So far, the Senran Kagura series has seen two games released on the Nintendo 3DS with one coming out on the Vita in the next few months. Despite there being three titles in the series and even an anime set to air in the coming weeks, there has been no sign that these games would ever make it over to the West.
However Senran Kagura’s producer, Kenichiro Takaki, has mentioned that he hopes to bring the series West as a Nintendo eShop download at the very least and today he has made his first step towards doing that, by releasing Senran Kagura Burst on the Japanese eShop.
The downloadable version of the game will cost 5,980 yen and will be available on January 10th and will feature both the first game in the series, Portrait of Girls, as well as the sequel Burst. To leave things off this year, Takaki left a great English message for fans on Twittersaying, “I’ll wrap the world in happy boobs next year.” A man after my own heart.
2012 has been a huge year for anime, with a plethora of new series making a splash that won’t soon be forgotten. Over the course of the last 12 months the anime industry has witnessed some truly shocking, amazing and even hilarious news stories. How will we look back on this year in anime? Well here is what made us talk about anime in 2012:
Way back in January this year, we broke the news that Bandai had effectively closed up shop in North America leaving many of their releases to go unfinished and unreleased. This also meant many of their licenses would be up in the air. This rocked the anime industry to it’s core as one of the big players had stepped out. It was Bandai’s failure to adapt that ultimately was their undoing, but the industry has bounced back since Bandai’s end with several of their titles having been license rescued since.
Media Blasters are a company that have been in the anime industry for a long time to say the least, dating back to the 90s even. However 2012 has been a horrible year for them as they have fired 60% of their staff, cancelled and delayed a large number of their releases with no definite future for any of them or this once prosperous company. As of posting Media Blasters are still ‘operating’ but it is only a matter of time before they follow in Bandai’s footsteps.
In a bit of lighter news, we got news that a Sydney man who happened to be a huge fan of the anime and manga series Bleach was able to fight off a home invader with a replica sword from the series. It was a strange piece of news that had all of us here at Capsule in stitches.
Fans of the work of Shinichiro Watanabe had reason to be excited this year. After several years of hiatus he returned with an excellent slice of life series that much like his other works featured music as a large focal point. The series was Kids on the Slope, a great low-key series that aired on noitaminA in Japan to great praise, completely revitalizing Watanabe’s career after his lengthy hiatus and thank god for that.
To the shock of no one the Bleach anime had been in ratings hell for months leading up to it’s eventual demise earlier this year. The series had reached a major slump and simply could not recover which ultimately led to the anime series cancellation.
In some sadder news, Noboru Ishiguro, the man behind legendary anime series such as Space Battleship Yamato and the Macross franchise and the founder of Artland anime studio, passed away tragically earlier this year after roughly 50 years of service to the industry. His legacy still lives on through his work and the continual output of anime from his Artland studio.
This year also saw the inception of a brand new anime distributor in Australia, that being Hanabee. This new company was founded by former CEO of Siren Visual Eric Cherry and has since launching released excellent anime series such as Toradora! and Dream Eater Merry exciting and captivating the country’s anime fandom with series thought to never see the light of day on our shores. To commemorate the launch of Hanabee we interviewed CEO Eric Cherry about the new company which you can see here.
After years upon years of a Toonami-less world, the wildly popular anime block returned to TV in North America to incredible response from anime fans both within America and abroad. The fact that anime could still find a home on TV, especially the type of anime played on Toonami, was something to behold. It began with airing newly dubbed Deadman Wonderland and Casshern Sins and has since went on to gain new additions such as Tenchi Muyo GXP. There doesn’t seem to be anything that can stop this train now that it’s started rolling again.
Earlier this year Viz Media launched their long awaited streaming service on gaming consoles called Neon Alley. The service has been well received thus far except one tiny little detail, you can’t control the service in anyway. Instead Viz opted for the service to function more like a regular TV channel with a set programming schedule, this has obviously divided fans and has made some think twice about the service.
Dragon Ball much like its protagonist Goku, never truly dies. This much was proven when it was announced that the franchise would see yet another revival in 2013 with Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods, yet another film based upon the enduring series. This film however fits more smoothly in canon of the series than others with it taking place between the two final chapters time-skip after the defeat of Majin Buu. The announcement of the film has sparked renewed interest in Goku and friends and even the most minute details on the film have been a cause for discussion.
Goku isn’t the only anime hero of the 90s that will make a comeback next year, in some surprising news it was announced that a new Sailor Moon anime series has been green-lit for 2013. Although news has been sparse since that initial announcement it was enough to reignite the flame of passion among the Sailor Moon fanbase with all sorts of conversation stemming from the simple idea of a new take of the perennial magical girl series.
For many anime fans of today the name JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is something that might not ring a bell, that is until after 25 years without a proper anime adaptation the long-running manga series finally got the definitive anime adaptation it so badly deserved. The anime has since received widespread praise for it’s pacing, over the top nature and ‘anything can be awesome’ mentality.
Sword Art Online was first announced earlier this year to air in Summer of 2012, many were intrigued by it’s video-game world premise and it became one of the most watched premiere episodes of the entire year. Unfortunately after several episodes the series would prove to be divisive, with many finding plot-holes and flaws to be abundant while others managed to overlook those issues and enjoy the series for what it is, silly fun. Regardless of whether you love it or hate it there is no doubt in any anime fans mind that there was no other series more talked about this year than Sword Art Online.
This is without a doubt great news for manga fans as this marks a major stride forward for the industry. Viz Media’s digital manga service Shonen Jump Alpha will now feature simultaneous releases with Japan, with manga being released ont he same day as they are in Japan. This is the news manga fans have been waiting for since Alpha’s launch earlier this year.
Easily the most frightening anime news of 2012 is the Kuroko’s Basketball threat incident that as of posting is still an ongoing issue. It all began a few months back when death threats began appearing at locations connected with Tadatoshi Fujimaki the mangaka behind wildly popular manga and anime seires Kuroko’s Basketball. The threats continued to escalate and soon a lethal concoction of hydrogen sulfide begun to accompany the threat letters. The situation still remains unresolved and has resulted in the closure of multiple Kuroko’s Basketball related fan events. The anime series has been renewed for a second season despite the threats and the mangaka has vowed to not stop the series no matter what. This all made for what is the most shocking anime news of 2012.
That’s a wrap!
Well that wraps things up for the year of 2012 in anime. It’s been one hell of year with many highs and lows, but it is stories like these that are what defined this year. Here’s to another brilliant year of anime to look forward to in 2013. See you all on the other side of new year.
It looks like someone may be losing their job at a GameStop somewhere around the world. Today a user from Redditprovided a few images that reveal a large promotional poster that states that the first piece of DLC for Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 will be called “Revolution” and will be released on January 29th.
As you can see in the image above, the DLC will include five new areas which contain four competitive multiplayer maps as well as one zombie map. The four multiplayer maps are Mirage, Downhill, Hydro and Grind while the zombie map is called Die Rise. It is currently unknown how much the DLC will cost when it is released, though it is worth noting that all of Activision’s previous Call of Duty DLC has run for 1200 MSP ($15).
You may remember hearing about how Activision is currently working on a FPS title based off of The Walking Dead franchise and how that title is called The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct. What you probably don’t know is how the game will actually play and that is because the only gameplay footage shown off so far have been five second clips shown during AMC’s TV show.
Well over the weekend it was discovered that some early gameplay footage from The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct has been leaked out onto YouTube and can now be seen below. It is unknown how early on in development this video is considering the game does not have a set release date as of yet, so hopefully the generic visuals and gameplay will be improved when the final product is eventually released.
The Binding of Isaac: Most Unholy Edition Developer: Edmumd McMillen, Florian Himsl Publisher: Merge Games Platform: PC (reviewed), Mac, Linux Release Date:October 12, 2012 Price: $14.99 (Buy Now)
Overview
The Binding of Isaac was first released back in October of 2011. Since then, this little Indie title has swept up high praises and high sales the like of which many AAA titles would turn green with envy over.
What does runaway success of a digital release always lead to?
No, it’s not the death of the physical game – in fact it’s quite the opposite. The Binding of Isaac: Most Unholy Edition is a boxed collector’s edition of the indie game. It comes packed with the game’s soundtrack, an art book, a poster, and some stickers. There’s also the rather large “Wrath of the Lamb” expansion that includes a hundred new items, bonus characters, and a couple dozen new enemies and bosses.
Creating a retail version of an indie title may seem a bit like a sell-out move, but there’s more than enough here to warrant your hard-earned cash.
If you like super-hardcore, spill-your-brains-on-the-keyboard in frustration video games that is.
Gameplay
Isaac’s mother likes the Christian programming on her television a tad too much. After years of compulsive watching she begins to hear God’s voice in her head, it tells her to separate her poor son, Isaac, from the evils of the world. No toys, no friends – a pretty miserable existence.
But it didn’t stop there.
When the voice eventually tells her that slaying her son is the only way to save him from the evils of the world, Isaac escapes to the basement.
Much like Alice heading down the rabbit hole, this is where the adventure begins (and where you, dear player, come in).
The Binding of Isaac is a two-dimensional action RPG wherein you’ll traverse randomly generated dungeons, come across enemies whose attack patterns vary almost as much as their visual designs, and items that are gross to watch when you activate, but effective in their execution.
It’s not every game that lets you pull out Mom’s Bra as a reusable item that allows you to petrify all the enemies in a room, or makes your character have an eye poked out, but as a result the eye now floats around and helps attack enemies.
You’ll need these items though, the game isn’t easy.
This might not be a barrier to entry, but the game’s biggest hurdle is the perma-death. When you die, that’s it. No items, different dungeons, and just a bit more experience to show for it once you start over.
What The Wrath of the Lamb expansion does, however, is alleviate some of those feelings of despair and shouts of “THIS WAS A FU**ING WASTE OF TIME!!!”. This is due to its most unholy addition of bonus characters.
Though it doesn’t really make sense in terms of it being Isaac’s story, once you’ve found a character while exploring a dungeon, you’ll have unlocked them forever. These characters not only have different stats, but also special abilities they can use.
Eve, for example, is faster than Isaac, but has less health. On the other hand, every time she takes damage a raven appears to peck the snot out of every enemy in the room. This was very handy in the game’s many, varied boss fights.
While the bonus characters by no means completely ease the pain with regards to the whole perma-death thing, they do manage to soften the blow – it’s not always a useless quest down the basement chute.
Audio & Visual
The art design of the Binding of Isaac is nothing short of fantastic, making the art book that comes with the Most Unholy edition worthy of your attention.
The game is full of the most vile, disgusting things you could imagine: severed heads shoot tears of blood at you, disfigured babies send swarms of flies to consume you, shop rooms are usually party to a dead child who has hung himself and, hell, Isaac’s basic attacks are based around him crying tears at enemies. It’s disturbing.
While at the same time… it’s all very cute. In short, it’s a hipster’s dream come true; irony, irony, and more irony. The art style resembles something befitting of My Little Pony Island Adventure, but the practical notion of what’s going on in game is more horrifying than anything that’s been in a video game before. Except, of course, the ending of Mass Effect 3. That literally made me barf.
The sound design and soundtrack, on the other hand, are nothing to write home about. Not that they’re bad, but they’re just not very memorable – except for one unforgettable sound effect: the little plop as you attack piles of poop that replace what would be barrels or crates in any other action RPG. That sound sticks with you.
Overall
The Binding of Isaac: Most Unholy Edition is an indie game that’s made it big. If you’re not a fan of games with a more challenging difficulty and a cruelly harsh punishment for death, then don’t feel like you have to buy this game on principle.
Though it might surprise you – I’m not usually a fan of either of those things, and I adored this game. Everything that comes with it in the Most Unholy edition is icing on an already very nice cake. So if you haven’t invested in Isaac already, and all that perma-death and nightmarish design stuff hasn’t put you off, then the Most Unholy Edition is the best Binding of Isaac experience out there.
Oh, and before you worry about this being a physical edition and thus always needing the CD – the package comes with a Steam code for the game. So there’s no need to ever even open your CD drive.
Wreck-It Ralph Studio: Walt Disney Animation Studios Publisher:Walt Disney Pictures Format:Cinema Release Date:December 26, 2012
Overview:
Disney are back in the saddle once again with another animated adventure this time by the name of Wreck-It Ralph. This is not the usual Disney family romp however, Wreck-It Ralph feels both simultaneously familiar and radically new territory.
Set within video-games in an arcade, Wreck-It Ralph is a film that inherently will feature a lot of references for gamers, but to think that this is a film just for them is a mistake. Wreck-It Ralph isn’t a film about video-games so much as it is a film set within video-games. If you can go into this film with that state of mind, you will find a lot to enjoy and heck you might even find somethings rather moving at times.
Wreck-It Ralph is an affectionate video-game tribute with a message underneath it, but as a film does it stay connected or go out of order?
Story:
Wreck-It Ralph follows titular perennial bad guy Ralph as he embarks on a journey to become a good guy and in the process gain acceptance and a better life. It’s a simple premise and placing it within the world of video-games gives a lot for Disney to draw from.
What exactly makes a person bad and what exactly makes them good? This is a question the film ponders throughout its run and reaches the answer it reaches is truly heart-warming.
The film begins with Ralph’s day to day life in his game ‘Fix-It Felix Jr.’ in which he serves as the villain that only wrecks things. He is shunned by all the other characters in his game and is forced to live in the dump outside of town. He becomes convinced that he will become accepted by them like Felix if he wins a medal, this sets his journey into motion and he starts game-jumping.
As Ralph sets out on his quest to become a good guy he discovers someone who understands his pain. That being Vanellope one of the films best characters, she understands Ralph on a level that others simply can’t.
Vanellope is a glitch in her game, which causes the rest of her game’s inhabitants to reject her and treat her like a fugitive. Being a glitch she can’t ever leave her game and if the plug where to ever be pulled, she would die. Ralph sides with Vanellope as he fights to save her, the only person that accepts him for who he is, which sets into motion a wicked series of events and twists that are delightfully foreshadowed all of which culminate in a glorious finale to savour.
In the end Ralph becomes a hero and he earns the acceptance of his game’s inhabitants, not because he is a hero but because he is their villain, without the bad guy there is no game. They accept that he is a as much a part of the game as they are and they come to see that he isn’t such a bad guy afterall.
Ultimately Wreck-It Ralph isn’t a film about video-games, it is a film about belonging and why we feel the need to belong, why we desire connection and acceptance. So what exactly makes a bad guy a bad guy? Well sometimes bad guys are just misunderstood and sometimes they are just plain bad, but the difference between inherent villainy and unintentional villainy is pretty clearly defined here. Regardless, If a little girl can like Ralph, how much of a bad guy can he really be?
Visuals and Audio:
There is a great deal of visual and musical references to gaming in this film but they never really take away from the films original work. The art in the film looks gorgeous and the worlds in which it takes place are very well realised and concieved. Although they may not be the video-game worlds gamers want to see they are well done and highly detailed. The character designs are also great being both memorable and charming.
The soundtrack of the film is solid with a number of familiar tracks such as ‘Shut Up and Drive’ by Rihanna. AKB48 also provide an excellent original song for the film titled ‘Sugar Rush’, the song is almost entirely in Japanese oddly enough except it’s chorus. It’s catchy to say the very least. All in all Wreck-It Ralph’s music has a lot of variety and is timed with precision to lift scenes to greater heights. It’s an impressive effort to say the very least.
Overall:
From start to finish Wreck-It Ralph is an exciting family adventure that can be enjoyed by people of all ages. If you go in with the mind frame that you are simply watching a film set in a video-game world and not so much a movie about video-games, you will find a lot of enjoyment, but if you go in with too high expectations of a video-game movie you will surely be disappointed. Take Wreck-It Ralph for what it is, a heartwarming Disney adventure with some video-games references sprinkled throughout.
If you give it a chance Wreck-It Ralph will surprise you with it’s warm soul and honest message about acceptance. Even if that isn’t to your taste the entire adventure is non-stop fun that anyone can enjoy. In the end the only thing Ralph wrecks is expectations, by completely blowing them out of the water and being better than many imagined it could have been. This is a must see film this holiday season for all ages.
Capsule Computers review guidelines can be found here.
Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt Studio:Gainax Publisher: FUNimation Format:Blu-ray Release Date: January 15, 2013 Price:$69.98 – Available Here
Overview: Every company is concerned about losing money to competition, especially competition from overseas. This fear has recently caused quite a stir in the anime industry thanks to the fact that many Japanese companies are either afraid to sell the license to Western companies to release in English or make it so certain versions of an anime are delayed.
Such is the case with Panty & Stocking, an anime which was originally released on DVD back in July. The original license holder feared that anime fans from Japan would purchase the Blu-ray version of the anime for a severe discount from North America. As such, FUNimation’s Blu-ray release was delayed until the beginning of 2013. However now that the series has debuted on Blu-ray, is it worth picking up for those who may have waited or are looking for the ultimate Panty & Stocking experience?
Story: Daten City lies between the border of Heaven and Hell and because of its unfortunate location, the city is always plagued by evil spirits that take the form of various ghosts. The ghosts can come in all shapes and sizes and can cause mass chaos and destruction whenever they form. However the citizens of the city aren’t on their own, as two angels reside in the city under the eye of the local priest. Now if only one of them could stop having sex with anything that moves while the other is too busy eating anything sweet.
These two angels, called the Anarchy sisters are Panty and Stocking. They have been kicked out of Heaven due to the fact that their behavior is unbecoming of a heavenly being. To try and buy their way back into heaven they must destroy any ghosts they come across and receive Heaven Coins by making them “repent.” These two are monitored by an over the top priest named Garterbelt and are accompanied by their… pet like creature named Chuck.
Now while this may sound like a relatively simple story all on its own, that promises chances at redemption and plenty of action, it is far from it. The reason for this is simply because Panty & Stocking really never takes itself seriously as a show as the angels are more focused on sex and candy, thus creating some of the most off the wall and unpredictable antics viewers will likely ever see.
Panty is a nymphomaniac who would be much happier spending her time sleeping with four guys at once, while Stocking is a glutton for sweets who happens to love bondage, which seems to be trait shared with the priest Garterbelt. Throughout the series these two angels act like anything but angels, use their stockings and panties as weapons, often cause more damage than the ghosts themselves, all while swearing more than most people do in a year.
With this off the wall style, there is pretty much zero continuity between episodes barring a minor closing story arc. Instead the story mostly follows a monster of the week type style with the Anarchy sisters screwing and eating anything that moves, then fighting against whatever adversary pops up to stop their fun. But you know what? This formula and style work perfectly when combined together, creating an unpredictable laugh-riot of a show that will be impossible to forget.
Visuals: To say that Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt received an upgrade by being released on Blu-ray rather than DVD would be an understatement. The reason for this is thanks to the fact that Gainax’s bright color palette and mostly simplistic art style shine on this Blu-ray release. You see, while the DVDs may have still looked impressive, the series has never looked better than it does now on Blu-ray.
Even the most basic sequences appear crisp and vibrant and whenever the art style changes into one with more detail, these crisp visuals never miss a beat as the entire series, minus one half of an episode which features a real-life type art style, impresses from start to finish, especially whenever these two angels battle. While fans may be satisfied with the DVD portrayal of the series, this Blu-ray offering is the definitive Panty & Stocking experience.
Audio: As standard with a FUNimation release, Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt does contain the original Japanese voice track for those who would prefer it, though all of the rolled R’s and Japanese voice actors swearing in English can’t compare to what FUNimation has done with the English dub of the show.
Panty is voiced by Jamie Marchi while Monica Rial is handling the voice of Stocking and hearing these two go at one another and saying their outrageous lines is absolutely wonderful. Each voice actor has done a stellar job bringing these characters to life, and this praise doesn’t just end at the main characters. Even Colleen Clinkenbeard, Scanty’s voice, Cherami Leigh, Kneesocks’ voice, and Garterbelt’s voice actor Christopher Sabat have outdone themselves with this raunchy show.
The stellar voice acting of the series is accompanied by some stellar music as well. While Panty & Stocking may feature a rather simple opening song, the ending song “Fallen Angel” is not only a surprise given the series’ tone but also a joy to listen to. Besides these songs, the series is also rife with stunning background music and character themes, including both transformation sequences and the Anarchy Sisters’ theme song, making the show quite a treat for the ears, albeit one full of foul language.
Extras: Along with the various bonus features which were included with the original DVD release of the title, this Blu-ray version of Panty & Stocking features a number of new English special features. More on those shortly, but for now here are the extras that some may already have seen in the DVD release. There are a plethora of marketing trailers for the anime, a clean version of both the opening and ending tracks as well as the US trailer for the show and an outtakes sequence which features the already hilarious voice cast making even more humorous mistakes as they worked on the dub for this show.
Along with these is the Sanitary Box OVA which still features an English dub. Sanitary Box is a collection of minimally animated sequences which are meant to take place after certain events in an episode but do not tie directly into the story in any way. Also included are the Japanese dubbed ghost explosion documentary and collection, the Making of the Lingerie Scene and a “Talk Live Animated at Loft/Plus One.” Each of these specials are worth a peak, as the “Making of” bonus describes how they created a certain event in the final episode and the ghost explosion documentary shows how the animation studio managed to make each ghost explode differently.
Outside of these extra features that were also available on the DVD release, there are two brand new English bonus features in the form of “Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt Revealed: Unrated Cut” and “Sit Down with Panty and Stocking.” Both of these bonuses feature filmed interviews with four of the English cast members, Colleen Clinkenbeard, Jamie Marchi, Monica Rial and even Christopher Sabat. These live recordings are a real treat and better than any simple voice commentary could have been and each one features new information about the process of the English dub as well as the cast’s opinion of the show and how they enjoyed working on a series as crazy as this one.
Overall: While the original offering of Panty & Stocking back in July may have been great in its own way, anyone who has chosen to wait for the series to find it’s home on Blu-ray will not be disappointed. This raunchy and hilarious anime features amazing English voice work alongside gorgeous animation that looks better than ever.
Fans that have already joined the Anarchy Sisters on DVD, while this Blu-ray does feature some nice new extras and an impressive visual upgrade, its cost may be a bit too much to swallow once more. However if you have never experienced what Panty & Stocking have to offer, then this Blu-ray release will not leave you disappointed.
Dishonored, a supernatural assassin game developed by Arkane Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks had a lot of things going for it. Players step into the role of Corvo Attano, bodyguard to the Empress of Dunwall and vengeful assassin, armed with supernatural abilities and a bloody thirst for revenge.
The game features an interesting environment, unique set-up and some awesome gameplay; however it was two key things that hold the game back from being what it really deserves to be. So let’s check out what they both are below, from least to most important:
Major Spoilers for Dishonored Ahead
2. A Longer Intro
Within the first ten minutes of the game, players are thrust into a world they know little about. They return from a doomed mission to ask for aid from surrounding cities to deal Dunwall’s rat plague, meet the men who will eventually become your biggest targets, find the Empress and her daughter, fight off several would-be assassins and are framed by those you thought you could trust. That’s a whole lot to take in over the span of a few minutes.
But the main issue of such a short introduction to Dishonored is actually the fact that we spend so little time with Emily, the Empress’s daughter. This is the same character that we hunt down and try and rescue over the course of the game, twice. So why then is so little time spent of familiarising ourselves with the character?
You should end up caring for Emily so that when she is actually taken, players will really want to get her back, rather than just doing it because the game tells you to. We see some attempt at creating a relationship between our character Corvo and the future Empress-to-be, but it’s really not enough. The game of hide-and-seek that Emily asks you to play with her should really only be the tip of the iceberg, the beginning of a number of events and time that you really need to spend with her to form a bond. This way when she is ultimately taken by the Whalers, we feel a real deep need to get her back, an almost protective instinct to see this innocent girl return to safety. Maybe we could explore the castle with her, have lunch with her and her mother or receive a guided tour of all the changes that have occurred since your departure, any of those could have done the job and many more examples would also have worked.
In addition to Emily, how about forming some trust with the not-yet-revealed villains? Have them pat us on the back for doing the best we could, thank us for our efforts and then finally pull the rug out from underneath us. With the effect of adding more drama and a real, true sense of betrayal.
Then we go after them. Then we realise that “Revenge Solves Everything”.
By ending our time with the intro here we lose out on what could be some real emotional connection and ultimately a chance to improve the somewhat lacklustre story of the overall game. The Empress herself we already feel a connection to and ultimately a sense of loss when she is killed, as it is parroted repeatedly that we are her bodyguard (a poor one in the context of the game it seems); it was only Emily and the Villain introductions that needed the work.
1. A non-Silent Protagonist
This is the biggest and possibly best improvement that could be made to Arkane’s Dishonored. Adding in a voice to main character, Corvo Attano could have improved the overall game in a number of ways.
First off just think how much better Corvo’s interactions with Emily could have gone. In the intro this could mean we actually interact with and have a real conversation with her upon your initial return. When you hug and she says that she misses you, you could talk back and actually fully interact with her personality; rather than Emily just supplying an entire one-sided conversation. Instead of giving the Empress a letter stating that no help was coming, we ourselves could have spoke up and explained the dire situation Dunwall now found itself in.
This could work the same when talking with other characters, like when the Spymaster regales us with the story of how he framed us, the first time Piero gives Corvo his new mask, our initial interaction and meeting with Boatman Samuel, rescuing the Tactician from his chains and even when meeting The Outsider at different locations and receiving his notorious mark.
Certain story moments could have been done with so much more finesse and without the need for the many text and audio logs you find throughout the game (I still really liked finding those). Pinned against the wall by Daud and his men we could yell for Emily to run and when Havelock and the others are celebrating our success in toppling the tyrannical regime Corvo could join in with words of encouragement (moments before his health takes a turn for the worse of course).
When our time as Corvo finally concludes, players are treated to a slideshow of 3D images that explain what happened after we finally got Emily on the throne. Depending on our actions during the game we either get a ‘Dark’ or ‘Light’ style ending can either result in an uplifting finale, or a downright grisly one. I won’t spoil what each is as that’s not necessary to what I’m talking about but you probably got the point.
What really could have made these endings a whole other level of quality is if we got to play them out ourselves. Attending Emily’s coronation, exploring how our own personal playstyle affected the world around us by playing an Epilogue where we interact with other characters and so on.
The whole non-Silent Protagonist deal could have worked with the stealthy assassin gameplay as well. During full gameplay Corvo could be his silent, ruthless self; never speaking or giving away his position with pointless “I need to get past that guard” style lines. The speech could be restricted to safe areas and during pivotal story moments as mentioned before, and would have made an entire world of difference in regards to the quality of the game. I understand that the developers chose a Silent Hero so that players could project themselves onto him, but with a set gender, face and background it’s kind of jarring to do it this way.
Give us a voice and a longer introduction and Dishonored’s already near-perfect gameplay would have been improved upon with some amazing storytelling. Characters would become deep, story moments and twists more meaningful and the overall world and atmosphere (which is already crazy immersive) might reach new, more amazing heights. I recognise that a sequel to the game is unlikely but if Arkane Studios recognise the need for these improvements and implement them in a future game of a similar making and quality, we might have some true stealthy art on our hands.
Night Whisper Lane Developer: EPX Games Publisher: EPX Games Platforms: iPad (Reviewed), iPhone, iPod Touch Release Date: December 6th, 2012 Price: $0.99 Get It Here
Overview
Night Whisper Lane draws inspiration from Resident Evil, Saw, and Final Fantasy to create a point and click horror game with turn based RPG elements. Players will explore a locked house of horrors full of deadly traps while they seek to put an end to the mass murderer slaughtering all those who enter.
Story
Night Whisper Lane has only one scenario available at this time. Scenario 1 follows Victor who has entered a house full of devious traps in an attempt to put an end to the killing. The story is told through fully voiced conversations between characters. The story is a bit bland and lacks any depth or character development. In the end, the story ends up as a rough side show to the gameplay.
Gameplay
Night Whisper Lane breaks down into two game play phase. First phase is a point and click adventure where players will need to explore the house looking for weapons to use during combat and keys to unlock doors while avoiding traps. This mode would not be too bad if it was not for the traps. The traps discourage exploring rooms by clicking on things while the player actually needs to click things to find the keys. Even worse is the fact that precious health packs are burnt up by these traps putting the player at a disadvantage during the combat phase. Additionally, there are absolutely no hints on what can be interacted with and what cannot. This leads to extremely irritating random tapping. This is made even more frustrating due to the lack of responsiveness of the UI. The buttons are extremely laggy, the map button probably being the worst. The map button takes a few seconds before a map actually appears. Hitting hot spots have a similar lag. I found myself hitting a trap even though I had long moved onto tapping other things in the room.
The combat phase on the other hand is better implemented. Combat is turned based similar to Final Fantasy RPGs. Weapons collected during the adventure phase are used to deal damage. Each weapon has a single use and do a variety of damage. Each use of a weapon or health item uses up the turn. Unfortunately, the battles are few and far between. They are further frustrated due to the dwindling amount of health packs available due to the traps in adventure mode.
Visuals
Night Whisper Lane sports 3d graphics. The graphics are rather dated looking, reminiscent of early Playstation 3d games. Some of the 3d modeling looks extremely awkward and unnatural which can take away from the immersion. The visual design of rooms however looks good, managing to look extremely natural. The UI is simple but laid out well, however some of the images used for items were not meant for the Retina iPad screen and look a little fuzzy.
Audio
I applaud Night Whisper Lane for attempting to have a fully voice acted game. The voice actor who plays Victor does an excellent job. He delivers his lines believably and passionately. Unfortunately because he does such a great job, it makes it starkly obvious that the other voice actors in the game are not very good at their craft. The music in Night Whisper Lane is appropriately spooky and the sound effects are done well. Due to the terrible voice acting, you won’t be missing anything by keeping your device muted while playing this game.
Overall
Unfortunately, Night Whisper Lane is a short, frustrating game. Although the idea of having a point and click adventure horror game with turn based combat is a sound if not excellent idea, the execution leaves much to be desired. I found the UI to be generally unresponsive, the gameplay frustrating, the story hollow, and a majority of the voice acting to be cringe worthy. The game may be worth a quick try if it ever becomes free, but it is not worth $0.99.
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Mass Effect: Paragon Lost Studio: Production I.G, T.O Entertainment Publisher:FUNimation / MADMAN Entertainment Format:DVD/Blu-ray Combo Pack Release Date: December 28, 2012 Price: $34.95 – Available Here
Overall: The Mass Effect trilogy may have wrapped up over half a year ago at this point, the franchise lives on not only through novels and likely prequels/sequels. However one such continuation left quite a few fans surprised when they heard that a Mass Effect anime movie was in the works. Though delayed often, the Mass Effect: Paragon Lost movie has finally been released to stores and fans can once again return to the Terminus system for a new adventure. Should the adventure found in Paragon Lost be avoided or cherished? Let’s find out.
Story: Let’s address the elephant in the room right off the bat. Anime viewers who do not have knowledge from the games may be lost at multiple points throughout the show as there are quite a few mentions to past events and characters which do not appear in Paragon Lost. That being said, the title can still be enjoyed at face value for these people, though they will miss out on many of the references made to Mass Effect 2 and connections to events in Mass Effect 3.
Now the events of Paragon Lost take place early on in the events of Mass Effect 2 where the galaxy believes that Commander Shepard perished at the hands of an unknown enemy many months ago. As such, the Alliance must make do on its own. When a group of Blood Pack mercenaries assault the human colony based on Fehl Prime, a younger James Vega is sent into the scene as a Squad Leader of a group of Special Force soldiers.
When Vega’s group of soldiers manages to be the only group to survive the deadly Krogan led Blood Pack, they are assigned to security detail to keep the colony from coming under attack once again. After spending two years of peace and quiet however, a strange artifact is discovered a short distance away from the colony which seems to be causing issues with their communications. As such, Vega, his soldiers and an Asari researcher are sent to investigate the artifact.
As the group investigates this strange artifact, a mysterious hostile ship begins to hover over the colony and unleashes a hoard of insects upon the human colonists, paralyzing them all for collection. This leaves Vega and the rest of the survivors with little hope as they fight against an unknown foe wielding powerful weapons they have never seen before. But when the lives of hundreds of people and perhaps the entire Alliance lies in the balance, Vega must step up to the plate like his hero Shepard and try to defeat these foes.
Considering the fact that Paragon Lost is an hour and a half movie, the writers only have a limited amount of time to work with but they actually managed to pull off a decent job. The story of Paragon Lost plays out similar to the way a drawn-out mission in the Mass Effect video game series would play out as Vega and the group fight against the Collectors, take a brief respite to collect themselves and gather information and then fight again all while Vega is forced to make difficult decisions.
As people played through Mass Effect 3, many people found the inclusion of a the new character James Vega to be the least interesting and noteworthy character of the bunch. However it is thanks to this fact that this movie actually manages to shine as viewers will likely see Vega in a whole new light once the final few minutes of Paragon Lost play out.
Ultimately Mass Effect: Paragon Lost’s story benefits greatly from some great character interaction between the surviving soldiers, the Asari researcher and Vega as well as a couple of interesting plot twists paired with plenty of well-executed firefights all culminating in a horrible decision that no person should ever have to make placed at the feet of Vega.
Visuals: This time around, BioWare and Production I.G. have chosen to use anime styled visuals for the creation of this movie, unlike the 3D models used for the Dragon Age movie. As such, the title actually benefits greatly from the added level of detail the anime focus can provide. It is interesting to note though that some races can look a bit different than fans remember them, especially the Krogan, but overall most of the weapon designs and ship designs remain true to the source material while the Collector’s themselves appear as spitting-images of the ones that appear from within the game.
Vega’s appearance goes largely unchanged for this prequel movie, but he does seem a bit younger and smoother than he does in the game, though that says little considering the changes in style. Throughout the movie the animation quality remains consistently high and actually peaks during most combat sequences as the Biotic soldier’s powers are impressively animated.
Audio: Those who are used to FUNimation’s anime releases may be expecting a Japanese dub of some kind included with Paragon Lost, however these people will be surprised to find that there is in fact no choice of voice track in this release. Instead the only audio option is the English dub which may upset some people, though it is worth noting that considering the Mass Effect franchise is focused almost entirely in the West, it may be for the best that such an audio track was not included.
As far as the English voice work goes, it is interesting to note that Freddie Prinze Jr. provides the voice work for Vega as he did within Mass Effect 3 and he has managed to keep the character consistent throughout the show. The rest of the English cast does a well-enough job though unfortunately the English voice work is average at best with plenty of over-acting sequences throughout most action sequences. The sound effects and background music used throughout Paragon Lost are mildly impressive and can pack a decent amount of punch at times, especially inside combat sequences.
Extras: As far as bonus features go, there is a decent offering of supplementary content here, though some of it is a little questionable as one bonus does not even focus on the franchise itself. That being said, viewers are provided a US trailer for the anime movie and previews for other FUNimation shows as well as three English video sections focusing around production and behind-the-scenes footage.
In “All Doors Open: A Look Inside Electronic Arts” viewers are treated to a behind-the-scenes look at various things from the EA offices, however all of the footage is focused around Dead Space 3, which is somewhat understandable thanks to that being the game they are developing at the moment. Also included is “An Inside Look at the Mass Effect Universe” which provides some developmental footage from the Mass Effect 3 video game.
Finally the “Directing Effect” focuses almost entirely on the creation of Paragon Lost and actually expands beyond the US offices and into Production I.G. to learn about some of the anime aspects the show was given and how they worked with Bioware to try and create the best experience possible. This alone makes this bonus feature the most interesting compared to the other offerings as it does reveal some interesting tidbits of information fans may be interested in.
Overall: Mass Effect: Paragon Lost was an addition to the Mass Effect lore that many may not have asked for, however anyone who does give the title a chance will be in for a nice treat with an emotional story and great action. The weakest character of Mass Effect 3 gets his chance to shine as James Vega’s experiences on Phel Prime expand his character immensely and show what struggles he had to go through before meeting his hero Shepard. Despite the English dub being rather sub-standard, the impressive visuals and intense battle sequences help usher in a surprisingly enjoyable movie held back by a number of flaws.
