Plot Synopsis: “Hunters are a special breed, dedicated to tracking down treasure, magical beasts, and even humans. But such pursuits require a license, and less than one in a hundred thousand can pass the grueling qualification exam.

Gon might be a country boy, but he has high aspirations. Despite his aunt’s protest, Gon decides to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a legendary Hunter. The journey begins on the long, arduous road to the Exam Hall, where he meets Leorio and Kurapika, two applicants with the same determination. Gon and his two companions must now prove their worth and earn the right to call themselves Hunters!”

While I may be 26 years old, I still enjoy Shonen shows every now and then.  This show has been on my radar for a while to purchase, but I needed a good time to get it and now was the right time since I was able to get it for a good price.

Hunter x Hunter DVD Set 1 is available from Right Stuf

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Maid Sama DVD Collection 2:

Plot Synopsis: “If Misaki Ayuzawa didn’t already have enough problems being the first female student council president of the formerly all-male Seika High School and carrying on a secret double life as a waitress at a local maid cafe by night, the fact that she may be starting to have feelings for Usui, the first boy to discover her dual life, has pushed her nerves to the breaking point. But fate certainly won’t leave it at that, and now she has to deal with a new guy who is not only extremely anti-girl, but a hypnotist as well!

Toss in an organized crime cartel that wants to replace the maid cafe with a butler bistro, some very annoying new transfer students, and the inevitable trip to the hot springs and everyone is guaranteed to end up in hot water one way or another!”

I did not expect this to ship a few weeks early.  Have not watched collection 1 of this series, so I think I will give it a watch once I decided to sit and watch collection 1.

Maid Sama DVD collection 2 is available from Right Stuf

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Eden of the East Complete Series BD:

Plot Synopsis: “Akira Takizawa wakes up naked outside the White House with no memories. He’s got a gun in one hand and a cell phone in the other, and he doesn’t know if he’s a good guy or one of the worst. He doesn’t remember that the phone gives him instant access to ten billion yen and a woman who can make his most outlandish requests a reality. He doesn’t recall his connection to the ongoing missile attacks terrorizing the Japanese people, or the part he played in the sudden disappearance of 20,000 shut-ins. He doesn’t even remember he’s supposed to save Japan and will be murdered if he fails. Whatever it is he’s tangled up in, Takizawa’s definitely in deep – and that’s not even scratching the surface.”

Rented Eden of the East a few weeks ago and decided to add it to my collection.

Eden of the East is available from Right Stuf

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Bamboo Blade: The Complete Series:

Plot Synopsis: “It didn’t take long for pint-sized Tamaki’s lightning reflexes to catch the eye of starving Kendo instructor Toraji. This second-rate sensei is an embarrassment to the sport, and his Kendo club is running out of members. His only hope for redemption – and a full belly – is to get Tamaki to sign-on as his star pupil. Unfortunately, this sword-wielding prodigy is a serious anime addict, so it’ll be a challenge to get her to step away from the television and into the dojo. But once she feels like a part of the team, Tamaki will put down the remote and pick up her sword as Toraji turns his girls into a fearsome sisterhood of the bamboo blade!

I got a chance to watch this series last year via Funimation on Demand via the cable provider Comcast.  I am a fan of both the manga and the anime of the series.  Thankfully Amazon has a Funimation sale right now that allowed me to get this series for a much cheaper than expected price.

Bamboo Blade The Complete Collection is available from Right Stuf

Also available from Amazon.com

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L.A. Noire (PS3)

Plot Synopsis: “Amid the postwar boom of Hollywood’s Golden Age, newly minted detective Cole Phelps is thrown headfirst into a city drowning in violence and corruption. Utilizing groundbreaking new technology that captures an actor’s facial performance in astonishing detail, L.A. Noire is a violent crime thriller that blends breathtaking action with true detective work to deliver an unprecedented interactive experience. Interrogate witnesses, search for clues and chase down suspects as you struggle to find the truth in a city where everyone has something to hide.

Against an overarching plot of violence and betrayal, L.A. Noire challenges players to solve a series of self-contained cases as they work their way through the ranks of the LAPD. Each case features a distinct storyline with a beginning, middle and end, and each successfully solved case brings new challenges and leads Cole closer to the true story at the dark heart of the Los Angeles criminal underworld.

I rented this game on my birthday 2 months ago and wanted to buy it for my increasing PS3 collection so I decided to get

L.A. Noire (PS3) is available from Amazon.com

Xbox360 is also available from Amazon.com

Ouran High School Host Club GN 7 and 9

Plot Synopsis (from GN 7): “Hunny’s little brother, Chika, pays a visit to the Host Club – and immediately starts attacking Hunny, using all his martial-arts prowess against his older brother! Chika seems to be the absolute opposite of his sweets-loving, Bun-Bun-toting sibling, but why is he so angry with Hunny? The Host Club is determined to find out the cause…”

Previous order and now the rest of the order shipped out.

Ouran High School Host Club GN 7 is available from RightStuf

Ouran High School Host Club GN 9 is available from RightStuf

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Bamboo Blade GN 9

Plot Synopsis: “After their disciplined training, the Muroe High kendo team is ready for action on the day of the practice meet. Their opponents from Kamasaki High, however, hardly seem pumped for competition. As the matches proceed and the scores are tallied, will even Ishibaki’s pupils find the passion for victory burning quietly within their neglected armor?

After all of the students have had their say, it’s time for high school rivals Ishibaki and Kojiro to take the floor once again in their first battle since Kojiro’s trophy-winning victory all those years ago!”

I am a fan of both the Bamboo Blade anime and manga.  I felt like I should keep adding the manga to my growing collection, now I just need the anime in there.

Bamboo Blade GN 9 is available from RightStuf

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Sunshine Sketch GN 5:

Plot Synopsis: “With the innocent first years Nazuna-chan and Nori-chan rounding out the quirky cast of residents at the Hidamari Apartments, every day is shaping up to be quite… erm, interesting! When Yuno manages to lose a battle with a toilet for her house key, her clumsiness leads to a sleepover, which in turn becomes something of a habit. But with homesickness making the rounds through Hidamari, school trips for some residents resulting in others being left to their own wacky devices, and the pressures of college entrance exams looming, a girl like Yuno can use all the dedicated friends and fun sleepovers she can get!”

I’m a fan of the manga series though I have yet to watch the anime series.

Sunshine Sketch GN 5 is available from RightStuf

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Lucky Star GN 8:

Plot Synopsis: “When eating a chocolate cornet which end do you begin with, the top or the bottom? Which side is the top and which is the bottom? For that matter, what is a chocolate cornet? The proper way to eat pastries is only one of the many every day occurrences explored by the girls of Ms. Kuroi’s class. Witness this study in the human condition as our heroines explore the unexplored in questioning the ordinary!”

I am a fan of both the anime and manga version of Lucky Star.  So I decided to stay current with the manga as it being released in English so this is an order from a few months ago when I pre-ordered it.

Lucky Star GN 8 is available from RightStuf

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Cowboy Bebop: Knocking on Heaven’s Door Blu Ray:

Plot Synopsis: “Mars. Days before Halloween 2071. Villains blow up a tanker truck on Highway One, releasing a deadly virus that kills hundreds. Fearing a bigger, even more devastating biochemical attack, an astronomical reward is offered for the arrest and capture of the person behind the destruction. On the spaceship “Bebop,” Spike Spiegel and his crew of bounty hunters (Jet Black, Faye Valentine, Ed, and Ein) are bored and short of cash. But with the news of the reward everything changes.

I’m a fan of Cowboy Bebop both the TV series and the movie.  I heard the BD looks good so I decided to add it to my collection.

Cowboy Bebop: Knocking on Heaven’s Door BD is available from RightStuf

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Paranoia Agent DVD 2

Plot Synopsis: “When the detectives interrogate the boy arrested for the Lil’Slugger attacks, he claims to be a “Holy Warrior” who has only begun to help those waiting to be saved. However, he also only claims two of the five attacks! Just as the detectives begin to find witnesses and think they are uncovering the truth, a rash of attacks fuel the hysteria – especially the two inside the police station! As the police begin to doubt their own beliefs, even suicidal citizens begin to believe a golden bat can solve their problems.”

So here is a bit of a wacky confession.  I thought that I had the first three volumes of Paranoia Agent in my collection and not the rare volume 4.  Well after doing through some boxes that I have some of my collection in, I found that I had volume 4 and not volume 2.

Paranoia Agent DVD 2 is out of print but copies can still be found on Amazon.com

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3D Dot Game Heroes (PS3)

Plot Synopsis: “Control a hero on a quest to rid the Dotnia Kingdom of a dark plague caused by the forces of evil in order to restore peace to the land. Legend tells of an evil king known as the Dark King Onyx who brought tragedy and darkness to the kingdom by stealing six magical orbs. However a hero rose up against the Dark King and with his legendary sword and the power of the orbs, he sealed the Dark King Onyx away within another orb. Though the forces of evil rose again as the Dark Bishop Fuelle stole the orb and threw the Kingdom of Dotnia into a state of chaos once more.

I’m a taking a leap of faith on this one as I’ve never played this one before.  Based on Janai’s review of the game I decided that I should get it.

3D Dot Game Heroes (PS3) is available from Amazon.com

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Resident Evil Code Veronica X (PS2)

Plot Synopsis: “A port of the Dreamcast hit, the PlayStation2 version of Resident Evil: Code Veronica X offers the same fantastic survival-horror adventure with some improvements in the graphics department. Taking place after Resident Evil 2, the game puts players in control of Claire Redfield as she continues to search for her brother and investigates the ominous Umbrella Corporation. Players also occasionally play as a partner character during the hours of puzzle solving and zombie killing.

I’m a fan of the Resident Evil franchise.  I have never played RE:CVX before so I decided to add it my collection.

Resident Evil Code Veronica X (PS2) is out of print but copies can still be found on Amazon.com

If you’ve been following me on Twitter during the last month or so you’ve most likely seen my tweets swearing talking about Sengoku Basara. It’s really all I’ve been doing for the last month. In a desperate attempt to get something out of all the time I spent playing it (which is like 200 hours), I figured I might as well review it.

Sengoku Basara: Samurai Heroes is actually the third instalment of Capcom’s Sengoku Basara series, but the first one to be released in North America under the name Sengoku Basara. The first Sengoku Basara game received an overly localized release here under the name Devil Kings, and the second one was never released here at all. Apparently Capcom thinks just dropping the third game into a market with no real exposure to the series is a formula for success. But I digress. I’m not here to talk about what a terrible idea it may have been to release the game here, I’m here to talk about the game itself.

Sengoku Basara: Samurai Heroes focuses on the Battle of Sekigahara, when Ieyasu Tokugawa lead the Eastern Army to fight against the Western Army, which in this version of the story is lead by Mitsunari Ishida. Ieyasu wants to unify the country and bring peace to Japan, while Mitsunari wants to get revenge on Ieyasu for killing their former master. There are about fourteen other characters, each with their own storylines, but the game basically boils down to the battle between Ieyasu and Mitsunari.

One of the foremost problems with the story and characters is that for people unfamiliar with the series and the characters, which would be most of the people playing it, the whole thing can be a little confusing. There are character relationships and events from previous games referenced frequently, with next to no background information given in this one. Newcomers aren’t going to really understand the ongoing rivalry between Yukimura and Masamune, which was established in the first game. They just seem like two dudes who like fighting each other for no established reason. There’s also the character Tenkai, who is actually a character from the earlier games in disguise. Again, this would be lost on newcomers. There’s a host of story and character references to earlier games that are lost on anyone unfamiliar with them, and some of these references are important to some of the different storylines. There’s a clear barrier caused by the first two games never being released here, but considering that the actual story is fairly basic and serves only to get you from one huge fight to the next, it’s hardly that much of a problem.

If you’re familiar with the gameplay of either Dynasty Warriors or Samurai Warriors, then you pretty much already know how Sengoku Basara plays. For those of you not familiar with either of those, you play as a character who single-handedly mows through hundreds of enemy troops, meeting next to no resistance until you come across a boss, all while your own troops run around accomplishing exactly nothing. In Sengoku Basara specifically, your goal in each stage revolves around capturing enemy camps. The more camps you take from your enemy the weaker the stage’s boss will be. There are a wide variety of stages, some with gimmicks like flooding an enemy’s base, or an enemy that moves around the stage hiding in the sand, or a layer of fog preventing you from using your map. The problem is that no matter what particular gimmick a stage has, it basically boils down to capturing your enemy’s camps. That’s it. Want to flood the enemy’s base? Capture the the designated camps. For the enemy constantly hiding in the sand you just capture the camps to force him out, and for the fog you just capture all the camps to make it go away. It all boils down to capturing camps.

The actual combat is actually really fun. There are sixteen playable characters, each with completely different move sets and styles. The moves are stylish and it’s fun to mow through those countless enemy troops. Problem is, it gets really repetitive really fast. Despite each character having a unique move set, all the button combinations are the same across all characters. So while there is variety among attacks, there’s no variety among how you execute them. If your goal is to just play through every character’s story it isn’t that bad. You may end up playing the same stage a couple times, but since the story mode is short you’ll be finished with a character before you get tired of them. But if you’re insane and decide to go for the platinum trophy (like I did) you’ll have to play through the story as each character a minimum of four times, then get each one to the max level, and then find all the weapons for each one. So if there’s one or two or eight characters that you don’t like playing as it stops being fun very quickly.

There really isn’t much to be said about the graphics. They’re nothing spectacular, but they’re still good enough for a PS3 game. It certainly looks better than its Wii counterpart, which isn’t really a hard thing to do. There are points where things kind of go downhill though. For some of the stage bosses that aren’t playable characters, they really didn’t put much effort into their character models. During whatever scenes may pop up during the stage, they’ll look kind of blocky and flat without any detail. It’s even more noticeable when the characters talk, because they couldn’t even be bothered to animate mouths for some of them. Most of the characters do look good, but they kind of dropped the ball for a few of them.

There isn’t much to say about the soundtrack either. There is one particular scenario where it stands out, which is the final battle in either Ieyasu’s or Mitsunari’s storyline. Each one obviously ends with the two going one on one, and during this fight the game’s theme song, Naked Arms by T.M. Revolution, plays in the background. When you have the two going at it one on one, with Ieyasu shouting his cliched lines about peace and unification, and Mitsunari shouting his cliched lines about revenge, and that song playing in the background it creates this really climactic feeling that’s easily one the best moments of the game. But this is really the only time the music stands out, and for the most part it’s kind of mediocre and forgettable.

A lot of people were annoyed that the Japanese voice acting was left out of the English release of the game, so the English dub kind of had high expectations to live up to. Fortunately, it’s a very good dub overall. The most noteworthy performance would be Troy Baker as Mitsunari. He does an amazing job of capturing the character’s pure rage and hatred, and does a great job with the many angry shouting lines, managing to pull them off without sounding cheesy. Liam O’Brian gives a good performance as Ieyasu, and John Fitzgerald’s voice is an amazing fit for Nobunaga Oda. Johnny Yong Bosch doesn’t quite fit as Yukimura Sanada though. He just doesn’t quite capture the hot-blooded side of the character. There are also a few instances where what the voice over is saying and what’s written in the text boses don’t exactly match up. There are a few poor casting choices, but it’s an excellent dub overall.

Sengoku Basara is a pretty decent game overall. It can get a little repetitive, and there isn’t much story to speak of, but it’s undeniably fun. There are a few problems caused by the previous games not being released here, but it’s hardly enough to make the game confusing or unplayable. It’s cheaper than most new PS3 games, and if you have a high tolerance for repetition or plan to go for the platinum you’ll easily get your moneys worth out of it.

GAMEPLAY

Can get repetitive, but still stylish and fun to play

3/5

AESTHETICS

Graphics and music are merely okay, but voice acting is very well done

3/5

OVERALL

Great for fans of this genre, or anyone looking for a fun way to kill some time

3/5

My philosophy when approaching video games is that every aspect must merge with the gameplay. Ideally every bit of the game should complement the core concept and gameplay. This is very hard to do, but Flower is one of those games that does this.

I was extremely reluctant to download Flower after hearing about its short length. Many, many reviews praised its art and said little about its gameplay. I knew it was about controlling the wind or something, and that it was about collecting flower petals. I also knew it primarily use the SIXAXIS controls, but besides those tidbits, I was in the dark. The gameplay seemed barely worthwhile and I was afraid I was burning close to $10 for a piece of interactive art when I wanted a game.

I was pleasantly surprised. While Flower certainly is beautiful, it is a joy to play, not just experience (something I have heard too much about the game). The gameplay is simple: you hold down any button to speed up a gust of wind blowing a bunch of flower petals, and tilt the controller to in the direction you want the petals to move. You start with a lone flower petal and blow past more and more flowers, picking up petals and blooming flowers as you go. Eventually you will wind up with a long trail of petals behind you. Flowers are often grouped together in a pattern and if you bloom the grouped flowers together you with change the landscape allowing you to move on. Blooming flowers can do everything from coloring in a bland landscape to activating windmills to shifting gigantic rock outcroppings. Your goal is to reach the end of the level. You can also find hidden teal flowers if you want to look for a challenge. The gameplay is smooth and although you may have trouble controlling the wind in some tight spots, the game is never frustrating.

While the game sounds the simple, the addition of beautiful sights and sounds are what make the game. The levels are amazingly beautiful. The way the grass reacts in the wind is very realistic and the seemingly endless landscapes invokes a feeling of freedom. The fact that so many objects can be rendered is stunning. Each flower makes a unique sound of a different instrument and tone and makes collecting petals very satisfying. Often times blooming the landscape causes a bland landscape to burst with color, rewarding the player. Even the sound effects of the wind blowing and the rattling of grass blades are superbly done, making you feel truly as if you are controlling the wind (I even found myself making whooshing noises as I played, much to my embarrassment).

The game has no text and tells the story through pictures and superb level design. Each part of the game has a different feel: the freedom of the open plains, the serenity of a calm summer night, and the terror of a thunderstorm. The gameplay doesn’t get stale and the pacing is just right. The game menus are integrated perfectly into the actual game and the detailed shots of the level you are rewarded with after you beat a level will make you stare in awe. No part of this game is filler or wasted fluff and is perfectly integrated into the core. $9.99 is a fair price for this wonderful game, especially considering I have played it several times over. By all means, if you have the means, you should buy it or at least play it!

GAMEPLAY
The gameplay is smooth and uses motions controls well, but may be over-simplistic

AESTHETICS
Everything coming out of the speakers and the TV is perfect and mesmerizing!

OVERALL
Almost everything fits perfectly together in this game, and the feel of the game offsets its short length