Every so often there comes along a game that seems to captivate me with its magical setting, adorable characters and heartwarming plot. Games that do this normally are some of the best ever made, and the game I'm talking about today - albeit based on a 14 hour experience of a supposedly 60 or so hour game - hits home very very well, especially for a Japanese Role Playing Game.
Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch is a game developed by Namco Bandai with animation done by the world-renowned Studio Ghibli. The basic plot is that a young boy named Oliver has lost his mother due to a heart Condition and he has to go to a magical world with a 'fairy' named Mr. Drippy to save her. Along the way he meets many magical people, visits strange and unique places and an expansive fantasy world to explore. It's safe to say that Ni no Kuni goes along the usual Studio Ghibli plot about young people and loss, but it's not necessarily the plot or characters that interest me - it's the fantastic setting. I don't think I have ever played a game with a world as expansive and as magical as this. Not even Rieze Maxia in Tales of Xillia comes close to the size and charmfullness of this games world. It's a massive open expanse filled with caves and interesting places to go, and the towns are brimming with charm, personality and character. It's probably the best setting to any RPG I have ever played.
Another strong point is how deep the actual gameplay is. Yes there's a tutorial but it's never really intrusive (apart from one point about 6-8 hours in). There's so much to do in this game it's unnatural. There's Alchemy, brewing, bounty hunts, fetch quests, catching familiars, raising familiars and battling monsters. Battling is sort of like a mixture between turn based and real time combat. You can run around the battlefield in real time but you have to pick commands from the menu. It's a very strategic system since you have to chose what familiars are best for each battle and monster.
Finally, the presentation of Ni no Kuni is again fantastic. The animation done by Studio Ghibli is top notch as expected of them and the in game graphics look really nice and unique. The world looks very well done and again, each area is different to the last in terms of personality and looks. On a musical front, Joe Hisashi's compositions are a joy to the ears. The overworld theme and PS3 battle theme (The DS version has a different one for some reason) are quite spectacular.
You know, once in a while there comes along an anime that can totally surprise you, especially when people you know bash the show to bits (this happened with Neon Genesis Evangelion too). However, I do love surprises, especially when it comes to anime. Now, while I don't think today's anime is the best thing ever (or even the best anime of Last Year: Shingeki no Kyojin takes the top spot there for me), I do think that it's one of the more refreshing anime I have seen in recent times.
Studio Trigger's Kill la Kill
Kill la Kill takes place in a sort of advanced but still modern Japan mainly in a school known as Honnouji Academy. The story centers around Ryuko Matoi and her quest to find out the murderer of her father, with the only evidence of the crime being half of a giant scissor left inside her fathers body. With this in mind, Ryuko heads off to Honnouji Academy, and finds out that it's a totalitarian school that's basically run by the Student Council President, Satsuki Kiryuin. Satsuki runs the school out of fear with her super powered uniforms, the Goku Uniforms (not sure if Dragon Ball reference or not) which give the students super powers based on their star-ratings: The more stars, the more powerful the Goku Uniform. Ryuko challenges Satsuki to a fight, but loses and is severely under-powered to be able to take on Satsuki. She heads back to the destroyed home of her deceased father, and vows to take revenge on Satsuki. Then, out of nowhere, Ryuko falls underground and discovers a black sailor uniform which she dubs "Senketsu". With Senketsu draining Ryuko's blood, Ryuko swears to get to the bottom of her fathers murder and find the culprit once and for all, whether it be Satsuki or otherwise. What I like about this story compared to every other revenge story in anime is the unpredictability of the plot twists and how batshit insane it gets sometimes. It's a fresh take on the magical girl anime and while unlike Madoka Magika which deconstructed the genre, Kill la Kill embraces it's genre and takes it on a wild acid trip which completely entertains from beginning to end.
The characters are some the strongest and weakest points of Kill la Kill. On one end of the scale we have pretty damn good characters like Ryuko Matoi and Satsuki Kiryuin and on the other end we have horrible characters such as Mako Mankanshouku and Harime Nui. I like Ryuko for her resolve and strength which reminds me a lot of Eren Jaeger from Shingeki no Kyojin. She's strong and has a sight on her goal which she never lets go of now matter how convoluted her view becomes sometimes, although she's not my favourite character, by far. That honour goes to Satsuki Kiryuin, the Student Council President in Honnouji Academy. Her strength, her ability, her form are flawless. If I was one of those weebs who claimed to have an anime waifu, it would probably be Satsuki (with Rin from Rin: Daughters of Mnemosyne coming second). She is second to none, with interesting character development to back her up, a strong voice provided by the amazingly talented Ryouka Yuzuki and some of my favourite quotes from a recent anime. Like I said though, this cast is not all good. Mako can be plainly annoying at times with her stupid antics and her nonsense (although she was the source of one pretty damn good GIF) and Haime Nui just pissed me off every time she was on screen and she's one of my most hated female anime characters alongside Asuna Yuuki and Kotonoha from School Days.
Animation-wise, Kill la Kill is sometimes REALLY good, but other times it's pretty bad. The action scenes are more often than not draw droppingly beautiful and gorgeously choreographed, but other times mainly during the slice of life stuff, the animation takes a turn for the worst in quality and it looks really unpleasing to the eye. Character designs look pretty good and unique (Mako is kind of generic though) and the frame rate is solid for the most part while taking a drop every once in a while.
The soundtrack to Kill la Kill was composed by Hiroyuki Sawano, who also composed the 2013 mega hit Shingeki no Kyojin, which has to be my favourite soundtrack to anything ever. While I don't think it's as memorable, Kill la Kill's OST is pretty damn good and it's two openings, Sirius and ambiguous are two of my favourite anime openings, although the two ending themes are so damn forgettable it hurts.
Overall, Kill la Kill is a fun ride with some bumps in it's proverbial road. While I don't think it's the 'savior of anime' or anything like that, I personally think it's worth watching. While some of the characters are truly horrible and the animation becomes sub-par sometimes, it's one of the better anime that were release last year.
Every once in a while, you'll stumble across something that is very difficult to put into words. Anime are very good at doing this for some unexplainable reason. To attribute it to the writing, or the storyline, or the characters or animation is hard since explaining how you feel about the show is really just an amalgamation of thought. It's like trying to explain to someone how great the movie Titanic (1997) is as a testosterone filled male (not saying it's only women who enjoy Titanic I'm just following the stereotype), it's just really hard to do so. Words are hard to find in some cases. Today, I face my biggest challenge yet, in the form of an anime based off of a very dark manga series.
Aku no Hana (Flowers of Evil) by Zecxs.
Now, where do I begin with this show....may as well start with the story as I usually do. At the start of the story, and by that I mean the first half of Episode One, Aku no Hana things seem fairly standard for a drama anime set in a Japanese middle school. Our protagonist, Takao Kasuga, is someone who classifies himself as "better than everyone else" because he reads books, his favourite being the infamous (and real) book Flowers of Evil by Charles Baudelaire. He has a crush on one Saeki Nanako, a girl who is top of their class and is, by Kasuga's standard's a "muse" and his "femme fatale". After forgetting his prized Flowers of Evil at school, he runs back to school to get it. As he leaves with his book back in his possession, a gym bag falls to the floor from the shelf - Saeki's to be exact. Because he is so infatuated with Saeki, he brings home her gym bag and does...things with it (we don't see these things but we are told he rubbed her gym uniform all over himself because he's a "twisted sicko"). Unbeknown to Kasuga, another student, Suga Nakamura sees him take the uniform. The next day, Suga informs Kasuga of his mischief and threatens to tell everyone about what he has done. Kasuga begs her not to, and return for not telling everybody, Kasuga must sign a "contract" with Suga. From here on in, the show adopts a very twisted story about how to handle sin, grief, insanity and dealing with how you have hurt others. While it does have a really tense climax, the ending teases you with scenes from the supposed second season (which I'm not sure if it's in production or not) which leaves the show on an absolutely gigantic cliffhanger which, unless you're going to read the manga, you may not get to see the end of. The show's tone is extremely dark, but I think it works perfectly. The pacing is done well and the characters are all developed very well (considering you only have to care about three of them it was a lot easier on the production team to develop them all) and the show is full of some absolutely unforgettable emotional moments. When watching keep a special eye out on Episode Ten, it's something that will make your jaw hit the floor.
I don't think that I'll go really in-depth to any characters for this review, however, I do want to talk about them in general. The three main characters that make up the Aku no Hana story - Saeki, Kasuga and Suga - all have something that make them special. Kasuga is someone who cannot accept his true self and tries to mask his life by reading books all the time to make him feel better about himself and worsen his opinion on other people to, again, make him feel better about himself. He's a very anxious character, always afraid of what twisted things Suga has in store for him when it comes to fulfilling his end of the contract. Speaking of Suga, I didn't think anybody could be more sadistic and twisted than Beatrice from Umineko no Naku Koro ni but holy mother of God, Suga takes the cake. She is a bloody sadist and wants to watch Kasuga destroy himself and unmask himself. Why? Because she wants him to be like her. She wants to make Kasuga feel like the sicko he really is under those layers that comprise his mask. She is absolutely brutal...and yet there's a weird charm about her. I like her absolute weird way of destroying Kasuga...if that makes any sense. Then we have Saeki, who has some depth but not a lot. Most of the time when she's on screen she's just wondering about what Kasuga is thinking and how it affects her. She's a decent character but she's easily the worst in the show. The cast of Aku no Hana is deep, intricate and emotionally touching but twisted, sick and absolutely evil at the same time. It's by far my favourite anime cast of all time, even if it's a small cast marred by a lacklustre Saeki.
Time to review the animation, and again, Aku no Hana employs a very different art style which uses Rotoscoping to give the show a realistic look. This results in a very beautiful looking, yet sometimes jarring show. It's beautiful because of how amazing the backgrounds look and how well proportioned the characters are. They make the show's setting seem very believable and thankfully this anime doesn't use the traditional anime art style of HUUUUGE FREAKING EYES and Moe as hell characters, it uses people who actually look like real Japanese people. It's jarring in the sense that the lip movements are off a bit and it's really distracting, but other than that movement it extremely fluid and very unique.
I won't spend too long talking about the sound since there's not a lot of songs on the soundtrack but what I will say is that the soundtrack is bloody A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. Seriously, this soundtrack is fucking unreal. While there's not a lot of tracks, the four openings and the one stunning, beautiful, amazing, tragic and twisted ending theme make up for it.
In conclusion....this show is bloody brilliant. Classified as a "Thriller, Horror, Shonen, Drama, Slice of Life, romance" and "Tragic", Aku no Hana ticks all of those boxes and is one pf the all time greatest stories told in an anime. The journey our three characters go through, the emotional torture, the pain, the sorrow you feel it all. It's a sad story...but it's one worth experiencing. Aku no Hana gives Shingeki no Kyojin a run for it's money in terms of what was 2013's best anime...
Ahhh, next-gen gaming. Or rather, current-gen gaming since all 3 consoles are upon us. Also, this will be my first time reviewing a realistic simulation game. Fancy. So, what shall we be delving into today? Well....it's an Xbox One exclusive (GASP)
Forza Motorsport 5 by Turn 10 Studios.
Forza's plot....is non-existent. So, one of the categories I rate highly in a game is missing. This is to be expected though, after all this is a realistic racing simulator. So let's focus on that realism factor, shall we? The factors I'm looking at are how the cars compare to their real life counterparts and how well the tracks look compared to their counterparts in real life. In this aspect, Forza Motorsport 5 blows anything Sony has ever done out of the water. While the car selection is limited compared to Forza 4 or Gran Turismo 6 (VERY limited in fact) the way the cars look - especially in ForzaVista mode (what is it with Microsoft and Vista?) are very well detailed and are up to scratch with their real live Counterparts. So everything is damn well perfect in this aspect. Cars perform the way they do in the real world and the tracks are very accurate down to minor details.
In the gameplay department, Forza 5 is a racing simulator (minus Formula One which is licensed by Code Masters of all people) so depth isn't really what you're looking for in this game. What you want is a real, customizable and almost true to life racing experience which gets the blood pumping and makes you feel like Sebastian Vettel. Is Forza 5 a good racing game? To play? Well, it is...but compared to 4 it's lacking in areas. For one, Forza 5 is lacking over 100+ cars that Forza 4 had. Also, a lot of the cars you have to get in the game are locked away behind DLC walls you have to pay for. Even if you pay for them, you then have to wait until you have enough Forza Credits in order to actually use the car (The Bugatti Veyron SS immediately comes to mind. DLC and it costs over 1 Million Forza Credits >.<). Driving however is what matters, and driving with the Xbox One's Impulse Triggers has never felt so good. You can feel EVERY bump, crevice and crack in the road. The controls are responsive and super precise, and for a Forza game I wouldn't have it any other way. there is a reason why I think Forza is the best racing sim out there...even if this game has too much Paid DLC behind it. It's a good start to the first true next gen racing sim, but if Forza 6 has this much Paid DLC....this series may fall from it's high perch.
Graphically...this is hard to judge. Since this is new hardware, I'm not going to go too easy or too hard on the game, so I'll judge it on how it actually looks rather than it's potential of what the console can achieve. For an Xbox One launch title....this is certainly good. Everything has so much detail, and that 8GB RAM certainly shows it's power here. Flawless 60FPS racing with no drops and again, detail is key here, such as smoke coming off of brakes as they heat up or steam when water touches them. It's the little things like this that go a long way in next gen gaming. Cras look STUNNING in ForzaVista mode, with extremely minute stitching done perfectly.
In the Audio department, I'm being honest here, probably the most dull soundtrack in any game. When Forza 2 - a game from 2007 on the Xbox 360 - has a better soundtrack than a cutting edge, next gen game something is off here. I feel as though Turn 10 didn't really care about it, and they should've. Apart from the voices of Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond, there's nothing noteworthy in this soundtrack.
Overall, Forza Motorsport 5 is brilliant one minute and full of confusion the next. It's fun and good looking but sounds bland and has a tonne of paid DLC behind it. For what it is though, it does it's job well although I would recommend Forza 4 over it any day simply because it has way more content.
Crossovers are the stuff of dreams. Two or more brands coming together in a mash-up, what more could you want? Whether it's a planned crossover or a complete accidental one, they mostly go well. Today's crossover is composed of two things you would never think would actually go together, but they surprisingly mix somewhat well.
Square Enix's strange tale, only known as Kingdom Hearts. A crossover of Disney and Final Fantasy.
(Reviewers note: The following review is of the 2013 HD Remaster: Kingdom Hearts Final Mix HD)
Kingdom Hearts is the tale of Sora, a young 14 year old boy who dreams of seeing the world with his friends. After a very trippy opening (complete with badly translated but catchy as fuck J-Pop), we see that he lives on Destiny Islands, a collection of isolated islands somewhere in the world that Sora, Riku and Kairi - his friends - live in. Sora, Riku and Kairi decide to build a raft hat will take them to new places and new worlds, places beyond their wildest dreams....until something goes wrong during the middle of the night.
Meanwhile, at a castle somewhere in the universe, the king - Mickey Mouse - has gone missing, leaving only a letter in his stead. Pluto brings this letter to Goofy the Knight and Donald the Mage. Donald makes it his mission to try and find the king, so he decides to go to Traverse Town, a place between worlds. It's here where he meets with Sora (who was exiled from his world) and Squall Leonheart...y'know, that totally emo protagonist from Final Fantasy VIII. Initially, Sora doesn't trust either Donald or Squall, since he's still in shock over not knowing where he is or where his friends are. All he knows is that the key that he holds in his possession - The Kingdom Key - holds some sort of significance to the balance of all worlds. Soras journey to rid the universe of the Heartless takes him across many famous Disney worlds, such as Agrabah from Aladdin and Wonderland. The plot by itself is pretty good I must say. It's lighthearted and entertaining for kids and complex and intricate for the adults. If I could criticize one thing, it's the sometimes unbearable writing. The game constantly goes on about hearts and darkness and the light and sometimes it just get's annoying. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the plot, but it needs a bit more work to be perfect. Some people call it bad Final Fantasy fan fiction, and I can see why, but I can't see why people think the plot is the worst thing ever.....
If you were expecting a Final Fantasy game from Kingdom Hearts as far as gameplay goes, you'd be quite mistaken. Kingdom Hearts envokes a more Legend of Zelda styled Action oriented gameplay style, rather than the traditional JRPG Menu-Based system that Final Fantasy had been using since 1987. Part Platformer, Part Action game and Part Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts is officially classified as an Action RPG. Battles are not random and take place in real time. There is a menu to switch between four commands, all of which are executed via the X button. Sora can jump with Circle, interact with things with Triangle and when equipped with correct attributes, can perform certain actions with Square. Kingdom Hearts is a very customizable game, since you can customize everything minus your appearance. Partner AI, abilities, Keyblade's and Items (in the sense that you can assign specific items to specific Party Members) are all customizable and I love this about the game. What I do NOT like is the platforming. Sora's jump is almost uncontrollable. It's like one of the NES Castlevania games, you better jump exactly right or you're not going to make the jump. It's a real hindrance on what could've been something truly amazing.
Graphically well, I'm sure back in 2002, this game was stunning. For an early enough PlayStation 2 title, Kingdom Hearts is passable. i love it's art style and character models, but the environments that are made specifically for the game (places such as Traverse Town and Hollow Bastion) don't really look all that good to me. The HD ReMIX adds a HD filter and redoes some of the models, but even then those environments don't really impress me that much.
The Soundtrack sorta surprised me when I first saw the name of the composer: Yoko Shimomioura. When I first saw that name over the Final Fantasy veteran Nobou Uematsu's, I was slightly concerned. Thankfully, Kingdom Hearts has an exemplary soundtrack. Something that fits everyone's tastes, from the serene yet slightly sad Dearly Beloved, to the intense and mysterious Night of Fate, the soundtrack to Kingdom Hearts is truly amazing.
Overall, this is not one to be missed. Even though it has some patchy writing and slightly outdated graphics, Kingdom Hearts is a game that someone - fans of Disney and Final Fantasy alike - should never miss out on. It's got a few quirky moments sure, but it's not a bad game, but a great game. You can get it on PS2, either in it's original state or the Japanese only Final Mix, which add's a few new plot elements to the mix, or on the PS3 as part of the Kingdom Hearts I.5 HD ReMIX collection, based off the Japanese Final Mix.
Until now, many people attributed storytelling as sort of an afterthought in gaming, since well, games are all about how hey play, right? You could either have an amazing story and a mediocre game (See Beyond Two Souls) or vice versa (See Final Fantasy X). Sure, there are games like Shadow of the Colossus that have a story that has a real impact on you, but there's never been anything so close to a realistic and satisfying story as today's game.
Naughty Dog's The Last of Us, exclusive to the PlayStation 3.
The Last of Us begins in the year 2013 with Joel and his daughter Sarah. In the middle of the night, something crazy begins happening in their town, with reports of people biting one another and acting extremely out of the ordinary. Joel tries to evacuate the town but in a mix up in military command, the military is forced to shoot any civilians they come across. Joel is saved by his brother Tommy, but Sarah dies from her injuries. Fast forward twenty years later, Joel has become a man with one hell of a beard. He lives in a sectioned off part of an American city due to the infection that has been spreading around, which is what caused people to go loopy in 2013. Joel is a smuggler, who has been making his way around the city with his partner Tess via secret tunnels built by a rebel group known as the Fireflies. One Day, Joel and Tess' guns are stolen from them, so they decide to give the man who took them a visit. He says that he sold them to the Firefly leader. The Firefly leader promises to give their guns back on one condition: Smuggle a 14 year old girl by the name of Ellie to the US West Coast. From here, the journey Joel and Ellie make is one that is simply too good to spoil. It's fantastically written and well paced with a tonne of heart wrenching and difficult moments.
The Last of Us is categorized as an Action/Survival Horror game, and in all fairness, I couldn't agree more. Players familiar with Naughty Dog's other PS3 behemoth, Uncharted should be familiar with the very good and excellent control scheme. What makes the gameplay fun in this game is the Survival aspect. Everything you have in The Last of Us is limited, weapons, ammo, health etc is all limited by what the game gives you. On harder difficulties, you have to make some seriously hard decisions when it comes to upgrading your items. Do you increase the clip size of your handgun or do you sharpen the barrel to make it fire faster? It's all blended in with a unique stealth mechanic. With the R2 trigger held down, Joel's hearing heightens, detecting footprints of nearby enemies. Avoiding combat in this game is almost a necessity. You will get killed "a fuck tonne of lot" if you decide to go in on a clicker guns blazing. The game's difficulty will be a turn off for some sure, but it's well worth it for the plot in the end. Every decision you make could mean life or death in this game, so choose your path carefully.
With the possible exception of 2010's Heavy Rain, I honestly think that The Last of Us is - without a doubt - the best looking video game ever made. It has such a high production value that it's unreal. Everything you walk through, be it just a tuft of grass or a large bush reacts to your movements. Environments look drop dead gorgeous and the character models are probably the best I've seen in any game ever made. The expression and detail on their faces and their body language is only rivaled by the games that Quantic Dream make. It's a marvel and an achievement.
In the sound department, The Last of Us has an extremely depressing soundtrack, but yet that's a good thing. It fits well with the games sense of dread and hopelessness and the need to survive. A lot of the songs are played on the acoustic guitar with another, lower guitar providing the bassline, and it works really well. The voice acting is without a doubt one of the games highlights. I have to say fair play to the actors/actresses for the job they did. The emotion they exude almost seems real and genuine at times.
The Last of Us has often been described as not only the best game ever made, but gamings Citizen Kane moment. A technical and emotional marvel, you'd think that I thought this game was perfect, right? Well, while I do think it's very good, It's a tad over rated. It's an amazing game no doubt, but it didn't become my favourite game ever. I highly recommend you play this game, hell, get a PS3 just to play this game. It's worth it.
Story: 10
Gameplay: 9 Graphics: 9.8 Sound: 10 Personal Enjoyment: 9.4
Ahhh the good old Japanese Role Playing Game. There's something about them that just really appeals to me. Whether it's the rewarding experience of seeing your character growing stronger as time passes on or the complex plotlines or the beautiful graphics, it's some one of those that made games like The Last Story. Final Fantasy VII and Dragon Quest VIII so memorable to me. Today's game is special as it's also my pick for 2013 Game of the Year.
Namco's incredible Tales of Xillia, an exclusive for the PlayStation 3.
Tales of Xillia takes place in the magical realm of Rieze Maxia, a place where humans and spirits live in harmony. Human's have been researching into finding some way of using spirit's artes without using up their mana with the use of a device called a Spyrix. A Spyrix however is dangerous to spirits, and so, the lord of spirits itself is taking action. Enter Milla Maxwell, a "busty twenty year old" who is the human incarnation of the Lord of Spirits, Maxwell. In the country of Rashugal, the king has been experimenting on his own members of public with spyrix technology, effectively killing the population, and Milla finds herself going to the capital to stop them. Enter Jude Mathis, an honours medical student who stumbles upon Milla's raid of the Fennmont Research Laboratory where all these experiments are being conducted. The 60+ hour journey that Milla accidentally brings Jude on is one of trust, friendship, slight romance and growth. It's a basic save the world plot sure, but the characters save it from being flat. Teepo - while annoying at times - can be really funny and Alvin is pretty interesting too. It's unique and has a very diverse cast of characters.
Tales of Xillia is your typical JRPG. You explore a huge fantasy world collecting items, looting chests, talking to townsfolk and battling monsters to gain EXP and level up. What sets it apart though is it's battle system and it's level system. Battle's are triggered when you walk into an enemy on the field. The battles in Tales of Xillia take place in real time compared to the standard menu driven systems in traditional JRPG's. You can also be any member of the party, although this must be assigned before battle in the menu. In battle, characters must work together to beat enemies by linking together. When linked, they can use Linked Spirit Artes and Chain Linked Spirit Artes, which are really powerful attacks. The best thing about this system is that you can choose who you want to fight in the party and switch them out mid battle at any time and you can choose who you can be linked with at any time too. This allows for an amazingly fast paced battle system (some battles taking as quick as 3 seconds) with a lot of tactical precision needed and strategy too.
Leveling is different thanks to the Lillium Orb mechanic. Characters still gain EXP like a traditional JRPG (even if they didn't participate in battle) but when they level up, the gain around 3-4 GP. GP is then used in the Lillium Orb to increase certain attributes such as Intelligence, Agility, Max HP and so on. While this may seem extremely customizable, it's actually very linear as you're being led along a grid to unlock skills as you go along leveling attributes. It's like the Sphere Grid in Final Fantasy X or the Crystarium in Final Fantasy XIII/XIII-2.
Graphically, Tales of Xillia employs an Anime-esque art style that fits the game really well. Environments are not very detailed but have character and charm to them. The animated cutscenes are jaw droppingly gorgeous and characters - while some are bizarrely designed - are nicely made up with some nice fashion too. The game's framerate stays at 30FPS outside battles and maintains a solid 60 FPS in them, making it a bit inconsistent but I don't mind that too much. Battles are well animated and flashy and over the top, but that's expected from a JRPG, especially a Tales of game.
In the sound department, the game sounds absolutely astounding. From atmospheric guitar piece to dreary dungeon themes to fast paced battle music to some incredible overworld music, Tales of Xillia offers an extremely diverse and high quality soundtrack well worthy of putting on your iPod. The voice acting is pretty good, the only character I have a gripe with though is Milla Maxwell. No offense to the lady that played her, she did a fine job, but did Namco seriously have to hire somebody with a Lisp to play Milla? Just a nit pick but still...
Overall, Tales of Xillia does a damn good job at what it does, and that's being a stellar JRPG. Sure, it's not perfect, but compared to other games I played this year (GTA V, The Last of Us and Tomb Raider), Tales of Xillia just impresses me that little bit more than any of them (yes, even more than Last of Us.). It's flawed, but it's still a really damn good RPG. If you liked any other games in the series, play this one. I can't wait for the sequel next year!
So, I kinda lied when I said this blog was going to be explicitly for game reviews. Well, I'm gonna put it straight now: Games, Anime and the occasional movie will be reviewed on this blog. No more, no less. So without further ado..
Seid ihr das Essen? Nein, wir sind der Jäger!
It seems that every year, there's an anime that no matter where you go, people are talking about in constantly. In 2011, it was the flawed but very good Mirai Nikki with it's surreal characters and it' intense plot. In 2012 it was Sword Art Online, which I'll give my opinions on another time since I have a LOT to say about that one. 2013 was no different, this year also had an extremely popular anime in the form of the animated adaptation of Hajime Isymiya's manga epic series Shingeki no Kyojin...or if you speak English Attack on Titan. What makes SNK stand out so much from every other anime? Well, let's jump right in!
Shingeki no Kyojin takes place in a fantasy world where humans are on the verge of being wiped out by beings simply known as Titans. Titans are shaped like Humans except they have no sexual organs, they have no need to eat or sleep and are - as the name suggests - very tall. They seem to have a driving goal to wipe out Humans, although most Titans bear no intelligence. Mankind has dwindled it's population to just over two million, and hey are forced to cage themselves behind three extremely large walls: The Outer Wall Maria, the Middle Wall Rose, and the Innermost Wall, Wall Sina. In the year 845, 100 years of living peacefully behind these walls, a 50 meter Colossal Titan appears out of nowhere and demolishes a Part of Wall Maria. Watching these horrific scenes are three pre-teen children: Armin Artlert, Mikasa Ackerman and the series main protagonist, Eren Jaeger (or, if you're a hardcore Manga fan, Yaeger). Eren's mother is devoured before his eyes, and he vows to kill all of the titans out of revenge of this event. The story follows our characters as they journey through training in the 104th Military Cadet's Squad all the way upto their graduation into the Survey Corps, Mankinds elite squad who are adept at Titan killing. In order to kill Titans, one must be proficient at using the Three-Dimensional Maneuver Gear, a device that "allows humans - who normally move in two dimensions - to assume three dimensional movement" since their only weak spot is the napes of their neck. The story is filled with angst, betrayal, death, despair and some truly captivating moments especially towards the show's later half.
The characters in Shingeki no Kyojin are something that in of themselves are worth mentioning, although I am going to say this now: Don't get attached to anyone. People die in Shingeki no Kyojin.
People die a fuck tonne of lot.
George R.R Martin (The author of the Game of Thrones saga, for those inept with literature) would tell the writers to seriously calm the fuck down with the death toll in this show. It's safe to say that if you're the person who get's attached to fictional characters easily...Shingeki no Kyojin is not for you. But anyways, the characters themselves are pretty diverse. For the sake of keeping this review a modest length, I'm only going to mention the three main characters.
Armin Artlert
Armin is the typical weak character that's there to make the other main characters look bad ass, but unlike other show's where they stay weak and never develop, Armin becomes gradually stronger and becomes a real hero by the end. He's also - without a doubt - the most intelligent person in the whole series, with the possible exception of Captain Levi (who is mankind's greatest soldier). He's calculative, his predictions are spot on and his tactics more often than not succeed. His 3DMG Skills aren't the best, but he managed to graduate into the Survey Corps so he obviously has some talent with the device.
Mikasa Ackerman
Just let this picture show off why I love Mikasa so damn much
Yeeeeaaaah. She's borderline Yandere at times when it comes to her unnatural obsession with Eren, who she grew up with as her parents were killed right before her eyes. Mikasa is a Goddess of Awesome and Win. She has practically no flaws, get's top in her class with no effort and is extremely adept at killing Titans, even rivaling Mankind's elite.
Eren Jaeger
Eren is a typical revenge-lusting main character, although this aspect is sort of subdued by the time he joins the Survey Corps. He's always getting into fights, he barely got in the 5th best spot in his class and his 3DMG skills aren't shown off a lot. However, Eren's defining trait is his drive and determination to wipe out the Titans. He is never distracted easily and is alwyas focused, and I like that in these kind of characters.
Animaion-wise, Shingeki no Kyojin's art style is reminiscent of medieval Europe (particularly Germany, hence why many people have Saxon names) and it's very well stylized. All characters are outlined in a thick black which make them stand out from the brilliantly drawn backgrounds. The action scenes - particularly the ones that use the Three-Dimensional Manuver Gear - are fantastic. I have to give full credit to the animation team over at STUDIO WIT who took this on as their first project, and this is some result to come out with.
The music in the show is fantastic too. It's got very few tracks sure and is repeated a lot, but I'd rather one good piece of music that's constantly played over a few mediocre pieces that are just there for the sake of variety. The show's first opening.....do I need to comment on how epic it is, do I really have to? Feuerroter Pfeil und Bogen (Guren no Yumiya) is absolutely amazing and you really gotta see it. The second opening is pretty good too, although it lacks the sense of urgency the first one has
Overall well....what can I say? Shingeki no Kyojin is a fantastic anime. It's filled with drama, badassery and so much emotional heartbreak that it deserves every praise I could give it. If I could find any flaw at all, it would be the replacement of the first opening, but that's not a flaw, that's just a nit pick. The anime is brilliantly scored and animated and you should definetely give it a view. It's available for streaming on Crunchyroll and Funimation's website.
Story: 10
Characters: 10
Animation: 10
Sound: 9
Personal Enjoyment: 10
SHINGEKI NO KYOJIN (ATTACK ON TITAN) FINAL SCORE: 9.5/10
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