"Star Wars the Old Republic" (Video Game) Review/ Opinions

 So breaking away from my usual posts for a second, lets talk Star Wars the Old Republic. I have been a faithful subscriber since day one and while I’m not a veteran MMO player (I played SWG for a couple of months, Terra for around three months, Guild Wars 2 for three months, and just started stopped WoW this past month) I can say there are some positives going for TOR and some negatives. One thing that seems to be a unison opinion of the internet is that the one thing TOR really delivered on was the leveling experience. Every quest has complete voiced over cut scenes that help make the grinding up to max lvl a little more bearable. Your specific class quest is also usually entertaining. I have lvled a Smuggler, Sage, Commando, Guardian, and Sniper up to the lvl cap and overall I had fun with their individual class quests (except with the Sage). The low lvl pvp is also a very fun part of lvling. I won’t talk about max lvl pvp because it’s completely broken at the moment making it very hard for fresh 50’s to even stand a chance in pvp but since your stats are raised to a reasonable amount in low lvl pvp, it’s very enjoyable and even. That is unfortunately where the positives run out as the rest of the game seems much like an afterthought.

See it is obvious that Bioware wanted to show off their storytelling in this MMO because they pretty much marketed the game as “The best story driven MMO”. I will give them that point because compared to Terra and WoW, TOR is light years ahead in the entertainment department from lvl 1-49. Now I don’t know about you but the reason I wanted to play an MMO was for the endgame raids that require careful planning and coordination. While there is somewhat a lot of endgame content, the problems that arise are:

1. The lack of challenge in 90% of the instances and ops
2. The horrible idea to have completely modable gear that you can reverse engineer and then craft and sell
3. The lack of mini games to keep people from racing around the fleet for hours on end

So my first point is by far the most frustrating one of the bunch. Disregarding the new ops, Terror from Beyond, every other ops and flashpoint in the game is a complete joke to take part in. It is painfully obvious that Bioware is catering too much to the unskilled, role-playing players because over the past months they have made every instance easier when they were laughably easy to begin with. The HM Flashpoints are so easy now that you can two man each one even w/o companions and still be able to get through them (most of them). Since they make the game easier for those who don’t research proper rotations and gearing, it leaves no room for these players to improve thus creating servers where 80% of the players still haven’t cleared EC HM (the ops that comes before TfB). For f$#^s sake the guild I am in has already cleared TfB 16 man HM and it has only been out for less than a month. 

Ugh so the next point brings up the endgame gear. All the endgame gear (almost all of it (at least the ones that really matter)) are completely modable which means you can take out the armorings, mods, and enhancements and if you have the proper crew skill, you can reverse engineer these parts and sell them. This pretty much breaks endgame because if you are wealthy enough or have a very good guild, you can get completely geared up w/o running any of the ops. Since we already cleared TfB and also one shotted The Terror from Beyond final boss, it seems like a waste to go in anymore. We have already learned most of the max lvl mods and armorings so we just have to wait until most of the guild receives their share. 

The last point is something that I thought Bioware would of included in a MMO where you might be sitting around for long periods of time; minigames. The Knights of the Old Republic had many different side and mini games that made the overall experience of those games much more enjoyable. The two events I enjoyed the most were swoop bike racing and Pazaak. Why oh why did they not include these two things in their OLD REPUBLIC MMO…? It seems like a sure fan favorite if people can watch other players racing while having the option to possible bet on the winners. The same goes for Pazaak; while waiting for a queue you could play against someone in your party. It just seems like a no brainer to include something that you can do instead of sitting on the fleet all day waiting for a queue pop. 

Overall I am still subscribed because for what the game gets right I still enjoy it. Healing is very fun in this game while Smuggler, Sniper, and Sage dps is also very enjoyable. Bioware unfortunately is just very inexperienced in maintaining an MMO and unless they fix the problems with the game, I might end up leaving it for say WoW or GW2.

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Here is a video of our first downing of The Terror from Beyond on 16 Man HM:

Anime Currently Watching (November 2012)

Wow it's already November; this past semester has blown by so quickly. Here is a list of the anime that I am currently watching:

Initial D Fifth Stage 2 out of ?
Little Busters! 7 out of ?
To Love-Ru: Darkness 6 out of ?
Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun 7 out of ?
Sword Art Online 20 out of ?
Onii-chan Dakedo Ai Sae Areba Kankeinai yo ne 7 out of ?
Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo 6 out of ?
Princess Lover 12 out of 12 Finished!!
Kamisama Hajimemashita 6 out of ? Stalled
K 1 out of ? Stalled
Haiyore! Nyaruko-san 1 out of ? Stalled

I really wanted to start watching K and Haiyore! Nyaruko san but for various reasons I have decided to put them off for now. Sword Art Online and Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun are my favorites by far while Sakurasou no Pet na Kanojo and Onii-chan Dakedo Ai Sae Areba Kankeinai yo ne may be turning into the underdogs for this anime season. Have some different posts lined up so check back every now and then for some updates.

"Redline" Anime Review

After sitting through Redline, a Madhouse animated movie, I am having quite a hard time trying to fathom what I just watched. Starting from the first scene where the clumsy old dad is trying to set up his camera to take a picture of the racers, I was instantly glued to the screen. The mouthwatering visuals and chilling sound effects are more than enough to please an average Joe’s thirst of racing but what about all that other mombo jumbo that people plea for? What’s it called…oh yeah story and character development?

Story: 5.4/10
The basic premise is that “Redline” is a race where only the best racers can complete in. Our main man JP goes through a lot of trouble to get to this race and with a little help from fellow racer Sonoshee, they might just win the entire thing. While everything about this movie screams production value, one thing that was overlooked (and maybe for good reason) was the plot. While it isn’t the best thought provoking material I have ever experienced, the movie does keep you invested throughout its entire one hundred and one minutes. The hidden beauty of this is while the plot is dubbed down to the generic first race--->break--->last race formula, they give us just barely enough to hold onto. I would of liked a better character development (it’s there but it is thrown together very half hazardly) but it worked well enough.  What really drags the score down is the ending…it just seems like it suddenly stops. We have the super buildup to the final stretch and then…it ends. Plus they had the audacity to have the most unneeded confessing of feelings at the last frame. It was just…somewhat of a letdown because I thought we were out of old anime’s bad habits.

Animation: 10/10
Here we go again…throwing out a perfect score is something I find very hard to do but boy I do not think I will ever see something this unique and beautiful in my life ever again. After doing a little bit of research, I found that it took around seven years to complete this movie (talk about a HUGE gamble). Everything is HAND DRAWN. Madhouse really created a visual masterpiece that will last into the endless future. Every scene flows very well into each other, the facial expressions are very believable, the lighting is so spot on, and the character models are so detailed. This movie sports the best lighting I have ever seen; when it’s out on the desert, the sun reflects off of everything. Inside the nightclub the fish tanks in the background glow and shine onto the adjacent tables. It’s just…so hard to put it into words how amazing the movie looks. Even if you are turning this away due to the lack of plot please just watch it for the visuals and sounds. Treat it like a Transformers movie; its complete s#!t but it’s amazing looking s#!t.

Sound: 10/10
Again with the perfect score…Every car has their own unique and amazing sounds that stick within the entire show. From the crowd cheers to the main character’s voices, this anime just sounds orgasmic. Even the techno (correct me if that is the wrong way to express it) soundtrack is spot on and off the track.

Characters: 6.5/10
While the characters of this anime are forgettable and uninspiring, JP does stick out a little bit. At first I thought he was just a junky gear head but after a while he did start to grow on me. Heck even Sonoshee made me gleam a little bit towards the end. Just know that the other characters will most likely not bring a lasting impression; they show up, race, and then leave stage left.

Overall: 8/10
The score says 7.9 but in my mind it is a gear head’s bread and butter. If you want to turn your brain off and enjoy the best looking, sounding, and feeling anime to come out in years then this is your calling. I hope more animation studios take their chances on projects like this in the future.

***When JP triggers the nitro get ready to s#!t bricks***

"Sword Art Online" (Anime) Episode 17 Thoughts

Kirito beats up Lyfa's (his sister in real life) attackers, Lyfa teaches Kirito how to fly much more efficiently, she shows Kirito her race's hometown, and the two decided on venturing towards the World Tree. We also are introduced to both Asuna and Sugou's characters in ALO. One thing I can tell you about this particular arc is that while the first arc (SAO) lacked a person we were all supposed to hate from the beginning, it is very apparent that you should hate Sugou's guts. The way the creators of the anime have brought forth Sugou is actually much better than I initially thought they would. When reading the short novel, I envisioned him as a very evil person but when we first met him in the hospital in the anime, I was blown away at how he was presented. You kind of just knew by the first conversation that he was going to be one evil dude.

So as I suspected the pacing for this show is going to continue down the path the previous arc set forth. This is unfortunate news for us (the viewers) because it means it will be quite a long time before we see Kirito anywhere near the world tree unless the studio decides to cut out a lot of content. I do have to thank the studio once more for being so faithful to the orginal short novel. Mostly everything has matched up to what I remember reading in the short novel a couple months ago. The animation is also insanely crisp in this episode. The scenes that take place in ALO are simply some of the best animation I have ever seen; everything is so detailed and it has some of the best lighting in anime.

So sorry for the short post, I might go back to posting every two or three episodes so I can refrain from these short and non-descriptive posts.

"Little Busters!" (Anime) Episodes 3-4 Thoughts

So since my last post on Little Busters! I have found out that it is indeed based off of a visual novel; one made by Key in matter of fact. So this means that the creators of the anime will have a lot of freedom when determining who the main character will pursue. This also means that since it is derived from a visual novel, it is a romance…-___-. Now I do not have anything against romance anime or anime based off of visual novels but I was kind of hoping this was going to be a slice of life anime that was not going to be centered on finding love.

After my dreams were crushed, I hoped onto everyone’s favorite web site, Google to find out more about the visual novel. It had some very favorable reviews so I decided to give it a shot and was mildly entertained.Not as good as the Maji de Watashi ni KoiShinasai!! visual novel but not horrible either. So I can say after completing a few of the routes in the VN that I cannot determine Riki (the main character) is going to choose in the anime. I’ve been told the common route in the game leads to Komari but I haven’t seen enough of the anime to say who he is leaning towards the most.

So I’m going to stop bringing up the VN for now because I want to talk just about the show; not how different of similar it is to the source material. Episodes two through four introduce pretty much the main cast of the show (minus one we haven’t met yet). These new characters are Haruka(the mischievous loud mouth), Kud (the Loli favorite), and Yuiko (the cold fighter).  Haruka was my favorite character from the VN and her personality seems intact in the anime while Yuiko is somewhat desirable in the anime. The story so far is the formation of the baseball team and the recruitment of the remaining players for the team. There have been some funny moments so far but overall the show is starting to feel a little stale. While the plot is moving (somewhat) it isn’t being presented very well. Most of the episodes don’t have a lot of “pizzazz”. Hopefully once we get to the meat of the story it will open up and become more interesting because at the moment it just isn’t very interesting.

"High School DxD" Anime Review

The opening scene of High School DxD gave me the impression it was going to be another generic no nonsense ecchi school anime. Twelve episodes later however, I find myself a little baffled at how much I enjoyed it.


Story: 7/10
In my mind, average would equal seventy percent (seven out of ten). While this show’s premise is not very ambitious, it isn’t horrible either. The show starts out with our pal Issei dying from a spear wound from a demon b!tch in a park all alone. His last words call out to our “loaded” red headed president Rias who allows Issei to continue on living by becoming a demon. The plot in general actually had a very nice pace; there wasn’t any section of the anime where I thought it was dragging. We have the beginning events, the laid back period where most of the stuff happens at school, then the main conflict which arises and ends all within twelve episodes. Most shows that follow in the ecchi format are nothing more than eleven filler episodes with the studio scrambling at the end to make some sh!tty ending. High School DxD genuinely was an interesting show to watch. It didn’t go over the top with its premise but it was far from boring. Some might argue the ecchi content might have gotten in the way but generally since our protagonist is a perv anyway, it didn’t distract me…too much.


Animation: 7/10
So I was lucky enough to get to see this on a BD copy of the movie (courtesy of a friend). The visuals are quite well done; every character model was constantly presented very well, the backgrounds had attention to detail, and fight scenes had great feudality. AND YES for all of you who are just going to watch this for the ecchi stuff do not fret, all the scenes that point out the most awkward camera angles are here for you to enjoy. The BD copy does not hold back at all; where the broadcasted version was heavily censored (at least I was told it was), it's no holds bar here. But like I have stated in my other reviews, I am part of that weird percent of anime viewers that do not watch for the “scenes”; if a show has an interesting plot and very well written characters, I can sit through it.

Sound: 7.2/10
I am very picky about sound since I spend most of my time around music. While the musical score for this anime isn’t genericly bad, it is somewhat average. The music that plays during the fight scenes and around the school sound like any other anime’s soundtrack; there just wasn’t a whole lot of originality here. The voice actors however did a pretty good job; everything was recorded fairly well.


Characters: 7/10
Again while the characters were not “OMG AMAZING”, they also were not a hindrance to the anime. The club’s characters all have an overlying personality that may be somewhat generic but we are exposed to them enough through character development that I started to like all of them by the end of the show. Even though Issei is a pervert crybaby, he genuinely grows throughout the show and becomes pretty badass by the final fight.


Overall: 7.1/10
So with seven out of ten being my average score, a 7.4 out of ten is above what I expected coming into this show. I was so sure that after the first episode I was going to have another Champione! experience (in other words, a generic boring ecchi anime). But this show really surprised me; even though there was a lot of ecchi content, it worked itself fairly well into the show and since the animation was very good backed with a decent cast, it was overall a good watch. It exceeded my expectations so why not yours?

"Sword Art Online" (Anime) Epsoides 14-16 Thoughts



So with the events of SOA ending, you thought it was going to be game over right? Wrong; the show now transitions on over to the next setting which takes place in the game Alfheim Online. Kiritio finds himself logging into this new world because of a photo given to him that shows someone looking very similar to Asuna within the game. With some help from his sister, friends, and a very important member from SOA, Kirto must find out if Asuna is really in this new world and without spoiling anything, he is on a time limit.

So first off coming from someone who has read the light novel series that this anime is based off of, I have to give the studio some credit on sticking with the original source material. Other than some omitting of information towards the end of SOA and some slight pacing issues, this anime has been a direct link to the light novel. We were recently introduced to Kirito's sister who may like her brother a little too much...(she does play a pretty sizable role in this arc later on) Also we meet the shop keeper from SOA that helped Kirito out so much in his weapon shop. He now works at a local bar that in the future will host many meetings between the characters of the show. So like I stated in the general synopsis for these couple of transition episodes, Kirito finds himself in a new game, Alfheim Online. This game sports new rules such as the ability to fly. I have to applaud the animation studio once again for making Alfheim look so beautiful. When I was reading the light novel, what I imagined Alfheim Online would look like pretty much matched the anime's interpretation. The latest episode (episode 16) shows Kirito logging in for the first time, him meeting a very important person from SOA, and also aiding the person that will help guide him to his goal in Alfheim Online.

Overall I am very pleased with the show thus far. A lot of people are criticizing and nitpicking every little wrong thing about this show but to me since I love the light novel so much and since the anime pretty much mirrors it, I end up loving the show. Yes there are faults but it isn't really a show you should watch for thought provoking concepts. It has accomplished exactly what the light novel has done, provide a gamer's fantasy from the hero's point of view. If you find yourself not coping well with the wait for each new episode, I strongly encourage you go read the light novel it is done very well.