• Tag Archives Fantasy
  • Knight’s & Magic

    A genius programmer and plastic model enthusiast, Tsubasa Kurata is killed in a traffic accident one night and finds himself suddenly reincarnated into a fantasy world filled with mecha and demonic creatures. The magic of this world is remarkably similar to programming code and with the knowledge from his previous life still intact he quickly advances toward his newfound goal of becoming a Silhouette Knight pilot.

    An action-fantasy with an overwhelming love for everything mecha-related that, while not explicitly a comedy, does not treat anything particularly seriously.

    More Information:
    aniDB
    Crunchyroll
    Wikipedia


  • Diablo III – Update

    Found out was wrong with the bombardment build mentioned earlier after running through the game with a newly created hardcore character to snag that version of the 50-mil gold conquest: While I had the raw equipment, the stats were notably subpar and not enough of them were ancient. After addressing those issues it was able to handle T13 easily enough… but not fast enough to clear the last two seasonal hurdles (Urzael in 20 seconds and T13 Rift in 4 minutes).

    So, I made a Vyr’rasha Wizard. Though the Lightning Hydra version melted Urzeal quite effectively, the 4-minute T13 rift took much more time to clear due to the glass-cannon and luck-heavy nature of the build. Two things which make it not all that much fun to play honestly. Now that all the season rewards are won I’m going to test out the Spectral Blade build instead, as that seems less twitchy.

    Something else I tested out earlier was a way to make the Corrupted Ashbringer, a 2H-sword with quite a bit of flavor, effective. The only thing that came to mind (other than a Diablo II style dual-wielding Barbarian, which apparently isn’t possible here) was to adapt a Crusader Hammerdin build. And it didn’t take much adapting. Simply replace Fervor with Heavenly Strength, J’s Argument with Ashbringer (moving the former to Kanai’s Cube), Sacred Harness with Blessed of Haull, and Falling Sword & Provoke with Justice (Crack) & Shield Glare (Divine Verdict). Bane of the Trapped can also arguably be swapped out for Zei’s Stone of Vengeance, and with a Ring of Royal Grandeur Aquila Cuirass can be rotated in for higher survivability if necessary (the bracers can stay as either Nemesis or Gabriel’s).

    It’s not exactly a fast build, but it can handle T13 without issue and it’s kind of fun to have Hammers flying everywhere without having to constantly worry about finding groups of enemies to jump into or resource concerns; it’s more laid-back and measured.


  • Princess Tutu

    Ahiru pines for Mytho, yet both may as well be worlds apart based on their personalities and abilities. No one is more aware of this than Ahiru herself and she wishes she could do something, anything, for him. A wish that ends up granted late one night by a mysterious man.

    A ballet-centric story about a story about a duck who becomes a magical girl. It’s very heavy on comedy and absurdity, to the point that the dramatic and romantic aspects are almost completely overshadowed.

    More Information:
    aniDB
    Wikipedia

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  • Diablo III – Season Journey

    Despite my earlier misgivings, the facts remain that I both love collecting loot and don’t much mind mindlessly clicking things. So I went and bought the game+expansion (not the Necromancer though… not yet).

    Seeing a new season had started and that there were item rewards for participating in it, I went and made a Crusader and started playing through the campaign. Only at the end of Act 1 did it become apparent that the Season Acts do not match up with the Campaign Acts; you’re supposed to play seasonal characters in Adventure Mode (which was helpfully auto-unlocked). So that’s what I did.

    Despite wanting to make a Hammerdin, the loot table was having other ideas (Ancient Gyrfalcon flail) and I first ended up with a fire-based Blessed Shield build which was used to clear the first few seasonal hurdles and get the free loot. Seeing more ranks awaited and wanting to get to Greater Rift level 70 to unlock ancient primals I decided to keep going.

    Eventually the Hammerdin drops appeared, which let me switch to that and quickly hit GR70 at about Paragon level 512 with only 3 pieces of ancient equipment. There progress stalled a bit as further ranks required completing conquests, with all except the GR75 seeming out of reach. But then I realized there was a trick to completing the 50 million gold one: Just open 46 Horadric Chests at once, since each contains 1.1 million on Torment 13 difficulty. Since they were needed anyway in order to extract more legendary powers (awesome feature) and upgrade my gear enough to reach GR75 it wasn’t even a hassle.

    So here I am now with the season’s Conqueror rank completed at Paragon 643. The last rank requires completing three conquests and clearing a T13 Rift in under 4 minutes, so I’m pretty sure this is the end of the journey (while I do have the equipment for a speedy Bomber build, for some reason it only seems to be able to handle T10 easily). The last reward is only a portrait frame anyway, so it’s not like I’m missing anything. Now it’s time to go play the campaign and find out the answers to all these questions that have been raised by jumping around from area to area out of order.


  • Diablo III – First Impressions

    After ignoring this game for many years I decided to see where it was currently at… for reasons I don’t recall. After seeing that a trial version was available in addition to new DLC having recently been released, I said to hell with it and installed it.

    After nearly exhausting the trial with the Monk and playing a bit with the Demon Hunter and Wizard I’ve come to the following conclusion: If you want an immersive experience go play Titan Quest instead, if however you just want to mindlessly click on things while collecting loot then this game has you covered.

    The problems here (cartoony zoomed-in visuals, limited abilities, non-existent leveling options) all seem traceable to having a ‘console-first’ strategy. There’s some severe oversimplification, to the point that I don’t see much reason to play different classes beyond experiencing the specialized voice acting and flavor text (which, admittedly, is a nice touch). Regardless of the class you pick the combat cycle is going to be the same: Use one skill a bunch to build up resources then a second to spend them, while maybe tossing off a cooldown skill from time to time.

    Compounding matters is that skill damage is based on weapon damage. All skill damage. Use a skill to punch someone with a monk while wielding a club? That’s fine; the club’s damage will be used. Playing a Wizard? Go right ahead and equip a longbow or sword since your spells all use their base damage for some reason. A Demon Hunter? The arrow-based skills require wielding a bow at least… which ends up being not much of a requirement since the other skills (Throw Knife for instance) have no problem using bow damage. Moreover, what’s even the point of having all these different weapon types when you can’t make basic attacks in the first place? Cosmetic concerns I guess?

    The entire experience just leaves a bad aftertaste.


  • Shuumatsu Nani Shitemasuka? Isogashii Desuka? Sukutte Moratte Ii Desuka?

    Centuries in the past seventeen beasts appeared and wiped out the human race while the other races fled to floating islands. There they now live out their lives with the fairies, who resemble human girls and are the only ones able to use the weapons humanity left behind, acting as a defense against any of the beasts that manage to attack from the surface. Into this new order steps Willem Kmetsch, a human who was frozen in time and has become a caretaker for these living weapons.

    A mixed-genre series that starts out as almost a slice of life comedy before eventually fully transforming into an action-infused romantic drama. As far as ecchi content goes, there are only a few scenes scattered around.

    More Information:
    aniDB
    Crunchyroll
    Fansub.co
    Wikipedia

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  • Zero kara Hajimeru Mahou no Sho

    War rages across the land, with witches fighting back against the church and state for their indiscriminate witch hunts. In the midst of this the witch Zero leaves the seclusion of the forest to track down her stolen grimoire. Not being familiar with the outside world, she contracts a beastman mercenary to be her bodyguard and the two set off to find the grimoire before it destroys the world.

    An action drama revolving around witch hunts, civil war, and the theme of corrupted good intentions.

    More Information:
    Amazon
    aniDB
    Wikipedia

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  • GRANBLUE FANTASY: The Animation

    While attempting to escape from onboard an airship, Lyria and the former lieutenant Katalina end up separated in an explosion. Seeing the light from the ground, the adventurer Gran sets off to investigate and ends up having to protect Lyria from pursuing soldiers until Katalina can catch up. From there it’s not long before the three of them are bound together in an island-hopping journey spanning the world.

    A high fantasy action-adventure series structured much like a JRPG game. Be aware that the show concludes in the 12th episode, with the 13th being something like an alternate universe bonus-OVA.

    More Information:
    aniDB
    Crunchyroll
    Wikipedia


  • Two Worlds II: Velvet Edition

    While theoretically a sequel to Two Worlds, Two Worlds II is effectively no such thing. Not really. It’s more like a sequel to an alternate universe version of Two Worlds; the geography and character history are completely different.

    As far as mechanics go however it is definitely a sequel and the two games feel very similar despite some rather drastic changes (some good, most bad). Let’s get the good out of the way first so that I can dwell on the bad:

    Magic damage now scales with Willpower, summons can actually reach a decent power level (level 40 with doubled strength), you can now have more than 3 spells, unique loot has been added (received as quest rewards), melee combat is a bit more dynamic, and… well, that’s about it really. Short list huh?

    The list of degradations is a little longer: The GUI is atrocious, Steal is now useless (awful rewards and an awful mini-game), Alchemy is now next-to-useless, killing wildlife no longer grants decent XP past a certain level (making exploration pointless, since that’s all that’s out there), lockpicking quickly becomes an annoying chore (lock difficulty scales with your character level), spellcasting requires an equipped staff, a ton of quest-locked doors, and dungeons are somehow even less rewarding than they were before (30+ generic enemies; ~maybe~ 2 chests with the same leveled loot you can find in people’s houses).

    As far as combat goes I like the magic changes and all in all those are a major improvement despite the the new staff requirement and a continued dependence on vendor-farming. The melee changes seem good at first, but it quickly becomes clear that most of the variety is superficial with it now being attack->block instead of combo->dodge. And as for ranged, well I’ve not touched ranged so I can’t comment on that.

    Exploration and loot is what makes or breaks a game like this though, and so far (just reached New Ashos) that department is where the game really falls flat. There is literally no point whatsoever in visiting an area that a quest marker isn’t directing you toward (unless you enjoy continuously discovering conspicuously out of place doors you can’t open) and the loot is painfully uninteresting with blatantly obvious tiering.

    The second island is only like 10% the size of the first, and despite having just arrived I already know there’s nothing out there besides a bunch of trash-mobs to kill in uninteresting ways. I have zero motivation to keep exploring and honestly now just want to go re-play Neverwinter Nights 2 with a Monk-Sorcerer or mod in some sort of new fighter/mage class in Dragon Age or something.

    That said, I think I’ll try to power through the rest of this game first to see if the Tenebrae content is any better. Maybe switching over to a magic-first strategy will help the unrewarding combat since the spell creation system does actually have some variety to it.


  • Two Worlds – Finale

    With my equipment and skills essentially maxed out earlier (and wanting to start playing Two Worlds II), I decided to not bother exploring every nook and cranny and just go to the last few quest locations and finish the game up.

    Surprisingly, the lower half of the map has some new enemies to fight. None of them were much of a challenge though except the Lava Dragons and Adamantium Golems, which took forever to kill. Everything else fell to either 1-2 Multi Shot volleys (most stuff) or 1-2 Berserk-enhanced melee combos (Scorpions, Sand Dragons, and Stone Golems).

    Both endings are kind of abrupt and disappointing sadly. Which is unfortunate, but I did have quite a bit of fun scouring the countryside for loot earlier and the developers obviously put a lot of effort into the textures; there’s quite a bit of variety in both the environments and the creatures, which helps mask the repetitiveness of the game’s combat system. So all in all I guess it was worth the… whatever it was I payed for it when it was on sale oh so long ago (it’s definitely worth the 99 cents it’s on sale for now).