Sword Oratoria (2017)

Sword Oratoria is a 12 episode spin-off to Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? You feel that it is supposed to follow Ais, the powerful swordswoman that Bell Cranel from the main series has a crush for, and the Loki familia that she is a part of. The season starts with giving a quick recap of what this world is and then shows the Loki familia deep in the dungeon, far far deeper than Bell can even hope to go (for now). It starts right before the main series as the first episode ends with Ais and Bell’s first meeting.

From the beginning, you might think that the show will center around Ais and that is true to an extent. Lefiya seems to be more of the central figure though and she idolizes Ais. Ais is feeling down given that she has been stuck on Level 5 for so long. The start of the season shows off the Loki familia and the typical things that happens around them, it felt slightly like a slice-of-life anime at times. Given that their screentime in the main series is somewhat low, it is interesting to see their team dynamics.

While Hestia from the main series is pretty much walking fan service, relatively speaking, there wasn’t that much of it. That’s not the case here as there are frequent heavy doses of fan service. Loki herself is prone to this, loving to grab the girls of her familia. Lefiya is constantly fantasizing over Ais and while this is done as a running gag, it isn’t much different froma typical male teenager lusting over their crush. This can take the focus away in many scenes since even when a serious event happens, the tone is lost when it defaults to providing fan service at all costs.

There are many parallels with the main series. Lefiya herself is one of the weaker members of the familia, given that she is an inexperienced adventurer. The season has her training hard to make up for that, like how Bell had to. Naturally, both Hestia and Bell make several cameo appearances. The anime goes out of its way to make this happen but in the first half of the season, they never interact with Ais and the Loki familia much. In the second half, they cross paths many times and the story events reconcile with the main series but telling it from Ais’s viewpoint. It is a typical approach but unfortunately not that interesting. By doing this, it doesn’t give Sword Oratoria its own unique identity. The other sad part is that even this spin-off must show Bell in an amazing light as everyone watches him in awe while he rapidly gains power.

Ais is not the best protagonist given her broody nature. She is quiet and isn’t great at interacting with other people. She is an ice queen that takes a long while to defrost, which can make sections of the anime boring. This is why Lefiya is instead the focus of a lot of scenes, given she’s more animated and frankly, more interesting by comparison. She isn’t without her flaws though. Being weak is not a problem, the problem is that whenever something happens, Lefiya gives up way too easily and hopes for Ais to jump in to save her. Invariably, Ais does just that. Lefiya improves during the season, but she never truly breaks away from this habit.

The main plot is scattered and slow. It keeps jumping in and out of progressing it, much to the season’s detriment. Just when it seemed to go back to focus on the plot, Hestia and Bell is show up to sidetrack it. Once that is done, it goes back to the main arc but by this point, it felt like the urgency was never there. The main arc felt like something that doesn’t need to be resolved given how seemingly unimportant it is.

The aimless direction continues into the season finale. Despite teasing the big villain during most of the season, we don’t even get to see much of them. The final episode was a climactic fight and the biggest one in the season. We see the Loki familia show off their teamwork. However, this spin-off has the same issue as the main series. Despite the apparently “dangerous” monsters that they struggle with, the monsters still easily get one-shotted. Despite a character getting significantly injured by defending the others, they will just pop right back up when required in the next scene. Unfortunately, the ending itself is inconclusive and just makes the whole season feel pointless because it does not resolve anything at all.

Overall, Sword Oratoria is average and middling. It had some potential but the decision to still involve Bell so heavily, and the meandering plot that goes nowhere, leads to disappointment. It takes all the focus away from the concept and premise of the anime. All that’s left are generic characters that fits your typical stereotypes, a slow and boring sequence of events, average animation, and a plot that is lacking any sort of hook.

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Senran Kagura: Peach Beach Splash (PS4)

Senran Kagura: Peach Beach Splash is a spin-off from the series. Instead of a hack n slash like previous games, this is a third person shooter, albeit one using water guns. As you can glean from the title, this is a pure fan service game where the characters are fighting on the beach in swimsuits. The setup is simple, and this is not a surprise given the series is not known for its story. Supposedly an ancient tradition for shinobi to battle it out in a competition on the beach using water guns, the Peach Beach Splash competition returns after getting all the characters from the different schools together to participate. There is supposedly a deeper, darker, reason for why this competition exists but you just need to know that the characters agreed to it, and they will all be wearing swimsuits firing water guns at each other.

Considering the genre change, the controls feel good. It has a stock standard third person shooter control scheme. You can quick toggle between manual aiming, or auto-locking onto an opponent (i.e. heavy aim assist). The slight twist here is that each character can use the water as jets to jump and stay high up in the air, which is really fun to do. They can also use the water to dodge and slide forward in high speed. Both manoeuvres aren’t mandatory in single player mode as the game is pretty easy overall. The ammo for each weapon is represented by four water tanks on the screen and you will need to reload by holding down the square button. This causes the character to crouch and slow down so you need to be careful and keep an eye on how much water is left.

Each character basically plays and controls the same. Their only point of difference is their melee attack, which is unique to each character but something you don’t really use that much. Each character has a loadout which is based upon the card system. Therefore, the gameplay differs only with what you have selected as your weapon, which ranges from assault rifles, pistols, shotguns, and rocket launchers. The card system allows different abilities to be equipped to a character, such as homing attacks, buffs, and debuffs. This means that there are randomized card packs that you get from completing the missions to unlock new cards, as well as an in-game shop. There are hundreds of cards in the game, and the rarer ones give better effects of the same ability. Any duplicates you get from card packs are used to level up existing cards and characters.

The gameplay ends up becoming hectic and chaotic, especially thanks to the water splashing effects where you hit and get hit. This is mostly a team-based game but unfortunately, the AI is terrible. During harder matches, especially on higher difficulties if you select them, the AI will die. In story mode, they will not automatically revive and since it takes time to revive them yourself, it is better not to do so because you would currently be the target of the enemies. The game tends to overwhelm you with numbers. It’s not fun when you are knocked down and it takes forever to get back up. This is especially egregious in boss battles where the objective is to defeat the boss, but there are unending spawns of mooks that get in the way.

The single player story mode tells the story from five different perspectives, basically one from each of the schools / groups. Each story arc has ten missions. Perhaps most disappointing is how quickly these matches go by, they usually take anywhere from less than a minute to five minutes. It feels like you are just getting into the groove of the match and then it ends. Many missions have you fighting against generic enemies and there are only one of two objectives, either defeat every single enemy, or put out some fires. Each story arc takes just a bit over an hour to complete, so there isn’t much time for any sort of story, and it is over too quickly. The story is told via text dialogues with the character models onscreen, so it’s not very engrossing either.

The structure of each story arc and its objectives to too similar to each other, so it will get repetitive. The boss battles aren’t designed too well and it keeps making the same mistakes. It generally has a boss that is situated high up in the end and then swarms you with enemies. Your teammates will struggle to stay alive and die. This means that the game is too reliant on the player having good skill cards to equip on everyone so that they can survive a bit longer. This isn’t great when you are playing story mode the first time through as you won’t have nice cards by that point. The level designs also require improvement. They are supposed to be complex stages with varying heights and paths. However, due to the gameplay favoring speed and chaos as everyone zips around, some parts of the stages feel too cramped. You’ll often find yourself blocked by the varying heights as you try and wrestle the controls to get back up to the platform you fell from.

You are expected to level up your characters, weapons, and skills over the course of the game. The problem is that if you are playing only the single player content, then you will not earn enough in-game money and get enough cards to level up to keep pace. Each level takes exponentially more duplicate cards, but you earn duplicate cards and in-game money as roughly the same pace across all ten missions in a story arc. This can me while the first difficulty is too easy, the next step up, and the one after, will become too hard to certain stages. There is a real amount of grind to leveling up the everything that you would like to use. Obtaining all the unique skill cards is also a mammoth task. You’ll probably lose interest with the game long before you even get close to 100%.

Once you are done with the main story, there are 50+ more missions that cover off some side stories. These are sillier in nature compared to the main story. Not as much effort was put into them though as each one basically has some text at the beginning (without any in-game models either), then you play five consecutive stages back-to-back, before some text at the end to cap it off. The last piece of single player content are four tournaments of increasing difficulty. You can play these using any characters for your team. These are lucrative in terms of rewards and they’re more fun in that it’s a deathmatch instead. Each battle has a time limit, and you need to get more KOs than the other team to win and progress.

In the beginning, you will feel that the UI layout needs a bit of work. what we got isn’t the best in terms of delivering the info you need at a quick glance. When the action is so quick and frantic, the last thing you need is slow down to check your health, or check where the enemy is, or what skill cards you have that are available to be used. You also run out of water (i.e. ammunition) relatively quickly so that you are constantly shooting and then reloading after one or two enemies, which slows the pacing down. The graphics are fantastic though with a bright and colorful palette. It uses this to its advantage when you down an opponent, there is an option to repeatedly splash them to reveal further scenes of fan service. There is also a separate mode where you can “interact” with any of the female characters, which is surprising that it managed to make it through to the final version of the game given how... controversial it can be.

Overall, Senran Kagura: Peach Beach Splash, is a fun spin-off to the series. The pivot from hack n slash to a third person shooter, but with water guns, actually works out really well here. The core game mechanics are fine and surprisingly good. It’s just that there are some nitpicks in the game design that can make it more annoying to play. The huge emphasis on random card packs to get better skills, and the sheer number of duplicate cards you need to grind to level up anything to a decent level, are the main pain points. The story has never been a strong suit of the series and it’s not great here, but it is enough to push you through so that you can enjoy the gameplay and fan service instead.

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Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? IV (2022-23)

The fourth season of Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? is split into halves, with eleven episodes each making for a total of 22. The first arc returns the characters back to what they are supposed to be doing, and that is exploring the dungeon. the Hestia familia is given a mission where they must explore deep into the dungeon to obtain certain items. Since the familia is still so small, they enlist the help of their friends and allies to join them. It is a new and unfamiliar floor for the characters, which means new monsters, new environments, and new dangers. This is probably the peak of what the series could be, as it is interesting and fun. It even creates quite a bit of intrigue and suspense when a new mysterious and dangerous monster shows up that is a real threat to the party.

While basic as a premise, it leads the characters into a tense situation. It ends up being one of the best sections of the anime so far. The fight scenes start off well but then for some reason, it turns into a slideshow which is a bit disappointing. The one annoying thing with Bell is that he seems to get constant power ups and despite all the attempts of the anime trying to justify it, it feels that he gets these with little effort. He obtains them too easily, to the point of where it feels like he is being given it. When he turns up to save the day with some amazing power, it feels cheap and lazy. Nevertheless, the climactic showdown between Bell and the monster was well done.

Since the arc takes place in the dungeon where the gods are not allowed to enter, Hestia doesn’t have much screentime. This isn’t necessary a bad thing given that she mostly fawns over Bell whenever she appears. The frequent fan service is still there though but it doesn’t try to be bold about it. The characters are starting to come to their own, but the cast has been expanding at the same time. So now, it can start to feel unwieldy when the anime collects all of them together. The first arc is over in a quarter of the season and with a short break, the next one commences. This time, also taking place in the dungeon, it has a somewhat generic and predictable series of events.

Midway through the season, the anime takes on a surprisingly dark turn. While there had been sprays of blood every so often during the battles, this took it to another level. It tried to instill a sense of despair and hopelessness to the situation but because it was so unlike the tone of everything else, it kind of missed the mark. That and the fact that it was guaranteed that it isn’t going to be hopeless for long, given Bell’s tendency to overcome any obstacle he faces. There is usually a short lead time of unleashing some burst of power through sheer determination and belief to get him out of any sticky situation.

While it is supposed to showcase the party fighting for their lives in a hopeless situation, a lot of their achievements and survival is down to sheer luck. Despite the battles later being some of the best in the series by taking the time to have their characters use their abilities to fight giant bosses, it seems to lack some oomph. There are contrived moments because a character will use some brand-new power we haven’t seen before which will pull them through.

There are some scenes with good feelings as the characters cover for each other and never gives up. It is these moments where the series shows that it can have the potential to be great. It’s just that unfortunately, these scenes are few and far between. As the familia gets trapped within the dungeon, there are many elements and inner workings of it that we weren’t aware of earlier. This is due to the poor truncated adaptation of earlier seasons skipping these vital pieces of information. It can be confusing from time to time as the dungeon would do something that you wouldn’t expect but overall, it’s more interesting.

The best parts of the anime, and it does it to fantastic effect on two occasions, are when it is one powerful and terrible monster attacking the characters. These scenes finally and truly show how scary and formidable the dungeon can be. The other attempts in which it says it is dangerous with powerful enemies, only to throw numerous ones against the characters that they could take down in one hit, is pointless and only serves to weaken the reputation. Even when Bell is apparently critically injured, he can still easily take down a “deep floor” monster that apparently sends shivers down adventurer’s spines, in one slash. It really takes all the momentum out of the story.

Overall, the fourth season is much improved compared to previous seasons. It’s not going to stand above many other anime, but it finally feels like it is going in the right direction. The first arc sets the tone for the dungeon being a dangerous and unpredictable place to be. While the second arc presents some much-needed character development. Even if the second arc takes up most of the season and at times, felt like it would never end, it was worthwhile. The season finale is decent and reinforces that this season had the best character development out of all its episodes. As a result, Lion falling for Bell is completely justified and you’ll even cheer for them given that they now have a solid foundation.

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Minecraft Dungeons (PC)

Minecraft Dungeons is a spin-off from Minecraft. It is an action hack and slash with the loot system at its central core gameplay loop. The graphics are based off the blocky aesthetics that you’d expect from the Minecraft name. The story and setup are quite simple. In the past, an adventurer was looked downupon and they become the big bad linear, known as the Arch-Illager. He was willing to take over the world and was using monsters to aid in his conquest. You play as the plucky new adventurer, where you just might be the one to bring the Arch-Illager down. That’s all for the story as it gives you just enough of an excuse to fight through the various dungeons. Apart from the beginning and ending cutscene, the rest of the story is told via some voiceovers at the beginning and each of each level.

The gameplay is simple, and it suits the theme since this is like a “lite” version of something like Diablo. When you’re controlling your character, they can swing their current weapon. The attack style changes depending on which weapon you have equipped. The character can dodge and there are also three slots that are hot-keyed to the remaining three face buttons. These are your abilities and will depend on what item you have equipped into that slot. Thus, there is a degree of flexibility in adapting to your playstyle. That’s all there is to the game and again, it is a simple premise, but it works. Ultimately, the combat can get repetitive as you work through the dungeons.

The maps are procedurally generated, which can be good and bad. It’s good in that it is something different each time you play through the game but bad in that it can feel too generic as it lacks interesting detours and secrets. It’s not unique to this game as these are always the flaws of a procedurally generated game. The many short dead ends with nothing at the end can be annoying. The levels will eventually become quite big and more like a maze. You will most likely pull open the map and rely on it all the time if you don’t want to spend your time getting lost. It’s a shame given that the in-game map is one that spreads out in front of you taking over a lot of the screen, rather than something more akin to a mini-map in an upper corner. That said, the game makes it easy to know where you need to go to get to the next objective, it’s just if you wanted to explore everything then you would want the map on all the time.

The game’s camera is fixed in an isometric view. While it does its best in removing the buildings and structures that block your view, there are often times where you can’t see what is behind something and just have to blindly mash the attack button. Enemies, known as mobs, are mostly easy. When harder enemies appear who act as mini-bosses, they can be more challenging. Perhaps the most difficult parts of the game are where you get swarmed by a lot of enemies at once as there aren’t any crowd-clearing moves that you can spam, and you can see your health depleting very quickly. If you end up dying in a level, you will respawn, but you only have limited lives in each level, so there is still a penalty for dying.

Replaying levels are recommended given the brevity of the game. You can tweak the difficulty of each level and the higher the difficulty, the better the loot. As you defeat monsters and open chests, there will be loot which is the main source of powering up. The drops you’d want to see are strong equipment and this is where it tries to keep you addicted through better and between equipment drops that you equip and get stronger with. While at the same time you gain experience points from defeating mobs, allowing you to level up and use the enchantment points to unlock additional abilities of your equipment.

You will need to play through most of the game before you end up getting a piece of gear with decent effects. After that point, the game finally starts to become more addictive as you have enough abilities to rush through the dungeons repeating the motions of defeating enemies, searching for treasure, and then moving on. Unfortunately, the game is short, with only around ten levels plus a few more secret levels that you can unlock. You end up finishing the story in around five to eight hours. Of course, the game encourages you to repeat the levels to get better equipment but when there are such few levels, and some of them have annoying gimmicks that you don’t want to replay, it can only keep you interested in it for so long.

Finishing the story also unlocked higher difficulties, which of course, provides higher chances of better loot. There have been several updates that introduced two or three additional levels that you can play without requiring the DLC. Each of these levels are quite sizable on their own, introducing different themes and new enemies. New modes are introduced such as the Tower, where you battle floors of enemies. You start with nothing and only gather gear one piece at a time as you climb up the floors. It’s one of those modes where if you die, you lose everything and must start again but the reward if you make it to the end is worthwhile.

Overall, Minecraft Dungeons is an approachable start into the genre. It has its charms, thanks to its iconic aesthetic. The voiceovers and character models are both unique and add to its appeal. It’s great that it at least has a story instead of just throwing you one dungeon after another with no explanation, even if the story is a short one. This is a simple game that’s easy to pick up and its key draw is its gameplay loop of going through dungeons of higher and higher difficulty to get better and better gear. It never quite captures that extreme addictive nature, but it is a fun game all the same.

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Toy Review: Transformers Earthspark Terran Nightshade (Deluxe)

Review:  #778

Name:  Terran Nightshade

Brand:  Transformers

Allegiance:  Autobot

Line:  Earthspark

Year of Release:  2023

Size Class:  Deluxe (Wave 3)

Mold Status:  new

ROBOT MODE:

Nightshade is a mostly new and unique character that transforms into a green robotic owl.

This is a fairly good owl if you can forgive the torso looking like a mess.  Despite how it looks, he stays pegged together really solidly, although there is a reliance on the robot heel spurs to keep him upright, but they are on a joint and are easily dislodged calling the owl to topple over.

In terms of size, Nightshade is compact and very small.  A bit too small for a Deluxe to be honest.

He has some articulation, mostly in the wings which can flap up and down.  Speaking of which, the wings come in separate pieces in the packaging and you have to clip those on yourself.

The head of the owl can also turn from side to side, and the wings have enough motion to fold completely by his side.

Finally, the robot weapons, which are a pair of knives, slot into the back of his wings.

Nightshade also comes with a torso piece of the Build-A-Figure, Mandroid.

While the torso is a bit messy, this is an okay and passable robotic owl mode.

TRANSFORMATION:

Simple and elegant, Nightshade doesn't have too bad a transformation scheme.  Basically the whole robot is folded up into the owl's torso, so there is a lot of unfolding going on.  The front of the torso along with the owl feet are actually his arms.  Get those out, and then unfold the legs down before you can rotate the owl head into the gap left over to form the robot torso, which also reveals the head.

ROBOT MODE:

Nightshade has a unique robot mode as well, but he is lanky and dominated by those huge wings on his back.

If the wings could have had some engineering go behind them to make them smaller or fold away better, then it would have made the figure much more deserving of its price point.

The head sculpt is great, and the figure has shades of metallic green that makes him pop.

Size-wise, he is around the same height as a typical Deluxe, just that he's really lanky, which is not surprisingly considering how everything folds into such a tiny owl.

This is also why his legs are mostly hollow, as they are required for transformation, but just makes him even more top heavy.

The articulation is fine, with joints for his head, shoulders, elbows, waist, hips, knees and ankles.

He comes with a pair of knives as his weapons.

Both knives can be held in his hand, and they can be held up or down, depending on your preferences.  However, the owl feet that stick out behind his forearms are annoying and gets in the way.

Similarly to alternate mode, the knives can be stored in his wings if you don't want to use them.

This is a good robot mode, where the only flaw are the big wings, and the hollow legs causing some top heaviness.

OVERALL:

Terran Nightshade is a rarity in that his design is quite unique, to the point where you are more willing to forgive his flaws.  They aren't major flaws, but just the usual issues of being small considering how expensive Deluxes are these days.  However, if you can get him on sale or special, then he is worth having.

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