Category Archives: Review
Video Game Review: Vindictus
Vindictus is a realistic action-adventure MMORPG made by Korean games developer Nexon. Nexon also made Mabinogi, and bought the developers of Atlantica Online.
Vindictus is set in a fantasy town, and is the precursor to Mabinogi. However, while Mabinogi is somewhat light and happy in tone, Vindictus throws most of that away for a happy exterior covering a shell of weird horror and creepy revelations.
As this is an MMO, I’ll start off with the character classes. Each has some text description in the selection screen, which saved the developers from having to characterize several characters through gameplay and interaction with friendly non-player characters. It’s acceptable in this situation, as characterization through gameplay and NPC interactions is essentially an insurmountable task. However, interaction with the NPCs does reveal a lot about them as a character and the world you are playing in. It also turns most of the NPCs into interesting characters in their own right.
Classes: Each class is gender locked, as is typical of overseas MMO games. Each class also has a name instead of a class label. There are currently four player characters released, with a fifth planned.
Visual Novel Review: Katawa Shoujo
Katawa Shoujo, a free Visual Novel game made by an independent group of people. Indie games are usually fun and innovative when compared to mainstream AAA titles, so this game promises to be interesting.
Where did it come from: Well, the game is based off a sketch of several girls with disabilities that was posted to…THAT website. No, I am not going to link it, but I think you know which one I mean.
Background: You play as Hisao, who is confessed to by a girl, then he has a heart attack (he happens to have Long QT Syndrome) and ends up going to a school just for kids with physical disabilities. There, he meets several girls, and can end up with a relationship with any of them. There are good endings which the game makes you really work for, and there are bad endings where you either die, or screw up the girl beyond belief.
Plot: I believe I gave it away above. Individual plotlines depend on the storyline you are playing through. I wouldn’t know, because I put this game down after getting partway through several paths.
Feel free to call it unprofessional. The game, I mean. That is why I put it down-it became unprofessional and flaws became evident. In addition, they were the sort of flaws where I simply objected to them, so I ended the game. I will not play it again. I did enjoy the story, and it was reasonably done. The story was emotional and gripping, but other issues greatly took away from the enjoyment of it.
Let’s start with the first, the title. While it essentially means ‘Imperfect Girl’and is the intended title, katawa is a Japanese word that is considered offensive enough that it cannot be said on TV or radio. Actually, given what ‘katawa’really means, a better name for the game in english would be somehting along the lines of ‘Gimp Girls.’
Why is that a problem? Well, first off, it insults an entire group of people. Secondly, it insults the group of people THAT THE GAME ITSELF IS TRYING TO SHOW RESPECT TO. You lose your message of ‘these people are people too’when the very first thing someone notices in your game is highly offensive.
Anime Review: Nichijou (Everyday Life, My Ordinary Life)
So it turns out that Nichijou is not only an anime (available for free on Crunchyroll) but a manga as well. I have not READ the manga, so I will not be reviewing it. However, if I were to place a guess, it would be a 4koma and would have short one-off ‘skits’(for lack of a better word) like the anime has.
The absolute first thing I have to say about it is that the PV is VERY misleading. Secondly, the description and title are a bit misleading. Judging by what we see, one would be forgiven for assuming it is another slice of life anime with some craaaaaazzzy situations that we have NEVER seen before (and by never I mean every other slice of life anime did so.) And third, I cannot get the image to post.
But, if anything, you should watch the first episode. I gave it a chance, and it ended up getting awarded for being much better than expected (and I would have given it anime of the year 2011 had I though to have an anime and a manga award. Hindsight is 20/20.)
Anime Review: Fullmetal Alchemist – The Sacred Star of Milos
It’s not very often that I get the chance to see an anime movie in theatres. Aside from one Pokemon movie when I was 10, the chance really didn’t arise until Funimation started putting the Evangelion movies in theatres. Obviously I jumped at the chance to see them. Unfortunately the theatre in my area clearly didn’t know how to use whatever they had to use to for the projection and the image was faded and dark. But still, seeing them in theatres was a nice experience and I was hoping I’d get to do it again. When Funimation first announced the theatrical dates for Sacred Star of Milos I was disappointed because the “nationwide” Canadian screening only covered half the nation. But then they added more and I got to see it and the projection wasn’t shitty, so might as well review it I guess.
When a prisoner with only a few months left on his sentence breaks out, the Elric brothers set out to track him down. Their search leads them to Table City, a city on the border of Amestris and Creta. When the pair saves a young alchemist named Julia from the escaped prisoner they get caught up in a rebellion to restore the nation of Milos to its former glory.
Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos follows in the footsteps of movies like Cowboy Bebop: Knockin’on Heaven’s Door and Trigun: Badlands Rumble. All three are movies for series that had endings that would be hard to follow with a sequel, so they end up being random filler that takes place sometime during the series itself. This means the movie has no bearing, and really no connection at all, to the actual story from the series.
The movie really goes out of its way to hammer this point home by practically taking place in another country and having next to none of the major characters from the series returning. Winry is there, but all she does is worry about Ed, then fixes his arm. Mustang is there, but he just reads documents most of the time and kills a couple chimera’s offscreen. Hawkeye is there, but all she does is shoot a gun out of a guys hand towards the end of the movie. Aside from Ed and Al, no characters from the series really participate in the story.
Anime review: Redline
“The race of your life” 
Redline: the biggest and most deadly racing tournament in the universe. Only held once every five years, everyone wants to stake their claim to fame – including JP, a reckless daredevil driver oblivious to speed limits with his ultra-customized car. Meanwhile, organized crime and militaristic governments want to leverage the race to their own ends. Amongst the other elite rival drivers in the tournament, JP falls for the alluring Sonoshee – but will she prove his undoing, or can a high-speed romance survive a mass destruction race?
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Plot:
As of a fan of auto racing (it is right up there with anime and video games for me) watching Redline is a no brainer. It is no surprise to hear that it got a lot of praise all over the internet. So is the show worth all of the hype it gets, or does it just blow up on the starting line? The short answer to this question is yes it is worth all the hype it gets. Of course, the short answer is not going to work here so let me get to the longer reason why this is awesome.
What makes Redline so great is that has such broad range appeal to all types of anime fans. From the hardest of hardcore, to the newest fans just getting into anime there is something for just about every type of fan to like in Redline. Even those not into anime would be able to enjoy what Redline brings to the table. There is no otaku pandering, no “check list” material, and no meta references that you have to be some super anime fan to understand. It is just over the top excitement when the racing happens and it would not be as enjoyable any other way.
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