Tuesday, 14 February 2012

Ready for round 2? (Higurashi no naku koro ni kai review)


Opening songs
OP 1-Naraku no Hana (Eiko shimamiya)

Ending songs
ED 1-Taishō.a (Nina)

Genre: Drama, horror, mystery, physcological, thriller

Episodes: 26



So, have you watched higurashi? Wheter or not violence and horror is your thing, it deserves a look due to its engrossing story and characters. After the ending of Higurashi no naku koro ni, there was no doubt that there would be a second season, so here it is. As expected, higurashi no naku no koro ni kai delivers the same gorey, horrifying and splendid storytelling that its predecessor possesed, however, the story arcs now tell less gruesome tales than in vanilla higurashi. This is both a good and bad thing. In a way it looses some of its touch, but this time, the story provides some more satisfying solutions than it did in Higurashi no naku no koro ni. So how is the anime as it is now? Not to worry, koro ni kai is still a splendid anime worth the time of everyone who watched the first season.

I loved Higurashi no naku no koro ni (the song), and I expected the same style for the song used in its successor. Sadly naraku no hana isn't as creepy or atmospheric as higurashi no naku no koro ni. It starts off slow, and soon gets into its own atmospheric mood, but isn't as memoriable as higurahi no naku no koro ni. Its still an alright song though. The ending.....lets leave it at that, these songs are always too boring for me listen to.

Rating:8.5/10

Higurashi no naku no koro ni kai is a great sequel to vanilla Higruashi. The only reason why the score is slighty lower is because seeing all these isn't as exciting as we all first saw it in vanilla Higurashi. But don't fret, these events in koro ni kai are still excellent, and watching them unfold is still a great feeling. The entire season feels like a huge solution to the 1st season, and as your questions carried over from season 1 slowly get answered as the show goes on, it gets even more interesting. The true meaning of the hinamizawa syndrome.... Rika's travelling between timelines...its all just too engrossing and intruiging to give up watching.


Introducing our cute little newcomer, Hanyuu!

Koro ni kai still stars our usual characters from the previous season, but the spotlight this time kind of shifts from keiichi to Rika, our little timeline shifting goddess. This seaons talks more about Rika as she unravels the mysteries of the cotton drifting festival, as she grows frustrated from being unable to find the "true" timeline where everything goes right. Having travelled through tons of different timelines, all of which ending up with people dieing in previous ways seen before, she is growing desperate. As she communicates with the bystander and true god of hinamizawa, hanyuu, she shares with her the experiences she goes through, and how she constantly tries to seek out the "perfect end".

Higurashi no naku no koro ni kai is a wonderful followup and a perfect conclusion to the series. Im not sure about kira and all the weird spinoffs, but Im sure koro ni kai is the legit conclusion to the main story. Its a great anime and should easily satisfy those who watched vanilla Higurashi. The plot is as engrossing as ever, and the sense of thrill and suspense still hangs over the air as you watch it. Hell, I watched 13 episodes in a row to finish the final arc (I usually only watch 3-4 episodes of an anime at once). All in all, theres no reason not to watch this if you watched vanilla higurashi, and if you havent watched that one, go watch it now, its thats not worth your time as an anime, I dont know what is.

Peace.

Sunday, 12 February 2012

Valkyria chronicles

Gamespot score:8.5(great)

my score:9.0

(+)Pros:-A great blend of RPG and stragetic elements,-fun and intruiging story that gets exciting and emotional towards the end,-amazing visual style,-gameplay is refreshing and addicting,-good variety of maps that draw you to go back to them again and again.

(-)Cons:-Ai gets retarded at times.

Gameplay time:30-40 hours



When it comes to JPRGs on the 4th gen console, theres only one so far that I own and love the most. Valkyria chronicles is by far my favourite JRPG on my PS3, and I regret only buying it late last year.....I completely missed out on the fun. This is in my opinion, way better than big hitters from square enix like Star ocean:the last hope and even Final fantasy 13. Seemingly combining strategic, third person shooter and RPG elements, Valkyria chronicles is an incredibly refreshing 3 in 1 package that doesn't fail to deliver an exciting, fun and brand new experience no one has ever seen before. Its stupid thinking back that when I saw the trailer of this game, I got turned off....well playing the game sure made me change my mind quickly.




The game tells the story of a war taking place in Europa, a world set in the game's story. The imperials and federal nations are at a world war, competing for ragnite, an important resource in that world. In the center of these 2 countries is the neutral state Gallia, who wanted to have nothing to do with their conflict. Unfortunately Gallia is full of ragnite, and that just means war was going to come to them wheter they liked it or not. The imperials invaded Gallia, and that caused a huge uproar. Welkin, a young gallian man who went back to visit his hometown, is suprised when it came under attack by imperial forces. Working together with the town guard Alicia, whom he just met, these 2 repelled the imperial attack forces and barely managed to escape. Later, in an attempt to fight for thier country, Alicia and Welkin join the Gallian militia, and they formed squad 7. Now Welkin leads squad 7, and they fight for Gallia against the imperial army in desperate situations.



Boom boom pow, you dead!

The game is played through a book's standpoint, and that isn't necessarily bad. You go through chapters through pages in the book, and navigate everything through that book. Be it going to your squard barracks, or viewing previous achivements and missions. This navigating of menus seem lazy, but thier accessable, and they quickly grow on you as you check on all different areas through that book itself. The graphics are amazing, its not really a technical marvel like that of battlefield 3 or crysis 2, but more of something like the recent Darkness 2. The game uses a water color painting visual style, with tones of shadings to make everything look much livlier. Ever since I played this game I started to adore its visual style, and grew to like games with these kind of graphics, like Borderlands or Darkness 2. Yeah, its just that good.

 Also, while its that good, it transitions just as well into the gameplay. Gameplay, as mentioned earlier, is a three way blend between third person shooting, strategy and RPG. The first phase is the stragetic phase, where you view all of your units from a map standpoint, and all your units are just nodes with icons of the classes that represent them. Here, you view the placement of all your units and enemy units that are in your field of vision, and you can see all thier stats, and your remaining CP. Selecting a unit costs CP, and when all your CP runs out, your phase ends. Selecting a unit zooms you into that enemy and brings you to the battlefield, now THATS where the game feels like a war.


Plan your tactics well as you charge into the fray.
 When you zoom into a unit, the game becomes a third person shooter. You run around as that unit, and the amount you can move depends on your stamina. Different classes have different amount of stamina, and speaking of classes, I'll quickly go through all of them. Theres a Scout class, which is just your standard soldier that can cover the largest distance with thier feet. They can take down enemy scouts and other squishies, but basically they die to the rest. Shocktroopers are massive infantry killers, they kill every soldier on the field with ease, and can take a good amount of punishment, but they still lose to tanks and can't really move that much. Lancers are your anti-armour units, they take down tanks like they are eating candy. They can also kill infantry with thier missles, though that requires some good aiming. They cant really move alot. Engineers can cover good distances too, but they are weak when it comes to fighting, thier fort comes in repairing your tanks.  Snipers move the least, and die the fastest when it comes to combat, but they can take down any enemy infantry in 1 shot, deadly.

As you move your characters on the field, any enemy that spots you will shoot you, but when you stop and decide to attack one of the enemy units, all enemy fire will cease, and the game becomes a RPG from there, comparing the stats between the 2 units. If the enemy survives your assualt, they will counter you. Same for the enemy, during thier turn, your characters shoot them as they move around, and when they attack you, you counter them if you live through that attack. Its really fun, and due to the fact that there are a good amount of maps (some of them revisitable through skirmish), combat doesnt really get old. You will really want to replay these maps and earn more experience to power up your squad.


The visual style is just stunning!

Its really hard to fault a game such as Valkyria chronicles. The story  is fun to watch unfold and is full of emotional moments, the gameplay is just  a double thumbs up and the graphics are just stunning, no matter what faults plague it, the experience you will receive won't really be affected. However, the AI can get a little stupid at times. They spend turns moving around randomly, not doing anything. They sometimes just spend a turn to make a soldier stand there and do nothing, what the hell? They even send scouts charging straight into your team of shocktroopers to die. Its kind of stupid, but it doesn't take away from the experience much, since later stages have enemies sending in tons of reinforcements, providing the challenge the game wants to.


Valkyria chronicles is not something that will attract people based on looking at it, the visuals may be stunning, but gameplay requires some hands on before it will start appealing to players. Its beautiful to look at, its fun, and most of all, its unique. Valkyria chronicles easily beats cliche standalone titles like final fantasy in my opinion. Its a pity the other valkyria chronicle games aren't on the PS3, it would have been a better in my opinion. I have yet to start on VC 2, but when I do, Im pretty sure I'll enjoy it.



Happy gaming!

Friday, 10 February 2012

Greatest boss fights: Melad Margus (Knights in the nightmare)


Don't write me off just yet! I'm still alive....and for now I can resume posting at regular rates. School holidays are here, and MAN I am hell excited about it. Say goodbye to school and back to my life of slacking and bliss. Anyway, seems like blogger's posting interface has changed a little since my absence, and I must say its for the better. So...greatest boss fights, we meet again! Its been awhile definitely, and here's another boss to quench the thirst of all you boss vanquishing warriors. Behold, Melad Margus of knights in the nightmare.

I may be giving knights in the nightmare a little bit too much of a spotlight here in my blog (getting both a greatest game character and greatest boss fight), but the game just deserves so much more than it does right now. I typed of Melad Margus on google and I was suprised how little pictures and videos there were. -.-, come on internet, how can you be like that? Anyway Melad Margus is a badass looking boss, suitable for the true final boss of Knights in the nightmare.

Being a game of skill rather than stats, Melad Margus is extremely cheap. I mean yeah, one of the game's genres is bullet hell, and I'm sure you have encountered tons of bullet dodging in the game. BUT, you won't truly experience what bullet hell is, until you have faced Melad Margus. Melissa, hungry for power, after seeing zolognark being defeated, decided to merge his soul to hers, in desperation for power. The result? The grotesque form of Melad Margus. Looking like a badass mixture of angel and devil, she is more than ready to beat your ass down.


Suck on this sephiroth.

Being the final boss, her stats are ridiculous. Easily surpassing zolognark's HP, she can withstand a monstrous amount of damage, as much as she can dish out ridiculous attacks of her own. Unlike zolognark, she can move around, and teleports around the screen, making it extremely hard to hit her with your stationary knights (and maria). You can do nothing but helplessly dodge and watch her unleash waves of spirals and electrical orbs...whilst splitting your screen into mini segments with enormous slashes. Waiting for her to get into the range of your attackers is so annoying, and when you finally see that opening to strike shes going to burst out one of her powerful ass attacks....thus interrupting your momentum of attack. Landing a successful hit on her is already ridiculously difficult, combine that with her HP, you get one nearly unbeatable boss.

Her attacks are nearly undodgable. Nearly undodgable, but not impossible, videos in youtube make dodging her attacks look difficult already, playing it yourself is always 10 times worse. She can split your screen and let blood drip from those three humongous cuts, summon 3 spirals that swirl uncontrollably and spawn tons of electric orbs, and even trap you within a spiky circle. Her rage move spawns two wings herself, and while they flap continuously, deadly sparking glitters fill the map, and after awhile, she disappears, and those glitters turn into balls of doom that float upwards. 

Reading this all doesn't sound very terrifying, but in the game, you can bet your ass it is. Its stupidly hard to dodge these attacks, and each hit can easily take off 10 seconds or more off your timer, and the worse thing is, you may be getting hit multiple times, meaning that can die in about 1 or 2 skills if you're horrible at dodging or are unfortunate enough to get caught in unfavorable positions.

All in all, its nearly impossible to beat this crazy bitch without retrying, if you can, you must be of godly skill, like the guys in the videos I am about to post. On your first few attempts, killing her without retrying is just impossible, and trying over and over again will make you ask yourself why you are committing  yourself to this blasphemy. If you can beat this bitch without retrying, it means you have accomplished an incredible feat, props to you, because I didn't have the motivation to do so.

Difficulty:9/10

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh4wb0bEkBA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7m33ELHG5I

Credits to the rightful owners of these videos, for beating such a monstrosity without retries.

Saturday, 4 February 2012

Favourite anime characters (Asu no yoichi, Asura cryin series, Baka to test to shoukanjuu series)

Heres another post to commemerate some of my favourite anime characters. Going down in alphabetical order once again, today we have Asu no yoichi, Asura cryin and the funny as nuts baka test. Asura cryin is great, asu no yoichi is pretty good and baka test is just phenominal, all are good choices when it comes to quality anime worth of your time. But when it comes to characters, there are just some that interest you way more than others, so without ado, here are my favourite characters from these individual animes!

Spoilers ahead, ye be warned!

*SPOILERS*


Asu no yoichi

Lets start off with asu no yoichi, known as the samurai harem. It may not be very well known, but its definetely a good show worth watching for those anime addicts (like myself). Its plot may not be very strong, but the characters are very likable. Plenty of awesome and funny characters pull this to one of the better "good" animes I have seen.

Gangsta? No! Joker!

First up for asu no yoichi, heres the man of the hour. Washizu looks like a gangster, a badass, a delinquent, someone who would beat the shit out of you for just looking at him, but believe it, he's a joker! Thats right, he's funny, and when paired up with his little friend torigaya, they make a dynamic joke duo! But besides the point, more than just being funny, Washizu was the character in the anime that made the biggest character developement, and that was what sealed the deal for me.

Washizu is what people consider a delinquent, and is known for being the strongest guy around, unbeatable by any gangster. His friend torigaya always hangs around him, boasting washizu as "wa-san" and promoting to everyone to how strong washizu is. But, despite being the big boss around town, Washizu has a crush on Ibuki Ikaruga, and that caused him to change. Now around Ibuki, he acts all nice and gentlemen like. But! Because of Yoichi, he sees yoichi as a rival, and thats where the shit gets real!

Washizu challenges yoichi to fights to win over ibuki as a huge misunderstanding. Being the thick headed fool that he is, he is stubborn and doesnt give up. He usually loses, but that doesnt stop the ikaruga family and his friends to be entertained. From, a loner, he gains alot of friends, and his personality started to change, becoming a nicer person. And the nicer he gets, the smaller torigaya becomes (this is just lol), until the last episode torigaya becomes a little chibi! An overall interesting, funny and favourable character, I must say. And to add to it, though he is mostly an ignored character, he is actually liked by tsubasa, one of the show's cuter girls. Tsubasa X Washizu bitches!


Asura cryin series

One of the better shows out there, Asura cryin is a fantastic anime with a nice blend of occult demon lore and mecha action. It had its share of good characters within its splendid world and solid plot, but if I had to choose one character.....it has to be her.


When it comes to cool girls, it doesn't get any cooler than this.

All hail Toru kitsutaka! If there were to be a character I would choose to be with in Asrua cryin its her! Shes looks like a typical gothic emo girl with all that fringe covering one eye like a typical bishounen, but those of you who watch the anime should know, she has a funny and cute side to her! Its a pity her love for tokiya blinds her and turns her against Tomoharu and gang later on, and she gets turned into a burial doll.....still, my love for this character won't dwindle! Toru taichou will be the coolest character of the entire Asura's cryin series.

Before toru turned rogue in season 2, she was cool as hell in season 1. She didnt make that big of an appearance at first, and she was the first to the gang to introduce herself as an ex machina weilder. Towards the end of season 1, when kagakagari attacked the passenger plane, toru showed up as reinforcements and did a number on him. Kicking ass with the big ass katana of hers, she sure knows how to fight with style, and being the first to introduce magic immunity as an ex weilder, she sure turned the tables for that fight.

But things get better when she shows off her more feminine side. Seeing her go all girly for tokiya really makes my heart melt, so kawai! And it only makes tokiya looks more like an ass for still going nuts for aki, toru's sister. Acting like a big sister/onee-san figure really only makes her all the more worthy for my vote. Definetely toru, shes definetely gets my pick. Shuri gets a close second though, shoutouts to her. 


Baka to test to shoukanjuu series

A must watch for any anime and comedy fan. Baka test is still up to date the funniest anime I have ever watched, and I remember almost every individual episode clearly in my mind. I have yet to watch season 2 though, so no comment on that, but since the characters are still the same, I am more than ready to make my verdict. And since baka test is such an amazing anime worthy of so much praise, theres no way I can choose only one character! So here are my 2 favourites!


Is that a geass I see?!?!

You ALL saw this coming. Who the hell can resist the urge to like this guy???!?! He's possibly the funniest thing I have ever seen in an anime. Every character in baka test is ridiculously funny, but voyeur takes it to the top. Voyeur is a class F student like Akisa and most of his friends, and he is the class pervert, bringing his trusty camera wherever he goes. Completely filled with nothing but lust to take pictures of pervertic shots, he is a complete comedian. Rushing to scenes where he can get panty shots or other shots of girls changing, he goes to whatever measures required to get the job done.

Voyeur is easily turned on, and has all the knowledge about perverted stuff in the world stored in his mind. He takes pictures at the beginning of school, going to class early, sniping at unsuspected girls walking in through the school gate. He has pictures and information of every girl in the school, supposedly, and he keeps data on them in his trusty PC. A true pervert I would say, and he keeps copies of pictures he takes and sells them to fellow male classmates, mostly to Akisa though.

Voyeur, as I said earlier, is turned on easily, he nose bleeds at the sight of panties, and by getting sweet talked by another girl he nose bleeds as well. The swimming pool episode has him and akisa nose bleeding every 20 seconds everytime a new girls shows up in bikini. Awesomely funny, in so many ways. All camera systems in the school belongs to him, and he can easily get all footage of girls changing in the school, sneaky bastard. And to make things even better, his best subject is health, and hes so good at it, that he can defeat an A class student in a summon being battle in relevance to a health subject! Awesome.





Beauty is not what it always seems!

Heres my other favourite of baka test, shouko kirishima. Shouko is hot, but thats not why she's here on the list, its because she is no doubt, pretty damn funny. Despite being an incredibly good looking and smart young woman (she is the rep of class A, the best class in school), shouko has turned down every guy, and only has feelings for one, true idiot. Yuuji sakamoto of class F. Being childhood friends, she has a deep admiration for him since young.

Shouko is a strict and demanding girl. She loves yuuji and claims him for her own even though yuuji refused over and over to go on a date with her. Many a time she is seen dragging him along with her, with him being the one in distress. She restricts yuuji to have interests in any other girl but herself, and if she has the slightest suspicion, she will go and "clarify" with yuuji, in her own painful ways. Everytime yuuji is seen talking with a girl, she shows up and the moment she does, yuuji starts to act quieter, in fear that he will be attacked. This alone is hilarious, as her prescense itself makes yuuji quiver like a frightened puppy.

To further explain her feats, she brings yuuji along in an amusement park date, and has her purposely dragging him along to do all the fun stuff. The entire F class crew even goes and volunteerly acts as amusement park workers to cleverly set up the mood. In the swimming pool episodes, she ties yuuji and blindfolds him in a corner, forbidding him to look at any of the other girls in thier swimsuits. Also, she brings a taser along with her at times, like when bringing yuuji to watch that long ass movie 3 times. Funny stuff. When it comes to a restrictive girl who likes to control her man, no one does it funnier than shouko.

Peace out for now.....

Friday, 3 February 2012

Just for the fanservice...nothing else (Rio-Rainbow gate review)



Opening songs
OP 1-Sekai to Issho ni Mawarou yo! (Love roulettes)

Ending songs
ED 1-Miracle☆Chance (ULTRA-PRISM)

Genre:Comedy

Episodes:13


Do yourselves a favour people. When browsing through anime, do not get so attracted when you see the picture for the anime being a sexy big breasted young lady, most of the time that anime wouldn't be up to standard. Most animes are like this, including the ridiculous queens blade (should have given it a far lower score). So is the case with Rio-rainbow gate, I was attracted to rio, the main heroine. She is sexy, has big boobs, a gorgeous figure, and to top it off, her voicer is the all so elegant marina inoue. Its too bad though thats all this show has, nice girls. Thats it! The plot is rather insignificant, and theres nothing much going on most of the time. The comedy is sub par, and the animation style is only about average. It all boils down to this, your time spent watching rio-rainbow gate, can be better well spent watching other nicer animes.

Yeeeep, unfortunately, both songs used in the opening are not in my radar zone at all. Both are cutesy, popsy and give off happy atmospheres. Sure it fits the anime, but these songs don't interest me at all. Its really too bad though, if ayana taketatsu or marina inoue did any of the singing at all it would have been so cool.

Rating:6.0/10


For those of you that don't know, anything below a 7.0 in terms of score, is in my opinion, below average, be it games or anime. After I finished the entire series, I was like "okay...why did I watch this?". The show isnt terrible, it just has no point to it. Sure the main focus is about gambling, but belive me 85% of the show has nothing to do with legit gambling at all! And to top it off it tries to throw all its efforts into sub par comedy and fanservice. Without a truly engaging story or appealing characters, I dont see rio-rainbow gate turning out to be anything but a fanservice anime. Its a shame though, the final 1 or 2 episodes were actually quite legit, with Rio's mom showing up and all.



Ohh yeah, thats right! Keep it that way, thats why we're here honey.

The plot stars our main heroine as rio, the "goddess of victory" of howard resort. As a dealer she is well known to bring victory to those that play with her as the dealer. She is also known for her voluptrous figure, always being used by howard, the resort owner, to wear revealing and outstanding clothing. One day, mint clark, a young girl following her grandfather on a casino trip, arrives to howard resort for a stay. Being an acquaintice of howard, mint's grandfather is treated with special care, and mint was to be taken care off under rio. Mint learns that rio is a well known and distinguished dealer, with the possesion of a gate, which belongs to an original set of 13 gates, all of which when brought together will bring upon the rainbow gate. Rio gets well known as a gate owner, and various gate owners come to howard resort to challenge, all in hopes of getting the gates in her possesion. So the battle for the 13 gates begins...

While rio-rainbow gate has its own charm, its just not enough. As a first timer to such a concept, I thought gambling in anime would be way cooler than this, like in those old school hong kong dramas. Its too bad though that the gambling in this is more of a comedy reality show or game. Oh well, at least rio is beyond sexy, and mint is so kawai with ayana taketatsu's voice. Other than the little bit of fanservice it has to offer, rio-rainbow gate isn't much, and your time can be better spent watching other more brilliant masterpieces.

Peace.

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