The release date for Strike Witches OVA(Operation Victory Arrow) has been revealed! The first episode of the 3 episode series will release on September 20th, 2014! Additional info released states that the original cast of voice actresses for the main girls will also return as will the production staff for the past entries in the franchise! It is always great news to finally get a release date for something yuri and September 20th is not far off! Also hearing that the main cast of girls will be voiced by there respective voice actresses is also comforting. The original voice actresses are so excellent in bringing there characters to life having anyone else do them is pure madness! As it stands September 20th is the date to watch for more Strike Witches and I will post more info as it becomes available!
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-06-06/strike-witches-o.v.a-staff-cast-release-date-unveiled/.75274
Saturday, June 7, 2014
Friday, May 23, 2014
Video Game Review: Metroid Prime 2 Echoes(Wii)
***SPOILERS AHEAD!***
It is a pretty common thing to say, and expect, that sequels are never as good as the originals. That doesn't apply to the Metroid Prime series. Released in 2004, Metroid Prime 2 Echoes masterfully matches the successful quality established by its predecessor and at some times even surpasses it! Echoes is a triumphant return to the Prime series by developer Retro Studios, adding in new enemies, a new world to explore and new weapons and upgrades to discover! Echoes is everything a game can and should be, and then some!
Some time after Metroid Prime, Samus Aran recieves a mission from the Galactic Federation. They have lost contact with a squad of troopers somewhere on the planet Aether and they need Samus to assist the squad. Upon arriving Samus discovers that the planet has also been infected with a Phazon Leviathen. The power of Phazon has created a dark and twisted version of Aether on half the planet, called Dark Aether. The inhabitants of Aether, the intelligent and peaceful Luminoth, were plunged into a bitter war against the inhabitants of Dark Aether, the Ing, over the planet's energy. Samus sets out to aid the surviving Luminoth in retrieving the planet's energy and in destroying the Ing and Dark Aether forever. Her mission is made even more dangerous with the emergence of the very powerful and deadly doppelganger, Dark Samus. The storytelling is relatively sparse in Echoes, just like in the original Prime. While there are some cutscenes with new characters to explain important backstory and major plot points, most of the story in Echoes is once again told by scanning terminals, artifatcs and the like. The story it does tell still does a good job of adding a sense of dream and mystery especially surrounding the nature of Phazon, the Ing and Dark Samus! There is no shortage if intrigue in Echoes!
Samus Aran(Dark Suit)
Luminoth
Dark Samus(booo!)
Ing
Emperor Ing
From a gameplay stand point not much has changed from Metroid Prime to Echoes. Honestly it really didn't need to. You once again play as Samus from a first-person perspective, traveling across diverse and amazing environments collecting upgrades and items and defeating powerful enemies. The big change from Prime to Echoes however is the difficulty level. Echoes was criticized on the GameCube for being VERY difficult, especially with the boss battles and some of the fetch quests. A lot of this difficulty though came from the fact that the challenging nature of the game didn't translate well to the GameCube's control scheme, which was never very good for first-person perspective games. The Wii version however gets a major boost thanks to the new motion control scheme! With much greater ease at moving, aiming and exploring the game is much gentler on gamers and far less frustrating. That isn't to say the game is not challenging. The game is still more difficult than the original Prime, particularly with the epic and awesomely designed boss battles! Most of the major boss fights will go on for a very long time over multiple forms! These forms do a great job of keeping you on your toes, requiring you to use almost every available tool in your arsenal to achieve victory! Don't let the challenge turn you away though. The highs of victory are oh so sweet when you topple Echoes' big bad bosses! ;) The combat for the rest of the game is just as fun and tricky as the previous entry! New creatures and enemies will test your mettle and have you make use of various tools and gear just to beat them all, especially all those tricky variants of the Ing! Combat is once again as smooth as ever thanks to the Wii's motion controls too! Just like in Prime, exploration is a HUGE part of the game. You will be scouring environments all across Aether and Dark Aether looking for upgrades, new equipment and weapons and scanning almost everything to learn about the game's backstory. Once again you will be looking for Energy Tanks to increase your health and Missile Expansions to increase your missile capacity. You will be looking for new suits like the Dark Suit(protects you from poisonous Dark Aether), and new weapons such as the Light Beam(super effective against the dark Ing), and new visors like the Echo Visor(lets you see the sound of hidden objects and enemies). Metroid Prime 2 Echoes also marks the return of the almighty Screw(ehehehe Screw!) Attack to the franchise! The game also makes use of a token theme also used in other Nintendo franchises: Light vs Dark. Having a Light Aether and a Dark Aether to explore adds a greater level of depth and exploration than ever before. traveling on the dark side of the same area of Light Aether takes you to an area with a whole new lay-out, different secrets to uncover and new enemies to battle. Having two layers to the same world doubles the exploration and content that can be put into the game and makes exploring the world of Echoes a total blast! The gameplay in Echoes is simply perfect! :D
Much like the original prime, Echoes also sports an awesome soundtrack! moody themes help build up atmosphere when discovering new areas. Intense tunes signal the start of epic boss fights. The sound of the world itself and the creatures and beings that inhabit it also sound amazing! Echoes is a feast for the ears! The graphics form Echoes are some of the best that was ever seen on the GameCube and they have withstood the test of time! Vibrant and colorful worlds set the tone for the entire game. The vibrant and detailed environments of Light Aether are perfectly complimented by the darkness and mysterious look of Dark Aether. Echoes is a visual treat with amazing detail in architecture, world and creature/enemy design(especially the badass Ing and Dark Samus), and awesome effects from explosions and lighting and so on make Metroid prime 2 Echoes something worth looking at!
Such a beautiful game! :D
Metroid Prime 2 Echoes is such a near perfect game! Amazing gameplay, outstanding visual design, awesome sound effects and soundtrack all combine to create one of the greatest Metroid adventures of all time and the Wii version is the absolute BEST way to experience it! :D Metroid prime 2 Echoes is everything a squeal can and should be! It stands shoulder to shoulder with the original while doing more than enough to give it an identity of its own! a must play for all gamers! :D
Metroid Prime 2 Echoes(Wii) score: 9.5/10
Sunday, May 4, 2014
Yuri Visual Novel Review: Sono Hanabira ni Kuchizuke wo Watashi no Ouji-sama
***NSFW IMAGES***
***SPOILERS AHEAD!***
Watashi no Ouji-sam(My Dear Prince) is the second game in the Sono Hanabira ni Kuchizuke wo yuri visual novel franchise! Just like it's predecessor My Dear Prince tells a sweet, romantic and sex filled love story between two girls! And just like it's predecessor My Dear Prince is funny, cute sexy and just plain awesome! :D
Not a whole lot changes from game to game in the Sono Hanabira series aside from the main girls. The visual novel once again takes place at St. Michael's School for Girls. The novel this time follows shy class president, Kitajima Kaede, as she has her life turned upside down with the sudden return of her outgoing, peppy and VERY amorous cousin, Kitajima Sara. Just as in the last novel the two girls in this entry go very well together and seeing there love blossom is a blast to watch! Kaede is your typical shy girl who hates being the center of attention. She would much rather fade into the background and avoid contact with others. To that end she wears glasses and has her hair tied into a braid to look plain(I will say this right now, her plan fails. Kaede is too damn cute and lovable looking like this XD).
Fucking adorable! *drools
Sara is Kaede's cousin but is vastly different from her cutely nerdy family member. Sara works as a model and thus is very popular in school. She is outgoing, friendly and beautiful and she makes it a habit of being very open about what she thinks and feels, mostly towards Kaede of course. It is when Sara is alone with Kaede that Sara's personality truly shines! Sara has harbored more than family like feelings for her cousin since childhood and as soon as they reunite, she wastes no time in trying to..."get close" to Kaede ;) Sara provides a lot of the wonderful comedy in this novel as she does everything in her power to be alone with Kaede, bond with Kaede, have sex with Kaede and get Kaede to be more confident in herself. Trust me when i say you will be making multiple saves just to go back and revisit some of Sara's cuter and funnier moments! :D
Fucking sexy! *drools again
The interactions between these two girls is some of the best in the series! Seeing Kaede try and fend off her cousin's advances while sometimes giving in to her own desires is funny and sexy to watch! Likewise seeing Sara continually show love and faith in Kaede is adorable and heart-warming to see. The best moments of course happen as Kaede realizes her own feelings for Sara and becomes a more happy and confident and open girl in the process! The sex scenes between these two are fucking amazing as well! These moments are injected with the perfect mix of love, comedy, randomness and sexiness any great yuri product needs!
There is no denying the deep chemistry between these two! Sara and Kaede are yuri GODDESSES! XD
The artwork and music for this entry in the Sono Hanabira series hasn't changed one bit. Not that it needs to. The artwork was amazingly detailed and beautiful to look at to begin with! Backgrounds are the same as the first game save for new images for Sara and Kaede's home and the nurse's office at there school. The artwork for the girls and the love making scenes are once again gorgeous to look at with the girls having a soft and gentle art style to them. The love making scenes show great passion, making sure you can see and feel the love between these two girls! One can't help but want to stare and look at the images for a long while over and over again! And I don't just mean the sex images! yeah I would never suggest a thing like that! Honest, hehehehe.....
The music is also exactly the same as the last game with no additions or changes whatsoever. But like the imagery and art work that is not a bad thing at all. The music fits wonderfully with this new couple and is still a joy to listen to! The voice work for the novel is once again top notch! the voice actresses for Sara and Kaede could not be more perfect with Kaede being able to sound cute and shy and nervous most of the time, and then confident and sexually seductive when things change! Sara sounds just right with her peppy and care free voice. Her voice actress perfectly projects Sara's confidence, random nature, slightly ditzy personality, and constant love and desire for Kaede without a hitch! Simply flawless voice work!
With this second game the Sono Hanabira franchise shows it is one of the best yuri properties of all time! Awesome sex scenes, an ultra cute and perfectly matched couple, wonderful sound and visuals combine to make Sono Hanabira ni Kuchizuke wo Watashi no Ouji-sama a knock out entry in the franchise! Do not miss out! :)
Sono Hanabira ni Kuchizuke wo Watashi no Ouji-sama score: 10/10(As if there was ever any doubt!)
Monday, April 7, 2014
FanBoy's Favorite Tunes: Metroid Prime(Wii)
Really sets the tone of mystery, wonder and a bit of dread! Perfect for a Metroid game! :D Always worth listening to in the credits!
Video Game Review: Metroid Prime(Wii)
***SPOILERS AHEAD***
Metroid Prime holds legendary status among the video game community for very good reason. It is fucking amazing! Originally released in 2002 for the Nintendo GameCube, Metroid Prime shattered expectations, showing a worried fanbase that the new direction for the series was in fact the right way to go for the Metroid saga! The game went on to become a best-seller for the system and a favorite among fans of the franchise and set a new standard for the series moving forward, not to mention being declared one of the greatest video games of all time! Now this modern masterpiece is out for the Nintendo Wii and the game is better than ever! One of my favorite games of all time just got even better! :D
The story of Metroid Prime takes place three years after the original Metroid. While searching the galaxy for more work, intergalactic bounty hunter Samus Aran receives a distress signal from a space Space Pirate frigate above the planet Tallon IV. Upon investigation, Samus discovers the Space Pirates have been conducting scientific experiments on the wildlife of Tallon IV including Metroids as well as working to revive her arch-nemesis, Ridley, now Meta Ridley. Samus also discovers the Space Pirates' use of a mysterious and highly radioactive substance called Phazon. Samus must travel across the surface of Tallon IV in an attempt to stop the Space Pirates from creating powerful biological weapons from Phazon before they can become a threat to the entire galaxy! The story for Metroid Prime is minimally told with most of the major plot points told by scanning computers and other objects in the game. But the story that is there is pretty good and fits very well into the rest of the Metroid lore. Not to mention there is a lot of detail in the few story elements you are given! Not the most groundbreaking tale ever told but a fun one none the less! :)
Samus Aran
Meta Ridley
Metroid Prime(creepy)
Gameplay in Metroid Prime differs greatly from all the past games in the series. Prime trades in the iconic 2D style of older games for new 3D first-person gameplay. Back when it first released Prime took a lot of flak because of the new style. Many stated that Metroid would never work as a first-person adventure game. Oh how wrong they all were! Metroid Prime works wonderfully as a first-person action adventure game! If you have ever played a game with a first-person viewpoint before you will be all set with Prime. You traverse the game's world looking through Samus' eyes. Exploration, combat, almost everything you do uses this viewpoint. The game feels very fluid in this perspective letting you see all the detail a Metroid game can offer up close and personal! Luckily looking and aiming feel much better now making use of the Nintendo Wii's motion controls. Using the Wii Remote you can aim and move around using the pointer on the remote. It takes a little getting used to but once you get the hang of it, movement and fighting feel so smooth and natural. It is a much better control scheme than the GameCubes use of a single analog stick.
First-person controls are much better on the Wii!
Being a Metroid game, exploration plays a HUGE part of the game. It is just as important as the fun combat! Tallon IV is a massive world filled with all sorts of secrets and goodies are tucked away in little corners waiting to be found. Tallon IV just begs to be explored to its fullest and Prime does an excellent job of making you WANT to explore every nook and cranny for all the obtainable items and equipment! Like in past games, lots of areas in the game's world will be locked, inaccessible to you until you find the right tools to proceed. A lot of the franchises most iconic weapons and equipment make there way into 3D with huge success! Everything is fun to use and everything serves a purpose from opening specific doors to defeating certain types of enemies and bosses. Finding Samus' different suits allow you to use different abilities or afford you greater protection from certain types of attacks and hazards. The Varia Suit provides greater protection from extreme heat while the Gravity Suit lets Samus move around more freely underwater. Special Additions to Samus' suits enhance her abilities even further. The Space Jump Boots for example let Samus jump higher and farther, letting her traverse wide gaps or jump to high areas. The iconic Morph Ball lets you transform into a small ball in order to reach travel through very small spaces and to travel using specific equipment. Several weapons and weapon upgrades are also littered across the world such as the Ice Beam(opens white colored doors and useful in beating fire-based enemies), The Plasma Beam(opens red doors and causes high damage to ice based enemies), and the mighty Wave Beam(opens purple doors and can follow enemies using charged shots). Iconic Morph Ball Bombs are used to destroy certain types of obstacles in your way as well as being effective on certain enemy types(not to mention using the ever nifty Morph Ball Jump). Missiles are also added to your arsenal and can be combined with your Beam weapons to make devastating combo attacks! Visors are also a very useful tool to help you in defeating the Space Pirate menace! The standard Scan Visor is used to scan enemies and creatures for detailed info for your Log Book as well as scanning items, equipment or other objects in the game world to help clarify objectives or add more context to the world of Metorid. Other Visor enhancements like the Thermal Visor(lets you target enemies with high heat, as well as tracking enemies in dark areas) and the X-Ray Visor(lets you see through objects and some walls and lets you track invisible and sonic based enemies) help you to even the odds against ever changing enemy threats! In addition to all this awesome gear, you can also look for additional enhancements to Samus. Missile Expansions let you increase the number of missiles in your inventory making it easier to handle enemies that are better defeated with missiles. Energy Tanks increase Samus' Energy(health) making it easier to survive the challenging enemies the game throws at you. Finding all these and MORE upgrades and items are a great challenge in there own right and finding them all also lets you view the secret ending after the credits roll!
Find those upgrades to kick even MORE Space Pirate ass! :D
Just like the exploration part of the game, the combat is also amazing fun! Having a first-person perspective adds a new dimension to the series that has always had side-scrolling combat. Locking onto targets, aiming and shooting feel much better using the Wii Remote. Fighting basic enemies is fun but can get a tad easy until you get to the later portions of the game where a lot of the enemies require strategic use of many of your weapons and gear in order to defeat them. The REAL fun from combat comes from battling the games numerous and challenging bosses! Boss battles are often tense and challenging affairs. You will often have to make use of almost all of the gear you have on hand in order to defeat a boss. Using your wits and strategy and the right equipment is key to obtaining victory over these powerful foes. The last two bosses in the game however will truly test your mettle unlike anything else in the game! Part of the appeal of the Metroid series has always been epic and challenging boss fights and Metroid Prime delivers! :D
Combat is as fun as ever in Metroid Prime!
Despite being over a decade old, the visuals of Metroid Prime hold up really well! The graphics are remarkably detailed from ancient, crumbling Chozo ruins to high tech labs and bases for Space Pirates there is so much detail to take in! Creatures and enemies also sport very realistic and natural looks and awesome designs! The game uses its amazing graphics to add a great sense of atmosphere(key to any great Metroid game). Lighting and environmental effects are put to great use in the game. Steam from heat vents and lava flows fog up your visor, dust whips across your in ancient ruins, and raindrops dot your screen as you travel across rain drenched forests. Explosions and flashes of light will occasionally light up your view letting catch a glimpse of Samus' face in the visor. All these amazing effects add great depth and realism to the world and really builds a great sense of atmosphere in exploring a mysterious and dangerous alien world! This game is a visual marvel!
The audio for Prime also holds up really well today! Creatures and Space Pirates sound great and very natural. Sound effects such as explosions and beam blasts also sound great, packing a nice punch! The best part of the audio however is the soundtrack! the music for the game perfectly sets the mood for each area. The music also ramps up nicely for the many tense boss battles or special enemy encounters! From moody, sweeping tunes establishing a sense of mystery to epic battle themes, Prime has it all!
About the only flaws I can level against Prime is the constant backtracking. You will be going through all the areas MANY times as you gain new equipment and items in order to access areas that you previously couldn't as well as to search for all the itmes in order to get the secret ending. Another flaw is the fact that using the Wii Remote to play can take some getting used to.
Those nitpicks aside, Metroid Prime is an unquestionable masterpiece! Sporting tight and fluid controls, an amazing sense of mystery and wonder, amazing visuals and sound, a great soundtrack and some great action and intense boss battles, and one of the lengthiest and most satisfying metroid adventures of all time, Matroid Prime is a game that should be played by everyone! Do whatever it takes to experience this game! :D
Metroid Prime(Wii) score: 10/10
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