With The Devil is a Part-Timer! set to be released on July 22nd in a Blu-ray/DVD combo pack, FUNimation has released the first English dub clip for the series which gives us a sample of how Sadao and Chiho will sound once the series is released.
The English preview can be found below and the release itself is set to come with a number of extras, including two commentary tracks, clean opening and ending themes, and a behind the scenes piece with Jamie Marchi. For those who don’t know, The Devil is a Part-Timer! follows the story of Satan who has been driven out of his kingdom and forced into modern-day Tokyo where he must now work a simple job at a fast-food place to get by.
Today NIS America has released their very first English dubbed anime and it just so happens to be an English dub of one of the first anime series they released in North America, Toradora!. There are numerous versions of the release available from purchase not only through NIS America’s online store but also through Right Stuf and various other online retailers.
The $103.99 premium edition of Toradora! comes with a Blu-ray and DVD version of the series including all 25 episodes plus an OVA, a fully illustrated hardcover art book that contains all new content and illustrations, and a collectible slip case. There is also a standard edition containing both parts of the series for $90.98, though fans of the series can also choose to purchase each volume individually for $47.99 a piece.
Deep Silver announced the latest addition to the zombie series Dead Island today. Escape Dead Island is a third person survival mystery featuring a comic book art style closer to the free to play Dead Island Epidemic than the grittier and more realistic Dead Island FPS titles. Escape Dead Island stars Cliff Calo, the heir of a rich media mogul. Cliff has decided to travel to Banoi to unravel the mystery of the zombie virus. His plan goes off the rails as he slowly sinks into madness. The game is written by Emmy award winning author Anne Toole, who won her award based on her work writing The Witcher.
Escape Dead Island will launch in Fall 2014 for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC. As a bonus, those who purchase the game from GameStop will get access to the Dead Island 2beta and a chance to win the GameStop July Epic Reward. The contest will fly the winner to Berlin, Germany to visit Yager’s offices, where they will be digitally scanned and added as a zombie in Dead Island 2.
Valiant Hearts: The Great War follows the recent, critically acclaimed entries in the Rayman series, and Child of Light, all developed within the UbiArt Framework. Child of Light proved that Ubisoft Montreal – what many would call the “flagship” studio amongst the lot – has the breadth in creativity to create a smaller, uniquely original and off-type game by their own standards, but Ubisoft Montpellier started this trend of painterly, digital releases with Rayman Originsin 2011, and are back for some healthy, in-house competition (although, they’ll never claim that) with Valiant Hearts: The Great War. It’s a gutsy move, a game about the personal struggles, loss and sorrows of World War I that isn’t just a downward spiral into depression…hell, it’s actually insane to attempt! And hard! This isn’t a shooter where you can easily relish in killing the unequivocally evil Nazis, after all….
Story
Valiant Hearts: The Great War follows four main protagonists: Karl, a German man living in France with his wife Marie, young son Victor and farming father-in-law Emile, the second of the four; Freddie, an American soldier who volunteered to join the French forces, and finally Anna, a Belgian nurse. After the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914, and WWI is incited, Karl, along with all other German civilians, is deported back to his homeland as the battle lines are drawn between the countries. He is conscripted into the German army and, mere months later, Emile is conscripted to the French army, leaving Marie alone with baby Victor, worried sick for the two most important men in her life, as was the reality for all wives and mothers during the war. Emile and Freddie meet at a Paris train depot, forming a bond built on their common circumstance and motivation – their loved ones. Freddie’s wife was killed in a German bombing raid, hence his thirst for revenge. As the tales of the main four are told, and move along from location to location – mostly through narration – their paths intertwine.
The wicked Baron Von Dorf represents the face of the enemy, abducting Anna’s scientist father, with Karl forced to aid his superior. Van Dorf was also the guilty party behind the fatal bombing that took the life of Freddie’s beloved. Diary entries are added as missions are completed, penned by the main four, as well as Marie back in Saint Mihiel, offering multiple perspectives on the terrible conflict. There is death at every turn, and the survival of every single central or related supporting character would unfortunately be quite unrealistic…there are some sad moments to be had, that’s for certain. But everything that does happen, occurs according to the protocols of the time; Ubisoft Montpellier – other than what could be considered a racist Indian accent – upheld an extreme level of accuracy with respect, even including a bunch of historical facts, covering the gear used, letters home, conditions and more that really educates those who are uneducated on the lesser talked about war. The only disappointment lies in the poorly paced ebb and flow of the plot, with frequent and quick changes that don’t allows plot points to sizzle. As an aside, it is interesting that the only characters whose eyes aren’t covered by their hair or hats are the children; a symbolism of their innocence, perhaps?
Gameplay
Valiant Hearts: The Great Waris a 2.5D, side-scrolling adventure-puzzler as marketed and listed, but it is so much more than that. There are numerous stealth sections, which are creatively use depth and light/dark as part of the mechanics. There are also more straightforward, action-heavy sequences involving tanks shooting down helicopters, and even a boss battle or two of sorts that integrate unique puzzle elements. Then you’ve got the car-chase missions, which are shorter, but presented from a front-on camera and makes use of advanced motion comic-like trickery to portray a sense of speed and movement as Anna, the designated driver, slams the pedal to the metal. It’s amazing how much variety Ubisoft Montpellier were able to produce. Characters never speak unless in a cut-scene narration, with speech bubbles appearing over their heads in gameplay to visualise their verbal interactions. The intermittent car chases are more upbeat, as obstacles advance and enemy vehicles swerve to the rhythm of classical compositions, providing faster tempo sections that boast light-hearted atmospheres by comparison to most of the rest of the experience, breaking up the pace and tactfully ensuring a relative amusement to bleakness ratio.
Each of the four main protagonists have special, specific gameplay mechanics of their own. Emile, whether yielding a giant ladle or shovel, can dig through dirt mounds; Freddie carries wire cutters to snap barbed wire fences; Anna is a medic, and so can employ her skills in reviving others in a scrolling quicktime event (plus she’s the driver), and Karl – though the player gets the least amount of time with him – can take on disguises. There’s actually a fifth playable character that hasn’t been mentioned, and that’s Walt the dog. Man’s best friend pays a key part in solving many puzzles, able to be controlled and commanded by holding ‘LB’ and pressing one of multiple button prompts for different contextual actions, depending on the surroundings. He scratches at the ground to alert to the presence of a hidden collectible – of which there are 100 strewn about – can hold an item in his mouth, allowing you to carry another, can pull/push levers, and much more. The puzzles, and in actuality the entire game, are cleverly designed and executed. And if you miss a collectible, there’s no need to worry as you can restart every mission from the main menu. While you can’t restart from checkpoints, the missions themselves aren’t too long to cause you frustration in having to replay them from scratch and checkpoints do save after each discovery.
Visuals & Audio
Valiant Hearts: The Great War is dark in tone, and that translates to its visuals in regards to the muted hues that paint the world and its inhabitants throughout. However, Ubisoft Montpellier actually made use of a large colour palette, with a range of both warm and cool colours. One of the more beautiful landscape shots, and probably the only one in the game where you can just sit back and take in the beauty of your surrounds with fleeting, uninterrupted serenity, is Paris at night at the outset of Chapter 2 (shown below). On a whole, the hand-drawn visuals do not detract from the seriousness of the tale as some may have feared. It just works. Characters do mumble under their breath whilst interacting in gameplay, and while Emile boasts a French accent in these instances – as he should – his narration is inexplicably recorded with an American accent. Musically, piano and various horns serve as the foundation for the aural atmosphere, with some truly tender, poignant pieces written and performed with the former. But, the use of, most notably, Flight of the Bumblebee by Rimsky-Korsakov, and Hungarian Dance No. 5 by Johannes Brahms, in the car chase sequences is complete genius.
Overall
It’s difficult to make a game based on such depressing blights on humanity as WWI was, where the intent is to tell a touching, realistic and honest-to-the-situation story, but it’s even more so to keep it from being absolutely grim to the point where players see no fun in the experience, and therefore have little motivation to play it. It’s a balancing act that Ubisoft Montpellier have succeeded in with Valiant Hearts: The Great War. At first glance, and after being given the synopsis, its cartoonish style might seem antithetical to the narrative tone, but in keeping the above in mind, these design considerations are indeed necessary. Valiant Hearts: The Great War is touching, informative and entertaining. Ubisoft has successfully continued their run of great, artistic, indie-esque, UbiArt Framework titles with Valiant Hearts: The Great War, and seem to have carved a certain niche for themselves, especially for typically being known as one of the largest AAA, blockbuster publishers in the industry.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
2013 was the first year that the Official Pokemon Video Game Championships ran in Australia but unfortunately the event didn’t have much notice and was held within PAX, which tickets were sold out for long before the championships were announced. Well this year the Big N are stepping it up in a big way and claiming it as the ultimate day of Pokemon fun with contests, giveaways, a free Pokemon distribution and more! Apart from the main draw of the National competition, other events that will be present on the day include:
Shiny Mamoswine Event Distribution. At the 2013 Pokémon World Championships, Arash Ommati led an epic team to victory to become World Champion. Now you can add a Mamoswine to your game based on one of the stars from his winning party! This Lv. 50 Shiny Mamoswine is built to do massive damage with four devastating attacks—Icicle Spear, Earthquake, Icicle Crash, and Rock Slide. It is also holding a Choice Scarf to help make up for Mamoswine’s relatively slow speed.
Cosplay competition with awesome prizes! Do you have a favourite Pokémon or Pokémon trainer? Why not come dressed in cosplay and you could win some great prizes! There will be a Pokémon cosplay competition running on the day so come along and dress to impress!
Pokemon merchandise and collectibles sale! There will be a vast range of Pokémon collectibles and merchandise available to purchase on the day– As well as great collectible prizes and giveaways!
Pokemon XY Episodes and movies screenings! Be sure to check out the latest Pokémon animated movies and TV series in the Main Foyer. There will also be special screenings on the new Pokémon XY series on the big screen in the Main Hall! These will also be on sale during the event.
Pokemon Art Academy and Link Battle area! Want to learn how to draw Pokémon? Come check out the Pokémon Art Academy Interactive area just off the Main Hall. Pokémon Link Battle will also be there for you to test your quick wits and matching skills!
Train – Battle – Trade Lounge for Pokemon Trainers! Check out the Train – Battle – Trade Lounge for a relaxed place to Train Battle and Trade your Pokémon with other trainers! There will also be a charging table for all trainers needing to charge up low batteries on their console.
Prizes for all junior competitors! All Junior competitors will receive a special prize for competing, so make sure you train up your favourite team and come along to gear up for some amazing battles with other competitors in your division! The website has a few awesome looking mega evolution figures with the text example only next to it, so don’t get your hopes up but that could be what the prize is.
Trading Card Lounge! Never played the Pokémon Trading Card Game before? Banter Toys will be running demonstrations for all new players in the Trading Card Game Lounge! Learn to play the trading card game for the first time and everyone who gets involved will receive a free Ultra Pro Pokémon card sleeve.
All this is happening at Melbourne Town Hall – 90-130 Swanston Street, Melbourne VIC on Sunday July 13th. Registration opens at 8am and closes at 10pm so make sure to grab your 3DS and get down early to secure your place in the championships and best of luck to all Pokemon trainers competing! Those looking to compete can fill out a pre-registration form at this link!
Cowabunga dudes! The heroes in a half shell, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are back! Not only are we getting a brand new live-action film later this year, but the infamous dudes with attitude are making their way to Nintendo 3DS with a well-times tie-in game. Developed by the guys at Magic Pockets (who are probably most well-known for the Petz franchise, as well as the mobile port of Sims Medieval) and published by Activision, the simply named Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will be a hack and slash game that lets players switch between all four brothers at will while they stop Baxter Stockman and the Foot Clan from terrorizing New York.
I am usually skeptical when it comes to film license tie-ins, and as excited as I am for TMNT this is no exception. The last turtles game; Out of the Shadows was a little more than a disappointment and I am not over the pain of that one just yet. Anyway, let us know in the comments what you think; are you excited that the turtles are making a triumphant comeback to handheld, or are you happy having nothing to do with this latest iteration? Whatever your thoughts are, make sure you stay tuned to Capsule Computers for all the hot video game news as it becomes available.
Overview The enduring Monogatari series, SHAFT’s flagship anime, hits once again and this time with a prequel to the original Bakemonogatari. It’s clear that there are few anime projects out there that are as divisive as this unless you include Kyoto Animation’s latest endeavors, which is a discussion for another time and place. Overly verbose and pretentious to some, brilliant and refreshing to others, this supernatural franchise has seen anime publisher Hanabee release both Bakemonogatari and Nisemonogatari in Australia.
Fans would know a proper second season is on the localisation horizon, which encompasses an absurd amount of “monogatari’s” such as Nekomonogatari White, Kabukimonogatari and Hanamonogatari to name a few. Clearly, and understandably, no time was wasted in bringing Nekomonogatari Black over. Is this yet another entry for fans to pick up?
Story
As anyone who has seen Bakemonogatari would frustratingly know, the almost legendary “Golden Week” that was alluded to at every opportunity sounded terribly important. Well now we finally know what happened and we discover that it’s not that big of a deal. Nekomonogatari Black explores what happens over the course of nine days during the spring holidays when Tsubasa Hanekawa was plagued with the Sawari Cat spirit, an apparition that embodied her frustrations and stress with devastating results.
Once again we follow the musings of Koyomi Araragi, our perverted, former-vampire protagonist as he faces his first love (lust?) interest, the troubled class president Tsubasa herself. This is before he met Hitagi from Bakemonogatari after all. This leads him to discover that not all is well with the shining, well-endowed role model and that she lives amidst a broken family and an abusive father. Nekomonogatari Black, like any other arc in the franchise, is all about Koyomi solving a girl’s problem. Namely, to remove an apparition causing grief and headaches with the help of his cohorts.
Interspersed with the serious plot are the usual antics (read: fan service) and Koyomi’s unforgettable sisters, Karen and Tsukihi, whose presence serves as an ice breaker and a way for our hero to gain advice and tips on girl problems. And boy are there a lot of problems in Koyomi’s latest mission. If you’re a fan of Hanekawa then all four episodes in this release will be a treat. If you’re not, well, tough luck. This is all about Tsubasa Hanekawa which doesn’t sit as well for viewers like myself who didn’t find her particularly interesting before and her cascade of family issues do little to change my mind.
It can be endlessly debated whether these anime are an art form in the conversations, or whether they just drag out a point for far too long. In my opinion it’s both. I loved the occasional retorts and tongue-in-cheek humour. But at the same time it’s downright frustrating how the same thing is repeated in multiples ways for half an episode at times, long after you’ve already gotten the gist of the point.
The last episode was a satisfying conclusion to the story arc, featuring a gory and stylised battle although it ended far too quickly. Even the little vampire Shinobu is squeezed into some precious screen time at the end, demonstrating once again that she should probably just do everything herself from now on.
It’s pretty much mandatory to have seen at least Bakemonogatari first before tackling this, and fans of Hanekawa will find the most enjoyment out of Nekomonogatari Black. What is useful about this prequel is that it does a good job of piecing together the “Monogatari puzzle”, as I like to call it. The haphazard nature of the storytelling in this series makes this one a welcome, if not the most riveting, entry for those of us unfamiliar with the novels.
Visuals
Nekomonogatari Black retains the signature SHAFT art style with great character animation and beautifully drawn backgrounds. If you’re familiar with any of their previous works then you know what to expect. If you’re not familiar, well it can be a love it or hate it affair especially with their infamous techniques such as quick cuts and oddly depicted environments. But on Blu-ray especially, everything just looks so clean and vibrant you’d be hard-pressed to look away.
Audio Nekomonogatari, likes its predecessors, relies heavily on an ambient soundtrack that brings out the best in the dialogue. That’s not to say that ambient is boring. You have quirky piano melodies, sinister strings and even flamenco guitar in what is one of the most eclectic soundtracks I’ve heard in a while.
Voice acting is top notch as usual in an anime where voice and dialogue are key to the experience. This version does not include an English dub, which will disappoint some viewers. Fans, however, have come to expect a subtitled-only release by now for the Monogatari series and Nekomonogatari is no different in that regard.
Extras
The real extra here is the surprise DVD/BD combo format in a slipcase! Although common for North America, it’s rare when a publisher includes both in Australia. This is most likely because Nekomonogatari Black is a really short series, only four episodes in length. Otherwise you have your standard trailers and clean opening and ending themes on the discs.
Overall
Existing as a prequel story arc in the form of four episodes means only fans of Bakemonogatari need apply. So what does it hold for fans? A valuable insight into what happened before the events of Bakemonogatari, how Koyomi came to like Hanekawa and how he helped her long before he met Senjougahara.
Some parts just weren’t that interesting or seemed to drag out what was already established five minutes beforehand. For the average anime viewer, dropping $45 on four episodes might be a bit much. Even if you’re not a fan of Tsubasa Hanekawa and her family issues though, and I’m unashamedly not, you can still appreciate this as a standalone release that patches together the scattered storyline of Bakemonogatari. Until the imminent sequel of course, which threatens to throw more twists and questions into this spiralling franchise.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Bandai Namco has released two introduction videos for the main characters in Tales of Xillia 2, Ludger Kresnik and Elle Marta. Alongside these introduction videos the company also provided a brief description of each character as well as their motivations for working together. Check out the introductions and videos below:
Ludger Kresnik
Ludger Kresnik lives with his elder brother, Julius, in an apartment in Trigleph. Calm and one hell of a cook! He yearns to follow in his brother’s footsteps and become an agent of the illustrious Spirius Corporation—but fate has other plans for him. Due to a chance encounter, Ludger meets with Elle Marta and swears to protect her on her journey to a mystical place known as “The Land of Canaan”, which is said to grant wishes. Throughout his journey, will the choices Ludger makes lead the world to salvation… or certain destruction?
Elle Marta
Elle Marta has been separated from her father during a dark and thundery night when a mysterious group of villains attacked them. Her father’s parting words are for her to “meet (him) at the Land of Canaan”. Despite her sassy and blunt nature; she tags along with Ludger to achieve her goals. But little does he know, this girl holds far more importance to his destiny than he could ever imagine…
Viz Media has recently released an English dub preview for Blood Lad that gives us a sample of some of the voice work in the series, though if you wish to watch the entire series in English you can actually do so for now. You see, Viz Media has placed all ten episodes of Blood Lad on Hulu and Neon Alley in their subbed form and you can check it out here.
For those who want to wait for the home release of Blood Lad, you can expect it to hit stores on September 2nd with a Blu-ray/DVD Limited Edition that will be priced at $69.99 and come with not only the original ten episodes, but on-disc extras such as an OVA, art galleries, outtakes from the English dub, clean opening and ending themes, and more. There will also be a physical extra in the form of a 96 page booklet as well as a chipboard case for the series.
Indie Gala and Capsule Computers released a brand new indie bundle today. Every Monday Bundle #14 contains six indie games and a bonus music album. For a single purchase, buyers will get the following titles:
RUSH– A puzzle game that will challenge players to guide their cube to the end of the level with the help of some zany tools like stop signs and conveyor belts.
As an added bonus, all buyers get F-777’s album Let’s Freaking Party. The bundle is only $1.49 for the first 24 hours of the sale, so be sure to pick up a copy at Indie Gala.
