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Tales of Kenzera: Zau (2024)
Super chill and very fun progressive platformer with a perfect amount of content
This is a positive review focused on addressing some of the points mentioned in the negative reviews for this wonderful game. I feel like the negative reviewers never played any other platformers and/or are very impatient people that expect story-driven games to be TikToks. I mean, one of the negative reviews is calling a heavy enemy a boss. This shows how some people aren't paying attention to the story and didn't even finish Act 1.
This game is a walk in the park compared to most platformers I played: super chill and quite easy. The amount of content (characters, enemies, collectibles, skills, upgrades, dialogue, etc.) is perfect. Backtracking to platinum is minimal and the platforming and combat are progressive, very fun and diverse enough not to be overwhelming. I understand that some people like more complicated and longer games, but the premise of this game is clearly "sit back and relax" (more reasons why will be mentioned below). Personally, I love games like this and Stray, and hate games that demand hours of grinding, tons of backtracking and dozens of attempts retrying things on a "Nightmare" difficulty to platinum.
Unlike some reviewers say, the controls respond very fast, the hit boxes are normal and the camera is almost always just fine. There are game with bad mechanics out there, but this sure isn't one of them. And like in every other game, it just takes some time getting use to them (I'm talking to you, negative reviewers with less than 2h of gameplay).
Insta-kill spikes exist for decades, and yet people are complaining even though they have checkpoints right before them. The enemies and their buffs are a balanced mix of easy and annoying, forcing you to to strategize on how to take each of them down and in what order, while still not demanding a lot of brain cells. They're also not as deadly as the spikes, so you have room to recover from mistakes.
Tastes are subjective, so you may or may not like the story. It's simple and cliché, but it's quite pretty. The important thing here is that this game is a love letter from the creator to his late father. The dialogue is ordinary for the theme of the game, which, for me, is fine. The characters are charming and their interactions are sweet. And if you fall in love with this world like I did, there's some character and world lore to read in the codex. The lore is short and you unlock them as you progress through the game, so it doesn't get boring.
As for the graphics, the style and the music: they're amazing! But then again, tastes are subjective. I just wish the in-game cutscenes were more animated.
Ore dake Level Up na Ken (2024)
Your average hero's journey in shonen, but with a lot of gore and brutality
This review was wrote after watching S01E02. My current rating of the show is always based on the overall up to the point I watched. If I change my opinion, I will add an "edit" section at the end of this review.
I've seen hype about this title for years. I was waiting for it to be animated, since I'm not a reading person. And then, I heard that Sawano Hiroyuki did the soundtrack for the anime, which hyped me even more. But oh, boy, this was one of the biggest disappointments I've ever had. And I'm a very easy person to please (you can tell by my questionable ratings, lol).
The animation and the soundtrack are amazing, there's no arguing about that. But when it comes to the story, the only decent thing, so far, is the setting: portals to dungeons in another dimension randomly appear and have to be quickly raided before the monsters in there cross over to Earth. Crystals found in the other realm are a clean energy source for mankind, so capitalism took over the situation and makes people compete between themselves, and often getting killed in the dungeons, just to bring or try to bring crystals back, since they'll make you rich. All of that sounds very cool, but when the setting comes to the monster fighting, the problems start.
The only people that damage the monsters are the ones who have awakened their magic powers. That would be okay, if they did use magic or magic embued weapons to attack the monsters, but they don't (as per explained, so far). They also didn't mention (yet) whether their magic works on Earth or not. I assume not, since we can see a lot of people in the hospital. I'm also assuming the magic started to flourish on humans because of the portals and their interdimensional "radioactivity" ever since they start appearing. Another problem is that regular guns don't work against the monsters, but swords, that are also man-made, work normally. And the sword have to be wielded by a person with magic, but what if this same person wielded an assault rifle? For this problem, it would make more sense if the monsters can only be damaged by elements from their dimension, hence explaining why they deflect our weapons. For this, they would also have to tell about mankind's huge losses until they finally manage to infiltrate their realm and gather enough crystals to forge the first weapons and finally start fighting back. In this condition, MAYBE we can start working with the "magic" thing. I'm not the writer, I don't have to come up with the solutions.
Aside from that that, this looks like it's just gonna be your average hero's journey in shonen, but with a lot of gore and brutality (which is not a requirement to make a good story) to make it look that the stakes are real, when in truth, none of the main characters are probably gonna be touched. This story has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING new. And don't get me wrong, I don't really care about a story being a cliché. Clichés can be very good, but this story has everything you've already seen countless times before: a super weak and humble protagonist that's clearly gonna become strong while probably staying humble, his equally weak "sidekick" that screws up at a crucial moment (which may also be a love interest), an overpowered, quiet and mysterious character that would probably mentor the protagonist until he overcomes her, and the famous "mystery door ahead. It's dodgy, but let's go in anyway and have half of us killed so the weak protagonist can save the day and finally accomplish something". And despite the solution for the situation they found themselves in being quite stupid, of course the protagonist is the only one with brains to solve it and balls to face it.
I don't know if the manga is any better, but I certainly would hope so. In any case, there's still 10 more episodes to the end of S01. I hope to be proved wrong, to change my mind and to feel hyped for S02 rather than dropping the anime.
Yugio gorasshu!! (2022)
Remember when "card games on motorcycles" was the biggest meme? Well...
This review was wrote after watching S01E26. My current rating of the show is always based on the overall up to the point I watched. If I change my opinion, I will add an "edit" section at the end of this review.
DISCLAIMER: this is the review of a 25 year-old cinephile who knows this anime is just a card game propaganda for Japanese kids.
Remember when "card games on motorcycles" was the biggest meme? Then came "Vrains", with "card games on hoverboards", but it's about the same, right? Well, how about "card games with aliens on spaceship-towns"? Every Yu-Gi-Oh that comes out manage to surpass the insanity of the previous one. And for some reason, I still get surprised.
Honestly, the only reason I keep up with this franchise is because I've been doing so since 2014 ("Zexal"). Because it's "easy" to watch a 24min episode per week. And besides, the franchise still has its moments, sometimes: crossovers and references from other Yu-Gi-Ohs, old cards being used in the anime for the first time, epic or beautiful speeches and soundtracks (hell, I got goosebumps when Sevens Road Magician from the previous anime got summoned by Yuna as a remastered version of his soundtrack blasted in the background), great relationship and interaction between characters. But the truth is that the franchise is all over the place and, lately (since "Sevens"), completely stupid.
Insanity aside, all of the Yu-Gi-Ohs before "Go Rush" have an at least interesting story, but they're completely drowned by enough duels to justify a 100-episode anime. I mean, it's a card game show, right? But even with the endless creation of new cards and the often changes of the game rules, the duel-to-solve-problems format has been going on for 22 years. And to this day, the duels keep getting more and more complicated to the point I don't bother trying to remember any cards (also 'cause most of them are only used once), nor their effects card effects. The franchise got extremely dull years ago, and I even struggle to watch the 24min episode per week. At this point, all that I expect from this franchise is a somewhat interesting story and the stuff mentioned in the previous paragraph.
Unfortunately, "Go Rush" even lacks an interesting story, leaving little to be attached to. I mean, the main plot is about an intergalactic war of aliens, so maybe it should be "interesting". But then I remember that it's only supposed to be a card game anime, that the main plot is, once again, gonna be left aside for many of episodes filled with countless forgettable duels and that the ending of "Sevens" was a disaster, even for someone who wasn't expecting much, so I'm not being able to feel or expect anything from "Go Rush". For me, this is the emptiest Yu-Gi-Oh, so far.
I thought "Sevens'" story was bad and felt empty compared to previous Yu-Gi-Ohs, but it had the one silver lining that was Otes. For "Go Rush", I don't even see a silver lining. As mentioned, I expect absolutely nothing from this anime, so, unlike "Sevens", I doubt I can feel disappointed, regardless of how it ends. I believe relief is all that I'll feel.
The anime franchise should've ended a really long time ago, but after so many years living weekly with it, I admit that a part of me would mourn if they decided to fully kill it. And to be honest, I still hope for a massive crossover between all the protagonists (and since the franchise stopped making sense since "Zexal", they could do it without having to worry about explaining how).