Stats time!
Play Time 4h 39m
Tamer Rank: Bronze/Level 6
Training Lic. Ultimate
Max Capacity 160
Cage Space 18
Titles 32%
Digipedia 12%
Map 64%
Battles 40
Win Ratio 70%
Cages 19/19
Memory 4/4
Tool Checker 4/4
Analyzer 6/6
Radar 7/12
It’s time to look at a Digimon game that I’ve kept on the backburner for quite a while. This one sounded pretty interesting at first since you could have the Digimon fight each other in real time combat. The problem was that this isn’t the case at all. It’s actually a computer fighting game. By that I mean that the A.I. control the Digimon in combat and all you do is look out for them. It’s a similar mechanic to the Digimon World series, but to a much harsher extent. It’s a game that gets better as you play it, but ultimately you just feel like it’s a bit of a waste. It’s a game that could have been significantly better.
There is no plot here so we can get right to the meat of the game. Naturally that is the tournaments. The game runs on a calendar system (Which is always a terrible idea) so as you play the in game timer moves on. Each hour seems to pass by in about a minute or less. You’ll be running through the days which have no end. There are 4 seasons in the year and they keep on repeating. The first thing you need to do is catch some Digimon. You do this by going into the hunting ground and using your rope to catch them. It’s similar to the Pokemon Ranger system, but a little more tedious and annoying. This is because the Digimon tend to break free of the rope and run away. The screen isn’t always very responsive either so good luck chasing them. Still, eventually you’ll get the Digimon you want. If you want to catch stronger ones then you’ll need a better rope, but for that you need money. You get money by winning fights. These can either be Title Fights, Free Fights, or Championship bouts. Don’t worry about the final category since you need a team of Megas to even attempt such a thing. Title Fights is where I spent 90% of my time but Free Battles is a great way to get started.
Once you finally get your Digimon you have to realize that this is quite the responsibility. Your Digimon need food to eat and they need it at least once a day. They also do their business all over your cages so you have to keep cleaning them or the Digimon feel bad. They catch colds if you don’t put them in the Medical corner too often and they can’t handle 2 attributes at once. This means that if you are increasing their attack power you are weakening their defense and vice versa. The game is made so that there is always a catch which makes training take forever. Whenever you actually have a spare moment you’re expected to run to the store and buy more food and bandages since the Digimon go through them so quickly. They also get depressed for no reason and if they get scared in combat they will refuse to attack. This is always terrible since your Digimon may be strong enough to win, but doesn’t feel like he can so he won’t even try. It’s just such a terrible mechanic and it’s why I rarely like to leave it all in the hands of the A.I.
Well, somehow or other you will finally get around to getting involved in Title Fights. At first your Tamer Rank is 1, but the more medals you earn from these Titles, the more your rank increases. As your rank increases you’ll be able to buy a lot of extra items to make everything easier. It’s made to be one of those games that really encourages you to just keep playing. Get over the initial hump and you’ll really be ready for success. The first few battles are tough, the middle ones are easy, and then the last ones are tough again. I made it all the way to Tamer Rank 5 and won about 20 Titles so I figured that was good enough for the review. Towards the end the tournaments started having a lot of unnecessary conditions like “Only Rookies allowed” or only Holy Digimon allowed. If you don’t have one then you’re sunk since it means training one from scratch or catching it in the wild. Often times these fights are 3 v 3 so you would need to get 3 more. The problem is that you can’t keep too many Digimon in the cage with you or you’ll run out of space. You can see why the game is so frustrating.
Naturally the game also brings back the concept of your Digimon dying. When that happens they are turned back into an egg and you have to start the training back from scratch. Why even put something like that in the game right? It’s a big thing that is in a lot of Digimon games and ultimately ends up holding them back. I just don’t think that it’s a good idea and it makes you not want to invest too much time into any partner. From the start I decided I would stop either when I got enough titles or when my Digimon died. The former happened first, but I was definitely getting close with my guy since he’s been with me for around 3 years I believe.
The graphics aren’t bad. They’re fairly zoomed out though and don’t look as good as the average mobile game. It takes a lot for me to say that a game looks bad, but I will concede that it is well below average. You could easily make a game that looks better than this one with just about any company’s budget. The looks aren’t that important, but it doesn’t set a good first impression. As for the soundtrack, it’s as bland as can be. There are only a few themes and none of them are particularly noteworthy. At least they’re not bad though.
As for replay value, the game technically has a lot there. With your Digimon constantly dying or needing your attention, you could play this game for many hours. That being said, I don’t imagine that you would have a ton of fun with this so I wonder how long you would last. This is probably the weakest Digimon game yet which is unfortunate. Hopefully the Digimon World series is basically over or gets an overhaul since it just doesn’t seem to hit the right notes. Only Digimon World 4 seems to have been really well made and that one was a radical change from the others.
Overall, Digimon World Championship will test your baby sitting skills. It’s basically the only way to keep the Digimon in line. I’ve ranted about the game long enough though. It still isn’t a bad game and I did have fun grabbing the titles once I got more powerful Digimon. The problem is that in order to get all of the titles you would have to repeat this process many times over which is just something that I wouldn’t plan on doing. Even when you have a strong enough team to win, a large part of the battle depends on luck and the whims of the A.I. I just don’t think that would work for me. If this sounds like your cup of tea then by all means go for it. It’s definitely a fairly unique game I suppose.
Overall 5/10
It’s time to look at the new Hero Academy film! With the franchise growing more and more popular it’s about time we got a full length film. The last few big films for the various Shonen titles like DBZ and Naruto have been great so I was confident that this one would be no exception. It definitely is a great film and continues the show well. While the heroes are still limited a bit by their own decisions, they at least help by the end and show the world that sometimes you have to step up. Once they get their hero licenses then it will be even easier for them.
The film starts off with Deku and All Might heading over to America. They were invited by Melissa, genius inventor, to go say hi to David who used to be All Might’s partner. The two of them drifted apart over the years as All Might wanted to save people with his abilities while David wanted to retreat to his lab. Surprisingly David seems happy to see All Might and I’m glad the film didn’t go the drama route there. Most of Deku’s classmates have also decided to tag along for fun so Deku has to be careful that they don’t figure out his connection to All Might. The reunion is cut short though when villains attack the tower and take hostages. None of the pros can make a move so it’s up to the kids. The problem is that they don’t have their hero licenses so according to the regulations they have to ignore the terrorists. Can the heroes still save the day?
Naturally it makes sense that in a world where 70-80% of the population have super powers there would be rules to restrict people from using their abilities at random. If everyone decided to play hero then there would be no point to the hero schools and the government would lose money. At the same time, you gotta realize that if someone’s in trouble in front of you then it’s time to act. I have little doubt that most main characters would reach this conclusion like Ichigo, Naruto, etc. The problem with Deku is he doesn’t really learn that lesson. In fact, the manga goes out of its way to teach him the reverse of it. There were several occasions where Deku stepped in to help out, but then he was rebuked by the adults for saving lives. It’s as ridiculous as it sounds. Sadly the words have stuck and since then Deku has started doing his best to follow the rules even if it means abandoning those in need. It’s a rather disappointing look for him in season 3, this movie, and be prepared for season 4 where he makes his biggest mistake yet.
While I’m not saying that the rules shouldn’t apply to Deku, I’m saying that he shouldn’t care. You’ve always gotta make some tough choices on whether to follow the rules or not. The fact of the matter is that some rules and laws are simply bad and immoral. Others are seemingly harmless but depending on the circumstance they provide no benefit. This is one of those times. The rule makes sense, but must be ignored when people are in danger. The idea that these heroes are all around and simply don’t want to make a move because they can’t attack villains is terrible. Fortunately Bakugou and Todoroki completely ignore this once the fighting starts.
That’s enough on the Deku part. He does good when he’s in a fight at least although he is heavily nerfed at different points to ensure that the film doesn’t end too quickly. It’s still a cool concept to be completely overpowered next to the rest of the case although the series rarely delves into that. Deku is a little out of character here with how easily he gets flustered and resorts to his pre arc personality, but he’s not bad either. He’s better than some of the other students. It’s probably no surprise here that Bakugo is the best character. He sees someone he doesn’t like and an attack is already underway. He won’t hesitate to make the hero call and his abilities are definitely really useful in a battle. While it will be hard for him to keep up with some of the other characters since his abilities can only improve so much, he won’t back down from a fight.
Next up Todoroki is also pretty solid here. As always he is another one of the characters who thinks that fighting the villains is the right move. What puts him slightly under Bakugo would be the fact that he is more likely to listen to the others and not break the rules. His abilities are definitely quite solid though and they work a lot like Gaara’s. His tag team fight with Bakugo is definitely one of the better fights in the movie. It’s very fast paced and the more battles the better.
The other classmates range from bad to just being around. I won’t really talk about the ones who were stuck at the hotel. Ochako is still too nervous throughout. She’s got a ways to go if she wants to be a pro her. Mineta and Kaminari look pretty bad here as they are ineffective in combat and aren’t even fighting for the right reasons. Kirishima and Jiro are all right, but don’t do much. Kirishima’s abilities are definitely quite useful though so the film makes sure to keep him away from the action. Can’t have too many heroes outshadowing the villains right?
Now we get to the bad characters Iida and Yaoyorozu don’t look good here at all. As always they really like to listen to the rules even if it means letting everyone die. They’ve gone pretty far off the deep end. Iida is beyond redemption in the franchise and while Yaoyorozu isn’t quite as bad since she doesn’t try to get in the heroes’ way, she’s not much better. The two of them just don’t realize what it means to be a true hero and until they learn that lesson it is going to be hard for them to move up the ranks. They aren’t particularly helpful in the fight either as Iida forgot how to do basic maintenance on his tech and Yaoyorozu’s abilities are simply too defensive.
As for the pros, All Might is really the only one who gets to do much here. As always he is the strongest by a long shot and it’s easy to see why he is the symbol of peace. In the flashback his design looked quite a bit different. Sort of like the overconfident athlete kind of character which works pretty well. He was always earnest and the overconfident appearance was simply his look, not his personality. It’s always nice to see him from back in the day although I don’t imagine he got a lot of practice in since the villains never seem to be in the same league as him. In the present he is naturally a lot weaker than he used to be. The film does a good job of keeping him out of the fight through the hostages since it doesn’t matter how strong you are if humans get in the way. Once the hostages are safe he is finally able to let loose against the villain.
The final fight delivers as you could probably have guessed. Seeing All Might and Deku team up was a lot of fun. The other students also got to help and in a way that wasn’t cheesy. (Invisible Rasengan..) They were able to help clear the field for the two heroes while being aware of their limitations. The glove that Melissa gave Deku was also a nice way to see Deku go all out a little more than usual. Having such a gadget is definitely great and while it did shatter, it would be cool to see something similar be implemented in the manga at some point. This final fight had quite a few phases and climaxes so it certainly wasn’t rushed and was even a tad bit longer than I thought it would be. That is certainly a great thing.
I also liked the final boss. He was a metal user who is a lot stronger than he seems. Even before the enhancement he is strong enough to give Deku a reasonable fight. Yes, Deku should have wrecked him, but we’ll assume that his shock simply slowed down his reaction times. The villain had a lot of great dialogue and a cool design. His super form at the end was also pretty neat as it had a bit of a cosmic look to it. All Might definitely had enough of the villains though as he attempts to murder them by blowing up their chopper as he got David to safety. There’s almost no way the villains could have survived that so it was a bit unexpected. I suppose since All Might knew he was going to change soon he figured that he had to wrap up the fight.
It almost goes without saying, but part of what makes the fight so good is the stellar animation. The battles are very flashy with the action moving very quickly. The backgrounds are bright and a lot of nice details are in the film. It’s definitely theater budget. While there are 1-2 scenes where character faces are completely blank without any details, I have to assume that this was a stylistic choice similar to how All Might’s eyes are never shown to make him seem like his game face is always on. That’s always been a pretty cool look. The soundtrack is mostly just tunes from the show although I think we did get 1-2 new themes. The music is pretty sound and complements the film.
As for the two original characters made up for the film, I can’t say that I was a big fan of David. The guy just doesn’t think things through and isn’t the smartest bulb out there. It’s hard to feel any sympathy for him to be honest. As for Melissa, she’s a fun character. She has good inventions and is a useful companion during the film. While she may not have a quirk, she doesn’t tend to panic and helps out whenever she can. You can’t really ask for much more than that.
Naturally I do have to quickly mention Godzilla since part of the marketing for the film kept on showing him. Well, the bad news is that his role is extremely small. His screen time is less than 10 seconds in the entire film. That’s…..pretty disappointing for fans who were looking forward to his appearance. It’s not exactly the Legendairy experience that everyone was looking for, but I guess they weren’t milking his reputation for this film. Heh. I like the roar they used. As a casual Godzilla fan I couldn’t tell you which era the roar was from, but it was definitely retro.
Overall, My Hero Academy The Two Heroes is a pretty fun film. It does a good job of hitting that balance between being an extended episode and feeling like a special adventure. The action scenes are solid and the pacing is really good. While a lot of the students aren’t really ready for these battles and make the wrong calls, they are still just kids so they have plenty of time to improve their game. It was nice to see America for a change along with this high tech island. A film is always a good time to take the characters out of their usual environment. The film also includes a recap at the beginning for people who haven’t seen the anime. It’s pretty well done and includes all of the information that you would need so even if you haven’t watched the show I believe you could watch this and still understand what is happening. You’ll still enjoy it and while you may not get the 100% experience, it’ll still be a great time.
Overall 8/10
It’s time to look at one of the original giant monster films. Many believe that Godzilla is really what kicked off the Kaiju boom, but you have to consider the mass market appeal that Rodan brought with him. Rodan isn’t your average giant monster, he is one that can fly. In fact, if we took this version of Rodan unnerfed and put him up against the other giant monsters, he would crush them. Not even Godzilla would last long against such a threat. Rodan helped audiences finally take giant monsters seriously and still works very well as both a thriller and a Kaiju film. While the film does drop off quite a bit at the end, it’s not enough to negate the rest of the experience.
The film starts off with a group of miners heading to the caves. Unfortunately they are brutally murdered by a bunch of giant worms. The humans go for backup but none of their guns are all that effective. Fortunately that’s when Rodan shows up to eat all of the worms and claim dominion over the skies. Any jets that stay in the air are promptly destroyed. The humans realize that the only way to stop Rodan is to throw him into the volcano, but this task gets a little more dangerous once there are 2 Rodans on the field. What can they possibly do?
The short answer is nothing. There’s no way that the ending even could happen. What the film should have done was have the humans acknowledge that they can’t hope to stop Rodan. This would have been the signal for a very emotional scene to start as the humans team up to create a giant paper mache version of Rodan that they sail off to an uninhabited island. The Rodans would follow it and leave humanity alone for a little while. Even I may have teared up a little bit at such a spectacle. As it stands, the ending is emotional but in a sad way. I was rooting for Rodan the whole time and was looking forward to seeing him wipe out humanity. For that not to happen is simply tragic.
Enough dwelling on the ending though. I didn’t like it, but it wasn’t quite horrible enough to drag the film down too much. I have to give credit to the special effects here as they were handled a lot better than expected. I dare say that it even beats most of the modern films when it comes to depicting Rodan’s speed. In this version you actually can believe that he flies at super sonic speeds since we see him outmaneuvering a jet. Rodan may not have a fancy laser to shoot out, but with moves like that he doesn’t even need one! I also liked the size difference between Rodan and the worms. Since we already saw how massive the worms looked to the humans, it’s clear that Rodan is a colossal beast.
As for the humans…there’s not much to say about them. They’re around of course, but they don’t really contribute much to the story. The dub has fun with them as everyone gets in a few good one liners. It’s hard to tell if you’re supposed to take the characters seriously or not. On one hand, it’s not as if they’re making obviously bad decisions or anything like that, but on the other hand…they just don’t seem as invested into the situation as you would possibly expect. After all, having a giant monster around destroying everything is kind of a big deal right? I didn’t dislike the humans, but as with most of the old monster films I found them to be a tad forgettable. Granted, it’s probably because I’m focused on the monsters.
I will say that the writing was solid. These films definitely take place back in an era where scripts were actually handled with care and you didn’t have to cringe at every other line. The pacing of the film is good as well and it manages to cover quite a lot in a short amount of time. There’s not much that the film could have done to be much better in these areas as it was just solid. I can only imagine how impressive this movie must have looked back in the 50s. Whether you are currently a big Kaiju fan or just getting into the genre, this is a movie that I can definitely recommend checking out purely on a technical level in addition to being a monster film.
Overall, Rodan is a fun film. He’s always been a solid monster, but one who is probably a little over matched against the others. He’s simply too fast and strong so he tends to get nerfed quite heavily. I’m hoping that the upcoming American film has a good idea of how to use him, but I am going to be entering that film with a few reservations on the power levels department. No worries, it’s still going to be film of the year, but with all of these Kaiju running around I hope that corporate knows what they are doing. Still…when do they not?
Overall 7/10
It’s time to look at the next Batman Unlimited film! The first one was pretty solid so I would expect nothing less from the sequel. It’s nice to have a Batman film that feels more like the classic days. It’s a bit of a cross between something like Brave and the Bold and The Batman in terms of atmosphere and character designs. It all works pretty well and the film delivers on what it promises, a lot of action with a good story behind it.
The film kicks things off with a new character who has joined the fray. Gogo is a genius who likes building VR games. Unfortunately he is confronted by his co-worker who tries to destroy him. Gogo quickly figures out that she is actually a robot who is pretending to be his friend, but this knowledge is not enough to turn the tables. Even Batman is unable to save him from this menace. It turns out that the robot is working for Joker along with other villains like the Scarecrow, Solomon Grundy, and Silver Banshee. For once Batman realizes that he can’t defeat all of these foes on his own so he decides to call in Green Arrow, Red Robin, and Nightwing. Together these heroes will have to save the world!
In a subplot, Cyborg is still adjusting to his new boosters. Unfortunately he doesn’t have much time to do so because a virus has infected the city and as Cyborg doesn’t have too many security firewalls he is quickly taken over. I’ve already talked at length about how Cyborg is a Teen Titan and not a Justice League member so I won’t go into that here, but this movie doesn’t help his case. I figured that the whole point of being half human and half machine was that the human side could help him fight against viruses and such. That never seems to be the case so he might as well be all robot then right? Technically Cyborg is very strong, but none of that matters if villains can just hack into him every day.
This film is naturally pretty light hearted as you may expect although it does get some serious scenes. The intro where the robot tries to murder Gogo is actually played pretty seriously. Likewise, the film isn’t afraid to have some real fights thrown in and the animation is pretty solid. It doesn’t really have any choreography and the fights do tend to get paused for quick one liners and such, but the film looks good when it actually tries. It’s a nice animation style and works well enough for the film. Unfortunately the soundtrack is basically nonexistent so don’t expect to remember any of the tunes by the end. This just isn’t quite that kind of film. The humor isn’t bad for the most part. It can feel a little forced, but it could be a lot worse. I’d give the writing a pass.
Then we have a nice Matrix homage near the end as Batman and Joker fight in the Cyber World where they each have to corrupt the other. It’s a battle of wills so naturally you’re never too worried for Batman. He’s not going to lose when it boils down to a fight of resolve. The pacing is pretty good for the film as well which makes sense since it’s so short. At most you may find it a bit redundant how the heroes keep beating the villains, only to have them escape for another round. I feel like this happened at least 3 times. The villains just wouldn’t quit which is admirable but then there’s no reason to think that the rematch would go any differently. Joker’s robot at the end was pretty cool though. If not for a serious amount of plot hax he definitely would have won in the end. All he had to do was actually try moving so Cyborg couldn’t hit him and then it would have been all over. Maybe deep down Joker actually wanted to lose. That would be quite the twist eh?
The movie also decided to go with a pretty interesting set of characters here. Batman is an obvious pick of course and likewise for putting in Tim Drake as Red Robin. While the latter is treated as comic relief a little too much, he still gets the job done. For Batman, while I mentioned that the animation is solid I have to admit that Bruce Wayne looks very off. It’s something about his human design that makes him look like a character out of Space Dandy or that crazy future 90’s aesthetic. Not a bad thing, it’s just different. Nightwing is another good teammate to have around and while there’s not much in particular to say about him, I do like how the film turned his trope of self doubt on its head. When Scarecrow tries playing the mindgames Nightwing doesn’t fall for it. As he said, he got over that a long time ago.
Then we have Green Arrow who does his best but as always he seems to be a step behind the others. After all, he’s just as rich as Batman, but doesn’t have the hand to hand skills or large array of gadgets that the Dark Knight possesses. As for Cyborg, he was getting mind controlled the whole time so while he is a nice guy there isn’t much to say about him either. As for the villains, Silver Banshee was fun. Her ability is always pretty lethal against most opponents since they will actually get older which can’t really be undone. Solomon Grundy is still the power hitter, but he’s never the most enjoyable villain since he isn’t too smart. The film did a reasonable job of not making him too annoying though and dressing up as the pizza man was smart. Scarecrow was pretty good here. He was a legitimate threat and kept the heroes on their toes throughout. This was also one of Joker’s better outings easy. He balanced out the humor and serious traits of his character well and as always his plan took Batman to the edge.
Overall, Batman Unlimited continues to be a solid series. I look forward to seeing how the third film fares. If you like action films or just want to see some light hearted fun then I would recommend this film. What you see is what you get so there are no real surprises here, but the plot is executed well. You’ll be kept entertained all the way through and since this is one of your only chances to see Red Robin in action, how could you miss it? With a solid blend of writing and animation, this is definitely a complete film.
Overall 7/10
It’s time to look at the one shot manga that was created to hype up the game. This one’s a little longer than the last one shot I reviewed as it’s around 20 pages. That’s a good thing since it allows for a fight and that’s one of the reasons why this artist has always been so solid. It’s nice to see Mega Man back in manga and it would be awesome if he could get a full length series again at some point. The character has had a great track record so far and I have no doubt that a sequel would fare just as well.
The story starts with Wily wrecking havoc on the world once more. This time his robots have been equipped with the Double Gear system so even Mega Man is basically helpless to stop them. Fortunately Dr. Light has one as well so he gives it to Mega Man. Still, he warns the robot that if he ever uses both gears at once he will probably die. Mega Man agrees not to use it unless necessary and hops into battle. He’ll have to go through Fuse Man though and this may be his most dangerous task yet.
The author perfectly gets across how serious of a threat this is. Since robots run the world in the future every time they turn evil it is a catastrophe. No matter how many times this may occur, there isn’t much that the humans can do since their whole economy depends on them. Fuse Man in particular is difficult to stop since he controls all electricity in the area and can turn it all off on a whim. The only way to stop his ability is to destroy him which also forces Mega Man to make some tough choices. At his core Mega Man is always a hero though and so he does what he can to find a better way.
The battle between Mega Man and Fuse Man is top notch as you would expect from this artist after the brilliant Megaman NT Warrior series. He does a good job of showing off Mega Man’s speed and then also keeping Fuse Man at a higher level. He did have to rush the ending a bit as Mega Man never quite gets past the speed advantage but secures the win anyway though. I assume that had he been given more time then the fight would have been even more satisfying. Still, the art was fantastic and the action was amazing. This manga already has a more interesting environment and atmosphere then the rest of the Mega Man series. Imagine if Mega Man 11 actually played out like this. Full disclaimer, I think Mega Man 11 looks like a lot of fun so no shots at it, but imagine it in the art style of something like Sonic Forces. That’s basically what this manga looks like and it works pretty well. I’d love to see a third person shooter for Mega Man at some point or even a beat em up. The lore of the universe would work pretty well around that, especially if we get a proper robot invasion kind of story.
Overall, Mega Man 11 is definitely a real page turner. The pacing is almost too good since the story ends so quickly and you are left wanting more. Hopefully the fan response to both the manga and the game is positive enough where the franchise gets completely revived and we see a whole lot of extra material. That would just be a lot of fun. If you haven’t checked this manga out yet then you definitely need to do so. It really shows you why Mega Man is still considered to be one of the most likable of the original video game icons and his character has stayed consistent through the years.
Overall 8/10
It’s time to look at an old school DC film. This movie doesn’t really feel like your average comic book film and could easily be mistaken for just being another horror film. That would probably be the best outcome for all parties involved since I doubt anyone wants to take credit for this movie. It just isn’t good and does so many things wrong that you’ll end up wondering what the film was thinking. The characters aren’t very smart and so it’s hard to root for anyone.
The film starts off with the main character, Alice heading over to the Swamp. She is here to fix some sensors, but the broken sensors were sabotaged by terrorists so she isn’t allowed to go near them. Since she has nothing else to do she hangs around the pair of scientists who are trying to make some breakthroughs and insults them the whole time. The main guy is married, but seems to forget this all the time so all scenes with him are cringe worthy. That’s when the villains come in and murder the two scientists in the hopes of getting their research. Alice managed to snatch one book though so their collection won’t be complete. The villains don’t like that and decide to give chase, but they have one more obstacle to try and get past, The Swamp Thing!
The film doesn’t exactly hide the Swamp Thing’s identity, but I won’t allude to it in case you need that reveal. Needless to say, The Swamp Thing is here to help. “This is My Swamp!” should have been his opening line but he’s a creature of action as opposed to words. As the film goes on he does start to get a little more chatty though so I guess that’s a good thing? Unfortunately, he isn’t quite as intimidating as the average creature. In most of these horror films you see the monsters just destroying everybody until they die in the end. Since the Swamp Thing is a heroic creature, he doesn’t get the same treatment. He gets captured and beaten by the crooks. He doesn’t do a good job of taking the villains out of the equation so they always pop right back up to give him some more grief. He isn’t opposed to murder as we see him do it several times, he is always in just too much of a hurry to get away. He’s just not a very likable character. His abilities also don’t seem all that impressive in this film. He was nerfed all the way into the ground.
Alice isn’t a bad main character although she can also be a little iffy at times. For the positives, she is a fighter. Alice does put up a struggle whenever she appears and even lands in some good hits. On the other hand, she is rather slow on the uptake. Even when seeing the Swamp Thing mowing down her opponents she keeps telling him to back off. She’s certainly safer with him than without. She also has an unfortunate tendency to trip over just about everything. She probably hit the ground at least ten times. Cmon Alice, you can do better than that!
Then I have to quickly rewind to the beginning of the film to explain why the normal joe characters always fall below expectations. So you have a guy running through the swamp when a few guys with guns walk up to him. He quickly lets them disarm him and then runs. What’s the point? They’ll just shoot him down. He’s dead either way so he may as well have held on to his gun and taken one of them down with him. This is preferable for many reasons. One of which is that by firing right away you at least have the slimmest of chances to survive. Second, at least they’ll be forced to gun you down right there which is a far less painful death than the alternative. Third, you get to die with some dignity. Trying to run away in a swamp when you’re outnumbered like that won’t work. Even if it was just one guy he could shoot you once your back was turned. These hostage situations always drive me batty.
This film is a little on the violent side with people getting snapped and crunched. The main villain’s transformation scene was also shown to be as grotesque and violent as possible which is a little on the rare side for transformations. Usually you expect those to at least be a little pleasant right? The violence isn’t extremely over the top but certainly is high enough that it’s noticeable. There isn’t really animal violence if you look at the film casually, but it’s there when you drill into the specifics. The unlikable main characters were running experiments on the animals which is a no go. These animals don’t care about the science so why should they have to be used like this? The animal certainly didn’t look like it was having fun being all wet like that.
Swamp Thing also goes out of its way to make the villains unlikable. A good villain should command respect but also be fun to root for/against. None of that is here with these villains. At the most the main villain isn’t bad. He’s one of those random rich guys who wants to see the world burn. The main villain is really one of his subordinates though who chases Alice around quite a lot. Naturally he is shown to be rather depraved and of course he couldn’t just be a professional trying to earn a paycheck. I get that guys like him will typically end up being the villains since it makes sense, but it doesn’t make any of his scenes work any better.
The best character in the film is definitely the kid who owned the gas station. He was on point and could sniff out danger a mile away. It’s a shame that his gun was defective but there’s no way he could have known that. Even though he was just a kid he did a lot of work and helped get Alice to a safe place. He brought the film a level of charm and wonder that it didn’t have previously. Not enough to save the film or anything like that, but it was still neat.
Overall, Swamp Thing is definitely not a film that I would recommend. The characters aren’t all that smart and Swamp Thing himself looks quite weak. I’m glad he kept in his healing powers, but being able to fight a little more would have been great too. The film drags on a bit and the only good character got a really small amount of screen time. This is definitely one of those movies that you should skip and I’d advise you to check out some of the classic Godzilla films instead if you want to see how a creature should be portrayed. I can guarantee you that at the very least he wouldn’t go down easy like the Swamp Thing.
Overall 3/10
Stats time!
Play Time 7h 1m
Medals 10%
Stats time!
PS4 Trophies 7/38
Challenges Completes 2/17
Story Stats Missions Completed
Episode 1 1/2
Episode 2 1/3
Episode 3 1/4
Episode 4 0/3
Episode 5 0/3
Episode 6 1/4
Episode 7 1/4
Episode 8 1/4
Episode 9 1/4
Episode 10 1/3
Episode 1A 1/2
Episode 2A 1/3
Episode 3A 1/3
Episode 4A 1/3
Episode 5A 1/4
Episode 6A 1/3
Episode 7A 1/3
Episode 8A 1/2
Episode EX1 1/4
Episode EX2 1/4
Character Stats
Asta
Outfits 7/8
Voices 5/45
Decks 1/3
Cards 6/9
Yami -Maxed
Outfits 7/8
Voices 45/45
Decks 3/3
Cards 9/9
Lucky
Outfits 4/8
Voices 5/45
Decks 3/3
Cards 0/9
Vetto
Outfits 4/8
Voices 5/45
Decks 3/3
Cards 0/9
Yami (Young)
Outfits 4/8
Voices 5/45
Decks 3/3
Cards 0/9
Yuno
Outfits 4/8
Voices 5/45
Decks 3/3
Cards 0/9
Magna
Outfits 4/8
Voices 5/45
Decks 2/3
Cards 0/9
Gauche
Outfits 4/8
Voices 5/45
Decks 1/3
Cards 0/9
Licht
Outfits 4/8
Voices 5/45
Decks 1/3
Cards 0/9
Mimosa
Outfits 4/8
Voices 5/45
Decks 1/3
Cards 0/9
Charmy
Outfits 4/8
Voices 5/45
Decks 1/3
Cards 0/9
Mars
Outfits 4/8
Voices 5/45
Decks 1/3
Cards 0/9
Fana
Outfits 4/8
Voices 5/45
Decks 1/3
Cards 0/9
Noelle
Outfits 4/8
Voices 5/45
Decks 1/3
Cards 0/9
Klaus
Outfits 4/8
Voices 5/45
Decks 1/3
Cards 0/9
Vanessa
Outfits 4/8
Voices 5/45
Decks 1/3
Cards 0/9
Karna
Outfits 4/8
Voices 5/45
Decks 1/3
Cards 0/9
It’s rare that I pre order games. Honestly there are probably only around 10 or so that I can think of at the moment. I’m only counting games that I actually paid for so pre orders for Christmas or my Birthday don’t count. Off the top the games that I can think of are Super Smash Bros 3DS, Super Smash Bros Wii U, Pokken, Street Fighter V, Star Fox Zero, Black Clover Quartet Knights, Blazblue Cross Tag Battle, Sonic Forces, and Sword Art Online Fatal Bullet. There may be a few more that I’m missing but that’s basically it. Considering that this spans a time frame of around 10 years, you can see that I basically only started pre-ordering recently. It’s definitely fun to get a game at launch, but it’s also risky if the game ends up being underwhelming or just not worth the money. I wouldn’t go as far as to say that I actively regret any of these or anything like that, but some were certainly more rewarding than others. I’d probably say that (not counting Super Smash since those would be the easy answers) Pokken was probably my favorite one. I definitely spent a lot of time with that game and the PVP was just a lot of fun. Definitely good times remembering when you didn’t have to pay to go online. Getting off topic though, lets talk about Black Clover.
The story has our heroes head to a cavern after stopping a villain named Mars when they are split up from Captian Yami. Asta and Noelle break through the rounds of enemies and find him, but now he has de-aged 14 years. What could have happened to him in the moments it took them to find him? They don’t have much time to rest though as a group of terrorists known as the Eye of the Morning Star have decided to team up with a mysterious lady from Yami’s past. Asta doesn’t have time to worry about the specifics here as he has a kingdom to save.
The story is extremely short as it is just 10 battles long and you’ll clear it in around 2 hours. I was a little dubious after finishing up the story. Naturally I know that the main point of this game is the online play so I wasn’t going to harsh on it too much, but only 10 levels? Fortunately by beating the game you unlock an alternate route with Yami which adds 8 more levels. After that you also get 2 “extra” levels so in total the game is a little closer to 4 hours which is nice. That definitely makes a difference. There are also other offline modes to play which extends the length. Each character has a challenge tutorial which is fairly easy and lets you get used to the characters. I’ll definitely try doing all of them at some point, but that may not happen for a while yet. Still, it does extend the game’s length.
Of course, this may go without saying, but you will enjoy the game a lot more if you have online play activated. After all, this game’s not exactly as mainstream as Naruto or DBZ so if you want to fight a bunch of people online you’ll want to do it right away. If you want until everyone is gone then it will certainly be way too late at that point. The offline content may last you around 6 hours and a little more if you decide to beat every level on hard mode. That may not seem like enough for your $60 dollar purchase, but the quality of the game is high so I don’t think you’ll feel bad about it afterwards.
For example, this game does have fully animated cutscenes which was definitely a blast. Not many games do that so I can only imagine how difficult it must be. We also get a bunch of CGI cutscenes and still illustrations as well. I definitely think that quite a bit of care was put into this game. The story is short but memorable. The graphics are definitely quite solid and are in the familiar Bandai style. If you like how the Naruto/Seven Deadly Sins game looks then you’ll enjoy this one as well. The soundtrack is a little less impressive though as there is only one really rocking theme. The lyrical song for the final boss is all kinds of hype. The other themes are all very forgettable. I think the game should have just brought in a bunch of themes from the anime, that would have certainly worked out well.
I haven’t even talked about the gameplay yet so I should get on that. It’s a pretty fast paced fighting game. It’s in squads format so you go 3 v 3. You want to construct your team carefully as you have mages, fighters, healers, and a different kind of fighter. My favorite characters to play as are definitely fighters and healers are the worst, but naturally you want a balanced squad. It plays a bit like a beat em up I’d say or Dissidia if you are familiar with that game. You have roughly 4-5 attack options so there isn’t a crazy amount of options to use, but this’ll help you memorize them quickly. The game is easy to start while being difficult to master which is definitely a good balance. I definitely enjoyed the gameplay a lot although I am definitely a sucker for fighters. They always just manage to hit the right notes which is why I always try to snag them right away.
Overall, Black Clover Quartet Knights is definitely a great game. It is on the short side which is unfortunate, but it’s a short game that really excelled in its presentation and pacing. For example, I’d say that a lot more effort was put into the actual story than Blazblue. It’s around the same length but ends up feeling a lot more like a complete adventure. I’d still be pretty hyped for a sequel after playing this one. It’s a shame that there isn’t a local multiplayer though. It seems like that would have been really easy to program in even if it would be tough to keep track of everything on only half a screen. Better a crunched option than none at all right? (Well, I guess critics would take shots at it anyway, but the devs can ignore those) If you don’t have the game yet then I definitely recommend checking it out. If you don’t have online and feel that the length is too short, then I get that and you should probably go get a different fighting game. Any of the old Naruto Ninja Storms would work in that case and will be cheaper by now.
Overall 8/10
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