Allie WInters and the News

So,it's been a few months since we've talked heart to heart like this.If all of my frequent readers want to gather around(all 3 of you) we'll talk about the goings on and by talk I mean tell you.

First of and the biggest part of this update is some news I have been sitting on since last month. I've been contacted and offered a position with Haywire Magazine as a columnist.I'd explain what that is and who they are but I'm I can't do it justice so I'll let it speak for itself.I'll be taking over for the extremely talented Zachary Brictson and his column Off the Grid. There I'll be talking about newer games that strike my fancy. My first column for them will be up in the coming weeks so in the meantime check out the other excellent writers,so you can actually see good writing in action.

What does this mean to you besides my pointless bragging,nothing really.This blog has never been one that is known a consistent schedule and actually having deadlines will not effect this blogs schedule more so than my own issues usually due.While I will try to get back onto a more stable release schedule,I make no promises.Speaking of broken promises, lets move on to a little bit of what is coming up in the next few weeks.

I''ll admit I haven't really kept up with the latest anime season mostly due to laziness and doing other activities besides watching anime.One of the few shows I have kept up with is Golden Time which like most shows of this season are just now finishing up,so be looking for a post on that sometime next week.Back in the ancient past of last November, I did an unofficial Slayers month. I did not nor am I really still calling it that just due to the goofy failure of Jojo month last June. However I did have a point to it in that I wanted to you to see how the Slayers movie line progressed,so we all know where they stood when the final movie,Premium, was released.Since I finally talked about Gorgeous after Great just drained me completely with its' mediocrity,I figured it is a good a time as any to dive in to the train wreak that is Premium.Again look for that in the next couple of weeks

As for the random post on Conception 2,that was a short entry for an Atlus USA Contest hence it not being labeled like most of my other entries are. Not much else to say about that but I will probably review the full game when it comes out either here or at Haywire next month.

TL:DR
-I'm going to be writing for Haywire Magazine
-Golden Time next week
-Slayers Premium the following week
-I wrote a contest piece and did not win
-Huey Lewis please don't sue 

Till next time Stay Positive

Conception 2:Children of the Seven Stars Entry

I got to sit down with the demo to Conception 2:Children of the Seven Stars that was recently released because I've being seeing the posts on Atlus' Facebook and decided might as well see if it's worth it. I loved Persona and the way Conception has been described defiantly gave it a Persona vibe. The demo did keep that vibe going so at least they are giving off a good vibration,make sure to tip your waitress. Since this is a demo and I can't do my usual routine of picking apart everything,so I'll keep it short.

The demo gave the basic outline for the story involving these labyrinths that have sprung up and you being literally a gift from God that can help vanquish the monsters within the mazes and get rid of the mazes themselves. That's really about it,I guess there is no point in really having spoilers in your demo which is fine. The end of the demo promises a deep storyline which seems plausible given the relative vagueness of the scenario. There are are plenty of places for the story to go,and the characters are fun.

The game play is split into dating sim and dugeon crawling/combat ala Persona. The dating sim aspect is just that,you talk to the ladies,say something that is hopefully smooth and then profit. Profit being defined here as stat boosts for the Star Child System which is how you create parties for the dungeons. The Star children are like Personas for the Final Fantasy crowd. You choose a girl to make a child with choose a vessel for that child to inhabit and preform the ritual. Yes the whole thing has a sexual undertone but not in a way that is pandering but more as a emotional side effect of making these children. It is something I hope the game explores more as it could be interesting. Either way once your child is conceived you give it a job and a name and you go on your merry way. It seems to have a reasonable amount of depth for those who want to play with the system and makes you feel like the dating sim parts aren't just there for lonely people who need a date. The children appear as little cute warriors with tiny job costumes and they are really adorable.

You form the children into three parties of three and equip them with weapons while you and one of the heroines form a fourth party before heading into the Labyrinths. There the combat sections begin and this is honestly the best part that the demo had to offer. This is a dungeon crawler with onscreen encounters as you explore the dungeons. It even does that Mother thing where enemies that are considered too weak are defeated on touch. The whole party moves around with you but thankfully can not activate encounters themselves. The children run around you and your heroine and have little chats and give encouragements. It really helped endear the little ones to me and gave them a little bit of personality.

The combat itself involves circling the various enemies and exploiting there weak spots either through elemental weakness or attacking their undefended sides. It is a turn based game but the abilty to move around to attack the enemies keeps the pace up. Each party can move independently of the group as a whole but attack as a team with their various skills. There is also the ether level which effects the speed of the entire group and helps set up the chain gauge. The chain gauge is something I was not quite sure on but form what I gathered it helped you build up combos and immobilize enemies. It felt underutilized in the demo but hopefully it'll have more use in the full game. Combat as a whole is fun and easy to pick up but does of a level of strategy that will keep you interested.

The game looks very nice with lovely character portraits in the Dating sim aspects and nice 3-d models in the dungeons with some cool looking  enemies. They look very alien and odd which I guess was the point of them. As the labyrinth you do explore has a very sterile and alien feel as well,so the enemies fit right in.It is a very nice aesthetic.The music is nice from what I've heard of it though the event music was a little grating at first it grew on me.

This demo did exactly what it set out to do and give you a feel for Conception 2. It left a really good impression and I'm looking forward to this one. If your an RPG fan,Persona fan or both then you'll probably really like this. Plus like the Bravely Default demo it does promise some bonus for transferring the completed demo save to your main game.

Till Next Time: Stay Positive

Things No One Cares About:Baki the Grappler

Originally published January 9th 2013

Welcome back to Ulty reviews things people don't care about,where I attempt to either make you care about them or hope you stay uncaring. Either way today we're looking at Baki the Grappler's first season. I would comment on the manga which is completed or the second season but I haven't read/watch those so I won't till I do.

Moving on Baki the Grappler is a Shonen fighting show about Baki ,a kid who would creep out Oedipus, and his attempts to become the strongest man in the world by beating the strongest man in the world. Said man happens to be his father,Yujiro, and most of the show is him either fighting things much bigger than him or learning things that never come up again. It has two basic arcs: the first being him training to beat Yujiro and after that fails miserably, a tournament arc. That's enough general details so lets get down to the nitty gritty starting with the characters.

The character design swings between very good and what the hell on one hand there is Baki who pre-timeskip looks like someone put an orange on an up turned love seat but then post time skip Baki grows his hair out,has decent proportions and is fun to look at. The worst offender is Hanayama who looks like this

and is apparently 15...yeah. So  the artist has a love for muscles bordering on the fetishistic, but he usually remember proportions,so it's not too bad.So lets actual start talking about the characters

This is where Baki really falls short,most have very simplistic reasons to fight which all tend to boil down to being strong. A weird thing though is the first half builds up always these side characters as being Baki's timeless friends  then they get dropped in the second half. There not really unlikable but at the same time I never gave a shit about them, The only really decent characters are Baki, his mother,Emi, and Yujiro. They all have very screwed up relationships with each other and the show really does explore them to some extent. It really makes the first half non-fights watchable. They sort of drop it in the second half of the show but by that time the shows turned off the part it's brain that isn't pertaining  to cool fights,so it's not too noticeable. So if the characters are pretty poor then I guess the story will make up for it...well lets talk about it, I guess.


This is where Baki is  mediocre/excellent ,the first half again deals with Baki training to fight Yujiro  by following his father's path interlaced with scenes of others fighting or Yujiro doing some over the top. Like I mentioned above when the show does look into Baki and his parents it does get interesting but other than that it's kind of slow which the show sort of realizes and draws out it's fights(most covering 2-3 episodes).While the 3 big fights are good they just go on for too long. It also has this habit of explaining these fighting concepts(moving unconsciously,endorphin release) which come of as not knowing what they're talking about  and after that fight are never mentioned again. This all culminates in at the halfway point which gives us a massive Wham episode that nicely ends the first half. You can tell the series wants to be serious but every time it tries Yujiro steps in and does something goofy like stopping an earthquake by punching the ground.  So the first half is slow,boring and a bit silly,then what justifies  the word excellent. Well reader let me tell you,it's called tournament arc.

But Allie your saying what's so great about a tournament arc,every fighting show has that. Well it's because this one is where Baki the Grappler gets to just let loose and have fun. The pacing here becomes brisk and exciting. All the fights follow suit,never out staying their welcome and Yujiro isn't in it half the time. The story in here is even more simplistic than the first half: Baki is going to bait his father by winning an underground fighting tournament with really strong people. Then he does just that and it sort of works. Like I just mentioned what makes this part work is that it's just fun fight after fun fight and when there isn't fighting it's talking about fighting. It's so good that it even made the fights with Yujiro fun by giving him an opponent that is more on his level. The fights that Baki has are on his level while still being tense. Plus every fight has a new fighting style which may or may not be based  on an actual style. The downside is that Baki's style or lack there of that is kind of boring as it's never really creative as say Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. It more just has him win through more improbable odds. The only other problem is that it just ends with a little teaser for the second season. It's really abrupt: Baki fights a tough opponent and that's the end , which is okay because it again  teases the next part of the show,but it's sort of a weird way to end things.


So we come down to the final paragraph where I tell you if I think it's worth a look. With Baki it really depends on your opinion of shonen fighting shows, if you dig them then this is the show for you, if your okay with them then you should probably watch this...eventually,and if you aren't a fan of  dudes beating the crap out of each other,then give it a pass.

As usual feedback,comments and death threats are welcome and appreciated.