I’ve already coplained in a past blog that game after game bangs on my door, begging for me to buy them, but Nintendo probably knocked harder and faster than any developers this year. One reason I say this is because of the way they’ve been pushing a particular franchise of theirs by the name of Fire Emblem, a turn-based strategy game based in a midieval fantasy setting, dungeons and dragons included. Ever since the release of Fire Emblem Awakening for Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo has been working to make this first party franchise another flapship series. This campaign continued with the release of Fire Emblem Fates, and while it wasn’t the most well-received installment, it did succeed in expanding the franchise and enhancing its popularity. Due to these releases, Nintendo has bben giving Fire Emblem more of the respect and attention it deserves, even making a mobile game made in the gatcha game style. Gatcha games are a type of instant battle game where the player occassionally summons fighters that are separated by rarity and elemental affinity. This mobile game, named Fire Emblem Heroes, is made in such as fashion, encouraginf players to either pay for orbs to summon characters from the Fire Emblem franchise or earn them through various levels in which you battle your units against enemy units.

Also on the agenda is the future release of Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, a remake of the second game in the series Fire Emblem Gaiden. The story is set in the continent of Valentia, a battle is raging among two warring gods, and a young man named Alm (on the left) who was trained by his knight grandfather to defend against the coming empire of Rigelia. The story also focuses on his childhood friend Celica (on the right) with a goal of visiting the temple of Mila and end the war before it devolves into further chaos. The game is to be released on the 3DS family of systems. I’m very much looking forward to this one in particular because it’s been about a year since the the release of Fates, which was subpar at best. It aims to blend in the elements of the more classic installments with the modern system of battle that the more recent games have brought to the table, set in a world that westerners can experience for the first time and Japanese fans can experience again but better.

The third announced release came in the form of the third title: Fire Emblem Warriors. This one was special in particular, a collaboration between Intelligent Systems, the primary company behind Fire Emblem, and Koei Tecmo, well known for their Dynasty Warriors series where the player takes control of a historical Chinese general and mows through waves of infantry en masse. This was an installment that was well awaited by fans for years, as the gameplay style of DW and the setting of Fire Emblem go very well together. In fact, though not released by either company, a game was released in 2008 for Lord of the Rings: Return of the King in a very similar vein. Not much informaton has been released yet outside of a teaser trailer and a very short gameplay trailer, but so far only five characters have been confirmed so far, Corrin, the main protagonist of Fates; Xander and Ryoma, pivotal characters also hailing from Fates; Marth, the original Fire Emblem protagonist; and Chrom, the main protagonist of what was meant to be the last Fire Emblem game, Fire Emblem Awakening. The play style will be just the same as a regular Dynasty Warriors game: one man waving away flurries of insignificant foot soldiers with very elaborate combos and map-wiping special attacks. The game is set to release not only on the 3DS family of systems, but Nintendo’s new Switch console.

Out of these three games, the only one that has been released so far is Fire Emblem Heroes, which came out for iOS and Android devices on February 3rd earlier this year. Both Echoes and Warriors I can predict now are going to be pretty expensive thanks to Nintendo’s business practices of not lowering prices. Even Heroes doesn’t show mercy in terms of the players’ income, as it encourages you to buy orbs and summon to your hearts content for a good version of a unit that you so desire. Either way, I plan on getting all three of these games despite the horrible hole it will leave in my bank, Warriors especially with its Switch release. If I do plan on getting a Switch, that’s another approximately three-hundred dollars to spend on this supposedyl revolutionary console. The only thing I could do is hope that the console, the orbs, and the new games will all be the worth the green it’ll cost me.

I will not argue with the idea that America would benefit from a much more peaceful nation, in fact I encourage it. However, some pushes for this goal are complete and utter garbage, turning our “Land of the Free” into the trippy, bubblegum and rainbow world of Teletubbies. Examples of this include removing dodgeball from schools because it hurts the kids and “promotes bullying”, and not allowing teachers to grade papers in red because “it brings out negative emotions”. Now as a young person studying art, I know that color can indeed have a short-term effect on the human mindset and I know how color theory works, but if that’s the true concern of red ink on a test, then I’m calling them out now. If you bombed horrendously on a test, then yes, use red because they now know they need to step up their game and have associated red with a negative grade. All of these were attempts at pacifying the loud, sensitive crybabies that can’t accept the idea that humans need struggles as they grow.

This little rant was a segway into this very peculiar article that centers around a seven-year old child being held by police after a disagreement with school administration over ADHD and other mental deformities. The problem in question is that Christian and Katie Maple lost custody of their son for arguing over his mental state after making a remark that he wanted to “erase himself from the earth” by stabbing himself in the eye. The school system argued that he had a mental problem, while the parents told them that he had never expressed that kind of thinking and that he merely mentioned it to get a reaction out of the counselor. Despite their claims, their son Camden was taken into state custody. The cherry on top is that after he was returned, the parents were ordered to take him for mental testing, and all the results came back clean, to the outrage of the family.

It’s truly a sad time for our school system and our society when our officials are so afraid of offending parents and kids that they take the most extreme borderline irresponsible actions in order to appease the people. It’s especially bad when the people who encourage this childish and immature behaviour are constantly pacified and get barely any reprocussion. I somewhat wish this blog was written a few years back, so I can chew everyone’s ears off about the fake rape case “I Stand With ???” Though I suppose it was better this way.

http://www.offthegridnews.com/current-events/7-year-old-boy-makes-twisted-joke-at-school-so-cps-seizes-him/

The year is 2007. A dedicated video game company gathers in the board room at the rise of HD Era in October. This company by the name of Spike has made a majority of their income through sequels and adaptations of already existing franchises, and they have gathered here to come up with something new they can call their own. A new franchise that can become a flagship of their up and coming company. Over a two year development period, the product was a PlayStation Portable release by the name of DISTRUST, a murder mystery visual novel.

The story focused around a group of sixteen students trapped inside of a school and confronted by a mysterio

us robotic entity known as Monokuma. The character tells them that the only way to escape the school is to get away with killing another student, through a set of discussions and interrogation called a Class Trial. When not investigating murders, the player was granted “Free Time”, a mode where the players browsed the numerous areas and spent time talking with the other students, building trust and even affecting the story in who would live and who would die. The gameplay came in during the aforementioned Class Trials, where the player attempted to gain trust in the other students and convict the true killer. Once the killer is voted upon by majority vote, they are sentenced to death by execution, with each student having a special punishment exclusive to them, example below. The execution will make much more sense later on when I explain.

Despite the unique concept, the BETA wasn’t very well received due to its red blood and gruesome imagery. Not only that but it wasn’t all that marketable, as well as appealed to a niche market leading to indecent sales figures as a general problem for PSP games. Also, the primary reason it was released on PSP was because the development costs were lower so they wouldn’t go bankrupt should the game bomb (which it did). Due to this, DISTRUST was a scrapped project and later evolved into one of the influential and popular visual novel franchises ever. Certain aspects of the original DISTRUST would find its DNA implanted in its spiritual successor released a solid four years later, in October of 2013 under a new name: Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, developed by Spike and published by Spike Chunsoft for the PlayStation Vita, the sequel console to the PSP. This first installment became a huge phenomena among gamers, as you still went about your days as a student trapped in a school solving murders, however the game took a lean far more towards the narrative aspect, the primary cast below. You took up the role of Makoto Naegi, an average boy who has become classmates with Ultimates (other students who have been scouted by the prestigious, elite school of Hope’s Peak Academy, known for educating the most talented of high-schoolers). Soon after he arrives, he must solve mystery after mystery as lines are crossed and secrets are revealed. The game took the world by storm with its incredible twist concerning the outside world that the Ultimates want to return to so much. Not only that, but the reveal of the true antagonist was another war horse that led the charge for Danganronpa becoming a smash hit, amassing a huge fanbase, including an animated series (which most fans dismiss as an abomination) and a few live action play adaptations.

After the initial success of Trigger Happy Havoc, Spike Chunsoft released a sequel on Vita in 2012. Now the reason why the timeline might seem a little iffy is because THH was released as a remaster of the original game, which explains why some bonus features of the first game were actually carried over from the sequel. In America and Europe it was released in 2014, titled Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair. This sequel to Trigger Happy Havoc served as a canonical continuation of Danganronpa’s story, where it was revealed in the first game that the entire world outside the school known as Hope’s Peak Academy has become an apocalyptic, scarcely populated shell of its former self. Goodbye Despair plays just like Trigger Happy Havoc, except here you take up the role of Hajime Hinata, a mysterious boy who is students with his own batch of Ultimates, even though no one recalls his own talent. Just like THH, this game is riddled with logic puzzles, character interaction, and mastefully crafted narrative. Most fans even regard Danganronpa 2 as a better installment of the original Danganronpa in every category. It didn’t receive an anime, though no one complained about that.

At this point, Spike Chunsoft was making so much bank from their new flagship series it was ridiculous. The next main release wouldn’t come out until approximately three years later titled Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony, which releases in America September of this year. Before that release, Spike Chunsoft had heralded and sponsored numerous light novels, stage plays, and manga written as adaptations and new additions meant to add on to the Danganronpa timeline before the apocalyptic catastrophe and even events occuring between the two main games. One of the most influential and biggest budgeted examples of this was the spin-off game Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls. This game, set between Trigger Happy Havoc and Goodbye Despair, focuses on Komaru Naegi, the younger sister of Makoto from the first game. This game differs in that instead of a focus of puzzle solving, it also included an emphasis on point and click third-person shooter mechanics using a special weapon made for taking out robotic Monokumas. The story also focused around her budding friendship with Toko Fukawa, the Ultimate Writer and survivor from Trigger Happy Havoc.

From a dejected BETA to a visual novel conglomerate, Danganronpa’s road is quite the tricky one, though one that has had smooth sailing so far. The primary, flowing theme throughout the series is the prospect of HOPE overcoming the curshing aura of DESPAIR, and Spike Chunsoft’s struggle to create a unique and smash hit intellectual property is a mirror of this vision, though I believe that Danganronpa’s primary theme is inspired from Spike’s attempts in the past with DISTRUST. And this isn’t including the more significant light novels like Danganronpa Zero, Killer Killer, and the other anime series that was made to bring a close to the Hope’s Peak Academy storyline with Danganronpa 3 and its three different yet connected storylines: the Despair Side, focusing on the origin story of Hajime Hinata and the Tragedy that destroyed the world; the Future Side, based on Makoto and his plight through one last killing game set up by Monokuma; and the Hope Side, which brings the series to a final ending. Danganronpa V3 has been revealed to be a story completely separate from the Hope’s Peak timeline, set around a new batch of Ultimates placed in a juvenile prison setting with the theme of “psycho cool”, however Monokum will be involved in whatever chaos will ensue. The game has already been released in Japan, and thus I’m trying my best to avoid spoilers from Japanese players and impatient diehards in America who imported the game, as I will be playing this game myself and/or watching someone else on YouTube play it

It’s not a new discovery or paranormal anomaly that filmmaking and visual entertainment is exclusive to countries like the United States and Great Britain, English-speaking empires and titans of the western world. Film is a worldwide medium that spans the globe, however methods and procedures can and more than likely will differ depending on the home land. America is known, almost infamously for its action and comedy movie classics, China is renown the world over for phenomenal martial arts premieres, there is even an animation studio in Brazil that makes horrendous knock-offs of Disney Pixar masterpieces, a studio that was founded in the US of A. However, one thing that usually, if not always separates the barriers is the resources. Different countries may have different budgets for animated movies, hence why Disney still reigns supreme in the animation industry because they have millions of dollars to shill out and use for big-budgeted films. Then we move over the Land of the Rising Sun: Japan, with its enormous conglomerates of anime television shows, movies, OVAs, etc. Sometimes even good actors are scarce to come by, especially when a director has the desire to create a bridge between mediums and cultures. Sometimes they succeed brilliantly and create expansions of international favorites like this old masterpiece that came out in 2002

Other times when a director tries to tackle a foreign property (or they are totally incompetent), they screw up. No, “screw up” is too nice of a term. I would get a little more brutal in tearing up the flops of some incompetent and outright terrible works in the regard of adaptation, but this is a school blog that is made for college peers, so I’ll leave that to a minimum. I will say that those in that category of awful fall on their face and create atrocities like these two pieces of horrendous cinema roadkill from 2010 and 2009 respectively.

As much as I like to rend this movie asunder, I’m here to talk about the “problem” in the filmmaking industry that has arisen as of late. In fact, the latter movie above is a perfect segway because that movie is a live-action adaptation of the 1984 Japanese manga series by Akira Toriyama titled Dragon Ball, which was later continued to become one of the most, if not the most influential and legendary manga of all time Dragon Ball Z. This movie did everything wrong from storytelling to fight choreography (a huge slap in the face to martial arts manga) and especially to casting. Most people will argue that one of the biggest problems with the movie is with the characters, especially the main character who portrays Dragon Ball’s protagonist Son Goku. Granted it is revealed in DBZ that Goku is an extraterrestrial, but it was still not an excuse to cast the sole protagonist and only the protagonist as the most basic, edgiest, teenage white boy when the majority of the cast beyond him are clearly of Asian descent, excluding the poor excuse of a Bulma impression (to the left of “Goku”). The former movie, The Last Airbender – a live action adaptation of the American written, Korean animated television show Avatar: The Last Airbender – had just as many problem as DBE, if not the same problems, and it was bashed even worse than Dragon Ball Evolution did. It had another issue in its casting involving the two characters of Katara and Sokka who are clearly portrayed as Inuit or Eskimo people in the television show, but played again by the most bland, basic white child actors that side of most Disney Channel sitcoms at the time. Eventually a name was coined for the act of taking characters of foreign origins and casting them with white actors: Whitewashing. Personally, I couldn’t less about whitewashing, except in TLA which put the director M. Night Shyamalan on my Hit List. However this is still something that people like to call on the Internet when foreign properties receive live-action adaptations, none more famously than the live action adaptation of the classic anime/manga franchise Ghost in the Shell, set in a steampunk futuristic universe focusing around the Japanese cyborg Public Security Agent, Motoko Kusanagi (who will be played by Scarlet Johansson in the movie coming March 31). Upon the initial reveal of this movie, people were quick to kick and scream that the producers and directors at DreamWorks Pictures were once again whitewashing one of their beloved characters. Personally I don’t mind as much because Johansson has proved time and again of how good of actor she is, not to mention she remotely looks the part, as shown in this picture here comparing Jo’s design to Matoko’s casual design.

Recently, Scarlet Johansson had defended herself on Good Morning America from the mounting criticism in that Motoko Kusanagi is merely a “human brain in a robotic body”, which is where the title of the franchise comes from, basically translating to “a human soul trapped within a inanimate physical figure”. She states that due to this fact, she would have no true ethnicity and race, therefore it shouldn’t bring so much tension that a white woman portrays the visage of a narratively Japanese woman. I personally haven’t seen the original animated movies, though I plan to before I lay eyes on this adaptation. However, knowledge hunting on the web has revealed that this is implied somewhat in the original manga, where a key character mentions of the existence of “Makotos”, inferring her that there are numerous versions/clones of Kusanagi. Coming from someone who hasn’t seen the original Ghost in the Shell, I don’t have a dog in the fight in this matter exactly. However, once I do see the original films and/or read the original manga (which may be more convenient for me) I will have a much firmer grasp on this situation.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/news/scarlett-johansson-defends-her-%e2%80%98ghost-in-the-shell%e2%80%99-role-says-it-isn%e2%80%99t-whitewashing/ar-BByYdKb?ocid=spartanntp

To us fans of the video game medium, 2017 is beating down our doors with release after release. One of these highly anticipated games is known as Four Goddesses Online: Cyberdimension Neptunia. I’ve already covered this one in a past blog, when I went over my personal spotlights for 2017. Thinking about this future release in particular, I thought about giving my personal thoughts on a game designed and developed in a similar vein. The title I am referring to is Megadimension Neptunia VII developed for the PlayStation 4 as a continuation of the collaboration between Idea Factory and Compile Heart.

MegaNep is the fourth installment in the Hyperdimension Neptunia main storyline, following the events of Hyperdimension Neptunia V (or its PSVita remake Hyperdimension Neptunia ReBirth 3). You play primarily as the CPUs of Gamindustri, personifications of famous video game consoles popular at the time of the first game ruling over their respective countries: Neptune, the primary protagonist based off of the SEGA Neptune; Noire, the bittersweet lonely princess based on the PlayStation 3; Vert, the voluptuous and flirtatious yet nerdy ruler designed after the Xbox 360; and Blanc, the studious but short-tempered short-stack representing the Nintendo Wii. Neptunia is a game series that relies heavily on the character dynamics and interactions, as well as the humor it brings. One of the franchises signature brands of humor is the characters’ ability to break the fourth wall, in fact, I don’t believe a fourth wall even exists for this one in particular. (I had a visual for this but this blog system sucks. Amino never gave me this kind of hassle).

The gameplay revolves around four-man turn-based battles in a typical RPG fashion. Each character has a selective moveset and combo customization, with stats varying between each character, as well as weapons. These differences range from the slow but heavy-hitting Blanc to the flashy quick-draw Uni. Every girl the player controls also has a special arsenal of special attacks they can use to either make allies stronger, make enemies weaker, do a massive amount damage, or even heal. Certain characters with a close alliance can utilize their teamwork to use Couplink Skills and Formation Skills, which use up a gauge called the EXE Gauge. The EXE Gauge is filled through specific types of combos, which can then be used to perform an EXE Drive, to deal a mammoth sized amount of damage against strong foes (Ex. Icecalibur, Apocalypse Nova, and Bread Crumbs). A select few characters can access an ability called Hyper Drive Divinity (HDD) which strengthens them massively, changing their appearance drastically and sometimes even their personality. However, the gameplay can get repetitive at some points, especially for long, drawn out battles or enemies that are leagues weaker than you. Also, Formation Skills can be totally annoying considering how the characters have such a lower diameter in where they can move, you think they do no cardio at all.

The game’s story is split into three separate games, Uzume’s presence dominating the first and third game. In Part 1 [Zerodimension Neptunia Z: Twilight of the Desperate CPU], you are introduced to a new CPU who joins the already enormous cast of cute and charming characters by the name of Uzume Tennouboushi, a self-proclaimed ruler of an apocalyptic landscape known as Zero Dimension with a design based on the SEGA Dreamcast. Normally she’s portrayed as a red-headed tomboy, but upon transformation becomes a bubbly citrus-flavored girly girl named Orange Heart. Because of this, she has earned the pet name of “Uzumoe”. The first story revolves around her and the world she must live in and protect, as well as the battle she must suffer through to the end after Neptune and her younger sister Nepgear are inadvertently warped to Zero Dimension. The three girls eventually then come across and older version of Neptune from a parallel version of the Nep Sisters’ home of Hyperdimension. Together the girls face off against an old enemy by the name of Arfoire, a purple hag who has been the bane of Gamindustri’s existence since the first game.

After that story arc, the player is then dunked into the second story arc: Hyperdimension Neptunia G: The Golden Leaders, Reconstruction of Gaminsutri. This story arc is focused around the four main CPUs trying to regain their political stance in their respective lands, while at the time trying to overtake the four girls who’ve replaced them by the name of Gold Third. Each member of Gold Third acts as a representation of four well known gaming companies: C-Sha representing Capcom (known for their Street Fighter and Megaman franchises), S-Sha as Square Enix (developer of the Final Fantasy series), B-Sha as Bandai Namco (famous for Pac-Man and games based on the Mobile Suit Gundam games), and K-Sha the personification of Konami (known for Dance Dance Revolution and Metal Gear Solid).

This storyline’s main villain is a power (and money) hungry armored general by the name of Affimojas, planning to exploit Gamindustri’s struggles to make profit. It’s also at this point of the game where the characters are introduced to a new way to power up mid-battle. This was also the main selling point of the game itself, powering up the CPUs into a form called NEXT Form, which harnesses both the prayers of their followers and the power of the Gold Third’s power sources, the Golden Summits.

Finally comes the third story arc, and the climax of the MegaNep trilogy: HeartDimension Neptunia H: Trilogy Finale: Into Legend. This story arc brings the game’s attention back to Uzume and Zero Dimension, and it’s at this point you are introduced to the ultimate villain of the game, an alternate version of Uzume, renamed Kurome Ankokuboshi, scorning the existence of the world due to its haste at forgetting and not forgiving her.  The focus of the third arc is centered around Uzume and Kurome’s struggle for dominance, as Kurome tries to fuse the worlds of Zero Dimension and Hyperdimension, subsequently ruining them both.

Megadimension, like all of the Neptunia main games, has multiple endings that the player can achieve. In the normal ending, Uzume chooses to destroy the core at the center of Heart Dimension, which is tied to her very soul, which in turn will destroy both Heart Dimension and Zero Dimension. The game ends with Neptune and Nepgear looking out over their country of Planeptune thinking if Uzume had the same beautiful view. The story is incredibly complicated, but at least it doesn’t waste your time. And if you want to the relive the story again or just breeze by to get items you missed or anything, then you can achieve the true end to explore the world at your own discretion or start a New Game Plus, and do it all again, but with the items you’ve received, the characters you’ve unlocked, and the levels you’ve gained 

Overall, this is a good game, though it does make plenty of references back to past games, mostly the previous installment Victory, thus making the story somewhat complicated. Unfortunately, I’ve only played through Re;Birth 1 (the first game) prior to this, but I was able to piece them together smoothly enough with the context clues they gave me. The characters are quirky yet charming, bouncing off of each others’ flaws and strengths. The artwork displayed as game CGs is very well detailed and each characters portrayed in these CGs have an emotion or context that can be taken from them. The battle system (as tedious as it can be sometimes, thankfully you can skip animations) is smooth and well crafted over four games. I recommend this game strongly to those who are fans of anime-stylized JRPGS and cute yet dimensional characters to go along with it. I mean come on, if it weren’t they wouldn’t be fourteen games in (with number fifteen on the way later this year, which I most definitely will be buying)

Recently now I’ve had to indulge quite a bit in schoolwork, and when I’m doing that I’m in the car being towed along for errands or something of the sort. When I’m not doing either, the sun has more or less already gone down and to ease my boredom and pace around my house. All of these I usually do with headphones placed around my ears, and (most of the time) I like to listen to quality soundtracks that can get the creative gears in my head turning. In all seventeen of my years I don’t think anyone has been able to do this better than Antti Martikainen, a music composer and prodcuer from Finland. He has made a plethora of instrumental works with cultural roots from the Celtic highlands to the Land of the Rising Sun, each of which with their own flavor that leaves a lasting impression even when the track has ended. Such great songs he has made are A Warrior’s Fate, Xian, and The Forbidden City, each of which have their own ability to spin yarns inside your mind as a food for thought, in fact I’m listening to one right now known as Snow Dancer, listen for yourself.

In the past I wasn’t all gung ho about listening to songs with no lyrics, but now because of people like Antti, I’m reminded that this is the thing that sets us apart from the beasts of the wild. Although some animals have songs of their own to display, our ability to create harmonies like this is an evolutionary talent that should be recorded and immortilized like this into digital media for the world to experience as well. To get a better grasp of what I’m trying to say, listen to a few more of some works from him that I greatly recommend from his many albums.

Many popular sayings have been peppered into our society, giving us insight on the way we see the world and how it works. One such popular phase is “It’s the little things that keep you going,” or variations of that saying, stating that looking at simpler details in life can be enough to soothe you and get you through bigger problems. However, in this scenario, it was the little details that incriminated Robert Durst, a real estate heir from New York during the production of a documentary/film about him, opening up a can of worms surrounding the murder of his associate, wife and neighbor. Crimes that he himself, allegedly, committed.

It appears that Durst initially began this inadvertent spree with his neighbor seventeen years ago by accidentally shooting him in the head. After confiding in his associate Susan Berman, before deciding to kill her to keep the secret from escaping her mouth the fact that he had also killed his wife. A majority of this was relayed by Nathan Chavin, who the press is doubting in terms of his credibility of his account. According to CNN, this case is a renewed one, but is still in its basic beginning stages, with a preliminary hearing to be expected later this year, and perhaps a trial not even coming until next year.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/17/us/robert-durst-pretrial-hearing-witnesses/

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-robert-durst-trial-20170216-story.html

Hello fellow peers, this is a review on a recent game that I’ve been playing for a very long time, which goes by the title of Final Fantasy XV.

This game is the fifteenth main title title in the renown Final Fantasy series, and the third installment of the Final Fantasy subseries Fabula Nova Crystallis: Final Fantasy, set on the continent of Lucis, home to the game’s protagonists: Noctis, the prince of Lucis venturing forth to the city of Altissia to go through with his arranged marriage; Gladioulus, the big tough guy of the group in charge of ensuring the groups’ powerful foundation in combat; Ignis, the intelligent, soft-spoken “babysitter” of the group tasked with giving advise to the team as well as making sure they all don’t starve to death; and Prompto, the optimistic boy-wonder with a very itchy trigger finger, both when taking out foes and memorable photos alike. After the Niflheim Empire overtakes his home of the Lucian capital city and murders his father, subsequently making Noct king. The adventure takes place all across the world map and the vast land that is Lucis, either by riding giant flightless, sprinting birds named Chocobos or cruising down the highway in the group’s deluxe (sexy) sports car, the Regalia.

Since this is a video game, of course there is gameplay, and most Square Enix games are experts in the field of making playing a game fun. Typically, Final Fantasy games are based around thieir trademark turn-based monster battle gameplay, usually featuring a fraction of the main party against a few monsters through random encounters. This Final Fantasy, however, is based around an open-world free battle style that is more affiliated with its predecessor Final Fantasy Type-0, as well as Square Enix‘s other big-hit series, Kingdom Hearts. In this game, as you fight a set amount of monsters, Noctis can switch weapons at will while fighting with his allies in real time, not only that but making elemental spells to use as consumables that deal huge amounts of damage to enemies. The battles can devolve into chaos at some points however, though its not something too severe to the point where it drops too many frames. Most battles are fought against moderately tough enemies which can be easily defeated at a high enough level, or if Noctis just so happens to own one of the many treasure weapons scattered in Royal Tombs across Lucis, owned by his predecessors, the past kings of Lucis.

OR you could get colossal bosses that can wipe out you and your pals with one breath. You and the other guys are easily dwarfed by enemies like that, seemingly impossible to defeat. Now keep in mind that the screenshot below is a picture of the monster at a distance. I’ve confronted this behemoth before and it wiped me out by merely laying its head on the ground fast enough. This thing was so dangerous in fact that the mission objective that revolved around this monster was “Get away.” Remember, this is the beast at a distance.

Thankfully, you have a chance of assistance when engaged in seriously tough battles. Another trademark of the Final Fantasy franchise is the ability to call upon powerful forces of nature in order to aid the party in battle, as a form of divine intervention. Summons in this game, like many other core entries of this series call upon deities inspired by actual religious figures in order to assist the hero and deal hilariously devastating amounts of damage like Shiva, Ifrit, and Bahamut. In FFXV in particular, part of the main storyline revolves around the boys venturing to different sites in order to request the power of these deities when the time comes that they need it, ranging from the colossal Titan which launches a giant chunk of the earth itself, to the wily Leviathan which sends your opponents into the atmosphere through a tyhoon, and even the frosty Shiva, which gives the enemy monsters a nasty case of hypothermia, as seen below.

Story wise, this game is a bit lackluster, or dare I say incomplete. The story presented by the game alone is done pretty well, though the backstories, motivations, and actions of most characters presented in the game are either left out completely or glossed over. Thankfully this is remedied by the CGI OVA Kingsglaive made by Square Enix and the short anime series Brotherhood directed by A-1 Pictures (a studio that I personally have a bone to pick with, but that’s neither here nor there). Unfortunately, these two animated features are almost required to have seen in order to fully grasp the story of this game, though it is worth the time. Even with the incomplete plot in-game, you feel each character and how they bounce off of each other, especially the four main protagonists. They crack jokes, argue, play games, fight together, grieve together, and at some points thinking as one. You truly feel like the anime’s title Brotherhood wasn’t chosen lightly.

All in all, Final Fantasy XV is a very enjoyable experience. The story is comprehendable, the gameplay is very solid (despite the fact that it can be very chaotic at times), and the graphics look gorgeous. So much so that the beginning of the game is dedicated to Noct, Gladio, and Prompto pushing the Regalia while taking in the beautiful mountain range surrounding them in the middle of the desert flatlands. This game is a truly stellar one that I highly recommend, because if it wasn’t then I wouldn’t have invested 70+ hours into it and counting.

I will start off by saying that for people like me who love video games to their core, this is going to be an astonishing 365 days. Developers are putting out games guns blazing, “Indie” and “Triple A” devs alike are putting spotlights on their projects in an attempt to make a well-earned profit, not unlike most years. However, this year is a little bit different, as 2017 seems to be filled to the brim with quality products, brought to us by experienced and renown developers from both America and Japan. This blog in particular serves to list off a few of the upcoming releases that I’m in anticipation for. I have been planning to get a job at some point this year, and it seems like I might as well do it sooner rather than later, considering the fact that they’ll all rip my wallet to shreds.

• Persona 5 – This game is the successor to the PlayStation 2 cult classic Persona 4, and/or its PSVita adaptation Persona 4 Golden. This beloved hype train is conducted by Atlus, known solely for their unique anime aesthetic in their games, including Shin Megami Tensei, Catherine, and Persona’s most formidable rival Danganronpa. Like its predecessors, Persona 5 has a theme that will drive the story. While Persona 3 had a blue motif and the idea that humans must push through despair though wishing for death, and Persona 4 had a yellow motif and the heroes were drived towards finding out the truth, P5 will have a red motif and a theme of thievery and work in the shadows. This title was delayed twice, finally being moved to April for its release, though to the chagrin of fans.

• Senran Kagura: Peach Beach Splash – From the wonderful minds over at Marvelous AQL, this is tehcnically a game considered NSFW, so I’ll make this quick, explaining it in three simple sentences, a haiku to boot. [Girls with water guns | Shoot clothes off your enemies | Celebrate Fifth Year]

• Four Goddesses Online: Cyber Dimension Neptunia – Over on Japanese soil, there lies a certain company named Idea Factory, which as their name suggests, is a factory for intriguing ideas. One day, Fall 2010 they teamed up with another company by the name of Compile Heart, and together they took the world by storm with the first entry of their biggest breadwinner: Hyperdimension Neptunia. Based on the personification of the gaming industry as a whole, this is the most recent entry in the Nep-Nep franchise, centered around an online MMO played by one of the series’s most renowned characters, Vert, aka the Goddess Green Heart representing the Xbox 360. The majority of Neptunia games are placed in the genre of turn-based RPGs, and this’ll be the first game in the series based around an open world battle system similar to that of Square Enix’s Kingdom Hearts series.

• Nier: Automata – Speaking of Square Enix, one of the most influential game companies in history, they themselves have been very busy at work developing and licensing their own games. Some of the lesser examples of this year (at least on my list) include World of Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts 2.8. Now this game in particular is developed by a company named PlatinumGames, but the game will be published by SE. Automata will be based set in a dystopian world set after the events of its predecessor Nier, which in itself is a spin-off of the PS2 classic Drakengard, all masterminded by the elusive Yoko Taro. The demo had been released sometime last year and the game is set to release next month, where the player takes control of the platinum-headed, blindfolded android, waifu war candidate 2B and her small bot partner which launches small projectiles while she mows through machina left and right.

• Nintendo Switch and its Affiliates – Oh boy, here we go. Nintendo has done it agian, going out and announcing the release of the new Nintendo Switch console. This console has been setting the world on fire, making hype trains go full steam ahead, however, it also has diminished the faith in some Nintendo fans, who believe that they have not learned their mistakes from the Wii U (which was trash overall in my personal opinion). There are a plethora of titles that will be coming soon after the initial official release of the Switch, including Splatoon 2, Arms, Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Super Mario Odyssey, and the one that I’m personally pumped for: Fire Emblem Warriors. For those more interested, the presentation for the console can easily be found on YouTube, as well as multiple reactions from YouTubers who are equally as exited for this console as I am. Also as a side note, Fire Emblem Echoes for the Nintendo 3DS family of systems, a remake of Fire Emblem Gaiden which originally released on the Famicom back in 1992, a full twenty-five years in the making

Over the years, Japan has been known as one of the healthiest countries in the world, with most of the population consisting of the elderly (65 years+) and those of middle age (25 – 54 years), as of last year according to Index Mundi. Unfortunately, the birth rates have been horribly declining as a result of change in the social norm of the Land of the Rising Sun. Men tend to be more docile and disconnected, while women are becoming more persnickety with their choice of a spouse. Not only that, but those with paying business jobs tend to spend the majority of their day working nonstop, and with their free hours they spend very little time with their families, and that’s if they have one to go to. Those who live alone may end up self-medicating through drinking at late-night bars.

Thankfully(?) the company vinclu inc. unveiled their newest creation: Gatebox, Virtual Home Robot. Starting from December of last year, Gatebox has been available for preorder for Japan and the United States for 298K Japanese Yen (in USD that’s around 2600 dollars).

This Waifu Bot is meant to simulate the interactivity between an average salaryman and his girlfriend/wife. So far, only one character has been unveiled as a base for the projetion created as a hologram going by the name Azuma Hikari. This waifu (T.N. note: “waifu” is a term meant to address an imaiginary female spouse) acts like you’re own personal AI assistant/lover. Think of her as like Jarvis (now Vision) from the more recent MARVEL movies, except instead being possessed by Tony Stark, she belongs directly to you the consumer. She also has the ability to control the vicinity around her such as lighting in your house and other electrical appliances, as shown by the product’s trailer. As an added topping, she can also send you text messages which you can actually reply to using a set amount of reply choices.

Although Hikari is the only character accessible so far, it has been advertised that one could live their “favorite character”. This means that the husando (T.N. note: “Husbando” is the male equivalent of “waifu”) has the ability to customize their Gatebox girl, according to the Gatebox site through an HDMI chord. However, this could also mean that choices will come up in the future to actually project holograms of characters from popular media franchises. While I don’t have the kind of money to buy that sort of item (at least not yet), were I given the choice, I’d customize my waifu to match that of Tsumugi Kotobuki from the anime K-On!.

While I do believe this innovation could be a nice pasttime or house assistant for the average consumer, though it could be a detriment to the young Japanese demographic, as young men (or women) could conclude that they’d find much more solace through Hikari than a real girl. However, this could also go in the opposite direction and build confidence in order to connect real people, perhaps as a conversation starter. There’s no true way to tell what kind of social effect this will have on Japan, but I have faith that this will at the very least help economically. With a product as expensive as 298,000 Yen, all one can do is pick a god and pray.