Friday, June 12, 2015

South Park: The Stick of Truth




Sytem:   PS3


Bought:   March 18th


Started:   March 18th
Beat:       April 5th


Trophies:     51 out of 51



Idea:   You play as the new kid in town and as soon as you go out to play, you're dragged into a crazy world of role playing. Wars, Battles, Magical Sticks, Elves, Zombies, Aliens, Underwear Gnomes, Zombie Fetuses.  The entire works.
     Farts are your Magic, You can blow things up with them, make people sick, knock people out or just make them laugh. It's more over the top then the South Park TV show and not edited at all.

Jesus Saves?


Thoughts:   I wasn't going to buy this game when it first came out, but oh..my..gods... I'm glad I did. It's an extremely screwed up story, filled with cursing and inappropriateness everywhere.  I may really be going to hell for finishing and enjoying this game as much as I did.  Twice.
      The character you play is a new kid that has just moved to town, what a town it is. On your first day, your parents force you outside to make some friends. You come across Butters being beat up on by some strange kid with pointy ears... kind of saving him you make your first friend!  You also enter into a Role Playing game of sorts...
       Butters takes you to Kupa Keep {Cartmans House} to meet with the Wizard King Cartman, there you learn about the Stick of Truth and the Elves and you're assigned the nickname "Douchebag" and you get to pick your class {Fighter,Mage,Thief or Jew}. While you're there the Elves attack and Clyde is sent to guard The Stick, of course he fails and they steal The Stick and Cartman banishes Clyde from the group.
      The rest is actually pretty straight forward RPG stuff, you gain quests from people around town and Cartman and you do what they need while fighting monsters.  Along the way you will fight aliens to escape a space ship, kill zombies that the wrecked ship caused, fight underwear gnomes that are living in your houses walls, kill hobos for the mayor and go to Canada to get something in french translated.
      Eventually you choose between the Elves or the KKK {Kingdom of Kupa Keep}, which makes little difference in the grand scheme of things since the two factions have to team up to take down Clyde and his army after he gains the Stick of Truth.
     There's also some battles in an Abortion Clinic, you help Al Gore fight man bear pig and go up a gay mans ass to save the town from a bomb which the Govenment has stuck up there to detonate and destroy the Zombie Outbreak before it goes further than South Park.
     Yea, there's a lot to do.... and it's fun...all of it.. The battle system is a bit "meh", but it's easy to get use to and really the only difficult battle I came across was Al Gore and the Secret Service.

The Look on the Fathers Face. heh




The End:  So, The Govenment has been searching for Douchebag because he makes friends faster than anyone on the planet.  Sounds Reasonable.
          After fighting Zombie Chef, Clyde is through....then the Government show up and reveal your true identity.  The Dragonborn Dovahkiine!  {Skyrim anyone?} If that wasn't insane enough the main Agent suddenly thinks the Stick of Truth really does give him power over the galaxy and strips naked and asked Douchebag to join him. He doesn't.
        Princess Kenny does however,  This is where Morgan Freeman shows up and tells the story of Princess Kennys past, she's the offspring of an Elf and an Ogre....she watched her friends and family be slaughtered and is the true heir to the Stick of Truth.
      Final Battle, Princess Kenny!  This is a fairly long battle and you cycle out all your "Buddies" as Kenny attacks with his powers. Each buddies main attack counters one of Kenny's and slowly kills her.
      Once she is defeated the Zombies are all destroyed, the Government goes away and life is back to "Normal".  It's not until now, the very end.... you get to hear Douchebag's voice.  Cartman asks what he wants to play next and he says...   "Screw you guys, I'm going home."

Morgan Freeman!


Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi




Episodes:          13

Grade:         B

How:    Amazon



Summary:        Childhood friends Arumi and Sasshi are residents of the Abenobashi commercial district in Abeno-ku, Osaka. After an accident, they find themselves transported to an alternate sword and sorcery world. Their attempt to get back to reality finds them traversing a series of nonsensical worlds built on science fiction, war, fantasy, dating sim games and American movies. Each alternate Abenobashi is a surreal manifestation of Sasshi's otaku interests, populated by analogs of the protagonist's relatives and acquaintances and a blue-haired stranger known as Eutus.  




Thoughts:   This was a fun romp around many, many worlds.  I'll admit I was a little hesitant at first, but wow..... It turned out fairly good.  Of course the show can be quite extreme at times, but never really going overboard.
       Mind you, I watched it Dubbed... The accents probably made the show that much more amusing. Not really being able to tell accents in Japanese, something may have been lost and I could have had a lessor opinion of the show.
        I'll be honest, the ending could have been better in ways. It's kind of confusing. Sasshi got everything he wanted and pretty much pushed aside how Arumi felt on certain things.




Who we have...

Satoshi {Sasshi} Imamiya- A geeky, hyper 12 year old. He's lived in Abenobashi his entire life and is now met with a huge problem, it's be redeveloped.  Everyone, including his best friend and her family are moving elsewhere.  With this and another unfortunant event dealing with Arumi's grandfather.. something is triggered in Sasshi and that something sends he and Arumi to strange worlds based on his likes.
        He's young, he doesn't want to face the reality at hand since to him the change sucks so much, Arumi being a bit more mature than he had seemingly accepted the move and such and hadn't actually found out about her grandfathers death. Sasshi wanted to save her from that, from everything.
       It turns out that Sasshi is the illigitmate grandson of Abe no Seimei, his powers came through due to his desire to not face reality. Abe no Seimei is the one who initially built Abenobashi and they end up meeting him during their jumps through the worlds, although he's going by Eutus now.
   

Arumi Asahina -   Sasshi's best friend, she seems to be a little older than Sasshi and or far more mature than him. She's kind of just along for the ride, even though she keeps yelling as Sasshi for not wanting to go back home. She never does find out exactly why Sasshi doesn't want to go back....





Eutus & MuneMune -   Eutus is apparently Abe no Seimei, he bobs around the worlds and such and is the one that helps Sasshi change reality.   MuneMune is a well endowed, hyper, insane woman who is always seaching for Eutus.
           Turns out, MuneMune is Satoshi's grandmother in ways, she was in love with Abe no Seimei before she ended up with Sasshi's grandpa.  Apparently Seimei and MuneMune met when they were younger, Sasshi's grandfather was in love with MuneMune and she was obssesed with Seimei. Lon story short, she gets pregnant, Seimei goes away and...for some reason they end up thinking it's Sasshi's grandfathers child.  I really don't remember the entire story here it felt a bit out of place.












The End:  After running through many fun and unusual worlds, Sasshi and Arumi finally find themselves back home. The home is a bit different now, due to Sasshi's new found powers.
      He made it where Arumi would no long be leaving, Abenobashi is no longer being redeveloped and Arumi's grandfather doesn't die falling from the rood of their restaraunt. Another cute little quirk is it looks like MuneMune and Abe have been "reborn" and are now together.
    Happy ending basically.  Of course it's also very unrealistic, Sasshi can't just keep using his Onmyouji powers to change things he doesn't want to face.  He's also sort of holding Sasshi back, she was read for her move and now... she'll be stuck there with him for however long it lasts.  Oh well. It was a fun.



Monday, June 8, 2015

Prototype 2




System:   PS3

Bought:    Playstation Plus January 2015

Started:   Jan. 8th 2015
Beat:      Jan. 30th 2015



Trophies:   44 of 44



Idea:  Taking place 2 years after the first game, Prototype 2 revolved around James Heller.  Heller believes his family is dead, killed by the mutants that the Blacklight virus created. He rejoins the Military to fight against the infected "monsters" that have taken over parts of New York, during a mission he runs into Mercer... The man the Government is making people believe is spreading the Virus.   This encounter ends with Heller becoming infected by Mercer, but instead of a mindless Zombie type he's just like Mercer.  An "Evolved", A super powered human that can absorb other living beings and take their forms/powers/memories.
         After the initial infection Heller is held by the Military and Scientists who attempt to preform tests on him and kill him, until he gets away.  Upon finding Mercer again it's shown to him that it's actually the Blackwatch  and Gentek that are spreading the Virus, not Mercer.
         Of course Mercer isn't a big pile of fluff either, he's been making "Evolved" humans like himself and Heller and planting them in various positions in Gentek, Blackwatch and the NYZ. He's trying to infect the entire world with "Whitelight" {a fake "cure" to the virus} which actually quickens the Virus instead of curing.


Thoughts:  This game was fun to play, super fun. You can run up buildings and semi-fly all around the place.  You consume people, mutants and evolved for memories, new powers and to quickly restore your HP.    The battle is fun and really nothing about it is all too difficult, even on the "Hard" difficulty things were quite easy.
        It's also  completely open world once you can use the Helipads, sort like a Saints Row but not with the gangs and stuff. Just a bunch of mutant, zombie creatures to squish and run over with tanks and stuff.
        Of course, I have never played the first Prototype game so I was a little lost on exactly who/what Mercer was at the beginning.  It didn't take long to figure it out.
        I'm really glad it was a free game since I doubt I'd ever had bought it myself, seeing I had never even heard of the games before it was on Plus.  Will I buy Prototype 1?  Probably not. Did I wish 2 was a bit longer? Yep!


Characters...

The Bad Guys

Doctor Koenig-  At first thought to be just a scientist working with Gentek, later is revealed to be an Evolved just like Heller.  He was planted in Gentek to spy for Mercer and has a bit of a, inferiority complex.
         When Heller shows up to kill him at first, he kind of begs for his life and sends Heller off after a Blackwatch project named "Orion".  The project is supposed to be some sort of Super Soldier that could hopefully defeat Heller and the other Evolved.  Of course, this turns out to not be Koenig "helping" at all. He just sent Heller to Orion so he could observe Hellers strengths and weaknesses.
         After learning this, Heller gets pissed off and comes back to kill Koenig.  Koenig thinks if he could kill Heller that he could become Mercers Number 2.  
         Heller Consumes him.

Sabrina Galloway-  Another one of Hellers targets, turned friend, turned enemy.  He goes after her, but she barters her abilities to sense the other Evolved for her life.  Other than Mercer and another evolved named Roland she could sense where their kind were.
         After the two of them hunt down Roland using the old fashion method of just consuming tons of people, she wants Heller to run away with her and leave NYZ.  Nope, Heller would have none of that.  This pisses her off and prompts her to kidnap the still alive daughter of Heller from Brooks and give her to Mercer.
        She ends up dead too, Killed by Mercer though.



The In between.


Colonel Rooks-  A member of Blackwatch, Heller actually plays him for most the game. Having "consumed" Riley {One of Blackwatch}, Heller shifts to his form from time to time to get information out of Rooks.  One part information was the fact his daughter was still alive.
       The one time Heller came to kill Rooks, he was on the phone with his own daughter which prompted Heller to change quickly into Riley and not kill the Colonel. What luck.
       Rooks isn't an idiot though, he sensed something was up with Riley and confronted him/Heller on a rooftop about it and Heller showed his true form.  Rooks was quite, shocked and angry; but Heller tells him that all he wants is his daughter and then he'd leave. Rooks let him leave and Heller didn't kill him.
       Near the end of the game Rooks gets Amaya back for Heller, but before he can hand her over Galloway kidnaps her and takes her to Mercer.  Rooks lives in the end.



The Good


Luis Guerra-   A Priest at a church in the yellow zone, apparently Heller went to his church or something, he did seem to know him from before all hell broke loose.   He was a bit of a hacker, being able to get into the Blacknet and get information to rescue people from Blackwatch testing.
     He also had an informant of sorts, Athena which turned out to be Dana Mercer.    Alex Mercer ends up killing him when Heller starts to screw with his plans to infect the world with the Virus.


Dana Mercer-   Alex Mercer's Sister, apparently a bit of a hacker herself.   She helps Heller put a stop to all the mess and aids him in finding his daughter.   I guess that basically all she is in Prototype 2, I'd think she was probably in 1 as well.
        In the end it almost looks like she has a liking for Heller and may as well end up his daughters care taker.






The Mains


James Heller:     After he was turned into an "Evolved" by Mercer, Heller sets out to find the truth behind the Blacklight Virus and take revenge for his dead wife and daughter.  On his journey he's betrayed by most everyone, is oddly surprised by one and just decides to kill anyone who steps on his toes.
          In the end he rescues his daughter and kills Alex Mercer, consuming him grants him what seems to be Godlike powers of course.
     


Alex Mercer:   The guy from the first one, I don't really know much about his past, but he was somehow infected with the Virus and Evolved from it instead of turning into a zombie like creature. Anyways, he's basically godlike in the start and pretends to be a friend of sorts until you find out he's batshit crazy.
             There's a "cure" for the Virus called Whitelight, it doesn't cure anything though it just speeds the rate of the virus and causes the creatures to mutate faster.  He wants the whole world to succumb to the virus or becomes evolved like him.
            Does that happen?  Nope.  Even after he consumes the remaining Evolved to fight Heller. He dead.




The End:   I want to say the end was great, outstanding and stuff; but it's not. It was just "okay", I guess they wanted to leave room for a Prototype 3 even with Mercer dead.  Heller kills Mercer, saves his daughter and Dana and withdraws all the Virus from the New York Islands.
       Guess one could say Heller is now Mercer, but stronger.  The game ends with Heller, Dana and Amaya standing on a roof overlooking a virusless Red Zone.
       The battle with Mercer was a bit of a let down too, it was easy.... of course I died a couple times before I got use to the change in battle styles, but after 3 Deaths Mercer goes down.   Guess I could change the difficulty to above Hard, if there was one above Hard....but nah.




Friday, June 5, 2015

Love Live! School Idol Project











Episodes:    13

How:   Crunchyroll

Grade:    A

Summary:   Otonokizaka High School stands on the border of three cities: Akihabara—a pop culture mecca that's evolving by the minute; Kanda—a conservative, cultured city where history and tradition reign supreme; and Jinbo—a quiet area reserved for a more mature, sophisticated population. Amidst this culture clash, the school now faces closure due to the enrollment of fewer and fewer students.

With the school planning to close within three years, nine female students come together with one thing in mind—form a pop idol group to revive the school's popularity and keep it from shutting down. "In order to protect our beloved school, there's only one thing we can do... become pop stars!"

Their goal is simple: Become an overnight sensation and use their nationwide media exposure to promote their school and bring in a wave of new students to the ailing area. A simple but solid plan, they figure. Naturally, they're nervous and wonder if this plan can really succeed, but for better or worse their new journey has begun...



How it is.......


      So, I've never really watched any of these Idol type shows... They just never really appealed to me. I may have to rethink that stance though, this was really good.
       Three girls set out to save their school from closing by becoming School Idols.  Sounds a little corny.  It wasn't corny at all though, it was very follow your dreams and you can do whatever you put your mind to.  Yea... okay.... maybe a little corny.
        It didn't just come together for the trio though, it was like no one {a few were} in the school was supporting them at first. When they preformed their first "concert" {one song} only a few people showed up to watch them preform.  This didn't stop them though, they went on with the show and didn't let the small showing discourage them too much..
      Slowly, with hard work the three girls gathered others to join their group... first it went to six...then to seven and then finally to nine.   Nine.




Who we have...... 


Honoka Kousaka;  She's the leader, she's the glue, she's what makes the girls stick together.  It was her idea to start the Idol Group and it's her that keeps it from falling apart. She doesn't have any specific talent, but she's always the optimist and strives to do her best.
      There was a small time late in the series that she pretty much quits Muse, this caused pretty much all the girls to split up and go their separate ways. This was short lived however...
       She lives with her parents and younger sister in the back of their sweet shop, which ironically she hates red bean paste.

Kotori Minami; Honoka's and Umi's best friend, she's the kind, absent minded one that designs the girls costumes for their performances. Normally quiet, she sort of fades into the background. The big drama at the end of the first season revolves around her not telling Honoka that she'd been accepted to a fashion design school in another country.
     All packed and ready to go at the airport, she can't seem to force herself to get onto the plane. Which is good, since Honoka shows up to bring her back to Muse and the School.

Umi Sonada:  Umi,Umi,Umi.  She's the shy one, even has stage fright... but man she's a bit scary when she's training the girls stamina. Bossy,Bossy, saying "No" to her seems impossible and she'd be a great drill Sergeant.

Hanayo Koizumi:   Hanayo has dreamed of being an Idol since she was a little girl, never having the courage to go for it till her friend Rin pushes her.

Rin Hoshizora: Hanayo's best friend, she really never had much interest in becoming an idol, but she joined Muse to help Hanayo along.   She's an energetic,tom boyish girl and just seems to become friends with everyone she meets...
      A little bashful about wearing skirts.

Maki Nishikino:  This was a hard nut to crack, she can write music and sing beautifully, but since she had chosen to follow in her parents footsteps to become a doctor. She really didn't feel she had the time to become an Idol.
       At first they needed her to just write and record some music for them, but then...after some help from Hanayo and Rin, Maki joins the group.


Nico Yazawa:  This girl is annoying, you kind of want to slap her through the whole show. She's the last member of the Idol Research Club that had slowly disolved for some reason or another {Probably because Nico's annoying}.  Anyways, At first Nico can't stand Muse...stalking them, sending them failure messages and stuff.
    Then, since Muse needed to be a club and that Idol Research Club was all ready there.. they talked Nico into joining.  Uhg.

Eli Ayase:  One of the last girls to join Muse, she's the Student Council President and was also trying to find a way to save the school. Which didn't involve and Idol Group.  She's an ex ballerina, an extremely good ballerina that just didn't quite have the stuff for the big times. When Honoka finds out about this, she's all about getting Eli to teach them to dance...
       With a little push from Nozomi and a lot of annoying from the other Muse girls, Eli finally agrees and... ends up being a scarier trainer than Umi.  She whips the girls into semi-shape...

Nozomi Toujou:   This girl is fun, she's the Student Council Vice President and Eli's best friend. She's really grabby, yes...that's the main thing I remember about her. She likes to grab the other girls breasts and fondle them... it's sort of a punishment in ways.
        She's also into telling Fortunes and says the Idol Group would only work if there were 9 Girls.  Took them a while, but they got to 9.



The End:   It was a happy one, I guess.  Muse had gained enough popularity for the school to get enough Applicants to remain open, which means there was no real reason for Muse to remain together.
     There was a huge implosion after Honoka got sick and then Kotori decided to leave and all of the bad break up stuff happened.  Yet, out of the jaws of destruction it was pulled and all the girls decided to remain in Muse and sing another day!
     Well, sort of.  It was really just one of those bright, shiny, everyone is happy endings.

    I'll get around to watching Season 2 eventually.








Wednesday, June 3, 2015

God of War





System: PS3


Bought:  November 2012



Started: {First} December 1st 2012
             {Second}   November 2nd, 2014
Beat:    December 1st 2014


Trophies:     31 of 36



Idea:  You're Kratos, haunted by your past you serve the Gods of Olympus. By way of flashbacks it's learned that, you accidentally killed your wife and child.
       Kratos was once a captain within the Spartan Army, during a large battle his forces were overwhelmed and as he faced death he asked the God of War Ares for help. Bad Idea.  Ares granted his wish and bound Blades of Chaos to Kratos, which he then used to destroy his enemies and save his men.
      Fighting on in Ares's name, Kratos eventually attacks a town inhabited by Worshippers of Athena. Ares being the ass that he is, had Kratos's wife and daughter transported there before the attack and Kratos accidentally kills them both.  An Oracle from the destroyed town shows Kratos no mercy, cursing him... bonding the ashes of his dead family to his body, turning him a dusty white.
     Ares's plan sort of backfires here, he thought of Kratos's family was gone that he'd become the ultimate puppet warrior. Wrong. He denounces Ares and starts to serve the other Gods to try to get rid of the memories of his family dieing.



Thoughts:   It took me a long time to really play this game, two years even. It's not that it wasn't good, it just...had it's irritating parts.  Those Medusa creatures were a bit of a pain in the beginning.
    Anyways...  Story wise it was slightly predictable, but still quite good.  Kratos gains powers from the major players of Olympus and eventually hunt down Pandora's Box to give him the strength {and size} to defeat Ares.
    Of course, once he defeats Ares the painful memories still stick around... On the bright side, having defeated Ares; Kratos is now the God of War.
     I'll probably never Platinum this game, There's a Trophy for beating it in 5 Hours and I'm just not good with timed stuff.  It's actually a wonder I got a few of the other Trophies since I wasn't using a guide.  Oh well, I'll eventually go back and get the Nyad Trophy.



Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions.




Episodes:   12

How:   Amazon

Grade:   C


Summary:    Yuuta Togashi suffered from chuunibyou while he was in middle school. When he graduated, he put that dark history behind him and forgot about it... or he was supposed to. High school was smooth sailing and full of enjoyment—until the unavoidable, sad event occurs. The event that locks Yuuta into a contract with Rikka Takanashi and disrupts his desperately ordinary life.



Thoughts:  This whole show is about a group of teenagers playing make believe, some by choice and others have just been dragged into it.  It has it's boring moments, it's dumb moments and it's good moments which are mostly near the end.
        I almost didn't get past the first three episodes, but there was some part of me that really wanted to see what all the hype was about so I kept on...and on...and on... It was episode 7 when the show actually started to become less of a chore to watch.  When the group goes to Rikka's grandparents house and everything is really "revealed".
        Of course it's another, her father died and she is refusing to accept this type of story. Trying to stay in her little fantasy land so that she doesn't have to face the fact that her dad is truly dead.  Eventually with Yuuta's help she finally accepts reality and attempts to become a "normal" teenager, but really... that Rikka is more boring than the first half of the show was.
        In the end she returns to her delusional thinking, but this time in a little healthier of manner. This time it's not to run and hide from the real world,but to just have fun with her friends.




Who we have....


Yuuta Togashi-  Not really an original character, as with most main males in these types of show he's sort of just dragged along for the ride by his eventual love interest Rikka.  He'd actually be more interesting if he kept himself in the "Dark Flame Master" mode.


Rikka Takanashi- She's the nucleus of the show, she's the thing that brings all the rest of the crazies together.  There's really nothing special about her in terms of main characters, bad stuff happened to her in the past and now she's in denial.  Sure, her method of denial is a bit unusual... making up her own fantasy world and being in a constant state of Role Play; but in the end she's just another female that accepts her life and slowly finds love.


Makoto Isshiki-   Yuuta's best friend, the main male needs a dumb male to be his friend. Maybe to make him look better, I don't know. He's always getting caught by the girls doing things he ought not. Guess he's sort of comic relief...  He develops a crush on Kumin after joining Rikka's club fairly late in the game.



Sanae Dekomori-   The hyper girl, she's Rikka's friend and "Servant" she will always serve her or at least take her place.   She's younger then the rest of the group, still in middle school. Incredibly smart for being a Chunibyo though, she's top of her class.  She might just be the most insane of the party, using her pigtails for weapons which she has dubbed "Mjolnir".   Thor anyone? Heh.







Shinka Nibutani-  The hot girl trying to hide her past. In middle school Shinka, like Yuuta had an "Alter Ego" of sorts.  She was  "Forest Summer", and had a blog online.. a blog that Dekomori followed and even printed out blurbs from it and sort of made it into a tome.
       When Shinka finds out that Dekomori has her terrible past in print she decides to join the Club to hopefully destroy it once and for all.  Dekomori of course doesn't believe she Shinka is really Forest Summer and the two of them are almost constantly fighting....but not in public.
       Shinka's personality is completely different to the rest of the school, she quiet, polite and nice. The popular girl.













Kumin Tsuyuri-  Granted, she's sort of the boring character, but I really liked Kumin. Being a year or two ahead of the rest of the group she's the calm, sweet, light girl.  At first she was attempting to form a Club for Sleeping, the thing she likes to do the most. This of course didn't work to well so she was recruited by Rikka into the Far Eastern Magic Society.
        She really enjoys touching Makoto's bald head, who doesn't seem to mind..


Tooka Takanashi-   Rikka's sister, she's the "Priestess of the Deep Horizon".  Rikka believes her to be her enemy and the two of them "fight" quite often.  A ladle is Tooka's weapon and she's quite good at this "fighting" thing.
           Anyways, in the real world aspect Rikka lives with her sister who tends to be at work a lot as a cook. Tooka also likes to push Yuuta into helping Rikka with stuff.... she may have been the first to notice the two of thems relationship growing past more than friends.






Monday, June 1, 2015

Back to Business.





    It's June 1st, I've been having a terrible time keeping this thing going for the past.... 5 Months.  Have an Anime and Video Game Review backlog a mile long and I am a bit overwhelmed.  Really do need a shorter way to do these things, but long enough for me to remember stuff about the shows/games.
       
    I'll get on that, I want to be caught up in the next few days... but yea...I guess it's writers block. Can that even happen when a person isn't a good writer to begin with? Heh.  Oh well...



    I'll start up with my spending now that it's June, I'll just do a bulk post with no money amounts for all the stuff I got from whenever the last spending post was.