Thursday 24 October 2013

First impressions: Ace attorney: dual destinies

*does her best to hold back her inner fangirl*
I have been waiting a while for a new Ace attorney game.

I understand it's not everyone's cup of tea (and seems to be minimizing the most fun part [the courtroom] for the past few years) but whenever i lend it to people i try and tell them to at least get to the second game cause as much as i love the first one due to the lack of game mechanics in the searching part of the game (aka lack of psyche locks  ect.) i can see it being a bit of a drag.

or even worse when you know the solution but you can't present it yet cause of game logic... but then later the solution is clear to the characters but you the player is lost... yeah that shit can get frustrating. i get it...

but i still love it.

the music, the story, hell i even love the game play (but i'm the type of person who enjoys thinking "what does the game want me to think here?")
some cases are better then others
but it's so satisfying when you breeze through a case without having to consult a walk-through (i have on a few occasions to be honest... but mostly cause i couldn't figure out how to progress OR in one cause i just couldn't find the guys tell... and i though i had looked everywhere.)

would it be better as jus ta show instead of a game?
probably... or at least i can see it working like this as well as it works as a game...
i just really like the puzzles.

so what do i think of the new one.

first:
i am disappointed it's not a physical release... but i understand this was probably the only way for us to get it... i just learned that the SD card that comes with the 3ds is pretty small and if they do this for any of the other AA games i',m going ot have to buy a new one cause this is pretty much full. (which is sad cause now i only have one other thing on it, luigi's dream team)

second:
at first i was going to say that this game shows that 3d applications are best used in 2d art to add layers... i'f always felt this but this is one of the best examples of it i've seen....
but then i played more... and i have to change my stance a little
this is the only game i have ever seen that looks better in 3d.
you know how hard it is for me to say that?
i HATE 3d
i avoid playing in 3d on principle
but this game looks really really good... normally you lose some detail with the 3d slider but because the screen goes a little darker everything pops a little more and things like the text really crisp up. it's really subtle too so i'm not having too much trouble with ghosting. hell i think i may dig out my kis icarus stand cause it would make it even easier to keep it in the sweet spot and this isn't a quick reaction game like kid icarus

third:
just picture my squealing like a fan girl...
the music is amazing
i love how it's more cinematic
the character modles look great
the voice acting (when it's there) is pretty kick ass.
just really well done.

fourth:
Rated M for mature.
at first i was like "well.. .thats kinda silly" but it has opened up more possibilities for certain types of humor and a bit less cartoony violence so you know what? i love that they did this.  it just feels less targeted for children
though still... kinda silly.

and thats my firs impressions... i love it... go buy it! it's only in the e-shop for around 30 dollars.

Wednesday 23 October 2013

Natsume's book of friends... again (sorry)

(not sorry)
i explode if i don't talk about this every so often but seriously this show does a few things that i love.
and none are ever mentioned... and thats why i love them.

most of the time if there is a holiday/birthday/going up a year in school/ change in appearance in an anime it can end up being the focus of the epsiode... it's almost like "hey did you notice this? you didn't... we'll show you again... how about now?"

it doesn't bother me because it's kind of expected... you expect the newyears episode or the making chocolates on valentines day ep.

those episodes never happen in Natsume's book of friends (NY from here on cause... lazy)

Monday 21 October 2013

My thoughts on Sports anime

i've made it fairly clear that i'm not the biggest fan of aport anime.
i never got into prince of tennis.
anything that has a tournament in it tends to bore me to tears (sport or otherwise)
and any show that has the "if i just believe in myself i'll suddenly have a huge spike in improvement" every few episodes tends to just irritate me.

yet lately... i've been watching quite a few titles that could be called sports anime (though one is a little borderline)

It all started with Kuroko's Basketball.
i watched it simply cause i liked the character design, i played basketball myself for a while and was curious how could be done in an anime and i was giving a lot of shows a chance cause i had the crunchyroll subscription anyways.
and i loved it.
then (or around the saem time cause they may have been in the same season) i watched chihayafuru which is the rare "shoujo/sport" anime title... and i loved everything about it even though i didn't know a damn thing abotu the sport they were playing... but the rules were introduced slow enough so even someone who has to deal with the culture shock aspect can understand.

So this season when there were quite a few sports shows i was a little less pessimistic.
Kuroko's Basketball 2 - love it
Yowapeda - even though i hate bikes (i really really really hate bikes) i love this show.
hajime no ippo - kinda lost so i could get into it
ace of the diamond - . . . what a piece of crap.

so that got me thinking... is there a common thread through these shows that make them enjoyable to me (and only to me cause i've established my taste is strange and all over the map)

well it's not the fact that i like the sport cause the only one i've seen that was a sport i played was Kurobasket.... and if they made a paintball anime i'd probably be bored (or yelling at them if they took of their masks in the middle of the field so that we can see their face but is the dumbest thing you can do on the field) and like i said... not a fan of bikes and never even heard of karuta before chihayafuru.

it's not the art cause all of these have varying levels of 'prettiness'
it's not the music (though using grandrodeo or rookiez is punked is a quick way to get on my good side)

so it must be the characters.
In kurobas kuroko is a short, invisble and mostly unremarkabl guy who just happens to have a bit of an odd personality, a love for basketball and is pretty good at passing if nothing else.
Chihaya starts her series barely able to remember the poems in karuta but after years of playing and forming friendships through the game she works hard to make it a club in her school and make that club the best in japan.
yowapeda has the main character on a crappy bike but able to bike crazy distances since he's been doing it for a long time to fuel his anime addiction.

Ace of the diamond has the main character approached by the best school in tokyo and is given an oppertunity to go there but he doesn't want to cause his friends go somewhere else and then he goes to try it out anyways and omg he's so unique and special and he's getting better and
and
you know what? no i don't care... he may or may not have worked to get where he is but from what i saw he pretty much gets handed everything right away with no effort (or at least no effort that we the viewer see)

and thats the problem, the other three aren't aware how good they are or hold themself back with self doubt.... or they are just so obssessed with the sport that they don't care if they are good or not.
but most sports shows have the main character be awesome and kickass and do everything without trying and when he does need to try he just looks inside his heart and with whatever bullshit he still manages to pull through and win without all that pesky training.

but in the end this just just me rambling~ cause that's what i do

Thursday 17 October 2013

Completed: Pokemon X

well... i've beaten the elite four... and done a few post game things... so not completely done but done enough where i can voice my opinion.

now i have been a fan of the pokemon games for a while.
The reason i ended up with a handheld system was cause i saw pikachu on the yellow box art and my grandparents noticed and bought it for me behind my back... i get in the car and my grandpa goes. "can you hand me something in that bag?" and little (littler)  me reached in and pulled out the game and handheld and just stared.

to date i have played: Red, Yellow, Gold, Silver, Crystal, ruby, sapphire, Black and soul silver.
I also own White 2... i didn't end up beating it.

(only counting core game... obvuiously)
so what did i think of X considering that white 2 actually made me annoyed.

I really enjoyed it.... but it's not 'perfect'

what problems i have with it i've had with the series for a long time now.

i'm not going to describe plot, you know it... you pick pokemon... go one adventure.

so lets just jump right in.

The Excellent:
it took almost 20 years... but we FINALLY have some customization.
i didn't think i'd care about this as much as i did... but yeah... i love it. The ONLY thing that could make it better is if there was a way to make your own clothing or have more customizable options instead of waiting for the next day to come.
The pokemon as all very nicely rendered and other then something i'll mention in a bit the dynamic angles are neat.
omg i can walk in all 8 directions... only took them almost 20 years... maybe in another decade or two we'll get voice acting (for more then just pikachu)
I love that this game was released at the sameish time everywhere... that to me is pretty damn cool cause it meant i was exploring it the same way i did as a kid... knowing nothing and not being able to (or want to) rely on the internet. it added the wonder back to the series which was something i have been missing for a long time.

The good:
the game is well paced... in white 2 i kept getting annoyed that every time i wanted to go to where i thought was the next area i would just find it blocked off cause i hadn't done one of the stupid pointless addons... i never felt like i was being blocked from progression without it being deserved.... though i was worried when half the big city was cut off by a powerout but from a game mechanic system i understand why they had to do that.
the world feels more alive then it has in the past, many times you bump into one of the other 4 kids from your town and they'll run around or ahead of you and they feel like more a part of the world compaired to the 'good old days' of Gary oak just barging in from off screen and me wondering "how did you get here first?"

i wasn't too keen on pokemon aime at first but i grew to like the rewards from it, your pokemon turn there head to look at you and you can pet them after battle by rubbing the screen... just too cute.

The not so good:
i'm surpsied by this considering it was made as a first party game (kinda? the whole game freak/nintendo/pokemon company thing confuses me) the 3d in pokemon x is terrible.
not as bad as SMTIV but pretty damn close... it hurts to have it on... granted 3/4 of the game doesn't even give you the option to have it on... but yeah what little is there just doesn't look nice and it destroys the already pretty bad framerate.

The bad:
Swarms, i thought it was such a good idea but two things make it fail.
1. there are not enough "hit multiple target moves" which makes it a little tedious.
2. it kills the framerate, one time near end game i had a swarm of the three ghost pokemon and i swear my game was about to crash.

Easy... i can't complain too much cause the game is 'made for kids' but lets me honest... it's also made for people in my age range who now have disposable income. still i played the game with the rule (from nuzlocke) that if they fainted i couldn't use them anymore.... and i made it to gym 7 with no loses.
that being said when i lost my fav i said screw the rules i'm too close to the end to lose him.
but yeah everyone wants to give you stuff, EXP share is a little broken (i almost hit the cap at one point which would have made the gym battle interestign with everyone loafing around) getting the event torchic is a little broken (but i love it~) and some opponents seems to always pick the option that will have me win even if they have me on the ropes.

i've mentioned it already but the framerate can be a bit distracting... though honestly i only worried the one time cause i hadn't saved in a while... speaking of saving.

The 'Game breaking':
i never experienced this but apparently if you save in the big city in the middle of the map there is a chance that you will experience a glitch and the game will freeze.
i guess something like this can be expected from such a huge release.... but still hopefully they can do something to fix it. i'm not sure though if they can just 'patch' it... guess we'll find out.

all in all... i really really REALLY had fun.
like... as much fun as i had when i played Soul silver (which is probably my fav right next to crystal). I wish they would bring back the pokemon following you thing but i understadn why they didn't... still i loved that.
if you haven' picked it up yet and like pokemon then give it a shot. if you aren't a fan of the series i can't see this converting you.

now to get all my babies from the other games... come here celebi and shiny suicune (guess which Generation is my fav.... you'll never get it! *sarcasm*)

Tuesday 15 October 2013

Tales of Phantasia

Not a completed, not a really a review... just me rambling about the past.
okay we good?
good.

SO.
a while back Timewalk Games Announced that they were doing a complete in box set of Tales of Phantasia.
normally i don't buy repo carts cause... well lets just say they are a little pricy for my taste
but when my friend told me they had done thise particular game i was torn.

Back when i was young i wasn't much of a gamer, i was never allowed on the computer and only had an hour a day i could spend on the tv in general... otherwise i was forced to play in this land known as "outside"
so when we moved a few things changed.
I started buying my own gaming systems, i was no longer in a situation where it was frowned upon if i did things that weren't girly (i also lived across from a game store).
i bought my own computer.
and i made friends who loved games.

one friend introduced me to this game.
and i did everything in it.
got all the magic, all the summon, everyone (except chester) to max level, got all the secrets, went to every special area and yeah just did everything i possibly could.
to this day i have never so thoroughly completed a jrpg (well... maybe crono cross but i didn't get max level in that)

to this day, this is one of my favorite games.
so i had to.... i needed to own the repo cart
(quick and crappy pictures so... yeah)
look how pretty it is.

the instruction booklet has the english names in it (cress, mint, clause, arche, chester) but i will always be partial to Cless, Mint, Klarth, Arche and Chester... i know it's such a small change but it's what i'm used to... the english is probably more correct (though i have the anime... and they sound like the way i'm used to *stubborn*)
oh and the poster is double sided!
hm.... what would look nice with all this Tales of stuff.
yeah.... like i said i'm a bit of a fan... and if they made a big Cless figure i'd be all over that too

look how pretty all this ToP stuff is... also i miss that bg (it was an old couch but it worked well)

but yeah i love how this is all packaged and the game plays perfectly (though i wish i had an older tv, feels odd playing on a flatscreen)

so yeah, time walk games... a dangerous place for wallets but i think it's worth it...
but that could just be my love of the game showing

oh... and the ending for the game made me cry, first time that ever happened... not the last though...

Thursday 10 October 2013

First Impressions: Fall 2013

the new season has finally started and i play to watch one episode (or at least as much as i can stand of one episode) of every full length show i can get my hands on.

I did also watch Diabolik Lovers but considering i wrote a fairly long rant on it i'm not going to talk abotu it here... also it's only 15 mins long so it doens't fit under 'full length.'

Sunday 6 October 2013

completed: Wedding Peach

and wedding peach DX

so... some people may have heard of a little show called "Sailor moon" that was decently popular in the 90s.
well would you believe that people would try and copy that idea?
hm... but they can't be fighting in a sailor outfit cause... well thats already done...
and we don't want the costumes too different cause we want them to look like a team.
why the answer is so simple!
WEDDING DRESSES
but not just any wedding dresses... wedding dresses that change into coloured armor and miniskirts.
why have them change into the wedding dresses at all if they are just going to change again?
pad the run time?

in all seriousness and despite my better judgement there is something i like about this show.
it's pretty terrible
the morals are REALLY outdated.
the character designs share.... similarities to other shows (though moreso cause i think there were a few people who worked on both) 
but still... it's goofy and fun and does some things better then what it's 'ripping off'

and i'm not saying wedding peach is a rip off... but you can see where they got their inspiration.

So... our stories follows Momo (ha ha get it.. cause momo is the japanese word for peach!) a girl in middle school (more on this later) who is part of the newspaper club with her friends Yuri and Hinagiku.
they all 'love' the same guy, the captain of the soccer team and perma sparkle vision Yanagiba.
they constantly bicker and figth over who gets to win his affects despite the fact that the captain seems quite clueless to any and all advances.
Yosuke, the soccer teams goalie constantly teases them about this and in particularly harsh on momo... but it's all in good fun.
one day she walks home and it attacked by a demon that thinks she possesses a magical item and while she's being attacked she awakens as Wedding peach (cause.... cause her name is peach,,, see it's funny cause... never mind)
so wedding peach is a *snickers* "love angel" who is tasked with purifying demons with the power of love and friendship as well as finding the "Saint something 4" to save the angel world
shortly after yuri and hinagiku end up being angels as well... how neat that they all ended up there together with the same interest...
anyways the Saint something 4 are based on the wedding cliche of something old, new, borrowed and blue... so i guess thats our wedding connection?
also along the way the girls fall in love (for realz the time) thye find out theres more to the people around them then they realized and the find a 4th angel who barely gets any screen time.
they work together to defeat the evil demon raindevila and it's essentially a monster of the week show.

The good:
the girls very rarely need help, sometimes a angel comes down to help them but in 50 or so episodes i think it happens maybe 10-15 times which is better then sailor moons track record of every single damn episode (nothing against tuxedo mask... i'm just saying it's nice that they can fight on their own...)
when the guy is there to 'save the day' they never rely on him or expect him to do the rest of the work... they will just as quickly risk themselves to save him.
the fact that no one can recognize them is explained better then "they just can't"... it's a stupid explination but hey... it's explained.
all the girl, not just the main girl, get a love interest and a special magical item... the main girl gets the strongest one but thats kinda expected.
the main girl doesn't get the 'main' love interest (she does btu you dont kno he's the main till much further in.)the girls have their personalities and despite the age being a little off there are constant jokes that would easily go over a younger kids head.

The not so good:
the morals are TERRIBLE.
most of them dream of being a perfect wife and not much else despite the fact that momo is an accomplished photographer, hinagiku will inherit a flower shop and yuri will probably become a designer to help her mom.
it's extremely 90s and has not aged well at all.
the transformation sequence (at least for the first series... not so much dx) is surprisingly long and sometimes is shown more then once. someone obviously didn't have enough plot to fill the time.

The terrible:
The voice acting in both languages is atrocious... they did get perfect voice matches for the japanese characters but still it's like nails on a chalkboard.
if you are sensitive to flashing imagery DO NOT WATCH WEDDING PEACH DX
the entire intro is flashing, the attack sequences get more flashy as well...

the only difference in DX is that they have different (and more boring) outfits and a ton more fanservice... it's 4 episodes and just ends with no real point

but yeah despite the amount of dumb.... i like this show... call it a guilty pleasure... i wouldn't recommend it to anyone unless you wanted a good giggle.
but seriously do not watch the ova if you are sensitive...