Category: Media Review Wednesday

(Late) Thursday Media Review: Monster Hunter Rise

Written by TheChoujinVirus

Note: The following review may contain spoilers to the game.







Monster Hunter, I’ve really gotten interested in since my first introduction with Monster Hunter Tri on the Nintendo Wii and the more recent Monster Hunter World and Iceborn. Though one game is released on the Nintendo Switch. Launched on March 26th of this year, Monster Hunter Rise is one game that everyone has been waiting for for a while. Does this game put a big expectation that World left? We’ll let’s do our review.

Story+Gamepay

The Story of Monster Hunter Rise has you being a recently graduated hunter sent to the village of Kamura. The town is being plagued with an event known as The Rampage, and even that transpires throughout the event. You are tasked with aiding the village in protecting them from this calamity while solving the mystery of the Rampage source.

Monster Hunter Rise’s gameplay has you using Kamura Village as your central hub for various things like crafting/upgrading your armor, buying/crafting tools, accessing special features like the Training room or the Argosy Trading post, and of course, accepting missions. Missions are the bread and butter of Monster Hunter Rise as they provide you resources and currency needed to progress your character. They can range from gathering quests to your typical slaying quests, and a lot are straightforward enough to learn. Complete the task without dying three times, running out of time, or failing a specific objective like letting the gate fall in a rampage.

Speaking of Rampages, the newest mode in Rise is Rampage missions. Unlike the usual missions here, Rampages are a tower defense mission in which you must protect the main gate of Kamura village from being busted down by invading monsters. You’re given various arsenals from ballistas, cannons, bombs, and even Gatling guns to repel the wave-like horde. Some missions may have you fighting a powerful leader called an Apex Monster, ridiculously stronger than any other leader or monster.

When you complete any quest, you’re given the reward of money and Kamura Points. You also gain resources like monsters such as claws, fangs, even oddities like mud, or even gems off the monsters. Those parts alongside the money rewards you acquire are vital for crafting the armor and weapons needed to help you move through. When it comes to weapons, you got a whopping fourteen weapons in Monster Hunter. The heavy-hitting Greatsword, the head-smacking Hammer, the long-ranged bowguns, the odd Hunting Horn and the speedy Dual Blades and Longsword. You have various weapons to hack, slash, shoot, impale, explode, vault, and crash.

But wait, there’s more to your tools and traps. Rise introduces you to two new things. The first is the Wirebug, a weapon that replaces the launcher and clutch claw from World. The Wirebug allows you to briefly fly into the air, sticks to walls, even can be used to hang in midair and swing about. Best of all, it can be used offensively with your weapons to unleash an excellent trait called Wyvern Riding. This allows you to mount a monster and control it like a puppet. It can help turn an unwelcome party crasher into a helpful weapon against your target or just to humorously smash its face into walls. The second is a new companion called the Palamute. This Dog-like companion is a partner for your hunter while going solo. Alongside your default cat-like Palico, the Palamute can serve as an offensive ally but also as a trusty steed to help you traverse the map fast to hunt monsters.

Between your new toys, you also have to deal with a menagerie of monsters out there. Some are saurian like the whip-tailed Great Izuchi, while others are odd, like the mud brushing Almurdon or ice slashing Goss Harag. However, nothing tops the series’s flagship, the ghostly but dangerous Magnamalo and its hellish powers that’ll put you to the test. You best bring your A-Game to the field because this monster will make the hunter the hunted. Whether it be in the abandoned Shrine Forests, the Sandy Plains, the Frozen Islands, or even in the volcanic caverns, it’s a battle between colossal monsters.

Hunting Prowess: What makes the game great

Rise brings plenty to the table. One such example is the Quality of Life features brought over from World. The barrier removal of allowing ranged weapons and melee weapons to one armor set over needing separate sets to function makes not needing two different sets for the job of hunting. Another feature is the ability to track monsters across the map. Older games had to require you to use a paintball to track your target and have skills that require you to know when it was about to die. Now you don’t need those skills to see where the monster is anytime, anywhere. The game is pretty stunning, and that’s thanks to the RE engine that runs the game. Thus, the game doesn’t need loading zones for each instanced area on the map as everything is seamless. The environments are also exciting places that make exploring, hunting, and gathering oh so impressive. The Forest Shrine and Flooded Forest give you a mix of two types of jungle vibes, with the Forest Shrine giving you an abandoned village motif and the forest a jungle ruin to explore. Other spaces like the Frozen Isles and Volcanic Caverns give you a very hostile environment to hunt and such. The hub of Kamura Village has a very Japanese vibe to the series that makes it a very good ascetic feeling throughout the game. The last personal favorite is the monsters, the bread, and butter of the franchise. Rise has the new monsters in the series, but you also have some returning favorites. Some like World’s Pukei-Pukei and Anjanath make their recent return in Rise. While fan favorites like the Mizutsune, Zinogre, Nargacuga, and Rajang also enter the roster of the series to test your prowess in hunting.

Quest Failed: What the game lacks.

Though Rise has some good parts, there’s plenty of lacking features in the game that you don’t see and are neglected. One such feature is that though some features do make a return from World, not all of them make a return. No more are the days of capturing endemic life to decorate your home are there, which I missed so well. Another problem is that most of the single-player story ends a bit early and doesn’t continue like World. Once you complete one part of the story in the village, the rest is continued in the Hub quest, which can confuse some folk upon completing the missions. One problem is that though some monsters have made it into the game, not all of them have, and it leaves some confusing parts. Examples are that though the Jagras, Zamites, and Jaggi lines are in, their larger counterparts did not. Not only that, but compared to the last Switch Monster Hunter game, the pool is lacking compared to each game and even compared to World. It’s a darn shame that the monster pools are minimal, but no subspecies are in the game. However, we may see it later on with the DLC.

Hunting Report

If a veteran or a beginner to the franchise, Rise is a good jumping point to get yourself into the game. With many improvements compared to World and its predecessors, Monster Hunter Rise is one such game that you will enjoy immensely by yourself or with allies online. Just remember that in life, there are monsters, and there are Monster Hunters.

References

The Following sources used

Thursday Media Review: Raya and the Last Dragon.

Written by Joenn

Note: This review was submitted and written by another person, so credit goes to them for their time and energy for creating this review. This review may contain some spoilers.







All art is a product of its time, but it’s a rare thing to see a story come along that so perfectly resonates with the emotional needs of its audience as Raya and the Last Dragon. It’s early March, 2021. We, the audience, have been cooped up inside for a year now with precious little contact with the outside world. Raya went through production and post-production during 2020, so all of the voice capture and animation was done from home. The makers of this movie, all of them, have been going through the same troubles we have. They know the story we need to hear right now.
Raya is a heroic fantasy story from Walt Disney Animation Studios, set in the fictional land of Kumandra. It draws inspiration from Southeast Asian cultures and myth to create its world, and worldbuilding is one of this movie’s greatest strengths. Spoilers follow, but I’ll try not to spoil any details that aren’t established within the first half-hour.

The World

The land of Kumandra surrounds a large inland sea that is shaped like a dragon. Its people are divided into five tribes, each one named after a part of the dragon: Fang, Heart, Spine, Talon, and Tail. The tribes used to be unified as a single nation, but this nation fractured after the arrival of malevolent spirits called the Druun.
The Druun are introduced to us early in the story. They appear as amorphous clouds of
smoke that seem to glow from a sourceless purple light. They’re completely mindless; they never speak or show any signs of intelligence. If a Druun touches a human, it will petrify them and then replicate itself, and each copy will continue to hunt for more humans.
In other words, they’re virulent.
The Druun can’t be fought, but they can be repelled by pieces of a gem that was forged by dragons. Upon learning this, the chiefs of the five tribes scramble to horde these gems, and sequester themselves in isolation.
Does that sound familiar to anyone?

The Characters

Our protagonist is a young swordswoman named Raya, of the Heart tribe. For reasons I
won’t spoil here, she blames herself for the world’s current state, and she sees it as her
responsibility to set it right. But living in this world has taken its toll on her, and she has some serious trust issues. You could call her paranoid.
Raya possesses one of the five gem pieces, and she believes that if she can collect the other four, the Druun will be vanquished. So her goal is to travel to all five tribes and steal their gems either through guile or force, because she can’t trust anyone else to do the right thing. The question the movie asks is simple: Can Raya learn to trust again?

Joining Raya on her quest is Sisu, the last dragon. In many ways, she is Raya’s complete
opposite; she’s ditzy, upbeat, naive, and very gullible. She’s like your frazzled aunt who never figured out what to do with her life after college.
Opposing Raya is Namaari, princess of the Fang tribe. She’s kind of a fascinating character because we can always see her struggling internally between what her conscience tells her to do, and what her duty to Fang demands of her.

Along the way, Raya also crosses paths with survivors of the other three tribes. In Tail she meets Boun, an orphan boy who runs a fishing boat. In Talon she meets Noi, an orphan girl with three pet monkeys. And in Spine she meets Tong, a lonely warrior. In meeting these characters, we begin to realize something: In this world, everyone has lost someone. Everyone feels isolated and alone.
Now, if what I’ve just described sounds like a downer, fear not; Raya is also filled with levity to balance out its weighty themes. Sisu in particular is a giant doe-eyed goofball. And don’t worry, it’s a Disney movie; it has a happy ending.

The Flaws

As much as I appreciate Raya, it’s not perfect. If I were to summarize its flaws into one
word, this movie is stuf ed. The film is two hours long, but every scene feels just a little bit rushed because there is so much story to tell. It feels like the story would have been better served if it had been presented as a show, since it already divides itself up into six episodes.
The movie is also stuffed with elements that have clearly been borrowed from other
franchises. Sisu looks like she jumped out of an episode of My Little Pony. Noi is a
hypercompetent toddler straight out of Boss Baby. And there are two sequences toward the end of the movie that were pulled straight from The Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy. The parts of this movie that are original work very well. The parts that have been borrowed from other movies are obvious, obnoxious, and out of place.
And as a minor quibble, the movie has to break one of the rules established as part of its worldbuilding in order to earn that happy ending.

The Virtues

Aside from the simple virtues of knowing its theme and executing it well, the movie is
visually stunning. The main characters are expertly animated and the acting is emotionally moving. The fight choreography is stellar as well; I just wish we got to see a bit more of it.
Overall, I believe Raya’s virtues outweigh its flaws. This movie matters to the emotional
state of the world today. It deserves to be seen and enjoyed by those little ones in your life. I encourage you to go out and see it. Just please remember to be safe and wear a mask.

Links Used

(Late) Thursday Media Review: Eco

Written By TheChoujinVirus

Note: I was referred to this game by a friend of mine. He is a streamer and no way was part of the development of the game. My review may contain spoilers to the game.






When people look at survival or building games, everyone thinks of Minecraft or games like Ark: Survival Evolved that show up on people’s radar. Though you kinda wonder how the environment would react to those changes? Ever wondered what happened to Minecraft’s world if you leveled all those trees or wiped out the wolves and cats? Well, you have one game that can show you that outcome. I was recommended this game by an RL friend of mine and Twitch Streamer AznablZ. Created by the indie company Strange Loop Games and released early on February 6th, 2018, Eco is a game that shows the ecological damage players might do to a virtual world.

Brief Story and Gameplay

Eco doesn’t have much of a story, but the objective is explained through the in-game tutorial. A meteor is threatening the world. You and several other people must cooperate by using the resources the world provides; however you must be careful not to pollute or exploit too much of the resources to avoid any ecological damage. Will you save the world from the meteor without damaging it, or will man do more harm than the meteor?

You start out with the character creation screen, and you set out in this world with no intro cinematic or anything. However, you’re given a tutorial that teaches you the basics of the game. Gameplay-wise, Eco’s resource harvesting doesn’t feel anything out of the ordinary. Axes are used to harvest trees, pickaxes are used to mine rocks, the hoe is used to till the soil, and a bow to hunt and kill animals for food. However, it takes energy to dig and make things, and wooden tools don’t last long, and you need a balanced diet to gain experience. The game adds a way around this through a job system that adds some flair or perks.

An example is that the Cooking profession allows you to cook better quality food, vital to maintaining a balanced diet and using fewer reagents. Building jobs like masonry or carpentry enables you to make furniture or items from specific materials. Some like Farming and Gathering lets you create larger yields of crops, and Butchery can help you harvest more animals. Though you don’t have to master EVERY skill, form trade deals through money, trade, or anything socio-political to offset that problem. Heck, you can simply be an eco-villain from Captain Planet and just pollute the world if you want to.

Ecological Beauty: What makes the game great

One aspect I do like about how the game works are the fundamental aspect of the world. It’s a virtual world similar to Earth with some various aspects than the blocky part of Minecraft. Another thing I do like is the game’s environmental message and the consequences of what you do. If you cut down too many trees, it can cause some issues like CO2 buildup. Dump tilings in water, and you can contaminate the waterline and thus kill all the plant life. Hunt too many animals, and you might lead a species to go extinct. The Political and Governmental aspect also plays a vital role in cooperation as you are encouraged to work together than killing each other for loot or PVP prestige. Lastly, some of the servers do have some exciting communities that focus on city-building roleplaying. It gives it a good vibe and gives a bit more flavor to digging and building things. The one thing I really love is the professions you gain while you play the game. Each specialty gives a special perk, and with combinations, you can become self-sufficient or a supplier for other people.

Meteor Crashes: What the Game Lacks

Though fun as it is, the game has some significant issues that may make the game unfun. One such example is that the game relies on cooperation, so you’re putting your faith into people who might refuse to cooperate or simply let the world burn. Another problem is that there aren’t many dedicated US servers that host the games here. This is due to most official servers being hosted in Europe. This causes massive latency issues, and that running the servers does require some heavy hardware to prevent latency issues. Another problem with the game is that it can be overwhelming for new players, with things like experience, professions, nutrient balance, and even farming could be a pain in the butt. Lastly, the game sadly does have some bug issues due to it being in Early Releases, like vanishing dead animals or cars falling through ceilings.

Fun Fact

The game was not intended to grace Steam. In fact,  was initially made to grace the computers of middle schools to teach the importance of environmentalism. Strange Loop got assistance from both the University of Illinois and The US Department of Education for the game’s development and funding. Also, the game borrowed inspiration from games like Minecraft, Rust, and even Eve Online for things like building, construction, and player social dynamics.

Conclusion

If you want to have some fun building stuff and learning what effect it has or just an RPer who wants to have some fun doing things, I recommend Eco to you and your friends. It’s a nice change of pace if you’re into building stuff like Rust or Minecraft without the player v player annoyance.

Links/Sources

Thursday Media Review: Dinosaurs

Written by TheChoujinVirus

Note: this review may contain spoilers to the series, so do not read if you don’t want to be spoiled






The 90s were an impressive time of sitcoms that folks liked watching, from 3rd Rock to Seinfeld to Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. However, things changed when The Simpsons came around and changed sitcoms as we know it. Though a new show was brainstormed as far back as 1988 by the late Jim Henson. It wasn’t until the 1990s when Micheal Jacobs and Brian Henson with the Walt Disney Company. This show aired on April 26th, 1991, through October 19th, 1994, and has been a part of ya boy’s nostalgia when he was a kid. That show was called Dinosaurs.

Summary of the show

Dinosaurs take place in a fictional depiction of the supercontinent Pangea, portrayed as a 90s America but with dinosaurs instead of people. The focus of the show is on the Sinclair Family, a family of dinosaurs living in Pangea. You have Earl, the dimwitted but lovable dad, Fran the housewife and mother, Robbie the intellectual rebel, Charline the materialistic middle child, Ethyl the mother-in-law, and of course the baby called Baby. You also have several side characters like Earl’s friend Roy Hess, Monica Devertibrae, and Earl’s boss B.P. Richfield. Throughout each episode, it themes around one or more of the Sinclair family, most of the time focusing around Earl, in this bizarre world of Pangea. Sometimes focusing on a significant problem that got them into a mess either leaves them learning a lesson or introducing a new concept to dinosaur society, such as refunds or freedom of speech.

Dino-Mite!: What makes it great!

There are plenty of good examples that make the show good; one prominent example that I like is the practical effects of the suit puppets. You can thank the Jim Henson Creature Workshop‘s work for the impressive detail (they used the same technology once seen in the TMNT movies). You also have voice talents like Stuart Pankin (Who’s the Boss?, Arachnophobia), Jessica Walter (Archer), Sally Struthers (Tailspin), and  Kevin Clash (Sesame Street). Each of them lends their talent to the series. Even the guest voices are impressive such as Micheal Dorn (Star Trek: TNG), Dan Castanella (The Simpsons), and even Jason Alexander (Seinfeld) as well as Tim Curry. It shows that the people they brought on to voice the various talking dinosaurs weren’t just a list of nobodies. The second thing that makes the series great is that each episode focuses on topical issues of the 90s. Sure, many sitcoms concentrate on this, it would focus around a story, and that’s it. Each episode in Dinosaurs had a theme that focused on topical issues. Examples like Drug Abuse (A New Leaf, Steroids to Heaven), Sexual Harassment (What “Sexual” Harris Meant), Freedom of Speech and Censorship (Baby Talk, Charlene’s Flat World), and even down to things like racism (Nuts to War, Green Card) where you have a bit of issue between “two-legged dinosaurs” and “four-legged dinosaurs.” The episodes also have a bit of a moral lesson at the end of the story, so you at least get a good part afterward (even the characters learn that lesson as well.) Finally, the series has many catchy sayings, like Baby’s “Not the Mama” quip (even the song that the baby sings in Little Boy Boo). The show also has moments where they take jabs at television (especially ABC at the time) or shows and tropes found in other shows. You can say that it was meta for an early 90s show.

Not the mama! What the show lacks

Though the show was impressive and had plenty of good things, there are some problems the show has. One such is that though that some of the suits and puppets are reused as other characters. It’s not uncommon to see one puppet being the school science teacher in one scene than in a different episode. It reminds you that though impressive, it does have to cut corners around some of it. Another is that though the episodes do become good, some of the first season’s earlier episodes didn’t have much of any significant story to set up the characters. Some episodes like Little Boy Boo is just a Halloween episode. The obvious The Clip Show and The Clip Show II are clips from previous episodes just repeated (another trope, but that’ll be another story). Lastly, the finale of the show was BLEAK! The final episode Changing Nature, in which the whole episode involves environmentalism, climate change and leads up to the climax with the extinction of all life on the earth. Not in a “ha-ha” comedic death thing but more of a grim version of them, inevitably knowing they’ll all die. It can be a bit of a major downer for such a comedic series. Lastly, suppose you’re expecting a 90s show about it being scientifically accurate. In that case, you’re going to be disappointed. However, some inaccuracies are used in the messages, such as Cavemen being a stand-in for indigenous people and animal rights in some episodes(The Discovery, Charlene and her Amazing Humans) so that’s not a total loss.

Finale

Though the series does show its age, Dinosaurs is a series that I’m sure the late Jim Henson himself would be proud of if he was still around. If you want to watch the series, it’s currently on Disney+ for the time being, so it would be best to take a look. Oh, and before I leave, here’s some behind-the-scenes describing more about the show and some funny stuff here.

References

Youtube clips recorded by the following youtubers

Information about the show and episodes provided by The Disney Wiki

Thursday Media Review: Chroma Squad

Written by TheChoujinVirus















Note: The following review may contain spoilers to the game

Happy Thursday everyone, it’s ya boy Choujin

Ya boy’s been a fan of the tokusatsu genre and grew up on Power Rangers. Heck, ya boy even had a weird idea of writing a story that’s a mix between Mega Man X and Power Rangers series. However, a game I just played allows me to have that wish I wanted to do, but in an exciting twist.. A Tactical RPG was released in 2015 for PC, 2017 for the Xbox, Playstation 4, mobile markets, and 2019 for the Switch. Created by a Brazillian company called Behold and distributed by Bandai-Namco, Chroma Squad is a game that brings an exciting twist to the franchise that it takes inspiration from.

Brief Summary of the story

In Chroma Squad, you play the story of five former stunt actors of a company who decided to strike out on their own to create their very own show. They find a prop called “Cerebro,” With that, the group opens up their studio. Writing stories and scripts and ensuring their performance gets well while dealing with strange things going on. What happens to the show will determine by your choices, but there are some multiple endings….

Gameplay

Chroma Squad’s game is a Tactical Role-Playing Game, which means all fighting is done in group combat. Though you only have five people: Leader, Techie, Assault, Support, and Scout. Leaders serve as tanks, Techies use offensive skills, Assaults are bruisers, Scouts use status conditions, and Supports are your healers. Their stats are affected by the actors you put into said roles (so in more formidable difficulties, it’s crucial to pair each person and know their parts). Attacks and skills aren’t the only things they can do, as you got teamwork. This move allows your characters to provide an extra boost in movement, teaming up to attack enemies and unleash your Ranger team’s finishing move.

Think that all you gotta do is kill enemies and the monster of the week? Think again! Throughout each map has missions called “Director’s Instructions.” They are objectives that boost your audience when done. Examples like “Kill all enemy minions before attacking the boss” or “Kill the boss with a finishing move.” Completing these objectives help in filling your audience meter on the top of the screen. Audiences are your bread and butter as they provide you money and fans for special perks.

Though your squad doesn’t do the fighting, some episodes will have you fighting the boss monster in a giant robot (what Power Ranger team wouldn’t have a mecha to fight). Unlike the tactical fights, the mecha fights behave like timing combat by aiming for the green/white spot on the target bar (think Undertale’s target system.) Each successful hit will build up a combo that increases damage but makes accuracy harder. Should you miss, the enemy can strike you back and do some damage. Luckily, you can time defensive guards to protect yourself.

After each episode is done, the audience you built up is converted into money and fans. Both are important: Money is used for upgrading your studios, paying upkeep for your actors, and purchasing equipment. Fans are used as a way to give your future episodes a boost (such as gaining more audiences, higher conversion rate, or more money.)

Wait, there’s more you can do. Don’t want to spend much money? You can craft props for your heroes and mecha from items dropped from enemies or purchased from boxes..

Lastly, Chroma Squad has introduced a thing called the “Episode Editor.” This feature allows you to create some exciting episodes (some can be found on the steam workshop).

Gattai!: What the game shines in

Chroma Squad does well with the aspect of the game. The Combat is simple enough to pick up and understand without much complications. The story is pretty funny. The customization on colors for your ranger suits can have you break new stuff not seen. Such as making the pink ranger the leader instead of Red. The Episode Editor is something needed as it can make you create some episodes or parodies if you want to see them. Lastly, the game uses many references for enemies or monsters that make things funny such as fighting a Reverse mermaid or Barney the Dinosaur himself. The multiple endings do encourage replayability.

Croma-crap: what the game lacks

Though the game is fun, there are some problems with the game that can be a bit of a pain. First is the battles themselves, particularly the Director’s Instructions, which can be a bit strict and annoying, and missing them means missing valuable money and fans. Crafting, as an inexpensive part of gearing up your guys can be a pain. When you do make items, they gain random status. This can be annoying as you can get what I call the “Wizard Greatsword” problem (a weapon with contrarian stats). That and Recycling old items (you can’t sell things to shops) is a hit or miss as you can find yourself getting nothing as there are some chances of getting items back.

Lastly, though the Episode Editor is a great feature, it lacks anything that makes it suitable. One such is it forces you to use assets in the game, which means some enemies are reused. That and it can be a pain for those not so familiar with the design.

Fun Fact

Before we continue, a fun fact about the game. Behold studios ended up attracting the wrong kind of attention from Saban Brand (The company that owns Power Rangers). It led to an agreement between the two where Saban Brand gets royalty in it. It’s why below the title of Chroma Squad has “inspired by Saban’s Power Rangers.” It’s also referenced in the first part of the story where the first studio director tries to get in a legal dispute with you.

Conclusion

If you’re a fan of sentai, TRPGs, Studio management, and various other factors that make you enjoy this game? I would recommend this game for you, even if it’s minimalistic. Though who said about creating a sentai show was easy? Who knows..maybe you could be the next Saban?

Links Referenced

(Late) Thursday Media Review: Digimon ReArise

Written By TheChoujinVirus

Note: the following game may contain spoilers to the game’s story so if you don’t want to be spoiled, avoid this review.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WD5ttx_QEJc

Gacha games…you either love them, or you hate them. They expect you to pay a ton of things and a lot use some original IPs such as Geshin Impact, Raid: Shadow Legends, or AFK Arena. Others use established IPs Such as Fire Emblem, Pokemon, and such. One such is a game that pops up that I’ve discovered. That game is called Digimon ReArise, a Digimon themed Gacha game with its own charm to this type of gaming. The game was released on May 15th, 2018, in Japan, then launched in the west on October 7th, 2019. The game is celebrating its 1st anniversary) and made by Bandai-Namco. Does this game stand up pretty well, or is it another one of the many games in the sea of gacha games? Here’s my review of Digimon ReArise

Story+Gameplay

Digimon ReArise takes place in “Japan’s Far future,” where the internet has become paramount. You play as a random person who finds themselves with a Digimon in their smartphone. The Digimon, named Pursuimon, later aids you by digivolving into Hessimon when you are under attack by digital creatures called Spirals. After this information, your adventure throughout the game begins with you as a Tamer alongside Hessimon as you find new friends and solve the Spirals’ mystery and their connection to the digital world.

The gameplay of ReArise is pretty straightforward as your objective is to defeat the enemies in front of you with your Digimon. Usually, your Digimon has two attacks: A Main attack and a Sub Attack. Usually, the Digimon’s primary attack is tied to one of their signature moves (some have some unique abilities like boosting or status enhancement). Sub Attacks are offensive supports that either boost, debuff, heal your allies (and removing status conditions), or inflicting status conditions on enemies.
If you think Hessimon is doing this all by himself? No worries, you can create a party of up to five other Digimon to aid you in these quests. You can acquire Digimon through two means: Finding digieggs and hatching them; or obtaining them from the gacha mechanic. Usually, your first new Digimon will help you throughout the game. Still, sooner or later, you’ll be fighting stronger Digimon, and to do that, you’d need to make your Digimon stronger.


By upgrading your Digimon’s level, feeding your Digimon, and awakening your Digimon’s strength, you can make them stronger and “Digivolve” them to the next level. Most Digimon, depending on the acquisition, start out in the Rookie Stage (Egg hatched Digimon are in their In Training 1 then have to be grown to their next stage.) The stages (In order) In Training I, In Training II, Rookie, Champion, Ultimate, and Mega. Most Digimon will go as far as Ultimate, and some do have a Mega form (and a smaller handful have access to their most potent form like Burst Mode or an alternate mode.)

Luckily, even if you hit a brick wall, the game implements ways of farming parts efficiently. Such examples are Dimensional Rifts (a place to gather ingredients such as Bits, workout chips, and food.), Clash Battles pit your team against powerful  Digimon to gain Digicores for digivolution; and the Underworld, where you go into a gauntlet of how far you can go and earn rewards. Through my playthrough of the game, I’ve managed to acquire a few Digimon, some like VenomMyotismon and MegaKabuterimon, being my favorites. In contrast, others were good but not much of a favorite in my eyes. The final thing I like is the PvP system known as the Battle Park. Though you don’t fight a live player, you do fight other player’s teams. What makes it fun is that the PvP system has a story involving how you and Hessimon are progressing through the ranks of the Battle Park (also, the rewards there are pretty good

Digidestined: Great parts of the game

One such great thing I like about ReArise is the various things you can do in the game that ensures you don’t get bored with just the story mode. While you do the story and learn of the lore and the series (not knocking on it, but I do like some of them), you can do other side things to gather more resources. Which makes it feel like an RPG and not like some city thing of “click x to gain this resource.” Another thing I really like about the series is that you can have access to any Digimon! Not just the protagonist ones but antagonist ones too (VenomMyotismon, Beelzemon, Lucemon.) So you’re not limited to just the good guy Digimon. The other play modes are fun (though I haven’t unlocked the aspect of Underworld, so I can’t comment on that) Though the rest like Clash Raids, Dimensional rifts, and Battle Park do provide some variable fun that doesn’t feel tacked on for no reason whatsoever. The game also has exciting events and banners that let you get unique Digimon (such as one that is themed from the 2020 reboot of Digimon Adventures).

Digi-dud: What the game lacks

Though the game is fun and decent, the game does fall into the trappings of using gacha mechanics to get the Digimon you want. Which can be a pain in the butt to do and leads to plenty of trouble if you’re adamant about doing it (or a big spender.) It doesn’t help that some Digimon forms can only be acquired through this (a bit rare outside the shop.) Another problem with the game is that though I could play with at least several Digimon (good or bad), not all the Digimon are in there. Some Digimon like Submarimon isn’t in the game. I do like some of the missing Digimon in there, like Mummymon or some of the Legendary Warriors. Finally, I’m not fond of that only a handful of Digimon seems to have mega forms. A pity as some Digimon just goes as far as ultimate (if there’s a way of making those that only go up to ultimate unlock their mega form, I’d be happy.) This makes it pretty tough and rare.

Digi-tips

I forgot to mention that in the game, every Digimon has up to five personalities: Brave, Calm, Deft, Devoted, and Tenacious. Brave and Calm are more offensive based (brave=physical while calm=magical). Deft personalities focus on mixed styles with conditions designed to mess with the enemy, Devoted are more healers, and Tenacity is tankers intended to focus on defensive means. It’s essential (especially in raid battles) that you have forces to build up specific personalities to deal with specific enemies. Having healers can help keep your party alive while having some supporters provide protection/buffs/inflict status. Also, some Digimon has passive abilities that help out others of their type. Also, I mentioned items called Plugins. Those items are equipped for your Digimon. Some are very specific (such as some that are designed to boost specific Digimon.) Do not forget that you can also upgrade them as they can improve your Digimon.

Conclusion

Though Digimon ReArise behaves like any run of the mill gacha game out there, it’s one that at least is fun on its own and doesn’t fall for any trappings that some of the worse ones have. It’s also something good to play if you’re a fan of the Digimon franchise. It’s nice to build a Digimon dream team and have some fun. If you like this game, now is the best time as some significant events are going on, such as the Halloween event and some other events. You can even get some strong Digimon during these events ( I was able to snag a WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon during the 1st year anniversary celebration)

References

Digimon ReArise Homepage

Media Review Thursday: Top 10 Monster Hunter Monsters

Written by TheChoujinVirus

Hello, it’s ya boy Choujin here.
With Monster Hunter Rise‘s announcement for the Nintendo Switch, a lot of people are anticipating this new version since Monster Hunter World. Throughout my gameplay of the series, starting in 2009 with Monster Hunter Tri for the Wii. It began my love of this franchise. Each monster in the series serves a unique fight, but some do memorable boss fights or even challenges. In this article, I’ll make a list of the top 10 monster hunter monsters.

To summarize the rules, all monsters will be counted in the series, however:1. I’ll only consider monsters canon to the series (So collab monsters like the Behemoth and Leshen won’t matter, sadly)
2. Deviant and Monster subspecies will be mentioned in the series under one monster (they are usually the same save for just new types or moves.)
3. These are monsters based on my experience, so if you see a beast, not on the list, don’t take it personally.


With that, let’s dive into the monsters.

10. Seltas Queen/Seltas







Starting off with number 10 on our list is the tag team duo, The Seltas, and the Seltas Queen. It’s rare in Monster Hunter to show monsters working together in fighting the hunter. Still, in Monster Hunter 4/4 Ultimate, you deal with the insectoid Seltas Queen and her male counterpart. What makes the monster imposing is that they actually work together when they do team-up. The male serves as her needed wings and extra attacker. In contrast, she serves as the sizeable mobile platform with tail pincers and can shoot a high water blast. If you think killing her mate will stop her? Nope, she’ll call another one (in some cases, she’ll use her mate like a kamikaze projectile or even kills her mate to eat him for food.)Her desert counterpart is not only imposing but will dig up a new Desert Seltas from the ground to reuse quickly. Sadly she’s bottom on the list due to the factor that you’d see this dynamic duo work in Monster Hunter World with the Lunastra and Teostra.

9. Quropeco









Calling into number nine is the monster mimic, the Quropeco. When hunters first meet this goofy looking bird wyvern, they think it’s just a monster that’ll smash you with fire knuckles or spit mucus. What makes the Quropeco worthy of this list is its unique ability to mimic monster calls to call for backup. Meaning you could find yourself fighting another monster that might come out to stop you in its tracks. In more serious difficulties, it and the Crimson Quropeco will call in more dangerous monsters like the dreaded Deviljho. Don’t you just hate it when someone QQ’s for help when they can’t handle the heat? However, This is more annoying than dangerous. But we need to continue with our hunt.

8. Dodogama

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNCVTotcEDs









Waddling into the number eight spot is Monster Hunter’s resident fat boi, the Dodogama. The adorable blue butterball of Monster Hunter World’s volcano region. This sweet fat boy is cute with those tiny eyes. However, don’t let his looks fool you as he can be a tough and fastball of thick. He’s also bold enough to pick fights with other monsters (even if it means he gets beaten up.) This guy’s the adorable kind, and you don’t want to hurt, but just head pat the sucker to death.

7.Rathian and Rathalos

Flying in at number seven is none other than the original wyvern duo: Rathian and Rathalos. Ever since the first games, these two have always been in every monster hunter game. For those unaware, the Rathian and Rathalos are part of the same family, as the Rathian is female, and the Rathalos are male. Every Monster Hunter game has these critters and their colored subspecies. It’s Monster Hunter Generations that introduces us to the Deviants: The Dreadqueen Rathian and Dreadking Rathalos. No matter the form, these duos are the staple of all monsters in the series.

6. Lagiacrus

 







My first introduction to the flagship monsters of the series was the Lagiacrus. This first aquatic monster ushered into the series. It’s a gigantic monster that generates electricity, and you fight on both land and under the water as well. Plus, it’s the first monster in the series to have the story focus on itself. Thus, it can be a valid reason why future flagship monsters have a backstory to their game’s main story. In 3 Ultimate, the Lagiacrus got two subspecies flavors: The landlocked Ivory Lagiacrus that is extremely dangerous on land and the colossal Abyssal Lagiacrus. So massive that you have to fight it in a large underwater arena just to beat it. Lagia proves to be an interesting flagship staple into the series.

5. The Fated Four

What’s better than one flagship monster? Two? Three? How about four flagship monsters. The “Fated Four” is Monster Hunter Generation’s flagship monsters. You have the thunder dragon bug Astalos, the frosty and gigantic Gammoth, the elegant and bubbly Mizutsune, and the swordtail Glavenus. Each monster is unique and represents each generation of the monster hunter series, starting from Generation 1 up to Generation 4. Their presence shows that it’s never wrong to have four flag monsters in one game. The critters do get subspecies updates for Generations Ultimate to make things interesting, so the fated four now have unique variants.

4. Gore Magala/Shagaru Magala

 







With Covid-19 plaguing us, we have the Monster Hunter equivalent of a plague spreader. The dreaded Gore Magala is a monster with the unique “Frenzy” status that can affect hunters and turns monsters into ravenous killing machines. The creature can spread it by dropping clouds of it, spitting it, and becoming nightmarish with those antennae-like horns. What’s impressive is that the Gore Magala is a baby monster, and it molts into a more devastating monster called the Shagaru Magala, the real source of the frenzy virus as well. A mutated version is known as the Chaos Gore Magala, a Gore Magala disrupted in molting into a Shagaru. This nightmarish monster is one I really enjoy in the series.

3. Kulve Taroth









What do you get when you dress up an elder dragon in gold armor? That would be the Kulve Taroth, a monster draped in gold and one of the first post-game monsters in Monster Hunter World. Unlike most monster fights, the battle with Kulve Taroth is a four-phased fight that may take several runs to beat her (that’s right, Kulve is a girl dragon.) However, you’re not here to slay the dragon (and NO! not remotely what I meant!) You’re objective is to bust off her horns after shredding her golden armor off. However, as stated, you have to take several chances to “gather intel” to make her armor easier to bust. Though fear not, when Kulve Taroth happens, everybody will be doing it to help out (and the rewards are worth it.) It’s a pretty good community event mission, and that’s for sure.

2. Nergigante

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHSpBBD2-HI









Poking into number two is Monster Hunter World‘s flagship monster, the Nergigante. Nergigante is a unique monster with a backstory and origin. In the New World, this creature is essentially an Elder Dragon that hunts other Elder Dragons. Its spiky body, sharp wings, and ferocious attitude make it a threat to many elder dragons it runs into. The spikes are also continually growing, meaning busting them will just weaken him. When they become black, they’re really bouncy, and it’ll allow the Nergigante to smash into the ground and fling them as projectiles. The expansion Iceborne gave the Nergigante a new subspecies called the Ruiner Nergigante that gets stronger the more it takes damage to make things more interesting. In short, the latest flagship monster from World proves to be a monster that folks will be talking about.

1. Jhen Mohran









In my first taste of monster hunter, it was a tough choice to go with as I was split between some monsters to get the top list of any monsters. The one monster I found, so fun was Jhen Mohran, the sand whale monster of Monster Hunter Tri/3 Ultimate. What made this fun was the fundamental basis of the fight. You’re fighting aboard a “Dragonship,” which is armed with cannons, harpoons, and an impaling spike and a gong. Fighting it from the side with all the arsenals as you move onto the second phase, where you and your cohorts now fight him on solid ground as he slowly crawls over toward your ship. The fight not only has the usual trappings to avoid (not dying three times or running out of time) but also protecting your dragonship from destruction. So you’re not just fighting aboard the ship while it’s sailing but while it’s docked. Throughout the fight, you can climb on the monster and destroy some parts of its body on its back. Just the sheer size gives it a Shadows of the Colossus vibe when you’re slamming your weapon into it.

And with that, that completes my Top 10 monster hunter monsters list. What are your favorite monsters, and tell me what you liked about them?

References

  • Monster Hunter belongs to Capcom
  • Though the videos belong to Capcom, all youtube clip credits go to their rightful uploaders

Thursday Media Review: BNA: Brand New Animal

Review written by TheChoujinVirus
Note: The following review contains spoilers to to the anime. If you don’t want to be spoiled, do not read the review.

Happy Thursday, everyone, it’s ya boy Choujin here.

Netflix has been a good day for new shows to take a peek. I recalled during the start of this pandemic I watched and reviewed Cells at Work!, the anime that was infotainment. However, I heard of two animes that perked my interest that got me watching: Beastars and BNA. Beastars is a fun anime, as seen as an adult version of Zootopia. Still, we got something that everyone’s been talking about and is pretty recent. Created by Studio Trigger and released on Netflix Japan on March 21st of 2020, then worldwide two months later, BNA: Brand New Animal is a pretty exciting anime that became a talk of the town. Does this series have a good point? Let’s find out with my review of BNA.

Story

BNA takes place in a world where humans live alongside a group of humanoid animals called beastmen. Such hostilities between the two eventually led to the founding of a sanctuary city for the beastmen called Anima-City. Our main focus and protagonist, Michiru Kagemori, flees to Anima-City after she transforms into a tanuki beastmen. Once she makes it to Anima-City, she meets  Shirou Ogami, a wolf beastkin and private investigator that works directly for the mayor of Anima-City, Barnaby Rose. She reveals that she was human and not beastkin, which confused Shirou and Mayor Rose as they wonder how a human can become a beastkin. Our tanuki girl has the unique power to alter parts of her body, Such as longer arms, using her tail as a protective cushion, and turning her arms into birdwings for flight. All while she sees the problems and plight going on in Anima-City. They are showing her that the Garden of Eden is not as glorious as its put due to hatred. Things start to change by the sixth episode when we are introduced to Michiru’s friend, Nazuna Hiwatashi. She was a close friend and schoolmate of Michiru, who transformed into a beastkin as well (a fox beastkin). Now under the name Déesse Louve, a guru of the Church of the Silver Wolf. Michiru is glad about seeing her old friend after all these years but is shocked to see her manipulating the beastmen (and Michiru herself.) While this is going on, a medical company is known as Sylvasta Pharmaceutics. Their president, Alan Sylvasta, shows interest in the two girls for their unique traits of transforming their bodies.

During one incident where Michiru and Shirou stop a rampaging beastkin, Shirou is revealed to be the real silver wolf, leading Baraby Rose to explain the story to Michiru. She reveals that Shirou’s real name is Ginrou and that he was the survivor of the mass genocide of 1,000 years ago in the village of Nirvasyl. His powers were given to him when he absorbed the blood of 2,000 wolfkin corpses slaughtered. Also, while attempting to rescue her friend Nazuna but learning she wasn’t in danger, Michiru learns directly from Alan that the condition that affected the two girls resulted from them getting beastkin blood during their recovery from an accident years ago. He also reveals more about the incident leading to Shirou’s village and what happened. It wasn’t wonton slaughter, but the result of beastmen in-fighting and slaughtering each other brought on when beastkin of different species are pushed together into one area. This disorder is called Nirvasyl Syndrome. What’s worse is that Alan is covertly using the research data from Michiru and Nazuna to create a solution to the Beastkin problem. However, it’s revealed by Shirou that his plan involves turning beastmen into humans through genetic alterations and that Alan is using the Church of the White Wolf and Nazuna. Michiru learns that Nazuna will reveal that she is human. She reassures Michiru that it’ll help calm the beastmen; however, it’s learned that it will end up enraging the beastmen further. Michiru was able to convince Nazuna (though a subtle concert that would claim to “Help the beastkin”) not reveal the truth about her. This works (but is thwarted when another beastkin ousts her).

The whole town goes into a frenzied spree, and even Shirou succumbs to the syndrome. Though when he bites into Michiru, he suddenly is calmed down. They discover that Michiru and Nazuna, being human turned Beastkin, have an antibody in their blood that can cure Nirvasyl Syndrome. Shirou, now cured, heads out to stop the rampaging beastkin. At the same time, Michiru and Nazuna try to stop Alan’s plan of using his machines to use the anti-beastmen formula. During the fight,  Alan is revealed to be a beastman (a pureblood one) and declares that he was purging the “halfbreed beastmen.” To make things worse, he’s got the same regenerative powers that Shirou has as well. Two immortal beastmen fight while Michiru and her friends fight to stop and save the beastkin from extermination. Michiru finds where Alan and Shirou are fighting, and during the fight, Alan starts to show symptoms of Nirvasyl Syndrome. Shirou mocks him for saying that purebloods were immune to the disease. Though in a twist, instead of killing Alan, Shirou lets Alan bite him. Shirou explains that because he bit Michiru, he’s produced antibodies that allowed him to cure Nirvasyl Syndrome. Alan feels confused at why Shirou spared him after all he did to him and his kin. Before the fight, Michiru discovered that Shirou’s howl could calm down the beastkin and, with Shirou’s help, calmed the rampaging beastkin and thus prevented the beastmen extermination.

In the aftermath, the city was now remending. Rampaging beastmen are being treated of Nirvasyl Syndrome, the Church of the Silver Wolf is dismantled, Alain has gone into hiding after resigning the CEO position of Sylvasta Pharmaceuticals. Best of all, Michiru and Nazuna have returned their friendship and now enjoying their new lives in Anma-City, all friendships mended and everything fixed.

Howling Good: What made the anime great

BNA has some wonderful art style for its animation, which reminds me of FLCL or Gurren Lagan. This is no surprise as Trigger made Gurren Lagaan and Kill la Kill, which makes it a pretty good series and stylish. Another that makes the series great is the characters themselves. The supporting cast and the stars are likable in their ways. The protagonist Michiru is a likable character and isn’t falling into any open clichés that plague anime in general. Not only that, but her relation to Shirou is less romance and more of a mentor idea (something that again, doesn’t feel cliché’d) and keeps the focus on the world without plaguing the many problems some go through. The episodes are entertaining as they do have a mix of action and suspense that does their best to explain the world of BNA. Finally, the music, oh how that soundtrack is great! Going To and Night Running are songs one would say, “yup, that’s BNA.” The music does fit the setting of the whole series and doesn’t feel out of place.


Raging Beasts: What the series lacks.

Though the series is good and does its best to tell a story, some of the plotlines and story do feel a bit off. The first part, up until Episode 6, felt like random stories loosely collected. This makes the story feel lost until the arrival of the Church of the Silver Wolf. The sad part is the entire season only consists of 12 episodes, which makes the series pretty short and finishes up with already one villain. Sure, the story mentions crime within the Beastkin world (such as the Family). Still, it feels that it is pushed aside or the “anti-beastmen coalitions” mentioned in the story. Sadly, they’re all ignored and pushed aside. However, knowing the season, the whole thing maybe glanced in a future season if it is done. Lastly, though there are characters that are the main focus, such as Michiru or Shirou, there are some characters that feel a bit glanced or not much action.  Some characters are only given one episode, and that’s it with maybe a few cameos sprinkled in. One character I’ve seen more was Marie the Mink (NOT A  Weasel) and how she’s got more screen appearance than let’s say the don of the Family (a Beluga Whale Beastmen). Heck, I would also like to see more of the side characters and know more about them. For starters, we get a lot of backstory about Barbary Rose and how she and Shirou once traveled the world together, but we don’t know any of the backstories of Gem and Melissa Horner, the married couples who helped Michiru and Shirou with a home of their own? We don’t get to know their backstory? It can become a bit frustrating, but otherwise, it has its charm.

Conclusion

Though the series has its pratfalls; it has its great moments in the series. The story and world building the series has to offer something that makes it stand on its own. Studio Trigger knows how to make more anime. For those interested, BNA: Brand New Animal is on Netflix, so I suggest you take a look and see how you like this anime.

References

Late Thursday Media Review: Wicked Willow

Review written by TheChoujinVirus

Note: This review contains spoilers to the game, so if you don’t want to be spoiled, do not read the review.I have some chat connections with the creator of the game, T.F. Wright. However, the review is done out of my own honest opinion. In no way am I being influenced by the creator.

Happy Thursday everyone, It’s ya boy Choujin.
 When one thinks of the genre of Urban Fantasy, they automatically assume the typical groups: Twilight, Harry Potter, and the such. Some may think of things like Life is Strange if needed when it comes to the genre.  Now your boy isn’t fond of the whole aspect of the genre (mostly thanks to Twilight), but I’m not afraid of trying it if it’s okay. Hence today’s review of a game that came out a week ago on the Steam store. The game’s called Wicked Willow, written and made by T.F. Wright (the same creator who made The Pirate’s Fate. I’ve also did a review of the game here if you’re curious of my review. Though unlike the last game, there are no furries in this story. So how is this visual novel? Well, let’s get started on my review of Wicked Willow.

Story Summary

In Wicked Willow, you play Willow, a 20-year-old college student and aspiring writer in a 1993 American city. One day, after chasing a strange black cat, she is attacked by a mass murder named The Axeman. She kills the guy by accident through her newly discovered powers. The cat she was chasing reveals he can talk and is named Shadow. He explains to Willow that she has a magical gift and that his job is to bring her to Tanya, the woman seeking out Willow. The old witch serves as Willow’s mentor throughout this whole crazy journey. And boy is it one crazy journey, from a bank robbery to loggers, to outright dealing with being Jumanji’d into a tabletop game and outright coping with the end of the world. Willow doesn’t go through this odd and bizarre adventure on her own as she runs into some colorful characters. Besides her mentor Tanya, the Serbian witch who knows a lot about our protagonist, you have the talking cat Willow, Willow’s closest friend Avery. You also have antagonists like Lydia, the very religious southern girl who looks like the poster child for the 700 Club and Xarsi, the succubus who seems to have a one-tracked mind. Now the game, for any visual novel, usually has paths and choices that affect what happens next in the story. Though beware, as Tanya explained that the use of magic has consequences, you could stop robbers by turning their bullets to flowers, saving someone but causing somebody else to suffer. Do you want to help the suffering person recover? Sure, you can save their life, but how much is to spare the life of a person? Maybe you shouldn’t use magic at all and try and solve it without magic? Whatever choice you make has a consequence for Willow, her friends, or even everyone around them. However, if they call you wicked due to the choices you make? Then so be it…

Wicked Wonders: What the game shines in

There’s plenty of positive choices in Wicked Willow, but I’ll try and name some preferences. One is the characters. Though the protagonist isn’t a tabula rasa like Mila from The Pirate’s Fate, Willow has her personality that makes her organic. In most games where you choose the outcome, it usually shapes the protagonist’s personality and world. Willow’s perspective and base personality don’t change to where she wants to punch someone, but she tries to fix mistakes. It’s not only limited to her; the supporting cast of the entire group is pretty great as well as each does have their quirks and strengths that make them stand out. It’s also done well by a great voice acting cast that brings the characters to life. Usually, it’s pretty rare to see voice acting in visual novels, but it’s pretty stellar. My personal favorite voice is the VA for Shadow the cat. I find it awesome how an older voice coming from a small cat can make a character interesting. I also like how every character you meet has a backstory that you can empathize with. (Some of them are pretty tragic.) For example, the villainous Xarsi is revealed to be once a nun who was devout but became a succubus out of desperation out of a frail old age. Another that was shocking was Lydia, who is a survivor of conversion therapy and that she was a closet lesbian. (It’s also revealed her Anti-Magic powers surfaced during these horrendous conditions.) In short, the villains in this story feels morally challenging (as it should be.) What I like also is the style and research. T.F. Wright did some homework on some of the stuff, as the story takes place not just during 1993 but also during a landmark moment known as Baehr vs. Miike, in which Hawaii legalized same-sex marriage. You see hints about Hawaii throughout the story (Blue Hawaiian, the flowers used to thwart the robbers.) It’s an exciting and subtle nod to this moment and something that fits the motif and several factors.
Finally, what I like about this is how they portray the romances, regardless of whom you choose to romance. They feel organic and not hasty corny, especially for same-sex romance options. Usually, my experience with stories involving same-sex romances kind of feels cringy (like bad anime level of cringe.) However, I do like how T.F. Wright’s writes these romances. The Final praise I like is the checkpoint system. In most V.N.s, you have to save at major choices then come back to it. Wicked Willow fixes this by creating a checkpoint system that lets you go back and check a new path; thus, you don’t need to create multiple save states during choices. Pretty good if I do say so myself.

Magical Flops: What the game lacks.

Though Wicked Willow had plenty of perks that made the series great, there were some issues that kinda made me feel a bit like they were lacking. First, I’d have to say is that though the backstories for each character are great, they are locked behind the romance paths. I wouldn’t mind learning of Avery’s secret during the Lydia path (it would explain how he figured out about Lydia’s secret.) Also, some characters on some paths are outright ignored, leaving some moments wondering what happened to said character while on this path. Another that makes me feel a bit griped is the endings. One is that there are a bit fewer endings than the usual, but that can be viewed as a compromised with the voice acting, but what kinda makes me feel a bit odd is how that there isn’t any negative ending (save for the world ending and having to reset the timeline) and that the conclusions you seem to go through, somehow doesn’t feel grim. (not total grim dark like how The Pirate’s Fate and their endings are.) Though some might view the Groundhog’s Day time-loop, Willow goes through as a repetitive bad ending (though some of them do give hints on what to do next or clues for a golden ending.) That kind of hurts replayability once you figure out the endings and secrets that are in the game. This gets to my last moment that though the basis of the game is excellent, it feels a bit short and not many secrets or mysteries to answer.

Hawaiian Conclusion

Despite the shortcomings of Wicked Willow, I find the series very nice and detailed. As I stated before, I wasn’t a fan of the Urban Fantasy genre, but I found Wicked Willow to be an excellent take at the genre.
The cast of characters, the voice acting and the quality of life make the game entertaining. It’s also great to see T.F. making more of these V.N.s and that his game got some excellent praises on Steam. Hopefully, he makes more games or V.N.s in the future.

References

Thursday Media Review: Top 5 things to do in World of Warcraft before Shadowlands goes live

World of Warcraft, the MMORPG that still going over twenty years since its release in 2004. It has it’s good strong moments and survived some cataclysmic issues. During BlizzCon 2019, they announced the latest expansion known as Shadowlands. So far, talks about this expansion has gotten people interested (and has gotten your boy back into WoW thanks to a friend.) So as I’m playing catch-up and getting myself geared, I’ve noticed there’s some content and things one can enjoy when not doing their weekly embassy missions or taking the fight to N’Zoth every week. So, here’s my Top 5 things to do in WoW before Shadowlands goes live.

#5. Try new class/race

World of Warcraft can let you create various races and class combos. From Orc Warriors to Pandaren Monks, you got a choice of what to make. However, some people, like myself, have one race or class preference. With the introduction of Allied races, perhaps its a time to try a new race or class? Sure it’s fun running around as the Orc Warrior or Pandaren Monk, but maybe try something different like perhaps a different race as a monk or just a whole new class? Like a Draenei Mage or even a Gnome Priest. You might find those classes just as enjoyable as the classes you prefer and you might and even sometimes find the new class you’ve rolled to be better than your last one. Heck, I’ve tried a few classes (though haven’t completed some of them yet) but I can attest that Hunter and Monk are pretty fun.

#4. Do older content

now i’m sure you’re puzzled at why I’m suggesting people to go to older content rather than the current content of Battle for Azeroth. Especially when the gear that drops in stuff like Burning Crusade is vastly inferior to the Visions of N’Zoth? What if I told you that some of that old loot can be useful cosmetically? What if I told you that some of the bosses have a chance of dropping a cute pet or better: a rare mount to show off? Best of all, most of the content doesn’t require needing a huge group and some can be done by yourself. So if you’re bored of smashing Queen Ashara in the face with your Epic axe or smashing arena greenhorns. Maybe go back to places like Outlands and grind reputation for that sweet Netherdrake you never got, going back to Icecrown and hope to claim that elusive undead horse, Invincible (or Ashes of Al’ar if you’re really devoted for it). Heck, get your Demon Hunter to Outlands and get those sweet Warglaives of Azzinoth. Go and make your character look badass. There’s plenty of unseen content for one to sate the itch until Shadowlands goes live.

#3. Sink your teeth into content you haven’t tried

Some people have either stuck to their favorite things. Some are Dungeon runners or raiders while others may be pet battlers or Arena kings. One thing that could be good is trying something that you might not have done. You can try to play some Battlegrounds or Arenas if you want some fun. Perhaps try some chances at pet battling, a Pokemon-like battle system where you use pets to fight (remember those little pets I told you one could get from older raids?) If you’re a pvp fighter, check what dungeon running and raiding can be. There’s untouched content to explore. Oh and if you’re doing PvP, do be careful about getting your teeth kicked in by tougher PvPers (that’ll be another time). But anyway, it’s good to see something new.

#2. Stock Up for Shadowlands

Now, I’m sure you’re wondering “stock up what?”

In World of Warcraft, you got things called professions (these are useful for crafting items like food, potions or engineering trinkets.) You may be busy power leveling items for Shadowlands that you may not have access to any of the better things until you get access to it. However, older things can work. For example, I’m an engineer. What I did before the expansion of Cataclysm was craft myself some Saronite Repair Bots (robots that served as mobile repair merchants) as well as preparing a mobile mailbox and cooked some stat increasing food as I would continue my trip through Cataclysm’s new zones. This can be helpful as you’ll need the probable resources to get through challenges. Oh and don’t just hoard up on just items, do make some gold too. Try and make some money before Shadowlands goes live, after all some items will cost gold and it would be expensive to maintain your equipment and probably training for some professions. Try to set a reasonable goal like 50k to 100k or even more if you want. But do remember to keep some sizable items in your inventory so when you’re questing in the Shadowlands, you won’t need to worry about not being prepared.

1. Try a Roleplaying Server

Playing World of Warcraft is a fun ordeal as you enjoy it, but what if I told you that you could take it to the next level? Enter the Roleplaying servers. What are they? Imagine the same thing as the usual servers in the game, but rather you can create a backstory for your created character. Not only that but you have some roleplaying events that can be fun (World PvP Fights for “territories”. Parties, even other stuff). It can be fun creating some characters (So long as you don’t go overboard with your character). But if you want your boy’s opinion, Roleplay servers can be fun though. However, a bit of some advice, if you are on a server called Moon Guard, stay the hell out of Goldshire..

For God's Sake Do not go to Goldshire!

With that, those are my top 5 things you can do while waiting for Shadowlands to come out. Though these are my ways to bide my time for this suspenseful wait. Otherwise, you’re free to do what you want to do if you play WoW. Oh and if you’re curious, I do hang out on WoW, if you want to know what servers I play on, don’t hesitate to ask.

With that, hope you guys enjoy the rest of your day and stay safe.

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