Various thoughts on a variety of topics.
When the secret criminal organization Panther Claw causes trouble no one but the shapeshifting combat android Honey can possibly hope to stop them. Panther Claw’s leader knows all about Honey’s various identities however, and has set in motion a plan to send her to the depths of despair.
An action series with a large amount of ecchi. It’s a new adaptation and does not require any familiarity with previous works in the franchise.
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HIDIVE
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One night a strange egg-shaped object appears out of thin air to fall on top of Nitta, a member of the Yazuka involved with antiquities. Inside the egg is a young girl with incredibly powerful psychokinetic power who promptly begins extorting him for food, clothes, and a place stay.
A situational and reaction-based comedy which occasionally dips into action and drama. It has no relation to the 1993 OVA of the same name.
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Norimichi Shimada has a secret crush on Nazuna Oikawa which he can’t bring himself to admit. He doesn’t know about Nazuna’s troubled family situation however, and on the night of the fireworks festival is completely unprepared when she suddenly asks him to run away with her.
A school life romantic drama with light comic relief elements.
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Ritsu Shikishima’s high school life is just like any other, and he splits his time between studying, hanging out with friends, and reading books on philosophy and psychology as a hobby. A comfortable routine suddenly interrupted on the day the virtual idol μ releases a new song: He begins to suffer from hallucinations and his friends start to behave oddly… phenomenon which lead to the discovery that the world he inhabits is not real, but instead a virtual simulation.
A character drama with a moderate amount of action featuring significant psychology and philosophy themes. Though based on a game, it makes a number of changes to the original work.
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Dennis was born with genius-level intelligence, and as a result his mad scientist parents didn’t feel it necessary to genetically modify him as they did his four siblings. Growing up on an island laboratory he never felt his siblings’ abilities or the constant experiments were odd, until the day his parents were arrested and he got a chance to see the outside world. Even so, he’s much better equipped than the others to adapt to life in the general population and it falls to him to help them survive among normal people.
A slice of life drama focused on family dynamics lightened by intermittent splashes of comic relief.
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With the help of a supercomputer humans became able to break the laws physics through a technology known as ‘Jushiki’, which allowed them to wield power similar to magic, an ability previously thought to belong solely to dragons and the abhorrents. Two hundred years following the discovery humans no longer fear either race and are instead locked in a state of constant warfare with them, with those known as Offensive Jushikiists serving as the front line.
An action series which periodically doubles as a character drama. It has a heavy political focus and minor romance, thriller, and comic relief elements.
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Born into a secretive Chinese clan of supernatural martial artists, Feilong Lin has long been ostracized due to the abnormal color of the jewel he was born with. In the hopes of having him become strong enough to overcome the clan’s hostility his father sends him to Japan, where he meets a rebellious clone whom he becomes determined to protect from the people who created her.
A character drama with a couple brief action scenes.
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The Cosmic Security Company was created 20 years ago in response to rampant piracy and criminal activity across the galaxy. One of its more popular employees today is the Cosmic Hunter Yuu, who has recently received a special Medal of Heroism for rescuing a princess. This doesn’t sit well with the space pirate Belga however and she’s determined to put him in his place.
An action-focused original story set in the world of the Cosmic Fantasy RPG series. It does not require any familiarity with the games to follow.
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Far in the future humanity has spread across the galaxy. Despite the breadth of the expansion however they have only just recently discovered signs of alien life, and even what appears to be a living alien. Setting out to investigate the discovery is the TV production crew of the cargo ship Lydia, who have on board a mysterious young girl who wishes to meet the alien for reasons of her own.
A drama with a moderate amount of action and small early splashes of comic relief.
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If you’ve ever played a Gothic or Risen game before, then the content of ELEX won’t be much of a surprise: Clunky melee combat which deals notably more damage than ranged or magic attacks, no character respec option, large open world with pre-leveled enemies, uneven voice acting, and a choice between several joinable factions.
I’m almost level 17 at the moment, having explored a chunk of Edan, some of Abessa and the Volcano area, and a small part of the Desert… and I do not think I’ll get much further. The main problem is the combat, which is the second worst out of the developer’s catalog (Risen 2‘s being the worst). You see, in addition to the clunky combo system they’ve added the requirement that attacking, dodging, and blocking all use Stamina… meaning you’ll often find yourself utterly helpless to avoid enemy attacks which, and here’s the real killer; do not require Stamina. Creatures don’t lose Stamina from attacking period, and NPCs can attack/parry even at 0 Stamina (though, admittedly, they usually won’t).
Ranged attacking does not require Stamina, but the trade off is that those attacks are only as strong as an equivalent melee weapon’s fast attack. There is no equivalent to melee’s strong/heavy attacks, which is a major problem since that’s where most of your damage is coming from. So ranged, at least in the early/mid-game, is worthless unless you want to spend like 5 minutes slowly whittling something’s health down.
Even were the combat less unfun though, there’s another issue: The conversations and quests. You literally have to exhaust all dialog options in order to receive and/or advance quests, and the dialog choices range wildly in tone. Aggressive lines that sound like you’re trying to pick a fight are all mixed together with understanding/passive and uncaring/cold responses making the protagonist come off as schizophrenic at best. In a way the dialog is nearly as painful as the combat.
So I can’t really recommend playing this game.
Speaking of which: The Age of Decadence. I heard a lot of good things about it and finally got around to playing a bit earlier. Didn’t get very far though because while the combat is fine the way text-adventure-like events kept popping-up almost like QTE‘s quickly became infuriating.
