Count_Zero

We attack a Kett labor camp and free a bunch of inmates. Filed under: Let's Play Tagged: Let's Play, Mass Effect: Andromeda, Video games

So, storyline wise, I wonder what’s going on with Miz and Bray Wyatt? The two times he’s come out to interfere was to protect The Miz, plus taking on Ambrose at Miz’ behest. Wyatt didn’t come for the save against Balor again, though, and when Miz went down in the ring to beat down Ambrose some more, he seemed very wary of Bray, attempting to actively give him a wide berth. It doesn’t feel like they’re planning to have Miz join the Wyatt family. Considering Bray’s promo he cut before Payback and after the Shakeup, had him talking about his plan for Raw, having Bray be Miz’s enforcer would be an unfortunate step down from that. Also, considering how Miz is making a big thing in his promos about the style of an Intercontinental Champion, having Miz go with the grungy swamp Cthulhu cultist as his gun-for-hire seems like a poor fit (which, admittedly, is nothing new for the WWE). Other than that, I like the feud they’re building with Sheamus and Cesaro vs. the Hardys, and the promo with Golden Truth (which I read about from Scott Keith as it was cut from the Hulu Replay), hopefully will lead to another storyline with the Tag Division outside of the title hunt. Filed under: Wrestling, WWF Tagged: Wrestling, WWE, WWE Raw

This past weekend the latest installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe has come out, and I’m giving my thoughts on the film. Please support my Patreon at http://www.patreon.com/countzeroor Member of The Console Xplosion Network: http://www.theconsolexplosion.com/ Watch my Live-Streams on http://twitch.tv/countzeroor/ Filed under: film Tagged: film, Film Review, Marvel Cinematic Universe, science fiction

We reach the next Resistance outpost. Filed under: Let's Play Tagged: Let's Play, Mass Effect: Andromeda, Video games

After having set up our settlement, we discover that some weird Remnant tech has been preying on scouting teams, and decide to take it out. Filed under: Let's Play Tagged: Let's Play, Mass Effect: Andromeda, Video games

We land on planet Voeld, and it turns out to have mechanics shockingly close to a previous game I’ve done a LP of. Filed under: Let's Play Tagged: Let's Play, Mass Effect: Andromeda, Video games

Jim Butcher’s Harry Dresden series kicked off something of a new renaissance of Urban Fantasy. The genre had existed before – authors such as Emma Bull and Mercedes Lackey had written works in the genre, but what made Harry Dresden distinctive is how well it combined the Urban Fantasy genre with the hard-boiled detective novel. I had previously read Storm Front, and several of the later books, but hadn’t read any further books in a while. So, I figured now was as good a time as any to revisit the series beginning. For those who are unfamiliar with the plot of the first book, it has Harry Dresden, professional wizard, faced with two seemingly unrelated cases, one laid before him by the police department in his role as an consultant where he has to solve a series of brutal murders, and one related to his job as a wizard and private investigator where he has to find a missing husband. If after hearing the description of those two cases, your first thought is that they’re probably related, then you’ve clearly read hard-boiled detective novels before. What’s particularly striking, coming back to this book, is how seamlessly Butcher is able to merge the necessary world building that comes with urban fantasy, with the narrative conceits of detective fiction. Butcher takes the reasonable step of combining the criminal and supernatural underworlds, and then runs with it. Female vampires normally depicted as beings of mystery and seduction? Have one running a high-class escort service. That sort of thing. While I don’t know if Butcher had a bunch of books already plotted out by the time he published Storm Front, the book definitely does and interesting job laying some groundwork for future books, often with quick throwaway lines of dialog – Dresden’s previous master (and their fate), the mention of his “Fairy Godmother” and so on. As far as faults go, the book runs into some problems with how Murphy is handled. Morgan refusing to listen to Harry makes sense – he’s single minded, and it’s clearly meant to be implied that his understanding of the mundane world isn’t great. However, when Harry withholds information on his client from Murphy because of client privilege, Murphy should understand that. Harry is a licensed private investigator, that’s his job. Yes, it’s an old detective novel trope, but so was having the police take someone in the back room and beat the crap out of them until they talk, and Murphy’s not doing that. All in all, this is a good self-contained novel, and a good start to the series as a whole. If you haven’t re-read Storm Front in a while, it’s definitely worth checking out. It is currently available in print, in a Kindle edition, and as an audiobook from Amazon.com Filed under: Books Tagged: book review, Books, Dresden Files, Urban fantasy

Shounen fight anime and manga, in the past few decades, has developed a very definite style from Dragonball (and Dragonball Z) on – no matter the tone, the series tend to have a bright color palette for both characters and for the overall visual style of the series. Things might get dark and stormy in bits with narrative and tonal weight, but the colors for the characters themselves will maintain that color. You’re never going to see Naruto, for example, putting on an all black traditional ninja outfit for a really serious or dramatic mission. This gives Soul Eater a visual edge that really makes it stand out from the pack. The series is based around the Death Weapon-Meister Academy (DWMA), in Death City, run by, well, Death. The students in the academy are made of of “Weapons” – people who can transformed into magical weapons when teamed up with a Meister who their soul can resonate with; and Meisters, who handle the direct combat, and who have their own distinctive special abilities independent of the powers of the Weapons they team with. Teams of Weapons and Meisters are sent on missions to obtain the souls of people who have been corrupted by evil and Madness, and in particular Witches – people who use magical power to spread madness and corruption throughout the world. Obtaining 100 souls and the soul of one Witch will allow a Weapon to graduate and become a Death Scythe – one of the most powerful Weapons out there, and one worthy of being wielded by Lord Death himself. The show also changes itself up by being a shounen series with a female protagonist. The lead of the show is Maka Albarn, a Meister at the Academy who works hard both in her studying and training. Her Weapon, Soul Eater, is a scythe, who has a more laidback, cool attitude. He also really likes Jazz. Her team-mates couldn’t be bigger polar opposites. There’s Black*Star, whose personality is functionally identical to that of Naruto from the early seasons of his series (and early volumes of his manga). Black*Star is loud, brash, and incredibly enthusiastic and hyperactive. Continuing with the theme of Weapons being the opposite of their Meisters, Tsubaki is much more restrained, and she tries to keep Black*Star from rushing in to situations that he’s not prepared for. Additionally, Tsubaki is distinct from the other weapons in that she has multiple distinct forms, generally focusing on ninja weapons (Kusarigama, ninjatō, etc.) – which change based on the kind of attack that Black*Star needs to perform, rather than changing form strictly based on the strength of the attack. Then there is Death the Kid – the son of Death. He is impeccably dressed in a suit and tie, and generally tries to maintain a serious demeanor, which is somewhat undermined by two points. First, he prefers to get around by a skateboard which can turn into a rocket-hover-board. Second, he has an extreme case of Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Order, with a particular focus on symmetry. This leads into his Weapons – the Thompson Sisters, Liz and Patty. Their weapon form is a pair of handguns, which can transform into larger cannons depending on the power of the attacks, and which Kid fires upside down (squeezing the triggers with his pinkies). Not only do the Sisters have very distinctive personalities from Kid, but they also have distinctive personalities from each other. The taller sister, Liz is incredibly laid back, almost to the point of slacking, but is also a major scaredy-cat. Patty, on the (literal) other hand, has a personality much like a little kid – going on nonsensical non-sequiturs, having an tremendous amount of enthusiasm (almost on par with Black*Star’s, but not as directed), and is more easily distracted. Patty is also the shorter of the sisters. This right away leads into the very distinctive style of the anime – it has a very dark, gothic, and macabre look. Even daytime scenes have a very angular, expressionist edge to them. The sun and moon themselves aren’t immune from this – both are anthropomorphized, not with cutesy, cheerful faces, but with faces which are creepy and which leer at the world below. Character designs involve a lot of dark colors and greys, with some bright colors being limited to the second closing credits sequence. It visually separates the show from every other shonen series (even contemporaries like Fullmetal Alchemist, which are serious and somber, but have a more grounded visual design esthetic). Also, the series never really gets into the fanservice of other Shounen anime, with Maka in particular never becoming the sort of fanservice figure that, for example, Erza Scarlet in Fairy Tale, or the various female members of the cast in One Piece become over the course of that series as time passes (and bust sizes increase). There is a sum total of one character who really engages in fanservice. Specifically, that is Blair – the Cat who can turn into a human that looks like a witch, who lives with Maka and Soul. She occasionally wanders around the house in a towel, and who occasionally shoves Soul’s head into her cleavage. She appears sporadically in early portions of the show, before she basically drops out of the series in the show’s second half. The writing of the series in generally is very solid. According to my research, part way through the show’s conclusion, it starts to run out of manga and chooses to write it’s own ending instead of padding the series until the manga finishes or going with a “Read the Manga” ending. Considering how the ending is the executed – without spoiling things – I can roll with that. The ending we get isn’t perfect by any means, and it’s just wanting enough to make me want to read the manga. Still, part of the appeal of shounen anime is seeing the action of the anime in motion, and the anime pulls that off really well, and in particular seeing this world constructed in color is great and I look forward to reading the story on the printed page. Soul Eater is available on a Blu-Ray/DVD Combo pack from Amazon.com & from RightStuf. Filed under: Anime Tagged: Anime, anime review, shonen

We chat with the leader of the Angaran resistance, and get our final party member. Filed under: Let's Play Tagged: Let's Play, Mass Effect: Andromeda, Video games

We have another run-in with the Kett (almost literally) before making first contact with another alien race. Filed under: Let's Play Tagged: Let's Play, Mass Effect: Andromeda, Video games

I’m making some updates to the Patreon campaign! If the new support levels sound appealing to you, please check out my patreon campaign at https://www.patreon.com/CountZeroOr Member of The Console Xplosion Network: http://www.theconsolexplosion.com/ Watch my Live-Streams on http://twitch.tv/countzeroor/ Filed under: News, videos Tagged: Patreon, site news

We return to Eos to do a little business and secure the system further. Filed under: Let's Play Tagged: Let's Play, Mass Effect: Andromeda, Video games

With the colony up and running, we head back to the Nexus one more time for some side quests, to figure out our next destination, and to unlock a new game mechanic. Filed under: Let's Play Tagged: Let's Play, Mass Effect: Andromeda, Video games

Disclosure: I received this book for free from the author for purposes of review. When I received Aetna Adrift from the author, Erik Wecks, at OryCon last year, I saw that the book was a prequel to another series of books that he’d put out – his Pax Imperium series. Before I accepted the book, I asked if he considered the book to be a decent jumping point to this series. He said it was. I was a little unsure, but I accepted the book anyway. The good news is that the book is. It starts on a rough foot, but once it really gets going, it makes for an enjoyable read. The book is set at a somewhat unspecified point in the future. Humanity has traveled to the stars and has splintered into a series of various governments. One of these is the Unity Corporation – a totalitarian corporate state, with internal politics that can best be described as literally cut-throat. Out in the ass end of the Unity is the planet Aetna, an ice planet (similar somewhat to Europa) that is home to a hydrogen mining operation. On that planet is Jack Halloway, who is doing his damndest to stay under the radar, out of the way, and in the process retain a degree of personal independence. In this case he does it by running a small smuggling operation bringing luxury goods into the colony. However, when a Unity executive by the name of Timothy Randall shows up on Aetna with his entourage, and ropes Jack into his plans on pain of death, things start going very bad, very fast, and it takes all of Jack’s craftiness and a lot of luck to get through this alive. So, Jack Halloway is our viewpoint character, and our lens through which we view society in the Unity. The problem is that life in the Unity is pretty rough and dystopian, some elements of which Jack recognizes as bad, but others he accepts as normal, but I, the reader, see as negative, since I’m an outsider. This is especially the case for women in Unity society, and it clearly comes across that way in the book. However, for most of the book Jack doesn’t notice it, because it’s either not a problem for him, or he’s in a position to benefit from it – and by the time that changes in the book, there’s enough other stuff going on that other matters are pressing concerns, until the very end of the book. Getting into the positives, Wecks creates an interesting cyberpunk-adjacent world here, a setting that gets into some of the elements of cyberpunk, but with the addition of interstellar travel. Where this gets interesting in particular is that most works of Cyberpunk don’t get much into what life in a corporate state is really like. Wecks gets into that. It’s all the worst parts of real world corporate politics, with a side of Robocop’s corporate politics as well. Aetna Adrift did get me more interested in checking out some of the rest of the original Pax Imperium series, to see how well those books present the larger universe. Aetna Adrift is available from Amazon.com in Paperback and Kindle editions. Filed under: Books Tagged: book review, Books, science fiction

Puzzle Quest for the DS, PSP, and Consoles was a game that changed how the match-three puzzle game worked considerably by making it competitive – leading to a variety of clones that took that framework and attached various licenses to it, and released the games on Steam, Mobile, or both as free-to-play titles. I’ve had an opportunity to play two of the licensed Puzzle Quest games, and one clone, so here’s an opportunity to give my thoughts on Marvel Puzzle Quest, Magic Puzzle Quest, and WWE Champions. Marvel Puzzle Quest Marvel Puzzle Quest is almost the closest to the classic Puzzle Quest style. The game tasks the player with assembling a party of heroes to take on either PVE matches against various opponents, or taking on other teams in multi-player. Each hero has a selection of three powers, each tied to specific color gems, and each character deals a different amount of damage based on what gems are matched. When a player matches gems, the game makes the lead character the one who would do the most damage with that color. The flip side of this is when the opposing team has a turn, whoever is active at that point is the one who is a target for damage from their characters – be they heroes or villains. However, the player can select which of the opposing team of heroes that they fight. Also, when a player pulls off a combo, whatever character would be activated by the first match is the one who is active at the end of the combo, even if other members of the party also get matches as part of this combo. So, combat becomes prioritizing what member of the opposing team is the biggest threat, and managing the active characters in their party so they do the most damage, while also keeping the more squishy members of the party protected. PVE combat can take the form of two different kinds of matches. Character vs. Character matches play similarly to PVP and classic Puzzle Quest combat, with the two opposing teams taking turns matching tiles. Character vs. Mook combat has the player taking on a variety of unnamed “Mook” opponents, who do not match tiles. Instead their power gages for different colors of energy charge up over multiple turns, and once they have enough power to trigger their abilities, they’ll activate them. Those abilities can be very powerful, but operate on a count-down timer, where they create a tile on the board with a countdown before the ability takes effect. This gives the player an opportunity to avoid the attack. These matches serve as something of a form of training, giving the player an opportunity to learn how to set up teams for PVP, as well as learning how to set up combos. PVP combat is asynchronous. The player puts together their teams for PVP events, and takes on teams put together by other players. They control their team in fights they select, but when opposing players do their fights, their opponents are controlled by the AI. Thus, party selection for PVP requires the player to not only put together the optimal party to take on the opposing team, but also putting together a team that the AI can use effectively. After completing a match, you get a “drop”, either of ISO-9, or boosts for particular gems, or of new cover draws, selected at random from a list. For PVE story fights, getting a draw strikes that item of a list of possible draws, so if you play that fight again, you won’t necessarily get the same draw (unless there are multiple possible results of the same type for that fight). For PVP fights, since you’re generally never initiating a fight with the same person twice, there isn’t the same opportunity to chawk an item off the list. Instead, based on their performance in the PVP event, you get ranking points to move up in the rankings, which in turn determines what rewards you get at the end of the event. This leads to the problems with the game’s AI – once the AI has enough power to trigger an ability, it uses that ability, even if it’s not the optimal ability for that situation. This means that while in PVE events you can double-up on different colored powers, doing so in PVP events can lead to disaster. On how the game handles free play, the game’s “free-to-pay” curve is what I’d describe as a bell curve. You can spend money on additional XP or “ISO-9” crystals, on general cash-shop currency to spend on random-draws for various heroes (described as “covers” – due to featuring covers of various Marvel Comics that show that hero) and to get more slots for heroes, and to re-stock on medpacks. However, the game does a pretty good job of giving you a bunch of those for free. I never really had much of a problem getting Iso-9 by playing through the game on its own. On the medpac front, the game gives you a very good regular stock of medpacs (10), and those replenish regularly, with one medpac per hour – and events generally give covers as rewards, either based on ranking in the event or based on completion of the event. Where you’ll want to start spending money for cash shop currency is getting additional slots for covers. When you start the game, you have a limited number of covers, and progress through the game will get you some additional cash shop currency that will get you further slots. However, the more slots you buy, the more expensive the next slot gets, to the point that currency won’t come in fast enough and if you want to get each new character that becomes available to you, you’ll actually have to spend money. Where the bell curve comes in is related to the fact that some covers are more common than others, and getting duplicates of characters allows you to boost that character’s abilities, and with it their level cap. Once those characters (of two-star level or more) hit max level, you can spend a bunch of Iso-9 to make them become “Champions”, where each new cover just levels up the character further, and provides new perks like additional cover draws, more Iso-9, or other benefits. Once you hit this point, you’re going to end up needing to buy additional slots less often, as you’re either feeding your duplicate covers to other cards or selling them for more Iso-9. There is a Console version of Marvel Puzzle Quest, which is not a pay-to-play game, and generally doesn’t quite play as well. The fundamental mechanics are the same as the mobile and PC versions, but how you get covers is changed considerably. Reaching certain points in the game and beating certain opponents gets additional covers. Further, in the Free-to-play version, you have a pool of Iso-9, which you can spend on whatever characters you feel like leveling up. In the console version, character are leveled up based on use. This makes the game considerably more grindy. Also, new characters have been introduced to the console version much more slowly. Marvel Puzzle Quest is available on Steam, Android, and iOS platforms – along with Playstation Network, and I believe Xbox Network. Magic: Puzzle Quest Magic Puzzle Quest is based on Magic: The Gathering, if it wasn’t clear from the name. You put together a deck of 10 cards, based on a variety of planeswalkers, each with different elemental affinities, and a selection of special abilities. Each card has a mana cost, and how much mana you get from matching different colors of gems is based on your planeswalker’s elemental affinity and level. There is a sixth type of gem in addition to the gems for the five colors of mana in Magic, which doesn’t generate mana but does charge up a planeswalker’s abilities. You deal damage not by matching gems, but by summoning creatures to attack your opponent and, if they have defender (or similar attributes) to defend you. Some planeswalker can also activate abilities to directly deal damage to their opponent. The focus of strategy here is, as in the actual card game, building the best deck with the cards you have available, and which fits with the strengths of your planeswalker. The problem here is that some of the cards in Magic just don’t adapt well to this format – I’ve encountered cards on multiple occasions that were just broken. There is one card in particular which heals the caster for 20 health (which can be a fifth of a planeswalker’s health), and generate 30 mana, which potentially could allow the player to cast that card again. Part of it is due to how deck construction works in Magic compared to how it works in this game. In Magic, you have a 60 card deck, with no more than three duplicates of any one card (that is not land) in the deck. When your deck is exhausted, that’s it – you’re done. You lose. Indeed, “milling” your opponent – forcing them to constantly draw or discard cards from their deck until they run out of cards – is a completely valid strategy in magic, and has been since the beginning. In Magic; Puzzle Quest, on the other hand, you just cycle through your deck at random endlessly, with the player potentially getting a hand completely full of one kind of card. The game tries to manage this some by having multiple creatures stack on top of each other, increasing the power and toughness of that creature, and multiple “Support” cards (which work like Enchantments), extending the number of matches a support can withstand before being cleared from the board. However, this doesn’t fix some of the real balance issues in the game. At the end of a PVE event, depending on whether you complete certain goals, such as only casting a limited number of spells, or not killing any enemy creatures, you can get certain rewards, either of Mana Stones or Mana Crystals (the cash-shop currency). This encourages you to replay matches using different tactics or different decks to complete those goals. In PVP events, there are similar goals which can boost the number of ranking points you can earn. However, you don’t know them in advance of the match, and you can’t necessarily replay the fight to get all the goals. At the end of the event, depending on your ranking you can get a reward of Mana Stone or Crystals, or additional booster packs. The good news is that you really don’t need to spend any money on this game. Daily pickups frequently provide Mana Stones (XP), and some cash-shop currency, and you get one basic (3 card) booster pack draw per week. Playing 21 days over the course of a month will often also get you a “fat pack” – 3 booster packs of a particular expansion, with each pack getting you 5 cards each. Further, duplicate cards can be sold back for more Mana Stones. While you have a cap of 5 health refills, leveling up your character will automatically refill their health, giving you another play. Further, you get additional Mana Stones even if you lose a game, so you still feel like you’re making some progress. Still, the balance issues in the game cause enough frustration to make parts of the game rather obnoxious. WWE Champions Finally, there is WWE’s take on the Puzzle Quest game. Unlike the other two titles, this game does not bear the Puzzle Quest name, and is not put out by that game’s developers, though the gameplay is very similar. You select a WWE wrestler, each with a variety of affinities to different color coded “styles”, and put them up against other wrestlers. As with Marvel Puzzle Quest, each character has three special moves, which are color coded, and matching gems of those colors will charge up those moves. Also as with Marvel Puzzle Quest, matching gems deals damage, with gems that are the same color as the ones that are connected to the special moves dealing more damage. Where things get changed up is with the momentum meter at the bottom of the screen. As characters deal damage to each other, the more the momentum meter will shift back and forth. When one player is able to push the meter all the way to the opponent’s side of the screen, their wrestler will attempt pin their opponent. The opponent then has three turns to match enough gems to score points equal to however much damage lead to the pin attempt. If they fail to do that, then they are pinned and lose. If they are pinned when they are at zero health, then they are immediately pinned. After the end of the fight, the fight is given a rating on a three star grade based on how quickly you won the match, and how much damage you took. Unfortunately, aside from unlocking advanced difficulties, star ratings don’t really do anything. As with Marvel Puzzle Quest, there are possible item draws you can get at the end of the bout by matching Item Chests. For each bout there are three item thresholds you can meet – 3, 6, and 13. Hitting each threshold gets you a draw from a better pool. Depending on how many health segments you have at the end of the match certain stones will be randomly converted to item chests, which can increase the amount of item chests you match. However, unlike in Marvel Puzzle Quest, getting a draw from a particular pool does not eliminate that item from that pool. Additionally, because the conversion of stones to chests is at random, you can still do incredibly well in a match, and not get any further chests. This is incredibly frustrating, particularly since sometimes getting just one move at the end of the bout could net you a bunch of chests, taking a bout from no draws to two or three. Additionally, the rate of gain of new Superstars for your roster is rather slow. Some events will give superstars as rewards, but the cases (blind boxes are done as Money-In-The-Bank style suitcases) that provide Superstars are generally limited to the higher tier cases, which normally cost Bucks (cash-shop currency), or Superstar Tokens (which are awarded through PVE events). Also, in bouts, if you are pinned or submit, you continue at full health (while your opponent retains however much health they had before) with the cost of just a few Bucks. Often, this means that you are in a position where you can easily turn a match from a defeat into a three-star match instantly. This also creates the situation where the game can literally become pay-to-win, at least in PVE. I have not, as of this writing, played enough PVP to make a reasonable judgement over how that works. You level up your characters through three different routes. You spend Coins to level up your characters, boosting their stats. You level up their moves by spending “posters” for move classes (technical, aerial, powerhouse, and so on, all mapped to the different types of character and gem colors) along with duplicate versions of the character. When a character reaches the cap for their character rank (one star bronze, one star silver, and so on up), you can spend a selection of item types (connected to the character type) to rank the character up. This ups the level cap by 10, and usually the maneuver level cap by one. You then start the cycle over. Visually, what the game has going for it are 3D animated versions of your wrestlers who will duke it out as you go through the course of a bout. The more damage you do with a match or a combination of matches, the more impressive the attack animation is. Special moves and Finishers have a specific animation attached to them, and performing a successful pinning attack on an opponent who has no HP will move directly into the animation for a character’s finisher. WWE Superstars could be really good, with some refinement. Letting the player move one gem at the end of a bout in order to potentially match some item boxes would help mitigate some of the grinding. As an alternative, tying the item thresholds you get to the number of stars in your match would have a similar effect. Further, the game does not give Cases or Superstar Tokens as PVP event rewards, only upgrade Items. While this is still useful, it makes taking part in PVP less valuable as a way to increase your pool of wrestlers you have to play with – meaning that if you want to get more wrestlers, you have to spend Bucks – one way or another. Filed under: Video games Tagged: free-to-play games, Magic Puzzle Quest, Marvel Puzzle Quest, match-three games, mobile games, rundowns, Video games, WWE Champions

We head back to Eos to finally get the colony set up. Filed under: Let's Play Tagged: Let's Play, Mass Effect: Andromeda, Video games

We return to the Nexus to deal with a few side quests. Filed under: Let's Play Tagged: Let's Play, Mass Effect: Andromeda, Video games

This time we’re covering issue # 49 of Nintendo Power for June of 1993 Please support my Patreon at http://www.patreon.com/countzeroor Member of The Console Xplosion Network: http://www.theconsolexplosion.com/ Watch my Live-Streams on http://twitch.tv/countzeroor/ Games Reviewed: B.O.B. – Electronic Arts Taz-Mania – Sunsoft Vegas Stakes – Nintendo Super Caesar’s Palace – Virgin Interactive Battletoads in Battlemanaics – Rare Battletoads in Ragnarock’s World – Rare Battletoads & Double Dragon – Rare Bubble Bobble Part 2 (GB) – Taito Titus the Fox – Titus Raging Fighter – Konami Fire and Ice – Tecmo Pro Sport Hockey – Jaleco Hit the Ice – Taito Filed under: Video games Tagged: Game Boy, NES, Nintendo Power, Nintendo Power Retrospectives, Retro Gaming, SNES

We have one sector we haven’t explored yet, so let’s check that out before we return to the Nexus. Filed under: Let's Play Tagged: Let's Play, Mass Effect: Andromeda, Video games

We deal with a little bit of crap aboard the ship before returning to the Nexus for a brief stint. Filed under: Let's Play Tagged: Let's Play, Mass Effect: Andromeda, Video games

The Fate universe has, in the works I’ve reviewed thus far, has generally formed a cohesive narrative whole – with the exception of clear comedic side-stories that are deliberately intended to be outside continuity like Carnival Phantasm. Others have adapted alternate routes of the visual novels that are part of Type-Moon’s Nasuverse (like Fate/Stay Night mostly adapting the Fate route and Unlimited Blade Works adapting that route). Fate/Prisma Illya is a true alternate take on the Fate Universe. If I was to draw a comparison to another work of anime or manga, I’d compare this to the Shinji Ikari Raising Project manga. Like Shinji Ikari Raising Project, it’s set in an alternate universe where the parents (or foster parents in the case of Shirou) of the protagonist of the original work are still alive. The protagonist(s) have to contend with a challenge which is similar to but not exactly identical to the challenge of the original work, with a mostly similar cast and a similar themes, but with less severe stakes, and a less dire tone, and shifted to a different genre There are a few differences here from that formula – Kiritsugu and Irisviel are still alive, but are generally absent, with Kiritsugu and Iris traveling on work, with instead the two Einzbern maids – Sella and Leysritt, acting en loco parentis while Kiritsugu and Iris are absent. Also, the series shifts the protagonist status to Illyasviel (Illya), which fits with the genre shift – to a Magical Girl show. The show follows Illya and a new character, Miyu. They are each recruited into being Magical Girls by two sentient Magical Girl Wands – Ruby and Sapphire (respectively) – both with the voices and personalities of Kohaku and Hisui of Tsukihime (respectively). Ruby and Sapphire were originally assigned to Rin Tohsaka (from Fate) and Luviagelita (Luvia) Edelfelt (who first appeared in the epilogue of UBW), who were in turn sent from the Magic Academy in London to retrieve a selection of “Class Cards” which has made an appearance in Fuyuki City. However, as we saw in the epilogue of UBW, Rin and Luvia get along like the components of a binary explosive. So, once Ruby and Sapphire have enough of Rin and Luvia’s bickering – they quit and find new masters. Rin and Luvia end up serving as mentors for Illya and Miyu (respectively), as they fight to acquire the class cards, which means in turn defeating dark versions of the various Heroic Spirits from Fate/Stay Night (except for Assassin – that version is True Assassin, instead of Koujiro). This gives series a structure like a more serious version of Cardcaptor Sakura, with Illya and Miyu having to take on the Servant of the Episode, with two servants already captured by the start of the series – Lancer and Archer. Illya and Miyu have an interesting character dichotomy. Illya is a more conventional magical girl – not only in costume design, but in terms of worldview. She’s a fan of magical girl anime, and when Ruby tricks her into being a Magical Girl, she rolls with it pretty quickly, and completely gets the genre conventions. However, this means that when things get too dangerous and very serious, she falls into a real depression, due to the rather scary situation she finds herself in. By comparison, Miyu falls into the archetype of the Dark Magical Girl. Like most versions of the archetype, the costume is more risque than the main magical girl. Miyu also has a more cynical outlook on life – and also a comedically serious worldview. Finally, she has a mysterious backstory that isn’t exactly explained in this season. The show has a few significant minuses. For starters, this show has a little too much fanservice. Because the show is a magical girl show, instead of Illya being the age she is in Fate/Stay Night (16-18 – but with her growth magically stunted as a tactical decision for the next Grail War), she’s clearly middle-school aged. Putting aside where it puts things in terms of the timeline (Shirou, Rin, and Luvia are the same age they are in Fate/Stay Night), this brings up the issue of, well, middle school characters in skimpy outfits. Specifically the “Install” costumes that Illya and Miyu have when they Install the various class cards are the worst offender of this. It’s like the various alternate “Equips” that Erza Scarlett has in Fairy Tail, except Erza is an adult, and these characters clearly aren’t. There’s some additional fanservice elsewhere that is unnecessary and off-putting, particularly in the episode where Illya learns Miyu is working as a maid for Luvia. Additionally, to shove some additional moe tropes into the show, Illya is a bro-con. Illya having something of a twisted romantic attraction to Shirou worked in the main timeline, as while they are semi-related, they have also been raised completely apart. Here, they’ve been raised together, so there’s no excuse. Genshiken said it best about these sort of tropes: The pacing of the show is also rather rushed. Most TV anime, minimum, have a 12-episode cour. This show has a 10-episode cour. The series had already been approved for a second season by the end of the first season – but a little research has shown that season (and the two following seasons) have all run 10 episodes as well. Missing those two episodes actually hurts the pace of the series considerably. I can’t speak for how well the material in the show covers the same amount of the material in the manga, but from where I sit as a viewer, the show just felt rushed. That said, having three seasons coming after makes this more forgivable, as we can get more character development and world building in later episodes of the series. If you’re interested in picking up Season 1 of Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya (god that’s a mouthful), it’s available from Amazon.com (DVD, Blu-Ray) and RightStuf.com (DVD, Blu-Ray). Filed under: Anime Tagged: Anime, nasuverse, Type-Moon

We’ve unlocked the first vault of the game, on Eos. It’s time to learn more about the Remnant. Filed under: Let's Play Tagged: Let's Play, Mass Effect: Andromeda, Video games

We reach the last of the three relays on Eos, and bring it online. Filed under: Let's Play Tagged: Let's Play, Mass Effect: Andromeda, Video games

This time I’m taking a look at (chronologically) the first book in the Fafhrd and Grey Mouser series – Swords & Deviltry. Please support my Patreon at http://www.patreon.com/countzeroor Member of The Console Xplosion Network: http://www.theconsolexplosion.com/ Watch my Live-Streams on http://twitch.tv/countzeroor/ Filed under: Books, videos Tagged: book review, Fritz Lieber, swords & sorcery, Videos

We’ve completed the second beacon, and gotten the remaining components of the experiment, so let’s cash in that quest. Filed under: Let's Play Tagged: Let's Play, Mass Effect: Andromeda, Video games