Madman Entertainment’s June 2017 anime releases are now available for pre-order. Additionally, Madman’s April 2017 anime releases will be available in stores across Australia in just two days.
The following titles are scheduled for release on June 7, 2017:
Actually, I Am… on DVD. All 13 episodes will be presented with Japanese audio and English subtitles.
Aria the Scarlet Ammo Aa (Season 2) on DVD and Blu-ray. All 12 episodes will be presented with dual audio options and English subtitles.
Bleach Complete Series on DVD. All episodes will be presented with dual audio options and English subtitles. The textless opening and ending animation sequences, a production art gallery, Bleach game trailer and omake featurettes will be included as on-disc extras.
Charlotte Volume 1 on DVD and Blu-ray. Episodes 1-7 will be presented with dual audio options and English subtitles. The web trailers and textless ending animation will be included as on-disc extras. The product page for the Blu-ray edition also lists an extra titled “Beginning of a New Destiny”.
Dagashi Kashi Complete Series on DVD. All 12 episodes will be presented with dual audio options and English subtitles.
Dragon Ball Z Kai: The Final Chapter Part 1 on DVD and Blu-ray. Episodes 1-23 will be presented with dual audio options and English subtitles.
Heavy Object Part 2 on DVD. Episodes 13-24 will be presented with dual audio options and English subtitles. Commentary for episode 23 and the textless opening and ending animation sequences will be included as on-disc extras.
K’ the Movie: Missing Kings on DVD and Blu-ray. The movie will be presented with dual audio options and English subtitles.
Luck & Logic Complete Series on DVD. All 12 episodes will be presented with dual audio options and English subtitles.
Naruto Shippuden Collection 30 on DVD. Episode 375-387 will be presented with dual audio options and English subtitles.
One Punch Man Complete Season 1 on DVD and Blu-ray and in a DVD and Blu-ray combo pack. All 12 episodes will be presented with dual audio options and English subtitles.
Parasyte Movie Collection (Live-Action) on DVD. The two films will be presented with Japanese audio and English subtitles.
Prince of Stride Alternative Complete Series on DVD. All 12 episodes will be presented with dual audio options and English subtitles.
Robotics;Notes Complete Series on Blu-Ray. All 22 episodes will be presented with dual audio options and English subtitles. The on-disc extras will include: “Science Adventure Series Interview” Parts 1 and 2, the U.S. trailer, actor commentaries and the textless opening and ending animation sequences.
Sailor Moon R: The Movie on DVD. The film will be presented with dual audio options and English subtitles.
Snow White with the Red Hair Complete Season 2 on DVD and Blu-ray. Episodes 13-24 will be presented with dual audio options and English subtitles. The current product details do not suggest that the OVA episode will be included. A review of the complete first season of this series can be read here.
Steins;Gate the Movie: Load Region of Déjà Vu on DVD and Blu-ray. The film will be presented with dual audio options and English subtitles.
Valkyrie Drive: Mermaid Complete Series on DVD. All 12 episodes will be presented with dual audio options and English subtitles.
Yu-Gi-Oh: The Dark Side of Dimensions on DVD. The film will be presented with English audio only. The theatrical trailers will be included as on-disc extras.
Horizon Zero Dawn instantly peaked my interest when it debuted at E3 2015. A post-post apocalyptic open world game with robot dinosaurs as the main enemy, how could anyone not be interested in that? Horizon Zero Dawn continued to receive great looking trailers and even though the ambitious project was delayed multiple times, it was thankfully not cancelled unlike another new IP I was looking forward to (here’s to you Scalebound). Marking developer Guerrilla Games first departure from the First Person Shooter genre, was Horizon Zero Dawn a risk worth taking for the development studio? I firmly believe it was.
Story
From the first hour Horizon Zero Dawn‘s story presents many mysteries on both a personal and larger scale. Who is Aloy’s mother? Why are her and her adoptive father Rost shunned? Why has society reformed to tribe living? What caused the destruction of the world we know today? These questions all receive satisfying answers at some point or another while new inquests arise alongside some interesting characters that will keep you on your toes. Horizon has a decently lengthy narrative (at around 35 hours give or take) and the story manages to continue pumping along with major plot points for its entirety, delivering some worthwhile emotional payoff.
The main story is largely presented through cutscenes however the narrative presents itself in a number of various ways. A person might be telling a story and you can either listen or walk on by. Items around the world are littered with diary entries and other random notes from the world past, helping paint a picture of what the world was like before (literally in some cases as some collectibles overlay parts of the world with what it looked like at the time). Crumbling buildings, rusted car shells and tanks and other remnants of a generation long gone all contribute to the believable fantasy world that has been constructed.
The character of Aloy is complex, fast thinking and likable. The ability to shape how some interactions play out by being aggressive, smart or compassionate allow you some control in how you craft Aloy’s personality, with some of your actions having minor consequences in dialogue and events at future moments in the story. Other characters around her obviously don’t get as much development as our lead protagonist, but are well fleshed out, developing personalities and motivations of their own that can often be expanded upon if the player wants to engage them in additional conversations. A small detail that deserves a nod is that some dialogue during cutscenes for main story quests will reference side quests (and vice versa) depending on your progress on those missions. While only a couple of different lines from what I imagine would have been said, this makes the characters feel much more human rather than just another NPC.
Side quests are plentiful and unique, each coming with their own mini story that often stands alone from the main narrative or only has loose ties to it. Personally I found this unfortunate as it left me feeling disengaged and the characters you help really don’t matter in the grand scheme of things, ultimately being forgotten which is strange as the game often goes decent lengths to give that character a personality and backstory. Luckily the rewards are bountiful for completing them and many of the side quests don’t overstay their welcome, being done with fairly quickly. Apart from the Trial side quests (easily my favourite to complete), many of the missions do just equate to find this person or retrieve this. While a few missions do branch out slightly beyond those premises, more variety in the tasks you are given would have been appreciated. Fortunately this is somewhat mitigated by the other objectives you can complete like the collectibles, mini dungeons and bandit camps
Gameplay
Horizon Zero Dawn doesn’t do much too reinvent the wheel in terms of open world gaming, instead relying on doing all of those tropes perfectly with some of it’s own unique aesthetics, story and combat to differentiate itself from what has come before it. Most of your time will be spent following way points, exploring for yourself or engaging in combat and all of those aspects are handled excellently. Aloy controls perfectly with a good weight and feel to her actions as she runs, jumps, slides and crouches through the world all at a nice speed and without a stamina bar to hold her back. Even climbing is fast and fun in Horizon and I normally despise climbing in video games. Traversing this full, varied world is a real joy and the abundance of objects to loot to keep up your inventory stocks never makes a journey feel meaningless. If you do find yourself wanting to get to places quickly you can fast travel to any past campfires you have discovered.
Combat, particularly of the ranged variety, is equally fun and engaging with many different types of enemies and ways to take them out. Stealth, tactical or full-on assault are all options in most scenarios allowing you to play how you like. There were some corrupted zones where I felt like I was playing a Batman Arkham game, stealthily making my way around setting up heaps of traps before causing a ruckus and letting explosions and electricity rain down on the enemy. In some bandit camps I would be forced to go in guns blazing as a watcher would spot me leading to an onslaught of angry tribesman rushing me from both close and a far and Aloy performing dodge rolls like she’s in the circus. Close combat gets the job done but is very basic, with only a light combo and single heavy staff attack at your disposal, the heavy attack in particular being especially damaging to small machines and humans, arguably too powerful. It’s obvious the focus was on range combat with Horizon.
So it’s a good thing ranged combat is handled excellently. There is much more variety here with bows, slingshots, trip-casters and rope-casters are you main weapons, each with a few weapon sub types (e.g. hunter bow, long range bow) to mix things up further. You have a number of other traps you can lay and there are many ammo types with different elemental affinities, all of which are effective in different situations. The rope-caster gets my personal nod for favourite weapon as tying a gigantic robot down is incredibly satisfying and is a weapon I haven’t seen in any other game before. Movement and combat all feel natural and are mapped well to the DualShock 4 Controller. 99% of my deaths were my own fault although I do question some deaths I suffered from fall damage.
Combat would be nothing without enemies to fight and Horizon brings a good variety of challenging opponents for you to deal with, from small robotic velociraptors to more boss like creatures that you’re going to have to work hard to take down. Each robot has a unique set of attack patterns and weak points, meaning you’ll get better with dealing with them as you spend time fighting them in game which is what a good game allows you to do. The first time you challenge these beasts in battle really feels awesome. The help of your focus, which works kind of like Batman’s detective vision, allows you to see enemy weak points, effective ammo types and various points of interest. There was one point where Aloy and hunters from another tribe were essentially in a skirmish against four or five machines all engaging in combat, it was one of those gaming moments where I just sit back and say ‘whoa, this is awesome’.
Much less interesting in terms of design but still a challenge are the human enemies. These guys are fairly standard run of the mill foes and even the heavy units aren’t too hard to take down outside of taking a few extra arrows before they hit the dirt. The AI is fairly basic and it’s not too hard to hide behind an area you know the enemies won’t go to and slowly pick them off one by one. Make too many mistakes though and you’ll be the one in trouble as they can swarm you to put a quick end to your life meter. My biggest oddity with the human enemies are that the focus shows Aloy their predetermined walking paths just like the machines which I found very odd considering a human wouldn’t be programmed to walk a certain route like the machines would. No matter who your opponent though combat is a blast and offers a great, well paced challenge (at least on the ‘hard’ difficulty which I played with on my play-through). If the game ever gets too hard or too easy you can change the setting at any time in the games menu.
Horizon also employs some basic RPG elements that while simple, do enhance the gameplay and give the player a little more involvement in growth and strategy. You gain experience and level up which mostly awards you with some extra hit points and a skill point which you may use in the skill tree system. Again the offering here is basic and similar to many games before it, but I can’t deny it was fun deciding where to spend my points and it does grant some nice extra abilities and quirks which range from more options in combat to other bonuses such as faster healing and the ability to call mounts.
Another big part of the game is crafting and I was relieved to see it doesn’t get in the way of the action in Horizon, instead supplementing it rather well. Aloy can craft ammo in seconds, even in the heat of battle, while other items require you to make a quick trip to the menu which is easy to navigate (although I don’t see the need for a separate crafting tab that’s identical to the inventory tab). Weapons and outfits can also be enhanced with different resistances and strengths by equipping coils. On a related note, the game economy is very fair and I never felt too rich or too poor if I managed my inventory and currency correctly. The RPG components employed here do a great job in contributing to Horizon‘s exploration and combat.
Graphics
In terms of a game with realistic styled graphics I would say Horizon currently wears the crown for greatest looking game on the PlayStation 4 system. Detailed character models, incredible looking foliage, dynamic weather, natural looking cliff faces and realistic lighting and shadows. In some sort of technical wizardry the game manages to run at a stable 30 frames per second that almost never dips. My play-through was entirely completed on an original model PS4 with a normal full HD TV, so those who have access to a PS4 Pro and a 4K display should be in for a real treat with HDR and an increased resolution. Just look at these in game screenshots I was able to capture, all in game, no filters applied. They still look amazing even though the PS4 screenshot function is known to reduce quality.
Apart from the graphics themselves, the design work put into every aspect of this games world is just as masterful. Every robot design, character design, the outfits, the villages and the lush and varied world itself, not only does everything look fantastic but nearly every aspect of it serves the gameplay in some form or another. From yellow natural objects indicating climbable surfaces to all the individual components of a robot that can be shot off to limit a robots attack functions, this game is a masterclass in game design, visuals and performance.
Lastly the animations, particularly for Aloy and the robot enemies are again very high level. I was impressed to see Aloy shimmy down steep slopes (with in game commentary from Aloy to boot) and steeds react naturally to jumps and cliff edges. She also reacts to the environment very well with barely any clipping issues or times where I couldn’t fit through a large enough gap due to poor hit detection. Watching the robots engage in combat is a sight to behold as they lunge, shoot, ram, pounce and blast you all in unique ways. Big props to Guerrilla Games for the presentation here, Horizon Zero Dawn truly feels ‘next generation’.
Audio
Just as impressive as the visuals, the sound design is another masterpiece. The music is typically sparse and quiet when traveling like in many open world games but this just makes the soundtrack stronger when it is utilised. The music used is impactful and stirs emotion, bringing appropriate feelings during story beats and causing tension in combat. The games powerful main theme permeates through a lot of the games music in one way or another, giving the soundtrack a strong connected feel and sense of theme. The intensity of the music really amps up important story moments and combat situations alike and I love how it goes from quiet when you’re sneaking around enemies to intense as soon as you engage them or are spotted.
Even more impressive than the music is the sound design. This is a fully realised world and the sound is a big part of that. One of my favourite experiences so far was when a very convincing sounding rain storm had just let up and then I heard this loud booming thunder sound effect. I thought the rain had let up to make way for thunder but to my surprise it was a giant robotic Tallneck (think a Brontosaurus) stomping around about 200 meters away. The sound also does a great job assisting gameplay, whether it be hearing an animal or machine that’s close-by but out of sight or letting you know when you’ve landed a clean shot or an enemy, the sound just comes together in a truly perfect way. Combat in particular feels incredibly satisfying, especially when you down a big machine and hear it’s robotic parts glitch out as it hits the ground in defeat with a giant thud. It should be noted the quality and mastering of the sound is equally high level.
The only very slight letdown for me was some of the voice work. 90% of it is great, Aloy’s voice actress does a very convincing job so no quarrels there. Most of the more occurring characters are great as well, but every now and then there will be an awkward performance from a side quest character that kind of reminds you you’re playing a game and there’s someone behind that microphone that just wasn’t very good at their job. In the whole scheme of the audio this is only a small blemish on an otherwise perfectly presented game.
Overall
Horizon Zero Dawn is an excellent addition to Sony’s slowly growing list of first party exclusives. A well polished open world adventure with a unique premise, main character and enemies presented gorgeously with almost no performance issues to speak of. Throw in a compelling narrative set in one of the most beautiful and natural maps to date and Guerrilla Games have proven they can make an excellent experience outside of the First Person Shooter genre. The game isn’t perfect but it’s close to it, with most of my complaints being very minor in comparison to the amount of fun I had in this beautiful world. If you generally love PlayStation exclusives or have any interest in this game at all it’s definitely worth your time.
Machamp signed as face of exclusive new spring underwear campaign ‘MaChamps’
The first Pokémon to officially score a high-profile modelling contract, Machamp is now being touted as the style icon of the century.
April 1, London, United Kingdom
IT’S OFFICIAL: Spring 2017 is here, and with each passing season come the hottest new fashion and couture. It looks like this season is set to be the most iconic yet, as the Superpower Pokémon Machamp has now officially been confirmed as the face of this year’s hottest underwear campaign, “MaChamps”. The campaign is already breaking records, as Machamp is now recognised as the first Pokémon to break the mould and land a high-profile modelling contract.
Inspired by Machamp’s own markings and the essence of nature, the campaign aims to take the concept of undergarments back to basics whilst challenging everything we thought we knew about underwear. Elegant, casual, stylish and functional, “MaChamps” will showcase something for everyone’s personal taste.
Avril Fürst, newly appointed VP of Underwear at The Pokémon Company International, commented, “It is great to see such an inspirational Pokémon like Machamp headlining what some are calling the fashion campaign of our generation. We can’t wait to see Machamp slaying the runway across the world at some of this year’s highest-profile fashion events. Machamp truly deserves recognition in the style hall of fame, and this campaign will highlight that incredible talent to a global audience.”
More details regarding the “MaChamps” campaign are expected to be revealed throughout the month at key fashion showcases, so make sure to keep a look out!
Ghost in the Shell is one of the seminal works of the cyberpunk genre as well as a classic of the cinematic medium. Its popularity has had lasting appeal with the film launching a few sequels, spin-off television series, and video games. I myself am a fan of the original film and the first television series, Stand Alone Complex, but I haven’t kept up to date with the franchise in its many, many iterations. I was optimistic about this new remake and I was excited at the prospect of seeing Hollywood do a live action version of this classic. I was willing to give the film a fair chance to win me over and so I went into the screening with an earnest desire to be impressed.
Story
The film’s narrative focuses upon ‘the Colonel’ (Scarlett Johansson) and the exploits of Section 9, a counter-terrorist group working in the near-future setting of this film. The Colonel must make use of a fully prosthetic body due to her human body being mangled beyond its ability to sustain her. Despite the best effort of her teammate, Batou (Pilou Asbæk), she feels a disconnect between her current existence. As section 9 investigates the actions of a cybercriminal called Kuze (Michael Pitt), she begins to learn things which completely shock her previous understanding of the world, who she is, and her place in it.
The first thing you’ll notice right out the gate is that the film has some of the most heavy-handed dialogue I have ever heard. “On the nose” cannot adequately describe the target that the writers painted on the nasal member of this film’s script which dwarfs even the monstrous organ of Cyrano. Pretty much every detail in this plot is clearly spelled out for the audience with little to no subtext left for any nuance to the characters. It’s what I would expect from a primary school stage play, not a million-dollar international production. It is a disservice to the original source material and a disservice to the art of writing itself.
Throughout the manga and the anime serial, the Major has gone through several iterations in regards to her personality and general characterisation. We aren’t given too much of her backstory and what we do learn of her we gain through the perspectives of the characters around her rather than through her directly. In effect, this allows the Major to be somewhat of a Tabula Rasa for the audience to project themselves. Generally, this isn’t too much of a problem because the anime series and films generally give her an interesting plot to explore in the setting which showcases some aspect of the world or a plot which makes up for this lack of detail in our protagonist. Unfortunately, the film attempts to make this lack of detail about the Major’s personality by making it the literal focus of the story itself.
This essentially kneecaps the story from the outset as stories of self-discovery at least need to feature a protagonist which is worth discovering things about. The writers gave no personality whatsoever to the Major which means that Johansen’s performance has nothing to cling on. Her personality comes across as wooden and robotic but less like a replicant in Blade Runner and more like a battle droid from the Star Wars prequels. I’ve seen other publications praise her performance in this film but, honestly, I am not sure there is anything to praise to begin with. I could see that she was putting in effort to give the Colonel some semblance of persona but gorram, there was just nothing there for her to play with.
Besides the protagonist character from the series experiencing a complete scrubbing of any distinguishing features, the rest of the film is given a very similar treatment. Instead of focusing upon one or two characters and developing them in interesting ways or developing a plot which is itself interesting, the film opts to overreach and give a whole lot of bland characters doing bland things. Essentially, I could pick out the plot threads of at least a couple of episodes of the Ghost in the Shell series, so I know for a fact that the writers are at least aware of the anime source material, but they should have picked one of these narratives and structured the film around that. The story ends up becoming homogenised, generic, Hollywood action junk with characters and dialogue to match.
Visuals & Audio
The visual design draws heavily upon the original anime and other seminal works of the cyberpunk genre. You can clearly see elements of films like Blade Runner and Robocop in the film’s visual direction and its depiction of the grime and urban decay of the futuristic urban environment. They’re gorgeous, don’t get me wrong, but I just found them to be uninspired when compared to the original works that inspired them… even if those works were in turn originally inspired by the original Ghost in the Shell film.
The action scenes themselves, which one would hope to the saving grace of a film which decided to forego the intellectual of its source material, all feel rather underwhelming. The film has a pervasive habit of engaging in these extensive action showcases without doing much to show us the action itself. It too often cuts away or obscures it with smoke or shadow so we end up with little sense of space or perspective on these movements to give us a better grounding as we watch it unfold.
The soundtrack, which was a ground-breaking piece of cinema scoring, falls largely flat here. It does the job of punctuating the film’s emotional arcs well enough but doesn’t do much beyond that. It’s suitably cyberpunk with plenty of synths to match the tech noir setting but there’s nothing that particularly stands out. What made the original’s soundtrack stand out was its strange mix of so many eclectic sounds ranging from traditional folk music to things a bit more industrial.
Overall
I had at least hoped that the film would be an interesting and intellectually engaging considering the source material it draws upon but, ultimately, my companion for the evening and I left the cinema largely unimpressed. The story we threadbare and unengaging on pretty much every level. The visuals were gorgeous at least but the action set pieces were very much a disappointment. The soundtrack largely works but doesn’t leave much of an impression. I feel like the film production decided to tone things down to help give the film a wider audience but, unfortunately, they went too far and now we’re left with another bland home brand Hollywood action film. This film finds itself in the unusual position of being technically proficient enough that it’s not bad but generic enough to not be good on its own merits. Overall, I cannot recommend this film to either fans of the anime or to newcomers fresh on the scene. Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Mad Catz delisted themselves from the New York Stock Exchange today and declared that the company is filing for bankruptcy. Pricewaterhouse Coopers has been appointed as trustee of Mad Catz assets during the liquidation process. The news is a disappointment for fans of Mad Catz’ arcade fight sticks that has garnered a dedicated fan base in the competitive fighting game circuit.
The news should not come as too much of a shock. The company has struggled in recent years as they tried to shake off a poor reputation from making low quality third party controllers in the 1990s and early 2000s. Mad Catz attempted to move into the high end gaming accessory market with the purchase of the Saitek brand, the introduction of the RAT line of PC gaming accessories, the release of the arcade style fight sticks, and the company’s partnership with Harmonix for Rock Band peripherals. The writing was on the wall when Mad Catz sold the Saitek brand to Logitech for $13 million USD last year. It looks like the cash infusion was not enough to save Mad Catz.
LONDON – March 31, 2017 –SEGA® Europe Ltd. today announced the next game in the best-selling Total War: WARHAMMER trilogy. Total War: WARHAMMER II will be the second release in an ongoing partnership between globally-acclaimed developer Creative Assembly™ and Games Workshop®, creators of the world-renowned Warhammer® Fantasy Battles tabletop wargame and miniatures.
Total War: WARHAMMER II unveils the mystery-shrouded continents far to the west of The Old World. Featuring four iconic new races from the Warhammer Fantasy Battles world – the High Elves, Dark Elves, Lizardmen, and a fourth yet to be revealed – players will battle across enchanted isles, bleak hinterlands, treacherous swamps, and perilous jungles.
In a Total War campaign like no other, players will struggle for dominion over the ailing Great Vortex that has swirled for millennia above the elven homeland of Ulthuan. Performing a series of arcane rituals, each race must save or disrupt the Vortex according to their motivations – a struggle culminating in a cataclysmic endgame. Territorial conquest is no longer enough… this is a race for control that will define the fate of the world!
Total War: WARHAMMER II will offer hundreds of hours of immersive gameplay in this epic new campaign. Furthermore, a huge combined campaign map featuring the old and new world regions will be available for free shortly after release to players who own both Total War: WARHAMMER I & II.
“Total War: WARHAMMER II represents the next step in our trilogy, our vision for the most incredible fantasy strategy series ever made,” said Game Director, Ian Roxburgh. “The success of the first game has increased our ambition; we’re not only going to deliver a thrilling campaign in the sequel, but also an additional combined campaign, the biggest so far, for owners of both.”
“We’re thrilled to see the sequel to last year’s smash hit Total War: Warhammer coming later this year.” Said Jon Gillard, Head of Licensing at Games Workshop. “Sega and The Creative Assembly continue to astound us with their ability in crafting the Warhammer Fantasy Battles world in further glorious pageantry, with races never realised on this scale before in a video game. We are proud to be in partnership with them on this next great step in the franchise.”
Total War™: WARHAMMER® II for PC will be available in 2017, watch the announce trailer here.
For the latest news about this title and other Total War games in development, visit www.totalwar.com and follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Subscribe to Total War’s YouTube Channel for future news about gameplay videos.
LKA.it and Wired Productions Unveil “Renée Unmasked” Video for First-Person Psychological Thriller, The Town of Light
Get a Deeper Look into a Solemn yet Striking Story of Mental Illness, Headed to PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows PC this Spring
To set the tone for the upcoming console debut of The Town of Light this spring, developer LKA.it and publisher Wired Productions are pleased to share an insider look at the protagonist of the chilling, historically-inspired and story-driven thriller set in a real (now abandoned) mental asylum in Tuscany, Italy. In the video titled Renée Unmasked, Studio Head at LKA.it Luca Dalcò recounts the backstory of Renée, a 16-year-old girl condemned to a life of suffering, as he touches on the character’s creation, the game’s themes of mental illness, and the studio’s desire to bring a sensitive subject and a dark chapter of history to light using a medium in which these topics are rarely explored.
About The Town of Light
Set in the Volterra Psychiatric Asylum – a former mental treatment facility based in Tuscany, Italy – The Town of Light is based on extensive research and inspired by first-hand accounts of the asylum’s patients. Played through the fictional eyes of Renée, a 16-year-old girl who suffers from the symptoms of mental illness, players must search for answers to the many questions from Renée’s past while exploring and uncovering the place where she spent most of her youth. What happens next is a dark and emotional journey where the lines of interactive entertainment, storytelling, and reality frequently tend to blur.
An enhanced edition of the original, this new release of the first-person psychological thriller will offer new puzzles, additional story elements, reworked voiceover dialogue, more interactive elements and a huge graphical and UI overhaul that aims to deliver a more polished and immersive experience for its console and retail debut on PlayStation®4 and Xbox One this spring. Existing owners of the digital Windows PC version will receive this update free of charge. The Town of Light has been rated “M for Mature” by the ESRB.
Trailer/video may only be displayed if it is behind an age-gate that: (1) is age-neutral (i.e., requires the user to input their date of birth or select it from a drop-down bar); (2) employs reasonable technical measures to keep underage users from re-entering their age after initially being denied access; and (3) does not display any ESRB rating information on the video player or the age-gate itself. Failure to implement these requirements may jeopardize your ability to obtain material of this nature from us in the future.
Bethesda Softworks and Arkane Studios have released a brand new trailer for Prey that they focus on the Neuromod Research Division and highlight the Neural Modifier, commonly called the Neuromod. This device allows players to use various super human abilities that allow for special abilities such as telekinesis, enhancing their strength, speed, and hacking, and even allowing for players to launch detonating blasts.
Check out the full video below where various abilities are shown off against the Typhon aliens that the player will fight against and be sure to keep an eye out for Prey when it is released on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on May 5th.
Telltale Games has announced that they are planning on releasing the first episode of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series, titled Tangled up in Blue, on April 18th where it will be available for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, Mac, iOS, and Android where it will be priced at $4.99. The company also announced that they will be releasing the Season Pass Disc for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on May 2nd for $29.99 with the disc containing the first episode and will grant access to the four following episodes as online updates.
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series tells a new story featuring Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax, Rocket, and Groot where in the wake of an epic battle the Guardians discover an artifact of unspeakable power. Each of them has a reason to desire this relic, as does a ruthless enemy who is the last of her kind, and who will stop at nothing to tear it from their hands.
After Kenji Fujikido’s wife and daughter are killed by Darkninja of the Soukai Syndicate, he vows to get revenge on Darkninja and the Soukaiya. He meets a mysterious ninja soul called Naraku Ninja in his mind, one of many ninja souls in this world. Naraku Ninja wants to kill all of the evil ninja, and attempts to take over his body to fulfill this desire. As their minds merge, Kenji becomes Ninja Slayer. Soon afterwards, he meets a ‘journalist’ named Nancy Lee who wants to uncover the truth about what exactly is going on in Neo-Saitama. She has the ability to enter the digital world with her mind, using her brain as a virtual reality conduit so that she can hack into computer mainframes. In the meantime, a young girl named Koki Yamato merges with the Shi Ninja soul moments before she would have been brutally murdered by gangsters, and begins to lead a whole new life. Holding a ninja soul in one’s mind is no easy task, however, and it proves challenging for all.
Story
Ninja Slayer initially comes across as a parody of American interpretations of Asian action films, right down to the excessive use and over-emphasised pronunciation of the word ‘ninja’. This seems to be intentional, based on the story’s fictional back-story. The first half of the series, as well as the short story collection in episode 25, provides so much nonsensical action and violence that it would be easy to assume that the entire series is meant to be considered an excessive albeit repetitive parody. There is a plot deeper than something as simple as ‘honourable man seeks revenge on yakuza ninja’, though, and it comes to the forefront of the action as the series progresses. Some of the things occurring in the background include: yakuza ninja being cloned in an underground factory, the leader of the Soukai Syndicate running for public office despite his lack of political credentials and a young girl trying to stay alive after she has to give her old life up. These subplots are all tied together, and they provide a necessary element of engagement in a series that might otherwise have been better off as a 90-minute comedy film.
Ninja Slayer is not original, but that does not matter because of the way each of its story elements are used and combined. Introducing a cyberpunk element into a plot about yakuza ninja allows the writers to have Ninja Slayer fight high-ranking Soukaiya members while Nancy tries to steal data from them, and they are depicted working as a members of a team that need each other’s help. This helps a parody of twentieth century violent action-oriented OVAs enter a futuristic technological era. It would be hard to enjoy this series as much if it were entirely serious, but considered as a parody, it can be very entertaining.
Your individual ability to find Ninja Slayer engaging depends on what genre(s) of film and television you most enjoy watching. If crazy action caused by a desire to enact revenge on a bad guy is enough for you, then this may be one of the best anime adaptations you will ever see. If this kind of Protagonist vs. Yakuza plot does not interest you, then you may alternatively enjoy this as a throwback to the violent anime series you might have discovered in the 1990s. If neither crazy action nor parody are enough for you, then you may fall completely outside of the assumed target demographic of this series and may find Naruto a better alternative as a more serious series about ninjas. Even though the story comes to the forefront in the second half of the series, the action in the first half comes across as a repetitive, and the second half also does to a slightly lesser extent. A bad guy shows up and Ninja Slayer defeats him. It can seem a little aimless at times, and although several subplots are introduced, some of them do not seem to have much of a reason to be there. Few of these subplots are resolved by the end of these 26 episodes, giving the impression that the other characters are meant to face an ongoing battle. This lack of resolution outside of Ninja Slayer’s quest for vengeance is a little disappointing, even if it is because this is an anime adaptation and not the source material. If you ignore some of the subplots, you may enjoy spending six hours over a week or two to be an entertaining use of time.
Visuals
This is where things get a little unusual for those who are unfamiliar with Trigger’s other ONA (original net animation) series. Aside from being produced in the 4:3 aspect ratio until the final episode, the animation alternates between being smooth and being intentionally limited. Many scenes essentially feature shiny cardboard cutout characters moving across the screen. When they bow, their entire body moves. When they bleed, a giant stream of cheap-looking CG blood comes rushing out until the enemy explodes several times. Characters spin as if they were really in a Chinese action film, or perhaps even more unrealistically than that. It actually adds to the entertaining quality of this adaptation, even if it seems a little cheap. It might best be described with the phrase “it’s so bad it’s good.” Unfortunately, there is some over-the-top ‘fan-service’ present. Nancy Lee is often relegated to the role of damsel-in-distress, and is often shown being restrained by a monster or something else. This is unfortunately treated as some kind of joke, as shots of her screaming are repeatedly shown while something else is happening. Cutting away from the action is itself a terrible idea, but to see it done for such a despicable purpose is disappointing. Half of the female characters are rarely taken seriously by the production team, and are frequently seen from unflattering camera angles. All of that detracts from the otherwise entertaining nonsense.
Audio
Techno music and rock music are the two styles used, and the background music sounds really cool as a result. ‘Cool’ is not the most descriptive word that could have been used, but it does accurately represent the feeling that this adaptation gives off as an apparent parody of ‘80s and ‘90s OVAs. The opening and ending theme songs are great too; the opening theme song is catchy but has confusing ‘English’ lyrics. There is a new song with each new end-credits sequence, and most of them are rather catchy, although they are unfortunately not subtitled. The English dub is also one of FUNimation’s better dubs; Japanese words used in the dub are either slightly mispronounced or clearly wrong, but the voice actors put in a lot of effort into making the dub as fun as it could possibly be. It seems as if the producers of this adaptation and the English dub team wanted the words ‘cool’ and ‘awesome’ to be the best words to describe Ninja Slayer, and their efforts show.
Overall
Ninja Slayer seems like a one-trick pony at first, but it does not entirely fail to be entertaining. The frequent insane action and nonsense, combined with an over-the-top fun English dub, make this a great series to watch. It is best enjoyed one episode at a time, however, until stories start being stretched out across multiple episodes. One can hope that the style of animation does not catch on with the rest of the animation industry, but aside from the problems with female sexualisation, this anime adaptation sometimes stands out in a good way. Even before Trigger’s name is shown in the credits, it is easy to tell that this comes from the company responsible for the insane anime series Kill la Kill. Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
