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Right. I recently got Lost Odyssey (As mentioned in a previous post, I believe) and Too Human. Originally, I was looking for Tales of Vesperia, but I couldn't find it in the stores I visited, but found Too Human instead.

I was planning on doing a review on Lost Odyssey once I finished it, but I did not take into account the main plot, which actually managed to induce an unplanned facepalm from me. Unplanned, meaning that it was a reflex action, and I only realised I had done a facepalm moments after I facepalmed.

Perhaps I'll write a rant/review on it sometime.

Too Human, on the other hand, has a somewhat decent plot, although they didn't have that many cutscenes. It is based on Norse mythology, to a certain extent, and the premise of the game merges Norse mythology with sci-fi elements. I played it with a little piece of information I had gleaned from a review I checked before I bought it, which is that some of its plot holes are not in fact plot holes at all, but are explained by Norse mythology. The relation between some of the characters, for example. It might be because of that, or perhaps a lack of sleep (As always), that I found the plot to be relatively decent.

Both games have different styled gameplay, despite being RPG's, but I fear if I went on any longer it would become a review in itself.

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I fail at Touhou. I can't even beat the game on easy. *Gloom* I didn't have much trouble with Twilight Refrain, however, and only lost my first life after several levels. Of course, this was on easy (Or the equivalent of), so...

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I fear for my wallet. With Tales of Vesperia and Assasin's Creed on my to-buy list, and Fallout 3, Gears of War 2 and Halo Wars coming out later this year (I think), it's going to be very taxing. And then there's also Senko no Ronde, a 2D danmaku* shooter for the Xbox 360.

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Okay, so games first. I only got two right now (my copy of Desparaiso is busted or something) - TWilight refrAIN (aka TWAIN), by 永久る~ぷ, and Armed Seven by ASTRO PORT.

TWilight refrAIN

The sequel to TWilight INSanity; pretty fun game, enough to warrant my desire to write a short guide for it (which I shall get to later this week). The nice art is well, nice to look at, and it's a good change of pace from ZUN's eye cancer art; I'm not saying it ruins SA, but eh, I digress.
The game's bullets behave in true danmaku fashion - heavy, slow, and steady - which is my preferred choice over the other type, light freeform. One issue I have with the game is that you seem to be fighting magic giant boxes and barrels, which is kinda weird, really. Not that it detracts from the quality of the game or anything, but it would be nice to have other enemies that look like, oh, I dunno, actual enemies.
There also seems to be a story with lots and lots of branching paths (notice why there's a stage C1, D2, etc.), with decision points, well, deciding where you end up. Make the right choices and you'll get to the true final ending. Make the wrong ones, and you'll get to not-true, not-final ending. Or something.
We're offered three pairs (one pair isn't composed of twins), each with three styles - attack, defense, and balanced. So far, I'm biased towards the defense style because of its emphasis on item collection and lower magic (bomb) costs. I'll get to the rest of this in the guide.
Another thing this game offers is online scoreboard support. Okay, sure, it seems like common sense in today's age where we have stuff like E-Amuse and things like that, but this is the first doujin game I've seen with built-in in-game score and replay download and upload functions, allowing one to grab replays and watch them without ever exiting the game, and with 99 slots, you'll have a lot of space to work with. Sadly, by watching a full-clear replay, you'll end up spoiling yourself on the entire game, plot branches and all. Still, a solid game and a good contender against the seeming monopoly that the Touhou series has on PC danmaku STGs. Plus, it has widescreen support, which is cool! But then it makes fullscreen screenshots look like shit.
Oh, and sad to disappoint, but contrary to what Aroduc says, there are no pretty boys in dresses.

ARMED SEVEN

Hoo boy, an old-school shooter. First things first, this game looks like it came from Dezaemon. There.
Anyway, it's a simple game. Shoot shit. Period. Multipliers for overkill and proximity need to be heavily utilized in order to score even half-decently. Probably, the main draw of the game would be the weapons. With 4 main guns, 4 sidearms, and 4 charge weapons, one can have 64 possible combinations, which makes for some neat replay value. But! Generally speaking, there are probably only around 12 or some good weapon combinations. Some weapons are just outright worthless.
For the main guns, anything is good, really, but I would say SMG > Riot Gun > Assault Rifle > Laser. Laser is just horrible because it has practically zero spread, has a half-second delay between each shot (a lot when it comes to a fast-paced game like this) and is just a little stronger than the assault rifle, which is much easier to spread when moving. The Riot gun would've been at least tied with the SMG, but its firepower, even with all the pellets, cannot beat the SMG's and its balance between spread, accuracy, and power.
For the sidearms, Cluster Gun > Rocket Launcher > Air Greanades [sic] > Vulcan. The vulcan cannot hit shit and is utterly weak. Air Greanades [sic] are only good against enemies below, but are very strong (up-closing is useful). The Rockets don't have enough spread and usually only 2-3 hit at most. Cluster Gun is pretty much perfect for taking out stragglers and the small upgrade ships, as well as just plain shooting things.
Finally, for the charge weapons, Missile Pod > Napalm > Pile Bunker > Beam Cannon. The Beam Cannon, while fun to use at first, takes an eternity to charge, thus making it absolute shit. The Pile Bunker's useful for racking up points (killing something with it usually nets high multipliers) and can cancel out bullets in its vicinity, but seriously, leave it for the experts. Napalm is okay, but it's slow to shoot, though controlled detonations are neat. The Missile Pod is awesome because it is homing and it shoots like, a shitload of missiles, all of which are rather effective at taking out small fry and mid-sizers, and it works on midbosses and bosses as well.
Anyway, my only main problem with this game is its horizontal orientation. At times, the game goes into danmaku mode, and as Cave learned with Arashi no Progear, horizontal danmaku is bad, wrong, and just plain stupid. Otherwise, it's a fun, dare I say beginner-friendly game.

Next, I review music.

Since I have downloaded this and already played this a couple of times, I might as well make a post about it. As the title says, this doujin game is a danmaku (bullet hell) type of shooter game featuring Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha A's characters. You get to play as either Nanoha or Fate in this game. (No Hayate though. Well, I guess they are following the Nanoha A's storyline so there is no chance playing as her.)

The controls are simple enough:
Z = Holding this button makes your character fire continuously.

X = For Special Attack. (Uses up Cartridges. For Nanoha its Starlight Breaker while for Fate its Plasma Zanber.)

C = Another attack but uses up the Linker Core Gauge. For Nanoha its a homing type attack while for Fate it is a straight type attack. Continues attack until the gauge is depleted.

Arrows Keys = Makes you move around the stage

Like most games of this type, you collect power-ups to strengthen your attack and gain additional bombs. (Or in this game, Cartridges.) You also collect a power-up to fill up the Linker Core gauge. Nanoha and Fate both play very differently. When Nanoha's attack is powered-up, her attack fans out, good for hitting enemies in front and in both sides. Fate on the other hand only fires a wide straight shot when her attack is powered-up. Nanoha's Linker Core Attack is a homing type attack which is very useful during boss battles to land a couple of hits. Fate's Linker Core Attack is a straight type attack which I can't really use effectively. Nanoha is pretty much the easiest character to use because in boss battles I don't have to worry about positioning myself in order to land some hits. Add to the fact that Nanoha's Linker Core Attack is a homing type, you get too land more hits easily. The only thing I have to worry about is dodging bullets.

Nanoha's powered-up attack is a fan type attack.

Fate's powered-up attack is wide straight attack.

You have 3 lives and 3 credits in the game. (Though you can adjust the credits up to 9 in Options.) There are seven difficulty levels to choose from. Those are Very Easy, Easy, Normal, Hard, Very Hard, Hell, and Nightmare. I underestimated this game so I made a dumb decision and played this on Normal in my first play (Because when I play games and presented with the Easy difficulty, I feel insulted.) and got owned. I only reached Stage 2. So I chose Very Easy and after 2 tries and familiarizing myself with the bullet patterns, I managed to beat the game. Proceeded to Easy Mode, and it took me a 3 or 4 tries to beat it again. Now I'm playing Normal Mode and I'm stuck on Stage 5. (Using either Nanoha or Fate. Default setting.) There are 7 stages in all. I guess they are indeed following the Nanoha A's storyline.

Stage Bosses:
Stage 1 - Vita
Stage 2 - Shamal
Stage 3 - Zafira
Stage 4 - Signum
Stage 5 - Vita, Shamal, Zafira, and Signum
Stage 6 - Reinforce
Stage 7 - Defense Program of The Book of Darkness

Sounds are okay, though the sounds for the boss battles from Stages 1 - 5 are the same. The sound for Stages 6 - 7 (Which are only boss battles.) are good. They even have Brave Phoenix (An Insert Song in Nanoha A's.) as the BGM in Stage 7.

This is my favorite load screen in the game.

Conclusion:
This is a fun game to pass the time. Besides, who wouldn't want to be able to play as the White Devil herself?

Melty Blood Act Cadenza
Melty Blood Final Tuned
Immaterial & Missing Power
Scarlet Wheater Rhapsody
Akatsuki Blitzkampf

Allí encontrarán varias Playlist de Youtube hechas por mi o links con descargas directas de los combo videos para que los tengan en su PC.
Entra a la sección desde aqui: Doujin Xtacy Combo Videos & Tutorials Source

Saludos, C.Benimaru.

Air Original Soundtracks:

Air TV Original Soundtrack 1 Download
Air TV Original Soundtrack 2 Download

Air The Movie Original Soundtrack Download

Source: http://www.mi-ka-do.net

Matches:

1回戦1：ぱっく vs ゆうすけ

1回戦2：らや vs モジャコ

1回戦3：サイトウ vs かわのたて

1回戦4：時の扉 vs シルマ

準決勝1：ぱっく vs モジャコ

準決勝2：時の扉 vs サイトウ

3位決定戦：サイトウ vs モジャコ

決勝：時の扉 vs ぱっく

Saludos!, Cute Benimaru.

"The Valis Coliseum Proyect":

Bien, ha estas fechas hemos tenido muchos cambios significativos en cuanto al juego respecta, para empezar decidimos una atmósfera lo más obscura posible a Valis Coliseum a diferencia de sus anteriores juegos oficiales (excluyendo las versiones hentai) con temáticas anime tipo aventura, este juego tomado como el quinto capítulo de la saga (aunque de manera no oficial por supuesto) se torna en un ambiente donde predominan el suspenso, la melancolia e incluso la tristeza, a lo largo de este tiempo el colega Keisuke ha realizado un magnífico trabajo al plasmar en sus dibujos la personalidad de cada uno de los personajes tal como de describen en la historia del juego, de la misma forma que ha experimentado con diversas técnicas de "spriteo" (entiéndase, hacer los sprites de los personajes) para lograr una calidad esperemos, cercana a juegos como Guilty Gear.El proyecto no ha sido nada fácil pese a que vamos por buen camino y a buen ritmo, teniendo la aprobación y el apoyo de fanáticos de la saga Valis (los que quedan...) he incluso de comunidades de juegos doujin y comunidades de Mugen (motor de juegos de peleas 2D utilizado para el proyecto) debemos resaltar que, Mugen es un excelente motor pese a cierta mala fama que pueda llegar a tener por ser sólo un "dream match maker", nuetra meta en este punto es demostrar que se puede lograr un gran juego con este motor.En cuanto al sitio del juego respecta, además de ser una labor de Capcommunications (Street Fighter One) en conjunto con Studio Swan, hemos recibido colaboración de EvilReiko para la animación de la página principal así como de futuras animaciones para los cinemas del juego (si, habrá cinemas entre pelea y pelea dependiendo del personaje) y de Neo Hyo quien ha aportado ideas y otras animaciones para el proyecto, nótese que además de hablar sobre los avances del juego en la página, existe una sección de nombre "Valis History" donde a grandes rasgos hemos colocado la historia que compone esta saga, desde Mugen Senshi Valis hasta Valis Coliseum, en si de moento nos falta subir las historias de Valis 3 y 4, por supuesto aún no develaremos los detalles detrás de la historia de Valis Coliseum, sin embargo pronto actualizaremos la página con una nueva galeria de perssonajes, mostrando al fin los seis principales que conforman el proyecto.Volviendo al juego, se ha comentado ya que éste sigue la linea puesta en Valis 4, por lo cual la protagonista sigue siendo Rena Brande (Lena Brant según algunos) y de nuevo hará su aparición la espada Leethus perdida en los dias de Valis 3 así como el regreso de otras leyendas de la saga como Yuko Ahso (la guerrera Valis original) y Reiko Kirishima, esperamos lograr un producto de la mejor calidad que podamos y sea del agrado de todos. mención honorífica a Studio Swan por su excelente labor.Algunas pics y bocetos de como va avanzando el proyecto (Beta):
[gallery]

Saludos!, ya llegamos a los 5K de Hits sin publicidad ni nada XD!, gracias a todos por su ayuda!, Cute Benimaru.

Tambíén actualizé la galeria de Eternal Fighter Zero con más SubGalleries, en esta ocasión subí: Kanon Misc. Scans, Air Scans y EFZ Loading Screens Collection, podran encontrarlas en la página de Image Galleries conjunto a la Main Gallery de EFZ, o si son flojos clikeen en los banners que estan debajo :p.
EFZ: Air Scans

EFZ: Kanon Misc. Scans

EFZ: Loading Screens Collection Gallery

En estos dás estaré concentrado en subir más Galerias y Downloads varios como Soundtracks, Artbooks y algunos Combo Videos en DD, ya que consegui un Host donde podre subirlos ( no nada de Mediafire ni Megaupload ni nada de eso ), así que esten atentos los que disfrutan de descargar "Doujin Collectible Material" :p.
Saludos!!, Cute Benimaru.

IaMP: All Character Corner Traps And Combos

Explicación del Clip ( En Inglés )

Since a long time ago, I've played the majority of hentai games (or eroge to some). From 3 Sisters Story, Clannad & Tsukihime to
Let's Meow Meow & Come See Me Tonight. However I've also come to the conclusion that these games have alot in common with anime
series which they are based on as well as other anime series which they have nothing to do with.

Perhaps I am reading too much into this, however I've looked at it in many different ways over the years of playing & watching
them. Or for that matter we (as being westerners) choose to think that the japanese are 'happy' with the majority of the games &
series ending with the classics 'Bad Ending' of all of these or just going for the natural 'True Ending' which is usually also
another way of saying 'Not a bad ending, but not a good ending either so your screwed either way'.

Personally I was touched by the 'True Ending' of Tsukihime, however since they used it in the Lunar Legend Tsukihime anime I was
rather disappointed that they chose this ending to finish the series, after all Type-Moon would of been able to used this as a
franchise (aka: Melty Blood titles &/or Tsukihime/Kagetsu Tohya) but chose close the book on being able to use the cast again in
a sequel to 'LLT' which started to annoy me after a while of watching the series then playing the games then re-watching the
series. Personally I think that they have milked the cow, but why change what works ? They did that with Fate/Stay Night after
Tsukihime took off as being one of the fastest selling Comiket games out there.
It's does however come down to this, the customer or eroge fanatic which goes and buys these sorts of games.

I still think this post isn't complete as yet, however the truth will be told sooner or later once more research is done about these sorta of games & animes are watched, learned from & archived away for the masses.

After 2 years of development the full version is out. Its a really cool & awesome 3d shooting game. I really did wait since the trial versions. The name of the protagonist is Luca and your ship is called EX-tio(its what the records says). Default keys are (1) Z - Decide/Gatling Shot (2) X - Cancel/Winder shot (3) C - Lock-On shot (4) V - Demo Skip. Anyway you can customize the command in your own. Well its really a short game since my whole duration is more/less than 30minutes. The When its a fresh install/first game play your final stage would be on scene 4, but you need to play several times and unlock or credits. Oh, you can also unlock the OVERDRIVE mode in this game. So instead of firing bullets to your enemy it launches particle lasers.

Sorry about this video, its a little bit crappy since its my 1st time using fraps, it slow down when I record it. But it really isn't, guess i need so set it up good 1st.

This game is good. i am waiting for this game to be release in full version. Now the beta version has been released. in this version, there are two stages, three difficulty modes and some story scene added. You can also buy items between stages and can save/load between stages.

I played the beta version several times because I really liked the beta version than the alpha.

Blood-Over is a side-scrolling game from 9thNight. It is a 3D game way back in Comiket 70, focusing on Shou, a female "Free Hunter" and her Maid Akari as they battle skeletons and monsters. This game is quite popular among doujin gamers. I think I know why - a trigger-happy ojousama, a cute maid with a gatling gun and a lot of monster-shooting action. 

Shou's gun tricks are sloppy compared to Dante's in Devil May Cry but she has some moves of her own that are easy to execute and fun to do. This variation in moves and possibility of combos help increase the game's replay value. There is nothing special about the background images but the character designs are nice to look at. They lack detail but attractive just the same. Boss fights are not so difficult but still challenging. You can easily think of a good combo when the boss reveals his/her ability. I had the hardest time with that boss with a samurai who does some kind of Hiten Mitsurugi moves.^^

The game is not the best action/adventure game I've played but still fun to play. I really enjoy summoning Akari and watch her pulverize everyone with her big gatling gun. Cool!^^

I'm aware that this is an anime blog, rather than a "crap Nomad Likes" blog, if it were, it would have a lot more about politics, historical military shaz, and, of course, endless waves of board and strategy games, along with the occasional fighter. However, because this is an anime blog written (in part) by me, there will be discussion about the intersection between anime, manga, and politics, military crap, board and strategy games, along with the occasional fighter. This post is mostly a reaction to re-watching Apocalypse Now after having just gotten caught up on Hellsing (I've had volume 8 in Japanese for a while now, but it's really hard to get the full impact of it until I read it in English, mostly because Hellsing is a bitch to read). Afterwards there will be a small newspost regarding various Doujin games and other crap.

Alright, so, I should probably start off by saying that Apocalypse Now is one of the most disturbing, beautiful and awesome movies I have ever seen; every time I watch it, I still feel shakey all the way down. Hellsing is pretty good, but it's no Apocalypse Now. There are glaring weaknesses in the plot and pacing, and Alucard is (at least until the latest volume) not a character that I had any emotional reaction towards, other than mild annoyance. This is a huge problem, because he's the main character in the largest sense, driving a vast amount of the action. I should feel something towards him, admiration, disgust, vicarious enjoyment, something. But Alucard just feels like a cipher, a stand-in for the power fantasies of the author. Moreover, the artwork isn't bad, but it's not good enough to justify me reading Hellsing on that basis alone, especially since Hirano likes to use "magic action lines" which enable him to get away with almost no background for most panels, and, sometimes, not even characters, just action lines.

You may then ask why I'm still reading it, let along with enough enthusiasm to try to read it in Japanese. Well, what really captures Hellsing for me, other than the whole "Nazi Vampires Invade London" angle, is the tone of the work, especially with how Hirano handles violence, namely, chaos and madness. If there's another manga that strong on this suit, it's Blade of the Immortal, but while Blade has been toning the level of horrific, Dyonisian maiming, in recent volumes of Hellsing, the level of intensity has been going straight up. You see, normally in the visual arts and literature, violence is abstracted by at least a couple of levels. Action is presented in a clean, dramatic way, able to be witnessed from a slightly distant point of view and processed at a mental level. The problem with this is that it takes the immidiacy out of the action, because, in most situations of violence, you don't know what the hell is going on. You're operating with almost zero information, surrounded by panic, horror, acting based on a weird, constantly fluctuating combination of reflex, emotion, and higher thought.

This means that violence becomes much more sedate, and, so, to stick the trauma back in, filmmakers use "shakey-cam" (one of the single most annoying camera techniques ever), authors use short, choppy sentences and break flow, and visual artists, like manga writers, use freakin' action lines. The problem is that all the action lines and shakey-cams in the world don't do anything but to give a pale shadow to the chaos and horror of most violent interaction. Hellsing, Apocalypse Now, and a couple of other works, mostly in the genre of war movies, some horror movies, and underground comics are able to keep the level of dynamism high by sacrificing, at times, reader/viewer understanding of exactly what is going on. THIS IS OKAY! A panel with nothing but explosions and mangled limbs is alright (well, provided it's done right)! Men screaming while firing blindly into the darkness after an unseen enemy is the point. It's a feature, not a bug! Anyway, if you haven't seen Apocalypse Now, I suggest you do so immdiately (Heart of Darkness, the book the film is based on, isn't bad, but the writing skips over so much that you don't get the same level of impact, instead, you have to dig through the text for clues as to what happened, and it takes away from the claustrophobic feel of the movie). If you haven't read Hellsing, you might want to give it a shot.

Enough with that shaz, time for some talk about doujin games. French Bread has magically decided to release another Melty Blood version in the next couple of months, which I'm looking forward to. I spent a good percentage of my sophmore year playing RBO, Eternal Fighter Zero, and Melty Blood with "Negishi," BigN, and Kawaiiguy. Also of note for you dedicated BMW fans is that the soundtrack is being released (old news) and BMW 4 is in the process of getting made (also slightly old news, but awesome none the less).

On the subject of slightly less doujin games, Disgaea 3 is going to be coming out in the near future, and I will be up a creek without a paddle, because I have neither a TV nor a PS3, so my chance of playing it is on the order of zero for a non-trivial amount of time. I'm not that interested in most of the other stuff on the game horizon, other than some visual novels that look vaguely interesting, and, of course, the traditional holiday assortment of board games (whenever I go back home for the holidays, I always try to get in a couple games of something, either Arkahm Horror, Brittania, or something new that I'll be picking up folks for X-mas.)

On the subject of the hollidays, I find that I'll have a couple of weeks with nothing really to do, so I have two options. Option 1 is to work on some side project of mine or another (It'll probably end up being a set of board game rules or finishing up one or another of the short stories I've got floating around). This option sucks, because it involves creative work, and after the joy that I've experienced at grad school, I need to give my brain a rest. Option 2 is much better and involves wandering the east coast visiting folks. Since I get the feeling that a significant percentage of the readership of this blog is college students who might theoretically have free time over the holidays, a "drastic blog meetup" might be in order. Anyway, that's all for now, as I have huge programming project to finish up before finals week, when I'll have to slave over an enormous pile of final exam papers from undergrads who don't seem to understand how physics works along with my own final exams. Until next time, all!