First Impressions of Mistover

 Technically I started this game yesterday but the only thing I did today was stream Iron Tank and SMT V so I'm taking a chance to talk about my first few dungeons in this game I got for free on PSN.

The first and most obvious thing about it is that the moment the game starts you realize that you're just playing Darkest Dungeon again.  The dungeons play out a bit more like a Mystery Dungeon type deal, sure but the overall vibe of the game just screams Darkest Dungeon clone.  I'm not really saying this as a bad thing either since I loved Darkest Dungeon and more of that with a twist is always a good thing.  The game is also anime as hell with a lot of the characters being moe blob anime girls with large lances and stuff like that.

It may look and feel like a Darkest Dungeon clone but it seems to have ripped its plot, however, right out of Demons Souls.  There's a big pillar of fog that's been wreaking havoc, adventureres go in the fog to try and stop it and those that go in don't usually come back out.  A bog standard reason to have an adventure but we're more here for party management and fighting with RNG more than anything else.

You have a town where you manage your team of anime people and kit them out with stuff as well as prepare for your travels into the mist.  There are all sorts of shops and upgrade places that all get thrown at you at once and right now it feels all a bit overwhelming.  It's not so much that the systems are hard to understand, so once you spend a little time with it, it all falls into place but the game just backs up a big dump truck of stuff at you and leaves you to work it out.  I'm almost sure this is intentional to make you feel like an out of place adventurer whos in over your head but from an actual game play perspective its just annoying to have to sit there and sift through all this shit before I can really get going.

Once you're ready, you grab a quest from the anime girl in town and head into a dungeon.  Dungeons are randomly generated affairs filled with monsters, obstacles, traps and loot.  Each of your characters has a unique skill to help traverse the place and while you're exploring you have to manage hunger and your light source.  I think if your characters fall while you're doing these dungeons they are gone for good but I've not lost anyone yet so I'm not entirely sure if the game has perma-death.

The most interesting feature though is the Doomsday Clock.  When you finish a dungeon, depending on how much of it you explored and how well you did finding chests and such, a big old clock will tick up towards midnight.  If you get everything in the dungeon then it doesn't move and if you leave with a bunch of shit undone then it progresses.  If it gets to midnight then the games over and you lose.  I've heard it can also tick backwards if you do REALLY well but I found everything there was to find in a small dungeon and it didn't happen so I guess I have to do the bigger levels for that. 

Either way, I think I'm going to have a good time with Mistover, only time will tell if the RNG makes me rip my hair out or not but for a game I got for free on PSN, so far I'm impressed

Ajin

I've been sort of off anime for a long LONG time.  I watched a hell of a lot of shows back in my high school and early university days.  I dropped off not only because I just didn't have time but because I just couldn't seem to find anything decent that wasn't full of squeaky anime girls.  Not that I'm anti squeaky anime girl, Dungeon Travelers 2 on the Vita was pretty much ONLY that, but when it's the only thing available I lose interest.

I don't know what came over me but I suddenly decided to look for something to watch and the first genre I turned to was horror.  I started by reading the manga for Parasyte which was enjoyable and from there started looking into a show called Kakegururi which was about squeaky anime girls gambling so I was getting off track. To get myself back on track I looked up a show called Ajin and found myself getting hooked pretty fast.

The show is about a high school boy (because it always fucking is) who gets run over by a truck and is outed as a much feared Ajin.  Ah Ajin is basically a fancy anime way of saying "immortal" but in the case of this show it's not that you can't die, but when you do die you just get back up again.  This leads to some pretty cool action sequences but also some really grotesque horror stuff.  There's one point early on where the protagonist is captured and tortured for "science" and it's not what's happening to him that's disturbing as much as the idea that you have to suffer that over and over again.  There's also stuff with fighting ghosts but I feel they're there for more anime fight purpose and the real enjoyment comes with watching how each Ajin in the story deals with their outcast status.

I've not really been hooked on a show like this since early 24 or The Wire.  I'm not one for binge watching shows but each episode ends with some insane bullshit that just makes you want to see what happens next and I can't resist that "next episode" button.  If you're looking for a show that isn't just weeby cutesy crap that check out Ajin.  There's a second season I've not watched yet but I'm sure it's awesome, go check it out!

Hyper Dimension Neptunia

This is another one of those games I'm going to talk a little bit about despite the fact I haven't quite finished it yet.  I've been playing the fucking thing for almost a year and I've still not managed to polish it off and this is due to it being in Japanese so sometimes I'm just not in the mood to read that shit and just because it's generally not very fucking good.

So from what I understand, the game is set in a world that kind of representative of the games industry.  There are a number of islands with silly names like "Rui", "Leenbox" and "Raystation" and  each one of these has a goddess that presides over it (In Japanese referred to as "hards" as in hardware)  and one day they decide to gang up on one of their own and chuck her out of the goddess world or whatever.  On the way down, she loses all her memory, changes form into some small annoying girl and starts hearing voices from someone or something called Istoval (different in English?)  Istoval wants her to collect pieces of a key so she can free him/her/it from confinement otherwise something really terrible will happen to the world.  Thus begins the adventures of Neptune and her companions Compa and IF(?) on their journey for key that will save the world or some shit, I dunno.

The story surprisingly has a lot of charm to it and while it's not exactly the best written thing ever it's entertaining.  Where this game really falls down is in EVERY OTHER DEPARTMENT.

The combat is OK as there is a system in place where you can create your own combos with the skills that you acquire as you level up but after a while it all becomes very dull and unsatisfying and every encounter feels like a chore.  There is also this weird fucking thing where you can't use items by yourself, you have to put points into item skills which give them a percent chance to activate under certain conditions which can really fuck you over at some points.  Also combat difficulty will just be all over the damn place with some of the game being painfully easy and then suddenly a side quest or dungeon will be full of impossible shit that just doesn't want to die.

The game also features a ton of side quests which is cool and all but all the dungeons in this game are fucking IDENTICAL.  There are maybe 6 or 7 different types of dungeon and the only thing that changes is the layout.  You will always been running around the same looking cave, factory, castle, temple looking thing and the layouts are just standard crappy mazes with a couple of rooms with treasure in them if you're lucky.

Other problems include things like music that's so boring it'll put you to sleep, voice work that will cause heavy cringe if you're playing with anyone else in the room, slow animations in combat and many other things.  The only reason I'm still playing it is because if I don't finish it it'll forever remain unbeaten in my collection and I can't be having that.

Now, what I have heard is that the games that followed it, Mk2, V and a bunch of other stuff on PSP, Vita and other systems are way WAY better so once I finish this one I'm not going to give up on the series just yet, like I said there is a small amount of appeal to be had here.  I'll be interested to see how they stack up after I finish this shitty one in about 10 years.

The World Cosplay Summit

Well before I went and got sick, I went down to the World Cosplay Summit in Nagoya to go check out what all the hubub was about.

The truth of the matter is, I don't really like anime all that much, I find a great deal of the shows annoying and generally speaking, the vast majority of programs are more about fanservice than delivering any sort of decent plot.

That's not to say I hate all anime, if anyone is interested I do enjoy shows such as Akagi (because I love mahjong, not for the grimdark edgy character) and Kaiji, but a genuinely good show is hard to come across.

That said, this was one of the most impressive displays of fandom I've ever seen.  People roll up from all over the place dressed as their favourite characters, and they spend their day being photographed by people who cant be arsed.

It was actually a lot of fun to be at though, the costumes were impressive and they had a stage where they were hosting fun little shows and stuff, the atmosphere was pretty nice.  The cosplayers themselves are by no means shy either, you can easily flag down your favourite character and get a snap with them, they love the recognition for that costume they sunk so many hours into.

If anyone is thinking to themselves at this point "oh well its just a bunch of sad nerds dressing up, it couldn't have been that good..." well you're fucking WRONG! check this shit out!

Look at that turnout! holy shit!  Doesn't matter what age, colour or gender you are, if you love dressing up as anime characters, anyone is more than welcome to drop on.

Well there isn't really much else to say, this kind of thing is really something you have to experience for yourself, but allow me to give you the short version in the form of a single picture

I fucking love this place