Game Review: Resident Evil: Revelations

I was playing this game about two weeks before my exams started. Big mistake because this is an addictive game and I can't stop playing. Even more so because I am a die-hard Resident fan. However, writing a review for games is always going to be difficult so please bear with me.

Title: Resident Evil: Revelations

Year: 2012 / 2013

Publisher: Capcom

Platform: Nintendo 3DS, PS3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii U, PC

Genre: Survival horror

Review: First of all, I am amazed that this game is originally intended for the Nintendo 3DS. I always thought that the 3DS is designed for Pokemon, not Resident Evil. I am not sure how is the game like in the 3DS, but I definitely liked it in PC.

If you had played Resident Evil 6, you know how horrible that game was and you are well aware that Capcom has done a big mistake of completely switching the genre of Resident Evil games from survival horror to action, and they did a terrible job at that. Click here if you would like to check out my review on Resident Evil 6. That is kinda sad for me because I was really anticipating for the game while having a major exam. Apparently Capcom enjoys pissing their fans off by unnecessarily destroying everything their fans like for a certain franchise. DmC: Devil May Cry for example. I don't even wanna begin talking about it.

However, rest assured that this game is nothing like Resident Evil 6. This is a true survival horror game although you won't be able to fight zombies just yet. In this game, ammunition is scarce and your enemies are strong. This is what makes Resident Evil games fun and challenging at the same time. I completed this game on Casual mode, but already having a hard time in Normal mode. I can't even begin to imagine Infernal mode. Some of the gameplay systems are either changed or removed. For example, you can no longer distract the enemy by shooting it on the head etc. and perform a melee immediately. Distraction became more difficult, but now you can charge up your melee moves before unleashing it. The roll/sprint/dash maneuvers from Resident Evil 6 are removed altogether, which is sad because that is one feature I enjoyed in Resident Evil 6 and they are helpful. The weapon upgrade system is back and you don't have to pay for them. You just need to search for the upgrade parts. The Resident Evil 2 storage box system is back as well which possibly made the game a bit unrealistic, but I wont complain. Capcom did their best to bring back the essence of Resident Evil. In short, I enjoyed the control system and the gameplay of Resident Evil Revelations.

As this game centers more on the ocean, there is much water theme to this game. As such, you will need to do a lot of swimming. I will also not complain about the how unrealistic this game is here, because if it is you'll never win. Rest assured, it is fun. More fun than Resident Evil 6 at least. There are also multiple interesting puzzles to be solved and most of them require you to think. The one game I find petty annoying (not the game's fault), is that the map is pretty big and for people with a terrible sense of direction like me, it can be quite tiresome to go from once place or another especially when a character just tell you to go to a particular place and you'll have to recall where is that and how to get there. A map is provided to you, but to me it wasn't very helpful. Fortunately, for most part of the game, there's only one direction and you'll just have to follow your partner when you get lost. In fact, the role of your partner in this game is just to make you feel more secure.

Rejoice dear fans, as Jill Valentine has return alongside Chris Redfield, my favorite character in the Resident Evil series! Unfortunately, this isn't a sequel to Resident Evil 6, but a prequel which takes place sometime in 2005. A few other new characters are introduced in the game as well. Jill's partner for most of the game is Anglo-Italian Parker Luciani and he is a very likable character. Chris' partner for most of the game on the other hand, is Jessica Sherawat who is, let's just say, not so likable. Poor Chris always get in unfortunate incidents for some reason. Fun fact: In the Japanese version of the game, Jessica Sherawat is voiced by the legendary Nana Mizuki. There are other playable characters as well and I am happy to say they are pretty enjoyable to play as. As for the storyline, I find it a rather confusing one as I don't quite understand who is doing what. To illustrate a point, the final boss in this game is not exactly the main antagonist but rather a somewhat random character. Speaking of which, the final boss in this game is the epitome of Capcom's logic defiance on what viruses can do. Well, you'll just have to enjoy the challenge and not giving it too much thoughts.

Overall, I find this game really enjoyable. If Capcom could somehow integrate Resident Evil Revelations with some elements of Resident Evil 6 and other series it will be perfect. I also hope Capcom would bring back zombie hostiles as well though I do enjoy battling with various species of bio-organic weapons (it's what Resident Evil call the enemies) in Resident Evil Revelations. Also I won't deny that this game is downright challenging and difficult. This game is the symbol of a good balance between survival horror and action, what Resident Evil games should be like. Of course, there are still rooms for improvement but I think Capcom is heading the right direction this time. I have really high hopes for Resident Evil 7. Last but not least, all hail Chris Redfield! XD

Rating: 8/10

Anime Review: Strike Witches The Movie (The first 5 minutes)

Hi, everyone. Recently I've watched the Strike Witches movie and I could last only 5 minutes before I stopped the movie and deleted it entirely. So now I'm going to review about what I watched in that 5 minutes. I know you might hate me for 'judging the book by its cover', but I've got good reasons and my conscience is clear. First impression matters yo!

Title: Strike Witches The Movie

What is it about: Alien invasion and the rise of humanity against them. This is probably the ten billionth time I've seen this cliche.

Review: Personally I find it pretty uncomfortable writing this review, but I felt I just had to. Obviously I'm not going to talk much about the storyline because I had no idea at all, but the starting of this movie suggests that it is definitely not something new. However, I have to say that it is epic to see a war taking place between indestructible alien robots and humanity. Therefore, I was actually having my hopes high in this movie.

Then guess who are the savior of mankind? Little girls who are armed with machine guns and a little bit of magic known as Witches (a pretty mean name for the hope of mankind's salvation huh?)! But seriously, does it always have to be little girls? This is the case with Valkyria Chronicles, Infinite Stratos, Sora no Woto, somewhat with Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, etc.. These are the girls who are for some reason, blessed with superpowers that only them could stand against the overpowered opponents. Then again, I won't complain much about this because Valkyria Chronicles and Nanoha are pretty great anime (and games).

My real complain here is the fact that this movie completely abuses the elements of ecchi. This is the point where things get a bit explicit. For the entire 5 minutes, there is a panty-shot literally in every 20 seconds. I know this is quite common in most anime, but this one comes at the wrong place at the wrong time. Imagine a group of these Witches battling out with aliens, and all the camera is trying to do was to get a close-up shots of the Witches' panties. Worse, these witches aren't even wearing any pants, nor skirt for that matter, just so that they can give us a clear shot of their underwear. Come on, whoever made this movie. What is it that you are trying to show us? The epic battle or the sexy panties? To be honest, I personally don't find them sexy at all. Instead I find it somewhat stupid. Is this anime supposed to be one that is serious or mischievous? Because both definitely do not go well together. Is the creator of this anime trying to attract more guys to watch this movie? If that is so, it is a huge mistake and a failure that definitely backfires.

To sum it up, this anime isn't what I expect it to be: epic. Yeah, girls with machine guns are epic, and I like that. But girls with machine guns, overwhelmingly large breasts and incredible short skirt to the point that they are pretty much negligible (or no skirt/pants in this case)? Not so much. Take it as you may, I judge female anime characters by the size of their bust, and I definitely don't like oppai (to put it in layman's term, it means unrealistically huge boobs). Well, fortunately the oppai part isn't too much of a problem in the Strike Witches movie (at least not in the first 5 minutes), but still it doesn't make things any better. You may try to persuade me to continue watching this movie for the sake of the storyline, but as it is this movie is bad enough, and I'm sorry to say I won't be interested.

In conclusion, I appeal to everyone who makes anime to please consider their audiences so as to not offend anyone and display anything are viewed as improper. Anime doesn't need to be sexually explicit or disturbing to be attractive you know? Also, if you are a girl and you are reading this, please don't think I'm perverted a jerk. I see real-life girls differently from anime character :P

Rating: I can't rate the whole movie because like I said, I didn't watch it till the end. However, for the first 5 minutes alone, I'll give it a 3/10.

Anime Review: Unbreakable Machine Doll

Happy Valentine's Day everybody! In conjunction with this celebration of love, I will be posting a review of the most romantic anime there is out there! :D

The happy face of "I just murdered several machines like an infernal badass"

Title: Unbreakable Machine Doll

What is it about: Overpowered 'dolls' destroying each other alongside buildings. Oh ya, I was kidding about the romantic part :P

Review: Once again, an anime that features dolls! And I like it! However, these dolls are unlike those of Rozen Maiden and the likes, and the so-called dolls in this anime takes on various forms such as human, dragons, dogs etc. which are by no means mechanical (except for the mecha dolls). These dolls even have blood in them (again, except the mecha ones), so they are actually more alive than merely a combat puppet.

Speaking of combat, I can assure you that this anime is highly action packed which involves human-sized dolls battling out with, say, a hundred-feet tall dragon. Not only that, the one thing that is very likable of the battle scenes in this anime is that they are very strategy-filled. The main character, though being overpowered, isn't exactly one that is powerful enough to match most of his way-more-overpowered opponents, but I do find him very admirable because he often assess the situation with a calm and calculative mind, and engages in combat with strategy to defeat his opponents. He's also a tough guy who manages to survive multiple life-threatening blows, which could be kind of unrealistic at times.

In terms of storyline, this anime does have an interesting and well thought out plot for a 12-episode anime. Though given the complexity of the story line, it is expected that 12 episodes isn't quite sufficient to convey in full what was introduced to the audience. As a result, too many unanswered questions arose in this anime. Speaking of which, this anime tend to introduce too many characters that are significant but somewhat random to the point where things get a little confusing, and this does contribute to some of those unanswered questions. Also, most of these characters are introduced to us a being extremely powerful, but they are never actually seen engaging in combat. Some of them merely appeared for a short while and not much are told about them. As such, a sequel is highly anticipated and given the popularity of this anime, I would say it is pretty likely. If there isn't, it is going to be one massive letdown, but I'm having my hopes high.

In conclusion, this is one of the few anime which I found to be really epic. The fight scenes are really enjoyable to watch, though I do admit that some supposedly really powerful enemy were defeated pretty fast. Epic battles aside, this anime is also a humorous one especially given that one of the main character's forte is sarcasm. I do enjoy the background music in this anime, but unfortunately not the opening and ending theme. Last but not least, I really enjoy watching this anime because.......... loli! XD

Rating: 8/10

Movie Review: Suspect X (The Japanese one)

My exams are finally finished and now is the start of my 1-month semester break, so I finally have the time in my hands to write on a review of the best movie (best Japanese movie at the very least) I've ever come to know. I've watched this movie quite some time ago actually, and I think I'm going to watch it again soon.

Title: Suspect X (Yougisha X no Kenshin)

(Not to be confused with Samurai X or Rurouni Kenshin)

What is it about: Who needs forensic science when you have physics? And who needs alibi when you have mathematics?

Review: What happen when you strike a steel ball with several steel balls aligned on a rail on one end? Obviously, according to the law of conservation of energy and momentum, the energy will be transferred and cause the ball on the other end to roll at the same speed. What happens then, when you attach a powerful neodymium magnet to one side of the line of steel balls and a ball is rolled towards it? It will cause an instant acceleration of the ball prior to striking the line, causing the ball on the other end to fire at a high speed. What then... if you put the steel ball on a seriously powerful superconducting magnetic accelerator? Well, according to the movie, it's really awesome! XD

Suspect X is a movie for those science geek out there who wants to see how physics and mathematics are applied in epic ways to solve criminal cases. Yes, the one doing the crime-solving is a physicist assisted by a detective. If you haven't notice, this physicist is Yukawa Manabu from the detective drama series Galileo. What makes this movie a lot more interesting, and longer than other cases he has solved in the drama, is that the adversary this time is a genius mathematician who happened to be Yukawa's best friend (and probably the one and only person who understands his physics mumbo-jumbo.)

For a little spoiler, the mathematician didn't exactly commit the crime, but assisted his neighbor to cover up a homicide she committed by creating the perfect alibi. If you haven't watch the Galileo series, Yukawa is basically a professor who has no interest whatsoever in anything but physics, and a detective often seek his knowledge in physics to solve various bizarre crimes. So, the drama is pretty much a Detective Conan style crime solving series which is rather repetitive throughout the episodes. However, in this movie, there is much more than that. This movie talks about some of Yukawa's past and his relationship with the mathematician. Being his best friend, he also had to deal with the dilemma of protecting his friends or unraveling the truth. The truth to the case is also extremely difficult for Yukawa to unravel and for the first time ever, he actually did mistakes in his deductions. Well, he is going against a genius after all. Also, in this movie you'll get  to see Yukawa being emotional which totally does not happen in the drama even if someone were to drop dead in front of him.

If you love physics and/or mathematics and you learn them in high school or university, you'll definitely like this movie. You don't have to completely understand them, though I doubt anyone can unless your name happened to be Albert Einstein. It's still pretty cool to see how these people do their reasoning and calculations. Of course, there are much more of these to be seen in the drama series Galileo, which brings me to my next point.

As much as this movie makes references to physics and mathematics, I must unfortunately admit that this movie has significantly less application of physics in the crime-solving process that it does in the drama. This is because this movie highlights the complexity behind the crimes rather than the methodology, hence more applications of logic is deployed. It also focuses more on story line rather than pure crime-solving. It is more on the characters being calculative in their respective plans and investigation, rather than their actual performance and demonstration of the theory and math. This is rather unfortunate, but I believe it is a reasonable sacrifice. If you would like to see Yukawa applying the laws of physics full force and solving impossible crimes like a boss (and shaming the cops in the process), be my guest and watch the Galileo series. Trust me, it's really not bad!

Rest assured though, this movie is definitely not a boring one especially given the complexity of the case. What detective movie is better than two great minds going head-to-head with each other? Also, while this movie could get pretty serious, it does also make you laugh at times. In other words, this is not the typical detective movie that involves nothing but crime scene investigation, illogical coincidences, yada yada yada, the end. There's actually a lot of story line in it, and they are interesting to watch. Last but not least, that girl is quite pretty! XD

Rating: 8.5/10

Anime Review: Rozen Maiden

Hello and once again it has been a pretty long time since I last posted anything on my blog. While reading what I posted last time I realized I had horrible English before and I did some grammatical corrections so that readers won't have too much of a headache trying to comprehend what I'm trying to say. Anyway, it will be a week before my end-of-semester exams begin, but I couldn't resist the temptation of watching an anime given that I haven't been touching my heck long list of anime folders on my laptop. So for the past two weeks, I finished two seasons of Rozen Maiden out of three, and the following will be my review of them. You could probably tell from my blog's background that I'm really liking this anime. In fact, my laptop and my Google Chrome is now filled with Rozen Maiden themes. All that's left now is to Rozen Maiden-ify my hand phone :)

Title:-

Season 1: Rozen Maiden
Season 2: Rozen Maiden: Träumend
Mid season 2: Rozen Maiden: Ouvertüre
Season 3: Rozen Maiden: Zurückspulen

Damn German names!

What is this anime about: Dolls. Gothic lolita walking talking fighting creepy dolls.

Review: Dolls. I love dolls. Dolls are cute. Dolls are creepy, and that is exactly how I was attracted to this anime. In this anime however, these dolls are not meant to freak you out. They are in fact rather human in nature with only their size differentiate them from human characters (and the fact they sleep in flying briefcases). Suffice to say, these dolls have supernatural powers which enables them to live and engage in combat. However, their powers are limited without the help of a human 'medium' which acts as an energy booster for the doll's power. Somehow that reminded me of Rockman, but it works differently. The powers obtained from their medium directly drains their life force away, though it is not at a serious rate.

So this story revolves around a boy named Jun who is a kid with serious school phobia as a result of bully. He is also a hikikomori which means anybody who prefers to lock themselves in their rooms and spend quality time with their computers. He is a guy who despises pretty much everything and is under the care of her sister Nori who is the complete opposite. Jun has a mad hobby of buying stuffs online and returning them before he has to pay. Somehow this leads to him encountering a strange (and pretty) doll in a briefcase. He awakens her and is forced to sign a contract with her to become her 'servant'. Soon, a few other dolls join him and his house shall be filled with talking dolls! Oh, did I mention how cool their names are? :D

Rozen Maiden has a really interesting storyline, though some of it may be a little confusing to the viewers. However, this confusion happens toward the ending of the series. From the beginning, this anime is pretty humorous and interesting to watch, particularly in the first season. It is very entertaining to see how the life of an introvert guy is messed up by these few noisy dolls. I can tell you, these dolls loves to scream, argue with each other like how kids does it, destroy windows and make Jun's life as miserable as they possibly could. The greatest contributions to these are a baby-like doll, Hinaichigo who constantly gets into a fight with her tsundere counterpart Suiseiseki (usually because of the fact that Suiseiseki loves to bully Hanaichigo).

It gets better when Jun is involved in all the daily comedy between the dolls, such as an incident where Hinaichigo wages war on Suiseiseki because the latter stole a strawberry from the former's cake and Hinaichigo got Jun on her side. Both of them could practically destroy the entire house. Rest assured though that these dolls apparently has the power to fix damages they cause. Bottom line, these dolls are incredibly adorable.

After some time, things took a serious turn. These dolls start to engage in combat for real. There are 7 dolls altogether, and their predestined goal in life is to kill each other to claim their life force, the Rosa Mystica, in a dangerous game known as Alice Game. The last one standing becomes the perfect doll worthy of being with their creator whom they address as 'Father'. However, most of the dolls are reluctant to partake in the Alice Game and fight each other as they consider themselves to be sisters. A few of them on the other hand thinks differently. Many of these conflicts and dilemmas gradually changes the life of Jun as well as the dolls which makes this anime a really interesting one to watch. All the concepts of this anime are quite thoroughly well thought out.

Sadly, that mostly apply only for season 1 though. Season 2 turned out to be a little disappointing. It attempts to be humorous in the first part of the series as season 1 managed to pull it off, but it didn't work too well for most parts (mind you though that there are certain scenes which are downright funny). Towards the later part of the story, it does get a little more interesting but sad at the same time. Here you will actually see the Rosa Mystica gets taken away and the dolls became lifeless one by one. I cried a little when Hanaichigo *ahem* 'died'. All the while I was hoping the ending will not be too bad as most of the dolls are gone. I was really hoping for their revival. However, the ending is a rather disappointing one. I am not going to spoil it for you any further, but it could have been more than what it is. The ending is not necessarily a bad one, but rather not a 'feel good' one as described by some reviewer. 12 episodes for the second season just doesn't quite cut it, and the ending is pretty abrupt and in a way, random. It does not give a full account of what really happened and it certainly does not feel like an ending at all. I hate endings like that. I took a glimpse of the first episode of the third season and it wasn't very promising. It seems to me like season 3 is a reboot, which I seriously hope it isn't.

In conclusion, Rozen Maiden is an enjoyable anime overall, season 2 included. It's just that season 1 is a far more exciting to watch than season 2. I don't have high hopes for season 3, but I heard that it does has positive reviews, so I'm giving it a try someday. If you couldn't care less for the story line, the dolls themselves are really worth your attention. It's what kept me going for season 2 and will keep me going for season 3. I really loves dolls! <3

Ratings:-

Season 1: 9/10

Season 2: 6/10

Anime Review - Date A Live

So once again I'm temporarily done with my uni stuffs and here I am stuck at home with nothing better to do than watching anime. Fortunately for me, I had recently went to an anime event and came back home with a stash of new anime DVD's. I started with the one anime I anticipated the most since it is a hot topic on Facebook - Date A Live.

Title: Date A Live

What is it about: How do date an alien with more-powerful-than-nuclear powers that could destroy the world.

Review: When I watch Date A Live, the first thing that comes to my mind is that it is comparable to The World God Only Knows (henceforth shall be known as TWGOK), but surprisingly Date A Live is slightly different. Let me explain. TWGOK involves a guy with no interest in the real world and real-life girls is forced to date many of them in order to so-called 'save' them. True enough, Date A Live is similar in that manner, dating girls to save them. However, in Date A Live, we are dealing with girls from another planet, literally, that has the power to annihilate Earth. This is a story of a contradicting approach to prevent such disaster - One organization tries to kill them while the other tries to appease them by having a guy date them (and make us laugh in the process :P).

TWGOK ends with a girl falling in love with the main character (Katsuragi Keima) after several episodes before Keima moves on to another target. Date A Live however, has a more complicated storyline which involves loads fight scenes. In fact, things get more complicated when two of the girls are the main character, Itsuka Shidou's sister. Other girls include two who always compete for Shidou's attention, and one who merely tries to eat him - as in yandere, which brings me to my next point.

The one thing I noticed is the creative introduction to the characters' personality according to the "dere" categories. I discovered that in this anime there is at least a character with tsundere, yandere, kuudere, dandere and deredere characteristic each. You should know what they mean if you're an otaku. Otherwise, i think Google will provide a good explanation. Generally, I hate yandere. But I liked this one in particular, not for the fact that she's a psychotic murderer, but for some reason I find her quite attractive one, which is kinda weird... Everyone else does too. That said, she is not my favorite character in this anime.

In conclusion, this anime is not the typical dating-sim anime where characters date one another and it ends there. Also, unlike most other anime, this one does contain heavy fanservice, but the ecchi-ness is under control. Last but not least, be warned that this anime ends in a cliffhanger. But don't worry, a second season is on the way.

Rating: 9/10

Nanoha: Gears Of Destiny

Hello again. I realized I haven't been blogging consistently for a while. You have to forgive me though because now I am a university student, and everyone have to go through that part of life where you have to set aside your passion for the greater good. Regardless, I am still a big fan of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha.

One particular thing I really enjoy is playing its PSP game called Gears of Destiny, abbreviated as GOD. Yes, this game is as godly as it sounds. Every character's a badass and in particular the final boss System U-D (later given the name Yuri). In case you didn't know, U-D stands for Unbreakable Dark. But this game being a Nanoha game, U-D is really a loli. Then again, lolies are not meant to be underestimated as I had learned the hard way throughout my gaming experience.

This game has kept me going for quite some time and every time I play it, I still find this game really challenging. Fighting U-D is fun but it can also be a real pain especially having lost to her many times over. The best part, or perhaps the worst, unlike many fighting games I've tried, the opponent memorizes your moves and strategies and tries to counter them. In other words, the AI is really intelligent.

Recently I've just found out that two characters in particular namely Fate Testarossa and Levi, can change their form from normal to Sonic form. In Sonic form, their speed and combo counts increase tremendously, so fast I sometimes can hardly tell the location of my Fate/Levi. However, Sonic form is a double-edged sword as you greatly sacrifice your defense. Worry not however because if you are skillful enough, you can dodge pretty much every of your opponents' attacks, and this is proven to work well even on U-D.

System U-D. Cute isn't she?

That's all for today. I'm still in the process of figuring the most effective way to defeat U-D, but no matter what I can guarantee it won't be easy.