Entertainments
In GW2, I keep telling myself I'm done replaying the Battle for Claw Island, yet it keeps happening. Ah well. Playing a little bit following others through story, otherwise just doing Sunday guild missions and keeping up with the basic living story releases.
In WoW the Broken Shore content has gotten me a bit more interested of late, at least. And I did put the effort in to level up my druid to be my 4th max-level character over a weekend - so much easier with flying unlocked. I've some dungeons I want to do at some point, but it's all okay right now.
Cryostasis
I've been watching playthroughs of some "horror" games of late - stuff I wouldn't generally both to play myself, but listening to the experience is interesting. Cryostasis was the latest, and I was quite impressed by it, actually. It apparently has loads of technical issues, but looks decent when it runs, and has some interesting themes with health based on warmth and the ability to sort of go back in time in other peoples' lives to try to save them. If it worked smoothly, I think it might have been a game I would have liked to play.
But it doesn't explain those abilities well. Or the monsters in the game. Or the WTF-ery of a climactic "boss fight." The themes running parallel between the story of an ancient tribe and a glacier-bound icebreaker work well, but exactly how any of the supernatural elements of the game come into play is left open to interpretation, I guess.
Youjo Senki (Saga of Tanya the Evil)
Glancing at anime last season, I wrote off Youjo Senki immediately as "cruel, gifted loli character in war setting with magic kicks ass." It didn't seem appealing. And yet... while that summary isn't exactly wrong, I think it became the most compelling thing of the season I watched. Weird.
The bulk of the series is set in an alternate-world sort of World War 1 with magic-users as specialized, flying shock troops. Tanya is presented as someone out to do anything and everything she can to look out for herself. Episode two throws a huge twist into the mix, by showing Tanya herself is the self-aware reincarnation of a Japanese businessman who, faced by "God" at the moment of his death, acted more or less in defiance. So "God" (or "Being X" as he/she insists on referring to the entity) reincarnates him in a world on the verge of ward, seemingly to try to get him to show some faith. Motivations might be suspect for a potentially-omnipotent presence, but it sets things up surprisingly well.
Tanya tries to go through life picking the easiest, most beneficial path for herself using knowledge of how a roughly-similar war played out. Yet at almost every turn, those very efforts are what put her in more dangerous situations. Aspects of the show have that "watching a train wreck" quality.
The end of the season certainly doesn't resolve the faith issue, but it's been much more interesting than I expected.
Re: Creators
Interesting concept for a series this new anime season: characters from popular anime/games/manga start being drawn into real-world Japan, which at least one of them refers to as the "world of gods" because their worlds are literally defined by the stories here.
Three episodes in, it looks fairly slick, but has been more about introductions than answers. With super-powered characters throwing around spells and missiles (missile-spells?) in modern cities, there's been no real good look at how society is taking this. The interactions thus far have been more personal, with one of the created meeting her creator and such.
There's some potential here, at least.
Grimoire of Zero (ie. Zero kara Hajimeru Mahou no Sho)
Another new/current series: a beastman mercenary who regularly hunts witches for a living accepts an oath with a witch to be her bodyguard in return for her transforming him into a full human. It reminds me a little bit of Slayers. While carrying a sense of humor, it's not quiet as silly as that series, though. There's a lot of bigotry and fear on display as humans are often willing to think the worse of beastfolk and witches (though the latter at least look human). There's a backdrop of a religious war going on against the witches and the central "quest" is to find a book that instructs people on more potent and simpler magics that arguably could really destroy the world.
I like it so far. Some humor. Some seriousness. And I see some heart here, too.
In WoW the Broken Shore content has gotten me a bit more interested of late, at least. And I did put the effort in to level up my druid to be my 4th max-level character over a weekend - so much easier with flying unlocked. I've some dungeons I want to do at some point, but it's all okay right now.
Cryostasis
I've been watching playthroughs of some "horror" games of late - stuff I wouldn't generally both to play myself, but listening to the experience is interesting. Cryostasis was the latest, and I was quite impressed by it, actually. It apparently has loads of technical issues, but looks decent when it runs, and has some interesting themes with health based on warmth and the ability to sort of go back in time in other peoples' lives to try to save them. If it worked smoothly, I think it might have been a game I would have liked to play.
But it doesn't explain those abilities well. Or the monsters in the game. Or the WTF-ery of a climactic "boss fight." The themes running parallel between the story of an ancient tribe and a glacier-bound icebreaker work well, but exactly how any of the supernatural elements of the game come into play is left open to interpretation, I guess.
Youjo Senki (Saga of Tanya the Evil)
Glancing at anime last season, I wrote off Youjo Senki immediately as "cruel, gifted loli character in war setting with magic kicks ass." It didn't seem appealing. And yet... while that summary isn't exactly wrong, I think it became the most compelling thing of the season I watched. Weird.
The bulk of the series is set in an alternate-world sort of World War 1 with magic-users as specialized, flying shock troops. Tanya is presented as someone out to do anything and everything she can to look out for herself. Episode two throws a huge twist into the mix, by showing Tanya herself is the self-aware reincarnation of a Japanese businessman who, faced by "God" at the moment of his death, acted more or less in defiance. So "God" (or "Being X" as he/she insists on referring to the entity) reincarnates him in a world on the verge of ward, seemingly to try to get him to show some faith. Motivations might be suspect for a potentially-omnipotent presence, but it sets things up surprisingly well.
Tanya tries to go through life picking the easiest, most beneficial path for herself using knowledge of how a roughly-similar war played out. Yet at almost every turn, those very efforts are what put her in more dangerous situations. Aspects of the show have that "watching a train wreck" quality.
The end of the season certainly doesn't resolve the faith issue, but it's been much more interesting than I expected.
Re: Creators
Interesting concept for a series this new anime season: characters from popular anime/games/manga start being drawn into real-world Japan, which at least one of them refers to as the "world of gods" because their worlds are literally defined by the stories here.
Three episodes in, it looks fairly slick, but has been more about introductions than answers. With super-powered characters throwing around spells and missiles (missile-spells?) in modern cities, there's been no real good look at how society is taking this. The interactions thus far have been more personal, with one of the created meeting her creator and such.
There's some potential here, at least.
Grimoire of Zero (ie. Zero kara Hajimeru Mahou no Sho)
Another new/current series: a beastman mercenary who regularly hunts witches for a living accepts an oath with a witch to be her bodyguard in return for her transforming him into a full human. It reminds me a little bit of Slayers. While carrying a sense of humor, it's not quiet as silly as that series, though. There's a lot of bigotry and fear on display as humans are often willing to think the worse of beastfolk and witches (though the latter at least look human). There's a backdrop of a religious war going on against the witches and the central "quest" is to find a book that instructs people on more potent and simpler magics that arguably could really destroy the world.
I like it so far. Some humor. Some seriousness. And I see some heart here, too.
Comments
Post a Comment