• NO GUNS LIFE & Toaru Kagaku no Railgun T.

    The action-drama No Guns Life has a visual similarity to Zetman, an atmospheric similarly to detective noir, and a small ill-fitting streak of often ecchi-related comic relief. Personally I just strongly disliked Tetsurou and Olivier’s character design and wasn’t interested enough in the plot developments to stick with it beyond the first half.

    Yet another entry in the Index franchise, Railgun T takes place sometime between the Accelerator spinoff and Index III. It’s strange. Ideally you would want consistent visual quality, right? Yet here the end result comes off as unnaturally natural. Like, there are fully drawn people walking around with detailed background destruction down to individual glass shards… the world actually looks real.

    And that’s the problem: Anime, in my opinion, shouldn’t look real. It’s disconcerting. Almost as disconcerting as the large amount of fanservice (e.g. there’s an entire episode dedicated to two characters’ quest to enlarge their bust size).

    Oh yeah, I also watched some of Eizouken ni wa Te o Dasu na! recently; if you really like the mechanics of making Anime (and don’t mind children’s drawings) give it a shot. I’m not all that fond of creator mythmaking myself and didn’t like the character design much either.

    Continue reading  Post ID 8591


  • Talisman: Origins

    This game is essentially just a limited version of the main game: There’s no multiplayer and you can’t create your own games.

    What it offers in exchange are a number of puzzle-like scenarios that incorporate both the default setup and the City, Highlands, Dungeon, Firelands, and Dragon DLC. Different scenarios involve different setups. So in theory you could use it as a demo to decide whether or not you want to buy those… but I just don’t see much value to be had there. As for its own clutch of DLC, they feature scenarios that involve content from some of the other base game extensions. So unless you’re an achievement hunting fiend those aren’t worth buying either (I briefly tried Beyond the Veil, which uses content from the Reaper DLC; it’s awful).

    Considering that you can demo the various DLC in the main game simply by playing multiplayer (only the host needs to have bought them; I got to play Cataclysm, Clockwork Kingdom, Ancient Beasts, and Realm of Souls that way and quickly realized I never want to interact with the latter two again), the only reason to bother with Origins is if either multiplayer isn’t an option or you simply don’t have the time to play full-length Talisman games.


  • Talisman: Digital Edition

    The appearance of this game caught me by surprise, as I certainly wasn’t expecting a board game I used to play decades ago to have (relatively) recently been digitized.

    The adaptation as far as I can tell is flawless from a mechanics perspective with the AI behaving remarkably intelligently even when faced with alternate win conditions (you can also play with multiple human characters either on the same computer or through online servers). Visually though it could certainly use some upgrading: Animating the character movement and/or the encounters wouldn’t be unwelcome. Then again, it has a certain retro charm to it as is, it’s far from expensive (on sale for $2 at the moment), and no animation can occasionally be preferable to lackluster animation.

    You may notice that the game has quite a number of available DLC. They are in no way necessary; you can play the game perfectly fine without any of them in fact. They mostly just give you additional options or make winning harder. I’ll briefly go over the ones I’ve played with:

    • Blood Moon adds a situational new mechanic whose usefulness will depend on how many Event-adding DLC you have installed. The new characters are notable for being less situational than most.
    • The City extends the game board with a new Gold-centric region to explore. If you commonly find yourself with nothing to spend your Gold on, or have trouble finding equipment, it’ll be worth picking up (when on sale).
    • The Dragon DLC can make the game harder in two ways. Either by overriding the default encounters with powerful dragon-related encounters, or by making it harder to traverse the inner area with two of the three alternate win conditions (if this DLC is activated, I strongly suggest activating the ‘No Respawn’ house rule as well).
    • The Dungeon expands the game board by the same amount as the City DLC. Unlike that though this new area doesn’t really add anything new to the base game beyond an arguably easier win condition. The characters it includes are less situational though.
    • The Firelands will be more useful the more DLC you have installed, as otherwise its burn mechanic could seriously hinder the exploration part of gameplay.
    • I’m not really sure how useful Frostmarch will be to anyone. It basically just adds more of the same to the base game.
    • In direct contrast to Blood Moon, the Harbinger DLC is apparently more effective with less DLC installed. This is because its central mechanic mostly relies upon drawing specific events… which can end up a rare occurrence when you have a massive Adventure deck.
    • As with the City and Dungeon addons, the Highland DLC also adds a new region to the board. Basically, you’ll want to come here for the new relics to give you that last bit of advantage you’ll need at 10 Strength/Craft to challenge the win condition (assuming the win condition is combat-related).
    • The Reaper is a lot like Blood Moon, except its NPC effect is notably more useful. The instant death result can turn around what would otherwise be a hopeless situation.
    • The Sacred Pool will be most useful if you’re using alternate win conditions. If you only play with the default Crown of Command one there won’t be much point in bothering with it.
    • The fourth of the ‘board extension’ DLC, the Woodland does a number of things. Most notably it adds an entirely new use for Fate which allows you to reroll other players’ rolls rather than your own. Though occasionally useful in the default game, this new Dark Fate is particularly useful for triggering some of the nastier encounter results from other DLC.

    Ancient Beasts, Nether Realm, and the various Legendary Decks were skipped because they just add more challenge (which is not something I’m particularly interested in). Cataclysm meanwhile I’m holding off on until I get bored of the default (DLC-extended) board layout. As for Clockwork Kingdom and Realm of Souls… they’re not cheap enough yet.

    You may notice I didn’t mention any of the single-release additional characters. That’s both because they’re obvious rip-offs and because the characters in this game aren’t exactly well balanced. Their strengths are very much situational and whether one will be better than another will depend heavily on which content-adding DLC you have activated.

    As for


  • Shadows of Self & The Bands of Mourning

    Shadows of Self is the fifth book in Brandon Sanderson‘s Mistborn series. Fortunately, as I remember nothing at all about the prequel, reading it does not require all that much familiarity with the setting or previous events; having read Secret History will be enough (though having read the entire series will of course enhance the experience). It’s solidly entertaining from start to finish.

    Bands of Mourning continues from where that left off, but has a distinctively different atmosphere. It’s more of an ensemble story with most scenes involving three or more members of the now core group of Wax, Wayne, Marasi, Steris, and MeLann. While the cast expansion works however, the setting and scope expansion does not. The new city ends up a vestigial speedbump, the airship and related ‘lost civilization’ are badly integrated, and the ‘evil ancient god’ subplot comes across as extraordinarily arbitrary. It does finally resolve the issue of Wax’s uncle (which is nice I guess)… but I just can’t see his replacement as an improvement.

    Apparently there’s going to be one more book to conclude this segment of the series (it was supposed to have been released by now but allegedly got delayed by the creation of an unrelated YA series), but honestly I’m not all that interested in it if it’s just going to effectively be retreading ground the early Mistborn novels already covered.


  • The Way of Kings & Words of Radiance

    The first novel in Brandon Sanderson‘s Stormlight Archive series reminds me of R. Scott Bakker’s Aspect-Emperor series. Mostly in structure and length, but also slightly in content (it’s nowhere near as dark/gritty or philosophy-laden though… which could go either way depending on your personal tastes).

    It starts out pretty boring while laying the groundwork, picks up markedly by the halfway point, and becomes downright exciting toward the end. Aside from the questionable beginning, the only real issue I had with it were Kaladin and Shallan both acting pretty stupid much of the time. With a book the size of this one you wouldn’t think a mere two characters’ actions could drag it down, but they both end up central to the story it wants to tell. The intermittent flashbacks to Kaladin’s past aren’t particularly interesting either.

    The second novel, Words of Radiance, pretty much entirely redeems Shallan… but Kaladin relapses for a while. I’m also still not fond of the flashback segments (this time focusing on Shallan) and the random character resurrection at the end seems, well, random and ill thought out. That said, overall it’s notably more consistent than the prequel and I’m definitely invested in seeing how the story develops from here.


  • Arcanum Unbounded: The Cosmere Collection

    This collection of short fiction spans Brandon Sanderson’s various existing Cosmere series along with two currently stand-alone ones.

    The first two take place on the world of Elantris, with The Emperor’s Soul effectively being stand-alone with no need to have read anything else (though having read the first two Stormlight Archive books will help conceptually). The Hope of Elantris meanwhile is heavily dependent on having recently read Elantris proper, but honestly isn’t very good at all and would probably be best skipped.

    The next three stories focus on the Mistborn world. The Eleventh Metal is a prequel that’s basically a chapter-length interlude which would’ve worked better placed as a flashback in the first book instead of having been released separately. Allomancer Jak and the Pits of Eltania on the other hand jumps ahead to the Alloy of Law half of the series setting-wise and essentially ends up its own separate thing. This section is then wrapped up with Mistborn: Secret History which is quite long and reveals what was going on behind the scenes during the 2nd and 3rd Mistborn novels. You can read it without being familiar with the series proper (I had forgotten nearly everything about it by this time), but it will likely have more impact if read shortly after finishing those.

    The remaining stories are each from a different world:

    • White Sand is an excerpt from a graphic novel project of the same name, with both the actual comic pages and a plain-text version being included. The plain text version is far better.
    • Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell has a pretty interesting setting combined with pretty annoying character behavior.
    • Sixth of the Dusk is a bit heavy-handed with its messaging and relationship development, but the setting is original enough to forgive it.
    • Edgedancer takes place between the 2nd and 3rd Stormlight Archive novels and should most definitely be read at that point.

    The entire work also features an outside observer framing device which gives a brief introductory overview of each setting along with a glimpse into how they’re connected to one another (these parts probably won’t make much sense if you haven’t read at least the first two Stormlight Archive books). It’s an impressive display and worth the price of admission if you’re a fan of Sanderson’s worldbuilding.


  • Hidden Legacy: Books 1-5

    When I first saw this series announced, I pretty much immediately dismissed it as the authors slumming with a stab at generic paranormal romance.

    Now having read it on whim I see I was right about that (at least for the the first 3-4 books). What I was not expecting however was that it’s also Kate Daniels fanfiction. Who does that? What kind of author makes fanfiction of their own successful work and then tries to pass it off as a new work that required ‘belief’ to get it off the ground? Your editor “believed in the story”? No shit they did; you already wrote it years ago!

    The funniest thing about this is that’s not even the full extent of the reuse. It also splices in the setting from Kinsmen… another of the authors’ series, albeit an apparently less successful one. The audacity of the entire project is just staggering.


  • Atelier: Dusk Trilogy

    It’s an incredibly good thing I didn’t start the franchise with this trilogy. One thing I’m particularly hostile toward in RPGs are arbitrary time limits, and both of the first two Dusk games feature just that.

    The first, Ayesha: The Alchemist of Dusk, has a 3-year time limit but basically no structure whatsoever as far as the storyline or plot development goes. This is an unfortunate combination. You can essentially visit areas in any order, which means it’s incredibly easy to do so in the ‘wrong’ order and miss the time-saving adventure equipment recipes… which is a serious issue when it takes half a day by default to search a single gathering point. Other issues would be that the plot developments are pretty bad, Ayesha is an ill-fitting protagonist (she’s of the ‘airhead older sister’ archetype), and the Wilbell, Regina, & Linca character arcs are all terrible.

    The follow-up, Escha & Logy: Alchemists of the Dusk Sky is far better in most respects. There’s still a time limit, but here it’s structured into specific assignments with linear area unlocking. So long as you do everything at least once there’s no fear of missing something important or ever running out of time. Even better, the Alchemy system is far less obtuse and it’s actually possible to craft powerful equipment without going through extensively arcane reverse trait-inheritance shenanigans as in Ayesha. The characters are mostly better as well, although Escha is incredibly Anime, Lucille is annoyingly peppy, and both are on the shrill side of things voice-wise.

    Shallie: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea is the trilogy’s conclusion, and it heavily references the previous game (and moderately references Ayesha). Making it an exceptionally bad choice from a storyline-perspective to enter the franchise with. Mechanically however it’s a bit better with a much more engaging Alchemy system, active combat system, and most importantly: No time limit. And yet… it’s not much fun. There’s a soullessness to the areas and repetitive ‘life goals’ that just sucks all the enjoyment out of visiting new locations or killing monsters. Lotte being awful, the garbage plot developments, and some incredibly bullshit end-area bosses certainly don’t do it any favors either.

    The most interesting thing about playing these three games was watching the Alchemy and combat mechanics evolve into what eventually shows up in Ryza. I can’t recommended any of them, besides perhaps Escha & Logy with certain reservations, on their own merits.


  • Sword Art Online: Alicization & War of Underworld

    There are a great many problems with the three part sequel to the SAO Ordinal Scale movie.

    The central one is the ill-conceived fusion of the sci-fi modern day plotline and Underworld’s essentially stand-alone fantasy plotline. The two never had any reason to mix. Assassin’s Creed does something similar, and the criticisms about the way that franchise mixes its past/present settings hold doubly true here since Underworld is effectively self-contained as opposed to being a reflection. The author could have easily wrote Alice and Eugeo’s story as its own thing with no association whatsoever to Kirito’s group and ended up with a far more consistent and immersive product.

    Pretty much all of the remaining issues can be tied back to Kirito’s involvement with the story; spontaneous power-ups, random cameo appearances, last minute saves, questionable character motivation, harem elements, and bizarre plot twists all. Really, the only flaw that can truly be called its own is the re-occurring theme of using psychosexual megalomaniacs as main villains.

    Vaguely related to all of that in a ‘you can probably watch this if you’re a fan of the genre’ sense are the series Runway de Warrette and Princess Connect! ReDive. The first of which is a fashion industry-focused Cinderella story overloaded with assholes who magically become nice while the latter is a conventional fantasy action-comedy whose protagonist has the personality of a particularly dull puppy.

    Continue reading  Post ID 8591


  • Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout

    The Atelier games have been vaguely on my radar since the Escha & Logy Anime was released. More or less at random I decided to start with the most recent one, Atelier Ryza, without being aware it was the most recent one at the time.

    It was a bit of a shock when halfway through I discovered it was released last year… because it definitely doesn’t look it. Maybe it’s because it was designed specifically for consoles, or maybe it’s because the PC version is incredibly half-assed (no mouse support, though to be fair it did recognize my Logitech controller instantly), but whatever the reason it does not feel anything like a modern game (for comparison, Dragon Quest XI and Cold Steel III blow it out of the water on a purely technical level). That doesn’t mean it’s not fun though.

    It is absolutely fun and I ended up spending just under 50 hours beating it (Character Level 50, Alchemy Level 99 with everything crafted). Around 12 of which were spent pre-Tower crafting the best equipment… which resulted in hilariously wrecking the Great Elementals in ~5 seconds (the end boss took ~10 due to the second form). Combat aside, for the most part it’s a very laid-back slice of life type of game that unsurprisingly focuses on collecting, duplicating, and fabricating items. I even got some Recettear vibes occasionally from the various villager requests. Action-packed it is not and despite their dynamic nature (the only time the action pauses is during a Quick Action; otherwise everyone’s always attacking over one another) you’ll likely spend most of your time avoiding battles.

    The question now is whether or not to try out some earlier games in the franchise, or just assume this is the current pinnacle mechanics-wise and do something else.