Nana MarfoA student with a passion for game development and all things Japan. Archives
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In Review: February 20191/3/2019
Editor's Note: I didn't want to put this at the end, but because this week is exams week(+2 days) , and because I have a 3 hour exam on Monday(this is the 6th form life people), There is not going to be a post next week, which in turn should allow me time to prep next's post, which is a BIG GameWorks. Apologies for this, and enjoy the post!
February is always the shortest month, and because of this, it tends to just fly by. But that's no reason for slacking off!
General Writing Thoughts I got a lot done in terms of writing this month, which is good! I did want to get a GameWorks done, but something else happened, more on that later. Posts written this month New Game! Season 2: First Impressions Later Levels Question of the Month: February 2019 #LoveYourBacklog Week 2019 Bladeball Arena:Review Game Savvy posts this month Boneko(Demo): Review Favourite Art Piece this month
Awesome thing I did/saw/read
-Reol, a new Japanese musician I found released her Utena Music Video on Monday this week, and it is AMAZING. Just go watch it! -LaterLevels did a 24-hour stream for #Gameblast19 and Special Effect! -I've been watching a lot of streams lately, and HylianCece has been amazing to watch. Go follow and subscribe to her on Twitch and Subscribe to her on YouTube! -KeybladeXarin is awesome too! Go check her Twitch out! Though the fact that she wields the Void Gear scares me a little bit... -NaochanDoodles is now taken commissions, and she did an awesome one here! -I went sight seeing in London for my Graphics Project! I can't show off any of the photos, but it was a fun time! -I also went to a uni applicant day! It was really fun! What I've been playing I picked up Final Fantasy XV for the first time in forever. It's a fun game, and I will finish it at some point. DLC? Not too sure on that, the game is fun, but I don't know If I'll be engaged playing as anyone besides Noct.
I also played some Hyperdimention Neptuna Re:Birth 1! The game is really fun! And I want to keep playing it! Shame I have exams this week... will get to it next week though!
New Merch
I got my KH OC done! Thanks to HellyonWorks for doing the Union X version of this for me, will get it printed for sure!
Final Thoughts
I'm back to where I need to be, and I hope to God I don't come down for a while. I've just been able to work on things, but I'm coming to a point where I just want to create content, and start buliding something outside of school that I can make money from(hence the RedBubble store and Buy Me A Coffee). I even tried streaming for few days last week, but I can tell it doesn't suit me. Hope everyone enjoyed Valentine's Day. Mine actually went OK. Send a message to a special someone... and they sent something back! That's at least something right? I'll just say this; it bods well to be honest with someone you trust. This month I plan on going in. HARD. Final Exams are fast approaching(more so in my case since I have a 15 hour exam which I have to do before all the others), and while I am revising, I have things to release, such as Unity Chan Dash! Yea, it's finally ready! Also, I'm working on a YouTube video that will explain something that I made using a only one model from a model library. But that's if for now! Thanks as always, share if you enjoyed and I will catch you guys later. Written by Nana Marfo Like what I did with the outro?I used SomeCallMeJohnny's outro for a while, but I finally came up something that I think suits me. All content used(C)Their Respective Owners
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BladeBall Arena:Review19/2/2019
Kept you waiting, huh? Sorry, I have school, but I want to review smaller games for now. This game was made by Cosmetic Crystal Games, who also made a games such as Galactagirl, an demo of a Sonic style game, that I tried a while back. Might do a review on it at some point.
Anyways, rules: 1.Spoilers are abounding, and depending on the game, can spoil the experience. This one in particular is very story heavy, so be warned going into the review. 2. I will not put aside any bias, but will try to be fair for games I do not like. This is my personal opinion. If you want to send your opinion, please do so in the comments below. 3.I am covering the PC version. Welcome to the site, itch.io games. This is my review of BladeBall Arena.
Gameplay
I'm skipping the story section scene because this game has none, so we can jump straight into the games mechanics. Which are in my opinion, a bit clunky to say the least.
You moving using either the WASD keys or arrow keys on a Keyboard, or the D-Pad on a controller. You have 2 major attacks, either spells or your slash. I will say I like the escalation of energy tennis from a link to the past, but it took me a few tries to get use to the movement of the players,as they feel very stiff and slow. This was a bit annoying to me, as I feel that if the controls don't instantly click, the game begins to fall apart. However, once you get the hang of it, it's REALLY fun,especially if you have a player or 2 to play it with.
This game has multiplayer, and it is a blast. I ended up playing this with my younger sister and younger cousin on the Sunday before your reading this, and needless to say we had a lot of fun, and it evident that this is where the game is mean to shine, because playing this game alone, there is not a lot of fun in it. Well, at least it's not an arcade game asking for quarters, because I would play this anytime. My sister is even begging for me to play with her again.
Looks, Sound and Final Thoughts
The game has a distinct classic meets modern look, and even has a CRT filter(which I turned on just to mess with my sister and cousin), which is very nice. The music is not very memorable, but works given the context. I can say that this game is fun, but I really think that you need to have some friends and family close by(multiplayer is only local for this game) in order to get the max enjoyment out of it. It's definitely fun if have younger siblings that need to be occupied by something, or you are just looking for a game that you can have fun with at your next party. It's free on itch.io if you want to try it out.
Game reviews are BACK! This was short, but I hope to do more of these in the future. I also wrote about Boneko if you are interested in that game, so go read my review of the demo on GameSavvy.
Buttt that's it for now! Thanks for reading, have a great day/night, share if you enjoyed it and take care. Written by Nana Marfo BladeBall Arena(C) Cosmetic Crystal Games
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#LoveYourBacklog Week 201915/2/2019
Hey all! Welcome to my entry for the #LoveYourBacklog week in 2019. Thanks to bothLaterLevels and LividLightning for making this blogger tag. So let's begin!
State of my backlog I play anything from NES games to more modern games,free game jam games to AAA masterpieces although I can say that eventually, time is found to play games, even with the rock on my back that is school. I am also gulity of downloading itch.io games and not starting them.
Games most likely never to be played
I actually most of the games on my backlog(even if it's just for 5 mins),but I think Momodora I and Momodora II is the ones that I might not play, because I keep hesitating on if I should play those games or not. Let me know in the comments if I should to Momodora III and Momodora:Reverie under the Moonlight, since those seem better than the first 2.
Shortest Game
Halen:Ballad Of the Blade Thief. I have actually started this one, and it was fun! Really do want to finish it someday. I love the humor that Halen brings.
Longest Game
Hyperdimition Neptunia Re:Birth 1. I started this as well, but this time, it was in December, and it's a JRPG. I love the design and charters and gameplay, but like Final Fantasy XIII, this may take me a while.
Game that has spent the longest time on the backlog
...Cricus Core Final Fantasy VII. I KNOW, I KNOW! Look I love Zack just as much as the next person, but I just couldn't get down with the game's Controls. I will say the writing is really good, but for me, when the gameplay breaks, everything breaks.
The person responsible for adding the most entries to your backlog
My friend Jennifer(yes, the one who did art for me), since she gave me a lot of Japanese games I should try out, but I can't say not Ellen of LividLightning. I mean she gave me 2 JRPG's to play in Final Fantasy XIII-2 and Lightning Reterns, among others like Banjo-Kazooie. And that's it! This was a good event to partake in. Thanks for reading, have a great day/night, share if you enjoyed it and take care. Written by Nana Marfo All games(C)Their respective owners
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And the hero saves the day! - Snow Villars, Final Fantasy XIII.
Firstly, a huge congrats to Luke of Hundstrasse for winning Janauray 2019! I will try and get a bonus post out containing my dream video game ideas, but for let's go with this ideas.
Luke's setting goes to the one place not affected by politics: SPACE! So I think would be fitting for the adventure to be helmed by a person who knows the world of space very well. For a game taking place between the rings of Saturn, you need to have an expert. A person who could survive everything. Or should I say... a robot.
I'm not sure how the hero would play if I'm fully honest, but he would be like Megaman X, who has the ability to think, feel, and make their own decisions. I can't go into the plot for this, but I really want to keep a strong theme of prejudice and emotional relating in this game. In Megaman X, for as much as we didn't see humans, despite being a completely different race to them, he still wanted to protect them from mavericks.
The robot it's self wouldn't look that much different from a human in that setting, just having enhanced strength and speed. This would leave them respected but feared. Also gender is a not-issue here, male, female or gender fluid, the robot would still deal with the prejudice of human, and possibly being taken for granted. Anyways, I'm going to leave you guys with a monologue I came up with for the character. It highlights the robots feeling towards the place she inhabits, and how she can deal with death. To make sure this is used to good effect, I will say thank you guys for reading, have a great day/night, share if you enjoyed it, and take care. Here I have been, for my entire life cycle. It's like I was bulit for this ship. Bulit to protect it. I feel a strong connection to this place, it where was bulit. Or born, if you can call it that.
Written By Nana Marfo
Snow Villars belongs to Square Enix Megaman X belongs to Capcom.
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Took me a while, but I'm back on the New Game hype train! I loved Season 1, and it will always hold a special place in my heart. But how does the next Season stack up?
Rules: 1.Spoilers are abounding here folks. If you want to watch it blindly... go watch it. Spoilers are here. 2. Depending on the Anime, this can get NSFW. 3. I am watching the subbed version. 4(New rule I should have made for animes with more than 1 season). If you are reading this, I expect you have watched New Game season 1, or at least read my review on them. Time to make some more games! This is my First Impressions of the second season of New Game!! It's Spring. And practically a year to the day that I joined Eagle Jump. I'm used to the company by now.
Aoba heads to work on the day that marks a year that she first joined the company. She is ready to be a good example for the new hires, but is saddened when she finds out that their are no new hires this year. The team is currently relaxing and helping other teams out, as Hazuki can not descide what she wants her next game to be about, and it's setting.
STEP by STEP UP IS AWESOME AND I LOVE IT. It so fun and up beat! The visuals do have some new characters that we have to be introduced to, but I love the fun that New Game brings to it's intros!
This episode features a lot of call backs and references to the first episode of Season 1. While I do like this, it also makes this episode feel a bit "rehashed" in certain aspects, and does drag down the episode quality a little bit for me, as it's also similar in structure.
Which is a shame, because a lot of the setup here feels natural. Hifiumi has in part learned to mesh better with the team, but she says in an interview that she wants to totally conquer her social anxiety. It feels like a natural continuation of the storyline that was going in Season 1, where she wanted to smile more. There's also Yun, who wants to feel more part of the team. This feels like a good arc to take her down, but besides clashing heads with Hajime, I don't know where this really came from. Still, it will be good to see where this arc goes.
That's a GOOOD question, Aoba. They actually provide a good reason for this(AKA the reason this a "Cute Girls doing Cute Things" anime), which boils down to Hazuki's preferences, which in universe, makes sense.
Anyways, before all the interviews, Umiko goes to meet with Nene, and she's actually learned to program her own small game! However, she has a few problems, which Umiko helps her to fix. She also know the feeling when programmers pray that there are no bugs, which I know too well. You see why I love this anime a lot?
Umiko also says that when ever Hazuki agrees to change the specks, she has to get her forehead flicked. Uh oh, Hazuki's in trouble.
The group go to a cherry blossom viewing(it is spring in Japan, after all), and Rin is ecstatic when Ko complement her cooking. In Season 1, it was implyed that Rin had romantic interest in Ko, but I can tell it's going to be more of thing a here. The episode ends wit Hazuki announcing a character design competition, and Aoba realising this is her chance to become a chatterer designer, just like her idol, Ko. I won't comment again on the visuals, since it's the same from season 1, but I can say that I loved this first episode, as it was a lot of fun, despite the re-hashing bringing it down for me a little bit for me.
Finally, I'm back to this anime! Can't wait to review for you all! I have another anime first impressions planned for this month, before moving on to a few reviews. Look forward to it!
But for now, thanks for reading, have a great day/night, share if you enjoyed it and take care. Written by Nana Marfo New Game(C)Kadokawa Pictures Inc.
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In Review: January 20191/2/2019
Hey all! Welcome to the first in review! I saw that a lot of people did end of the month summaries for their blog, and I want to try and start doing that this year!
These will probably come out on the first Friday of each month. So let's begin! Writing Summary January was a good start to being more consistent with the blog. This month was a mix of my own games and anime, although I do feel I need to add some more game reviews to the site. More on that in a bit. Posts written this month NM Gameworks #19:Updates, Updates, Updates Xuan Yuan Sword Luminary: Review Later Level's Question of the Month: January 2019 GameSavvy pieces this Month Why watching Let's Plays is so fun GameSavvy's most anticipated games of 2019 My favourite art piece this month
Awesome things I read/saw/did
-LightningEllen did a first impressions post on her though on Mirror's Edge. I do really want to play that and it's sequal, Mirror's Edge Catalyst. -HellyonWorks did a great series of art for the last 7 days leading into the worldwide release of Kingdom Hearts 3. -NipahDUBS also did a great series of cosplays to celebrate this over the last 29 days as well. -SomecallmeJohnny has kickstarted his reviews this year with Celeste and Hollow Knight! -Pix of Shoot the Rookie did a great job summing up the year for her website, as well as summing up what she played on her sick day. -Princess Rose has been streaming all the Kingdom Hearts Games in the lead up to KH3, and SokkaXI did a drinking stream to celebrate it. Games I have been playing So because school beginning to ramp up(it's only gonna get worse), I haven't been able to play games that much(although I have been playing more than I though) Going for 100% Steam Achievements in Final Fantasy XIII and starting HyperDimention Neptuna is the only things that I can really say that are note worthy this month.
I also completed the 3rd episode of Life is Strange. It's a really tragic ending for Chloe, and I won't go any further into what I thought, because my friend tells me it only gets worse from here. No spoilers in the comments please.
I also begin playing Kingdom Hearts 1, 2, Chain of Memories, and Birth By Sleep. If you can't tell, I really love Kingdom Hearts. 1 is still as clunky as ever. 2 is still as fun as ever(especially since I can play it with a controller now). COM is also still really fun. BBS with Terra is actually not so bad now, though he still sucks to play as.
I don't have a PS4 or Xbox One, folks, so please don't judge me for this! I also watched KZ's LP of Kingdom Hearts 0.2, just to keep me up to date with the series.
New Merch I got some great merch DaPandaBanda and KeybladeXarin! Redbubble messed up my address with the print order somehow(the stickers I got in the the time frame they said it would come in, and the address was fine.), but the stuff I got was awesome! Feel good to finally have some video game merch.
Other Stuff
I'll be honest, not been feeling too great, or confident... at all, but I'm slowly getting back to where I feel is my best. I'm working on getting the first T-Shirt ready for February-ish. It might be a slow month, got exams at the end of it, but it shouldn't be too bad. It's also good to say that we are in a post Kingdom Hearts III world! Hope everyone is enjoying the game! This month I'm going to start working on some more projects, including a big 3D scene(don't know if I'll finish it though), but I'll also try and work on some anime first impressions. I'm also going to try and look at some itch.io games, just give some games to review while I try and finish bigger games. And that's it! Sorry for the mish-mashed schedule, and I did want another post to come this week, but I had to do some school work over the weekend, and I was wiped out. Anyways, thanks for reading, have a great day/night, share if you enjoyed it, and take care. Written by Nana Marfo All content used(C)Their respective owners
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MAKING THE ULTIMATE VIDEO GAME! Kim of the blog Later Levels has decided to change up Question of The Month for 2019. This month we would have to describe the setting and themes. Just one thing I should say; expect a LOT of references to JRPG's here. So, let's begin!
Setting A video game's setting pretty much dictates the story, since the character are mostly likely going to be rooted from that place. For me, I like dealing with younger characters(around 14-19), since I think there is a lot of development that can take with them rather than adult characters. Games such as Kingdom Hearts and Persona 5 show this. Because of this, I think a high school as the main setting would work well, it's where the character and themes would be most prevalent.
I would my dream game to show off a whole variety of characters and relationship, and a high school setting seems like the best place for that. However, characters are not the focus of this blog post.
Themes
This is a bit more of a head-sracher, as themes to exporle with teenagers are a bit more controversial than anything, and as someone who wants to makes things for people just enjoy, it's a bit hard with certain themes. A theme I would want to explore is love, because of the fact that at a young age, it's so...interesting! Speaking from experience, love a young age is very mindboggeling, since you don't understand those feelings. I would want explore young relationships(both romantic and friendships), just to give teens something to relate to.
Another theme that COULD be explored is the media's influence on people, and how that transfers into how people view certain demographics. Teens here in London, United Kingdom are kinda of viewed as people who always carry knifes and are involved in gangs. I'll go more into this when I get to the story part of this, but I want to show the effects that these labels may have on people. I say could, because this idea is not in a design doc I am taking these ideas from.
Anyways those are my ideas for the setting and themes in my ultimate game! Really like this new Question of the Month format, I'm going to try and do one for everyone month! No promises though... Anyways, that's it for now! Thanks for reading, have a great day/night, share if you enjoyed it and take care. Written By Nana Marfo All content mentioned(C)Their respective owners Lollipop Chainsaw(C)SUDA-51/Grasshopper My Hero Academia(C)Funimation/TOHO animation/Shonen Jump
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Hey all! I have a confession to make: school has been really busy to the point where I haven't had too much time to work on Unity-Chan Dash. It's been about half a year since I released the game, and I haven't been able to get anything out since.
Luckally, I managed to find sometime this past 2 weeks to work on the game, and I the first update should be out by the end of March! I am also scaling down the game a bit from what I wanted it to have to save both time, and my sanity.
I'll make a blog post/video on this later, but the new update should feature:
On the next thing, which is Blender 2.8! I had a play around with the beta, and I do like it, but I ran into a few problems. For one, it auto sets up texture for you, which is good for some, but not for me, since it only uses one texture, rather than the whole setup. Furthermore, when using OBJ, the rigging techinque I used countless times in Blender 2.7, didn't work in 2.8. I'll try again at somepoint(hoping this is just me f**king up somewhere), but that kinda sucks. And after using Blender for a year and a bit, am I the only one used to right click select. I have used Photoshop, GIMP, and Unity, and I have never tried to use right click select in those.
Still, if there is a good thing about it, it's the new Eevee engine. Renders in real time, and takes up less resources on the computer.
Beside that, I haven't really been doing too much else. I am really trying to find time for everything, but to be honest, I barely had a chance to work on Different Spirits, because school just takes up so much time! Still, next week should be an anime first impressions, so please look forward to it!
But for now, thanks for reading, have a great day/night, share if you enjoyed and take care. Written by Nana Marfo.
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Xuan Yuan Sword Luminary: Review11/1/2019
Happy New Year! So, this has ended, and unlike Ulysses, I didn't drop it half way. But just how good is it exactly?
Rules as always: 1.Spoilers are abounding here folks. If you want to watch it blindly... go watch it. Spoilers are here. 2. Depending on the Anime, this can get NSFW. 3. I am watching the subbed version. So, what happens with the blade of fate for Yin and co.? This is my review of Xuan Yuan Sword Luminary.
So right after Episode 1, we get a flashback episode which shows Yin, Ning and Xhao in their lives before, and what exactly happened to Ning to make her lose her arms, begging this question: why not just start the anime here? However, this episode points out the pivotal plot point of the series, the love triangle(or now love square) between Yin, Ning, Xhao and Cheng(the empress).
After that Ning gets new arms, and tries her best to help her sister the best that she can. The 2 meet up with the band of Luminaries, who ask them to join them, and while Ning is hellbent on make the Taibai Empire pay, Yin says no, because she doesn't to be a hypocrite. However, they keep working with the mercenaries, as they keep meeting up with them.
Meanwhile Xhao is clearly being favoured by Empress Cheng Long, even being shown secrets by the Empress herself, and being promoted all the time. So when the trio reunite, Xhao asks Yin to come with him, but Yin refuse because of the principal of the thing, but in one last cruel twist, Ning, who has been as odds with her sister because of the fact she is still being a bit over protective despite her having new arms, goes with Xhao. Well that's good for Yin now, isn't it?
After meeting up with the leader of the rebels and a now defected Ho Meng, Yin learns about the Black Fire Armor. This was something for foreshadowed in episode 3. Black Fire gives great power to the user, but as Yin demonstrates while using the prototype, if it leaks into your heart, you basically go berserk.
Ho Meng was working on this to give the rebels the upperhand against the Taibai Empire, but that may have backfired because of the fact that Zhao is working on the Zhengtian, a giant black fire cannon that can fly. As Jim Carrey once said, war is hell. However, there is a civil war going on in the Empire thanks to Commander Meng Ji and Lady Pang. Pang was one of 4 wife's to the Emperor and she was jealous that he always favoured Cheng instead of her daughter, Juan. Pang intent is good but as an antagonist she only appears a handful of times in the series. Meng is better for me personally, because of the fact that his motivation for taking over comes from the treatment that Empress Cheng is giving Xhao.
As the Zhengtian is prepared, Pang is taken care of by the Empress's magic, and she also learns in the process that she killed her father(inadvertently mind you) because the mindf**ks were not enough at this point!
On the Zhengtian, the rebels, now with their own black fire armours, need to take out the black fire reactor, and Yin must fight a Black Fire Powered Ning(more on this in a bit, it relates to her character more than anything.) Xhao tries to take out the reactor after defecting(they realised that he had Ning, who was working with the rebels remember), but gets his eyes blasted in the process. After the reactor is taken out Xhao, Ning, and Yin meet, as Yin tries to save her sister from her own Black Fire rampage, and now has a golden sword for her efforts, but Ning loses her legs in the process, and as trio escape before the place explodes, Ning says that " It has just begun".
The Empress continues to wage war on the rebels, now with an iron firm grasp on destroying her enemies, and Yin continues to fight her with new family, giving her a somewhat happy ending, but it's bittersweet for Xhao and Ning who are together, but one cannot move, and the other is blind. Overall the story is really good, I really like how most episodes ended with a mindf**k to end each episode, and the ones that didn't had an even bigger mindf**k the next episode.
There are a lot of characters but most of them are not noteworthy, mostly the rebels. The only name I remember from them is Can Lang, and that's because his personality sticks out to me. I don't even see them as plot devices here, besides maybe a force that Yin has to ally herself with to have some sort of security.
However, most of the characters that are noteworthy are a joy to behold, and their arcs are very interesting. Cheng's is focused on her duties as empress, meaning that she to learn to put personal feelings aside, and learn to become cold-hearted, destroying her rival, but also trying to forgive herself, after having using Ning as a toy so to speak, and allowing herself to have feelings for Xhao. It's really well written, more so given the fact that the relationship between Xhan and Cheng is given plenty of screen time, allowing a bond to form naturally.
Xhao's arc is the best of the 4 in my opinion, as it deals with him coming to terms with new found power, and how he wants to use it to make better lives for Ning and Yin once he finds them. I do really like this, as Xhao is constantly thankful for his power, and it is nice to see that he appreciates what he is given.
Ning's arc is probably the most heart breaking. Some conflict arose between her and Yin because of the fact that when got her new arms, she doesn't want to feel helpless anymore, and she's mad Yin still treats her like she is. She's also somewhat bitter about the fact that she knows Xhao's true feelings lie with Yin. When she takes the offer to go with him, she may see as a way to not only get back at her sister, but also to make her dreams come true. However, this fails as she is caught, and while in the torture chamber, she begins to blame Yin for all her problems, and once saved, she is basically a pawn in Cheng's plan. I do really like that she hates the fact the feels helpless, and now wants to take revenge.
Yin is the least interesting of the four arcs, but it's not to say it's a bad arc. It involves her falling out with sister and and coming to terms with using her power in war. She keeps turning down the offers of the rebels because of the fact that she doesn't want to kill, and she eventually comes to terms with this, mostly thanks to the black fire armour and Ning before she went with Xhao. It also involves her coming to terms with her guilt over what happened to Ning and Xhao, and her accepting her new family as the rebels. I do like the last part, but besides that, Yin learning to become a hero feels ... a bit softer than the other story lines.
The ending theme, Negiai No Hana by 9nine, is really nice, the but ending visual(just one), while striking, is not very impressive compared to others. Thankfully Studio DEEN remembered to press render on all the CGI they used, and the animation, while rushed at some point is overall decent. I can definitely say say that this anime was worth my time... but I don't know if it was worth many other people's time, as no one really talked about this anime, which is a shame in my opinion, because there are some loose threads that would make a good season 2. While I can't recommend this to new comers because of the overly dark nature and rushed animation, I think there is a good chance that anime veterans will get a kick out of this.
The blog is back! Took 2 weeks off to recoup and recover, but we are back with some anime posting! I'm going to be honest with you all, 2019 will hard for me, because I have exams that determine my future in a few months, but like the end of last year, I'm going to try and post at least once a week. If everything goes wrong, at least something to I have to fall back on, right? And if I'm honest, that's not such a bad thing in my mind.
Anyways, that's it for now! Thanks for reading, have a great day/night, and take care. Written By Nana Marfo Xuan Yuan Sword Luminary(C)Studio DEEN/TV TOKYO
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WHAT HAPPENED? WHAT THE F-
Ok, I should calm down a bit. On December 17th(the day Final Fantasy XIII first came out btw), we got the Final Battle trailer for the long awaited Kingdom Hearts III. AND AFTER WATCHING IT A LOT, MY HEART HURTS! A LOT! I'm going to try and remain as professional as possible in this editorial, but the only thing I can complain about(and even then this is something I would have liked personally, because Don't Think Twice/Chiaki are amazing songs) was that they didn't use Fate of The Unknown for the second part. Oh yea, and spoilers are abounding of course.
MiniGames a-plenty and a Playable Riku
Let's Start with the not heartbreaking stuff. Skipping the opening of the trailer, we then get a montage of all the worlds shown off so far, with gameplay we have seen before, alongside Sora with a Frying Pan Keyblade, and the battle of 1000...everything! However, in all of this, we see a Playable Riku, who seems to be Aqua from 0.2, only with Sora's gameplay Quirks. While Riku has been playable before, with his latest addition in 3D, his addition in a number Kingdom Hearts title is sure to shake things up. I would have preferred Kairi as the other playable character but this works as well. The minigames seem really fun to play, alongside the already announced Classic Kingdom, it seems there will be plenty to pass the time in Kingdom Hearts 3. MAJOR SPOILERS FOR 358/2 DAYS INCOMING
Axel: Flashbacks of a Darker Time
Xion is one of the most decisive characters in the Kingdom Hearts fandom. Either you love her, or you hate her. I personally just like her, but I know that for some people, some characters have a certain meaning. Axel has flashbacks to her when Kairi says this line:
Don't hold back Axel. Promise?
This scene in particular makes me think they intentionally didn't ask Hayden Panettiere to come back, because Alyson Stoner(who also voices Kairi in Re:Chain of Memories and 358/2 Days) is also the voice of Xion, and maybe this was done to immerse the player. Axel also has a scene with Saix where he says he "Awakened to a new purpose". Hmm. What has happened to you Saix?
There was some interesting stuff shown off with Ansem the Wise who said he has"Created enough victims", and an Organisation Member invited back into their ranks, who is trying to deliver the Final Vessel(who could that be?).
But...are you ready...for the end?
Who lives and Who dies?
The burning question on everyone's mind at the moment, because Axel get ass beat by either Xion or Roxas (mostly thing thinking Xion, but there is evidence to show it's Roxas), Saix and Xemnas. Donald dies, which to quote a rising KH YouTuber KZ: DID YOU KILL DONALD DUCK?!. Volume warning if you click the link, just in case. But I'm changing it to DID YOU KILL EVERYONE? I can see this going three, maybe 4 ways: 1. Everyone lives, happy ending. 2.Everyone dies, leaving a legacy that a new protagonist will have to follow(KH4 will probably be stuff from Unchained X not expanded on in KH3) 3.Everyone except Sora dies, meaning that Sora has to start a new life, perhaps with the Twilight Town gang. 4.Everyone except Sora and Aqua die, Sora takes Aqua to Destiny Islands with him, and the 2 start new lives there. I say this one as a maybe because it depends on if Sora saves Aqua before or after he goes to Scala ad Caelum (or Stairway to Heaven in Latin(or Cable Town)), where Xehanort(now voiced possibly by Darin De Paul) and his other selves can be one. But for me the scene that stood out me was this one(the first quote of this is taken from 30sec CM we got of December 16th): I was able to fight because everyone was there with me! I can't do this alone... - Sora Sora, you don't believe that. I know you don't. - Riku
Man... is Sora finally going to pushed to his limits? All I know is that Xehanort is going to have hell to pay on January 29th.
Of course, the Kingdom Hearts series is all about friends, and to not let Sora be sad, I asked my friends the StarSeekers, and one of my new friends, Songbird from Twitter to sum up this trailer in 3 words. Mine are PLEASE NOBODY DIE!
Unexpected, Hurtful, and Powerful. - Princess Rose I'll do it in 1: Broken - OniMaku Lea please No! - SyrienH Epiphany of pain - SongBird Emotional, Happy, Awesome - Sokka XI What. Hust. Happened. - SydneySushiChef and Keyblade Brett Yep that Happened - Emma Reheis Stop hurting Sora - The Wayfinder(Joshua Howe)
And that's everything! I dropped everything I was doing to work on this for most of Tuesday the week this was posted, because hype and shock was running through my veins. Thanks to everyone that gave me quotes!
But, that's it for now! Thanks for Reading, have great day/night, share if you enjoyed it, and Sora, say the quote please: They can take your world. They can take your heart. Cut you loose from all you know. But if it's your fate.. then every step forward will be always be a step close to home.
Merry Christmas and take care, guys.
Written by Nana Marfo Special Thanks: StarSeekers and Songbird for the quotes. For all the Kingdom Hearts fans that have passed in the lead up to this game. Kingdom Hearts(C)Square Enix
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Time to round off the year with a Question of The Month! This month Brandon from Home Button asks:
“Most of us have been gaming our whole lives, so we’ve had a ton of Christmases that have passed us by filled with plenty of wonderful gaming memories. Whether it’s the best present you’ve ever gotten, or being with your family on Christmas morning while playing Super Smash Bros., we all have warm fuzzy memories of this time. Perhaps it’s because family always comes together or because as kids we’d receive the games we had dreamed of for months; or perhaps this time of year just tends to crystalize these memories that stand out forever.
My favourite holiday gaming memory involves my first gaming console: the Nintendo Wii, and my first MarioKart, MarioKart Wii.
I had my Nintendo Wii since the August of that year, but I didn't have many games on the thing since I was 7 at the time, and my family are not really gamers. But this was my First MarioKart... and I sucked at it, especially with the Wii Wheel, and I needed sometime to get to get used to it.
Still, it was fun, and I played it with my Brother the whole Christmas morning. It was just such a fun experience at the time, and it got me learning about gaming(this was back when I wanted to be a doctor).
Sorry that this was so short, but I did really want to write something for this month's Question! But that's it for now! Thanks for reading, have a great day/night, share if you enjoyed and take care. Written by Nana Marfo Mariokart 8(C)Nintendo
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So because I planned to watch this season after my exams(and because my friends need to me to know why Bakugo is a good character), we are back. MHA Season 2 was great to watch and it shot MHA into the anime spotlight. But how the start of season 3 stack up?
Rules: 1.Spoilers are abounding here folks. If you want to watch it blindly... go watch it. Spoilers are here. 2. Depending on the Anime, this can get NSFW. 3. I am watching the subbed version. Time to fight the Vanguard League of Villains! This is my first impressions of My Hero Academia Season 3.
For a opening episode, a LOT of time was spent recapping stuff that we knew about. So Deku starts off by saying his monologue from the trailer, with a similar shot too. Yes I watched the trailer for this before even starting Season 2. It's how I knew that the intro theme, ODD FUTURE by UVERWORLD was a really good theme, despite being a far-cry from the rock themes of before. Still, it's pretty good, along withsome great visuals.
Deku watches the video he used to always watch as a kid, and it's nice to see him reminisce about the past. Either way, Kaminari and Mineta show up, to ask Aizawa to use the pool for endurance training, who himself is preparing for the training camp. Of course the 2 just want to see girls in swim suits, since they asked to use the pool first, but Deku does invite the rest of the boys to train. From the story of the episode remains static with the occasion flashback, the boys training, and the girls having fun in the pool, with the 2 groups coming together when Bakugo and Kirishima show up to have a swim tournament, with more flashbacks, and the swim tournament being cut short by Aizawa because that's what he does.
To be honest, I hope the student get an arc where they learn the teachers are not always right, and to Aizawa can get some deal with some pushback from his students.
Bakugo does have an interesting line of dialogue, saying he want to rise above all heroes, even All Might. Does finally give him a reason for how he acts, which, with him being Deku's main rival, I'm surprised wasn't explained earlier. Though knowing me, I may have missed that titbit. Anyway the episode ends with Aizawa thinking that someone is leaking information to the League of Villains, and them needing to change the location of the training camp.
The ending is AWESOME! Update by the very small and very cute Miwa is such a beautiful ending theme, and the ending itself is in the style of the manga, with the adventures of the past 2 seasons. A feel good ending I can get behind. Overall, this episode should have just been a Hero Notebook type of episode, because as Season starter it does feel a bit meh. Still, very excited to see what awaits in Season 3.
Wow this was short. At least this makes my Job easy. Sorry if this seems a bit rush, but even All Might and Tomura are relegated to cameos in this episode. In other and more exciting news, I'm going to see the movie on the week of the Friday this is being posted! Hoping that it will be good!
But that's it for now! Thanks for reading, have a great day/night, share if you enjoyed it, and take care. Written by Nana Marfo My Hero Academia(C)Funimation/Toho Animation.
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Editor's note: Sorry for some of the Image formats! The scanned one came out that way, and my printer/scanner's capabilities are limited.Either way, Enjoy this one!
Hey all! One of things that I mentioned in the Final Fantasy XIII review is that I lack confidence(and Lightning gave me some), and be honestly, that varies from time to time. Sometimes I feel no one can touch me, but recently I been feeling like the worst, with little to no confidence in what I can do, and sometimes feeling dumb in School compared to my peers. To circumvent this, I have been working on things that I can't do, but want to do. One of these things is 3D modeling. To learn this, I descided to make Zero's Z-Saber.
This was pretty easy to model to be honest, the biggest problem being the handle's bevelled sections and painting textures onto the handle. The Z-Saber it's self is more based on the Zero Series Z-Saber, and the look in drawings by one of my favorite artists, Toru Nakayama.
I think this went well, so I descded to make a Tomohawk Axe. The orignal plan was to have the piece just be generic Axe for general use. Well, Fang needs a weapon to replace her staff, and she's a Final Fantasy charater. Regular is not going to cut it here. So, let's make the weapon!
Moving on to Designing the look of the Blade. Drawing is also not one of my Strong points, but lately I have really been feeling the flow of drawing, despite being not very good at it.
Yea, I really like Xuan Yuan at the moment. IT'S SO GOOD! Anyways, I use a Light box for when I'm tracing stuff, but with the weapons sketches, I was just drawing from my head, like I did with my idea for the design of Fang's Tomohawk:
Yea,not only can I not draw, I can't write either. Basicly I'm going for a mix between a dragon and the look of the Bladed Lance from Final Fantasy XIII.
The cutting Edge is black because of the fact the edges of the Bladed Lance are black, so it simulates that in this aspect.
There are some small details on this lance I wanted to create,but with my modeling and UV painting abilties being very low at the moment, I knew it was best to skip it. I just stuck to creating the Stylised Grips in the texture...and even then they were pretty bad
Either Way, I think I over did it in some places, and in others,I just need to work on my skills, but this was still really fun to do.
Time to go into some general updates!
I am currently slightly re-writing Different Spirits to make it a bit more of an action-comedy. I want this story to be fun, so why not make it easy for people? However I am have trouble with Clare's character, as I want to write her to be a "kind badass". Ever heard those words next to each other? No? Thought so. If you have any suggestions, please let me know in the comments! The Stealth Game is going well. If you saw on Twitter, I have been making many enemy animations, and it's been fun! I've been to may my movements less stiff. But beside that, nothing much have been going on with Unity-Chan Dash... expect for the fact I want to make her a bit more like Neputne from Neptunia.
She's basically an anime girl version of Deadpool from what I can tell(I really need to play those games) and honoestly, what's wrong with that? I would love to write a character like her, so making Unity-Chan like this seems like a step in the right direction.
Before I go, I am happy to say I am now a writer for Game Savvy! Thanks to everyone there for this chance. I started by writing an artical on Square Enix, and the Development Hell(s) they have been going through for the last decade or so. Read it here.
That's it for now! Thanks for reading, have a great day/night, share if you enjoyed it and take care.
Written By Nana Marfo The character Oerba Yun Fang and Final Fantasy(C) Square Enix The character Neptune and Neptunia(C)Idea Factory/Compile Heart
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All in the Character: Morioka Moriko23/11/2018
Hey all! Welcome to "All in the Character", a series where I break down characters from games and anime. This is a series I hope will expand my knologly of what makes a good character in terms of design, personality and story. Either way, I have lot of characters I want to examine.
Today, I wanted to start this series with a character that I love a lot from the series Recovery of an MMO Junkie, a series that I love a lot for it's basic yet interesting story, and very relatable characters. So let's take a look into the main charter Morioka Moriko.
Design
One thing that I love about Morioka is her design. One thing that I hate the idea of being formal, because to me that shows a person that can be self entitled, always serious, and doesn't allow themselves to let loose often. Morioka basic design shows her to be very layed back.
As you can see here, Moriko has some character quirks in her design, such as being a hard worker at her former job, which is represented by her baggy eyes and unkempt hair. However, I would also put this down to her wanting to be more relaxed and not caring about her appearance, as we can see by the fact she is a NEET. In anime, this term refers to the idea that a person is Not in Education, Employment or Training. This is somewhat contrasted by her Fruits de Mur character, Hayashi, who is a very stereotypical young man in an MMO, which I think works.
However, as the series goes on, Moriko appearance changes her to not be embarrassed when Koiwai invites her to dinner. I couldn't find a image with the 3 views of this look so apologies for that, but for me it implies an internal change, and the fact that she wants to be part of the real world now, so she has to fit in.
Personality and Story
This one may be short compared to the design section, but that's because we have already covered some of these points. Moriko was a hard worker at her old job, showing that she is very selfless. However, this came at a cost, as she went countless nights without any sleep, hence why she has the bags under her eyes. The shows starts right as she left her job, and her previous game, Nanter SG, was shut down. Moriko isn't too phased by this, as she hasn't played in half a year. From there, she finds Fruits de Mur, and begins playing that instead.
Moriko makes 2 things clear about her self, she's an introvert and she's 30. The introverted feelings comes from being over stressed at her Job, and when quitting, she even said that "I chose the NEET Life. I'm a elite NEET." From this, I can tell that Moriko has had enough of Humans due to the stress she suffered in her old job. That changes when she meets Sakurai, who is still very kind to her, though that might be due to the fact that she was elbowed by him.
Either, this and a chance encounter with Koiwai results in her getting a new look, because of the fact that she now beginning to warm up to what the real world is offer her. It ends with her wanting strengthen her bond in real life with Sakurai, as she feels the bond offered with MMO's is weaker. That's debatable, but moving on!
Speaking of age, Moriko's age is 30 years old, but she feels as she is younger in my opinion, because of the way she acts in certain situations. Watch the following clip from 0:50 to 1:22 before going any further.
Moriko here is overjoyed, to the point where she thinks she even has a crush(talk about being relatable at the moment...). However, she even think she shouldn't being thinking like this in her 30's. This makes me think that Moriko is somewhat a big kid, which isn't a bad thing at all! After all, it's what's some of us really creative. At least that's how I see it.
In a One Sentence Summary Between her kind heart, layed back appearance and age consciousness, Morioka Moriko is definitely a highlight of her show. Huh. Surprised how this short this was. Still, this was fun! Next for this will be... IDK really. Still I hope you enjoyed it! Next one will be more polished I promised. But for now, thanks for reading, have a great day/night, share if you enjoyed it and take care. Written By Nana Marfo MMO Junkie(C)Signal.MD/Comico P.S Once Again, I send my well wishes and support to Ms.Kokuyō, and I really hope she gets better.
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Final Fantasy XIII: Review13/11/2018
So, I got this game in December 2017. It was the first game I ever bought and owned off Steam. I grew up watching a lot more about this game before I played it. I have heard both good and bad about this game. But what do I think?
Rules: 1.Spoilers are abounding, and depending on the game, can spoil the experience. This one in particular is very story heavy, so be warned going into the review. 2. I will not put aside any bias, but will try to be fair for games I do not like. This is my personal opinion. If you want to send your opinion, please do so in the comments below. 3.I am covering the PC version. That being said, how does the part one of the Lightning Farron saga stack up as my first entry into this franchise? This is my review of Final Fantasy XIII.
Story
This game's story is long, so I will try to be as quick I can, but this is a LOT. A young women named Lightning Farron has broken out of a train that is mass executing people, in something known as The Purge, along with Sazh Kastory, in order to find Lightning's sister Serah. At the same time, a young man named Snow Villers, recruits a women, who says that "Moms are tough" into his resistance group NORA. However, she dies and her son Hope Estheim sees this and swears revenge. I won't do full character breakdowns for everyone, as you would be reading for an hour, but Hope is a little too whiny at the start for me. Always complain that things are not going his way, being very scared, he honestly is a bit too depressing at the start for me, and I get that's the point, but he does this every cutscene up to chapter 4. However, after Lightning kicks him in the teeth(figuratively), and he attempts to get revenge on Snow, he changes in to a quite likeable chap.
However, he along with a cute little girl named Vanille, head to the fal'Cie Anima to find and confront Snow, who has gone there to save Serah. Lightning and Sazh go to also save Serah, but all parties are too late as Serah has fulfilled her focus as a I'Cie. I will explain this more in a bit. Lightning and co fight the fal'Cie Anima, with Snow begging for Serah to be saved. This pisses Lightning off, as she didn't believe her sister at first, and this news came to Lightning on her birthday, the day before she got on that train. Life comes at you fast.
Anyway, they defeat Anima, but this comes a cost, as they are all branded I'Cie, and have a vision of the monster Ragnarok. I'Cie are basically are humans who have a limited time to carry out a focus, a set goal given to them. If the don't they become fal'cie, AKA monsters. If they do, they are turned to crystal, become Cie'th, and are given eternal life. Before they can do that, they have to get through a load of ice. They find Serah encased in crystal, but Lightning, regretful of her mistake, decides to leave her be, but Snow vows to save her and stays behind while the rest go on. Speaking of, Snow is... not that interesting. He only appears in a handful of cutscenes in the first half, which only really exist to introduce Fang and explain why Serah's fate is a kick in the balls for Snow. Beside that I do like his hero act, and he is voiced by Troy Baker in English. Does this man have money capped paychecks?
I should say this now before anything else. I played this game with Japanese VA, since I wanted that experience, and I have watched a cutscenes of this game in English, and I hate Sazh's English voice. Still, the English VA is good. I really like Vincent Martellte as Hope and Laura Bailey as Serah. And I know this is leading into the obvious, Ali Hllis can serenade me as Lightning any time, her voice is so sexy to me! OK, I'm jumping the gun a bit. Back to the story.
Anyways, as the 4 head on, Lightning delivers a beautiful speech about her motivations to destroy the Sanctum, and Hope decides to follow her and the 2 head to Palpoum. Lightning warms up to Hope(easier said than done for her, trust me), and while giving Hope a pep talk, inadvertently helps strengthen Hope's resolve to kill Snow...Oops. As they head in towards the city, they meet up with Snow and Oerba Yun Fang. Fang I love design-wise. Martial Arts get-up with a Dragon Tattoo to show she's a badass. Her story revolves around Vanille, and the fact that they are going through the motions again. Well without baggage for Fang, she is not infected by Anima after all(her I'Cie brand is even faded), but I at least find her interesting.
Anyways, After the attack on the 4 in the City, Hope ends up with Snow, and Lightning with Fang, Fang explains the connection between her and Vanille, and Lightning slaps her. Is it wrong that I like this scene?
Either way, Hope tries his hand at revenge and fails, but an attack on both of them leaves Snow injured. The 2 parties re-unity and Lightning cries over what she nearly made Hope do. F**k people that say she doesn't have a heart. Either way, we head to Hope's house, and going a bit more into Hope's Daddy issues, which I won't go into for the Sake of time. While there, the 4 are confronted by Yaag Roach, PSICOM Commander, who explains The Purge(which is also killing innocent humans) is a way PSICOM can stop the l'Cie out break, but is attacked by their own Ranks, and help with a Rogue Solider to sneak into the upper ranks of PSICOM, and all of this is just from Lightning's half, as Sazh and Vanille's half is overshadowed by something more sinister.
Sazh's story revolves around his son, Dajh, and the fact that he has lost him to The Purge. Over the chapters with her and Vanille, it is revealed that Vanille and Fang were the ones that turned him into an I'Cel. When Sazh finds this out, he attempts to SHOOT HIMSELF.And GOD DAMN, THE REVEAL THIS RIPPED MY HEART OUT OF MY CHEST, and my heart was already torn out thanks to Lightning's crying scene and Hope's Dad scene. Of Course he doesn't and the two end up captured by Jihi Nabaat.
With Sazh and Vanille in prison, Lightning and Crew go to save them, and take out Dysley, the leader behind this whole Purge. However, he turns out to be a Fal'cle call Bartandlus, and let me say this, he is a great villain, very menacing and haunting. Also I love his theme, it's so majestic. Though Nabaat ends up dead for some reason.
Anyways, he explains that they had of Ragnarok was one of them. One of them will turn into Ragnarok. One of them will destroy Cocoon. So because of this as they try to go to Cocoon, Yaag Roach shoots them into a Fal'cle training ground. Here they are confronted by Cid Raines, who helped Snow escape his captive state when he was found by Sanctum, as he always wants to save Coccoon, but he feel he has to eliminate the I'Cle to do that, but after his defeat he turns to crystal.
While in the camp, everyone agrees they have to fight their focus, barring Fang, who has second thoughts on the whole thing, and has to fight her Eidolon, more on this gameplay. After the training camp, they all head down to Gran Pulse, and after re-grouping for the night, they head out to find out more about this world, and Fang gets her memory back, remembering she became Ragnarok. After Lightning has an emotional talk with Snow, knowing that they have to get Serah back, the group climb the Tajien tower, and afterwards, meet with Serah, who turns out to be Bartandlus(you can tell when the bird is around him), who wants to use The Calvary to take out Coccoon, along with a revived Cid Raines, who is now Primarch. After another fight with Barthandlus, the group head to Coccoon.
All hell has broken loose on Cocoon, and Cid Raines has been shot down thanks to that Solder who helped use a while back. I will say Raines himself is interesting, he wants to do things by his own accord, but still wants to save Cocoon, which is why he goes after the a Fal'cle gang himself, but was their any point in bring him back besides shock value? He only appears in 2 cutscene after he is revived.
Either way, the gang head into Eden, and after one last fight with Yaag Roach, they make their way into Eden, and at the centre of it all, where Barthandlus and Orphan awaits. After the battle with Orphan, things get hectic for the gang. Fang agrees to become Ragnarok. again, in order to save everyone, however the rest, besides Vanille, turn into fal'cie After Fang tries to destroy Orphan as Ragnarok, the rest break out of the fal'cie state, and after Lightning gives one last amazing speech, and a really anti-climatic final boss battle, Orphan is defeated. However, the inhabitants of Grand Pulse become Ragnarok...including Vanille and Fang. Coccon's inhabitants is saved and Lightning, Snow, Hope and Sazh are left to start life on Grand Pulse, alongside a revived Serah and Dajh.
Overall, what else can say? The story was amazing, and it made care for all of the main characters.
Vanille's character arc is focused on how many lies she has told, and her dealing with the guilt what what she did to Dajh, and I have to say my heart hurt for her, watching her go through all this pain. I remember this quote from her: I've told so many lies, it's all a blur.
Damn. That line puts everything in perspective for me. It feels likes she is learning all negative emotions at a young age, something which emotionally f**ks with her, and it is portrayed very well, and makes Vanille a very strong character.
But this game has such a strong lead in Lightning(real first name Clare)Farron.
She is the reason why most people hate this game. I can't say I don't see why, she is a bit of a bitch, and really hates Snow in the early going. However, she is the leader of the gang, and she just has so much confidence in herself to achieve her goal, something that I needed while dealing the real world(TL:DR ver: Sixth Form is a struggle). When she made that first big speech, I couldn't help but be inspired.
I know I sound stupid for saying this(and this also applies to Kairi from KH), but when I see her picture, I can't but smile. I honestly believe she is the reason why I have gained so much confidence in myself over the past year and a bit. She is my confidence booster. Plus I have a soft spot for badass women, and Lightning is no exception. Also, I don't get the she doesn't have a heart complaint, she felt guilt for not believing Serah(I think that was her emotion speaking), and she cries over Hope nearly taking revenge, something that was inadvertently her fault. Speaking of, this game also has an underlying theme of family. One thing that I love is the bonds between Hope and Lightning(brother and sister like qualities) and Sazh and Vanille(Father-daughter like qualities). I also don't think I would have met Ellen if it wasn't for Lightning, and if you want a very personal look into this games, go check out her review of the Final Fantasy XIII saga. She does all 3 games justice much better than I could. Welp, that was long. Again, this game's story was a LOT, but it's really heart warming, and I loved every moment of it. Gameplay So now on the game it'self. The game has a habit of unlocking things as you go, for example the Paradigm system(Optima if your in Japan) isn't introduced until chapter 3. This is annoying at time, especially since they don't provide a in story reason for most of this, but I honestly don't mind, it makes games character feel they are getting progressive stronger, even it they are going the wrong way around it here.
Each character has 3 Paradigm to use in total. For example Lightning has the Commando, Ravager and Medic Paradigms. These names are different in Japanese for some reason, as the names are English, and it's not like they don't make sense. For example, Commando is Attacker and Medic is Healer. Localisation is weird.
Anyways, between you and your 2 other party members, you can use up to different Paradigm Formations. I used Relentless Assault and Diversity the most, because being honest, most of the game's common enemies can be taken down easily due to the stagger system.
Instead of having a turn based system, you have an ATB bar, this starts out with 2 segments, but you have up to 5 by the end. I would have liked to see a way to decrease the time that it takes to charge without using Haste, but the regular time is fine. You stock up you commands and when the bar is full, you attack you chosen enemy, and I LOVE, LOVE THIS. The combat is so fast paced because of it, and it feels like I'm playing an action game at times. Some of the abilities are awesome, like Lightning's Army of One which can be a pain to get(more on that in a bit), Hope's strong Magic Spells and Vanille who's curing is broken when going against common fodder.
The stagger system is pretty simple in how it works, you hit an enemy enough time, he staggers. Though some attacks such Fang's HighWind attack(Her ScreenNuke, which is OP, even for the late game) can stop staggers, so careful what attacks you use. After the stagger, enemies are weaker, and bosses in turn can change from being immune to certain elements to taking Damage. These weaknesses can also be modified with the Saboteur class, and you can fight with said weakness if you have the right spells in the Synergist class.
While being able to switch Paradigms is nice, I mostly stuck with one class for each character I played(Which after I got the ability to switch the Leader out was Lightning, Hope and Vanille). Lightning was the hard hitter, Hope was the magic power house and Vanille was White Mage b***h. Sorry.
Still, in the later chapters of the game, I found myself using the using the Paradigm Shift quite a bit to deal with tougher enemies and bosses, who were annoying in the first half of the game(they have unavoidable attacks), but after chapter 9, they become fun, barring the Last encounter of Yaag Roach and his Grasshopper mech. One common complaint I hear it that there is not real exploration in this game, which I can agree with but I don't think it's bad, because trains you to keep the pace fast. In fact the Open World is sort of odd to me. I felt I was playing a different game, because once a game trains you to think in a certain way, you don't feel comfortable changing, and it's very apparent here. You can level up you characters in the Crystarium, which is expensive as hell to manage, but with enough grinding and persistence, it becomes easier... in the second half. The first half of the game is not grind friendly to me, which makes no sense with the how expensive the some upgrades are.
This is Sazh's Summon, Brynhildr. Remember when I mentioned Eidolons? You fight these as bosses, and once you defeat them, they become your summons. Honestly, I only used Odin a lot, because I had Lightning as my playable character for most of the run. These are not very interesting to use and they don't really do much besides get you out of tight spots. Not worth the 3 Technical Points to use, though the other skills such as Libra, which reads the stat effects of enemies, are usually VERY useful. The shop is also a waste, as Gil is impossible to get via battles, only treasure chests. Not that I mind it(Medic and Synergist cover for this), but from a design standpoint, this makes the a bit bloated.
The rest of the summons I only used once for the sake of demo, and I LOVE THE STYLE AND FLARE IN THESE SEQUENCES. As a game dev, it's something I aspire to do someday. Here's Vanille, Sazh and Hope as examples:
Speaking of flare...
Looks, Sound and Final Thoughts This game goes a realistic look, which has aged a little bit, but this game does still look amazing today, the visuals look on point, and despite the dark setting, the game doesn't feel dank. The soundtrack is the cherry on top of this game, as the componation of fast paced battle music like Blinded By Light, haunting yet majestic tunes like Barntandus theme, and upbeat Jaunty music like Sazh's theme makes this a wonderful soundtrack to lisen to. The vocal themes in particular are just a pleasure to lisen to, ESPECIALLY Kimi ga Iru Kaka(Because You Are Here)
The animation can be rushed at times(you can tell when they also cheap out with camera angles), but the rest of the time this game is animated well, and CG cutscenes are in a league of their own! One of my favourite cutscenes in this game is the beginning Chapter 12, where Lightning and the Gang are just blowing things up, and using all their summons on the race track, it looks amazing!
Considering this game was in a development hell of it's own(alongside Final Fantasy XV, known back then as Versus XIII), it really makes me happy that Square managed to pull of a masterpiece of a game. While this game may be hated till the end of time by Final Fantasy Fans, and there is no sign of a remaster soon for any of the games(though all of the games are Xbox One X backwards compatible as of today), I have a lot to thank this game for as well. It helped me meet so many people, it engaged me it's story and gameplay, and it's lead character gave me confidence. I can't recommend this game enough. You can get it on the PS3, Xbox 360 or Steam.
...Goodness. This has to be the longest post I have ever done. Next RPG I do will probably be a Neptunia game, but I do want to play Final Fantasy XIII-2 and ESPECIALLY Lightning Returns. I also want to play the other Final Fantasies, despite VI starting slow as balls.
Either way, this has been my passion project for a good chunk of the second half of the year. I hope you enjoyed reading this as much I enjoyed writing it. As always, thanks for reading, have a great day/night, share if you enjoyed it and take care. Written By Nana Marfo For Ellen, Hussain and all the people I have met because of this game. Neptunia(C)Compile Heart Final Fantasy XIII(C)Square Enix
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Man, oh MAN, this is going to be one hell of a ride. So as most of you know, I wanted to watch a... raunchier anime, and 300 followers on twitter seemed like a good excuse to watch one. I put it a vote on twitter, but and after 3 day, Senran Kagura won, just beating High School DxD after the it lead most of the poll.
Either way, I know a bit about Senran Kagura, thanks to the games and the Neptunia series(or more over the 2 games made by Tamsoft, the developer of Senran Kagura). The games(for both series) are something I defentaly want to try, but for now, we have anime. Rules: 1.Spoilers are abounding here folks. If you want to watch it blindly... go watch it. Spoilers are here. 2. Depending on the Anime, this can get NSFW. 3. I am watching the subbed version. Ninja Girl Time! This is my first impression of Senran Kagura. This tale chronacols the love and chrouage of 5 young ladies who have devoted their youth in the fight against evil, as Shinobi.
This series begins with a young girl fighting ninjas. She ends up catching a hellicopter ride. One thing I will will say about this series is it has good fight choreography... for the 5 minutes we see it in this episode.
The opening, Break Your World is really good, and while the visuals do leave something to be desired, it's still a pretty solid opening.
Either way, this girl(who we later learn is named Ashka) is returning to Asakusa after some time with her grandpa. Sorry to jump the gun a bit for later in the episode, but Asuka is the daughter of a legandly shinobi, so there is some intresting stories lines that show could take, but we will see. Asuka's boarding school. National Hanzo Academy has 2 sides to it, the general side, and the shinobi side, which very few people know about. This is where the rest of our Ninja are introduces, the first year's Hibari and Yaygu the and 3rd-year's Ikaruga and Katsuragi. Their mentor, Kiriya(expect some Ex-Aid jokes, telling you now), who may or may not be using gives them some morning training in airal combat.
The only effect that Moe has had on me is in New Game, but I have feeling that this series will do that as well, as all of the are cute, even with "plot" on their chests, and Asuka's story I hope will be inspiring.
From here, the girls are put patrol duty and while the 1st and 3rd years encounter some punks reveled to be shinobi. Asuka(who is a 2nd year) encounters that girl again, who turns out to be evil! Thought with the way she was dressed(black and red) it was kind of obivous. Still, it's nice the show chose to drop the foscade almost immadly. Though the dual nature of this girl, who's name is Homura, is still unknown to Asuka.
And that's it really. To be honest, with all the story heavy anime I have been watching as of late, it was nice to watch something slower paced, and less serious. The charaters, while having some neat designs for their Shinobi Transformations(Ikaruga being my favorate), a lot of the focus is on the fanservice, with a lot of boob focused camera angles. Katsurgai in particular stands out as a fan service character because...(Warning:The Image below may not be safe for work)
Don't get me wrong, I love her, she makes me laugh with her groping, but she does this 3 TIMES in this episode! She also has the most raunchy costume design for her Shinobi Transformation, making me think she doesn't know what word subtle means.
Still this was a lot of fun to watch. I know I skipped the ending theme, but I'll save that for the for the review.
Huh, another short one. Still, I have the behemoth that is the Final Fantasy XIII review upcoming, that should be done by December, so look forward to it! And again, thanks so much for 300 followers! I did not expect to reach that this year, so thanks to everyone that follows me there.
Either way, that's it for now! Thanks for reading, have a great day/night, share if you enjoyed and take care. Written By Nana Marfo Neptunia(C)Compile Heart Senran Kagura(C)Funimation/Tamsoft
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NM GameWorks #17: The Crash Recovery31/10/2018
Hey all! Sorry for no gameworks post last month, but October was a bit intence with some school issues...and my computer crashed... and then GameMaker MeetUp... and then triple header... but we are BACK!
Let's start off by saying that Different Spirits script is going well. During one of my University open days talks I heard about a program that allows people to get funding to create a studio. This is some I will consider down the line, but that's for when I get a team of people along side me.
I might try and model this sometime... I need to learn a lot about 3D modelling, so this may take some time. I also am working on a character design project, which will involve me doing everything needed for a character to come to life in a game. This has also given me the chance to hone my drawing skills, of which, I have none.
I don't think I can make full out drawings like someone like Hellyon could(you should also check her out by the way), but as long as I can make conspect drawings, at least it fills a gap in my knowledge.
But moving on! Unity Chan Dash is going well, and I'm working on the 3rd Level at the moment!
As I have said multiple times on twitter, I have planned to make this level a bit more challenging. This has lead to me having some issues with the controls, but I'll be honest, at this point, the controls are one of the easier things to fix(considering how many problems I have had with the first one controller). Still, at this rate, hopefully I can get this out soon!
The big thing here is the Stealth Project, which I nearly lost because of the crash. The big thing I'm learning Enemy AI! So far it's in early stages, but once I get something animated, I will show a video of the project off!
Finally, I did mention that I went to Unofficial GameMaker Meetup at London SouthBank University! Thanks to both of the speakers, I really enjoyed going there. I don't have any pictures(hence why I didn't review the event), but it was fun and I met Jupiter Hadley! Awesome!
Either way, that's it for now! Thanks for reading, have a great day/night, share if you enjoyed it and take care. Written By Nana Marfo All content used(C)Their respective owners.
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Time to go back to the 1410's as we head into the next anime I am watching this season. Though the designs are a lot more badass than the ones in 1410's, but whatever, they look cool.
Rules: 1.Spoilers are abounding here folks. If you want to watch it blindly... go watch it. Spoilers are here. 2. Depending on the Anime, this can get NSFW. 3. I am watching the subbed version. This is my first impressions of Ulysses:Jeanne D'Arc and the Alchemist Knight. France and England have been at wars for 80 years. In the future, this will be known as the Hundred Years War.
The year is 1415, and a young man named Montmorcery go to meet up with a scientists named Nicholas Flamel so he can learn Alcamaly, but he refuses. The intro plays at the end again, so I will speaking about it here.
Liberation is a really good theme, and I think it suits the war tone well. Some of the visuals seem a bit more in place of a harem anime than here, but I think it works never the less.
Anyways. we move on to a class that focuses on 3 girls, Richemont(pronounced Richmon), Charlotte and Philip. After class, they go to see Montmorcery, as he has been skipping class to learn about Alcamly, as well as the fact that he wants to become immortal, so that he can help people and so he can stop people from dying. I am sort of getting Kouta vibes from Montmorcery, he's a good kid that just wants to help people, even saying that, he doesn't to be a knight because he doesn't want to take lives.
Anyways the four end up in a forest, and they have to fight off some English Solders, and while there the 4 ponder their futures, and vow that they will stay friends. Oh boy, with a vow like that, I can tell this anime is going to deep into the feels, and it has already started. Richemont is sent to fight the English, and this hits the dark spot in Montmorecy's heart. As such, he asks Flamel one last time to help him, but he still refuses, however, he does mention that he was trying to change his fate. However, he manages to summon a fairy from the stone called Astaroth, and the episode ends with seven years passing while Montmorecy tries to make the Elixr that will give him power. I know that timeskips are a hated anime trope, but at least this was the backstory for all of it.
The music feels atmospheric, something which suits this anime, with the sound of France always in the back ground. The anime has some really good designs and visuals, and I think that designs are still very modern while complementing the time period.
Overall, this was the back story episode. However, it was a great start, and I can't wait to meet Jeanne.
The triple header is over. Whew. This was a bit more stress-inducing that it should have been due to some outside factors(my computer breaking down being one of them), but I still enjoyed it neverless.
Anyways, that's it for now! Thanks for reading,have a great day/night, share if you enjoyed and take care. Written By Nana Marfo Ulysses(C)Funimation/AXsiZ
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Xuan Yuan Sword Luminary:First Impressions18/10/2018
Finally, I'm watching anime at the time it's relevant! I'm not going to do episode, by episode reviews(I have no time for that, even if I wanted to do that), but this and Ulysses:Jeanne D'arc and Alcamist Mage are what I'm watching this season. This is also my first time watch anime when it's airing, so this will be exciting!
Rules: 1.Spoilers are abounding here folks. If you want to watch it blindly... go watch it. Spoilers are here. 2. Depending on the Anime, this can get NSFW. 3. I am watching the subbed version. This is my first impressions of: Xuan Luan Sword Luminary. This is the story of a group of young men and women caught in the currents of fate amidst this twisted history.
Couldn't have said it better myself. The group at the moment consists of Yin, Ning(pronounced Neigh) and Pu Zhou. 3 years before the current events, their village was attacked by the Taibai Empire. We will get to them in a bit. What I can only assume is the Intro plays at the end, so I will talk about here.
I love it personally. Nageki no Hana is a really good opening theme(no links this time to the recentness of the anime) and the visuals are amazing. One thing that is evident here the anime's link to Chinese Mythology, but I'll get into full presentation later.
Either way Ning and Yin are travellers now, and Ning lost arms in the indecent 3 years ago. However, Zhou was captured, and is now a slave of the Taibai empire.
We then get a lot of introductions, Consturct Commander Meng Ji of Juanyuan meets with minister Balil and Commander Meng to discuss the war in the seventh sector, and a possible rebellion in other sectors that the empire have already conquered. We then meet, Chief Engineer Ho Meng, who is buliding a new Weapon called the Zhengtian for the empire. That night Pu Zhou meets up with a mysterious girl who sees that he has a passion for engineering, learning it in his own time. We then go back to Yin, who has a dream about what she happened 3 years prior. Afterwards, she go to fetch some water for her and Ning, but she runs into a snake demon, and ends up with a braclet containing a summon named Yun, and she is to do Yin's bidding.
I am kinda skimming through things here, because a lot happens. I can see this as a sure fire way to keep viewers interested, as you can play up the mystery but at the same time, it is a little bit overwhelming. I will say that this show at least keeps things interesting at every turn, not stopping to explain much, and engaging the viewer.
Meanwhile, a rebellion group plan to attack the Taibai supply unit coming through their village, and we get some introductions of people like Can Lang, Yuan and Chi. I don't know if the characters will be important or not. Meanwhile, Ho Ming betrays the Taibai empire, and Ph Zhou meets with that girl again before getting arresting for possibly being involved in Ho Ming's escape. While tracking Ho Ming, the Taibai Empire attack a village where Yin and Ning are staying to make money, but with the help of Yun(who explain she was crafted using the art of Muija), Nin gaining a sword and Yun turning into Bladewolf, they force the empire back.
As for Pu Zhao, he is given a higher rank of Chief Engineer, thanks to the Empress giving him a higher rank, and thank to the Empress, known as Empress Long Chen being that girl he met, who now gives him the name Lord Zhaoyang. He also has the plans to the Zhengtian that Ho Ming gave him before being possibly killed, and it looks like the 3 chlidhood friends will fight at some point.
The Chinese Mythologly theme oozes with personally in this series, and the visual to a great job to reflects. The CGI is a also really good.
Overall, this was a very solid start. A lot happened... in fact I needed to watch the episode while writing to get some details I missed... but it sure as hell kept me interested.
If you are new around here, welcome. If you are here from the first of the Triple header post, welcome back. Ulysses should go up Saturday Evening UK time, but I am out that day, so I will let you guys know if anything happens that cause it to be late.
That's it for now! Thanks for reading, have a great day/night, share if you enjoyed it and take care. Written by Nana Marfo Xuan Yuan Sword Luminary(C)Studio Deen/TV TOKYO
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The Blog turns 1!16/10/2018 WOW. What a year. I started this blog in order to have a reason to review anime(and as something to share what I was doing), and now it has turned into something I want to do alongside making games. I can't explain the joy that this blog has given me at times. I also have released 3 games, 2 of them for game jams: Dual in the Desert - I HATE THIS GAME. I liked my achievement of creating my first game, but MAN, the more I look back at it, the more I hate how I rushed this. Then again, this was made in 10 days, and I was in school at the time so... yea. I don't want to touch this one. I don't even have the original files on my laptop anymore. Unity Chan('s) Dash! - This is probably the game I am most proud of, as I made it in a week, while on work experience. I like this one more than other games because of the fact that it feels like something that with enough tweaking, could be a payable game. I hope I can make that happen, but we will see. Ball Chaser - I think this game is rushed, but there I can blame the time limit, as this my first 48 hour game jam. This was fun to make, and I while I am still unsatisfied with the final product, at least it is something I feel proud of. These games were my first steps towards getting into the game industry. And now I know this is something I want to do, but that's beside the point of this post. Let's look back some of my best blogs I have written. I would love to train to be a fighter with my friends! My first Later Levels Question of the Month! This was where I started interactions with the wider community, and I look at this and think I did well, though I didn't win.. but still it was fun! Also, I will put my Sunshine Blogger award here(Also here's a link to A Geeky Gal's one!)! Kamine: Who chokes on their first kiss? Knowing me, I might, and if you think I'm joking, watch me develop feeling for girls easily. I like making jokes about me striking out don't I? See the MMO Junkie review for more. Either way, this is the first anime related post, and Tsurezure Chlidren was a really fun quick look to write, just because this is when I first got into anime, and I think after Aho Girl, this is something that really allow me to get into anime proper. The episode where she goes meow is awesome! Ah, New Game. The first anime that became very close to my heart. I really, REALLY love this anime. I feel Aoba is more successful and older me. I can't wait to get to Season 2! This is a review I wrote in a night, it was fresh off my mind what I wanted to write. Their art has inspired me, and sometimes, isn't that all that matters? This GameWorks post was really hard to write, because it was really personal, and this was posted a few days after my 17th birthday. I was really happy with the response to this, so thanks for the wonderful response. Shoutout to Drakulus for commenting his story. Get this, it is 100% FREE! Life is Strange is on my backlog for the moment, but I really enjoyed the Captain Spirit demo, which really felt like it's own spin on things to the LIS universe. I do still reccomned Life is Strange Ep 1(and now Ep 2) over this, but I do still think you should play this.But enough looking back, time to look forward. The Above Slideshow are some new website graphics I have come up with(which should already be up). From now, whether it's real life or online, I want to be me, not someone trying to fit into 10 different crowds(which was me mostly in secondary school), which includes, but is not limited to:
I don't really like promoting my Buy Me A Coffee that much(because I don't like being "In your face" about that stuff), but if I want to get serious about this, I need to promo more. So from now on, I will have the BMAC down at the bottom of each post. Again, don't feel you have to donate(let alone support monthly now since that's an option now), but I would really appreciate it if you would. I do want this website to start to pay for it's self at some point. But enough about business. Let's go on to plans. It has been nearly a year in the making, but I have started drafting the Final Fantasy XIII review. I really love this game, and I want this review out by the end of 2018, early 2019 latest. Kingdom Hearts:Birth By Sleep is next up for my Kingdom Hearts reviews, and that should be up around November-December! I am very close to finishing the game at the moment. Post Editor's note: I lost the save file, so it may take some more time. Sorry folks. Anime will be some seasonal stuff, like Ulysses: Jeanne d’arc and the Alchemist knight, as well as some stuff I want to watch personally, like Musaigen no Phantom World, or New Game Season 2. As for game dev? Well, I am nearly done with the Fighting Street demo reel, which despite my mentor's advice, I will keep the way it is(because Uni Applications),and I should get that posted soon. Besides that, more Game Jam stuff, should be in the next GameDevNetwork jam, and I might do a review of an event I am going to! I also have some other things in the works, such as the 10 questions series and a character analysis series, which will come out in due time. Anyways, time for some big thanks you's. I have to thank everyone who read, my blog, shared it with friends, and so on. My view count for the year(as far I know was, Weebly's trackers aren't the most accurate) around 12,000 views, averaging 2,000 a month, that's insane! Thanks to Failbetter Games, all of the team there were really great to work with, and I really enjoyed that work experience week, I love that I was able to work with a team of experienced game devs, and the best of luck with SUNLESS SKIES. Thanks to everyone in the StarSeeker and RedMakuzawa's discord. It's really fun to share fun all of this with you, and thanks to everyone who has given me help. I have to thank all the blogger's I have met over the past 12 months, and in particual Pix of Shoot the Rookie and Ellen of Livid Lightning, because without them, I don't think I would be in this position now. And here something for everyone to read, if your dream gives you happiness, makes you want to try new things, gives you a zest for life, help you meet new people and gives you confidence, then find a path towards(which can be VERY hard to do), follow it and fight for it. My dream(running an Indie Game Studio) may be far away, but I already feel like I'm living it. Here's to more success this year. Thanks for reading, have a great day/night and take care.
Written By Nana Marfo All Content used(C)Their respective Owners.
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Question of the Month time! This time it comes from A Geeky Gal, who I featured before on the blog! She asks: In honour of Halloween, tell me what video game scared you the most. What is it about the elements, environments, music, or characters in the video game that scared you? I'll be honest, the game that scared me the most was 2013 reboot of Tomb Raider. I hadn't played a Tomb Raider game before this, but I knew this game was a bit darker than the other. There is a lot of dark themes in this game and this oozes in the game, from the cult themes to the pool of blood scene. You can really tell that this is a different Lara than before, there is a lot of gore in this game. There are a lot of "do or die" quicktime events. A lot of them with the wolves, which come out of nowhere. However, I don't think this is a bad thing(beside the amount of quick time events), in fact it adds to game experience for me. Helps you learn about the environment, and think I design wise it makes the world feel more real in this game.
Anyway's that's it for now! Sorry for this being really short, but I want to focus on next week's post for obvious reasons. Either way, thanks for reading, have a great day/night, share if you enjoyed it and take care. Written by Nana Marfo Tomb Raider(C)SQUARE ENIX
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Final Fantasy XV X Terra Wars: Review2/10/2018 I honestly don't know if I will review Final Fantasy XV outside of the DLC episodes. I just keep getting lost in this game's world. However, I don't want to leave people without a taste of game. So, crossover review! This is probably going to be really short, but either way rules: 1.Spoilers are abounding, and depending on the game, can spoil the experience. 2. I will not put aside any bias, but will try to be fair for games I do not like. This is my personal opinion. If you want to send your opinion, please do so in the comments below. 3. I am reviewing the PC Version. So, what does this have in store for us? This is my review of Final Fantasy XV X TERRA WARS. Story For a Final Fantasy game, not to mention the CREATOR of Final Fantasy, who was working on this, I was surprised how simple this story was. Noctus wakes up in this mystoris world and meets a girl named Sarah, the protagonist from Terra Battle 2. As someone who has not played Terra Battle, I do like Sarah's design, it really screams, old school Final Fantasy, while having a place in the modern era. Anyways, the story from there focuses on the Hiso Aliens. Sarah and Noct have to stop a force called The Eroder, as they are known as the saviors. After some chance encounters, and the Hiso Aliens taking some of Noct's stuff, they meet the Hiso Elder, head to The Eroder, Sarah gets her power coped into The Eroder, they defeat the Eroder, and Noctus and Sarah return to their own worlds. Overall, the story is very basic and fast, the DLC is no more than 45 minunits. However the interactions between Sarah and Noctus feels very natural, and I do like dealing with the Hiso Aliens. Noct even confuses Sarah for his friends at some points, which is really funny! Gameplay So I won't go fully into Final Fantasy XV's mechanics, but for now I can say Noctus handles the same has he does in the regular game, but your weapons are fixed to 3 weapons, with no guns or magic. Sarah has a special attack which has some good artwork, and Noct and Sarah have a special attack which is activated at random. A bit annoying at points. Speaking of, you are some what railroaded into a set path for this crossover. A big attraction of XV for me, is the open world, going from city to city and doing sidequests. Here, there is not a lot to explore, and makes it feel like a different game. It's not a bad thing for me, but it does take from the experience. Looks, Sound and Final Thoughts The World is a sight to behold in Final Fantasy XV, and the world they have made here is no exception. While you are railroaded, it helps give a really grand sense of scope. The soundtrack is a remix of classic Final Fantasy tunes, which is really nice on the ears. Overall, a really good crossover which combines the feelings NES/SNES Final Fantasy games with the untraditional Final Fantasy game. Go out of way to play it if you have the game, it's really fun. Well, this was short. Still with the MHA review, and the Final Fantasy XIII review on the way, I am kinda of glad this is short.
In other news, my blog is turning 1 this month. I will be putting on some new Website Graphics on this Friday, and on October 16, I will upload a special blog post. In any case, Thanks for reading, have a great day/night, share if you enjoyed and take care. Written By Nana Marfo Final Fantasy XV(C)SQUARE ENIX TERRA WARS(C)Mistwalker
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WOW is all have to say regarding last week. Also, I should apologise for not uploading a blog last week, I wanted to keep up with the KH news and lot of stuff happened at school. But I figured it was time for another editorial, since we got a LOT of KH News. And I have to say, all of it was amazing. Also, there may be spoilers ahead for Re:Coded, Birth By Sleep and 0.2 IN ADDITION to some minor spoilers for the Kingdom Hearts Series overall. Big Hero 6: The world to make Re:Coded relevant Ok, I have not played Re:Coded and I am not going to.I know the story, and as far as I am aware, that game has not to do with anything...until KH3. I do expect the Big Hero 6 world to be the weakest(due to the fact it was a last second inculcation, so a rushed in world story not be surprising.),but despite that, it looks great! Though It's trying to bring in Re:Coded, a game I will not play because it has nothing to do with anything. However, we have Data Riku in this, so... maybe I will give the movie a watch? Roxas: Friend or Foe? The story of Roxas is one of the big drawing points of Kingdom Hearts fans. After losing Xion and Axel in 358/2 days, he ends up being toyed with in the first part of Kingdom Hearts 2, and now he is back in Kingdom Hearts 3, but it's unclear if he is helping Xehanort, or is just in his Organisation XIII gear. In the trailer, Ansem and Xigbar talk about the fact that if Sora diverts from the path they set for him, they will kill, but they would need another vessel. Are the Organisation trying to use Sora so they have Roxas as a vessel? Is Aqua the backup Vessel? Speaking of....MAJOR SPOILERS FOR BBS AND BBS 0.2 INCOMING. Aqua and Ventus: Souls that need to be saved Oh my good, Birth By Sleep is a gutpunch, and I mean a GUTPUNCH, and don't worry the review will be soon. But Vanitus appears with Ventus saying "What I am going to do with you, Brother?" OK, 1, that f**king creepy all things considered(even though it makes scene), and 2, is Ventus a backup plan in case Terra-Nort backfires? Is Aquanort a plan to bait Sora into do the organisation's dirty work, because the know that Aqua's heart is weak from 10 years in the darkness? Why do I have so many theories now? Anyway, here's something that I think will always hold true: Sora must save everyone. I think EVERYONE lost their minds when they saw this. Blank Points and 0.2 really hint towards Sora being a great warrior, and someone who has saved all the worlds, and he now faces his greatest challenge: Master Xehanort and the XIII Seekers of Darkness. However, in the short trailer that was released a week earlier, Vanitus said that "Only when your hopes been broken by battle upon battle, that the key to Kingdom Hearts(The Moon, not the Door) can be claimed." Sora has fought and killed a lot, so this might be easier than I think, but we will see. This is more a personal thing(being someone who wants to get into the game development industry), but the Animation levels in this game are amazing. I love how they make Vanitus seem crazed to Aqua's subtle yet scary movements to the F**KING DOLL. I also wanted to know what other people thought, so here are quotes from my friends at the StarSeekers on what they thought of the KH News: It was really amazing to see new gameplay and new cutscenes from the game! Totally every day they improve the game to much a better level! Just the Big Hero 6 stuff and that’s it tbh. My favorite thing from the TGS news was the scene with Kairi and Sora on the tree! I ship Sokai a lot, and seeing this makes me hopeful it happens in KH3! Without a doubt the trailer, like seeing the other org members norted, big hero six, and most importantly seeing my boy Roxas again!!! Seeing Roxas , I think. Seeing my boi Demyx back, tho, still veeeeeery worried if he's norted or not! Anyways, that's it for now! There's a lot more I could have talked about(the doll boss, the new theme song that features Skrillex) but I want to keep this relatively short, as we lead to the end of the Xehanort Saga of Kingdom Hearts games on January 25 in Japan and January 29 worldwide on PS4, and for the first time on Xbox One. Thanks for reading, have a great day/night, share if you enjoyed and take care.
Written by NanaMarfo Special Thanks to all the StarSeekers For all the Kingdom Hearts fans Kingdom Hearts(C)Square Enix
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NM GameWorks #16:Sneak Around a Game18/9/2018 Hey all! So in between starting my last year of school, finishing MHA Season 2, Playing Final Fantasy XIII and the 2 game Jams I realised that I haven't shown my stealth prototype. It's very early on in becoming a character controller that can transform into a stealth charater, but we have a CROUCH WALK! No joke, this was one of the things I was excited to do the most in this, because 1. I haven't tried it, and 2. I really wanted to see how I could Incorporated this in this game. The stealth game it's self is more based upon Tomb Raider rather than Metal Gear Solid. Personally, while I do get that sneaking around is better for some situations, I would honesty rather go gun-ho, something which I do like that MGS4 and MGS5 offer. Although I do need to play these games. Anyways, the idea behind this prototype came from my playthrough of Tomb Raider, which I think is a great game, so go play it! And play the new one as well! There's not much else that I want to say on my prototype, so let's move on to some general updates. Hard at work with the next Unity-Chan Dash update! I have talked about this on twitter, but I am a big fan of Sayuri-Seneci, the solo girl who is working on the Glass Wing games. The new area introduced there will be heavily be inspired Glass Wing Retold's first level! Also if this gets around to Sayuri, Hi(I LOVE YOU) your are so amazing! Keep going! The Different Spirits post is coming soon! A MASSIVE thanks in advance to my friend Jennifer for helping me with this! If you want some art done by her, email her at:[email protected] and ask for her prices.
And again, THANK YOU SO MUCH! Either way, that's it for now! Thanks for reading, have a great day/night, share if you enjoyed it and take care. Written By Nana Marfo All Image and work used(C)Respective Owners
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My Hero Academia Season 2: Review11/9/2018 Huh, didn't take me 6 months to review. Still, does this season finally improve on what the first was lacking? Rules as always: 1.Spoilers are abounding here folks. If you want to watch it blindly... go watch it. Spoilers are here. 2. Depending on the Anime, this can get NSFW. 3. I am watching the subbed version. So, how does Deku become a hero? This is my review of My Hero Academia Season 2. So from the first episode, we go into the sport festival, which I will be honest about and in terms of the main plot, nothing really happens. Iida's older brother was paralysed by Stain but besides that... I'm sorry nothing really happens. Not to say that it's bad, it's focuses on characters, and has some of my favourite episodes, like Bakugo Vs Uraraka, Todoroki's origin episode, and In their Own Quirky Ways, where Deku gets his first Major Win. Anyways, things pick up after Episode 27, where they go off to do their internships, and during this time, Deku goes into the care of Gran Torino who was the friend of All Might's predecessor. However, Gran Torino says that he has not told him about All Might's predecessor. Iida on the other hand, is consumed with thoughts of revenge over his brother after Hero Killer Stain attempts to kill another Pro Hero, Native. He almost kills Iida, scolding him for not living up to be a true hero. Deku manages to save Iida, but texts his location to his classmates, so that Todoroki, who is rocking a new Hero Costume, comes to help them and the three of them take down the Hero Killer. Though the reason they cover it up is BS to me. They were on INTERNSHIPS, let them be HEROES! Still, it's nice to see Iida get some development, and finally see one of the things that pushed MHA into the anime spotlight. Anyways, when they get back the, the Final Exams happen, and again, nothing really happens plot wise. Characters are the main focus in MHA, and I think it really shines. Though the last episode really sets things into motion. Over the second part of season 2, the League of Villains has been building up to the point, where All Might explains the history of One for All, and that Deku will have to fight the deadly All for One, who can take power and distribute it as he likes. All for One hints that Shigaraki Tomura will surpass All for One, leading to a meeting between the two. Shigaraki hints the next time they meet, they will fight. Overall, this story is MUCH better than Season 1. The pacing is improved a lot, and this is thanks to not only the doubled episode count, but also the fact that they have reduced the arcs adapted from 4 to 3, which really helps the season shine. On the other hand, there is A LOT of setup towards future arcs, to the point where I found it really distracting. However, a lot of characters get some growth here. There's a lot small moments for characters, so I'll be as quick as I can with it. Mineta, for as much as I don't like him, and doubt his academic ability(see above caption). does has a very relatable motivation, in the fact that he wants to get the girls, but he realises he gone around it the wrong way. Again, for as much as I don't like him, they at least give a good explanation for why he acts the way he does. Koji Koda, a very minor character, gets some small development, he wants to push himself now he's in his dream school. Minor, but it shows he wants to do well. The 3 characters that I think develop the most(besides Deku) are Momo Yaoyorozu, Uraraka Ochako and Shoto Todoroki. Momo has her confidence knocked during the sports festival, where Fumikage Tokyoyami beat her ass HARD. She also ends up with a crappy internship, alongside Itsuka Kendo of Class 1-B, and Class 1-B don't have much bearing on many things, though I do like Kendo a lot personally wise. However she regains her confidence in the final exam. It's small, but it works. Ochako is best girl, and I really feel that she gets a lot of development. In Bakugo VS Uraraka, she fights very well, and uses some nice tactics against Bakugo, and even then she lost. I really felt sorry for her, as she gave everything. I honesty really like her development, and she also seems to have a crush on Deku, but that's for season 3. Todoroki story is more involved with the arcs. His story involves him dealing with his past and the fact that Endeavor is an asshole. Raping his mother, wanting to Shoto to fully fill his desire, just he sucks as a father. His mother was caring, but the thing stuck in his mind was the fact that his mother poured boiling water on him, while at the same time saying she was unsure if she could take care of him. Todo(as I call him) is shown to hesitant to use his fire side at first, but becomes more and more comfortable using it as the story goes along. This shows Todo as a really complex character, and makes him really relatable. Deku's arc this season revolves around making All Might's power his own, Gran Torino even saying that his admiration for All Might is a shackle. I really loved seeing Deku come into his own against Todoroki, Stain and All Might in his final exam. He also gains a new power up: All For One Full Cowl, which allows him to use his 5% of his power without breaking anything. Moving on to production values, the animation is incredible. Studio Bones really know what they doing, this is some amazing stuff(see first screencap). Speaking of, the 2nd intro, Sora ni Uteaba(If I sing to the Sky) is REALLY, REALLY good. The visuals are also really good, and I would say even better than the 1st intro. I LOVE THE NEW ENDING. The visuals are AMAZING, and Datte Atashino Hero(Because You're My Hero) is a really good song. I think the music video has made me attracted to LiSA. Overall, this was a masterpiece of an anime. Is it my favourite? No, but that's because New Game! hit a special place in my heart(Aoba is basically an older and more successful me), but I do think that this is one of the best anime of all time. MAN THIS WAS LONG. I try to keep my reviews a short as possible, but MHA Season 2 has a LOT of content to cover. Besides that, this blog is turning 1 next month! Yay!
Anyways, that's it for now! Thanks for reading, have a great day/night, share if you enjoyed it and take care. Written By Nana Marfo My Hero Academia(C)Funimation/Shonen Jump |