I had the pleasure of playing a bunch of games of Penny Arcade: Gamers VS. Evil which is a deck-building card game. As an ex-Magic player, I have a high interest in games like this. It takes out the more expensive and sometimes difficult aspect. Plus, from the few I’ve played they are very fast paced as you build your deck on the fly. Gamers VS. Evil was all that with the bonus of being hilarious.

Using a dungeon-like component, you and the other players build up a deck of creatures and abilities which you use to attack the bosses. Boss loot and some other cards have point values which is how you win the game at the end.

There are different strategies to the game, but there are two basic types of cards: tokens and powers. Since tokens were green and so was the boss character of Gabe as Cardboard Tube Samurai, I decided I wanted to use tokens as my base. It took me a while to figure tokens out but I was determined to get them to work for me. From my experience they are a slower build as you start making your deck. Powers were strong going out of the gate.

Each character you play as some neat ability and it is one way of figuring out your strategy for the round, too. I had a blast playing as Gabe (since he helped my green deck hopes) but the best was Rex Ready! Because he is Rex Ready. He actually let me purge cards from my hand which is really helpful in a game like this.

Games flew by which I loved! With a rule that once six card stacks run out the game end, you are on a tight schedule to make your points count. Highly recommended and I can’t wait to play the expansion.

I have always enjoyed CCGs but hated the immense cost involved in playing them. There is a certain joy in buying booster packs but if you want to be in any way competitive you need to throw down a considerable investment. Anyone who has played Magic: The Gathering can attest to that. But with some good friends and a solid library you can have games that are radically different each time you play them. This makes the deck building game is a wonderful child of the CCG. While it is not as flexible and its parent it is far cheaper. You simply buy one box and you have a complete game and you have a game that plays much like a sealed booster match. A great compromise for those who like CCGs but also like eating regularly.

I recently played the Penny Arcade deck building game called Gamers VS. Evil. It is a solid version of the deck building formula with cards based on the various silliness from the web comic. You have everything from the Cardboard Tube Samurai to Pax Pox. Each player chooses an avatar that determines their starting hand and molds their play style with their special ability. You then take turns buying card to put in your deck. You can buy either red cards that mainly revolve around attacking and green cards which tend to have more indirect effects. Certain cards are worth points for buying them but mostly you want to build up your deck so you can buy from the Boss character piles. They have the cards with the best abilities and highest point values. The game ends when either types of cards are all sold out or one of the boss piles is empty. The player with the deck with the highest point value is the winner.

The game itself is lots of fun. We had 4 players and after 2 learning games we played several games in quick succession. If you know what your doing you you can play a game rather quickly. Since the cards you can buy are random much of your strategy comes from which Avatar you have and what is available to purchase. As with any deck building game or CCG deck control cards are worth their weight in gold. Any thing that lets you discard cards from your deck or draw more cards is powerful. Other than that most of your decision come down to how do you most effectively use your Avatar’s special ability to get boss cars as quickly as possible.

I did notice one oddity. The game is rather passive when it comes to other players. Despite the fact that there are PVP cards that let you give players negative points there is little to do to interfere with other players. In fact the most active and powerful strategy you have against other players is buying out the cards they need for their strategy. But the PVP cards do earn you a bit of ire anytime you play them none the less.

The game was really fun and each round felt slightly different. Apparently there another version called Rumble in R’lyeh. It same the same mechanics but all new cards. You can play that as a stand alone game or combine both sets together. That is a great way to keep the game alive but keep the price sane. I can’t wait to play it again.

I read my first manga on JManga! I finally decided to try it out with est em’s Apartments of Calle Feliz (aka Happy End Apartments) a one book series of short stories involving different people in one apartment building.

It starts with a writer ending up there and getting a room. His editor wants him to write a happy ending to his story but he is having trouble. His new roommate suggests telling stories about the residents. And in the end he finds a little happiness himself with a little bittersweetness that is quite honest.

I also enjoyed the couple, one a fashion design, and the other an artist who hasn’t worn a stitch of clothing for three years.

These are simple, artful with touches of humor character stories as is what I’ve come to expect from est em’s BL.

I have made some serious progress in Sekien No Inganock recently. I remember reading that there is some serious repetition as the game goes on. They were actually being kind. When I first looked at the game I had only read the first two chapters. But 11 chapters into the game I have a much more intimate view of the game’s writing style.

If you read the first 2 Gosick light novels in English you will notice that author loves to reuse certain descriptions. Victorique must be described the same way at least 3 times per book. The author of Sekien No Inganock does the same thing. Certain things like Gii fighting or the scenes of the Golden Staircase often use the same phrases again and again. Some times this is used for effect. The repetition is there to reenforce an idea so that it makes a difference when the lines are subtly changed. The problem is there are better ways to do get that same effect that don’t make you feel that the author is just very fond of the copy and paste shortcuts. At this point I have to wonder if it is an aspect of Japanese writing or an odd quirk of otaku writing.

The reason it stands out all the more is that 11 chapters into the game I feel that while I have gotten a good deal of answers there are still 3 times as many unanswered questions. While I still have the last chapter to finish I know they are not going to wrap that all up. Plus the game likes to imply things and give you many of its answers via inference. This is hardly a horrible thing but it makes the repeated material stand out even more. It seems even more superfluous when you are craving solutions but only getting half hints buried in repeated scenes.

Unless she has some major importance soon Ruaha was a cool character but I’m not exactly sure what her relevance to the plot was. If she were a walk on character for a single chapter it would make sense. But she stays around past when she was relevant for no real reason I can see other than to get involved with Kerkan. That not-a-sex-scene but so-totally-a-sex-scene between Ruaha and Kerkan was also sort of creepy but I suppose that was the point.

Sekien No Inganock is an interesting game with some serious flaws. It has some very interesting ideas, and imaginative setting, uniquely stylized graphics, and some strong characters.  And that is nothing to scoff at. But the execution of these elements could have been unfolded a bit neater. As I understand the accompanying web novels do quite a bit to clear things up but I will judge the game on what is presented to me in the game itself first. I will probably give my final thought on the game next week after I finally finish it and have some time to think of it as a whole.

A double does of BL this week! I finally finished up the second season of World’s Greatest First Love.

I had stopped because I was feeling a little frustrated with the progress of Ritsu and Masamune. Luckily when I returned we move to looking at other characters in the series.

I enjoyed the one off about Isaka, who we’d only met briefly, and his assistant who met when they were kids.

I was also immensely pleased that finally we got to see more Yukina the bookstore guy and Kisa the editor who were my favorite couple from the first season. Kisa’s insecurity was really felt. But it didn’t go on for too long so it didn’t drag down things.

I thought the main story also wrapped up nicely and with a bit of humor that was sometimes too absent in the middle of the season. Overall, I ended up really happy with the show.

Saint Seiya Omega says that schools out forever with episode 9. Saint Seiya started out going down the normal “go to super hero school and learn to be super” path that modern shonen seems to love. But then in the middle of a tournament arc it decides that both the school arc and tournament arc are lame and decides to blow both of them up at the same time. And then introduce a ninja saint. These were all very wise ideas.

Other than that Saint Seiya Omega has been fairly serviceable. Not the best shonen fighting series but also hardly the worst. The plot has been moving froward at a decent pace and the characters while a bit stock and generally enjoyable. The new-found love story between this mysterious new girl and Koga is amusing in how instant it is but such are shonen shows .

Aquila Yuna actually be an effective female saint is pretty neat. She seems like an equal member of the team as opposed to the low tier girl party member. I will say here whole ripping off her ancient legacy bound mask incident seems rather easily accepted after it happens. AS A FEMALE SAINT YOU MUST WEAR THIS MASK AT ALL TIMES . . . unless you have some important character growth in which case you can forget about all that jazz.

Saint Seiya is hardly a show I rush to watch every week but it entertains me when I get around to it and that is often the best you can ask for in shonen fighting. Hopefully now that the are no longer fighting students we will have more people being punched directly in the heart like the original Saint Seiya.

The Ongoing Investigations are little peeks into what we are watching and reading outside of our main posts on the blog. We each pick three things that we were interested in a week and talk a bit about them. There is often not much rhyme or reason to what we pick. They are just the most interesting things we saw since the last Ongoing Investigation.

Tokusatsu and eroge are not necessarily the first two things you might think of combining together but they actually complement each other better than you would think. Dengeki Stryker mixes in tales of hot-blooded courage with transforming cyborgs and combines it with sexy time adventures. I first became aware of this series when Mike Dent mentioned it in his Friday Ace podcast. The opening video with a song by Masaaki Endoh of Jam Project and animation directed by Shinichi Watanabe immediately told me this was something to watch out for. Since MangaGamer does some rather robust demos so I was really looking forward to what they would release for Dengeki Stryker since they were doing the English adaptation. After playing it I learned it was not exactly the game I originally thought it would be. The question was did I enjoy what I discovered it to be.

Yuuki Yamato is your standard superhero obsessed boy. He has a bold heart but he does not have the iron body to back up his love of justice. One day a mysertious man offers Yuuki a bargain. The old man will give him the powers of his cyborg hero, Stryker Zero in return for all his memories. When Yuuki awakes he only remembers being Stryker Zero and cannot understand why he is now trapped in a child’s body in a Japan he does not recognize. Ten years pass as Yuuki awkwardly waits for the forces of the Balbora Empire to attack. When Yuuki moves to Tokyo for High School the day he has been preparing for arrives. But it seems his lost memories are catching up to him when he runs into his forgotten childhood friend Haruna Hongo. What exactly was the price of becoming a hero?

At first I assumed Dengeki Stryker was going to be something like Golden Knight Garo. Since it was a tokusatsu visual novel I assumed it was going to be serious, mature, and sexy with lots of hoot blooded fight scenes. In all actuality Dengeki Stryker is best summed up with Full Metal Panic! + Excel Saga. It is first and foremost a silly comedy. That is not to say that there is not some exciting tussles filled with physic powers, mechanical maneuvers, ninja techniques, and manly courage. Like Full Metal Panic! while the comedy is strong there is also some solid battles to keep things interesting. But they are mostly there to pump you up in between comedy scenes.

It turn out that like Excel Saga the opposing sides actually live right next to each other. Since Yuuki  in living on his own in Tokyo he only has his shoestring allowance from his mother to make it in the big city. This means he lives in a super economy apartment complex next to the invaders from the Balbora Empire. Despite being god like psychics their lack of funds and need to keep a low profile have them living just as impoverished as their crime fighting neighbor. This means the hero and the villains spend more time clipping coupons and hunting down discounts then they do fighting each other.

The main gag is that despite having paper-thin disguise no one seems to be able to recognize each other off of the battle field. Yuuki sees the people next door as the upstanding foreigners who work hard and play even harder. He often mentions how he has to fight hard so he can make Japan safe for everyone including stand up immigrants like his new friends. The Balbora troops on the other hand frequently remark that when they conquer Japan they hope all their new citizens are as kind and virtuous as the wonderful boy next door. But when they only are in their oh-so-very-slightly-different looking costumes they are fighting each other at full power.

At the same time Yuuki is doing his best to fit in at school but much like Sousuke Sagara he is very bad at staying undercover. While he thinks he is blending in perfectly most people at school think he is a grade A psycho. The only people who interact with him are his child hood friend, her exasperated friend Sayaka Ichimonji, and Rin Kazumi a Balbora spy who is just as horrible at blending in. Yuuki instance of calling anything even slightly personal a piece of classified information is the tip of the iceberg with his clumsy attempts to live a double life.

The main trio has a distinctly Full Metal Panic! styled love triangle. Yuuki is the oblivious solider. He only lives for protecting people and therefore all other concerns are secondary. He is a kind-hearted boy but his single-minded worldview can make him good to know when you are in trouble but very difficult to get close to. Haruna is the gentle former girl next door who is desperately trying to get Yuuki to remember her. She is Yuuki constant ally despite their years apart and his constant odd duck behavior. Haruna is the Tessa of the two girls. In turn Sayaka is the Chidori. Sayaka constantly busts Yuuki’s balls when he acts like a moron but obviously has a soft spot for the guy. Her family runs the cafe that becomes a hang out for both sides of this little war.

Along the way Yuuki gets a rather unusual roommate by the way on a ninja named Jack. Jack is from Texas and came to Japan to be a ninja. Jack is also a huge clueless weeaboo who has a very warped view on the homeland of ninjutsu. Jack winds up getting saved from starvation by Yuuki who then finds this little mooch in his service. It is also rather quickly obvious that Jack is actually much more of a kunoichi than a ninja if you catch my drift. With Gemini Sunrise being the samurai cow girl from Texas, Cathy McMahon the cowgirl pilot from RahXephon, and Jack King the cowboy mecha jock from Getter Robo the Japanese sure love their cowboys from America.

The Balbora soldiers are pretty much secondary main characters from how much they appear in the story. Overall they seem like stand up people if they were not using their powers to overthrow the government. They are a motley crew of everything from a dapper gentleman who controls gravity, to a visual kei styled pyrokinetic, to a super intelligent talking dog. When they are not devastating downtown they most seem like a lovable if slightly dysfunctional family. They are very Florsheim in that manner. Their intelligence officer Rin Kazumi has no powers so they sent her undercover to the local school to find out Stryker Zero’s secret identity and try to seduce him. Colonel Mirror is the only member of the crew who lives on his own and he seems to have some secret agenda. He clearly know more than he lets on and is the only one who can see through Yuuki’s flimsy disguise.

Overall being from OVERDRIVE it means that Dengeki Stryker has very strong production values. Crisp and colorful character designs, rousing music, and a surprising amount of animated clips. It is hardly an anime with a lot of text but I was impressed that they had at least one animated scene per chapter of the story. A bit more surprisingly was there were very few choices to make in the demo. All the decisions seemed to revolve around either favoring Haruna or Sayaka. I wonder if there are any actual choices that effect the plot or does it all just come down to who you get in the sex scenes.

I find it amusing that other than the obligatory bath scene with all the beautiful girls (from both sides) there was not that much nudity and absolutely no sex in the demo. In return the teasers at the end of the demo made damn sure to show you that there would be some sexy time scenes if you got the full version. They clearly know how to sell these games. I think the story is strong enough that it does not need the sex but they also know that is a major reason people play these games.

I’m not usually one to complain about it but Haruna and Sayaka have a bit too much of the same face phenomenon. I can always tell everyone in Hayate the Combat Butler and Gundam SEED apart but I find myself confusing Haruna and Sayaka on occasion. Sometimes it a plainly obvious which is which but other times I have to just have to check the text so see who is talking. The thing is that Jack, Rin, Hiruko are all distinct in their character designs from each other and the main two girls. The guys all look nothing like each other. There could be a plot reason for it revealed later on or it just might be a Betty and Veronica thing.

I have to say that MangaGamer is fairly savvy in making their demos. They distinctly give you enough so yo get the overall mood of the story, the cadence of the writing, and a grasp of the characters. At the same time you don’t feel like you the rug was pulled out from underneath you feet too far into the game. A distinctly healthy portion. I think the ultimate decided factor merely comes down to watching the opening to the game. It will easily decide if you are going to like the game or not. If you are not instantly won over then nothing well sell you. But if you like romantic comedies with a manly twist this game will be one to get when in comes out on June 22nd. If the ending is as strong as the opening I am hoping MangaGamer will consider getting Chou Dengeki Stryker as well. We need more hot-blooded visual novels.

Sumo is a gimmick comic. That might seem like an insult but when a gimmick comic concept mixes with a solid story it can become something far greater. When the story is weak in a gimmick comic than you often just wind up rolling your eyes as you call out the novelty piece of the story. But with Sumo its storytelling twist adds to its great story to give you the feeling you are reading something innovative.

The story in itself is simple. A washed out NFL hopeful moves to Japan to become a Sumo wrestler after a devastating breakup. While he has an amazing amount of promise he has been doing rather mediocre and his next match is a pivotal point in his career. The story jumps back and forth in time with each period in time being its own color. This lets the reader know when each piece of the story takes place without text balloons or exposition but at the same time also lets the color of the time period reenforce the mood of the story at that point. The blue really helps reinforce the melancholy feel of Scott’s time in America, the green shows Scott’s awkward transition to life in Japan as he gets to know his manager’s daughter, while the orange helps express the spirit invested in Scott’s critical match.

If the story was not there, this would merely read like a slight curiosity. But instead this instead demands your attention and begs to be used as an example for anyone wanting to explore the use of color in comics.

Sumo is by Thien Pham who worked with Gene Luen Yang on Level Up which we liked a lot.

The story of Scott is a fairly simple one told in alternating time frames but each piece meets up at the end with poetic force. Though I was a bit surprised we don’t know the full outcome, but we do know that Scott’s life and his understanding of what he wants has changed.

Thien’s simple artwork is bold and iconic using strong lines to express a variety of emotion. One minor quibble I had with the art was during the Sumo matches, it was sometimes hard to tell who was who. The use of color as Hisui mentioned is very important in the book with oranges for Scott’s life in the present, bright with possibility; blues for his past in America, a time of coming-of-age and letting go; and greens for his (more recent) past in Japan, new life and growth taking over. All of this makes the sparse amount of dialog more powerful allowing you to let the emotions wash over you.

Sumo is a quiet story that has immense power.

There is a preview available, too.

I played a little of the open Diablo III beta last weekend. I only learned about it on a busy Sunday but I still got about three hours of solid play in. As someone who used to played a good deal of Diablo I and II in high school and college I am fairly familiar with the series. On the other hand, I think it has been about a decade since I played any of the series as well. But even with that time in between I can confidently say, “That sure is some Diablo.”

To be really reductionist Diablo is a slightly complex Roguelike with pretty graphics. That is not entirely fair to Diablo. Diablo has more of a story, crafting, and more complexity of combat. But the main mechanism is still the same. 90% of the game is delving into dungeons to hack and slash new enemies and get sweet loot and then use said sweet loot to kill more monsters and get even better sweet loot. This is true of almost all RPGs but what it comes down to is the percentage. Roguelikes are 98% hack and slash and 2% story. The story is certainly more robust than a Roguelikes but still less than even a bare bones standard story RPG. Still I liked the fact that there was distinctly more traipsing around the area instead of just plunging into a leveled dungeon.

The main problem is a solid review is dependent a bit more on the middle and end game play. How balanced are the classes at high levels? How well does the experience and loot doled out vacillate between endless grinding to make minimal progress and Monty Haul simplicity. The enemies were fairly interesting in the levels I played but do they keep changing up the types of enemies you fight or are harder levels mostly just made up of re-skinned and  palette swapped versions of all the enemies I already fought?  That higher level game play is what makes or breaks the fun.

But I enjoyed what I saw so far. Just know it is mostly the standard Diablo formula with some new shine.

 The Massive, Digital One-Shot was available for Earth Day so I decided to take a look. Being unfamiliar with The Massive series, this one-shot was intriguing but ends before I really have any idea what the main thrust of the story is.

I know the environment factors in heavily and our group seem to be activists on that front. Beyond that, we get a little back story for two of our leads and some beautiful art depicting the wildness of the ocean. There could be a superpower or supernatural bent to the story but it is unclear.

Fate/Complete Material III is the artbook that anyone who reads Japanese would benefit from the most.

While this is still obviously an artbook with many a pretty picture, it is also the most text heavy of the five Fate universe artbooks. Most of this book is an explanation of world of Fate/Stay Night with details on how everything works and a pretty solid FAQ sections as well. The infamous Kinoko Nasu explains magical systems part of the game all in one handy book with lots of new pieces of the world only hinted at in the games. While this is not everything in the book some highlights of the text within are translated here.

Astute fans will notice that a certain someone who you  might not expect is mentioned in the book and that is possibly major spoilers for Fate/Zero. Other than that the main draw art wise is all the extra material from the PS2 version of Fate/Stay Night that had a bunch of new artwork added (some of which was added because they took out the sex scenes) as well as the new Epilogue.

They also have all the Tiger Dojos with comments. I mean that alone should justify the price on the book. Buruma has words for you!

Princeless issue 1 is up for free on Bleeding Cool after being nominated for Eisner Awards. While the first issue is unsurprisingly mostly set-up, it is already showing what’s great about it.

Adrienne our heroine has been questioning the princess-locked-in-a-tower-guarded-by-dragon-to-be-rescued-by-prince mythos since she was a child. Still she finds herself in that exact situation. After berating the latest rescuer for calling her “fair” asking him if he even knows the meaning because she is dark of hair and skin, she discovers a sword in the tower and promptly decides to leave.

The series is very humorous from Adrienne’s voice and observations. The complications of her family and the successor of the kingdom creep in a little towards the end. I’m looking forward to reading more!

The Ongoing Investigations are little peeks into what we are watching and reading outside of our main posts on the blog. We each pick three things that we were interested in a week and talk a bit about them. There is often not much rhyme or reason to what we pick. They are just the most interesting things we saw since the last Ongoing Investigation.

I did another guest appearance on the OSMcast! and this time I am talking about Mass Effect 3. If you were active in any geeky circles you probably heard that the fecal matter hit the rotary impeller when the fans of the game learned of the ending to their beloved trilogy. Basil, Kevin, and I discuss the good (of which most of the game is made of), the bad (the ending and some other sticking points), and the ugly (most of the bad behavior all around). Still, I think we find a lot to like about the game and even have some good ideas on how to rectify what went wrong.

OSMcast! Mass Effect 3 – 4-16-2012

My roommate bought the hideously expensive Fate/Zero Season 1 box set. For this I am very grateful as there is no way I could afford that. So we sat down to watch the special features the first of which is the Please! Einzbern Consultation Room. I was super excited because these were written by Kinoko Nasu himself just for the box set.

We were in for a rude awakening when we discovered that the $369.98 box set did not bother to sub the Consultation Room episodes. That was certainly aggravating. But eventually we were able to find some subs of the skits but those REALLY should have been included for the price the set went for.

That bit of anger aside the Please! Einzbern Consultation Room is a pleasant little distraction along the lines of the science lessons from Gunbuster. Irisviel and her amnesiac student Zeccchan (who clever people just might recognize as a younger version of someone they know) go over little details about the Holy Grail War that fill in details that might not have been clear in the TV series proper as well as expand on some ideas only hinted at in the show. The Consultation Room proper only starts in the third episode were they talk to Assassin and get a bit of back story on him while they “help” him with his psychological issues.

The part where the two consultants circle around Assassin like in the infamous scene where Risei and Tokiomi stroll in a circle around Kirei was priceless.

The end of the third episode clearly indicated that the next box set would have more consultation sessions with the Servants to die in the next half as well.

Overall it was a fun trio of omake episodes. It was really only for the hardcore fan who wants all the little details but that is why you put episodes like this on the collectors edition box sets. Still Irisviel is filled with a warm charming grace so the more we see of her the better. I cannot wait to step into the consultation room again. It is just a shame that I had to go to less than legitimate means to experience that fun.

The eagerly awaited second season of Game of Thrones has finally started.

The first episode starts with a seemingly huge recap of the previous events proving just how much happened in ten episodes. Our story restarts closely to the end of the last, everyone reeling from upsets in power and the arrivals of a handful of self-proclaimed kings. The introductions of Stannis, Davos, and Melisandre The Red Witch are welcome. But I find the actress of Melisandre is not what I pictured at all and she doesn’t exude the intensity of the character.

With new characters also came new pieces of the opening map which is brilliant every single time you watch.

The first episode is brief in showing some of the most interesting pieces of the story, sadly, like Jon on the Wall, Arya traveling the road, and Daenerys seeking out for land. There is plenty of Tyrion though which is nothing to be sad about.

The story starts to change in episode two, I can really see a lot of decisions being made to make the epic more linear for ease being brought in. The second episode was full of surprises thanks to it. Sansa hasn’t appeared much which is a blessing since she spends most of this book being beaten down. They also seemed to have reined in Arya a bit on her violent tendencies, not sure how I feel about that.

While I am the huge Type-Moon fan my roommate is the real Persona fan. That means that we watched the Persona 4 anime every week without fail. It is a fairly dedicated if slightly truncated adaptation of the original game. Most of the time they go out of their way to at least summarize all the events of the game. Other times they combine events to streamline things. It works about as often as it fails but you can’t say they were not faithful to the source material.

I will say they play their red herrings pretty well with the overall major mystery. The big culprit is subtly hinted at without every making the answer too obvious. The only problem is the killer’s grand motivation is a bit random and evil to be evil. But the mystery is solid and that is what counts.

There are three endings to the original game. A very bad ending they skipped and a normal ending that they ended the TV series on. But as I predicted half way through the TV series if you want the true ending that explains all the details and reveals the ultimate mastermind you have to buy the box set for the extra episode included. It is clearly an effort to sell the DVDs and one that I just KNEW they were going to do when I learned there was a more complete ending.

The ending of the TV series was fairly satisfying but anyone who played the game and got the true ending clearly is waiting to see that. Considering how closely they stuck to the formula of the game (sometimes to the shows’ detriment) they clearly made the anime with people who played the game as their target audience. When the bonus episode is cheesecake or a little extra is does not feel as much of a money grab as when it is the finale of a series. I understand their decision to make the real ending separate but that does not mean I have to like it.

I must mention how much I am enjoying re-reading Sailor Moon. With volume 4 we finally have the reveal of who Chibi-Usa is and everyone travels to the thirtieth century in a beautiful sequence. As always time travel is something you can’t think too hard about. We also get the introduction of one of my favorite characters, Sailor Pluto, who is unique in her guardianship. Since we are missing Rei and Ami who have already been kidnapped by the enemy we get to see more of Makoto. Sprinkled at the end is the foreshadowing of Black Lady.

Someone finally subbed the full release of the Hayate no Gotoku! Heaven is a Place on Earth +99 movie. I watched the original cut when it came out with volume 31 of the manga but the official Blu-ray release has 7 minuets at the beginning that provide a little extra set up.

Overall they were a few cute bits mostly with Nagi although you actually get to see Ruka speak in the extended footage as opposed to just performing on stage during the opening credits. As opposed to Persona 4 true ending I think this is what extra material should be. Good extra elements enriches the original material but does not fell like it was solely cut to get a bit more of your money.

I will mention that watching the movie again in Blu-ray  was nice and let me appreciate the little moments of the film more including one MAJOR but subtle plot point I missed the first time. I totally did not fully understand who the ghost was the first time I saw the movie. I actually felt slightly foolish that I missed that reveal of her identity the first time I saw the movie but I am glad I noticed it this time. In my defense they never name her outright in the movie but it was still a little embarrassing. Still it was nice to be able to go back at catch it the second time. It distinctly made re-watching the movie worthwhile.

The French short animated film Frangin follows the story of a young boy trying to send messages to his brother who has left the family house for the battlefield. The style is more fine illustration giving the edges a soft quality while incorporating brilliant colors where needed. I enjoyed how the memories intersected with the present. However, the film has a shocking sad ending that I wasn’t fond of.

The Ongoing Investigations are little peeks into what we are watching and reading outside of our main posts on the blog. We each pick three things that we were interested in a week and talk a bit about them. There is often not much rhyme or reason to what we pick. They are just the most interesting things we saw since the last Ongoing Investigation.

SPOILERS! I played the Mahou Tsukai no Yoru demo and enjoyed it immensely. I know this is s shocking development that no one could have seen coming but it is true. Mahou Tsukai no Yoru is the newest Type-Moon visual novel that comes out on April 12th. Mahou Tsukai no Yoru is based on an early unreleased novel by Kinoko Nasu and takes what can be seen as the foundation of the Type-Moon universe and turns it into a visual novel. It stars Aozaki Aoko and looks at her before she became the force of nature that is the Magic Gunner Miss Blue that we have come to love in Tsukihime and Melty Blood. Type Moon recently released a demo of the upcoming game that got a surprisingly fast English patch. I finally decided to sit down and test it out before the game came out.

My goodness this is a gorgeous game. It is worth checking out just for the beautiful backgrounds. The majority of the story seems to revolve around the house on a hill where the three main characters live and it is an amazingly little mansion with a breathtaking view. It might be blasphemous to say that it has Makoto Shinkai levels of delicate and beautiful backgrounds that make the setting a character of its own but I will say it anyway. There is also a good deal more animation in the visual novel as a whole. The character sprites move more and there is more of a sense of visual direction. It is still more of a picture book on the computer than an anime but it takes more advantage of being on a digital medium. The opening shows how far Type-Moon has come since its humble origins. I am a little sad to see that Takashi Takeuchi is not doing the main artwork but Koyama Hirokazu has been with the company for a while now and can draw quite the attractive character.

The demo itself goes out of its way to give you a broad idea what the game is about with spoiling any major plot points. It has five segments of the story. Interestingly enough the opening is the last story to be shown. The other 4 segments each focus on one of the three main characters.  It gives you a good sense of who the characters driving the story are and the setting without giving away too much of the story.  You know that Aoko and Alice are witches who hide their supernatural talents and have a somewhat Odd Couple banter.  Sojuro is a sheltered boy from the mountains who has inadvertently got mixed up with these two women. There will also be some magical ass kicking going on. But the overall arc of the plot has still not been revealed. I have to say it is a pretty smart way to do a demo. It gives you enough of the feel of the setting and the pattern of the writing to know if you are going to enjoy the game but allows you to go in with many secrets to learn.

While we don’t see much of them we do get a decent impression of the main cast of Mahou Tsukai no Yoru. Aoko is still a student of life and magic in this game as opposed to wizened mentor we see in Tsukihime. But at the same time she still has the vibrant ferociousness she had when she met Shiki. She has that earnest charm that made her stand out in her first appearance but with a distinctly fresher look on life. Alice on the other hand took a little more for me to warm up to her character. She comes off as a very flat Rei Ayanami styled character but as the demo goes on it is clear that she is a quirky multidimensional character. It just takes a little time for her nuances to unfold. If nothing else she seems to be a powerful summoner. Sojuro is pleasant enough if somewhat well-worn in his naive but hardworking stereotype. I am curious how much his martial arts skill will factor into things. You don’t really see it in the demo but it has the distinct ability to make his character more interesting. The only other character we get a real look at is Kumari Kojika. She really reminded me of Taiga Aisaka from Toradora. Since Mahou Tsukai no Yoru is the far older story I have to wonder if the similarity is a coincidence or did they modify Kumari’s character to be more like Taiga for this adaptation?

It is nice to see after several delays that Mahou Tsukai no Yoru is finally done. Type-Moon fans have been aware for quite a while that there was a detailed back story to the enigmatic Aozaki Aoko but now it is finally being revealed to us. I am most curious about the fact that Aozaki Touko will be in this story. The story of the sisters falling out is often hinted at but has never been fully explained. I am also curious if we will get the details of what exactly is the 5th True Magic. I wonder if we will get the full story here or just more hints. Either way I enjoyed what I played and cannot wait to tear into the full story.

Nickelodeon decided to stream the first two episodes of  The Legend of Korra before it airs on TV so I decide to take a look as it was up only for a weekend. The Legend of Korra has a good deal of the same vibe as the original series while at the same time has enough new elements and flourishes to feel unique. How well it will do in capturing the magic of the first series while being able to stand alone has yet to be seen but so far it has been striking a nice balance. The Legend of Korra starts 70 years after the ending of the original series. Most of the main cast is dead but their actions still reverberate in the world. Things definitely have changed as the political structure has clearly been radically altered by Aang’s group and the over all tech level has increased. There are now cars and airships giving the world a very 1920 feel. I am cruious how the fan base will react to this change in the setting. The show makes good use of these changes but I wonder if it is a choice that will alienate any of the original fanbase. The people I asked on twitter seem to approve of the change but they are mostly the more casual (aka sane) fans. Korra herself is much more of a confrontational headstrong Avatar than Aang’s Zen monk persona. Aang felt like a childish Dalai Lama whereas Korra feels like a hot blooded martial artist. Also the whole progression of the show seems different. Aang clearly had to go a defeat the evil Fire Lord by a certain date. The main antagonists are clearly going to be Amon and his Equalists but what exactly their agenda is has yet be be seen. I assume part of the show will be discovering what the deal with the Equalists is. That could lead to some interesting detective work not present in the original. There is also a bending related sport that seem like it will be a major component of the show. I know Pro-Bending and Blitzball are different but it was the first things that popped into my mind when they started playing the game. The production staff is clearly still aware of the opinions of the fan base. They go as far as to make a reference to the whole issue surrounding Zuko’s mother that was so much a point of contention with the fans. So far it seems like a solid show that builds on the original in a variety of strong ways. I look forward to seeing more in April.

Nichibros (The Daily Lives of High School Boys) finished up by starting its episode in reverse order, High School Girls Are Funky had a segment before the true show began but really their best material was the episode before with the rock. The last segment seemed oddly sentimental for the show but then it shows its true colors. True colors being so hilariously random and a little awkward. This was a show that surprised me from the beginning and became a highlight every week. Consistently amusing and rarely let a joke go for too long. Though I still don’t understand why Tadakuni was shoved out as the lead for so long. The show mentioned a S2 in the end credits but it was rather tongue-in-cheek so who knows if that is really in the cards. I sure hope so though!

Fate/Complete Material II is where we start to get into the real meat of this series of art books. The second book mostly focuses on the characters of Fate/Stay Night but has some great extra material as well. The bulk of the book is made up of analysis of  the major players in the game alongside their character portraits and notes from Kinoko Nasu and Takashi Takeuchi. What secrets about Saber are hidden on those pages? There is also a decent sized section of prototype sketches. Some characters like Sakura and Lancer are relatively unchanged from initial concepts other than being cleaned up a bit whereas other characters have undergone heavy revision. Rider was originally a much different character that had short hair and Kiritsugu went through several radically different changes before they settled on his character design. Saber herself is virtually unchanged but her clothing was constantly in flux and Rin originally had much more of a Akiha vibe to her (not that it ever fully went away.) There is also a section that includes some rejected route information and unused scenes. We learn they cut a Sella and Leysritt sex scene from the game which is a crying shame. To round things out  there are more promotional sketches and a write up of all the weapons in the game. This book has so much more original material than the last and if you can read Japanese even more on top of that. A great find for anyone who is a fan of the cast of Fate/Stay Night.

Marvel relaunched their kid-centric site which has among other things some free digital comics. I took a look at Spider-Man / Power Pack issue 1 which features things I enjoy including most notably Spider-Man quips on pretty much every page in which he appears. The Power Pack are four young siblings of varying ages and super abilities. And the first thing they decide to do upon moving to NYC is to go looking for trouble, or at least Jack the younger brother does anyway. It is actually a fun beginning and I enjoyed Spidey’s predicament at the end. The art is also well done. But the best part of the issue is the Mini Marvels bonus of Peter Parker looking for a new job, priceless.

I beat Mass Effect 3. Without going to much into spoilers I felt it was a wonderful conclusion spoiled by a rushed ending that shows the game really need another 2 months of production. The bulk of the game in pretty amazing. They improved the combat while keeping the game accessible to people who don’t player shooters, they made the weapons more customizable without being overwhelming and needlessly complex, and they tweaked a slew of other things to make everything feel more polished. And most importantly they made everything feel very epic and yet based on your many decisions. Major and minor decisions have repercussions in this game. Your conversation with the gag character Conrad Verner is a perfect example. Several choices you made from all three games effect how your conversation with him goes. Everything with how you have treated him over the years to if you completed a seemingly throw away side quest in the first game. He might not even show up if you got him killed. It really rewards you for making hard choices in previous games and builds on those decisions. You meet old friends, face old enemies, and have tearful goodbyes. The core plot is centered around a bit of a Deus ex machina MacGuffin but it has a good sense of weight while bringing everything together in a suitably epic fashion. There are a few missteps but almost everything is amazing. All of that is what I think leads to so much of the disappointment with the ending. It seems like so much of that magic that makes everything else work is thrown out for a slapdash ending. I would go as far as to say 95% of the game is brilliant but too many people will sadly only remember the bad taste they got from that sour ending. It is still worth your time as long as you are prepared for the game to falter as it tries to cross the finish line.

I watched the recently released Saitama Prefecture Tourism anime shorts. Each of the four features a season and different areas of the prefecture. The stories are with different styles and tones; a sentimental romance; a school comedy; a tiny adventure; and a reconnecting family. Nature features most prominently in the first and third which had beautiful flower shots. I like the first best as it had the most solid arc but all of them are familiar feeling. It was great that they released these worldwide and in many languages. At the end they give you tourism info for the places featured in each short.

The Ongoing Investigations are little peeks into what we are watching and reading outside of our main posts on the blog. We each pick three things that we were interested in a week and talk a bit about them. There is often not much rhyme or reason to what we pick. They are just the most interesting things we saw since the last Ongoing Investigation.

If I knew Fables started with a murder mystery, I’d have picked up vol. 1 ages ago! Seriously, why does no one try to sell me with the important things? Any way, now that I have read it I am ready for much more. The series is set in modern-day New York City which Fabletown lives within including having their own government. Everyone has been displaced from their fairytale homes by a mysterious figure we know only as The Adversary so far. Heading things up in their current home is Snow White serving as Deputy Mayor (King Cole is really just a figurehead as Mayor) and Bigby The Big Bad Wolf as acting Sheriff. Snow is sharp and cold and her relationship with Prince Charming, well let’s just say they aren’t together anymore. Bigby gruff and observant and is perfectly in the vein of noir detective. The series is a delight from the Fable world within our own to the rebranding of the characters we know so well. It is an adult version but not in a mocking way, it just pushes things to after the “happily ever after.” Certainly people would get divorced or have marital problems after being together for hundreds of years! Feuds, friendships, affairs, alliances it is all here with all of the fairytale characters which there looks to be no limit of. Fables is playful, smart, and has a great hook. I can’t wait to pick up more in the series.

Hayate the Combat Butler is finally back.  I really missed reading the manga when it was on break. It was a rough 6 weeks. I never did find out what Kenjiro Hata was doing when he took off. I wonder if and when he will reveal what he was doing on the hiatus. But while he was gone they at little mini articles about super rare Hayate merchandise. The bag looked super cute. I wish I could read the 4koma on it. It is just more things that I wish I had to money to track down. But Hayate is thankfully back up to steam with Hayate fighting illness and trying to get Yakiniku. I always sympathize with Hayate’s mixture of poverty and misfortune. Also I would love to eat some Yakiniku. My favorite part of the newest batch of chapters since the hiatus has been the stories of heart breaking disappointment. I did not realize that the Japanese were hit by the Sea Monkey craze as well. I had assumed it was an exclusively American phenomenon but apparently that was not the case. If nothing else I have noticed that Maria is much more active in the plot lately. This is always a good thing. I am glad to see Hayate is running at full speed again. It is always a high point of my week.

I checked out the first chapter of Dorohedoro. The art style I can only describe as that hyped-detailed ugly. This is a city of mutants, experiments, and the sorcerers who create them. In general everyone has a rather grotesque look about them. Our main character has a reptile head and another person inside of him, but Caiman has no memory of what happened to himself. When we first meet him he is eating a guy. His partner who looks visibly normal and he are hunting sorcerers and looking for a specific one. That is about all I learned from this first chapter, but I have to say I’m intrigued.

After reading the fifth Fate/Complete Material I decided to go back and look at the rest of the Fate/Complete Material artbooks. The first book is rather standard. It just focuses on the CG from the original Fate/Stay Night PC game. It is essentially a glossy print version of the CG gallery from the game. It was a nice trip down memory lane to look over all paths of Fate/Stay Night. It made me wonder if we would ever get an animated adaptation of Heaven’s Feel. It is the only path left that has not been adapted and it seems like it is only a matter of if more than when it will be done. There are also some promotional materials and additional art work. That is probably the freshest material in the books. Anyone who had looked for Type-Moon art has probably seen most of it but it is nice to have all in one place. Of the 5 released books this one is probably the least essential of all the books. It has the least amount of notes and the has the most easily found material outside of the book. It is on the other hand the only book with all the erotic scenes in it. Can’t have a Fate/Stay Night artbook without some Saber butt. I am sure some people would pick it up just for that. It is a nice book for die-hard fans but everyone else can skip onto the later books as they have a bit more meat.

I started reading another Brian K. Vaughan series, Ex Machina which blends politics and superhero (not plural since The Great Machine is the only one) leaning more towards politics in this first volume. Our superhero isn’t actually a superhero anymore, instead he is newly elected Mayor of New York City. We see flashbacks throughout of everything from his childhood to gaining his superpowers to his actions as a superhero. Michell has the ability to communicate with almost any type of machine; ha can hear them talking. He is currently trying to not use his power and go about helping the city in a non-vigilantly way. Ex Machina has some stunning alternate history thrown in since the current timeline of the story takes place in 2002. Again this is mostly a political story with Mitchell dealing with an impending snowstorm on the city, a killer on the loose, and a painting that is causing controversy. The combo is unexpected  but you get a decent amount of superhero fix with the looks to the past.

Time for more live action Josuke Higashikata! We are now a little past the half way mark with Kamen Rider Fourze. The biggest change has been the addition of Ryusei Sakuta who is the second Kamen Rider in the series. His Bruce Lee inspired fighting style and planet based attacks were obviously too cool alone for a secondary Rider so to prevent him from overshadowing Gentaro Kisaragi they made Ryusei a real jerk. He is a secretive agent that is working for the mysterious Tachibana.  He does bring an interesting dynamic to the group as he is the only one with his own agenda. With episode 27 it seems like Ryusei’s identity as Meteor will come out and he will formally join the team as himself and not as his facade. I was a little surprised when they had graduation half way through the series. They keep Shun and Miu in the series but I was still a little impressed they had important main characters graduate half way through the series. It does help give a distinct feeling that time is actually passing which is nice. I have noticed that they are playing with the identities of the Zodiarts a bit more. In the beginning it was obvious who the Zodiart was that week. But they have been mixing it up so there are more red herrings. Haruka Utsugi is a prime example of this. Still a fun series that is oddly addictive. It has an infectious energy and an earnest spirit that you have to love.  Come on, switch on!

The Ongoing Investigations are little peeks into what we are watching and reading outside of our main posts on the blog. We each pick three things that we were interested in a week and talk a bit about them. There is often not much rhyme or reason to what we pick. They are just the most interesting things we saw since the last Ongoing Investigation.

After writing about the Zelda franchise recently, I had to get playing the DS release Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks because, hello, you get to drive a train. In this adventure, you are trying to restore the train tracks that connect the realms as well as stop the resurrection of an evil lord who has stolen Zelda’s body. With sword, er stylus, in hand I set out on this small but mighty adventure. I was actually surprised by how long the game was and how much was packed into that little cartridge. Zelda’s ghost is your guide, but she is also your partner in fights for certain areas which is a nice addition to the gameplay. Your path is very straightforward since you can only travel by train so the map has but a few outposts to discover, sadly. Despite loving trains, at times traveling was tedious and long since the only way to open portals was, for the most part, done with side errands that I didn’t engage in. Still I had a blast with the train driving and the first part of the final battle in which you must take on a giant evil train was quite fun. There is a noticeably low count of enemies in this game, but bosses still gave me quite a challenge throughout. My favorite was in the fire temple, it was just enjoyable to play! But I cannot emphasize enough to Nintendo: please quit it with the stylus heavy games already or at least make it optional especially for things like walking. The accuracy is just not there and it takes some of the portability out. Also flute playing gave me nothing but frustration throughout the game because no one really teaches you how to do it correctly. One thing that stood out to me as the game went on was even though there was much hand-holding, you got so used to it that when it didn’t explain something it was damn hard to figure out. This happened multiple times to me, I’m okay with not haing hints but I’d like consistency about it otherwise it is just confusing. Overall, it was an enjoyable game experience, and I spent the better part of a weekend playing it nonstop, so it hooked me quite well. I love the Wind Waker-esque world so it is great to continue to see additions to it.

With my roommate playing so much Mass Effect 3 that he actually took a week off from work I too have been sucked into to the hype. And since I have a iOS device I decided to try out Mass Effect: Infiltrator. Having sampled a bunch of iOS games the first thing I noticed is that anything other than simple puzzle games and time wasters have an annoying learning curve where you spend time learning the touch screen control scheme and wrangling it into something you can play. As much as writers like to claim that phones will kill the portable gaming machine market the fact that any full portable console has intuitive control scheme make the far more suited for full-fledged games. Infiltrator is a side story about a Cerberus operative who goes rouge. The story is fairly minimal. If you are expecting the complex moral decisions from the main game you will be sadly disappointed. They give you paragon/renegade choices but they are super simple and seem to have little effect on the plot. The combat is a system where upgrades are essential to succed. You have to grind the low-level missions to get the upgrades you need to the later story. The first thing you should to is buy the sniper rifle and the beam rifle. Then upgrade all you weapons and the pull ability. Everything else is supplemental. You need the extra weapons for get the style bonuses from switching weapons to get real money. If you just rely on the assault rifle and the shotgun you will have a very hard time getting gold on any level past the first few.Once I got the hang of the game it was fun but it is really small especially for the price. I am looking froward to seeing how this compares to the Mass Effect 3: Datapad app considering that is free.

Ah, Blade of the Immortal I really show my dedication to this series with every thin volume released. 24 just came out much to my delight! This installments features mostly bloody battles when four of the Itto-ryu take on an entire fortress worth of guys. The only problem is they are taking on no one of consequence or particular skill giving it little reward or artistry. Still it is able to build tension at the final moments of the book during a tough decision. This volume also contains scant amount of Manji and Rin so they don’t move much forward.

So far Smile Precure! has been off to a great start from the first 5 episodes. They gathered the five members of the team fairly quickly. You can tell from the first episode who all the Pretty Cures will be. They are the girls in the class with the unusual hair styles and altered uniforms. Since they are not playing the who is Cure Muse game they just introduce the girls one at a time with no fuss and no muss. Miyuki Hoshizora is the main girl and she is super spastic but adorable. She seems the type that the older audience would not care about but be beloved by the primary school girl audience. Akane Hino and Nao Midorikawa are both athletic girls who would make great sentai heroes or giant robot pilots due to their hot blooded passion and dedication to those they love. If you know that Shoji Yonemura, who wrote quite a few of the recent Kamen Rider series, is the main script writer then it all makes perfect sense. Yayoi Kise is the closest the show comes to having an otaku bait character. She is shy and artists which is a deadly combination with nerds. Reika Aoki will probably be the older fan favorite as she was instantly capable when she became a Cure unlike the rest of the team that seems to stumble around a lot. So far the show itself has been very enjoyable. The Cures are very magnetic in their personality, the fights have been fun, and the storybook theme is well realized without being annoying. Plus I think we all get a laugh out of the fact that the villains come from a place called the Bad End Kingdom. I look forward to seeing how they develop the plot and what the mid-season twist will be. I don’t think this series will be able to surpass Heartcatch but it looks like it will be stronger than Suite.

Batman stumbles right into the lair(s) of the enemy in issue 3 of this ongoing monthly. It is really working to have the story toggling between Batman as a fighter and Batman as a detective. Last issue there was a lot of action, this issue we see the aftermath of those actions and Bruce’s next step. The Council of Owls is pretty creepy adding to the gothic mystic of Gotham.

We watch some crazy things on I Don’t Even. We watch horrible things like The Room and Birdemic: Shock and Terror. Incomprehensible things like The Man Who Saves the World and Troll 2. And of course Nicolas Cage movies. But the anime Gyo is something that really makes you question the sanity of the people involved. Gyo is about an invasion of marine life on mechanical spider legs that are powered by evil sentient fart gas. There are theoretically plot threads. The main character trying to find her fiancée. There is fighting between the slutty girl and the chubby girl. There is a reporter who teams up with the main girl as well. I am not sure if this is so bad it is amazing or just so bad that it is unwatchable. When things get ridiculous they amazingly ridiculous. We have little things like how people are alternatively super panic or amazingly calm about the invasion or the visible stink lines. The fact that the monsters are animals on malevolent fart powered spider legs is just the beginning. The problem is the movie thinks it is amazingly serious and any attempts to be dramatic or introspective are just horrible. Any time Gyo tries to be smart it is like watching a toddler smash piano keys with no real conception of what he is playing. Also the slutty girl a series of three ways that really make the anime even more awkward. Gyo all just sort fizzles out in the end with what I think was supposed to be a message but one that has almost no impact. In the end it was trying worthy of the spot on I Don’t Even.

The Ongoing Investigations are little peeks into what we are watching and reading outside of our main posts on the blog. We each pick three things that we were interested in a week and talk a bit about them. There is often not much rhyme or reason to what we pick. They are just the most interesting things we saw since the last Ongoing Investigation.

I remember hearing about Friends with Boys when I was listening to Manga Out Loud podcast and thinking it sounded interesting but I forgot to look into the title further. But when I remembered I could read the comic online as web comic as mentioned again on the 3 Chicks Review Comics podcast I set aside some time to read Friends with Boys. The first thing that stuck me was the art reminded me of the art of Chynna Clugston. Both women have a style that is clearly manga aware but is equally informed by a wide variety of comic traditions. Faith Erin Hicks will discuss Tezuka as quickly as Bone when she is commenting on a page of her comic. She has an expressive style that lends itself equally well to web comics as well as traditional print comics. The story itself has two main layers. The first is the story of how Maggie McKay has to deal with going to a public high school after being home schooled all her life. At the same time there is a supernatural element of Maggie being able to see ghosts. The highest praise I can give the story is that if you removed all of the supernatural parts I would have found the story equally enjoyable. Maggie learning to make friends outside of her brothers with the punk Lucy and her brother Alistair was perfectly wonderful. While the ghost story tied the mundane drama together it was never forced to pick up the slack on the story. If anything it felt slightly thrown it just to make the story stand out as more than a mundane tale of friendship and self discovery. It did not detract from the story but it was an unusual addition. I will mention that not every plot element is wrapped up. If you want answers to every question the story poses you will be disappointed. The main story arc is resolved satisfactorily but certain side elements are left to your imagination. I don’t think the story is purposefully written to be a ongoing series. A sequel could be written but nothing in the book demands it. I would read more about the life of Maggie McKay and her friends and family but do not feel cheated if I never got more. The story itself is only up as a web comic for a few more days if you want to sample it but you can buy the physical book right now as well. As a side note what has Chynna Clugston been up to recently?

Avatar the Last Airbender: The Lost Adventures is a collection of short comics with mini-stories that happened during each of the seasons of the TV series. The book is divided into sections based on the books in which each story takes place. It is a little disconcerting if only because you are somewhat forced to remember what was happening at that particular moment, but you get on board fairly quickly. There are lots of different artists and writers so some are more stand out than others. I particularly liked the stylization by Brian Ralph for Momo’s adventure and the youthfulness of Gurihiru’s art. The greatest and most hilarious moments include the return of Wang Fire. It is a fun collection of mostly humorous anecdotes but nothing that screams buy this!

With Mass Effect 3 coming out next week I decided to read some of my roommate’s Mass Effect comics to tide me over until then. So I flipped through Mass Effect: Redemption and Mass Effect: Evolution. Since on of the main selling points of the series is the fact that the main character  is totally customizable by the player the comics have to focus on the static side characters for stories in the Mass Effect universe. Redemption focuses on Liara and her trying to get her hands on Commander Shepherd’s corpse in between Mass Effect One and Two. Evolution is the origin story of the Illusive Man. I thought Redemption was the stronger of the two stories. It basically built itself around the already established story that Liara told you in Mass Effect 2. It takes the broad strokes of that story and fill in the little details. Evolution on the other hand has a bit of the old “Boba Fett effect” in play. Giving an origin story to a character that mostly works on being mysterious can be detrimental. While Evolution hardly ruins the character of the Illusive Man I think he works better as an enigma. Also the story has a bit of “Who knew all these people knew each other before hand” going on as well. They are both interesting little stories but hardly necessary. But such is the way with most tie in material. At least none of it was Deception level bad.

Just as I was told, and seemingly like everyone else on the internet, I have started watch Downton Abbey. I was quickly sold during the first episode as a fan of period drama and calculating internal politics. The Crawley family loses its heir at the beginning of the first episode which starts a lot of things in motion. Because Lord Crawley has only daughters, the estate will pass to an unknown cousin. But Lord Crawley’s wife and mother (played by the splendid Maggie Smith) have plans of their own. The three daughters are a mixed bag but we don’t learn too much about anyone besides Mary in the first three episodes. Meanwhile below house the servants have their own concerns about the heir as well as conflicts of their own. This is where the series really shines with new valet Bates who has a bum leg; to not too bright kitchen maid Daisy; the inner workings of this large house hold are compelling. The time of the series is actually an interesting one of transition where non-nobles are beginning to leave service to strike out on their own, including women, but there is still a very traditional atmosphere to contend with like ideas of being ungrateful or getting above yourself. The series perfectly moves between stories of the servants and stories of the lords and ladies of the house and captures the inevitable interactions between them. I can’t wait to watch more and catch up with everyone else!

Not too long ago Miki Yoshikawa finished up Yankee-kun and Megane-chan. Apparently the ending is the series is rather controversial but I will cross that bridge when I get to it. What I am interested in is her newest series Yamada and the Seven Witches since I do not bear the author any ill will. It is another high school romantic comedy but now there seems to be a bit of a supernatural twist. The main character, Ryu Yamada reminds me of Shinagawa Daichi as they are both abrasive and some what dopy punks who are honorable beneath it all. Urara Shiraishi is far more intelligent and aloof than Hana. The first chapter is a body swap story that is resolved by the end of the chapter. It is mostly there to introduce a supernatural element and get the main characters to interact with each other romantically. But so far none of seven witches have made a formal appearance. So far the story has been cute and reminded me of the best strengths of Yankee-kun and Megane-chan. It is clearly a story for guys but with many of the strengths of a well told shojo story as well. I am curious to see where Miki Yoshikawa is going to take this story.

In the latest volume of Twin Spica (vol. 11) we are still reeling from the events of the previous volume. The entire cast is in a bit of haze which permeates their actions, but the book does swing into melodrama from time to time rather that its normal quiet introspection. I was rather surprised to not see Asumi’s dad at all in this, too. Still the stakes have become so intense and the end is so near you can’t help but be desperate to get the next and final volume.

I went to see Studio Ghibli’s latest, The Secret World of Arrietty, in theaters this week. It follows a family of very tiny people known as The Borrowers because they take just what they need from the humans’ houses they live in. Borrowers move to a new location if they are seen by humans because it becomes too dangerous. Arrietty has just turned fourteen and will be doing her first “borrowing” with her father that very night. At the same time, a new human boy has come to live at the house. It is a fairly simple story of friendship and fantasy and therefore charming from beginning to end. There is a timeless quality to the country (thanks in no small part to Ghibli’s art style) and with the exception of one appearance of a cell phone it gives no hint of the broader world. The exploration of the house from the view of Borrowers is well-crafted and alive making the ordinary noteworthy. This is especially true for green Arrietty who has never ventured into its walls before but possesses all the youthful courage and curiosity you might imagine. The final resolution is possibly the most adventurous of all and made me sad that I could not see where it will lead. In a quite positive way, it breaks the spell of it being a small world and opens it up to thousands of possibilities. My only complaint is the English voice acting was not very good, there were a lot of times the voices sounded completely disconnected and disembodied. The only exception was Arrietty thank goodness. So I look forward to picking this up on DVD and hope the Japanese does it a bit more justice.

I might just stop watching Bodacious Space Pirates not because it is a bad show but because everyone loves it so much I think it is beginning to make me hate the show. When I originally watched the first episode I thought it was serviceable if a bit forgettable. But more and more I just heard people praising the show like it was the second coming of Fullmetal Alchemist. Narutaki and I joked that we must have accidentally watched Totally Tubular Space Pirates which must have been the inferior knock off show. It seems like the one show that is able to get the jaded old school fans and the young moe fans to sit down at the table and agree to enjoy something together. This keeps me watching the anime while trying to discover what I am missing that everyone else is in love with. But the more I watch the more flaws I see with the show. I feel more and more these are flaws I would normally forgive if it were watching this in a vacuum but are unmistakable when I examine the show so minutely. Plus being a Space Pirate seems to be more like a glorified Sea World stage show than the brave adventures of Captain Harlock. Maybe if I come back to this show a year from now I can give it a fair shake. Right now I feel like those people who picked apart Summer Wars until it was devoid of any fun because it got all the hype that it did and I don’t want to be that guy.

I finally finished up Professor Layton and the Last Specter. What I found most surprising about the ending is that our big villain still remains incredibly mysterious and not nearly all is revealed. We sort out things in the town, the specter, and people’s family problems but it is the first game that really says you haven’t gotten all the answers yet. And because this is a prequel trilogy there is a lot of wonder about what happened to characters because of their roles or lack thereof in the other games.

To write my recent little article I caught up with Chihayafuru by watching episodes 9 through 20. Chihayafuru has remained a solid sports show with a josei twist. It has been nice to see the Karuta team comes together while growing as characters as well as winning over their facility adviser. The show has a good balance of having the team get better and win significant victories while still getting spanked as a team and as individuals. They win enough that you understand why they all stay with the sport but lose enough in reflection of how new some of them are to the sport and how good their competition is. I will say that the thing that made me raise my eyebrow the most was Taichi breaking up with his girlfriend. She was mainly a non-entity that existed only to explain why Taichi never hooked up with Chihaya. The second that Arata is really back in the picture as a valid romantic choice Taichi’s girlfriend disappears just a quickly. It is not anything that really ruins my enjoyment of the show but I amused how mechanical this barely seen character’s role was if you noticed that is what she was there for.

Since I recently finished up the TV series, it was perfect timing for the release of Avatar The Last Airbender: The Promise Part 1 a new graphic novel from Dark Horse. After the events of the original. This takes place a year later as the rest of the world is still adjusting to change. Zuko is attempting to move all of the Fire Nation’s people back home but realizes after 100 years this might not be the best idea. This brings new tension between Aang and crew. I really enjoyed this sequel so far as it highlights the problems of ruling people as well as tensions between colonized nations. I’m also enjoying the bigger focus on Zuko since I always liked hi story most of all. In many ways, this is a much more complicated and delicate manner than the original story.

I borrowed Narutaki’s copy of The Promise for two reasons. One was the fact that for one reason or another parts of the Avatar fandom were greatly displeased with ending leaving certain plot threads hanging in the ending. Carl from Ogiue Maniax wrote a simple post that exploded into a storm of controversy. Some of that was just because it wound up devolving into shipping wars but that is the nature of Avatar fandom. This series is a good opportunity to address those unresolved plot threads that seemed to greatly annoy the fans of the series. The other reason was I was interested in the upcoming Legend of Korra. Since it is set 70 years after the end of the TV series is was curious to see how the events in the graphic novel series lead into the new TV series. So far the series has been cater to both reasons fairly well. We are getting a bit of resolution to what happens to the world after Aang fulfills his destiny and how dealing with the obvious threat lead to dozen of smaller problems that are not anywhere near as straight forward. Also now people can finally be quiet about the fate of  Zuko’s mother. I am pleased with the series so far and am very curious to see how all of the events in the book lead into the very different political climate in the sequel series.

I read a very well written article about the first Zelda game and how the subsequent games in the franchise measured up (spoilers: they don’t, at least according to the article). The article ebbs and flows as far as my agreement with it. At times I felt myself nodding along but then he would push the idea too far and I was taken aback. Tevis has many solid points, but stripping everything back down to the model of the first game doesn’t strike me as a good idea even if it were possible.

I’m not going to lie, I think the best of Zelda games is pretty much when others do: A Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time, plus Wind Waker. I thought the Oracle games were a good throwback (except the Goron dancing which may have been made by the devil himself). So I guess I’d agree the best Zelda games are in the past, just not so far back as he goes. I think all of these games had great ideas but perhaps at times they have been pushed too far in one direction. I’m playing Spirit Tracks now and haven’t played Skyward Sword yet besides a demo so I can’t weigh in on his assertion that Skyward is the lowest point yet. But it is easy to sit down and see they’ve changed but that somehow it has all been for the worst, I can’t get on board.

Any frequent video game player would agree that in general games have become much easier; it is an oft touted lament about the industry and the influx of a huge casual game market. Even I as a much more infrequent gamer feel that way (perhaps that is just from growing up in the NES days). So when Tevis says that Zelda games have become simply too guided, I’d definitely agree. But as I just stated, being boxed and being guided is not a Zelda franchise problem. It is one that Zelda should tackle but it is also a problem in many games. Zelda despite some instances is a fairly youthful game of adventure, which is exactly what I like about it. And that youthful brightness is obviously appealing to a younger age group.

I’d say you’d be hard pressed to find any Zelda fan that thought Navi was an excellent addition. Still, most games thereafter have a hint giving companion to put you on your path. In Spirit Tracks, Zelda herself is my ghostly guide. I get told where to go next and sometimes even before I have a look around I’m shown what I need to do. That being said, would I like a game which pretty much throws you down without a word about anything? The return of Nintendo logic and difficulty? No.

He beat A Link to the Past in three days when it first released and he uses this as a measuring stick for how much easier it had become and sort of the beginning of the end as it were. I certainly didn’t beat it in that amount of time, it was my first Zelda game. Maybe I could beat it in three days now since I’ve played it who know how many times. Even knowing where everything is (except the damn cape, I never seem to remember that!) and knowing the order it would still tax my skills. But in any case it is obvious that if you are really into the games, Zelda’s difficulty had certainly changed but then so has the familiarity with it.

With the technology of today, I often wonder why a Hard Mode is not included in games. Yes, there is some added programing but considering a lot of games have new modes after you beat it (including Zelda games), it doesn’t seem like a Herculean task. Why not simply give the option at the beginning to go at it with no hints, fewer items and health, and more enemies? It would be the easiest solution, creating a game that is friendly for new/casual players (which is the main reason games have gotten easier) while also challenging veterans to bring their A game, all without sacrificing wide playability. That would be my request to Nintendo.

Along with those hints in newer games comes the closed off areas, you know the parts of the world that you can’t get to yet but will open up when you’re ready. Again this complaint I can agree with at least partially, it goes along with coddling and not letting players get in over their heads. Still some of that opening up builds suspense and a sense of accomplishment when you can finally lift that rock, etc. But while games like Ocarina do have these blocks, there is still quite a bit of freedom to roam the map. And his dismissal of it comes off as selective. The original Zelda is no more infinite in its landscape. The vast expanse of field that is the center of Ocarina is magnificent in this sense, I remember seeing it for the first time and thinking how huge the world was. And as long as I ignored Navi, I was content to run around after each mission especially if I gained a new weapon/ability. Wind Waker’s beautiful ocean was ripe for exploration and travel not to mention dangers like fighting giant squids (the thrill!). A Link to the Past similarly was perfectly willing to let you go up on Death Mountain before you were ready and get yourself dead. Again you might need a later weapon to do the roaming but it was there. I think the freedom of these games is the right amount, a middle ground that has structure and not a series of blankness.

That spirit of wonder, of potential secrets on every screen, permeated the map (and even the instruction booklet – it discreetly placed hints on the bottom of the page, inviting the player to pay attention because the hidden was everywhere). The rules of Hyrule were not at all clear to its first visitors, and one of the greatest pleasures came in intuiting the underlying logic (one secret per overworld screen, but almost one on every screen). The very existence of a second quest that remixed all the dungeons and all the secrets spoke of a world that was open and supple. The magic of the first Zelda was not locked down, given to a single iteration. It was its own sequel. It seemed like it could go on forever.

I find it hard to believe that all the environments after the first Zelda are confining to gameplay and imagination. I agree that a world that keeps secrets is enticing but seeing worlds fully realized is a goal, an exciting prospect, not a degradation. One of the coolest tools in video games is the worlds and environments that can be created. Because games are now such a rich visual medium, it is one of their strengths. No longer does my imagination need to be just that, now it can roll out before me. Bringing up Tolkien strikes me as talking out of both sides of his mouth. There is a reason they didn’t make Lord of the Rings into live action films until the technology was available to create visually the worlds which he so lovingly crafted in words.

Making an old game new again is difficult. He calls for simplicity, a focus on sword play and less puzzles for example, and I can understand that. I think it is obvious that they continue to add or try new things in subsequent games in order to bring something new. Here, ride a horse, a boat, a train, a bird. Try this new way of controlling (I beg of you Nintendo please don’t make me control Link with the stylus anymore). Here is a new item (fine get rid of some but if you take away the boomerang I’ll cut you). Step here and something new will open. While roaming the world you nowadays have quite a large cast of people who might ask you to do a little quest like fetch some milk and the like. I can agree that this is annoying (we aren’t playing Animal Crossing for goodness sakes), but having large casts, villages, and side quests to explore just as much as other environments adds to the feel of a game and the lore of the land. It doesn’t always work, the innovation might not occur, but the attempts are there; sometimes they stick and sometimes they don’t.

As much as he denies his love of the original Zelda is tinted by nostalgia, the claim comes off as pretty false. There is an emotional love for the first game that comes through in his writing, it is actually very convincing. But the world of Hyrule will never be completely unknown and new to a Zelda player again barring the invention of some Men in Black memory erasing apparatus and it is silly to act as though this should be the goal of the gamemakers. Zelda games are fun bouts of adventure and yes often times they are familiar. Just as Mario, Megaman, and countless other franchises are and we keep returning to them because there is magic there.

(I wrote this post instead of leaving a giant comment.)

There was no way my apartment was not getting the Mass Effect 3 demo the day it came out. I will avoid spoilers but I am sure some people are going to be upset that I mention you fire guns and fight Reapers. That aside the demo lets you make a temp Shepard with the normal amount of customization and you even get to make a few key previous game choices. You play through the first mission that is a basically a tutorial and then it jumps ahead to the earlier E3 demo. The first part is very cinematic where the second half is a good sample of the new game play. Since the second half is further in the game they give you more weapons to play with and more power points to see how the new abilities feel. A few quick notes. The cool down for powers is extremely short in first part and terrifically slow in the second half. They clearly want you to experience the new combat shooting system with minimal power use in the second half. The new game plays is even more run and gun than the previous games. I think it is a bit harder but you still have the power wheel to pause the action and a story mode if the action is too frantic. I also noticed that you could not upgrade your weapons like you could in the E3 demo. I also have played a little with the Mass Effect multipalyer. The mode is thankfully cooperative. I would not want to step foot into a competitive version of the game. So far the gameplay revolves around  surviving waves of enemies with a few random mini missions to break things up. 11 waves of increasingly tough enemies is fairly grueling. But once you get the hang of it the game is fun if a bit brutal. Expect to fail missions a lot. They do give you a good amount of experience even if you fail. You use the money you earn in missions to essentially buy booster packs of upgrades and items. The items you get are random so you can expect to grind quite a bit. The only lame thing is to play as an aliens race you have to randomly unlock them buying the expensive version of the booster packs. Over all the demo made me look forward to the game in March and made be not worry about the multipalyer so it accomplished its mission.

I had the pleasure of seeing the premiere of Justice League: Doom at a special event held at the Paley Center here in NYC. The movie is based on a famous Justice League storyline from the comics known as The Tower of Babel in which Batman has contingency plans on how to take out each member of the JL stolen and then used against them. The basic premise remains the same, but the ways in which each member is neutralized as well as the ultimate villain are different in this new animated film. And it is executed fantastically. All of the stories are being told simultaneously which brings in a lot of tension as we switch from hero to hero. The writing is snappy and of course Batman has all of the greatest lines but it meshes well with the serious nature of the story. It gets very dark and what happens when Batman realizes what is going on as well as how the JL take that information is an excellent, thoughtful finish to the action packed story. This is a great addition to the DC animated library and a wonderful swansong for late great writer Dwayne McDuffie.

Much to the consternation of Tsukihime fans it seems that the Fate part of the Nasuverse is the part that always gets all spinoffs. Himuro no Tenchi Fate/School Life is not exception but it is one of the strangest spin-offs yet. It is a 4 koma comic all about the daily lives of some of the extremely minor characters at Shiro’s school. The comic most revolves around Himuro Kane, Makidera Kaede, and Saegusa Yukika but most of the school based main characters make guest appearances. Thankfully while the art is sort of crude and very gag manga based it is also wacky like a proper 4 koma. So that means punchy little jokes as opposed to more sedate Hidamari Sketch styled slice of life humor. That means Kinnikuman jokes, demonic family pikes, and some obscure historical references. But it is still wacky girls do wacky things without a hint of anything supernatural. Also did you know there is an Indonesian version of soccer played barefoot with a flaming ball? Thanks Fate/School Life! It is worth just reading the third and fourth chapters just to learn about all the odd sports they mention. Also Tchoukball is the most un-American sport ever.

I caught the first episode of Kevin Smith’s new reality series Comic Book Men which follows the clerks at Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash. Smith is also part of the program as him and the guys talk in a podcast setting interspersed throughout the episode. I’m not a big Smith fan, but this seemed like worth checking out. It is unscripted but at the same time seems really scripted. One example is when another clerk asks a question like “What is Robin’s origin?” which I can hardly believe they don’t already know the answer to. I realize this is for the benefit of more casual viewers but they need to figure a way to integrate it better. Also the customers they deal with in the store were all selling, not buying, which felt unnatural. Maybe it is just too difficult to tape a regular time at the store, like new comic day, because of release forms? In any case it just made things seem really empty and slow. As for the personalities of our cast everyone is fine except Bryan who just comes off as a real asshole. The first episode is quite stiff and unsure of its formula, but this doesn’t surprise me with a reality show. I will probably give it at least another episode to see if it can get into a grove but it doesn’t seem promising.

I decided to check out Sekien No Inganock as it was recommended to me by a reader. It is a steampunk visual novel which caught my attention. While steampunk is the flavor of the week nerd obsession of late in the English language world I was curious to see the Japanese take on the subject. Otaku are hardly into steampunk as much as Americans but there are things like Gear Antique that prove that they are aware of the genre. I will warn anyone interested in the game that there are an unusually high amount of anthropomorphic characters in this game.  While I would be hesitant to call it a furry game I would preface it with the statement that if you can’t stand anything with furry content this will instantly turn you away. The main love interest is at cat girl named Ati so your mileage will vary on that fact alone. Other than that the game has an intriguing premise. The city of Inganock much like Paradigm City was a prosperous steam-powered city until an incident sealed away the area during a disaster everyone cannot remember. Now the majority of the population is mutating while being hunted by invincible mythical beasts. The protagonist is a doctor who has taken in a strange girl who seems unaffected by the affliction plaguing the cursed city. The game play is mostly your usual long stretches of reading with a few key choices to make but there is one twist. About half way through each chapter there will be a section where you get to hear the thoughts of all the major players in the chapter. Unlocking one characters thoughts will let you see more of what the other characters are thinking. It is a nice bit of interactivity but it can be argued it is just a very complex form of making you read a linear story. The art has a very pastel vibe that makes it feel unique and gives everything a dream like quality. This is a game with pornographic content but I have not run into any of that in what I have read of the first three chapters. There was an unexpected scene of toplessness fairly early on but since then everything has been tame. Things still have the ability to go downhill since I am hardly an expert of how Liar-soft constructs their games. The plot seems to be made of episodic chapters that are all building to reveal the grand mystery behind what happened to Inganock. It is a promising start so I am interested to see where it goes.

I finally read the science-fiction / detective mash-up The Caves of Steel. It takes a future where Earth’s relationship to robots and the rest of the universe known as the Spacer Worlds is a tumultuous one. The culture of Earth live in domes and their environment as well as their lives are very set out for them. Tensions are high as robots become more advanced changing people’s livelihoods. Elijah is a middle-aged detective who must work with advanced robot Daneel to solve the murder of an important figure in the changing policies between Earth and the Spacers. This is a fairly short novel that attempts to pose philosophical questions during this imagined future. We learn quite a bit about the world surrounding Elijah as he travels around investigating and his perspective changes as he interacts with Daneel. Some of it is engaging while some of it feels shoehorned or tangential. And if the novel shows its age anywhere, it is the dialogue which is very fond of the words like Jehoshaphat. The mystery itself is a good one which I could not pick out the culprit in despite not having very many suspects.

This is an open letter to any companies that are either currently localizing visual novels or are interested in getting into that market.

Imagine this. Some company like Manga Gamer or JAST USA that already adapts Japanese visual novels into English wants to bring out Fate/Stay Night. It is a highly demanded title with a ravenous and dedicated fan base. The problem is the licensing price on a high-profile game like Fate/Stay Night is equally high to the point where it would need to sell more copies than any other visual novel ever has in the English-speaking market to break a profit. Despite the number of people who say they would pay there is a readily available fan translation of the game from Mirror Moon so the question always is how many of them will actually buy anything. I know there are manga that English publishers won’t pick up because they feel the scanlations make them worthless to license. How many people will buy a game they already played for free?  I am sure many companies have run the numbers and discovered that the risk to reward ratio is far too great to take a chance on the title. As it is it might not even be viable at all. I myself can’t blame them. They just want to keep the lights on.

But now that Kickstarter has created a viable method of getting funding and support to what would otherwise be high risk niche projects. I wonder if a title like Fate/Stay Night could be viable. I am not going to even pretend like I am an insider. I don’t know what the licensing fee on visual novels are nor how much the assorted overhead costs are with releasing a title like Fate/Stay Night. Even with a Kickstarter it might still be ridiculously prohibitive to even attempt such an undertaking. But I feel a well orchestrated and promoted Kickstarter just might be able to make this a feasible idea. It removes a good deal of the risk involved in licensing such a big named title and lets the companies involved get a real sense of how many people would buy such a title before any money exchanges hands. It is a great time to run a kickstarter for such a project and a title like Fate/Stay Night will definitely get people talking. No one is assuming you are every going to raise Double Fine money but you could easily make Barbara money. And that just might be the boost the game needs to actual make it to its English-speaking fans.

I can’t help but be fascinated with this idea. If any one has any idea of how to make this happen let me know. If any company wants to take this idea I am leaving it on the table. If any company was toying with the idea before I wrote this post then I am showing that it has some support. Otherwise if you support this idea just leave a comment below and pass this post around to show this idea has support among the fans.

All good things must come to an end and so I wrapped up Carnival Phantasm season 3. Last week I wrote about Fate/Prototype but it was just an extra added in with the last disc of Carnival Phantasm. Otherwise the last 4 episode stick to the comedic tone of the rest of the series. We start with the best new episode right out of the gate. The Holy Grail Grand Prix is just amazing. The Lion-Go will win your heart with its cuteness, Gilgamesh pops in during the middle to ruin everyone’s day (like he always does), and it is nice to actually see Assassin get to participate in a sketch. A good deal of joke time bombs in this episode. The Akiha story is straight out of Take Moon with Kohaku up to her normal tricks but the Brainwasher Detective skits that end the episode were the star of the show. The third episode is a Final Destination homage all around Lancer and his Kenny like tendencies. The final episode wraps everything up with the conclusion to the dating plan from the first disc and a round-up of all the pieces of the Type-Moon universe. While they were not voice acted they included characters from Fate/Zero, The Garden of Sinners, the Mobile Site, and even Notes. I am sad to finish Carnival Phantasm but maybe one day down the road we will get another season after a few more games come out. Surely Mahou Tsukai no Yoru, Fate/Apocrypha, and maybe even Girls’ Work will warrant revival of the carnival.

Thermae Romae came to an end just after three episodes. But a delightful three episodes they were. In each subsequent adventure Lucias spent more and more time in Japan soaking up the culture. Because he celebrates each new experience in Japan with such enthusiasm, it spills over to the audience (maybe because so many of us non-Japanese fans long to go as well). And each time he returns to Rome things get weirder from smelly bandits to being courted by the emperor to a village of baths. Perhaps a few more episodes wouldn’t get stale but I definitely think they let the series go out while it was still a quirky surprise and that’s a good thing.

And so I finally put another Pretty Cure show under my belt with the conclusion of Suite Precure. Suite Precure distinctly had its ups and downs. It was an enjoyable little series but it has some distinct flaws. It is hardly the low point in the series but it is never be the pinnacle of the series as well. I did not have any problem with Cure Muse like some people did. I would go as far as to say she was one of the most clever parts of the series. The ending was fairly standard but enjoyable. There was a good bit of back and forth between the Cures and Noise. He did not just pummel them until their last second victory. Both sides got some good shots in during the last few episodes. The sooner they got Noise to be in his true form the better it was because as dorky little bird it was hard to take him seriously as the main villain of the series. Some of these scenes with him manically laughing were very silly when he was still P-chan. No matter what anyone tells you Hibiki’s ultimate attack is not Suite Session Ensemble Crescendo Finale but in fact psychoanalysis. Sh goes all Jungian on Noise in the end to finally defeat him. It also looks like she defeats him with the Brofist of Ultimate Friendship™ when the pull back during the climax. I was surprised the last episode was all falling action. While the Pretty Cure shows always have a little finale they don’t usually spend the whole episode on it. Still with all that time the Kanade, Ellen, and Ouji love triangle goes completely unmentioned let alone resolved. Overall I enjoyed the series despite some missteps. If you want to see Pretty Cure at its best watch Heartcatch but if you just want a solid little magical girl show then watch Suite Precure.

I took a look at the Johnnie Walker Keep Walking Studio 4C promotional video. A surreal dreamlike setting unfolds before us where things change and morph before you. It is a beautiful, vibrant piece of work though I can’t really say what is has to do with Whiskey.

After two separate recommendations I decided to check out some iOS games. Patz recommended Tiny Tower while Chaos Theater named dropped Where’s My Water. Both of them do a great job of being little time killers in their own way. I first heard about Tiny Tower due to the Zynga controversy but I only started playing after Patz suggested I try it out. It is much like SimTower but simplified for the hand-held experience. You construct a little building that has housing and shops using their profits to expand your tower. It is perfect for a hand-held device because you can play it for less than a minute if that is all the time you have but you can also sit down just kill some time if you want as well. You can update your shops and then put it down and not look at it again for hours or you can micromanage things if you just want to kill time. I really enjoy naming the little business even if you don’t have to.  It is free to play bu there is also in-game money that can be purchased. I am not sure why you would ever spend money on the game unless you were impatient but I suppose that is what this whole free to play game model is based around. The other game is the Where’s My Water demo from Disney. It is a clever little puzzle game. You try to dig tunnels so that the water can flow to a cartoon alligator so he can take his shower. The same starts of very simple but slowly adds new obstacles and tools as the game goes on in classic puzzle game tradition. Soon there is acid, poison water, locks, and other various complications. The learning curve is gently sloped so you always feel challenged but never overwhelmed. A great little distraction and like Tiny Tower it has the perfect quick burst of entertainment for its given platform.

The 4-6 Magic Kaito Specials aren’t really all that memorable. Episode 5 has a some good Kaito thievery as well as that sweet magic he is able to surprise you with. But 4 and 6 feature a new witch character prominently and it throws me off a little. Kaito’s magic is the world of illusion and sleight of hand, and both he and Conan employ plenty of super science, but actual mystic abilities just seems weird. These were mostly done as a 15th anniversary project so I’m not sure if there will be more of not. If not they didn’t go out on a particularly high note either.

It has been a long journey so see the conclusion of Umineko no Naku Koro ni. The story started in 2007 and finally concluded with 8 visual novels being released over the course of 4 years with over a dozen extra side stories being release up until the last Comic Market in December. It was a fun journey along the way that allowed me to try and figure out what was real, what was fantasy, and where the truth lied on Rokkenjima in October of 1986. When I finished Requiem of the Golden Witch I was filled with a mixture of hope and dread. The penultimate game was amazingly powerful so that I was hopeful that the end of the series would be just a great but at the same time I was worried that it could not live up to the expectations it had set.

So when Twilight of the Golden Witch came out to some rather negative reviews it was hard to tell if this was part of the normal cycle of Umineko reactions or if it was a horrible ending. The problem was when a new Umineko game came out there was always a flood of spoilers. When everything was sorted out due to fake spoilers and mistranslations there was invariably a negative reaction that the story had gone down the drain. But usually when the translation patch came out most everyone saw the story in whole new light when they actual read the story. But this time that negative feeling did not seem to go away. Many people (including myself) seemed rather frustrated with the ending as provided by the spoilers for a lack of answers. But now that I have finally played the game and seen the ending through I am going to give my spoiler filled thoughts on the ending and the series as a whole. This is a mixture of catharsis and celebration for a pretty wild ride. If you were curious for a simple spoiler free review then it is simply that I do not regret playing this series.

Even if you utterly despise the vagueness of vital parts of the ending you have to admit there are some great moments in Twilight of the Golden Witch. Anything involving Lambdadelta is just a wonderful mixture of thrilling and charming. She earns her 3rd place in the final chapter popularity poll with this chapter. Bernkastel and Erika Furudo prove themselves to be the unrepentant villains of the story and do their job well. There is also a good deal of meta commentary on mysteries and mystery fans. It has always been present in the series (and in Ryukishi07′s writing in general) but it is full display in this chapter. The goats attacking the island is hardly a subtle meta commentary on the fandom. Your mileage will vary on how much you think it is a clever jab at the reader and how much it is a bitter rant. Perhaps it is yet another case of, “Without love, the truth cannot be seen.”

It is also a powerful send off to the Ushiromiya family. They were all a mixture of horrible traits that had a human core at their center. It reminds me of that deleted scene from High Fidelity about the Top 5 Worst things you have done. Taken out of context the top 5 worst things anyone has ever done makes them seem like a monster. And in a way this final chapter reminds us that we have seen everyone involved with Rokkenjima at their worst as well as their best. But in the end while they have some major sins on their hands they were all just human. OK. Some of them came off a bit worse than others. It is hard to really find fault with too much that Hideyoshi or Jessica did in contrast Kinzo commits some unforgivable sins even compared to the rest of the family. Their crimes cannot be excused but perhaps they can be forgiven.

The most controversial part is the ending itself and what few things it does address and what it keeps a mystery. To say we get no answers is clearly a lie. On the other hand there are some major questions that go unanswered. As for the little mysteries we are given all the tools to solve them. To figure out who killed whom in the first 6 chapters we are given five important pieces of information. The most obvious pieces are the red text. While it is often deliberately misleading it is the first place to start looking. The second is that Beatrice, Shannon, and Kanon are all the same person but can be “killed” when their personality is killed. The fact that they are all the same person playing different roles makes many of the mysteries disappear. The third is Willard H. Wright black sword fight with Bernkastel. There are plenty of hints on how all the tricks were done through that. The fourth is Bernkastel’s purple truth puzzle game. It gives clear rules on how to use the fantasy and mystery sections to figure out what is going on. How the things we see in mystery scenes are the truth we need to examine when solving mysteries and how to figure out when characters are lying. The final clue is the Our Confession booklet from Umineko no Naku Koro ni Hane. It is pretty much a walk through of a mystery so you can see how they are done if the other clues were not clear enough.

The problem is there is no answer sheet. At no point does Ryukishi07 give the reader a simple breakdown of how everything was done in case you get stuck. This lets people write countless FAQs that use the rules to figure out how things were done but unless the author gives his definitive word you will always have people arguing the details back and forth. While this replicates some of the experience of the Witch Hunters in the game it will possibly always be a point of contention just the same. As Ryukishi07 himself said in Higurashi When They Cry Kai there is always something vaguely annoying about puzzle books that don’t give you the answers. I am not exactly sure why he broke his own rule in this case.

The biggest point of contention will always be that we never really know what happened on October 5th of 1986. We know that the only survivors were Battler and Eva. But how everyone else exactly died is a mystery. Thematically that is part of the story. It ends with Rokkenjima being a sealed mystery. If we consider Ange the true protagonist of the series than the whole story is about her learning both how to move on and let things go. Therefore sealing the mystery away is a vital step for her. While this makes thematic sense for her it does not make the blow of never truly know what happened to the player any less harsh. I know many a player just feels like there never was an answer and the conclusion and what we got was to cover up to this fact. Ambiguous answers are inherently controversial.

In the end this article was actually therapeutic. It has helped me work through a good deal of my conflicted emotions on the series. I went into Umineko with a good deal of anticipation due to my love of Higurashi. Each episode played only ramped up the expectations. So the bitterness I initially felt with the conclusion was equally harsh. It was almost like a betrayal. But after actually playing the conclusion and sorting out my feelings in this post I feel better about the whole experience. As I stated before my enjoyment of the first seven games could never be taken away by the eighth. They were just too much fun. But Twilight of the Golden Witch determined my overall feelings for the series as a whole. In the end while I did not agree with how Ryukishi07 played everything out I am glad that I experienced this story. In reflection many of the pieces of the ending were telegraphed from the start but part of me did not want to believe them. But perhaps the way things ended were for the best. We were never going to get a super happy Higurashi ending. I could have done with some more conclusive answers but that is the mystery of Rokkenjima. If nothing else the positive feelings outweighed my reservations about the conclusion and the bittersweet ending. If it can do that than it did its job. I close the lid on this cat box for now and hope that one day I may open it again get the same enjoyment and perhaps some new insights in the future.

Carnival Phantasm has come to an end. The grand Type-Moon cross over even ended with some little cameos by the cast of Fate/Zero, Kara no Kyoukai, the Mobile Site, and some rather minor Type Moon characters. The they even gave some love to Notes with V/V. But at the very end after the credit a mysterious woman picks up the phone to introduce the bonus movie. This woman is Sajyou Ayaka who is the original protagonist of an early draft of Fate/Stay Night. To celebrate the end of Carnival Phantasm the extra goes back to the origin of the Type-Moon universe with Fate/Prototype. This video is an animated version of some of the notes to the original unfinished story that would be used to make Fate/Stay Night.

There are some major changes that this prototype story went through before it became the game known as Fate/Stay Night. The most famous change is that originally Saber was a man and the young witch known as Ayaka Sajyou was his master. Takeuchi Takashi felt that visual novel fans would not like to play as a female protagonist to the genders were swapped. Ayaka Sajyou seems like a mix of Rin and Shiro with a bit of Enjou Tomoe thrown in for good measure. She is much more powerful and knowledgeable than Shiro but she has his softhearted nature while having the gloomy edge of Enjou. Also the religious theme around the Holy Grail War are much more pronounced. All the Masters have a different choir of angel they are connected to and the Grail itself has far more of a twisted Christian connotation. In fact the final secret Avenger style Servant is the Beast itself. Rider is certainty a new man and his master is equally different (as much as we might have wanted Shinji to be bed ridden.) Phahn Sancraid is definitely a creepy priest like Kotomine but he looks and feels creepy in his own unique way. Also while Saber was involved in a former Grail War this time his Master was Ayaka’s sister and she was not a very nice person.

On the other hand you also see many of the seeds that would go on to make Fate/Stay Night what it is. The basic framework is unmistakable. The structure and cyclic nature of the war is the same. The hidden tainted nature of the grail is still in the background. Ayaka and Saber’s relationship clearly went on to inspire Rin and Archer’s relationship. Also taking Ayaka and combining her with Misaya Reiroukan gets us the Rin we know in Fate/Stay Night. Saber’s tragic participation in a previous iteration of the war with his new’s Master’s family is also the same. Gilgamesh is still the same Gilgamesh. Also Saber’s battle with Gilgamesh was giving me vibes from the Saber and Rider’s battle from the Fate route.  Gilgamesh looks a bit more primitive but he is still spamming swords and wearing golden armor. He is still an arrogant king of nonconsensual relationships only this time he wants Ayaka instead. Lancer also looks different but he is still Cu Chulainn. I am sure being Lancer is still suffering. He even hunts down Saber’s master impaling them through the heart as the catalyst for summoning her servant. That results in a first meeting of Master and Servant that would be reproduced in Fate/Stay Night. And as the Type Moon wiki points out Manaka Sajyou looks like evil baby Arturia Pendragon.

It is fascinating to see how Fate/Stay Night morphed to become the visual novel we see today. While the basic structure might be the same you can see the initial concept went through many changes when it was adapted to another form of media. In the end I am somewhat divided. Part of me would love to see this expanded into its own series. Seeing how everything would have originally played out if it had stayed as a linear novel would be a great insight into how Nasu has changed as an author. There seem to be some very interesting concepts here that never made it into the final product. At the same time I wonder if these changes were not made for very good reasons. It is easy to forget the value of editing that takes a messy raw concept and refines it into a more complete product when done correctly. Maybe many of the ideas and plot that were changed were changed with good reason. Without the adaption we would not have the sexy sex machine that is Rider. Then again that scene of Ayaka getting out her witches’ broom seemed pretty cool as well. Overall while I would buy a full length Fate/Prototype series it would not break my heart if it were never made. This is a good enough sample for now.

I have finally completed my final play through of Fate/Extra. Having completed it with Caster I feel like I have closed out the game. While I did not go through every scenario possible in the game I think I saw the optimal amount of possibilities. I would be interested in a few tiny details like using Saber with a female protagonist or taking Archer through Rani’s route but those little details are what YouTube is for. In this final post on Fate/Extra I just wanted to give my thoughts on playing as Caster. I mean how could I not play the game as the cute little fox goddess even if that is dangerously close to furry country.

I will admit I tore through this play through whereas I savored the other two. The third time around I had to put in cheat codes because there was no way I was legitimately grinding through the game a third time. I love Type-Moon but I am not crazy. It was sort of fun playing through the game as a level 99 god. You can actually win several battles are supposed to either come to a draw or have you be outright slaughtered. Winning them never changes to plot but it does get you some bonus dialog as a pat on the back for your accomplishments. That said it was still quite obvious that Caster is the hard mode. That is not to say that she is worthless because at times she is a wrecking crew. The problem is she is really slow to power up and definitely a glass cannon. When you start the game she is definitely the weakest character you can pick. She does not deal much physical damage, she has paper-thin defense, and it takes awhile for her to get the spells she needs to rip things apart. When you have her full complement of spells she is a monster but no matter how high level you get her she is always fragile and cannot absorb too much damage. But her basic spells are a nasty one two punch as they do their standard damage and can stun the opponent if you choose wisely. If you set things up correctly she can tear into even the toughest opponents. I took out Saver in 1 round with a level 99 Caster and Ryougi Shiki without breaking a sweat. She is challenging but rewarding to play.

Caster is a cutie-pie little vixen with a deceptive appearance. She seems like an airhead but she is someone who will just as easily deceive, set up, and then assassinate everyone around her in a way that would make the Count of Monte Cristo slightly uneasy. She is definitely designed to have a mixture of Yamato Nadeshiko loyalty, ditzy charm, and vengeful possessiveness. It does give her an amusing appeal if a bit on the moe wish-fulfillment side of feminine appeal. She is definitely the most openly affectionate and playful Servant as well as the most sexually aggressive.  A bonny boom boom body does not hurt with features on the safe side of anthropometric. She was a refreshing sorbet after the sarcastic Archer. The most surprising part of her past was her connection to Twice H. Pieceman. It was set up in advance but like everything involving Pieceman I wish they had investigated it more. I also wish Caster was in other mediums as well. Her careful Machiavellian plotting combined with her harmless demeanor would make her an interesting character in a title outside of a tournament RPG.

That is it for Fate/Extra. I definitely got my money’s worth in the 3 play throughs I did. I admit that I certainly used the skip dialog button quite a bit in my third time through but Caster’s charm made it worth my time. I now have three max affection Servants to import into Fate/Extra CCC if that ever comes out. I hope that the game did well enough that Aksys Games considers picking up the sequel. I can’t wait to see how your characters transfer over and what rewards you get for playing the previous game. I can never get enough of the Fate universe.

I have been occasionally playing the little treasure that have come from Comic Market 81 including the two anime fighting games I cared the most about, those being Melty Blood Actress Again Current Code and Ougon Musou Kyoku Cross. Far be it from me to even pretend to be a serious Type-Moon critic but I must complain about Melty Blood. Playing both games back to back makes me realize that Melty Blood SERIOUSLY needs to upgrade their sprites. If you compare the crisp HD sprites of Ougon Musou Kyoku to Melty Blood’s wonderful but outdated character graphics the difference is so noticeable. I’m not saying that I don’t enjoy playing the new Melty Blood. Adding the new selectable fighting styles and added characters is very much appreciated. But I would rather the next addition of the game make minimal additions to any game play (which is already quite good) and instead work on the graphics. It would take a great game and modernize it into a spectacular game.

I realize that this is partially a selfish and very complicated request. Upgrading sprites is a major undertaking and fighting games are loathed to change the artwork on sprites that already work unless they have no other choice. The infamous example was the use of the outdated Morrigan spite until Tatsunoko vs. Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars. I also know that French Bread would probably wish to spend more time and effort on the graphics for the artwork of their own original property game, Under Night In-Birth. It might be a somewhat selfish request but it is one I make anyhow. I know it is a serious investment but it is one that I think would result in an equal amount of returns.

While this is slightly delayed I have finally got through my second play through of Fate/Extra this time with Archer, a female protagonist, and taking the Rin route. Essentially I changed everything you could change to see how much it actually effected the story and how the game played out. If you are looking for a proper review of the game you just check out my first article about my Saber playthrough. That has more analysis of the game proper. This is just a supplemental look at the viability of a replay and what bits of nuance I got out of using Archer. This review took about a month longer than it should have as I swear the universe did everything up to including making it so my PSP would no longer read UMDs to prevent this review. Le sigh. But here it is.

First of all while it is a nice option to play as a female protagonist in Fate/Extra as far as I can tell it is the one choice that has the smallest effect on the game. I am glad to see that you are going to make the protagonist be so much of an avatar you might as well let both sexes have a chance to be represented. But sadly unlike say Persona 3 Portable changing your gender does not change the way the game plays. You don’t get any different plot choices and most of the dialog goes completely unchanged. It also makes all the servants and a few other characters in the game strongly bisexual as they will develop romantic feelings for you regardless of your gender. I do find that a bit amusing. I am sure that pleases the yuri fans but the yaoi fans can get a little for themselves as well.

I will state this plainly. There is no way you can mistake Archer from Fate/Extra being anyone BUT Archer from Fate/Stay Night. He makes references to fighting in another Holy Grail War in a school setting, he recognizes Shinji and Rin but mentions her knew much different versions of them, makes a an off-handed reference to the traditional Saber we all know and love, and even has the same appearance, powers, and back story as the traditional Archer. If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, we have at least to consider the possibility that we have a small aquatic bird of the family anatidae on our hands. I am not sure why some people seem to insist that this Archer is not necessarily the Archer from Fate/Stay Night. While I am not sure the story of how he become a Counter Guardian counts as canon outside if this iteration of the franchise it is clear who he is supposed to be. If nothing else this means that Archer is the servant to play as if you are a fan of the original story. No one else will even come as close to the number of in jokes and references as picking EMIYA as your servant.

Playing as Archer at times feels like a whole new experience and other times feels exactly the same as playing as Saber. The big difference is the dialog. Any time the your servant speaks there is always a very distinct tone in their dialog. If you picked any line as just read it off with no other context you could tell who the line is from. Where as every statement from Saber is grandiose but affectionate all of Archers conversation is filled with sarcasm and ruggedness. Also Saber is without a doubt easy mode. Anything that Saber does with ease takes Archer a good deal more work to do. Archer’s real ace in the hole is Seven Rings of Heaven as it can just ignore one attack. But other than that he is just harder to play.

The same thing thing is true with the alternate servants when you do Rin’s path. While the dialog is different with other opponents the mechanics of what you have to do are exactly the same. How you transverse the levels, gather matrix information, and even get help from your female companion is identical. Lil’ Ronnie and her Lancer are even crazier and far creepier than Monji Gatoh but I miss the True Ancestor. I was a bit more conflicted when fighting Rin in Rani’s path but I enjoyed your little romance/friendship with Rani more. The servants on Rin’s path were far easier as a breezed through those battles despite the fact that Archer was not anywhere as powerful as Saber. But if you pick Archer as your servant you MUST take the Rin path. His reactions to Rin in-person and when you are alone are priceless. The amount he purposefully does NOT say is just as hysterical as what he does say. I am curious what he says in those moments if you take the Rani path but they can’t be as wonderful as his dialog for Rin. Also he has the One-True-Mana-Exchange-Scene™ in this route.

The biggest thing that is added to a second play through is you can fight Shiki Ryougi as a secret boss. As is the tradition with all secret bosses she is far harder than anyone else in the game. After my level 55 Archer died against her the 4th time I just cheesed her by rushing to get out Unlimited Blade Works so I could spam her with Fake Spiral Swords and used a bunch of elixirs so I could do that for 3 rounds. You get a useful little item from beating her= that lets you cancel your opponents next move but it mostly only useful if you are going for a 3rd playthrough. Shiki is a nice Easter egg that explains the presence of Touko in the game but all in all she is mostly just an Easter egg.

So the real question is if it is worth playing the game a second time. My answer is yes and no. There is a good deal of new dialog and story if you play a second time. The game makes sure to reward you for playing  with new elements and things to discover. Even the servants who were the same react differently to the companion you choose to fight at your side. But other than that the game itself plays exactly the same. Everything is mechanically unchanged. Also the grinding is far more annoying the second time around. I enjoyed the fact that you kept the learned patterns from the last game but it did not make the time killing the same monsters again and again any more interesting. They really should have just let you keep your levels from them last playthrough so you could focus on the story. I could tolerate as the hardcore Type-Moon fan but I see most people getting sort of frustrated. But you have to grind like that if you want to take out  Shiki at the end. I would say the second play though is worth it but I would play something else in between play playthroughs as it might help take the edge off doing the same thing twice in a row and let you just enough the changes with a little distance. I will do a hopefully shorter little follow-up article about Caster. I am sure I will have a lot less to say but I feel I should mention how she plays and what I think of her character.

I am making my way through Twilight of the Golden Witch, the final chapter of Umineko no Naku Koro ni. As I am still not done I will save my final review for the chapter and the series as a whole for a later date but I do think there is one major fact about the game worth mentioning. When this game was first released the reaction was divisive to say the least. Going mostly on spoilers it seems that there was a very vocal community of people who felt that Ryukishi07 shot the pooch with the ending. I may or not be related but it has taken quite awhile for the English patch of the game to come out. Purposefully or not this might be for the best. It has given people (including myself) sometime to distance themselves from that initial reaction and judge the ending on its own merits outside of the initial hype for the ending and then the backlash when the ending was finally revealed. So far I am enjoying it with some time to divorce myself from the initial reactions. A prime example is the Professor Layton style puzzle section is nowhere near as horrible as it first sounded. It has some of the most powerful scenes if you get the puzzles right. It gives a little insight into how everyone in the family was still a human despite the many horrible things they had done. That is thematically important given how I think they are building up this ending. It does not shy away from the terrible things they have done but if you think anyone there is a complete monster than it makes the ending somewhat disingenuous. I look forward to reading the ending and weighing on the series as a whole now. I think I would have been far more brutal if I did not have some time away from the series. This really shows the benefit of some time away from the gut reaction of a community.

After talking about Uta no Prince-sama Maji Love 1000% in my year in review, I decided I’d better watch some more! I watched up through episode 7 which is a good half way point before everyone goes to idol summer camp (oh yes!) and decides on their partners for their final exams. Each episode has focused on one of the guys who through Haruka’s positive attitude helps each feel more confident/find his voice/etc. Of course she isn’t able to melt the frozen heart of Tokiya upon first try but we do learn quite a bit about him and a few secrets are revealed. He gets a lot more attention for the obvious reason that he is the “true path” more than likely in the original game. It continues to be a far-fetched fantasy that knows it. Also the headmaster may appear infrequent but remains entertaining as Norio Wakamoto lends his voice to the bizarre antics. I’m hoping that perhaps they will focus on Haruka’s roommate in an episode but that may be unlikely in a show like this.

I enough people praising Chihayafuru has gotten me to go back and try to catch up with this series. It seems like one of those shows that has a small but vocal fanbase. I watched the first 8 episodes in which we finally get back to the present and watch Chihaya build a karuta team at her school. I have to wonder how much of the extremely Japanese nature of Karuta is responsible for this show’s reputation. It is so steeped in a Japanese game that all but the most dedicated anime fan will avoid the show but everyone else will eat it up. It also has to be well done to earn that fanbase but if it is competent it will get a highly devoted following. Plus since it is about such an obscure sport it can use many sports show story tropes without raising so many flags that it is using such techniques. But overall the show lives and dies on Chihaya’s manic energy. The show only shines if you are drawn into her vibrant personality but fortunately for the show she is a hard character to hate.

Twin Spica vol. 10 has a very sobering effect on a story that is full of youthful exuberance despite its melancholy reflections. As the kids reach another summer break and return to Yuigahama, we as well as them are starting to wonder, to question, who will really see this dream of space through to the very end. The realization that only a few can actually make it into the space program has long hung over the entire series, but this is more the internal conflict, doubts, and truths that all of them must face.

After a long hiatus Liar Game recently started up again. It seems to me that the current arc (chs. 139-144) that is starting up seems like filler to me. No new elements added. Mostly just a new game to show how Nao has grown but also needs to keep growing. It is early enough that I might be wrong but I do have to wonder if the series has just gotten popular enough that Shinobu Kaitani need to pad out what was initially planned to be a shorter series. I don’t really mind. As long as the game are exciting and logical then I will stay along for the ride. The break was also helpful because you do not want these games to be made up on the fly. The only way this series works is with a good deal of plotting out of the games in advance. This all does make me wonder one thing. Is the fact that VIZ never licensed Liar Game’s a great folly or a brilliant move. Was not releasing it just after Death  Note ended foolish because everyone would have picked this up when they were hungry for more Death Note? Did they let that audience slip away? Or would everyone have just unfairly compared it to Death Note never letting it gain its own legs. At this point Death Note will probably always come up whenever Liar Game is discussed but at least enough time has passed that it is a casual talking point and not the focus of all discussions about the manga. At this point what is done is done but it is an interesting thought experiment.

I watched the first four episodes of High Score which is based on an energetic shojo 4-koma. It centers around a bunch of strange individuals, many in relationships, at a high school. The main characters are two cruel narcissists who are also in love with each other which causes endless hilarity. They are surrounded by bizarre friends, enemies, and total nonsense. The jokes and incidents fly by in the 3-minute length which I realize may be the way to get to me enjoy 4-koma anime.

The Umineko fighting game, Ougon Musou Kyoku has been steadily adding characters to its roster with in upgrades and patches. Even the recently added Ougon Musou Kyoku Cross added three characters upon its release and promises three more sometime this year. Despite the fact that we have the most important addition on the way in the form of Lambdadelta there are still a few characters that are sorely missing.

5. Eva Ushiromiya: She is a trained martial artist. She could not be that hard to throw into the game. You need more traditional Kung Fu fighters anyway.
4. Juza Amakusa: A mercenary makes for another good addition to the roster.  His sniper rile is clearly his big finisher. Plus you have to get some more testosterone up in the selection.
3. Maria Ushiromiya: While normal Maria would just be a gag character her witch persona would clearly make a valuable addition. The many ways of killing her mother is a whole move set in itself.
2. Gaap: A busty blond in a skimpy red outfit screams to be added on visual aesthetics alone.  Plus she too knows martial arts and can teleport. The only problem maybe keeping a degree of modesty with her flipping around in that outfit.
1. Kinzo Ushiromiya/Goldsmith : Another magical character just begging to be added. Plus he looks like Sean Connery. I would not put it past Kinzo to show up in the game.
0. As a bonus choice I am also throwing out anyone from Higurashi no Naku Koro ni: While they are technically not from Umienko they are in the same universe and I don’t think anyone would mind them showing up. Rena and her cleaver or Keiichi and his bat would easily make fans happy.

I have made another guest appearance on The Digital Bug’s Visual Novel news podcast, the Eroge Bus. This time I go on to talk about the one subject that seems to be the most natural choice for me: Type-Moon. It is more an overview than a dissertation so I mostly touch a little on the history of the company and their more famous titles. If you were hoping for a lecture on Akasha, the Throne of Heroes, and Tohsaka Nagato you will have to request I come back for a more in-depth episode. Greg and I also chat about the latest news in the visual novel industry. Greg is the expert. I mostly make silly commentary. But it is a great podcast to see what is going on in the US and Japan when it comes to eroge.

Eroge Bus Episode 6

I had been waiting to watch Hayate the Combat Butler! Heaven is a Place on Earth since it was announced last year. So when it finally come with the latest volume of the manga I was thrilled to watch it. The movie much like the rest of Hayate is a pleasant and warm helping of comfort food. Heaven is a Place on Earth is a nice little story set right after Natsu-comi and the arrival of Kayura Tsurugino but before the beginning of the next semester. It perfectly captures the feeling of being out in the country during summer vacation. The story focuses on the Hayate/Nagi relationship so I am of course totally behind it. But there is a Hinagiku bath scene so all the fans of the pink student council president will be satisfied. The best part of the movie is it feels like a nice minor arc in the manga. While it is a bit surreal at points it feels like it was taken from the source. Too often these little spin-off movies miss any of that spark that make you love the manga but this one captures that je ne sais quoi perfectly. The oddest thing about the movie is it came out BEFORE Kayura was introduced in the manga but the movie makes no real attempt to introduce her. It goes along like she has always been a part of the cast. At this point it is clear who she is but I am sure there were many a Hayate fan trying to figure out who this strange new girl was. Kayura cosplays as Saber in the movie so she is 1000% OK with me though. I will also say that I cannot deny the appeal of Maria with twin tails in a summer dress. This movie is probably not going to win over anyone who is not already a Hayate fan. They don’t make an effort to introduce you to the plot other than showing some newly animated clips from the first episode during the opening song. Oh Ruka does not take part in the main plot but she sings a song and says a few lines of dialog during the movie’s opening. So if she appears in the 3rd season she now officially has a voice actress. I am now just waiting to watch it again when they release the extended cut on the Blu-Ray.

I went to see Arthur Christmas mostly thanks to an article about its production which also alerted me to the fact that Aardman Animations (of Wallace and Gromit fame) made the film with Sony. It really was everything it should have been: a delightful Christmas adventure with plenty of humor and holiday magic plus top-notch animation. It is the story of the one present Santa forgets to deliver on Christmas Eve which causes endless trouble for everyone. Arthur, youngest son of Santa, along with Grand-Santa take up the mission. Arthur isn’t the successor to the Santa mantle. Oh, he has plenty of enthusiasm but he is also absent-minded, clumsy, and afraid of just about everything; still he has a true heart that inspires everyone in true movie fashion. It even gets a little meta at points as Arthur realizes that Santa isn’t a person, it doesn’t matter who delivers the present, Santa is an idea and a feeling. One of the highlights to the animation production is just how Santa does deliveries which is very high-tech nowadays as they attempt to explain the ways in which it is all accomplished using military precision, thousands of highly trained elves, GPS, and a “sleigh” that functions much more as a space ship with the ability to camouflage itself in many ways. But the olden ways must be dusted off and put to use to fix the gift mistake. It has that classic bridging of multiple generations as a key element along with the realization that we each have a place in the world. While the story has some bumps, I didn’t understand how worrying helped Arthur get to the sleigh or why wrapping the burglar alarm did anything at all, it was a holiday film that left me in good spirits!

If it seems I have dropped off the grid recently it was because I have been playing Mass Effect 2. As everyone who has played the game has said Mass Effect 2 is just a clear improvement over the first game. The first game was incredibly awesome but the second game expands and tweaks so much about the first game. It was not that the first game was horribly flawed. It was just that they improved or smartly streamlined on almost every idea from the first game. They improved the combat, skill trees, and inventory system. There were a few less random missions but they went out of their way to give most of the random mission a unique feel via a combination of original maps and/or unusual mission parameters. Too often in the first game the story for the side missions were unique in story but the maps had a very cookie cutter feel. They layout of the hidden bases or spaceships felt the same unless there were main plot related missions. The layout and style of all the missions usually felt every distinct in Mass Effect 2. I never has a serious problem with the inventory in the first game but the upgrade system is just streamlined in such a satisfying way. The powers are also equally tightened to feel like you get to the core of what you wanted without losing anything vital. The story with the suicide mission feels  epic and fun. It is also just so fulfilling to see the choices you made in the first game pay dividends in this game and now that your choices in both games will have both major and minor impacts on the third game.  It is really everything you would want a sequel to be. I can’t pay to see the end of the trilogy in March. I will only be watching my roommate play through it but that will be good enough. (Plus you get all those nifty completion bonuses  when you are the second person playing the game.)

Kekkaishi 29 is the falling action from the major battle in 28 which makes it more of a transitional book in terms of forward motion, but we are flooded with information and characters. There is still much speculation within the pages about what the supreme leader’s final intentions are and how he is carrying them out. Still you get the feeling that Masamori is finally on the right track though I don’t trust everyone that is close to him. And while we do get better explanations about Karasumori the book continues to leave us in a bit of suspense. Yoshimori’s frame of mind swings wildly as he tries to control his new power and feel responsible for something greater. He gets back to cake baking with a lot of faked vigor hoping to negate his fears. The only thing rather unfortunate is that of late Tokine has really taken a major backseat to the proceedings. I don’t think it will stay that way as we make our way into the final arc, but it is a little frustrating.

As I was covering the Haruhi movie so I did not get to see the first Mardock Scramble movie at the NYAF. But for everyone who did not have a chance to watch the movie then you can watch it now on Hulu. I will say for the amount of nudity and violence I was flabbergasted that they did not require me to log in for an age check. I had to log in to watch Spice and Wolf and that ridiculously tame compared to this. On that note this is really a 80s OVA that just happened to come out in 2010. It has all the gritty ultra violence, dark introspection, and nudity that you remember from those old OVAs. They also do the old 80s-tastic by lightly touching on some philosophy but making sure not to go in too deep because there are action scenes to be had.  The Bandersnatch Company alone feels like a group that should have been in Ninja Scroll. Welldone sums it up succinctly. I would explain but his introduction is something you have to see for yourself. Since I saw it on Hulu is was dub only. The dub was decent but some of the Bandersnatch Company comes of as far more silly than creepy because their dub actors were a bit too hammy. Also I know that oeufcoque is just french for a soft-boiled egg but  it really leads to some odd accidental innuendo in the dialog. This is a great little throwback series that really caters to a type of anime fan that does not get as much attention anymore. The movie ends on a big cliffhanger that just dares you not to watch the next one and knows that you won’t be able to refuse.

Batman was one of my favorite relaunches from the New 52 and the second issue only enhances that feeling. We beginning again with Bruce explaining a piece of Gotham, this time the architecture of a tower and it places in the city before he is thrown out of it. There is some good action in these pages, and you get the feeling this version of Batman rather enjoys himself and the theatrics. This book also continues to feel like the detective portion of Bats that balances things as he goes over an autopsy and gets answers that he already knew from Dick. The page layouts sing! The art is spectacular of course, but it also has well placed breaths in the action as well as places with simple text on blank background that sent a little tingle through me. Bruce is cocky in this book but it feels like he is on the edge of having things pulled out from under him.

I’ve started playing Professor Layton and the Last Specter which is the start of the prequel arc featuring the first meeting of Layton and Luke. Since this is the case, the game begins with Layton meeting his new assistant Emmy who quickly became a favorite of mine. She is a new addition with her high energy and physical nature. At times she even acts as the audience to the strange happenings making comments like these villagers are so weird and the like. And it is a good thing I fell in love with her quickly, I just started a new chapter where she has broken off from Layton and Luke to go solo in London. So far the story has been in line with previous games which is a positive; I’ve been able to deduce small mysteries but the Specter remains elusive. The town seems more sprawling complete with canals and boat transportation but like the last two games it tends to box you into a path and only lets you explore at its discretion which I always take issue with. Puzzles are Layton puzzles and nothing has stood out though there does seem to be more real math than before. I’m happy to say the car path mini-game is back, but made way better because it is with trains! I haven’t gotten to London Life yet. If you’ve seen the movie Eternal Diva you know a little more about this game, but I’m looking forward to now go back and watch it with a fuller knowledge.

Mass Effect is a series that has a rich back story and world building aspects that can be totally ignored if you wish to play the game as a straight sci-fi action game. I being a Type-Moon fan of course am the sort of person who will pour over all the in-game encyclopedia entries and journals. So that fact alone won the game major bonus points with me. That aside I think the game lives up to all the praise the fans give to the series. It has a solid plot that you can play through fairly quickly if you skip all the side material. But half the fun is all the side missions you can do. The main plot line maybe be the entrée but the side dishes are equally important to the meal in its entirety although you might not want to do all the silly collect all the tchotchkes missions like I did. But the cool thing is so many of your decisions carry over to the next two games be it huge decisions you make in the main plot line or little choices you make in side quests. It gives you a reason to seek out missions just so you can impact the world as opposed to just collecting more money and experience. Knowing that the people you kill or tasks that you accomplish carry over give every decision you make a satisfying weight and consequence. The dialog and charterers are not War and Peace or Citizen Kane levels but you will get attached to most people and the writing is usually pithy. The morality system is one of the best for a modern video game. There are still some kick the dog ridiculously evil choices but most of the time picking the renegade choice is an acceptably gray moral decision. It makes playing the path other than the white knight choices viable to people who don’t just shoot the scientists in Half-Life because it is cool. As for the two biggest complaints I always hear about the game I agree with one and did not really care about the other. The Mako is sort of annoying as everyone says it is. It’s hardly unbearable but it is clunkier than it needs to be. When you are moving along it is fine but when you spend 10 minutes getting from one location of the map to another when is should have taken 30 seconds because of the terrain you quickly understand why people were glad they removed the tank driving from everything but some optional missions in the second game. The other major complain it’s the inventory system. I thought that about 90% of gear you pick up was just vendor trash but I did not find it that hard to deal with even on the 360. I just wish the shops were not just filled with random inventory as opposed to a fixed stock. I almost always had mediocre to poor armor because of this. Those flaws aside Mass Effect was pretty amazing. I beat it in about a week and missed quite a bit of sleep due to it keeping me up. If you any sort of American RPG fan it is worth trying it out.

The Zelda Skyward Sword comic with just five pages looks gorgeous but is really neither here nor there. It just leaves you wanting it to build upon what was done. Maybe once I play the game I’ll feel like it is a nice little intro.

I may be behind on some of my shows due to playing Mass Effect but I have kept up with Kamen Rider Fourze. It is still the goofy  Jojo’s Part 4 Kamen Rider it has always been. They finally have the team all assembled so they had their first real throw down match with a Boss character. Gentaro Kisaragi is still going along being an entertaining moron with a heart of gold. His character really exemplifies the appeal of the show. This is important because when the show goes into serious drama mode the Japanese acting makes the melodrama feel really odd and amateurishly cheesy. When they concentrate on the action or comedy it is sometimes surreal but always entertaining. I was slightly surprised by the big reveal in episode 13. It was a decently well executed reveal for a show that is normally so goofy. It is a fun little show that always manages to put a smile on my face. Worth checking out even if your are not normally a fan of tokusatsu shows. It has a strong charm that just cannot be denied.

I just discovered the Bad Machinery webcomic (sorry I don’t read many webcomics!) and I’ve fallen in love. I began with the current story Murder She Writes which doesn’t require prior knowledge to make you laugh and try to solve the spoof on the classic setup of a group of people stranded in a snowstorm where murders begin happening. Lottie our young sleuth is wonderfully odd and awkward. The artwork adds quirk to its already humorous trappings. What stands out for me is how well this comic does single pages with a beginning, middle, and end but also connects to the overarching story; it feels very satisfying rather than needing the whole thing at once in order to enjoy it.

And as soon as Carnival Phantasm Ex Season was translated I downloaded and watched it. It is the longest episode of Carnival Phantasm so far. It did make me realize one thing. I don’t really know all that much about Bazett and Caren’s actual personalities. Since Fate/Hollow Ataraxia still has not been translated I actually know them much more for their silly doujinshi personalities than who they actually are in-game. I wonder how odd it will be to play Fate/Hollow and see them how they were actually meant to be portrayed after seeing them as nothing but goofballs for so long. Still every time I see Bazett I have to wonder why she does not have more of a fan following. If it were not for Saber I am fairly certain I would be firmly on team Bazett. I am sort of amazed how much mileage they are getting out of this Phantasmoon joke but I think it needs to end here. Even I who have supported the Phantasmoon joke so far am beginning to wonder if they have any idea of when enough is enough. I wonder if I were a bigger Arcueid fan if I would change my tune or not. But to counter that they have a good deal of Robot Chicken style mini skits which work a bit better. Also the more Aozaki Aoko the better. Miss Blue is always wonderful. Now all that is left is to wait for the third season and the new version of Melty Blood for the PC.

I recently decided to take the plunge and play through the Mass Effect series. I was going to start a while back but my roommate’s 360 decided to retire with a dishonorable red ring discharge. But with the recent black Friday sales a new Xbox has found its way to the apartment again. So I decided it was as good a time as any to see what everyone was talking about. But as anyone who has played the game will tell you when you plunge into Mass Effect you have to make two major choices.

The first is the gender of your character. A simple but important decision. While the game does not play entirely differently depending on your character’s gender there is enough of a change to be distinctly noticeable. The other major choice you have is to choose between a paragon or renegade style. You can play the game as a noble hero or as a loose cannon who gets the job done at any cost. While you can also play more towards the middle of the road the game encourages you mix up those play styles as you see fit but favor one over the other. Also playing someone who is true neutral is just boring.

According to Bioware only 20 % of the players play as the female Shepard. But as far as I can tell the fans of the female Shepard are extremely vocal where I personally have never seen anyone talk in favor of the male Shepard. Also most people prefer Jennifer Hale’s voice acting over Mark Meer’s as well. Both voice actors do a good job but Jennifer Hale really hits it out of the park. So I decided to go with a female protagonist for my first play through. It seemed like a nice change of pace from the macho action hero.

All that was left to decide was I going to try the paragon or renegade path. Then I had a strange thought. I was suddenly massively aware of the two female archetypes of the action heroine. I was choosing between prim and proper lady of adventure and the in your face punk action girl. As I was trying to pick between these two archetypes I had another massive revelation.

Why was I noticing this when I picked the female protagonist?

The male hero is not any more or less nuanced. In fact when it comes to stories the male version of this dichotomy is perhaps even more cliché. Why did this thought come into my head when I was choosing my character?

Is it because the male hero is so obsequious he is much like air to us. Is he so commonplace that we hardly think about it unless we go out of our way to do so? Do we mostly only notice the tropes of the male protagonist when we go out of our way to dissect the archetypes in first place? How much of it has to be with a hypersensitivity to a female protagonist?

A general low-level sexism inherent in our culture combined with a general lack of action heroines makes it so they are constantly under the microscope. Do we constantly ask ourselves is this female protagonist actually a good female character? Is she strong enough? Is she well written enough? Does she fall into a simple stock formula or does she have her of flair that makes her seem real. Because female heroes are just less common and even rarer to be done well do we constantly examine the ones we get?

I don’t really have any answers here. I am curious how often this happens to other people. Am I alone in feeling this way or do other people notice themselves doing the same? Am I being subtly sexist? By automatically examining the heroine as opposed to the hero am I showing a subtle bias or is that me just reacting to the way we treat the gender of the characters we create? Am I being overly sensitive about a game where you pick most of the character’s dialog anyway? I am curious to hear our reader’s opinions on the matter.

When Rango first came out, I was skeptical, but great reviews poured in. Finally, I got the chance to decide for myself. Rango is the story of a great big fake who becomes a great big hero. Amazingly, when we meet our scaly friend we don’t know his name, and actually still don’t know it, because “Rango” he makes up along with a series of amazing exploits that he sells to the folks in a little desert town called Dirt. This is a town in trouble as their water supply is drying up and the mayor is plotting something. Rango is the stranger who appears and changes everything. All things after the accident that puts Rango into the desert is a riff on the classic Western almost as if he has been thrown back in time (though of course he hasn’t). There is a clear knowledge of the reference material and it gives a little bite to some of the twists that you expect as well as great humor. The animation is all out incredible, there is a particularly flying scene that blew my mind with detail. Great film and certainly one of the best animated features of the year. Oh, and the owl mariachies are the best. I need a shirt with them.

I just read Princess Knight volume 1. When Narutaki and I read volume 2 we will probably do a full length editorial about the manga as a whole but I thought I would throw out a few thoughts before then. The oddest thing about Princess Knight was that Osamu Tezuka almost seems of have ADD with his storyline. I always knew that Osamu Tezuka liked to do episodic series like Black Jack and Astroboy. When I read the somewhat scatter brained plot of Swallowing the Earth I assumed that the fact that the plot was all over the place had to do more with Tezuka being new to Gekiga. But in Princess Knight jumps from plot line to plot line without really ever stopping for a breath. It is very clear to me that he is making up Princess Knight as he goes along while borrowing from Disney every step of the way. The main character goes from trying to hide her gender, to being a prisoner, to fighting a witch, to being on a pirate ship with hardly any transition. I think he clearly Tezuka had a beginning and an end mapped out but everything in between seemed to be decided as he was writing it. You can’t ever say you are bored by the book but it does feel a bit disjointed. Still the story is worth reading for the fact that it is a major milestone in manga history. While it was not the first shojo manga it was highly influential in the foundation of the genre. The book is just best enjoyed if you know going into  it that the book reads very young and has a scatter shot plot. I think I enjoyed the book a bit more than Narutaki because I went in with a more informed view of the book and knew what to expect.

The new special Happiness is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown premiered on television Thanksgiving night. This story focuses heavily on Linus and his security blanket which most everyone is trying to relieve him of. Lucy and Snoopy are the biggest antagonists in this. Peanuts is built on a dry humor and mean-spirited undertone but I’m not sure this special hit a sweet spot. It just felt a little too torturous of everyone.

I finally finished Kara no Shojo. I was on a podcast with Greg about the game but I has not finished it at that point. What said Greg was right. No matter what happens you get a pretty depressing ending for a majority of the characters. Fortunately you can save the characters from Cartagra but otherwise everyone else except for one or two people you meet in Kara no Shojo is going to up dead or seriously messed up. Playing through the whole game did make me realize a few things. The first is that video game mysteries have a delicate balancing act even more than most mysteries. There is always the dance between showing the culprit too much and therefore making the mystery too obvious or not showing the culprit enough and making their guilt seem like it came out of nowhere. With any video game where you can run around and investigate it becomes even more insane. It is a hard enough to keep the culprit in focus the right amount when the writer has full control of the audience’s attention in a book or film. When the player has much more control of the camera it becomes insanely difficult to control how much they can see without the grand reveal seeming either cheesy or obvious. In Kara no Shojo there are three main murder mysteries. I felt that the two main mysteries were fairly obvious if you were paying attention. The grand mystery would really takes multiple play thorough to get unless you just happen to suspect one location of being up to no good and repeatedly go there to see a pattern. But actually the best way to play the game as a detective is to play through once and save before any investigation scene and then go EVERYWHERE using saves and loads. Then with all that information in your head play through again with a bigger picture of what is happening. But the game really demands several play throughs as it is. I still stand by my positive review of the game but it is not without reservations. Only after finishing the game did I realize it has an odd misogynistic streak. Most of the time if you pursue one girl in the series her sex scene is just before she gets murdered. That is not the case for everyone but it is still some really messed up sexual politics when you get right down to it. It made me really uncomfortable when I though about it. It is a good series, a solid mystery, and generally a more substantial than your normal eroge but the darkness will understandably turn some people off and that is perfectly understandable.

Sailor Moon vol. 2 reminds me how much faster this story moves than the TV series. That’s a good thing by the way. Our five main guardians have come together and now they are tasked with protecting the princess and finding out about the Moon Kingdom. There are a few parts of extreme expository dialogue thanks to this. This volume also propels the relationship of Usagi and Mamoru ten-fold and the melodrama is concentrated. As the true goal of Queen Beryl comes to light things become tense with less one-off “we are making humans into our minions” plots. There is an interesting balance of pure evil vs. manipulated to evil which gives some depth to the story.

As an old Sierra adventure game player I decided to check out The Silver Lining. It is a fan made game based on the King Quest series that attempts to be a 9th game that ties everything up. It is planned to be five parts long with four parts already being released. It is very much a fan made game for better and for worse. For a game that is entirely made by fans and is free it is quite an accomplishment. The graphics are impressive, there is full voice acting, and clearly a good deal of love and respect for the original series. On the flip side the puzzles in the first two parts are horrifically simple, the voice acting can be wonky and amateurish, and the story sometimes unmistakably reads like fan fiction. That said it clearly an insane amount of man hours went into this and it shows. As I understand the next two parts have much more complex puzzles because the only time I had any difficultly was because I did not notice an out-of-place necklace popping up in location I had previously been. In the end I suppose it is better to err on the side of simpler but understandable rather than challenging but nonsensical seeing is that is often considered one of the things that hurt the adventure game genre back in the day. I also know some people were complaining continuity and retcon issues with the game but I never noticed them. Then again it have been over a decade since I played the last King Quest game so I only remember the broad stokes of the plot and characters. The nit picky details are firmly lost on me. And this is coming from someone who used to own the King Quest Companion. If you are a fan of the adventure game genre it is worth playing if for nothing else a nice taste of nostalgia with a price you can’t beat. I am curious how it will stack up to the upcoming official new King Quest game from Telltale Games.

Leonardo B. Harwey is the climactic boss of Fate/Extra. You fight one more Master during the falling action of Fate/Extra but so much of the game is building up to facing Leo in the final round that he is clearly the climactic boss. Through out the game he is built up as naive tyrant. He has grown up his whole life being told that he will rule over a perfect world where there will be a place for everyone and everyone will be in their place. And he will be at the top of that hierarchy like he was the Kwisatz Haderach.

His actions are never malicious. He merely assumes the position of  tyrant because it is the only path he has ever known and does everything in the game without a hint of conscience. At first he seems like a simple character. A character that is so pure being raised in an almost Skinner Box like environment that his evil and sociopathic actions are just as pure. He does evil and heartless things because he has never learned that such actions could ever been construed as anything but the correct choices. But as I played the game I wondered if there was deeper social commentary in his character.

After playing a bit of Fate/Extra I began to wonder if Leo is partially a critique of modern Japanese leadership and society. It seems like a ridiculous idea at first. But consider the world of Fate/Extra that the Harwey controls. It is a stagnant highly hierarchical world where knowing your place and doing what you are told in the most effect manner is strictly enforced. On top of that the parts of the planet under Harwey control have a suffocating lack of innovation and horrifically low birth rate. These can all be seen criticism often levied at modern Japanese society and the leadership that keeps such broken systems in place. I think it would add an interesting dynamic to the game if this were the case.

I will admit that beyond what I mentioned there is not a horrific amount in the game to back up my theory. I can’t really think of any overtly political statements by Kinoko Nasu in any other material he has written. But he is only the scenario writer so it theoretically could be some added sub text by one of the ground level writers. Also Leonardo B. Harwey is pretty darn European when you get right down to it. If they were going for such a statement would they not have made him Japanese. It does make we wonder if such subtext exists is it entirely coincidental. Fate/Extra being a Japanese product means that such concerns might naturally flow into a story through no deliberate effort of the writers to make a statement. In the end I am bringing it up more as a talking point to anyone who has played the game more than a proposal for my graduate thesis. I am curious to here anyone else opinion on the character and if you think he represents anything more than curious foil for the main character.

While Tsukihime maybe have been the title that put Type-Moon on the otaku radar it is Fate/Stay Night that solidified their names in Otaku circles. The concept of legendary heroes summoned by powerful wizards in a secret war for a fantastic prize in the modern age is a powerful and wonderfully reusable idea. The original visual novel spawned a sequel visual novel, a prequel novel series, several fighting games, several anime and manga adaptations, and more merchandise than you can shake a Golden Sword of the Victorious at. Anyone who has played the Fate/Stay Night visual novel will see the clear table top RPG elements that influenced the game. So the next logical step in the Fate franchise is take the visual novel and fuse it with the table top RPG and get their child, the video game RPG. Fate/Extra is set in an alternate universe than the main Fate/Stay Night world. It takes the premise and some of the structure of the visual novel and combines it with the game play of a Persona style Japanese RPG with its own unique spin on both.

In Fate/Extra you are allowed to make several choices that majorly effect the story including if you are male or female, which legendary hero you choose as your partner, and who you choose as your main ally and/or romantic interest. For this review I chose to play as a male protagonist, with Saber as my champion, and the Egyptian alchemist as my ally. In this post I will go over all the basic game review points and my musings on the path itself. I plan to do at least 2 more posts looking at the Archer and Caster paths, the female protagonist, the Rin path, and how much you get out of replaying the game a second and third time.

The Holy Grail War has started once again but it is no longer is it 7 magi and 7 warriors. Next Sunday AD a mysterious supercomputer was found on the moon that has recorded all of human history. Many people are chosen to upload their avatars on this strange machine that is a mixture of magical and technological. There they fight for their lives in order for one of them to gain to power of a true wish. The player is one of the 128 participants that made it to the first round of this digital battle for the grail.

After you play through the rather lengthy prologue you get to choose your Servant and get to the brass tacks of fighting in the Holy Grail War. Unlike the Fate/Stay Night battles are more of a structured tournament than a free for all battle royal. In Fate/Extra you are assigned a fellow participant to fight each week until there is only one person left standing. There are three main parts to the game.  The first parts is the most visual novel like part of the game. You run around the digital school talking to people in hopes of discovering who your opponent is, what their powers are, and how best to fight them. The more information you get the easier your fight in the coliseum will be. You also use this time to upgrade your Servant’s stats and buy items.

There is the dungeon crawling section where most of the combat takes place. Every week you have to get 2 key cards to qualify for the weekly battle while fighting various digital creatures. The combat is a rock-paper-scissors system where you program your Servant to use a 6 long combination of attacks, blocks, and breaks against an enemy that does the same. At first you can only see on of the six moves your enemy is using but as you fight more of the type of enemy you begin to see more and more of their repertoire automatically. This means unless you are an incredibly good guesser you will often get your bum handed to you the few dozen or so times to meet a new enemy. After a few battles you can guess at what type of patterns any enemy uses as well as the game just showing you more of their patterns as well. You and your servant can also cast spells or use items which are often a great boon.

At the end of the week you will fight your fellow Master in the arena. While the combat system is the same as in the dungeons these battles against the Servants are boss battles. Of course like any boss character have tons of health and a wide variety of special moves as well as any spells their Master’s might cast. The only way to really have a decent chance in the battles is to do the full research on your opponents. Even with a full contingent of research you usually only get 1 to 3 of your opponents moves so realistically anything less than that is foolish. I suppose with some luck and major spell casting you could make it through but most of the time if you follow the plot and take your time you should be able to do all the research every week without any major game play gymnastics.

The combat system is definitely unusual. It is not the standard Attack, Magic, Item, Flee combination although there are elements of that. This unusual design leads to a strange variation of the normal difficulty curve for enemies. When you first meet a new monster in any section they are incredibly tough. But if you fight enough of them they become complete push overs. So learning the general form of the enemies attacks as soon as possible is usually in your best interest. I have a feeling that it will be a very divisive system to most people. You will either think it a very clever way to approach battles or an extreme annoyance you have to work around. I felt the system was functional but at times annoying. It sometimes just feels like a game of chance more than strategy. If you see it as a game of remembering patterns and choosing wisely you will enjoy it. If you see it as nothing more than a very fancy game of Jan-ken-pon you have a greater chance of being annoyed. But it never got in the way of the story which was the most important part for me.

For my first play through I chose Saber. They bill her as the game’s easy mode and from what I have seen of the other two servants this is no joke. She starts out as a powerhouse that easily mows down most enemies with a high attack power. She also has a good defense to help you weather many a beating when you are learning enemy patterns.  She also has an auto-resurrect spell which can be a godsend in boss battles. Also once you have her Nobel Phantasm (her most powerful spell) she can easily tear through bosses like they were tissue paper.  I would go into her personality but I already wrote a whole article on that. She is fun in her hedonistic and pompous manner. She does a good job in making you enjoy a historical character you might not usually have a good deal of fondness for otherwise.

The biggest turning point in the game other than which servant you choose is who you ally yourself with in the 4th week. You can either choose to save Rani or Rin. Saving one means you develop a relationship with one and  have to fight the other. This also changes your fights completely for two weeks of the seven weeks and changes some of the details of the game as well from that point forward. I chose Rani with my first play through. She is a very Rei Ayanami like character. Rani is an artificial human who learns what it is to have feelings though her interactions with the player. I would have liked to learn a bit more about the wizards of Atlus through her but sadly that was not meant to be. She is a strong character and she has a good character arc though the game when she is your partner.

While I have already touched on it through out the post there are some major nudges and winks to any long time Type-Moon fans. There are the obvious shout outs like Arc or Aoko and Touko Aozaki. There are also many subtler jokes like the fact that Lancer is Rin’s servant and the fact that the student’s think that Taiga is having an affair with a certain student she often visits at home. The last Boss is even a pretty big in-joke if you catch it. They even mention a certain cross dressing king of England. I could easily do a whole article just explaining all the sly little Easter eggs. They are not enough to alienate anyone just coming in to the Nasuverse but they are rich rewards for the old fans.

Overall I am unsurprisingly going to give this game a solid thumbs up. A great story with competent game play. It is fun take of the Fate universe that takes the solid premise of the Holy Grail War and creates something that works well on a handheld game platform. The story and dialog are very clearly written by Nasu Kinoko. There is even a manga exchange scene although it is distinctly P-13 so we do not get any long seafood metaphors. It has the feel of the original premise but adds a new series of concepts to make it feel fresher than just a RPG rehash of Fate/Stay Night. It really has me excited for what they are doing do with Fate/Apocrypha now that project has been restarted.

A few quick spoiler thoughts. I mention that this paragraph is full of spoilers just in case anyone is really bothered by them. The first is the decoy protagonist in the prolog. I was definitely a bit thrown off by playing as a character who dies in the preliminaries. It seems like a just an artistic way to start the game and a bit of a tip of the fate to Rin’s prologue in Fate/Stay Night. But by the end of the game the significance of the prologue is even more profound. Also Twice H. Pieceman is a bit of  odd last boss. He reminds me of a great deal of Zeromus in Fantasy Fantasy IV. He comes off as this last boss that pops out of nowhere as the true villain. While Pieceman does not totally come out of nowhere he is nowhere nearly as well established as Leo. He is not totally jarring but it is worth mentioning.

There is one reason for any Type-Moon fan to play through Rani’s path and that is during the 4th week you go up against a very unusual Berserker named Arcueid Brunestud. Anyone who has played Tsukihime will instantly recognize the Princess of the True Ancestors. She is definitely a fun the bonus even if most of her dialog is grunts and screams. As I understand she is far harder than the Lancer you would fight on Rin’s path.

It was a little heart breaking to have to fight Rin as well. As a beloved character from Fate/Stay Night it is a bit of a twist of the knife for anyone who is familiar with the original game. I would say the same thing for Lancer but Lancers historically get the short end of the stick in ever Fate game so I am used to that by now. Lancer was one of the hardest bosses I had to fight as his Nobel Phantasm is on of the few attacks that you resisted with luck and I had never raised that stat. I would have to do some major grinding if it were not for Saber’s incredible spell set.

Once again I want to thank Aksys Games for working on this title. They did a super job with the game and clearly put a great deal of effort into it. If you have not already gone out and picked up the game then I suggest you make haste to the store and get a copy. With smaller titles like this it every sale that really counts. Plus I really want to play a legitimate version of Fate/Extra CCC and they are only going to pick up that license if this does well. Don’t you want to learn who the Strange Tail Girl is or see Archer’s totally bad ass new outfit?

Over the years as an anime fan I have picked up a few skills from just watching enough anime. They include the ability to notice animation errors, an eye to detect directorial styles,  and an understanding of Japanese trends and tropes. You always have these abilities to some degree but the more you watch the better you are at it. The one skill that Narutaki and I have never been that great at no matter how much we watch anime is the ability to instantly recognize voice actors. We are far better at it then when we started the blog but honestly that is because the only direction we could head was up. We have the basic detect Norio Wakamoto and recognize Rie Kugimiya skill set but we are far below the proficiency of any decent seiyu aficionado.

But there is one voice actress I can always recognise and it is very unsurprisingly Ayako Kawasumi. While I remember her playing Melfina in Outlaw Star but she really caught my attention as Lafiel in Crest of the Stars. She has played roles I love like Megumi Noda in Nodame Cantabile and Kanako Ohno in Genshiken. She also starred in shows I have much less love for like Mahoro Ando in Mahoromatic and Aoi Sakuraba in Ai Yori Aoshi. But to cut to the heart of the matter the character that trained me to recognize her voice is very clearly Saber. If there is any character that is going to make me remember your voice it is her. So when Fate/Extra came along they announced that while the playable Saber maybe very familiar looking she would be a very different character to the point where she would be voiced by Sakura Tange. So hearing this new Saber leads me to an odd bit of cognitive dissidence which is what this post is all about.

Past this point is spoiler country. While I assume the identity of Fate Stay/Night Saber is firmly entrenched in the “No. *I* am your father ” territory for anime fans the identity of Fate/Extra Saber is far less a piece of common knowledge.

In Fate/Extra you are given the choice of three different servants one of which is a red clad warrior of the Saber class who is similar to the iconic blue themed King of Knights. But if you choose this red swordswoman the difference is made very clear very quickly. The original Saber is stoic and reserved. A woman of duty and honor she is very spartan in her lifestyle. While she can be very proud she can be very humble depending on the circumstance. She is not a big talker and prefers deeds to words. She goes out of her way to be gender neutral and is very reserved in her few dramatic emotional moments. Even then is usually small changes in tone and speech. While Fate/Stay Night Saber is revealed to be Arturia Pendragon the Fate/Extra Saber is in fact Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus and their personalities are like night and day. Fate/Extra Saber is a hedonist who does everything with an overindulgent gusto. She fights like a demon when she is on the battlefield and indulges herself in vice twice as much when at rest. She is very openly bisexual saying the only things she cares for is what is beautiful. She is loud and opinionated often butting into conversations, throwing around advice, and insulting your enemies as she sees fit. She boisterous and arrogant and all her proclamations are that of an empress that is partially divine. Each seiyus puts that unique character into their respective performance. Ayako Kawasumi plays Saber in a very understated manner with a regal but reversed tone. She allows occasional variations to sink in when appropriate but has them be understated so they are noticeable but not out of character. Sakura Tange on the other hand is just eating up the scenery in her performance. I often felt like she is channeling Megumi Hayashibara’s performance of Lina Inverse. I mean just compare the two and see how frighteningly similar they are.

This all leads to the odd surrealness to my current media. Ayako Kawasumi is ingrained in my head as the voice of Saber from anime, movies, visual novels, video games, drama CDs, image albums, and variety of other places where they can stick a talking Saber. So hearing a strange voice coming out of Saber even is if is Permanent-Panty-Flash-Saber™.  It is like meeting your best friend after a week’s vacation as hearing them with a different voice and personality like some silly soul swapping episode of a series.  I got used to it after a few battles but I was surprised how much it threw me off at first. I never realized how I had imprinted that character design with that voice. It makes me understand a little better why people get so up in arms when the seiyu for the drama CD is different from the seiyu for the anime.

Several people have asked me how can there be two Sabers. I usually give them a rather long explanation of how the Holy Grail system work in Fate/Stay Night but I won’t bore you with the detailed explanation here.  Sufficed to say it is like a Dungeons & Dragons character class. Saber is merely a class like fighter or rouge. Any one can fill the slot as long as they meet the requirements. So there can be any number of Sabers. But why do they both look the same? If I want to be cynical I think it is because the Saber character design is one that sells. I have heard several people say they love Saber by looks alone but have never seen anything of the Type-Moon universe. But the fan in me wants to believe it is also partially to invoke this reaction I just explained. Giving you something you think you know but changing it enough that it becomes a strange but intriguing new flavor. Hoping for a Cherry Coke reaction and not a New Coke disaster. Overall I think Fate/Extra Saber is not as divine as the original but she is not a flavor I mind sampling from time to time.