Category Archives: Reviews

Princess Knight Review

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Now this is a really old manga from back in the day. Princess Knight is not a title that I was ever familiar with but it made for a fun read. It plays out a bit like some of the old TinTin comics at least when it comes to the atmosphere and art. The series was not afraid to drastically change the status quo either and so every chapter would really keep you on your toes. You never really knew what was about to happen next. I got to read the series as one giant omnibus so it really felt like a journey.

The story starts off with an angel named Tink messing up during the ceremony to give people hearts so they can be born on Earth. Now a girl named Sapphire has ended up with both the girl and guy hearts. This doesn’t work out very well for her kingdom where girls are not allowed to rule. As a result Sapphire has to pretend to be a man and serves the kingdom as Prince Sapphire. Deep down she wants to just be able to live as a girl though and the charade is difficult to keep up. Additionally, the Duralumin and his trusted right hand man Nylon have their doubts. They think Sapphire is actually a lady and seek to expose her. Can Sapphire continue to evade them and how will Tink take back the extra heart?

Tink’s official mission is to take the male heart away because Sapphire was originally supposed to be a girl. It’s also why the villains are able to suspect that something is up. For all intents and purposes Sapphire is still a girl. She feels like one and all but the male heart gives her more courage and strength than she would otherwise have. Sapphire has a strong commitment to her duties as the prince and so that is why she continues to fight hard all the way to the end.

The character cast isn’t particularly big so this allows each of them to really make their mark in the story. I’d say that Nylon was easily the best villain. He’s one of those bumbling types who is always trying to get the jump on Sapphire but is rarely up to the task. It really shows just how persistent he is though and you just have to respect that. It’s not easy to constantly get up to fight again when you are always losing every fight. I’d even say that the story rewards him a bit as he gets a happier ending than some of the other characters. It’s not like he gets away completely free or anything but at least he has a chance at a solid future.

His boss Dualumin doesn’t actually appear quite as much but worked well enough as the mastermind. He’s just more the type to stay in the background and lets the chips fall where they may. Ultimately this is the kind of series where you have to be proactive though so that plan didn’t work out very well for him. Then you’ve also got the demonic witch who is trying to get her daughter Hecate to the throne. She tries several traps to end Sapphire’s life with so there would be no competition.

It’s pretty rough for her though because in general she is one of the stronger fighters. Unfortunately for her, Angels are a complete counter to her abilities. So Tink who isn’t much of a fighter is able to dispatch her every time. It was nice to see Tink getting some respect there because he started off in a bit of a rocky position. He’s still a rookie after all and isn’t much of a fighter but he was ready to help Saphire out when needed. At first he would only get in the way but then by the end he did well.

I also enjoyed Hecate as a villain. She was certainly a lot more reasonable than her mother. Hecate was no hero by any means but she ended up helping out when their goals aligned. It is something that happens more than once during the adventure. Additionally, she does have real abilities like shapeshifting which comes in handy for all kinds of situations. I would have liked her to have had a bit more screentime.

There was one villain with less screentime though. A goddess shows up near the end who is extremely petty and becomes jealous of Sapphire’s beauty. She is quick to turn people into animals and complain a whole lot. Fortunately Tink is able to talk back to her and rat her out to the elder god. Otherwise she would have crushed everyone since the humans can’t really do anything to a goddess.

So for Tink, with the wins I mentioned earlier I suppose I’ll give him a passing grade. He’s not the most interesting character out there but showed up when it counted. He is overshadowed by Prince Franz though. That guy is essentially the main rival of the series. He helps Sapphire out a whole lot and fell in love with her female disguise. Since Franz thinks that Sapphire is a guy, they have a friendly rivalry at first until they become bitter enemies due to a misunderstanding. Franz is a really upstanding guy and the kind of prince that you want to have in your corner. He continues to fight in order to find the girl that he loves and is the most earnest character in the series.

It was always a blast whenever he would show up. We get another rival in the form of Captain Blood who is also a pretty solid character. He couldn’t help but fall for Sapphire’s charms as well but just has way less screentime. You sort of know that he’s doomed from the start but it was still nice to see another quality character at the ready. He was a strong fighter and even gets a big plot twist by the end of the series. This guy certainly became more important than I would have expected.

Finally we got a third rival in Friebe but she had even less time to appear. In this case she fell for Sapphire when she thought that the knight was a man so that was definitely a big disappointment to her. Still, she handled this like a champ and continued to be helpful instead of spiteful. She became a really good character right away so it’s a shame that she barely got to appear. There was definitely a ton of potential right there for her to have continues to appear.

As for Sapphire, she is a decently good character but loses to the 3 rivals. Some of this may be a bit out of her control but Sapphire’s personality changes a whole lot based on the heart(s) that she is using at the time. As a result there are moments where she is way too helpless. Nylon was actually overpowering her when Sapphire had temporarily turned back into a girl. The personality shifts are a big part of the plot so it may seem a bit harsh to really attack her on this but you definitely need to be a more consistent ruler to rise to the top.

Sapphire was also a nice character from the start but a little too timid. She could have avoided a whole lot of drama if she had told Franz who she was from the start. I’d say that Sapphire is also a bit too easygoing like when she gave all of her riches away to the corrupt soldier that put her in prison. It just felt like she could have fought back a whole lot more if she had really wanted to. None of this makes her a bad character by any means but it does prevent her from being a better one.

The art is solid enough. It definitely does look old and while it is a very authentic style, it doesn’t hold up to any of the modern titles. It has that Sunday Newspaper kind of vibe which is why I compared it to old western comics. This one still has way more plot progression compared to those even if each chapter has more of a slice of life vibe. They just remember to pick up where the last one left off and each plot development really sticks. I’d call this a good comfort read that just about anyone could enjoy. It’s just nice and pleasant all around with a solid amount of humor, action, and adventure.

Overall, If you haven’t heard of Princess Knight before, I can safely say that it is worth a read. The writing is solid and I enjoyed the cast of characters. It all really goes by in the blink of an eye even though the series is close to 700 pages long. The pages are just very clear and easy to read through. Additionally, the concept is pretty interesting. I imagine some modern retellings will give Sapphire a bit more agency so hopefully she can win more important battles and not falter whenever she loses a heart. I wouldn’t mind some more big fights as well.

Overall 6/10

Can’t Buy Me Love Review

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Can’t Buy Me Love is one of those romance films where you’re waiting for some kind of twist ending to save it. For example maybe something that prevents the main duo from getting together and the film decides to be a bit subversive about it all. Unfortunately that didn’t happen and this ends up being one of those films that will just have you shaking your head the whole time. There isn’t much to salvage about this one.

The film starts by introducing us to Ronald who is your typical nerd character. He’s extremely introverted and has not been able to get popular at school. He secretly wants to be like the cool guys and go to all the parties/get a girlfriend. One day he sees that his next door neighbor Cindy is in a jam because she ruined her mother’s expensive dress. It will cost $1,000 to buy a new one which is a lot of money for that time period. Ronald offers to buy it for her on the condition that she pretends to be his girlfriend for a month. Cindy is under duress right now because she’s really worried about what her mother will say, so she reluctantly agrees. This will now be the toughest month of her life.

So right away there are a bunch of problems with this premise. Yeah I get how you can get a lot of comedic situations out of this. It’s a classic type of plot that has been done many times before but this situation was not a good move. The fact that Cindy was super pressured into doing this was crazy. It’s much better done in a film like Summer Wars where one character said yes to be nice and there was no blackmail happening.

Now it does set Ronald up as an antagonist right away. He’s willing to go quite far in order to move ahead and the film will even surprise you with how degenerate the guy is. Ronald is the kind of guy who lets the power get to his head immediately. The movie also shows how he doesn’t even see Cindy as real girlfriend material because when she starts to fall for him, he doesn’t even acknowledge it. Yeah maybe he’s a bit oblivious but pair that with all of the future scenes and it makes sense.

He just wants to live a life without morals where he can have relations with whoever he wants. This is not true boyfriend material in the slightest. Ronald also betrays his friends. Not even in a subtle way like eating at a different table, but completely ignoring them, messing up his best friend’s house, etc. The betrayal is quite extreme and then he gets with quite a number of girls before the film’s over. Ronald just goes all the way in each instance and doesn’t know how to have any restraint. The ability to do anything doesn’t mean that you suddenly go and take advantage of every opportunity.

If anything the new status just exposed his true personality. So this guy was a real bad apple for sure and the ending is not deserved. He should have just been totally isolated as a repercussion for what he did. That would have evened out pretty well if you ask me.

Then you have Cindy who isn’t exactly the best character either. I do want to confirm straightaway that she is many times better than Ronald though. Cindy has a lot of status within the school as the top cheerleader and never let it go to her head. She’s just a bit spoiled like when she took her mom’s dress when she was explicitly told not to do that. So Cindy really set herself up for a lot of trouble here. There’s no reason why she should have agreed to Ronald’s demands though because she actually has a long distance boyfriend.

Now that boyfriend doesn’t seem like a great guy but you still can’t be pretending to cheat on him in front of the whole school. That’s a quick way to destroy the reputation of all parties involved. Additionally she is just way too forgiving. This is partially because of how the film had to end out but it was a real shame to see her just absorb all the abuse Ronald threw her way. He did not hold back at all in trying to make her look bad and was quick to cut her down.

He’s the kind of guy who will take anything you share in confidence and blow it up in your face. So if you have any self respect then you’re not even going to be friends with someone after that. Definitely one of the worst romances I’ve seen in a while. This also takes away from the comedic potential of the film. Officially this is meant to be part comedy and you can see all of the jokes that are slipped in but it tends to be a little too mean spirited to actually have fun with.

It’s almost spiteful with how it all plays out. This is like a power fantasy for an introverted person but written from someone who thinks that popularity is inherently bad. Ronald also comes across as being whiny here because it’s not like he was completely alone. He had quite a few friends and they would even play games together at night. They were real friends and then he had a good reputation in the neighborhood like how Cindy’s mom thought he was a responsible young man. He traded that all in and I’d say that speaks volumes about him.

There’s so much more you could say about the romance in general but you get the idea. For a romance to work you need both characters to be solid but as the title went on everyone just looked bad. The worst part is that Cindy made a good faith effort from the start with helping Ronald learn how to dress for success. Then she came up with a good cover story and everything but Ronald was quick to just take everything too far. I suppose he didn’t have great family influences. His parents let his younger brother constantly bully him but of course that whole subplot was also embarrassing for the main character. Surely he can handle some banter with a little kid right?

Overall, This is not a film that I would recommend. It gets way too dramatic and mean spirited the whole time. Definitely a film that will not go down as one of the better ones and I can see why it has been forgotten to time. The film needed major work in order to even be decent. You definitely have to start by fixing the general premise of the film so it starts off a bit lighter and then you shouldn’t make Ronald a total jerk. There are so many ways to make the film fun and you can keep him oblivious without making him a total antagonist. Then you can actually focus more on the comedy. Like there was one funny joke where Ronald’s friends try to enter the party but immediately sit back down when they’re called out. Of course it was hard to be sympathetic to them either since they were girl crazy as well. That’s got to be one of the worst stereotypes. They should be focused on games or something. If they really want to get out there, then they should be going to the gym or something. I gotta just try and focus on the comedy….

Overall 3/10

Persona 3 The Movie: #2 Midsummer Knight’s Dream Review

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It’s time for the next Persona installment! This one covers a whole lot of ground as we get more characters added to the main crew and some villains even show up. There’s also a good amount of lore here so it’s safe to say that we’re totally done with the prologue. If you enjoyed the first film then you’ll definitely like this one as it takes things to the next level.

The film starts off with the heroes taking care of a particularly devious boss that was trying to use its charm ability on the heroes. The heroes are finally able to hold their own at least a little bit without Makoto. While he was out getting charmed they were actually landing blows and dealing damage. I also wonder how long he and Yukari were under the mind control. In theory it couldn’t have been more than a few minutes or the rest of the team would have been crushed but the enemy certainly wasn’t rushing them.

Still, things have been looking up for Makoto. He has been showing more emotion lately and is really getting along with the rest of the team. That seems like a good thing at first but then some doubts begin to creep in. What will he do once the monsters are all gone? The heroes are ultimately fighting to save the world and remove this demonic hour but will Makoto go back to being a loner with no friends? That’s something that he is really going to have to contend with.

So it’s not all sunshine and flowers for Makoto this time. I admit that I do miss his more emotionless self to a degree but his character was always going to go this way in the long run. Persona isn’t the kind of title that even considers having static characters. It would go against the entire concept of the series. Likewise this movie isn’t quite as mysterious as the first film now that we’re actually getting answers to different questions like what is the 25th hour, who created the demons, etc. We even have main villains to take care of now.

So in the place of mystery we have more action and character development this time around. It’s a pretty fair trade off. The stakes are higher here as we’ve got an actual body count. The heroes are always fighting around death with how powerful the demons get but at least there are a lot of them so they can back each other up. It still feels like the others can’t fight near the level of Makoto but at least they are doing something compared to film 1 where they were borderline hostages the whole time.

I also have to give Yukari a lot of credit in particular here. She has gotten over her doubts and is a proud fighter with the rest of the team now. She no longer has any hesitations about combat and is right there on the front lines. Now her main threat is Aigis, one of the newer members of the group who is always hanging around Makoto. That’s naturally going to be a point of tension throughout.

Aigis quickly becomes one of the best characters though and as far as this film goes she was my favorite. It’s great to have someone who can effectively fight the demons even without her Persona. She is 100% focused on the mission and has a very emotionless style to her like Makoto. Aigis is helpful right from the start and doesn’t need any time to adjust to what is going on. Of course in a sense that’s because she is essentially a weapon. So in a way you could say she was literally built for this kind of job.

This movie also introduces a dog who gets to be part of the main group. I gotta admit, I’m not a big fan of including any animals with the group. This is naturally way too dangerous for any pup like this. The dog does a good job of quickly learning how to summon a Persona and everything but I still think that’s a bit much. No way to ensure his safety while protecting everyone else.

Then you have a little kid named Ken who also joins up. Even this is stretching things because he’s so young. It also turns out that he has a chip on his shoulder and some very personal reasons for wanting to help out. This leads to a pretty intense confrontation later on. I have to give Ken some props for actually wanting to take care of things on his own. It certainly wasn’t the heroic thing to do but yeah he was really taking care of business.

Finally we also have Shinjiro also joins up. He was briefly in the first film but did not want to get involved with the team. Well, they’re closing in on the goal now and convince him to help out. The guy doesn’t have a whole lot of time left though as he has a hard time controlling his abilities. There is a kind of medication that he can take in order to stave off the effects but it’s definitely more of a short term fix and not something that he can rely on forever.

He absolutely has the most tragic plot from all of the characters. It would just be hard for anyone to move on from what he did in the past and it’s easy to see why he doesn’t know how to atone. Saving the world from the demons would be a good start of course but if he messes up then he could easily just end up making things worse for everyone which would defeat the entire point. Still, I ended up liking the guy quite a bit. He was dealt a rough hand in life but played it as well as he could.

The older members get a little less to do this time. Fuuko, Kirijo, and Junpei are around the whole time but don’t have particularly big plots here. Fuuko and Junpei got their big plots in the first movie and I feel like Kirijo will get more of a focus later on. Of course we will also have to make time for the 3 new villains. These characters haven’t gotten a whole lot to do yet but they have made their goals clear. They want the dark hour to continue forever and so they aim to stop the heroes from destroying the final demons. I believe the heroes have beaten 7/12 of the dark captains needed to end the demons once and for all. So they are pretty close at this point.

The villains definitely have a lot of potential. In a title like this it’s always fun to have a dark mirror where the villains use the same kind of power sets but for their own purposes. There are only 3 of them though so for now it feels like the heroes should be able to crush them rather easily. We’ll see if they just have busted units though. In the quick skirmish their main monster seemed tough but it was too quick to call this a proper fight.

The animation was definitely solid as you would expect. The character designs are on point and the film also had a lot of great music. Persona is definitely really good at that and the movie doesn’t disappoint. There is a bit of fanservice this time around between the beach and the opening scene. Nothing too crazy but Persona had been pretty good about avoiding this before now so hopefully it can stay rather light the whole time. I’m here for the action!

In general though I’d say the movies have been good about not being too extreme. The topics are serious and the characters can take some big injuries but it never gets to the point where it feels like the film is being too try hard about the violence. It’s more like a standard shonen I’d say. At least up to this part and again, we still have the serious themes and tragic backstories so it’s not like this one’s all fun and games. I’d say that it is probably happier than the first film overall but that might be debatable.

Overall, I look forward to seeing where the next film goes. In theory Makoto should be past the biggest doubts now so I don’t expect any more backsliding from him. Additionally the other characters should all be pulling their weight without a doubt. The team is just so big by this point so they should be rolling past a lot of fighters. Naturally the last bosses will be the strongest ones but the team is up for the task. As long as you like a good supernatural action film then you will enjoy this film as well. It’s just very strong all around.

Overall 7/10

My Dinner with Andre Review

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It’s time for a very dialogue heavy film. Just about the whole movie is about a single conversation so it doesn’t really get much more dialogue heavy than that right? Well it’s a pretty interesting concept but you really need the conversation to play out more like a debate in order to be interesting. Sure, there are plenty of podcasts where the hosts agree and it’s still interesting but then the topic needs to be on point. A debate is the easiest way to go about things and unfortunately the film completely fumbled the premise.

The movie starts off with Wally heading over to the restaurant where he will be meeting with Andre. The two of them used to be close friends but drifted apart over time to the point where Wally is really not looking forward to this dinner. His fears appear to be founded as the two characters are not on the same page. Although Andre clearly seems to think that they are closer than they actually are. Andre talks about his adventures in travelling across the world and how bleak the future is. Wally doesn’t agree with some of these thoughts but how can he gets his views across? Wally isn’t the most outgoing sort of guy after all.

I think Wally’s timidity is the biggest problem here. In a good back and forth you need to have two characters who are really ready to duke it out. It doesn’t have to mean that there is any bad blood here, you just have to have some passion behind your ideas. That’s how it goes on just about any debate on First Take or if you watch any of the Youtube debaters. Most of them tend to get rather toxic but then off camera they are all hanging out.

I would have had this film be a really fiery debate between the two of them, only to have them shake hands and walk home after that. Show that they can separate the debate from their friendship. Instead Wally basically gets obliterated for the entire 2 hours. Towards the end he finally starts trying to counter Andre but gets way too nervous and is shut down in each of his attempts. This was a one sided massacre from Andre’s side and the guy really didn’t hold back.

The debate is mainly about fulfillment in life and what it takes to have a happy one. Andre for example has lived his life in an adventurous way. He travels across the planet and has had all kinds of crazy experiences. Whether you believe him or not if up to you but it has shaped his views on humanity. Nearly dying helped him see how people have just stopped trying. They don’t have drive anymore and just flow through life without a purpose. He thinks that people need to live in some level of discomfort in order to stay creative and keep on going. If they don’t then they will inevitably grow to be very weak and will not have any future hopes and dreams.

Wally leads a rather mundane life with his 9-5 and has been struggling to get a break lately. Yet, he does think there is some satisfaction to be had in this kind of life. He tries to say that maybe visiting the local drug store is the same as going to Mount Everest and while the guy is grasping at straws, I was glad to see him giving some good ideas. Unfortunately he just never ends up being all that convincing. Perhaps because in a way Wally seems to be trying to convince himself of this at the same time while Andre clearly has a whole lot of conviction in his own beliefs. It’s always going to be hard to challenge someone when you aren’t exactly sure of what you are debating.

The worst part is that I technically agree with Wally’s ideals more than Andre’s. You should be able to enjoy the modern conveniences of life and it definitely doesn’t take away from you. Andre seems to think that you have to closely inspect every part of your life each day in order to make sure that you’re still happy when that’s really going overboard. This just hurts Wally even more though because it feels like he is losing a debate when he has the winning position.

It’s like when I watch a debate where the flat earther is destroying the round earth debater. Obviously the world is round so that means the second guy has the massive advantage so to lose that debate anyway is crazy. I saw another debate recently with a big conspiracy theorist fighting someone took the mainstream perspective on what happened with the Charlie Kirk assassination and the conspiracy theorist actually won. I always feel like you lose extra points when you are defeated in a debate where you have a massive advantage right from the start.

Now a one sided beatdown can be a lot of fun but you still need there to be some resistance. So Wally is the biggest reason as to why the film wasn’t very good. Additionally I would also say that the topic just wasn’t that interesting. An existential debate like this can still be decent under the right circumstances but it ended up being more boring than anything. I was really expecting a lot more out of this one. I suppose it does show how creating a film around a long conversation like this can be harder than expected though.

At least the venue was a fancy restaurant so I get to dunk on those again. My theory that “the cheaper a food item is, the better it will taste” continues to bear fruit. Now there are going to be limits to this but this restaurant for example probably had absolutely crazy prices and the portions were small. The soup looked as clear as possible without any real flavors. Yeah that’s always going to be a big problem when you think about it. I did think that the waiters made for decent supporting characters as they got more and more annoyed with how long the two characters were taking to leave the venue.

Overall, This is the kind of film that is being very straightforward with its premise. The film is about a long conversation between a guy who lives an adventurous life and one who has settled down to lead a more ordinary one. They get to talk about their perspectives and the current state of humanity. If the conversation sounds interesting and you don’t mind one guy getting 90% of the dialogue, then it could be a winner for you. If that isn’t your cup of tea or you were hoping for something more contentious then you should skip this one. At the end of the day the biggest limitation here is that the film can just be rather boring for most of the run.

Overall 3/10

Wild Arms Review

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It’s time for a really old school RPG. I’ve owned Wild Arms 3 for many years and hadn’t ever gotten around to it before. Well, now I’m one step closer to checking that game out. This one’s a whole lot of fun so I can only imagine how much they continue polishing the gameplay mechanics from here on out. Wild Arms is considerably long and it’s also quite challenging. If you’re looking for a great game to play, then you’ve just found one!

The game starts off by introducing us to 3 main characters. The first is a man who was cursed with the power of ARMS which some consider to be a sign of bad luck. The second is a bounty hunter who travels with his sidekick who looks like a rat in search of great treasures while also being on a quest of vengeance. Finally you have the priestess who has ties to royalty. The three of them are all brought together as an evil force seeks to resurrect all of the golems and destroy the planet. These 3 unlikely teammates will have to foil these plans but it won’t be easy.

Now this is a game that is well over 20 hours so you can bet that there will be a lot of twists and turns along the way. The game gets real cosmic by the end and just never stopped impressing me all the way. The story is really engaging and the cast actually gets rather large. The villains are also a lot of fun as we get a formal villain group. I always enjoy seeing that and each of the villains really got some time to shine. The main leader of the group in particular just kept getting up over and over again. He’s not someone who would be giving up very easily.

One of the phases to the final boss fight even got me good. He had me locked into an unwinnable situation where he attacked first with a teamwide KO move. So I had to rewind to the previous phase and adjust my strategy. Without rewind this would even be crazier. I would have definitely had to do a lot of extra grinding but it’s safe to say that this is one of the tougher RPGs. I’m curious if the next one will be quite as difficult as this game was.

The gameplay is a classic turn based style. Each of your characters get to use their attacks and then the opponents strike. The turn order is based on your speed. You can use normal attacks, magic, super attacks, and summons. You learn magic at the local shop by using talismans but can reroll your spells at any time. Buying the latest equipment is also very important here. As a result money is a premium currency throughout the game. You really can’t do much of anything without money. You’ll be left without items or weapons to survive the encounters with.

Generally I prioritize getting the weapons first and then the shields. It’s also important to note that you cannot buy MP items in this game. Meaning if you run out of magic meter then you have to go find an inn. For that reason I saved just about all of my MP items for the final boss. As the meme goes, that meant I beat the game while still having a lot of MP items left. Ah well, I still thought that was worth it. Better safe than sorry right?

The wild encounters are fairly aggressive in this game. You can expect to be fighting minions a whole lot and they don’t let you run away unless you are vastly overleveled. That’s something that I think the game could have toned down quit a bit. Towards the end of the game you learn a spell to reduce encounters but the catch is that it costs quite a bit of magic that you will need for the bosses. The final dungeons in general are really long and detailed so you can expect to be using a whole lot of magic left and right.

It also feels absolutely amazing to finally have quick travel by the end of the game. Trust me when I say that this title really makes you work for it though. You don’t get it for the longest time which means a lot of running everywhere straight into more minions to defeat. The enemies are always going to be tough enough to deal some damage and their curses can be tough to brush off. Make sure you buy some of every kind of medicine.

The game’s puzzles can be a bit difficult at times too. This is one of those titles that is just old enough where it can be hard to know where to go next at different points. There aren’t always obvious markers of where to go. So in those times just be prepared to visit each town over and over until you have a lead. I’m not the biggest fan of puzzles in general but I couldn’t say that any of these were unfair.

Meanwhile the graphics for the game are definitely ahead of their time. I enjoyed all of the effects and the colorful backgrounds. Additionally after the credits we see a bunch of hand drawn illustrations of what the characters would have looked like. That was definitely neat and I also thought that the soundtrack was pretty good. There may not have been any tunes that made it to my playlist but I was still satisfied all the way through.

Overall, This is the kind of game where you get a ton of bang for your buck. There may not be much in the way of replay value but RPGs really don’t have to rely on that. You get to just go in and have a bunch of fun all around. The story is really good and I always enjoy turn based combat. Mix those two elements together and you have all the makings of a great game. Wild Arms does not disappoint! I eagerly look forward to playing the second one.

Overall 8/10

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants Unleashed Review

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TMNT has come a long way. It used to have video games back on the old arcade machines and now it has made it all the way to the PS5. It’s a franchise that never goes away and you can always count on there being a new generation for the kids to follow along with. While this may be the weakest iteration of the characters, I have to praise the efforts the devs made on this game. It really has a whole lot of content and is easily one of the most expansive games I’ve played for the franchise. It may even get number 1 in that respect.

The title starts with a bunch of mutants all showing up in New York. The turtles are cool with this on principle but then a lot of them start causing destruction and giving everyone a bad name. The turtles quickly figure out that this isn’t natural and there is a mastermind behind the scenes. Taking this mastermind down is not going to be easy but the turtles know that they are NYC’s final hope. They must use teamwork to win here!

The main gameplay here is that of a 3D beat em up. You have to beat waves of enemies in each level and then move onto the next one. Typically a level will have 3-4 mob encounters. You will also need to use some platforming in between the fights as you move forward. You can’t let your guard down for a minute and the platforming can actually be rather tricky with the fan obstacles. They will try to blow you away. You also have to watch out for the level barriers because it can actually get a bit glitchy there. I got stuck once and watched an enemy get stuck multiple times.

You can pick any of the turtles to use and then summon the ones you didn’t pick as assists. I decided to use Leonardo for my whole playthrough. His swords deal a ton of damage and he’s just fun to play as. I ended up using Donatello as my assist because he summons two item boxes, one of which usually has a health item. Enemies deal a massive amount of damage in this game so trust me when I say that you’ll be glad to have them around.

The game uses a parry system where you can block and counter but the timing is extremely precise. For that reason…I straight up didn’t use it. After the tutorial levels I focused on landing hits instead. It just feels more efficient and the goal is to wipe out the opponents before they can land their counter hits. As far as I’m concerned that is easily the best way to fight. Just dodge when you see an opponent about to counter. I still did die a few times though so I have to give the game credit there. It has some actual difficulty.

Unfortunately the game does use a calendar system which means that most events and trophies are missable. You are almost guaranteed to need 2 playthroughs to do everything and it may take 3. The game is longer than you’d expect too with the main story taking around 10 hours. That may not sound crazy but it was longer than I was expecting. So I have to give the company some credit there as well, it’s clear that they put a lot of effort into this one. Side content includes trying to max out your friendship with everyone, maxing out your skill tree, etc. This allows you to unlock the true ending of the game as well and then you can try for the Platinum trophy.

The turtles each have a whole lot of different attack combos to use so the gameplay stays fresh. It also adds in new minions every few levels right up through to the end of the game. The final boss even has a few different phases at the ready. In some ways it is most efficient to just use your basic attack combination but at least you have options. The most key gameplay component here is about dodging your opponent’s attacks. A single hit can knock out almost half of your health bar. Also you should always be on the lookout for boxes to get some health back.

The graphics are reasonably good. They’re nothing amazing and do get held back by the character designs/artstyle though. On the whole it looks good enough but it’s not exactly PS5 level. The soundtrack is also more on the forgettable side. Really the only weak part here is the writing. This just comes down to this generation of the TMNT but they tend to be incredibly unfunny the whole time. You’ll only enjoy them in an ironic sense as they can’t take anything seriously for a moment. They are joking the entire time and talk a whole lot. I guess now I know what the anti-fans of Spider-Man Edge of Time were talking about.

It’s not like the dialogue here ever gets terrible though. Just annoying during the adventure but I wouldn’t take it any farther than that. You’re ultimately still here for the gameplay which is the important part. When I completed the game I only had a D rank in terms of trophies so I may need to start that second playthrough sooner than expected. I may still make that wait for a little while but we’ll see how it goes.

Overall, I can recommend this game higher than I was initially expecting. The gameplay has some real quality to it and I do like how much content there was. If the game was only around 4-5 hours then it would be different but this one is 10 hours without doing any of the optional content. You can easily get this to almost 15 hours which is impressive. I wish that the side missions weren’t missable but you can’t win them all. There are still plenty of TMNT games that I don’t own so I’ll have to work on that but this is a good one to add to your list.

Overall 7/10

Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom Review

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Ninja Gaiden has consistently been a really fun platforming title. It’s one of the rare NES titles to go all the way with actually having a really fun plot. A lot of these old games keep that to the booklets but Ninja Gaiden dared to be different! This one really gets out there with a lot of sci-fi and supernatural elements all coming together. Without the rewind feature the difficulty in this game would be absolutely crazy though. It’s impressive how anybody could complete this game back in the day.

The story starts off with “Ryu” seemingly murdering a lady. The real Ryu finds out about this and swears to clear his name. It won’t be easy though as this conspiracy runs deep and he will have to risk his life across many trials in order to come away victorious. Still, if anyone can pull this off, Ryu can. He has been through a whole lot over the years and has been training to defeat all opponents. This game also has at least 2-3 fake-outs where you think the game is ending and then it keeps on going. You’re getting quite a lot of content here.

The 2D gameplay is classic as you try to slice away at the opponents in front of you. You have to use a whole lot of your platforming skills to stay one step ahead as well. One wrong jump and you will fall to your doom. Additionally there is a heavy emphasis on speed since you will be one step too slow and hit the spikes if you aren’t careful. Then you have all of the enemies to deal with and your health will go down real fast as they strike. Technically most of them go down in a single hit but it’s still tough to knock them all out of the sky before you get hit. In a way that’s where most of your damage is going to come from. Even more than the obstacles, the enemies are what will be the end of you.

Naturally the bosses aren’t about to be outdone without a fight. They have health bars which is nice to see since you can pace yourself. That said, it can still be a bit misleading. Their health goes down extremely quickly but they also deal massive amounts of damage. You have to have incredible reaction times in order to properly dodge their attacks. The final boss also has several phases with each one being crazier than the last.

The entire game is really meant to show you just how crazy strong Ryu is to be able to deal with all of this. It’s definitely not something that just any ninja could handle. The graphics and soundtrack are both really solid as well. The stages have a lot of great variety and the music is fitting for the levels. The game really succeeds across the board. Really the only issue you can have is the difficulty. I don’t think I would have really tried to complete the game if I had played the whole thing live back in the day. I would have badly needed some quality of life features at the bare minimum. Little things like save points across each level for starters.

There also isn’t much in the way of replay value here. The game is really meant for a full playthrough and that’s about it. You’re not really playing for a high score or anything like that after all. Just beating the game should take you a long enough period where that’s not a big factor though. Trust me we’re talking hours and hours here at minimum.

As far as gameplay tips go I would say to just think about which power you prefer to use. You can only hold one power at a time. I liked the one that would send shockwaves above and below you. It’s great for hitting those hard to reach enemies. You also have the classic ninja stars which are strong but shoot in front of you which is the direction of your normal sword anyway. So it doesn’t feel like as much of a big deal. I could see a modern sequel really expanding this into 15-20 powers. The series really has less games than you would expect considering how popular it is.

Overall, Ninja Gaiden III is a pretty solid game. I really enjoyed the story and the whole game feels really creative. It’s easy to see why the series got a lot of popularity right away because it would have definitely stood out from the average title. The concept is also very sound so if you have the Switch Online then you should be checking this one out. It really ends the original 3 game saga with a bang.

Overall 7/10

Ikari Warriors Review

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It’s time for one of those really old NES games. This one wasn’t all that good though and feels very dated in the wrong ways. Some retro games have a real charm to them so you just want to go through as many levels as possible. This one doesn’t quite match up to that and the gameplay just isn’t fun enough to keep you going. It’s sort of like an old school bullet hell.

The games starts with your chopper crashing so the main character has to now get past a whole army with his gun. It won’t be easy though as the opponents have tanks and other powerful weapons at their disposal. Additionally the main character can run out of bullets while the enemies have unlimited ammo. That doesn’t sound very fair right? Well, that’s just how it goes here and it shows you just how difficult it would be for one man to beat a whole army.

You are able to commandeer any tanks you come across though which is handy. The catch is that you will lose a life if the tank is destroyed while you are in it. That is fair I suppose though. I would say the toughest part of the game is how one hit from any attack will defeat you. There are bullets everywhere and they move awful fast. You have to try and stay out of firing range while blasting the enemy but this takes a ton of precision. You get 3 lives per playthrough but you will have a hard time even making it past the first level. This is not a game for the faint of heart by any means. This game is meant to really bring you to the brink of destruction with each fight.

The graphics are pretty decent though. This is a very bright game and the villain sprites really stand out. It doesn’t feel low budget in that respect so I appreciate that. The soundtrack is more on the forgettable side. It’s the kind of classic themes you might expect so they aren’t bad but you won’t remember them by the time you have completed the game. There is also a good amount of replay value here since you can keep playing the game over and over again to try and improve your score.

That’s the angle this game is going for but the gameplay was still lacking too much to make this fun. I like when I can play a game long enough to really test my skills and feel the progression. In a game like this, you may die extremely early on if you take a wrong bullet and then that’s it. I’m not necessarily saying that the game should have been easier but that the style should have been different. Bring in some objects that you can use to block the bullets or a good old fashioned shield. That would really go a long way here. It would let you actually play the game more instead of constantly having to dodge.

The other big issue with the game is the fact that you can actually run out of bullets. There is seemingly no way to reload your ammo either until you get to the next level which is no fun. That means you now have to measure your ammo and be careful when you fire. This stuff all starts to really add up and just becomes annoying instead of fun. I’m trying to just have fun playing an arcade type of game. This turns the game too much into a simulation instead of focusing on just being a fun game.

I’ve said it before but the top priority for any game is to be fun. Everything else is absolutely secondary and so this game forgot that rule. You could have the best technical elements in the world but if the gameplay isn’t fun then that will be game over. This one ends up being well below average as a result because it’s just too unrelenting in a way that feels like it is partially RNG. Good luck reacting to every hit at least.

Overall, Ikari Warriors was really not my kind of title. I tend to like overhead beat em ups. I liked Black Hawk Stryker from back in the day on PC. That one had unlimited ammo and a ton of fun power ups though. It remembered to be a game first and foremost. I’ve played many other titles like that which were just a whole lot of fun. It’s too bad that this one couldn’t match up but I suppose some titles inevitably have to fall short at some point. If you have the Nintendo Switch Online then you should probably check this one out at some point. It’s effectively free at that point so why not right?

Overall 3/10

Stranger Things Review

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I would say how hard it is to believe that Stranger Things started 10 years ago but honestly it does feel like a while. It was never my favorite show out there and it took me months to finally check out the final episode. Still, I have completed the journey…and I found it lacking. This is one of those shows that was going the wrong way for a very long time and basically ended on a whimper. I’d say part of the problem is that the issues just tend to snowball and at the end of the day this is a show that is very character driven. So if you don’t like the characters then that’s going to hurt the show immensely.

The show begins with a few kids playing Dungeons & Dragons. For the most part they aren’t very popular at school but at least they have each other. Unfortunately one of them goes missing one day. He has been taken to the other side by some kind of a demonic presence. The adults aren’t going to be helpful in this case and can’t really be trusted. The kids will have to find a way to save him along with their friend El who has psychic powers. The kid who went missing is named Will and so his mother decides to go and find him as well. It won’t be easy without any real leads though. The small town of Hawkins is about to go through some real turmoil.

Now this is a show with 5 seasons so you can bet that a whole lot happens in between. At its core you could say this is like a slow burn alien invasion as the creatures keep trying to get to the surface world. The kids are determined to stop them but at the end of the day….they are just kids. There are limits to what they can really do here. Make no mistake, they are the underdogs. Since psychic powers are real, at least they have that as a trump card. Unfortunately the government is always at the ready to get these powers back so that’s another thing to watch out for. In some ways the government are the most powerful villains here.

There is a whole lot that went wrong with the series so lets start with some of the positives. I will say that the theme song jingle is pretty good. It has that spooky atmosphere to it and is very memorable. I’ll probably still recall the jingle many years from now after hearing it so many times. Even the Netflix sound is something that I automatically connect with Stranger Things at this point. The two are absolutely linked. The special effects aren’t as impressive. The series is often trying to go for realism which often means making everything look grotesque.

The villains tend to look more weird than intimidating. The characters constantly just have their eyes go white when they focus. The series is at its best with the landscapes. The other world looks very apocalyptic in a good way. I’ll also say that the series tends to have some pretty spooky visuals as it goes on. The series noticeably got darker and more violent for the last two seasons. It was definitely trying to grow up with the cast but I’d say it felt more forced than anything.

We did get some pretty good songs though. While not all of them may have been winners, it was fun hearing some retro tunes. One of them in particular got played a lot as it became the main song used to counter the villain’s mind control. Now we’re approaching the end of the positives for the show but it was nice seeing Dungeons & Dragons getting some hype. It’s not a game that I’ve ever been really into but I definitely get the appeal. You just need to really have a lot of time to devote to it.

Now lets get into some of the core issues. First off we have the fact that the story is an absolute mess. The power levels are all over the place with a few demo demons taking on a squad of hardened soldiers with their guns, then going down to kids and noncombatants. It seems rather easy to defeat them and this is a problem that never goes away. The army really should not be having any kind of trouble with them. These guys are absolutely weak. At est you could say that the most powerful demons at the top should be strong but the minions aren’t serious threats.

Then we have the writing which is absolutely abysmal most of the time. All of the characters are rebounding, cheating, acting like jerks, etc. You really can’t trust anyone here. A very fitting moment is in the final episode when the town is trying to recover after all of the craziness. One of the kids is told to make a speech and instead of unifying the town, he decides to give everyone the birdie, make fun of the teachers, and basically just be a general nuisance once again. A lot of these issues all come down to the fact that the kids are not likable at all.

The show also couldn’t resist making a bunch of their characters decide to get ultra modern so you can expect quite a few gay plots. They are around quite a lot in the final season and take up time that could have been used to move the plot forward or give the villains some more fights. Each scene just gets more degenerate and in the time skip ending we have to give characters very specific jobs that didn’t really need to be around. One guy’s going to have to be teaching people about the birds and the bees. After a while it just seems like the show had other priorities above that of the main story and this came at the expense of most of the characters. These subplots are very preachy and are in your face throughout.

Then we have the fact that this is one of those shows which really can’t bear to just have a villain be evil. Vecna is one of the ultimate evils as he tortures children, murders a bunch of people, etc. Suddenly in the final season they try to play the “he’s just misunderstood” card. I also don’t think this was intentional but Will has the absolutely worst strategy in trying to convert him. It almost sounds like he’s rubbing it in as he explains how Vecna was manipulated and used while Vecna is begging him to cut it out. If there’s one good way to make a villain lose all credibility, it’s to make him beg.

I’d say it’s also just another example of how weak the writing is. The characters can be almost unbearable with how annoying and cringe they are the whole time. They just seem like people you would not want to be around and their dialogue gets more juvenile with each season. By the final season you have characters not giving others guns just to be petty, one kid shows up where his whole gimmick is that he’s really crude, etc.

The biggest story issue has to be the cliffhanger before the final season though. The ultimate evil was finally arriving and we had every character squaring up to fight him. It was going to be absolutely epic and intense. Then the next season starts with a big timeskip as the heroes have scattered and have to fight while undercover. Against the monsters right? Wrong! The government somehow plugged the hole and kept the monsters at bay. The whole thing made absolutely no sense and I’d basically consider the cliffhanger to be a plot hole.

Okay lets go into the characters here. First up is Joyce who is definitely all over the place. She is getting over a divorce which hasn’t been easy and then her kid is kidnapped by demons. So I cut her a little slack with how she gets a bit crazier throughout the series. She wants to help but often times the kids leave her out of the plans. Of course it makes sense why they would because she is always panicking about their plans. Then she gets close to Hopper, rebounds with some random guy, then goes back to Hopper after her boyfriend is brutally murdered by demons. I’m already not big on rebounds but when your boyfriend is brutally murdered?? That should make a rebound even more unlikely.

Of course if I go after every rebound then we’d be here all day. The long and short of it is that Joyce is okay but often doesn’t seem to understand the gravity of the situation. She keeps on holding the kids back and doesn’t want them to get into danger but they are in too deep for any of that. There is no way to turn back at this point and so she just needed to be more supportive at this point. At least she is able to use a gun and everything by the end of the series.

Hopper is one of the only other adults who helps out a lot throughout the series. For the most part he tends to be the standout character. At least he can fight and he takes out a bunch of demons, Russian agents, etc. Hopper is also in charge of looking after El and tries to keep her from being too crazy. She tends to go into self sacrifice mode at the drop of a hat. If not for Hopper then she would have been gone pretty early into the series.

If anything it can be annoying seeing the kids try to order him around all the time. He’s the one with actual experience here after all and if anything he still has to bail them out by the end. Considering that he has no powers, Hopper does really well here. Even when he was captured behind enemy lines, Hopper was able to hold his own pretty well. He still needed some help of course but he never cracked.

Then we have Mike who is essentially the main character of the show. You could make a decent case for Joyce or Hopper but I feel like things always end up centering around Mike. Mike does his best to command the group but is still out of his depth the whole time. The romance with El tends to be pretty weak and you could argue that the ending makes it look even worse. Now granted, the show makes it a point to say that the ending is interpretable but in at least one of those he lost out big time. I also think it would have been nice for him to have gotten to fight a bit.

He’s the guy desperately asking for a gun in the final season only to be trolled over it. Not a very nice thing to do when he is legitimately worried and trying to do his best to help out. Mike tends to get a lot of the emotional scenes so you can expect him to cry a whole lot and get upset at other moments. He’s a highly emotional individual and to an extent I suppose that’s true for all of the kids. Mike’s not as bad as most of the others at least. He was mainly able to stay focused on the mission.

Then we have El who had a really tragic backstory. So for that reason I cut her a lot of slack but she could also be pretty annoying in the present. She wants Hopper to trust her more but always gives him a lot of reasons not to trust her. She tends to be gone on training trips a lot so she misses out on the fights. Even by the end of the series she is still having trouble with the villains. A large part of the series would not change at all if she was a normal human with how rarely she is able to win fights. It just felt like a missed opportunity and the other kids always looked dumb for not including her in the offense teams.

The logic was that they wanted to keep her as a trump card but sometimes it’s better to just get someone ready for the fights. The heroes essentially outthought themselves by coming up with these convoluted plans. It was also rather brutal how El forced her final opponent to shoot himself with her powers. I know that she’s not a hero and works as an anti-hero the whole time but it was definitely still a brutal moment. El’s self sacrifice personality is also a problem but at the end of the day I think it all just stems from me not understanding why she wasn’t out there fighting. That was a big missed opportunity if you ask me.

Will suffers from the same power level issues. He ended up absorbing some psychic ability for the final season but mainly just gets dominated in every interaction. Will sort of feels like he fell behind in the group after being kidnapped for so long and then it gets worse when he finds out how the villains have been manipulated. Will just feels a bit too sorry for himself the whole time. Then like I said he flubs the final speech with Vecna and honestly there’s no time to be feeling sorry for the guy. Vecna made his choices, I’m not going to buy into the whole mind control stuff now. I’d even say that Will stopping everyone to talk about his personal preferences could not have come at a worse time. They were all dealing with the end of the world after all.

Dustin is the main comic relief character of the show which means that he gets put into a tough situation once the show gets more and more serious. He tries to get serious along with it but often times this makes Dustin come across as a jerk. He puts his pride before the safety of the team by picking fights with bullies when everyone was counting on him. Dustin gets into a lot of fights in the final season in order to prove himself as one of the key members of the crew and it just doesn’t serve to make him look any better. I wouldn’t say that Dustin ever really recovered from this. He’s better than some of the other characters but looks particularly bad in the final season which is rough since that is the one that is freshest in the viewer’s memory.

Lucas is a pretty safe character. He’s better than most because he doesn’t start a lot of drama and knows how to get the job done. The only times he tends to get really emotional are when Max is in the hospital which makes sense. At the same time I guess the catch is that he doesn’t get much of a character arc. For the most part he is just around for the ride. Nothing wrong with that though. He contributes and gets one of the happier endings in the show. He also got to have one of the smoothest rides as he got beat up and tormented way less than the others. That’s definitely my kind of path if I was a character in the show.

Nancy is a character who is simply too indecisive. She goes through her relationships too quickly and then ultimately decides to ditch them all to be a girl boss. In that form she at least gets to fight giant monsters and talk tough but you never know what stage she will be in. I thought they made her too arrogant past a point like when she kept threatening Steve, Jonathan, and even the conspiracy nut. She’s just too violent I guess but hey at least she fought a giant monster with a shotgun. The guns only really work when the kids are using them. Man….as a sidebar I will say that the various gun/war fight scenes don’t work at all. The constant plot armor will make you dizzy as the villains miss every shot and the heroes make each one.

Jonathan is one of those characters who fell off a cliff in terms of character development. He was always wimpy and whiny but it just kept getting worse. Now he started off by peeping through windows so I guess it was always going to be a rocky road for him but then he went off on a business trip and came back depressed. He sounds half drunk during all of his lines and is constantly starting drama. He easily became one of the worst characters by the end and just never really improved. It’s easy to see why the relationships didn’t work out for him.

Dr. Martin is one of those crazy scientist villains so you can’t expect much out of him. He’s mostly just here to check off that box and we get more scientists later on anyway. They try for a halfhearted redemption arc for him too. Maybe redemption’s the wrong word, but humanizing at the very least. It didn’t work so I consider this guy to still be a 2 dimensional villain in the end.

I already talked about how pathetic Vecna is so we don’t have to get back into it. Needless to say, he’s a great example of how to ruin a villain. He just got less and less intimidating the more that he appeared. Unfortunately his boss, the Mind Fray guy never got to really do anything either. In the end he appears more as a mindless monster. It all comes back down to the heroes being too weak so as a result the villains have to be weak too. It’s a negative spiral that hurts all of the parties involved.

Max is one of the younger main characters and the heroes are already fairly young. She had to go through a lot growing up and it’s molded her into a very tough figure. Lucas helps her come out of this shell and then she has a real trial by fire with how the demons go after her. I appreciate that Max talks a tough game so she does beat most of the other kids. She also had to take a commanding lead in the final season with most of the other kids being busy.

Steve is one of those messy characters who has one too many crushes throughout the show. His whole rivalry with Jonathan honestly just made them both look bad. It’s always going to be hard to become friend with your ex and usually I’d say that you shouldn’t even try. Of course it kind of works out here but I’d argue that all of the relationships would be cooked at that point. Steve is meant to be the tough guy of the group. He’s the only jock surrounded by a bunch of nerds.

So there is some fun potential there but the characters all just take everything way too personally. When he’s not fighting with Jonathan, he’s fighting with Dustin. I think this is supposed to be relatable and all but it would be nice if the characters could have had some more unity. The in fighting is fun as long as the characters don’t take it too far but they all take it super personally throughout.

Robin didn’t join the gang until later on but was a nice foil to Steve. For a while there was nobody to really mess with him so she fills that role in well. Of course she is also used to squeeze in another gay plot which was always the real intention for her character. I appreciate how she always makes every conversation more awkward than the last and that’s saying something with this group. She had more personality than the others and was a bit older so she could hold her own more. I’d at least give her those props.

Murray is one of those crazy conspiracy guys who tends to be fun. They maybe try a bit too hard to make him funny at times but he works better than 90% of the case. He doesn’t become a main character until we’re pretty deep into the show but still makes his scenes count. The heroes definitely would have been doomed without him and he does try to keep them focused which is a really difficult job for anyone.

I don’t really understand why we needed to add Dr. Kay as a character. We already had 4 different mad scientist characters in the series, what’s the point of another one? Her role isn’t even anything unique. She’s another character who wants El and loves talking down to all of her colleagues. Kay gets a ton of hype but she’s just an old lady who gives out a lot of orders. There really isn’t anything for the characters to fear about her. She barely even gets closure by the end so I’d say the character was absolutely filler all the way through.

Of course the biggest filler characters were the psychic runaways from one of the earlier seasons. We had a long subplot about all of them having powers like El. It seemed like this was supposed to go somewhere but the whole storyline dropped off. One of them shows up in the final season to cause some drama but doesn’t ultimately do a whole lot. I feel like the series was tempted to go in a more supernatural direction but then decided it would take away from the horror so they decided to keep El as the only main hero with powers.

I was glad to see those guys go because it just led to more flashbacks of the lab with the kids being experimented on. I definitely didn’t need to see all of that but then that also means the whole subplot was just a waste of time. We were always going to see El’s origin story so we didn’t need to see the parts around that. The show ultimately just gets gritty and violent for no real reason.

I’d also say as a closing note that a big problem with the series is how jaded it is. On the surface this may seem like a classic coming of age story for the kids but on deeper scrutiny I don’t think this is the case. Most of the side characters are bullies and antagonists. The school never makes a move to stop the excessive bullying. You have abusive characters like Max’s brother and then a whole gang that tries to murder Lucas. The whole government is almost explicitly evil in this one and Vecna’s whole point about humanity being easily manipulated is proven right many times over. As the series ends, none of the characters have really learned their lessons either. There just isn’t a lot of sincerity in any the supposed heroes here.

Overall, Stranger Things is definitely not a title that I would recommend. To me the whole thing fell flat. It had a lot of issues like the violence, terrible writing, poor characters, etc. Pretty much every staple of what you’d be worried about in a long running live action title like this one. The good parts were never able to overcome the bad ones. Of course it all does trickle down from the characters so if you like them, then you’d probably like the show. It’s a bit of an oversimplification but that’s really what it boils down to. If you like the characters then by extension you’ll likely appreciate their constant emotional scenes and victory speeches. If you don’t like them, then the scenes feel like empty padding to stretch out the episodes. Multiply those scenes by every episode and that will really determine how good the episodes were. I think you could make a decent video game out of this, but the franchise doesn’t otherwise hold much potential if you ask me.

Overall 2/10

Persona 3 The Movie: No. 1, Spring of Birth Review

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It’s time to delve back into the world of Persona! I really didn’t know much about Persona 3 except for the song “It’s Going Down Now” which is absolutely generational. Unfortunately that song isn’t in this film but it still has a lot of fun tunes throughout. The movie is really fast paced so you have to keep up with it but this makes for a good watch from start to finish. It also ends off in a way where you know that the adventure is just starting.

The story starts off by introducing us to Makoto who is one of the most emotionless characters you’ll ever see. He’s walking through town when people start turning into coffins. He doesn’t have time to care about that though as he’s on the way to his dorm. When he gets there, a girl points a gun at him and Makoto just shakes his head as he gets to his room. Unfortunately giant monsters are trying to tear the place down so the ladies ask him to help out. This involves shooting himself with a gun that allows him to summon demonic entities known as Persona to help him fight. Makoto is now on a team known as SEES which fights back against these demons. Makoto will help out…because why not?

Now obviously there is a reason for his lack of emotion and the film gives us a few quick flashbacks to his past. Nothing substantive yet though, we’ll likely be getting that in the sequels. This one is really about having Makoto slowly open up to the characters around him. A part of me is going to miss how emotionless he was though. The fact that he was taking everything in stride was just really funny and I wish more characters were like that. There is a time for panicking after all but most characters abuse it.

I also like to think that the lack of emotion is part of why he is so strong. The other characters tend to get knocked around real quickly and don’t re-summon their monsters too quickly. Makoto just spam summons the Personas over and over again. This drains your soul/willpower so it’s risky but he wasn’t worried about that. Without Makoto the rest of the characters could have been crushed more than once. Which….is a knock against the others.

I’m no stranger to the concept of “The Chosen One” but it’s a bit of a stretch on just how weak the others are. It’s hard to see how they have survived at all without Makoto. They are unable to beat even a single boss without him. It seems like they never had to deal with bosses before Makoto showed up with how surprised they were though. So maybe in a way this loops around to all being Makoto’s fault. This may just be a pacing issue and with more time they could have shown off the other fighters a bit more.

The most unintentionally funny one is when the final member (for now) joins the group. Fuuko is a really shy girl who got picked on a lot and by the end of the film finally gets to fight. The problem is that she loses her first fight and seemingly her Persona’s only ability is to make a barrier which can delay the inevitable. Usually you’d expect the new character to do well in a TV show but I guess those rules don’t apply to a movie. So Makoto still had to save her even if she did help out in a support role.

I also want to see Fuuko standing up for herself more. In this case the bully saw the light and stopped picking on her but we haven’t gotten to see Fuuko confront anyone yet. It’s good that she is a really nice person but it definitely should not come at the expense of defending herself. You always have to continue to fight back and hold some kind of boundaries. Takeba is another character who is rather timid but in a very different way. She is tough around other characters but it’s more of a mask that drops when she is up against the monsters.

Takeba tends to annoy me more than Fuuko because she should be a pro by now. I do get how it would be hard to shoot yourself even if you know that it’s not a real gun though. The others are probably a bit weirder for accepting it so easily. At least Takeba is past all of that now so she should be looking better and better as the films go on. Panicking and nearly shooting Makoto was just not a good look for her.

Kirijo is one of the more disappointing ones when it comes to combat. It’s a bit of a clash in expectations because when she’s first introduced you get the feeling that this character is a bigshot. It turns out that she is another support type fighter so you don’t really see her on the frontlines. I think that was a mistake, we don’t need more support fighters. So she doesn’t really fight at all and loses off screen to her first big opponent. Just not a great showing at all. Yes at this point Makoto is really carrying the team. The others are still fun characters but in a fight they aren’t pulling their weight.

Junpei is at least another fighter on the group although he doesn’t have a ton of experience yet. In fact he is brand new to the game and immediately gets jealous of Makoto for outshining him in all areas. I was worried this would be a big plotline but it seems like the guy has calmed down for now. The stakes are too high for any infighting right now. Junpei’s the classic overconfident kind of guy so until he is able to back up the tough talk, he will be in hot water.

Akihiko is the final main member of the strike force. At least he actually seems to be powerful. The opponent was just a really bad matchup for him with how he could become immune to the elements. Without that then this would have been a very different fight. The electricity looked really sharp and he was also able to re-summon his Persona a lot. Hopefully he’ll continue to be on the front lines for future fights.

The animation is pretty sharp all the way through. I like the way they would do the colors for the characters’ hair and the fights were solid. I wouldn’t call this a high-end production or anything like that but it flows well. The songs are also really good like I mentioned before. They may not have brought out the A tier songs yet but you know that they are around. This film had a lot to cover with the character intros and nonstop action so the next one will hopefully be able to match that. In theory we need the nonstop fighting to continue in order to see more fun battle tracks.

That said, it’ll be hard for the sequel to capture the same intrigue and mystery that this one had. The film hasn’t really been addressing any questions yet so Makoto is just as lost as anyone else. Of course he’s not the kind of guy to ask about the details anyway. All you need to know is that monsters come out during an extra hour of the day that only specific people can see. It’s an interesting premise and that’s really all you need some times. With that I’ve got a good basis for the fights and there are always the classic mystery characters who appear in visions and meanwhiles. The film even had some post credit scenes which was cool.

Overall, I would definitely recommend this film. Whether you are familiar with Persona or not, it makes for a good action title. There is a lot of suspense here and the writing is good. The film’s also not very long so it really breezes right by you. It may not feel like a complete adventure but that’s normal for a part 1. It just means that you have to stick around so this will be an investment. You’ll be able to truly see just how solid it is once you have finished all of the films.

Overall 7/10