views with their patch previews on youtube, LoL is a game that is played by many around the world. Somewhat like a spinoff of DoTa, LoL is a moba styled game that features a huge cast of heroes to pick from and choose. The game obviously has its flaws (look up the complaints of some fans), but for now, lets get to it! Welcome to the summoner's rift!

League of Legends has a story, but I'm not too knowledgeable about it. Basically it talks about this place called Valaron, and its two major opposing factions, the Demacians, and the Noxians. The two factions are currently at war, and the league is claiming champions to their side so the two factions can battle it out the "easy way", by using champion representatives. Of course that doesn't mean that only champions from Demacia or Noxus are allowed, champions hailing from different parts around the world are soon taken and sent to the league to be representatives. Each character has his/her own lore, which is too much depth to go into. Look them up yourselves.

If you are familiar with DoTa, you will immediately be familiar with LoL. Basically 10 players form 2 teams of 5, and start at 2 opposing sides of the map. The map is spread into 3 lanes, and each team will split their team of  5 and send them separately. Most of the time its 2 to the top lane , 2 to the bottom lane and 1 to the mid. There are exceptions though, when the team has a jungler, its 1 top, 2 bottom, 1 mid and  1 to the jungle. All players' objectives are simple, push the entire lane via creeps, down towers, and make it to the enemy's base. There, you down their nexus, which is sort of like their "HQ". Doing that will claim victory for the team.

Of course its not as easy as it sounds, since each lane will have opposing heroes hampering your progress. Winning a game requires not only skill, but teamwork. Most teams have different roles, and these are most of the time filled out. A DPS carry (your regular right-clicking champ) , an AP carry (your aoe spellcaster), a tank (someone to tank, duh), a support (someone to heal and buff up the team) and an off-tank (someone who can take a good deal of damage and still dish out some decent hits themselves). Knowing your role is vital to a team composition, and its always a good team that wins, not a random group of solo kings.

Its extremely fun to play and try out different roles once in awhile, and its always tempting to just play another game to try out another hero. Speaking of heroes, there are currently 96 champions in the game...and that is obviously a huge number. Plus, most of them have awesome designs, both gameplay and look wise! Its completely impossible to try all of them at once, because you have to unlock these champions to use them permanently. You can pay real money, or keep playing games and earn IP, to slowly unlock them one by one. Of course there are free champion rotations every week, letting you try out some new guys if you haven't before. This is cool, as it doesn't force you to use real money to unlock the champions.

Not to mention, there are 2 other modes in the game, other than the more popular summoner's rift. There's the twisted treeline, a 3 v 3 map that applies the same rules as the summoner's rift, and dominion. Dominion is like a capture the flag mode, where both teams fight for 5 capture points. In dominion, both teams start with the same score, and if a team is leading in capture points, the opposing team's score will go down. Do this until a team's score reaches 0 to attain victory. This is a more fast paced mode, with players frantically running around trying to defend or attain capture points, but its a good change of pace from the summoner's rift.

The game has its flaws, and I have to agree with some of the fans that have been complaining...The game's balance. Yes I know its lame for me to say this but....come on. The game is pretty imbalanced, like it or not. Most new champions are pretty overpowered, and many of the right click champs are dominating the scene right now. Look at noct, the hell is with that stupid ghost?! Or fiora, going invulnerable and shit. Also, when a player leaves your game, you're pretty much screwed. There's no way to punish them other than to report them, because there is no way you're going to win a 4 v 5. If only we could use the leaver's gold or something.

League of Legends, as it is now, is a solid free to play Moba styled game. The great variety of heroes, frequent updates and many more make it a fun experience. The gamespot score is pretty low, because it used to be P2P, and there were much lesser heroes/content. Like it or not, League of Legends is great and it continues to show that with its huge playerbase. Not to mention I have been playing this since last year July, and am STILL playing it now.