Hyrule Warriors Review

Hyrule Warriors! Zelda meets Dynasty Warriors and makes for an impressive collaboration that actually works out.

I was never much of a Dynasty Warriors fan, I always preferred an adventure instead of mauling down hordes and hordes of enemies, but then Nintendo announced my favourite franchise combined with Dynasty Warriors.

Ever since 1998 when I discovered, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, I was completely taken in by the series and had to go back and buy the previous instalments due unfortunately not growing up with a NES or SNES.

At first, I didn't enjoy Hyrule Warriors but that was because I was looking at it as a Zelda game but as soon as I got that mindset out of the way, I was loving everything from the combat to the characters to the story and stage design, everything was so well crafted.

In Hyrule Warriors, you have various different modes such as; Legend Mode, which is the story mode for the game. Free Mode, which allows you to replay any story mission you've completed again but this time with any of the unlocked characters. And Adventure Mode, which opens as the original Legend of Zelda theme and world map, this mode gives you various conditions to complete such as; defeat 300 enemies or complete this mission without taking damage. There is also a challenge mode but if you're Wii U isn't connected online you won't be able to download the patch.

In summary, Hyrule Warriors breathes a breath of fresh air into these two series, bringing fun combat and an incredible story plus a handful of nods to the different entries in the Zelda series and with four downloadable content packs on the horizon, this game isn't going to lose replayability for a while.

Tales of Xillia 2 Review

Tales of Xillia 2, the fourteenth installment of the core Tales of game series. Tales of Xillia 2 is a direct sequel to Tales of Xillia, set one year after the events of Jude Mathis and Milla Maxwell's journey.

Tales of Xillia 2, follows the journey of Ludger Will Kresnik who must protect a young girl named Elle Mel Marta and destroy the fractured dimensions to keep peace within their own. This game contains a similar mechanic to that of Mass Effect, where you must make decisions using the L1 and R1 buttons, making your choice between good or bad.

In, Tales of Xillia 2 after the first chapter you are told you must repay a twenty million gald debt!? This is due to medical bills and veterinary bills you racked up within the first chapter. To pay off this debt you must preform various side quests or jobs as they are known in game. These jobs can be anything from item hunting or monster slaying. Unlike previous, Tales games you will find yourself a majority of time fulfilling these jobs instead of walking through the story.

Admittedly, the side quests are optional but are recommended as they help wipe the debt a lot quicker. The story itself, is pretty solid and keeps the player hooked through the gameplay and the stunning anime cutscenes, they are beautiful.

The battle system is extremely similar to the first installment which is good, because why change something that isn't flawed. Obviously, there are changes such as new ailments such as bleed status and more weakness or strengths instead of just elemental, we now have; sword, gun and hammer. This is down to Ludger's weapon switch ability, which adds a more tactical side to battle, as each of the other characters can take advantage of these weaknesses and strengths.

Tales of Xillia 2 is a lot of the same but with lots of variety. Definitely worth the purchase because this game will have you hooked with story, side quests and Kitty Dispatch. Yes, you heard me right, Kitty Dispatch, a function within the game where you send your fat cat, Rollo to find cat friends and rare items.

If you haven't picked up, Tales of Xillia, I suggest you head to your video game retailer store on the high street or online and purchase this game, because it is well worth it.


Tales of Xillia
8/10

P.T. Review

P.T. Review: Same Hallway, Different Scare.

P.T. or Playable Teaser or Silent Hills for those who have completed or got so frustrated with the final puzzle you went to YouTube and watched the trailer. Silent Hills is the world’s first interactive teaser trailer and if you did either of the above you know it was created from the brilliant mind of Hideo Kojima, the creator the Metal Gear Solid franchise and from the twisted mind of Guillermo Del Toro co-creator and executive producer of FX’s, The Strain.

P.T. was first revealed at Gamescom 2014 for Playstation 4 as trailer. Trailer started with a games company name no one had heard of, 7780s which in square metres is the size of Japan’s Shizoka Region which is often known as, The Quiet Hills or in this case, Silent Hills.

The trailer continued with a blood stained bag talking to us, as the player steps out into a red lit hallway, then the text flashed up, “Experience the world’s first Interactive Teaser.” This piqued my interest.

The player continues around a corner to be met with a tall figure at the end of the hallway and the logo, P.T. flashes up on screen. Finally, the trailer switches to people playing the game and the text in the bottom left, “Actual reactions from gameplay.” Suddenly the woman on screen starts screaming frantically and finally more text appears in the bottom left, “Available Now. Only on Playstation.”

Before, Sony could finish their conference, I grabbed my controller and booted up my Playstation 4 and headed to the store to download this, Interactive Teaser.

Installed and with my preference of controls and brightness set, the game had started. My character awoke to two cockroaches crawling across the floor and the door in front of me opened slightly. The character now standing, I had control in a first person perspective, I looked around the room, behind me was in darkness and around me were tallies of five scattered all along the left, right and front wall.

I walked and opened the door in front me and entered a brightly lit hallway with a radio broadcasting a new story of brutal murders that have occurred across the country, where the Father has murdered his family before killing himself. With that information, I assumed maybe I am in the house of one these murders.

The layout of the hallway was a simple, “L” shaped hall with signs of a struggle littered about these hallowed halls. I was somewhat comfortable in this hallway so I continued down this hall, checking the two doors on the way and examining the various pictures of the husband and wife presume until reaching the end and walking down some steps walking through the final door at the end presumably into the basem—oh, it’s the same hallway.

Now, I’m wondering were those tallies on the wall, my tallies and that’s how many times, I’ve walked through these hallowed halls? Erasing the thought from my mind, I continued on but this time the door to the loop slammed shut and the first door, I passed began to make to move and bang as if someone was stuck in there. I slowly approached the door and everything fell silent, no banging. I continued to search for a way out but nothing so, I came back to find the door to the loop open again and as I passed the door that was banging, it quickly banged again but more violently but immediately stopped. My heart leapt out of my chest, I heard a weeping woman but I wasn’t sticking around so, I ran to the door and started the loop over.

P.T. continues to take you through this loop several times, slowly moving you further and further out of your comfort zone and makes you solve puzzles, search for collectibles and put you on the verge of your seat. The warning when downloading the demo states, “Do not play this if you have a heart condition.” And my god is it right, with babies crying and horrible ghosts lurking with the hallway you have to have a strong will and heart to make it through.

P.T. is a perfect example at how game developers should market their games but with Hideo Kojima at the helm of course it was going to be perfect. He did the exact same thing with, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. Made a fake Games Developer Company and passed it off under a different name and waited for the gaming community to pick it dry.

In summary, P.T. is great way to grab your audience’s attention and bringing back one the most beloved games of the horror genre to its roots is perfect. If you have a Playstation 4 and haven’t downloaded P.T. I suggest you do right now and play it, in the dark, alone and with headphones on.

Silent Hills is currently in development and is scheduled to be released sometime in 2016, it’s still currently unknown if the game will be multiplatform but with Tokyo Game Show around the corner, we will be sure to hear a little something.

Recently, I haven't been feeling my best... A lot of things are swirling around my head...
Firstly, my Great Grandmother has been unfortunately very ill for the past two years and a couple of weeks ago she had two strokes within minutes of each other and now she doesn't look healthy nor does she really remember who I am... My Great Grandmother was a huge part of my childhood, she looked after me whenever my Mum or Nan were too busy with work. I have lost a lot of people in a short space of time so I kind of got used to the concept of death. I would obviously still get upset but it eventually became a yearly cycle and I used to seal up everything and remain strong for my family whilst my emotions ate me up inside. It wasn't til earlier this year, I had a breakdown and finally I tried seeking help but I failed and slowly fell back into my old ways... And now everything is flowing forth again and I feel like I am about to explode but I need to keep it together as I can't let my life be affected by my past mistakes.

I am sorry those who actually read this blog but I just needed to vent somewhere and I didn't want to do it on Facebook as that has enough whiners >_____>

News related to the blog! I am working on making an appealing layout and such.
I want to have this blog having weekly updates and when I get my microphone, I will start doing video reviews and maybe a Sequelitis-esque filler pieces when there isn't any games or films worth reviewing.

Nintendo Pre E3 Presentation 2012 - Wii U

Satoru Iwata presented us with new information and new features of the Wii U since we saw it last, at last years E3.

Some of the new things that were shown to us was; the new design of the Wii U Gamepad which gained its name from the controller of the Famicom or in Western countries as the Nintendo Entertainment System.

We were also shown the controller that would used for multi-platform gaming which looks oddly similar to the Xbox 360 controller.

The Wii U is showing so much potential with the unique, Wii U Gamepad so much can be achieved such as; a universal TV remote, a drawing tablet, a handheld console and many other features.

Nintendo has also revealed Miiverse which is a condensed word of Mii Universe. Miiverse allows anyone with Wii U, Nintendo 3DS, Internet mobile device or any future Nintendo product to interact with each other, whether they are; helping each other on a game, socialising by message or via video chat.

The Nintendo Wii U is looking to be a promising games console and hopefully more will be shown such as; a release date, software launch titles and other hardware capabilities at the Nintendo E3 press conference on Tuesday 5th June 2012.


If you didn't catch the presentation, here it is!

The Legend of Zelda 25th Anniversary Symphony! London, UK

The 25th of October 2011 had to be the greatest day of my life! That day was like no other, that day marked the day I would hear all my favourite music from a legendary game series and that game series is none other than... Drum roll please... I said give me a god damn drum roll!!! ;Drum roll; Thank you! That game series is none other than The Legend of Zelda!!

25 years of The Legend of Zelda
and our green tunic wearing
Protagonist Link!

This orchestrated wonderment was put in place to celebrate the wonderful 25 years that The Legend of Zelda has blessed our gaming lives with its captivating storylines, beautiful environments, lovable characters and not to forget, it's music! Even though I wasn't alive when to witness the actual birth of The Legend of Zelda series, I have played all of the games and enjoyed them all except for a certain few and those few are, The Legend of Zelda 2: Adventures of Link and what the CD-i Zeldas were called...





Of course to listen to this splendid orchestral wonderment, I had to travel up to London from County of Cornwall. So, myself and my friends Darrien and Dom set out on our journey to the amazing event at 5am to catch our transport being the Megabus which from this point on shall be referred to as Nimbus. At 6am, we boarded the Nimbus after being dropped off to the bus station by Dom's Mother, Mandy. The journey on the Nimbus was full of laughs until Darrien and Dom fell asleep so I took this time to take in the scenery although there wasn't very much to look at so we shall skip this bit... And now we are in London! If only the trip was actually that quick!

Manga at Japan Centre.

Once we reached  London, we began our epic quest of meeting up with Antony and getting to the HMV Apollo Theatre! Because everyone can't navigate the back of a spoon, it was up to Phantombane to guide everyone around the tube system! Blah blah blah Japan Centre Blah Blah Pocky Blah Blah We are waiting in line for entrance to what shall now be known as the greatest day of my life so far!

Outside the event.

 We waited patiently in line with thousands of Zelda fans, the front of the HMV Apollo Theatre decorated with Legend of Zelda banners and Skyward Sword trailer looping over and over again! Life was good and then... The doors swung open and we rushed... I mean we slowly advanced through the doors, our tickets scanned, we entered the main hall to be greeted by merchandise stands where fans pushed and shoved and if I knew I wouldn't get kicked out, I would have pushed everyone into the floor in order to stop those impatient [Censored] worthless insensitive assholes! That aside I acquired a Legend of Zelda T-shirt and a poster decorated with every Link through-out the time of Zeld's existence.

The Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra
and Eimear Noone.

Once we found our seats, we took pictures and such. Unfortunately we were separated from Darrien and Dom but regardless the event started with Eiji Aonuma stepping out on stage with his translator with as he introduced the event and joking about how poor his English is but we forgive him! Then the event started, Hyrule Castle theme from A Link to the Past echoed throughout the theatre! I wanted to cry but being so macho I couldn't but at least I cried inside and isn't that what counts really? No? Well shut up! I saw it and you didn't!

The beautiful Zelda Williams
steps out onto the stage.

After the song had ended, Eimear Noone turned to face the audience and thanked us for coming and she told us to give a warm welcome to a very special guest! You know what I am wishing I could return to the past and relive this evening all over again, I am getting quiet emotional retelling this epic tale but nevermind, The Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra and Eimear Noone will return next year so without further adieu. The special guest was none other than the beautiful Zelda Williams! Zelda was our host for evening as she guided us through the magic of the evening and kept up with all the tweets everyone was posting on her Twitter and received a screaming compliment from some guy saying she is gorgeous and he wasn't lying!

The set list for evening. 

The night went on with all of our favourite tunes been played in front of us with old memories being played on the projection screen as we listened to the appropriate song and then finally out of no where, Koji Kondo-sama stepped out onto the stage and played Grandma's Theme from Wind Waker which reduced half of the audience to tears of joy as that man's magical fingers played this heart warming theme of the grand piano. After Kondo-sama finished and everyone wiped away their tears, Kondo-sama appeared at the front of the stage to thank us for attending the glorious evening. Afterward Aonuma-sama returned to the stage stating how much better Kondo-sama's English is compared to his own. Afterwards Aonuma-sama continued to thank us and then asked us if we are psyched for the release of Skyward Sword! The audience screamed, whistled and cheered and as the audience calmed down Aonuma-sama told us we were going to hear the theme song of Skyward Sword live whilst being shown the Lyre (Harp) trailer which was wonderful but all great things have to come end and with that the concert came to an end, all the audience stood up and left,  tears of joy streaming from our eyes knowing full well we will be experiencing this beauty again next year.

I hope to see you all next year!
Another quest will start from here!
Press the Start button.

Skyward Sword launches in the UK on 18th November, the US on 20th November, Japan on 23rd November and Australia on 24th November!


Lastly, watch out for my Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception review in the coming days.

Happy Halloween 2011


Halloween is a fun time of year that we can all enjoy! With crazy costumes, sugary snacks, alcohol and everything fun about partying! Halloween also brings spine tingling tales and movie marathons of your favourite horror genre movies! I personally prefer to sit and play a good horror game such as Project Zero (Fatal Frame) or Silent Hill with a few friends and have a few drinks~

This Halloween, me and a couple of friends will be watching Paranormal Activity 3 and mocking it as we did with the previous two. Paranormal Activity isn't an overly scary franchise, it only provides jumps not scares. But we enjoy it that way thus we can insult it and joke about it as much we want without quaking in our boots.

Unfortunately, the gaming industry hasn't provided us with any new or decent horror games for this Halloween season. But nevermind! On the second of November we are gifted with Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception! Which is shaping up to the best in the series to date which is a relief unlike most games nowadays that just get worse as the work their way up the number scale.


Finally, this entry wasn't just about my excitement for Halloween and Uncharted 3 but to also apologize for my lack of updating and that also I will be writing the Extra Life article and an article on The Legend of Zelda: 25th Anniversary Symphony! That I attended in London on the 25th October! So keep an eye out for those in the next couple of days.

Extra Life 24 hour charity gaming event!

I will be publishing a full article on the event within the next few days!! ^_____^

Bleach Episode 343

Bleach Episode 343: "3rd Year High School Student! Dressed Up, and a New Chapter Begins!"
This episode marks the start of The Fullbring Arc!

Finally! After what seems like forever, we return to canon material and making our way through the Fullbring Arc. Although, I'm not quite sure when we will fall back into fillers because this episode used almost three chapters of manga... And seeming the manga takes more breaks over the Christmas and New Year period than the anime, it's kind of worrying... But nonetheless Bleach is back to canon material!

The episode started off just as the manga, reintroducing Ichigo as it did at the end of episode one of Bleach but he has aged by two years since the beginning. This episode takes place 17 months after the events and defeat of Aizen Sousuke, whom was the main antagonist of Bleach.

After the reintroducing of our orange haired protagonist we were graced with a new opening showing us teasers of the events to come in the new arc. The opening theme song was preformed by "SCANDAL" and the song was titled "HARUKAZE." This is the fifteenth opening theme for  the Bleach anime series. "SCANDAL" had previous done the tenth opening theme titled "SHOJO S."

Throughout the episode we were shown old faces with their new appearance since the time skip. The episode also gave us a few flashbacks of the final fight against Aizen and Ichigo as Ichigo spoke that he never once felt superior to others because of his gift. Half way through the episode we were greeted by a new character who is yet to introduce himself. (If you read the manga you will know his name.) The new character also has a Substitute Shinigami Pass like Ichigo setting up a few twists. Running toward the end of the episode after more high school drama, we return to our new character who seems to be entering a block of flats using a card with the words, "Welcome to our Xcution." Written on it. He arrives in a room with three other people; an old man at the bar, a young male playing on a Playstation Portable and a coloured female on a sofa. As he sits down, a young red haired girl walks up to our mysterious new character and asks "Did you find him?" and he replies with "The next Substitute Shinigami seems like an interesting fellow." 

The episode then ends with a new ending preformed by "Aimer" the song titled "Re:Pray." The ending is a very smooth and very quite sad but very catchy. The episode finally sums up with the preview for the next episode and the tale of Keigo Asano's hair styles during the time skip which was quite funny and received a good chuckle from me.

Overall, the animators don't seem to be messing around, like they usually do where they have about 30 seconds of Ichigo spacing and having a three minute flashback. They seem to realise that the beginning of this arc didn't going down well in the manga, Bleach was at the bottom of Shonen Jump's rankings... I am happy about the fast pace of things but I don't want them to rush it too much that we instantly fall back into fillers. As for the new opening and ending themes, I thoroughly enjoyed them especially the opening as I am a fan of "SCANDAL" not just because they are attractive to look at but because they are very talented and delivered a fitting opening.

SCANDAL [HARUKAZE]

Aimer [Re:Pray]

I'm new to blogging~

As you can see by the title, I am kinda new to all this blogging stuff.

But nevermind, I'm sure I will simply get used to it all! After all this is going to be nothing more than my ranting zone and reviewing page. I will review all kinds of media from Games to Movies to Anime and Manga! I am usually pretty biased when it comes to video games and manga but for the sole purpose of this being a blog for my journalism course and to appeal to a wider audience, I will try and review a bit of everything that appeals to everyone.

I hope you enjoy coming and reading my blog in the future and I hope we can all have great fun discussing and sharing our views on different things.

8Bit Phantombane.