http://www.draconika.com writes:

“There are many different types of dragons.”

Very true.  This is one of them.

This week’s dragon is a Green Dragon because of it’s distinguishing “green” colour.  Such colouring suggests it lives in woodland areas as it blends in perfectly with the general foliage.  Unless it’s winter.  The strange blue tint on this one’s wings, however, shows that it could also possibly hunt underwater, with what appears to be small fins on the elbows of its front legs and its neck and head ridges.  Mentioning wings, these seem to be perfectly capable of supporting the weight of this magnificent creature, so flying should come naturally to it.  The claws are a very odd shape – a little square and flat.  This could also add to the underwater hunting theory, as they would make perfect flippers.  They would also cover a large surface area, helping the beast to balance perfectly on muddier or more slippery areas.  A woody marsh may be, then, the most plausible area in which this dragon lives.

I am not entirely sure about the presence of the small woman, but she offers some scale in terms of dragon/human size ratio.  It would also suggest that this dragon is friendly towards humans.  Also, I would vouch that this dragon cannot breathe fire.  The reason?  Fire in a wooded area doesn’t mix on the best of days.  Plus I would have scorched that little lady to a timber and taken her shiny sword by now.

 Tune in next week (or so) for the next Dragon of the Week!

It’s not very often that I decide to have a long fangirl rant about how much I enjoy a game (or in this case a series of games). However on recently replaying the Baldur’s Gate saga I feel an urge to write about just how amazing the series is. So hold on to your +3 swords and prepare to accidentally grow 6ft white beards, as here is my retro rant of the Baldur’s Gate games.

The Baldur’s Gate games are based in the “Forgotten Realms” world, made famous in fantasy gaming circles by being one of the most possible campaign settings in table-top Dungeons and Dragons. The game used the Dungeons and Dragon rule set and came equipped with a massive manual listing all the rules. Fortunately things were fairly easy to pick up without taking on the mammoth task of learning how to play D&D fully.

For those of you not familiar with the series I’m probably about to drop some major spoilers on the plot during my over-enthusiastic ravings so if you don’t want things to be ruined for you (and if you intend to play this series of games, you won’t) skip past the next two paragraphs.

The Baldur’s Gate saga appropriately begins with Baldur’s Gate, a game that sees you as a young orphan (a character of your own creation) being looked after by the sage Gorion in the safe-haven of Candlekeep. However on one day your foster-father is evidently a little jumpy and decides you to whisk you away from the keep evidently attempting to protect you from something. You soon find out what that “something” is as a sinister armour clad figure slays Gorion and leaves you alone in the world. From here on in the game is pretty free-roaming as you travel:- meet companions and reveal a complex plot before finally slaying Sarevok the armour-clad figure who also turns out to be your half-brother. You also find out you happen to be the child of the God of Murder Bhaal who a few years ago came to Earth and fathered many mortal children in order to continue his bloodline after his imminent death.

Baldur’s Gate II picks up pretty much where the first game left off, with you and your party of adventurers being kidnapped by an insane mage called Irenicus who wishes to use your power as his own. You escape his clutches (on several occasions) and eventually spoil his (and his vampiric sisters) schemes in a lengthy and epic tale. Your best friend Imoen (a character from the first game) is also revealed to be your half-sister. The plot thickens! Throne Of Bhaal concludes the Baldur’s Gate story as you (and your half sister and half brother if you let them tag along) travel the land eliminating your other half-siblings in order to bring peace or destruction to the world, in an epic and nail biting conclusion few games have replicated.

These three games provide a story experience I have yet to find bettered not just in the main stories but also in the sub-plots. I am hoping someone, someday (especially when the technology has advanced so much from the time these titles were released) manages to improve but so far all efforts in my eyes have failed. One of the many reasons this title stands out as incredible for me. 

 

 Given their age (and the fact that even at the time the games weren’t good looking) the graphics aren’t anything to impress (other than the gorgeous artwork), but this doesn’t really detract from the experience and neither does the isometric strategy game style viewpoint. The games’ core game play and its amazing characters (on top of the aforementioned storyline) carry it forward past the need for pretty visuals.

The game play in both Baldur’s Gate games is simple. Wander around large landscapes or dungeons fighting lots of baddies in turn based combat (that flows like real-time as opposed to Final Fantasy style). The game can be paused in combat and commands issued to your characters which make the bigger and more difficult battles very refined and based heavily on your strategy decisions. Also the second title (and its expansion Throne Of Bhaal) add some fiendish puzzles and riddles to the title adding a whole new dimension to the combat orientated gameplay of the original. There are hundreds of quests throughout the series to complete which involve and mix of your wits and combat tactics and the games (particularly the second instalment) maintain a feeling of freshness and variety through all these tasks you must complete.

Despite being made quite some years ago the series manages to maintain an addictive nature, and challenging levels of combat that can test even the most regular RPG player. The aforementioned sheer variety of subquests will also keep people digging out the games years later to see quests and outcomes they missed the first (or even second and third) time round.

 

The key highlight of the series of games for me is the cast. Bioware’s future efforts of Jade Empire and Neverwinter Nights II provide a better and more solid character interaction system but neither has provided such memorable or entertaining characters that are present in the Baldur’s Gate games. The dialogue from most of the cast is just brilliant. Minsc (and his deadly pet hamster Boo) for example stick in my mind as iconic RPG characters and will doubtless stay in the minds of all who play and enjoy the series. Other characters such as Jaheria or Viconia will also stick in my head as perhaps some of the most well realized companions you will ever find in a western role playing game and they didn’t even need to be 3D to achieve that.

Of course I won’t deny the series has its faults. The huge number of technically needless subquests can overcome plenty of people (I was myself when I first played the original game) and the first title in the series offers some incredibly dull wandering through pointless huge outdoor areas with little to do. However the second game did rectify this problem by making everything more compact and adding a level of linearity (from chapter 4 onwards) so the faults were rectified to a certain extent.

 When Baldur’s Gate was originally released as one of Bioware’s earliest projects, it came out promising a lot and the hype for the title was huge. Bioware to all intents and purposes managed to deliver a game that attracted new players while keeping the hardcore tabletop D&D fans happy. In doing so they reinvented the genre of Western RPG’s and developed a template almost all future role-playing games made in the west would draw from. A monumental achievement in itself.

Replaying these games has brought back many fond memories of RPG’s of old and reminded me that Baldurs Gate II is my favourite game of all time. Hopefully this will encourage some of you who haven’t yet donned a pointy hat and grabbed a 20-sided dice to give it a go!

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Putting a build-em-up on a console, however, is an altogether more difficult feat than humanly imaginable!

I would like to think of myself as a bit of a build-em-up specialist, after all I have been playing them ever since the DOS Theme Park slammed onto the Windows 3.1, long before the genre was even formed.  Lately it’s been a fairly saturated variety of game, with things like Zoo Tycoon and The Sims being the only ones to have stood out among the great sea of building game cack.  Which is why I thanked heavens that 4Kids finally disguised a mediocre marketing campaign into something that has not quite reinvented this genre, but has definitely left its mark.

“Viva Pinata” is a game based on the kid’s TV show of the same name currently airing in America.  The scenario is simple enough – build a garden, and watch the fluffy, personality-filled piñatas come and live in it.  Easy to learn, but increasingly difficult to master.  Some piñatas, it appears, are rather picky about the type of object you put in the garden.  Others want to come in and cause as much damage as possible!  Your job is to try and create harmony, using lower level critters to attract larger ones and gain new items for them, and sometimes for you!

As it’s aimed at a kid’s TV show, if the 4Kids marketing team have done their job, a lot of kids will want to pick up and play it.  Considering the game’s hidden difficulty I was a little sceptical about this as I hate the thought of lots of disappointed little faces, but then I found the handy “family” feature, which involves a (hopefully more skilled) adult with a second controller to aid the little ones in bringing the more adventurous piñata in.  The interface is excellent, and has the ability to give the youngster full control with the parent playing in the background when things start to go a bit pear shaped (or vice versa in this day-and-age!).  It really is nice to see a family approach to a game, and one with an interface that works well.

Which leads me on nicely to the main thing I was worried about.  The console issue.  Build-em-ups have a worrying legacy of not transferring to consoles particularly well, and there’s a reason for this: build-em-ups are complicated control-wise and most PCs have far more buttons to push than a controller.  The nice thing about this game, though, is that it was designed for a console, so while gameplay is complex, it actually works very well!  I know!  I’m surprised too!  But there’s no doubting it!  The game is solidly playable, with few or no hiccups.  Okay, so the map is a little precarious (could it kill them to let you zoom out a little bit more?), but otherwise it functions very well.  The only thing I found frustrating with it is the fact that in a blind panic, it’s very easy to choose the wrong button!

One of the many highlights of the gameplay is the…ahem… “mating” aspect.  This involves a lot more skill than you might think!  Once two piñatas are “romancing”, the game flies seamlessly into a mini-game, which is a maze of something that corresponds to that piñata.  Some are easy, some are frustratingly difficult, but if you do well, you’re rewarded with the “romance dance”.  The Pretztail one is my personal favourite!

The main pull-factor of this game, however, is the graphics.  They are beautiful.  Smooth transitions between animations and gameplay, lots of added extras like weather and day/night transitions, beautifully lit, nicely underscored – there isn’t really a bad word to say about it.  It takes full advantage of the 360s engine to create fantastic creatures, some so cute you want to just watch them for hours. There’s also plenty to do!  Aside from the plethora of objects and plants to install into your garden, there are hidden extras and shops to discover, upgrades to earn and new types of piñata arriving to take a look at your garden every minute.  You are literally creating a living and breathing world.

No game is perfect, however.  There are a few minor AI issues – a lot of the time a piñata just doesn’t do as it’s told, or even tries to.  I’ve yet to work out the cause of this, but apparently it’s to do with the mood of it, although when I play it it doesn’t seem to make any difference!  It’s also a little frustrating when the sour or “bad” piñatas arrive. The game sounds the alarm, and then fails to tell you where the thing is.  Before you know it that house you were painstakingly saving up for has been destroyed – very annoying indeed.

However, these are more personal annoyances than anything.  This is a game that really can’t be faulted too much – it’s a marvellous return to form for Rare and for the genre, and is firm proof that build-em-ups on a console can be done, and it has been done superbly. 

Now bring on the PC release!

Phantasy Star Universe does little to be amazing in terms of gameplay, but what it does deliver is a simple, fun, addictive experience in a colourful sci-fi world…

“Phantasy Star Universe” is the next installment in SEGA’s long line of RPG’s in the “Phantasy Star” franchise, one that has gained a massive following over the years, particularly its Dreamcast incarnation, “Phantasy Star Online” (which was released in 1991). “Phantasy Star Universe” can be played both online and off, with a single player storyline (around 15-30 hours in length depending on your in-game decisions) an unlockable offline “free mode” (where you can create a character and play without the confines of the main story) and a subscription based online mode, MMORPG style. Plenty to sink your teeth into here then, but not without its flaws.

Story Mode
In Phantasy Star Universe’s main story mode you take the role of “Ethan Warber” (pictured above on the left), who is your typical young, brash, so annoying you want to strangle him, character that the Japanese still seem to labour under the delusion that all gamers want to play as! Ethan teams up with a, fortunately, much more like-able cast of characters who cover everything from octogenarians with expert martial art skills to midget animals with serious attitude. Ethan and his teammates have to battle through various environments defeating hordes of monsters and obtaining keys to progress. These bursts of action are split up with various cut-scenes, boss-fights and space travel and take place over twelve in-game episodes. The episodes themselves are done like an anime T.V series with each having an opening theme, the main episode (where you control Ethan), a closing theme and a next episode preview. Being an anime fan I found this aspect quite appealing, and it does much to give the game a nice atmosphere and one that many people will enjoy.

The games combat is pretty much a button bashing fest as monsters spawn around you in the games world and you must defeat them. LOTS of them. The amount of enemies you defeat in this game verges on ridiculous at times as wave after wave attack you and you smack them all down with your weapon of choice. It’s all very simple and relatively easy, yet at the same time it’s fiendishly addictive. With the addition of weapon upgrades, the ability to create your own weapons and special attacks there is just enough depth to the combat here to make it remain fun through the main story.

Indeed the main flaw to story mode lies not in the games actual game-play but rather the awful (and I mean awful) teammate AI. Your friends are quite happy to stand around doing nothing but spout irritating quips while you battle legions of monsters. On the rare occasion that they do bother attacking they tend to miss or receive a swift death at the hands of your enemies.

Story Mode of Phantasy Star Universe delivers an enjoyable experience that is a little rough around the edges. The games story is relatively poor and cliché, and the AI of your team-mates is diabolical. However, SEGA have successfully overcome these two flaws to produce a single player that is ultimately good fun to play. Something that many games these days often forget.

Free Mode
On completing Episode IV of the main game “Free Mode” becomes selectable. Yes you can leave Mr.Warber behind and make a character yourself. You can be a robot, a cat-girl (or boy), a human or a big-eared super brainy elf-type thing! The characters are pleasingly customisable so you can really make them look how you want and once that’s done you can head out into the world of Phantasy Star without the confines of the plot stopping you. Unfortunately that’s about it. Aside from the freedom to do things, this is pretty much the same as single player, except it never ends. The teammate AI is still bad and there isn’t really anything to work towards, making it certainly the most boring mode in the game.

On-line Mode
It’s doubtless this is the main mode of Phantasy Star Universe. SEGA want you to subscribe to the MMORPG side of things and spend lots more money on the title. This is Free Mode, except your teammates (hopefully) have slightly better IQ’s than the computer controlled players as they are human beings. I haven’t played it myself as quite frankly for the ridiculously high price SEGA are asking a simplistic on-line game like this isn’t worth your money. With the added level of player interaction it may well be the best mode, but value for money this isn’t.

Phantasy Star Universe is a basic, simple RPG ideal for those new to the genre who want something light but enjoyable to sink their teeth into. Hardcore RPG fans may still enjoy the experience too as the game at it’s core is genuinely enjoyable. If you don’t require an epic plot or amazing graphics to enjoy your RPG’s then give this a whirl, its colourful, addictive nature should keep you engrossed for some time.

Scores
Artistry 7/10
Story 5/10
Mechanics 7/10
Love/Originality 6/10

 Overall: 6/10

Having never played the original “Shadow Hearts”, I had absolutely no idea what to expect, and having recently forced my way about a third of the way through Final Fantasy X-2, I was secretly hoping that this game would give me a little more to cheer about. With many of the developers’ influences coming from SquareSoft, it’s only fair to compare the Shadow Hearts series with Final Fantasy, and so I will: Shadow Hearts: Covenant is an altogether darker, more mysterious, and fundamentally better game.

For one thing, the direction is impeccable. I haven’t seen a story this well mapped out, or as incredibly bizarre in years.  Set against a backdrop of World War 1, the game takes place in a seemingly alternate universe, and although your characters never see any of the war, it is clear it is revolving around them.  The crazy thing about all this is that it actually works.

From the FMVs to the camera angles, to the atmosphere and character design, it’s not so much a case of one thing being made priority over another, practically everything has been thought about in the best possible detail.  The characters themselves are also a joy to play with.  The customisation of them is challenging but not scarily so, and is made up of hundreds of different elements that are introduced via a very smooth learning curve.  It could go as far to say that every gamer will have a unique character customisation without it going over everybody’s heads, which some RPGs can only dream about (I’m looking at you, Neverwinter Nights) (although I must admit once you get the hang of it the sequel is pretty good. It’s very buggy though…oh sorry, where was I?)

I’ll admit, at first the battle system frustrated me no end, but once you get the hang of it, you begin to realise that the game is a lot more about skill that you first anticipated.  No longer do you customise characters and see what happens.  Their actions are governed by the skill of the player in the form of the “judgement ring”.  A spherical rotating device that asks you to perform a series of well timed hits of selected controls in order for your characters to even decide to move from their spot.  It’s a test of reflex and dexterity as when the characters level up, pulling off the mighty “combo magic” attacks require an enormous amount of concentration, and can sometimes be near impossible.

There are ways around this, however.  You can turn the judgement ring off completely if it gets too hard, switch to a different styled ring that makes life easier, buy lots of expensive items to close the rotations down – there are aspects here to suit the need of most players.  Taking the fun out of the sphere, however, really damages the game’s unique-ness and playability, as it suddenly becomes just another RPG and, let’s face it, there are plenty of them around.  This is a game for all the Final Fantasy fans who would like a bit more of a challenge.

There is also a very interesting aspect to the game’s secondary (arguably) character, Yuri (who’s a bit of eye candy for my fellow bishie-lovers!) that gives him the power to transform into different demonic creatures, each with their own strengths and weaknesses.  One of the best fights in the game is to win one of these creatures, although most of them you use “soul energy” which you can gain from winning battles to get, and then level up as you see fit.  I would highly suggest levelling up equally – you never know when you might need that demon that can resurrect members of your party!

The most frustrating aspect of the gameplay, however, is the SP – a gauge like HP and MP, but this one is to do with a character’s sanity.  If they spend too long in battle, they go berserk and do either amazing damage to the current baddy…or to other members of your party.  Like every aspect of this game, buying “pure” items, can save the day, or alternatively you can wing it and see if you’re extremely lucky – on your head be it!

There are a couple of downers.  For one thing, the dungeons can get incredibly frustrating.  Some of them are MASSIVE, and it’s not as if the mini-map is going to tell you where to go.  Having and pen and pencil handy while lost in the mazes proves very handy indeed.  It also can get a little repetitive.  The gameplay is basically go to a town, do some shopping, visit a dungeon, fight a boss at the end.  It’s linear, but having said that I don’t see how the game would work otherwise.  It’s there to tell a story – and it’s a damn good one, albeit a little hard to follow at times. 

Getting highly addicted to this game isn’t difficult, and from the incredibly rewarding boss fights to the nice longevity of the game it’s definitely worth taking a look at.  It’s not like any RPG you’ve seen before, and the added bonus of a highly unique battle system only sweetens the deal.  Before you know it, you’ll be a slightly homosexual Frenchman collecting porn in order to make dolls for a perverted old man’s puppet.  Ah.  Now that’s what gaming’s all about.

DOOM!!!

Enchanted Arms is the first Japanese RPG to appear on a “next gen” (XBOX 360, PS3, Wii) system but sadly however this is about the only “next gen” thing about the title. Enchanted Arms is a cookie cutter JRPG to the extent that it has a linear path, a basic story, random battles, a cast of quirky characters and is lengthy. Fortunately this in itself is not a bad thing as, if you enjoy JRPG’s then your bound to enjoy Enchanted Arms.

Our lead is Atsuma (pictured above on the left). He’s a student at the enchanting university in the city of Yokohama albeit a not very good one. In fact Atsuma (not only being rather stupid, headstrong and in possession of a rather firey personality overall) has a magical ability in his right arm that appears to nullify enchantments.. which isn’t a good thing for an enchanter to have. However, being the rather carefree person he is Atsuma studies at the university with his best friends “I am officially great at everything, ever” Toya and “gayer than a San-Francisco Mardi-Gras” Makoto. All is well as the three boys sneak out of classes to see the festival in Yokohama, however something is of course about to go terribly wrong. Atsuma and company live in a world where there are beings known as Golems designed for certain tasks, however long ago some super powerful variations of these known as Devil Golems triggered a war and many people died. The Devil Golems were eventually sealed away by the various cities in the world… unfortunately (on carnival day too!) the one in Yokohama appears to be slightly more awake today and thus Atsuma’s adventure begins.

So Atsuma travels the world with his companions going to various cities, and dungeons as the plot unfolds before you. While occasionally characters like Makoto and Toya are with you, for the main bulk of the game your companions are Karin, Raigar and Yuki who you encounter on your adventures. Your party can also be made up of golems you catch during your adventures. There are plenty golems to collect and find (in a similar vein to Pokemon) and it adds a nice extra dimension to the game when it comes to tracking them down.

In Japanese RPG’s the most important things are story and combat system, and while Enchanted Arms storyline isn’t entirely up to scratch (its rather generic and simplistic) it excels a great amount in its fantastic combat system. The combat takes place on a grid similar to a chess board with both teams (your four chosen combatants and your opponents) facing each other and you take turns to move and unleash a variety of moves on your opponents or take actions which protect your team. The turn based combat and grid movement make the battles very tactical and actually require you to think on what actions you take. Each characters range of abilities make you consider what order to move them in for maximum effect or damage against the enemy and it’s wonderful to see your battle plans prove successful. Your combat and defensive skills are learned, found or purchased throughout the game with more advance abilities appearing in shops or found deeper into the games plot so you don’t become too overpowered and a good balance is achieved. Obviously fighting causes you to level up in the game too as you gain experience, but in Enchanted Arms it also gives you points which you use to boost your statistics, learn skills you have found and generally make you more powerful. Raising your statistics and learning you skills are far more important than gaining actual levels in the world of Enchanted Arms and while it was a nice system in itself I thought it made having actual levels mildly redundant and pointless.

Graphically Enchanted Arms is a beautiful game to look at. At first glance the environments may seem a little barren (and some of them are) but as you progress through the game you uncover more and more beautiful scenery and effects and by the time you reach the Ice Palace for the final showdown you will be blown away by just how good it looks.

Sound wise is perhaps the one area where Enchanted Arms is pretty bad rather than good or average the experiencing worsening depending on whether you play it in Japanese or English. The background music in itself is pretty uninspiring and mildly irritating but if you combines that with the dire American actors hired to voice the cast the experience is on the verge of making your ears bleed. While this is almost something that seems required when a game is dubbed from a different language, it still irritates me a lot. Play it in the Japanese (assuming you value your ears), I tolerated the English at first but it seemed to get gradually more cringe worthy as it goes along. The only good thing I say about the dub is it doesn’t ruin the slick jokes and quirky sense of humour apparent in many of the games dialogue exchanges in fact occasionally it adds to it with its awfulness.

Length wise there is certainly a lot to play through here, about 50-60 hours for the main plot and the few subquests and much, much longer if you intend to level everyone up to maximum statistics. There’s also a nice little online mode in the style of Pokemon where your golems can duke it out to see who the best Golem Trainer out there is.

Overall Enchanted Arms delivers a decent JRPG which considering the almost complete absence of this style of game on the original Xbox is a good start. The game has its faults, bad sound, merely average plot, and not really bringing anything new to the table but on the same hand it’s still an amazing amount of fun with plenty to sink your teeth into, great combat, a good cast, and some truly amusing dialogue. It’s not the golden JRPG it would like to think it is, but it’s one that is worth playing through as your bound to enjoy it.

I don’t believe that you would say

You wished that I would cry that day

But still I choked on tears’ embrace

Upon my heart, upon my face

I watch you now as you watch me

I know you’re smiling, I can see

You know my smile is slightly less

I hear you pleading happiness

I try to live and see the day

I see your smile again, and say

The things we used to. Far too much of

 Time was spent looking above

To the future racing far and true

Now I look, and I see you

The things we shared we shared them well

A pity we can’t share heaven as well

Mel – I would give anything to be where you are right now. Life is colourless without you.

“Life is just a dream, you know? It’s never ending!”

Soubi: “Ritsuka…I think you have something in your eye…” 

Ritsuka Aoyagi (right), adorably cute, is in middle school. Like most kids these days he is a rather emotional individual with the fairly big issue of his elder brother, Seimei – the only member of his family he truly trusted – being slaughtered by a puzzling faction called “Septimal Moon”. Alone and afraid, he is greeted by the mysterious Soubi Agatsuma (left) – an adult who was supposedly Seimei’s friend, and within minutes of meeting, Soubi tells Ritsuka he loves him. The obscure romance pulls Ritsuka into a world parallel to his own, where battles are fought with words by beings known as Sentouki, and leads him to discover his real name: Loveless – one without love.

It is clear from the very first moment that Loveless is a very art-driven title, with glorious colours and crisp, clear animation. The eyes are particularly beautiful, and hair is smooth and unnaturally flowy. It is more a canvas painting than a mere cartoon. Some of the more natural landscapes are also dazzling, with lots of green and pink in contrast to the somewhat darker, edgier city landscapes. I also adored the fact that very, very subtly, the mood of the art changes with Ritsuka – the character’s mood leads the artwork beautifully, and also encourages expansion of his feelings towards other characters, which is done superbly.

Masanori Sasaji (Meiken Lassie; music producer for Those Who Hunt Elves) also adds to the environment providing a haunting and beautiful score, as well as two gorgeous songs for the opening and ending themes.

Loveless artistry – a joy to behold

 Concerning characters, there are some interesting ones, and some not so interesting ones. For instance, for those of you who enjoy your joyous angelic crazy anime girls who dress bizarrely, there’s something for you too in the form of Yuiko Hawatari. There is no adequate warning to prepare you for…Yuiko.

Yuiko: don’t say I didn’t warn you 

She attempts to give the storyline a mild comic relief I believe, which in a way is a good idea as otherwise the show would probably seem a little monotonous, but in contrast to the fairly unstable nature of the emotions portrayed here, Yuiko seems awkwardly out of place.

Another character that stands out as being over the top for entirely different reasons is Ritsuka’s teacher, Hitomi Shinonome – a 23-year-old virgin. She starts well, but finishes poorly. By the end her constant weaknesses without any sort of resolution began to irritate me rather than pity her.

 Miss Shinonome

There are other various secondary characters, mostly the “baddies” that come to fight Soubi and Ritsuka. One pair that the scriptwriters thought was the most interesting spans a whole story arc of two episodes, featuring a lesbian (shojo ai) couple (Kouya Sakagami and Yamato Nakano aka “Zero”). Lesbianism in anime generally makes me cringe (I am a lesbian so no flames please – I don’t know the reason either) and this was no exception, probably due to the fact that both characters weren’t very nice people. Still, they provided a chance for Soubi and Ritsuka to get to know each other a little better in the process.

In terms of story, this is the only anime I’ve seen where I feel it should have been a lot longer. Perhaps it was shortened to its tiny thirteen episodes because of budget restraints, lack of popularity, who knows? Twenty-six episodes seems like a more desirable amount for a story that was just aching to go a lot deeper. Still, the ending (or indeed, lack of) left itself open for a lot more to come, and indeed the manga seems to expand a lot further than the series allows, so here’s hoping that a continuation is just around the corner.

Another key feature of the series are the extravagant “Spell” battles fought between the Sentouki, which are masterfully illustrated, but by the end of the series seemed to fill time more than continue the storyline. Having said all the above about making the series longer, I believe that some battles could well have been made shorter and a lot of the pairings cut out in order to establish a better relationship construction between Soubi and Ritsuka, as this is primarily what is set up at the beginning of episode one, but only very subtly and sometimes confusingly begins to build up. One key downer I felt about the series is that nothing is very well explained and nothing really reaches any sort of pinnacle. A lot of loose ends were left hanging by the finish.

However, the clever thing about the show is that is physically draws you in, making you want to figure out what is going on. For a shonen ai romance the distinct lack of kisses and cuddles between the leads compared to other titles of the same genre makes you appreciate them more when they do happen, and allows you to watch the series again to let you use the knowledge you gain over the series to gain better understanding. In short, you certainly get your money’s worth.

 A Spell Battle

Overall, I enjoyed Loveless, not for it’s shonen ai content, but for it’s sheer artistry. It’s certainly very well put together. To the impatient viewer the plotholes and rushed character introduction could be a little tiresome, but it is well worth continuing. Viewers expecting it to be a gritty shonen ai complex romance could well be disappointed, but those approaching it with an open mind should be transfixed.

And if the main storyline bores you, it’s worth buying the DVD for the hilarious “Good morning Loveless-kun!” that appears as a special feature on each of the DVDs – SD Theatre has never been done funnier!

Scores

Artistry: 10/10

Story/Mechanics: 6/10

Love/Originality: 8/10

Overall Opinion: 7/10

Let’s go and make memories together!

Taking the role of yet another self created male or female lead you find yourself on the hit list of Jedi to be removed. You fought under Revan’s banner in some of the most brutal and bloody clashes in the galaxy but you turned your back on your former leader and returned to the Jedi, only to be exiled and severed from the force for your crimes. After years of wandering the galaxy your past has caught up with you, as no matter as to what your own views are on the Jedi, your enemies count you as one and the vessel you were travelling on has been attacked…

KOTOR II has a hard act to follow when it comes to living up to its pedigree and to be fair developers Obsidian have done a fairly good job in taking over the reigns of the series from Bioware. What KOTOR II offers is a much more fine tuned game play experience than the original title but lacks a huge amount in terms of actual story. What you have here feels more like an expansion pack to the original game, adding slightly different locations mixed in with updates of planets you visited before rather than a stand alone game.

The most noticeable difference between KOTOR II and its predecessor is the fine tuning of the gameplay aspects. For a start you no longer have the rather annoying issue of having to repeatedly check lockers/corpses/storage containers only to find them empty as if a container is empty of items it says so above it. Secondly the character interaction which, while good in the original KOTOR wasn’t exactly perfect has been refined. When talking to your other party members you can now gain influence with them if you are nice to them and say things they agree with, which in turn helps their storylines progress as well as changing their attitudes towards you. Obviously you are going to have to react differently to the various characters depending on their personalities (some aren’t particularly keen on you to begin with) and this whole “influence” system allows for a level of depth missing from the original. You can also mould your non-Jedi party members into becoming Jedi (should you choose) as the adventure progresses. KOTOR II also adds the ability to select a “prestige class”. Once you reach a certain point in the game so you can become more specified in your chosen path. For example if you are a character who has heavily relied on force powers, you can select a prestige class that makes those abilities even more powerful.

With the high level of character interaction going on in KOTOR II, it would help it’s excellent features to be even better if the cast were an interesting bunch. Returning from the first game are the two droids T3-M4 and HK47 the assassin droid as well as whole new cast to fight alongside you. The most important cast member is Kreai, a wizened old woman with a mysterious past who takes you on as a pupil, and provides a very interesting character to interact with, accompanying her and the droids are such characters as Atton (yet another Hans Solo wannabe), Visas (a blind Sith who swears a blood oath to serve you) as well as a few others. This time the game will often force you to play as characters in your party that you wouldn’t normally select to be in your party from time to time, so you get a feel for the entire cast more in terms of personality and how they fight. While at first this may seem frustrating this is actually a nice touch as it adds an extra level of immersion and doesn’t leave a certain character stuck on the ship that you never play which happened frequently in the first.

Despite the great cast and AI KOTOR II really falls down with its storyline. What begins as an interesting premise that seems poised to reveal many details about the history of the era ends with a wet fart rather than a big bang with little or no actual details of the plot making sense. The game also ends exceedingly abruptly which was a major letdown after the epic ending cut scenes of the first. A few slightly less serious issues with the game spring from difficulty, the final few battles (by which my character has a very powerful force attack) simply consisted of me standing still and repeatedly using that attack again and again till the boss in question fell over. Not really a challenge whatsoever and very dull. Finally the game does get a little mixed up at times, early in the story Atton asks you questions which let you describe the events of the first game depending on your actions in it. You get to describe what happened to The Republic, Revan and Malek as well as inputting a certain characters gender. It’s a nice touch to be able to do this, but in future conversations the game sometimes seems to forget this, even having characters from the first game being referred to as both male and female in the same conversation despite what you specified earlier. It’s only a minor issue, but a noticeable one.

Graphically and sound wise what you get here is exactly the same as the original, which in terms of graphics isn’t exactly wonderful seeing as the game came out considerably later. But still, they aren’t extremely bad and don’t detract from your fun. The game also lasts even longer than the original (assuming you do a lot of the sub quests) and has the Dark/Light side replay factor too.

Overall KOTOR II delivers a more polished game play experience than the first game, which is mostly let down by having a poorly concocted story I have seen in an RPG for a while. Despite the stories short-comings there is still plenty of fun to be had here and it’s well worth it especially if you’re a fan of Star Wars.

Final Scores

Story 6/10

Gameplay 9/10

Graphics 7/10

Sound 9/10

Length10/10

Overall 8.2/10

1)      Most breads last at least a day after their sell-by date. Two days if you only use it for toast (always check for mould though. Mould is usually a sign for it to be thrown away)

2)      Forget about being healthy – buy things like milk, cheese and bread that will last the longest. White bread will stay fresh longer than wholemeal due to those wonderful preservatives. If you are worried that this will damage your diet buy lots of lovely fruit and vegetables to combat it – they’re very cheap when bought loosely and last the longest if you keep them in the fridge.

3)      If you’re planning on bringing anything electrical, ALWAYS ALWAYS get a computer technician or ask a senior resident to get somebody to help you set it up. I know it’s a pain, but it’s also a pain when you can’t use your computer for a week because your faulty Internet connection is acting up.

4)      No matter what they say, Freshers week WILL be the ultimate piss-up. If you’re not into that sort of thing, request that your room be a “quiet” one – chances are you’ll be put with people who are less of party animals. If you are into that sort of thing, remember – alcohol is expensive. Always budget and stick to it before going out. If you can’t afford to go out, don’t go out. All those peeps bragging about health earlier – if you don’t spend money on alcohol, you can spend it on wholemeal bread! Whoopee!

5)      Get to know your area – if you have a couple of days before you start your course, explore around. Get your bearings. That way when term starts you can tell everybody where the room is – a great way to get popular!

6)      Always stay true to yourself. If you have lots of work to do but your friends want you to go out with them don’t feel pressured – if they’re really your friends, they’ll understand. Of course, if you do want to go out instead of work it’s entirely up to you!

7)      Pasta is the ultimate God-send. Lasts forever, you can put tonnes with it or just eat it plain, you can get a load of it for under a quid and it’s incredible simple to make. Get some. If you don’t like pasta, learn to.

8)      If possible, buy everything before you leave. Student Union shops are very expensive.

9)      Learn how to do things like ironing, washing, budgeting and cooking before you arrive, and learn some short cuts[1] too – hand washing stuff is a great way of saving money.

10) REMEMBER TO INCLUDE PHONE CREDIT IN YOUR BUDGET!

[1] Example: washing up. Don’t leave it all to the end, wash it immediately after you’ve used it. Saves a lot of bother.