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Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness Review

Travis Bruno
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Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness
Developer: Nippon Ichi Software
Publisher: NIS America
Platform: PlayStation 3
Release Date: October 8, 2013
Price: $49.99 – Available Here

Overview
Ever since the first Disgaea game was released on the PlayStation 2 back in 2003 the game helped expand upon what, at the time, was a thriving strategy RPG genre. Over the past decade strategy RPGs have become rather uncommon but Nippon Ichi Software has always stayed true to form and over the years the Disgaea series has received not only a number of numbered titles but even a few spin-offs here and there.

Despite these games being numbered however, none of them directly followed a previously told story and while Laharl, Etna and Flonne have appeared in almost every game since, they have yet to star as the protagonists once again. That is until the company’s first sequel Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness was created and released in the West. Does the return of these signature characters make for an unbelievable game?

Story
Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness takes place a number of years after the events of the first game with Laharl taking over for his father as the Overlord of the Netherworld. However thanks to his nature, there are many demons in the Netherworld who simply don’t care about him, don’t even know they have a leader or are actively planning on trying to dethrone him and replace him.

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One such organization called the Krichevskoy Faction has been gaining quite a following and as such Laharl must finally start paying attention to what is happening around him. Unfortunately for him, things are more complicated as it seems as a new threat to the Netherworld begins to appear and change the world around him and to make matters worse, an angel named Sicily has appeared claiming to be his little sister. With everything happening at once only the classic crew of Laharl, Etna and Flonne can take and set everything right, or at least back to how they like it.

Now while the first Disgaea, Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, had a fair bit of drama and emotional moments here and there, this isn’t that game. This is probably for the best in all cases however thanks to the fact that Disgaea D2 plays as an almost direct sequel and gamers have already grown rather fond of the cast of characters and what better way to put together a game with these favorites than put them in a mostly comedic storyline with so many fourth wall breaking references, comedic violence and random twists and events that players will constantly be guessing as to what will happen next.

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Sure there is something to be said for the lack of major drama in Disgaea D2 but despite that the game manages to offer a great and often humorous time where players will see everything from Laharl turning into a busty girl and Etna suddenly changing colors to battles that put the fate of the Netherworld in these strange characters’ hands. This makes the game highly enjoyable but it is worth noting that, while not entirely necessary, players will be able to get the biggest kick out of the game’s story if they have played the first game or at least know about the various events from Hour of Darkness before jumping into this one.

Gameplay
Those familiar with what Disgaea has to offer will already know what they are getting into here, but for everyone else Disgaea D2 is a strategy RPG where combat takes place in a grid-based arena. While combat is a turn-based affair it is not your standard system where speed plays a factor in turn order. Instead each side takes a turn at one time, allowing the player to move or attack with all of their fighters while the enemy will also retaliate in the same manner. This makes placement and planning of battles a necessity as it is very easy to be wiped out thanks to poorly placed characters being swarmed by enemies.

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Like more recent games in the series it is possible to have characters partner up with one another for team attacks if they are close together or use Geo Panels to take advantage of buffs or de-buffs and dish out extra damage and while actions can be taken one at a time, it is possible to plan an entire turn out and watch it occur in one session. Like I mentioned earlier, it is worth noting that the game does have a pretty significant difficulty level but compared to more recent titles, it feels a bit easier this time around as everything is explained early on and players are given free reign of how to fight from then on.

Disgaea D2’s battles usually always see the main cast of characters in the party but the player has the option to flesh out and expand their fighters by bringing in custom fighters of different classes and skills, giving players a chance to set their party up to fit their play style or change things around if a battle turns out to be giving them a rough time.

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Put all of that together with the fact that players have the ability to use monsters as mounts in this game, though the system is a bit useful as it allows the character riding the monster to take less damage it ends up giving the player less to work with on the field. There is also the item world to explore which gives players a chance to dive into an item and venture through numerous levels of battles as they upgrade the item by going as far into it as possible.

It is interesting to note that the Dark Assembly has also returned and there are a number of new options available inside of it, including a “cheat shop” which allows players to change various elements of the game such as raising experience rates by sacrificing money drops among other things. This gives players an deep level of customization and the ability to reach even the coveted level 9999 faster and more fun than before.

Visuals
In many ways Disgaea D2 has received the same visual upgrades that were part of Disgaea 4, including the way a number of enemy characters look. Following that trend the in-game sprites are rather impressive looking despite many of them being with the series for years at this point. The newly introduced enemies and characters look great in the game and the in-game combat is as stylish as ever with numerous over-the-top moves at the player’s disposal.

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That being said, the battlefields the player will fight on loo rather poorly designed with numerous out-dated looking textures but this problem is alleviated by the variety of areas players will visit and just how colorful the world is. As for the in-game dialogue sequences, the character portraits are nicely detailed and as impressive as ever and work well with this style of game.

Audio
Fans of the original three will be happy to hear that the English voices of Laharl and Flonne have been retained for Disgaea D2. It is worth noting that although Etna’s voice actress isn’t quite the same, it is the voice actress that has handled the character since the original game and she does a wondrous job voicing the character. As for the rest of the cast and voice work, the game has a nicely done English dub which works well with the tone of the story.

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As for the game’s soundtrack, Disgaea D2 sports a varied set of background music that works well more often than not. While some pieces of music can be a bit grating after a while, especially during a long battle, it is an impressive offering that works well both when walking around the hub or fighting it out.

Overall
Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness adds a few new features to what has already become one of the most refined strategy RPG in the industry. The game’s story brings back three favorite characters from the first game and provides an entertaining storyline. Of course it does require knowledge from the first game in the series to truly enjoy as there are a number of leaps that will be missed by those unfamiliar with the original Disgaea. That being said, Disgaea D2 offers a slightly more accessible but still incredibly deep and complicated experience.

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Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.

Reborn Interview with Elemental Labs and acttil

Travis Bruno
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Elemental Labs is a fresh developer that is looking to bring their first game to the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 in the form of REBORN. They have teamed up with acttil to help make this happen and have even launched a Kickstarter to help give themselves a push. We had a chance to speak with both the developer and acttil on a number of topics. Read below and see as they introduce their team and explain a few of their design decisions.

Q. Being a fresh studio, can you tell us a little about the team working to bring REBORN to life?

A. As a new studio, we have so much to prove. When I sought to create REBORN, I had a vision of how I wanted to run my studio, right down to the types of personalities I wanted employed. My vision for Elemental-Labs was to form a strong team with a wide range of skill sets, who are passionate, dedicated, and determined—but above else, they must have faith in each other.

In the early days of REBORN development, I had a huge up-hill battle not with the project itself, but rather with the formation of the team. With even less than a shoe-string budget available, I had to manage REBORN by investing my own “sweat equity” and personal capital to pay for various expenses like gas for transportation, and computer-related equipment. By working out of my parents’ garage, we managed to save money on lunches (as my parents were generous enough to cook for us!).  We were also blessed to be able to convert the garage itself into our development studio. Furthermore, it was from this garage that I managed to spark the interest of our current team members. Countless hours on the Internet and hundreds of emails and Skype sessions later, we managed to form a strong group of skilled individuals who I believe will carry us to the forefront of an already difficult industry to break into. Each member brings a level of mastery, but more than that, each and every one of us are extremely optimistic, positive, and have taken a leap of faith to work on REBORN.

Since we do not have anything in the way of a budget at the moment, each teammate is dedicating their “sweat equity” to REBORN in hopes of future compensation—whether that will be in the form of royalties or straight-up payment on the back end. Myself aside, we currently have 23 team members working on REBORN in their spare time. Some of our teammates are international, but with a successful Kickstarter campaign, we want to bring them to the US so that they can work in our studio, creating a single physical work environment. As you will see throughout our campaign, each teammate is pouring their love and passion into REBORN. We want to assure our fans and the crowd-funding community that we want to make this game not only for us, but for you!

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Q. With Elemental Labs working on creating REBORN for the last nine months, why have they decided to launch a Kickstarter now?

A. (acttil) While working on the development of REBORN, many ups and downs have been encountered, and it sometimes seemed like they couldn’t continue to follow their dreams. As friends, we were encouraging them to continue working on their game, but the harsh reality was that they just did not have the funding to keep their team together. They have the passion and are dedicated to this project, but it would be very tough for anybody to keep going if they are unsure of where all their efforts would go. That is why we at acttil suggested to Franz, the CEO of Elemental-Labs, to get the game onto Kickstarter for the final push. We want to see them succeed, both as friends and professional partners. That is why we told Franz that we would support their Kickstarter campaign as much as we can as long as he was interested in giving it a try. We wish we could bring in enough funds to help them financially, but being a start-up company ourselves, personally investing in them is not an option. We believe that Elemental-Labs will make something exciting and fun to play if they reach their goal! So…here we are. We hope you’ll all see potential that we saw in this project, as well!

Q. When developing the game, what drew the company to keep it a PlayStation exclusive rather than branch out to other platforms?

A. It was my love for everything Sony, and especially my huge interest in the PSP and the PlayStation®2/ PlayStation®3 consoles that led me to reach out to SCEA. Not only that, but I was already one of the five “vendorized” companies with SCEA who helped to create dynamic and interactive websites, so the industry relationship was already there. One thing was for certain—SCEA needed to see a fully-developed Game Design Document, coupled with concept art, for them to take not just me, but anyone, seriously. Fortunately, SCEA shows a lot of respect toward indie developers like us, and they have been extremely helpful because they believe REBORN is a great concept to be nurtured. They are the first publisher who gave us our first shot in this industry, and because of that, we regard them highly. That is why we have chosen to make REBORN for PlayStation consoles, initially. That said, we are also PC gamers, so we want to be able to bring REBORN to Steam (Windows) with our initial goal, and to Wii-U and XBOX platforms at higher stretch goals.

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Q. There are many different mythologies and legends that can be drawn upon, so why did you choose to focus on Japanese lore for REBORN?

A. I started tinkering with computers and playing video games at an early age. Playing games like The Killing Game Show on the Commodore 64, Blazing Lasers on turbografx 16, Rivercity Ransom on the NES, and Final Fight, Street Fighter II, and Final Fantasy games on SNES all had a great impact and influenced my childhood years. As I got older, I started tinkering with cars—specifically Japanese imports—and my affinity for Japanese culture grew from there. I was fortunate enough to take many trips to Japan over the years and make a great many friends there. Furthermore, I travelled through much of the country, learning and absorbing its rich and dynamic history and folklore. Japan is truly a spiritual place that is alluring because of its traditionalism juxtaposed with modern society. Therefore, making an RPG about a samurai in a cyberpunk world just seemed to mesh with my experiences perfectly.

Q. With many different samurai to choose from, especially those from the Sengoku era, what led to the decision to base the main character off of Miyamoto Musashi?

A. Every culture has its own folk heroes; for example, America has Davey Crockett, England has Robin Hood, and France has Joan of Arc. Japan has numerous samurai folk heroes, but Miyamoto Musashi is probably the most well-known. He is iconic not only in Japanese history, but also in the field of martial arts. Businessmen in Japan often adopt the philosophy of his book, THE BOOK OF 5 RINGS, when conducting business despite the fact that Musashi wrote the book to describe his philosophy regarding combat.

Q. The contrast between traditional Japanese lore and the advanced technological powers and augmentations created by Nexus Roku is stark. What led to the idea between traditional vs futuristic conflict?

A. I wanted to make a samurai game centered around Musashi, but rather than having it take place in 17th century Japan, I thought a hyper-modern setting would be an interesting approach. One day, I was having coffee at Night Owl (a quaint little coffee shop in downtown Fullerton) with Eric Thuan. I was telling him about the game’s concept. We came up with the idea that one of the themes we could include to make the story balanced, rich, and dynamic, was to explore themes of self-discipline and progress—maxims of many forms of martial arts—juxtaposed against technology, which is supposed to make life easier for all mankind. That is why we decided to inject WuXing and the five Chinese elements of nature.

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Q. While REBORNS Japanese influences make Tokyo Game Show an interesting venue to debut at, why choose this time to reveal the game instead of during any of the other events throughout the year?

A. (acttil) Initially, we weren’t planning to hold a press event to announce REBORN at Tokyo Game Show. But we wanted to make a strong impression for our Kickstarter project because we’re just some no-name developer and publisher, to be honest. We wanted to make sure that our project would be seen by plenty of gamers. Timing-wise, Tokyo Game Show was the perfect outlet for us. Gamescom and PAX were too soon for us to make an announcement due to asset availability and our own schedule conflicts.

Q.  Being the first title from Elemental Labs, creating REBORN with the PlayStation 4 in mind must have been quite the challenge, why choose to feature both a PlayStation 4 version of the game as well as one for the current Sony console?

A. When I originally started the creation process, I focused on making REBORN a 2D side-scrolling game exclusively for the PSVita. After showing our demo to SCEA, we were told that they wanted REBORN for their next-gen console, hence the PS4. We couldn’t believe it, and we were truly blessed to be in such a position, so we jumped in head first! Being an indie developer, we are fortunate that we can branch out and port REBORN to other consoles. This is something that we have considered in the past, but out of respect to the faith that SCEA has shown us, we will make REBORN available only on the PS4 and PS3 consoles initially, and then branch out to other platforms depending on whether or not we achieve our higher stretch goals.

As a first-time studio, we have so much to prove. We wanted to put everything on the line and go all the way with boosting our concept to look and feel next-gen. Initially, most of our demo was made with very low-count polygonal characters using the Unreal Engine 3’s mobile version for PSVita. We had a simple formula in mind when making our world: Keep the environments around 2-5k polygons, and the main playable characters at around 15k polygons. So when we were told to make REBORN for the next-gen PS4 console, we had to increase our poly-count. We are very happy with the outcome.

Q. The PlayStation Vita has been slowly gaining strength in the West and is now seeing more support from Sony in the way of Vita TV, could it be possible that REBORN may make its debut on the Vita as well?

A. Definitely! Not everybody has every console on the market. A lot of people may only have Vitas, and not the PS3 or the upcoming PS4, so we want as many people as possible to experience REBORN—especially on-the-go. It would be a great way to spend time while taking road trips in a car or sitting in an airplane on long flights.

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Q. Many smaller studios attempt to handle their own press through simpler means or try to make it on word of mouth alone. Why did Elemental Labs choose to team up with acttil to help bring REBORN to the public eye?

A. Well, acttil is a small start-up publishing company and we’re a small start-up developer, so it seemed only fitting that we would team up and work together. Aside from that, acttil is comprised of very passionate people on their end, just like us, so we’re all very supportive of each other.

While Elemental Labs may have put their Kickstarter on hold for now, it is quite clear that they are very passionate about bringing REBORN to gamers and with a re-launch of their Kickstarter in November it will be interesting to see how things go from here.

Noucome Episode 2 Impressions

James Mapley
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Noucome Episode 2 Impressions

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Ore no Nounai Sentakushi ga, Gakuen Love Comedy wo Zenryoku de Jama Shiteiru
Episode 2 – ① Secret Technique! Make Them Laugh with Butack Humor! ② Objection! Butack Trial

There is a tendency with series that rely heavily on a romance element to take some considerable getting used to. Even in the case of romcoms like Noucome, until I know a little more about the character’s motivations I generally remain unmoved and continue watching more for the laughs than the romantic sub-plot. Baka to Test, Haganai, Oreimo, and even some less well known series like winter’s Oreshura were all great series in my mind simply because they managed to incite non-stop hilarity while still giving profound reasons behind why everyone loved the male lead so much. Failing to pull off this mixture is a critical failure for any anime in this genre, but will Noucome fall prey to this error? Will its gimmicky premise ware thin or will it find new ways to surprise us?

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Choosing to focus more on establishing a plot after last week’s episode’s fixation on character introduction, episode 2 continued to tag us along with its wonderfully weird sense of humour and ever-present possibility to cause mayhem at the drop of a hat. Personally, I can’t think of a better way of demonstrating that ability than to have the main character of your anime receive a call from God within minutes of starting the episode. It would seem that in this universe you would be just in taking the Lord’s name in vain since he seemed no more divine than a call centre employee. It was about the time when he said he was only acting as God because the person before him got pregnant from an affair and became a shut-in that it finally hit me why this world is so messed up that a teenage boy could end up getting such a ridiculous curse.

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After demonstrating his power in true priceless Noucome fashion by turning Kanade into a girl (and inciting a great what-if story at the end of the episode) , God did eventually give the plot some direction by setting up a series of missions for Kanade. Complete them all and he will have his curse lifted, fail once and it stays with him forever. Truly this is a cruel and angry god … Or one that just enjoys messing with his subjects … One of the two. So, that seems to be where this anime is heading. Setting up a mission each week which Kanade has to complete in whatever wacky way is necessary, no doubt with the “assistance” of his new companion, the self-titled Chocolat, and his teacher who unexpectedly revealed that she was afflicted with Absolute Choice in the past as well. Noucome definitely took a step in the right direction by adding something more than just the multiple choice curse to give the plot some more substance. I did have fears that the concept would get dry very quickly, but now my only worry is that it will become quickly repetitive. Hopefully, my fears will not come to pass.

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To kick off the missions, Kanade was presented with the monumental task of making the cold, dry Yukihira laugh from the bottom of her heart. Now, I can’t be sure that some of the punchlines weren’t lost in translation, but wow were all of his jokes terrible. Don’t get me wrong, I was laughing the whole time with my face thoroughly buried in my palms, but that was because I was so taken aback by how ludicrous this show is! It seems that Kanade will stop at no length to get rid of his curse, even if that means losing every tiny shred of dignity that he still has left. To nobody’s surprise his efforts failed monumentally, actually resulting in her being a lot more amusing than Kanade by threatening to sue him for stealing her jokes. Once again, Yukihira has managed to steal my affections with her arid, sarcastic personality. So far she is my favourite part of Noucome by quite some way.

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Speaking of feelings of love and Yukihira, the cliffhanger of episode 2 left us with something completely unexpected that I was unbelievably happy to see. Yukihira was crying and muttering about how she thought Kanade must think she is a weirdo! Proof that she has feelings for Kanade if ever I heard them… Finally, some feelings beyond embarrassment and surprise! My hopes for this anime have soared and only episode 3 will tell if my new-found expectations are met or if Noucome ends up being another flat, humdrum harem anime.

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Noucome definitely hasn’t impacted upon me enough to call it a great series out of the blocks, but it has given us some direction, a set of goals constructed by god himself. Granted, it would seem that he has immediately failed the first mission so for all we know he could have locked himself into the curse forever and we could be back to square one next episode, but I highly doubt that. Paramount to the success of this episode in my eyes though was that through all of the cringeworthy humour, a small glimmer of emotion appeared completely out of the blue. My first thoughts are that the next episode will contain flashbacks that will reveal the crux of Yukihira’s apparent love for Kanade. If they are as memorable as in the series that I listed earlier, then Noucome will cease to be just an outrageously silly comedy and should start to garner some following as something with feeling, not just boobs and stupidity.

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For more impressions from the CC Anime team of Autumn’s best and worst anime, head over to our Anime Impressions page and check out what’s on offer!

Laike’s Download Deals 10/19/2013

Jamie Laike Tsui
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This best deal in this edition is 75% off Bioshock Infinite at Amazon. This is a second chance for those who missed the 24 hour sale at Greenman Gaming. $9.99 is hands down the lowest price for the game so far. It is an excellent price for a well regarded game.

 

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25% off the following new releases with the coupon GMG25-GRV7N-YY833

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Elder Scrolls Online Character Creation Trailer

Luke Halliday
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Bethesda have released a brand new trailer that takes a look into the deep customization available in Elder Scrolls Online’s character creation feature.

The trailer features developers who worked on the game themselves discussing what went into making the character creation feature as well as what they believed fans wanted from the feature. They also detail what is available in the final product for players to utilize when crafting their ideal character to use in the game.

You can check out the Elder Scrolls Online character creation trailer below for a great bit of insight into the game and in particular its character creation components.

Monster Anime Preview

Luke Halliday
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Monster Anime Preview

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Monster
Episodes 1-15

What is a monster? Is it something that goes bump in the night or are they the things that hide in a child’s closet? Perhaps monsters aren’t born from our fears, but instead could they are born from the darkness within our hearts? These are the ponderings of Naoki Urasawa’s Monster, a grim tale of life, death and the darkness that lies between.

For this preview we received a screener copy of the first 15 episodes in English dub format from anime distributor Siren Visual. As such, this will serve as a preview for Siren Visual’s release of the Monster anime series, which is scheduled to begin on November 20th, 2013.

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Within the very first episode of Monster, it quickly becomes quite apparent that this is something truly special. This isn’t just your run of the mill thriller. Monster is intense, atmospheric, sharply written and intellectually engaging. Urasawa’s vision is simultaneously horrifying and darkly beautiful.

The series follows Dr Kenzo Tenma, a neurosurgeon who makes a life or death decision that alters the course of not only his life but countless others. When a trail of murders leave Tenma a suspect, he begins to investigate the bloody path in search of the monster behind it.

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Set in the cold locale of Germany, Monster features a grim aesthetic that amplifies the sense of foreboding that resonates throughout the series. The harsh world makes for a perfect stage for the tale that Urasawa spins with an almost sinister delight.

Monster’s cast features some of the most despicable characters ever conceived. You get the feeling that Urasawa intended to focus on the uglier side of humanity with this cast and with the shades of grey that comprise the moral core of the series, it is clear that he wasn’t going for a simple black and white, good and evil, kind of scenario. These are highly detailed characters each with their own motivations, goals and histories. There is no clear cut morality in Monster and that makes for some truly intriguing storytelling and characterisation.

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Urasawa dives deep into the darker side of humanity and places a spotlight on the monsters that can reside within us all. It is a heavily psychological story that explores the human psyche in ways that are simply unheard of in anime. If you are looking for something different, Monster is simply unlike any anime you’ve ever experienced. Monster feels like the work of a mad genius and it is all the more compelling for it.

It wouldn’t be too far of a stretch to say that Monster is an anime classic. It’s one of the best-written series you’ll ever have the privilege of watching and it is truly must-see anime. There are certain anime series that come along every so often that are genuine masterpieces of the art form. Monster is one of those masterpieces.

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The thrill ride begins on November 20th with Siren Visual’s release of Monster Part 1 on DVD, you can pre-order it now on their official website here. This is one anime that you have to experience.

The Last Door’s Chilling Third Chapter Arrives

Zac Elawar
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After receiving that final crowd-funding push, The Game Kitchen has completed and released the third chapter of their episodic point-and-click horror/adventure title The Last Door.

Entitled ‘The Four Witnesses’, this instalment carries on from the dire predicament our main character Jeremy Devitt found himself in at the conclusion of ‘Memories’ – the second chapter, which you can now experience for free. Awakening in a foreign city, Devitt will need to explore its slums in order to discover where he is, why he is there, and more about his own past coming back to haunt him. The exceptionally harrowing and disturbing soundtrack has again been contributed by award-winning composer Carlos Viola, whose work “can be defined as a piece of art” according to project manager of The Last Door, Mauricio García.

Now that ‘The Four Witnesses’ is upon us, crowd-funding has begun for the fourth as-of-yet unnamed chapter. Read our review of the opening chapters, and try them out for yourself by following the link above. If you like what you see, donate whatever you can to the development of chapter four.

Pauly’s Shorts Review

Luke Halliday
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Pauly’s Shorts Review

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Pauly’s Shorts
Studio: Beyond Entertainment
Publisher: Beyond Entertainment
Format: DVD
Release Date: September 4th, 2013
Price: $23.95 – Available Here

Overview
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past decade or so, you’d know that Australia has become the comedic stomping ground for Paul ‘Pauly’ Fenech and his group of stooges. It has been hard to escape his brand of comedy here down under and the jokes and characters that have sprung from Fenech’s mind over all these years have become thoroughly ingrained into the hearts of Aussies across the nation.

Pauly’s Shorts wears the facade of a collection of short films by Fenech well, but in actual fact it is really a victory lap of sorts for the man known affectionately as Pauly. This DVD in and of itself is a brief look at the history of Pauly’s film-making career and in many ways a celebration of it. There are plenty of goodies to find in Pauly’s Shorts, whether you love him or hate him, it is worth a peek inside.

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Story
The premise of this pseudo-documentary is that Paul Fenech is taking a look back on his film-making history and giving viewers a glimpse at some never before seen material. What we see covers his entire history from start to finish, touching upon his biggest hits and his short films that preceded them.

While the title of the DVD seems to refer to Pauly’s short films, they are not exactly the stars here. Instead it is the behind the scenes look at production on his TV series and feature films that prove to be the most interesting. We see that despite its relatively tempered content, Swift and Shift Couriers was actually the subject of scrutiny from the SBS, resulting in some episodes being banned. We see some footage from the banned episodes and the question still remains, what was so bad for them to be pulled from air? It is certainly nice to see a look at what could have been though. In a particularly intriguing cut episode we see that Pauly went on location in Egypt to film an unaired episode of Swift and Shift Couriers.

The look at Fenech’s short films, while not being as much of a fan-service as the behind the scenes look on Pizza, Swift and Shift and Housos, is still quite a bit of fun. His short film called Dangerous Pizza is undoubtedly the stand out of the bunch, being both intensely atmospheric and utterly hilarious.

There is an interesting portion that focuses on his 1999 entry into Tropfest. While the film itself was hardly anything special, it was the story surrounding it that was. Fenech having become frustrated with Tropfest judge’s favoring works of women, entered the film festival under the name of Laura Feinstein. Shockingly he actually won, much to the chagrin of Tropfest judge and officials hoping for a female director to take the prize. It was a brief glimpse at Fenech as a man, that the rest of the documentary is unforunately void of.

Pauly’s Shorts does however begin to spin its wheels once it gets onto the topic of Housos. While many consider it to be Fenech’s weakest series, Pauly’s Shorts spends far too much time on the weak parts of Housos rather than its stronger scenes. This is of course likely due to the dispute with former cast members of the show, but it is still a little disappointing.

While it does virge on self indulgent at times, Pauly’s Shorts is a fun watch for fans of his work. It doesn’t offer much in the way of a new perspective on the man to those who detest him, but he resolutely stays true to himself and his body of work in what amounts to an entertaining retrospective of the divisive Paul Fenech.

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Visuals and Audio
Fenech is a flamboyant personality in many ways, he imbues his films and series with a sense of flare and vibrancy that are uniquely his own. Whether it is the black and white Dangerous Pizza or colour saturated Fat Pizza, there is a definite sense of style that comes off as natural for Fenech. While it is likely an unintentional aesthetic, it is undeniable that he has a sense of style that surrounds his works. It is something that is quite eye-catching and Pauly’s Shorts covers the multitude of styles that have defined his career.

In terms of audio, there isn’t any specific soundtrack laid out for Pauly’s Shorts, instead Fenech has opted to feature some tracks from his works that have become synonymous with his career, including the vapid theme of Housos that has a way of scratching its way into your head, like it or not.

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Overall
Pauly’s Shorts is ultimately a round of applause for the career of Paul Fenech. It’s a shame however that the only one applauding is Fenech himself. This is a look at the career of Pauly through the eyes of Pauly and in many ways it comes off as a little slanted to the way in which he would like to represent it. It would have done a world of a good to have a few other perspectives, but such was not the case.

If you are a fan of Fenech, you’ll surely find a lot to enjoy in Pauly’s Shorts, even if you’ve seen most of it before. It is the new stuff that is worth the price of admission. With behind the scenes looks at series like Pizza and Swift and Shift Couriers, we get a greater insight to what could have been. It is a great addition to Pauly’s Shorts that will surely be worth the watch for fans.

Unfortunately if you are not a fan of Fenech and his particular brand of humour, Pauly’s Shorts won’t do anything to change your mind. Fenech comes off as self-serving throughout and at times a little too arrogant. But hey, Fenech is a pretty funny guy underneath it all and maybe, if you give him a chance, he might just make you laugh.

7-0-capsules-out-of-10

Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.

Nagi no Asukara Episode 3 Impressions

Sergei Lazarev
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3

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Nagi no Asukara
Episode 3 – The Tradition of the Sea

There wasn’t much time for Nagi no Asukara to develop before we were thrown into a troubling love triangle and a case of forbidden love between Akari and a surface dweller during the first two episodes. Everyone was left feeling uncertain and a little anxious about the future. It’s surprising then how much of a turnaround Episode 3 is, proving that in order to mend uneasy hearts a few words and a little understanding go a long way.

We begin with the group eavesdropping on Akari being spoken to by her Chief Priest father and the Sea God deity Uroko-sama. Although we can’t hear what’s being said to her, it seems like she’s accepting of the situation. The kids gather in their old, closed school and Hikari decides to confront Akari’s lover, promising to hit him regardless if he’s a nice guy or not. Here’s where the conversation gets interesting. Once the girls are alone, Chisaki directly asks Manaka if she likes Tsumugu, to which Manaka replies that she doesn’t know, only that her feelings for him are different. Even more interesting is that the guys overhear this talk.

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Back at Hikari’s home things are back to normal after such an awkward confrontation; Akari is her usual self and their father isn’t mad. We get a really insightful flashback while Hikari thinks to himself in bed. When their mother died Akari didn’t cry and tried to act mature, holding a crying Hikari. Back then he still called Akari “Onee-chan”, as most brothers would. But that ended after that moment, so he now calls her Akari. I was actually confused at the start of the show as I wasn’t sure who she was. Most brothers in anime never call their sisters by their names!

Akari gave up her dream of wanting to be a manga artist and began working at a convenience store since they didn’t have enough money for both of them to attend college. You really get a handle on the ties that exist between the two.

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As Hikari is still pondering, we also realise that he’s not an uncaring fool either. He’s relieved that Akari is deciding things for herself by dating that guy and he realises Manaka must be frustrated with the rules of the village and the differences between the two peoples. This moment completely reverses my opinions on Hikari, he’s actually a thoughtful guy!

The group of friends finally confront Akari’s boyfriend who was meeting with Tsumugu’s dad, and Hikari tells him outright that he’s hurting Akari by being with her. It seems the guy had no clue you can get banished by marrying someone from the surface. Tsumugu emerges to explain a bombshell, which is that a child born from two different humans will not have an Ena and so can’t live underwater. The Ena is explained to be similar to what covers a foetus, except it remains with the Sea People after birth. It becomes obvious that it’s not just a silly tradition to kick someone out from the village, it’s necessary deterrence to prevent the self-genocide of the Sea People.

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Most intriguingly is Tsumugu’s dad who appears to have an Ena yet lives on the surface. Given his knowledge of the topic, I’m assuming his wife (who appears to have passed away) was a land dweller. That also explains Tsumugu’s fascination with the Sea People and his desire to have an Ena himself.

Always the adult, Ayaka decides to end her relationship and keeps a brave happy face while doing so. It was great to see Hikari bond with Tsumugu more, to the point where he calls him by his first name, much to the dismay of poor Manaka who was trying her best to call him by his surname. Finally, Manaka comes clean to Tsumugu and reveals that her fish isn’t on her knee anymore, prompting him to burst out laughing. The first time we see the guy smile.

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This episode was simply heartwarming in comparison to the last couple and it really was satisfying seeing everyone get along for once. Although I have a nagging feeling Nagi no Asukara still has more trouble in store for us.

Check out more Nagi no Asukara impressions HERE.

Ace Combat Infinity Co-op Detailed in Video

Sergei Lazarev
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0

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Namco Bandai has posted the latest video for the upcoming Ace Combat Infinity, a free-to-play iteration of the series coming exclusively to PlayStation 3. Check it out below as well as the media that came out of TGS 2013.

Online Co-op Missions is a new mode that combines four players in one squadron to either work with or compete against a rival team. Players will sortie on missions that require teamwork to take out enemy targets.

Pilots receive rewards while in combat which can then be used to acquire new aircraft and enhance them. The more you play online with friends, the more “strategy” they will be able to use, resulting in more aircraft and weapons.

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