Kingdom Hearts 4 announcement trailer

Over the years, Kingdom Hearts has been a series I desperately wanted to dig into but I can’t say I’ve found the time to. 4 looks pretty damn cool so far but I hope we get Square Enix characters in this one rather than just Disney ones. Hopefully I’ll at least have some time in the KH series before 4 drops but the new installment looks promising. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Batman: Earth One (vol.2)

Picking up where Batman: Earth One (V1) left off and the fall of sadistic mayor Cobblepot, the scum of Gotham grows weary of the legend of the Batman. With a new sense of hope, Jim Gordan begins anew, despite the trauma to his patner Bullock. The Dents, DA Harvey Dent and his sister, newly appointed Mayor Jessica Dent are bringing hell to the corruption of the city. But there’s a new threat, a heartless serial killer calling himself the Riddler that will test Batman’s resolve and his mind as he struffles to become the Knight we know…

I honestly enjoyed this story a bit more than the first and I can see a bit of this story going into the Batman film. Riddler was done really well; I have to admit I really like how Killer Croc was used in the story as a partial red herring and in this universe becomes a ally to Batman. Once Again, I loved Alfred and how he almost seems more badass than Batman. I liked seeing Batman evolve more as a detective and I like the debut of a better bat suit and Batmobile towards the end. The only thing that bugs me is how much of a straight up dick Harvey Dent is in this story; I never got the feeling he was a good man with issues, I feel he comes off as a overbearing dick that has some royal jealousy issues when it comes to Bruce. The third book is pretty interesting when it comes to the fate of the Dents but that’s for another post. In the end, I really liked this book and if you want a good Batman/ Riddler story, this one is worth your time. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Tokyo Ghoul: √A (season 2)

We pick up right where Tokyo Ghoul (season 1) left off, the 13th district has become a warzone as the radical Ghoul terrorists of Aogiri Tree clash with the human Doves of the CCG openly. Kaneki, though free, has changed. No longer timid and quite harmless, after awakening his true powers he’s become a truly brutal force. He leaves his friends of the Ghoul sanctuary Anteiku in pursuit of power, knowing g he needs more to keep his friends safe in the growing war- joining Aogiri to do it. Kaneki faces his own horrors as his body starts changing and his urge to kill dramatically increases as he becomes the scourge of human and ghoul alike, but can he stop the war to come before losing everyone he loves?

I adored the first season with all my heart and still do but all my friends warned me the series gets…different to say the least. Admittedly this season is a hard call. Overall I like it but I think it’s definitely a mixed bag. Overall I’m ok with the story but some parts of it really do feel like you’re watching fanfiction then a part of the series; characters do things that make no sense and sadly you really don’t get as much of the Anteiku group but more of the Aogiri group which I was nowhere near as interested in. There are great fights but the pacing overall feels bloated even though the season is only 13 episodes. The animation and score are great but I don’t really like the new opening theme ( I do love that Unravel returns for the very end.). In the end, I get if you liked or hated this season so I urge you to keep an open mind after season 1. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Crystar Nintendo Switch Review

As always I like to take a minute to give a huge shout out to NIS America for tossing me a review copy of this one and also take a moment to apologize to you guys for this one being a little bit later than usual.

The Switch version of Crystar is simply the newest release of a game that’s already been available on PC and PS4 for a bit already,and unless you simply want a version to play on the go there and really isn’t a big reason to pick this one up. It doesn’t offer much in the way of anything new.

That being said if you haven’t played it this isn’t a bad place to start. Graphically the game does a great job of catching the dark and depressing world Rei finds herself in as she searches for her sister Mirai and her soul that is lost in purgatory. She becomes an executioner of sorts for a couple of demons that give her a contract and promise to give her the power to revive her sister if she does as they need her to do.

The story is pretty straight forward and has no world saving implications really and it does a pretty good job getting Rei’s pain and struggle with depression and sadness across. The battle system however felt repetitive and lackluster to me and even the extra playable characters didn’t do much to change this.

Crystar isn’t a bad game, but it is definitely one you want to pick up on sale. It is a decent 6/10, it’s pretty original but original doesn’t always mean great. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Wonder Egg Priority (season 1)

Ai, Neiru, Rika, and Momoe are four lonely girls dealing with depression, loneliness, guilt, and the traumas of experiencing suicides in their lives. What they have in common is finding a seemingly normal egg, an egg that opens another world. From that egg spawns the tortured soul of a suicide victim and it’s up to the girls to slay the monstrous tormentors of the victim to free, with the promise that enough freed victims will return their own loved ones. In the acts of battle, the girls find friendship and the strength to move on but are they willing to face the costs of a second chance?

Seeing the sunny exterior in the horror section of the Funimation catalog intrigued me; if it hadn’t been for When they Cry I would’ve cast this deep series as a miscast. This show beautifully covers some really bleak subjects and does them with genuine humanity and depth. I loved the four main characters and their own private struggles; I love the main theme of using dark fantasy to combat the real traumas of the world as well as mental illness. The artwork and score are fantastic. One of my only real complaints is I found it really hard to gauge if the series if merely over or meant to return in some way. There are a lot of unanswered questions I have and I feel like Frill was set up to be a great antagonist that we didn’t get a full conclusion to and Ai was a heroine we didn’t get a full resolution to either. I really hope we get another season so I don’t have to feel the ache of Deadman Wonderland all over again. In the end, I highly recommend checking this series out on Funimation. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Ms. Marvel trailer

I actually really liked Kamala Khan in the comics so this trailer hurts. Why Disney felt the need to change her powers and make her a Green Lantern knockoff is beyond me. I’m kind of flabbergasted about who the villain is supposed to be and I’m kind of shocked how cheap everything looks, especially being a Disney MCU show to boot. I’m really not looking forward to the show now but I’ll keep an open, if not ultra-cautious mind. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Jurrasic Park (novel)

After being surprised by Jaws (novel) I was really curious how much Spielberg changed for the movie. While I have reviewed the Jurassic Park series and while the movie is pretty much a cultural phenomenon, I’m not going to regurgitate the plot because the general plot is the same. What I’m going to do is basically talk about the differences and while I actually really enjoyed the book for some pretty damn different reasons.

So the book for Jurassic Park, while having a lot of the splendor and wonder of the movie, there is actually a lot of smart ethical questions and corporate evil in the book. In fact, Hammond is actually an eerily evil sociopath that is hell-bent on basically being his own god, no matter who dies in the process. The book never feels preachy about the ethical issues and the science but expertly feels like a grim kind of foreshadowing of how everything goes belly up. Another huge difference is the body count and gore in the book which is definitely past the pg-13 boundary and a lot of characters die in the book that don’t in the movies. The climax is more intense and well, a bit more brutal but also more realistic and fitting. Pretty much the only part of the book I couldn’t stand was Alex, Tim’s now younger sister (in the movie she was the older); she’s annoying and I swear she almost gets her, Timmy, and Grant killed at least half a dozen times in some pretty idiotic ways. Hammond maybe my favorite part of the book, starting as the kindly if not delusional grandpa figure he was in the book to becoming a heartless bastard as the story unfolds. The book is reasonably paced and Crichton had a great way of not talking down to his readers but not dumbing his themes down. In the end, I highly recommend the novel for Jurrasic Park, especially on Audible like I enjoyed it. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

The Snowman

I have returned dear readers with glorious purpose and such horrors to speak of. Let me begin with a movie I was actually pretty interested in back in 2017, so much so I ran out and bought the book and was genuinely perplexed when the movie’s reviews came back as scathingly bad. But how? Michael Fassbender as a gritty detective searching for a sadistic killer who buries his victims in snowmen, how could this possibly go wrong?

Harry Hole is a broken man. While a talented detective, he struggles with alcoholism, depression, and his estranged wife and son. When a series of people mysteriously vanish and their bodies turn up strangely, it’s up to Hole to dive into a strange world of corruption and broken hearts to discover the truth behind the Snowman killer.

Ok, so they wanted to make Seven but instead they made an absolute mess. I truly regret complaining about the editing in X-Men: Dark Phoenix because this movie is a dumpster fire turned nuclear by the editing. It’s a jumbled mess of things happening, characters appearing with plot threads that go nowhere and I feel like there is a megacut somewhere that’s probably like 4 hours long but this movie isn’t worth saving. Poor Fassbender tries his ass off to save this movie but Harry Hole is such a trainwreck I can’t really take the guy seriously (his name sure as hell doesn’t help either.). I pegged the killer super early and when the mess of a story comes together, it’s meh. This movie isn’t gory or disturbing, it’s a not really a good noir, and holy shit drags. The only really redeeming feature I can really say is some of the cinematography is nice, not great but nice. The only other thing I can say is I laughed my ass off alot because of how unintentionally hilarious the movie is- so there is that. In the end, unless you are like Savior and I and enjoy super bad movies, I can’t recommend this movie at all. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Obi-Wan Kenobi teaser trailer

So I got to say, of all the Star Wars stuff coming out, this is what piqued my interest. Mainly it comes down to Ewan McGregor returning as Obi-wan but I’m glad to see the darker tone. I’m kinda excited o see the Inquisitors in live action, though the makeup on the Grand Inquisitor looks iffy to me. This one I’m pretty pumped for and either way, I know it’ll be good to have Ewan McGregor back. May the Force be with us all.