Opening Songs
OP 1 - Absolute Soul (Konomi Suzuki)

Ending Songs
ED 1 - Believe X Believe (Nozomi Yamamoto)
ED 2 - Apple Tea No Aji (Nozomi Yamamoto & Haruka Yamazuki)
ED 3 - 2/2 (Ayaka Imamura & Ayaka Suwa)

Genre: Action, Fantasy, Romance

Episodes: 12



"Absolute Duo" is one of the many harems present in the opening anime lineup of 2015, alongside its counterparts "Unlimited Fafnir", "Shinmai Maou No Testamanet" and "Seiken Tsukai No World Break". Despite looking as generic as it could ever ask for, "Absolute Duo" is one of the better harems OF THAT season, since TBH, most of the harems in 2015 so far are kind of disappointing. I like all of their premises: super powered main character joins a school that houses super powered students, he goes on with his life as per usual and for some reason attracts all the ladies. "Absolute Duo", while mostly generic and normal on many of its ends, manages to hold its own along with all the good harems out there, this time with its slightly more niche, out of troupe characters. There's really not much to say about it, "Absolute Duo" is another decent harem that manages to get most of the pre-requisites right, and then some more.



So much titties.

The opening song is practically one of the most jizz worthy opening themes I've heard in a long time. After "No Game No Life", I already started to like Konomi Suzuki quite a fair bit, with "Absolute Soul" added into her discography, I was sold. "Absolute Soul" is fast, frantic, exciting and fun to listen to, its every bit as amazing as "No game No Life", which was already amazing. Konomi Suzuki is one of the current anisong gods in the era. There are multiple ending themes sang by the different seiyuus of the girls in the show, but I'll be honest, none of them caught my attention, "Believe X Believe" is alright, but that's pretty much it.



Rating: 7.5/10



It may not be the most popular thing, but I genuinely liked "Absolute Duo". There haven't been many great harems recently in the past few seasons, I mean, I went to watch "Oda Nobuna No Yabou" a few days back, a harem released in 2012, and I realized how f**king much I love it. Its safe to say that harems have been taking a minor dip, I think "Absolute Duo" is safe from that dip. The characters aren't as generic as you'd think, there are plenty of likable characters in there (though the guys get no love), and I feel that the premise behind everything in "Absolute Duo" is quite cool. The action in "Absolute Duo" is decently impressive, sure, its no "Fate/Stay Night UBW", but its serviceable, better than the lazy efforts of "Blade Dance Of Elementalers" or multitude of stale battles in "Trinity Seven" (strangely, that one had great girls in there as well). The pacing was alright, but things totally kicked off towards the end and I think the show ended well enough. All in all, it did many things right, and I like it for what it is.


Typical harem scenario for a typical harem protagonist.

Kokonoe Thor is another young individual who awakened to the power of Blaze, a special power that is given to 1 in a thousand individuals. Many youths who have awakened to the Blaze are sent to Kouryu academy to further their studies into the art of the Blaze. During the enrollment ceremony, Thor runs into a girl known as Imari, who hopes to get along with him during their school life here. However, little did they know, their batshit insane headmaster orders everyone to fight their partners, only the winners may enroll into Kouryu, effectively cutting away half of the enrollment badge. Sadly, Thor has to fight Imari, and she is easily defeated. Leaving sad and dejected, she wishes Thor the best of luck, and it hit Thor that things in Kouryu aren't going to be easy, as only the strong can thrive. Here, students are paired up in duos to maximize their potential. In his first day of class, a cute girl named Julie sits beside him, and she shows interest in Thor, for he is known as the irregular. Being the "odd one out", he attracts a lot of attention, and that's how his life started to become more interesting.



"Absolute Duo" works as yet another high school battle anime that doesn't manage to screw up too much. There are quite a few things to like about it, and I do feel that its one to watch for the harem lovers. For everyone else, there are better harems out there, but if you're feeling bored and want something that isn't too bad, this one works.


Peace.



Friday 26 June 2015

Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate

Gamespot Score: 9.0 (Editor's Choice)

My Score: 9.2


(+) Pros: - Intense Monster hunting backed up by wonderful game mechanics, - Massive variety of monsters to hunt and equipment to make, - Varied enviroments to do battle with monsters in, - Combat is split into 14 different styles, - In depth armor/weapon customization with an insane amount of skill variation, -Mostly smooth co-op experience online, - Ludicrous amount of content.

(-) Cons: - Camera is sometimes still an issue, though the camera has been drastically improved from previous games.


Gameplay time: 100 hours+







"Monster Hunter" has always held a special place in my heart after "Freedom 2" for the PSP. Unfortunately, with the 3rd one coming out for Wii and "MH3 Portable" never making it to the western audiences, I never had the chance to lay my hands on the 3rd generation and the underwater combat. So just like that, for at least 5 years, the "Monster Hunter" franchise took a massive sleeper in my book, and it stepped out of my gaming life...until now. "Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate" is the first MH game I've played since "Freedom Unite" all those years ago, and I must say, its good to be back. "Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate" is the most extensive MH game yet, with a whooping amount of 75 large monsters in the game, drastically surpassing almost every MH game before it. There's no doubt about it, if you've got an urge to hunt big ass monsters like never before, MH4U is the answer to all your needs. Indeed, hunting has never been this amazing. The hunt, is on. Just make sure you don't become the hunted!



MH4U stars you as an unknown hunter on a ship bound to Val Habor. On the ship, a man known as the Caravaneer greets you, and as you two talk, a huge elder dragon known as the Dahren Mohran attacks the ship. You and the Caravaneer work together to stall the Mohran long enough until the ship was close to Val Habor. There, the bell was rung, all the hunters around the area rode their ships to gang up on the Mohran to kill it. Back in the town, you are revered to as a brilliant hunter by the Caravaneer. He gives you a couple of quests to test your capabilities, then deems you worthy to be a hunter in his group. There, you meet the people of the Caravan, and together, you go around the world trying to solve the mystery of a certain scale that the Caravaneer owns. That, and you also help people kill monsters 10 times your size. Good luck.



I've always wanted to fight a giant snake.

The MH games have a really simple game flow that's also present in MH4U. You start off in a central hub with item shops, the black smith, the street cook, and many other things. You can buy items here, change your equipment, eat to get increased stats, so on and so forth. Then, you talk to the quest counter (The guildmarn in this game) to accept a quest, then depart for it. Simple enough. In MH4U though you'll be visiting a few more locations than in the previous games where you only have a single town/hub to report to. The town stage is nothing but prep, the real fun starts when you depart. The game has a variety of quests, ranging from gathering quests to extraction quests, but the main appeal of the game still remains, and its the single type of quest that take up a massive majority of the quests in the game. The hunts.


The MH series specializes in you hunting huge ass monsters, most of which are troubling the people around the world, be it the monsters attacking cargo, caravans or people directly. You'll get to hunt plenty of series mainstays like the Rathalos, Rathian, Tigrex, Zinorge and more. Hunting huge monsters in the MH games is serious business, and its good to see that the hunt is as intense as ever in MH4U. The music score kicks in as you lock eyes with your mark, and let me tell you, things just get more epic from there. These monsters are much bigger than you are, some smaller and faster, some even bigger and hit even harder. As a lone human hunter, you must use all you have at your disposal to outsmart and take the beast down: that feeling of tension and thought that tells you "If I screw up, I'm dead" just makes the hunts all the more heartpounding.


...or a giant toad shark.

In battle you roll to dodge the enemy attacks, and strike back with your various weapons. Its mostly a complex game of dodging and hitting back, with a lot more mechanics involved. You can now lock on to a specific monster to make the camera a lot more forgiving, and you can bring items to the table to help your survivability. Potions heal you from monster attacks, flash bombs stun your enemies, and you can set traps to cripple the monster. Also a new feature in MH4U is the addition of mounts, that allow you to stun the monster from an unstable, higher ground. Mounts are great, not only do they make hunts more exciting, it allows for some free hits on monster parts that you normally have NO chance trying to attack (f**k the Gravios head and tail can be so annoying to break without mounts). Like in previous games, the controls are fluid, and the game is almost never straight out unfair: if you die, its YOUR own fault.


And this is the feeling that you'll experience in almost EVERY fight in MH4U. Every monster you battle against will offer some form of challenge, and true, some may be harder than others. Ranging from the different levels of quests you'll attempt, you'll be coming across a huge variety of monsters (as mentioned earlier, there'll be 75 large monsters to hunt), and each monster is going to fight you differently. You'll be using a massive range of strategies and tricks to fight each and every boss, its going to hurt. Also, variety is an all time winner this time round, instead of having flying wyverns all around, we get brute wyverns, fanged beasts, insects and even amphibian bosses, making the feeling of discovering new monsters all the more exciting and dreadful.


As usual you'll have a whole bunch of bullshit in your item box....
it never hurts to sort them out.

Of course, what's "Monster Hunter" without grinding for equipment? As usual, monsters you defeat drop loot which you can carve off their dead bodies. You can use these to make equipment out of the monster you just killed, each and every monster has their own specific equipment based off them. The sheer amount of equipment in this game is ludicrous, spreading across 3 ranks (Low-High, G), there are an upwards of more than 100 armor sets and items. Finding one for you that works is always tough, since your choices are so wide. You do battle against your preys in a multitude of different arenas every time, ranging from the peaceful planes of the Ancestral Steps to the uneven, rocky terrain of Heaven's Mount.


You are picked and thrown into a different environment every time, and each map changes how you fight every monster. Some maps have advantageous areas where you can strike from, while others have small, confined areas that hinder your battle. Since there are so many different areas in the game, its always a thrill to think about how you're going to battle said monster in a map that you've not very familiar with. When doing combat against the monsters, you have to consider your weapon choices as well, as some weapons even go as far as to INTERACT with the environment. In MH4U, there are a grand total of 14 weapons types in the game, yes, 14, that is rather insane. For the Blademaster variants, we have the Greatsword, Sword And Shield, Long Sword, Dual Swords, Hammer, Hunting Horn, Lance, Gun Lance, Switch Axe, Insect Glaive and Charge Blade. For Gunner variants, they get the Bow, the Heavy Bowgun and Light Bowgun.



Ladies and gentlemen, the best thing to happen to MH4U.

Needless to say each and ever weapon plays differently from one another, and its so satisfying to learn different weapons, as some weapons are more well suited to fight certain types of enemies. Slow but hard hitting weapons like the Greatsword and Hammer work against many enemies, but versatile weapons with long reach like the Longsword or Lance allow you more options against more annoying, faster enemies. Sword and Shield gives you safety and versatility, Dual Swords and Switch Axes excel against monsters that like to stay stationary, letting you go crazy with combos. Gun Lance and Charge Blade allow for safe play and can do insane burst damage, while the Hunting Horn and Insect Glaives are support weapons, giving buffs or mounting monsters is always a plus. The ranged classes just do what they do best: pelt enemies from afar.


Hold on, THERE'S MORE! In addition to the weapons, armor and combat styles, MH4U further increases the game value with the skill variations. Certain weapons and armor have innate skills within them, some even have slots for you to put in decorations. Skills function in such a way that you'll need proper thinking and customization for them to actually work. You'll need a certain value for your skills to activate, meaning that you'll have to mix and match certain equipment pieces together to work, making armor/weapon selection combinations a tough, yet important choice. Different skills on different builds really lead to wildly different situations.


Get iced!

Like in MH3 on the 3DS, MH4U allows you to play online with complete strangers, allowing you all to go on hunts together. For the most part, playing online is a smooth, satisfying experience that allows you to tackle the complete monstrosities that are the gathering hall/Elder hall monsters, which are TOUGH as nails to beat. Emotes and quick captions allow for some brief communication, but the lack of an in-game chat system fails to bring the co-op experience to the next level. Also, let's be serious, without co-op in MH, you won't get far. The Gathering Hall and Elder Hall monsters will most definitely tear you to f**king shreds if you ever decide to fight them alone...especially those G rank douche bags that deal more than half of your HP per hit.


Needless to say like most, if not all MH games, the amount of content in MH4U is absolutely ridiculous. Take in the massive amount of quests you can do in single player, then you add in multiplayer quests as well, which take HELLA long to do as you climb your HR ranking. Then you've got so much more! Guild quests which you can receive/send to others via Streetpass, Arena quests where you just duke it out with a select monster and try to get the best time. Event quests that you can download that get released periodically (White Fatalis...f**k my life), and even single player expeditions that pit you against pre-set monsters that you won't get to fight regularly. Even 170 hours in, I'm not even done with this game (that's ridiculous).


Meet Steve, he doesn't like people in his face...why are
you in his face?
"Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate" is a massive game that's fun as hell to play, alone or with friends, and it lasts a long, LONG time as well, but it has a flaw. I mean, the MH camera isn't the best thing in the world, let's face it, they've been struggling with the damn thing for years and while its gotten better, its not completely fixed in this game. In certain cramped spots, the camera in MH4U is still quite bad, and while the lock on DOES help, sometimes the camera angles get so f**ked up its hard to respond to the monster's advances. Manual camera fiddling still works the best, but when you're trying to handle so many things at once, it can get slightly frustrating.


MH4U is definitely the biggest game in the MH franchise at the moment. Capcom did really well with this game and it shows when they start to announce MULTIPLE "Monster Hunter" games MONTHS after MH4U's release. I'm happy for the franchise and I think its good to be back, experiencing MH again after all these years made me relive the joy of the hunt. If you want a hunting game where you take on monsters many times your size and have the odds constantly stacked against you, there's no game out there like MH4U right now.





Peace.





Opening Songs
OP 1 - Forbidden Resistance (Nana Mizuki)
OP 2 - The Apocalypse Of Truth (Yoko Takahashi)

Ending Songs
ED 1 - Rinrei (Eri Kitamura)
ED 2 - Love Song Of The End (Nana Mizuki)

Genre: Action, Drama, Fantasy

Episodes: 25



"Cross Ange" is one show that not many people like. Its understandable though. "Cross Ange" is fan service heavy, its ridiculous, its gory, and at times, its downright offensive. Still, I feel that its one of my favorite mecha animes in recent times. I shit you not. I'm not a huge fan of the mecha genre, but to me, "Cross Ange" does many things right that many other similar shows don't. Sure it may just be my inner geek rooting for a show that's primarily dominated by females (if you look at it that way, you're a sexist, yes you are), but "Cross Ange" manages to establish a show that doesn't hold ANYTHING back, building upon a character in a highly offensive world, forced to live in an even more disgusting environment. It's PAINFUL to watch sometimes, but the payoff for sticking with "Cross Ange" is HUGE, much more so than many other shows. If you're a mecha nut, you've probably watched this already, otherwise, this is a strong entry to mecha genre if anything, as long as you're willing to grit your teeth for the first few episodes.



If you want a female lead she has to be sexy....that's what they all
said, don't look at me!

As with most shows with Nana Mizuki in it, "Cross Ange" has plenty of theme songs BY Nana Mizuki. The first opening is "Forbidden Resistance" by Nana Mizuki herself, and since we haven't had many good Nana songs in a long time, I was really happy with "Forbidden Resistance". Its strong, its intense, and its definitely OP material. It has a little bit of a folk dance feel to it which I really like, but otherwise, its definitely a Nana song throughout, I really like it. The 2nd opening is " The Apocalypse Of Truth" by Yoko Takahashi, whom is a singer that I haven't heard from in a long, long time. Its a bleek song, though its not as powerful as "Forbidden Resistance". I prefer the "Forbidden Resistance", it fits the show more, seeing how much of a rebellious character Ange is.


As for the endings, lets just say that they went full out "Gundam Seed" like NO other. As for the songs though, the first theme is "Rinrei" by Eri Kitamura. Its subtle and a little bit soothing, certainly the lightest of the songs used in this anime. I very much prefer the 2nd ending theme, which is "Love Song Of The End" by Nana Mizuki. Even for an ending theme, its sounds quite intense, always giving off the vibe that spells out "Look forward to more next week!". If you ask me, Nana is on a role with this show.



Rating: 8.0/10



"Cross Ange" feels like a journey throughout, a journey that you're experiencing through the eyes of the protagonist. I'm sure that's the purpose of every anime out there, but "Cross Ange"'s journey is one of the most...influential ones out there. It invokes so many emotions within it that I don't know what to feel, there are times I hated where the story was going, only to find out that what happens after was a lot more awesome than what I could have ever imagined. The protgaonist, Ange, is one of the few protagonists in anime history to go through so many changes that its actually kind of silly. "Cross Ange"'s story, plot and character development are beyond strong, and is in my opinion the strongest element that the show has to offer, everything else is honestly just fluff. The animation quality, the visual style and music are top notch, the mecha action is honestly average at best because the mechs have little variety from one another in terms of looks and abilities. The mech action might not be fantastic, BUT, "Cross Ange" is a lot more than just mechs fighting against big dragons, and those overshadow the mech combat IMO. Character variety is great, there are A LOT of different kinds of characters in this show, which spices up the various moments where characters interact with one another.



SHINING....wait, wrong show.


Angelise is just a princess. A very fortunate princess belonging to a very prosperous kingdom that is bound to succeed one day. In fact, Angelise was already prepared to ascend the throne, being the high and mighty lady that she was. In Angelise's world, where the light of mana rules the world and is essential for living, those who cannot use mana are condemned, these are known as Norma. There are only female Normas, why this is the case, nobody knows. In any case, Angelise has never had to use mana during her entire life, and was always catered to by her maid. During the day of her baptism ceremony, lo and behold, it was revealed that Angelise was in fact, a Norma. She was stripped of her status, her royal family broke down, her father was executed, and her mother was shot trying to protect her. As if things could not get any worse, she was sent to an exiled Norma island, where she was tortured and "branded" as a Norma...by being sexually abused. Fun, fun times for Angelise, and her life as a Norma was only just beginning. Now she has to join fellow Norma to risk their lives to fight against dragons in mechs. Fun, fun times indeed....


"Cross Ange" may not have been one of the most "justful" shows out there, but it certainly manages to tell a great story. I don't really care what others think, I think that "Cross Ange" is one of my favorite mecha shows in recent years, and its probably going to be one of my favorites of 2015. Lesbians and fan service aside, "Cross Ange" packs a great punch.


Peace.


Seth




Remember how I said I love to play rushdown characters with good mobility? While that's the case most of the time, sometimes, things just don't quite work out within a certain character. That character in this case, is Seth. Seth is, as you'd be thinking, a rush down character with mobility, mix-up potential, and has the ability to perform a ton of high hit count combos. Trust me, a good Seth is devastating, but also trust me when I say the good Seths are so...rare. For good reason: it takes a lot of effort to make Seth work, even more so than other characters with difficult execution. The payoff for learning/mastering Seth is massive, but until then, you have a character that's so easily punished and has the lowest health pool in the entire game.



Let's start with what Seth does best, which is air mobility and mix-up potential. Seth's air mobility is arguably the best in the game, with air back dashes and fast falls, he can get out of sticky situations easily in the air, so its best to keep him up above most of the time as he can whiff the opponent's AA options. Also, he excels at mix-ups. His 236 motion special leaves orbs that shoot out projectiles after awhile. Since these are delayed and can be placed in a variety of locations, they are great for preparing mix-ups as you go in towards your enemies. And speaking of those, Seth has a few ways to close the gap. He has a regular gap closing strike move, an active, on demand teleport that Seth players can gauge accordingly (can be punished if used incorrectly), or even an instant mix-up move that has Seth striking his foes from behind. Albeit, Seth has plenty of options, but his damage isn't the most spectacular, and since his health leaves a lot to be desired, one bad mistake could cost him the game.


+ Good air mobility
+ Great mix-up potential
+ Plenty of ways to close the gap

- Lowest health in the game
- Difficult to maximize damage dealt to enemies




Yuzuriha




Yuzuriha is TOUGH as nails to use, probably the second hardest character in the game to learn, tied with Byakuya (with Hilda/Chaos as third). She can do SO much as a character, but her move list is so overloaded with options that extend from her various stances, its really hard to bring out her maximum potential unless you are REALLY dedicated in learning her stance cancels. Yuzuriha is a very unique character that specializes in zone control and mid-screen combos, yes, she's probably the only character that can hit you from mid-screen, go in for a combo, knock you mid-screen again, and continue hitting you mid-screen...while she's far away. Yes, she can be quite an impressive looking character, PROVIDED, you learn her. She has pretty mediocre damage and normals, but look deeper, and you'll find yourself a character that has quite the massive payoff.


Yuzuriha's range with her specials is quite impressive, I mean, look at her Katana! Anyways, Yuzuriha specializes in stances. When using a special move with a star mark, you can make Yuzu go into a stance. While in her stance, Yuzuriha has some MAJOR mobility options, ranging from dodges, teleports, backsteps or jumps. She can use these to re-position herself OR to follow up for more combos. Proper usage of her stance moves differentiates GOOD Yuziriha players from the AMAZING ones, I've got absolutely bodied by Yuzuriha players who fully utilize her stance dodges to continuously punish me. She has mid-screen slashes, jumps that damage her opponent on impact, or teleports, all of which can cancel into a stance. As you can see, Yuzuriha is a lot about mind games and execution, making her a tough character to master.


+ Zone control and mid-screen pressure is top notch
+ Stance moves give her multiple options
+ Good mobility via teleport and stance moves

- Overwhelming options means that she's really hard to use
- Little to no defensive options outside of stances




Hilda




Most Hildas are just spammers, but by any chance you come across a good Hilda, prepare to be locked down in the corner of the screen for days. I personally hate playing as Hilda, hell, gameplay wise, she's probably my most hated character in the game. Her entire game THRIVES on her spamming bullshit on you as you cry in the corner of the screen. Try to jump at her? AA projectile. Rush at her? Good luck dealing with her ridiculous string of projectiles. Her amount of options to body her enemies from afar is ridiculous, but, Hilda has one massive flaw: if she is closed in upon, she's toast. Aside from an unsafe teleport, Hilda has no escape or defensive countermeasures against heavy rushdown, if they manage to close the gap, Hilda is in serious trouble. If you want to play Hilda, you'll need to learn how to control space, fortunately, she has the tools to do some. Expect a hard time though, you'll need to know a lot to use her properly.



Most of the time as Hilda you'd want to be planting all of her bullshit in the enemy's faces. Her standard projectile is quite easy to deal with but she's got a ton of delay moves that'll eventually put a stop in your plans as they all rain down on you. Hit confirming a single projectile might be all that Hilda needs to close in on you and pull off a painful combo, Hilda DOES have a good amount of combo extenders. As mentioned, she even has a teleport to get out of sticky situations, though that can be dangerous to use randomly. Of course, she even has anti-airs to deal with people who brainlessly try to assault her. Still, for all of these options, if she is closed in upon, all of it is for naut, if you're playing someone like Linne, Seth, Carmine or Akatsuki who gives you little room to breathe, you're screwed. Play smart and play dirty, that's Hilda's game after all.


+ Zone control can go as far as the whole screen
+ Can punish from afar
+ Can keep her enemies locked down for days

- Little defensive options if closed in upon
- Many moves are unsafe



Eltnum




One of my favorite characters in the game. I've never touched the "Melty Blood" series so I don't know much about Sion, or Eltnum in this game, but Eltnum is just a ton of fun to play as. She's got ranged command normals, she's got a pistol, and she prefers to fight at mid-close range. She isn't very mobile, she's easily punishable, but she is a character with a lot of control. Eltnum feels like a good mix of many different character types, and the fact that she can deal with a variety of different situations very differently makes her very fun to f**k around with. Sure, she's not the easiest character to use, but put in decent effort and Eltnum becomes one of the best control characters around. She doesn't handle being rushed down too well, but otherwise, she's got a good deal of positive matchups.


Eltnum is best used as a standard neutral character who watches and punishes enemies. She is neither very good at rushing down enemies or throwing down with them from a distance, but she IS pretty good at defense with multiple options for dealing with multiple situations. Eltnum is very easily cornered by heavy rushdown enemies, so good prediction is a must. She has one of the best DPs in the game with Etherlite Air to punish air enemies, as well as her pistol and Eltherlite Ground to deal with enemies trying to rush you from the ground. She is also one of the very few characters in the game that can instantly mix up opponents with her command dash, and some of its variations even allow her to deal damage for some combos. Her pistol shots come out very quick and are hard to punish, but require reloading when she runs out of bullets, use them to punish rather than just for the sake of chipping out or zoning enemies. Also, since some of her command normals have great range, abuse those to get yourself a better positioning in the fight.


+ Great control with various tools
+ Ranged command normals
+ Mix-up potential
+ Mostly stays at a safe range compared to many other fighters

- Few defensive options, gets wrecked if closed in upon by rush down characters
- Many unsafe moves




Chaos




Chaos is serious business. He's really hard to use properly, and if you were to have a fighting game equivalent of him, he's the Carl Clover/Zato-1 of UNIEL, that pretty much spells you trouble if you want to learn him. His unique trait is obvious, he's got a f**king dinosaur following him around in the battlefield. Chaos gets to sick his dinosaur at his enemies, either letting it bite their heads off, tear them into half with its massive claws or spit an unlimited amount of fireballs. The beast known as Azhi is Chaos's spatial control, pressure point, and combo aid...if you master using Azhi, you're pretty much confirmed to be a beast as Chaos. However, the problems arise when you find out that using both Chaos AND Azhi together is no easy feat, and having them coordinate to your liking is going to be tough.


Chaos has a gauge below his health that indicates Azhi's usage. If Azhi isn't attacking, its green and its fine, have it attack and the gauge turns red. When the gauge is red, Azhi CAN be hurt and killed, and when Azhi is destroyed by an attack the gauge turns grey...he cannot be summoned for a short period of time. This means that you can't have Chaos randomly use Azhi to throw out random attacks, without Azhi, Chaos loses a lot of his priorities over his enemies. Most of Azhi's moves tend to end up being control specials, as they tend to cover up massive portions of the screen and zone foes quite nicely. He can even have Azhi teleport for some mixups with Chaos himself. He also has one of the best anti-rushdown tools in the game with Code:Reflect, though this is risky as it leaves Chaos wide open if it whiffs. End of story: with Azhi, you're gold, without him, you're in trouble.


+ Good zone control with Azhi
+ Potential mix-ups and high damaging combos
+ Code:Reflect for anti-rushdowns

- Easy to punish and take advantage off without proper usage of Azhi
- Hard to use



Akatsuki




The damage on this man is insane. Akatsuki is a character that does a lot of damage up close and can pressure his opponents SUPER hard. However, that's the problem with him, IF he gets close, chances are the enemy is in trouble, but if he doesn't close in, he has issues of his own. Akatsuki's mobility is on the lower side of things, probably one of the most problematic characters in the game when it comes to that aspect. He has trouble closing in on zone heavy opponents or characters with high mobility in terms of multiple dashes. Because of that, he is easily punished by other characters, forcing him to play a rough game of cat and mouse. Still, if you want a character that has massive payoff and deals insane damage, Akatsuki is for you.


Akatsuki has few options for going in that are actually safe for him. He has shoot lightning bolts at his enemies to lure out some sort of punishable move, but other than that, he can only try to cheese his enemies with Armor-Piercing Legs, which acts as an overhead. This can be tricky to deal with as an enemy, but whiffing Armor-Piercing Legs leaves Akatsuki completely open to be punished. His normals are pretty okay and his damage is ridiculously high for even his easiest executed combos, you can use this to your advantage. He is DEVASTATED by zone heavy enemies like Hilda, Vatista, and some variations of Carmine as he has little to no way of getting in easily. You'll need to bait out the enemies with your godlike wits in that situation. However, since most zone-heavy enemies have little defensive options, you can proceed to tear them apart when you close in.


+ Very high damage
+ Close ranged pressure game is really, really strong
+ Beginner friendly

- Low mobility options
- Little answer to zone-heavy opponents



Nanase




Nanase is another character that isn't exactly very hard to use, but can be kind of hard to master. She has a rather basic set-up for a rush-down character. She's got a gap closer, a DP, and some sort of zone control with her tornado. All of her moves have follow-ups, which gives her slightly more lee-way to make mistakes, but take in mind that she is very punishable. Nanase has some mobility thanks to her wind-based moves, however she can't really abuse them too much, making her kind of a sitting duck at times. Without a projectile, she has trouble dealing with zone-heavy characters and cannot poke back. Having an unsafe gap-closer doesn't make things easier for her. However, up close, she's quite powerful, capable of hard hitting combos and mix-ups. Techincally, she's not too tough, if you want someone who can rush down and has mobility options, Nanase is a girl you can look for.


When it comes to special moves, Nanase is just GEARED to close in on her opponents. Her gap closer can either come out quick at mid range, or close in full screen slowly. Throwing out her gap closer for no reason leaves her to be punished, but she can follow up for knock the enemy back, letting her stay safe against some enemies. If the gap closer is used to punish the enemy, it sets up Nanase for a favorable position, and up close, she does have decent pressure. Her tornado move sets her up for an overhead, either that or it helps re position her. Her DP is pretty strong since it goes vertically up 90 degrees. Still, her moves are UNSAFE, and especially her gap closer, she CAN get knocked out of it. Don't go too crazy with Nanase and you should be gold.


+ Good mobility around the field
+ Follow-ups with many of her specials
+ Beginner friendly

- Easily punished
- Vulnerable to zone-heavy opponents



Byakuya




Byakuya....another one of the harder characters to use in UNIEL. I honestly don't really like Byakuya for his high technical curve, trap set-up and lockdown based gameplay. In the right hands, he is QUITE the beast, but you don't see many Byakuyas because he isn't the easiest character to play. Being a trap set-up character he NEEDS time to prep the field to his liking and take control of his enemy: against someone who wants to go full ham on him or someone who just refuses to fight him by not moving at all, Byakuya CAN struggle. But, a good Byakuya finds his ways. He is probably best at mid-range, his mobility is below average, his normals aren't the fastest, but they do have some range, allowing to safely poke at some very melee-ranged opponents. If you're a fan of characters like Naoto in "P4A" or Rachel in "BB", then Byakuya might work for you.


Byakuya has poor pressure up close and almost no ranged pressure at all with zero projectiles. His mid game pressure is okay because of his lengthy normals. He wants to start his combos mid-screen, then closing up to finish with his rekka move. His rekka is pretty unsafe normally, so its pretty much only used as a combo ender. He can set up with webs around the field safely after he puts some distance between him and his opponent. He is able to set them up in the air and on the ground if needed (even ends with a teleport for him). Opponents hit by the web lose GRD, and are stunned momentarily, allowing Byakuya for easy combos. However, he has trouble closing in on ranged opponents and his defensive manuvers against heavy rushdown are rather limited. He needs to stay at mid ranged to stay safe and play the field to his advantage.


+ Mid-ranged game and pressure can be quite strong
+ Set-up traps can play the field to his favor
+ Can snowball matches really hard

- Weak defense against heavy zone control opponents or heavy rushdown
- Very hard to use



I do love me my fighting games, especially the anime esque gorgeous 2D ones. There have been a lot an increasing amount of 2D fighters these days (with Yatagarasu coming up as well), and I can't say that I'm not pleased with that, but I AM a little bit concerned that many of them may not live up to standards (I'd use Blazblue as a benchmark for these types of games). "Under Night In Birth:Exe Late", or simply UNIEL was one of those 2D fighters that I picked up quite some time back, and honestly, while its one of the wonkiest AND weirdest fighters out there, I've been having a lot of fun.

I haven't gone excessively in depth with many of the characters in the game, but I've tried EVERY character sufficiently for me to give me 2 cents about the characters in the game. Some OBVIOUS power differences in this game, but without ado, here are my impressions of the characters in UNIEL. As usual, everything is in my opinion, so don't take my opinion as fact.



Hyde





Hyde is Narukami's personification in UNIEL. It doesn't get any more Yu Narukami than this, Hyde fights with a long sword, is the main character of the game, and takes very little effort to do relatively well with. He's pretty much just your typical shoto character with a sword and some different variations. Being the main man, he has to be easy to use, and if there was a character that you'd want to learn coming into this game blind, Hyde would be one  of my top picks because of his ridiculously ease of entry. Easy combos, good moves for many situations, and many of his attacks even chip as his unique in-game mechanic. Hyde is strong for someone of his calibur, making him a solid choice for beginners.



Being a shoto, Hyde has got a hadoken styled projectile and a powerful DP that's unfortunately easily punished. His projectile, Dark Orbiter, CAN be followed up with a strike or by exploding it for more damage. He's got a Fei Long styled special that can be easily added to combos with Vacant Shift. His damage is rather insane, but its understandable because he's not the fastest of characters and can be outmanuvered by a good portion of the cast. His normals are really good though, and using that to your advantage always means you get easy BnB combos on your opponents.


+ Beginner friendly
+ Easy combos that deal a lot of damage
+ Does plenty of chip
+ Has plenty of tools to deal with a variety of enemies

- Easily punished
- Can be outmanuvered



Linne




Linne is great. I love playing rushdown characters with tons of mobility, and Linne's just right up my alley. I main Linne in this game, and for good reason. Linne is fast, her running speed is insane, she's got multiple jumps, air options and plenty of ways to advance in on her foes. Sure, because she's short, fast, and has a very high potential hit counter, she's a little bit on the punishable side, she really easy to punish compared to most of the cast. Still, she's a simple character to pick up and play, albeit she does have limited ranged options. Not as easy as someone like Hyde, but I'd still put her up on the top 5 easiest characters to play in this game.


Linne is a rushdown character, simple as that. Think of her as Yun from "SF IV" but with more options. She has a quick running speed, air dashes up the ass, as well as a dive kick, Linne is the definition of "going in" on your opponents. She has Kuuga for some decent poke, though she shouldn't be relying on it. Getsurin is a decent DP, albeit its punishable, and Mujin is a wonderful special for ending combos. Hien is a little tricky, she jumps towards her opponents for a few quick strikes. The B version hits high, which is great for crouch heavy opponents. Spamming dive kicks are a really cheap and easy way to get in on her opponents, since her normals are kind of sucky. The name of the game is to keep up the pressure with Linne, once she gets in, most of the cast has issues trying to keep up with her.


+ Very fast, easy to outmaneuver opponents
+ Can easily close in on opponents
+ Beginner friendly
+ Very strong pressure when she gets in on her opponents

- Easily punished
- Short ranged normals



Waldenstein





I hate playing against this guy, I really, REALLY do. Waldenstein is close to being one of the most broken characters in the game. Yes, he's movement is retardedly slow, but who needs speed when your normals and most of your specials reach over more than half the god damn screen. I swear this guy is armored on some of his move (not sure if he really is), either that, or his moves have INSANE priority. Waldenstein is one of THE strongest characters in the game, despite having his ridiculously long ranged normals, he has insane damage AND also has the highest health in the game. His hitbox is massive, which can be played TOWARDS his favor if he wants it, he can launch himself around the field with ease with some of his moves. Waldenstein is crazy, but he's not easy to play. You can easily cheese your opponents with him, but to play properly? You'll need some skill.


As mentioned earlier, Waldenstein is huge. He uses his body to fling himself around the field, or maul you with his ridiculous normals, but because of this, he's also very easy to hit. Sure, the chances of him hitting you is much more than you hitting him, but the risk and chances are there. Also, many of his moves actually CANCEL out projectiles. Yes, he is potentially quite good against zoners, but of course, he isn't the fastest of characters. For rushdown characters, he can zone them either with normals, or by using his grapples when their in his face. Waldenstein is a f**king beast, and there's not much you can do about it. Pray that you're running Gordeau or Merkava, they hard counter this guy.


+ Massive reach with normals and specials
+ Extremely tanky
+ Can cancel out projectiles
+ Can function as a grappler or zoner

- Massive hitbox
- Horrible mobility outside of specials




Carmine





Carmine is the Terumi incarnate of UNIEL. He's one fun son of a bitch of play around with, imagine a cominbation of Terumi and a reversed Ragna...you get Carmine. Its very hard to determine what kind of character Carmine is on the battlefield, simply because you can play him very differently. He can rush down, he can do mixups, he can play as a zoner...he's got options to get around. However, there's a catch: a majority of Carmine's attacks do damage to himself. His attacks use up blood, and creates blood pools all around the ground. He can interact with these pools with certain specials for some really crazy shenanigans. With that being said, Carmine isn't exactly the easiest character to use if you want to draw out his maximum potential.


Carmine's attacks drain his health, that by itself means he's a suicidal character. His normals are good, but not the best in the game. He can restore health with his command grab (though it requires 100 meter), but that's pretty much his only way to replenish lost health, and that move by itself is risky as balls since you NEED to use it at close range. He can throw out spinning blades that act as semi projectiles/anti airs. He can protrude the ground with spikes for massive damage, or he can simply just surround himself with spikes that also act as anti-air. Carmine excels as a control character with his various projectiles that go at different directions, but he's no slouch when up close either. Good Carmines manage blood pools well, making him one of the slighter harder characters to play as in the cast.


+ Great control and pressure around blood pools
+ Very versatile overall
+ Can restore health at the cost of 100 meter
+ Good normals allow him for easy follow up on combos

- Most moves sacrifice his own health
- Hard to master



Orie





Orie is a rather strange character. Strange, but its easy to narrow down what she can do. She's somewhat similar to Mitsuru from "P4A", albeit with slightly more varied attacks. She lacks any sort of poke or ranged commitment, but, she has her ways to pressure against enemies who want to come in on her. She deals well against rush down characters or characters who constantly try to get in on her face. She struggles somewhat against zoners, but otherwise, she has a lot of good matchups. Most of Orie's special attacks revolve around her summoned being Thanatos, which is quite a bully. She excels at controlling rush down characters, and if you want to play a character that're more of a control type than anything else, Orie's a good pick. She takes some practise, but otherwise, she isn't the toughest girl to use.


Orie can close gaps with her rapier thrust, though its generally not very safe. She has a strong DP in Sacred Arrow, but honestly, the only reason why you're playing Orie, is because of Thanatos. Command Order has Orie summoning Thanatos for a simple strike, but she can follow up Thanatos for multiple attacks after that. Command Order is crucial for a startup, and you should always connect it first. It has a nice startup and decent range, you can use it to punish opponents. She can follow up with Thick And Fast or Succession, which can further be extended in the proper situations. Sealing Hoplon is great if you actually pull it off, and the EX version even tracks your foes. This allows Orie to go in for mixups.


+ Good control against melee opponents
+ Summoned being gives a lot of opportunities
+ Sealing Hoplon allows for mixups

- Struggles somewhat against zone heavy opponents



Gordeau





As much as I wanted to main Gordeau, people wouldn't let me. Gordeau was THE character I wanted to main the moment I started this game, I mean, just LOOK AT HIM. He has a great sense of fashion and his hair is fabulous as f**k! Plus, Kosuke Toriumi is his VA. He is THE best character in the game, my absolute favorite. How is he as a character? He's broken, BROKKEEEEEN. To my knowledge, Gordeau is the best character in the game. The effort other characters need to destroy their opponents, Gordeau only requires probably half the effort, except maybe Wald, Merk and Linne, otherwise, he shits on everybody else. Gordeau excels at mid-screen control and dealing tons of damage. Tons and tons and tons and TONS of damage. He also has multiple command grabs and moves that reach for almost full screen distance to ensure his prey don't escape. Yeah, that's fair. He can also steal GRD, the game's universal meter at the bottom.


Gordeau bops on everybody, end of story. Even without proper combos, he stomps on everyone. Mortal Slide into Shade Harvest into Assimilation is probably the easiest way to continuously shit on your foes. Mortal Slide is blockable, but it PULLS enemies towards him, it has a MASSIVE range, and it can be followed up with Shade Harvest and Assimilation, which is UNBLOCKABLE. He can even use Mortal Slide in the air! His C normals has insane range as well, which can then be followed up into Mortal Slide! Grim Reaper is a massive move that acts as a gap closer, a control move AND a DP, though its quite hard to combo afterwards if you slot it into a combo. He also has Aim Opponent for an OTG in his combos, if you ever decide to try that hard at using him. Gordeau is a f**king monster, he's as hell to use, and if you choose to master him, he becomes EVEN scarier.


+ Insane damage output
+ Mortal Slide > Shade Harvest > Assimilation is just brutal
+ Absurd range on normals
+ Can steal GRD
+ Beginner friendly

- There are no weaknesses, he can be easy to predict since you SHOULD get used to fighting him



Merkava





If Hakumen ever went full retard, the result would be Merkava. Outside of Gordeau, Merkava is probably the second best character in the game (with Wald right behind), simply because he's got SO much up his sleeve. He reminds of of Super Skrull from "Marvel 3", only a lot more deadly because of the sheer amount of things he can do to f**k around with his opponents. His unique trait is flight, but we all know that flying is only the tip of the iceberg. Merkava's control of the battlefield is EXTENSIVE. He has a DP, full screen command grabs, dive kicks, projectiles, long ranged normals and single button overheads. With flight added on to all that, he's probably one of the most annoying things to fight against. Of course, if you don't intend on just cheesing your enemies with his sheer amount of bullshit, he's going to be quite tough to use properly.


Merkava is the true meaning of an annoying piece of shit. This bugger just flies around and you can't do anything. His control is just disgusting. He flies up, spits fireballs at you. When you get close, he flies to the other side of the screen, he grabs you, then down you go. Merkava has SO much to work with. On the ground, he can zone with his full screen grabs. These are blockable, but they come out VERY quickly. He can do Dio punches to extend combos, he's got dive kicks in the air, or just spam you with his ridiculously good normals. There isn't much you can do against Merkava as a zoner, he is the ULTIMATE ranged character counter. Oh yeah, he does respectively well against melee opponents too because of his insane amount of zone control options.


+ Plenty of options to deal with plenty of different opponents
+ Flight is pretty damn OP
+ Full Screen command grabs? Bitch please

- Hard to fully utilize his entire kit



Vatista





Vatista is, IMO, the hardest character to use in the game. She's got so much to utilize, but most of her moves are very execution heavy and it takes A WHOLE LOT of dedication to actually do stuff with her. Babababa, babababa! Vatista is mostly a zone control character with tons of moves that require set-ups and proper positioning. Thankfully, a lot of her moves do tend to knock enemies away, giving her breathing room. Despite that, she has some decent combos up close, but those are just meant to keep her enemies away, as the good ones tend to leave her moving back and knocking enemies away. Anyway, Vatista is one tough loli to use properly, that's all you need to know. However, if you want a zoning type character that locks you down all day and plays mind games on your opponents (somewhat like Mu-12 or Rachel), then look no further.


As a zoning type character, you can expect Vatista to be a little bit cheesy. F**k it, if you're good, you can make her a total piece of shit to play against. Aside from firing slow moving balls that she can follow up with for mixups, she can fire more balls at varying speeds, and Doctor Doom styled beam lasers that go from one end of the screen to the other. As you can see, she's going to be soooo fun to fight against. Other than that, she can set bombs that she calls fragments all around the map. When any of her projectiles come into contact with the bombs, boom, instant damage. With proper set-up, she is potentially one of the most deadly characters in the game. While her ranged prowess is amazing, she's got a whole deal of moves she can use up close to extend combos.


+ Zone control
+ Combos usually end by keeping her safe
+ Insane damage with proper set-up
+ Potential mind games against enemy

- Very hard to use
- May not be the fastest character



=============================================================
End of Part 1








Opening Songs
OP 1 - Let Me Hear (Fear, Loathing In Las Vegas)

Ending Songs
ED 1 - Its The Right Time (Daichi Miura)

Genre: Action, Romance, Drama, Horror, Psychological, Science Fiction

Episodes: 24



Generally I don't hear many good things about animes that don't follow their manga counterparts, and I can understand that much. "Parasyte"'s anime adaptation, however, DOES NOT follow the manga, and is still well received. That means that the anime's original story is pretty great, doesn't it? Hell yes. There's a reason why this was one of the most well regarded animes last year when it was still airing, and even the latter half that aired this year, people were singing the praises of "Parasyte". "Parasyte -The Maxim" manages to do itself well and gets many things right that a lot of modern day franchises fail at. The writing is good, the action is at an all time intense, character development is AMAZING, and when everything is thrown together, I think we get one of the best, if not THE BEST alien themed anime in a long, LONG time. "Parasyte" doesn't f**k around, it doesn't pull its punches, and honestly, its amazing like that.


Kana is a beaut.


The opening theme is "Let Me Hear" by Fear, Loathing In  Las Vegas. Honestly, I never thought these guys would do anime opening themes because their GOOD songs are usually metal as f**k. "Let Me Hear" is great, as expected from a song by these guys. Its mostly synth and electro, with some screamo elements in it. Typical Fear, Loathing In Las Vegas, I like it, but not everyone will. The ending theme is "Its The Right Time" by Daichi Miura, which is a sharp contrast to "Let Me Hear". One is a fast tempo opening theme while the other is just slow as balls, trying to be soothing and easy-going. Obviously not my cup of tea.



Rating: 8.5/10



Watching "Parasyte -The Maxim-" was just like watching a journey play through right before my eyes. It was one of the MOST progressive animes that I've seen in a long time. "Parasyte" is like a game of cat and mouse, where our hero is constantly in danger from a very sick version of hide and seek. Its horrible, its violent, and it can be very disturbing for some individuals. But it also has some really nice, interesting and emotional characters. Character progression is fantastic in this show, especially for the protagonist, its quite wonderful to see him go through different character changes in the many different phases throughout the anime. The action is intense, fight scenes are quick to end, but also very nice to watch. Not to worry though, these fight scenes are plenty, action fans can easily get their fix. Other than that, the anime picks up VERY quickly, and things start to snowball out of control like no other.


Oh...is this Aliens?

Shinichi is just your regular nerdy high schooler who's got nothing too special in his life. He lives a peaceful life with his parents, and he goes to a normal school like every other young man his age. One night, his room is invaded by a "pest" which he mistakens as a snake. The snake enters his arm and he enters a state of panic, restricting his arm so that the snake cannot go further into his body. The next day, he feels his hand moving on its own. He had his suspicions, but fully confirms it when his hand automatically raised itself to block off a car speeding towards him. He rushes home to stab his hand, having full suspicions of the snake that entered his arm, but his arm grew tiny arms of its own and stopped Shinichi's blade. The hand later introduces himself as an alien species that invaded Earth. The hand, which calls itself Migi, said that by entering Shinichi's hand, it wanted to invade his mind, but was stopped by Shinichi's frantic actions during that night. Migi is a parasyte, and his alien brethren are scattered throughout the world. The parasyte are able to sense each other, and as such, Shinichi is now plunged into a world where he is constantly in danger.


"Parasyte -The Maxim-" does many things right and hits a lot of high points, making it one of the more well rounded shows in a long time, excelling on many ends. It may not be for the faint of heart, but overall, this is one of the best shows during the year thus far. Its highly regarded by many fans, and its obvious why.


Peace.