I picked up and played this game without a lot of knowledge on what it was about. Even after playing it for a while and beating it, trying out several different characters and exploring a plethora of side quests it’s hard to nail down exactly a specific genre or type of game this falls into. On one hand it’s very much a dungeon crawling hack-and-slash game. You face towards an opponent and hit an attack button and your character will either run and slash them, fire something at them, or cast a spell. Then you just move forward a little bit further and mash the attack button again and keep moving through the hordes of enemies. However the game is also much more than that.

If you are just looking to “beat” the game, getting though the main quest line and so on you will be very disappointed with this game. You can in fact, without a lot of leveling or equipment run past a lot of the monsters and do just the quests for the main line and e though with the game very fast. However if you are playing the game for that purpose alone then, well, you’re an idiot. The game has just a staggering amount of content. I spent a large portion of the game exploring every inch of the map I could in the area that was unlocked for me, doing every single quest available and when I was done I had less than 20 percent of the map completed and over 30 hours logged. The game world is HUGE and throughout most of the explorable area of the game there are quests for you to do which will have you running back and forth, collecting stuff, and killing certain bosses. But more on the quests later. The point being is that if you look at the game as something to explore and really chip away at all that is offered and to the “storyline” quest then it will take you days upon days to complete.

It can get overwhelming in content if you just play and play trying to get everything done. What I found is that this game is really great to just pick up and play whenever you feel like for a couple hours here and there. You can just chip away at different quests or explore some small dungeon whenever you feel like it. There are several higher difficulties above standard that you unlock though beating the game, which is really he only reason I see for doing the main quest as oppose to doing all the other things. With so many higher difficulties and thousands of quests just playing it every now and then really fits better for this game as opposed to a more action packed game that gives you a big thrill but little time. This is definitely a game that will last you a long time and you get more enjoyment out of it if you spread it out a little bit.

Along with the enormity of the game the other high point of this game has to be the customization and thought that has to go into character building. This isn’t some simple case where when you get a level you pick a new ability or go through a boring skill tree. There are so many levels to this system that I honestly spent several hours before really getting into the game, after I knew of the system, planning out my characters. Abilities are called Combat Arts and it’s easy to “unlock” one, you just have to read a rune for it, an item randomly dropped. However each CA has its own level, the more runes you read the stronger it gets, sounds simple right? Well along with increasing its power you also increase the regen time it has. So if you read too many runes the CA will be useless as you may only be able to use it once every several minutes if you aren’t careful. To counterbalance this whenever you level up you get skill points. These can go into things to make all CA’s of a certain group more powerful, or it can make all CA’s of a group have less regen time, but can also be put into things to give you more armor or better weapon damage. It’s this constant balance of using skill points to lower regen times while reading more runes to increase the power that you have to keep a very close eye on, because if you aren’t careful you can make your character really broken and the only thing that will fix them is leveling up several more times, which will be hell if the character is broken. You really have to think about how you want your character to play, which CA’s you want to use and keep in mind their regen, so you either read only a little or read a lot but put skill points into lower regen. This constant back and forth is very interesting to play with and makes the game much more than a hack and slash.

The game does utilize an enemy auto leveling system. Whenever you level up, the enemies do too. Enemies in further areas of the game will start higher, so you can’t immediately rush to the end game, but once you hit their level they will not maintain the level difference. Now, this isn’t the same as other games with enemy leveling, like Oblivion. There are no new monsters in the areas you visit; just the same ones will be stronger. Now, while this didn’t make the game horrible, I do have some slight problems with it. It would be unreasonable to say there should be no leveling in the game at all, because after spending over 30 hours in the first section of the game, if after a couple hours of leveling I was far above the enemies the rest would just be nothing in terms of a challenge. Considering how much freedom you have in where you want to go, I don’t see how the game would work without it, however there still seemed something about it that wasn’t quite the way it could have ultimately have been. I found myself effectively facing the same battles throughout the entire game. I dealt with the enemies in the beginning of the game in the same way I did at the end game.

While I understand the leveling had to be the way it is I think the game would have functioned a bit better if the types of enemies you find at the later parts in the game required different strategies, no matter what level you encountered them at. Things like having to use a better variety of weapons on them or use of your abilities, kiting them or grouping them, and so on. I handled all enemies the same and that really hurt the character development part of the game. I said one of the best parts of the game was how much you could build your characters however I never quite felt like I accomplished anything. After I got my character to have the abilities I wanted he used them the same way on everyone which made it feel like after I got things to how I wanted them, after I set up the initial abilities and got the regen to where I wanted, all the levels I gained wouldn’t change anything, as I would just balance out he regen and the enemies would remain the same and I would use those abilities the same way on them.

Overall, the game was ok. It has an absolute tremendous amount of content in it and with so many different ways you can build a particular character class, combined with the multiple classes, higher difficulties, if you want to fully explore this game the content is simply staggering. However playing it over and over again can get repetitive as quests rarely amount to anything more then go kill “X” amount of these enemies, or go to talk to this guy a little ways over and come back and talk to me. However if you take the game at small does and play it over a long long period of time it can be something that is more enjoyable but definitely would have been improved by some tweaked quests and perhaps more enemy variety.

Presentation: 6.5
Although there was a lot to offer in this game, a lot of it was very repetitive and it felt like after I had done a few quests I wasn’t missing much if I didn’t do the others.

Graphics: 9.0
The graphics are stunning, but it is a top down camera that prevents you from seeing too much at one time, which is why they could spend the power on making what you see good.

Sound: 7.0
There wasn’t really anything special about the song. I didn’t really even seem to notice any of the BGM’s being memorable or interesting, but it wasn’t bad on the other hand.

Gameplay: 6. 5
Setting up the characters was fun, but then it seemed all the enemies were the same and I dealt with them all the same way.

Lasting Appeal: 9.0
With six classes to choose from, a light or shadow path, and several different builds for each class there are plenty of different ways to tack the thousands of quests and enormous map.

Overall: 7.0
Not an average.

Anyways, all I really know about Sacred 2 is that it’s a role-playing game similar to Fable and kind of Diablo. You pick a class and run around doing quests and some of which are tied to a story progress while the others are just for better items. I hope to play though the game thoroughly but fast. However I have a feeling that with games like this it’ll take me a while because I have a tendency to do absolutely every little tiny insignificant quest, but look forward to the review when it comes out. Here are some shots of the game and of some of my new, um… “companions”, playing it.

The game box and disc.

More pictures after the jump.

A poster sent to me with the game, came outside the box in the envelope so may be an extra I got because I’m reviewing this.

Here’s a shot of Feito-chan sitting down to play the game.

And a shot of Nanoha cheering Feito on…(Oh yes, I have them – Post will be up soon with full pictures of Nanoha and Feito)

A while ago I decided to download the available visual novel games that have been fan translated, as there aren’t any quality games that are translated officially. Well Tears to Tiara was one of those games and I kind of let it sit until I got time to play it. However when I saw the anime that were coming out this spring season and I saw Tears to Tiara there, I jumped with excitement. It was the perfect reason and opportunity to actually play the game I had downloaded.

I really liked Utawarerumono anime, and although I haven’t played the game yet I thought it would have been interesting if I could have compared the two as I was watching, which is what I hope to do with Tears to Tiara. I’ve set out to beat the game in a fairly short amount of time so when the show is released I can compare the two side by side. I’m just posting this to let everyone know about my quest to beat the game. I hope that by playing the game my posts about the series will be more interesting then if I hadn’t, so look forward to those at well, and wish me luck in playing the game in about a week’s time.

Hello all, Xeby-chan here again. As I mentioned last week or so in a post I was going to be putting up a review of the DS game Blue Dragon Plus, as I was asked to do so if I were sent a game. Well I was sent a game; I finished playing it, and now here’s the review, enjoy :D

When Blue Dragon came out on the 360 it didn’t have a lot of company on the console. It was only one of few true Japanese styled RPGs out. Even previous releases like Eternal Sonata, it was still alone. While Eternal Sonata carried an active battle system amongst its more traditional RPG move sets and other game play, While Blue Dragon stuck to a true turn based style system. Now, the new Blue Dragon game finds itself in a similar situation. With a lack of a lot of Real Time Strategy games on the DS, Blue Dragon Plus tries to show the potential for the genre on this platform.

I’m not a big fan of Real Time strategy games, not so much because I dislike the genre but I just haven’t had a lot of experience with them. I usually prefer the more tactic and planning ahead turn based strategy games like Disgaea, so I went into this game without any real experience for its genre. I have to say though; they managed to do a good job making it easy for people not familiar with the genre while still supplying difficulty in other areas of the game. One of the best things about the previous Blue Dragon game was the way it allowed for a combining of classes using your shadows. Having a shadow focus on a class to learn skill and combining it with other shadow classes to make very versatile yet specialized characters. Although not an entirely new concept to the RPG world, as many other games handled job changes, this game did it well. They really carried that over nicely into this game and managed to use a very turn based traditional styled RPG element in a real time strategy game. When the difficulty in the game steps up you really have to know how to make your skills and shadows, combing tanks with a lot of HP with items that attract enemies, then use a black magic shadow on a physical defender to blow away the enemies. There are a lot of tactics that simply involve the foresight of managing your characters for the battle, and when the difficulty of the game steps up this becomes important and a lot of fun to do.

While the previous Blue Dragon game had a story that fell short for a lot of players, this game suffers from some of the same problems, going with a general, “Let’s go out and save the world” kind of message, it very surprisingly also combines that and a pretty serious topic. The story takes place after the first Blue Dragon game, truly being a sequel in terms of story, Shu and his friends go through a mysterious cube and try and stop the production of bomber mechas that threaten to destroy the world, while finding out what is behind the cube in general. While the concept of stopping this mysterious and evil cube may fall into the category of the kind of story that made the other game fall short, there is another focus that really makes up for it, focusing on trust, betrayal and sacrifice. While it isn’t the main focus, it’s still there enough o make you care what’s going to happen, or at least have feigning interest and that always helps a game.

My biggest complaint with the game lies in its game play. This is not to say that the whole of the game play is bad, on the contrary there are many good points, but also some bad ones. The pathing, to me, seemed to get in the way a lot. While the maps don’t always show it, they are divided into squares that the characters have to follow in a distinct path. No moving diagonally or anything like that. When combining a lot of characters to move at the same time, they will go through these paths and the game doesn’t allow for more than one character per square, so a lot of time characters in the back will take odd paths to get to their destination as they try and continually move back and forth until a sure is free for them, or will decide its faster to go a different direction to get to their destination, and end up attracting unwanted enemy activity. While the problem isn’t always that severe, it does sometimes get in the way and will require you to move your characters more slowly then you may want.

The difficulty of the game again contains some good points and bad. The good points are essentially the same as the gameplay’s. When the difficulty gets high, the gameplay steps up and you really have to mix a variety of tactics. However the difficulty only really reaches a point like that when you really explore the optional quests. That’s where the downside of the difficulty comes in. If you just go though the game doing the main quest, the difficulty is a little easy. It’s why the game is as short as it is if you skip those quests, but when you do some of the harder optional quests you really have to think about things, making the game much more fun as you combine shadows and skills, distract enemies and plan out attacks from multiple different people. Combining stat up and stat down attacks in conduction with long range attackers and close up, you can really get into some fun situations, but unfortunately that only happens if you go out of your way to find the opportunities.

The game’s length greatly depends on how much you explore the available quests. The more you do, the more are unlocked and some of the later quests really require you to be almost twice as high in level as the final boss. Just going though with a minimum of quests and reading the text fast, you can get though the main guest in about 12 hours if you know what you are doing tactics wise and don’t spend a lot of time customizing characters, however going though it like that would be depriving yourself of some of the better parts of the game.

Overall I had fun with this game. As I mentioned before I’m not a huge fan of Real Time Strategy and so I don’t’ have a lot of experience with it. If it weren’t for this review opportunity I may have not played this game because the genre just doesn’t excite me, but I’m glad I did because even for someone not a fan of the genre I had fun with the game. Anyone who likes Real Time Strategy and some of the class and skill management of traditional RPGs should check out this game because it combine the two elements into something that is a lot of fun to play.

Presentation: 9.0

The game doesn’t get interesting until after the introductory levels and the difficulty increase, which can take a while but when it does its very interesting and you want to keep playing it until the end.

Graphics: 8.5

There were quite a lot of impressive FMVs scattered throughout and a good attention to detail, but a couple of bland levels.

Sound: 8.0

There was a lot of pretty good background music throughout, but nothing that really had me surprised or wanting to hear more just for the music’s sake.

Gameplay: 7.5

The pathing issue was a big hindrance in times, but other than that the combination of different attacks made for battles interesting.

Lasting Appeal: 7.5

There are quite a lot of quests and the difficulty can get up there, but they give little reward used towards the completion of the main quest so many may find it easy to skip them, and they can get repetitive.

Overall: 8.7
Not an average

Hello everyone, its Xeby here. I know I haven’t posted anything in a while, Xebek won’t let me :( However soon that will change, but for now I’m posting to talk to you about a video game. As I sometimes do I’ll talk about various video games, especially ones with anime qualities or connections. Well a special opportunity has come up in where I was contacted by some of the people behind the new DS game Blue Dragon Plus. They asked me if I would post on the game and do a review for it, offering a free review copy of the game to do so, and so that’s what this is about. I was very excited and happy to do a review of this game. I didn’t really expect to be contacted by anyone working on a video game about me review games sent to me, I just started doing posts on video games because along with anime they are a hobby and sometimes cross over and focus on the same kind of stuff, so getting an opportunity where I was sent a free game was an amazing opportunity and joy.

Blue Dragon Plus has already been released, but the game was sent to me before the release date it just got delayed. This post is to tell you I’ve received it today and will work on playing it quickly but thoroughly, so look forward to the coming up review for it. I have always been a huge fan of JRPGs and I played the Blue Dragon game for 360 so I will be able to give my opinions on the new game with the knowledge of others. Well that’s about it, the review of this game will be up soon, this post here is just a heads up as to what’s to come.

Konata is excited about the game.

As you may or may not know I’m a big .hack fan. I realize the faults the games have and all but I really do love the series as a whole, the way things connect and the bigger picture between the various installments. Anyways, I have a whole expose on what I like about .hack in general, but this post here is about the newest installment that has been revealed, .hack//Link.

.hack//Link will be a game for the PSP which like many other .hack installments has a manga counterpart. The game takes place three years after G.U. Apparently it has a heavy focus on the real world as well as the game world. It centers on a new character, but also gives Kite, Haseo, BlackRose, Tsukasa and Subaru heavy roles.

The most interesting and promising part of this is the connection of various installments. Although there is a new main character from the very synopsis reveals the main character running into Kite and Haseo and Tsukasa playing main roles. This is a far different level then simply one character being affected by the results of another, here we have the characters actually interacting and it should prove very interesting.

I am worried that they are going to be trying too hard to fit all this stuff in. First off, it’s a PSP game and its only one game. Now, while the PS2 games could have been consolidated into fewer, if they were to be consolidated it would be one hell of a long epic story and game. A game this short isn’t likely to have the kind of epic feel to the story. Plus it seems a slight of a stretch to have all these characters shoved into one game, and it’s likely to suffer because of trying to achieve such high goals.

In conclusion, I don’t expect this to make everyone who dislikes .hack to love it, and I don’t expect it’s to be the best .hack game either. However, it seems to have a heavy emphasis on connecting various installments, which is very promising. I know the previous games aren’t the best, but there is something about the franchise that appeals to me and I’m very excited about this

Hello everyone! It’s your favorite super cute loli Xeby-chan! Ok, now you may or may not know that today (or yesterday, depending on time zones I guess) Super Smash Bros. Brawl came out in the US, where I am. I’ve been looking forward to this game for soooo long; I’ve been driving Xebek crazy with my need for it.

Well, now I finally have it! This is to partially to tell you that because I will be playing this game non stop for a while Xebek’s posts may slow down a bit, BUT I also want to hear anything you want to comment on about the game.

I am looking forward to playing online against people. If you don’t know there is some online mode with this game including just battling against friends or doing things like online co-op. Brawl uses an individual friend code for keeping a friends list and I’m here to tell you all mine. I’m not sure how it works, if I need yours if you want to be my friend so I’ll post mine and if you want leave a comment with yours or contact me privately if you don’t want it broadcasted via one of the methods under “contact me” I’ll put my normal Wii code too just for the hell of it.

Btw, I’m an incredibly indecisive loli so I can’t really narrow it down any further then 12 characters I want to play almost equally as much, which include: Sonic, Pikmin & Olimar, Metaknight, Pit, Pokemon Trainer, Lucario, R.O.B., Mr. Game & Watch, Zelda, Zero Suit Samus, Pikachu and Wolf

Wii Code

3963 – 2792 – 3265 – 0026

Brawl Code (This is the one you need for Brawl!)

1418 – 6368 – 0898

Well, it’s finally here, the trailer for the G.U. movie. I knew about the existence of this movie for a while, I believe I found out about it around when the third game was out but I didn’t want to do a post on it until a trailer for it had come out. Well, here’s the trailer so here’s my post.

For the un-enlightened, the .hack Trilogy movie is a CGI movie of all three .hack//G.U games. It is set for a March 25^th release date in Japan, which of course around when I’ll see it, since it can be subbed unlike the games I won’t have to wait for a real US release. The movie already looks to be much MUCH darker then the games. Seeing as how a movie version will easily cut out a lot of the things that made the games slow and boring at times, it will likely be non stop action. I already noticed many thing sin the trailer that just made the movie seem so much more serious. First, a few screens and then I’ll talk about the trailer and my expectations for the movie. I won’t do too many shots, as you can watch the trailer for yourself and this isn’t an episode, the trailer is only three minutes long.

One of the first things I have to go off about is just the general statement. OH MY GOD! That trailer was amazing. I couldn’t believe it. I’m a huge .hack fan so something like this is even more powerful for me when I see it, but so many of the things just looked so cool. Things the games couldn’t do because of limitations, just in general how kick ass things looked was amazing.

One of the things that surprised me the most about this trailer and what I’m looking forward to the most probably was that there was a kissing scene between Haseo and Atoli. The game never went that far. I mean, really the wedding scenes in the game were completely optional and just added in there for the fun of things. They didn’t really have any bearing on the actual storyline. Completely storyline wise Atoli was the one Haseo ended up with in the end, but they didn’t show anything going that far, just him kind of running off to her in the end. Even in Returner they still had a distant relationship, Atoli struggling to admit her feelings and all. However for there to be an actual kiss scene in the movie will just mean that the romance aspect of their relationship will be all the more important and will likely play a very crucial part in how things play out, not just something that is thrown in there.

Another really big thing of course is that Haseo seemed much much more crazy and evil in this trailer. I mean, he never came across that insanely psychopathic in the games or even Roots, yet he was going absolutely wild in just the trailer. He really looked evil. He also seems a hell of a lot more powerful too, or at least more flashy in his power. He had this whole Gilgamesh thing going on with the Gate of Babylon where he tore though nothing and thousands of weapons came out of it. The way they all just flowed towards Ovan was something that wasn’t even remotely close to being in the game. Things defiantly seemed cranked up in that sense.

The other really big thing that struck me right away was Atoli. I already mentioned the kiss scene, but the scene where she goes all emo is way WAY cooler and darker looking in the trailer. In the game all she ever did was scream while glowing, here she looks kickass evil. The way her whole appearance is changed to look almost undead is awesome. The scene itself looks to be much much darker, following that theme that seems to be set for the whole movie. I don’t remember Atoli ever plunging her hand through Haseo’s chest in the games either, so it looks like plenty of stuff will be added, at least for that scene, to make things more dark and serious.

Finally, I am curious as to how much some of the side characters are going to be included in the movie. The trailer hardly showed any characters. It didn’t even show Sakubo or Endrance, which are obviously important. It of course showed Sakaki because he’s vital as well, and I’m not worried about Sakubo or Endrance even though they didn’t appear in the trailer. However, there are several more characters that weren’t shown that I would like to see that I’m not too sure about. First is Zelkova, he was pretty important and I just generally liked his character. There are others too but I’m really worried because even if they appear, I’m not sure how important they will be other then just being cameo’s basically. Although there was a lot in the games that was there for gaming purpose that can be cut out, compressing that much stuff into a movie seems like it would leave out a lot, primarily some of the character development for lesser characters, even such as the development for Sakubo and Endrance, and even Pi, Kuhn, and Yata. I hope they still keep a lot of that, but I don’t see how it will be as good because of the constraints. Still, I’m really REALLY looking forward to the movie.

Summary:

• Everyone finds themselves on the other side of the portal, seemingly on the moon or in some weird place that seems to be between life and death. They go though some tower to deactivate some barrier in order to follow the giant dragon to where it’s going.
• They make their way up another tower, and we see a scene where Chopin, Jazz, and Falsetto are talking. Jazz saying how it’s a little far fetched for this whole world to be a dream, perhaps the world he knows of that he thinks is reality is the dream. Chopin says he doesn’t know, and says how in both a dream and reality you can control your own actions, so perhaps there is o such thing as a dream.
• We also see a scene of Chopin, Salsa, March, and Viola talking. Chopin says he’s no sure where this road he is on will lead him, but he is sure this will be his last journey. He says the road’s destination is shrouded in darkness and he can’t see his destination. Viola says she’s the same way, however instead of darkness, she can’t see her destination because it’s filled with light, that they are all on a road.
• We then later see a scene where Chopin is talking to Claves. They talk about the differences between music and paintings, how they are two art forms that capture time and feelings differently. Claves says that if only there was an art that captured both of those things. An art form that required more then one sense to appreciate, that it may be an art form even God would appreciate.
• Finally, we see a scene with Chopin, Polka, Beat, and Allegretto. Beat pretty much just tells everyone about his camera; how he got it form his father before he died. He says he thinks it can capture more then you see. Allegretto makes fun of him and he runs off, but Polka says how she thinks what his father meant was that pictures capture a moment in time, more then jut the image the memory of the event, she asks Chopin if music can do that as well.
• Before going though a portal left by the defeated dragon, upon visiting a side dungeon everyone finds inside Claves. She explains how she’s basically a ghost and her soul is in shards scattered around the dungeon and she can’t leave. Everyone gathers them, defeating Rondo again while at it and eventually gather her soul, resurrecting her.
• Fredric goes though the portal and says when a man’s consciousness is fading he must face his soul and confront himself, the one time that they look upon themselves. He tells everyone they don’t understand, they are nothing ore then fictional characters he created in his mind. He says when he is defeated in this battle a truth will be born in the world, a fleeting dream will transform, filling the world with color. Chopin says they will test it, if his soul is capable of becoming a lance that will pierce though every one of them.
• After fighting and defeating Chopin, he says he was glad he’s not able to defeat them after all. He then falls and collapses. Polka walks up to his body, telling everyone to stay back. She apologizes to Allegretto for not telling him this sooner. She says she couldn’t tell him because she didn’t think he’d take her here if he knew why she wanted to come. We see her with her back to a cliff face, like in the beginning scene and in which Allegretto had a flash of when he saw Polka on a cliff before.
• Polka says she remembers now, she knows the path she must take. She sees her mother before her, or she appears before her. Her mother says that Polka shall jump into the sea. Polka says she can see now what her mother’s kindness was always hiding from her. She says how she buried her memories because she didn’t want to worry her. She was subconsciously hiding them away behind the dark clouds that hung over her feelings.
• Her mother says it’s her fate to go into the sea. Polka says they’ve lived their lives only seeing what they wanted to, ignoring everything hurtful and only saw what they chose to see. They world they created in their hearts became real over time. Eventually it became so real it clouded their eyes and hid the small truths around them.
• Polka says she’s realized that all along her mom was guiding her, making sure she followed the right path. But she realized after she left home that all this time she was guiding her down the wrong path, because of her love for her as her daughter. Polka thanks her mom. She tells her mom that she has to realize one day that water doesn’t necessarily travel downhill.
• Polka’s mom backs up and Polka says the time for everyone to be settled has come. She says it’s her destiny, perhaps even her purpose. She says no, it’s not set in stone; it’s something she has to decide. Allegretto yells out to wait. Polka says it’s okay, there’s a place out there she’s needed. A place she has to illuminate with the light of the astra in her heart. Allegretto just yells out to stop it. Polka says she must do this, for the person who means the most to her. She says her life is nothing compared to his, doing this is easy if it’s for him.
• Polka falls off the edge of the cliff as Allegretto yells out her name and falls to his knees. Allegretto asks why he couldn’t do anything for her, what should he have done for her. He asks if this means dying was the only thing Polka could do. He asks why she had to suffer, why she deserved that. Allegretto just yells, pounding the ground. Allegretto yells at Chopin’s body, saying he just barged into their world. If this is his dream then he should do something. Allegretto just stays on the ground, crying, saying he has to do something. Chopin wakes up, saying if this is really a dream…
• We see Polka falling, thanking everyone. She says she knows it didn’t last very long, but this was the best time she’s had in her life. She asks if she blows him a kiss, if it will reach him up there. (The same line at the beginning when we see this scene) She says she hopes so, she really does.
• After the credits we see a scene where Polka as a kid comes floating down to her mom. We then see a shot of Chopin in the other world, on his death bed. He dies and the doctor proclaims his death. Then we see a scene that they showed up before, of Polka as a kid walking with her mom, talking about the sea and waves and Polka’s beauty. Soon Chopin’s voice comes in and says how he won’t’ let Polka die yet, as she’s only lived for 14 years. He starts talking about the Heaven’s Mirror flower, saying they draw in the faintest amount of light and embody it, reflecting something that people can never see. They wait for the moment where their world is in darkness and open up releasing their light. On the grassy plain, they paint a picture of the star filled sky. He asks if it’s black around her, if her world is in darkness. He sys the time has come for her to blossom. He asks if she remembers, she said it was up to him whether he wanted to call them Heaven’s Mirror or Death Lights. He says he’ll make his definite decision now. The flower that resembles her, the flower that challenges the darkness, I chooses to call it Heaven’s Mirror.
• We resume the scene of Polka as a kid walking with her mom, that’s been playing throughout Chopin’s speech. She lets go of her hand and says she’s sorry, but someone is calling her. Her mother says she sees, she must have met the person who’s a perfect match for her. Her mother says she really wanted to see her on her wedding day. She says she supposes the only thing she can do for her is tell her this. Come back someday, and do her best. Polka closes her eyes and what seems to be agogos appear around her, floating her up and glowing as she is raised to the sky. Her mother says she has been able to become more like the sea water stirred by the beauty of the moon.
• Polka flies up, shining brightly with agogos around her. As she travels, we see her return to her normal self, still with a flower in her hair though that her mother put there when she was a kid.
• We see everyone else in the same place, looking sad, Chopin standing up. They see in the distance the agogos and then Polka. Allegretto sees this and stands up. Polka lands in front of them, where her feet touch it turns the rocky barren wasteland into a filed of flowers, seeming to be the same field she was in with her mother earlier, and stand before everyone. Allegretto runs over to her, and she runs to him. They hug each other and then kiss…
• We see the other world, Chopin on his death bed. An image of Chopin form the other world, in the same outfit, sits up form the bed, while his other body still lies there. He walks over to the piano, being a ghost and kind of flowing, and starts to play. The woman in the room with him, who was from Chopin’s life starts to sing, not seeing Chopin but perhaps hearing him. We see a scene of Chopin in the other world now, playing the piano in a field of the Heaven’s Mirror flowers as they open up and shine at night.

Impressions:

That was amazing. I was just blown away by the ending. Although this game had me continually amazed at the story and character development I still did not expect it to be this good. I mean my god they had serious talk about dreams and reality, life and death, the light of ones heart, and a good romance story. All of that just in the final scene. Everything really just came together perfectly. I loved the reference back to the very beginning and the flowers. It was just such a great scene it really pretty much sent chills up my spine. When Chopin yelled out he chooses to call them Heaven’s Mirror it was, well, just amazing.

It’s a bit hard to explain why I loved the story so much but the final scenes and the ending just fit everything perfectly. It was a BEATIFUL story that was told, Polka’s sacrifice, Chopin’s revelation, the feelings and emotions of everyone. I can’t really say much more because it’s hard to describe some thing when they reach a certain level and this is one of them. This was fantastic, the scenes actually just made me sit on the edge of my seat, I believe I was so excited and anxious I was even standing half pacing back and forth in front of my TV watching the ending, it was great.

I was a bit surprised with Chopin kind of going mad. It almost seemed like it didn’t fit well and I’m really glad that in the end it was focused more on Polka then on him. Although it seems he is the one who kind of set things back to normal instead of having a time loop, his going crazy and fighting him almost seemed to just not fit. Still, it was a rather interesting conclusion and I did like how in the end the world is both a dream and n to. A dream obviously because Chopin did something to break the time loop, yet not because it still existed without him.

I do have to say that the greatest quote I’ve ever heard was said in this section. It is one of my favorite lines of all time now as it’s just hilarious. It was when reviving Claves, upon first seeing her. Salsa says, “Are you a…..ghost?” Claves says, “Yes, Salsa, I have returned from the dark beyond to visit revenge upon you for eating all of my chocolates.” I really don’t know why I absolutely love this line so much. Partially it’s because upon first seeing someone who was thought to be dead in an intriguing situation there is a line that is just so random and joking in a not comedic situation really that just makes it great. The fact that everyone is shocked that someone they knew has returned from the dead for all they know and she just says something like that, it’s hilarious.

I do have one little problem with Claves revival in that it isn’t focused on enough. Sure it’s technically an optional thing but they still should have made a bigger deal about it. There weren’t any actual cut scenes during the whole ordeal, no scenes where you hear the voice acting. Hell, even though she was revived when you finished the game its not like the scenes there were slightly edited to show her which could have been completely possible. She didn’t have to do anything important that would affect the show, but could have been shown at least. My biggest gripe is though although she was revived there was absolutely no closure or talk about Jazz and Claves back together or Falsetto coming to terms with their relationship better or anything like that. If they are going to make an optional thing as big as bringing someone back t life they should put a little more into it.

One more reminder, if you are reading this then you likely have an Xbox 360 so you should add cute little Xeby-chan, me, to your friends list. My gamertag is Xeby chan, two words with a space. Send me a friends request!

Summary:

• We see Falsetto walking alone in the rain, looking sad. She screams to herself, “Why did you have to die. Now Jazz will never forget you and never get over you”
• Beat and Fredric make their way to the hideout where Allegretto is there. He tells them of what happened to Claves and we see a scene of Jazz alone at what looks to be the gates of Baroque. Fredric says Claves must have been deeply troubled by what she was doing for a long time, indicating they all know she was a spy.
• Allegretto says Jazz went to Baroque to talk to someone, and Viola headed home to check on her goats and was going to head to Salsa’s house afterwards. He says that Falsetto disappeared after everyone learned of Claves’ death.
• Allegretto, Beat, and Fredric learn that some of the townspeople are afraid of monsters under the church. They head to eliminate them when they run into Viola, Salsa, and March who said they say them head into the church and followed. They say that they will all take a boat tomorrow over to Baroque, March now coming along with everyone on their journey. Allegretto leaves everyone else to do the work saying he’ll go get Polka and tell her of the plans.
• Allegretto approaches Polka and says how they are meeting up tomorrow on a ship to Baroque. They sit and talk about the mistrust that people have in the world. Polka eventually says some stuff and stand sup near the cliff they are sitting at, saying, jokingly, that she wonders if she should just jump off, if a new world will be waiting for her.
• Allegretto seems to get some kind of flash of Polka on a cliff by herself and jumps up yelling no. Polka asks what’s wrong, saying she wasn’t going to do it but is glad he’s worried about her. She takes out her odd shaped rock and throws it far away towards Ritardando. She says that the rock that was her treasure, it ca go in her place. Allegretto says that’s a weird thing, and says it reminds him that he picked up a weird shaped rock. He gives it to Polka telling her to keep hold of that one to replace the one that jumped, saying not to throw it away because it’s the first gift he’s given to a girl. He tells her not to be late tomorrow morning, and heads off.
• Polka is in shock, looking at the rock that Allegretto gave her which is identical to the one she had for years and just threw away. She says it can’t just be another similar rock, as she’s had it for years, the weight and shape is identical. She then realizes that the rock she had before was special to her not because of its weird shape, but as she explained to the others when she was with them and they say it, it was important to her because she received it from someone she loved. She continues to look confused, wondering if Allegretto could be that person.
• We see everyone in Baroque, Salsa, Beat, and Viola playing cards, Viola always coming in third. They said it’s been a week already and nothing much has happened.
• Crescendo and Jazz argue over if war is going to help and what they should do about Forte. Crescendo just says how it eventually makes things worse and just becomes a power struggle. Jazz keeps insisting there aren’t any more options but Crescendo till wants to avoid war.
• After Jazz leaves he talks to himself about Serenade, saying he always knew she had a connection to Waltz, originally just thinking she was sent by Waltz to just avoid war, meaning that they may have a chance to win. However, although she’s a spy he knows that everything she’s said about war is right in regarding how it doesn’t solve the overall problem and so forth. He says he doesn’t care who’s side she’s on, as long as they can avoid this war, and then asks in a louder voice isn’t that right Serenade, showing he knows she’s been in the room listening.
• Viola is outside with Polka just talking. She mentions good luck charms and tells her of one she should try, how you hold your hand out a certain way in front of the person you love and they’re supposed to love you back. She tells her to try it on Allegretto next time she sees him. Polka gets embarrassed and leaves. Jazz come sup telling Viola not to tease her too much. Vila says how she just made up that charm. Jazz walks away after telling her that they will be heading out tomorrow. As he leaves she holds her hand out the way she told Polka to do in front of the one you love. She says how it looks likes he’s in third place again, with Claves and Falsetto.
• Everyone heads off the next morning to visit a temple because of what some priest said. They go there to the top and eventually are confronted by Rondo who says she must take Polka. They stand to fight her and all of a sudden Falsetto appears behind, saying some things like she was just running away because she knew she could never reach the level that Claves had, but realizes that it doesn’t matter. She says she’ll take revenge for Claves by defeating Rondo. They defeat her and Jazz approaches Falsetto. He slaps her and then soon after they hug.
• They head back to get an answer from Crescendo on what he’ll do but they find him no where in site. They figure out that he and Serenade have gone to Forte to try and surrender themselves and Baroque to stop the war. Everyone heads after them, going though some ruins to try and catch up to them while we see Crescendo and Serenade together, saying that this is the only way to avoid war. Crescendo says that Serenade doesn’t have to come, but she says she wants to, to make up for what she’s done and to try and get Waltz to spare his life, although Crescendo says it’s useless.
• Eventually everyone reaches a clearing with a shrine and a tree. There is an old lady there who knows Polka’s name, saying its been a long time since she last saw her, but fees like it was yesterday, or perhaps a hundred years ago. Polka asks what she is talking about, as she doesn’t remember the old lady. She says she’s been waiting here, because she’s the one who has to draw a fortune and she has to make sure that Polka ties it to the sacred tree. Polka asks if they’ve met and she says of course, in this same spot at the same time. She says since she’s on time it mans nothing bad must have happened this time.
• Polka draws a fortune and reads it, being bad luck. She ties it to the tree, seeing that all the hundreds of fortunes over the tree are bad luck and wonders who the old lady is Polka returns to everyone else and they find the old lady gone.
• Everyone eventually meets up with Crescendo and Serenade, Crescendo saying their only option is surrender. All of a sudden a dozen or so dragons appear and Waltz is among them. Waltz confronts them and Crescendo says how he’ll surrender but Waltz basically says he doesn’t care, he doesn’t need them what he needs is Polka. If he receives her then Crescendo and Serenade will be spared, although it seems like they’ll still attack Baroque and invade.
• Polka says she’ll do it, as she just wants to help people. She approaches them and they confirm that she makes the agogos glow and that makes the mineral powder better. He then hits her unconscious and tells his assistant guy to take her; he’ll deal with everyone else.
• Waltz is defeated and his assistant, in a desperate move, drinks the entire potion of mineral powder that was mixed with a glowing agogo. He starts to transform into a freakishly huge dragon thing and in an explosion of power rips a hole in space. Everyone decides there is nothing left to do except go after him, so jump though the portal it left.

Impressions:

Wow, this was just simply freaking amazing. There were so many damn things in these chapters that just simply blew my mind. I mean my god, I as amazed at so many things; I just kept getting blown away by all of the things that were happening. They seemed to be rather new things also. It wasn’t just some of the same old stuff, dealing with Forte and Baroque and then the dream thing. It seemed as if an entirely new focus was brought in, dealing with this weird time loop thing they may have going. Two events both seemed to hint that there was just this weird thing going on with time, and it was just suddenly thrown on the series, I was just shocked.

The first of the really really shocking things that when it happened I just sat with my mouth wide open in complete disbelief was the whole bit with the rock and Polka and Allegretto. This thought didn’t even cross my mind but it seems as if there is some kind of time thing going on, seeing as how Polka got a rock from Allegretto that she already had, which she most likely received from Allegretto. That was just weird, but along with that tit threw in a huge development between the romance possibilities that they have between the two of them. I really wasn’t thinking there was going to be much romance in this, but not only have they been hinting at it with just some of the normal interaction, its event pretty much says that Polka loves Allegretto, or used to or is going to because she received the rock from someone she loved and then she receives it from Allegretto. It’s really had to explain because whenever you get into an issue of time repeating or looping, whatever, it just gets really really complicated.

Then of course the second event that really dealt with this time loop thing would be the encounter with he old lady. I’m really not sure what the hell was going on with that scene, as a lot of it was really just confusing as hell. However, it really did point to some kind of time loop. She said how THIS TIME Polka didn’t have any trouble, as if the same events have been repeating but perhaps with some differences, or maybe it actually has been fine each time. Still, it seemed as if she knew she was coming because she came before. I really hope they explain that, as it was pretty interesting, yet confusing.

I also did find it interesting that there was a little romance bit between Viola and Jazz. Well, not that there was any romance there but them actually showing that Viola has feelings for him was great. Viola really wasn’t a very well developed character before, but adding in the whole her having feelings for Jazz, who already is in a romance mess up with his love being dead and a childhood friend being in love with him as well, that bit was great and I really hope they give Viola a bit more development, I don’t really think it would be a good fit for her to end up with him, nor do I think he will at all, but some kind of development closure would be great.

I’ll say again since not too many people responded… :( Add me as your friend on Xbox Live, gamertag is Xeby chan. Two words with a space. If you are reading this then you’ve got to have the sytstem……..