Fire Emblem Soul! - Awakening

Hey guys! It's been a long time since I've written a game review. Mostly because my free time has mostly been spent on Animes and Online Games but I would like to talk about Fire Emblem : Awakening for the 3DS because I got it a while back and played it but recently got back into it.

Fire Emblem is a long running tactical rpg dating back to the 1990s with each game being very character driven and relies on character interactions. Another thing that made the game unique was the fact that pre-Awakening, anytime a character died in battle, they were gone permanently. So every move, every fight and every attack counts. For perfectionists, this was both a drug and a nightmare as I watched Angell Soul replay a battle over and over because one character or another died.

Plot: The plot in fire emblem starts with your customizable character losing his/her memory and being found by Prince Chrom and his sister. He/she decide to join Chrom's adventures as a tactician as he fights against evil neighboring empires.

Opinion: On the surface, the game starts off very reminiscent of past Rpgs. A main character with no recollection of who he or she is and a Kingdom fighting against an evil empire but soon it turns into an epic adventure with an over-arching plot and plenty of subplots. 4/5 Soul

Setting and Graphics: The setting is medieval fantasy, characters fight with swords, bows and magic. There are mythical monsters such as Dragons and Wyverns and theres not a lot to touch on that has not been seen or said already.

The Graphics look pretty good for a 3DS game. The characters are portrayed as tiny chibi sprites and have anime portraits for dialogues. When attacking however, the characters turn into full size 3D versions of their sprites and it looks really good. 3/5 Soul

Characters: Here is where the game really shines, the game boasts 44 playable characters not including downloadable characters. Each character has unique interactions with other characters the more they fight together. That's more than a hundred unique dialogue between all the characters. Later on when their interaction reaches rank S, they can get married and the couple determines the stats and minor appearances (hair colour) of their offsprings. And then their offsprings can also marry. The potential is endless and I found myself shipping characters together because they'd look like a cute couple or an odd couple. 5/5 Soul

Gameplay: The game has you running from area to area as Chrom in an overhead map, interacting with it to start battles or go to a shop. The battles are reminiscent of Vanguard bandits in that the characters move on grids and when you attack or heal, it goes into a fighting scene showing the attack or spell or heals picked by the player beforehand. After the battle, you go into a menu to initiate interactions between the characters resulting from the previous battle, if any. 4/5 Soul

Overall: I really enjoy Fire Emblem - Awakening, it is my first Fire Emblem game and what a way to start. I've heard of the series before but had never found the interest to start it, but with traditional Jrpgs becoming a dying art form, I could not pass up the opportunity to  buy and try a series that has stood the test of time. I hope to be able to get a copy of Fire Emblem Fates soon and continue my love affair with the series! 4/5 Soul

Inside look into Animes I love (Part 3 - Red Garden and Puella Magi Madoka Magica)

Hey Guys, sorry it took so long for me to write part 3. I've been sick and there have been some personal matters I had to attend to but I'm back and ready to write up a storm! kind of..

Red Garden and Magical Girl Madoka are the prime focus for part 3. The reason why I chose these two animes in particular is because they provide a completely unique experience compared to other animes in the same genre, if Red Garden even shares a genre with anything else.



The story follows four normal New York girls named Claire, Kate, Rose and Rachel. One day they wake up with no memory of what happened the night before and at night they're brought to a caged car park to fight a man who turns into a demon. The thing about the story that drew me to it was the fact that especially at the start, these normal girls are forced into a fight with an insanely strong demons with no fight experiences and no powers. You feel the fear, the adrenaline, the regrets and everything in between. Over time they adapt, grow stronger and you truly feel the growth.

My first exposure to this anime was when I was browsing tv and stumbled on it on Animax Asia. It was a horrific scene where the girl's keepers showed them the consequences of choosing not to fight or giving up hope. It scarred and intrigued me, it was amazing. After I finished the series, I tried to find an anime similar to this because I was thirsting for more but I could not find anything. It truly stands on its own in being absolutely unique. Also the art is amazingly stylized and is quite quirky.



Puella Magi Madoka Magica, if you know your anime, you've heard of this one. It took the magical girl genre which is pretty prominent on its own and turned it on its head. One wrong move by any of these cute protagonist and boom, they're gone, dead in pretty brutal ways. The characters are likeable enough with the twist ending being something I did not anticipate through the series. I'm not a huge fan of the super cute chibi character designs but the designs are highly exaggerated to prove the point that while it and the seemingly innocent op might look a certain way, not to judge a book by its cover.

The thing they both share in common is their uniqueness. Say if I craved a shonen anime or manga, I could find a few I like in the massive pool in the genre but I can't find another Red Garden or another Madoka. Please do leave a comment if you disagree or you'd like to recommend an anime for me to watch that you think I might like! :) til next time~

Inside look into Animes I love (Part 2 - World Trigger)

On the surface World Trigger looks like a pretty generic long running shonen title which goes on forever until you start reading or watching it. My biggest problem with most of the shonen animes out there, is the main male protagonist. You know the one, the loud, spiky haired, always hungry and super powerful entity with an unlimited amount of 'potential', Most of the time they're less a character and more a super power with quirks. World Trigger has the opposite, the main character, Osamu is described as pretty weak and as he meets more and more stronger characters, the difference in power really shows.

He is complimented by the team he built  around him as they work towards a common goal. With him are Kuga and Chika, two young and very strong characters in context to all the other characters. Instead of Osamu being the defining factor of each fight and arc, wins are determined by how well Osamu tactically maneuvers his stronger, more naive teammates. 



I'm not trying to diss other shonen mangas/animes too much because I loved mangas like Fairy Tail and Dragon Ball but my thing is they all seem to blend together after a while. Also my biggest grip with this genre is the obnoxious main character, I don't watch/read Fairy Tail for Natsu, I do it for my waifus Erza and Lluvia. (Extra note: I stopped reading it after the time skip arc...it just started getting old)



Another point of argument is the epic failure by the name of 'Bleach'. I was obsessed with this when it first came out, I love all the characters, the premise and it was my introduction to the modern shonen genre. It ended up becoming an Ichigo ego fest with his getting stronger and stronger while the others fell behind. Chad, Orihime and Rukia ended up becoming wall paper despite Tite Kuno stating at the start that Chad and Orihime's power mirror the potential of a Zanpakuto. Also the females in this anime take a backseat to the men, this is no longer the 90s, even if males are the main demographic, we can accept the fact that a woman can be badass too. 

In World Trigger, the main heroine Chika retains her feminine demur in that she has hesitation in killing with her sniper rifle despite the fact that killing someone just teleports them back to their home base. I was afraid initially about how the author would deal with this issue as it has destroyed better characters in the past in other mangas but he dealt with it amazingly and did not use it as an excuse to keep her as kidnap bait *Cough Orihime Cough*.

I would suggest picking up World Trigger just as a supplement to the shonen mangas you already read as a breath of fresh air, or just because it's a really good anime/manga.   

Inside look into Animes I love (Part 1 - Digimon Adventure , 02 , and Tri)

Hey guys!

I started writing this article to tell you guys the kinds of animes I like, give some examples and some points and thoughts I had on them and their competition in the genre. But it ended up becoming a little bigger than I thought it would be and decided to split it into 3 parts. The first being mostly about Digimon, the 2nd part being about World Trigger and the 3rd, Red Garden and Magical Girl Madoka. I might even add in a fourth, Sentai, about animes that comprises of a team of people (most of the time high school students) fighting monsters or aliens with unique powers.

Now, I'm not a huge fan of the 'cute girls doing cute things' genre or harem or ecchi because I don't find any of these genre's relatable. This statement is not to discredit the genre or people who like them, but most probably there won't be a 'High School of the Dead' review on this blog written by me. I like animes that defy stereotypes and provide me an experience I can't get from other more stereotypical animes in the same genre. Even better if it defies all the rules and provide an absolutely unique experience. 

Digimon pushed what a children's show made for selling toys could do. They were episodic but had an over-arching storyline that pays off in a big way at the end. The characters were never just paper cut out with quirks and goals/missions in place of personality. Each character had a defining trait that is pre-dominant, but they also have fears, anxieties, likes and dislikes.

What I mean by this is, sometimes characters (and this is not exclusive to the children's anime genre) 
are written only to serve the plot/episode, and I don't just mean side characters or characters that only come in for an episode, this also applied to main characters and major supporting characters. But in order to flesh these characters out a little, they give them quirks instead of a personality. In these cases, these characters are more quirks and traits rather than an actual person. Just because a character loves to eat, or loves to eat a certain food, it does not equal a personality. An example of this is Pokemon, I'll discuss Ash, Misty and Brock.



Outside of trying to be the very best (and failing) Ash has no defining trait outside of Pokemon, he has no other interest than failing to become a Pokemon Master. He does not age, he does not participate in anything not related to Pokemon. He is not a person rather he is Pokemon.The same goes for Misty and Brock. For multiple seasons Misty followed Ash around because he destroyed her bicycle, nothing else. Also she likes water pokemon I guess. Brock likes girls. Of course they have semblance of a personality, maybe Misty is motherly and Ash is passionate about Pokemon, but they never feel like real people. Can you imagine having a friend that only talks about one thing everytime you guys spoke and reacts the same way or everything?



(From the left: Tai, Matt, Sora, Izzy, Joe, Mimi, T.K, Kari)

Let's compare them to Digimon, I don't even need to talk about all 8 fleshed out characters in Digimon, I'll pinpoint three and talk about them, The three being Tai and Izzy and Kari.

Tai loves football, He's brave and a natural leader. He is headstrong. He's also very stubborn. He's a good big brother and loves his partner Agumon. He's brash and loud but grows more level headed as the anime progresses and even more so in the next two seasons. He has parents who love and support him and while not perfect, tries his best in every situation.

Izzy is a child prodigy. He's smart and kind. He's also aloof and sometimes gets so lost in learning something that he loses the plot. He was adopted from birth and has trouble expressing himself to the people he loves. As the series progresses, he finally comes to term with his situation and becomes more well rounded in later series.

Kari is my favourite character, introduced more than half way through the series. She joins the team much later but even then her character is given room to grow via her partner Gatomon. She starts off caring, soft spoken and sickly and turns into the voice of reason in 02. 

My point here is that I know the characters, I know how they react to things and I know them as people rather than quirks and traits. I've seen their growth and development and these are just 3 of the 8 characters in the series. 16 if you count in their Digimon partners whom on their own, aren't very strong personality wise but coupled with their partners add a whole lot of dimension to their characters and help enhance their partner's.

With that ends Part 1, Please do join me in Part 2 where I discuss World Trigger and the difference it has with its shonen counterparts.

Spring Anime 2016 Soul! ( Kiznaiver )

So rumor has it that it's spring in Japan and that means a whole new set of animes coming out. Well thats untrue, at this time most of them have done half their episode run but while I'm coming late I want to try and do a series where I watch the first episodes of a Spring 2016 anime and let you guys know my initial reactions and whether or not I would be willing to continue the series whether now or in the future when they finish their run. I'll watch anything from half an episode to a maximum of 3 (because the season is already half way in) depending on how long it takes me to get a feel of a certain anime.

The first anime that caught my eye was Kiznaiver, from the promotional poster, I'm immediately attracted to the art and character design. The synopsis at first read sounds promising.

(Taken from My Anime List)

" The fictional Japanese city named Sugomori City is built on reclaimed land. But as the years go by, the city's population is decreasing. One day, Sonosaki tells her classmate Katsuhira: "You have been selected to be a Kiznaiver." The Kizuna System, which allows Katsuhira to share his wounds, connects him to the classmates whose lives and personalities completely differ from his. The Kizuna System is an incomplete system for the implementation of world peace that connects people through wounds. All those who are connected to this system are called Kiznaivers. When one Kiznaiver is wounded, the system divides and transmits the wound among the other Kiznaivers.'

Initial Impression: I am obsessed with the art style, it's absolutely beautiful and is a great representation of modern anime art style more in the veins of Digimon Tri and Magical Girl Madoka. The characters seem likable enough, there are stereotypes but it's because each character represents a re-imagining of the seven deadly sins. Also the opening and ending themes are very nice to listen to and look at.

From the art, I expected a dark story with borderline morbid characters, and while this might change later on, the characters and tones are a little more lighthearted than I'd expect. It was actually a pleasant surprise. I found myself laughing at a few jokes and scenes.

The future: The story from the first episode left me intrigued. I will definitely continue this series past the first episode and maybe even write a full length review on it. For now, it's definitely a must check out.

 

Tree of Savior (MMoSoul)

Heya guys! It's Rpg Soul again with another online game I'm currently obsessed with. I love MMORPGs, ever since the first time I played Ragnarok Online at the age of 12 til now. I love the sense of community, I've made friends in online games that have lasted 5 years. We're still keeping in touch and I'm her child's unofficial God-father. 

Tree of Savior was a game I've been excited for since I found out about it around the 2nd closed beta last year. I was not able to participate but I kept my finger on it, making sure I was there the moment it's released. Half a year later and I bought the founder's pack and started it with my brother and Angell Soul. 



There are over 80+ classes in this game where other games would typically have around 12-20. Trying to build your character whether through it's stats or skills is insanely diverse and honestly a little daunting at first. I spent hours 'researching' classes and skills before finally picking my priest build. 

I think I've heard rumors that the max level you can achieve is level 500, right off the bat there's a lot to do. I'm still in the process of learning and experiencing the game, so far it's been super fun ( and super cute) and I'd definitely recommend it.

Hearthstone (Card Soul Talk)

I have a huge love hate relationship with Hearthstone since my brother forced me to play it a year ago. He's currently a streamer for the Malaysian hearthstone association http://m8gaming.net. On one hand I love the game and the blizzard character cards, on the other, PvP tends to give me anxiety. 

In Hearthstone, you're given a set of basic cards and the option to buy rarer/better cards via in game currency or actual currency. With these cards you build a deck of 30 cards and use it to duel against other players. Some cards synergies with others to form a strong deck or you could build a deck using strong minions, the possibility is endless. Putting all the strongest cards in the game into one deck does not guarantee a win while using only the basic cards provided on the game before pack purchases does not guarantee a loss.




The next thing I would like to touch on is the concept of Heroes. These are character classes from Blizzard's own World of Warcraft. They are Mage, Warrior, Priest, Rogue, Warlock, Shaman, Druid and Paladins. Choosing a class determines the spells (and certain minion cards) that are available to you along with a class exclusive power. This power spends 2 mana (the amount of cards (minion or spell) you can play on that turn) for an action that benefits you, whether it's healing with a Priest or summoning a small minion on the board with Paladins.




Each card has a mana cost, you start the game with 1 mana and it goes up by 1 to a maximum of 10 mana. Minion cards have a mana cost, and a HP and Atk number while spells only have mana cost and it spends it to cast a certain spell either to you, a minion or any of your enemy's character. The goal of the game is to get your opponent's HP down to 0.

It's a fun game that dwells in the veins of Magic: The Gathering and Yu-gi-Oh to name a few. You're able to play it online with a massive community of players, so you won't run into the problems of traditional card games of having to go to a venue every other day to practice your skills or participate in competitions.