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La storia della Arcana Famiglia Review

December 9, 2013

La storia della Arcana Famiglia
Studio: J.C. Staff
Publisher: Sentai Filmworks
Format: Blu-ray, DVD (Reviewed)
Release Date: November 26, 2013
Price: $59.98 – Available Here

Overview
First impressions are often the most important part of anything, whether it is meeting people in life, watching a new series, reading a book, or even playing a game. They often determine whether or not a person will like what they are seeing and set their expectations on things to come. That is why many anime viewers have a three-episode rule where they give series a chance to unfold before walking away from it; however what if a series portrays itself as something it is not? Well, now that La storia della Arcana Famiglia has been released in English by Sentai Filmworks, we’ll have to see.

Story
The island of Regalo has seen troubling times in the past and numerous forces and disasters have fallen upon the land but despite everything that has been thrown their way, the people of Regalo have always persevered with the help of an organization boasting skilled members that have special abilities. This organization is called the Arcana Famiglia.

While many of their members are normal hard working people, the leaders of the group have made contracts with Arcana cards, variations of Tarot cards, which provide them with a special power that is unique to their card. After many years, Felicità’s father and the leader of the Famiglia, Mondo, also known as Papa, has decided that it is time for him to retire and as such, he will be holding a tournament that will be called the Arcana Duello where the various members of the Famiglia will battle it out.

The winner of this tournament will not only be given the seat of Papa but they will also be granted any wish of their choosing and be able to marry his daughter, Felicità. She is less than willing to accept this proposal and has decided that she will fight for her own path in life, even if it means fighting against her fellow family members to do so.

Now while Arcana Famiglia may introduce itself as an action series, it is far from it as it is actually a series that is an adaptation of an otome visual novel which to be fair, many viewers may already know. However even by dropping the action aspect and providing viewers with a reverse-harem series focusing on a single heroine and many male characters with Felicità growing both as a character and closer to others, Arcana Famiglia unfortunately has little going for it.

Perhaps it is thanks to the limited number of episodes available for the adaptation, but the series has a terrible habit of simply introducing a few surface level characters and providing some very minor story advancement and then completely dropping them in order to focus on pure fluff, despite the fact that all of the characters in the series seem to have an engaging story waiting to be explored. Even with Felicità being the heroine, and the two main male characters being Luca and Libertà, viewers are given very little reason to care about the characters despite almost every episode focusing on the trio.

There are hints to the past and abilities of both Libertà and Luca’s but nothing ever comes out of these developments. Instead viewers simply have to take it everything at face value and follow the story as it slowly advances towards an inevitable conclusion. Another trio of male characters that also receive a fair amount of screen time have traumatic pasts tied to a member of the Famiglia and his goal, but even this is dropped after very little explanation, relegating them to simply side characters.

Ultimately, even the potential love story that could develop between one of the characters and Felicità never even comes to be. While there is some surface level flirting and a handful of awkward moments, it is barely hinted at that any relationship could even be started in the series, since most of the cast barely sees her as a woman. It is also bad enough that Felicità comes off as a blank slate that acts more like an accessory to most scenes despite having Arcana powers and some decent fighting abilities.

Even with the potential the series has at the beginning, the final story arc provided in this release still provides some sort of conclusion, though it is hard to feel like there was any pay off here for viewers. The reason for the tournament is explained but the tournament itself is given only a half an episode to unfold, leaving viewers with a simplistic ending that simply feels like the writers had no idea how to end it given the amount of time they had.

Visuals
While the story feels like they had nowhere to go at times, it also appears that J.C. Staff chose to give the bare minimum effort when it came to most of the animation sequences in Arcana Famiglia. To be fair, the series does feature an interesting looking art style and the characters are nicely designed with a number of unique details to help set them apart considering the standard outfit is bland. Even the background and scenery look great and help give the feeling that the series is taking place on an Italian island.

However, the series is plagued with bad animation sequences with some truly bad looking sections. The minimal fight sequences are usually decent looking but they tend to feature some problematic drops in quality as well, mostly whenever Felicità fights, which results in awkward looking fight scenes that hurt the series despite most of the other battles looking decent enough.

Audio
With their release of La storia della Arcana Famiglia Sentai Filmworks has provided both their new English dub as well as the original Japanese voice track. Although the English voice cast does an admirable job with the characters, I have to admit that some of the side-characters, especially Debito, sound incredible in the Japanese version when compared to their English counterparts. Also, giving Nova an English female voice actress seems like an odd choice.

While Kara Greenberg does a good job with the character, the original Japanese voice actor was male and it only helped make the series feel like it was going absolutely nowhere in the romance department. As for the soundtrack, there are some nice background songs that play throughout the series though they tend to be a bit quiet and easy to miss, while the opening theme “Magenta Another Sky” by Hitomi Harada and “Pieces of Treasure” by the Japanese voice actors for Liberta and Nova are easy to listen to and rather enjoyable, especially the ending theme.

Extras
This release comes with a number of very basic bonus features, such as a clean opening and ending theme, trailers for other Sentai Filmworks anime, and disc credits, but it also comes with a bonus OVA. The OVA has been given a full English dub and is called “Capriccio – stile Arcana Famiglia and features a rather funny body-swapping side-story that gives us more character exploration than most of the series.

Overall
When La storia della Arcana Famiglia starts, it exudes potential both as an action series and even as an otome series. However thanks to poorly advancing the story, neither of these things comes to fruition. Despite every character in the series appearing rather interesting each character is given the simplest of exploration despite there obviously being a lot more beneath the surface. Top that off with the fact that the story goes absolutely nowhere until it rushes to a close with an unsatisfying ending and viewers will be wondering where all of the potential from the beginning was lost.

Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.

Titanfall gets Ogre Titan trailer

Luke Halliday

December 9, 2013

In the latest bit of viral marketing from Respawn Entertainment and EA for the hotly anticipated Titanfall, a new trailer detailing the game’s Ogre Titan has been released.

The trailer takes the shape of a Hammond Robotics advertisement that is marketing the new line of Ogre Titan robots. You can check out the Ogre Titan yourself in the video below.

Titanfall is set to hit Xbox One, Xbox 360 and PC on the 13th of March, 2014. This is undoubtedly a huge blockbuster title in every regard and one to keep an eye on. Stay tuned for more Titanfall news as it surfaces.

Hajime No Ippo – Rising Episode 10 Impressions

Frank Inglese

December 9, 2013

Hajime No Ippo – Rising Episode 10 Impressions

Hajime No Ippo – Rising
Episode 10 – The Face Of Determination

What a fantastic and suiting name for an episode like this, Episode 10 “The Face of Determination” is the episode that finally kicks off the highly-anticipated bout between Ryuuhei and Ippo, and I couldn’t honestly have created a layout for an episode better than that of this one. Hajime No Ippo has a real knack for contrast and conflict between characters and their ideals, I can’t honestly say I’ve seen any as tension-filled and at such lengths apart as the ones between Ippo and Ryuuhei but I’m glad it is the way it is because we as the audience are getting geared up for one hell of a death-match.

The episode begins with Ryuuhei getting into a fight with a mob of angry men and those men inevitably beeing beaten half to death by Ryuuhei, if it wasn’t for the killer’s old teacher turning up to witness the fight he may have also killed a few of them, slowly but surely we’re seeing more and more of the demon that is laying at rest inside of Ryuuhei and I think it plans to fully awaken in the bettle between him and Ippo.

After a weigh-in between the two fighters, with Ryuuhei shaking Ippo up quite a bit, our champion goes to hang out with an old friend of his; Kumi, who’s older brother also happens to be a boxer and, in quite the “douchey” move, slid in as the third wheel on her and Ippo’s “date”. Ippo left the weigh-in very tense and extremely upset over the way Ryuuhei did his best to obviously intimidate him in front of the crowd, he thought that meeting with Kumi would calm him down and allow him to get his head straight but, in true Anime fashion, that was NEVER going to happen.

The trio encounter Ryuuhei on the street and, after an altercation where punches were thrown and Kumi was unfortunately grazed by one, Ippo promises that he will take Ryuuhei down in the ring, that he will use the new body-threatening technique that came up in the last episode despite the fact that his massage therapist told him to only use it at a maximum of two times.

The rest of the episode revolves around the post-fight setup where we’re not only shown how the two men prepare for a fight but we also see Ryuuhei’s origins. I do love how the fighters are polar opposites, event of the final minutes before the fight we’re shown just how different they are and not just them personally but the environments they’re in and the people that surround them. The Russian words of Volg (shown in the last episode) were repeated to Ippo by a friend; “I pray for your success, my son” with Ippo’s reply being “Thank you, Mother”, those words must have resonated with the audience in an extreme way considering the next scene showed Ryuuhei’s tragic and blood-filled past.

Ryuuhei lies still in his dressing room with nobody but his former teacher by his side possibly praying that he doesn’t kill Ippo in the ring, the camera zooms in on Ryuuhei’s face, his eyes are closed as he remembers his childhood: Dark images show him killing his father as his mother watched, his father was an abusive man and one day Ryuuhei snapped and decided to end it all, THAT’S where his obsession with the destruction of flesh came from. His mother began to not trust her own child as she takes him out for dinner and all he can do is explain the joys of cutting into meat, she eventually leaves him at an orphanage when she began fearing for her own life.

Ryuuhei’s eyes open and, like some sort of 70s vampire film, he rises stiffly from his bench with blood-shot eyes and an aura of murder. The two men make their way into the ring, they walk down their individual halls with the blinding lights and the awesome crowd ahead of them. This is where the episode ends but the true fight begins. Like every single week my excitement levels for the next episode of Hajime No Ippo are absolutely off the charts, I cannot wait to see this bout and I’m hoping we see Ryuuhei go down. Gear up for Episode 11 coming next week! Check out more Hajime No Ippo – Rising Impressions HERE.

“Crows Explode” New Teaser Trailer Released

Frank Inglese

December 9, 2013

“Crows Explode” New Teaser Trailer Released

Bancho-fans from around the world, I ask that you let out your most powerful battle roar because another new teaser trailer for the upcoming brawler movie Crows Explode has just been release and, although it’s quite short, it’s looking down. Right. Fierce. The third instalment of the Crows Zero live-action movie franchise is set to be one of the best in the series and, even though legendary director Takashi Miike has stepped down as director, fans of the movies have high hopes for the movie and its new director Toshiaki Toyoda. As I’ve mentioned; the trailer is quite short but very good and it features its theme song which is “Blow Your Mind” by a band called Dragon Ash, it’s slowely coming together and I couldn’t be more excited for this release.

Set years after the events of the first two movies in a time where the main characters have already graduated from Suzuran Boys High School, this movie centres around a transfer student called Kaburagi “Desperado” who, much like every other student, just wants to climb the ladder of Suzuran and be the greatest fighter to eve r set foot on school grounds. Kaburagi will be played by actor Masahiro Higashide, Taichi Saotome will beplaying first-year student Ryohei “Joker” Kagami, Yuya Yagira will play third-year student Toru “King” Gora who sits close to the top of the Suzuran pecking order. Based on the Crows manga, Crows Explode will see the hopeful rise of this transfer student as he fights day in and day out with the other young men at Suzuran Boys High.

The movie is looking to be an incredible one with some high-octane action and fight scenes alongside some fantastic actors and actresses that will surely make this a film legend in no time. Crows Explode opens in Japan on the 12th of April 2014 and hopefully we’ll be seeing it in the “Foreign Flicks” section of any good movie retailer somewhere near us soon after that, as of right now I suggest you head down to our featured video section below where you can check out the teaser trailer in all its bad-arse glory!

Ja’mie: Private School Girl Review

Frank Inglese

December 9, 2013

Ja’mie: Private School Girl
Studio: Princess Pictures
Publisher: ABC
Format: DVD (Reviewed)
Release Date: 26th November 2013
Price: $19.99 (Until 31st of December) – Available Here

Overview

Chris Lilley is an Australian actor, comedian, television producer and musician who, among other things, really shot to fame with his comedy/mockumentary series “We Can Be Heroes”. Coming soon after the release of We Can Be Heroes, Lilley began working on another series quite similar to that titled “Summer Heights High”, a great deal of Australians enjoyed that series very much with the bulk of its audience being in high school, I saw this first hand considering I was in high school at the time. Lilley’s popularity and fame continued to grow and grow as he went on to make “Angry Boys” and now his latest “work”; Ja’mie: Private School Girl. I don’t know exactly why people all over the country love this man, maybe it’s his crazy characters, maybe it’s the fact that he plays them himself, maybe it’s because of the heavy stereotyping within his “comedy”, whatever it is people love it and I don’t think it will be coming to a close any time soon.

Story

As you can probably already tell by the title, the story revolves around the character of Ja’mie King, a rich, private school girl with a serious lack of respect, a bad attitude and a kind of fake demeanour you can only really see on-screen, at least, I hope you could only ever experience it on-screen. It basically follows her, her friends and her family during the last few months she has at school. We see her reign as “queen bee” come to a close as we witness her and her group of friends thrown into turmoil.

A fair bit happens within the six-episode series; high school boys are thrown into the mix, rivalries are made, friends become enemies, enemies become friends and it all ends up boiling down to the Hillford Medal, an award Ja’mie has been working towards for her entire high school life. As usual I wont get into detail about what exactly happens because, if you’re interested in this release, it is one that you’ll definitely have to experience first hand and, while I didn’t quite enjoy it, I can imagine the comedic side of it all will come through so much better than me explaining to you here.

As I only just mentioned; I didn’t enjoy this all that much, I found the comedy within the storyline to be extremely distasteful, racist, disrespectful and actually all around annoying, it just wasn’t my “cup o’ tea” to say the least. I’m not usually the type of guy to take comedy too serious and considering I’m a fan of comedy series’ like South Park I still stand to that, it was just something about this series that got under my skin. It wasn’t my type of comedy so most of the jokes made within it simply didn’t land but I can honestly see why people would enjoy this, I couldn’t at first but I took the time to sit back and just contemplate before I wrote this review. I’ve been told, and I can imagine, that this series is extremely popular in schools and while kids really shouldn’t be watching things like this, I do see why they would and I do see what they would enjoy about it.

The separation of groups within a schoolground, the “bitchy” girls, the boys school down the street, it all makes sense to a teen in high school, putting myself in that situation I guess I could see myself finding some common ground with the series but having been out of school for what seems like a great deal of time now I suppose if just become to detached from the world I spent so much time in. Considering it is centred around a group of girls I can see the female audience being the more dominant one and I don’t say that out of sheer speculation, that too has come up in conversation with people about this series. Despite not enjoying the characters nor the comedy I did enjoy a few little things which proved to me that Chris Lilley wasn’t just this odd and quirky comedian that loves to play “dress-up”, it showed me that the man is actually quite smart and that this whole series can be looked at in a second, more intelligent, light.

None of the more intellectual digs were at the forefront, possibly on certain occasions if you actually look and listen to what’s happening in front of you, certain one-lines and scenes where you realise there’s a whole other layer to what seems like an idiotic TV Series for teenagers. The greatest example would have to be when the main character Ja’mie mentions, while going through psuedo-depression; “I started taking Mum’s anti-depressants…”, obviously I’m paraphrasing but can you already see where I’m going with this? Despite the fact that Mrs. King lives in a beautiful mansion filled with the likes of things the rest of us could only dream of, she still has to deal with the constant fighting of her duaghters, the smart-arse and demeaning attitude of Ja’mie and the fact that her husband is always away on business trips with his incredibly attractive assistant. It’s gotten too much for her and, simple put, she’s depressed, whether or not Lilley intended for this to be delivered in such away is still a mystery but I’d like to believe this series is smarter than it seems.

Audio and Visual

What I found to be great about Ja’mie: Private School Girl was that, not only did Lilley create the story and the characters but he also did a great deal of the music, directed a great deal of the scenes and basically overlooked the entire production to make sure he had it right, a lot of dedication goes a long way. Both the audio and the visuals were done to an incredible degree, it was all very professional and the “mockumentary” feel that the entire series had, I feel, suited it well, at least that way whether you liked it or not you realised the series didn’t take itself too seriously yet still wanted to keep at least a shred of integrity as a show.

Lilley employed the use of an orchestra through a fair bit of the series that, once again, suited it to a tee. It was the life of a rich girl who was like this booming force throughout the entire school so, as you can imagine, an orchestral sound is a perfect symbol for what she is. Having is be a “mockumentary” is possibly the best decision the production team could have made, the way it felt professional in an unprofessional way made for some incredibly realist shots, having a group of students walk through a “scene” to take the focus away from the main characters only for a short seconds is a great example of how that type of camera work did well.

Extras

The extras came in an abundance with this release having over two hours of great behind-the-scenes footage that really gives you a greater feel for the series than first thought. With deleted scenes, bloopers and a behind-the-scenes featurette the release almost doubles in value and even if you’re not a fan of the actually series like me you’ll still enjoy all the extras. You realise how much time and effort was put into even the smallest aspects of the series, the music, the camera shots, everything really. It’s a fantastic edition to a series like this because, considering it’s only six episodes, people who purchase this release will be wanting a little more bang for their buck and, with the addition of so many extras, that really what they’re going to get. I’ll give props to Chris Lilley and the folks over at Princess, Pictures and ABC; the addition of so many extras really put them over the line for me.

Overall

To put it as simply as possible; the series is great if you’re within the obvious target audience. I can’t imagine people NOT in high school to absolutely love this release but I can imagine those IN high school to be all over it. The comedy is very lewd and crude, oddly enough though I wasn’t into it despite my love for such types of comedy, I felt like it wasn’t relatable and the jokes could’ve landed a lot better but I suppose that’s half my fault for really not being into it. Clearly this man and his works are much loved because he continues to make them over and over again so there’s deffinitely an audience for it, I just don’t suggest you pick it up for the sake of picking it up, I also suggest you don’t go into it just because you like Australian Comedy, like I’ve mentioned; it’s a great series for a specific type of person so make sure you do your research before getting into it.

Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.

Incipio Dual Auto Charger Review

Jamie Laike Tsui

December 9, 2013

Incipio Dual Auto Charger
Manufacturer: Incipio
Price: $34.99 – Available Here

Visual learner? No problem! Check out our video review below!

With the introduction of the new Lightning cable, Apple threw the entire iOS accessory world into turmoil. The venerable 30-pin adapter had been in use since 2003 and the change resulted in hordes of accessories like docks and chargers being rendered useless for those updating to the new iPhone 5 and iPad 4^th generation. In response to the change, Incipio designed the Dual Auto Charger for maximum flexibility for mobile device users on the go.

The device is packaged in a simple clear plastic box with a plastic tray to hold its contents securely in place. The Incipio Dual Auto Charger carries Apple’s Made for iPod, iPhone, and iPad certification. The car charger itself has a USB port and a 7.5 ft coiled Lightning cable. When coiled, the actual length of the Dual Auto Charger is a little under a foot and a half. Combined, the charger is capable of outputting 3.4 amps. The USB port can output 1 amp while the Lightning cable can output 2.4 amps. The Dual Auto Charger terminates with the traditional cigarette lighter plug. The entire unit is black with a thin translucent ring around the edge. When powered, the translucent ring glows a bright blue.

The charger’s build quality is very good. The cable is wrapped in thick rubber and the coil springs back into shape easily. There is a robust strain relief leading from the cigarette lighter plug, but the Lightning cable’s strain relief is short and very stiff.

The Incipio Dual Auto Charger is extremely compact. I found it barely protruded from the socket. The coiled cable allows the cabling to be neatly tucked away when not in use. However, I found the coil was very tight. In vehicles where the cigarette lighter socket is located extremely low, I found that there was enough tension from the coil to yank a phone resting on the dashboard or sunglasses slot onto the floor of the car. Both the USB socket and Lightning plug powered devices as advertised. The 2.4 Amps from the Lightning plug will quickly charge even the most power hungry iPad batteries in a short period of time.

I really liked the fact the charger supports both USB and Lightning. It future proofs the purchase for those still using the old 30 pin connector and provides flexibility for owners who may own one iOS device and one Android device. Whether you update to the new Lightning based Apple devices or migrate to a Blackberry or Android device, the Dual Auto Charger will still be a useful purchase.

At $34.99, the asking price is definitely a bit on the expensive side. However, there are several higher priced devices with the same or worse feature set as the Incipio Dual Auto Charger. The fact it has both a USB port and a Lightning connector cable does give the charger greater flexibility compared to traditional car charger.

If you are looking for a well-designed and future proofed car charger, the Incipio Dual Auto Charger is an excellent choice. There are some design choices which I feel could be improved upon, but these faults are rather minor. Be prepared to pay a premium for the product as the extra features do come at a cost.

Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.

Ethan: Meteor Hunter Interview with Olvier Penot

Jamie Laike Tsui

December 8, 2013

Ethan: Meteor Hunter Interview with Olvier Penot

Olivier Penot, the producer and co-founder of indie developer Seaven Studio sat down to chat about the Ethan: Meteor Hunter post-mortem that went viral on Reddit, the future of Seaven Studio, Steam Greenlight, and important lessons of indie development. The post-mortem is a must read for indie developers and fans of indie games. Also be sure to read our review of Ethan: Meteor Hunter and remember to vote for the game on Steam Greenlight.

Since your blog post went viral on Reddit’s /r/Games, Seaven Studio has received a lot of feedback on why Ethan: Meteor Hunter didn’t attract their attention. Based on all your feedback and your own suspicions, what are some lessons your team has learned?

First and most surprising reason is that the vast majority of people had never heard of Ethan: Meteor Hunter, despite the shows, the blogposts on the PlayStation Blog, etc… So that’s really something that will dramatically change the way we talk about our game. How? It’s too early to say but now we know better how Reddit works. We also enjoyed a lot doing livestreams of the game, so maybe twitch is a possibility.

We have also learned, and that’s confirmed by the comments, that the art is key when selling a game. A screenshot needs to sell at first glance and then your good gameplay will make word of mouth possible. At least that’s how we see it right now.

A lot of time and money was spent attending a variety of game shows. Would you do this again?

Hum…. Maybe not. The experience was great, having this direct talk and contact with the gamers is really something worth the money spent. But business wise, we’ll most probably go to less game shows. Rezzed was really small and great, rather than Eurogamer Expo where everybody was there for Call of Duty.

A lot of indie developers have publicly voiced their frustrations on the lack of transparency with the Steam Greenlight and the whole concept itself. With your experiences so far, are there any changes you would recommend to Valve?

Steam Greenlight is really frustrating but on the other hand you can understand that Valve doesn’t have 20 people to play and decide which game they can allow or not. It’s not an easy process. Obviously having better transparency on what are the rules to get greenlit, what works best or not would be a huge step ahead. It doesn’t feel like super clear on why this or this particular game got greenlit. Also, as I say on the post mortem, having the possibility to change one’s vote, maybe only once every 6 months, would be a good thing. We mention an example of someone not being convinced at first but game shows demos changing his mind. Also, I think the first idea of greenlight was “share concept with your community and improve your game based on feedbacks”: how could this possibly work if you can’t change your vote when developers have improved their game with updates and such? This is more suitable for early access. But for early access… You already need to be on Steam!

Ethan: Meteor Hunter began at Hydravision. How was the culture shock when the team left the corporate studio setting and went at it independently?

It was a massive shock. We basically turned around! Hydravision was doing cheap games for others and not taking care of the marketing or PR. It was really “get a contract, produce the game and ship it to the publisher”, that’s it. Where at Seaven Studio we went full self publishing, focusing on quality gameplay games and getting closer to the gamer community. Learning the job on the go! Taking the time to think properly and do one’s task without to rush is a huge change.

What’s the future plans for Ethan: Meteor Hunter?

Hopefully a Steam version, release of Mac & Linux versions somewhere next year if we’re still alive and actually seriously considering a Vita version. Maybe doing a new trailer and new screenshots based on the feedbacks.

Any plans for new projects at Seaven Studio?

Yes! A new platformer, because we love platformers, but the art will be more “indie”. It will be based on musics and rhythm. You will have to move on the beat to get through the levels. We’ll show you more as soon as we can!

2013 is arguably the year indie went big. There is a huge explosion in new indie developers taking their games to the masses. Do you have any advice to them?

Please read our post mortem and don’t do the mistakes we made. Read other indies post mortems too. Show your game to as many people as possible and as early as possible. We thought we did but apparently not enough. Have something special and show it everywhere you can. Most of all: good luck, you’ll need it!

To celebrate going viral, Seaven Studio is hosting a Thank You Reddit! sale on Ethan: Meteor Hunter. For the next two days, the game is 30% off at the Seaven Studio website. Special thanks to Olivier Penot of Seaven Studios for taking the time for an interview!

Saint Seiya: Brave Soldiers Review

Luke Halliday

December 8, 2013

Saint Seiya: Brave Soldiers
Developer: Dimps
Publisher: Namco Bandai
Platform: Playstation 3
Release Date: November 22, 2013
Price: $59.99 – Available Here

Overview
Whether you know it as Saint Seiya or Knights of the Zodiac, there is no denying the legend that this series is. Saint Seiya is one of the all time greatest anime and manga series, taking the shonen genre into directions it had never thought to tread before. So with so many anime fighting games on the market, it only makes sense we get a true Saint Seiya fighter.

Here we are with Saint Seiya: Brave Soldiers and it is hard not to be left in awe by this game. Whether you are a fan of Saint Seiya or not, this is one game that you’ll no doubt love. This is without a doubt the freshest fighting game in quite some time. Namco Bandai have looked to the stars with Saint Seiya: Brave Soldiers and reached them.

Gameplay
There has not been a fresher fighting game in years. Dimps have worked some real magic here with the Saint Seiya franchise, capturing the sense of speed and sheer bombastic force that defines the style of Saint Seiya to perfection. This game is fast-paced, intense and balls-to-the-wall fun.

As it is a fighting game, the core component is of course the combat mechanics and with Saint Seiya: Brave Soldiers we get a truly deep battle system to dive into. There are countless ways to play this game, strategies to concoct and combos to memorize. What makes it so good however is the way in which it appeals to the experienced fighting game players out there all the while being completely accessible to newbies. Anyone can pick up Saint Seiya: Brave Soldiers and have some fun with it. The controls are simple and easy to learn while having a great amount of depth behind them too. There is a lot to see and do in this fighting game and its all the more better for it.

On top of those brilliant combat mechanics is a plethora of gameplay modes to sink your teeth into. Not only are there countless VS match types, there is also the Galaxian Wars mode that serves as the game’s tournament feature. The different match types is however a very welcome feature that shakes things up in a big way. There are match types such as ‘First Strike’ and ‘KO’ match types that are high on tension, making for a very involving gameplay experience. You can of course play alone or together with a friend in these VS battle matches.

The online mode allows you to play against players around the world with the variety of VS match types. It is a pretty straightforward online mode for the most part. Unfortunately at the time of my review playthrough the game didn’t have many players online to play with, so my experiences there were somewhat limited. What I did play however was quite a bit of fun.

There is of course plenty of unlockables in the game and the large bulk of them are acquired by playing through the Saint Chronicles story mode. In Saint Chronicles you must fight your way through the three main arcs of the Saint Seiya series: The Sanctuary Arc, The Poseidon Arc and The Hades Arc. As you progress through this mode you unlock characters, cards and other sorts of unlockable goodies. It is worth noting that the Saint Chronicles mode is quite a challenge in and of itself, with many of the enemies putting up quite a fight. The story-telling is well done and the dialogue is smooth as silk, capturing the spirit of the Saint Seiya story with ease and heaping helping of affection for the series and its characters.

All in all, Saint Seiya: Brave Soldiers is an absolutely brilliant fighting game that mixes speed and strategy into a complex yet easy to learn combat system. This is something fresh and new and will be plenty of fun whether you’re a Saint Seiya fan or not. This is a game that transcends all of that, it is truly something special.

Visuals and Audio
Mixing anime style visuals with cell-shaded graphics works a real charm here in Saint Seiya: Brave Soldiers. The series general old-school aesthetic is recreated perfectly with a modern twist here, bring old and new together in a splendid mash up of styles. The art is vibrant and faithful to the anime and manga, all the while bringing a new sense of flair and style to the mix that reinvigorates the series with some new life.

The game’s score features a number of compositions straight from the original anime series as well as some new tracks that do a great job at fitting with the Saint Seiya style of music. Interestingly enough the real star in terms of audio is the Japanese voice acting that Namco Bandai have kept untouched in this English language release. The legendary voice actors from the series reprise their roles to great effect. There is of course the iconic ‘Pegasus Fantasy’ theme song that is featured here, which is a great bit of fan-service there.

Overall
Scream it loud and burn your cosmos because Saint Seiya lives! Namco Bandai and Dimps have brought the legendary series back in grand fashion, bringing this amazing anime series to life once more in a phenomenal fighting game that is truly something different in a market filled with the same old song and dance.

With energy, speed and explosive bombast, Saint Seiya: Brave Soldiers is one of the best fighting games of 2013 and real gem on the PlayStation 3. It may be one of the late entries on the console but it is definitely one of the best the console has ever been graced with.

Time and time again something special comes along that is simply unlike anything else, Saint Seiya: Brave Soldiers is just that. It is a game that anyone can enjoy – fun in its most purest form. A game like this is truly brave and because of the risks it takes Saint Seiya: Brave Soldiers proves to be a modern fighting game classic.

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CC Impact! Presents Eryi’s Action

Jamie Laike Tsui

December 8, 2013

Nyu Media and Xtal Sword’s Eyri’s Action is a platformer game designed to test the skills of the most masochistic gamers. Players will have to dodge traps that will appear in the strangest places. Not even the menus are safe from the wrath of the developers. The game was recently released on Steam and now includes achievements and Steam Trading Cards.

Senior Editor Jamie Laike Tsui shows off the first three agonizing levels of Eyri’s Action, so get ready to watch Eyri die, repeatedly. Want to know more about Eyri’s Action? Be sure to check out the review.

We livestream gameplay footage on our Twitch page. We’ll be sure to upload it to our YouTube page later for those that missed the livestream as well. Also be sure to follow us on Twitter, and Facebook since we’ll let everyone know when a livestream begins that way. Be sure to leave a comment here or head on over to our YouTube page and leave a comment so we know what you think of our newest feature.

Be sure to check out the video below!

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