Gamer--freakz

Taurus demon
HP: 1200~
Skills: Jumping smash, Standing smash, Poke, Hammer swing*
Souls:1000

Difficulty:1.5/5
Times died on 1st playthrough: 1

Welcome to the 2nd post of dark souls boss profiles, where we cover all the bosses of dark souls. For today, we will going through the 2nd boss I fought during my playthrough, and thats the Taurus demon. This guy should be familiar to fans, since he appeared alot in screenshots and trailers. He seems so unbeatable at first, but once you figure out the secret of the fight (which isnt that hard to figure out at all), you can beat him no problem. Taurus demon is the boss of undead burg.




He's quite a terror to fight against on the ground.

Jumping smash- He leaps foward in an attempt to smash you. Its slow, so you gotta time your dodges carefully.

Standing smash- Same as jumping smash, but without the jump. This is even easier to predict once you see it coming.

Poke- This seems to hit me alot, but thankfully, its the lowest damaging out of all his attacks. He stabs you with the blunt thin end of his hammer, almost without warning. Roll away or block, but blocking will cost you a hefty amount of stamina.

Hammer swing*- This hits hard, and its hard not to get his by this. He lifts his hammer sideways and attempts to swipe you. It has good range, and  blocking it is a bad idea, since it staggers you. Dodging this is tricky too, since the timing for his swing is awkward as hell, and I always roll at the wrong time. Rolling back once won't cut it, roll back twice just to make sure. Rolling sideways is suicide. If you are hit by this, you will fly (literally).


Another easy boss. If it isnt obvious enough, you aren't suppose to literally 1v1 this boss like a pro, because he will slaughter you. The arena you fight in is super linear, and its just a straight path back and forth. In other words, you don't have alot of room to dodge. There are multiple ways to winning this fight, using the intending jumping stab method, melee him 1 on 1 (not recommended unless you are high leveled or confident with your melee skills), or ranged combat (once again, not really recommended).

I'll start with the easiest method first. When you enter the arena, look for a ladder near your position without moving any further foward (moving too far up front prompts the taurus demon to appear). Climb it and dispatch the 2 skeleton archers up there. Now climb back down and go prompt the taurus demon. When he shows up, climb up the ladder to the top and wait for him to reach your position. When he reaches the tower, he will look up at you, not doing anything, this is your chance to strike. Do a jumping stab on him. Depending on your starting class, you can do up to 400 damage easily. Beware though, if you idle too much up there, he will jump up there and personally clobber your ass.

After your first stab, the rest is easy as well. Run to the halfway point of the arena, and watch him run towards you. When you see him readying an attack, run past him and back to the ladder. If you dodged the attack, take this time to climb up the ladder real quick, if you are hit, reposition yourself and try to dodge his next attack before running for the ladder. Granted that you dodged his attack, you will be able to climb the ladder without taking a scratch, since he will be too busy recovering from his attack to come aftee you. Wait for him to come at you again, and do jumping stab to take off another good chunk of health. Rinse and repeat until dead, shouldnt take more than 4 or 5 times for most classes.

Kids, don't try this at home.

If you are a mage or hunter, ranging this guy is also a possibility. Especially with mage, since jumping stab with dagger does crappy damage, you're gonna want to range this guy with magic, you're gonna have better results. As usual, start the battle up the tower, do a jumping stab on him. After that, take this battle differently. Prompt him to attack, if its anyting but the jumping smash, roll back a few times, then fire soul arrows at his face. Rinse and repeat, he doesnt have a whole lot of magic defense to begin with, and you definetely won't even need 30 soul arrows to kill him. Hell, I doubt you need 20.
 
Meleeing him requires a sheer amount of skill, since the arena is so linear. The usual roll and smack strategy applies, but this guy hits to hard its not even funny. I don't recommend meleeing him at all (unless of course you are in NG+). What you're gonna want to do here should be fairly similar to previous strategies. You run, prompt an attack, hit his ass, rinse and repeat. But this time, make sure the attack you are prompting is jumping smash, since it has huge recovery time and you can ALWAYS run behind him when he does this.
 
Taurus demon is superbly easy to beat if you use the intended jumping stab method, its just a matter of running and climbing. Other methods arent recommended, but if you have shitty damage with melee, it can't really be helped. Meleeing him is the hardest, but people have done it. There are harder bosses to come, don't worry.
 
Peace.

Gamespot score:7.5(Good)

my score:8.5

(+)Pros:-Great leap in terms of visuals from the previous game,-brand new continent with totally brand new pokemon (no repeats from older versions AT ALL until post game),-battle system is yet again FURTHER improved,-super long gameplay,-C-gear is convinient,-story actually tries to be a little different this time and the villians have a somewhat bigger impact.

(-)Cons:-Its pokemon all over again! You jelly haters?,-C-gear takes WAY too long to connect sometimes.

Gameplay time:50 hours+

Pokemon pokemon pokemon. The magic word that makes people go wild. There's no doubt in my mind that at least 90% of the world has at least played ONE pokemon game, if they haven't... they have failed in life. Like all pokemon games before it, pokemon white/black strives to not revamp thier formula, but instead improve upon it, to create the ultimate adventure that strikes as a familiar one to the fans, yet slighty different so they don't get bored. Time and time again this has been done, but without a doubt, this year, Game freak has pulled a fast one on us, and white/black is probably one of the best pokemon games up to date. 



Pokemon stories always make me go zzzzzzzzz. Because its basically the same shit all over again. Thankfully though, Game freak emphasised on thier story more this year. While the root of the story remains mostly the same, now we actually have REAL villians, and more worthy rivals. Previous games had the game make you go through this same procedure....8 gyms> villians appear somewhere in between>capture the legendary at gym 8> kill off villians at gym 7> proceed to steamroll elite 4>credits. Now though, there are changes. The villians arent just a team of losers trying to abuse the use of pokemon, but there are actually solid characters behind that team, and make you think. I think Ghetis and N make great villians, just as cheron and bianca make great rivals. There are 2 rivals this time round, and other than just fools that appear like 3 times in the game just to fight you, these actually appear frequently, and thier seperate ideals are an interesting thing to have. Finally, the professor is a CHICK! WAD.




The most stressful moment of all history...choosing your starter.

White/black version's improved story is just one of the many juicy things it has to over. Like all pokemon games, black/white's theme is to FUCKING CATCH THEM ALL.WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. Well, no harm in that, pokemon has always been like that. In black/white though, we get the leisure of exploring a brand new continent with brand new pokemon. I say this because its 100% true, all pokemon are BRAND NEW. Unlike, the gen 4 games, where we got cool ass pokemon like gastrodon and garchomp, but the caves were still populated with fking zubats and geodudes.

 None of that is in black/white, the pokemon in the continent are all gen 5 exculsive.....now that is awesome. I'd say that is a step in the right direction, lets hope all future games do this. Of course, old school pokemon still appear....post game. The visuals also took a nice leap in the right direction. Instead of still images, now we have like sort of GIFs. The pokemon all move in thier own seperate animation in battle now, and that is great. Took them 5 generations of games...but they finally done it! Also, the visuals in towns and other areas look pretty sweet. The camera angle turns to capture the best parts of the area, and dynamic zoom outs reveal the best of cities and mountains.

Game freak really gave it thier all in terms of visuals.

The basic flow of the game hasnt changed at all. You travel through towns and challenge gym leaders for thier badges, and participate in pokemon battles. Battles have changed quiiiite abit in black/white. For example, now in the wild, there are "dark" grass patches. Walking on these will make you encounter usually rarer and stronger pokemon....you might also trigger double battles. As usual its all about beating them or capturing them when in the wild. Trainers are also mostly the same. The game runs on the exact same elemental weakness system it has been using all the while.

Though a new feature this time round, is the triple pokemon battle. As if double pokemon battles werent hectic enough, 3 on 3 fights are even crazier. These new features promote multiplayer even more, and they have something to address this as well. Meet the C-gear. A brand new item that allows users to communicate with others through wifi, be it battling, trading, travelling together, or just for the sake of communicating. The C-gear makes everything multiplayer so much more convinient, but of course, those who prefer the way of the old school can always go to the nearest pokemon center.

Triple the pokemon....triple the madness.

Pokemon, no matter how fancy, will always be pokemon. White/black does have some great improvements, but boy, old school fans will still be bothered. I have played every pokemon game since the original gold/silver/crystal, and up till now, black/white is still using the same formula. Like I said earlier, I don't think Game freak is going revamp thier game plan anytime soon. The exact same cycle of going through 8 gyms, getting the legendary pokemon and beating the bad guys is getting old, and even the improved story cant fail to save that. Another issue is regarding C-gear. No matter how convinient it is, it has issues, like taking forever to connect.

The pokemon formula is getting stale, and it shows us so in black/white. But, the extra effort put into the story, and the fact that the continent had nothing but brand new pokemon is sweet. All that and more make black/white a great addition to the already blooming franchise. Black/white proves that Game freak still has some tricks up their sleeves, and I cant wait to see what they have in store for us in gen 6.



Happy gaming!

Opening songs
OP 1-Irony (ClariS)

Ending songs*
ED 7-Masquerade (Kana hanazawa)

Genre:Drama, Comedy

Episodes:16

I should be updating more, but I'm currently too busy playing games ( you guys want more reviews right? I'm running short of games already). I finished like 3 games during the past month, including time spent on League of Legends, PLUS anime and other shit....Well, enough whining from me, lets get to the topic at hand today, and thats none other than the anime review of the all so awesome Oreimo. This anime has been spreading like wild fire since its release, and thats definetely a good thing, since Oreimo is nothing short of a great anime. Its something new, to say the least, and it aint your regular "romance"/comedy, because theres absolutely no romance in this, and Im glad to see that its not in the genre. And before you go saying "Damn this incest shit I aint watching this", stop. Whoever told you that is lying and you should still watch this if you are interested, you probably won't regret it.

The opening song for Oreimo is insanely good. 'Irony' is an awesome song and I got hooked immediately, and this was the song that made me so hyped onto ClariS. It is currently my 2nd favourite song from them (my favourite being their latest single, Nexus).  I highly recommend you guys to pick up 'Irony' because it is the shit! And the fact that the opening animations change a little bit almost every episode makes it even better. There are WAYY TOO MANY ending songs for the anime, there is a seperate ending theme for each godamn episode, and its overwhelming. I could not remember every single one of them altough I looked them all up. The only one that caught my attention was 'masquerade' by kana hanazawa, and it was used as the ending for episode 7. It is catchy, and something different from her, since her usual works are all cutesy stuff.

Rating:8.0/10

Well this kind of score would kind of have been expected from me. Yes, I think Oreimo is great, along with the rest of the world. Whats there not to like about it? The characters are likable, the background is story is solid, and the situations that take place in the anime are all great expriences for us viewers. Could have been an 8.5 though, Kirino can be beyond annoying at times (Just saying). Well I guess thats what tsunderes are all about. Oreimo is a different experience from modern day harems. Oreimo IS a harem, don't get mistaken, but its more about the relationship between brother and sister, and not the usual "romance" stuff in other animes. I've heard people with sisters as siblings find this a little disturbing, but still ended up liking it one way or another.




How the F**K can you refuse your sister when she looks at you like that??!!?

 Oreimo stars (yet once again) a regular high school boy as the main character. Kyouske is a normal young man leading a regular life in school and outside. But at home, he bears quite a problem. Kyouske has a younger sister known as kirino, and she is a lil b*tch. Kirino and Kyosuke have a very bad sister/brother relationship, and they don't even acknowledge each other. They rarely speak to each other, and don't care about one another whatsoever. One day though, all of that changed. Kyouske finds an eroge lying around, and is puzzled to whose it was. Holding on to it and keeping it in his room, he finds kirino barging in to look for something. Kyouske had to game, and after he made kirino confess that the game was hers, he gave it back to her. Later that night, kirino heads into kyouske's room once again, inviting him to HER room, and revealing to him that she is actually an otaku. That night, kyouske learns alot about his sister that he never knew about, and since then, kirino has starting a session with her brother known as "life counseling". Because of "life counseling", kyouske now gets to know more about her sister, and they begin acting like real siblings now. As a price though, now kyouske gets into loads of weird shit because of his sister.

Oreimo is great. Not because it has fanservice or because it has nice girls, its because its different. Never would I have expected a tale between a brother and sister, that doesnt actually involve incest (Kiss x sis...lol). To make things even better, this show has 2 alternatives. Episode 1-12 shows the original "good ending". Episodes 12.5-15 show the "true ending" which is a slighty longer but more touching take on the original "good ending". No reason not to pick this up, no?

Peace!

Opening songs
OP 1-Egao no riyuu (Meg rock)

Ending songs
ED 1-Life and proud (Aki misato)

Genre:Romance, Comedy

Episodes:12

The holidays are here and I am still being a lazy ass. I apologize for that, but here I am. For today, I will be reviewing Asu no yoichi, which apparently seems like your everyday average harem anime. Well it is typical harem, but its actually one of the better ones....in a way. It has more or less every thing a harem should have, even its own swimsuit episode. Its pretty staple, but there are some characters that are very likable and funny, making this one quite worth your time. Also, if you are tired of main characters being powerless, useless and always being bullied, look no more! This anime has a freaking samurai for a main character, instead of being bullied, he beats the shit out of others!

Asu no yoichi has some alright songs being used. For the opening, we have 'Egao no riyuu' by Meg rock. By itself its a pretty good song and gets catchy real quick, but I highly recommend you to check our the remix by exit trance, that one is great. The ending is 'Life and proud' by the all so famous Aki misato. It isnt a bad song, but there are definetely much better songs by her (Scarlet bomb, blood queen etc).

Rating:7.5/10

No shit, Im not being biased here, I really think Asu no yoichi deserves it. It shares many similarities with common day harems, and it definetely does NOT fit the theme romance (by now you probably already know what romance means to me). Still, yes, it is funny, and damn, the characters are pretty likable, especially Washizu and his little sidekick. And you will actually even grow to like the main character, which is a special case, like me. Usually main characters in harems are shunned, but I think yoichi is pretty cool, in more ways than one. Oh and lets not forget, no harem is complete without its set of hot girls :D, which this anime has no shortage of.




This scene is legit, Im sure you will agree with me.

 As the title of the anime suggests, the star of the show is none other than yoichi himself. Yoichi is but a meager samurai of the karasuma clan, using wind in his techniques. He is the next successor of the family, and he has been living in the mountains with his father. Unfortunately, his father's training is at his limits, and yoichi can only be as strong as he is now if he continues living with him. So, in hopes to make yoichi stronger, he sends him to the city to live with some acquantinces, who are also training under the wind technique. However, since he has been living in the mountains his whole life, the city proved to be difficulty for yoichi on his first visit. He got into lots of trouble and almost got involved with the police. Luckily, he got picked up by the ones that he was supposed to be living with, and they turned out to be the ikaruga family...a family of girl siblings. And thus, his life begins, as he lives with the ikarugas...as a single boy.

Asu no yoichi is a good harem, thats all there is to it. If you are tired of regular high school boys starring in these extremely lucky situations, how bout a, insanely samurai kid who knows nothing about the city? Now this is a legit harem situation. Those harem lovers should already have this under thier belt, but if not, give this a go, its worth your time.

Peaceee.

Gamespot score:8.0(Great)

my score:7.5

(+)Pros:-Great atmosphere,-gripping story that leaves alot to be pondered upon,-manages to be scary,- challenging puzzles that require lots of area observation.

(-)Cons:-Regular enemies pose almost no threat,-far too short,-clunky graphics..even for something released in 2008.

Gameplay time:Below 5 hours

Scary games are few in the market nowadays. The top dominators for the horror genre now are perhaps the dead space series and silent hill (I could be wrong), but even so, this is a very unvisited genre. Penumbra:Black plague was released back in 2008, and it was the last in the penumbra series. I havent played overture and reqiuem, and I probably never will, but still, black plague was a unique experience, even for me. I couldnt stand amnesia, but black plague was fine. The game seemed like a brand new adventure on its own, it may be a third game in the series, but the story was easy to catch on and it quickly became an engrossing one. Penumbra:Black plague is a good horror game to envelope yourself in, wheter you're a horror game fan or not.



The story puts you in the shoes of a lone adventurer, philip. Philip was apparently looking for his father, and through his journey, he met red. But due to the events of the second game, red was killed. Now in black plague, he continues his journey, and he finds himself at an abaondoned lab. There he runs into the monsters that have been haunting him, in his quest to find his father. But in black plague, philip eventually catches on a virus, and soon becomes mad. He starts hearing a voice in his head that can attracts monsters to his position. The voice talks to him and names him clarence. Philip finds Clarence's existence a treat, and goes on a journey to attempt to eliminate him.




Always bring your handy torchlight when adventuring!

Penumbra:Black plague, being an old game, has some dated graphics. Still, the game does well in creating an awesome atmosphere that is perfect for a horror game. The areas are dark and deserted, filled with long black hallways with only small amounts of flicky bulbs used to light them up. There is no music, so threading these hallways can be quite lonely...and when you hear the slightest sound, you will turn and look around frantically to find the source....and most of the time you will run into a monster.

There are many different environments to explore, but the main theme here is a labotrary/underground base, so there are lots of hallways and rooms. Still, you will be traversing sewers, caves and some hallucination segments have you traversing hell inspired deathpits, with flames and skulls everywhere. To makes things even scarier, the monsters look kinda freaky, and the way they come at you can be pretty creepy as well. Props to the developers there.

To comment more on the monsters in penumbra, they cannot be killed. There is no way or method to actually put a monster down for good. You can have a monster chase you for long segments, but you cannot kill him. Now that makes a good gameplay mechanic. Similar to silent hill:Shattered memories, the game's horror standards are boosted significantly when you have no way to defend yourselves from the mosnters....except running of course. There are a few ways to deal with the monsters. While running works fine, the bugger will keep chasing you like a deprived beggar, until you enter a new area. You can avoid the monster completely, by sneaking past it. OR, when see or hear a monster nearby, you can hide it out by camping at a hidden location until it moves away.

When faced by a monster the options given to you to counter them are aplenty, but it all narrows down to you running away from them. Other than the monsters, there are also some cleverly made puzzles that require a lot of inspection to the environments to solve. Some of them are so hard that I had to refer to walkthroughs a few times. Moving poles, crushing cans, lighting fires...all of these are to be done by observing and using your environment surrounds, which can be tricky.

You scared bro? YOU SCARED??

Black plague is plagued by issues of its own (see what I did there?). For one, it is toooo short. Like as in, short, portal short. I cleared the game in like 3 hours or something. Yeah I used a guide, but even if I didnt, I would go crazy and still clear it under 5 hours. Its hell short. The graphics also leave something to be desired. It may be released in 2008, but it totally pales when compared to stuff like dead space, L4D and crysis. And another issue (they fixed this in amnesia), is that the enemies posed no threat. Sure you couldnt kill them, but they took way too many hits to kill you, and your sprinting speed was enough to outrun them, which is stupid.

Penumbra:Black plague, being the final game in the franchise, did a good job closing off the series. The story was pretty engrossing, and they ending left me thinking for quite awhile ( I actually couldnt sleep for a day thinking about it). Black plague is a suitable horror game for almost anyone, altough the game's lenght might be a huge turnoff.



Happy gaming....