Bernkastel

Here's a link to the song I mentioned in my previous post.

Personally, I can only think of one character, Touko Fukawa/Genocider Sho, and it's more being the only character I can think of and for her part in the Danganronpa game series, rather than the anime.

I'm currently reading a graphic novel, Seconds by Bryan Lee O'Malley. It's about Katie Clay, our protagonist, and how she tries to sort out her life, which has had a lot of things go wrong recently, via the aid of magic mushrooms. Yeah, I've used them myself...oh, wait, these are actually magic mushrooms. Oh. Anyway, she can use them to make a mistake she's made go away. She decides to use of ton of the, which you aren't meant to, in an effort to fix everything, but things go wrong.

So, here is a thread for the Yakuza series of games, one about a plushie sales team called the Yakuza and their deadly mission to meet their sales targets in time. Okay, it's a fighting game revolving around the far less amazing Japanese crime organisation with that name. You play as individuals connected to that world of organised crime, the main one being Kiryu Kazuma. In my experience, admittedly limited to Yakuza 0 and Kiwami, it's a fun blend of serious drama, ridiculous antics and curbstomping. The side-quests are a definite highlight. It's always interesting to see what random shit you are going to get wrapped up in. The main story also tends to be engaging and the fights are a delight, even the random fights with thugs. It's fun to cut loose and see what heat moves you can unleash. Anyway, I'll stop my ramble. This is a thread for anyone who wants to talk about this series of games. I'll be posting stuff from my playthrough of Kiwami and I welcome others who want to talk about their own experiences/opinions regarding these games.

I've been making my way through Nichijou, in part for the sake of episode reviews I was posting on another site.

I don't like SAO for reasons brought fourth by others. Plus, there's its popularity. I'd be more forgiving if it wasn't so big. I mean, it's effectively one of the big anime series, plus has prominent game releases and a lot more speed in getting to DVD/Blu-Ray than other shows. If it were one of the many shows at it's level, with the invincible protagonist, harem, creepy fanservice, bad villains, etc, I could ignore it. But it's not. It even has other anime try to be SAO. Personally, it is not remotely that good.

Well, I'd need a pet first. But, based on past experiance on how I get attatched, it would be very sad. I'd want a burial.

I'm currently listening to Bubbles, the Japanese opening song for Yakuza 0.

So far, I've only watched episode 1. I do intend to watch the rest. I'll put my reactions/opinions here, if anyone's interested

I'd say I like it, but I liked Mob Psycho more. As for a 2nd season, I'd be very surprised if there wasn't one at some point.

I agree. The format of anime, combined with differing norms in regard to animation, allows anime to try to do things in regards to story and what's shown to viewers that you rarely, if ever, find in competing media. It's one reason why I like anime.

It's a harem anime that gets called a deconstruction by some based on how it shows the whole guy with a harem character as a massive ass, along with a bunch of the other characters, and how everything collapses on him from the effects of his assholishness and cheating ways, as you'd expect it to. Personally, I just think it's shit that happens to show the problems of the harem genre simply by doing it in a shit way that inadvertently shows those problems. It simply failed at the stuff needed for people to normally overlook the shit. There's also the ending, which was one ending of the visual novel picked at random by the anime creators. It involves the main character being killed by one of his harem and his head later being cut off by another harem member, who was mentally broken by how much she was treated like shit. Harem member one dies and harem member two ends up on a boat, clutching the main character's head.

Personally, I'd say that sort of thing is something you should expect in horror in general. Trying to be creative/brutal with the deaths is a common horror element, as a way to make a horror series unique. The idea of "only getting away with so much" doesn't really apply, beyond potentially dulling your intended audience, driving them off with stuff they can't handle or being unintentionally hilarious. An example for me would the corpse party games where I eventually stopped caring about the deaths. I'd say the previously mentioned School days is a better example of going too far, in that it's ending does not fit the genre. Admittedly though, I'm one of those who hates school days, so personally found it cathartic. But it still really does not suit the series and thus I can see how it can be considered to be going too far.

No, I don't. Not only do I have issues with how DLC is handled and fears about somehow losing such content, but I'm effectively offline back home. So, downloading any DLC would be quite a challenge.

I tend to to prefer forums, though this is partially due to me rarely encountering chat rooms I'd like to use. Plus, there's my time zone and limits to my internet access. It's hard to make a chatroom experience worthwhile if no one's there chatting when you're there.

Hi, fellow Brits.

Only if you somehow end up in it.

Of course.

I'd go with 9. I've always had a few people I talked to, even at school, and I've very rarely been hated by anyone. Yet I really have no real connection to anyone, beyond a penpal who hasn't been able to to to me in months, and I don't mention my interests to anyone beyond my penpal. None of them are interested in that sort of stuff.

So, I've continued my playthrough of Virtue's Last Reward. I'd stopped roughly at the start of an escape section (security room), though it was easy enough once I'd realised my occasional ineptitude with touch controls had been the cause of my failure to activate the password monitors. It's good to get through a puzzle section, especially when I'm in a glum mood in regards to certain things. Plus, I like Phi and her interactions with Sigma. Anyway, I've gotten up to a password section that requires info from one of the other time lines and, since it was late (1 AM), I've stopped for now. But I'm in a position to easily continue it.

So, I've continued my playthrough of Virtue's Last Reward. I'd stopped roughly at the start of an escape section (security room), though it was easy enough once I'd realised my occasional ineptitude with touch controls had been the cause of my failure to activate the password monitors. It's good to get through a puzzle section, especially when I'm in a glum mood in regards to certain things. Plus, I like Phi and her interactions with Sigma. Anyway, I've gotten up to a password section that requires info from one of the other time lines and, since it was late (1 AM), I've stopped for now. But I'm in a position to easily continue it.

Angel Beats has been mentioned a number of times, and justly. That has quite the number of emotionally crushing deaths and did affect me. Hmm, I wonder if Mayuri's multiple deaths in Steins Gate count?

So, I've started Metro 2033, the first of two games in Metro Redux. It's a shooter, set in the Moscow Metro after a World War. Humans are trapped there, dealing with the struggle of surviving and the threat of mutants. While the game is linear, the setting is given chances to be fleshed out, with the Metro stations and the chatter of various people. You can choose Russian voice acting, which is an improvement over the English acting and does add a bit to the feel of being in a Russian setting. However, it does mean missing out on a lot of random dialogue from background NPCs. As for the combat system, I've only faced mutants so far and their tactics are basic, though there was one moment where a mutant popped out of a hole near an item and killed me. I anticipate improvements when I face human opponents, since I've heard they tend to react more intelligently than usual shooter AI to your actions. I've made more progress with Berseria and have started properly toying with elements of the combat system that I had not done much with. It's becoming more and more fun as I move forward. The writing and character interactions are good and I also like the minor dialogue of NPCs. It does a lot to enhance the setting and introduce shades of grey in regards to the enemy, via expressed opinions. Velvet's interactions with Laphicet are sweet and those between Rokarou and Eizen are fun. The cooking and scouting systems are interesting, though the recipe feature keeps reminding me of Final Fantasy 15, with the line “I've come up with a new recipe” popping in my head when one is discovered in this game.