天下制覇

Very little of this post is about the show.

Pseudo Impressions:

Apparently "Doofus has the sniffles" was such an important event that it needed to be split across two episodes. And they used the entire first half in a goddamned flashback about Gin, who is already boring enough. So instead, I think I’ll ramble about some other stuff, mostly games, both just released and upcoming.

First off, recently released things. I mentioned Alicetale previously, but I was mostly just talking about the game engine itself. Out of boredom one evening, I actually bothered to read through part of the trial and that successfully killed any enthusiasm I had. It was painfully generic, strung out, cliche, and the protagonist made me want to strangle him. The obligatory "Waking up and accidentally groping a female" went on for what felt like at least 100 lines. A hundred goddamned lines of him staring in confusion with his hand on Cinderella’s breast.

There’s also Sengoku Hime 4 released recently, but since I haven’t played 1-3, they don’t have the best of reputations, and the last I checked, it had no demo, I’ve kind of been putting it out of my mind. It’s on the backburner somewhere in case I get bored.

In the upcoming world that are still mostly enigmas, there’s Starlight’s Resonance, Pastel Chime 3, and Eushully’s obnoxiously titled upcoming RTS. The first’s lack of information is especially strange since they released the world’s blandest trial for it. Apparently it’s some kind of action game, but if they put half as much effort into making it as empty of content as the trial was, then fantastic. I don’t have much faith in Alicesoft lately, and Pastel Chime isn’t exactly one of their blockbuster series either. Eushully’s Eushully. I’m just hoping it’s a very… VERY small scale RTS like on the levels of Ogre Battle or something similar. I don’t think I’d trust them to be able to balance and code something beyond that.

Finally, a couple games that do have trials for and I’m actually kind of looking forward to, Gears of Dragoon, and Material Brave Ignition. The former’s trial was kind of hilariously lame. Pick a party, pick the level you want your party to be, pick what monster you want to fight. QED. It’s still kind of a mess of gigantic menus and poor combat flow. Ninetails is an interesting company though. Their last game wasn’t stellar, but both their two before it are quite impressive. Hopefully they can tweak this one’s interface to be a little less cumbersome, although I’ve never been a great fan of the first person dungeon crawler. I have the directional and mental mapping abilities of a toaster oven.

Ignition on the other hand, is Material Brave’s expansion/successor, doing a massive overhaul on the entire game and bringing in Duel Savior’s writer to add, I believe, character routes. Yeah, that’s also one of the reasons I put off trying out MB as long as I have. This trial was a lot more fun than the original one though. More enemies for more chaotic fights, zoom things out so the dangly sprites look better, added supers and extra mechanics (which I mostly ignored/mashed anyway since Duel Savior controls apparently do not work). I won’t say I’m excited for it, but this game looks like something a hell of a lot more fun than what they released half a year ago. Also, the new OP for it is full of pornography.

Oh, and the Shining Hearts DVD specials remain infinitely more amusing that the show ever was. And more amusing than most of the comedies this season. Seacrest out!