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Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom Review

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It’s been a while since I played the original Ni no Kuni so it was fun to jump into the sequel. I’ve been having a blast jumping through a bunch of hype RPG titles and that streak’s continuing for a bit longer. The game ended up being quite excellent and I dare say that it beats the original. You may be thinking that quite a lot of games lately have been getting elite scores but that’s what happens when you play a lot of long games like this. RPGs always have an inherent advantage over other titles in that you get to really know all of the characters and get absorbed into the narrative. So as long as the gameplay and execution is on point you will have a blast. That’s exactly what happened here.

The story starts with the U.S. President Roland heading to a big meeting. Unfortunately a large missile strike occurs and everything goes up in flames. He was not able to protect his country in the end and lost everything. He is suddenly warped to another world where he is young again and is thrown into the middle of a giant uprising. The current king was assassinated and his son Evan is next. Roland manages to help Evan escape and vows to help him restore the kingdom. Evan wants to unite the world and all of the countries in it so that there will be no more wars. This may be a bit naive but Roland will do what he can to help the kid succeed. Can he establish peace in this world?

The opening really nails the tone of the game right from the start. Seeing Roland pull a gun on these fantasy creatures was intense. He was not playing and the fact that he kept the gun was really coo. Usually the gun would vanish or something like that but not in this game. You actually get to use it in gameplay as well. Everyone else has a bow and arrow for their projectile while this guy just gets to keep his gun and go blasting away at everybody. It’s really like a true isekai adventure all the way.

The gameplay is that of a real 3D action title. You have your standard moves, power moves, magical attacks, and super skills. Your supers have a cooldown based on how often you attack the opponent. Then you also have your projectile weapon. Each of your attacks can be leveled up although I never quite figured out how to do that so my moves stayed at level 1. They are still strong though and most of your attack power is based on the weapon anyway. I made sure to constantly get new weapons to equip. You rarely have to buy them though as the drop rate from enemies is really high. Keep on fighting powerful ones and they will drop exactly what you need before long so there is really no need to spend your money. You will have a lot of money by the end of the game though so no worries if you need to buy something.

You also get battle points although I’m not sure what triggers this. These can be used to enhance gameplay elements like becoming stronger against slime enemies or brute force fighters. The fun strategy part is that you have to decide which type to use this on. You can’t just make yourself strong against all fighters after all. To throw in some more strategy, you also raise these little Pikmin type creatures that follow you and use special attacks of their own. You can raise them at one of the shops in your town and you gain more as you continue the game so you have to decide which 4 to keep equipped. I just maxed out my original 4 and didn’t mess with the others.

Speaking of the town though, this is a key component of the game. You have to raise up your town by building new shops and convincing people to move in. This means completing a ton of side quests. There appear to be at least 200 side quests in the game and you’re going to need to complete over 50 of them minimum to beat the game. I think I did around 70 or so but make sure you are completing them regularly because there will be different points in the game where you will be forced to stop progressing until your town reaches a certain rank.

Fortunately it is really fun to do this. It does take some since money is earned passively using real time minutes. So there will be times where you can just run around as you wait or maybe fight some more monsters. It’s pretty fast but there is a lot to do in the town. This is where more strategy comes up. Each building is tied to different side quests and so you really have to prioritize who to send to which store. You will often have more shops than people and of course a shop won’t produce anything without someone working there.

I could go on, but you get the point. There are so many different gameplay mechanics here and different ways to play. There are dream doors, orbs, and lots of other stuff. You don’t even need to interact with major parts of the game in order to complete the story but it’s really nice how they put so much content in here. I bet I could play for another 30 hours and still not complete everything. The value for your money is quite incredible here and it’s yet another reason why you should pick this game up sooner than later. Trust me, you definitely won’t regret it.

Even with all that aside, the story is really good like I mentioned before. It handles the topic of war well and while it may be an optimistic look at things, it’s a nice change of pace. My only slight issue is with the ending, I would have liked thing to have gone a bit differently. Still, there is room for a sequel should they ever want to go in that route and I did think a certain twist at the end was really solid. I’m surprised they haven’t made more Ni no Kuni games, there’s definitely a lot more you can do with it.

The graphics are naturally super good throughout the game. The cutscenes are super good and the graphics during gameplay are also on point. The soundtrack is fairly solid as well with a number of good songs in there. The whole thing is very smooth and on a technical level there are few games that are better. This has every kind of quality of life feature you can think of from quick travel, to the aerial vehicle that lets you get anywhere quickly. You can save in almost every spot and the way items are stored is very logical. No complaints here.

Overall, Ni No Kuni is a game that keeps on getting better and better as you play it. I had a real blast with it and there is a ton of replay value. The game itself took me close to 30 hours and there is an extensive amount of quests for the post game. Getting the platinum for this game would also take a long while. I would definitely recommend checking this game out for any RPG fan. It really tells a good story even if the ending is really not as satisfying as it could have been. It may not have been perfect but it’s good enough and the whole adventure was definitely a blast.

Overall 9/10

Megaton-kyuu Musashi Season 2 Review

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It’s definitely been a while since I checked this one out so lets dive into season 2. I really enjoyed season 1 with the awesome music and fights around every corner. In a lot of ways season 2 does keep up although I would give 1 the slight edge. I thought it had a better climax and wrapped things up a little better. This one gets a bit too ambitious towards the end so some things have to be rushed like the two cosmic beings and one of the main characters looks horrible here. Still, we do get the big fight scenes which is always a plus and the soundtrack is still great which is what counts.

After the events of the first season, Arshem and Yamato are split off into two different plots. Arshem is helping a resistance group get their bearings as she still works to become leader of the aliens. If she can do this, then she will really be in a good position to stop the war once and for all. The main problem is that their commander right now is Grieffas who is not about to listen to her and wants to conquer the remaining humans. She will inevitably have to fight with him at some point about this.

In the human plot, Yamato is still blasting away at the aliens but his heart isn’t quite as into it anymore. He used to want to wipe them all out, but now that he knows a lot of them are just ordinary people, it’s not something he can put all of his heart into in quite the same way. It’s not like he is a mass murderer after all. He just wants to defend his right to live. He also sees more of the shady dealings that his own government is doing, this will not be easy.

Yamato is a great character as always. He still has a lot of fire within him and is always ready for a fight. He hasn’t lost that enthusiasm. He may have less time to show off his punk side but near the beginning of the season he does get to fight the new transfer student which was fun. Yamato is definitely not someone who will go down without a fight and you can always appreciate that. I was a little surprised when the first season threw in a bit of a romance for him and season 2 doesn’t shy away from it either. His romance with Arshem is treated as a legitimate plot point that actually comes up and get focus on numerous occasions. It can definitely be really dramatic at times to be sure but it’s definitely handled way better than the average one. It helps that they are both quality characters.

This is one of those romances that I can actually point to as a great example on how to do this. Both characters liked each other without any rebounds or other people getting in the way. We get a lot of time so it’s not like they fell for each other immediately, etc. There were just a whole lot of positives to be had here. The series tries out some other romances which don’t work quite as well since they weren’t the focus but when you manage to do the main one right, the rest all comes into play.

Arshem is also a great character here with good ideals. At times she may feel a bit naive with her hopes for world peace though. The fact of the matter is that there can be no chance for peace until there is a cure allowing the aliens to live peacefully on Earth. Without that, they will have to keep relying on the injections over and over again which isn’t a long term strategy. If anything it is just something that will make the forces uneven which will breed more resentment. So finding the cure is really the first step…or just gaining absolute power and that’s really the route that she went. So her goals were good but I do think she was missing the big picture.

On the human side we also have Ryugo as one of the original main characters but I wouldn’t say he gets a ton to do after a while. His abilities are fairly low compared to the rest of the pilots. He pulls his own weight and everything but it always feels like he is lagging behind the other characters when it counts. He works well enough for the banter but it would have been great if he could have gotten some kind of a power up at some point.

Teru is the brainy type of character and he was solid in the first season but he really falls off a cliff here. The character doesn’t have enough strength of will to make the right decisions effortlessly. Instead he has to actually wonder what the right call is even when it’s obvious. He had a kid and isn’t sure if the kid should be alive? That’s rather crazy and he doesn’t do much about the experimenting for a while.

Then at one point he attacks a cleaning maid because it looked like the girl he was in love with. Teru’s absolutely deranged and he ended up being one of the most annoying characters. I was sort of rooting for his downfall for a while there. It’s just crazy how you can fall so hard after being a rather sensible character.

Reiji is still a solid character with his super abilities. It would have been nice if he could have used them more though. It felt like there was a lot more to that plot point that never really got addressed. Later on Yamato seemed to be able to use similar abilities so it’s maybe something that humans just have innately as opposed to it needing to be artificial but I dunno, it wasn’t given quite as much focus as you’d expect. Reiji does have one critical battle near the end where he holds off a top tier though.

Jun is always a super fun character. She enters a bit of a slump later on when she suffers some PTSD but the whole plot is actually handled rather well. It’s not rushed and we are given a lot of time to see her fighting through this and trying to get her old confidence back. Once Jun pushes past this, she goes back to her fun moments of banter and messing with everyone. It can be hard to get a read on when she’s joking vs being serious but that’s part of her charm.

The Queen gets a rather big role here and she is another character who was handled super well. She had to make the really hard calls as the leader and accepted the role as villain. She still is a villain to be clear and there’s no real way to explain her wanting to murder Arshem. So she ended up being too far gone and no amount of damage control could fix that. That being said, while I will continue to criticize her for that, taking down the Earth seems like a reasonable strategy from her perspective. There’s no way any planet will willingly give up to another and additionally, if they wanted to accept the aliens, that wouldn’t be possible either since the planet isn’t big enough for the two of them.

She decided that with all of this in mind, she may as well launch the first strike and knock them all out immediately. There was only one flaw with her plan which is that she couldn’t destroy all of them without finding the method for being able to breath in Earth’s atmosphere. If not for that, she could have finished the job and that would have been that. I do think you could make the case that they should have captured more people then and there are different ways you could play this. At the end of the day, the humans pulled through anyway.

Grieffas is a more extreme villain. He believes in the first place that the aliens should not have run away when they were being annihilated by Adam and Eve. So under his leadership the whole race would have been wiped out before this series even began. That would have certainly been one way to go. I definitely sympathize with not wanting to run away but it’s clear that the gap in power between the two races was extensive. There’s nothing that could have been done. Then he gets obsessed with being together with Arshem and is madly jealous of Yamato the whole time.

He goes way down in this second half for basically being a creep and spending all of his time on the throne. In season 1 he was fighting and at least getting stuff done. In this second part his main priority was Arshem at the cost of his own plans and ultimately he went down like a chump. Definitely not the way you want to lose when the stakes are this high. The other villains in the show all ended up being a lot more fun. First off you have Zaskar who actually doesn’t get a whole lot to do. He is introduced as one of the top fighters on the villain’s side but he shows up super late into the game. He would have gotten more to do in the end but the show didn’t quite get to that part. Still, I always enjoy the elite villains like this and the guy has a very serious attitude that is appropriate for a fighter of his station.

Then we have Yugra who starts out as a villain that just follows orders so that he can prove himself. From there he ends up being a really solid villain overall who questions his orders and follows his heart. His character arc has to go through rather quickly but it was a good one and he ended up being likable. The same goes for his partner Miysis although it takes longer for her to really join the heroes side. You sort of feel like she just came along for the ride for a while there but in the end as long as you join the heroes I suppose the reason itself isn’t quite as important.

Veloa is another villain who starts out as being evil and then sees the light. When you think about it, quite a few of the aliens were ready to turn good and I think it helps to support the overall premise of both groups not wanting to be evil. At the end of the day they committed the murders under the Queen’s orders but before that they were never a villain group like this. So going back to their old ways will end up being normal. There are still a lot of grudges that will never go away but that is to be expected. So this guy gets to prove his worth of why he is a good bodyguard even if he does lose his main fight.

Then we have Dixenberg who is a reasonable villain. He’s basically an old guy who can’t really fight so you do have to keep that into consideration. What I like about him is he represents the corrupt humans who will always show up from time to time. He plans to take advantage of the chaos that arose when 99% of each race’s population was wiped out. Now he can be king and rule over it all! It’s truly an ambitious plot and so I get that. Ultimately it’s not like you ever think he would stand a chance against anyone but he is still fun enough.

Kojiro is more of an intense villain because he gets a big backstory and a lot to do in the present. He has trouble with a second personality that takes over and makes him murder people all of the time. It’s definitely tough to make friends that way and he really starts to crack by the end. I thought that he was a reasonable rival but the low willpower definitely did hurt him in the end. He sort of holds the heroes back for most of the series and only gets it in gear by the very final part of the climax. Better late than never though.

We also have the other human resistance group led by Victor. He’s a solid character who has a big backstory. I give him massive amounts of hype for being able to survive in the wilderness while the entire planet is covered in poison. That’s a really difficult thing to have to put up with and yet he took it like a champ. So definitely kudos there. He could have introduced himself to his daughter a lot sooner though. He really took his time there.

Then there is Masamune who gives us one of the most enjoyable fights at the start of the season. I like the idea of a pro agent being thrown into the mix. He may not be a street fighter like Yamato but his skills still translate themselves into the battles very well. He gets his own romance plot which is rather rushed I have to admit but all in all he’s good. Near the end of the series he lets his guard down and gets stabbed which is a really cheesy scene. There’s no way the villain should have been able to land a hit on him there. That whole thing felt rather forced.

Shizuka gets the least to do by far. She’s good at covert ops and infiltration but we don’t really get to see her fight. She’s a solid member of the team either way and pulls her own weight but the first two undoubtedly get a lot more to do. It feels like Shizuka needed a friend or family member of her own so that she would have a relevant plot going instead of just waiting around on the sidelines.

Finally we have Adam and Eve who are rather huge as you would expect. These two are villains with cosmic abilities that are vastly above what you may expect from anyone in this series. They usually don’t get to actually show these abilities off though and that’s in part because they don’t do anything until the very end. Just one of their mechs gives the whole crew a tough fight and they can create millions of them. Only a very specific kind of ability is able to negate this and they happen to fight her. Still, I really enjoyed Adam and Eve. They make for a good team and the only shame is that they didn’t appear more. There is absolutely still a whole lot you can do with them. Considering that they wiped out the aliens so easily who wiped out the humans with the same lack of difficulty, the power creep was intense.

The show perhaps bit off a little more than it could chew there. I don’t think it is always able to handle the power level concerns that come up when the characters start introducing stronger and stronger mechs. That being said, the show is still very interesting all the way through. There is never a shortage of action so you will have those scenes in every episode but at the same time there are much deeper plot threads going on the whole time. The series really dives into topics like the cycle of violence and why wars need to be stopped.

The animation is definitely really solid. I would say it’s very consistent between the episodes and I always really enjoy the hand to hand fight scenes. The robot fights are a lot of fun too of course and there are more of those but that’s why the human fights stand out. They happen so rarely that you really feel the impact. Then for the soundtrack, we have a number of lyrical songs that pop up and the usual battle themes which are really good. They all balance out really well and so there is a lot of variety here. You won’t be feeling that the osts are too overused or anything like that. This is a show that will keep you guessing.

There are some themes that the show does gloss over a bit that I would like to see addressed in a sequel though. One of these is of course the fact that the “heroes” are brainwashing all of their civilians so they don’t panic. That still doesn’t justify the whole time. If people are going to panic then your job is to minimize that, but mind controlling them is just taking away all of their agency. This was never really addressed and we see that the humans really got desperate when they were almost wiped out. Ultimately they had a lot of flaws that just weren’t really acknowledged so that’s something I would like to see more beyond all of the extra fighting that I would want to see as well.

Overall, Megaton is a great show all the way around. It may be a little under season 1 but I still had a really good time here. There are a ton of characters to root for and a lot of action scenes to keep your pulse racing. The animation and soundtrack are good and there is a whole lot of ground that is covered here. I can definitely recommend it to any mecha fan or anyone who even just likes a good romance plot. There is a whole lot of screentime for both things and the show does a great job of juggling all of the plots. A story of two people from warring factions falling for each other is always a classic after all.

Overall 8/10

Megaton-kyuu Musashi Review

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Megaton is a show that I would consider to be reasonably obscure. I forgot about the franchise entirely after it came out because you just never saw it talked about anywhere. Well, the show actually turned out to be rather great. You’ve got a solid main character here and a lot of good battles. I do think parts of the core plot don’t make a lot of sense so you will have to stretch your disbelief but the show turns up in all the other aspects and ends up making for a very satisfying experience.

The show starts by explaining that humanity was nearly wiped out by aliens. These invaders struck quick and hard so the humans that did survive now live inside of one last city. This city is protected from the outside world and most of the people within it are being mind controlled so that they think life is going on as normal. The ones who do know better have constructed robots to fight against the invaders and protect us as a last line of defense. There are also some scattered human settlements around the planet that try to survive but for the most part humanity is over.

We then cut to our main character Yamato who is a bit of a delinquent. He is always getting into fights with Ryugo and the other gangs. Well, one day he is attacked by a group that’s a little different as they’re all cyborgs. Yamato crushes them and even the robotic leader so he is brought into the fold by the government. They unlock his memories which were torn away and he decides that he will exterminate all of the aliens. Ryugo and Teru join up as well and find out that more people are a part of this resistance than they ever could have known.

The robots require multiple pilots to use so you can’t just go in and start moving around but Yamato gets the hang of it right away. The show starts off with a very Attack on Titan kind of vibe with humanity almost being down for the count and all. Same with Yamato and his grudge against the aliens because they destroyed his whole family. From there the similarities start to end and either way this is a pretty solid way to kick things off.

We actually see the alien’s point of view rather early on in the series too. They don’t all seem super evil but they do want to eradicate humanity so we still have to stop them. At the end of the day they’re trying to take over our planet so we have to stop them no matter what. You’ve got the queen and her loyal subordinates trying to make a move on their end and then you have the subplot with princess Anshem and her mentor. Anshem wants to prove herself by murdering Yamato but has a hard time doing this. At first it’s due to comedic shenanigans where she just can’t pull this off but gradually starts to doubt her cause.

I should mention that the aliens can’t live properly in Earth’s atmosphere so they terraformed most of the planet. The city that survived has its own oxygen so in order to carry out her mission, Anshem possesses the body of one of Yamato’s classmates. You feel bad for the girl being controlled since Anshem is really hurting her reputation the whole time. It’s a fun enough subplot even if you’re really waiting for the battles.

Where the series really excels is in the fights, particularly the hand to hand ones. Yeah this is a mech show but the best fights are definitely when Yamato just picks up a pipe and starts to beat everyone up. He gets many different fights in the series ranging from street thugs to robots to aliens. In each fight he gives it his all and manages to come out on top. At first you may think he’s just a little too talented but I like seeing him be able to take on these new challenges without a sweat for a change. Usually you’d expect the lead to be overwhelmed eventually but that’s not what happens here.

Yamato’s determination really goes above anything that can be thrown at him and he is really a great main character. It may be hard for anyone to change his views about destroying all of the aliens but it’s hard to really be trying to stop him since they are the ones that invaded the Earth first and are causing all of these issues. As much as Anshem starts to talk about peace later, it’s hard to forget that they did already genocide billions of lives across the globe. That’s a rather large thing to put to the side for peace.

Now, I mentioned that there is a part of the main plot which is hard to buy and this is it. The aliens knocked out almost everyone on the planet except for this one city. They know where the city is as evidenced by their sending assassins to bump off individual agents and have known about it for a while. So why not take everyone out? The reason the villains don’t nuke the place is because they want the evolution factor. This hasn’t been fully explained yet but clearly it’s not super crucial since by the end of the series the villains are launching a big invasion anyway.

There are just so many ways to take out the city without nuking everybody. At least send a big group in to wipe out the chain of command and get some villains stationed there instead. It’s hard to buy into the human’s survival here because they are so outmatched. The reason it worked in Attack on Titan is because the titans were largely mindless so a wall could actually work. In Seraph we had ways of fighting back and the numbers weren’t so bad. The issue here is that the villains have an entire planet’s worth of fighters on their side and countless enemies. We’re talking millions and more as they send thousands of fodder to be wiped out by the heroes every episode.

Conveniently they send just enough to be destroyed each time. In ep 1 for example they’ll send just enough to Yamato could beat all of them. By ep 3 they’ll send more than he can handle but the heroes recruit Jun to the team. By 5 even more but now the heroes have more mechs, etc. If the villains had just sent more mechs then humanity would have been doomed but they always send too few again and again. Just send a full assault of aliens and mechs to take over the city once and for all. When you do that then there will be no way for the humans to fight back.

The fact that they haven’t just feels like incredible plot armor. There’s no way the aliens should have not done that by now. It just doesn’t make any sense. Moving beyond that, I think it’s a mistake on the humans part to be mind wiping everybody. What’s the purpose of them living ordinary lives instead of preparing for war? They certainly could have helped the war effort a great deal if they could have been allowed to do that. I also think that erasing their memories on principle is the wrong decision. That’s something you’d expect out of the villains, not the heroes. It’s a big mistake and I wouldn’t be surprised if this becomes a bigger deal in season 2 as more characters think about it.

Meanwhile I thought the soundtrack was excellent as well. There’s a lyrical song that plays when Yamato is beating people up. It’s surprisingly catchy and really shows just how skilled he is. You can feel the power behind all of Yamato’s attacks and it feels like a bear that he might listen too while walking down the street. There are plenty of solid tunes throughout the show but the only one I was not really a fan of was the intro. It’s just not all that catchy and I would like to see the song changed up a bit for next time. It just wasn’t really working for me.

Now back to the characters. Ryugo is the classic punk type character who ends up being one of Yamato’s best friends but I never liked him all that much. The guy isn’t very tough even if he thinks he is and never really enhances the show in any way. He’s not all that bad but there’s nothing particularly interesting about him. In comparison Jun is a lot more fun because of her fiery personality. She’s always picking fights, having hero moments, and generally dominating during her screen time.

It’s also worth noting that she was beating Ryugo when they fought briefly. It wasn’t a great look for him since he didn’t lose for great reasons but I was impressed that she quickly went into battle mode. Jun clearly put a lot of work into the whole scheme of finding out what was going on and also defending her troops when it was time to do so. Ultimately she was one of the more memorable characters as a result.

Reiji is more of a pacifist so you can bet that he wasn’t my favorite character. When you have great power then you need to use it to defend everybody rather than sitting on the sidelines. Doing that isn’t going to ultimately end up helping anybody at all. He takes too long to act and it ultimately costs the life of one of the cats. It was a very emotional moment to be sure and it was regrettable that the show had a cat die at all. He didn’t deserve that and it was really a gut punch by the show in having such an emotional moment there. Don’t think we needed all of that to guilt trip him into action.

I can see his role growing even larger in season 2 as we delve further into his super abilities. Yamato seems to be developing his as well so that would make sense. Then we have Teru but I wouldn’t say I was a big fan of that guy either. He’s the smart member of the group and tends to pick up on things rather well but at the end of the day his emotions will get the best of him at the worst times. He stops Yamato from saving someone near the end of the show which wasn’t a good look for him. I’d like to see him be a little more aggressive in battle instead of calm and calculating in season 2 as he takes a harder stance against the enemies.

On the alien side we have Anshem who has a solid character arc as she starts wishing for peace. At one point it seemed like she wasn’t very powerful considering that she was an alien but fortunately that didn’t turn out to be the case and she ended up using her true form. At this point she’s doing all that she can to help. It may be a little late in the game but better late than never right? She’s a good character and I look forward to seeing how this plot plays out.

There are quite a few students that I didn’t talk about but the show doesn’t really have enough time to juggle all of them so some don’t get to do much yet. A good example of this is Takumi who is around but doesn’t do a whole lot. He’s the tech guy so he doesn’t go into the robots but helps with preparing them and making sure that everything is ready. It’s a necessary role even if it isn’t a particularly interesting one. Meanwhile Asuna spends most of her time being mind controlled but tries to help out when possible. Fortunately she remembers being mind controlled even if she doesn’t know what she was doing.

She’s a little quick to be okay with Anshem taking her body over but at least since she could sense the alien’s emotions that helps a bit. It would be nice to see Asuna pilot one of the robots eventually. Momoka ends up becoming Jun’s rival in the show and she does well in that role. She can fight well in hand to hand and also has a good amount of super strength. Both of those traits are handy in this fight. I was usually on team Jun in these moments but Momoka made for a solid rival all the way through.

Kiyoka hasn’t had nearly as much to do so far. She is working in a support role but I’d like that to change soon since it’s the only way that she can end up rising in the ranks. Otherwise there just isn’t a huge future in the support field. Kouta was the worst member of the heroes though. He’s an android who has decided not to fight back so he lets everyone bully him all the time. Momoka slowly teaches him how to defend himself but it’s a long road. One of the most egregious moments here is when a villain runs into the command room with a gun. Kouta is clearly the best person to try and take him down but he just watches until after someone is shot and then he makes a move. The rest of the characters are guilty of not jumping in either but as an android I would put the heaviest burden on Kouta here. It’ll take a long while for him to really go up after that.

Sayaka has a fairly big role here as the commander in charge of field ops. She gets a twist which you might see coming a little before it happens since the anime throws you some hints but either way it’s a solid twist. Sayaka is a good character even if she never got to do a whole lot here. From what we saw she was always a good leader. Then you have Sarzant who is the bodyguard to Anshem. He’s not very good in this role as he tends to lower his guard constantly and allow her to go into dangerous circumstances. He seems like a nice guy but perhaps being a bodyguard just wasn’t the right role for him. It’s a shame since he always looked and talked like he would be really tough.

Rounding up the villain side we have the Queen who is all in on destroying the humans. I blame the fact that they haven’t done this yet on her though since the buck stops here. She talks really tough but never really lives up to her hype. I liked the idea behind the character and she’s cool in most of her scenes but ultimately that just isn’t good enough. She couldn’t step up when it counted and that cost her.

Finally there’s Grieffas and he is easily the highlight as far as the villains are concerned. He has a clear goal in trying to save Anshem and is loyal to her above his normal duties. He has some great fights with Yamato and just doesn’t back down in his convictions. The guy is crazy but doesn’t just throw away his goals in the end. Instead he stands by them and I look forward to seeing more of this guy going forward. He’s really got a lot of promise.

For the most part the show has the look and feel of a kodomo type anime. The characters have vibrant designs, the atmosphere is light and the soundtrack is energetic. That’s why it’s particularly effective when a character dies or the fights start to get intense. This clearly isn’t a kodomo but you could have been tricked for a little while there. In the end I would consider this to be more of a classic Shonen but it balances all of the genres well. There’s even some drama here although I would consider the romance to be a little more on the weak side. The show is always at its best when there is some action going on but that’s true of most titles.

With the way the season ends off I’ll be interested to see how season 2 goes. We could easily have a time skip or just continue from where this one leaves off. I do think they will have to address how humanity isn’t just wiped off of the map though. We need more than a vague “evolutionary materials” excuse now that the villains are getting more serious. The heroes are getting stronger and stronger too so the aliens absolutely need to factor that in before they become the prey in this equation. Once that happens then there is really no way back.

As for the debate about destroying the aliens or not….right now I’m with Yamato’s initial view on taking them out. Look, there will be a time for peace and coexistence later on but right now you’re looking at an army that is many times stronger than your own. There isn’t an easy way to spare them on the battlefield without sacrificing your own men. It’s different than in most situations where I’d say to spare the villain where you have the framework to do so. When you’re defending the last 10% of your species against the invading force that has every advantage then you really just have to go for the win.

Holding back at all will put you in a really bad spot. It’s also fair to say that most of the villains have pretty much been brainwashed right now so it’s unlikely that you will get many supporters. It’s just a slippery slope with Anshem saying to spare the villains every time when they just run back to their ship and request reinforcements. It’s not a viable strategy at the moment and I’d say the episodes illustrate that pretty well. Near the end of the season the villains come up with a giant robot that takes everything the heroes have to take out and they only barely manage it with a trick that probably won’t work twice.

The more time you buy for the villains who seem to have better tech, the more unwinnable the fight is. I will say that the show did a very good job with that fight as it could have easily been more on the boring side with the heroes not being able to do much of anything but instead you really felt the durability of the robot and made the whole thing feel grand. I use robot and alien rather interchangeably for the minions because in a way they both work but they really are robots since the actual aliens look like humans.

As a final point, the villains even have a lot of operatives running around the city assassinating the pilots so they can’t fly the mech suits. Until you deal with that then the situation will keep on getting worse for them. It’s why it’s still odd that the humans are being mind controlled to just go to school and live life as normal. Makes it way easier for the villains to bump them off if they feel like it. The slice of life scenes we do get in the show are always fun enough but this is what you’ll be thinking in the back of your head.

Overall, Megaton might not be a show that you are super familiar with but I’d definitely recommend giving it a shot. Whether you’re a fan of classic mech shows or just want a good action title then you’re in luck either way. While I singled out the hand to hand fights in particular, I thought the mech battles were still good as well. The animation is solid in each way. The story is interesting and while I may not be a big fan of some of Yamato’s friends, he stands as a strong enough lead for the rest of them. You do not want to miss out on this adventure!

Overall 8/10

Ni No Kuni Wrath of the White Witch Remastered Stats and Records

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Stats time!

Play Time 30h 12m
PS4 Trophies 9/34
Oliver Level 59
Esther Level 59
Marcassin Level 56
Swaine Level 54
Tyke Myson Level 49
Rocko Level 31
Joules Level 50
Bosun Level 55
Gunther Level 50
Gogo Level 59
Shonky Level 54
Sid Level 58
Lemahl Level 54
Mitey Level 54
Spells Learned: 32

Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy Review

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It’s time to take a look at the final Professor Layton game. This one’s been on my list to buy for a very long time so it’s nice to finally have it. It’s a nice conclusion to the series and I hope to see more games come out at some point. I’ll need to get the spinoff for the Switch soon. The Azran Legacy hits all the right notes that you’ve come to expect from the Layton series and it even added some platforming puzzles which was pretty cool. Throw in a lot of twists and turns and you’re in for a fun ride.

The heroes receive a letter from Sycamore asking for their help in solving the Azran legacy. The heroes need to find out what the ancient civilization left for the modern generation and if this is a good thing or not. Unfortunately there is a villain group known as Targent which is after the Azran legacy as well. Layton manages to save a girl named Aurora from their clutches. She has been in stasis for hundreds of years and is the Azran messenger although most of her memories are gone. Perhaps they will return as the heroes collect more of the Azran relics. If the heroes gain them all they will be able to open the door to the future. Time is not on their side though.

This game definitely goes more into fantasy/sci-fi territory than the previous ones. The Azran have technology that is quite advanced including lasers, robots, and the ability to keep people alive for hundreds of years. You can reasonably say that this is technology we will have in the future though. The Azran don’t seem like the nicest people out there even if they may have a lot of good points about how humans are still corrupt in the present. The Targent officials don’t paint the brightest picture of humanity. There are two main members of the group who function like Team Rocket. They’re not really a threat to Layton, but they always get up for another go at things.

The gameplay is the same as the other installments. You travel across different lands and gather information on the mystery. Typically people will only give you clues if you solve their mysteries. Once you do that then they become a lot more receptive to your cause. The puzzles come in all shapes and sizes and they’re pretty fair for the most part. On occasion you may see a puzzle that doesn’t make sense from the description, but it makes sense in hindsight after seeing the solution. Trial and error will get you far, but you’ve also got puzzle coins for the ones that really stump you. So long as you activate the coins you are given hints which make the puzzle a lot more manageable.

There are also a lot of minigames and other little features to have fun with. A new addition to this game is the newspaper which you can use to read about various events. The main game should take you around 15 hours or so to complete and the post game content of completing every puzzle will likely extend this to around 20 hours. It’s a pretty good deal for your buck and it could also take over 20 hours depending on how you’re able to handle the final puzzles. Some of them certainly get really difficult by the end.

As always the game doesn’t cheap out on the graphics. We get fully animated cutscenes which is a lot of fun and in general the graphics are quite clear. It all feels very polished which is always a good thing. The soundtrack brings a lot of the familiar tunes back. Although I would have liked some new themes too, these worked well enough for the scenes. It’s all got a very peaceful air to it.

Layton is a very solid protagonist as always. He’s a quick thinker and can usually stay one step ahead of the villains. He can also fight when necessary like when he got into a sword duel with the main villain. He was able to win despite having the inferior weapon. Layton also manages to stay as a gentleman no matter what is thrown at him and that’s absolutely crucial. You can’t break down when the going gets tough. Luke’s a good trainee to have as always. While he isn’t quite old enough to really help Layton out in all of the cases, he does what he can. He’s not the kind of kid to hesitate.

Emmy is a lot of fun and has really helped the group’s dynamic in this trilogy. She’s always upbeat and ready for a good puzzle. She has a bit of a rivalry going with Luke as she likes to mess with him quite a bit. As Layton’s official assistant she is also quite adept at puzzles and her martial arts are second to none. Then you’ve got Sycamore who is a puzzle genius like Layton. The guy is rich and resourceful so he is quite helpful in this game as well. He seems to have a solid honor code and is always ready to put the mission on hold to save people in trouble. He may have shown up out of nowhere, but is very important to the game’s plot.

Aurora has been in stasis for a long time so she doesn’t know a whole lot about human culture. Fortunately the game doesn’t play that up to a crazy extent so she’s not a bad character. I felt bad for her near the end when everyone just watches as someone gets ready to stab her. Couldn’t someone have manned up to stop this from happening? If I were Aurora I’d be pretty sore at this whole chain of events. She took the situation well and didn’t take things personally…even if perhaps she should have. Then we have the main villain Bronev. He’s a fun villain leader although his screen time is incredibly short despite being the head honcho. I think adding in some more scenes would have helped to make him more memorable. It’s hard to have any sympathy for him even when he gets his origin story though. His actions make 0 sense and so I’m glad that Layton shut him down even if he wasn’t as merciless as he could have been. I’d have had Layton end with his first line and not say the last few.

The game is a mystery so we have a few twists and turns. There are 2 main ones. One of them you’ll likely have figured out from the opening level depending on how you’ve been watching the patterns. You may not guess the exact twist, but it’s one that the series has already used 2-3 times so you’re almost expecting it. The second twist was a lot more unexpected though and worked pretty well. The game really put Layton through the ringer having to deal with all of this. The twist does hurt the second character a lot though. The first character was never truly changed so that’s one thing, but for this character it’s a 180. It’s just hard to come back from something like that and it’s probably why the character got written out. (And because the series ended)

Overall, Layton and the Azran Legacy is a very solid installment in the series which can hold its own against the others. My favorite is still the time travel adventure but after that most of them are pretty neck and neck. One thing I’ve liked about the prequel trilogy is how all of the games tie into each other pretty well. The Azran were referenced quite early on in the prior games. Emmy also adds a lot to the dynamic so it’s hard to go back to just Luke and Layton in the present timeline games. Layton can fight, but usually chooses not to so having someone like Emmy who isn’t afraid to throw down definitely helps the group quite a bit. If you haven’t played this game yet then you can change that. The games work well as stand alone adventures so you don’t need to play the previous 5 games to understand this one although it would certainly help you know the characters more.

Overall 8/10

Monster Hunter Stories: Ride On Review

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It’s time to look at Monster Hunter. An anime that may be different than what you’re expecting as it is based on a very specific game in the series that is about riders instead of hunters. The series never really manages to break out of its shell and become something too epic which is a shame. There are certainly some more interesting things they could have done here and it could have potentially opened up into something like Pokemon. Still, it’s a reasonably good show and one that lasted for a long time so the show had time for a lot of things to happen.

There are two main arcs, but lets say 3 since the pre arc was rather long. The start of the show is about Lute, Cheval, and Lilia as they journey throughout the village and into towns as they learn more about being Riders. Unlike Hunters who destroy monsters for rewards and safety, Lute and the gang grew up in a village where they live as pals. Lute aims to prove that having kinship with a monster is the right thing to do while the hunters aren’t very sure. Hijinx ensues and the cast often have to wonder if this is the right call. Even if it is, how will they convince anyone to change sides? To become a rider you have to get a special jewel and to do that you basically have to join a village so that’s a tough sell for anyone.

The next arc is the darkest of the show as Cheval’s life is forever changed when a blighted monster destroys the village. He decides to avenge his family by hunting down and destroying all blighted monsters. Lute doesn’t think that this is the way to go though and decides to purify all of the crystals instead to stop the corruption at its core. The two of them become enemies now and while Lute is convinced that they can still be friends with differing opinions, Cheval doesn’t agree. He aims to destroy Lute once and for all to prove that sometimes Kinship isn’t enough to keep two people together.

Finally, the series brings in a new group of villains known as the Black/Ebon/Dark Riders who show up and kidnap Avinia. They aim to bring the world to its knees by performing a forbidden ritual and getting unlimited power. Lute and Cheval have to try and stop these guys, but the problem is that they are outnumbered and these villains are also way too powerful. They will need some kind of power up to hold their own. The other villagers realize that they will have to get stronger as well, but can they bridge the gap in time?

The show’s tone was all over the place, but for the most part it was rather light. Think of it as a classic slice of life series for a while as the heroes head to various towns and chat with people. That’s why in some cases the episodes could get a little boring since the cast isn’t amazing. Then the show gets really dark for the main Blighted Monsters arc. One thing the show is rarely clear about is if defeating monsters means destroying them. It seems like this is the case due to how everyone reacts and Lute always tells everyone not to defeat the monsters except for when he does. The show’s just really not consistent here. This may be more the dub than anything, but it really tried to never use the word destroy. As a result, “defeated” is the term always used even when a monster is slain.

That’s why the middle arc gets really dark as Cheval goes around destroying all monsters who have been in contact with the blight and even any other that just gets in his way. Lute and the others are unable to save any of them. Chieval even commands a Nargacuga of his own as a revenge of sorts for the main one dealing with his family. He is very mean to it of course and then abandons it. Cheval never really had to answer for all of this much and I just felt bad for the monsters. Then of course we have the hunters running around slaying them all. It’s definitely a rather brutal world that Lute and the others live in. The worst part is that Lute has his kinship stone which can purify all of the blighted monsters but he typically forgets about this and still tries to take some of them down at times. This whole part of the saga definitely brings it down quite a bit and is one of the main reasons why the Black Rider arc ended up winning. At this point the monsters started getting written out a bit although Shadow still destroys quite a few along the way as well. I guess they all need to become pals with a main character quickly before it’s too late.

Lute is your typical main character. He believes in the power of friendship (Known as Kinship here) and is always willing to lend a helping hand. He’s really close with Navirou so they trade insults quite a lot but all in good fun. Lute’s only real flaw at times is just how much of a pacifist he is. Even when being attacked he refuses to fight back if he is up against a fellow rider. This is at its worst during the final arc when he first fights with Gale. Considering that this guy kidnapped one of his friends and may destroy the village, Lute really has no time to keep trying to dodge the fight. You’ve got to make a stand and it’s not like simply fighting the opponent is the same as destroying him. Aside from that it is nice to have a more experienced Lute for the final arc. He is treated with a lot of respect at the end since he did help save the world and his new design does a good job of getting that across without any words. As soon as you see the design for the first time you can tell that he has gotten stronger.

Navirou is Lute’s travel companion and he is very useful for navigation in his mind at least. He is the main comic relief character of the series so you can probably guess that he isn’t very good at almost anything. He does have some thunder abilities which are really handy when Navirou actually remembers that he has such a power. Unfortunately that isn’t very often so don’t expect to see it much. Navirou’s cross armed salute is probably his best running gag but I also don’t mind his “Navi rules.” Cutting out some of his comic relief would probably have been nice though or even some of the cat episodes in genera. Overall I think he worked well as a support character and I’m glad he was around but the character could have been better.

Lilia is technically one of the 3 main characters for a while but starts to get written out by the end. Her path in the show was doomed from the start as she did t have a monster to protect her. Without a monstie in an action show like this, of course she wouldn’t ultimately stand a chance. It’s the same situation as being in a Pokémon show without catching a Pokémon. Lilia decided that she wanted to be a researcher instead which is fine but that kind of character rarely gets to do all that much. Lilia ends up being rather bland as a result.

Then we have Cheval who is the main rival. He gets a very Sasuke esque role here as he starts out by being one of the more heroic characters, but quickly starts to let the darkness consume him. He goes as far as to try and destroy Lute multiple times and nearly destroys one of his own Monsties. His whole arc gets rather dark at times. Naturally he also gets the redemption arc at the end as well. It may be a little tough to buy into as well especially since he did claim quite a few victims. Lute may accept him, but should he? Ultimately it’s hard to see Cheval as anything but a villain even by the end. It’s a shame because his character type is always nice as he becomes the rival that he always should have been by the end. The guy certainly went through a lot of character changes.

Avinia is a mysterious figure who shows up in the series from time to time before getting a big role in the final arc. She does lose this mystique almost right away but it was nice to finally have another rider who could fight. At the time Lute was the only heroic rider so he really needed an ally. Unfortunately, we never did get that Avinia vs Cheval fight I was hoping for. Once again I can say that the show dropped the ball with Avinia quite a bit. She has one of the best designs in the show and a monstie with a lot of potential. Despite this she rarely fights in the series and spends most of the final arc on the sidelines. Considering how powerful she apparently is, I would have liked to have seen her play a more active role. Still a cool character but one who wasn’t given enough to do in the show.

Of course we can’t forget about Deb….Li. Every character in the series likes to mess up his name and it is heavily implied that this is intentional. That’s because they say his name normally when he isn’t around. We already have a handful of comic relief characters but I guess you can never have too many as this one was thrown in as well. For the most part he is about as obnoxious as you would expect. He yells quite a lot and can’t seem to do anything right. The one running gag that he does right (Aside from the whole name thing since that one is decent because of how Debli panics every time) is when he Rides on. The animation and fake sound effect that he gets for it is handled beautifully. Debli toes the line between being a sympathetic character and an annoying one and does a good job of making it ambiguous. In the end I was okay with him although I wouldn’t have been sad if he had never shown up.

Reverto is probably one of her biggest unintentional jokes in the series. He gets a lot of hype throughout the series as being one of the world’s greatest hunters. If that really is the case then that doesn’t bode well for the hunters in general. He can barely handle any legitimately strong monsters and forget about taking down a plot important villain. In this show all hunters can do is swing their sword around and hope to land some good hits. They have no special abilities or even any enhanced physical ones. They are just guys with swords. Of course one of the main themes of the show is that the Riders are right and the Hunters are wrong so I wouldn’t expect them to look that good but they look downright horrible by the end. Hundreds of hunters can accomplish what a single rider can because they have no special abilities. Why would they possibly not want to become riders then? How have they not all been wiped out by this point? Anyway, there isn’t anything actually wrong with Reverto as he is a decent character but you just can’t take him seriously when he is fighting because despite all of the tough talk you know that he won’t end up coming out on top. He is just there to buy time for Lute.

Simone would fall into the same issue except from the start she is portrayed as a researcher rather than a fighter. Her intel is rarely useful and barely goes beyond the realm of common knowledge but I guess her role isn’t all that bad. She’s just not a very interesting character and none of her scenes really leave an impact. Cut her out from the show entirely and nothing really changes at all. That’s never a good sign.

Dan is one of those comic relief characters where you aren’t sure if it is intentional or not for a while. Technically you would think that he is rather skilled since he is rather old and teaches the kids, but they end up surpassing him very quickly. Part of the issue is the fact that he chose a very weak monster to be his monstie. He never explains why he doesn’t just pick a different creature. Perhaps it has sentimental value or perhaps he just isn’t the smartest rider in the group. Either way, his character doesn’t work too well and his “In top Form” battle cry is so half hearted that you will wonder why they built a whole character around the line. As you can tell, many of the supporting characters just aren’t very interesting. I won’t even get into the various elders who never do anything or the riddle master who is just annoying.

Mille is one of the side characters who is actually good. She can fight and in the final arc is probably the strongest rider aside from the main 2. (Lute and Chevall) O would have liked her to have gotten more of a role though. From the start of the show you got the impression that she may turn out to be a bit of a rival or at the very least would remain as one of the main fighters for a while. Instead she is effectively kept to the background for most of the show. Still a good character but she could have been even better.

Instead a lot of screen time is wasted on Hyoro as he tries to overcome his timid nature. The plot does not go well and he even sides with the villainous Chevall to take on the village. Yes, Mille does this as well but at least she was already a quality character. Hyoro never ends up becoming a good character and even after he gets stronger off screen for the final arc it’s hard to ever gain respect for the guy. He just never had a big moment where he got past his fears and did something amazing. Instead he essentially proved his doubts right as he never got to be all that strong. Genie is Hyoro’s older brother and the main reason why the kid turned out the way that he did. Genie can be overly critical of Hyoro but of course he says it is only to make Hyoro better. I didn’t mind Genie, but he was a rather half hearted bully who couldn’t back up his tough talk. Ultimately he was about as weak as the other side characters and Hyoro likely surpassed him in the end.

Gale is the Shadow Rider with the biggest role in the series. He gets to fight Lute quite a few times and his skills are the real deal. He is also the strongest member I’d say although Shadow would give him some competition for that title. He gets quite a few plot twists. While his plan may not have been amazing and he probably should have tried doing something a little earlier, he did make for a good rival. He just kept getting stuck in rather bad situations. While he was also unable to make the hero move at the end which nearly caught him, it’s a mistake that I could sympathize with since he was so close to finally accomplishing his goal. It was an intense moment and he’s in my top 3 characters in the series. I’d say that he is second only to Lute.

Next is Shadow who is certainly the 2nd coolest member of the group. Her speed is astounding to the point where the heroes can’t even keep track of where she is. There is a plot twist about this that I was a little mixed on. It is essentially a nerf, but I didn’t see it coming so I’ll give the show that. I also think Shadow’s rage mode should have kicked in instantly after what Anvis ends up doing to someone instead of waiting til their next meeting. It’s not as if anything would have changed in the outcome though.

Then we have Mad who is one of the villains that you can’t take seriously. I guess in the end the Riders could only score a 50 as 2 of their members were good and the others weren’t. Mad is just one of those guys who only cares about his looks and as a result he can be defeated if you simply get some dirt on him. Even his monster’s design isn’t all that good. It’s basically just a huge worm so that’s not too impressive. Same goes for Wrath but to an even bigger extent. Wrath is the strong but not smart type, but he isn’t even all that tough. There’s nothing original or interesting about him as a character.

Finally we have Anvis, the leader of these guys. Somehow he was able to gain control over an Elder Dragon even before undergoing the complete power up ceremony. Considering this, he does earn the title of being the strongest rider in existence. He makes for a solid final boss and a solid character all around. He definitely thought things through and stayed one step ahead of Gale and the heroes for a while. He’s a considerable improvement over the doctor who was the main villain of the first few arcs. He is reduced to comic relief for the final arc and was never much of a threat anyway. His episodes had a tendency to simply be rather boring so I was fine with him being gone.

There are also the Numbers, but they never had much of a point in the story. They are really just around to get their long piece of recycled animation over and over again. The show certainly loved doing that to save on the budget. The animation for the show is fairly decent. It does take a lot of shortcuts by using recycled animation constantly though. This becomes a bigger issue in season 2 as we even get little scenes of the characters reaching out when calling their monsties. It feels really forced and I could have done without that. I’m happy they all got armor but it just feels like another way to save on animation. It also uses quite a bit of CGI. We do get some real animation whenever a big fight happens though. Some of the special abilities also look really good like Chevall’s energy disc. Overall, the animation wouldn’t hurt the show, but it wouldn’t really help it either.

The soundtrack is rather bland as well unfortunately. You will definitely start to remember the tunes after a while since they keep on popping up, but that’s because the soundtrack is just really limited. I would have loved to have had some really great tunes to amp up the fight scenes, but alas it was simply not to be. This title could not deliver.

Finally I have to say that the show’s ride on mechanic seems rather odd. Basically the monstie that is summoned shows up when a character strikes the pose. The show portrays this as the monsters are just hiding nearby until they are needed but what are they doing in the meantime? Shouldn’t they just be with the heroes then? Lute has over 6 monsties in the show, but only uses his main one for basically the whole series. What is even the point of everyone having up to 6 if they only use one for all of the fights? They should have just had Pokeballs of some kind to keep the others in as that would make more sense if you ask me. I think the show dropped the ball a little on the collect them all aspect of the series.


Overall, This isn’t a bad show. I’d say that Monster Hunter is fairly decent. The problem is that it’s only average or below average in most areas. There isn’t a single section that I could point to and say that the series was amazing. On the contrary, the series could be a little boring at times. The characters just aren’t strong enough to hold the show as well as others could. It got a little more exciting towards the end but the show also amped up the crude humor and comedy to match. I’d recommend checking it out at some point if you need a good fantasy show, but there are many others that I would suggest seeing before this one. At least there is a lot of content here since the show managed to make it to around 70 episodes. That was actually pretty impressive.

Overall 6/10

Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask Review

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The famous Professor Layton has finally found himself on the 3DS. While the last game may have not been quite as good as the others the series has never disappointed with its puzzles. This game is no exception and is a fine way to continue the story. At long last we are even introduced to the tragic past of Layton and 5 games in you could say that we were about due for it. This is the first Layton game to have fun switching up the gameplay style as well as we get a 3D racing level and also some overhead Mummy fights. I think Level 5 definitely has the right idea here as throwing in an occasional level like this is pretty fun.

This Layton game starts out with the hero receiving a letter from his old friend Angela. She wants him to hurry over because a villain known as the Masked Gentleman has popped up and is performing dark miracles on the town like turning people into horses and warping people away. Layton heads over but the place brings bad memories. The past that he had hoped to forget had finally caught up to him and he will have to face his fears head on!

The game plays out like some of the recent superhero shows as we jump from the present to the past a lot. For example one chapter will be in the present while another is in the past. In that sense, you could say that Layton solved the present mystery a bit quicker than usual. I suppose the number of viable suspects wasn’t too large so that helped his case. There were really 3 Big suspects here. First is the childhood friend Angela who seems obsessed with the Mask of Order and seems eager to give it to the gentleman. Next is Randall, the kid from Layton’s past who seemingly died, but his body was never found. Then there is Randall’s butler Henry who snagged his treasure and best friend after he died. With the whole town at stake Layton can’t afford to just sit around.

It’s a pretty solid story for sure. Layton’s backstory is definitely rather tragic. He did give up hope even while the other two friends kept looking for Randall, but I guess from a scientific point of view his odds weren’t great. He has been gone for a while after all. Layton chose to forget about the place for around 18 years until now. Layton did do everything that he could though. He would have been able to save Randall had the kid only let go of his treasure. Instead we saw that it was worth his life. It’s just hard to feel bad for him especially since he never had his priorities straight in life. Even if it made everyone worried he wanted to be rich so he would lie to everyone and take huge risks. It was only a matter of time before this caught up with him.

As with the last game we get a teaser for the next one. It’s the biggest teaser yet and that makes sense since the next game ends the trilogy. One last Aztec adventure for the heroes. In the clip we see the main villain of the prequel trilogy be defeated by a new villain. The new villain now has all of the locations needed to destroy the world. This next installment is definitely going to be a blast! The series has mostly been realistic with you just having to suspend disbelief for a bit at times. It’ll be interesting to see if the villain defies that in the next movie. After all, the villain that he defeated was able to contend with rapid bullet fire and that’s no easy feat.

The game has a great cast as you would expect. Layton is just as solid as ever and always reminds us that he can fight as well as he can think. Taking down the Mummy swordsmen was pretty impressive. Luke is a good sidekick as well and I do like the rivalry between him and Emmy even if it is rather one sided. Luke just never really stands a chance when it comes time to start trading burns. Emmy is the main reason why the team dynamic is better in the prequels than in the main game so I’m definitely happy to have her around as a main character. Her role is rather small here, but she still does get some puzzles of her own.

As for the new characters, Randall is annoying as you can guess. He isn’t reasonable at all but I already talked about him so we can move on. There is also Henry who may be rather loyal but quick to take everything the wrong way. He gets upset rather easily and makes himself look very suspicious this way. I guess he isn’t a bad character, but he could have been better. I actually preferred the Dalston character. He wanted to be rich while everyone was having fun adventuring and he accomplished his goals. He is now one of the richest men on the planet, you just can’t beat that. He also talks tough to the coppers and in general felt on the ball.

Angela is a good character if you view her more as a subtle antagonist. She definitely isn’t hear to make Layton feel any better as she spends the majority of her time making him feel even worse. It’s not always intentional, but at the same time in the past it seems as if it was. It’s hard to really understand her character at times, but she will always keep you guessing. Agent Bloom is a fun detective. He is very intelligent and the only police officer who is able to keep up with Layton step for step. He doesn’t appear very much, but it does seem like he will be in the sequel so that’s good. Layton doesn’t really have a rival so having this guy fit that bill would be fun. There are a slew of other supporting characters in the game that are all very solid as well. In particular look for the guy with the big, curved chin. His scenes are always amusing and his rigged puzzles are a blast.

As always the graphics are pretty solid here. It’s great to see fully animated cutscenes as always and we get some CG ones as well. The levels are all pretty clear and the puzzles aren’t too misleading. I still think it’s slightly cheating when the puzzle gives you 5 possible answers and they’re all wrong so the only way to beat the puzzle is to tap on part of it to make the whole thing break. I mean, technically I guess that works, but the false answers is barely legit. If the graphics were a little darker or more unclear then it would be tough to see the tiny cracks that serve as a hint. The controls are on point as well and basically this game does nothing wrong on a technical level. The soundtrack may not have any real new tunes in it, but that’s fine as the usual ones are pretty good.

The actual story is reasonably long as it’s over 10 hours and then we’ve also got a bunch of extra puzzles to try and conquer after the game is over. After all, it’s not like you have to complete all of them to clear the game. As with the previous titles in the series you can tackle any quest that you have not completed yet in the little house at the hotel. There are also a bunch of minigames that you can try to complete all of the levels in. By the time you have done all of this the game will likely be at 20 hours or maybe even longer. There’s definitely no shortage of content here.

Overall, This was a pretty exciting Layton game with a fun story that will keep you engaged the whole time. It starts out quite fast and never really loses steam. The only way you may not enjoy the game is if you don’t care for Layton’s past and I think the game handled it rather well. It’s the best of the prequel trilogy so far, but we’ll see how it holds up to the next game. As that is the final main Layton game I expect it to end with a bang. It certainly got a considerable amount of foreshadowing in this game. In case it’s not obvious, I would definitely recommend picking this game up.

Overall 8/10