Various thoughts on a variety of topics.
In the years following a terrorist attack that leveled Sarajevo, developed nations the world over drastically increased their security measures while less fortunate countries began to turn into genocidal warzones. Into these areas the USA sends a team of emotionally deadened super-soldiers in search of the man responsible for the outbreaks of insanity.
A dialog-heavy thriller with a strong initial literary theme and bursts of explicit action.
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In a world where text-based communication has begun to dominate discourse, a virus has appeared that causes certain Kanji to run amok. To counter this threat the DEAVA organization has gathered up people with Verbalism abilities to pilot special mecha called Aquarions.
An action series with a large comedic streak and minor romance elements which becomes more of a multi-genre series in the second half. While the OVA that precedes the first episode is a crossover between Aquarion and Evol, the series proper has no connection to those shows beyond a few setting details.
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Crunchyroll
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Wikipedia
Far in the future a mysterious disease eliminates the planet Altair’s female population. Not wanting their race to go extinct they decide to abduct women from the planet Vega, which responds by forming a gender-segregated defense force to repel the increasingly brazen attacks. However, only by coming together can the pilots harness the true power of the Aquaria mecha.
A relationship focused action series that’s set thousands of years after the events of Sousei no Aquarion. The connection between the two is mostly limited to the character reincarnation theme and having seen that isn’t necessary to follow along here.
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How refreshing. Based on all the warnings about stocking Food and limited resources I was very worried at first about this game, but as it turns out the hunger system is easily abolished through modding and only the XP is limited (which is barely worth noting since quite a few RPGs have limited XP).
Once the needless hassle of the farmville simulator elements is removed it’s quite a lot of fun and reminds me most of, interestingly enough, the modern King’s Bounty games. You can pick up simple quests, find containers filled with loot scattered about, and encounter static enemies with listed difficulty classes which you can either temporarily avoid or fight (with exceptionally difficult/impossible groups blocking access to areas/items you’re not supposed to reach yet).
The very beginning is tough since you won’t have many skills and your accuracy will be awful, but once you hit level 5 or so battles start getting notably easier since you have more options available (assuming you built your characters correctly and didn’t waste skill points). At the moment I’m about to enter the Tower, having cleared the beach/forest/cave/mausoleum/roads (apart from the Ogre/Mushrooms obviously) with a level 5/6 party consisting of a Paladin (Evasion-focused), Cleric, Summoner (Golot, Raznet, & Valvet), Thief (shurikens/swords), Bard, and of course the Explorer (not being forced to take the Terrain skill let me easily build him fighter-ish). Early fights were a real slog due to the anemic damage but now the defensive synergies are starting to come together and I’m finally able to upgrade some weapons.
Of course that’s by no means an optimized party composition (their stats are though; Speed all the way) and I definitely would not suggest anyone try it on any difficulty other than Casual/Normal unless you want to do a lot of reloading. It’s nowhere near focused enough with weapon types scattered between bleeding, wounding, and stunning. Instead I suggest checking out multiple class guides to get a feel for the few absolutely necessary things to do (like always raise Speed each level, and max out Learning if you’re like me and want to decimate late-game) and then put together something that looks fun.
Speaking of which, I’m kind of torn whether or not to keep playing with this party or start up a new one using two Arcane Soldiers and a Mage (since this one has 0 magic apart from the Cleric). By default the AS class isn’t very exciting, but I believe that can be fixed by simply tweaking a couple skill costs. I also want to modify the Explorer skill costs a bit and tweak the Nalaet summon to work as a Cleric substitute… so that you’re not effectively forced to run a Cleric in every party… but I’m not sure if the AI would still work with altered skills. We’ll see how things go.
There are two kinds of difficulty, fake difficulty (primarily arising from having the adversaries cheat) and real difficulty. This game unfortunately includes both varieties in a particularly tedious and hassle-filled combination.
On the one hand it features enemies that can do all the same things your characters can (including instant-death attacks) in great numbers (encounters range up to groups of 18). This is real difficulty. On the other… it also gives enemies abilities your characters can’t possess (even if you Summon Contract them; such as formation switching), gives them infinite spell casting, resets your attributes to the racial (not class) minimums if you multi-class, has equipped items reduce your free carry space, completely disallows resting outside of town, and restricts having a basic map to a specific spell/item (L1 Mage/Magic Map). That’s all fake, artificial difficulty.
The two real deal killers are the map system, since the environmental graphics are incredibly bare-bones and floors are filled with miles of identical walls and doors which inexplicably auto-close behind you (more fake difficulty), and lack of a dungeon-based resting system which makes primary spellcasters dead weight most of the time… unless you had the fore-knowledge to make them Dragonewts for the Breath attack. It also doesn’t help that leveling is unexciting; apart from gaining new spells (which you’ll rarely use in normal encounters) the only other useful level-up abilities come from ‘mastering’ a class at level 26+.
If all that wasn’t enough though, there’s also the technical issues. Sometimes left-clicking won’t work as a selection command (such as when transferring items between characters) and you have to use the relevant keyboard command instead (Enter by default), using the ‘repeat last round commands’ function does not repeat the character ordering if you set it, the identify/disarm traps menu is a clunky mess, and the town menus are an unintuitive labyrinth.
So no, I don’t think I’ll be playing any more of such a highly random and deliberately antagonistic game. Some resources if you decide to attempt it:
Useful Information and Walkthrough
Cheat Engine Table (GoG Version)
Age Stat Growth and Spirit Pact Information (GoG Version)
Honestly, though I know it’s not quite fair, I feel like I got ripped off by paying $6 for this game.
Visually speaking it’s on par with Arcania (despite being released 4 years after) while the combat, though not as clunky as Risen 2‘s, brings to mind the first Witcher.
If the above weren’t bad enough it suffers severely from a limited progression system, a general lack of combat variety, and several painfully gimmicky set-piece battles (naval combat & the Ore Titan). Consider that the very first tutorial fight is almost identical to the penultimate boss battle, and then take into account that even at 180 Slashing with the best Slashing weapon (or 180 Crystal Magic with an Elemental Attack spell) the weakest enemies in the game take 2 normal hits to kill. There is little sense of progression and you never feel truly powerful even with maxed-out stats.
That’s not to say the game is hard… because it’s not. While your damage is fairly anemic, it’s pretty easy to become effectively invincible with high enough resistances. So all in all the game ends up being the worst of both worlds; people who want a challenge will dislike it because it’s practically impossible to die, while people who want to play powerful characters will also dislike it because the combat is awkward and enemies just never die fast enough.
After the spirit seal ruptured and spilled ghosts and demons out into the living world, traveling exorcists like Jiuu Hua became necessary to maintain order. In her travels she comes across the spirit of a man who’s lost his memories, and offers to help him discover who he was if he’ll become her servant.
An action-drama with a large comedic streak and minor ecchi aspects.
Detecting an abnormality in the past which threatens to cause the extinction of the human race, the Chaldea organization puts into motion a plan to send Master/Servant pairs through time to ensure humanity’s survival. However, after an act of sabotage only a single unprepared reserve recruit manages to make it through the process.
An adaption of the related game‘s prologue that starts out closer to a daily life comedy and later turns into an action-drama. Though for the most part unrelated beyond terminology, much of the movie takes place in an alternate version of Fate/Stay Night‘s setting (only the servants remain, some of whom have switched roles).
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Late to school on the first day of the new year, Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi comes across a girl staring pensively up at a tree. Coincidentally, Tsuyoshi is one of the rare boys she can talk to and this event will prompt her to get closer to him.
A school life harem-ish romance with an outgoing protagonist, moderate amount of comedy, and high level of ecchi content which transforms into a dramatic love triangle toward the end. It’s an alternate version of an earlier OVA series, with no relation to the 1995 OVA series of the same name.
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Thoughts while playing the stand-alone expansion to ArcaniA:
– Huh. The graphics look slightly improved.
– Character animations have definitely improved.
– The geography has changed. Weird.
– All of my skills, equipment, and inventory were imported. Nice.
– A few items have changed stats; Belial’s Scythe is mage-focused now.
– What’s with this odd procession of fighting every single creature in the main game?
– Oh no, not more dungeon tunnels.
– Lockpick mechanic is gone… not that it matters.
– Why is there so much powerful loot just lying around?
– I guess it’s there for new characters.
– Oh good, there’s more to this than endess red-lit tunnels.
– Harpies huh… guess they didn’t want that female demon model to go to waste.
– Panthers! Guess this wasn’t a total copy/paste job after all.
– What a bizarre city layout.
– I wonder if there are any merchants in this expansion.
– If the antagonist never sent so much free XP at the hero, do you think they would win more often?
– Ah, the ol’ “collect a bunch of crap scattered across the area to continue” quest. Yay.
– A trader! Who sells… nothing but bandages and arrows. What the hell.
– Playing as other pre-made characters as a change of pace is pretty gimmicky at the best of times.
– This is not the best of times.
– Oh, two more silent traders. I’m starting to think it would’ve been better without them.
– I liked my old armor better. The things I do to kill enemies with a single Firebolt….
– Possessed enemies can apparently melee attack through walls. Spooky.
– A spoiled rich girl… can this day get any worse?
– Rhetorical question; of course it can.
– Lester’s voice acting has taken a major dive.
– Actually, all the character’s personalities have taken hits as well.
– Maybe all those people complaining about VA and characterizations were confusing this with the main game?
– So. Many. Tunnels.
– At least the trader in this mine sells something (potentially) useful.
– So. Tunnels. First red tunnels, then gray tunnels and now… green tunnels. Such variety.
– Why is it, again, that all these temple guardians are attacking the goddess’ chosen one?
– Oh, it’s because a demon has corrupted them. When/how did that get down here?
– Through the perfectly accessible back entrance staffed with two silent vendors of course!
– “Is it my hair!?“. Maybe this was worth playing after all.
– What color tunnel will it be this time? M-multi-colored!?
– Traps! How unexpected.
– Nice to see that Slay still works on trolls.
– Sure am glad I maxed out Inferno damage. Nothing like killing 5+ enemies from across the screen.
– What, no villain monologue? Weak.
– It uses the same moveset as the last endboss! And the ending is just as abrupt!
Yeah… so… don’t buy this unless you really like the combat system.
