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Phew. Here we go. Hello peeps. Wolvenciel here. Yes I'm still here. I think even the blogmaster would be surprised I'm still here. Anyways, I'm gonna talk about this warm-hearted feels-good gag anime I found a few days back, Kakushigoto (Hidden Things).
So What's He Hiding
This anime is a very slice of life kind of gag anime about a manga artist trying to hide the fact that he draws manga for a living from his little daughter. You shouldn't really be ashamed of what you do for a living but... this guy draws a dirty joke gag manga called "Balls of Fury" so I do kind of get him.
Yes, as he said, it's not like he's drawing One Piece or Anpanman.
It's even harder for him as he's a single parent too. So he goes out to work in a businessman suit and changes into his sloppy manga artist shirt in a nearby tailor shop. It's very over the top and dramatic the way he tries to hide what he's doing to his daughter.
He is very good-looking though I'll tell you that. And people often mistake his intentions too.
So What Are My Thoughts?
I approached the anime thinking it to be this super lighthearted kind of story with just Kakushi and Hime going about their lives but I was proven wrong when it started off with the premise that the anime is the past. I don't hate it though. Gives me the sense that there's something else the story is hiding and revealing to me slowly as the story goes by.
Yes he didn't wanna reveal his name because he's afraid his name would be all over the local papers saving a cat from drowning.
Their daily lives are also very interesting as its not just straight up gags. The show does a really good job of showing how this father struggles to keep his precious daughter happy and oblivious to what he's doing most of the time. It also presents the side of Hime who is very attached to her father and the anime shows it in a very subtle way too.
She drops these lines and sometimes a little frown here and there ever so slightly. It's cute.
The opening and ending soundtrack of the anime is great too. It really does give you the whole "flashback" feel to it and as my little brother say, has a little hint of sadness in it.
There are also these stupid references of popular manga of the time.
Expect this much gag from the show. Yes. This much. In case you didn't get it, the dog is clearly a Mutt. There's no way in hell its a Chihuahua.
I Also Kept Some Stuff Secret
I'll admit, there are a few things I skipped over in terms of what I think of the show but I'll sum it up in a sentence. Its not just a simple gag show and it got me real good. I definitely recommend you guys checking it out. It's good fun and it definitely isn't shallow either. It's a must watch especially for those looking to scratch that slice of life itch.
So if you're still here, do give me recommendations of what I should review next and definitely tell me what I'm lacking right now as well. I'll always appreciate the feedback. I'll try to make Saturday my upload day as well. For consistency.
Hey there guys. So today I'm going to rant. I... should probably provide some pictures as well I guess. Probably. We'll see.
As the title suggest I'll be talking about this stupid company called Activision (and their associates of course) because I recently played the new Call of Duty Modern Warfare and by the gods was I pissed.
The game itself was nice. I actually liked it. The graphics was great and they added a lot of little touches to make the game feel more realistic and mechanical. You could peek out corners now (yes I know it sounds dumb and they're probably just copying those battle royal games but still, its long overdue) and you can slide now so that's cool. The interface is also simplified as much as possible to provide players with as much immersion to the whole ambience and the atmosphere of the story.
STUPID DAY 1 PATCH
That's all well and good but the one thing I got so pissed at is the fact that I played it on the PS4. Yeah yeah you shouldn't play FPS on console. Sod off. So I got a physical copy and when I inserted the disc in lo and behold, an 80GB "update". I know a lot of games nowadays tend to do this but it gets worse and worse every single release. These day 1 patches are getting really obnoxious ya know.
I have limited internet so I said to myself,"Oh well. No online functions I guess. I'll just play the campaign first. This isn't really a problem". Boy was I wrong. Despite having the physical copy of the game, the only thing I could access was 1v1 bot match. At this point I realized I was sold an incomplete game and the only thing they gave me in the disc was a "means to kill the time while I wait for the 80GB patch to download".
So download the patch I did and after a few hours I got to play the campaign. Here you peeps might say,"But that's normal. Most games have day 1 patches anyway these days". Well screw you too. I think developers nowadays are taking advantage of the fact that they can update the game via online and just release incomplete products full of bugs because everyone thinks its the "norm" nowadays.
I guess it sucks more for people who don't have complete access to fast and stable network connection. Like me.
BAD SPACE OPTIMIZATION
After two days of binge-playing the campaign on normal (yeah I'm an FPS casual I play these games for funsies) I finished it and it was time for me to Coop Special Ops with my housemate. When I clicked it, it said that the special ops was a DLC. Fine. No surprises there. The main game was a friggin DLC why wouldn't the side content be.
As I went to the PSN Store to download it, the system tells me I had insufficient space. So I deleted a few of my old games and got a total of 80GB+ of free space in my PS4 and the system tells me I'm still short of space. Curious, I decided to check how big the damn game was. Its 134GB in size.
A game. That I have a physical copy of. TAKES MORE SPACE THAN A GAME I FULLY DOWNLOADED ON THE STORE. ARE YOU KIDDING ME INFINITY WARD?
Maybe I'm the stupid one for thinking this. Maybe it is quite hard to actually reduce the size of the files so that its not so taxing to keep in the hard drive. I don't know.
They're also planning to add more maps and modes and also a Battle Royal (as with the trends I guess) into the game so I'm pretty sure the game's gonna grow in size as time goes by. Sure I only have a measly 500GB PS4 and I could just upgrade if I so wanted but still. Do I really have to? For a game that not only screws me over not once but twice?
SO YEAH, SCREW YOU ACTIVISION
I guess that's it. Again, don't get me wrong. The game looks beautiful as hell and I loved the gun customization and the little details they added. It's definitely a cool game but I really can't say what they're doing is justified still. I don't know. Maybe its just me. Who cares. I'm just ranting.
Hey there people. As always, popping on and off like zits on your face, Wolvenciel here with a game showcase this time around. Now some of you might have heard of Slay The Spire as its been in alpha for quite some time but it was only properly released late last year. So I’m gonna jump right to it.
A Good Blend of Cards and Deaths
Now as the title suggests, yes this is a roguelike card game. Slay The Spire lets you choose a base deck at the start of the game and as you climb up the Spire you’ll fight enemies and these enemies will give you more cards to add to your decks. Some stronger enemies and treasures along the way will also give you useful and/or detrimental passives to help with climbing up.
The first base deck unlocked for you is the Ironclad. You'll get the other two as you play the game.
Its basically a draft match one after another.
And yes as all rogue-like games are, this one also has its own bonfire for you recuperate.
Climbing Up
The Spire itself is random-generated but the cards you get will all follow your base deck’s color (unless its a colorless card) so you wouldn’t have to worry about the deck being too much of an abomination as you add more cards to it because most of the choices have a semblance of synergy to one another.
Say if you chose a red deck, you'll always get red cards to add to the deck.
You can also choose what route you would want to take as you climb. These rooms range from you bog-standard monsters that add common cards to your decks to even random text-based choices that could totally alter your decks for you. So each climb would be very different from one another.
Each stage has its own sets of enemies and encounters and you choose your routes via the map
The fact that its random also means sometimes you’ll get lots of crazy stuff that enhances your deck and make you a spire-slaying god and boy does it feel good when that happens.
An example of a crazy enough deck that happened from me stacking relics on top of more relics.
The Spire will have three levels each time you climb and after you finish all three levels with all three base decks the game unlocks a new challenge for you.
When you beat the stage boss, the game lets you choose a rare card to be added to your deck.
And of course, a rare relic which are mostly core to your play through.
The End Game
The title of the game is pretty self-explanatory. Slay the goddamn spire. Each time you climb and reach the end you’ll deal an amount of damage to the Spire’s heart and each time you climb with a deck you’ll unlock more cards and relics for the decks themselves.
Some examples of the relics you can unlock.
Although if you happened to finish the climb with all three decks, you’ll unlock the Spire’s keys. On all your runs afterwards you’ll have chances to collect these keys and fight the main boss one on one. If you do get to that point, I wish you luck.
You'll also gain access to shops to spend your hard earned cash. You can buy cards, relics and even remove cards.
No I have not beaten the main boss of the game yet and I don’t know if I ever will. It… was quite the shocker for me. If any of you readers did beat it, do tell me in the comments below.
My Thoughts On It
I’m a fan of card games so Slay The Spire really just made me fall head over heels for it. One fact that just made me fall in love with it is the core mechanics of the game. This game lets you see the enemies intents and you can decide how to react to that. It never hides any of the monsters’ special abilities from you. The game expects you to look at the problems presented to you and find a solution for it via the deck that you built and the hand that you have drawn.
Ironclad uses a ramp style deck which focuses on buffing you up and hitting the enemy with big cards
I’ve been playing the game for quite some time and still haven’t managed to beat the main boss so you can already surmise I’m not that good a card game player. Maybe you guys can do better yeah?
One of the bosses on the third level. Got lucky with a loop deck. But yeah. Even this deck wouldn't be able to beat the Extra Boss. Good luck with that.
Uh. Hi. Fancy seeing you guys here. Its me again, Wolvenciel. Back at it with more monthly delayed reviews. Well. Mini review I guess? Because its a mini-anime a sort. But trust me. Its short, sweet and super cute to boot.
This is the wife, Mizusawa Chisato. Absolutely my type.
Love Is Like A Cocktail or Oosake (I'm calling it that for this review) is basically just a short 3-minute anime about a woman who goes to work and comes back home to her stay-at-home husband/personal bartender to be fed homemade cocktails. Seems too simple? Well I like my diabetic attacks. And this show hits you at all the right points.
This is the husband, Mizusawa Sora. The bartender-at-home.
Most times the show starts off with Chisato working or coming back home to Sora and he serves her cocktails of his own makings. Now there are two things about this show I just can't help liking. The fact that its mushy as hell just because it wants to and the fact that its focused on the drinks. Now if you're familiar with this site you might have seen me post a certain anime called "Bartender" in a review. I absolutely adored it, and I adore this show for the same reason as well.
First Sora showcases the drinks he's making for her.
I myself don't drink but I find looking through all the possible different beverages you can make at your home something very different from the "Bartender" anime which focuses on drinks you order at a bar. And the fact that Sora serves them privately for his wife after her long day at work just feels so... homely to me.
Then you'll be seeing this sequence pretty much every single episode. The gulping.
Untying her hair.
Removing her glasses.
And swooning over her husband's lovingly crafted cocktails.
If you're wondering about the drinks, yes they even show you how to make them (roughly I guess no detailed instructions on how to mix the ingredients or whatnot but I'd imagine the simple drinks that Sora makes should be fairly easy to figure out. Or you can just hop on to the net and find out yourselves)
The ingredient sheet right afterwards.
*P/S: Consume alcohol responsibly.
A little warning though. If you're going through a break-up or a lonely phase I... suggest against watching this. Might make you feel worse and get you into the "happy people can explode" mood. The show bombards you with so many of these cozy lovey dovey stuff it just makes your heart go "kya" and "kyun" most of the time. Even if its just for a short 3 minutes. So yeah. If you have spare 3 minutes in your schedules give this show a watch. Tell me what you think about it!
Their wedding picture.
Oh and the ending song is catchy as well. That's the cherry on top in my opinion.
This is Wolvenciel, signing off.
Another P/S: I got hooked on to playing Monster Hunter World Iceborne. That was the reason behind the delay. Honest.
Recently out on Comiket 96 and soon to be on steam (we'll talk about that in other post sometime soon) comes another installment to the series and also a returning playable character, Youmu Konpaku. The gimmicks of this game? Lets just say ZUN mashed TH12 and TH13 together for the new spirit howling system.
Storywise, the main heroine was told to venture to hell (no kidding) by some spirit aninals to deal with someone that is plotting to take over the surface world. Then from time to time, the main heroine will be possessed by the spirits within dialogues.
For this release, the playable characters will be Reimu, Marisa and Youmu. Unlike other games, each will .... technically have 3 shot types each but basically just 1 shot type but with different dps value based on which spirit you choose:
Reimu unfocused: Typical homing bullets she have in past games
Reimu focused: Forward focus fire, slightly large area
Marisa unfocused: Forward + wide with lasers
Marisa focused: Tight, forward focused missiles for max dps on 1 target
Youmu unfocused:forward firing pattern based on position of her ghost form
Youmu focused:Similar to TH13 version of her, she will unleash a flurry of high damage, wide slashes after charging around 2 seconds
As for the gameplay, like stated before, it has some familiar vibes from TH12 and TH13 where collecting the spirits that will most likely lead to your downfall for being too greedy like the UFOs and entering howling/berserk howling mode which is quite similar to Ten Desires. However, instead of the typical red blue green being life, point and bomb, it is now change as an "enhancement" for the heroine. Collecting 5 spirits will enter howling mode. If you managed to collect at least 3 of the same spirit type, the heroine will enter berserk howling mode, gaining the specific spirit buffs while it is active
Red spirit (wolf spirit)
By picking this spirit, the heroine's focused shot type will be enhanced passively, the berserk howling mode of the said spirit will have longer duration and while in that state, the heroine will fire significantly stronger focused shot.
Green spirit (otter spirit)
By picking this spirit, the bomb/spellcard of heroine will be buffed with longer action time and overall damage. Berserk howling of this spirit type will be prolonged and 3 rotating shield will be formed around the heroine, erasing any bullets from hostiles that touches the shield.
Blue spirit (eagle spirit)
By picking this shot, the heroine's unfocused shot will be enhanced passively, the berserk howling mode of the same spirit will have prolonged duration and while it is active, the heroine will fire significantly stronger unfocused shot than before which can be useful for mob clearing.
There are also other spirits that can be collected for obtaining power points, score points, bomb piece and life piece. Lastly, there are rare spirits that can be used to respawn some of the absorbed spirits which can be used to respawn more life and bomb pieces if timed properly. However, these rare spirits is rather tricky to obtain as has requirements while in mid-boss battle to have it spawned. Some screenshots of the rare spirits are shown below
Rare spirit for Stage 3
Rare spirit for Stage 1
Rare spirit for Stage 5
As usual, ZUN nailed it again once more. At first, I find the OST feels not as overwhelming his other works but the more u hear it and understand the story, the music scores feels like it matches perfectly on the situation the heroine is in, especially on the Stage 6 battle. The timing of the bgm loop feels completely on sync with each spellcards and the moment the spirits backing up the heroine. Kudos to him as usual. Gameplay-wise, who would have thought that merging 2 of the difficult aspect of mechanics from other games can actually make the game much more doable. Sure, getting extra lives is rather difficult but having able to choose berserk howling mode makes up to match the player/s playstyle to go for high risk + reward or play much safer route with otter mode spams.
Additional tips for the game, otter spirit shot type is the best pick to clear the story mode since the bombs in that shot type has extremely long action duration can be abused to be activated before the boss declares spellcard and deal a substantial amount of damage tot he boss without compromising the spellcard capture reward. However, the same exploit cannot be used on the extra stage boss because obviously, the boss is immune to the bomb damage. There are also berserk howling mode that will act like double edged sword and can end up hinders your playstyle more than it benefits you in extra stage. Some examples are shown in the 3 clips attached at the end of the post
To top it all, here's some gameplay clips of the game including 1 short saved stream.
Touhou 17 stream
1st Extra Stage clear
Hard mode run with Younu + Otter spirit
Guess what? The game is out on STEAM on 10th September 2019! Be sure to support him as now, it is easier for non Japanese fans of touhou to support his work instead of getting the copy by going to reitaisai & comiket or... piracy. Do check it out since the older titles are also out for quite a while. Touhou 17 on steam
In the mean time, you can check out the game through the usual link. There's even english patch of the game despite being very new. Moriya shrine link (english pre-patched)
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