Now that 2015 is coming to a close, it is time to focus on what I have played this year, which has been very busy.
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Year in Review – Thoughts on What Japanese Games I Played This Year
Reviews
Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon – Final Review
I have to admit that the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon spinoffs are very enjoyable to play. While they are Pokémon themed versions of Spike Chunsoft’s Mysterious Dungeon games, which is a roguelike roleplaying game that consists of randomly generated dungeons, Pokémon Mystery Dungeon is the most known franchise out of the various licensed Mystery Dungeon games given how popular it is. The main basis of the game is that the player plays as a human who turned into a Pokémon with his/her memories lost and go on an adventure with a partner Pokémon.
While Blue and Red Rescue Team and Explorers of Time are geared to a young audience, it does not mean that the games are watered down. As you progress, the dungeons get progressively difficult, especially in the end game. Not to mention, there is a lot of nightmare fuel since the stories are a bit darker compared to the main series.
As mentioned in 2013, I find Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Gates to Infinity a very disappointing game. Not only they limited the amount of Pokémon that are in the games, but they made the game too easy while removing some things like hunger, personality test and genders along with adding DLC, which some fans are against. Given the backlash they received, Spike Chunsoft has listened and made Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon (ポケモン超不思議のダンジョン), a new installment to the series which contains all the Pokémon while mostly going back to the original formula with some changes and new additions. Does this game live up to the title? Let’s find out as I review the Japanese version.
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Charlotte – Final Review
Back in 2010, Maeda Jun decided to create an original production by partnering up with PA Works titled Angel Beats. This show focused on a group of students in an after life fighting against god. While it was an interesting premise, it never reached full expectations because there were so many flaws that held the show back. Some viewers were disappointed that they declare it one of the worst shows PA Works made, until Glasslip (which is the worst show from PA Works thus far) came along.
Five years later, he decided to do another project again with PA Works and Aniplex called Charlotte. While I will not share my thoughts on whether or not Jun learned his lesson since I covered it in a separate opinion piece, I will share my overall thoughts about the show.
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Fate/Kaleid Liner Prisma Illya 2wei Herz – Final Review
I have to admit that Illya from Prisma Illya is more enjoyable than the one in Fate/stay night. While I enjoyed the first season despite having a few flaws, I like how they made this spinoff into a magical girl show with the usual clichés as Illya and a mysterious girl named Miyu uses magical sticks to transform into magical girls to collect Class Cards.
The 2nd season eventually introduced Chloe, which is basically a darker skin version of Illya from Fate/stay night. While most of the second season was focused on her, there were many enjoyable moments, especially the fight at the end with Bazett. With that, will the second part of 2wei, 2wei Herz live up to the prequel? Somewhat.
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Fate Stay/Night Unlimited Blade Works – Final Review
I have to admit that I never finished Studio Deen’s adaptation of Fate/stay night, namely the Fate arc. It is not because I was side tracked, but Fate/zero instantly wowed me, which is the prequel of that said visual novel. Despite not writing a review for that said show, I was very impressed with Ufotable’s production values since Deen’s in comparison were questionable at best.
Since Ufotable have done Fate/zero, it is expected that Fate/stay night will get the same treatment and it did. While the Fate arc did not get a do over, they decided to make an anime adaptation of Unlimited Blade Works arc in addition to making a movie for the Heaven’s Feel arc possibly next year. With that, it is time to share my overall thoughts on their version of Unlimited Blade Works.
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Nisekoi: (Second Season) – Final Review
Since Nisekoi became very popular, it is expected that a second season will eventually be made, especially since three original video animations got released since then. With that, does the sequel lives up to the original? Somewhat.
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The Idolm@ster Gravure For You (Main and Cinderella Girls) – Final Impressions
Unless you are a big Idolmaster fan, which I am, most people probably have not heard about Gravure For You. This is a bonus mini game that comes bundled with the Blu-ray packs that allows you to take pictures of idols wearing different outfits with different poses. There are nine different volumes for the main series and Cinderella Girls. With that, I will share my overall thoughts on these mini games, mainly focusing more on the Cinderella Girls Gravure For You, which introduces more features.
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Dungeon ni Deai wo Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darou ka – Final Review
Initially, I did not plan to watch Dungeon ni Deai wo Motomeru no wa Machigatteiru Darou ka (ダンジョンに出会いを求めるのは間違っているだろうか, lit. Is it Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?) until pictures of a main heroine, Hestia exploded on my Twitter timeline. Does it live up to the hype and the title? Not quite.
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Hibike! Euphonium – Final Review
Since I have played the piano and clarinet during my childhood up until my senior year of high school, Hibike! Euphonium instantly caught my eye when I saw it was a story of a high school concert band working with a new advisor in order to competing in nationals. Since it is Kyoto Animation, does it live up to expectations? Lets find out.
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Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha A’s – Final and Movie Review
For a long time, I have been a fan of magical girl shows since I enjoy seeing young girls beat up villains with magical powers. Lyrical Nanoha is somewhat different compared to other magical girl shows like Cardcaptor Sakura since it caters the older male demographic while introducing some elements from mecha anime. In fact, some people described Nanoha’s magical girl outfit as a schoolgirl outfit and a Gundam. In other words, there is a lot of action packed battles. Nanoha A’s pretty much improves on the prequel by adding another heroine to the mix and anti-villains.
While it took awhile since the DVDs were out of print due to Geneon going out of business, I finally got the chance to finish it. In addition, I’ll be covering some thoughts on the movie.
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Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka? – Final Review
When it comes to slice of life shows, I really enjoy Iyashikei shows involving cute girls. To me, they are a nice way to make to relieve the stress from a hard day of work. Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka（ご注文はうさぎですか, lit: Is the order a rabbit?) is one of those shows that has cute girls, but working at a café.
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The Idolmaster Movie – Movie Review
Since Cinderella Girls resumes airing next week and I want to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Idolmaster, it’s time to review the feature-length movie that showed last year.
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Kantai Collection ~KanColle~ (Anime) – Final Review
Back in 2013, Kadokawa Games decided to create a game called Kantai Collection (艦隊これくしょん, lit: Fleet Collection), which is a free to play browser game. It is basically a card battle game that involves war ships personified as cute girls.
While the game aimed to appeal to war ship otakus, the franchise’s popularity sprung up because of the fandom and the voice actresses who are involved with the project. The rest was history. The game was so popular that Kadokawa and DMM (who hosts the game) had to put in place a lottery in place in order to play the game, besides the geographical restriction.
Given how popular Kantai Collection is, eventually they announced an anime production for this franchise. While there are some viewers that complained about some aspects of the show, especially since most of the western viewers could not play the game without jumping through several hoops, what are my thoughts on the show? That is what I’m set out to do.
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Dog Days Double Dash – Final Review
It has been a little over two years since the second season of Dog Days have aired. I have to admit that the sequel improved every aspect of the first season. Instead of focusing on melodrama that felt out-of-place, it introduced another kingdom into the war games while bringing Nanami and Rebecca into the mix. To me, the second season was an improvement since it had a lot of enjoyable moments.
Although Seven Arcs announced a third season, we didn’t hear much about it until last year when they announced that it would air in 2015 during winter. With that, did it live up to the two-year wait?
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So, I got a Japanese New Nintendo 3DS (and Yokai Watch 2 First Impressions)
As you know, I own the original Nintendo 3DS, which I bought several months after it came out in the states. I have to admit that there were not many games that I was interested in besides a few first party games. Since the Nintendo 3DS is region locked, a policy that I complained about, I couldn’t import any Japanese games, even if there are some that I am interested in.
Last year, Nintendo has announced a new Nintendo 3DS, which is an evolutionary upgrade of the highly successful 3DS. Since I play mostly Japanese language games nowadays, I decided to go for a Japanese model this time. With that, it’s time to share my overall impressions on the new 3DS along with my short first impressions of Youkai Watch 2.
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Atelier Shallie – Alchemists of the Twilight Sea – Final Review
Since the start of the Dusk/Twilight trilogy, Gust has experimented with gameplay elements while having a somewhat darker story with the Earth in decline. In the last game, Escha and Logy allowed all 6 members (three active) to participate in battle while improving the alchemy gameplay by allowing you to choose the traits again. Also, you can see what tasks you need to get done along with what rewards you will get if you get a line up. Of course, the biggest addition is that there are now two protagonists you can play as, which has not been in the game since Mana Khemia 2.
The third and possibly last entry in the Dusk/Twilight trilogy is Atelier Shallie, which of course not only have dual protagonists (both female), but it also bring backs some game mechanics from Mana Khemia 2 such as getting rid of the time limit, variable strike and the burst gauge while introducing some new features and improvements. Since I have beaten the game at least once, its time to share my thoughts.
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Shirobako – Final Review
After PA Works finish producing a failure known as Glasslip, they have to come up with something that no studio has done before to make up for it. With that, they decided to make a show about anime production called Shirobako （白箱, lit white box), which focus on five girls trying to make it in an industry that is hard to get into.
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Glasslip – A Metaphorical Final Review
Just last summer, I shared my thoughts on why Glasslip was a complete failure. Since I already explained why it was so bad, I may as well make a final review mocking the whole show.
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Ore Twintail ni Narimasu – Final Review
Once in a blue moon, there is a show that has a ridiculous premise that you do not expect to be good until you watched the whole thing. Ore Twintail ni Narimasu (俺、ツインテールになります, lit. I will become a twintail) is one of those shows that has twin-tailed girls, gender bending and Super Sentai as its premise. I wonder how good this combination will be?
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Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica The Battle Pentagram – Final Review
Back in 2011, Madoka Magica took the magical girl genre by storm as they deconstructed the whole genre by making it dark and filled with drama. As expected, the show received so much critical acclaim that it eventually received three featured length movies, a bunch of manga spinoffs and even a licensed video game, both were made by Bandai Namco. Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica The Battle Pentagram is a sequel to the first portable game, which swaps the rogue-like dungeon crawling for a hack and slash gameplay on the PlayStation Vita.
Warning: Contains some spoilers from the Anime and movies.
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Amagi Brilliant Park – Final Review
For a while, Kyoto Animation’s recent effort on their in-house adaptations has left me with mixed feelings, except for the first season of Chuunibyou and Free Eternal Summer. Besides the animation, the stories in particular did not impress me as much. However, when they announced that they would be making Amagi Brilliant Park by Shoji Gatoh, who also wrote Full Metal Panic into an Anime, I became somewhat excited. With that, did this show live up to expectations? Let’s find out!
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Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica The Battle Pentagram – First Impressions
In the past, I have been wary towards licensed video games for the fact that most of them produced in the west are notoriously bad. However, I have never played any licensed Anime games before. In the next few months, I am going to cover three Anime licensed video games over the course of several months. With that, I will share my first impressions thoughts on Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magica The Battle Pentagram.
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Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;birth2 Sister’s Generation – Final Review
Back in 2013, Compile Heart and Idea Factory started remaking Neptune games for the PlayStation Vita starting with the first game, Neptune Re;birth 1. Neptune Re;birth 2 Sister’s Generation in comparison to the prequel feels more like an enhanced port rather than a remake since Mk2 did not have as many problems in comparison to the first game in the franchise. If so, what improvements did Compile Heart and Felistella made in this enhanced port?
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The 5 Most Enjoyable Japanese Games of 2014
Since 2014 is coming to a close and I don’t plan on covering any more games for this year, it’s time to take a look at which Japanese video games were the most enjoyable.
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