With Sekai Project becoming a very familiar name for visual novel fans, it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that they have recently announced that they are now in the process of planning the localization for Alice in Dissonance’s fault milestone two on PC.
The company had just recently released the first milestone (episode) on Steam back on December 15th and although the first episode did have its faults, we mentioned that there is potential to be tapped in subsequent episodes so it will certainly be interesting to see how the story will go from here, especially since the image for fault milestone two, shown to the right, hints at an event near the end of milestone one. You can read our full review for fault milestone one here.
While fans of the series wait for fault milestone two, they can also keep an eye out for the eventual PS Vita and Android port for milestone one which was funded back during milestone one’s Kickstarter, though at the moment no exact release date for these ports have been announced.
If the name Sakura Angels sounds familiar and the artwork in the image above is reminiscent of another title recently released through Steam and other marketplaces, then you likely are familiar with Winged Cloud’s other work, Sakura Spirit.
If you happened to like that fox girl filled title then you’ll be happy to hear that Sekai Project is helping Winged Cloud once again by adding Sakura Angels toSteam Greenlight. Currently no release date nor price has been announced for Sakura Angels but a trailer and a story summary for the game can be found below. Once it is released, Sakura Angels will be available for PC, Mac, and Linux.
Two girls, blessed with magical powers, are faced with the task of saving the lonely protagonist from the clutches of a mysterious witch and ancient evil, sealed away long ago by his ancestors. What does this sorceress want from our protagonist? Find out more in Sakura Angels!
Those of you hoping that Sen no Kiseki, the most recent game in The Legend of Heroes series of titles, would be localized may have some hope. After finding that Corpse Party: Blood Drive’s domain name was registered by XSEED, the Marvelous USA forum users also found that the company had registered a domain name under TrailsofColdSteel.com which doesn’t directly fit the Sen no Kiseki title which translates roughly to Trails of the Flash.
This would mean however that XSEED would be skipping over a few other titles in The Legend of Heroes series, Zero no Kiseki (Trails of Zero, Ao no Kiseki (Trails of Blue), and Nayuta no Kiseki (Trails of Nayuta) but Sen no Kiseki is not only the most recently released title (2013), it was also released for the PS Vita and PS3, making it the most likely title of the bunch.
Of course, as this hasn’t been confirmed this may simply be XSEED covering its bases or a new title completely unrelated to the Legend of Heroes series.
All it takes is someone to scratch the surface of a discovery before they find much more beneath that and that seems to be the case with XSEED‘s domain registrations. The members of Marvelous USA’s forum have found that a domain called CorpsePartyBloodDrive.comhas been registered by XSEED and considering that is the exact name of the PS Vita continuation of the Corpse Party series that XSEED Games has localized two titles of so far, it isn’t too much of a stretch to assume that this means that Corpse Party: Blood Drive will be heading West.
Of course this could simply be the company covering its bases, but with the horror title released in Japan back in mid-July we can only keep an eye out for an announcement.
It seems that XSEED Games is kicking off the new year by registering some domain names and thanks to this we have some hints as to what they may be announcing soon. First found by members of Marvelous USA’s forum, one of the domains registered by the company is LordofMagna.comwhich is an extremely close fit to the strategy RPGForbidden Magna that was released in Japan back in October by Marvelous.
The potential for a name change is very understandable and since the director of the game, Masahide Miyata, has worked on the Rune Factory games, there is a very good chance that XSEED will be making some sort of announcement for the title this year.
You can check out the videos below where you will not only see Ein, Mora, Al Azif, Ruili, and Saya in action but also a number of the partner characters. Currently this fighting game is only scheduled to be released in Japanese arcades sometime next year, though the chances of an eventual Japanese console release are quite high.
Overview In the past year Sekai Project has earned themselves quite a reputation as being a company willing to not only bring English speaking fans some of the highest demanded visual novels through Kickstarter but also help release a number of smaller visual novels that may have otherwise been overlooked. One of these visual novels happens to be fault by ‘ALICE IN DISSONANCE.’ So now that milestone one (episode one) of fault has been released, is this visual novel worth beginning?
Story The Kingdom of Rughzenhaide has come under attack by an unknown force. As the people are slaughtered by unknown Shadow Warriors, a couple members of the commanding force reach the location where Rughzenhaide’s princess, Selphine, is supposed to be hidden away. Unfortunately for them, the Princess’ royal guard Ritona is an incredibly skilled fighter capable of wielding powerful manakravte (magic) and when it becomes apparent that they are at a disadvantage, Ritona uses a risky technique to teleport both Princess Selphine and herself away.
With no knowledge of who laid waste to the kingdom, Ritona and Selphine find themselves in an unknown land as something went wrong with Ritona’s teleportation. The only thing they do know is that this strange land’s manastreams are not only small, they are also extremely difficult to access. With difficult access to their battlekravte (combat magic) and in an unknown place, the two will need to find their way home, but first they must find out where they are and how they can manage to survive in a land where the people have turned to science to make up for the lack of their mana.
Now although the basis of the story is obviously set around Ritona and Selphine, the focus quickly begins to shift away from their plight. You see, while the visual novel follows the pair as they explore a close city, quickly learn the language, find out where they are, as well as obtain some local currency, the core plot focuses on a strange new girl calling herself Rune. Rune offers the pair help navigating the city and although she may not have any underhanded motives, there is much more to Rune than she lets on and players will quickly recognize this as the story unfolds over what becomes an interesting and enjoyable read that is hurt by a drawn out narrative that takes forever to explain simplistic terms and events and a lack of focus.
Considering this is the first “milestone” in the series, it is good that the writers chose to spend a decent amount of time building the world and explaining certain aspects of how manakravting works and the various illnesses and threats that Ritona and Selphine will need to watch out for. That being said the title already offers an encyclopedia of basic terms and almost everything that is introduced is explained to an unnecessary level. This problem is worsened by the fact that the writers have an issue keeping a set perspective.
The story isn’t told through the eyes of any specific character and shifts from third person to first person rather often as we read what a character is thinking. Unfortunately more often than not, the narrative jumps so quickly between these forms and doesn’t properly label who is even supposed to be talking. While this is easy to figure out, the writing lacks focus. In fact this lack of focus is all the more apparent when it comes to the main storyline of Ritona and Selphine.
Although the beginning of fault -milestone one- is handled well enough, the main focus of the story is instead on Rune, the mysterious girl who first assists the pair. In fact, outside of the very beginning and the very end of milestone one, Ritona and Selphine’s story and what is happening to their kingdom takes a complete backseat to Rune’s backstory and who she is.
To make matters worse, although the world is developed and explained nicely, the characters themselves are as standard as they come and very stereotypical. Neither of the two main characters are given any meaningful development nor are we given a reason to care about them other than the fact that their kingdom is destroyed and they are stranded somewhere. Rune’s story makes us care about her and I will say that the writers have done a great job handling her past, even if it feels like the whole issue is resolved in a rather simple manner in order to wrap up the milestone with a cliffhanger that tries to swing the main story back into focus.
Gameplay Now although fault -milestone one- is a visual novel, it is a kinetic visual novel which means that there are no real player choices or different routes to be taken. There is a very specific story to be told here so far and although there is one choice, the only thing that changes is a little bit of dialogue and nothing else. Instead players will simply click through the story as one would any other visual novel, though you can make use of simple features such as auto advance or skip if you’ve already read the dialogue before.
One thing that is lacking however is a way to hide the text box, which isn’t too much of an issue as all of the CG in the game can later be viewed in a gallery but it is something that is strangely omitted. It is worth noting that if you so wish; you can change the text from English to Japanese.
Visuals & Audio For the most part, fault -milestone one- features some nice looking character portraits with most of the main characters featuring multiple portraits for different emotions. That being said, there are a number of character portraits for side characters, albeit ones that show up often, that have oddly proportioned heads and other strange looking features. The CGs are nicely designed and so are the backgrounds, though it must also be said that since the players only visit a few areas in milestone one, you will be spending a lot of time looking at the same backgrounds.
It is worth noting that fault -milestone one- does not feature any sort of voice work, which generally isn’t an issue but in the case of this visual novel it does make most of the drawn out dialogue boring to read through. As far as the background music is concerned, there are a number of different tracks that are nicely varied and fitting when they appear. The title also features a nice and fitting opening theme called “Modus Operandi” by Midorizaka Aaya.
Overall fault -milestone one- is off to a fairly decent start here as the writers have managed to build up a rather fascinating world, now they just need to try and make readers care about what will happen next to Ritona and Selphine because at this point, the only reason we would have to care about them is because they are interacting with Rune. With character designs ranging from decent looking to odd and a nice soundtrack, there is some potential in fault but whether or not they will be able to take advantage of everything they spent so much time building up and focusing on is yet to be seen.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
After their successful Kickstartercampaign, Lighthouse Pictures will be releasing their video game documentary on January 1th, 2015.
World 1-1: The Pioneers covers the early days of video gaming, when arcades happily munched on the week’s allowances. Film makers Jeanette Garcia and Daryl Rodriguez interview some of the biggest names of the era, such as Nolan Bushnell, Al Alcorn, Dona Bailey, Warren Robinett, David Crane, Howard Scott Warshaw, Owen Rubin, Joe Decuir, Franz Lanzinger, and Steve Mayer.
World 1-1: The Pioneers will be released digitally on January 15th, 2015. No word what distribution services will be carrying the film and how much copies will cost. Learn more about the film at the official World 1-1 website.
The magical girl genre is something that many anime fans are familiar with. Anime fans who grew up in the 1990s in particular will almost definitely have seen at least one certain influential magical girl series. Even so, recent series in the genre do not garner the same amount of attention as they used to. Some manage to become mainstream viewing within the western anime community, but others remain obscure and known only to a small group of anime fans. Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya is one such series and therefore less likely to become as popular as a shounen series, but at the same time, it is a spin-off of the increasingly popular Fate/Stay Night series. Does this magical girl series have enough going for it to warrant a purchase, or is this series best left as a title for only dedicated fans of the Fate series to collect?
Story
Illyasviel von Einzbern is a fifth-grader who wonders what it would be like to be a magical girl. Somehow hearing her talk about this, the magical Kaleidostick Ruby becomes interested in her and eventually convinces Illya to become her master after leaving the mage Rin Tousaka. Illya agrees to help Rin find the five Class Cards that still need to be found, after some inappropriate name calling, and the Kaleidostick Sapphire shows up with Miyu as her master soon after leaving the mage Luviagelita Edelfelt. Miyu then transfers into Illya’s class at school and just happens to move into a mansion that suddenly appears across from Illya’s house. This is only the beginning of this series’ bizarreness.
This series is extremely problematic at times. It depicts a group of fifth-grade students who for some reason have knowledge of sexual themes, and Illya is depicted as having an inappropriate sexual lust for her brother. Throughout the majority of these episodes, they are mostly presented as innocent characters who embody the sweet, adorable nature that children in real life have. There is also a lot of clean humour present in scenes set in the classroom; any scene involving Illya’s friend Tatsuko being nonsensical yet absolutely hilarious. However, class 5-1 teacher Taiga has some very clear anger management issues, another problematic element of this supposedly cute series and one that is played up in the dub.
Illya’s cuteness not only serves as a way of showing her innocent nature but as a foil to Miyu’s shy and seemingly cold nature. Miyu’s past is not discussed much in this season, and only towards the end of it are even the smallest of details about her actually mentioned. What is revealed about her is that she had no place to stay, suggesting that something happened to her parents in the past. Losing one’s parents would cause any child to feel lonely and find it difficult to open up to anyone, but Illya’s kind-hearted nature helps Miyu become close to her. This is one of the few things this series does well; it shows the power of friendship without coming across as overly contrived for dramatic purposes.
Visuals
Silver Link has clearly put a great deal of effort into the animation of this series. The character designs are easy to distinguish, and many scenes are beautifully animated and great at showing off the cuteness of the characters. The backgrounds are relatively average, but the design of the mirror world is effective at evoking a sense of darkness and danger, a sense that Illya so clearly feels as the series progresses.
What is disappointing with the visuals are the scenes in which the cuteness is replaced by extremely inappropriate content. Illya is shown naked, albeit with hair and a bath toy acting as censorship. Some such scenes occur in the bath, although at one point she takes her top off and jumps on Miyu in her bedroom for no good reason. This scene could be interpreted in two different ways. It may simply be a representation of a child’s innocence causing them to be unaware of the issue with what they are doing, or it may be a deliberately perverted act. Either way, its presence in an anime is disturbing and calls into question just how cute and innocent these characters really are.
Audio
The audio is the best element of this series overall. Every last piece of background music composed by Tatsuya Katou is fantastic and perfectly suited to the series. The opening song, “Starlog” by ChouCho, is one of the best anime songs in recent years, as is the insert song from episode nine, “Kagami” (“Mirror”), also by ChouCho. Both “Prism Sympathy” and “Tsunagu Kizuna – Tsutsumu Kodoku” by StylipS are average pop songs, however.
The English dubbed version is almost perfect, a pleasant surprise given the amount of terrible or average English dubs out there. Cynthia Martinez gives a standout performance as Illya, managing to capture her supposed innocence, cuteness, sweetness and fear perfectly. Brittney Karbowski also puts a lot of energy and effort into her performance as Illya’s classmate Tatsuko, a hyperactive girl who spouts random nonsense whenever she appears. As is typical with English dubs, Japanese names are consistently mispronounced. However, all other names, including the long names that some characters have, are pronounced without any apparent issues.
Extras
This release comes with a few on-disc extras that are worth checking out. As well as the textless opening animation sequence and the three textless ending animation sequences, the OVA episode “Sports Day” is included. As is expected with OVAs, this episode does not exist for plot purposes. It simply allows viewers to see the characters they like having a good time doing something mostly harmless, with emphasis on ‘mostly’.
The episode follows Illya and her friends as they prepare for their upcoming sports day, and in particular as they train for the dancing component of it. Unfortunately, more of the series’ disturbing ‘humour’ returns here as Illya’s friends discuss the sexual connotations of the word ‘meat’. The supposed innocence of the fifth-graders is one of the better elements of this series, making their knowledge of such a thing seem unrealistic and clearly contrived by a person with a perverted sense of humour. If nothing else, fans of the hyperactive Tatsuko will enjoy the slightly increased screen-time she receives in this OVA.
Overall
Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya is about a sweet child who wants to be a magical girl, only to discover that being one actually requires an immense amount of energy, concentration, bravery and resolve. It delivers important messages about what friendship means and how one should treat their friends. The one major strike against it is the sexual themes, and the inappropriate sexual behaviour of Illya, which is most prominently featured in episodes one, seven and ten. All of this unfortunately makes it impossible to be able to genuinely recommend that it be watched by anyone. The sexualisation of the young characters is simply too disturbing. Furthermore, it is jarring compared to the otherwise cute nature of the show, and it will likely only get worse from here.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Author’s Note: The original score provided for this review was incorrect, and has been updated by the author to reflect Capsule Computers’ ongoing commitment to providing reliable reviews for its readers.
An opening animation video has been released for the upcoming action role playing game God Eater 2 Rage Burst. The video was uploaded to the official Bandai Namco Games YouTube channel and can be seen below.
The video is accompanied by a rock music track and displays a host of characters that we can expect to play as when the game is released.
God Eater 2 Rage Burst is not strictly a new game, but rather an enhanced edition of the original game God Eater 2. The enhanced edition will introduce a new chapter to the story, titled Rage Burst, as well as a new game mechanic which will expose a new set of buffs to be used in combat. Another interesting addition to note is that the game will utilise the DualShock 4 controller speakers for NPC audio.
God Eater 2 Rage Burst will be released in Japan next month on February 19th, available for the PlayStation 4 and Vita platforms.
With Sekai Project becoming a very familiar name for visual novel fans, it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that they have recently announced that they are now in the process of planning the localization for Alice in Dissonance’s fault milestone two on PC.
