ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!?!?! Gladius Part 2

ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!?!?! Gladius Part 2

Hey everyone, been a few days since I was able to do an update but I feel like I’ve made enough progress that another one of these was in order.

Plot wise, there still hasn’t been a whole lot of development.  It has essentially been, encounter witch, witch says ominous thing, Urlan tells witch to screw off and for Ursula to not listen.  Probably the most interesting development was when we were tasked to go find a Galdr, Sigi, who is apparently responsible for singing or something to keep the dragon that the Mordare arena is hosted inside of dead. You have to trigger a random battle outside of Roanar where she is being attacked by 6 Mongrel Shamans and you know, keep her from dying.

Not gonna lie, lost that battle the first time and the second battle was cutting it close but I managed to succeed. After we return her, she and Ursula have a talk about sensing something in each other and Urlan interjects again,only for Sigi to maintain that she means Ursula no harm and wishes her well.

So yeah, outside of that I kind of stumbled throughout the area of the map I have access to going to each arena and knocking off their challenges one by one. I only have the Mordare tournament to go now to qualify for the regional tournament.  Currently have a 5 member team with four of their levels maxed out at 5 (Level caps for current school rank, will go higher when I beat regional tournament).  Let’s get a little more in depth shall we?

Ursula: Main character who is an interesting mix of a barbarian and a witch with her moves. She’s honestly pretty badass with her moveset right now, with multiple spells that can hit from range and multiple opponents at a time, as well as a move that buffs her stats (mainly making her super dodgy). Her biggest flaw for me so far is that her combo meter goes very fast and I have a hard time timing the button presses for her.  Other then that though, can’t complain.

Urlan: The elder of the siblings is much more straight up brute then his sister, for better and for worse.  A little slow and bulky but can certainly pack a punch.  He doesn’t really have any super useful abilities at the moment aside from him being my first party member to get a three hit combo, which obviously wrecks shop.  Not great but can certainly handle himself at the moment.

Zod: Bearrrrrrrrrrrr. Okay, he started kind of weak at first but could still take hits.  Now he is an absolute murder beast and I love him.  He is capable of shrugging off pretty much any blow that comes at him while dishing it back with interest at this point.  He has a combo attack that can dish out good damage as well as a special move that wrecks that only takes 1 special point (did I mention you get 1 special point replenished each turn?) and has an ability that reduces the amount of damage he takes, making him even more impenetrable.

Oh, and did I mention he has a counter attack?  He has a counter attack.  Zod kicks ass and I love him and he will forever be my murder bear.

Bestla: My wolf buddy who just recently reached the current level cap.  Very swift, but certainly not the most sturdy or effective from an offensive standpoint. Main use so far has been getting to top of the hill in the king of the hill battles or similar situations.  Has been getting some more useful abilities, such as a combo attack, being able to heal herself...

Oh, and ripping throats out, so that’s a plus.

Sim: Saytr who I just recruited fairly recently.  Still trying to figure out his strengths a bit but he’s definitely got some assets that I can use once I figure out how to use him.  Seems very quick and deals decent damage for being a lower level then the rest of the squad. Has some buffs and some range attacks as well but neither of them seem super effective yet.  Kind of a jack of all trades so we’ll see how he develops.

So yeah, that’s the update on gladiator land!  Thanks for reading everyone!

Digital Transformers! Storm Finishes Watching Digimon Xros Wars!

Yup, after putting it off for long enough, I have finally completed the sixth season of Digimon!  You know the drill, probably some spoilers in this write up so...you’ve been warned.

So the third part of Xros Wars is...different.  I wouldn’t call it bad necessarily, but it is a step down from the first two parts.  It’s very episodic in nature and doesn’t really develop a plot for a large part of the episodes.  The plot and development was interesting when it happened, but there was too few of them on the whole.

Some of the more stand alone episodes were...iffy at best.  One that immediatly comes to mind is the Betsumon episode, which my beef with can be summed up very simply by this paraphrasing of the plot.

Tagiru: Gumdramon!  Fight for your friend! Gumdramon: He abandoned me and doesn’t even remember me, how about no? Tagiru: NO! *Punches in face repeatedly* FRIENDSHIP!

Speaking of Tagiru, him as a protagonist was...alright.  I actually didn’t mind him as much as I thought I would and Gumdramon was a nice partner for him as well.  I’m sure there were a quite a few people dissapointed in Taiki taking a bit of a back seat in this arc but I actually kind of liked getting to see him in more of a mentor/advisory position.  

Also Shoutmon’s desgin upgrade for this season was awesome.

Something I haven’t talked about throughout these post’s but I really probably should is the music.  I pretty much love all the insert songs that get played for each digixros/digivolution and some of the themes are absolutely great for getting you pumped for the epic moments.

So where would I rank Xros Wars out of all the Digimon seasons?  Pretty favorably actually!  I would probably have to put it in sort of an interchangeable depending on the day tie for second with Savers and 02 (And without the third season, it may be second by itself) with Tamers still my all time favorite.  Really glad I finally got myself to watch the series and I enjoyed the experience!

So I have one of these now

Let's see how long this lasts : p

Digital Transformers! Storm Watches Digimon Xros Wars Part 2

Okay, so I may be getting somewhat addicted to this show.  Have watched through episode 54 now so...this post may be quite a bit more spoilery then the last so...you have been warned!

Have to say, the whole Death General arc was pretty interesting, even if it did have some pacing issues at times.Starts off well enough with the dragon general to show you how strong they are (forget his name) even if he’s a little bland himself.  Then there was NeoVamdemon who...wasn’t that interesting in himself, but it was also the first time that the series didn’t wimp out and actually have an ally die so that was good enough.

Then there was Zamielmon...fuck that guy and fuck those two episodes, whose only remote purpose was to begin preparations for the next episode, Yuu’s proper introduction.  This, by all means was suitably epic and engaging and had me really excited for the coming episodes!

And then Yuu and Darknightmon proceed to disappear for the next ten episodes or so.  Dissapointing, but the next couple of death general’s weren’t too bad.  I liked Splashmon’s deceptive games and Kiriha and Taiki both suitably outsmarting him.  Olegmon’s mini arc was a little meh but it was nice to see some more development for Balistamon.  

Then Gravimon’s arc happened, which was probably the most interesting of all the death general.  The action was awesome, tearjerkers were involved and the general had an awesome gambit to win that I felt wasn’t overcome in a complete BS manner.

And then we had the showdown between Yuu and the three main characters...which was also completely epic and I think really helped solidified this season as one of my favorites.

I don’t have too much to say about the rest of those episodes, my minds honestly kind of a blur at this point.  I will say it was nice to see everyone get some screentime in the final battle against Bagramon though and I’m looking forward to seeing what the last third of this season brings to the table!

Following up on the Purchased Games

Alright, so I've head some time to sample all three of the games I purchased yesterday so figured I'd post my thoughts here as a bit of a follow up.

Dragon Rage: Welp...it doesn't speak well for this game that it game out 8 months after Zone of the Enders and is pretty much inferior to it in every way (Controls, music, graphics, etc).  I think the moment that best defines this game is in the tutorial when the voice tells you what to do but gives you no hints as to what button to press to actually do it.  On the bright side, the dragon handles terribly but at least actually looks like a dragon...and you get to brutally tear sheep to pieces for sustenance soooo, that's something : p

Zone of the Enders: The most impressive one so far.  Very smooth controls and looks great for a game that came out pretty early in the PS2's lifespan.  Plot isn't overly clear yet and I'm seeing some Evangelion similarities (PILOT THE DAMN ROBOT SHINJI/LEO) but it's certainly a lot of fun to play so I'll be keeping at it.

Gladius: Not entirely sure what to make of it yet since I'm still in the tutorial phase of the game.  Playing the Ursula path first (Was going to anyway before I noticed the difficulties marked it as the easier one) and I'll be curious to see how the plot develops.  From the opening cutscene, basically some witches showed up to a barbarian king and were like "You're going to have a daughter and she'll bring about a catastrophe or something" except then a son was born so he through them out.  However, apparently his wife wasn't done giving birth or something and then Ursula was born and the king was like "oh shit" so they went into hiding.  So yeah...that's a thing.

So yeah, there you go everyone.  While Valkyria Chronicles will still be my focus, I'll probably be dabbling in all of these games to some extent so I'll be sure to post updates when I do.  Ta ta for now!

ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED!?!? Gladius Part 1

Alright, so the trip to the beach in Valkyria Chronicles is proving to be a bit more hazardous then expected so I’m going to be focusing on Gladius for now until I have more time to focus on Skirmishes and upgrading my tank and stuff.

So Gladius, turn based Gladiator RPG and it’s pretty enjoyable so far.  Battle system is pretty standard turn based stuff with the exception of time button presses to do maximum damage.  Basically, you run a gladiator “School” (Well, your brother does but your the main character so screw him) and you recruit new members and go around to different arenas to earn certificates of worthiness so you can compete in the big time games.

Oh and some witches are stalking you and talking about dark gods, but I’m sure that’s not important.  Feel like I should reiterate, playing as Ursula, barbarian lady with magical powers.

So nothing to exciting in my progress yet, traveling to different arenas and earning certificates in battle. Sometimes the battles are different then standard battles though, like point battles (however much damage you do is how many points you get) and king of the hill (HOLD THE TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN) for instance.  Also fought a big ass wolf, so that was fun.

But yeah, recruitment!  Every arena has a section for this where you can buy gladiators either temporarily (one battle) or permanently add them to your school.  Apparently, animals are quite intelligent in this universe and are capable of  negotiating fees for gladiators to pay for their services.  Naturally I added Zod the bear to the roster and I love him and I will never let him go and he will be my right hand bear and murder everything.

So yeah, that’s the notable progress at the moment.  Currently at the ice arena place so I think I’ll be hanging around there for a while.  Bye bye everyone!