2015 Gaming Reflections

Author’s Note: This was sitting years in my drafts. I thought I might as well publish it.

Well this post is quite late, but I couldn’t let this tradition die out just yet, so here it is, my reflections on games I finished in 2015. It was quite a fun year for me, even if I didn’t finish all that much. I just finished 16 games and completed 3 last year, which is a drop over the previous two years where I had managed over 20 beaten games in each of those years. Oh well at least 2016 is looking better already! But regardless, even though I only finished a handful, I did have a lot of fun with them:

The Best Gaming Discovery of 2015
Splatoon (Wii U)

Splatoon isn’t really an under the radar sort of game, so you may be wondering why I consider it my best discovery. Well truth be told, I knew about Splatoon but I wasn’t even going to be getting it and least of all playing it. Shooters were never my cup of tea. But then so many of my backloggery friends started playing it that I got quite tempted and bought it. Took me until August to actually play it though! I mainly did not believe the game would be as much fun as it turned out to be, and that is why it’s my best gaming discovery of 2015. I discovered I can enjoy shooters too~ The single player, while more like a tutorial into the game, had quite a memorable final boss, and on top of that the game has so much charm and heart. Callie and Marie’s banter is adorable~ Those two really do give the game so much personality. Although the hip and happening gear, or in the game’s terms, the fresh gear, also add a lot of cute charm to such a charming game. I’m really glad I gave this game a chance, it did not disappoint. Even better is our weekly Splatoon nights keep me and my friends playing continuously~ Plus the Splatfests hosted by Nintendo every 3 weeks also add a much needed change of pace to online interactions. It has been a ton of great fun in 2015 and now 2016 as well~ I’m so glad I took the chance on it!

 

Boys Over Flowers 17 – Double Dating Means Double Drama

Photo taken by me of my own copy. Strangely there aren’t many high resolution images of covers floating around anymore. Oh well. As you can see, I lucked out this time and this used copy is in terrific condition. I wish they could all look this good. I got some former library books with all the stickers and it is not pretty. ; w ; The cover art itself is quite nice. I definitely like the summer theme going on.

Summary

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Shigeru, Tsukasa’s fiancee, declares that she is willing to marry him and aggressively begins to pursue him. Tsukushi tells herself she doesn’t care, while Tsukasa tries to explain. This all culminates in Tsukushi telling Tsukasa that Shigeru is better for him because she’s from a good family. This pushes Tsukasa over the edge and he slaps Tsukushi. Things fall apart from there as Tsukasa slowly realizes that he’s done something terrible again.

 

Hate Plus: Looking at Game Design and its Limitations through Hyun-ae’s Cake

Back in 2012, Christine Love, a Toronto-based game developer released her first commercial game in the form of Analogue: A Hate Story.¹ She had made some games before then, like don’t take it personally, babe, it just ain’t your story and Digital: A Love Story, but these were free to download. You may remember me mentioning Analogue before. Indeed I enjoyed it quite a lot. It seems like a lot of people, who enjoyed Analogue, were also curious to learn the story of how the society on the Mugungwha had degraded to such an extend, which sparked the sequel, Hate Plus. The sequel delivered on that front and it was definitely an interesting ride seeing how Love envisioned the erosion would go.

I won’t, however, linger on how I found the game nor my thoughts on said erosion. Maybe I will at some point write a review of it to discuss those elements. For now, though, I wish to discuss a very specific part in the game that takes place during Hyun-ae’s route. During the third and final day of the game, when the player boots up the computer again to continue his or her journey with Hyun-ae through the newly discovered logs, Hyun-ae begins by asking whether the player will bake a cake to share with her. The previous day had ended with the player and Hyun-ae discovering the ultimate fate of *Mute during Year 0. Hyun-ae wishes to lighten the atmosphere with cake as she is still in shock over what she had learned.

 

Codename: Sailor V 2 – More Light-Hearted Mahou Shoujo Hijinks

This is the final volume of the two part omnibus edition of Codename: Sailor V. Like with volume 1, this manga features a few colour pages at the beginning. There is also a section of Translation Notes at the back, like with most of Kodansha’s releases.

Also warning, do not read past the summary if you haven’t finished the manga. I talk major spoilers!

Summary

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Minako continues her job as the warrior of love and justice Sailor V against the Dark Agency, but a mysterious man now joins her, Phantom Ace. He seems to be a popular up and coming idol and Minako instantly becomes a huge fan. But Artemis isn’t sure whether he is truly friend or foe. But this doesn’t stop Minako when she wins the audition to be Ace’s leading lady in a movie about a Chinese Princess. However things start to go in an entirely different direction at the set and Minako finally learns the truth about her destiny as Sailor V.

 

Thoughts on Pacific Rim: Not as Revolutionary as Critics may want You to Believe

Edit: Due to my lack of free time, this has been sitting in my drafts for a rather long time. I’ve been slowly writing and editing it here and there, which is why this post is about a movie that is no longer airing in theatres. ^__^;; Also my usual spoiler warning!

Mecha feature prominently in promotional posters for Pacific Rim

This poor post has been sitting here forever, so I wanted to at least get it out into the wild now. It’s a bit different from what I usually write about (anime, manga, and games), but since it is a movie inspired by mecha anime in part, I thought it would be good to talk about it. I will start with saying that I went to see it in 3D and it was really gorgeous in 3D. I can’t imagine watching it in regular 2D now. Also yes, this will be a post that deals with my problems with the movie (since all I’ve seen is praise), but that is not to say I disliked the movie. On the contrary, I believe it was a pretty well thought out movie that suffers from the same kinds of problems I see constantly in Hollywood movies. Perhaps because everyone was praising it so much, I dared to hope it wouldn’t fall prey to the same sorts of problems I see in practically every blockbuster movie, but alas, I guess when you’re dealing with such a huge amount of money and already taking some risks, you fall back on the general Hollywood formula to be safe.

 

Codename: Sailor V 1 – A Lighthearted Prequel to Sailor Moon

Sailor Moon is pretty big in North America and strangely it’s taken this long for someone to bring over the prequel, Codename: Sailor V. I’ve always been curious about it, so it’s nice to finally see just what happened with Minako before she joined the others in Sailor Moon.

Summary

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Minako Aino was just a regular girl until a talking white cat named Artemis revealed to her that she is the chosen one to become Sailor V, champion of love and justice. While Minako isn’t quite thrilled with her new responsibility, she does a good job as Sailor V. Taking down agents of the Dark Agency by herself with only her athletic skills and crescent moon compact.

Artemis alludes that there is much more to the enemy which Minako fights, but neither he nor “Boss”, the voice from the transformation pen she is given, tell her much beyond that this group is alien and intends to invade Earth by brainwashing its people. So Minako continues to fight as Sailor V, earning herself a name and the notice of the police, all the while going to school and playing video games.

 

Ai Ore: A Different Mayu Shinjou Manga

So I was reading older blog posts that I have neglected due to being super busy and I came across one about a Mayu Shinjou manga called Demon Love Spell that mentioned that the heroine was actually competent. Making a comment stating my shock given my experience with Shinjou’s manga, the author brought up another manga, Ai Ore. Curious, I checked out the MAL profile which stated that it was about a boy-ish looking girl in a band and a very girl-ish looking guy. Well with a premise like that, how could I not take a peek at this manga? I’m a terribly curious person after all. I’ve tried many manga and anime just because I heard horrible things about them and given Ms.Shinjou’s track record, I could not believe she would be capable of writing a manga that wasn’t horrible.

Typical sexy cover for a Mayu Shinjou manga, but not so typical is the gender of each character on the cover.

But she did! I never thought I would be saying this, but I actually enjoyed a Mayu Shinjou manga! It’s definitely far from perfect, but I did like how the heroine, Mizuki, did actually look like a guy; and Akira, the hero, looked like a girl. Now outside their appearances, Mizuki wasn’t very masculine. She was super innocent and naive about love, and she definitely had the Mayu Shinjou touch even if she’s a bit more interesting than most of Shinjou’s heroines. Although what makes her interesting is that even if at her core she is very feminine, and even quite passive, like the typical Mayu Shinjou heroine; Shinjou actually wrote the story and Mizuki in a way that allowed her to have assertive moments and a life beyond just her man. The stark contrast between her outer appearance and her inner self was also another aspect of what I found so compelling about Mizuki. I’m always happy to see manga questioning appearance/gender assumptions. This is true for Akira too. He’s tough and cool even if he’s short and very girl-like.

But I think the most shocking aspect of Ai Ore is that Akira is actually a kind person. He does actually love Mizuki and is very considerate of her; often asking her opinion and backing off when she feels uncomfortable. Not to mention the manga actually makes it a point through Akira’s own words, to show that one’s outer gendered appearance is meaningless. What matters is what gender you feel you are. Mizuki stumbles with this more, but ultimately she arrives at the same conclusion. She lets go of her insecurity caused by the stares and comments she and Akira garner walking hand in hand. These comments are basically people trying to decide what gender she and Akira are, and in turn whether they are a gay couple. It was a rather nice message and one I did not think I would find in a Mayu Shinjou manga. I mean Shinjou tends to write the most traditionally masculine guys and feminine ladies, on top of quite problematic things. It was definitely a pleasant surprise.

 

Limit 1 – Interesting if a bit Cliche Take on Survival in the Wilderness

I read a review of the first volume of Limit on another blog, but I cannot for the life of me remember which one it was. But it was that review that piqued my interest in the manga. Not enough to go out and buy myself a copy, but enough to borrow the first volume from a local library when I saw it. This is also going to mark the start of me dropping the Impression moniker from the title since I already mark my impressions via the category. So it’s a bit redundant to put it into the title as well. This also allows me to make the titles a bit more interesting. Format will remain the same for the time being, but I am considering tweaking it as well.

Summary

In Mizuki Konno’s school, Sakura Himezura is the most popular and powerful girl. Thankfully Konno numbers as one of her close friends, and she enjoys an easy and fun life at school as a result. However, this is all turned on its head when the majority of her class, Sakura included, dies in a car crash on the way to camp. Only she and 4 other girls survive. Out of the survivors, one is a member of her circle of friends, one is just a regular classmate, one is somewhat of an oddball, and one is the bullied outcast Arisa Morishige. To make matters worse, there is no reception and the girls are surrounded by cliffs and can do nothing but wait for help to come.