As far behind as it is, let me start off by thanking everyone for the birthday wishes. I did see them and appreciate them, even if I didn't reply to them promptly. I've been plugging away at a few projects and a commission slowly, so I do apologize greatly for the silence here and on the tumblr. I've basically been grappling with a curse hanging over my house and to keep things brief, it's been rough, and I've been in a state of dissolution. I won't talk about the projects just yet, but I did want to take a chance to warm up with this long overdue update and just talk a bit about some games and anime.
Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight, is short, well polished 2D metroidvania that draws heavily on the Souls series in terms of mechanics and theming. It sits at ~$10 and I cleared it on normal in about 6 hours, though there's 2 harder difficulties and several secrets I didn't get, but it's a game with such a good mood that even knowing nothing about the Momodora series, I'd be happy to go back and play it again. Though there are definite platforming sections, I'd say the emphasis is much more on combat and getting soaked in on this world slowly being consumed by a spreading curse.
My only real complaints is that as a shorter game, there were certain characters and events that I was expecting more of which didn't really get any play beyond being little teases. That, and while you do have a double jump right from game start, it's very poor for actually getting higher, meant more for crossing gaps than climbing up things. All in all however, I'd absolutely recommend it for a nice, easily consumed mix of challenge and atmosphere.
Pokemon Moon: I finally managed to get my hands on a copy and made my way through the first island. While I can't speak for competitive balance, I will say that I really enjoy the polish that has been put in, with one of my favorites being the different ways your character moves when moving through tall grass. The game does tutorialize for too long, and things feel like they take just a bit too long to happen, but I love the designs of the new pokemon, and really appreciate the wide variety of different types you can encounter right from the first island with a lot of solid choices mixed in. Before leaving for the first time, I've found everything but ice and dragon types, which is a really nice wide mix to start off your journey with. I can't comment much more than that, but I look forward to getting more time with it when I don't have as much work on my plate.
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With games out of the way, I'll just briefly move on to anime for the season.
Little Witch Academia: Yeah I'm watching fansubs. They are perfectly fine. That said, if you saw the original OVA and Movie and just wanted more of that feeling, characters, and world of witches and magic, then you know exactly what you are getting. Trigger delivers fantastically on a beautiful, energetic and fantastic world and cast with lots of room to grow, while paying constant homage with a dense mix of references to animation of east and west alike. The story is taking its time, focused more on the characters, and it's one of my favorites of the season. It's a 24 episode Trigger anime, I don't know what else to say. I have ideas of where it's going to go, but who knows? If you have any doubts, then check out the original OVA, or The Enchanted Parade and make the call.
Konosuba season 2: This being my other major favorite of the season. Konosuba is one of the best comedy series to have come out in anime in a good while indeed, with a fantasy world where everything is just a bit jank and our four heroes are all lovable idiots, and you can really enjoy the suffering they inflict on themselves and each other. Studio DEEN finally found themselves a really good fit, so hopefully they can adjust their wheelhouse to projects like this that suit them and stop botching things like When They Cry. If you have to pick one show for the season to watch and need cheering up, while also enjoying a nice parody on the rapidly overgrowing Trapped in Another World genre, then pick Konosuba every time.
Maid Dragon Kobayashi: This show actually has a really solid mix of comedy with Slice of Light happiness and a mixture of character weight in the background to create a SoL series that has solid meaning to it. It did a really solid job of selling me on it and I'm happy to have stuck with it since, enjoying the life of dead-eyed programming woman Kobayashi and her dragon maid. I had my eye on this series since the start, but I don't think I started watching it until realizing how Konosuba was later in the cycle, and glad I picked it up.
Interview with Monstergirls: From here on, the recommendations here are conditional. In my mind, There is a continuum, a line. At one end of this line is Monster Musume, which fully embraces its dumbness as a harem sex comedy and goes more towards the MGE's fetishism of monstergirls. On the far opposite end of that scale is Interviews with Monstergirls, which takes a much more realistic take on the vampire, succubus, yuki-onna, and dullahan, to the point that lots of people complained that they weren't monstergirls at all. It's much more of a slice of life series that asks questions about the lives of monstergirls, with some humor and a touch of drama thrown in. I will say there are gags that did hit me really well, but I can see it being a bit too light and fluffy for some, or dislike the lack of fantasy given to the monstergirls. That said, this series getting animated makes me hopeful that we will get to see Nurse Hitomi's Clinic get an anime some time in the near future, as I believe it sits nicely in the middle ground between this show and Monster Musume.
Gabriel Dropout: A gag series about angels and devils who are bad at their jobs. Unlike what was said on the weebcast coverage of this show, I don't believe it's without merit, though I also have not see Umaru-chan or Dokuro-chan so I can't comment. It generally gets a laugh out of me at least once an episode, and the gags that stick do so really well. However, the show lacks a feeling of really getting to go anywhere unlike the other series above this, so I stick with the call I made at the start of the series and call this a B-level show. It's good, but not on any must-watch list, and a fantastic source of reaction gifs. If you have the time, then it's worth watching, but if you can only watch X number of anime at a time, then Konosuba is higher on the list.
Saga of Tanya the Evil: Finally, we hit the edgy, military themed action series on the list. This was another show I knew about, but didn't originally plan to watch, instead getting picked up on its solid start. If you do want a magic/military kind of series with a bit of edge to it, then I recommend just going in on the first 2 episodes and DO NOT LOOK UP ABOUT THE SERIES. The anime listing kind of spoils the premise they set up in the first bit of the series. All that said, it's fine, but I'm also not so into it that you're missing out, as I don't feel quite so hooked on the premise or characters, so it's on the bottom of my list as a B-grade as well.
And that's more or less what I wanted to talk about in brief, a nice warm up of 60-90 minutes. Small disclosure, I haven't seen Masamune's revenge or Scum's Wish, but they sound very promising, as does Rakugo, but I haven't seen the first season yet, so I can't comment on it at all.
Again, thank you all for your time, have a great day^^