Hey all! These are post from when I wrote for game savvy, which is now defunked. This is main for people who may have missed these posts. Enjoy!

Wings of Glass is a game made by Eager Passion, a new game for the company From Soy Sauce, who created the first 3D bullet hell. It’s something that I have been interested in for a while, ever since the original concept, Glass Wing Capstone was announced I’ve been following the development of this game very closely. The developer, Sayuri Artsy has made it clear that the game will be episodic, and I feel like, with the way the story has been presented, it would work best that way. The game is a platformer that also contains physiological horror elements, however, the focus is mostly on the platforming rather than messing with the player’s head.

The story is centred around the mythology of Glass Wings, demons that, according to the villain of the game, Ferace, can save people from sadness. As such Ferace hunts down Mayfly, the protagonist of Wings Of Glass, and explains that all of his friends are dead and that he’s been researching a way to stop demons from becoming mindless monsters.

However, I found that my favourite parts of the game's story were during the cutscenes with Ferace, as they mostly involved interactions with the Mayfly that allowed me to play the game alongside watching the story. Sayuri’s visual storytelling is very dynamic, allowing the player to interact in cutscenes, giving the player a sense that they are really in the action.

The gameplay and general design of the game really made me think outside the box at several points. This game has a lot of emphasis on the puzzle parts of the puzzle platformer, as well as avoiding combat entirely. You don’t fight anything in this game, as most of the monsters you meet you either are meant to ignore or run away from. Furthering this mentality is the fact that Wings of Glass is very old-school with its design, not really telling you anything about how the game works.

The game focuses on the main protagonist Mayfly and her gaining her abilities. In the forest, you gain the ability to swim faster underwater, though I didn’t really use it much because of another feature that the game boasts. Towards the end of the game, you get a Spinning Glide, Super Dash and a double jump, making for a very versatile Mayfly.

I felt the control was very smooth, I didn’t have any major hiccups with Mayfly, though I will say that the game does require you to very accurate with your jumps. I could count at least 3 times where I thought I made the jump, but it turns out that I undershot the jump, leading me to start the section over again.

There 2 types of bugs that attach to your feet and give Mayfly different platforming techniques, and they make the game very interesting to play. The purple and light blue bugs allow you to break certain platforms and when underwater, it allows you to have the same weight as you do on the ground. These bugs are very nice to have, but I prefer the light green bugs for one reason: you can walk in midair. This is such a cool feature, and I really hope I get the chance to play around with it more. The look and sound of the game don’t necessarily scream “horror”, but the look of the game is striking and colourful, and the sound design is really well thought out, having music that feels like it belongs to each area, and removing it to make the game feel creepy.

Overall, I can wholeheartedly recommend this game to anybody looking for a good indie title. It’s fun to control Mayfly and learn about the mythology of the glass wings, and the old-school design makes for a very fun experience.

Hey all! These are post from when I wrote for game savvy, which is now defunked. This is mainly for people who may have missed these posts. Enjoy!

Editor's note, Sayuri now goes by SayuriArtsy rather than Sayuri-Sensei.

Platformers have been making a return to old school formats, from the passionate Kick Starter attempts such as Yooka-Layliey, to outright returns to form in Super Mario Odyssey.  However, I want to draw your attention to a game called Wings of Glass, currently under the name Glass Wing Capstone from what is an interesting history.

This game started off as a Game Jam in 2014 made by Sayuri Artsy, the person behind games such as the Bullet Life, the first 3D Bullet hell game, and founder of the now-defunct From Soy Sauce. The game is a physiological horror platformer and was going to get a remake in the form of the game Glass Wing Retold, which was going to be a new game that would tell the story in a different way, and expand on some characters.

But Sayuri-Sensei, as she and her fans often refer to her, was in college at the time, and with her final coursework project looming, she wanted at first to remake Bullet Life. However, in the end she decided to make a remake of the original game, under the name Glass Wing Capstone, which is the basis for Wings Of Glass.

Anyways, I have played the demo, and for me it seems to be a mix of old style gameplay, with how Mayfly moves like she was ripped right out from Super Mario Sunshine, with more modern elements inserted in, such as Ferace, the antagonist of the game, talking to Mayfly, our protagonist and playable character, in a mix of both gameplay and cutscenes. This may have been something used by Uncharted and the Tomb Raider reboot, but what makes it unique here the art style and ambience. Furthermore, Mayfly is referred to as a demon, which is clearly contrasted by her design, which, to paraphrase Sayuri-Sensei herself, is meant to be cute and huggable.

And it works. I keep thinking in my mind that there is no way that Mayfly is a demon, who Ferace takes an interest in because of her Glass Wings, but I keep having to remind myself that she is a demon. Ferace I find unique as a villain, because of the fact that seems both powerful and cunning, which I hope is expanded on the full game. However, it also excels as a game by being able to give you new abilities and platforming challenges that are admittedly a bit brain-racking, but also make it feel like it wouldn’t be out of place on an N64. 

Sayuri’s normal brand of physiological horror is also present here. From the opening monologue to the heavy breathing of Mayfly when she is low on health. However, this also makes the game rely on Gotcha moments, where the only way you know something is there, is if you… know it’s there, and it can be annoying at times. The game also immerses you into the environment in different ways, as there is no Heads Up Display, and Mayfly’s health and different modes are tied to her wings, making the game more immersive. Though there is a hint mode if you struggling, so put it on if and when you need help.

Overall, I can say that the demo for Wings of Glass is worth checking out on itch.io. There is a lot of fun to be had in what I think is an old meets new styled platformer, not to mention the fact that this is just a taste of what’s to come.

I'm really sorry I haven't been blogging as much, but I have this and one more piece on Wings of Glass. I'm also working something about unreal engine 5, so please look forward to that!

Hey all! Once again, today we are doing something different once again! I wanted to talk about Smash Bros. last week as they confirmed that more DLC fighters are in development! With Terry from Fatal Fury confirmed, the possibilities for fighters are endless. So I figured, why not suggest my pretty obvious picks! Well if you know me, at least.

The only rule I have no suggesting fighters that could be Echo Fighters. For those wondering, my picks for those would be Sakura from Street Fighter IV and V as a Ryu Echo fighter, Zack from Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII as an Echo of Cloud and Shadow the Hedgehog from the Sonic the Hedgehog series as an Echo of Sonic. No other rules then that, so Let's go!

1 - Sora - Kingdom Hearts Series

OK, so my 1,2 and 3 are all in all wanted about the same amount, which is basically the most wanted ones. Sora is someone I've wanted in Smash since the hype for DLC fighters started in Smash 4! While Sora has not had any mainline games on Nintendo consoles, all of the handheld entries besides Birth By Sleep have been on Nintendo Consoles. I think he would a good fit with a focus on his magic and FlowMotion, with a final Smash of any of his Limits from KH2, or the flash bang attack from Ultimate Form in KH3.

The only the thing I can see stopping him getting in is if Square Enix decide not to put to allow him in, because of the Hero getting in. Still I would love for this to happen.
​
2 - Lightning Farron - Final Fantasy XIII series

What, you thought this wasn't going to come up? No, of course you knew it was. Lightning is one of my favorite heroines in any video game, and I think with her move-set being a combination of her 2 classes, Commando and Ravager. Not medic because that could break the game. Her Final Smash would be the powerful Army of One. 

I would love this were to happen for a few reasons. First being it would be very cool to Lightning Vs. Samus in a video game. Second being that it would show that Square has some interest in the remastering the 13 trilogy of games. However, I can see her not getting in for the same reasons as Sora.

3) Neptune - Hyperdimention Neptunia Series

Nep-Nep in smash would be worth it for the Meta references alone. Seriously, have her stage be Planetune, and have something like Palutena's  Guidance, to where she makes comments on the characters people play as in the stages. This is a bit of a hopeful pick however, because she's only had one game on a Nintendo System(The most recent Super Neptunia RPG), and I don't know if it sold well, so that's something going against him, but I think she could be a great fit.

4 - Shantae - Shantae Series

This pick seemed impossible a while ago, but with the addition of Sans from Undertale as a Mii Costume, I think the door has opened up for Shantae, at least as a Mii costume, but I don't think fighter is out of the question. While her move-set could be a little complex, she could at least have her hair whip as her light attack. She also has a ton of designs that could be used as alternate outfits e.g. her Ninja and Jammies mode outfits. 

I'm Hopeful that she could get in Smash, and Matt Bozon has said he is open to the idea. Here's hoping Sakurai sees it as a good idea.

5). Juri Han - Street Fighter IV and V

This is my pure "I can hope for it" pick, because I really don't think it would happen(if a SF girl got in, it would be Sakura as a Ryu Echo, or Chun-Li because of Recognition), but I really want Juri because she would fit better for Smash because she has personality and character that is AMAZING in my opinion. She just want to have fun, and in Smash, that's always welcome.

Honorable Mentions

Quote - Cave Story - I don't see Quote NOT getting in because he's a Japanese Indie character, especially given the fact we have Sans now, so it's very doable as long as Nicalis and Pixel(Daisuke Amaya) allow it to happen.

Byleth - Fire Emblem Three Houses - Given the success of this game, I don't see Sakurai not giving The Three House avatar a slot.

Who do you guys think will join the fight? Let me know in the comments!

But for now, thanks for reading, and I will catch you guys next time.

Written by Nana Marfo.

Well this took too long to write. School can do that to you, my friends. Make you forget you have games to play. Well that and making a bunch of other content, but that happens sometimes. 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.

Also, this game deals with sensitive topics, and again, while I will talk about it, besides teens smoking, I will not show screen-caps.

And be warned, I'm spoiling this game rotten, so if you haven't played it, please do, because regardless of my opinion on the game, I believe this game is something you should experience for yourself. And for those that have played before, I believe that where I made choices are clear with what I chose for certain choices.

So, let's jump into the rest of this story. This is my review of Life Is Strange.

Story

*deep breath* OK, let's do this. Episode by Episode. I'm assuming you read my episode 1 review for the details on that one.

Out Of Time

So after Max and Chloe figure out there is a storm coming to the Bay, we spend some time helping Kate March, who is being bulled and picked on by Victoria among others.. She's someone that ended up that affected thanks to Nathan, a common theme in the story. Nathan drugged her and raped her, and recorded this and put it up on the internet. Kate asks Max if she should go to the police, and in my play-through I advised her that she should.

​After that, we ,meet up with Chloe who at her mother;s diner called the 2 whales, where she learns more about Max's time rewind power, but after going to the junkyard with Chloe, we learn that her power is limited, as Max begins to suffer headaches. We also meet Frank, a person that Chloe owes money to for drugs, and save Chloe from impending doom via train tracks. However this take a turn for the dark when Kate wants to JUMP OFF THE ROOF OF BLACKWELL. Max ends up saving her in my play-through. Also, note that Kate spoke to her teacher, Mr.Jefferson, before trying to jump off the roof.

Overall, I would say the story of this episode was good, as it was still some setup, but gave the feeling that something big is starting to happen.

Chaos Theory

Max and Chloe infiltrate the school after hours, as Max suspects that something was up, where they find more dirt on Nathan, and then go to the pool. More on this in at the end. They then head to Frank's place due to him saying that he had a relationship with Rachel, and they are able to confirm this. This pisses Chloe off, knowing that the person she cared about a lot was with one of the people that they both hated.

Seeing all the pain that Chloe has gone through, Max inadvertently goes BACK IN TIME. She ends up going far enough to the point where she able to stop Chloe's father, William, from dying. However, Chloe can't seem to catch a as ends up in a wheelchair for her troubles, as a result of getting into a car crash on with the car she got on her 16th birthday.

I personally enjoyed Episode 3 as it feels like the one they want you to bond with Chloe the most. And I really felt that bond between them, but more on that later.

Dark Room

So it turns out that Max ended up in an alternate timeline, where William lived, but Chloe ended up paying the price instead. She's not able to use any of her limbs, and her days are mostly spent in a hospital bed. After talking with Max and going through memories, Chloe then asks you ASSIST HER SUICIDE BY TURNING UP HER IV. The devs like us making hard choices, huh? I chose not to because I couldn't bear to see her die.

Max goes back in time again to fix things, letting William die, returning her to the current timeline. After that, Max and Chloe do some investigating, going round gathering clues  from David, Chloe's douchebag father, Kate, Nathan and Frank. It leads them to an abandoned warehouse where they find the place called the dark room, where photographs of people have been taken, and they find a folder of Victoria with nothing in it, meaning that she's next. However, they also find a folder with Rachel's name and gruesome photo, and after going back to the Junkyard, they find Rachel's body, leaving Chloe pissed at Nathan. They head to the party to warn Victoria, but when they leave, Nathan implies that he plans to burn Rachel's body, but it turns out the real culprit was... Mr.Jefferson, working with the Prescott's, taking Nathan under his wing, and pretty much becoming his father figure.He sent the text from Nathan's phone, DRUGS MAX AND KILLS CHLOE. But things are not over yet.

Episode 4 was pretty heart breaking to watch at points but I didn't expect that plot twist, and kudos to the developers for adding that assisted death choice.

Polarised

Mr.Jefferson takes Max to the dark room, and Jefferson does his creepy photography, toying with Max in the process. However, Max manages to find a photo to take her to the start of the week, making sure she hands in her entry for the Everyday Hero's contest, which changes the timeline to her winning, and the day is saved... for all of 20 minutes, as Chloe is caught out in the storm, so Max goes back to make sure she doesn't hand that photo, but ends up back in the Jefferson torture chamber, and with Chloe still dead.

Max puts a fight and with some help from David, Max is able to escape the chamber, and goes to find Warren, her nerdy friend from school, so she can a photo that that they both took the just before the vortex party to save Chloe from going bang. She saves her, but passes out from her efforts, and the game then taunts in a Nightmare, where you apparently fall in love with the deranged photographer, show go through a stealth section that has the other taunting you on what you could have done, be taunted by dead spirits of William and Rachel, and reminisce your memories with Chloe, more on this a bit. When Max wakes up, Chloe realises that she might be the catalyst, and you are forced to make the ultimate choice, save Chloe or save Arcadia Bay?

Before I reveal my choice, I want to say that Life is Strange's story... is good! I really like the writing in particular, the interactions with characters make them feel like they are teenagers, and I like the atmosphere that the game gives you. The big problem that I have is that the game keeps playing up that the choices you make in this game affect the past, present and future. Of course I though that this meant that this affects the ending, but in reality, it doesn't because in the end,you have to choose between Chloe and the Bay no matter how you treat people. Hell when I took the photo back to where it all started in Episode 5, I thought that guaranteed me what I though was a bad ending, but then I realised that even if I did I still had to make that choice. That choice is HARD. VERY HARD. But this leads me into the what I think is the defining feature of Life is Strange's story, the relationship between Max and Chloe.

From the moment these 2 met, it honestly feels like they are grown up childhood friends. Max, while still a character that represents the player for me, feels like her own character because she actually has personality traits that make her feel like her own character. Though I will admit, she does feel a bit like a Mary Sue. Chloe is what I would call a tortured character, where she has had almost everything ripped away from her and when Max comes back, she's found some happiness in her life again.

The bond between these two feels like a romantic bond, no matter what happens they have each other, and you even get the option to kiss Chloe in Episode 3. Which I did do admittedly. The moments that Max and Chloe felt like it deepened their bond, and felt heart warming in most instances. For this reason, I saved Chloe. I thought to myself "F**k me if I let her die, she deserves some happiness in her life." That being said the nightmare also drove this choice because dream Chloe taunts you by being with other people while you are in the Dark Room, and this made me tense. Like I said before, I thought I got the "bad ending". I do like both endings though, the Chloe dies ending for the immense effort the devs put in, and the Chloe lives ending for the starting their Brave New World, just like Chloe and Rachel were going to do, in Life is Strange:Before the Storm.

Life is Strange asks you in it's ending, "Is one person worth the world?". And for me, Chloe was.

Gameplay
Life is Strange plays like a point and click adventure. You go around an area and you look at thing, making sure that have the item that you needed to progress. Life is Strange also has you talk to people, and with certain interactions, you can the use the information given to help with other interactions. I like this, although the game is pretty slow because of this, and while I don't mind it because of the setting, I understand why it can be an issue for some. 

The big feature of this game how Max can rewind time at any given moment. This is mostly used for changing the outcome of choices, and at certain points see different outcomes. I found this helpful during major choices, where it was said that this action would have consequences, you can tell from the butterfly afterwards and the haze before you make the choice. You can also do this at will, but the game is very linear in where you HAVE to use the time travel mechanic, which makes sense, but again,this limits the impact the choices you make really have.

Looks, Sound and Final Thoughts
The game looks great, as the use cel-shaded graphics and quality of the models are on point, but the factual animation is awful to point of where I found it distracting. I understand that I may have more of an eye for this than others, but it still bothers me that a game that is 70% movie has facial animations this bad. Hell, I even got a glitch where Max's mouth DIDN'T MOVE FOR A SCENE. IT'S CREEPY.

Thought I can say the voice acting makes up for it. Ashly Burch as Chloe and Hannah Telle as Max put in amazing performances, and the music choices for them are perfect. The vocal music(which, despite what REACT says, I don't think is Royalty Free) in this game is awesome, and the atmospheric music is pretty good too.

Overall, I really enjoyed this game, but I feel as if Life is Strange is more of a experience that a game, which makes it hard for me recommend. However, if you are interested in this game at all, I urge you to pick it up, as it is an experience like no other in my opinion.

Huh. I'm surprised this isn't as long as the FF13 review with how much story I needed to cram in. And for those wondering, yes I'm planning to pick up the Comics that take place after the game, and the FF13 prologue book. Money is just hard to get atm. If you want to get them yourselves and help out the blog, you can get them at the affiliate links in the description. 

Anyways, this week is A-Level results week so I'll let you know how it goes. And to any A-Level student reading this: Good luck on your journey.

But for now, thanks for reading, and I will see you guys next time.

Written By Nana Marfo
​Speical Thanks: Gwen AKA HellyonWorks and Omar, for the recommendation of this game. I hope this review did it justice.
Life is Strange belongs to Square Enix and Dontnod Entertainment

Whew. So I finally Managed to finish Unity Chan Dash Update 1.1, and I wanted to take you through some of the main features of this update.
​New and Improved Controls

Most of this is documented in the video above, but one thing I didn't like in the original release was how the controls felt. They were very stiff and it while it was acceptable, it lead to a lot of start and stop within the animations. This has now been tweaked to so it feels more natural. I still want to do some more refinement, but I think it's good.

2 new levels
Like I said in one of my devlogs a while back, the game's scale has gone down severaly from what I wanted it to be. This is so I can put more effort into other areas of the game without rushing anything entirely. This first area doesn't really have a theme to it, but I hope you guys can enjoy the music and graphics of this area!
VA and New fonts
A big thing about games for me is that it's a way to express personality through things such as animation. However, here I'm limited by the fact that this is a pre animated asset pack. Thanks so much to Amanda Fredette for voicing her, you did a great job!

I also want to thank castpixel for the free fonts that I used within this game!

And that's it! Thanks to everyone that has supported the development of the game up to this point! I will not only keep working on this game, but other games that I have ideas for.

But for now, thanks as always and I will catch you guys later!

Written and Game Made by Nana Marfo
Unity Chan(C)Unity Technologies Japan
Unity Chan Dash(C) Nana Marfo

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

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.

Written By Nana Marfo
Snow Villars belongs to Square Enix
Megaman X belongs to Capcom.

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

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:

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

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.

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

Hey all! This is another deep dive post. This may seem a little bottom of the Barrel, but I have wanted to do a post based another From Soy Sauce video for a while.

So, as the title suggests, I have been heavenly inspired by Japan.  This is going to get a bit personal, so I make you cry, sorry? 

Anyways, as most of you know, my favourite franchise is Sonic the Hedgehog, a series of games created by SEGA. A common sterotype of Sonic fan is that they are autistic... which in my case is semi-true.  While with me, you might not be able to tell at first, sometime it kicks in randomly, and I hate that(also hence why I say semi-true). Because of this(and the fact that I take things to heart a lot), I became an easy target for bullies. This honestly continued up until I was 14, but I began to play games more and more, and now, as I have just turned 17, I realised now that Japan has influenced me more than I thought. Now I don't think I'm a full weeb... yet, but every game series and game that I hold close to my heart I can think of that is not a Indie game has Japanese links to it. Even Life is Strange and the Tomb Raider Series, games that seemly has no ties to Japan, are published by Square Enix, a Japanese company. 

A lot of you probably know that I am a black man living in London. However, the only real European things I think define me are cycling and Formula 1, and even then they are becoming more are more global, plus the only things I can take from them are designs. However, if you recall my first games works post, I only had Glass Wing Retold as a non Japanese developed game. 

This is not to say I am fully out of touch with my culture. I love playing music that is "from my motherland" as my parents say, and London has a lot great architecture I want to reflect in my games. However, instead of playing Call of Duty on a PS4 and watching The Flash, I would play Sonic Lost World on my Wii U, and watch a show called Kamen Rider.

For those of you that don't know(which I assume is everyone) Kamen Rider is a Henshin(Transforming) Heroes show that revolves the concept of a single(well, usually with one or two other) fighting an evil force. This is what gave me the idea for Different Spirits, among other game ideas I have to talk about. 

It only got worse as I grew up. Towards the end of secondary school, I began to get into anime, and it one of the reasons I made this blog, as well as wanted to share my game ideas. Even then, I watched Pokemon when I was younger, and I didn't know that was anime. Man, I hate how dumb I can be some times.

So, why the comforted part? Well, I don't have many people that I can talk to this about, combined with the fact that I am not really good at talking to people and making friends... yea I think you get the idea. While I am getting better, this is why I the people I meet online are so important to me. Just being to share my thoughts with people are important. That's something I have to cherish. 

Also, and I know this is REALLY stupid and cheesy,but sometimes it's good to imagine myself in that world and think about the hardships they face, it helps take my mind off the real world.

​I think you guys get the idea by this point. Japan has changed my life, but I feel the most I have show for it is Unity-Chan Dash, and anyone could make that game if they knew Unity well enough. I understand there is still a lot I have to learn about this country, and yes I know off all the bad things that Japan did in the war,and the country has a lot of problems, but in the end, their art has inspired me, and sometimes, isn't that all that matters? As such, I'll end with a quote from Sayuri-Sensei:

Thanks for reading, have a great day/night, share if you enjoyed it and take care.

Written by Nana Marfo

Tomb Raider/Life is Strange/Kingdom Hearts(C)Square Enix
Full Metal Alacamist(C) Aniplex/Square Enix
Aho Girl(C)Kodansha Comics
Kamen Rider(C) TOEI

Hey all, it's been a while since I did a game jam, and to be honest, I have been neverous about doing one since the my first one.  But after my work experience Failbetter Games. 

Since I only had around 48 hours to create a game, the key was once again to create a simple game, but which was based around the theme Awesome Per Minunit.

I'll be honest: THIS WAS THE HARDEST THING THAT I HAVE EVER DONE.

Not even because of the game itself. The mindset needed to create games in 48 hours requires an iron mind. Still, I personally found OK, since I came up with a simple idea that was based around the words "injection of pace", which I felt suited the theme. The game it's self is called "Ball Chaser".

The game is very simple, collect blue spinners and get to the end. This was fun to make but even though I was able to split the hours over 3 hours, this was mentally draining, as I made everything(besides the ball(Unity Standard Assets) and the font), and like I said before, this is the hardest thing I have ever done. I feel like I could have done better in some parts, but for my first 4 hour game jam, I think I did well. 

Anyways, you can download the game here.

That's it for now! Next time, I'm going to do something a little different with a certain anime...

Thanks for reading, have a great day/night, share if you enjoyed and take care.

Written By Nana Marfo

Hey all! This question of the month this month suits me very well! This month's question was asked by That Green Dude: 

Honestly, I sometimes wish I had a video games family, because my real family can be frustrating to live at times. But I have few ideas(some of which are more obvious than others).so let's jump into it!

Mother:Aqua from Kingdom Hearts

All the renders are family photos! Like the idea? 

Anyways, she is pretty much the mother of Ventus and Terra, so why not have her as my mother! I think she fit in perfectly for this role. Kind, caring and very sweet.

Father:Ryu from Street Fighter

Who wouldn't like a a fighter as a father! Ryu is very respectable, and also as man on the road of battle, he would be the best at giving life lessons!

​Secound Mother: Orbea Yung Fang from Fantasy

Didn't expect that huh? My aunt/former tutor is a bit like a second mother, so I thought role would be fit well here. I think of fang a bit like a cool mum. She is very fun to be with, and also a very strong leader.

Big Sister: Lightning Farron from Final Fantasy XIII

Being, the oldest in my family, it's sometimes hard to ask for advice. And while Lightning is best Final Fantasy girl, I would love her as my sister. All the stuff she's been through would give me a great adviser.

And that's all I got!

On a very unrelated note, and this NOT sponsored at all by the devs, please support Echo: Our Voice on KickStarter. While the game is funded, but I really want to see what the devs can do if they reach their stretch goals. I played the demo and almost instantly backed enough to get the early bird digital edition. And yes, I will review the game when it comes out. If you decide to back, or have backed already, on behalf of Nobody Studios, thank you.

​Anyways, that's it for now! Oh, I almost forgot the big family photo! Just imagine me as Sora!

Thanks for reading, have a great/night. share if you enjoyed it and take care. 

Written By NanaMarfo

The owner of the Fang model does not wish to be credited.
Lightning and Aqua from Chrissy-Tee
Sora from KylieStylish
Ryu from KSE25

Street Fighter(C)Capcom
Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy(C)Square Enix'
Echo:Our Voice(C)Nobody Studios

So, this game was recommended to me by my good friend HellyonWorks. If you don't know her, I urge you to really check out her art, and give her a commission sometime.  The odd thing is, I knew of Tomb Raider: but it was through the Angelina Jolie movies. I barely remember theme, but I can say they got Lara's personality spot on. But this is a very different game to the one older fans may know.

Rules as always:
1.Spoilers are abounding, and depending on the game, can spoil the experience. While not super story heavy, 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 reviewing the PC Version.

So, what does the reboot have in store for us? This is my review of the rebooted version of Tomb Raider.

Story
Tomb Raider begins with Lara Croft(now a lot younger) heading on expedition into the Bermuda Triangle, and her and her crew considering of Sam, her best friend, Reyes, a mechanical expert, Jonah, a New Zealand cook, Roth ,Lara's Father figure, Grim, the ship captain and Dr.Whitman, the tag along, head to the Bermuda Triangle, and their ship(The endurance) get wreaked, leaving Lara captured and having to find a way to her crew.  After this they try to escape twice and fail, Lara realises 2 thing: Himiko is controlling the storms and Whitman is a traitor. This is very obvious, but to play up the Drama, Sam is the soul needed to revive Himiko. This involves Lara running into a man named Matius, the main villan who we only see a few time, and only wants to review Himiko for the sake of reviving Himiko. Anyways, Matius is defeated, Himiko is destroyed and Lara is prepared to look for the truth. More on that when I get to Rise of the Tomb Raider.

Overall, the story was enjoyable, you can really tell this is a younger Lara Croft who is not experienced at staying out in the wild. There is also a lot of death in this game, but the only one that meant a lot was Roth. Grim we only see once before his sacrifice, and I didn't mention Alex(since he is really insignificance), but his is at least somewhat meaningful, since he wants to be a hero, so he sacrifices himself on the endurance shipwreck. However, Roth means a lot to Lara. Remember, he when he dies, Lara has lost both her father and father figure. I felt very sorry for Lara. Speaking of, compared to the older games(or what I have see of them), she is much more emotional and I think this makes her a better character compared to the old Lara, just because it gives a lot more range than just her being a badass. Though I do need to play the older games.

Gameplay
We have a lot to get through, so buckle up folks. The basic mechanics now involve your bow and arrow, instead of dual pistols. This was my go to weapon, and this because you can get some great upgrades through the salvage system. Salvage can be collected from fallen enemies, but for this and other skills you have to buy this with skill points, which is earned by killing enemies. Honestly while I should be mad about not having this from at the start, I'm not, because of the fact this game takes place in the wild, you have to learn all these skills. Though skill points do take a while to stack up.

Another thing I like is that you don't have buy the extra weapons from a shop, you get them early in the game, and upgrades come through finding parts, or entering secret tombs or challenge tombs. These are small puzzles that shouldn't be too brain taxing, and you will need them for a 100% run of the game(which I wasn't going for, so I missed a lot of them). There are a lot of documents to find, if 16 hours of main story content is not enough for you, but I am satisfied.

You can still climb walls, they have marked paint, and with your axe you can climb certain rocks and attack enemies in close range.However, I don't like the melee system in this game, it feels very sluggish. I get that's the point(more focus on the shooting gameplay), but I think some good melee is also helpful in the wild. 

Still, the guns you get are really nice. A shotgun(my go to in a shooter...when I play them), assault rifle that gets a grenade launcher, and a pistol, with the option to have a sliencer on it. You get FIRE arrows and GRENADE ARROWS. That's awesome. There is a focus on using stealth to get past, and enemies are very aggressive when you go all gun-ho, so go all out with caution.

Finally, their are costumes(which are DLC) that while purely cosmetic, give a different look to Lara depending on what one you are wearing.

Looks, Sound and Final Thoughts
This game looks amazing on PC, though GeForce Experience messed up on giving me the best graphical settings. I will warning you though, the game has a lot of blood and gore, though it makes sense here, considering that this game wants to be more darker than the others. Like I said before, I love the cutscene cinematography in this game. However, in game, there is a lot of quick time events and situations where you are given partial control of Lara. This happens WAY too many times for my liking.

The soundtrack is amazing, but I wouldn't find myself listening to any of these in the street or while working on a project. Still, it works, it's just fitted to the atmospheric. A bit odd.

Overall, I found this to be a great game bar none. Older Tomb Raider fans may find this a bit alienating, as a lot of new elements may leave them alienated, but for new fans, or some one looking for a great game to play, I recommend this game to you. You can get it on Steam, PS3, Xbox 360, or the Definitive edition on PS4 or Xbox One.

Sorry that this took so long! The games I'm currently playing are Action games or RPG, and that does not mesh well with school! I do plan on finishing more games this summer! 

Either way, Thanks for Reading, have a great night, share if it's not too much trouble for you, and take care.

Written By Nana Marfo

Tomb Raider(C) Square Enix

Hey all! We Have A LOT TO COVER today, so let's just dive into it!

It seems recently I am able to take ideas from controversial subjects, and turn the negatives into positive. I can see this as a good thing, but I can also this is bad as I can do it with sensitive subjects.  

But that's besides the point. Anyways the idea came from the divided reaction over the She-Ra redesign. I knew nothing of She-Ra till this, but I find it interesting that women are going off at men (in general) that people that are mad the the design isn't sexy, saying that.. I'll just link to a tweet here(sorry if it's a bit TMI).

Anyways, let me get to the point. I thought about 2 options. 

The first was giving Clare(my female lead from Different Spirits) a lean body bulid, and I have thought about giving Clare muscles(or as Eriquack calls it, making a Character swole), just to highlight the fact she is not weak.

Credit to gravitureboxing on DeviantArt for this image. This is just stuff I think would be a good reference for anatomy. Speaking of, I am trying to rewrite Clare, but I have got nothing thus far. I am also writing a blog on the idea behind Different Spirits, but that may be a long way off.

The other idea would to have a game with a Character that looks like She-Ra(anatomy wise), but at same time, is very quirky and different to how you would think she would act. A good thing about this is that the story would not have to be SUPER DEEP which is what I feel I am doing with Different Spirits,as that is more a love story based on teen love and whatnot. It just needs to have the message: look at emotions, not just looks.

That's all I have on it for now, but let's go into progress on Unity-Chan's Dash! The Big thing is the Character Controller is ready! It is still a bit slippy, but I believe it is better that what we had before. However, to accommodate this, some level design has been adjusted.

I am also happy to say that she has a voice! The Amazingly talented Amanda Fredette agreed to help me out on this! Thanks so much for voicing my character! 

Besides that, I am working hard on a demo reel which I am calling "Nana's Fighting Street". Hopefully there will be a lot to show soon!

That's all for now!  I want to wish everyone competing in the Blogger Blitz 2 good luck! But, as we always do on here, thanks for reading, have a great day/night, share if your enjoyed it, and take care.

Written By Nana Marfo.
​
All content(C) There Respective Owners
She-Ra(C)Mattel

Hey all! I wanted to another deep dive into a topic, and one that I kept seeing around, but I know this one is dancing on firecrackers. Either way, let's get into it. Just as quick not, I will be using Final Fantasy XIII and the Kingdom Hearts games as examples to prove my points, and I do have some bias towards these games.

Now with the self promo out of the way, what happened that promoted this? Scarlet Johansson, some I know for playing Black Widow in the Avengers and Major in a film I still need to see, Ghost in the Shell, was announced to be play a transgender man. Now, I don't not want to turn this into LGBT people need to play LGBT people. I am not a person to put movement into my artform and never will be. But hear my argument out: can't we relate to these characters emotionally, instead of looking at them from face value or gender?

What I mean by this if we look at a character, and take what they look like away from them, do we have similar thought. Do we feel the same feelings towards something or someone? I know this is flawed, but to be honest that is what I did for most of my childhood. I have 2 examples to give here, one from me and one from a friend:

How I emotionally relate to Ventus from Kingdom Hearts

As you can see, this kid looks nothing like me. However, his stories in Birth By Sleep really hit me in the feelings. He really want to make some new friends and has a lot of issues trusting his current friends. I am bit anti-social myself, and do tend to get anxious(which does prevent me from making friends), but like Ventus, I really do want to make some friends. I am slowing getting better , but Ven here has helped me find someone to relate to. Also, is it weird I tend to relate more to video game characters than real people? I don't know, and frankly, I don't care at this point. I am too deep in the video game rabbit hole.

How LightningEllen relates to Lightning

Ellen was another motivator for me to write this. In her article for AmbiGaming, she writes:

Read the full article for more context, but I can see Ellen that has a very deep connection with Lightning. I can also imagine her as my big sister.... but wait till the Final Fantasy XIII review(Hopefully soon). I want to my characters in Different Spirits (Partially Ethan and Clare) in this way so people can connect to these characters in the same way I do.

Anyways, that's it for now! Before I go, I do want to stress that I do have a donation page, and I use everything for this website. If you enjoy this content, want a free wallpaper, or just want to help out, please donate via Buy Me A Coffee.

Thanks for reading, have great day, share if you enjoyed it, and take care.

Written by Nana Marfo

​Extract taken from The Importance of Imaginary Role Models written by LightningEllen for AmbiGaming

​Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts(C)Square Enix

Disclamer,: I have signed an NDA with the company FailBetter Games, therefore I will NOT be talking anything to do with Sunless Skies. This is purely to do with what I did at the company.

For all of you that don't know, FailBetter Games are a studio based in London, who have created the games Fallen London and Sunless Sea. They are currently working on Sunless Skies, but probably due to copyright and NDA reasons, I was told to make my own game TO SHOW OFF IN FRONT OF THE TEAM. OK, now I'm somewhat scared and happy!

I used the week to learn a lot about the studio. The company is very much focused on telling stories using games. The vibe is very chilled, and this means that they are able to focused on art of making games. I asked around on what everyone does from marketing, to narrative designers to programmers.  I really enjoyed this experience, I just wish more companies would do it. 

Anyways, back to what I did. I had a lot of time on my own to make a game, and I think it came out well. The game is a 2.5D platform where you can run and jump. I wanted to add a slide mechanic but it failed. The control is JANK, because I used 2 different scripts for animation and movement. However, for a game made in a week, and my second game completed,this was not half bad. The company 

I made everything besides the textures, the models, the animations and the font. It was a great experience, and if you want to play the game, you can... now! I do plan to add more levels and fix the JANK controls(Just stating that so I don't a million complaints about how crappy the controls are), so please look forward to it! The Level right now should not take you more than 3-5 mins to complete. Also, I have as pay what you want, but you don't need to, and personally, till the game gets more updates, I don't think you should, I just could really use the money.

Anyways, that's it for now! Thanks again to the people a FailBetter Games for a great week! And to all of you, thanks for reading, have a great day/night, share if it's not to much trouble for you and take care.

Written By Nana Marfo

Unity-Chan(C)Unity Technology Japan

So, this was annocenced at E3 and has released as 100% FREE game. But is it worth your time? 

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.

​Been a while since my last review, huh? This is my review of The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit.

Story
We begin with a 10-year-old boy named Chris Eriksen, who loves to tell stories about him being Captain Spirit, in his room on a Saturday Morning.. He lives with his Dad named Charles, who likes to drink, even in front of his kid. He also seems to very violent with Chris, as we see a bruise on Chris arm, something that his dad may have given to him.  From the go, you can tell that the loss of Chris's mother has shaken Chris's dad, meaning that he's now a drunken alcoholic. However, I still get the feeling that he cares.

From here, Chris is told to wake up his Dad when he has finished watching the game, so they can go shopping for a Christmas Tree. After you wake up Dad, you speak to a women named Clare Roberson, and afterward in a gut punching confrontation with the dad, you learn that Chris's mother died in a Car Crash. 

Yep, that it. The story is a bit disappointing this time round, but it makes sense. This is a demo, and they want to give you more of a taster of the world is like. The world revolved are Chris and what he chooses to do, but if you are rushing through the game, you may find it is a bit minimal for a game like this, so I while liked it, it also felt a less enjoyable than Life is Strange Ep.1.

Gameplay

As with Life is Strange Ep.1, the game is mostly choice based. You can walk around your house but unlike Life is Strange, the game is more open world. All of the tasks in this game are optional, and while this works, this is alienating for player who are playing this game and have played Life is Strange 1. I can't speak for Before the Storm, I haven't played Before the Storm. Still, I like the choice. You feel like a kid on a Saturday Morning.

The big change between Life is Strange 1 and Captain Spirit is the superhero actions.

Instead of being able to rewind time, with a press of a button Chris can do superhero actions. In my opinion, this really sells the fact that we are a 10-year-old. Using the power of IMAGINATION is always cool, and I can't wait to see what they will do with it in Life is Strange 2.

Looks, Sound and Final Thoughts

The game looks great! The graphics seem slightly touched up from look of the first game. I am also really happy to say the facial animations are much better than the first game, but I feel they still need some work. 

One thing, I can never fault Dontnod for though, is their music choices. Death with Dignity is a perfect fit for this sort of game.

Overall, I can say I enjoyed this game. While the story may not be there, the new gameplay features and music were enough to draw me into the game. If you are an fan of Life is Strange, or plan to get Life is Strange 2, get this, it is 100% FREE! However, I will say don't get if your a newcomer to the franchise. Play the original first.

Either Way, thanks for reading, have a great day/night, share if you enjoyed and take care! 

Written By Nana Marfo

The Awesome Adventure of Captain Spirit/Life Is Strange (C) Square Enix/Dontnod Entertainment 

Hey all! This is a bit different from what I do, but it's E3! I am going to go through the games/DLC that I am looking forward to! None are in any order of importance besides the last one.. THAT'S THE MOST IMPORTANT.

So, without further ado, here we...GO!

Unravel 2
I have never played Unravel, but this looks very interesting. A co-op puzzle platformer with Yarn as a gimmick? Neat! The game is out now for PC, PS4 and Xbox One.

Sea of Solitude
Game of EA's Conference. A girl named Kay is suffering from such from extreme loneliness that it turns her into a monster. The game deals with dark human emotions, and I hope they are not very "in your face" about. Also is Kay voiced by Willa Holland? The game comes out early 2019.

Ori and the Will of the Wisps

I have not played "Ori and the Blind Forest" but this is very intriguing. I like the look of the game, and it seems like a nice platformer. It launches in 2019 for Xbox and PC via the Windows Store.

Sekro:Shadow Die Twice

This is a new game by the creators of Dark Souls, along with Activation. It looks like Onimusa to me. Might not keep a close eye on it, but it looks good to say the least. The game is out in 2019 for PS4, Xbox One and PC.

The Awesome Adventures of Capitain Spirt

This is by the Life is Strange devs! And it looks awesome! I can't wait to play this. We're a young kid with superhero powers, and in a lone parent home. The game is out on June 26 100% FREE for PS4, Xbox One and PC via Steam. Expect a review!

Devil May Cry 5

I DID NOT SEE THIS COMING. I haven't played any of the games, but thanks to a friend for letting me know this game will centered around Nero, the protagonist of DMC4. Seriously, I thought this was DmC2 for a second, but between this and Megaman 11, Capcom is earning trust back! I will give it a try for sure. The game is out Spring 2019 for PS4, Xbox One and PC.

Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition

I have been really into my JRPG's as of late, and this seems interesting, since I have never tried a Tales game. There will also be content "Never seen before in the west". Again, interesting. The game is out this winter for PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

GAME OF MICROSOFT'S CONFERENCE. Man, I love the way the gameplay is looking! Gwen, thanks for getting me into Tomb Raider. The game is out September 14th for PS4, Xbox One and PC.

Cyberpunk 2077
Nothing Much here, but I liked what I saw in the traller. Game has no release window for the moment.

Babylon's Fall
This looks pretty good. Platinum Games is a very competent developer, so I can't wait to see what happens. The games is out in 2019 for PS4 and PC via Steam.

Beyond Good and Evil 2
This game was shown last year for Ubisoft at a much better press conference, but they started with it this time, and it looks very interesting. I know a bit about the original game, so I have some knowledge of what could happen. 

Daemon X Machina​

My goodness this game looks good. I don't know too much else, but this game looks amazing. The game is out 2019 for Nintendo Switch.

Super Smash Bros Ultimate
Nintendo know how to pull out the stops. How about EVERY CHARACTER FROM SMASH EVERY GAME. AND DAISY. AND RIDLEY. Man, I need to get consoles! The game is out December 7, 2019 for Nintendo Switch.

Team Sonic Racing
​
This wasn't very prominent , but I think it looks like Sonic and Sega All-Stars without the Sega All Stars.As an avid Sonic fan, consider Me interested. The game is out this winter for PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and PC.

And now, Ladies and Gentleman... my Game of E3 is...
​

KINGDOM HEARTS III

Before I go into why I need to get 2 things out of the way(Traller Spoilers below!!!):

I can't stop smiling at Kairi! She is best Girl! 

Anyways, we got so much! Sorry for spoiling a bit, but I love everything about this game so far! It was also just everywhere, one traller at Microsoft, one at Square Enix presentation and one at the Sony Conference, I love it! The game comes out January 29, 2019 for PS4 and Xbox One(Nomura can we get a PC version? PLEASE??).

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 Games(C)Their Respective Owners.

So, I don't want to make it a habit that I write First Impressions for games, but I felt with this game being heavy on the story, and episodic, this was one that needed it. 

I kept hearing about this game, and it's prequel, Before The Storm, but I really got to try it until now. 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.

Also, I know this game covers sensitive topics, which I may talk about, but besides maybe teens smoking, I will not show as a screencap.

Enough Lead-In. This is my 1st impressions of Life Is Strange.

Story

If you have played this game, you know this is the real reason you play the game. Maxine(Max) Caulfield is a photography student who has been having visions of the forest and lighthouse breaking within her town of Arcadia Bay, which is based on a real life place called Tillmook Bay in Oregon. She finds herself in the bathroom having to stop a shooting of student and best friend Chloe Price. If you have played or seen Before the Storm, you will know who this character is. From her we find out Max is able to rewind time.

The person who attempted to shoot Chloe was one Nathan Prescot, who we don't learn much about, but Chloe tried to use him pay $3,000 that she owes to her dealer. Max has to deal with Victoria, self righteous stuck up bitch who we have to throw paint in order get into the dorm.

It turns out that Max has been in Seattle for 5 years, and Chloe is kinda pissed about that. She then takes her to the Light house and Forest, and she realises she has to stop a storm that is coming to the Bay.

Overall, I think the story works as both a standalone, and setup for the bigger picture. While the game is story-heavy, I feel that it's not overwhelming. Max and Chloe are great characters, and they are really relatable. I feel though that Chloe will become the Main Character, and Max will represent the player's viewpoint, which while it works here, may become disjointed.

Gameplay

For the sake of the saving the full overlook for the full review, I will just go over the basics. Max can't do much besides walk and run, and her photography side is underplayed.

Max can interact with certain objects, which I have to say is very clunky. You have to hover over the object, but that can be a problem when you have multiple objects, then press the look button over the mouse. It's becomes frustrating at points.

The last thing I will talk about it the fact that Max can REWIND TIME AT ANY POINT IN THE GAME. This is not a game breaker...YET. It is however interesting to uses time to see the different outcomes.

Looks, Sound and Final Thoughts

The game looks great with a combo of realistic models, and cel-shading. The animations on the other hand... are really jarring. The faces barely move. And they did use Mo-Cap for this, and this in some cases is worse than what I've seen from Mass Effect Androimida. But I can't not let that get in the way of an amazing soundtrack! Very Atmospheric, almost all of it is acoustic, and the vocal Songs really suits the characters.

Shoutout to this song in particular:

Max, you have really good taste.  The voice acting also does really lift the the presentation value. I really like Hannah Telle as Max and Ashly Burth as Chloe.

Overall, I think that Episode 1 is a really good start to Life is Strange. I am intrequited to see how it goes on from here.

Thanks for reading, have yourselves a great day/night, share if you enjoyed it and take care.

Written by Nana Marfo

Life Is Strange and Life is Strange: Before the Storm(C) Square Enix/Dontnod Entertainment

So, we have reached 10 Gameworks. Fitting since I started blogging about a year ago.  I want to thank everyone who has read my blog, liked it, shared it, made their friends read it anything of the sort.I also want to thank you all of helping me reaching 130+ view in a day on Sunday.

Anyways, on to the usual.

Project Table Ball is proceeding smoothly. So far I have been learning how to use ProBulider instead of Blender Designed levels.What you see below is a very rushed ProBulider test level.

Also the thing that you see there that the ball is going to collect? It's a USB! The game will be themed around "Things you would find around the table". Since I live a house with a lot of computers(How do you think I got into games and tech so much) I decided to do that.

Different Spirits is kinda on my backlog ATM. I have been taking a course that is helping my game story writing skills, in order to improve my script. Besides that, I am now starting a quick summer hobby project(unpaid, sorry), to render a still from this project, and I am now hiring! I am looking for a:

-Character Modeller
-Environment Designer 

If you have any experience at all in these fields, please email me at marfo343@gmail.com.

I have started working on a quiz game(because of the fact I need learn it for my computing coursework). I have also be learn Mechaim in Unity, and I am refining my Axl Character Controller(might use it for a game prototype)

But That's it for now! Going to level with you all, June is going to be a crazy month. Open Days, exams and of course, E3. Don't worry. I'll get through it. I always do.

Either way, thanks for reading, have a great day/night, share if you liked it and take care.

​Written By Nana Marfo

Hey Everyone! Today I wanted you guys to to know how I make my Demo Reels/ShowReels. This is not going to do into too much detail, but I do expect you too know a few keythings such as what renders are, what in engine footage is and, so on.

The first(and in my opinion, always first) thing you should do, is choose the music. This is key to me because it sets the tone for what you are going to be showing. The first 2 I have done(Check out my YouTube Channel if you want to see them), were more about showing off my first small projects, and first game in terms of the second one. 

I chose Lightning's Theme's to give a more gracious vibe to this demo reel. The main thing I wanted to show off was my updated character controller(using rigidbody physics instead of the Unity Character Controller) as well as some rigging setups and hair physics. 

I like my content to flow with the music, in order to make up for not have any special effects in my video edits. 

Because I tend to use a lot the same models, it is easy to show improvement, and I also have some projects that are exactly the same.

This time, I also added some footage of me working, to show the process of how I use node setups, lighting setup, and so on. This is a big thing for this demo reel in particular, because of the fact that there a lot of work required is unseen, and I wanted to show it off in this case. Because of all of this, I can say this is the most stress inducing thing I have ever done.

Anyways, it's here for you all to watch! Please give me some feedback, I would love to improve.

Furthermore, I have started using character creation programs to create characters! I am currently using Manual Bastoni and MakeHuman. which both have their problems. Manual Bastoni doesn't allow me to use characters that under 18(not good for me, I want to work with 15-16 year old characters), and MakeHuman takes a while to figure out. I haven't made anything in Manual Bastoni, but It took me a day to make something even quarter decent in MakeHuman.(Warning:Pictures below maybe not safe for work).

I want to apologise the lack of content recently. School has kept me busy, as well as life. I also haven't been watching anime due to the busyness, so there's that. It should be over by June, so I will be more consistent in the summer!

Thanks for reading, have a great day/night, share if it's not too much trouble for you and take care.

Written by Nana Marfo

Models are created in the video descripition

Manual Bastoni is an addon for Blender 2.79

MakeHuman(C)AGPL

Unity(C)Unity Technologies

Blender(C)Blender Foundations

Hey everybody! So I was going to do the Fig Jam, but I have a lot going on at the moment, and I couldn't think of anything to go with the theme. School has also kept me busy, but I managed to start work on new learning project. I am calling it the extended project, which will help learn how to make combat systems that don't involve guns or FPS movement and HUD and UI features, as well as learning the Unity partical system. Keep an eye on my twitter for updates.

In terms of my art work, I am slowly experimenting with different lighting set ups, in order to create better looking renders. I am really enjoying it so far, but I have to say, it is the hardest part of making renders, because god damn, it's hard.

I am also slowing learning 3D modelling! Something I never though I could do. It's nice to get it out of the way, and the project I am doing it for is really helping me to learn how work in a team.

Finally, I will say the script writing is going well, and ideas are flowing fast. I even have ideas on the charaters will wear. Next time, I will take you through my demo reel process, and test my VA skills.

Thanks for reading, have a great day/night, share if it's not too much trouble for you, and take care.

Written by Nana Marfo
Models from:
Kingdom Hearts
Kingdom Hearts II
Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep

Kingdom Hearts(C)Square Enix.

So, I have been testing renders with HDR lighting. I did 2 this past week, one of a Custom Tifa Model:

(I copied a pose by Katuya Moonfox). This one I was not too happy with, as the lighting sort of failed in what it was suppose st to do, which was make a realistic setting. The light is over-exposed(though that may be because I had to move the HDR plane behind the focus, meaning it had to show), taking away from the model in focus. The Rig wasn't great either. I forgot to do the thumbs. That is someting you should never, ever do. 

Anyway, my big question is what is the best set-up for HDR lighting in Blender? My current setup is this:

I have also been testing some ideas for a fighting game prototypes. I have been using a model of Yuffie from KH1(KH2 models don't like to work with my rigs for some odd reason).

So far a few animation and technical scripting has been done, but it is no where ready to show to you guys yet. 

Anyways, that is it for now! I have exams at the start of the month next month, so I will be a little less active for a few days from then! 

Either way, thanks for reading, have yourselves a great day/night, share if it's not to much trouble for you, and take care.

Written by Nana Marfo

Models used from Games:
Lightning Reterns :Final Fantasy XIII
Kingdom Hearts 
​
Cosplayer Credits:
Katyuska Moonfox(She also does game design, check out her other twitter for that)