AQUARION EVOL, New TV Series!

New Aquarion TV series has recently receive a green light. There's nothing much on this yet, so stay tune!

http://aqevol.com/

I'm Back!

I went on tour for a bit, so I haven't been quite in touch.

It seems alot happened the past few days, I'll try and update them all today.

Oh....Aliens, -A wakening of the trailblazer- Quick Review

Wasn't Season 2's ending pretty awesome? I'm pretty sure it is. Oh well, a movie.

-A wakening of the Trailblazer- is set to be the grand finale of the successful Gundam series, Gundam OO. The hype began not long after the TV series have ended. I did say fans have high expectation on this after seeing the animation on the first few trailer. On that note, the movie does not disappoint as it offer an awesome explosive battle. Though overwhelming explosion and flashes can be too fast-pace and annoying to watch for some poeple, it serves as a good entertainment point needed for action scenes.

The Story, on the other hand, is a mixbag. While the climax scene are builded up pretty well. It is nothing more than a movie where Earth-race fight for peace against a certain lifeform. Which can be quite a downfall for nostalgic Gundam fans that loves having two races on opposite side going against each other.

Most Characters are just there and serves little-to-no purpose as far as the plot goes. The new character Descartes Shaman does nothing but a plot-device of...Okay, I won't spoil anything further. However some Character does get a neat development, so don't just drop the expectation.

The new Mobile Suit is what you should be expecting. They're what you just needed.

This is getting too long, so let's just end this. -A wakening of the Trailblazer- is a pretty good movie, but it isn't something you exactly want from a Gundam movie. Oh well, this isn't Char's Counterattack or Unicorn. Just get that off your mind and enjoy the show.

L, Not Just Another DS Game

Ever since the start of 2010, which is said to be the "Year of SRW", it turned out to be just another trolling from our beloved Terada-san. Though he did kept his promise and made more SRW than last year, it's all just a DS game and mostly OG-based. I thought by then that there's nothing much to expect.

By the near end of last year Branpresto annouced SRWL which again is on the DS, but this time, it is finally a usual SRW with lots of mecha crossover. Featuring epic new cast namely, Linebarrel, Macross Frontier, Dancougar Nova, and Iczer. With the return of the V Brother, Evagelion, and Mazinkaiser. Even then, I didn't expect much of this since K disappointed me so badly. Also from the early famitsu scan which contain animation that looked exactly like K's. Still, the PV2 hit me by the ass that the animation has been adjusted so much and gotten many cool touches.

Finally, by late November, this game is released and I get my hand on it as early as possible. Once I turn the game on, not only has the graphic been improved, but also the music which is completely new and awesome. It start off with Macross Frontier's storyline which is pretty much what everybody wanted.  The music, of course, is epic.


That's all of my impression, well, let's get to some reviews.

Music(10/10)

As mentioned many time above, the BGM and Sound Effects are awesome. It fully represent the sound quality of the DS. Original BGMs are brand new and not one of them are recycled from older games. The music from returning series also got a remix treatment which sounded just as good as any Frontier's BGM. Even though I gave this a 10, I should honestly say that sound effects are kinda lacking at certain point, especially Dancougar. But oh well, the BGM are good enough to cover it up.

Graphic(8/10)

Like the music, Graphic is one of a huge step up in this game. While it seems like it looked pretty like K's, the animation is alot smoother, I would say as smooth as any PS2 SRWs. It also contains Animated Cut-ins which is pretty cool. Still, the Graphic are really mostly recycled from K. New touches are only mostly shots from the actual anime. The Cut-ins are also mostly from the anime. Well, when it comes to SRW, graphic aren't everything, and Branpresto has proven that they aren't all that lazy.

Story(9.5/10)

Before anything else, I would like to point out that. W, the first SRW on the DS has a "HOLYMOTHEROFGODTHISISEPIC" storyline. Yeah, it's that good. W contains epic crossover in every stage possible. This is one of the main reason that I hated K, it doesn't have much crossvoer...I mean none.

So well, when L was out, Crossover are threw at me since the first stage. Which put a big smile on my face. It may be because K is bad, but I would say Crossovers in this game are pretty epic.

Now for the actual story, I have to be honest here, I'm not a fluent Japanese speaker. Crossover is all I care in SRW. Nuffsaid, Crossover alone gave this section a 9.5.

Original(8.5/10)

When it comes to SRW, original is what we can't ignore. The Protagonist in L is a young teenager who happen to be friend with a scientist that created his robot, the Rishbird. Which also has a cute android subpilot. Pretty Cliche, yeah.

Right off the bat, what everyone complains about is there are no Dynamic Kill scene from him. Got a admit I was a little pissed off. Later in the game, we also get to meet around with Straybird, which to my knowledge is a stolen robot. I have to say, Straybird's theme is "HOLYMOTHEROFGODTHISISEPIC". Seriously, it's one of the best I have heard in any game. Spoiler alerd right here, but it's something you would expect or probably know by now anyway. Later on they gain combination attack and stuff, Rushbird didn't get any upgrade form. Not that I'm complaining but damn, didn't expect that from Branpresto.

Gameplay(9/10)

L's gameplay is not much difference from K's, but it many way a whole lot better. L's gameplay system is an upgraded version of K's Partner System(which is very bad). Now you could choose which unit you want to attack or defense. It's hard to explain, but you'll get it once you start playing.

That's the system, you would probably learn all those when you play anyway. So now that's out of the way, let's get into something you would wanna hear.

I'm avoid spoiler as much as possible, probably there's none, but well to be safe.

Let's start off with the difficulty. Again, let's look back into K and W. W is an awesome game, but I should say it is pretty easy. Since you got a pretty broken Original and GGGG. K's partner system is fu*ked up and the game is pretty bad, I didn't bother getting into any detail. All I can say is that Strike Freedom alone could solo the whole game. My point is those 2 games has a pretty broken unit and in the end made the game quite easy. This is where L start shining. IMO, L is one of the most balanced SRW up to date. Probably the most too. Many of your mechs are strong, but not to the point that it could solo. Also with the upgraded PU system, some unit that you never thought of using can come in handy.

One thing I did like to mention, although the game seems short, the stages are pretty long. I actually have alot to say, but that would ruins the game for you. Let just wrap this up.

Replayability is pretty high. Like any SRW, there is lots of secrets and route splits. If you really liked the game, it would get you playing for 2+ rounds.

In conclusion, this game is alot better the K. Branpresto has express in many way that they aren't lazy. So I did say buy the game.

That's it for my first review, good or bad, just leave it in the comment.