Anime review: Berserk: The Golden Age Arc

A retelling of the 1990s anime, Berserk: The Golden Age Arc consolidates those events into three films to convey the most well-known narrative involving Guts, Griffith, and Casca. It’s the most obvious jumping off-point for newcomers to the Berserk story, and would seem an appropriate first step in setting the stage for everything else within the Berserk storyline, though, until very recently, no plans to adapt the remaining volumes of the manga were apparent. As is sometimes the case with condensing series into a set of films, the pacing is not the same across the board, which might not be a major point of discussion, were it not for the fact that this element significantly impacts the quality of each of the three entries in the Golden Age Arc.

The first film does a solid job of setting the stage and introducing all of the key players. The supporting cast is shown to be a plucky bunch, with a couple of them being young and naïve, and one in particular being a bit more greedy and self-serving, but they all display a great deal of respect towards Griffith, leader of the Band of the Hawk. Due to his legacy having already been established before the first film even begins, Griffith come across as the most well-rounded and interesting character for this first of three chapters. Guts, meanwhile is given just enough development as a strong-willed warrior lacking any real direction in his life to allow viewers to latch on to him as the trilogy’s main hero, though most of his meaningful maturation will follow in the later films. Casca, meanwhile, first appears as something of a snotty spoiled brat, who, like her comrades, is also highly devoted to her comrades, but seems to bear a grudge against Guts from their earliest meeting.

A medieval setting is established, as well as how the Band of the Hawk are effectively mercenaries for hire, though tales of their victories have spread far and wide, and many of the trilogy’s villains recognize their record of success. There are mythical fantasy elements at play in Berserk, though these are not met in full force until the final film in the series. When Guts encounters one such beast at the end of the first film, it provides not only a test of his strength, but also offers an omen of events to come. This is the first in a series of key events, where the darkest of settings and most intimidating of encounters offer Guts greater insight into the nature of the world around him.

The first film does a solid job of putting all of the pieces in their rightful places, and though it does feel like it wanders from the straight and narrow on a couple of occasions, its pacing is overall appropriate – a far cry from the second film, whose bookends offer the only substantial moments of development for Guts, Casca, and Griffith. Mind you, when these events do come to pass, they are of great importance to the larger tale being woven between these three films. But the hour-long battle they sandwich is neither visually exciting, nor of significant importance to the narrative. The second film does well to take a step back from Griffith a bit, in order to better establish Guts’ ideals and ambitions, as well as prove that there is much more to Casca than meets the eye. This second entry ends on a high note for both of these characters, while still allowing them both plenty of development in the third and final entry, but the absurd span of empty fight scenes not only makes it a dull watch, it also leads the third film to feel rushed.

The Golden Age Arc is my first proper viewing of Berserk, though I’ve been familiar with Griffith’s endgame for many years. For those not aware of how the Golden Age Arc concludes, I will warn that some spoilers regarding the film’s most infamous of moments lie ahead.

The final film dives into some very dark territory, and sees Guts and Griffith part ways as anything but comrades and friends. For many years, I was under the impression that Griffith’s actions in the third film resulted from some tragic fall from glory, that he lost sight of who he was as a leader and hero to so many. Instead, it is a simple matter of him becoming upset over Guts trying to choose his own path in life, and Griffith not having complete influence over his actions that leads him to perform some horrendous atrocities. The climax for a character who proved so compelling during the previous two films ends up being an unsatisfying reveal of pathetic motivations.

And therein lies what is perhaps the greatest downfall of the Golden Age Arc – character motivations on the whole are either incredibly poor, unclear, or wholly nonexistent. Casca is the one major exception to this, offering the most human and believable reasons for joining the Band of the Hawk, for allying with Griffith, and for ultimately turning to Guts as her ally and lover. Guts, meanwhile, sees establishment as the main hero of the Berserk saga by the time the third film comes to its conclusion, but nothing beyond that is achieved. This trilogy feels like the first act of something larger, which may be fine for anyone wishing to carry on with the manga thereafter. There are elements of greatness at play in the Golden Age Arc, but the second and third films constantly deny these to become part of a more cohesive experience. The Golden Age Arc lacks any noteworthy resolution, and leaves viewers with an unsatisfying set of hanging plot threads.

Fans of the 1990s anime might not be so greatly bothered by these shortcomings. Guts, Griffith, Casca, and the remaining members of the Band of the Hawk are rendered with strong animation, while environments look equal parts gorgeous and haunting. Cel-shaded 3D models of knights in armor look a tad clunky and dated, but are generally not present outside of battle scenes, so they do not distract from the remaining visual appeal too greatly. If this trilogy is in fact the jumping off point for someone looking to continue indulging in Berserk by reading the manga, they may find decent value here – the films offer a handful of teases of characters and events that play important roles later on. But as a standalone trilogy, they feel like odd shoehorns. The fact that Guts does not fully come into his own as lead protagonist by the trilogy’s conclusion further sours the experience.

My rating: 6 (out of 10)

Comic Book review: Angela: Asgard’s Assassin, Volume One: Priceless

When Marvel acquired the rights to Angela, formerly a character from Image’s Spawn comics, they chose to place her in the company of the Guardians of the Galaxy. It was a bold move, to be sure, but she felt right at home in that cosmic setting. Angela was hell on legs, able to best most of the Guardians in battle before befriending them, and carrying on a flirtatious rivalry with Gamora. It was a gamble that paid off in spades, as Angela was able to flourish in her own identity, playing off the Guardians wonderfully, while still feeling as though there was plenty of potential for development down the road.

Enter Angela: Asgard’s Assassin, a series wherein Angela is the main character, rediscovering her Asgardian roots, and quickly finding herself on the run from her long-lost brothers Odinson and Loki. Her crime? Stealing her younger sister, eventual heir to the Asgardian throne, and leaping through the nine realms with the baby in tow. Also in Angela’s company is Sera, a former angel who lived not unlike a monk among the few male angels before leaving on her adventures with Angela. At some point before the start of this first volume, Sera was killed, only to be mysteriously resurrected, and Angela’s desire to know why and how Sera returned to the land of the living serves as a secondary mystery.

There is a lot going on in this first trade paperback volume – too much, in fact. While Odinson and Loki are shown as the initial pursuers, some of the forces of Hel also chase after Angela, Sera, and the baby, while the story flashes back every so often to Asgard to explore Odin and his views on this very complicated family reunion. Yet, there is actually quite a limited amount of time spent in Heven. Only during the last couple of chapters do Angela and Sera actually enter the realm of the Angels, a place which boasts more future-tech than myth and magic. Given how significant a change-up to the previously-established nine realms this new tenth one is, Marvel could have easily devoted an entire trade paperback volume solely to Angela’s roots and the history of the angels.

Angela’s portrayal sees an odd reversal from how she was depicted in the Guardians of the Galaxy comics. She’s still willing to cut down anyone who challenges her, but has lost much of the ferocity she was once known and feared for. Instead, she preaches the system of repayment that the angels apparently base all of their actions around – if someone asks her for a favor, Angela will oblige, but only after reminding them that they must eventually offer her something of a similar value (whether said offering is a physical object or action). It’s an interesting concept, but one that wholly contradicts her presentation in the Guardians comics.

Angela: Asgard’s Assassin is quite heavily steeped in the mythos of the Thor comics, and current events from Odinson’s life. The Thor comics have long existed within their own sphere, to a certain degree, separate from the more closely-interwoven storylines of Avengers members, the X-Men, and most of the other Earth-based heroes. The same can be said of cosmic Marvel – much as Nova, Captain Marvel, and the Guardians of the Galaxy might cross paths with one another, Asgardians tend to stick to the realm of might and magic, save for Thor’s frequent team-ups with Captain America, Iron Man, Hulk, and the other core Avengers members. Nine times out of ten, there is so much lore at play in the Thor comics that it is difficult, even discouraging for newcomers to jump on board, and while Angela: Asgard’s Assassin is not quite as explicit an offender in this regard, there is still a decent portion of backstory that is barely even glossed over, with the assumption that readers are up to speed on recent Asgardian history.

Angela does earn herself a radical new outfit by the end of this trade paperback collection, and the action sequences are plenty exciting to look at. But as a character, Angela performs best when she receives the spotlight for more than just violent actions. Future storylines centered around this fallen angel will prove far better if their narratives are not so restricted to the current events of the Asgardians.

My rating: 6 (out of 10)

Character Select: Rydia of Mist (Final Fantasy IV)

Once in a blue moon, I come across a video game that I would consider ‘definitive’ to its genre or series. Final Fantasy IV is one such game, taking the essence of what turn-based JRPGs are all about, and cranking the gameplay up a notch with the introduction of the active-time battle system. It takes the medieval fantasy aesthetic to fantastical settings, with a skeleton wall bearing down on Cecil Harvey and company deep below the surface of their world, a massive tower that bursts forth from the ground to loom over the countryside, and a journey to the moon in order to make the final strike against the true foe of this epic adventure. And while Cecil, Kain, Rosa, Yang, Cid, and the rest of the playable cast were a lovable, iconic bunch, the one character that I adored from the moment of her introduction to the climactic finale was Rydia of Mist.

I think it is not much of a stretch to say that Final Fantasy IV spoiled me, in a way, offering me such a perfect balancing of party members over the course of the game, Rydia being chief among them. She is unquestionably the greatest black mage I have encountered in a Final Fantasy title to date, a role that has long been a core element to my strategies in JRPGs. Even more impressive is the fact that, on top of this, she is also the best summoner I have encountered in the series. I have made mention a number of times that my experiences with the proper numbered Final Fantasy titles remains limited to about six games, but even in the company of other JRPGs that I very much enjoyed, like Persona 4, Rydia still stands out as a force to be reckoned with. She never feels overpowered, per se, but the sheer variety of summons and spells at her disposal late in Final Fantasy IV is incredible.

Her story is also quite well-written – simple enough to juggle with the narratives surrounding all the other major players in FFIV, but elaborate enough to give players a reason to care about her plight. When Cecil and Kain first encounter Rydia, she is saddened by the destruction brought upon her village by the Red Wings, the very team that Cecil and Kain serve, and the fact that the two dark knights inadvertently caused the death of her mother while fighting her Eidolon. All this sorrow and anger causes the young girl to call upon an Eidolon of her own, displaying firsthand to Cecil and Kain the unthinkable powers they have upset. Though their alliance is uneasy at first, Cecil’s decision to abandon his role as dark knight and seek out the underlying machinations involving Golbez leads Rydia to see him as someone more human and trustworthy than she initially believed.

After an attack at sea by Leviathan, the rest of the party believes the young girl has died, and mourns her, only to later discover she was taken to the Feymarch, home of the Eidolons. Because time passes faster in the Feymarch, Rydia was able to hone her skills as both black mage and summoner, growing from child into young woman, and returning to aid her friends and allies when they needed her most. As an adult, Rydia is more calm and collected, and carries a noticeable air of confidence about her. There is, however, a certain element of pep and feistiness to the way that she takes on foes in battle – perhaps due to the fact that, having improved all of her abilities, she knows that her Eidolons are capable of laying waste to as many foes might stand in her way.

Anime review: Persona 3: The Movie - #1: Spring of Birth

Following the release of the anime adaptation of Atlus’ well-received Persona 4, film trilogy was announced adapt the story of its predecessor, Persona 3. The first of these films, titled Spring of Birth, serves primarily to set the stage for all that is to come, introducing some of the major characters, teasing the eventual inclusion of others, and familiarizing viewers with the concept of the Dark Hour and Tartarus. While it may cut out a great deal of the content that falls between major plot points, this first installment in the movie trilogy does a solid job at hitting all of the important notes, though its pacing is admittedly a bit odd.

The story begins much like its video game counterpart, with the mostly-silent protagonist (given the name of Makoto Yuuki for the purpose that other characters will constantly be engaging in conversations with or about him) moving into co-ed dorms near Gekkoukan High and experiencing some strange phenomenon. Every night at midnight, clocks, vehicles, and all manner of machinery stop and most people are sealed away in coffins, entering a sort of stasis during a period known as the Dark Hour. The Dark Hour is effectively an hour-long span of time that is only perceived by those with special potential, namely individuals who can all upon Personas to aid them in battle against otherworldly monsters known as Shadows.

On the night of a full moon, these Shadows become notably stronger and more aggressive than usual, breaking out of their natural territory within the fortress of Tartarus, and taking to the streets of the outside world. It is upon one such night that protagonist Makoto Yuuki finds himself in the company of his peers and classmates Mitsuru Kiriho, Akihiko Sanada, and Yukari Takeba, as the Shadows are bearing down upon their dormitory building. Not fully understanding the nature of these Shadow monsters or his schoolmate’s operations with the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad (S.E.E.S. for short), Makoto almost instinctively reaches for an Evoker, a gun-shaped device that the S.E.E.S. members rely on, and uses it to summon his first Persona.

What follows, naturally, is an action-packed beat down of the Shadows by Makoto’s Persona, dubbed Orpheus. But there is seemingly something sinister that lurks within his Persona, as – shortly before Makoto passes out from exhaustion – it transforms into a menacing creature that appears to bear some sort of skeletal face and spreads its coffin-shaped wings. Not long after, Makoto recovers and is formerly inducted into S.E.E.S. His peers make a point to bring up that relying too heavily on one’s Persona can be problematic, yet Makoto’s visits to the ethereal Velvet Room make it apparent that his ability to summon multiple Personas makes him an anomaly among Persona users.

From there, the movie takes on two very different approaches to crafting the world and characters or Persona 3 – when highlighting new party members like Fuuka and Junpei, the story’s pacing slows significantly to explain their importance to the operations of S.E.E.S., as well as give viewers a strong impression of their character traits and personal values. This makes their inclusion all the more meaningful, and is one of the film’s greatest strengths, and should provide some relief for any Persona fans who were concerned that this three-film adaptation might attempt to do too much in too brief a time span. Even Shinjiro sees some inclusion in the film, helping to solidify his inevitable recruitment to the S.E.E.S. cause in the second film, while Koromaru and Ken both make brief cameos during the opening credits.

On the other hand, the film barrels past the everyday school studies, athletics and club activities, and time spent out on the town. The anime adaptation of Persona 4 similarly kept its focus on the major story points, but still slowed down every once in a while to explore the Inaba locals and the small yet personal rewards Yu Narukami and his teenage crew of investigators earned as a result of their setting aside time to tackle minor requests. In this first Persona 3 film, the most direct involvement with teachers, classmates, and non-S.E.E.S. peers comes in the form of brief montages. While these sequences do show Makoto taking part in some school activities and even meeting up with Junpei for an afternoon at the arcade, it doesn’t offer as solid an immersion in Gekkoukan High or its surrounding locales.

The animation is solid throughout – arguably better than the Persona 4 anime, in most cases. Character renders have seen significant updates in terms of their level of detail and fluid motions from the cutscenes that played out during the original Persona 3 video game. The splotchy dark watercolor look of the invading Dark Hour on previously-established environments does a great job of presenting these areas as both familiar and alien. Meanwhile the few portions of Tartarus that are shown present it as a labyrinth fortress, with elegant floors, arched windows, and dull lighting emanating from wall-mounted candles. The soundtrack brings back a number of the video games’ upbeat and peppy tunes, as well as some of the more dire, heavy rock-influenced songs, with remixes sprinkled throughout (some significantly altered, others with more subtle tweaks).

Spring of Birth is not a perfect adaptation of the Persona 3 story, and its hour-and-a-half runtime begs the question as to how successful the two following films will adapt the later legs of the video game source material. The material that the film does cut out may not have left a major impact on the core plot of Persona 3, but it does rob the film of some of the video game’s unique quirks, as well as any connections between the S.E.E.S. members and their non-Persona-adept classmates. The major points that it does focus on, however, are handled quite well, and go a long way in establishing connections between the S.E.E.S. members, as well as painting the Shadows of Tartarus as an ever-looming threat, even if one scene late in the film is drawn out to an agonizing length and almost laughably bad presentation.

My rating: 7 (out of 10)

Wii U review: The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD

A decade after its original Gamecube release, The Legend of Zelda title that introduced the cel-shaded Toon Link and the Great Sea he sailed across received an HD remake on Nintendo’s Wii U. During the years between the original Wind Waker and this new Wind Waker HD, it was expressed that there were a number of features that the development staff wanted to work into the original release, but were unable to due primarily to technological restrictions they faced in 2003. Wind Waker HD promised to be more than a simple visual upgrade of the original Gamecube adventure, and ultimately incorporated a number of reworked gameplay features, as well as a few new additions.

While many remakes in recent years have seen significant visual jumps in their quality (i.e. – Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, Final Fantasy IV DS, etc.), Wind Waker HD’s strongest graphical showings come from its improved lighting effects and more strikingly visible environment textures. Character models and the various locales across the Great Sea appear largely unchanged from the Gamecube original, due in no small part to the fact that cel-shaded graphics were far ahead of their time, and have since aged significantly better than the visuals of nearly every other game in the long-running series. The soundtrack, however, has been cleaned up a bit, and a few subtle variations on classic tunes have been thrown into the mix.

For those who missed out on the Wind Waker during its original 2003 release, the story is set hundreds of years after the events of Ocarina of Time. The intro sequence explains that, even though OoT's Link was able to save Hyrule from Ganondorf’s evil conquest once, after he had returned to his own time there was no one to stop the Gerudo King once he escaped his imprisonment in the Sacred Realm. In a last-ditch effort to save the people of Hyrule, the goddesses washed away the kingdom, sending the people to live on the islands that now marked the Great Sea. As centuries passed, those who knew the legends of Hyrule dwindled in numbers, though on Link’s birthday, he receives a green Tunic from his grandmother, which she cites as being associated with the hero of legend, and a tradition for boys to wear on his home of Outset Island.

Not long after, a giant bird carrying the pirate captain Tetra flies over Outset Island, only to be struck by a cannonball from Tetra’s pursuing crew members. The bird drops Tetra in the forest atop the island, and Link decides to go help at the insistence of his younger sister Aryll. After scaling the island and fighting a few monsters, Link rescues Tetra and the two exit the forest only to witness young Aryll be whisked away by the giant bird from before, who mistook Aryll for Tetra. Determined to save his sister, Link acquires a shield and sword and climbs aboard Tetra’s ship as they head for the Forsaken Fortress.

Once inside, Link manages to sneak past Moblin patrols and is reunited with his sister, who is being held captive with two other young girls in a prison cell atop the Forsaken Fortress. However, this victory is short-lived, as the giant bird swoops in and tosses Link to the ocean, at the command of its shadowy master. The next morning, Link awakes to find he has been rescued by a talking sailboat which calls itself the King of Red Lions. He informs Link that the master of the Forsaken Fortress and the one who has been spreading monsters across the Great Sea is none other than Ganondorf, and that Link must gather three pearls in order to access a greater power capable of stopping Ganondorf’s schemes.

Mechanically, Wind Waker built directly off its N64 predecessors Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask. The titular Wind Waker, which is used to control the direction of the wind that steers your sailboat, as well as a few other key interactions, effectively stood in for the previous musical instrument, the Ocarina of Time. Combat followed suit, with carefully timed strikes being coordinated with the trigger-based targeting system. The set of items Link collected from the various dungeons are still implemented with great frequency in later legs of The Wind Waker, often used in tandem with other items or weapons to overcome more challenging and complicated hurdles. While the core of this experience may remain largely the same, it is largely to the game’s benefit, as Wind Waker HD doesn’t need to fix what isn’t broken. That said, the optional gyroscope controls are available for the Telescope and Picto Box, should players feel so inclined to explore these additions, though the classic joystick controls are generally more smooth and precise.

Little changes to some of the items and questlines in Wind Waker HD end up going a long way. When sailing across the Great Sea, the Cannon, Crane, and Wind Waker are automatically set to the D-pad, while the Sail is set to the A button, allowing you to set another three separate items to the X, Y, and R buttons respectively. This cuts down on the amount of time spent swapping from the inventory. On a related note, the Gamepad’s touch controls allow you to drag items to these three buttons on the fly, without needing to pause the game first. Those who recall the Tingle Tuner from the Gamecube version will find it has been replaced with a more practical counterpart in the form of Tingle Bottles, which can carry messages into other player’s games via Miiverse, offering a more community-oriented experience not unlike the hints players can leave for one another in Dark Souls.

For completionists who enjoyed snapping pictographs of friendly faces and Ganondorf’s loyal monsters during their journey to turn into sculpted figurines at the Nintendo Gallery, the number of open slots in the Picto Box has been bumped up to twelve, as has the number of figurines that can be crafted each day. Enemy spoil drops appear to have been improved as well, making sidequests dependent on the number of Skull Necklaces, Butterfly Pendants, or Golden Feathers in your possession much quicker to complete. A speedier sail is available around the game’s midway point, and the process of collecting Triforce pieces during the late hours has been cut in half, thanks to the majority of the chart locations being replaced with the actual Triforce shards themselves. This not only makes collecting the Triforce shards feel like less of a chore than in the original Gamecube version, it circumvents the severe hiccup in the story’s pacing that comes as a result from suddenly needing to divert all of your attention from the buildup toward the late-game challenges and subsequent intense progression of the story.

If you have never experienced this particular Legend of Zelda title before, the HD update is a fantastic option. It’s also perhaps one of the most easily-accessible Zelda titles out there, for those who may have only experienced a scant few games in the series – not to say that The Wind Waker is an overly easy experience, but it does provide more intuitive controls and in-depth tutorials that stack as the game gradually offers up new options for improving combat and puzzle strategies. While the visuals may not be a vast improvement over the Gamecube original, they still hold up strong today, and offer a very distinct style that matches the sense of wonder in this fantasy setting, as well as the coming-of-age direction that the story takes with its younger protagonist.

My rating: 8.5 (out of 10)

The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker HD journal - entry three

When I first played Wind Waker, I was in middle school and had no qualms about sinking hours into the tedious process of collecting three pictographs at a time, bringing them to the Forest Haven’s Nintendo Gallery, and then fast-forwarding time via the Song of Passing to have them converted into sculpted figures one by one. While Wind Waker lacks as many real meaty sidequests as its home console predecessor Majora’s Mask offered up, the more involved sidequests that Wind Waker does have are just that – very involved, and by association, rather time-consuming. I am incredibly pleased to see that Nintendo has not only quadrupled the number of pictographs Link can store in his Picto Box at any given time, but also upped the ante on the number of figures that can be sculpted per day to a matching twelve. To some, the Nintendo Gallery might seem like a silly distraction, but I always found it to be one of the most entertaining and rewarding sidequests in Wind Waker.

Conversely, my single least favorite leg of the original Wind Waker adventure was the process of collecting all the Triforce charts, having them deciphered for an obscene sum of money, and then having to track down each Triforce shard thereafter. It was such a boring routine that really threw off the game’s pacing, especially after the revelation of Tetra being the heir to Princess Zelda’s bloodline and the search for the two new sages had significantly boosted the excitement and intensity of the narrative. Lo and behold, Nintendo also improved upon this by asking players to seek out a mere three Triforce charts, while many of the remaining Triforce Shards have been allocated to the treasure chests that previously housed their respective charts. Those few Triforce shards that still lie at the bottom of the sea are immediately visible on Tingle’s In-credible chart. This particular fetch quest feels much less a chore, as it requires approximately half the time and effort than in the original Gamecube version.

I would not say that I am quite as blown away by this updated version of Wind Waker as I was by Ocarina of Time 3D – as I previously mentioned, the character models and environments of Wind Waker HD look largely the same as before, save for better lighting and a clearer filter for the game’s presentation. Plus, even though it is two console generations removed, this HD remaster is still on a home console as opposed to a handheld. But it is certainly flying higher than I anticipated during my first journal post. As of a few hours ago, I started my dive into the Wind Temple, and as such, I would expect my review of Wind Waker HD to be posted sometime by the end of next week, as there isn’t a whole lot left ahead of me before I take on Ganondorf and finish this adventure… once again.

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD journal - entry two

Perhaps my initial judgments toward Wind Waker HD were premature. Now that I’m getting deeper into the story, I’m finding there are plenty of little updates that go a long way. I am a tad surprised that there does not appear to be any use of the stylus for scribbling notes on the sea chart ala Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks (or at least, there is no such functionality that I have yet come across). However, including the little tidbits of information the fish-men provide Link with their respective island chartings is a convenient addition for anyone who is new to the Wind Waker experience, or who is taking on this adventure many years after they originally tackled it on the Gamecube. After all, many of these hints or pieces of advice pertain to quests later in the game, like the Ghost Ship, the items required to enter the Earth and Wind Temples, and the Triforce Charts.

I’ve recently acquired the Swift Sail, which is far and away my favorite new item in this updated Zelda adventure. Not only does it make travelling to nearby islands a super-speedy process, but it easily cuts the time spent filling in the sea chart in half. The Tingle Bottles have proven entertaining, and I applaud those who have utilized them for more practical uses like aiding younger players who are stuck at a certain point in the game. That said, I’ve also found some of the messages within these Tingle Bottles quite amusing, whether the author of the related posts meant for their work to be humorous or not.

While I still feel that this HD version is not the visual spectacle other HD updates in recent years have shown themselves to be, there is something to be said about the finer details of this Wii U update of Wind Waker. I’ve come across a number of textures that I never noticed in the original Gamecube version, such as the small Triforce shape inside the barrier beam emitters within the Tower of the Gods, and the shapes of the Hylian people praising the Master Sword within the chamber below Hyrule Castle. As I mentioned in my previous post, the single biggest visual improvement seems to have come in the form of the game’s lighting, and as I have recently witnessed, this is not simply from the sun or the torch fires – the pearls required to summon the Tower of the Gods from the watery abyss look absolutely gorgeous, as does the room wherein Link faces the dungeon’s boss Gohdan. Even the Beamos eyes look far less blurry than they did back in 2003.

Wind Waker HD may end up being one of my earliest reviews posted in 2015. I’ve spent the past couple of days dealing with some post-Christmas crud, and as much as I’ve enjoyed what I’ve played of Persona Q thus far, playing through Wind Waker is a much easier task, especially since it is a game that I’ve beaten at least five times over now. My expectations of Wind Waker HD ranking among the greatest of all the games I play in 2015 are basically zero, but the aforementioned improvements that I have recently discovered have certainly earned it a few extra points toward its (eventual) overall review rating.

Anime review: Space Pirate Captain Harlock

A classic of a bygone era, before anime was so distinctly identified by wide-eyed faces or drawn-out power-up sequences, Space Pirate Captain Harlock’s more rounded character designs and heavy influence by western animators from the late seventies/early eighties stood among the first of their kind, then commonly referred to as ‘Japan-imation’. Fast-forward to 2013, and Captain Harlock’s latest outing is a film that revisits the roots of the character in a gloriously-rendered, if not frequently dark and gritty-looking, full CG adaptation. One of the great things about this new take on Captain Harlock is that it is easily accessible to newcomers like myself, who were born many years after Harlock’s original animated run, while still retaining the core cast and updating familiar plot points for the sake of streamlining the presentation.

Captain Harlock and his skull-decorated ship, the Arcadia – an appropriately pirate-themed vessel, matching the free-from-law lifestyle of those on board – are considered phantoms among those who have heard of them. They appear and disappear quickly, making short work of those they intend to plunder from, and though some have claimed to land hits on the Arcadia, it does not seem to make a difference, as the ship has some strange qualities of self-repair. When the Arcadia lands on a backwater world, a group of young men chase its smoky trail to its landing site, but only one – the steadfast Logan – makes the cut and is allowed to join the company of Harlock’s crew.

Logan is introduced to a few key crew members early on, including the lethal blonde beauty Kei, and the scruffy, often comical Yullian. Harlock, however, remains distant, an imposing figure always observing Logan, but rarely addressing him directly. This is perhaps for the better, as a brief while after he sets course for the stars in the company of Harlock’s loyal crew, it is revealed that Logan is actually a spy planted by the Gaia Sanction, a group determined to keep the Earth free from anyone setting foot on its surface, lest the bloody Homecoming War of a hundred years prior be repeated. Under the command of his wheelchair-bound brother Ezra, Logan is to inform them of the location and status of the Arcadia, as well as attempt an assassination of its infamous Captain Harlock.

Practically every facet of this film has been updated for today’s audiences. The pacing is spot-on, granting viewers enough time to become invested in the characters early on and subsequently find themselves immersed in the space-age fantasy tech. Harlock does a great job of pushing a ‘gritty reboot’ style that has seemingly become the norm for many properties in both the east and west hemispheres over the past decade. And yet, despite the greater degree of realism in character designs and the intimidating capabilities of the Arcadia, the film does not completely do away with the exciting fantasy thematic – rather, it embraces it just enough to cater to a broad audience. The concept of space pirates who fly the flag of skull and crossbones will no doubt entertain younger viewers, while the gravity of decisions made by the individual characters will satisfy the older crowd, and prevent this film from being simply a whimsical retread of the pioneering days of anime from which Harlock, Mobile Suit Gundam, and many other classics hail.

Admittedly, there are a couple of segments late in the film where certain characters seem to see their conflict as larger than life, and the manner in which these quarrels are dealt with might feel more at home in a film more heavily emphasizing fantastical and over-the-top fights. While these brief sequences are somewhat silly in the grand scheme of things, the tone of the film remains otherwise quite consistent throughout. This updated version of Captain Harlock is a masterful accomplishment in terms of its visuals, as a ludicrous amount of detail is worked into every environment, each character’s expressions are complex and eeriely human, and ship-to-ship combat a most fiery and bombastic spectacle to behold. Space Pirate Captain Harlock is what fun movie experiences ought to be all about – it may not be the most complicated story ever conveyed, but it knows when to pull the right punches, and has something to offer viewers both young and old.

My rating: 8.5 (out of 10)

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD journal - entry one

I received Wind Waker HD as a gift for purchasing Mario Kart 8 within its ‘early adopter’ window, and then subsequently set it aside for a rainy day. It’s not that I don’t like The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, far from it – it’s my fifth favorite Zelda title, only tailing slightly behind Majora’s Mask, Skyward Sword, the Oracle titles, and Ocarina of Time (numbers four to one, in that order). But I did last replay Wind Waker about two years ago, and felt I should wait a while before tackling this remastered edition at the risk of my experience feeling too much of a mundane retread. That said, I am not certain if this will be one of my earlier reviews on 2015, or if I will tackle it in spurts and give priority to The Wonderful 101 and Watch Dogs.

The great thing about Wind Waker, at least for the sake of this replay and upcoming review, is that it has a relatively quick main storyline. I am, however, very much interested in seeing what all of the reworked gameplay elements are and how different their offerings are from the original Gamecube version. As of right now, I’ve just purchased the sail on Windfall Island, and I have a few key points I wanted to hit on.

First off, the graphics and art style are not as big of an improvement as I had expected. Wind Waker’s cel-shaded direction has led it to be, from a visual perspective at least, the Zelda title that has simply aged the best. The gameplay is a different beast entirely, but when Wind Waker HD was first announced, I thought it an exceptionally odd pick for that very reason. With the Wii U’s significantly improved graphical capabilities over its predecessor consoles, Majora’s Mask, even Twilight Princess could have received major facelifts while finding new and fun things to do with the Gamepad. But Wind Waker HD only has a few notable trumps over its Gamecube counterpart that I have come across thus far – the lighting is superb, and some of the environment textures have been cleaned up.

It’s far from enough to make me feel like this is a whole new spin on an old classic. The cel-shaded character models look almost exactly the same as they did back in 2003, and the blocky/angular portions of environments look outdated. I know they might keep well with the cartoony style of the game, but with the updates Nintendo did perform on this Zelda title, they look a bit out of place, as well as more so dated than most of the game’s other visual components.

Secondly, the few new mechanics I have come across are merely optional control schemes for pre-existing items, or replacements for tech that was effectively impossible to replicate on the Wii U (such as the Tingle Bottle replacing the GBA-connected Tingle Tuner). The gamepad’s gyroscope can be used to aim the telescope, and I would assume the Pictobox as well, though I couldn’t say for certain, as I turned the gyroscope’s finicky sensitivity off after my first use of the telescope. The touch screen can be used to slide items to the X, Y, and R buttons, but it doesn’t really save any significant time over the typical button and joystick combo of the old Gamecube controller. I appreciate the game being a gift, as prior to receiving it, I did not have any intent of purchasing Wind Waker HD, but now that I have it, I’m finding the majority of the updates underwhelming. That said, there is still plenty of game left ahead of me, so perhaps the Great Ocean still has some surprises in store.

Anime review: Sword Art Online

WARNING: While I typically try my best to avoid spoilers of any kind in these reviews, Sword Art Online is split into two major story arcs that bear notably different styles and a number of important plot points from the former influence the latter. As such, there will be a spoiler-heavy section of this review, the beginning and ending of which will be indicated by bold text. The remainder of the review, however, will be spoiler-free.

One of the most popular anime to reach North American audiences in the past few years, I missed the entire wave of excitement surrounding Sword Art Online’s initial release. My interest in it was piqued a little more than a year after its zenith, when it was picked up as part of the new Toonami programming block. It proved an unusual though not uninteresting combination of classic medieval fantasy and near-future science fiction, with the majority of the story being told through the digital realm of the massively multiplayer online game that shares its name with the series.

Young Kazuto Kirigaya, one of the early beta testers for Sword Art Online, is as eager as the rest of the world to dive headfirst into this sprawling realm of might and magic – quite literally, in fact, as SAO is coupled with a helmet that allows Kazuto and every other player a fully-immersive experience. But Kazuto is also wary of the fact that some members of the online gaming community might not take kindly to his company were they aware of his early access rights. As such, Kazuto selects an avatar for himself, which he dubs ‘Kirito’, a moniker by which he will ultimately become more well-known than his real-world name. During his first few hours in SAO, Kirito familiarizes himself with the basics and the small tweaks that have been implemented since the beta, as well as makes a few new acquaintances. But the positivity and excitement glowing on the faces Kirito and everyone else in SAO is abruptly cut short as players begin panicking, realizing that their task menus do not display a ‘log out’ button. As it turns out, this was a design point put in place by the game’s creator, who informs everyone that they can only wake up once the ultimate endgame challenge of the hundred-floor dungeon and its boss have been conquered, and that any attempts to forcibly remove the helmets from the bodies of players in reality will result in their immediate deaths.

The style of this fictional MMORPG borrows heavily from Japanese heavyweights like Final Fantasy, as players are able to craft their own identity and utilize different skill sets. Protagonist Kirito’s ace-up-his-sleeve is the ability to dual-wield blades, while other players focus on healing, illusion magic, defensive tactics, and so forth. Different guilds are founded over time, some with more strict regulations are ruthless behavior in mind, and as time passes, it becomes abundantly clear that the NPC monsters that lie within each dungeon may not be the largest of threats players need concern themselves with. What really helps shape the atmosphere of the series as Kirito and company find themselves spending days into weeks into months within the game world, is the fact that the situation is so dire. There are real ramifications for dying in the game world, as it means death for a player’s physical body as well, and players tend to be either overly cautious, worrying about the smallest of scratches from foes, or bull-headed and unnecessarily gutsy, rushing headlong into insurmountable odds. Kirito, on the other hand, tries his best to team up with a handful of players and ensure they all make it to the next area of the game world, while still doing his best to keep his advantage over fellow players hush-hush.

While the pacing of this first half of the story may not be consistent, one of its points of brilliance is the manner in which it chooses to explore the many players and regions within the game world. During Kirito’s adventures, he visits crystalline tundra, expansive fields, winding dungeons full of traps, and a calm lakeside cottage, each of which has a very different set of tasks and plot progression associated with it – both with regards to advancing within SAO and through his personal relationships with friends. Kirito experiences frustration at the fact that he cannot save people from their dual deaths, but finds trust at the side of Asuna, an ace swordswoman who becomes his closest friend, confidant, and eventually his love.

Though she holds personal and professional responsibilities as one of the most skilled members of one of SAO’s elite guilds, Asuna has wit as quick as her reflexes with a blade. While Kirito has an advantage of knowledge of SAO’s programming, he works solo for many of the early episodes, turning to Asuna gradually more and more as he comes to appreciate what she has to offer in her understanding of player-to-player relations and the sort of in-game diplomacy that the guilds stand for. The more Asuna becomes an integral part of the story, the more interesting the plot becomes, and the more genuine and well-scripted both her and Kirito’s character progressions become.

(WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW – READ AT YOUR OWN RISK)

What becomes of the second half of the story is truly disappointing, as Asuna, once a strong-willed, calculating, and admirable fighter more than capable of holding her own, is reduced to mere plot device in the follow-up game titled ‘Alfheim Online’. After Kirito and his peers escape the world of SAO, it is revealed that a select few hundred players, Asuna included, never woke up from the game, and that Sugou Nobuyuki, an esteemed employee of Asuna’s father, intends to use this turn of events to his advantage by vowing to marry Asuna and claiming a greater stake in her father’s company. This situation is only worsened by the reveal that Sugou is posing as the fairy king Oberon in ALO, and is the one responsible for holding Asuna prisoner within this digital realm.

The problem with pulling such a grand reveal so early on is that it leads the suspense and action to run dry very quickly. Sugou and his alter ego Oberon come across as nothing more than a childish jerk with control issues, and the subplot regarding his desire to research brain control methods but never with the intent to use them on Asuna does not serve any particular purpose other than to prove his lack of anything more than a selfish and depraved vision for his intentions with Asuna. While the SAO arc painted a very real threat within the game world, there is no such hurdle to overcome in ALO. The few skirmishes Kirito does have with grunts of guilds are simply included to provide some brief, action-heavy eye candy, while the new characters he meets feel sorely underdeveloped, save for Leafa and Recon, the avatar for Kazuto’s sister and her classmate respectively.

Even with these two new additions to the story, Recon sees very little screen time, and while it feels like perhaps the writers had a greater development cycle in mind for him, the purpose he ultimately serves is to support Leafa’s development as a Sylph, and – to a lesser extent – emotionally, as her friend. Whereas the SAO arc spent very little time in the realm of reality, this second leg of the story spends nearly as much time between Kazuto’s home and the fairy realm of ALO. Despite her insistence at how scared she was that Kazuto might never wake up from SAO, his younger sister Suguha seems perfectly comfortable – gleeful, even – about jumping right on into the next big online gaming craze that is ALO. While a little while has passed between the fallout of SAO and its fatal threats to players, it seems odd that none of these characters would be hesitant about running right back in.

Even stranger and frankly unsettling is the angle of sexual attraction that Suguha conveys toward her brother. While the series does explain the two are not technically related by blood, they still spent years growing up together, and this feels a highly inappropriate plotline for a series aimed at such a broad audience. It’s not a one-and-done mention, either – Suguha’s emotions are the entire reason she decides to aid Kazuto/Kirito in ALO and reality, even if she is not aware of their being the same individual. This, coupled with Sugou’s dominating personality, leads the series’ second half to feel the part of a half-baked imitation of the SAO arc, riddled with bizarre turns that feel as far from home as possible in a series like this.

(SPOILERS END)

The first half of Sword Art Online may not have been perfect – a little less time spent on certain subplots might have been nice, but on the whole, it did well to present a great degree of variety. Characters embodied different sets of values, environments were detailed and colorful, enemies bore designs both classic and imposing – all of which made for a decently entertaining first story arc. But reducing one of the best characters to mere trophy during the second half and kicking many of the others to the curb entirely proves a horrible decision. The newcomers to the second arc are, by and large, a wholly uninteresting and unconvincing lot, and the story a shallow mess that confuses its identity for entirely unclear reasons.

My rating: 5.75 (out of 10)

Wii U review: Bayonetta 2

One of the most revered action titles of the last few years was Bayonetta, a combo-oriented game from the ex-Capcom employees at Platinum Games. With its emphasis on over-the-top demon summons, Witch Time dodge maneuvers, and an epic pseudo-religious mysticism persistent throughout, Bayonetta certainly left a strong impression with many die-hard fans of the genre. Fast-forward to 2014 and, in the most unlikely of pairings, Nintendo has partnered with Platinum to bring Bayonetta 2 to the Wii U as a console exclusive.

The first Bayonetta focused on the titular witch’s journey of self-discovery, and carried a generally darker aesthetic. This time around, Bayonetta has all of her memories intact, and as a result, has a personality that exudes confidence. Bayonetta enjoys using her magical abilities for the sake that she enjoys the position of power it puts her in over her enemies. She’s bold, unabashed, but not without a sense of right and wrong or the ability to convey compassion toward her friends and allies. Early in the sequel, Jeanne is dragged to Inferno, and as her best friend, Bayonetta is filled with determination to rescue her, even if it means facing the forces of Heaven and Hell alike. Pairing up with the young Loki, Bayonetta takes on something of a big sister role that is thoroughly entertaining – while she does not feel the need to play the part of mother hen to this magic-wielding youth, she often saves him from trouble, scolds him for referring to her as being older than she is, and teases him for his hot-headed behavior.

Visually, Bayonetta 2 is one of the best-looking games to come from the eight-generation consoles yet. While Platinum has frequently boasted impressive graphics and art styles with their games, Bayonetta 2 takes it one step further, with gorgeous lighting cascading off the water surrounding the city of Naotun and a dark haze setting the backdrop of the Musphelheim bonus challenge stages. The angels retain their white and gold color schemes, but have adopted distinct humanoid forms more befitting of their holy associations that the first game’s obsession with avian designs. The lesser demons of Hell, on the other hand, boast shiny metallic and stone textures, with more animalistic and alien features. Both carry weapons that can be picked up by Bayonetta for a one-time use in battle, and while typically offer a decent punch, they aren’t the sort of thing players ought to grow too attached to, as the primary weapons gathered throughout Bayonetta’s journey to Hell and back are the real important tools that will forge the witch’s path.

Ridiculous though they may be, there’s little else satisfying in such an unapologetic action game as skating around on chainsaw blades, break dancing while wildly firing pistols into the air, or hacking apart a circle of foes with the blades of a giant scythe. Bayonetta’s moveset can be expanded at Rodin’s bar, given that players have the necessary Halos. While Bayonetta 2 boasts a greater variety of offerings both offensively and defensively, players will have to do a fair amount of exploring and complete time-sensitive puzzles in order to boost both their magic and health gauges. The Musphelheim challenges are significantly less ludicrous than in the first game, though they are far from forgiving, and the same can be said of both the post-game Lost Chapters and gauntlet run-style multiplayer challenges. Bayonetta’s animal transformations are all made available early on, which lends the exploration angle to feel a more natural part of the whole package, and the environments incorporate some nicely hidden treasures in underwater areas or on outcroppings only accessible by taking flight as a crow.

Witch Time remains largely the same as in its predecessor, though enemy movements make it a bit easier to gauge just when you ought to dodge to initiate the limited slow-mo window to unleash an assault of attacks on foes. While this may sound as though the game is being too lenient with players, it’s quite the contrary – better camera angles and quicker response time from both Bayonetta’s attacks and dodges mean that the product as a whole controls even more smoothly than in the first outing, though the hits she does take from enemies will still whittle away decent chunks from her health bar. Torture attacks can still be used after charging up Bayonetta’s magic meter via successful combos, or can be used to fuel a number of successive powerful hits in the form of Umbran Climax, with will summon limited but notably heavier attacks from one of Bayonetta’s many demonic allies like Madama Butterfly or Malphas. The freedom to dispatch foes as you see fit makes the experience both more tactical and rewarding, as there are pros and cons to both options, and the ranking system for medals takes into account successive combos, the amount of damage sustained by Bayonetta, and the time taken to complete a phase.

Whereas some games would gradually prepare players for the most epic of boss fights, Bayonetta 2 throws you right into the thick of it, with insane clashes between goliath angel and demon summons, a surfing sequence up the side of a waterspout with the witch chasing down a higher angel, and an undersea magic missile shootout. Many of the gargantuan bosses are brought on by one mysterious Lumen Sage who is in pursuit of Loki, and who Bayonetta naturally clashes with on multiple occasions. As a successor to the handful of rival battles with Jeanne in the first game, the fights with the sage are lengthier and generally more interesting, as his spear staff forces him to rush the witch with fast slashes, while Bayonetta’s attacks are largely more ranged.

Many of the boss battle themes utilize choirs with dark and imposing voices to convey the sense of scale and urgency surrounding each of these encounters. Skirmishes with the common grunt enemies, on the other hand, are accompanied by jazzy pop numbers, with catchy vocals, the most noteworthy of the bunch being a new school take on “Moon River” and Bayonetta 2’s de facto theme song “Tomorrow is Mine”. Many of the game’s environments are decorated with Lumen and Umbran ruins, though bright blues, silvers, and golds prevail over the previous game’s darker color palettes.

Bayonetta 2 is a game that never really lets up on the gas, plowing full throttle toward the next explosive encounter. Even during the moments where you are allowed freedom of exploration, it never feels disjointed or sluggish, thanks in part to the optional enemy encounters and aforementioned Musphelheim challenges. But simply stopping for a moment to take in the majestic environments is worth a quick break in the action to admire the masterful attention to detail in the foreground and myriad of structures rendered in the background. These elements, while not necessary to make or break the experience, add just a bit more polish to the final product and chalk up a greater degree of respect and appreciation to the development team.

Throughout the main story, players will discover many journal entries penned by Luka. Some will be laid directly in Bayonetta’s path, practically impossible to miss, while others will be hidden in clever nooks and crannies like some of the treasures. Each entry offers details on Umbran magic, the history of the clans, the Eyes of the World, and so forth, adding an extra degree of depth to the culture and belief system of this fictional realm. As players trek through the main game, they will also unlock models of characters and enemies accessible in a viewing gallery. While Bayonetta 2 carries on from its predecessor with the ability to unlock extra costumes, the partnership between Nintendo and Platinum has a few extra treats to offer in the form of costumes that pay tribute to Princess Peach, Daisy, Fox McCloud, Samus, and Link. Each costume also adds slight twists to the otherwise familiar combat, such as Bowser’s fists and feet replacing those of Madama Butterfly, and the ability to roll around in Morphball mode.

Ingredients collected from the game’s many locales can be used to create lollipops that replenish health and magic, as well as grant Bayonetta temporary defensive and offensive boosts. But players who pay attention to the signals in combat and take the time to perfect their timing with dodges and counters will find they rarely need turn to these items. Bayonetta 2 is about as perfect an action game as anyone could ask for, with fluid design throughout, and a protagonist that is as much about flash and flair as she is about commanding every second she is on screen. The mysticism of Bayonetta’s world is akin to the lore of series like The Legend of Zelda, while the gameplay is a distinct upgrade from its Devil May Cry roots. Bayonetta 2 sets a new standard for action games, and is easily one of the best games currently available on eighth generation consoles.

My rating: 9.75 (out of 10)

Anime review: Persona 4: The Animation

Anime adaptations of video games and other licensed properties sometimes receive a bad reputation due to their nature of being produced solely to make a quick buck based on namesake. Persona 4: The Animation is a curious case of trimming a fifty-plus hour JRPG into a twenty-six episode series. There’s a lot to consider with such a bold undertaking – what gets left on the cutting room floor, how do the writers properly convey such a large and diverse main cast, and how could the variables unique to each individual player’s experiences factor in without alienating viewers? The result, while perhaps not perfect, is one of the more successful forays into adapting a video game to anime in recent years.

As with the video game, Persona 4: The Animation begins with Yu Narukami moving to the small town of Inaba to live with his Uncle Dojima, the local detective, and young cousin Nanako. Early on during his stay, Yu hears rumors of a television broadcast that airs rainy evenings as the clock strikes midnight, and begins to formulate with his friends and classmates as to whether this Midnight Channel might share any connection to a recent string of murders in the area. After a few brief ventures into the world behind the television screen, Yu and friends learn they must face their inner selves in order to call upon the Arcana powers of their own unique Personas and face off against the violent Shadows that inhabit the TV realm.

Yu is the lone exception to the rule of everyone hosting a singular Persona, as he can forge bonds with his friends and locals in order to expand his capabilities. While the actual process of his forging social links is largely glossed over in this anime version due these being left largely up to individual players’ discretion in the video game, a few episodes see Yu interacting with NPCs and taking time away from the murder case in order to help an old lady and tutor a child. The dungeons are typically completely explored within a single episode each, as the anime is less concerned with the process of fighting hordes of enemies and opening treasure chests, opting instead to place greater emphasis on the investigative team facing their shadow selves and subsequently revealing more about their personalities and character traits.

Key non-combat events from the game also receive ample attention, including the school camping trip and Miss Yasogami beauty pageant. It provides a fresh break from the otherwise intense atmosphere and darker color palettes within the TV world. The animation style itself is highly reminiscent of the few fully-animated cutscenes from the video game, though Persona 4: The Animation has a notably higher production quality than said sequences. A few new subplots, such as Nanako dressing up as a magical-girl-meets-Sherlock-Holmes anime protagonist and tailing Yu to find out what he has been up to all summer break, add a bit more lighthearted storytelling that is welcome in putting a slight spin on a story otherwise quite familiar to those who have already poured multiple days worth of time into the video game.

The majority of the cast from the video game’s localization return for the English dub of the anime, with only a couple change-ups – Chie’s being the most instantly noticeable, due to how heavily involved in the story she is from the outset. Johnny Yong Bosch’s voice work for Yu Narukami is a real treat – while he may not be highly talkative in order to preserve a sense of neutrality and focus the story more on Yosuke, Yukiko, Kanji, and so on, there are certain points in the anime where he will deliver lines of dialogue that would be considered the strange or obscure options in-game. This often creates evokes humorous responses from his companions. With many of the gaps bridged due to the anime not covering so much of the downtime between dungeons, Naoto’s inclusion in the story is more consistent, and Margaret prefaces nearly every episode, giving the Velvet Room a constant presence, though one that is left largely unexplained in this version of the story. Dojima is effectively reduced to a one-dimensional and often bitter individual, which makes his shift to becoming a more caring parent in the later episodes both sudden and clunky.

As is only to be expected, the endgame storylines see slower pacing in order to fully prepare viewers for the multi-layered revelations. They remain just as half-baked as in the video game version, however, and it is a shame that both interpretations of Persona 4 stumble over themselves so late in their runs. Aside from a couple of the events signifying a maxed out social link being shuffled around to places that proved more convenient in this version, Persona 4: The Animation remains largely unchanged from its video game counterpart, and given how story-heavy the game was to begin with, that’s probably just as well. There is little revolutionary about this adaptation, but at the same time, it does exactly what it sets out to do, offering ample time to highlight Naoto’s gender dysphoria, Rise’s stress from life in the spotlight, and Teddie’s existentialism.

My rating: 7 (out of 10)

PS2 review: Persona 4

It’s the start of a new school year, and a high school student has moved to the small town of Inaba to live with his uncle Dojima, a local detective, and young cousin Nanako. Shortly after his arrival, this high schooler learns of a few odd happenings around Inaba. First is the Midnight Channel, a static-laden television broadcast that seems to display the faces of certain locals on rainy nights as the clock strikes twelve. Second is a series of murders that, while involving victims who were seemingly unrelated, may be connected through their faces appearing on the Midnight Channel prior to their deaths. After making a few friends among his classmates, this newcomer decides to investigate the murders, utilizing a newfound ability to enter a world behind the television screen and call upon the Arcana powers of Personas.

The ability to utilize multiple Personas and their varying powers and skill sets is what sets the player-controlled protagonist apart from his comrades – you, the player, are able to adjust your own play style on the fly. You are only able to take three others with you into any given dungeon crawling session, and while some are better suited as healers, physical fighters, or stat boosters, each tends to specialize in at least one type of magic. In the case of Yukiko, her Persona hits foes with fire attacks and can also heal up party members, while Kanji is more focused on physical attacks at the cost of some lost HP, as well as electric attacks and a couple of boosts to your party members’ stats. In order to best compliment the offerings that your companions bring to the fight, you will need to visit the ethereal plane of the Velvet Room and fuse Personas that you collect from defeating enemies. Each Persona is attributed to a different symbol of the Arcana, such as Death, the Tower, the High Priestess, the Hierophant, the Chariot, the Lovers, and so forth. Building up your social links in-between your dungeon crawling sessions is key to earning experience bonuses when fusing these Personas and granting your allies a greater range of abilities in battle.

Maxing out every social link in a single playthrough is impossible, so it’s up to your own discretion in determining which social links you wish to pursue. Those associated with jobs and tasks around town typically take less time to complete, though the bonuses earned from your party members’ social links are always more significant, making the extra time it takes to complete them all the more worthwhile. Social links with some of the female party members and classmates can also open the door to romantic pursuits, though these are not necessary and you can opt to remain as friends – it will simply prompt altered and extra dialogue segments after you have cemented an intimate relationship.

With the option to participate in sports and school clubs, take up part-time jobs, spend time fishing, tutoring, and so on, no two playthroughs will be quite the same. The large amount of downtime in-between dungeons is one of the elements that sets Persona 4 so far apart from many of its JRPG contemporaries. Which of these tasks you decide to take up will boost your skills in Understanding, Diligence, Courage, Expression, and Knowledge, and jobs will net you extra cash depending on how devoted or focused you are. Meanwhile, the dungeon exploration segments are reminiscent of some of the older Final Fantasy titles, with multiple sprawling floors of interconnected chambers and hallways, and enemies that become tougher the higher you climb. While the earliest of dungeons are host to classic fantasy aesthetics, later locales includes a sauna, an anime-style secret base, and a metaphysical 8-bit video game.

Each dungeon concludes with a challenging boss fight, though each boss has a relatively predictable pattern of attacks, buffs, and defensive options. While these could not be more different from one boss encounter to the next, you may find that being beaten the first time you attempt to take on one of these powerful foes will grant you a more solid plan of attack with the next attempt. Later dungeons include a mid-dungeon miniboss encounter, while every dungeon includes two kinds of chests – small chests, which often contain health and magic-replenishing items, and golden chests, which must be opened with keys that are sometimes earned from fallen enemies. These golden chests often contain weapons or armor, as well as rare and valuable materials for crafting at the local metalsmith.

Persona 4’s approach to the dungeons is highly unorthodox, as it is not required that you complete each dungeon in a single attempt. Rather, you can tackle any given dungeon over the course of multiple days (or multiple weeks, even). The only risk you run of seeing a ‘game over’ screen is if you do not reach the end of a dungeon by the time heavy rain and the fog that follows are to set in, which would effectively see to the death of whoever has been thrown into the television world at that time due to the enemy shadows growing overly powerful.

However, Persona 4 suffers from an archaic save system, in that the only places you are able to save the game are the hubworld area within the Midnight Channel, and the final floor preceding each dungeon’s boss fight. And while it would be fine and dandy to save after you’ve cleared each and every floor of each dungeon, the amount of money you would waste on the Goho-M items which warp your party back to the dungeon entrance would prove ludicrous in the long run. This certainly adds an old-school RPG challenge factor to the combat-heavy portions of the game, but it can also be quite frustrating, especially in the earlier dungeons when you have a less concrete idea of how tough the enemies that lie in wait ahead are going to be.

When you do square off against enemy Shadows, it is important to learn what sorts of attacks each is weak to, as well as what your own Personas a weak against. Hitting an enemy with whatever they are weak to will net you both a critical hit and an immediate bonus strike to either finish them off or to focus your efforts on another enemy on the field. Ocassionally, your allies will request to perform a strong physical attack, which will always end in a critical hit. These criticals, as well as the ones earned from exploiting an enemy’s weakness, will cause them to fall down. If all foes in a fight have fallen, your party can then band together to pile on in a cartoonish cloud of dust and sound effect symbols, dishing out a heaping helping of damage that frequently finishes those enemies off.

After your newest ally faces their shadow self at the conclusion of a dungeon, they will begin to open up to you about their insecurities and personal struggles. For some, these are more commonplace pressures of feeling the need to please family and friends, or adhere to certain expectations that others have for them. In a few cases, the game takes a very twenty-first century approach to deconstructing characters by exploring their confusions regarding sexuality and their own gender identities. Persona 4 does a magnificent job of tackling these in a pointed manner while still maintaining its often cartoonish and comedic routine, which goes a long way in advancing classic staples of the JRPG subgenre, hand-in-hand with the highly-creative dungeon designs and emphasis on non-combat subplots and game mechanics.

While Persona 4 does well to consistently deliver generally high quality and quantity for the sum of its parts, the endgame stretch does fall victim to a streamlining process that robs the experience of some of its quirky spirit as well as the previously high degree of interactivity and player freedom. The last few hours of the game effectively become a series of pre-scripted dialogue sequences, some of which can result in a ‘bad ending’ cutscene if selected improperly. The motives for key individuals will also likely leave a great number of devotees disappointed, given how uninspired and plain stupid they are both in the context of the game world and as general driving forces for character development were they to be applied to a story in any other medium. That said, most of the party members weave stories that pan out in rewarding manners, so while the experience does see some significant falters later on, the journey taken there is, by and large, an excellent modernized spin on the fundamentals of classic JRPGs.

My rating: 8.75 (out of 10)

3DS review: Kid Icarus: Uprising

Following up on his return to the scene in 2007’s Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Pit once again takes flight in Kid Icarus: Uprising for the 3DS, a game that combines arcade-style on-rails shooting sequences with ground-based adventure and action elements.  The story begins with a simple-enough premise: the forces of the Underworld are spreading across the Earth, and Lady Palutena suspects Medusa is responsible for this sudden influx.  Calling upon her most trusted angel Pit, Palutena mounts an offensive against these ruthless invaders, with her ultimate goal being that of the retrieval of the Three Sacred Treasures, relics which were previously used to defeat Medusa and which hold the power to do so once again.

Nine missions later, and the game leads you to believe you have bested the greatest threats of myth, only to shatter this illusion by revealing Hades as the true villain.  Pit has seen only the tip of the iceberg with regards to the many foes he will face and the factions that will attempt to take advantage of the conflict between the forces of Skyworld and the Underworld.  That is one of the greatest advantages both the story and gameplay have in Kid Icarus: Uprising – there is always a surprise waiting around the corner, whether it is the game duping you into believing you’ve reached its conclusion before you’ve reached even the halfway marker, the inclusion of a top-down scrolling shoot-‘em-up segment in the vein of Space Invaders, or the use of vehicles to traverse both the Earth and the stars.

The game’s sense of humor falls into a similar category, often making fun of itself, and even more frequently seeing Palutena and goddess of nature Viridi poke fun at Pit, who – noble as he may be – is naïve and perhaps too reliant on Palutena’s powers at times.  There are references to other Nintendo properties, like when Pit quips that a certain enemy type resembles the parasitic Metroids, to which Viridi corrects him that the two fictional video game universes apparently share no connection.  For such a grandiose revival of a series that has remained dormant for twenty-one years, it’s comforting to see that it doesn’t take itself too seriously, despite all its successes in design.

The gameplay is intense throughout, as enemies come at Pit from all directions, and in increasingly greater numbers.  With rare exception, practically every chapter begins with Pit soaring through the skies, guided by Palutena’s power, as he shoots down airborne forces of the Underworld.  These sequences are relatively simple to control, with the joystick moving Pit about the screen, and the stylus aiming his shots.  Enemies that get too close will instead be struck by a blade attack, and there are typically only a few predetermined chances for Pit to heal before his feet touch the ground.  The second segments of each chapter generally see Pit land in some town, fortress, vessel, or other large structure to face off with enemies on a more personal level.  Pit can dash for a brief period of time, dodge enemy fire, and charge up shots.  He can also scour treasure chests for healing food items, optional abilities, and temporary items of aid like a protective shield or bomb.

As these ground fight sequences generally make up the latter half (or more) of a chapter, they frequently end with some sort of boss fight, each of which mixes up the familiar formula of firing, dodging, and going in for quick and hard strikes just enough by including grind rails, chariot races, and environmental hazards into the fray.  The boss fights are not equal in their degree of difficulty or intensity, but they are memorable encounters, nonetheless.  Between stages, players have the option to sell weapons they have collected within each stage or fuse them into greater tools.  Some weapons are more powerful in close-quarters, others better with range, and finding one’s personal preferred balance between these and optional upgrades like healing factors, quick-charge shots, stationary energy shields, and more adds a great degree of freedom in playing with whichever strategy you so desire.

At the start of each chapter, the game will ask you to bet hearts – the in-game currency – to determine both the difficulty factor and potential rewards.  More hearts bet means there is a greater chance of earning more in return, but Pit will also take significantly more damage when hit.  Most stages reward more adventurous players by including areas only accessible on higher difficulties, and these can include treasure chests with rarer items or a hot spring where Pit can bask and heal up before continuing on.  Similar to the Super Smash Bros. series, there are various challenges that can be completed to unlock new character and stage models, and an egg toss ‘mini-game’ (if it can even be considered such a thing) acts like Melee’s trophy vending machine lottery.  While these eggs are given as rewards for completing each chapter and offer different rewards based on their colors, they can also be purchased with 3DS play coins.  A multiplayer battle arena mode can be taken on with local friends or online in both team-based and free-for-all matches, which will also net players extra powers and weapons.

Visually, Kid Icarus: Uprising is one of the best-looking games on the 3DS to date.  While Greek and Roman mythos hold heavy sway over character designs, there is a significant amount of creative freedom shown in the designs of pirate starships and the war machines used by the forces of nature.  Many of the weapons Pit wields bear either stone-like textures or dull metallic shines, while the flight segments of any given chapter do extremely well to play with lighting effects that dance off rivers or the interior chambers of some of the game’s larger fortresses.  The soundtrack has a sweeping epic feel that evokes memories of a John Williams score on more than one occasion, very much befitting an adventure/action hybrid that tries so hard to blaze its own path in the realm of handheld gaming.

While it is easy to be swept away by all the impressive feats that Kid Icarus: Uprising triumphs over and forget that it is a handheld exclusive, the game does trip up over itself on occasions few and far between.  Certain stages suffer from poor choice in enemy placement - while it is always smart to check your surroundings before diving headfirst into battle, these particular areas don’t provide you that luxury.  Were it not for the fact that you need to spin the camera around so often while on foot, the need to do this and attempt to dodge enemy attacks at the same time might not prove such an annoyance.  Other stages do not seem to change up the number of healing items available from one difficulty setting to another, making their lower-level counterparts only slightly less so challenging overall, as this game is, at its core, for gamers who want an intense action experience, despite how unorthodox a hybrid design it might be.  Still, even with this handful of missteps, Kid Icarus: Uprising is a bold gamble for Nintendo that paid off brilliantly, as it is not only one of the more original titles on the 3DS in terms of both gameplay and design, but also one of the most fun to play and replay.

My rating: 9.25 (out of 10)