Friday 22 February 2013

Tales of Graces f

Gamespot Score: 7.0 (Good)

My Score: 8.0


(+)Pros: - Great story that is genuinely heartfelt, - Deep combat system that is visually stunning and satisfactory, - Tons of post game and optional content that will keep you occupied WAY beyond your initial clear, - Likable characters that offer a ton of different game play variety in battle, - Multi-player  between friends can be really fun.


(-)Cons: - Childhood section is rather long and weak, - Gets a LITTLE bit cliche at times during dialogue sections.


Gameplay time: 40 hours +



So, more "Tales" games. Lately I have been engrossed in "Tales" games more than ever and went A LOT into the culture of these games, I even went on Youtube to watch "Tales of Festival" videos. Anyway, "Tales of Graces F" is the recent PS3 release for the franchise (the ones that are localized anyway, I will never get to play Vesperia. Thanks alot NamcoBandai), and since its just a port to the Wii version of "Tales of Graces", many told me to skip it. I kept my will since I have never played an original "Tales" game for a long time (not a god damn spin off) and got the game....holy shit I was not disappointed. If you love JRPGs or the "Tales" series in general, this is one you shouldn't miss.




This tale puts you in the shoes of Asbel Lhant, the guy who wants to protect everybody (it's like a freaking meme now). The story starts as focusing of Asbel when he was a child, and forces you to play him as one. As a child he's nothing but a naive, playful brat that just wants to disobey his father, the lord of Lhant, his hometown. One day however when playing with his younger brother Hubert in the nearby hills, they discover a girl lying in the grass. She introduces herself as Sophie and claims that she has no memory of anything. They stick with her and soon they become friends. Following the events of this, the group of children somehow manage to get themselves into major trouble and their friendship just broke right there. Asbel ran away from home and went to train as a knight....for seven years. Now at age 18, Asbel gets called back to Lhant by his childhood friend Cheria, who he has not seen for 7 years. Little did he know this was the start of a new journey for him.



YEAH, DIE TO MY SLASHING LINES OF DEATH!

First things first, the story is great. It starts off pretty good already (minus the childhood sections), and ramps up to get better every single moment. The game never looks back, and you are presented with more interesting or intense story scenarios as you play. Best of all is that since there is a lot of friendship involved, things get emotional at times, especially when the game is at its peak. There is a lot of like, especially the characters. Most of them you know during the childhood sections, and back then they were all nothing but whiny and wimpy kids. Grown up they are a complete different story, most become likable. Like Cheria's caring attitude or Hubert's bossy demeanor. Malik is a funny old man and Pascal is just cheery beyond hell. Everyone's different personalities form together into an enjoyable party.


When you talk "Tales", you talk combat. With every game they change the combat system a little bit here and there so do expect to feel a little alienated at first. But alas since it IS "Tales", they didn't stray too far from their roots. Chaining moves together still feels natural, and in this game, they layed out different character's moves into 2 different sets, A artes and B artes, to make the game have more momentum. A artes are your combo moves, these can be chained together, up to 4 skills in a chain depending on your CC meter. B artes are just singular skills that you use once, some characters can chain B artes however, like Hubert and Asbel. CC is the key new mechanic here. SP is gone, and now everything you do requires CC. Using artes deplete your CC, and when you hit 0, you cannot do anything until your CC meter refills. This makes players a little more conservative and less spammy.


NOW DIE TO MY LIGHTNING, BITCHES!

All characters play differently in battle, and while you can only assume direct control of one character (like in all "Tales" games, don't bitch about it), you can switch between any of the characters in the game, there are 7 in total (6 in the normal game, another one in the extra content). As usual, you get to use any of these characters as your main, and since they all function differently, his can be really fun. If you get tired of playing Asbel, a brainless melee character that chains artes all day, you can easily switch to someone like Cheria who prefers to fight at a distance and support the team. You can only have up to 4 characters at once, so you will have 2 or 3 characters benched back, but no worries, they will still receive EXP, just in case you need a specific battle to win a boss fight.


Another really cool thing about the game is that you can play with up to 3 other players. A friend can at any time, assume control of any of the other characters. Together you can whoop ass and  screw up big time. Its also worth noting that without co-op, its almost impossible to defeat the rock-a-gong, because all your retarded AI team mates will get their ass handed to them by getting eaten. Your AI team mates aren't bad, since you can set their behaviors according to what you need during a boss fight.



Lots of stats and titles.

As for flaws...its mostly aimed at slightly cliched story moments. The constant rambling about friends can get a LITTLE bit annoying and repetitive, especially with Asbel. The childhood section is also pretty bad. Its long, its boring, and worst of all, you don't give a damn about the characters when they were young. They are naive, stupid, and annoying. Its all just a big build up to the better and more intriguing adulthood section that we are all waiting for.


"Tales of Graces f" is an awesome entry to the series and is all the more worthy of the "Tales" name. The deep combat system, great story, and plentiful of optional content makes it a game which you can hug for dozens and dozens of hours. If you had always enjoyed "Tales" games, this is one you would have gotten already. If you enjoy JRPGs, I see no reason to ignore this either. For the rest of you, this is a title that is immediately accessible. The combat system is fun, and almost everything about it makes it a great JRPG title.




Happy gaming!


Dark Sun Gwyndolin
HP:2121
Skills: Rapid fire*, Massive soul spread*, Energy ball*
Souls:40000


Difficulty:3/5
Times died on 1st playthrough: 5-ish



This boss is completely optional, and its actually recommended that you do not kill this boss in many cases. However it is my belief that you should kill this boss whenever you can during your playthroughs (he is an asshole). There is no reason not to actually, unless you want to stay committed to the "Blade of the Darkmoon" covenant or the "Princess Guard" covenant, in which in these cases, you should completely ignore this post. After you take the Lordvessel, kill Gwynevere and Anor Londo will go dark, leave and take the center elevator down to face this boss, who goes by Dark Sun Gwyndolin.



Wait wait...Gwyndolin as a girl with boobs? I APPROVE!

In many cases, Gwyndolin isn't a very tough boss, however the trick to this boss is that if you're hit once by ANY of his attacks, you're either dead or you will take a crap ton of damage. Each and every one of his attacks can kill you, but the thing is that he has only 3 attacks you need to watch out for. Still, as I said, his attacks are nothing to sneeze at, and chances are you will either kill this boss unscathed, or you won't kill him at all. Also since he is known as a feminine guy, he fights like a girl, and its very common for you to be pissed at times.


Rapid fire*- He rises a little bit and shoots a few darts/arrows at you. This one is simple, block everything. However, if you are hit by everything, chances are you that you are already seeing the "YOU DIED" screen. It hurts like a bitch, so please do block it.

Massive soul spread*- He disperses a huge bunch of soul arrows that float around him for a mere moment, then sends them all towards you at a quick speed. Dodge them as they come to you, don't bother blocking.

Energy ball*- Probably the only attack that will NOT one shot your ass. Still, its probably the attack that is the easiest to get hit by. Its fast, and it comes out incredibly quick. Dodge this one.


Fighting this guy is not that complicated, although he might catch you off guard during your first few attempts if you don't know what you are doing. His attacks hurt big time, and have the potential to one shot you even if you aren't running a full glass cannon build. Also, this fight is a dodge fest. You battle against Gwyndolin in a long deserted hallway with pillars at the side. You have to avoid his attacks as you approach him at the end of the hallway, and when you finally reach him you get to hit him for abit before he teleports further down, then you have to repeat the whole process again.



Die pussy!

As you can already guess, this whole process is incredibly annoying, especially if your character isn't built for doing massive damage. You'll have to dodge and run to him over and over until he dies. Getting to him is the issue since he tosses attacks your way. Lets go through his attacks, I label all of his attacks as special since all of them have the potential to kill you. Rapid fire is the first one, and this is the attack you have to worry about the least. He rises a little bit and sprays some darts/arrows at you. Blocking all these can suffice, but if you don't you're probably screwed.


Massive Soul spread is the most annoying out of the 3, as it can be easy to mistime your dodges and that will get you killed. This attack hurts like a bitch, and may one shot you depending on how many of the arrows you are hit by. Blocking these will reduce the damage taken, but its not worth as it still takes quite a good chunk off your health bar. Note that this attack and the rapid fire attack can be completely avoided by ducking behind pillars, though this will waste precious time which can be used to advance forward to him.


His final ability is the energy ball, which is the least damaging of his abilities, but will still hurt like a bitch. Its the attack that will catch you off guard the most, since it comes out incredibly fast and there's almost no indication of that attack coming. You can't block this and it will still get you even if you're hiding behind the damn pillar. So what do you do? Whenever you see a blue flash appear from Gwyndolin, just roll away, you don't want to get hit. 


When you finally get to him, you get to hit him for awhile, before he cowardly laughs at you and teleports further away from you, then you have to do everything again! Doesn't that sound like fun? Fortunately, he doesn't have a lot of HP, and since he only has 3 attacks, you can easily adapt to his patterns and eventually learn how to counter him. It did take me awhile to get used to his attacks though, and that cost me my life quite a few times.



Yeap, this is as feminine as guys can get.

As you can see, Gwyndolin isn't a complicated boss to  beat, but he sure is annoying to play against. He shoots at you, then as you get to him, he teleports away. He isn't exactly fun to fight, and when you beat him you get 40000 souls. You'd also have to betray the covenants as I said earlier, so seriously, this guy is pretty optional, though I have gotten the habit of fighting him everytime I have the chance to.


Peace.



Opening songs
OP 1 - Loop-the-Loop (Kotoko)

Ending songs
ED 1 - Baby baby love (Haruka Tomatsu)

Genre: Comedy, Romance

Episodes:12



I have been really busy lately, thus the lack of posts, I apologize for that. Some of you might wonder why I even bothered to review "To Love Ru" and "Motto To Love Ru" separately. They are more or less the same thing! Yes its true, but I do think this 2nd season does deserve a separate review on its own, because it's actually better. There are quite a few factors that actually make it a more enjoyable series than before, which makes me happy. Though in the end it really doesn't matter that much, because if you liked the original, there is really no reason to refuse this 2nd season. "Motto To Love Ru" should satisfy your inner otaku needs as much as the first did.



Girls galore

The opening song for "Motto To Love Ru" is great, and in my opinion is a great step up from the opening song used in the original. "Loop-the-Loop" is an incredibly fast beating and catchy song, a song much more suited for this kind of anime. Plus, its Kotoko, you really can't go wrong using her songs in an anime. The ending is "Baby baby Love" and its really just any cutesy song. Its by Haruka Tomatsu, whom I'm growing to like more nowadays. She's the VA of Lala, that'll earn some respect (and many other well known characters as well).



Rating:8.0/10


Ecchi and fan service behold, "Motto To Love Ru" has a boat load of these in store for you. This season has just as much, or in some cases even more fan service than the original had, and well, this is a good thing. Also, "Motto To Love Ru" has a HUGE step up in terms of visual quality and art style, because it looks so much better than it did in season one considering the time gap. And since the episodes are now split into 3 individual short sections, we get more screen time from characters that either don't get much attention, or characters that need a lot more love. I personally think this is a wonderful change of pace for the anime, they get to cover more story related stuff as well.




Hmmm..why the faces in such an awesome situation?

Well Rito's life just keeps getting better. Following the events of the first season AND the OVA, Rito now has even more girls than before to add to his harem. Its practically the first season all over again, but with more girls and more outrageous stupidity. Rito's house now has Celine, the plant baby from the OVA, and Lala's two sisters, Momo and Nana, living in it. Now he thrives to have an even better life, and I mean with all these new girls, he is bound to be happy. Of course, with so many girls that like him, there's going to be quite a lot of issues following up!


Being a sequel to...nothing much, "Motto To Love Ru" is just an upgrade of the first season. You can see the quality improvements, and all in all, its just a much better experience. "To Love Ru Darkness" is basically a sequel to this, so if you haven't had enough, don't worry, there's more to come, and I think there's even more to come in the future regarding this franchise. Its too awesome to die.


Peace.

Season 3 behold!


Elise
The Spider Queen




Elise is so strong right now. There's a very good reason to why I, or in fact, any decent player, would love Elise to the core. Not only is she a sexified version of Brood mother from Dota, she's got so many things that make her probably one of the best characters in the game. Her kit provides to much, and she can function as a mid laner, top laner, jungler or even a support down bottom lane. She's just SOO good right now. I alternate between what role I play whenever I use her, just because she does everything so well.


Laning (Top, Mid)


Elise's laning is pretty much the same thing as Pantheon or Gangplank. You just toss neurotoxins at your opponents until they cry mommy and go home. Against most matchups, she can just play poke and come out on top. To top it off, if your opponent does not go back when they're at low health from the massive neurotoxin poking, changing into spider form and jumping them for a kill is super easy, as her spider form excels at picking off low health targets. She's got great pokes in human form via neurotoxin and volitate spiderling, and a hard stun via cocoon, that can easily set up ganks or kills. In spider form she's got a great single target nuke/execute move via venomous bite that preys on low health targets, an attack speed steroid that buffs herself and her spiders via skittering frenzy for dueling, and rappel, a move that makes her untargettable and allows her to lunge on her target. An amazing kit for laning overall.


Jungle


Elise's jungling phase is also massively easy. For one, in spider form, her spider minions can tank minion damage, and skittering frenzy heals her, so combining these 2 ensure that she gets an incredibly sustained jungle run. Sustain and speed are never an issue, for she clears with average-above average speed, and her health never drops too low. However like most AP junglers, she can't duel worth a damn against invaders, but she can be a good thief, stealing enemy camps. Her ganking is insane. There are so many ways to start a gank as Elise. You can go in with human form (recommended), throw in Q,W and follow up with cocoon to stun them. Then change into spider, rappel on them, Q them and activate W. Or you can start with spider form, rappel on to them, Q,W, then change into human form, cocoon them, Q,W. When it boils down to it, lets just say that as long as your team laner isn't retarded, a kill is almost guaranteed. 



You thought sexy spiders wouldn't exist?


Team fights


Elise's role in team fights is pretty easy, its to focus on the enemy carries. Believe me or not, she does an excellent job at this, even if she doesn't manage to kill them, she can very easily force them out of the fight. Start with cocoon, catching their AD/AP carry, then follow up with Q and W. Immediately change to spider form, WALK up to them, Q them and activate W. About now they should be flashing or using their escapes, NOW you rappel onto them for the last bits of damage to finish them off. If they have multiple escapes, flash after them to finish them off (unless its a kassadin, f**k kassadin). But still if you aren't presented with a clear shot, it always works to just jump right in with rappel in spider form and start biting at the enemy carries to scare them off or make them focus you.



There is one thing you have to know about Elise. While it seems like she can do a lot of damage, she isn't the main carry or VIP on the team. If you build Elise as a full glass cannon, you're probably not going to get the most out of her, building her tanky is the way to go, since her % damage on neurotoxin and venomous bite already makes her really strong. In the hands of most decent players, Elise can be really deadly.



My build for Elise

-Boots + 3 pots (laning) / Hunter's machete + 3 pots + 1 ward (jungling)
-Haunting guise
-Sorcerer's boots
-Rylai's crystal scepter
-Warmogs armor
-Liandry's torment
-Rabadon's deathcap
-Zhonya's hourglass/Abyssal scepter



Zed
The Master Of Shadows




Zed is batman, don't try to fool me. Because like batman, he's got a lot of tools to make him feel like a master of the shadows. Bringing forth high burst damage and some sick mobility, Zed can be a real blast to play. Plus, he's an assasin, which means it going to feel immensely satisfying if you get fed. Zed scales very well into the late game, and he functions well as a mid laner, top laner or jungler. I do think he is very viable in top or mid, though I think he's jungling works, its just not as strong.



Laning (Top, Mid)


Zed's laning is all about bullying his opponents out of lane, because he does a lot of damage very quickly, and he is RESOURCE-LESS. He runs on energy, and because of this, he gets to do free harass all day. Maxing out shadow slash (E) is ideal, because it does high damage and is very very spammable. You can use it to farm or harass, and it works well both ways. If your opponent is melee, walk up to them and hit them with E and an auto attack (I think E resets your AA counter), then back off. If you decide to engage on you and fight back, do so by spamming E and only E. Because the cooldown is so short, you will probably win the trade (unless the enemy is a Shen or Irelia or something). If they are scared of you, throw out your shadow and E them, they still take considerable damage. The W + E combo is also your main bread and butter against ranged opponents in the mid lane, follow up with Q and you've dealt some nice harass damage.


Jungle


I wouldn't say Zed is horrible in the jungle, but he can do it. If you send Zed to the jungle, he's a farmer. He can farm really well and his shadow slash lets him clear camps incredibly fast. He has one of the best clear times in the game, and it only gets better as he builds damage. His sustain is HORRIBLE, though when he starts mowing down camps fast enough before they can do damage to him, it doesn't matter as much anymore. He is an excellent thief, as he steals camps so fast. His ganking is admittedly pretty bad, as all you have is a slow via W + E. After the slow you can switch places with your shadow and start hitting him, but unless your laner has some hard CC, he's probably already gotten away. Post 6 is easier for Zed, as his ultimate serves as a gap closer and pretty much makes him an unstoppable burst machine.



Featuring! Toilet paper Zed! 



Team fights


As an assasin, Zed's job is self explanatory. Find an AP/AD carry, ult them the moment you see them, use E + Q, hit them once or twice, W + E, switch places with the clone, hit them some more. By then the death mark on them will explode and they will most instantly die (unless you are WAY underfed, which shouldn't happen). After that, you'll probably get focused down instantly and die, but its okay, your job is done. An assasin like yourself, trading your life for a VIP on their team is a very worthwhile trade off. If you somehow DON'T die, make them regret not aiming you by going for the NEXT carry and kill them too, though it will be rather difficult without your ultimate.


Zed is a ton of fun to play. Having high mobility and damage is always fun, and seeing that you get to pick off any squishy you see late into the game should always put a smile on your face. He scales incredibly well thanks to the passive on his W, and be glad. He's actually a viable assassin type character! Lets not forget that he looks like batman.


My build for Zed

-9 pots + 2 wards (laning) / Hunter's machete + 5 pots (jungling)
-Boots of mobility / Ionian boots of lucidity
-2 Doran's blade (laning) / Wriggle's lantern (jungling)
-Brutalizer
-Bloodthirster
-Black cleaver
-Warmogs armor
-Last whisperer
-Bloodthirster (sell wriggles)



Blitzcrank
The Great Steam Golem




It kind of stings that Blitz is always banned in solo queue, because he wrecks too much shit down in bottom lane. He is a ton of fun to play, though he is too good for the fact that good grabs always wins game, and that is kind of unfair. But well, if you want to win a game, you've got to pick the cheap guys, and Blitz is one of those guys. A good grab will usually turn the tide of an entire game. Your team is behind in kills and there's one fed fella on the other side? You grab him and he dies instantly, suddenly your team is winning. Blitz is cool like that. He is one of the few supports that actually have late game impact, like Sona.


Laning (Bottom lane support)


There is really nothing you need to do as Blitz. All you have to do is hide in the brush, zone the enemy and look for a good opening to grab someone, and this opening is hard to come by, so for the majority of the laning phase you will be sitting in that brush doing nothing. You can just run out with W and E them, but with the recent Blitz nerfs it has become more risky to do that. Just look for moments where the enemy carry or support is out of position and throw out a grab. If you grab them, they are either dead, or they either burn flash instantly. Post 6 you actually have decent burst, and if you have a carry like Ashe or Varus, you can have them initiate with their ults, and that will give you an easy pull for an easy kill.



Vroom vroom mother f**ker

Team fights


Its the exact same thing as the laning phase, just on a bigger scale. Anyone you grab is more or less dead, but except now you have to look out for WHO to grab. Grabbing an AP/AD carry, assasin, high mobility champion, squishy will mostly result in a kill and probably a won team fight for your team. HOWEVER, don't go grabbing Alistars, Singeds, Jarvans, Garens, Karthuses, and for the love of god do not grab a f**king AMUMU! Grabbing wrong targets will often lead to disastrous situations for the team so be very careful. You can also engage with flash and your ultimate, since it gives your team a huge opening to go in. If you're focused after you've thrown out your ultimate, so be it, you are a support anyway.


Blitz wins games, and that's that. Even if they don't end up winning, Blitz will destroy the bottom lane. Grabs are so strong, and Riot themselves even said that Blitz is very hard to balance. What do you do as Blitz? Grab VIPs and instantly win team fights, or grab anyone down bottom lane and gain an instant advantage. Blitz is broken like that.


My build for Blitzcrank

-Rejuvenation beat + 4 wards + 1 pot
-Sightstone - Ruby Sightstone
-Philosopher stone
-Kage's lucky pick
-Boots of mobility
-Aegis of the legion - Ruinic bulwark
-Randuin's omen/Abyssal scepter
-Shurelya's reverie
-Twin shadows



Peace out. As long as I play league these will continue.

Tuesday 5 February 2013

Tales Of The Heroes:Twin Brave

Gamespot Score:n/a

My Score:7.0


(+)Pros: - Tons of cameos from various "Tales" games, even more so than previous crossover titles, - Beating on tons of enemies at once feels satisfying, - Finishers and team finishers are a visual delight, - Plenty of scenarios, both serious and comical, will lead to quite some play time, - Special character pair ups and interactions are cool.


(-)Cons: - Shallow combat when you compare to the classic RPG "Tales" games, - Proves to be rather repetitive as there are little enemy types, boss varieties and maps, - Too easy.


Gameplay time:About 15-20 hours +




As promised my workload from school is really piling up so I can't really post much. "Tales Of The Heroes:Twin Brave" is a new take on the "Tales" crossover spin-off titles. Its completely different from the "Radiant Mythology" games in which in those games, they were full blown RPGs using the classic 3D "Tales" battle system, and had actual RPG elements that we all know in love. In here, this is a different kind of game, its like "Tales"'s version of "Dissidia". You take all the protagonists and well known sidekicks from all "Tales" games and throw them in one huge beat-em-up cluster f**k, and this is what you get. A beat-em-up game where your favorite "Tales" heroes are made from RPG heroes into button mashing warriors. So, how does this new take work out?




The story of "Tales" games was always something that I looked up to (then again I only played 2 legitimate "Tales" titles, "Eternia" and "Graces"), but in here....its lackluster when you compare it to other "Tales" stories. In "Tales Of the Heroes:Twin Brave" you can play as any of the heroes of previously released "Tales" games, and they all have their own special stories, but for some reason, most of them boil down to the same things. They either seek the eternal sword for its massive power, try to stop bad guys from obtaining the eternal sword, or try to save the world tree. Its the same for almost every scenario, although some try to spice it up for a bit (like everyone wanting to kill Luke for his stupidity, or Kohaku getting cursed for a huge part of Shing's scenario). In a way, its not bad, but not very interesting. Its cool for the first few scenarios you dive into, but it gets old.



Asbel and Cheria! Cheria is stupidly broken in this game though....

As a beat-em-up game, you should know that the game play is fairly simple. Before you dive into any level you are given a chance to equip your character with equipment (which boosts damage/defenses/give special effects) and skills (which you can equip up to two). Normal attacks will allow you to well, damage your enemies like in good "Dynasty Warrior" game, while skills just have you dishing out flashy (or in some cases, not so flashy) attacks that can wipe out or damage a group of enemies at once. Skills take up some mana, which take the form of crystals above your character's life bars, and you have to recharge them by attacking normally.


Though I must say, like any "Tales" game crossover spin-off, the best thing about this game, is the very fact that there are so many characters across so many series that are in the game. Ranging from the incredibly old school characters Cless and Chester, to the recent new ones, Jude and Milla. Even if you've never played the games where these characters originated from, you still feel like a bad ass just watching them or playing them. Of course it feels even better when you've actually played these games where they're from (f**k it, Reid & Farah and Cheria & Asbel are one of the last few pairs to get unlocked) . Using these characters in a beat-em-up game makes you feel good, especially if you use skills to beat up multiple waves of enemies at once, and you watch the enemy KO count increase drastically.


Yuri and Flynn dish out the pain in the name of  "Vesperia" fans!

Clearing these enemies in stages are fun, as you use skills and watch flashy animations play out, while the enemies fly far away, knocked out by your awesome power and let out their final words in the form of shouts and screams. These moments make you feel truly epic, and even more so when you face a boss, be it a "Tales" villain or heroes from other games, beating them feels good (though not exactly satisfying, you'll understand later). Finishers make you feel like a complete bad ass! As the character you use unleash their ultimate iconic special ability, shit goes down as enemies just start dieing all around them. Be it Reid's "Aurora wall", Asbel's "Stampede Strike" or Yuri's awesome "Zanko Roenjin"(I hope I spelled that right).


It feels EVEN MORE bad ass when you use it in conjunction with your partner. After you perform a finisher you and you have enough meter for your partner, you can call them in to follow up as well. Its cool as hell when you see your hero finish his/her super, then tags out for the partner and the partner uses THEIR finisher. To top it off, all characters in the game can be paired up with specific characters for different finisher combinations. Take a hero for example, like Yuri. He doesn't only get special interactions and a finisher combination with Flynn, he also gets one with Leon and Milla! Every character has their own combinations, making discovering these and watching them in action all the better.


Why the hell isn't Xillia out in English yet?

Unfortunately when you make an iconic franchise like "Tales" into a beat-em-up, you're going to get this alot. The combat is shallow, and while its fun, it doesn't take a genius to become pro at it. There are no in-depth combos, no chains, no nothing, its just regular attacks and skills. Another issue is that the game has too little enemy types, boss varieties and stages. Almost every scenario will have you visiting the same areas, filled with the same enemies and bosses. In fact there are only 3 villains in this game! All this combined with the fact that the game is EASY. Beating regular enemies is a breeze, and bosses are the SAME as regular enemies, only tankier, and they are able to enter Hi-ougi. In fact the only tough moments are the regular golem enemies (sometimes you run into them really early on and can be a pain), and the fight against inner Emil using regular Emil.


Though it can be fun, "Tales Of The Heroes:Twin Brave" is undoubtedly a shallow game compared to its main RPG core games. Beating up tons of enemies at once can be really satisfying, and unleashing finishers makes you feel like a complete bad ass, but otherwise there's not much to keep the game from having a high replay-ability. You'll most likely play through all the scenarios once each, and by the time you would be done. At least it lasts you for about 20 hours if you intend to keep it that way. 







Happy gaming.


Opening songs
OP 1 - Forever we can make it (THYME)

Ending songs
ED 1 - Lucky tune (Santos Anna)
ED 2 - Kiss の行方 (Anna)

Genre: Comedy, Romance

Episodes:26



I must say I'm many years late to the party. I watched "To Love Ru" some time late last year, and damn, I have been missing out! "To Love Ru" is a great harem franchise, and while I do think season 1 just stands as a pretty good harem anime, the subsequent ones like "Motto To Love Ru Trouble" and "To Love Ru Darkness" are really entertaining! I can say for sure though that all three seasons bear some very strong ecchi content, which is obviously a good thing! A harem with a ton of interesting and likable girls is always a plus in my book! "To Love Ru" MORE THAN fits the bill, for it is GORGED with different types of girls. Technically, it also has a lot to do with aliens.




Yami and Mikan make an adorable pair!

For the first season, there isn't much to like for the songs in my opinion. The opening song is "Forever we can make it" by THYME, and its being used for the entire anime. Its just a pretty bland and boring song in my opinion, for an anime like this, the opening song has to be catchy, or at least a little cutesy to fit the mood (though I'm not into cutesy songs). There are 2 ending songs, and I think they are sung by the same singer. The first one is lucky tune, and I guess it fits a little to into the "Cutesy and Catchy" category, but to my opinion its not really to my liking. The 2nd ending was better, and its actually pretty awesome to listen to. It might actually be my favorite out of all the songs used in the first season.



Rating:7.5/10



Season 1 was enjoyable, but I think its merely a stepping stone of the greatness to come. Its pretty old (probably 5 years old now), but don't let the old animation style and visualization stop you, its still a damn good anime with the greatness of harem and ecchi elements that we all know and love. If panty shots, accidental boob groping and such are your thing, then go for it! This anime is for you, because it probably does these moments better than many other ecchi animes. Though this first season can get a little dry at times, it does it job well and can put a smile on the face of viewers.




What the f**k Rito.
Yuki Rito has to be the luckiest f**ker in the world. He's your regular high school kid loser who can't even confess to the girl he likes. One day though, his life changed for the better as a pink haired girl suddenly appeared NAKED in his bath while he's in it. After a brief introduction the girl introduces herself as Lala Satan Deviluke, an alien princess from the planet of Deviluke. Without much incentive, Rito suddenly becomes the candidate for becoming Lala's bride, and before he knows it Lala's royal guard acknowledges it. Now it seems that he will become the next in line for the throne of planet Deviluke...of course not before living a life of bliss on Earth with Lala, meeting new girls and further improving his life!



"To Love Ru" is just the opening door to a great harem/ecchi franchise. The first season has some downs, but is still pretty enjoyable for the most part. If you want to indulge yourself into harem and ecchi goodness, "To Love Ru" is waiting for you. Its a pretty big franchise right now, and I must say its growing with every new season.



Peace.