Gamer--freakz

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.

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.

Gamespot Score: 7.5 (Good)

My Score: 7.5


(+)Pros: - Excellent new combat system that caters well towards beginners, - Innovative level design, - Tons of weapon variety gives you different ways to kill enemies, - Angelic and demonic enemies add depth and difficulty to battles, - Many hidden secrets and difficulty modes for the hardcore.

(-)Cons: - New rebooted characters that we all know and love have completely shitty characterization, - No lock on during battles can be pretty frustrating during higher difficulty levels, - Lack of style changes removes a lot of depth in the combat.

Gameplay time: About 10 hours for the first play-through.

I love the "Devil May Cry" franchise, I'm sure if you're a frequent reader of this blog, you'd know that. I love the characters, the story, and the combat, I love almost everything about that franchise. Of course, that meant that when I saw the dreaded reboot trailer, I completely lost it. The new Dante looks like a spoiled teenager...a complete piece of shit in comparison to the original one. I thought I would never play this new rebooted "DMC", not in my life...until I played the demo. I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw, the combat was great, and I loved the sense of action. After much deliberation, I decided to give the main game a go, I departed with my cash and began my adventure. Here's what I think....




First thing's first, the story. Since "DMC:Devil May Cry" is a complete reboot, the story in this game is NOT canon to the original universe of "Devil May Cry", so don't go shitting your pants just yet. Anyway, it talks about this world's Dante, a teenage, chaotic, meth loving punk that goes about his day raving around in strip clubs and having sex with its ladies. Dante is also aware of the existence of demons, that aren't visible to most humans. He is constantly dragged into limbo, a rift in the human world, where he does battle with these demons. One day, after having a crazy night with a couple of demon girls from a strip club, he wakes up the next morning when a girl knocks on his window, and is immediately dragged into limbo. The girl helps him out, and introduces herself as Kat, who is scouting Dante for this demon killing abilities to work for the anti government organization, "The Order".

Looks fancy, and it sure is.

"DMC:Devil May Cry", no matter how dumb it sounds, may be a reboot, and everything looks SO WRONG  for the universe, is STILL A "DEVIL MAY CRY" GAME. And because it IS one, it plays like one, though it is being developed by a different team. The combat system is revamped, and while its different, it definitely still works as a fun, flashy, beat-em-up game that impresses both visually and mentally. Dante is able to fight enemies using different varieties of weapons, ranging between ranged and melee ones. You can combo enemies on the ground, launch them up, combo them in the air, smack them back to the ground, lift them off the ground with another move, and continue combo-ing. If you were a sucker for previous games in the series because of the combat, you will be happy here.


And because there are such huge windows of opportunities between attacks, and that the style meter fills up so quickly when compared to previous games, this reboot is very well suited for beginners. There are 3 different dodge types, you can switch weapons on the fly easily, and most of the time, the screen will be filled with weak enemies on average difficulties, meaning that you can breeze through levels as long as you grasp the basic mechanics of the game. If you want to feel badass getting SSS ranks in style, you can even as a beginner, as long as you don't get hit. And without the style switching of past games (Sword master, Trickster etc), its easier to just bash through enemies with the weapons you have, instead of switching styles mid combat. 

Cue fighting game announcer voice..."AIR COMBO"

With all that you have you breeze through 20 levels of enemies and bosses, all of which aren't too special. The new demon designs look far less interesting than the ones in old games, but they aren't too bad, and bosses are alright. Not too easy, not too difficult, just alright overall, but they do bring variety in having ways to get killed. The levels, however, are some of the most innovative I have seen. Since the game takes place in a modern world, unlike the original games, we are brought to limbo versions of warehouses, buildings and prisons, which look really cool. With twisted paths, walls and distorted backgrounds, everything just looks really interesting. Also, while killing these enemies and bosses, you gain access to a shitload of weapons, even more so than previous games, actually. There are three types of weapons, angelic types, demonic types and firearms. Added together, there are a total of 8 weapons.....now THAT is variety.


Also, to switch things up, the games likes to toss you angel and demon enemies, which again, add more depth and variety to combat situations. You can only use angel weapons to defeat angel enemies, while demon weapons defeat the demonic ones. Since you can level up your weapons and skills, this actually forces the players to spend points into different weapons so you can actually deal with this complicated situations. It also makes the game slightly harder, which it should be (since it was pretty easy for my first run even on Nephilim). There are also a ton of secret challenges that are locked behind secret doors, which you need keys to open, these can be found throughout different levels of the games. These challenges are mostly just stuff like "Defeat enemies within the time limit", or "Defeat enemies without taking X amount of damage". What else? There are a ton of difficulty levels like before, for the hardcore, with a new "Hell and Hell" mode, where enemies are full health and Dante dies in one hit.

Kill shit, just keep killing shit.

The biggest issue I have with this game, is the same as everyone else. The rebooted characters....more importantly Dante and Vergil...have been butchered. Yes, you heard me, not just their looks, their personalities have haven a complete turn for the worst. Think what you want, you may like them, but I'm sure most of the fans around the world HATE the new Dante and Vergil. I won't spoil how they're like, I'll leave that to you.

As for flaws in the ACTUAL game, its pretty easy to point out the biggest one. The lack of a lock on. On "Dante must die" and "Son of Sparda", this was a real killer. Without a lock on you cannot kill the enemies you actually want to kill first, like when there are TWO FREAKING NINJAS, I WANT TO KILL THE NINJA WITH LOWER HEALTH FIRST GOD DAMMIT. No! Stop hitting the other guy, STOP IT. You'll be screaming that out loud when it actually happens, trust me. Just try and imagine that situation in your head. Also, since they removed style switching completely, there is a lot less that Dante can actually do for you to experiment around with. This mostly hurts for the hardcore fans who played previous games.


Alright, lets conclude this review. The combat is f**king great and all, but I'll say it up straight. If it were any other action beat-em-up title, it would have gotten an easy 8/10 or more from me. But BECAUSE it carries the "Devil May Cry" name...it doesn't. The butchered characterization of the characters that I like really sucked. As a action game, its great, as a "DMC" game for a "DMC" fan though....you might be in for a bigger spin that you may think. Enjoy the combat system, but as for the rest..its up to you to decide.




Happy gaming.