I started playing Raidou Remastered: The Mystery of the Soulless Army this week, and I'm very impressed at how much work they've done with remastering the game compared to the PS2 version. It's funny how Atlus could have done this for SMT3, but didn't, though.
I'm nearing the end of Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance on the Castlevania Advance Collection, and... yeah, this game is still the worst of the IGAvania games by *far* thanks to some annoying parts. But it's not bad, and it's still appreciable that it paved the way for better subsequent games.
I'm rewatching both Ghost in the Shell: Stand-Alone Complex seasons ahead of the new series' premiere next week, and it's unsurprisingly still great. Between the overarching story, smaller stories in between, and having a whole 26 episodes to tell it, they truly don't make them like this anymore.
The new Fist of the North Star is thankfully a lot of fun, and doesn't look as bad as the initial impressions suggested. I still would have preferred it to be 2D, but it gets the job done just enough. I also started watching Nippon Sangoku, which is great from the first few episodes.
I’ve had a busier weekend than expected, so I only got around to starting Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End’s second season today. I’m not surprised that it’s right on par with the first season thus far, but I’m going to take my time absorbing this given the lower episode count.
Damn, instead of “next week” I should have said “later today.” www.halowaypoint.com/news/june-co...
Fate Strange/Fake both feels similar *and* different from other Fate (and overall Nasuverse) works. It keeps a mood similar to Fate/Zero and some Stay Night anime, though with a new set of characters and *some* new Servants. It fortunately IS similar through being enjoyable.
I understand why why the older characters are being used in this way for Final Fantasy Resonance, since it's essentially a reimagined version of Final Fantasy: Brave Exvius. But it's hard *not* to look at this and think "Final Fantasy Engage." It's also pretty humorous -- to me, anyway.
It couldn't be clearer that Akira Toriyama wanted to make another Dragon Ball-style adventure-focused series with Dragon Ball Daima, though it still has some well-animated fights. It's very entertaining, and a fitting swan song.
I’ve been watching Spider-Noir, and it hammers the feel of a Spider-Man work while feeling different from all the live-action works starring the character made thus far. And even though Nicolas Cage is a bit old for this role, I can’t imagine anyone playing Ben Reilly/the Spider but him here.
I've never fully watched one of the *many* Anne of Green Gables adaptations, but I'm really enjoying Anne Shirley from the seven episodes I've watched. It moves a little too fast, to be fair, but it's very charming and entertaining when and where it counts.
I've had Back Arrow on my watch list for a while, but I'm now finally getting around to it after finishing Gun x Sword, since this is from the same director (Goro Taniguchi). This show is *kind of* like that one, but it's really it's own crazy and very entertaining thing.
The Elusive Samurai is fun series from what I've watched thus far, a little more than halfway through the first (and only, thus far) season. It's also a bit more violent than I was expecting, which is wild to see with the level of humor it has. But it works well.
Fire Force doesn’t have the most original concept, but it’s enough when the series is a bunch of fun. I wrapped up the first season earlier, and will dig into the second season throughout the weekend. It’s nice to not have to wait between seasons to watch it all.
I'm still watching Re:Zero a week later, after just starting the third season. I can fully see why several people call this one of the better isekai light novel adaptations in anime, and I must like it when I'm watching all these seasons with few breaks in between.
Re:Zero is even better than I was expecting, after hearing about it being one of the “good” isekai adaptations. I was intrigued enough from the first episode (from the Director’s Cut version), but it gets really wild about a quarter of the way through.
Part of the reason for why I'm watching Heat Guy J and Gun x Sword now is me feeling nostalgic for the bygone era in which anime-original shows got a full 26 episodes to tell their stories. I wrapped up Heat Guy J, which was solid, but I'll start Gun x Sword later this weekend.
Missed this midway through last week, but I’m into the new Overwatch hero essentially being a dark-skinned Cammy with a gun through her appearance. Not that Cammy hasn’t carried a gun before, but more games could use the archetype.
I'm halfway through the first season of Psycho-Pass, and it's much better than I was expecting. It combines the aesthetic and vibe of some Ghost in the Shell works with that of a western procedural show, with great results. I will simply not read anything about how subsequent seasons turned out.
I’ve watched a bunch of Zenshu episodes now, and it’s really good. It’s a very interesting spin on the isekai formula, with a miniscule-though-notable statement about the mindset of an animator working in anime.
I thought I was only about halfway through Persona 5 Tactica, but I’m actually a little more than three-quarters in. There’s a certain twist that I expected to happen earlier, but my opinion is similar to last week: The game isn’t essential playing, but it’s a lot of fun.
Persona 5 Tactica is a fine game thus far, but it's a little shocking to see how little the Phantom Thieves are involved with the biggest story twists within the first 12 hours or so. But I'm enjoying the gameplay loop, so I won't complain too much.
Paranormasight: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo takes a bit of time to really ramp up, but once it does, it's tough to put down. It's a very old school visual novel in a good way, beyond the game taking place in the 1980s. I should have it done sometime this weekend.
Just as I'm posting this, the credits are about to roll in Castlevania: Circle of the Moon. A very fun game, even if Nathan feels a little stiff compared to the other non-linear IGAvania Castlevania titles. I'll start on the first Paranormasight game tomorrow.
I had a little trouble getting readjusted to Castlevania: Circle of the Moon, since it handles so differently from the other Metroidvania Castlevania titles. But now that I have, I’m enjoying it again. It still looks good, and the music quality is great for a launch window Game Boy Advance game.
Wrapped up Super Mario Bros. Wonder today. I'm surprised that it's actually a little easier than New Super Mario Bros. U overall, outside some notorious levels in the Secret World, but this game has a much better presentation and art direction. I had a great time with it.
I just started playing Super Mario Bros. Wonder, an unsurprisingly fun time so far. The art style is very impressive over the New Super Mario Bros. games, but I’m realizing just how out of practice I am with 2D Mario games. But it’s always satisfying to overcome some of the tougher challenges.