Opening songs
OP 1 - Self producer (Minori Chihara)

Ending songs
ED 1 - Live-ru is LOVE-ru (Liliana sisters)

Genre: Comedy, Romance

Episodes: 12



Remember "Oreimo"? Remember "Kiss x Sis"? Man those were incest no matter how you look at it, can anime get any more far out than that? Unfortunately so, because here we have another anime related to incest. "OniAi", short version for "Onii-chan Dakedo Ai Sae Areba Kankei Nai yo ne"....which is ridiculously long. Well I'll start off by stating the similarities to other anime. "OniAi" is another romance/comedy harem anime....yeah, like we haven't seen enough of that. But you know, suckers like me like romance/cmedy animes, and as long as their funny, the girls are hot/likable, I'm all down for it. Fortunately, they are, or I'm just a mindless otaku, I don't know. If you like harems, you like laughing, you like hot girls, "OniAi" easily fits into your cup of tea, like most great harems.


I heard you liked some nyan

Most harems have pretty catchy songs to go with them, and "OniAi" is no different. The opening is "Self producer" by Minori Chihara (seiyuu of Ana), and its a very energetic song that fits very well with the overall theme of the anime. Its catchy as hell, and while it may not be among my preferred songs from her, it works well here and sounds great. The ending "Live-ru is LOVE-ru" by Liliana sisters, belongs to more more high pitched cutesy type of song, and while it is catchy to some extent, its not my cup of tea. I do like the starting though, because I always hum it when the ending theme plays.



Rating: 8.0/10



Its easy to dislike bad harems, but at the same time its hard to hate harems that are so damn good. Honestly, to me, harems only mean 2 things. The hotness/cuteness/likability of the girls in the anime, and whether or not it makes my ass laugh out loud. Romance is kind of a side thing, I'm too used to most harems actually not having any romance whatsoever, but of course, those who actually HAVE some romance in them will net me some extra like points. All the characters in "OniAi" on their own are already pretty damn cute, but the one that really boosts it all up is the little sister, because god she is one of the silliest anime little sisters I have seen and I LOVE IT. The rest are pretty awesome and funny as well but a little bit of them mostly scream as typical stereotypes. Not that stereotypes are bad, because tsundere is always awesome.



Well, f**k...

Himenokoji Akito is an average high school student living in the school dormitory. One day his sister, Himenokoji Akiko flies over to his high school, transferring there. She also states that she would be living in the dormitory as well. During their first night together, Akito remembers, his sister is a huge HUGE bro-con. That means she dotes on her brother and wants to have a romantic relationship with her. .......Whut. He remembers this when Akiko barges into his room with only a towel covering a body, screaming at him and asking him why he didn't peek on her when she was bathing. Akiko thinks that she is in a perfect situation since she is living alone with her brother, but things turn haywire quickly when 3 other girls join in the fun and start living in the dorm to keep a close eye on their sister-brother relationship. Here, we have a harem now!


There's no need to hype it up whatsoever, "OniAi" is just another harem you'd see anywhere with some really good characters. Many harem have good characters, but it takes an extra step to be really funny as well. Plus, whenever an anime tackles incest, you know some shit is going to go down. Just enjoy "OniAi" as it is, because even if you do not like harems, this shit is pretty funny.


Peace.

Almost every seiyuu is awesome, believe it. How can you say no to the talented people who breathe life into the characters we know and love? Well, here are some more seiyuus that I think are pretty damn awesome.



Maaya Sakamoto



Well, she's amazing, pretty f**king badass if you ask me. Like many seiyuus, she has this one default voice that she likes to use and just tones it up and down for various characters. I love that one voice, it somehow makes her characters strong and kind of cute/sexy at the same time. I'm talking about the voices she uses for Black rock shooter (BRS:The Game) and Aegis (Persona 3). She also has an upbeat voice for characters like Alisa (God eater) and Xiaoyu (Tekken). Her badass voice also strikes as rather fascinating with Lightning (Final Fantasy XIII) and Alphaard (CANAAN). Finally, she has a pseudo "ojou-sama" voice that fits for certain characters with a tint of cockiness, Morte (World Destruction), White rock shooter (BRS:The game), Shinobu (Nisemonogatari) and Rikako (Psycho pass).


Characters from left to right

1st row: Morte (World Destruction), Black Rock Shooter (Black Rock Shooter:The Game)

2nd row: Aigis (Persona 3), White Rock Shooter (Black Rock Shooter:The Game)

3rd row: Alisa (God Eater), Xiaoyu (Tekken), Shinobu (Monogatari series), Lightning (Final Fantasy XIII), Alphard (CANAAN), Rikako (Psycho Pass)



Tomokazu Sugita




Ownage. Sugita is pretty badass when it comes to his fierce, hot blooded voice that makes most of his characters sound really powerful. In my opinion he does GREAT voices for hot blooded powerful main characters and overwhelming, badass villains. He also has a laid back voice, which is good, but I pretty much prefer his stronger, deeper voices. Guys like Kyon (Haruhi Suzumiya), Munakata (K) and Mazuma (BRS:The game) all have his slightly more laid back voice. His badass characters are Gintoki (Gintama), Specter (Baccano), Joseph (Jojo's Bizarre Adventure 2012), the kickass Ragna (Blazblue) and the king of "Corpse Party", Kizami (Corpse Party).


Characters from left to right

1st row: Specter (Baccano), Kyon (The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya), Munakata (K) 

2nd row: Ragna (Blazblue), Kizami (Coprse Party series)

3rd row: Joseph (Jojo's Bizarre Adventure), Gintoki (Gintama), Mazuma (Black Rock Shooter:The Game)



Yuki Kaji




He has gotten pretty popular nowadays, no? All because of "Shingeki No Kyojin", that's for sure. I used to not like his voice, but well, I have come to like him now because he actually voices quite a few variety of characters. He's got his share of pussy characters that are scared and afraid of everything until they mature to become guys who actually DO something, guys like Hope (Final Fantasy XIII) and Shu (Guilty Crown). We've got the mainstay dudes in every anime like Haruaki (C3) and Subaru (Ro-Kyu-Bu!). Then we've got the nice guy Totsuka (K) and the pervy young man Issei (Highschool DxD) which I thought was done REALLY well. Finally, his big role, Eren (Shingeki No Kyojin), is probably one of his few attempts at a hot blooded, angry main character.


Characters from left to right

1st row: Hope (Final Fantasy XIII), Eren (Shingeki No Kyojin), Shu (Guilty Crown)

2nd row: Issei (Highschool DxD), Haruki (C3), Totsuka (K), Subaru (Ro-Kyu-Bu!)





Yoko Hikasa



Yoko Hikasa has some really good mature young lady/tsundere voices as a seiyuu. Or she can even be downright commanding depending on her character, but nevertheless, I love her seductive and her shy/flustered voices. Most of her characters are mature, but she can do really young characters too, like Saki (Ro-Kyu-Bu!). Tsundere? No problem bro, Houki (Infinite Stratos) is 100% tsundere and Seras (Kore wa Zombie desuka?) is a little bit of a tsundere too. Kayura (Hayate No Gotoku) is kind of a stubborn airhead, so there's that. Mio (K-on!) is super shy, and Shizu (BRS:The Game) is kind of commanding. However I like her seductive voice best, like Rias (Highschool DxD) and Erica (Campione).


Characters from left to right

1st row: Houki (Infinite Stratos), Mio (K-on!), Saki (Ro-Kyu-Bu!), Kayura (Hayate No Gotoku! Series)

2nd row: Seras (Kore Wa Zombie Desuka?), Rias (Highschool DxD), Erica (Campione), Shizu (Black Rock Shooter:The Game)




Nobuhiko Okamoto





Here you shall see, the amount of f**kery before your very eyes. Nobuhiko Okamoto voices probably one of my favorite anime characters of all time, f**king Accelerator (To aru Majutsu No Index), and while his blood-thirsty, demonic, psychotic combination of a voice is my absolute favorite, he can do a variety. Calm, pretty boys are no stranger to many male seiyuus, and he has done his share of them with Serge (Itsuka Tenma No Kurousagi), Kenji (Guilty Crown) and Tsukasa (Corpse Party). Then we have the regular mainstay main character types like Yoichi (Asu No Yoichi) and Yumeji (Yumekui Merry)...OR the derpy best friend with Daichi (Devil Survivor 2). He can also do shounen heroes, with the hot blooded stubborn type featuring Rin (Ao No Exorcist) and the cool, silent, anti-hero type with Layfon (Chrome Shelled Regios).


Characters from left to right

1st row: Sege (Itsuka Tenma No Kurousagi), Yoichi (Asu No Yoichi), Kenji (Guilty Crown), Yumeji (Yumekui Merry), Tsukasa (Corpse Party), Daichi (Devil Survivor 2)

2nd row: Rin (Ao No Exorcist), Accelerator (To Aru Majutsu No Index), Layfon (Chrome Shelled Regios)





Rina Satou




Oh god I love most the characters that Rina Satou voices. As with many seiyuus  she uses this voice range in which when you hear a character voiced by her, you'll go like "oh, its her!". Most importantly, she is the voice of the magnificent Misaka Mikoto (To Aru Kagaku No Railgun), which is already tsundere beyond all hell. She has her damsel in distress/troubled high school girl voice with Naomi (Corpse Party), Ange (Umineko) and Isanami (Brave10), though Ange has a tint of badassery in her. She can voice guys to a certain extent too, with Tatsukichi (MM!) to back it up. I probably like her laid back "Onee-san" voice the most though, with characters like Esty (Atelier Rorona/Meruru) and Shura (Ao No Exorcist).


Characters from left to right

1st row: Naomi (Corpse Party), Esty (Atelier Arland series)

2nd row: Tatsukichi (MM!), Ange (Umineko), Misaka (To Aru Kagaku No Railgun), Isana (Brave10), Shura (Ao No Exorcist)





Well...this probably isn't the end for the Seiyuu posts. I'll add a side section for it.

I'm bored, I'll just post whoever is hot now, virtual women are sexy anyway. Once again, story, personality and whatnot do not matter, its all about the sexiness.



The true beauty among the "Devil Survivor 2" cast.


Name: Makoto Sako
From: Shin megami tensei:Devil Survivor 2


No doubt about it, Makoto is hot. She has big boobs, but unfortunately most of the cast from "Devil Survivor 2" have some crazy big bust sizes so she isn't really in the top of the chart. HOWEVER, she is easily the sexiest of the entire "Devil Survivor 2" cast. The anime does a pretty horrible representation of her (guh, they pretty much rushed the entire to allow zero characterization), and the game is where its at, but Miyuki Sawashiro as her seiyuu is just too good. Imagine her with all her tsundere/flustered/embarrassed moments in game with Miyuki Sawashiro's voice.... NOOO anime, why you go in depth with the characters?!?



I'm sure there are no words needed.

Name: Eve
From: Needless


Eve has always been the mainstay sexy girl of "Needless", there's no doubt about it. Sure there are some really REALLY good contenders for this spot (Aruka, Setsuna come to mind), but Eve takes it. What's more is that in the anime they try to shove down so much sexy Eve moments into our throats, its hard to not take that into consideration. The way she drinks the energy drink for the first time looks super slutty, and then all of that drink just sprays onto her like a bunch of ***. Then she gets bondaged at the Simon HQ, gets brainwashed, gets groped by Setsuna, and wears a school uniform. Yeah, how isn't she hot again? The only thing that sort of brings down her sexy level, is the fact that she is retarded more than half of the time.




No, as much as I want to, I can't put hentai CG art here.


Name: Kosame
From: Hoshizora No Memoria


Well I did say that "Hoshizora No Memoria" has some pretty great H-scenes, I ain't lying one bit. Out of all the heroines, I'd say the mystery girl, Komomo and Kosame has the best ones, but the sexiest girl has to be Kosame, despite Komomo being constantly groped by her twin sister, Kosame still takes it. I have a thing for tsundere girls, but Kosame's calm demeanor only proved to be only for seductive during the H-scenes. And honestly, twin tails are kind of "meh" to me now, while both sisters have a great pair of knockers, I'll take Kosame any day. Plus, her route is more emotional in my opinion.



I'm sure many of you have read doujins.

Name: Yami
From: To Love Ru series


My god, the "To Love Ru" series is the pinnacle of harems around the world. The amount of girls in this anime is off the top, and of course, most of them are hot in their own way. Yami stands on the middle ground, without having big boobs or small boobs, she's kind of just there, which makes her hot in a way. She still leans on the smaller side, but she has probably the sexiest outfit of all the girls in the show. How she always says not to do "pervertic things" but always gets groped/molested by many things just makes it so seductively ironic.



Exclusive to anime only.


Name: Erica Blandeel
From: Campione


Erica is the main heroine in "Campione", and all main heroines have to be attractive somehow (either they sport an incredibly sexy body or end up being flat chested lolis). Just look at those knockers, Erica is a sexy, seductive young woman that gets drunk easily, likes to make out and fights like a true warrior. Her body is sexy beyond hell, which is pretty much expected nowadays with the over-emergence of busty heroines. See the first episode, having a first hand glimpse of Erica in her underwear while drunk lying on a bed is already more than enough sexiness.




Peace, till next time.


Opening songs
OP 1 - Endless story (Yukari Tamura)
OP 2 - Mon (Eri Kitamura)

Ending songs
ED 1 - Shirushi (Eri Kitamua)
ED 2 - Sympathy of love (Yukari Tamura)

Genre: Comedy, Fantasy, Psychological, Romance

Episodes:12



What happens when a loli in your everyday average harem/action anime is actually a mindf**ked little girl that wants to kill everything and everyone in sight. "C3" looked like a freaking highschool romance harem anime on sight, but I never knew what kind of dark, twisted shit I was getting myself into. The world of "C3" shares the same similarities as animes like "Macademi Wasshoi", "Omamori Himari" and even "Asura Cryin", but with heroines that may scare the crap out of you. Blood and violence behold, this anime is pretty different from a few others in its genre. However, for the sake of moe and because you need to watch something, all you otakus will probably flock to it like just any other anime.




Not all lolis are nice and adorable.

I have listened to so many anime openings that most of them sound so similar. "Endless Story" by Yukari Tamura (seiyuu of Fear) is a pretty average pop song you'd listen to in most animes for openings. It has a little bit of that Japanese cultural feel to it with the strings, but it doesn't do that very well and honestly it doesn't fit the theme with the anime. The first ending, "Shirushi" by Eri Kitamura (seiyuu of Kirika) is pretty slow and incredibly not suited for "my style", all the more so with the 2nd ending, "Sympathy of love" by Yukari Tamura. However, the 2nd opening, "Mon" by Eri Kitamura, is a great song, probably the best out of all songs used. It carries the same Japanese cultural feel that the first opening has, but it feels a lot more badass with the heavy rifts and overall rock feel.



Rating: 7.5/10



"C3" has some pretty cool stuff going for it. It's a little bit of a harem, and attempts to go for that really light hearted feel with the way most of the characters are. However, most of these characters also has a second side to them which makes them scary, unthinkable and sometimes just plain creepy. Its this switch between the 2 sides that make most of these characters really interesting. You may like one side of them, and the other side comes out during an intense battle scene and suddenly everything isn't all sunshine and rainbows anymore. "C3" is cool like that, and its also probably why I find it a little bit different compared to other animes in the same genre.



HAHA, MY WEAPON IS A RUBICK'S CUBE!

Haruaki is a cursed young man. He just wants to live his life normally, however his dad from overseas always sends useless antiques his way. These antiques are all cursed, and because his house has a natural ability to suck curses out of cursed objects, the antiques become nothing but useless junk. However, one day a antique was sent his way, and it was a gigantic cube. Thinking that it was another one of the regular junk that his father usually sends, he keeps it in the attic. However at night he sees a naked young girl in his kitchen yearning for food, and after some investigating he knows that the girl is the cube that got sent earlier in the day. Haruaki thinks nothing of her, but when she gets attacked by an unknown enemy, he jumps to her aid. This begins the relationship of Haruaki with Fear, the girl in the cube.


"C3" isn't as normal as you'd think. But because of that, I find that it's indifference is easily one of the sexier things I have seen in anime. I love some of the characters, and the visual style is also pretty good for what it is. Do not be fooled by the light-hearted cover art, "C3" is a lot more than your regular romance comedy harem anime.


Peace.

Thursday 20 June 2013

Corpse Party:Book Of Shadows

Gamespot Score: 7.0 (Good)

My Score: 7.5


(+)Pros: - Still pretty scary, - Deep alternate story that serves as great insight for the many interesting characters that we don't know much about, - Plenty of new interesting characters in addition to old ones, - Epilogue is a true sequel to "Blood Covered", - Deep puzzle sections that are well laid out for the new visual novel style play, - Bad ends can be strangely satisfying.

(-)Cons: - Only the epilogue is a sequel, and its annoying to get if you don't have a cleared save of the first game, - You won't know jack shit if you haven't played the first game, - A lot less "game" this time around.






Remember "Corpse Party"? Yeah, Xseed localized the sequel, f**k yes, respect to those cool dudes. "Corpse Party" is one of the scariest horror franchises around that actually circles around real horror and not just jump scares, pulling players in with its immersive characters and terror inflicting story. The context is just great, and the fact that made it themed with such great adventure/puzzle elements only made the experience more unforgettable. In "Corpse Party:Book Of Shadows", Team Griscris and 5pb decided to change the overall gameplay style into a more visual novel styled game, rather than an old school retro adventure. However, whether or not they changed the core gameplay, "Corpse Party:Book Of Shadows" still remains as an experience that'll keep your mind locked in horror for days after you complete it.



For the most part "Book Of Shadows" serves not as a proper sequel (until the very last bonus chapter), but as a bunch of fill-in-the blank "what-if" scenarios for many of the game's characters that we never got to see much of. It takes place during a bad ending of chapter 5 in the original game, where the entire cast gets thrown into a time loop where everything in the first game had to be repeated, but Satoshi remembers it all. You play as Naomi, as she and her friends get thrown into Heavenly Host after a series of dreadful events. Everything repeats itself just like it did in the first game, but Naomi suddenly regains her memory of what happened in the alternate timeline. Now in desperation, she tries to fix things to ways they should be.....



Choices still play a big role in the game.

As mentioned earlier, the gameplay took a drastic change. Instead of navigating your character around a map like in the first game, they made this sequel a lot more like an interactive visual novel experience, something similar to a game I really love "999:Nine Hours Nine Persons Nine Doors". However in "Book Of Shadows", you are thrown into a gigantic area filled with different maps and rooms, where you can choose to navigate BETWEEN the rooms (instead of the small area we are given "999" to do puzzles) to search for items. It makes travelling easier, but also changes up a lot of how the game is meant to be played, which can lead to different preferences depending on the player. To me, I felt that it was a slight step down from the original gameplay, but it didn't hinder the game TOO much, because for the most part, "Book Of Shadows" does its job right.


The game is still scary, despite switching to the visual novel style of gameplay. Jump scares still come from time to time, and since you aren't given the liberty to "run" from ghosts, they appear out of nowhere and suddenly you are dead with a bad ending. Dead bodies still litter the hallways of Heavenly Host, tattered doors and walls are everywhere, and sometimes you'll see a face appear in the slight corner of your screen and suddenly see it disappear.....Things still pretty much get you on your nerves (though nothing beats the piano room in the first game, god that room). Among all this, you will still find yourself intrigued in these alternate "what-if" stories. While they may not relate to the main canon story line (we still don't know this), these scenarios provide insight about these characters and tell us MORE about them that we as the players, would want to know.



Bondage! This turns me on for some reason.....

Despite giving insight on old characters that we want to know more about (Mayu died too early in the first game, and we never knew much about Morishige other than him being a creepy pedophile), "Book Of Shadows" also provides us with new characters that we can explore. Minor characters from the first game, like the ones that appear in the extra chapters that we never really CARED about, they appear in this game as main characters and we get to see more of them, and HOW they are like. Hell, some of these are more interesting than the original characters that we already have. And as you spend time with these characters navigating the halls of Heavenly Host, solving puzzles, you know more about them and you start to care more about them.


Speaking of puzzles, they didn't slack off on that as well. Sure the gameplay style has changed, but the puzzles still remain pretty top notch even then. Searching for items in these vast hallways can be challenging, and some of the later problems encountered can be REALLY tough on your minds (god the password to the library in Morishige's chapter). As usual there are hints lying around, and solving a difficult problem usually requires a lot of time/patience. To top it off, the new "darkening" feature doesn't let you waste too much time as "darkening" increases the more time you spend in the chapter. If it clocks too high, you get a wrong end, so you're basically on a timer for all chapters. Wrong ends...oh boy, there are still PLENTY of them in the game. Not to fear though, these bad ends add to your "collection of bad ends", and when you see your character DIE, it might actually serve as motivation to do better the next time around....



Ugh, that girl is SO dead....


Now onto the cons, these can be obvious. The first one being that most of the game ISN'T a sequel, which most of us players are HUNGRY for. Fortunately, there IS a proper sequel, and its the epilogue bonus chapter. The bad news? You either need to have a cleared save date from the original, or get all bad endings in the game (I had to do the latter because I lost my save for the first game). Speaking of that, if you walk into "Book Of Shadows" without experience from the first game, you'll know jack shit. The game plunges you into it taking to account that you already KNOW most of these characters, and they won't go in depth at all. Finally, as a visual novel styled game now, one can argue that you'll spend more time reading than actually playing the game (like I stated in my "999" review), which aren't some players' cup of tea.


Overall "Corpse Party:Book Of Shadows" still does what it does best, provide an immersive story with great characters to indulge ourselves into. It also attempts to KILL these characters that we grow attached to in gruesome, horrible ways...as well as inflict impending fear into our hearts. Personally I thought the first game was scarier, but both games provide that same level of intense despair that strikes deep, deep into the brain.The ending to the epilogue clearly screams a sequel, and we are getting "Blood Drive" soon on the Vita, so I only have one thing to say. XSEED, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, LOCALIZE THE DAMN THING, YOU HAVE MY SUPPORT.




Oh and Kizami's class is badass as f**k.

Happy gaming!




Seath The Scaleless
HP: 5534
Skills: Frost breath vertical, Frost breath horizontal, Tail whips, Tail smash*, Crystal nova*
Souls: 60000


Difficulty: 2.5/5
Times died on 1st playthrough: 1



With almost everything else out of the way, the only thing we have left are the four soul lords, you're in for a tough one. Well after the shenanigans in the Painted world, its time to kill off the first soul lord, for me, I took on the one nearest to me, the one residing in the Duke's Archives, Seath The Scaleless. You have to fight him twice actually, the first time you go against him you will have to lose, because he regenerates his health on top of the archives. After dieing to him and moving on to the crystal caves to destroy his shard that keeps him alive, the tries to stop you. This time you can kill him for real. He is the boss of Crystal Cave.




Watch out for my ICE BREATH ATTACK

Honestly, being one of the dragon bosses in the game, Seath is one cool ass dude. As a half dragon, the has the upper body of one and his lower body is just a massive clump of crystals and three tentacles/tails that sprout out of it. However, for such a badass looking boss, Seath is really not that hard once you get used to him. The only back draw to fighting Seath is that is you die to any of his crystal related attacks, you get cursed, which is a mighty f**ked up status effect in the game. His attacks though, are easy to see through.



Frost breath vertical- He kicks his head back and breaths an entire breath of ice, covering the area in front of his body, followed by conjuring his breath forward, creating a trail of crystals in a straight path. Easily dodged as his breath is slow. Deals minor damage and inflicts curse periodically as you stand on top of it.

Frost breath horizontal- Breaths a breath of ice that spreads through horizontally, creating a trail of crystals in front of his body, blocking your advance. Same as the vertical attack, its slow and is easily dodged. Deals minor damage and inflicts curse periodically as you stand on top of it.

Tail whips- He just lashes his tails at you for some medium damage when you are near them, can be blocked or dodged easily.

Tail smash*- He lifts his fails and smashes him on top of you for massive damage. Can be blocked, but takes massive stamina upon blocking it. 

Crystal nova*- He pulls off a super saiyan and lets out a deafening roar, followed by covering the entire area around him in powerful crystals. Upon impact with the crystals you are flung into the air, you take medium damage, and your curse bar fills up. Run as far as you can when you see him charge his roar.



As mentioned earlier, he's actually not that hard. Being a gigantic dragon thingy, he telegraphs most of his attacks, so its easy to see them coming and act accordingly. The only thing you need to watch out for are his crystal attacks, as they curse you. Also, note that before you can even damage him, you need to destroy the crystal shard at the back of the arena or else he will keep on regenerating health. You can really take this boss on any way you want since he is so freaking big and he isn't the fastest guy around, though I do feel ranged fighters have a WAY easier time against this guy.


ICE POWER!


Lets break down his fairly simple attacks. Take note that after each of his heavily telegraphed attacks, he has huge recovery time, so you have the leisure to walk up to him and cut him a few times. And since his next attack will be slow as well, you have lots of room to attack him. He has two forms of ice breaths, each will leave a trail of waking crystals that do minor damage as you step on them and fill up the curse bar. Needless to say if you get cursed you die instantly no matter how little damage you took so you have to be careful about how long you stand on the crystals.


The first ice breath is vertical. This one is probably his most reliable form of defense against ranged fighters like archers or mages. Since the path of crystals after the attack is pretty wide, you have to move away from it. After the attack, ranged fighters can continue to attack. As for melee fighters, right as he begins his vertical ice breath, you can just run up to him, stay out of the crystal path, and just cut him for good damage. His horizontal ice breath is more to fend off against melee fighters. Rolling back is the best way to counter this, while ranged fighters can just stay away and hit him during the entire attack animation for some really easy damage to whittle his high health pool.


For melee fighters, you will up in his face most of the time, nears his tails, and this leads us to his next two attacks. Tail whips is something he likes to do when you stand too close to his tails. He just sways them to damage and knock you back. These whips do medium damage, but can be blocked easily. Since his tail related attacks do come out faster  than most of his attacks, dodging might take some practice, but blocking is a simple solution since the stamina reduction isn't too devastating.


His tail smash however, is the more worrying attack for you to worry about. Like the tail whips, this one comes out quick as well, but does a lot more damage and more stamina reduction on block. What's worse is that this one might probably leave you flat on the ground. As you have to take some time to get up again, this might leave you open for another attack. For the tail smash, its recommended that you dodge it, but blocking works as well if you got the stamina to back it up.



This is some really badass art of Seath.

His final and most dangerous attack is the crystal nova, the attack he uses to kill you the first time you fought against him in the Duke's Archives. He charges up an immense energy and roars, leaving a wake of crystals that envelop a huge part of the map. Upon impact with the crystals you knocked into the air while taking medium damage, and while all this is happening your curse gauge is filling up. In most cases where you don't have decent curse resistance armor, you might get instantly cursed in this one attack if you are caught in the center of the crystal explosion out-mass.


What you want to do is just run as far as you can. When you see the energy well up in him, just make a break for it. Spring as far as you can away because this attack eats up a huge portion of the map, and if he does it at the very center of the map you might be screwed. Hugging the walls may be a good solution. When the crystals subside that is your cue to go back in. He usually does this more when he is close to death so finishing the fight quickly when he reaches that critical point is a good idea.


He isn't that hard at all. For someone so huge, he is easy to read and while he has a lot of health, his lack of fast attacks mean that you can continuously hit him with heavy weapons and do massive damage to him quickly. He drops 60000 souls for your trouble, which is a lot of souls, and quite standard for a soul lord boss, which you will be facing more as you progress.


Peace.


Opening songs
OP 1 - Synchrogazer (Nana Mizuki)

Ending songs
ED 1 - Meteor light (Ayahi Takagaki)

Genre: Action

Episodes: 12



LISTEN TO MY SONG~~~


Well that pretty much sums up "Senki Zesshou Symphogear". What happens when you take mahou shoujo and make the girls sing songs to power up? "Symphogear". What about "Strike Witches" where everybody sings and gains badass armor? "Symphogear". Oh wait how abou-...."Symphogear". Basically, take all the shounen loli animes with super powered girls and give it a theme about songs and singing, you get "Senki Zesshou Symphogear". For some reason, this anime was really hyped up, and though I thought it was pretty good, it didn't really deserve the hype that it received..other than the fact that Nana Mizuki is in it. Alright, so how do our mecha-hybrid magical singing fighting girls fare against the rest of the crowd?



Tsubasa love~~

Well, for an anime that takes singing as one of its major themes, they already did a great job getting Nana Mizuki into it. Not only is she one of the characters, she sang the opening song, "Synchrogazer", which is probably my favorite song from her up to date. It just feels super epic, while having a good mix of electronic music in it, along with all its orchestral epicness. A pretty damn badass opening in my opinion, and I think everyone who watches the anime thinks so too. The ending song, for some reason, is also massively badass, and its "Meteor light" by Ayahi Takagaki, the seiyuu of Chris. Its a great dance track that doesn't really fit for an ending song, though I can't really complain because it sounds THAT good.



Rating: 7.5/10



Its pretty good. Its not great, but it pretty good. To be honest any of the prior action before last few episodes are pretty sub par or mediocre at best, but the anime has some great character development and emotional value. Once again, friendship is the theme (like almost every fking anime out there), and how the characters grow to like each other becomes quite...satisfying to watch. The characters start off as completely dis-likable and slowly grow into ones that you like or can relate to. Seiyuu quality is top notch, and the transformations look pretty badass on the visuals side, like a psuedo mecha magical girl hybrid with badass weapons (except for the main character, because main characters have to always suck).



Sing! Kill! Sing more!

Hibiki is a regular girl like any other with a great passion for music. One day her best friend Miku invites her to go for a concert held by Zwei Wing, an incredibly well received musical duo that is well known throughout Japan. On the actual day of the concert itself, Miku couldn't make it, which meant Hibiki had to go alone. She enjoyed the concert to great extent, but everything was ruined when the Noise attacked ("The World Ends With You" much?). The Noise destroyed most of the stadium and killed a lot of people. Hibiki was trapped and almost killed by a group of Noise, but was saved by Kanade, one of the duo of Zwei Wing. Kanade sacrificed herself to make sure Hibiki came out alive, and Hibiki never forgotten that ever since. Two years later Hibiki realized that she had the power to fight the Noise, and works with Tsubasa, the surviving member of Zwei Wing, to fight the Noise.


"Senki Zesshou Symphogear" is a good experience for the most part, and while it centers on singing, its very different from stuff like "IdolM@ster". It focuses more on its action, though most of the nice stuff only comes later. It should appeal to those who are into full-female cast animes with stuff like action, monster killing and friendship in it. As mentioned earlier, characters may seem like bitches early on, but really grow into likable characters later on.


Peace.


Saturday 8 June 2013

Tera Online -Rising-

Gamespot Score: 7.5 (Good)

My Score: 7.7


(+)Pros: - Unique skill-based combat that completely deviates it from many other regular MMORPGs, - Stellar visuals, all in environments, characters and monsters, - Great dungeon experiences, - Party focused events are fun and require different jobs, - You aren't restricted to certain things other MMOs probably would, - Massive PvP scale.

(-)Cons: - Gets a little slow paced after you hit 25, - Since it became globally free to play, the lag was OP, - Rehashed versions of the same skills means that you actually don't have as many different abilities as you think.


Gameplay time: -





What is a game review? A game review is somebody's OPINION about a game, it is not FACT. Somebody's "9/10" maybe somebody else's "7/10", because the other person didn't get that much fun out of the game. However if somebody's "9/10" is somebody else's "5/10", then you know there might be some disagreement there. If a "9/10" becomes a "1/10", that's just being biased. Now with that out of the way, I'll say this up straight, "Tera Online -Rising-" was voted as the current BEST MMORPG that is free to play out there right now. This, is their opinion, and to me, that is just wrong. I thought "Tera" was a great game and I really anticipated it, but honestly, its not the best after I've played it. It has many things that make it fun, but being the best free MMORPG? No, far from it actually. Its a triple A production title, but sometimes, that kind of thing doesn't really matter, though it does play a part of the game.


To its credit, "Tera" actually has a story, albeit a pretty uninteresting one at that. It talks about a world that the gods created in harmony, and they started having arguments with each other. To separate the world that they so happily created themselves, they created the different races, each bearing their own traits. The Humans, High Elves, Castanics, Amans, Barakas, Poporis and Elins.  The races had wars with each other in retrospect like their gods did, but it didn't last for long. Many were killed, and now a new threat has arisen, the Argons. The Argons are a demonic race that just want to destroy anything, and its up to the seven races to team up together to face this common threat.



Hey there sexy, welcome to "Tera"!

The one unique thing about "Tera" that everyone knows and wants to try...is the battle system. This is easily one of the most in-depth and non brain-dead battle systems available to any MMORPG at the moment. Whenever you battle or fight monsters, you have to study their attack patterns and memorize them. You attack the monsters as per every MMORPG, but when the monsters telegraph their attacks, you either move out of the way or dodge. This makes the game rather easy if you know what to do against every monster, and eventually, you'll walk over most of the huge hulking monsters that take forever to hit you. The small nimble ones however, can still prove to be bitches. Skill based gameplay in MMOs is starting to become staple for attracting hardcore MMO fans that want something new, and I think that is completely acceptable. I hope to see gameplay similar to "Tera" in future MMOs....though improvements can be made. I'll explain later.


There are 7 classes total, with the 7 races I explained before. Warriors, Berserkers, Slayers, Mystics, Sorcerers, Lancers, Archers and Priests. Berserkers and slayers are your melee DPS, warriors are your evasive melee DPS class with the most mobility, mystics are support classes with buffs and debuffs, sorcerers and archers are your ranged DPS with a variety of physical and magical damage, lancers are your tank class, while priests are your traditional support healing class. Nothing too ground breaking, except that having a party of lancers of priests can be really broken. Though this is a skill based game where you won't take damage if you're good, priests and lancers are still a godsend, and in a PvP, the party with lancers and priests always wins.



Well there's always the Elin for you lolicons. MOE MOE KYUN~~

"Tera" is 20+ GB. Yes, it takes ridiculously long to download, which means that it must have a ton of content and look ridiculously amazing, right? Fortunately, the answer to that is yes. "Tera" is beautiful, everything about it. The characters, environments, and even the monsters. Hell, in some situations, the monsters look so badass that they could kill a hundred players by themselves (only to get soloed by a single dude). Main cities look beautiful, and some of the landscapes are breathtaking. Character customization isn't amazing, but you can make some pretty sexy women or uber cute Elins. Dungeons are a complete blast, with tons of variety added with a boss at the end of every one. These are of course, required with a party, and this game has some really fun party based activities (gotta love the first time when I fought basilisks).


Another really great thing that "Tera" does for the players, is for the fact that you aren't really restricted to doing whatever you want. Since the game IS skill based, you can explore far and wide, take on monsters 10-20 levels higher than you, as long as you have the skill, you can do it, even though it takes awhile. This pretty much makes exploration A LITTLE worthwhile, and the game has a lot less "invisible walls" than you think. Massive PvPs are also fun. These require parties, and fighting other parties depending on the varying combination of classes or race types can really make this a fun experience. Its always fun to have different combinations every time you go for a fight and beat up some of those other players.



Fight! Fight you fools!

As I said, "Tera" has its set of flaws that I think prevent it from being, you know, amazing. First off, the game gets slow paced after a certain level  (around 25 for me). It takes longer to kill stuff, and the need for parties get higher and higher as you proceed. Of course its fine if you have friends playing with you but solo players can really have it rough here. Since its release as a free-to-play game, the game also had some issues with lag, with lots of players complaining on forums. I too, experienced lag and a friend of my DCed almost every 5 minutes. And the thing that bugs me the most is the fact that most new skills you obtain are just upgraded versions of old skills with an additional number to prove that its "stronger".


"Tera" is a beautiful free-to-play game that looks visually stunning. It's combat system draws in new players and keeps them engrossed in it, though in the long run interest may dwindle. New strategies are required for different enemies, but with the reskins of similar enemies and putting them on a higher level with different names there's really not as much to go around as you think. Well, since it IS free to play, it won't hurt to give it a shot.





Happy gaming!

"Kyoukai Senjou Horizon" is a high school themed, sci-fi combat anime centering around wars between gigantic mecha-ships carrying cities. Its an amazing concept and certainly one of the greater animes that I have seen. "Kiss x Sis" is just ecchi taken to a whole new level. Its been awhile since I last saw it, but I guarantee you, it is fan service overload x 1000. Any more and it would be hentai. "Mai-Hime" is just this very old anime that I watched years ago. Its like an all-girl version of "Masked Rider Ryuuki", where chosen ones with power fight each other. But its really awesome though.



Kyoukai Senjou Horizon

Behold, the age of high school, fighting based animes that look incredibly badass. "Kyoukai Senjou Horizon" captures the perfect world that it resides in, where humanity and its residents depend on their high school dictators that pretty much are mini shinigamis in their own different ways. Lots of cool characters and powers to choose from, which makes centering out a main favorite difficult.


Graceful as a swan, deadly as a bee.

Believe me this was a difficult choice to make as many of the characters in the anime are pretty damn awesome, but if I were to mention the most memorable character in the show, it'd have to be Kimi. I mean, she's a big breasted, cocky, princess-like, lady that just likes to talk shit to everyone while not doing anything remotely useful. When anyone would have seen her for the first time, they'd think, "meh, she's going to just be emotional support for Tori as his sister..." Well, never have you been so wrong.


Kimi is a BOSS lady. She talks like a cocky bitch because she CAN. Hands down she'd probably shit on the entire class except for a few of the stronger ones, and you would never expect her to be THIS powerful just by looking at her. She caught me (and probably anyone watching this) off surprise when she decided to take on Futayo in season one as a challenge. If they would lose that challenge, the class would loose their right to fight for Horizon, and Torii was like , "Well my sister is really scary, so its kay!"


Well needless to say, she is powerful as all hell, with her dance and complimentary spirit, she could not be touched, almost. Futayo Honda was a super strong female fighter that wielding the all-powerful slicing dragonfly, but even with that she lost to Kimi and her shenanigans. Having so much defense and advantages during a battle can be scary, and someone as sly as Kimi could use that to outwit anyone. In season 2 she played a smaller role, but it still looked badass when she walked into a gravity crushing field like taking a stroll in the park to save her friend.



Kiss X Sis

"Kiss x Sis" is pretty old now, 3 years old to be exact, and it has been quite awhile since I last reviewed it. I can't remember much about it now thinking back, other than it just being a massive fan service festival with boobs, panties and tons of suggestive themes. I wasn't even such an anime nut back then, I should have saved this for a later time....The OVA is still ongoing though.




Hi there, queens of incest!

I really wanted to put Kiryuu sensei~~...but she's just a fap source, she didn't really have much forms of being liked other than being a sexy big busted virgin teacher that would masturbate herself to Keita making seductive sounds that would make anybody have instant nosebleed.....Ako and Riko are pretty much kind of one pair, so I'll just list both of them together. Sure they have vastly different personalities, but both of them just work together to be such a likable pair of sisters.


If Keita doesn't want them, he can give them to me :3. Ako and Riko are pretty hot anime girls but nothing compared to sexy Kiryuu. Instead, what makes them likable is how they decide to seduce and try to win Keita over each day. Because of this and that both of them are pretty different from each other, it makes every new episode something to look forward, as you'd want to know which of the two would prevail for that day.


Ako is more of the perfect sister that is smart and talented, while Riko is just the sulky girl who tries to take advantage of her sister just by having a slighter bigger bust size. Both are really likable, and you just can't help but smile when they try to fight over their brother, when they are both after the same goal. In the last episode of the anime, Keita kissing the feverish sisters after all they have done for him, was a wonderful sight.



Mai-Hime

Oh man, nostalgia strikes again. "Mai-Hime" was one of the first animes that I actually watched and took a massive liking to, and up to today, it still remains as one of the best animes I have seen. Seeing characters that you like and get attached to "die", was really a new experience for me back then and it really glued me to the screen good.



You don't want to mess with her alright....


Nao is really badass. She's truly one of the first anti-hero characters I have ever experienced in an anime. She may have been bad, but wasn't a total villain as well. She was just one of those girls that didn't like certain things too much, and may have went to quite an extent to make things the way she liked them. Without going too much into detail, she's just a massive badass, and she has the coolest looking weapons/child compared to everyone else.


Just look at them sexy strings and that seductive pose. SHE IS the most seductive girl among-st the entire cast, to me anyway. And when I mean sexy, I don't mean sexually (she is hot, but still), its just that you can't resist this girl. Retaining her way as a psychopathic girl who loathes men was just a little hobby of hers, and while she was given this power, her attitude to not give a f**k about the game was pretty likable.


Of course, when shit started to get real, she could hold up her own too. Eventually someone decided to break the peaceful times and guess who was attacked? Unfortunately, they attacked Nao, and that was the beginning of the end. The way Nao fights is just pure mockery. Just look at how she handles with Natsuki, she ties her up all the time and just insults her like a true bully. She ain't playing around!



Peace.


Opening songs
OP 1 - Escape (Hemenway)
OP 2 - Bravblue (Flow)

Ending songs
ED 1 - Stand by me (Stereopony)
ED 2 - Lolite (Joy)

Genre: Adventure, Science fiction

Episodes: 24



I have been watching A LOT of anime, and you can easily see that by the amount of anime reviews I have posted on this blog. You'd probably know that I treat most anime sequels like their predecessors and that I'd recommend fans of an original series to watch its sequel. However, not all the time do sequels rein being as awesome as their originals, and "Eureka Seven AO" is another case of such a situation. Usually I'd say "if you loved the original, you'll love the sequel as well", but unfortunately, not this time. With this sequel, the series has taken a route that I would NEVER expect, and well, in my opinion, it strayed away from what made the original such a unique gem that could not be forgotten. 



Wait, swimsuit high school girls? IS THIS EVEN "EUREKA SEVEN"?!

The original had some good songs in it, while the 3rd opening song was horrid. Since its only 24 episodes this time round, we can't have 4 openings, so 2 will suffice. The first opening is "Escape" by Hemenway, and I don't know the band, but the song was not to my liking. A little too "shounen" for me. The first ending is "Stand by me" by Stereopony, and I'll say I miss them already. Being one of their final songs, it wasn't bad, and to be honest, it fit as an ending song.

The 2nd opening however, "Bravblue" by Flow, is a masterpiece of epic proportions. Not only was it a beautifully melodic song to listen to, it brought a complete blast of nostalgia with it sounding somewhat similar to "Days", the first opening of the original "Eureka seven". Brilliant stuff, probably my favorite Flow song as of now. The 2nd ending, "Lolite" by Joy, is a light-hearted happy song that sounds like its sang by a loli. Not bad, it doesn't really sound like something that'll be in "Eureka Seven", but at least its a little bit more on the catchy side.



Rating: 7.5/10



I think it took quite a dip. They tossed so many things out of the window with "Eureka Seven AO" that it just wasn't the same anymore. I speak as someone who loved the original. While this sequel was a pretty good anime on its own, it doesn't stand of the rift that the original once was. There were far less likable and relate-able characters, hell, there aren't even half as many characters in the sequel as there was in the original. Also, I get its a sequel, but many of the characters that we loved from the original, do not show up in the sequel (other than Eureka, which would be freaking obvious). With addition to all of that, the great feeling of seeing the Geckostate fly around being badasses wasn't there anymore, as the new staple group, "Generation Blue", is so much less interesting. Oh, and time travels. How the f**k did they fit that into the universe? What the shit?



Err....yeah, you'd never think that this was "Eureka Seven",
where official corporation wear look like school uniforms.

The series takes on a new protagonist for the sequel, and his name is Ao. Ao is 13 years old, and he is the son of Eureka and Renton Thurston. In a distant island of Japan, a woman fell out of the sky one day, and her name was Eureka. She was pregnant with a child, and while she was alienated as a being of destruction by the entire island, she gave birth to her child with the help of a kind doctor who stood by her side. That doctor is now Ao's grandfather and caretaker, as he hides most of the secret of his mother from Ao himself, with the request of Eureka. Eureka left not long after she gave birth to Ao, and for a long time he has been searching for answers. One day, a scub coral emerged on the island, causing a massive stir of panic. Generation Blue, a world known corporation for retrieving scub corals, arrive to the scene, and Ao, thinking that they have answers about his mother, starts to take action.


"Eureka Seven AO" takes on a wholesomely new spin on a plot that nobody ever expected. Overall, the production quality was pretty good, and it was a pretty sweet mecha anime, but it didn't have much of the nostalgia feel that I would expect. "Eureka Seven" and "Eureka Seven AO" are so different that you couldn't tell that they belonged to the same franchise when you put them together (hell, even the mechas look super different!) . Still, if you're a fan of the series, you should give this a go, to see how the series has changed...for better or for worse. The ending left quite a bit to be desired, I wonder if we'll see more...

Peace.