Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance Review

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Fire Emblem is one of those titles that is so cool and incredible that you have a hard time believing that it is actually a Nintendo product. The games always have real storylines to them as well as high stakes. People are dying here and the gameplay is quite difficult. The game is not going to be holding your hand at all as you go through all of the maps. Yes, the game also has perma death so if any of your allies die, then they are gone for good. While the game is on the Switch Online, there is no rewind for Gamecube games so that gets tricky as well.

The main character here is Ike and he’s a part of a mercenary guild run by his father. Unfortunately his father is defeated by The Black Knight which forces Ike to take command. He must help a princess escape her fate of death by delivering her to a neighboring country but it won’t easy. The world is divided up into around 8 countries and they had been in a state of peace for a long time until one kingdom suddenly invaded Crimea. Now all of the lands are potentially going to get wrapped up in this. Ike’s standard bodyguard mission just got a whole lot more dangerous.

First off I have to say that Ike is really a great main character. He is always ready for a fight and he doesn’t bother with the usual pleasantries. He isn’t going to play the game of the rich just because he needs their help. Ike has always been a mercenary and so he is all about producing results instead of just playing nice. His troops really trust him as a result, well except for two who run off for their own solo journeys. As with most Fire Emblem games you will have the chance to recruit a bunch of characters or destroy them yourself. It’s not always an intentional choice as some can only be recruited by specific units and others will die before you get to them.

Generally I tried to recruit everyone but I did end up missing out on quite a few. The game is fairly long with 30 chapters and the character cast is huge. Even as late as chapter 25 you are gaining new units to help you out in battle. I believe the last one may even be around 27 although I wasn’t really keeping track by then. There are so many characters in the game that you will want to settle on a few to take into battle or your resources will be spread too thin.

Each level has a certain amount of characters that you can bring into the battle. Typically the limit is around 13 but this can go as high as 19. Generally I would try to keep my group between 8-10 fighters. The reason for this is two-fold. The first is that the more guys you have on the field, the harder it is to protect everybody. You have healers, warriors, archers, etc. The healers must be protected and so each one will require around 3 bodyguards to keep them totally safe. That slows your guys down from breaking into the enemy camp.

Most of these levels reward high levels of offense so if you stay back then they will begin summoning a lot of backup over and over again. That puts you in a potentially unwinnable position so you don’t want that to happen to you. Also, it’s hard to keep everyone at a high level when each character is fighting for EXP. There are no side battles or retreat options in this game meaning there is absolutely no way to grind EXP. All you have it what you get from each level which you can distribute among the team between chapters.

You can see how this would get very dicey after a while when you have nearly 30 army fighters. So trust me when I say you want to keep the army small. Additionally, it just makes every level a lot quicker since there is less loading times between every turn on all factions. Even then it can be hard to guess what the enemy will do. Strategy is 95% of the game but the other 5% is pure RNG.

I’ll explain, so the main gameplay here is an overhead turn based system. Your objective is always to either murder the enemy king, arrive at a destination, or seize a castle. You usually don’t have a timer on how long it takes to get there, you just have to complete the mission. Now where it gets tricky is each character has a different amount of movement options based on their class. You have to keep track of all of yours as well as the opponents.

Then adding onto that you are able to see how much damage your unit will deal to an opposing one and vice versa. This lets you pick who will fight and when to move each unit. Where the 5% luck comes in is that there are critical hits and misses. Either one can completely flip the tides of battle and any death will set you back in a major way. You should always try to have some leeway but that’s not going to be possible in some instances. So that’s when you just have to hope that your opponent doesn’t suddenly land a bit critical hit.

The game feels fairly generous so typically you’ll be the one landing criticals and dodging hits. Just remember that it can go the other way around as well. Between chapters it is important to visit the shop and the forge to keep your guys properly equipped. As soon as you unlock the silver weapons, you will want to put that on everybody. For that reason I didn’t spend any money until around chapter 20 and that’s when I started arming everyone properly. It really makes a huge difference.

In terms of who the best units are, I would say Titania and Marcia were my two MVPs. For most of the game I could send Titania into a 7 vs 1 fight and she would win. She is absolutely unstoppable. The only downside is it means she can be a bit of an EXP hog and so she hit her max level with around 10 chapters still to go. Still worth it if you ask me. Marcia is also super strong with incredible range. She isn’t quite as durable though so I always had to be careful with her.

Ike is naturally strong as well. He ended up being my third best fighter with the axe wielder in 4th. The beasts tend to be strong as well and you definitely want to use the guy who gives you two turns. Unfortunately the mages felt nearly useless in this one so I highly recommend keeping them on the bench. They’re just way too weak and can die in a single hit. Same for a bunch of the other fighters. I assume they get better over time but without a way to grind, it felt too risky. Fire Emblem titles always have some fighters who are stronger than others though so in this game Titania was just the right character to have around.

The main campaign should take you over 20 hours to complete so you are getting a lot of content right there. The flip side is that there isn’t a whole lot of replay value here without side modes. You could try playing through the game with different party members or some self inflicted challenges though. It’s fine though because when the main campaign is long then you don’t really mind all of that too much. A multiplayer mode would be pretty fun but odds are that you are playing this one for the big story.

Overall, This was a great game and it is definitely a top tier Fire Emblem experience! It really makes me hyped to get more Fire Emblem titles down the road. I’m really early on in my journey here so I really do need to fix that. Should I get the remake of the first game, the iconic Awakening, or the really controversial Three Houses? They’re all right up there but in the meantime I highly recommend picking this game up if you have the Switch Online. It gives you a whole lot of bang for your buck and is a really well crafted game.

Overall 8/10

Sword Art Online Progressive: Scherzo of Deep Night Review

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It’s time for a quick Sword Art Online adventure. Of course that means Kirito gets to take the center stage once more so that’s always fun. I thought that going back to the classic days of Sword Art Online was a brilliant decision but it’s a shame that it takes so long for these titles to come out. I want them to adapt all the floors already! Well, in the meantime this is definitely a fun title although it is held back quite a lot by the random fanservice thrown in. The series is quite shameless when it comes to this area which is too bad.

The mini series starts with Asuna challenging Kirito but she is taken down very quickly. This discourages her quite a lot since the gap should not be quite this big. What she lacks is confidence more than skill. It’s hard to just obtain that though and Kirito is no help since he has always been able to show up in the big moments. Asuna will have to just try to keep on moving forward. Unfortunately there appears to be a weird underground group that is trying to stir up tensions between the two big armies in the Sword Art Online world. Everyone is stuck in this death game until it is cleared so who would be causing trouble like this?

Kirito and Asuna spend part of the volume trying to get to the bottom of this mystery while also just hanging out and making memories. They visit a nice cafe for drinks and even collect some treasure. At this point they have a solid amount of trust between the two of them but it isn’t absolute yet. A good example of this is when Kirito decides to head off into the caverns alone to deal with the villains instead of bringing Asuna along. Kirito says all the right things but it comes down to him not trusting her enough to be a part of that fight without slowing him down.

Sure enough, it wasn’t Asuna’s best moment as she allows herself to be disarmed which grants the villains a powerful weapon but she does make up for the blunder. Asuna also gets to fight against Argo one on one which was pretty fun. I would have expected Asuna to have done better but I suppose this was pretty early on in her career. Give it a few more months and Asuna would easily be claiming victory here.

While Asuna does panic a lot, she is definitely better than in the last volume. She blew up at Kirito way too many times in that one and just didn’t seem as mature as she should be given the circumstances. In this volume, while she panics in dangerous situations a bit, at least you can see the improvement and character growth. She is gradually gaining more confidence.

Meanwhile Kirito looks great as always. He was absolutely not going to let the villains get away with their plans and found a way to manipulate both sides into doing what he needed them to. It wasn’t a solo effort as Argo helped a lot with the information and they both had allies to help. Kirito is just the guy with enough ability to make it all work together. He is completely indispensable in that area. I’d have liked to see him take the two saboteurs down himself though. In every encounter there was some kind of extenuating circumstance that prevented a true fight.

With 3 volumes there isn’t too much time f a lot of adventure but they squeezed in a good amount of Kirito and Asuna bonding moments. Additionally the whole third volume is for the floor boss which was a good decision because that boss as really intense. I really enjoyed the theme that he got in the movie and the manga definitely makes him an imposing figure as well. So the manga’s final volume really flies by. The pacing is super fast and you can’t go wrong with nonstop action. The enemy is rather huge so there isn’t a lot of hand to hand action this time around. Think of it more as a platforming challenge as Kirito and the others have to keep jumping around and trying to dodge all of the blows.

Now like I mentioned before, the fanservice does hurt the series quite a bit here. This would be an easy 7-8 just for the fun action and all but the constant fanservice does knock it down a few pegs. It’s not as extreme as the last one but does keep this as being in the middle as a passable series rather than being a good one all the way. It’s a shame that every Sword Art Online product seems to have an asterisk next to what would otherwise be known as an incredible adventure. At least we have a video game coming up which shouldn’t run into that problem.

In some ways the series s also going to be a bit limited in what they can add in the early floors. We already know that Laughing Coffin will turn out to be the name of the organization to which the two saboteurs are a part of. I’m looking forward to the big war since that is generally off screen in the Aincrad story. That said, you can’t really add a rival to Kirito and there aren’t too many humans you can add without dramatically changing the tone of the series. So we’ll see what they do to keep the ideas fresh as we go through the series but a part of me doesn’t think we’ll ever even make it to the 10th floor so it’s probably a non issue.

The artwork is really good here, I think it has improved from the last one. The action scenes are really sharp and there is always a lot of detail here. Naturally that does backfire when you have some of the fanservice moments since less detail would be good there but this doesn’t feel like some kind of cash-in/tie-in manga. It feels like a legit adventure so I appreciate the effort there. The pacing is good and it’s definitely a reminder of how much you can get done in a 3 volume series.

I’ll also give a quick nod to Kirito and Asuna still being one of the few pairings that actually works. The shipping is done well and this is the kind of slow burn style that I like to see. The characters are taking their time and so you get to really believe in the bond between them. I enjoy the banter and they never take it too far. Their personalities are also quite different and just work together. I guess what I’m saying is that this romance really works in every possible way and I imagine that is where a lot of the appeal for the Progressive series comes from. It’s a chance to see the two of them hanging out a lot without the constant end of the world stakes from the main arcs.

Overall, I can’t fully recommend this one but it is a cool novelty to see Kirito and Asuna fight. The outcome may be obvious from the start but it doesn’t make the experience any less entertaining. Hopefully next time we can get a longer battle though as this one ends almost instantly. You’ll finish the volume wanting more Sword Art adventures which shows that this one did a good job on the intrigue at least. Stay tunes for the next manga title!

Overall 5/10

Ranking all Season 5 Death Battles

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It’s time for another Death Battle season! We’ve got quite a lot of big fights here including Mario vs Sonic which is always iconic. There’s not much to say in the intro here. It’s clear that the crew is super familiar with the animation programs by this point and so all the episodes look really good. There are really no weaknesses here at all, the series is firing on all cylinders at all times. They do try a live action episode…which is naturally going to be at the bottom but I did appreciate the attemt.

16. Nightwing VS Daredevil Verdict: Correct

Look, I like live action as much as the next guy but it’s not going to hold up against the animated fights. This one wasn’t bad, they had some good choreography and I liked the costumes. It’s really an acceptable battle but at the same time almost by default it doesn’t stand a chance against the others. I’ll give the fight credit for the special effects though, I liked seeing the thunder batons. You can already tell this is a good season because it’s not like the fight was bad or anything. I’m not expecting any bad fights at this point even if some are comparatively a lot weaker than others.

15. Roshi VS Jiraiya: Verdict Correct

This fight was never going to be super high for me. Neither opponent has a very interesting moveset and the characters aren’t very likable anyway. It’s not a bad fight by any means but does end up being painfully ordinary next to a lot of the other titles. It was nice seeing Jiraiya use the needle cloak as it always seemed handy. I also liked the nod to genjutsu being useless on DBZ fighters but yeah this one wasn’t going to go too high.

14. Samurai Jack VS Afro Samurai Verdict: Correct

This was definitely one of the most brutal Death Battles, even comparing it to previous seasons. It did a good job of emulating the classic Samurai Jack look but at the same time it’s not really able to compete with most of the other big battles for this season. The choreography is solid but there isn’t a lot of time for chatter and the sword skills, while clean are not all that flashy. It’s a fight that won’t stick with you for too long.

13. Raven VS Twilight Sparkle Verdict: Correct

They really made this one look like an actual MLP episode so that was pretty fun. Their emotional abilities were definitely shown to their full potential. The music for this one also really stood out. I’d even go as far as to say this is a pretty good example to show folks when depicting how the Death Battle episodes got smoother in each season. This is a relatively basic fight but it just looks very professional compared to older seasons.

12. Black Panther VS Batman Verdict: Correct

Now technically you may be wondering why I agree with Black Panther winning. Well, prep time aside Panther has the better stats in every way. If they each had a week to prep then Batman would win but if it’s a random street fight then the dark knight is going down. The fight is pretty good and I liked how much they were moving across the different stages. It really helped the fight feel fast paced so that was fun. Additionally there was some good banter in here so this is a strong fight all the way.

11. Sora VS Pit Verdict: Correct

Another really good fight that could go either way but I do think Sora has the abilities to pull this one out. It’s one of the rare retro sprite fight in this season. It definitely looks good and it was cool to hear Deku’s voice actor in it. While this one technically gets outshined by a lot of the 3D battles, it is a very solid fight in its own right. The competition was just really stacked this time around.

10. Jotaro VS Kenshiro Verdict: Correct

Another really fun battle here, it was nice to see them both talking in Japanese the whole time. Jotaro definitely seemed to have the more broken abilities but Kenshiro’s physical skills were just too much to be overcome. Good music as always and there was a ton of movement in the fight thanks to all of the clones. Definitely can’t say that either fighter left much on the table. We even got to have a bystander this time to react to everything throughout the fight.

9. Doctor Strange VS Doctor Fate: Verdict Incorrect

I’m usually a DC over Marvel guy but this is one of the rare cases where the Marvel counterpart seems more powerful. I was surprised to see Fate win this one but it was a fun fight. I always like it when the fighters are jumping across realities with every blow. Both of their skillsets were used well and the fight just felt really grand. You really can’t go wrong with this one and the dialogue/climax were both really strong points.

8. Leon Kennedy VS Frank West Verdict: Correct

Now this was definitely a fun battle all the way. Leon blew up in terms of popularity recently although he has always been one of the most well known RE characters. There is a lot of good dialogue throughout here and Leon really gets to show off his gun accuracy. The zombies are not able to disrupt this fight and it definitely ended up being one of my favorite ones in the season. On the surface I wouldn’t have guessed that from the matchup so it shows just how well the fight was executed.

7. Ultron VS Sigma: Verdict Incorrect

This was a pretty good fight and I liked how the lyrical theme started right away. It did feel like a bit of a tease to be setting up an army vs army fight only for this to be a true 1 vs 1 though. I would have liked to have seen both sides really going at it but I suppose that wasn’t in the cards this time. There was a lot going on and I felt like they really pushed the sprites far with this one. It’s a solid fight even if it had to go up against a lot of steep competition this time.

6. Carnage VS Lucy Verdict: Correct

I always thought this was a really interesting fight. It definitely gets really violent as the battle takes advantage of Carnage’s healing factor. She was really blowing him up left and right. It really felt like a true Death Battle though and the rainy backdrop worked really well. This fight was atmospheric and certainly more than a little spooky. I’m really not familiar with Lucy at all as a character but her powers sure looked really cool in action.

5. Mario VS Sonic (2018) Verdict: Incorrect

I’ve seen this fight a number of times. The hand drawn/flash style works pretty well with this one. Yes, the characters do end up seeming very out of character but in a way that’s part of the fun. This is a Death Battle after all and neither one of the characters are in a good mood. They’re just doing their best to land some hits and put the opponent 6 feet under. The visuals are a lot of fun and I enjoyed the attacks. This one is well known for good reason.

4. Crash VS Spyro Verdict: Correct

This was a really fun fight and I have to give the episode credit for just letting Crash get destroyed the whole time. He never really stood a chance and everyone knew it so Spyro just spends the episode absolutely destroying him at every turn. The 3D look works perfectly for both characters and this ends up being a super fun one. Dark Spyro is also such a cool finisher to end things with. We really need more Spyro games in the future.

3. Thanos VS Darkseid Verdict: Correct

It’s clear that this fight was meant to be a really big one for the season and it definitely lived up to that. Both fighters just kept on getting up over and over even after taking some absolutely monstrous hits. Was definitely a nailbiter which helps the fight get over what I’d consider to be one of the weaker songs. It really doesn’t get you pumped like the average Death Battle song but you can’t win em all. The fight even squeezes in a guest star.

2. Ryu VS Jin: Verdict Correct

I gotta admit, it was really cool to see the RWBY backgrounds here. It definitely helped to enhance the episode in a big way. I also think this is easily one of the most debatable fights in the series. I tend to put Jin higher normally but evil Ryu has had some really great feats so when they’re at their peak, I do have to go with Ryu. This season really had a great run when it comes to getting the outcome correct. The choreography in this episode also can’t be beat. I dare say it is the best in the season in that area at least.

1. Optimus Prime VS Gundam Verdict: Correct

Now this was a great fight. Every season has a fight that ends up performing higher than I expected and this is absolutely the one for this season. The song was incredible and an instant classic for me. I’ll be listening to it quite a lot. The fight was really cool with all of the outer space action and it just felt like a strong battle all the way through. Neither fighter was willing to go down easy and Prime had a really epic last line.

That wraps up another season! This was definitely a great one with a ton of solid fights. I agreed with 13/16 of the results which is easily the highest amount so far. Definitely a well done season and I look forward to seeing how season 6 fares. We’re getting more and more modern although even at this point there are definitely episodes that I have not seen. It shows what a casual viewer I was back then!

Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos Review

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Fullmetal Alchemist is known as one of the greatest manga and anime titles of all time. No matter what circle you’re in, people talk about this series with a great amount of reverence. Would the movie really be able to live up to such a high reputation? Well, I thought it was a really solid one, I’d say another great addition to the franchise. Now personally, I thought there was quite a lot of action in the title but apparently that’s not the main view. It may not be a ton of punch, punch scenes but there’s always a lot going on. Mix that in with a good story and I’d say that we’re in a good place here.

The series starts with a crook escaping just like in episode one of Brotherhood. Just like with that instance, Edward and Alphonse are clowned by the villain as he escapes. They are then roped into what will be one of the more intricate political problems they have had to deal with. Surely it’s not as bad as finding out that the leader of your country is a biological monster trying to destroy the world right? So they follow a clue into a small country/land that has fallen into ruin. It has the unfortunate luck of being right in the middle of two larger countries which are always fighting each other.

All of the spillover damage constantly ravages this place and its people. They cannot escape either as neither country will allow them passage. So everything sucks down there and it comes as no surprise that this has fueled a bunch of terrorist/resistance fighters. You have one group that wants to liberate the country by picking a side and another that wants to take both of them down. Naturally the former is more realistic but how do you choose? There aren’t a lot of easy answers here and even by the end of the film you can’t say that the situation is resolved. Ed and Alphonse do their best and the film does try to have an optimistic ending but it depends how much you buy into it.

The film is fairly long which is a good thing because there is definitely a whole lot of story going on here. I will say right off the bat that they do a pretty good job of keeping things interesting. Ordinarily you don’t want to be adding a bunch of original characters and making the whole film based on them. Naruto in particular always got a lot of shots taken at it for having the classic princess of the week at every turn. Well, at least in this one the characters are very memorable and have a lot of motivations so it works.

I’ll get into the characters in a second but first I will warn you that Ed and Alphonse look pretty weak as always. That’s nothing new since they lose a ton of fights in the main series as well. For that reason I wasn’t really torn up about that. It would be one thing if they looked out of character or something but looking weak isn’t a really big deal. I was disappointed that Roy doesn’t get any on screen fights this time though. I get that he’s a bit overpowered but cmon, at least show the fire abilities off a little bit. The fact that he gets a fight and it’s off screen is even more puzzling than if he didn’t have any fights.

The animation is really smooth and looks top tier as you would expect. I definitely have no issues with the film on that front. You’ve come to expect nothing less from the series by this point though. Then we have the soundtrack which is decent. I wouldn’t say anything to write home about but it works well enough. So the technical effects are as good as needed.

Now as for the characters. First we have Melvin who is a wanted fugitive. Seems like your classic brawler type but he gets several plot twists in the film. On the surface he just wants to save his sister Julia and get her out of this war torn territory. Seems nice enough minus the violence but it’s not like he really has a whole lot of legal options here since all the governments are against him. Naturally the guy starts to go more and more off the rails as the film goes on. He is absolutely and unapologetically a villain all the way through, nothing ambiguous here.

You could say that he gets a little overconfident though. Honestly the plan wasn’t bad and he got super close to victory. Once he was in reach of the stone, he shouldn’t have been stopped so easily. Although in the original series I also thought that the Philosopher’s stone wasn’t quite as impressive as it was cracked up to be. Yes, it does allow you to do alchemy with no penalty or sacrifice but Ed can already do it without seals. As for the whole equivalent exchange part, there is always something on hand so it doesn’t feel like a big penalty.

We still do get a nice fight at the end though so that was nice. Meanwhile Julia is sort of dragged around the place with everyone wanting her on their side but I was glad that she was standing up for herself by the end. She ultimately chose to help the resistance and wasn’t going to let herself be misled in the meantime. I do feel like the heroes guilt tripped her a bit about the stone though. I get not wanting to create a stone since you need to sacrifice souls to it. 100% on board there. However, once it has already been created, I feel like you may as well use it. Try to build a better tomorrow with it instead of just breaking it. Ultimately the situation evolves to a point where she has no choice but the heroes are way too hesitant about using it.

Then we have Herschel who feels like he didn’t think things through nearly as well as the others. My main problem with him is that the guy feels a bit abrupt in his scenes by the end. He just shows up out of nowhere and while that can work in theory, I just have a hard time seeing his end game play out. Even if Ed and Al weren’t there to stop him, he doesn’t have enough allies to make a big difference. The guy just came off as super crazy and the first villain was a lot more interesting.

Overall, I had a good time with this film though. There were definitely a lot of moving pieces with how many factions were running around. You had werewolves, the armies, etc. If you are looking forward to Ed and Alphonse dominating then this film isn’t for you, but otherwise I would say this is a strong all around title. It’s the kind of film that is pretty accessible even if you’re not familiar with the series because of how detailed the world building here is. You could even use it as a pilot and then watch the main series with how similar the start and setup is to the first episode.

Overall 8/10