The Walking Dead - Season 2

Yes, it's time for another post nobody will care about.

And yes, I mean the game. I have no idea about the comic nor the TV series.

So, I bought this ages ago, yet I only finished it now (or rather, I had just finished it when I wrote this. Then I forgot to publish it 'til now). I was quite busy with Bloodorne actually what the hell I didn't write about that what's wrong with me and I had to play this on my PS3 since Season 2 uses the old saves of Season 1 for something.

I've talked to some people who don't know anything about TWD these past few days, and what they think to know is wrong. So let me get this straight: The Walking Dead is not about zombies. Yes, there are "walkers" that are... well, zombies, basically; and yes, it's set in a post-apocalyptic world where there are just a bunch survivors left.

Yet TWD is not about zombies.
In fact it's about humans. Or better yet, it's about humans' relationships.

I mean, just try to imagine the situation for a moment: you're left alone in a world where surviving isn't a given, but you have to actually earn it. You fight dead corpses that move around and are extremely tough and numerous (though also very stupid). You have to find food, water, shelter and weapons.
Then suppose one day you meet another survivor.
Who's this guy? How did he manage to survive? What does he want?
Imagine he asks for your help. He says he's injured and asks you for some medicine.
Would you be willing to spare some? What if he's been bitten and he's already done for? What if it's a trap and he just wants to rob you?
And what if he's actually fine and sincerely in need of your help?

That's not even all. Because in a hostile world such as this you wouldn't last much by yourself, so usually survivors hang out in groups.
Say you join one. Someone will maybe like you, some other won't probably share that feeling. What if you can't keep up with the others and you're dead weight who's slowing everyone down? Some will probably point that out and say you have to leave, even though that'd mean certain death for you.

Or maybe you're good. You actually manage to be useful. You're nice to the others too, so nobody complains. As if.
Then eventually someone is bitten, or left behind, or dies for whatever reason. Maybe you had to kill them because you had no option left.
Maybe they had a family. They obviously will get very angry at you, because you technically killed their loved ones. So seeds of distrust begin to take root, and eventually someone will do something stupid and someone else will die.

There, that's TWD in a nutshell. Hopefully these weird examples will make you understand why I said that TWD isn't about zombies.

Oh, I should probably mention that it's a game from Telltale, and like every other game of theirs (I think?), TWD is an interactive story. This means the gameplay is barely there, and the biggest actions of the player will be pressing a botton to pick an answer during the dialogues. There are also a handful of action scene, but again, all you have to do is move the left stick (if you're playing with a pad) within a second or two or continuing to press the X button like a madman. So yeah, gameplay is not really the reason to play this.

And speaking of choices, maybe you're wondering if they actually change the outcome of the story. Let me spoiler you this, they don't.
Or well, the vast majority of the choices affect your relations with the other characters, but all the major events will still happen. The only exception to this is the ending.
Still, does it feel like you actually affect the story? Hell yes. Kudos to Telltale for that.

Anyway, as always I ended up writing far more than expected. At the very least I hope I persuaded some of you to at least take a look at this (and of course to Season 1). I can consider myself satisfied if I managed.

Ar Tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica

Listening to: Click me and do yourself a favour

(Warning: the following post doesn't try too hard even try to explain some things to the layman, so while I'll avoid spoilers as always, if you don't know already the series, you can just skip this and go play Ar Tonelico I)

So, after more or less forever I finally played and finished AT2 as well as the first one.
Considering how much I liked the latter, I have to say I was pretty hyped up for this. But as it's often the case, the hype backfired at me.
There are some things I want to consider so I'm just gonna make a hopefully short list of good and bad things:

Better game balance
In the AT1 post I pointed out how its biggest problem is that the game's too easy. Although AT2 still kinda is - the only fights where I had problems were a few level 9 I.P.D.s, battles that are definitely optional anyway - bosses at least put up a decent fight.
Speaking of which, another good thing was...

Akiko Shikata performs in it
Wait no, I didn't want to say this. Although this is probably the most valid point.

Better battle system
The other reason I didn't mind fights as much as in AT1 is because the battles were ultimately fun. Not perfect, mind you: things like being able to cure yourself at the start of the battle just to run away (with a 100% success rate) right after that, effectively making healing items almost useless, probably make it broken and definitely a bit worse than the system in AT1. Still, overall I'd consider this as a good thing seeing how I enjoyed battles.

Soundtrack is as good as AT1
Which means it's exceptionally good. Not much more to say. 

Akiko Shikata performs in it
This is just one of the reasons of the point above. But I wanted to make it clear and give it the importante it deserves.

And I think that's actually it. Now for the funnier part of commenting what was bad (or worse than in AT1 anyway):

The new synthesis system sucks hard compared to Grathmeld
In AT1 you traveled across the world, found recipe cards in dungeon and cities, then you enjoyed your stay at an inn where you had fun staying in the girls' room 'til late to talk and making new shiny things with Grathmeld.
Now this doesn't happen anymore. You don't find recipe cards during your travels, nor you can make shiny things at every savepoint/inn. Now you have to progress the plot a little, then go back to every freakin' shop, where you'll have unlocked one or two cutscenes which will result in the shopkeeper giving you a recipe card.
Come again?
This is just stupid. Things like cutscenes for every recipe card given to you and the fact that you can craft more than one kind of item from every recipe card (since it depends on the girl you choose to help you out) might be entertaining and make some sense, but the fact that I have to go back at every shop after every dungeon to craft items of dubious usefulness is just a huge fail.
Gimme back muh Grathmeld.

No more crystals for weapons/armors
This is another case of "fixing what ain't broken". In AT1 I had lots of fun searching for and using the best crystals to put in weapons and armors. So why the hell did they have to remove them altogether in here?
At first I thought it was a failed attempt to make the game a little harder, but then they put things like Replekia (unlocked quite early in the game too) that basically throw the game's balance out of the window. Also if increased difficulty was the reason, they could have just made the enemies more powerful in the first place, so it's not probably that.
So it's just a stupid thing to do.

Plot is meh~ish
To be honest I'm not 100% sure the problem here is the plot or the characters, but I can't say I enjoyed the story that much, that's for sure. And speaking of which...

Characters are incosistent with themselves
Now this is a problem you don't want in your (J)RPG. Especially in the first parts of the game, characters sometimes don't really make sense (yes Luca I'm looking at you most of all).
It might be due to NISA's acknowledged bad localization rather than the screenwriters' fault, but unless you understand Japanese this is a moot point.

Story "phases" don't really make sense
This is probably not very important for most people, but I liked how in AT1 every phase was almost a story of its own. You could take a (long) break at the end of each of them, resume some time afterward, and it'd almost feel like what nowadays would be a DLC. It was nice.
In AT2 this doesn't apply. Every phase is strictly related to the previous one, and they're probably there just to give you an idea of how much you've progressed into the game. 

Voice acting is almost non-existent
In AT2, as in its predecessor, you can select between Japanese and English voice acting. It's kinda useless though, since the voiced scenes in both languages are very, very few, especially considering the amount of text the game has.

Phase 2
No seriously what was that. It felt like the game devs woke up a morning and decided to put random mini-games for whatever reason, only to resume normal game mechanics in the next 3 phases. Just... no.

As you can see, ultimately the downsides weight way more than the upsides. Or well, at least they do for me. Which makes it hard for me to suggest an approach to the Ar Tonelico series.
I'm tempted to say to play AT2 first, so that the first one won't ruin it for you, but going back to AT1 battle system after AT2's might feel awkward, and you'd miss some cameos and references too, so you're kinda screwed in any case.

But maybe it's just me. Maybe for some reason I didn't enjoy this very much but others did/would. I guess the only way to be sure is to give it a shot yourself.

~ What a beautiful ~ series

Listening to: Last Exile OST

This post will be very short. Bullshit.
This post is about two VNs of this series - namely, Seiken no Inganock and Shikkoku no Sharnoth.
I don't remember exactly how I came to know these, but most likely I searched for high-rated (translated) VNs and these two titles showed up, among others. Hence, I knew absolutely nothing about these when I started them, except that they should have been good.

Apparently Seiken no Inganock was the one written before the other, so I started with that. It's not like I knew that until after I finished it, but those are details. I guess I just was lucky. Or not.
So, describing this is actually pretty hard. It's definitely not your average VN, that's for sure. Aside from that, well...
You see, this series features some peculiarities, and because of them this is one of those you-love-them-or-hate-them thing. The first two, obvious things that come to mind are the beautiful art style (I don't think I read any complaint about that by anyone), and the abuse of copy-paste repetition of certain scenes. And no, I don't mean some scenes are similar to some others, but they're literally the same, except for a few lines at most.
(Oh, I don't know if it counts as another feature, but I'll throw it here in any case - the BGMs are quite good.)

With that in mind, I have to say I didn't mind it much, if at all, while playing Inganock. I was a bit baffled at first, sure, but I grew used to it quite soon, and eventually I learnt to actually appreciate the thing. 
Because every repeated scene is like a ritual, in which you have to follow certain steps.
Because every little difference there was implied something important. 
The characters are great, so I didn't even mind the fact that most of them are fundamentally just a filler. 
Because just watching their interactions was fun. 
Because just playing every chapter to find out more about the mysteries of Inganock was enough to keep me hooked.
The ending is pretty decent too, but beware, because if you like clear explanations, you'll probably be let down. 
Because if you just want everything thrown at your face, you'll probably be left with a bitter taste.

Okay I'm done with this thing. Too bad I suck at it.

So yeah, all in all I kinda enjoyed Inganock. I wouldn't say it's great, but it's a nice change of pace.
Knowing more of what to expect, I started Shikkoku no Sharnoth.

Let's just say this: Sharnoth is first VN ever in which I skipped unread text.
A lot of it, in fact.
I myself ain't 100% sure of the reason. Though if I had to point out something, I do have a couple a few some possible reasons in mind:
- The main character is annoying. Seriously annoying. Mind you, this is probably just a thought of mine, but in certain scenes I just hoped she'd die already. Ugh. Most of the scenes I skipped were ones where she was present, yes;

Yes, she's rather cute, but don't let that fool you.

- The repetition thing that I liked in Inganock is completely useless in Sharnoth. I don't know if the author kept it just because of consistency/style, but seriously, I don't think most of them have a point at all;
- Not only the overall plot was less intriguing than in Inganock, but the answers... actually, this deserves a point of its own;
- The answers to the mysteries are just too slow. You spend something like 6 chapters running like a clueless idiot (see point below), then one of the characters "who knows" tells you something kinda obvious, then the main characters suffers a psychological crisis, but that's nothing new to her anyway, then you have to spend still another 4 chapters to run, and when you finally reach the final chapter... most of the mysteries don't even get mentioned at all (who is Funnel? Why and what does she know about Inganock and David?!), and the answers to the ones that do lack proper justification and seem kinda weak in general;
- The fucking minigame.

Art/Style and music are great though, and some of the characters are good too. But overall that's not enough to make me think the time I spent on this wasn't wasted.

There is one weird thing though, which tbh is the real reason I wrote this post. All of the (few) reviews I found of Shikkoku no Sharnoth actually praised it. 

Mfw I read "8/10" or even more.

At least, Inganock does seem like the most appreciated of the two. But yeah, basically I wrote all of this to be somewhat of a hipster and tell the world Sharnoth is shit.

tl;dr if you enjoy VNs and you want to try something new, give Seiken no Inganock a chance. Forget about Sharnoth if you ask me, or if you really want to, give it a chance but lower your expectations a lot, wherever they're set.

Ar Tonelico: Melody of Elemia

Listening to: Do I really need to say it?

So, another random revival it is.
This alone should speak by itself.

I finally had the chance to play this title myself. I already watched a series of Let's Play of this and Ar Tonelico II some years ago, before playing Ar Tonelico Qoga (i.e. Ar Tonelico III), so - unfortunately - I already knew of the story and the plot twists. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it a lot.

Let me just say this: Ar Tonelico is a phenomenal game. Sure, it's a bit old and a few parts of the gameplay kinda aged bad (yes, backtracking, I'm looking at you), but it's nowhere near enough to ruin the overall enjoyment.

Let's start with the obvious best: the music is absolutely great. And I'm not talking only of the hymmnos, but also of the actual soundtrack. Every single track is perfect for the scene it's used in, and most of them are great even when you just listen to them outside of the game.

The plot is not inferior in any way. AT conveys a lot of messages and ideas to the player, and does so in a great way. I won't say more on this, because you need to play it to fully understand it.

Longevity is quite good too. I finished the game in about 30h, and I never got tired of it. That's also because the gameplay itself is great, aside from one or two little things.
One of those is the already-mentioned backtracking, which is a bit annoying at times, but considering you can escape from battles with a 100% success rate it's not that bad. The other thing I wished it was different is the difficulty. Especially in most of Phase 2 the game's really easy, and it's hard to get hyped for battles when even bosses are defeated in 2 minutes or so. I mean, I didn't even farm so that was unexpected.
It might be because I started fleeing more often, but Phase 3 was a bit harder, though still kinda easy.

So, what now? I'll play AT2 as well of course, but I guess I'll take a short break before that.

Even considering my huge Steam library and my almost-as-big PS3 one, not only I don't regret playing this one bit, but if you call yourself a JRPG fan, I strongly encourage you to play this as well. I guarantee you won't regret it.

Super Danganronpa 2

Currently listening to: Super Danganronpa 2 OST (Yeah no shit Sherlock)

SDR2 is everything a sequel should be: it borrows the ideas from the first game, it adds some of its own and combines everything with a lot of self-irony to create a mix that is always entertaining.
I could end the post here and make everyone happy but I guess it wouldn't make clear how much I enjoyed this game, so I'll just write everything I can think of and show you how it's all good:

• Story: SDR2 could be seen as a visual novel (with lots of gameplay), so of course the plot is a primary concern. Well, fear not, because the only downside I can think of is actually related to the game's mechanics. And with that I mean how every chapter is basically the same as far as structure is regarded: Daily life -> Deadly life -> Trial -> Repeat. Basically you know from the start that someone's going to die over and over again, but hey, there's little the developers could have done for that, if anything at all. The things they could do right, they did, because the plot twists and the crimes very rarely let you down.
• Style: As I kinda mentioned above, SDR2 is full of self-irony and references, both to its own brand and to other famous stuff. Not only this, the concept of "breaking the fourth wall" is redefined, especially in the last chapter of the game (which, by the way, is pure genius). This is especially - but not only - Monokuma's merit. The guy's a nasty bastard but from the point of view of the gamer he's simply brilliant. Bravo to the developers.
• Graphics: Who even cares about this, let's go on.
• Music: While not being phenomenal it's pretty good, especially in-game, so this passes too.
• Longevity: If you're crazy like me you'll spend every day of the week to clear a chapter and you'll still want more.
• Gameplay: Simply catchy. The daily life is probably the weakest part, but it lets you know the characters better and they deserve it; the investigation and trial parts are simply awesome and you'll have serious troubles putting down the console when playing those.

That's all I can think of. I already said it but I will mention again how the last chapter is simply brilliant and something that all those who write stories should play/read.
tl;dr Play it.

The Witch and the Hundred Knight

Currently listening to: Basically all of this

Here's another game that received the shitstorm treatment.

I remember I was pretty excited about this when it first came out. Not only it was from NISA, but most of the people who matter staff who worked on it are from the Disgaea team (I think?). And it was something new, on top of that! How to not be excited?

Metallica herself is quite charming too, ain't she?

But then the reviews begun.
Well, they're all pretty similar, and I think they can be summed up with this:

The Witch and the Hundred Knight has an incredibly dark sense of humor, at times borderline morbid [...]. Not to mention [Metallica is] incredibly foul-mouthed.

 (From Siliconera)

Oh, they also all said that the gameplay was quite average and there were no particular strong points.

After reading all this, how could I resist?

So after a year and some months I decided to buy it at a very convenient price to finally check it out.

The first problem I encountered was like 3 minutes into the game. No, that's not because it's that bad, but because the following choice is always rather difficult for me:

" Select voice language:

> English

> Japanese "

What I usually do is select English, watch the first scene of the game, then go back to the start screen, select Japanese, and stick with it until the end of the game.

The Witch and the Hundred Knight was no exception to that.

Although I have to admit that the English dub was quite decent from what I've heard.

Now, why did I just spend almost 10 lines to say an apparently useless thing? You'll have to wait a bit more, but if you're smelling a Checkhov's Gun, then your nose is pretty good.

The next thing that hit me, as it sometimes happen, was the soundtrack. Pretty much all the tracks in the game scream "Tenpei Sato", and that's undoubtedly a good thing for me.

Saeval, that's nice and all, but this is becoming a wall of text and you really didn't say anything significant what you think of the game still.

I know, my impatient friend, but don't worry, the main part starts now.

So, as far as the gameplay is regarded, I have to say the reviews are unfortunately correct. It is quite average, being kind of a fast-paced-Diablo clone. There are some other, different things, but they really aren't that necessary to understand since you get lots of EXP just wondering around, which makes you overleveled for the most part of the game. 

About the whole dark humor thing, first of all, I have to say that I clearly don't speak Japanese, but thanks to all the time wasted watching anime I do have some (extremely low) level of comprehension of the language. As I said above, I played the game with Japanese dub and (obviously) English text. Doing so, I kinda had the impression that it was NISA's localization to make things more vulgar than they are natively. In a lot of dialogues Metallica's words on screen didn't quite match the translation I had in mind, being the former always meaner. Yeah, I'm aware I might be completely off with this, but blogs are about personal opinions, aren't they?

All of that said, mostly also thanks to Tenpei Sato's work it's not really a problem to clear the game, even though it is quite long. But I do have a few big complains:

1. The trophies don't make sense. Well, the reason for me saying this is mainly because of the ridiculous amount of time I spent 100%-ing almost all the maps, just to find out later on that between all the secret trophies (which are, like, all of them or so) there is none related to map exploring completion.

   

   Think of the kanjis as censorship of my curses.
   That's how I felt.

2. The ending. There's probably no need to be this cautious, but I will avoid spoilers anyway.
   Basically there are 3 endings. The normal one, which... well, isn't really worth more than a mention. Then there's the true ending, which is the one I got when I didn't even know all this. Finally there's the bad ending. My complain here is that the normal ending does kinda-sorta fit the game, but it just sucks. Hard. It's definitely not the kind of ending you want to see after 40+ hours, and it just makes you want to throw the pad against the screen.
3. So, the normal ending isn't really a thing, the true one sucks. What about the bad one?
   Heh, I wish I could answer you, dear reader, but the fact is that to unlock the bad ending you have to go through chapters 12 and 13.

   

   Saeval, what's the problem with that?

   Do you remember when I said the game is kinda easy because EXP basically rains from the sky?
   That still applies. You get a shitload of EXP during chapters 12 and (I think, since I never got there) 13 too.
   Too bad it doesn't matter. The enemies are always at your same level regardless of whatever it is. As if that weren't enough, the equipment you get up to chapter 11 is extremely underpowered considering the enemies you have to face.
   The result of all of this is that you need several hits to defeat any of the common enemies while most of them one-shot you, or at best, two-shot you. And if two-shotting ain't a verb, I don't care.
   I did try to ganbatte and not give up; I even defeated two of the (at least) five bosses of the chapter, but the third I tried to take on is simply crazy and the only advice I can find on the internet* is "go farm". Yeah right, as if that were useful.
   But man, the true ending sucks. I guess this is the part where Youtube comes in handy.
   
   
   *: Speaking of which, this game must have sold terribly bad, because you can barely find anything about it. Most of the times I got stuck (which didn't really occur much often) I found just one or two gamefaqs threads, if anything at all.
   
   
   And that's all.
   tl;dr : Is The Witch and the Hundred Knight as bad as reviews depict it? Probably not. I can see why it got such poor votes, but if you're used a bit to the Japanese style you'll probably end up liking it, or at least not minding it. If you're not though, stay away from it. But maybe do give the soundtrack a chance.

Winter 2014-15

(...since, well, it covers both years.)

Currently listening to: Shingeki no Kyojin OST 
(i.e. seriously good stuff)

So, this time around I'm actually watching weekly shows, after an eternity of watching only already-completed stuff. But as usual, let's get down to business already; this is what I've currently watched, though do keep in mind that I've only seen the first episode.

Kantai Collection (a.k.a. KanColle)
Simply... no. Video-wise is probably the best show of the season, too bad even that isn't enough to give me the necessary motivation to get through it. Maybe who's familiar with the game will enjoy it more.

Absolute Duo
This is the only series I've watched up to episode 2. First one made me almost believe it could be ever-so-slightly better than average ecchi/fantasy anime, but episode 2 promptly made me change my mind. I guess I'll give it another chance before dropping it though.

Oh hey, she tripped over him.
Twice.
I sure wasn't expecting such a huge cliffhanger.

Shinmai Maou no Testament
This was kinda a pleasant surprise, because the first 5 minutes made me want to kill myself, but then it got better. I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out bad afterwards though (see AD above).

This is the moment where the show turned from "meh~" to "not so bad".

Death Parade
Now, a few people know I was really looking forward to this. And although I got exactly what I expected - i.e. something very similar to the already-available OVA - I didn't mind it at all. In fact, I actually liked the touch of feelings and the message the director wanted to pass on.

I believe the real plot-twist of the show is the OP.

Oh, and unlike everybody else - and I mean everybody - I ain't worried about "future episodes being more of the same", because it's pretty clear that there are characters that have yet to appear, plus the series could say a lot of things even using the same format for every single episode.

No, she's not being punched, it's just good ol' MadHouse.

Overall, I'd say the show is pretty sick. If that's a good thing or not, it probably depends on you.

Junketsu no Maria
At first I actually had no intention to watch this, but it's set in Medieval times and it's about virgin witches, so how could I resist?

Yes, this means exactly what you're thinking.

Turns out I did the right thing - at least jugding from the first ep - as the show seems pretty funny and definitely not your average animu.

Koufuku Graffiti
All I read about this show (even before it aired) was "it's about food porn". Again, I couldn't simply ignore this.

And damn, were they right.

So yeah, it's just a story of a girl who has an orgasm whenever she eats something good and how can you blame her. And it's Shaft. So I'm fairly confident this will be at least decent.

Assassination Classroom (a.k.a. AssClass)
This was another one I was kinda looking forward to. It's probably one of the weirdest out of all the shows I'm mentioning, but I really don't mind. Check out the synopsis - or better yet, the first episode - to understand why's that.

One thing I didn't quite get was why they made
the main character like that, and called him Nagisa too.

  
Saenai Heroine no Sodatekata
Finally, the real surprise. I don't even know why I checked this one out, but the first 8 minutes of the show were enough to make me fall in love with its sense of humor. As of now, I don't know if I should watch it every week or just wait for the BDs...

One thing I sure wouldn't enjoy is encoding this.

Okay, that was the last one.
Wow, I didn't realise I watched so many shows. Though I suppose that means this season is not bad at all, so yay.

New post about good stuff soon™.

Muv-Luv Extra/Unlimited/Alternative

Currently listening to: Muv-Luv OST (No link this time, play the VN before that!)

Muv-Luv Alternative (MLA) is one of those VN titles you can't help to see everywhere, if you're into the genre. It's apparently one of those titles you must play, one of "the best VN evah!!1!".
After reading such things, I couldn't help but googling a bit about it.
Turns out MLA is a direct sequel to - you'll never guess - Muv-Luv, which unlike MLA isn't apparently all that good. But hey, if there's something Shakugan no Shana taught me, is how a sequel can improve the original series, so after finishing Rewrite* I was in for the ride.
(*: Why the heck didn't I write about that?!)

There's not that much to write about - mainly because I want to spoiler as less as possible - so here's what I think:

Muv-Luv Extra: This is the first part of the original ML. Let's be clear, it's a pain. I didn't mind it too much at first, but after finishing the first route (out of 5, plus 2 bad endings), the entertainment factor was long out of the window.
It was nothing unexpected though, so I (kinda) rushed through the main routes, ignoring altogether the other two, since they aren't plot-relevant anyway.
"There, done. Start screen changed, now it's kinda odd too, but who cares about that? Let's just install MLA already".
Fortunately, after another bit of googling, I discovered in time that I was not done with Muv-Luv at all. That was because, after clearing the 2 main routes, you unlock...

Muv-Luv Unlimited: ...which is the second part of the original ML. I was already cursing quite a bit, but after just a few minutes into the game, I was happy to find out that MLU is an entirely different thing, and I was beginning to see why MLA was supposedly this good.
Hours flew and I finished MLU before realizing it. It was finally time to start...

Muv-Luv Alternative: The most obvious thing you notice even before pressing "Start" is how the budget sky-rocketed compared to Extra & Unlimited. Which was, as you can imagine, a very pleasant surprise. Just by looking at the start screen, I also immediately noticed how much different MLA was going to be from its prequel(s). These thoughts were confirmed the more I played it.
Now, as I said, I don't want to spoiler anything so there's not much I can say, if not a few generic thoughts:

1) Considering that Extra & Unlimited first came out in 2003, while Alternative was only released 2006, I find it very impressing that the developers already had in mind pretty much all the story since the beginning. This is quite obvious seeing all the references in MLA.

2) In MLA I found one of the best plot twists EVER. It's literally the first one in years that REALLY surprised me and left me totally "WTF WHY IS THIS HAPPENING HELP" for a few seconds. This is not to say everything in MLA is not predictable - in fact, right after that major plot twist I found myself guessing rightly most of the things that were about to happen (though I had no idea of the reason). After that, there was another HUGE mind-blowing scene, which left me totally baffled for several minutes. Again, this was something that didn't happen to me in a long time.
Also, do note that both these scenes might easily be disturbing for someone. It's probably about one of those two that, according to the Muv-Luv wiki:
"Even the fans agree that that scene could have been censored, and shouldn't have been seen again in so many flashbacks, though. Due to this, a censor patch has been made available. "
So yeah, serious shit.

3) Also keep in mind that the saga is long. I don't know if it's Umineko-tier but it's definitely Rewrite-tier.

So, yeah, this is one of the few cases where not only I found the hype totally justified but I agree with it as well.
There are lots of spin-offs games / novels too but the most interesting ones are yet to be translated - if they ever will - so I guess I'll just put the saga on-hold for a bit.

tl;dr: Bear with Extra, let Unlimited blow your mind, prepare to be amazed by Alternative.

Decreasing backlog's length...

...is not an easy task at all.
In these last couple weeks I indeed watched some stuff. Too bad for every good show I complete there's another one I come to know of.
For that (and others) reason(s), for the moment I'll avoid writing a post for every single show / game, and instead I'll briefly talk about a few of them at a time. This way I can also avoid the problem of not knowing what to write. Let's start right away:

Shinsekai Yori (From the New World)
I've heard many good things about this. In fact, all the people who knew it and suggested it to me, had nothing but praises.
That means I had high expectations.
That means the show had to be really good to not let me down.
Alas, that was not the case. To be honest I don't get it myself: the show has a nice setting, lots of plot-twists, dark and creepy atmosphere... All things that usually excite me. But when it came down to da feelings, it didn't really tell me much. This is especially true for the first part, while I found that the more I got near the ending, the more easily I could watch more than an episode at a time.
About the OST, I have to say that even if it's composed by 3 CDs, the very good / excellent tracks were not that many. There are definitely a lot of creepy tracks though so keep this in mind if you're a fan of those.

Kotonoha no Niwa (The Garden of Words)
This is some really good stuff. It's Makoto Shikai's work after all. If you don't know what this means, either go throw yourself down a well or immediately download Byousoku 5 cm and this, I'll sum it up for you: 1) Jaw-breaking visuals, 2) Feelings, and 3) OST that is not only very good but perfectly fits the show.
Actually, now that I write about it I find that this movie is the opposite of Shinsekai Yori for more than one reason: after all this one is all about da feelings, and while the soundtrack is only made by 7 tracks (not considering the single that comes with it), a few of which are shorter than 1 minute, pretty much all of them are way above-average.
Oh, and to show you that the visuals really are stunning, I'll post a few links to random screenshots:
http://puu.sh/aVvvz.png
http://puu.sh/aVvdH.png (<-- Da water!!!)
http://puu.sh/aVvBT.png
Anyway, I suggest you to grab this somewhere and watch it. It's only 45 minutes long - the only real bad thing about this movie. And if it bores you, know that you have no soul.

Gatchaman Crowds
Let us end this post with mixed feelings. After all, Gatchaman Crowds is kind of a unique title. You'll notice the art, the OST, and other things pretty soon, and you'll immediately know if GC is a show you can bear to watch. I'll warn you though: while the first half is not bad, it's in the second one the show gives its best. If you don't consider the ending, that is. The studio probably had some problems with the last couple of episodes, as the time that's spent for a flashback in ep. 11 could have been used for a much less rushed ending in ep. 12. But don't worry too much, as in the BDs (I think) it's included an ep. 13, which is like a Director's Cut version of ep. 12 that fix things.
Oh, and I can't avoid mentioning the great main character this anime has. This is probably the first time I like a female protagonist so much.


Okay, that's it. I'm actually watching another show these days - but, considering I'm enjoying it very much, I'll probably write about it soon enough.

Advices and brief opinions about PS3 titles

Right now I'm listening to:
Mahler - Symphony 7

Ok, so, I've been pretty busy these days due to exams... to...
Oh well, let's just say there has been nothing worth of being written.
Until now, that is.

This post is basically to suggest some games to someone who just got a PS3, but it can be seen as some random gibberish my personal opinions about some (sometimes not so) good games I've played on this (awesome) system.
But enough with the chit-chat. With the premise that the order is strictly alphabetic, let's start right away:

• Ar Tonelico Qoga (a.k.a. Ar Tonelico III): I'd suggest anyone not familiar with the saga to just skip this. The innuendos were almost too much even for me, even though plot is not that bad. However, if you do know Ar Tonelico I and II, this is your chance to finish the saga, as AT3 is available only on PS3.
  What I do suggest in any case, however, is to listen to (almost) ALL the hymmnos of the saga, especially the tracks sung by Akiko Shikata. I'll post one of my favourites here as an example of what you can expect:
  Ar Tonelico I - EXEC_CHRONICLE_KEY
  (I have to say, choosing only one would be quite hard, so I just linked the first hymmnos I heard and that got me into the series and Akiko Shikata. You could say it's my first love :P). If you think it is good, just know that if you actually know the circumstances around it, it gets even better. If you don't, don't worry about the lyrics being a spoiler because they aren't :P
•  ICO & Shadow of the Colossus Collection, Heavy Rain: Now these are quite unique titles. I'd suggest to simply do a little research about them and see if they might be your cup of tea.
• Nier: This is simply the most underrated title of the gen. Reviewers probably saw the (kinda) shitty graphics, played it for a few hours, then wrote shit about it. (My and others') truth is: from the technical point of view the game is not the best, indeed, but plot and music are simply top-notch, while gameplay is average. Even though Nier is more like an Action/JRPG, it's definitely a title you wanna play even if you don't particuarly like the genre. You'll end up remembering its characters, story and tracks for a long time.
• Tales of Graces f: This is a somewhat classical JRPG. I'd say that overall story and music are lighthearted and good, but graphics sure is quite nice and gameplay might be a bit complex at first, but you'll end up addicted to it. It's probably not one of the best titles I've ever played, but it's definitely good.
• Trine: A very good platform that you can buy from the PS Store. The fastest and most faithful way to describe this would be "A fable made videogame". And unlike Trine 2, it's not especially hard.
  
•  Valkyria Chronicles: And here we are at the last title of this short list. Valkyria Chronicles is a SJRPG, combining both turns and real-time action, and quite a bit of strategy (that S at the beginning is there for a reason :P). Mind you: it can be rather challenging, especially on some missions, but I really liked the plot and the characters. Music is nice too.
  (P.S.: Note that Valkyria Chronicles 2 is available on PS Store for PSP/Vita too, but unfortunately I really didn't like it as much).

 Keep in mind that all of the above titles have been cleared by yours truly. There are other titles that I have yet to start, such as: Child of Light, Ni No Kuni, Puppeteer, Tales of Xillia, Okami HD, Journey and others I don't even remember right now. I suggest you do a little research about these as well, as they all seem pretty good.

Okay, that's all. At the very least, I hope I gave you some ideas about what to buy or to focus on :D



P.S.: As of this post, for reasons I won't write (not because they're secret, rather simply because I'm too lazy :P) probably all of my posts will be in English.

Kami-sama no Inai Nichiyoubi

In questo momento sto ascoltando:
Dream Theater - Pull Me Under
Dream Theater - Surrounded

Non vi preoccupate, questo post non sarà come il precedente, sarà molto più breve. Potrei benissimo dirvi solamente "guardatelo", ma non sarei molto convincente, quindi tanto vale provare a dare qualche minimo di motivazione.

Premessa: L'anime in questione è ambientato in un mondo che è stato (praticamente) abbandonato da Dio. Come conseguenza di ciò, la gente non può più morire né procreare.
"Ah, una pacchia quindi"
No, non proprio, perché seppur è vero che nessuno può morire (in senso stretto, almeno), è altrettanto vero che dopo che si è deceduti pian piano si entri in uno stato degenerativo in cui la personalità cambia e si diventa sempre più egoisti e cattivi.
"Bella merda quindi"
Eh sì. Però Dio non è stato così cattivo da chiudere la baracca e andarsene. Come ultimo gesto ha lasciato i gravekeeper fra l'umanità, che sono gli unici che possono far finalmente trovare la pace ai morti.
"Quindi ci dobbiamo aspettare scazzottate?"
No, i gravekeeper necessitano semplicemente di seppellire i deceduti per metterli in pace.

Non male, vero? Vi posso garantire che in effetti non lo è per nulla, e anzi, l'unica pecca è che ci sono solo 12 episodi (e 1 special che però non è che abbia molto senso...). Ah, anche il finale - che apparentemente è diverso rispetto al manga - è un po' forzato, ma vabbé, valli a trovare show con un bel finale in questi giorni.
Tolti di mezzo gli aspetti negativi, passiamo a quelli positivi:

• Design: I disegni non saranno fra i più definiti del mondo, ma i colori e lo stile in generale sono più che sufficienti per compensare;
• Colonna sonora: Veramente molto bella; composta sostanzialmente da 34 tracce (tutte o quasi molto brevi), non solo si adattano benissimo alle scene ma si ascoltano con molto piacere anche da sole;
• This actually makes me think: Questo secondo me è - o dovrebbe essere - il punto che spinge sempre a creare qualcosa. Che si tratti di un anime, di un gioco, di un brano, qualunque cosa veramente, si dovrebbe fare perché si vuole trasmettere qualcosa al pubblico, un messaggio che possibilmente spinga a riflettere su tematiche più o meno interessanti. Kami-sama no Inai Nichiyoubi offre diversi spunti del genere, cosa che ho apprezzato tantissimo in quanto ormai se ne vedono veramente pochi.

 Avevo promesso di essere breve e probabilmente ho già scritto fin troppo, quindi mi fermo qui.

tl;dr version: guardatelo.

Dark Souls (2)

In questo momento sto ascoltando:
Akiko Shikata - Buonanotte
Akiko Shikata - Arcadia 
(E altre canzoni di Turaida)

Ah. Ci siamo.
Honestly, scrivere questo post sarà un'impresa. La mia intenzione era infatti non solo quella di commentare Dark Souls 2 (cosa che potrei fare in pochissime parole), ma cercare di far capire a tutti quelli che me lo chiedono "cosa c'è di così bello". Un'impresa molto ardua, vi garantisco, dato che la maggior parte del fascino di questa saga è difficile da descrivere a parole. Ma vabbé, vediamo cosa riesco a fare.

(N.B.: Se d'ora in avanti ometto il numero dopo il titolo significa che mi riferisco alla saga)

Ciò che sta alla base della trama di Dark Souls è molto semplice, e d'altro canto è naturale dato che la trama "c'è e non c'è": il mondo sta cadendo (o più che altro, è già caduto) in rovina, e aspetta solo noi per essere salvato.
Ecco, fermi qua.
Se vi state immaginando qualcosa in stile JRPG tradizionale, fate retromarcia e cercate un altro parcheggio.
Ho detto che il mondo è in rovina, and I meant that. Dark Souls è unico nel suo genere (e non solo) per riuscire a trasmettere questa sensazione. Sarà la palette colori, sarà l'assenza di colonna sonora durante le fasi esplorative, sarà l'insieme di queste cose e altre, ma gli sviluppatori riescono a far respirare aria di rovina e desolazione ad ogni passo. Non esagero col dire che non riesco a pensare ad altri giochi con un'atmosfera così affascinante e coinvolgente.
Il tutto si riflette sul gameplay: quest'aria di mistero può anche intimorire, e questo a sua volta dovrebbe spingerci ad essere cauti, cosa per altro caldamente consigliata perché cose a cui stare attenti ce ne son fin troppe: dietro quell'angolo potrebbe esserci un burrone, quel nemico che sembra morto in realtà forse sta solo fingendo, o quello scrigno che stiamo aprendo in realtà non è ciò che sembra (dannati mimic, dovrebbero nerfare quelli).

Quest'atmosfera di mistero è supportata anche dalla trama apparentemente solo abbozzata. Da un lato è vero che le premesse sono semplici, ma dall'altro gli sviluppatori ci offrono diversi strumenti per conoscere di più il mondo. Mi riferisco soprattutto ai PnG, con cui possiamo parlare in maniera praticamente opzionale, e alla descrizione riportata negli oggetti, che di solito ha una struttura ben definita: una prima parte che illustra brevemente le caratteristiche dell'oggetto, diciamo dal punto di vista del gameplay, e un'altra che invece è di solito più criptica e affascinante, nonché a volte illuminante sul mondo o su qualche personaggio.
Probabilmente questo è un concetto difficile da capire, quindi riporto qualche esempio nella speranza di rendere la cosa più chiara. Questa per esempio è la descrizione dell'oggetto che ci permette di acquisire 1 umanità (i.e. ci permette di tornare "vivi") in DS1:

Rare tiny black sprite found on corpses.
Use to gain 1 humanity and restore a
large amount of HP.

This black sprite is called humanity, but
little is known about its true nature.
If the soul is the source of all life,
then what distinguishes the humanity
we hold within ourselves?

Un altro esempio (this is one of my personal favourites), questo da DS2:

"Stone made up of crystallized souls.
Gradually restores a large amount of HP.

A rare stone with so brilliant a shine would fetch a handsome price. 
But what value could it really have, without knowing who died to leave it behind?"

Ultimo esempio, questo per capire come le descrizioni ci possano aiutare a saperne di più sul mondo o sui personaggi. Questa è di un anello di DS2:

"A ring bearing a soldier's seal.
Increases the load that can be carried.

These rings were granted to warriors who
distinguished themselves in the service of
King Vendrick. The king favored simple
warriors who staked their every battle on
strength alone."

Potrei continuare con veramente qualunque oggetto, ma mi fermo qua.
Capito perché sopra dicevo che la trama "c'è e non c'è"? Dark Souls offre la possibilità di interessarsi o meno alla cosa: possiamo parlare con tutti i PnG e stare attenti a questi piccoli particolari, o possiamo tranquillamente ignorarli e procedere per la nostra strada falciando tutto.

Ok, quindi abbiamo un'atmosfera e una trama misteriose che si legano fra di loro in maniera eccellente. Già questa è una cosa più unica che rara, e personalmente sarebbe già abbastanza per farmi comprare qualunque capitolo della saga, ma che ne è del gameplay in sé?
Beh qua in realtà non perdo tempo, dato che mi sono dilungato già parecchio e anche perché probabilmente ne avrete già sentito parlare. Mi limito giusto a un paio di commenti veloci:

1. La saga non è così difficile come si dice, soprattutto questo secondo capitolo l'ho trovato abbastanza facile - ad esclusione di pochi boss che sono stati però nerfati con l'ultima patch.
2. La cosa bella di Dark Souls è che se si muore, al 95% la colpa è solo nostra. Nel restante 5% si muore perché la telecamera gioca brutti scherzi, e quelle sono le uniche volte veramente frustranti.

 Insomma, spero perlomeno di aver dato un'idea di ciò che rende questa saga così bella e particolare. Quanto al secondo capitolo, che è quello di cui volevo parlare quando ho iniziato questo post, posso solo dire che è migliore del predecessore sotto praticamente tutti i punti di vista. Davvero, non riesco a pensare ad un aspetto che fosse migliore in DS1.


tl;dr version: Dark Souls è una saga intrigante, epica e affascinante, che ha gettato le basi per un nuovo genere videoludico. Se vi piacciono il fantasy e le sfide difficili, non potete chiamarvi videogiocatori se quantomeno non lo provate. Period.

Mirai Nikki

(i.e. come un finale può salvare una serie)

In questo momento sto ascoltando:
Dark Souls 2 OST - Majula
(E successive)


Mirai Nikki è stato tricky è un altro anime che è riuscito a fregarmi.
Again.
Sì, perché è stato l'esempio da manuale del solito "Pensi sia bello (e simile ad Higurashi), eh? Mi spiace, in realtà non è vero, ed ormai è troppo tardi perché tu lo possa apprezzare mai appieno". Come se non fosse abbastanza, c'è stata anche un'altra fregatura, che (purtroppo) potrebbe risultare familiare a molti; io la chiamo "Premessa-fighissima-ma-che-poi-viene-sviluppata-malissimo". Come "In Time", per capirci.

La riassumo per chi non dovesse essere familiare con l'anime: Mirai Nikki tratta della battaglia fra diversi individui, sconosciuti fra di loro, che combattono per determinerare chi sarà il nuovo dio dello spazio-tempo. Ognuno dei partecipanti possiede uno speciale strumento, ossia un diario del futuro (Mirai Nikki, per l'appunto), capace di prevedere parzialmente gli eventi futuri. Sì, ho scritto parzialmente, perché l'abilità specifica di ogni diario, e gli eventi del futuro che riporta, dipende dalla personalità del possessore.

Questo è in soldoni l'incipit della storia. "Beh dai, sembra figo!"pensai alla fine del primo episodio. Peccato che bastarono i due episodi successivi a farmi capire che qualcosa non andava per il verso giusto.
Il ritmo dello show infatti è alquanto particolare, almeno rispetto a quello che mi aspettavo. Sono 26 puntate e 1 OAV, per cui pensavo che le cose sarebbero andate nice and slow: il protagonista che indaga su chi poteva essere un avversario e chi no, lo studio di una tattica per sconfiggerlo, vari giochi di alleanze per sconfiggere i favoriti... Insomma, i classici.
Peccato però che le parti interessanti sembrano come minimo rushate, e nel giro di poche puntate sappiamo praticamente tutto sulla maggior parte dei partecipanti, e anzi molti di essi sono già sconfitti. Il tutto per lasciare spazio ad episodi filler o quasi.

Lo show si riprende verso la fine, quando il protagonista decide di tirare fuori i cohones subendo un'improvvisa trasformazione da eterno indeciso / sfigato cronico a badass stratosferico. Perlomeno in quella parte si assiste effettivamente a qualche colpo di scena, e per tutto questo c'è da ringranziare uno dei personaggi (e il suo The Watcher, soprattutto).

Sul protagonista e il suo rapporto con la sua stalker/fidanzata/guardiana potrei scrivere più di quanto ho voglia, quindi mi limito a commentare, per chi è familiare con lo show, che personalmente capisco (e in molti casi appoggio) le decisioni del protagonista, che la maggior parte delle volte non è che avesse molta scelta, eh.

Ok, questo è quanto per Mirai Nikki.
Potendo tornare indietro non penso lo vedrei, ma almeno mi ha insegnato un paio di cose:
1) Il giudizio degli appassionati non è perfetto, dato che Mirai Nikki, apparentemente, per moltissimi è un ottimo anime.
2) Tutti gli anime che qualcuno paragona ad Higurashi sono discreti at the very best, e in nessunissimo caso gli si avvicinano nemmeno lontanamente (cfr. Shiki).

Dexter

In questo momento sto ascoltando:
The Hobbit II OST

Inizio il post con quella che può sembrare una sciocchezza, ma che in realtà può trarre in inganno: no, quando parlo di Dexter non mi riferisco al (mitico) cartone "Il Laboratorio di Dexter", ma ad una serie TV dai connotati decisamente più macabri.

Riassumere quello che sta alla base di Dexter è molto facile: si assiste alla storia di Dexter Morgan, forensic analyst ("the blood guy") della polizia di Miami di giorno, assassino di notte. Un assassino molto particolare però, in quanto prende di mira solo criminali che sono sfuggiti al sistema.
Premessa semplice, no? Eppure - o forse, proprio per questo - Dexter riesce ad essere qualcosa che ormai posso dire di pochi show: sa essere accattivante. Sì, perché parliamo di 8 stagioni, ognuna composta da 12-13 episodi da quasi 50 minuti l'uno, guardate nel giro di 2 o 3 settimane. If you want to do the math, knock yourself out, ma si nota subito che parliamo di veramente tante ore.
C'è da dire che non tutte si mantengono sullo stesso livello: ogni stagione è a se stante e presenta una trama auto-conclusiva (per altro è degno di menzione il fatto che non ci siano filler, ma con ogni puntata si vada avanti sotto sostanzialmente tutti i punti di vista). Peccato che arrivati alla 4° stagione si siano viste un po' tutte le situazioni più interessanti, e dalla 5° in poi gli autori tendano a riciclare un po' troppo - nonostante alcune sfumature, ovviamente, siano diverse. Però ehi, riciclare buone idee non è detto che produca risultati negativi.

L'unica cosa che Dexter ha di veramente negativo è stato il finale. E non intendo le ultime due puntate, ma proprio gli ultimi 20 secondi. Una roba che già lascia perplessi di per sé, all the more so se si pensa che la series finale è andata in onda quasi in contemporanea con quella (perfetta) di Breaking Bad.

Nonostante ciò, mi sento di consigliare Dexter a tutti quelli a cui aggradano i thriller, a patto che non siate impressionabili, perché di morti cruente - seppur inquadrate da un punto di vista prettamente scientifico e razionale - se ne vedono non poche.

Hal

In questo momento sto ascoltando...
Beethoven, Piano Concerto #5 - Bernstein, Serkin 

Dopo qualche tempo di (apparente) inattività ecco che torno a postare da queste parti, raccontandovi di un titolo probabilmente sconosciuto alla maggior parte. Mi sento quindi moralmente obbligato a qualche (breve) spiegazione.

Hal è un anime-movie, della durata di poco meno di 1 ora, che ci fa assistere alla storia di una ragazza che perde il proprio fidanzato in un incidente aereo, salvo poi ritrovarselo dopo poco tempo di nuovo a casa sua. Non temete, non si tratta affatto di zombie o simili: il ragazzo in questione non è il suo vero fidanzato, ma un robot con le sue identiche sembianze, mandato dalla ragazza da qualche istituzione per cercare di farle ritrovare il piacere di vivere.

Insomma, non si tratta propriamente di temi allegri, semmai più sullo strappa-lacrime. Difficile però riuscire bene nell'impresa in un lungometraggio di nemmeno un'ora, e infatti Hal è riuscito a toccarmi poco più che superficialmente giusto in qualche momento.
Ciò non toglie che sia una visione che non mi è dispiaciuta, almeno finché non si è arrivati ai 3/4 del film, dove - per usare un eufemismo - c'è un plot-twist che mi ha spedito la mandibola al piano di sotto.
Ma allora perché la visione è diventata più faticosa a partire da quel momento? Beh, semplicemente perché gli sceneggiatori hanno voluto strafare. Se Hal fosse stato un giallo, il plot-twist sarebbe stato l'equivalente di scoprire che l'assassino è il gemello cinese del protagonista, che è anche il narratore, che non è mai stato introdotto ufficialmente se non alla fine del racconto, e che per l'omicidio ha invocato l'aiuto di alieni che hanno usato una tecnologia avanzatissima. (Sì, quello che ho appena scritto è molto strano, ma ha un suo senso, che probabilmente coglieranno in pochi, ma va beh).

Ciò detto, riconosco che la mia reazione è stata per l'appunto mia, e che Hal rimane una buona visione in un pomeriggio tranquillo, specie se non si hanno grosse pretese e si è in cerca di un tocco di melodrama.

Ora scusatemi, ma torno a premere a manetta F5 sulla pagina del tracking della mia copia di Dark Souls 2 (anche se so che di notte i corrieri non lavorano).

Dragon Age: Origins (& Awakening expansion)

In questo momento sto ascoltando...
Kamelot - The Human Stain
Akiko Shikata - Siren -Heroes of Argonauts-
Sonata Arctica - Broken
Enya - May it Be

Da quando ho aperto questo blog, ho parlato pressocché solamente di "roba jappa", apparentemente contraddicendomi da solo viste le premesse. A parte la parentesi di Dragon's Dogma, magari, che però non è stata proprio entusiasmante.
Da una parte, sicuramente, questo è un periodo in cui sto più che altro sfamando la mia fame di roba orientale. Un periodo "JRPG & Anime" più che "Action & serie TV", diciamo. Quest'ultima parte però non è stata totalmente assente, ma è stata portata avanti da un unico, immenso titolo. Esatto, quello riportato nel titolo di questo post. Ed è giunto (finalmente) il momento di parlarne.

Non ho definito Dragon Age: Origins un titolo immenso per nulla: lo sviluppo è durato diversi anni (e si capisce perché!), e per portarlo a termine ci sono volute ben 85 ore. Tante in senso assoluto, praticamente un'infinità se si considera la longevità media dei titoli odierni.
La domanda che può riassumere il post è: n'è valsa la pena?
Ora, credetemi, vorrei dare una risposta secca e chiudere qua il discorso, ma non sarebbe molto professionale da parte mia, non credete? Quindi, come ormai mio solito, parlerò dei vari aspetti separatamente (inizialmente). Here we go.

• Trama: Beh, parliamo di un RPG, e di un RPG bello grosso per altro, quindi quale poteva essere il primo punto in esame se non questo? La trama di DA:O non è molto complicata, e di fatto si capisce come si svolgerà praticamente tutto sin dalla fase iniziale del gioco, senza particolari plot-twists (o almeno, io non ne ricordo di particolari). Bocciata quindi? Ma giammai. Si potrà anche prevedere senza troppa fatica, ma ciò non toglie che sia raccontata bene, che noi abbiamo il potere (limitato, ovviamente, ma tant'é) di cambiarla, e che sia epica quanto basta. Devo dire però che la parte iniziale e finale si lasciano giocare che è un piacere, mentre quella da metà a tre-quarti è un po' più sottotono. Ma quello più che per la storia probabilmente è per il...
• Gameplay: Ah, questo forse è l'aspetto migliore. Era dai tempi di Baldur's Gate che non giocavo un RPG degno di questo nome, e DA:O è riuscito nel difficilissimo compito di farsi apprezzare anche in un confronto diretto con il vecchio titolo Black Isle / Bioware. Il gameplay è pressoché quello che mi aspetto quando sento il termine "RPG", una via di mezzo perfetta fra action e strategia, il tutto condito da un'ottima personalizzazione e gestione del party e un'ottima gestione dei soldi e degli oggetti acquistabili. Insomma, fossero tutti così.
• Gameplay (2): Ho appena menzionato la gestione del party. Questo punto va meglio approfondito. In DA:O non solo possiamo gestire il nostro gruppo durante l'esplorazione e le battaglie, ma possiamo anche interagire con ognuno dei personaggi, per conoscerli meglio e approfondire il nostro rapporto con loro (con tanto, ovviamente, di possibilità di romance-are chi più ci aggrada). Peccato che la cosa all'atto pratico sia implementata in maniera... ambigua. Da una parte, infatti, i nostri compagni (non) saranno d'accordo con noi in base alle scelte che effettueremo, cosa molto apprezzata. Peccato che dall'altra basta dargli qualche oggetto/regalo (che è possibile trovare giro o comprare per pochi soldi) per farli tornare più bendisposti di prima nei nostri confronti. Ho trovato gestita in maniera non proprio esaltante anche l'unica romance che ho intrapreso (indovinate con chi? Esatto, con Morrigan. Era una domanda facile, dai). Insomma, non mancano cose buone ma nemmeno quelle migliorabili.
• Lato tecnico: Qua non c'è molto da dire; grafica che si lascia apprezzare (e infatti il gioco non è esattamente leggero) nonostante l'età, e colonna sonora carina ma non spettacolare; diciamo dalla qualità media buona ma con pochi picchi d'eccellenza.

Ho scordato qualcosa? Probabile, ma quello che ci tenevo a specificare l'ho detto.
Ora posso rispondere alla domanda all'inizio di questo post. Valeva la pena spendere 85 ore di gioco su Dragon Age? Ebbene sì. Badate, non è perfetto, ma non mi pento di averci giocato per così tanto tempo. È ai livelli di Baldur's Gate? Secondo me no. Non so se è l'effetto nostalgia, ma ho la sensazione che Baldur's Gate non si poteva proprio spingere oltre considerando quando è uscito. Dragon Age invece "si applica ma può fare meglio".

Insomma, il senso del post è che se vi è piaciuto Dragon Age vi conviene correre su Steam e comprare l'Enhanced Edition dei due capitoli.

Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo

In questo momento sto ascoltando:
Enya - May It Be
Enya - Only Time

Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo (The Pet Girl of Sakurasou) tratta delle vicende di un gruppo di studenti, che non vivono nel dormitorio comune della scuola, ma in una particolare residenza, destinata a ragazzi particolari. Volendo essere più chiari, parliamo di: una ragazza piuttosto infantile che però è un genio nella produzione degli anime; il suo collega sceneggiatore, donnaiolo ma tutto sommato abbastanza normale; un programmatore/hikikomori che non esce mai da camera sua, e che per comunicare con gli altri residenti si affida alle mail e alla sua I.A. personalmente programmata; infine, la direttrice della residenza, un'insegnante che pensa più che altro ad andare a caccia di uomini.
Il nostro protagonista si trova in mezzo a questo branco di psicopatici semplicemente perché nel dormitorio "normale" non gli permettono di tenere i gatti che ha trovato per strada e che non ha il cuore di abbandonare.

Questo è giusto l'incipit, che ho voluto fare perché altrimenti il post sarebbe stato troppo breve l'anime è relativamente di nicchia - o comunque, non ne ho sentito parlare / letto molto poco in giro. Passando alle mie impressioni, non posso che dire che questo è uno dei migliori anime che abbia visto recentemente, da qualunque punto di vista:

• Scene comiche e personaggi in generale veramente esilaranti;
• Scene più serie che non pesano mai, e intervallano col giusto ritmo quelle sopra;
• Ritmo abbastanza sostenuto, soprattutto nei primi episodi;
• Parte sentimentale che forse è un po' scontata ma non dispiace affatto;
• Lato tecnico e artistico eccellenti, visto in HD poi è una vera goduria per gli occhi;
• Doppiatori veramente azzeccati, in abbinamento perfetto con i personaggi;
• La colonna sonora forse è l'unica cosa leggermente sottotono (rispetto al resto), con brani che si adattano abbastanza bene alle scene ma dalla qualità "solamente" buona se ascoltati da sé.

Insomma, non riesco a trovare alcun motivo e/o target per cui non consigliarlo, per cui fatevi un favore e correte a rimediarlo. E assicuratevi di guardarlo nella stessa maniera in cui ho scritto questo post - con una tazza di té accanto; vedrete che l'esperienza globale non farà altro che migliorare. Se ci mettete pure dei biscotti, poi, vedrete che non ci sarà più motivo di odiare l'inverno.

Time and Eternity

Premise: the following post is a peculiar one, so it's been written in English. The Italian version is kind of a rough translation, since I didn't want to waste too much time writing the same thing again. If you can read speak both the languages, I suggest you read the English version.

Premessa: il seguente post è particolare, in quanto è stato scritto in inglese. La traduzione italiana può sembrare approssimativa, dato che non ho voluto perdere molto tempo a scrivere di nuovo la stessa cosa. Se capite entrambe le lingue, suggerisco di leggere la versione inglese.



Right now, I'm listening to... / In questo momento sto ascoltando...
Time and Eternity OST - Love Song
Time and Eternity OST - Island Ruins
Time and Eternity OST - Town Song
Time and Eternity OST - Toki's Song 

After almost 25 hours of gameplay - even though I started this back a few months ago - I can finally write about this.
Not that there's much to say (or so I thought while I was writing this), but let's get down to business right away.

Time and Eternity received A LOT of bad reviews. Or rather, a lot of horrible reviews. It's not difficult to understand the reason, as it is clearly visible right from the start of the game. Yes, I'm talking about graphics. Don't get me wrong, you won't mind the 3D game's cell-shading, used for the background, nor the beautiful 2D character sprites. What will make you get goose bumps is the combination of the two, as well as the animations. If you take a look at a still frame you could think it's not that bad, and you're probably right. But when you look at an actual sequence, you'll probably just think of why you decided to spend money on this.
If you resist the urge to shut down the PS3 and continue to play, you will eventually not only become used to the graphics, but start to appreciate what the developers tried to achieve. IIRC, during an interview they said something like "We want the players to feel like they're playing an anime", and - budget problems aside - they kinda managed to do that.

 Oh, and talking about budget, after a bit you'll understand that it's not like the developers had little money to make the game - it's that they probably spent a fortune for the voice actors. I played the game with the Japanese dub, not because the English one is not well-done, but simply because I could not resist the voices of:

• Toki, voiced by Kana Hanazawa (heck, it's Mayushii's voice!!)
• Towa, voiced by Eri Kitamura (yes, Madoka Magica's Sayaka)
• Enda, voiced by Aoi Yuuka (yup, it's her, Madoka)
• Ricardo, voiced by Sugita Tomokazu (heck-two, it's Kyon!!)
• Moebius, voiced by Norio Wakamoto (the epic Hayate no Gotoku narrator)

And those are not even all the characters. So yeah, the graphics may be terrible but they chose one hell of a cast, and frankly, that's fine by me.

The soundtrack is enjoyable, though there are just a few tracks which are played while you explore the "dungeons" (I put that on " " because they're not actual dungeons, but rather forests or meadows), so after a while they get a little repetitive. Even so, some other tracks really hit the spot, especially during some scenes near the end of the game.

The plot is not unpredictable, but it has some nice twists, and while overall I'd say it's light and funny, some moments are kinda touching, while some others do give you something to think about, so it's pretty good for me.

Hmm, I sort of wrote too much. I'll end this post by quickly talking about a couple of things worth of mentioning:

1. During all of the boss fights there's always a dialogue between the main characters and the boss; from what I managed to read they're quite funny, too bad most of the times I was too focused on the actual battle to read the subtitles.
   Speaking of which, I found (one of) the dialogue with the last boss, right before the battle, to be as funny as it is short. And it's just 7 or 8 lines.
2. During the game, you alternatively command both Toki and Towa, and you're never forced to use one rather the other. This means that all of the dialogues could happen between Toki or Towa and the NPCs, so I take my hat off to the director who pretty much did 50% more the effort to write all the dialogues. Sure, the things Toki or Towa say are similar, but still, I think it's a nice finesse.

And that's it.
Tl;dr: To complete the game and see the true ending, I should play NG+, and I ain't gonna do that, mainly because I really have too many games to start. But, for a moment, when I finished the game, I was tempted to do it. And that's not something easy to achieve these times, so I guess Time and Eternity really was worth the time spent on it.


P.S.: I also read a lot of complains about the main character. I honestly didn't understand the reason for that. He's a bit perverted - and come on, which man is not? - but overall he's definitely a good guy, so I don't really get it.
P.S. 2: I didn't write about the gameplay mechanics because I think it's quite averange; and yes, I know this is a game, but I really think that in this case other things are more important.

Claymore

In questo momento sto ascoltando:
Ys Origin OST - Genesis Beyond The Beginning
Ys Origin OST - Music: Scars of the Divine Wing
Ys Origin OST: Silent Sands

È da un po' che non posto qualcosa (causa periodo esami), ma non per questo ho smesso di giocare o guardare diversi show. D'altronde mi servirà pur qualche valvola di sfogo, qualcosa con cui chiudere le giornate che ormai passo più che altro in università a studiare, ma such is the life of an engineer-in-training.
Ok, pseudo-lamentele a parte, passiamo all'argomento di questo post, che come avrete già letto verterà su...

Claymore
Eh già; dopo averne letto un grandissimo bene su AniDB - che, se non lo sapete, è in pratica il mio sito di riferimento per gli anime - ho finalmente deciso di vederlo.
Come fatto altre volte, lascerò i commenti principalmente alle date di inizio e fine di visione, e tenete a mente che sono 26 puntate:

Start Date: Jan 18, 2014
End Date: Jan 22, 2014

(Da notare che proprio il 22 avessi un esame, eh).
Un ottimo risultato quindi, soprattutto perché di fantasy ad ambientazione dark (specie di buona qualità) non mi pare ce ne siano tanti in giro. Anzi, se avete qualche titolo di questo tipo da proporre, sarei ben lieto di accogliere il suggerimento. Sicuramente da guardare se siete interessati al genere, ma tenete a mente qualche (relativamente) piccolo difetto:

• Il character design. Non so se è una cosa prettamente personale, o una cosa più oggettiva dovuta a mancanza di budget, o altro ancora, fatto sta che mi ha lasciato parecchio a desiderare. Dopo un po' ci si abitua, eh, però bisogna prima guardare qualche puntata.
• Il finale. Claymore purtroppo appartiene a quella categoria - alas, sempre più ampia - di anime adattati fino ad un certo punto, col risultato di terminare quando la storia è tutt'altro che finita. Again, lo ribadisco, non è un difetto che rovina tutto, però sicuramente farebbe piacere vedere come finisce la guerra, e non solo la battaglia.

Metterei nel (mini)elenco qui sopra anche alcune forzature della trama, soprattutto verso la fine, ma non lo faccio perché tutto sommato non si lasciano odiare più di tanto.
Promossa anche la colonna sonora, con brani che vanno dal molto buono al discreto, ma dalla qualità media elevata.
Insomma, se il genere fa per voi, gli darei sicuramente una chance. Se poi vi piace vedere arti tagliati che volan via come gadget ad una fiera (seguiti da litri di sangue viola), correte a recuperarlo immediatamente.

...e ovviamente il meglio.

In questo momento sto ascoltando:
Queen - Breakthru 
Queen - Headlong
Queen - Radio Ga Ga

Premessa giusto per riempire un po' di spazio ed evitare di partire a razzo con la top 3 dato che l'introduzione l'ho già fatta nel post precedente.

• Medaglia di bronzo per: Shakugan no Shana 3

Di questo ho già parlato abbondantemente nel relativo post, quindi mi limito a giustificare la posizione semplicemente dicendo che, al solito, è tutta questione del rapporto aspettative/qualità.

• Medaglia d'argento per:  NHK ni Youkoso

Penso che Welcome to the NHK (titolo inglese) sia l'unico anime che non solo sfrutta molto bene gli stereotipi giapponesi (almeno, per quanto mi ricordi), ma ne tira fuori qualcosa di molto più che bello: un'opera che diverte parecchio, tiene costantemente incollati allo schermo, e fa il tutto invitando lo spettatore a riflettere su argomenti difficili da trattare senza sembrare "retorici". Unica pecca dal lato "tecnico", dato che non si trova in HD (ma si trovano i DVD in Italia!) e in alcuni momenti i disegni dei personaggi risentono un po' della mancanza di budget, ma sono cose su cui si passa sopra senza troppa difficoltà vista la qualità del resto.


Aaaaah, è arrivato il momento della medaglia d'oro. Se vi aspettate il plot-twist (cit.) vi dico subito che rimarrete delusi. Infatti il primo posto, a costo di sembrare (o forse proprio essere) mainstream, va a...

• Medaglia d'oro per: Sword Art Online

Esatto, primo posto sul podio a SAO. Che poi, ripensandoci meglio, ho letto / sentito più pareri negativi che positivi, che spesso criticavano non solo il secondo arco ma tutta la serie, quindi per quanto mi riguarda la cosa non è proprio mainstream.
Anyway, passando ai commenti, che si può dire? È eccellente sotto tutti i punti di vista, dal lato tecnico, alla colonna sonora (veramente fantastica, con una qualità media strepitosa;  d'altronde ci ha lavorato una che ne sa), per finire con la trama. E non venitemi a dire che ci sono delle puntate inutili e che è prevedibile, perché le prime sono pochissime e comunque non dispiacciono, mentre per la seconda critica... non so nemmeno come rispondere. Sì, ok, magari se ci si ferma a pensarci un po' si può intuire come si svolgerà la storia, ma è un discorso secondo me valido per quasi tutto. Ciò non toglie che quest'anime sia una grandissima figata, e che il tempo per pensare non lo da proprio - almeno, io ci ho messo 4 giorni a vedere tutt'e 25 le puntate, e mi sono anche frenato un po' per evitare di finirlo nella metà del tempo.
tl;dr IMHO chi lo critica ha qualcosa (o qualcuno) che non va.




Ok, e qua si chiude la classifica. Se mi gira farò anche qualcosa di equivalente per i giochi (che ho giocato) nel 2013, ammesso di ricordare quali siano stati. Cosa di cui dubito fortemente. Per il momento, questo è quanto.
Buon 2014 a tutti :D