From pleb to chad. Out man, not boi, Jinwoo goes from the weakest rank possible to the strongest. In this world,. Its basically getting fused with a fictional magical world with demons, beasts and others. Sort of reminiscent of Eushully Dir Lifyna fused with the human world. Loosely though as both worlds colliding and combining are vastly different and similarities nearly end there lol.

Anyways, with the world colliding, or gates opening up everywhere, people were awakening powers since the first gate appeared. These awakened people are split into tiered ranks and called hunters. Ranks from S to E. Jinwoo starts in the lowest of low, E rank. And with how the awakening works, once the rank is set, that’s all, there is no more magical power one can gain to go up in ranks. The mana that determines the ranks are simply that, set in stone.

On one of the gate expeditions, Jinwoo and others find a second path that leads to an area that gives the squad he was with quite an awakening. Basically, every one of them die and even he does to an extent. But on deaths bed, he becomes a player which allows him to start leveling up and achieving a higher rank due to increasing mana and other stats. He has a personalized ui that pops up only visible to him. Along with side quests and daily quests that are there for him to complete, each giving different bonuses. Turning his irl into a video game.

He does not disclose to anybody that he has such an ability, in the manhwa they expand later on for why and how this power is to be. As is it can seem very abrupt and more along the lines of cheap tactic. However, there is good reason explained later on for exactly why he is like this now.

During one of his missions after, he comes across some unsightly people that are evil in actions to keep it simple. They get dealt with along with the creepy crawler heh. With a bonus of meeting his future entrepreneur compadre.

With the new companion on a mission to get that bag, it becomes Jinwoo solo’ing every gate that they are allowed to enter and the extras they hire to come along just chillin on the outside. With a short while later passing and he takes on a mining operation. Something that comes with an inherently low risk of just going into the gate with a mining crew, farming the resources and leaving. Ya that was not going to go well on the last one though. Should have expected some unexpected things to occur yet again. Unexpected where he has to blow his cover yet again to a select few. These high orcs didn’t stand a chance when Jinwoo flexed on them a tad.

Not long after, Jinwoo decides its time to reevaluate and gets placed as an S class hunter. With it gaining the eyes of more trying to bide him for his time in hopes they convert him to their guild. Alongside the background final villain of the season, dem ants. The ants are criticized heavily by being inspired and mirroring a lot of how hunter x hunter chimera ant arc was. I disagree however and do not believe them to be comparable. They are both ants, they are both evolving into ever more powerful beings ect. But the execution of it all is an insult to compare them against each other.

With the ants becoming more powerful the countries top guild having failed in the past to kill them off are seeking outside help of other countries top ranked hunters. Gathering up a strong force to take them down for good this time. The main push being they are adapting to be able to fly and leave the isolated island they were once locked onto. Not dealing with them now would result in more losses later and potentially worse unpredictable outcomes.

jinwoo is on another side mission as the mission starts and he does have a thought of helping but stays reserved and holds off. After all a hero always shows up fashionably late. The ants have a king that awakens and it immediately above all of the current S class hunters that have been sent to the island. The mission was going solid up until it was not. People dying left right and center and the ant is looking for the most powerful person. And just when the situation couldn’t be more dire, Jinwoo shows up, and says hold the cams glit and glamor this thing going down. An intense fight occurs between them and after its finally, the remaining ants that got away are slowly dealt with by the help of many other hunters stationed at specific locations.

Season ends after with a showing of a couple strong characters that are likely yo be the next on the block of Jinwoos woopass list as a tease to the next season when things will be quite a bit more hype.

Visuals/Music:

Visuals are done by A1 and they did a good job. A1 does know how to do good visuals when needed. There is a fair amount of cg, its alright but cg after all. It Is bearable and not terrible while also not being that great of cg either. Effects and flashiness during fights is where the animation shines the most. Everything is clear and done with passion. Not a lot to say except the only real downside is the use of cg. It keeps the costs lower than hand animating everything, especially special effects and what not which makes it understandable to have used in many of the scenes.

Music throughout though, another masterpiece done by Sawano. Sawano truly does know how to elevate every ost. Haalf the immersion and hype comes from the audio of his tracks produced. Jinwoo could have simply been walking down a store aisle buying chips in a supermarket or gas station and with a Sawano ost playing in the background, it would make it feel like one of the most hype moments to occur.

First opening ost feels a bit generic but the lyrics make up for it and match well with the themes. Second opening is a bit different style genre mixed together but is also done by LiSa. Krage doing the first ending I did find better than the second done by TK for the second. Both songs are good. None of these 4 are something too special or standout tbh. Listen a couple times but usually skipped by them when binging the seasons.

Final Thoughts:

Definitely worth a watch, especially if or when the show continues deeper into the story since the power scaling of Jinwoo becomes insane. A nondescript spoiler tease is playing with gods, as for exactly what that means... heh to be seen, or read :D

Manwha be taking over it seems. They getting more and more popular with the stories being quite enjoyable and a nice different taste of… reincarnated as my sisters dogs chew toy with the power to destroy worlds but im too shy to tapa into the grand power unless the dog fucks me. Don’t believe that’s a title? Well likely is not the title but is more than likely one of those trash stories that’s been invested enough into to become an anime sooner or later. One that nobody asked for yet we still get lol. Luckily A1 has been on a redemption arc for a while now and releasing more higher quality shows and stories for the past several years.

Characters (main) – 3/5

Characters (sub) – 3/5

Enjoyment – 4/5

Visuals – 4/5

Music – 5/5

Story – 4/5

Overall Ratings - Rec: 3/5 Raw: 76%

NOTICE: Lewd game, only play if of age.
Time – Split up into difficulty and chapters [not sure how time is calculated tbh, I left game running to test but didn’t have as much of an effect on time as I thought which was odd, take numbers lightly I guess /shrug]

Chapter 1 Lust Normal: 77:11 [m/s]
Chapter 2 Hatred Normal: 78:55
Chapter 1 Lust Hard: 42:19
Chapter 3 Delusion Normal: 99:50
Chapter 2 Hatred Hard: 55:42
Chapter 4 Karma Normal: 154:48
Chapter 3 Delusion Hard: 103:59
Chapter 4 Karma Hard: 69:48
Chapter 1 Lust Hard: 41:47
Chapter 4 Karma Hard: 58:44
Total: 13:03:03 [h/m/s]

Story –

Miyakoji is a stall salesmen in his country that sells red bean riceball on a shteek. He met our girl and one we play gameplay wise with, Manari. Manari has had the fiend king sealed inside of her by a evil sourcer along with her emotions stolen away. The three emotions have manifested into the form of fiends. Each being, Lust, Hatred and Delusion.

Agu Miyakoji on his way home after meeting Manari and giving her some free food since she a bum, runs into one of Manari’s emotion fiend incarnations. Manari comes to the rescue and due to Agu learning he got them Imortal bones… a infamous legend that means he is the chosen one that if a fiend consumes said bones will gain exponential power beyond their wildest dreams. But obviously Agu is not about to let himself be eaten and taken like that. Manari was no match for the Lust fiend either so really boith of them are on the run now. They hide out in a small hut they found close by in hopes of buying time before the inevitable death.

This is when Manari fills our boi Agu in on some minor details regarding her condition and then one thing leads to another, before you know it they just chillin with some Netflix on. Netflix in this instance being the drums of their hearts as poon slayer becomes goon slayer, er, they fuxin is what they be doin. Of course this awakens Manari inner shinobi transformation technique that allows her to fend off the Lust fiend who has found them.

They survive the night and in the meantime they go back to Manaris shinobi village to train. Hoping and praying that they are not attacked by fiends while doing so. Yutaka who is da shinobi masta guides them on what and how to fight.

As time passes both Manari and Agu are thrown into the fray to finally hunt down and take her emotions back by absorbing the separated fiends back into her. After many  battles and late nights with some good goods happening the Lust fiend is taken down and Manari is able to gain some of her emotions back.

A mystical dragon appears to let her know the return and second coming of chri-… an immortal is about to happen soon. Followed by a lot of, how to put this, interesting events with monsters that Agu gets mixed up with so to speak.

The hatred fiend is caught doing hatred things and kills a mans father since she was looking wrong, then burns the entire village to the ground since she be like that. Raw hatred and all so its sort of to be expected in an unexpected way. Not long after she gets taken down and absorbed back into Manari.

Next up on the list is Delusion fiend and she is the most childest of them all. Albeit still a fiend and still Manaris emotions. She happens to get in with the ruler of the land and make him crazy for that face down ass up reach around yank and spank. Along with the rest of the castle going crazy as well. Turning the main castle into a sex dungeon to say the least. One hell of a party might I add. The guards and others, now that Delusion is defeated and taken back into Manari, well the guards are like nah this aint it chief. They only see Agu and Manari and are not waiting for questions so everything gets pinned onto them. Its night and not a good look at them so they are scotts free baby! Sort of, they get written into history as the ones who did this when in reality it is much worse but the much worse has a lot of complications and stipulations attached so aint nobody got time for that, keep it simple for the childrens history books lol.

And now its time, to confront the big bad, the one and only who sealed the fiend king inside of Manari and took her emotions away. Gyorei has made a few appearances int eh past chapters but now its all about him.

He is still preaching the gospel of fiend king reincarnation, so Manari has to snap him out of it… but reality kicks in and Yutaka was right, the fiend kings return was inevitable. After defeating Gyorei the real final boss comes in. And while this happens an immortal is born. The overwatching god takes hold of the immortal bones body of Miyakoji and transforms him into a new form, in which the final battle begins and quickly ends. Some more lore drops before peace is had… and if in the real true ending, give it a few hundred years for history to repeat itself while a wholesome scene unfolds heh.

Gameplay –

Gameplay is about obtaining cards and finding the best way to use them. At the beginning of each chapter attempt, the player can choose one of the 4 different sects or random sect. Random sect is a bit different than the standard ones though.

Fire/earth focus sect is a focus on those types of cards. Fire are about damage and burn, earth is more shield focused. Wind/electricity focus on, wind debuff the enemy and having a passive damage bonus and moderate damage. Electricity applying paralyze debuff while capability for massive damage. Water/poison, water focuses on drawing massive amounts of cards while poison staying alive enough to build poison debuff on enemy until they finally croak. Immortal sect is the last unlocked one and don’t have too much verse in it since played it a bit and did not enjoy. There are universal elements and consumed per use unlike the other sects. Basic physical ones are universal no elemental focus. They are decent and nice backup cards while building a deck.

How to play these cards, well there are 5 elements initially rolled on start of battle. They vary one of the sects elements except for immortal and basic. Sort of. there is a way to get immortal but that’s not much to worry about as its not fundamental to battle. Depending on the sect chosen, reroll until the cards in hand are able to be used. The orbs do not get used on a card usage. Depending on the style of hand built, might want to hold onto a reroll, use what is able to then reroll in hopes to unlock usability of the rest.  Each orb can be locked in by clicking on them before doing a reroll or using a card that changed a unlocked element.

Cards are obtained from the end of each battle, or other event on the map. On the map a player can choose different types of events, most are just battles. Hot spring, card shop, going to town, tree fiend and random item event.

There are 10 total events to get to the boss. There are a couple bosses until the final boss of the chapter with story that goes along as the events pass. Before starting the chapter there is an option to choose battle only or story. Story allows for these interactions to occur while proceeding through these events.

Alongside winning cards, there are items and a wide variety of them. Each item obtained should be geared towards the deck being built but always want to fill in as many as possible as quickly as possible at first. They offer a lot of boosts and especially if building a water deck it is possible to craft a deck that basically varies temp card creation every card use. Sometimes can get 3 cards for using one card as an easy example.

After completing the chapters and gaining soul orbs, these soul orbs are used to upgrade the shinobi level. The upgrades will vary between bonus health, more gold and even additional unlocks.

One of these unlocks is a waterfall just before the boss events. This waterfall allows for upgrading a card once. Upgrading a card removes part of the requirement to use. Another unlock is a shrine. The shrine gives the option to spend gold and obtain up to 3 single use battle charms. Then the last unlock for gameplay is dragon scales. There are 3 that can be had and add additional bonuses to gameplay.

Skipped over gold and gold is the general currency to purchase stuff from the shop event. Shop event allows for the healing of player and a variety of cards and items that can be purchased. There is an option to pay to reroll the items and cards, each use increasing in cost. Reroll to help craft a perfect deck.

The shop is only available one stage before the boss event. Want to save gold up for card purchases. There is also… heh, cultivation events. Basically our girl gets horny and the horny bar increases as battle s progress. At which point when maxed out, she gotta do what she gotta do an there are many many cg events linked to it. More feet than most other games too lol. Most are unlocked by doing the event once and then doing it again in free mode. Once one of the poisons are captured and brought back into her, than they also have cultivation events hehe.

For shinobi form in cultivation event, most of these are locked by specific items or requirements. Hovering over each will show what is needed and than can view them. Remember that every cg event must be viewed before perfect true ending can be achieved. Meaning that all hard modes must also be completed.

Once hard mode chapter 4 completes, inferno mode gets unlocked and that is by far the easiest method of obtaining soul orbs and upgrading shinobi level.

Sound and Visuals –

Sounds are very well done. It is a game made in rpgmaker but in no way would a person notice at a glance. The way they have no stock assets, animations or menus is something else. The devs have put a lot of effort into crafting a proper game from the ground up on the rpgm engine. From the opening song to the menu ost and even the battle osts. They are pleasant to listen to and easy to have on in the background. The smaller sound effects match quite well too where it truly feels like a refined game.

Animations. Oh, heh, yknow its nice. Lots of variation and does lean more into the jelly physics but not too atrocious. I find that there was a good balance found. It is more than realistic but eh, it still looks nice and not off putting. The animation styling is clean and done proper.

Only real complaint would be no mouse wheel scrolling through dialog. Very minor and with full mouse support, not a real complaint. Its just more of a creature comfort at this point that is standard in most of this genres games. Rpgm less so which is also why its not a big deal. Simply clicking to progress and full mouse support does the job well enough.

Overall and Final Thoughts –

Honestly went into the game not expecting much. Saw a unique style of card gameplay so though might as well try it out. Then spent the next many hours playing through the story. It had me hooked and once finding the perfect deck of water draw cards.. ah ya, I was set.

Random sect I never did since didn’t care for the challenge so cant say much about it other than it might be a good place to farm shinobi levels. But at the same time regular mode is as well. Not sure what the time to complete it.

Reason why more plays after initial hard chapter 4 run is that I was missing the last story piece… true ending was not achieved. Missed the tentacle monster kill to be able to get final cultivation and then have true ending unlocked.

I guess final note is the usual... Yutaka best grill hehe :mrclean:

Characters (main) – 3/5

Characters (sub) – 3/5

Enjoyment - 4/5

Gameplay – 4/5

Visuals – 4/5

Music – 5/5

Story – 4/5

Overall Ratings - Rec: 4/5 Raw: 74%

Time – 55:24:39

Story –

Forewarned this is going to be a lot of glossing over and more ambiguous than usual. The story is worth experiencing in full.

Adol is fresh on the boat of Adols on the way through Obelia Gulf. With the destination on the other side, Celceta. On the boat he took, the captain had not paid what were supposed to be dues and payment forward. A group that acts as a sort of pirates while keeping the place *safe* are patrol the waters of Obelia Gulf. They spotted, stopped, and killed the captain for his lack of payment. He was a repeat offender, and the Normans decided to have enough of his claims of payment later.

With the captain dead, the Normans brought the ship and all its remaining passengers into the village of Carnac. While in Carnac there are several people to talk to and get acquainted with due to now being stuck here for a little while.

That night some of the locals that are around the same age as Adol want to have him join them and become friends while having an enjoyable time with each other’s company. However, during their nighttime meeting the town befalls a terrible fate. Grieger attack and destroy the entire town, capturing all the residents. Adol is barely able to escape heads to Balta Island through the guidance of Karja. Karja being the one he is chained together with via mana from earlier incidents prior to the town’s attack.

Not long after figuring everything out, their plan of action on Balta Island with the rest of the main Norman forces, Adol and Karja due to being chained together are sort of forced to become shield brother and sister. Something of a Norman tradition that bonds and connects two warriors, uniting them as one. On the specified trial the Jarl of the Norman sends them on, Adol and Karja stumble upon a runestone that when reacted to with mana has a story to be told and seen that gives a snippet of history of an important person of the past. Once completed with the trial they head back to report what they had seen.

Once they are officially shield brother and sister things start to get a lot faster. They set out to sea again. This time with a keener sense of what to do. The objective to investigate and find out everything that is going on and why and who raided Carnac.

As events progress and more information about what is going on in Obelia Gulf becomes known they are quickly stunted from pushing further due to a fog. A special kind of fog though that was set up via mana and does not allow navigation through a normal means. They are forced to retreat and make their way the long way around the entire region.

Whole making their way around to their now far out destination the Grieger are always seemingly one step ahead. They are everywhere and with it they have been bringing destruction and havoc to the people all around the area. Small stops to help these towns and people are a must. Main reason to gain more understanding and information about the enemies’ ultimate goals and plans. A true reason for why they are attacking with such swift force.

History of the Normans is scattered all around and oddly enough every Runestone that is found adds more questions and leaves only fewer answers behind. The Normans are at the center of it all. Not in that they are the ones causing it but rather everything happening directly has them involved. Or so the Runestones are showing at least. One thing is for certain though, the Trident are the leaders of the invasions and finding a way to defeat all three of them would answer a lot of uncertainty that plagues the areas situation.

Once through the floodgates connected to the ruins of Ribe they are greeted with a fortress of attacks that forces a withdrawal and plan of action to be made before pushing through to get down south. With the new plan crafted and the Balta Seaforce at their backs, an attack commences. Where the Jarl takes the Grieger ship and Adol and Karja take on two of the trident leaders. However, that plan quickly changes and positions swap to the Jarl taking on the two leaders as Adol and Karja disable the ship.

Things do not go quite as planned by the end but the post results do help where they both are able to meet with a person they otherwise were unable to prior. So while the deets of how became twisted the end result is what matters most. With the connection to this new person and the trident slowly being taken care of… a hasty journey to a gods temple is in order. Yet the end result here is again a twist on what should have been a straightforward plan. Now with even more complications handed over, things start to look a bit grim.

Hope is not lost though as there is one last ray of hope that should be able to come through and help resolve what is now a complex issue surrounding Adol and Karja. As this complication is getting sorted out, the end  path is now clearer than ever. The final destination is here, a spot that Adol never would have dreamed of but here it is. Sadly no final boss long staircase, rather a midsize door that opens to the area. A sad reality lol. Once finished here all that’s left is the farewells to all the companions along the way before setting off to Celceta.

Gameplay/Quests –

Action RPG that encourages nothing more than to spam spam spam. Use abilities like they are normal attacks and normal attacks like they are specials… meaning normal attacks can at times be used less than the special abilities tossed around hehe. Perfect for a action based rpg genre game. Makes the gameplay highly addictive and enjoyable. No wrong set of abilities or skillsets to hotkey in.

There is a link mode that allows both Karja and Adol to attack in unison. Doing so unlocks a third allowance of abilities or just spam regular attacks with both of them linked together. This will likely be the most used form of attack. During linked mode and guarding, when damaged a revenge gauge will fill up. The revenge multiplier number is directly applied to the next special ability used when in link mode.

Dashing and blocking are available in both solo and linked modes of attack. When a player properly evades perfect timing they are capable of neglecting damage and at times the ability to use special finisher style attacks that deal massive damage to the enemy. Rewarding skilled players in combat while also not being too harsh for being unable to do it. Holding down the block button will block majority of attacks, same as holding evade button will allow evading the specific blue attacks that are used against character. Tldr red attack is power attack that regular blocking will break and needs a perfect block to allow for special counter or duo mode to block, blue indicates a perfect evade to do the same.

Skills are linked on 1-4 and the more they are used the more mastery is gained from them. Some skills only available through the use of mastering other ones. Alongside mastered skills will increase the power of said skill.

Both characters can be swapped between, depending on what the player preference is. Adol is fire, Karja is ice. I used Adol as I preferred his combat style more than hers. Was always in linked mode so there really was not much of a difference at all though lol.

When a player dies in battle, they will be swapped to the other forcibly and that character will then be allowed to revive the downed character with a half health revive. Both characters end up dying then game over. Never had that happen and only a few times did a character actually get downed though. Easily able to count the total number of times, most of which happened on the mega boss at the end that is a lvl 99. Proper skill of game mechanics will allow beating this monster at around lvl 80. Takes time but more than possible.

Status ailments range from poison, paralysis, confusion, heavy, curse, burn and frostbite. They are statuses that are not immediately applied. They have a gauge that fills up and once completely filled applies the ailment. It will slowly decay until completely gone. Poison eats away hp, paralysis will have a rng effect of being unable to complete current action, confusion inverts all movements, heavy disallows all advanced movement options while making movement slower, curse once applied instantly sets health to 1hp, burn decays health at a rapid tick rate and frostbite deals damage to both armor and regular hp.

Durability or armor is a stat that enemies have and will need to be broken before their regular hp can be harmed. With certain enemies this armor gauge will restore after a period of time or trigger.

Sea combat, there is ships and ship combat. On the map there will be long lines that are green called air currents. They allow for quick movement around the regions and rapidly recharge the speed boost ship ability when inside these wind lines. The speed boost ability called mana sail.

When in ship combat there are standard ammo, ex armament ammo, both of which are infinite, and then there’s secondary that has a capacity. Each type has a recharge rate before being able to use again.

A shield ability will allow for deflecting damage that would otherwise chip away the ships hp. Using the shield and speed boost to ram another will prove to deal a fair bit of damage and can be sometimes easier than anything else for a quicky to destroy a enemy ship.

Alongside sea combat there is also fishing. Fishing can be done at sea and in regular land locations. Use a specific type of bait to encourage certain types of catches or use basic for a broad get what ya get type of fishing. If all fish are depleted in the pond area that indicates a fish can be caught, usually will get shards.

Alongside fishing there are actions that a player is able to do when traversing the waters. Letters will arrive that allow for special quests or actions, various crew short convos that are time sensitive and the ability to quickly select where on the ship player wants to go. Three locations on the ship, the top is where the helm and technically the 4^th location up at the top of mast but that’s not a place one would go often. It’s a seldom place to visit. Common place and under common quarters. Mid level can turn in adventure quests, stone stories found, upgrading the ship, doing rune allocation ~~that can be done anywhere via menu but only crafting type actions in ship or a save stone location on map~~, under the ship is a spot for crafting meds, meal preps, crafting/upgrading weapons or items. Each of these locations will have slight variations with either more than what is listed here or less depending on what chapter and who has been unlocked.

When back at the helm, on the main sea map, lots of options and content to pursue. Ranging from two different types of circles that glow either red or purple indicating the type of sea battle. Purple being harder and with more rewards while red are quicker few ships spawn, kill em and take the resources. Purple have two phases, a ship battle and then a raid on the main ship. On the main ship portion of the raid there will be 3 waves and once completed a reward chest that rng’s in color determining how good of a haul it has become… late game red chest exploit via autosave for the quickest rainbow stones heh.

There are a few raids at sea one can do and it unlocks more visibility on the map bundled with some extras such as more letters, more quests ect. No reason not to do them. When raiding these locations, it is phased into 2 portions. In the sea battle phase the player must break certain pilons/pillars to knock the barrier off the fortress. Once inside the fortress if enough of the optional objectives are finished during the ship battle phase will grant lvl 1-10 boosts that assist in the land raid. When raiding the inside of the fortress a few more waves are required before completion. The waves will vary from simply killing units or a boss and even traversing what is a somewhat maze like area that enemies spawn throughout. Enemies killed are optional. During both phases points are rewarded based on performance. With a end result of performance put into a letter ranking. With S rank being the top tier rank where all possible completion rewards are granted. Each of these raids can be redone for a higher score or faster time, allowing for potentially missed rewards to be had.

Back to the main map of the sea again, each marker represents different things a player is capable of doing. Green red and blue. Color determined the priority one would go about them. Red being story, green and blue are optional and should be done before doing the red as to not potentially miss them. Since there are missable quests and data entries. Albeit only a few, they are still there and easily missable.

Quests themselves have a variance of fetch, kill and unique styling. It keeps the player engaged and entertained throughout where each quest doesn’t feel redundant or bland. One quest might take the player to various locations with character dialog and building while the next leads to a certain spot on a map to defeat waves of enemies and another that is simply go and fetch something. None feel like a chore and are all blended quite well into the story that really makes it feel like a proper adventure.

Much more minor stuff that could be covered but is pretty self explanatory when playing through with the main noteworthy thing to mention is that once lvl 99 is reached… full access. So save resources as the special boss will need it to make him easy to beat. Saying this I beat it at lvl 80 though, its not a must or a need but rather, `makes the boss way easier`.

Sound and Visuals –

Honestly the ost’s and sound direction is pretty forgettable. Something that is off is the implementation of voiced lines at times. Where there will be many scenes with no voiced lines until a random one pops up for a single line just before going back to unvoiced. Main character Adol has rarely voiced lines and that is fine since it helps with immersion. His lines are your dialog choice selection that doesn’t do much except change the response he gets. No major changes. The events will unfold all the same by the end so no wrong dialog choices.

Battle osts and songs that are put on to set a scenes mood are just alright. They do the job… decent enough but could use a major improvement. In the settings there is an option to show a popup for what song is playing and that is very nice to have options for. There are some good ost’s mixed in but even the best it has to offer is more of a 4/5. A rating that should be reserved for one of their weaker tracks.

Visuals are decent as well and more than good enough for the game genre. It will age well. The scenery of locations, water and even the mountains looks well enough. It does look dated by a AAA game standard but that doesn’t hurt anything by having such art direction. A mod to fix the very abrupt shadow lines is available and something I used to make the games characters much better. That is a style preference though and some may like the shadows being more sharp instead of a natural fade/blend to them. No wrong choice, I just prefer softer shadows. This will likely sound strange unless looking up the shadow mod where it becomes apparent lol.

Overall and Final Thoughts –

Honestly not many thoughts to say other than, great game that is very fun to play. Combat and mechanics are refined and well done. Story progresses and has a clear direction. Some twists and unexpected things happen and theres not much more a person would want for a decently long story driven game. The characters are all well done… except a certain few. As much or as little care can be sunk into them and that is definitely a positive. Those who oly want Adols story can come and only have that or those who want more are also able to. The world of the Ys series is large and this is another game that keeps adding to it.

I would strongly recommend the game to those that like a refined arpg titles that leans more into the jrpg side of things.

Oh ya and as for Karja, heh yknow it :mrclean: ~~also a certain other cast late game, keep it in the fam lol~~

Characters (main) – 4/5

Characters (sub) – 4/5

Enjoyment - 5/5

Gameplay – 5/5

Visuals – 4/5

Music – 3/5

Story – 4/5

Overall Ratings - Rec: 4/5 Raw: 82%

NOTICE: KnR is a lewd SRPG game. If not of age, do not play.

Time to 100% – [True 100% with completed information page]
Playthrough 1: 83:00 [hr:min]
Playthrough 2: 27:52
Playthrough 3: 7:36
Playthrough 4: 3:08
Playthrough 5: 2:36
Playthrough 6: 2:04
Total Time: 126.26 Hours

Routes –

The big boi enters chat once again.. except this time is not all that big, just an average sized, but yknow not everybody so fortunate. Anyways, there are 2 main routes that the player is forced into. One being Lavirie and the other Mistoria.

Once one of the main routes are chosen, 2 of the potential 5 endings will be locked away. The routes are hardly different and are just a heroine swap rather than a different story Route A Route B type of storytelling. This simplifies a lot of stuff down and majorly factors into how little playtime is needed for completion. Well that and the fact that post game NG+ content is not heavy.

With either route chosen, youll learn a bit more about the selected heroine. Be locked into their lewd scenes and have the potential chance to see their specific endings. Yes, even choosing the route does not mean the player will see their respective ending. Its is pseudo bad ending.

By bad ending, the meaning for this game is the ending scene will simply have *worse* things happen as in not every character gets happy ending. To be eligible for one of these endings, the player must recruit a certain number of optional characters… or not. Not recruiting them will lead to the *bad* end, recruit one of them and get bad end, recruit 2 for bad end but with your girl in the end [regardless of what girl is selected] and recruit all 3 optional characters for *good* ending where everybody lives happily ever after, sort of.

With routes out of the way, the game starts out by something called the successor candidate. Elballad, also known as Eld, our main man takes the opportunity to take his shot at becoming the Divine Enforcer. The Divine Enforcer being the one who set up this entire ordeal to find somebody to become his successor. The Divine Enforcer is an exceptionally powered being that rules over a portion of land in Kvarner.

As the people gather, they are put through tests and they are slowly going to be whittled down until the last one is chosen to be the successor… ~~big surprise who that last man standing will be kek~~ . They are promised to have the opportunity to gain some of this divine power of the Divine Enforcer who can be expressed as stronger than some Solomon Pillars yet weaker than a god. Basically a second or third tier in the verse, excessively strong to say the least.

With Eld making the cut he is given a score of inheritance, his is an egg that will hatch into something. Bit of a cliché tbh. As the t4ests are going on, Eld fights with some of the other contesters like Gu-Landio. Eld takes victor and presses onwards but due to his weakness and power of companionship with those around, it intrigues many. They underestimate him and as such face the consequences of those around him that add to his overall power. Eld is a curious and learning type that others congregate around. Gu-Landio, strongly intrigued by this joins his party to see where it will take him.

Shortly later another candidate attacks and this person is a main villain that pokes his bog ole head multiple times back up at our boi. Luckily, the assault that Brahahrokka does towards him is repelled and just like the others, he is underestimating Eld. He wants him dead to proceed though. He hates the ideals and thinking that Eld has.

After repelling Braharokka, the egg hatches and here are introduced to… Nick, ah ya he got a plan. Well, a plan that can be ignored that is lol. Using Nick means giving up a valuable God Medal slot. And I never used him the first playthrough at all heh.

More tests occur and during one of them a girl is found. A girl that turns out to be dubbed the Divine Enforcers daughter. A person who has amnesia and cant remember anything about her past. Adding more mystery around the Divine Enforcer that is bundled with other questions that candidates have had such as why this situation is even happening, the situation of finding a successor.

The main villains are exposed and named the Guiding Dawn. Tldr of these two goofers is we got Shouta and bog ole biddie neesama who has a bit of a :mrclean: side to her. Saved that side for later near the end of the story though.

With Braharokkas actions of attacking another candidate though, he was put in the nogozone, basically jail. However, a mysterious man/force lets him out and he escapes. With that fiend finally gone, the main 2 grills finally can express their feelings to Eld... but he aint ready yet, that is tomorrow him problem and its today so that’s gon have to wait.

Another guiding Dawn attack is repelled, and this is when the tomorrows Eld decides he is ready and it is time to *settle* down and choose who to raise a hand to and who to show a hand towards. So after choosing one of them officially, they are the only main character lewds he will get, basically the other is left on cuck duty and no more lewds for them. Every other cast member though, oh its about to get raunchy to say the least. They got multiple tag teams, and some demon/devil play on the horizon.

Waking up to the angels threatening, we get a look at Forzaslein, who is a faithful follower of Arkparis God, she is not liking what is going on. To not spoil those details, lets just say she is here to cause a ruckus. A ruckus that does not last long due to Eld and Zelgain putting a stop to it, where Forzaslein joins with as a cooperator with Eld like many others have up until this point. Eld just has that way with words and the ladies alongside the men it seems.

With all the angel business out of the way, they take leave almost as quickly as they got there. However with them gone, the Guiding Dawn have not forgotten their plans. They are at it again and attack the Galinis Forest seal followed by the Angels seal.

This is the time that best girl Riwo can be spotted and seen. Not recruited quite yet though, she is a bit of a hook line and wait to sink type. Eld will get her in due time.

Gu-Landio takes his leave and likely knows what the outcome will be but at least he says he went down trying. He departs, gets negged and then a bit later decided it is okay to just be second class to Eld from here on out.

With Gu-Landio story finally put to rest, the last of the Successor Candidates are put to a head to head test. First against Shardio, the one who believes in leading from the darkness and the light is something he cannot be seen in. Our Shining light of Eld and others shows him that there is better way than simply darkness background character. Shardio was asking to be shadowed and got exactly what he wanted, put back in the darkness. Then we get golden poster boi Zelgain who is the epitome of what one would have thought the winner and main mc could have been. The one many would have bet on without a second thought. Just like Shardio, Zelgian is the complete opposite and Eld is just the odd one out. Zelgain takes the L, sits down and submits that Eld is the one to take that crown of Divine Enforcer successor.

A decent plot twist that relates to one of our main cast is shown and things get thrown into chaos. Blood is spilled, people are mad and things just went up from a mid to a slightly above mid story at this point. It’s the final rush and meet bog ole biddie neesama once again to finally get that special alone time together that was promised near the beginning of the game. With the fulfillment of some eggs with a side of fertilizer, Braharokka gets knocked, Guiding Dawns leader General Pauze has his last script and Ferma, the bae of Guiding Dawn gets the shaft. ~~It’ll all make sense in the moment~~.

With that the final boss is finally here, and in typical JRPG fashion, the god must fall, no long staircase to compliment such a achievement though. Realize how no secondary heroine route is included here… well that’s because with or without them there is no simply no difference. They hardly even play a part, they have their moments but that’s about it. They could be replaced by secondary characters to achieve the same end goal.

With the god dead, either having recruited 1 optional, get Eld without his girl ending, recruit 2, get eld with his girl ending, and recruit 3 and now we got the happy ending no bad only positives and eld on his journey post Divine Enforcer inheritance. The good ending feels more like a cop out than anything imo, I would say the * bad* end suits more. ||at least he stays and becomes the Divine Enforcer for the new land after the death of those involved in the final chapters events.||

New game+ & Append Content –

Not a whole lot of stuff gets added here. Sadly this is a very weak post game situation. Eushully chan and her side story are added and she brings along Black Eushully this round. Sadly no other special guests.

With their events, the player has to find Eushully’s broom and vacuum cleaner and black eushully needs her tea pot of concrete and cup noodles. Only a couple map missions to do but don’t slouch on them as the enemies are hard on second playthrough.

Spiri shows up with information about one of the Solomon devils. This storyline spans the entire game and has snippets and story to go along with it up until the final boss where we met and fight this Solomon devil.

A spa that grants soft everlasting smooth skin ect ect. This is an append of needing to see dem neked grills. With a cameo appearance of Karian from Battle Goddess Verita. It is a fun append that spans multiple chapters like Spiri content. Every stage they fight in and whenever they enter the trials they must be naked adding to the humor. It’s a fun mix of a lot of characters that is not taken too serious for obvious reasons.

Last but not least is the bug bug content. Like other Eushully titles, bug bug is some of the most annoying content. Beating it on second playthrough is possible but going to be a bit tricky and need planning. I did it second playthrough but was only able to after the first couple chapters. Overall difficulty is harder than most of the rest of the game but honestly that is not saying much due to the balancing of game being quite wonky.

Noelia also has a bit of extra scene content during this bug bug content. It is separate from the main game and accessed from eushully room extra content main tab.

Gameplay/Quests –

Gameplay is a hexagon based movement system that allows the player to move in 6 different directions. Move stat allows for the player to move X amount of tiles if they are visible. Jump allows for traversal of different elevation tiles. For instance if a player has 2 jump and the tile next to them is 2 tiles higher than they are able to move there, if the tile is 3 tiles higher, than they are unable. Search or sight is the distance that the character can see from their position. Search will uncover more of the map and allow for move stat to be more effective. Movement is also determined by the tiles affinity to certain aspects. Aspects being snow, water ect. Certain god medals or characters have passive abilities that will allow them to cross such terrains. There are many different obstacles that can and will be in the way for the player. There will also be breakable stuff on the map. Trees, rocks and other physical things on the map can optionally be broken by using a specific skill that matches. Same goes for chests, they will appear and require specific keys to be use on them to unlock.

Attack and magic are the generic stats for damaging the opponent. The opponent can fluctuate the total damage taken depending on their abilities or elemental resistances. Elemental resistances are listed per character and usually are not really important. Brute force is the one true way to win. There are four difference elements in this game, earth, fire, water, wind. Every character will have a shown affinity towards one of those. Just because they are that affinity towards the element does not mean they will have that passively on their basic attack however. Accuracy is here but honestly I have no clue what is does, it does not seem to affect anything. At no point was I needing more or less, it just was whatever it was and things moved on as if it didn’t matter. Capacity is the characters bonus in play mana reserve [up to a max total]. Then there is cost, which determines how much the character will cost in mana to summon onto the field.

Mana is something that us earned by collecting the gems on field by walking over or standing on them or from how many control summon deployment points the player has in their control per turn, these circles also heal a character if they stand on them and enter the next turn with it still under players control. Say there are 3 in players control, turn passes and on start of next turn there are still 3 in control, 3 mana is granted. Mana is also for some unknown reason used to use magic attacks… and that does mean as many would have feared, there is a choice of using magic attacks or summoning a new unit. Hard choice I know. It was a poor decision to say the least and leads to very few if any magic attacks and spells to be casted. Its all brute force attack that matters.

When attacking the damage that is taken or dealt is tacked against the characters hp stat, very self explanatory. There us ways to diverge this damage though and one being evasion stat, this will allow a certain amount of select damage to be evaded and not hit main hp. It is a hit one or the other pool so if attacked and a bit of escape left, than escape will deplete to 0 and then the next turn or attack they can receive damage if no more evade is available still.

Leading into god medals or skills. A hefty variety here with them. Some will recharge evasion, some granting armor and others granting skills that can be used in combat or for breaking/opening things. Shields is another stat that can block damage and is similar to evasion. The god medal will explain about how and in what way the shield will work. Some shields only reduce damage from the front, while others will reduce all damage received. Shields will have a counter to deplete and once they are gone, they are gone for that map until the next one. God medals each have a cost and the cost is something that can be as little as 0 to over 10 per one equipped. To gain more cost points to equip more god medals, the player is going to have to upgrade their Score of Inheritance.

With the Score of Inheritance, each character will have many books they unlock throughout the story. Doing certain quests on a certain map will allow for unlocking more of the book nodes. There are bronze silver and gold keys that need to be obtained to fully unlock certain books. Each of the books will have nodes that require runes to be used. There are four different types of runes available. Each obtained the same way on maps or certain enemies that drop them. Before discussing the maps further, the Score of Inheritance is the only place a player can gain levels and is the primary place the character will learn skills. Skills will be obtained in the form of god medals to equip. There are line bonuses that once completed will grant an extra bonus. A bonus being a skill or level. Basically only focus on levels until no more can be had as that is going to be the best and most optimal option. Runes are limited and not focusing on levels will severely raise the difficulty of the game. Completing all the base game books will grant a special god medal for the character that will be in the center. This special Ex version grants a different zoc and well keeps the same base attack.

Zoc is zone of control and is the exerted control zone that appears from a character. The areas in control will allow for allies to pass through the area freely and if the enemies zoc is in place, than the character will now be able to freely move through it. They will need a skill that ignores or simply move one square through it at a time. There are a lot of ways to change the gameplay of zoc though. Some will have zoc in front, all around or even behind them. Each offers its own advantages and disadvantages. From behind makes it harder to deal bonus behind damage to enemy, same goes with side zoc. But again this can be changed depending on the god medal and skill the character has equipped where some god medals will disallow behind attacks entirely and immediately face enemy attacker.

On the main map, there are a plentiful amount of locations to choose from and most can be revisited after completion. The locations are unlocked through story or other side events that grant access to a specified location. Once the location on the world map is selected, the player can choose what sub location and map to play. Each of these has their own challenges or quests to do. Quests can be a excessively tedious `cut all grass in X turns` all the way to `Kill all enemies of a certain type` and even `collect treasure`. There are a lot of variety when it comes to quests on the maps. Some very annoying and others enjoyable to complete. On the maps themselves there will also be tressure gold piles on the map or even hidden god medals in the breakable landscape. Some collection of these things will trigger a quest completion. Upon completing the quests a green square on the world map will be displayed for each successfully completed quest. Each quest will award something. That something could be a node key or a god medal. Either way it will be useful in some way at some point… probably lol.

On the main map is where the player can access the Shrine of the End, the central hub of everything. It is sort of a secondary interactive main menu so to speak.  This is where access to Score of Inheritance, weapon strengthening, equipping god medals and clearing house is.

Weapons strengthening compliments the map quests and map locations. As when one completes all the map quests for a given location/zone, they will be given 5 upgrade points. These points are able to be spent on one of three stats for every character. The 5 points are granted to every character, whether they are there or not ion the party. So, it can help boost a new members stats a tad to get them in line with the fighting capabilities they need. The three stats, health, attack and magic can be upgraded via these upgrade points. The total amount allowed to dump into each is determined by how far and complete the Inheritance books are. More completed the higher and more points a player can put into these bonus stats.

Clearing house is the shop of this town. There is a day and night shop. Both stocking different items as they are run by different characters. Night shop harder to access until last chapter when day and night cycle can be manually swapped between. In these shops youll find different god medals. Some only being able to be found in the shop, for those wanting to do a full 100% info run.

A bit of an odd one is there are certain units that take up not one square but requires an extra 1 hex out of space to be placed and used. Enemies have these units as well. They are harder to place and have limited movement on certain maps. These units are generally worse for quick progression than just a standard 1 hex unit. They are regular units with strings attached and not any real benefit for using them over a regular unit.

Inside the Shrine of the end is also where a majority of the event and optional character dialog will take place. Click and select the dialog floating bubbled character to engage in the event with them. Some are only there for a short period of time. Be sure to check both day and night cycles, night cycle events will appear by visiting a stage and leaving, itll be night in the Shrine. If no night events available, than visiting and leaving a stage will leave the Shrine during day time.

Sound and Visuals –

Music is pretty good throughout with the OST’s kicking in at opportune times. However, they don’t kick in as much as one would like for certain ost’s. It does feel a bit lacking in that department. This is a common theme throughout. Where a lot of polishment needed to be done yet appears to have been cut out or neglected for some reason.

Sound effects and such are all on point matching what one would come to expect from a eushully game. Some of the more epic ots’s seem to be far between when they should have been turned on at certain story events. Other than that, its fine. Not necessarily memorable to say the least.

The regular statis music that the player will be hearing for potentially days of time is adequate, itll play, doesn’t get stale or old and fits with the theme of the game.

Visuals are something that eushully shines with. There are tons of variety in characters and even the event scenes. Different strokes for different folks while all being under the same umbrella. Not off base and expected at this point though. Visuals are all solid.

Overall and Final Thoughts –

Good game, not great game. I would recommend to a fair few type of people but definitely not everybody as there is too much that would need to be changed to allow for a great game.

The scaling is something else until learning to just focus on level nodes for every character. Having mana split between summoning new units and magic attacks is a very odd choice. There is no strategy at that point when another character on the field is 99% of the time going to be better than just using a spell.

The movement system is unique and fun to play around with. Difficulty spikes hard at first but then once the inheritance lvl focus kicks in, things become way easier and shortly become trivial. There were a couple hard portions but overall its not hard at all. I had a hard time at first for the first couple hours while learning the system but once learned it was it for the enemies.

It does seem like there is a large cut content portion of the game. The endings don’t quite have a complete feeling to them. The story itself sort of feels rushed to end now as well. Some characters get shown but then that’s it, they are gone and not expanded on, like with Ralgreya. Interesting character but that’s where it ended. Shown and gone. Could have and should have had more story and missions related to her zone or person.

Tsumugi appears to have been cut content. In that she gets built up in a way that appears to be her own 3^rd route of the game, and then gets told nope. The total time of completion truly shows how much less is packed into this game than other titles. It truly shows what I believe to be a rushed titles. The last couple chapters are too quickly done from what it seemed. I think this could have been solved via 2 more chapters. The main heroines not playing a huge roll is also a disappointment.

The gameplay is still good and solid though. There is a lot of good things about the game but then just as many good things there are annoyances or bad to say. Its in a bit of a rock and a hard place. Append could have saved it potentially but that also never happened.

On a final note, the musical focus of having music and instruments was well underwhelming. There is a core emphasis on it yet there is no full execution of it. Music is there but it is in no way the focus as the games title would suggest. There is a large fizzle instead of bang that it could have been avoided.

Characters (main) – 3/5

Characters (sub) – 3/5

Enjoyment - 4/5

Gameplay – 4/5

Visuals – 4/5

Music – 4/5

Story – 3/5

Overall Ratings - Rec: 3/5 Raw: 71%

When monsters thought they rules the world.. but the Rangers put a stop to that. English title does a play off of Power Rangers American theme song. I don’t like it, the title translation is not reflective of the work being produced. Reject Ranger is the real direct translated name. Ranger Reject also works, Japanese wording and translating allows either to be correct. Anything but gogo loser ranger :throwup:

Anyways, fighter D has had enough of the constant torture show that all the fighters are put through on a weekly basis. A deal that the Dragon keepers made after they killed all the fighters bosses. Dragon keepers said `you mah bitch and you gon like it` as a simple tldr.

Fighters are a created thing [?] that the boss monsters made to aid in their fight against the humans. Fighters are immortalish. Ish in the sense that they cant die from normal attacks or fights but they will die if a dragon keepers divine weapon strikes them down. The weapons the keepers use are special and imbued with, as they state, the power of a dragon god. Hence the naming scheme of Dragon Keepers.

The fighters after their boss monsters/leaders were killed were put into a form of slavery. They don’t try to break out of it since they realize the futility of going up against the ones who killed their masters and creators after all. Not to say all the fighters did this but the ones that are left certainly are following their new strict guidelines.

Every weekend down in the main city the Keepers are from, they have an arena that the fighters show up and have a fight. A losing fight that the keepers will always win. The fighters are in charge of making it entertaining while the Keepers are in charge of doming them. Simple rules set to allow them to live. They lost the war after all. However fighter D has finally had enough of all this fake fighting, arena every week, die and come back and do it again. Time wise spent is 13 years, one can only imagine how that would weigh on them. They do feel pain but the fighters are each a bit different.

Some fighters will specialize in different aspects, like D is able to shapeshift very well. Some are more resistant and resilient ect. Its all varied with a lot of overlap from one fighter to another. D, has had enough of all of what is going on though and wants to take charge again. Not that he was in charge but loosely correlates. It’s a fantasy the boi is trying to live out.

He disobeys and escapes to the mainland and wants to take down all the Keepers, believing they are the reason and only thing keeping them in their current position. He is very simplistic and not thinking ahead at all of what might happen after they are taken down. He is going into this without thinking he will actually win. As the show progresses and event unfold, it is telling that there might be a chance of it happening given the circumstances that happen to follow suit around him. He is very lucky in a lot of regards.

Once he is in the city he shapeshifts to blend in but is quickly found out and well this is where he happens to meet one of the fixer uppers. She is lil bit twisted but aren’t we all… anyways, she knows D is a fighter and yet does not kill him and send him back. Instead she is the type that will use him to advance her own goals. As for what her goals are, they are unknown, only really knowing that she is in line of wanting to take down the Keepers. An enemy of my enemy is my friend type of agreement they have. D is as confused as anybody else as to why she is helping him out but sort of accepts it and chooses to turn a fairly large blind eye to the entire situation.

Shortly after the fixer upper is found and worked with, another fonds out about D and his shapeshifting and wants to *talk*, D aint having it though and quickly says peace while crumbling away to dust as his exit. Even now he likes to put on a show, it has been engrained into him lol. The day is not over for D though as he finally gets his chance to fight one of the Keepers, or multiple. With an ending that was already certain, but a beginning that was unexpected. After the fight he awakes in the woods near the one he did his poof disappearance with. Turns out he saved him.

While escaping and being saved, they are not out of the woods yet and one of the lower tiers under Blue Keeper tracks and fights them. Fighting in a battle that is different than the other just before. In that the fight is instead a lot more strategic with D and the one helping him out. The fight ending in a swaparoo where D is able to make his way back into the city. This time under a disguise of a actual person.

Sakurama, who is this certain person, is part of the Ranger academy ~not the official name~~ that happens to be a gateway into a position D could use to further his world domination/kill all the keepers goal.

Once inside the city, the final arc of the season occurs. For better or worse this arc also takes up most of the season. It is fairly slow. The arc consists of several wanting to become rangers to take part in trials to see who and what ones are able to advance. They are pitted against each other with their trust on the line. During the trials, friendships are made, trust is lost but through it all a boss monster appears. Stirs up quite a bit of trouble and before you know it D fights a keeper. Blue keeper to be precise, with an expectedly unexpected turn of events at the end. Yes, glossing over basically the entire arc as its mainly character development and world lore building so not a lot of actual story progression, its character progression.

Visuals/Music:

Visuals are great, the particle effects are on point. The CGI used is pretty heavy at times but the way that the show is animated and crafted, its melded well enough to make it work. As per usual, CGI shines when it comes to particle effects. It is used correctly and adds to the show rather than a lot of other CGI implementations for the sake of budget cuts and shoving the show out faster. Not everything is CGI and along with it, the regular animation is quite well done as well. Very clean and clear with vibrant colors. Facial animations match well to what is being conveyed. Backgrounds follow along with the rest. There are only positives when it comes to the animation quality .

Music is good but not perfect. There are great OSTs that really add to the mood and scene but the variety is lacking. Seems this is where more time could have been spent to allow for more variety. More would have helped keep the immersion for all the scenes. There are several times that it breaks a fair amount since the music does not match entirely correct.

Opening Preview of Me by Tatsuya Kitani and especially the ending Seikai Wa Iranai by Nanaoakari… heh, don’t even need to say anything, both songs productions are :pacha_perfect:. Especially with the animation sequence they have on top with all the rangers and fighters. Both artists voices and the lyrics that go with the songs fit the series quite well. Both are up there for how well they match with the series.

Final Thoughts:

Recommend to most, it is a fun show that would be entertaining to pass the time with and enjoy a good story. The main odd pacing is near the end of the show. The rest is quite well done. Especially the 11^thepisodes pacing was all over the place due to time constraints. The 12 and final episode does not quite make up for it and still feels a but half assed like the second half of that arc. Honestly not sure if more episodes would have solved it, the story itself in the second arc is just odd. Where a lot of changes would likely need to be in place to make it truly feel right, there is a lot going on and needing to be shown while also a forced need to push the story forward. Apparently, this is the lowest tier arc of the series to date with the ones coming after doing a 180. What would have likely done better is a separate arc in between to help build the world to take out a lot of that forced need that was shoved into this arc. Problem with doing that is it would also not work the best when fighter D is the one who needs to know these details. Rock and a hard place I guess. Not as bad as it is made out to be though. More of something to be aware of, it is a recommendation for most after all lol.

Ranger Reject is quite a stark difference compared to other shows and their post war worlds depictions. There are a lot of parody plays against power rangers but the actual show and story itself is not able to be further away from it. The story is edgy and such but that doesn’t matter. Even by the end of the first season, Fighter D character growth in mindset is heavy. From his childish view of the world at first to learning more and realizing a more sound end goal for his dream.

Hmm, I can fix her :eyes:

Characters (main) – 4/5

Characters (sub) – 4/5

Enjoyment – 4/5

Visuals – 5/5

Music – 4/5

Story – 3/5

Overall Ratings - Rec: 3/5 Raw: 80%

The return of the great not so great party. Where everything can and does go wrong while somehow playing out just as intended. Except this time, its more of a focus on the Divorcedness, er, Darkness. Learning more about her family and happenings of some behind the scenes situations that had accumulated from the past arcs.

With another studio at the helm, it was a bit skeptical of what would happen. However, they knew just what to do. Animation, on point, story, on point, ludicrous scenes… on point hehe. Taking the first episode to demonstrate why its still peak.

In the first episode the main plot was to show the divine items. Like how Aqua is the item Kazuma brought into the world… well there are many others that have been sent to this world as well. With each having their own choice of item they are allowed to bring into it. Finding the hammer of fortune, or whatever it is truly called lol. Shake shake = gold gold. A sad encounter with a lost soul who Kazuma ruthlessly has no sympathy for, bringing forth his inner Rance as his green outfit compliments. To no surprise the hammer was not able to last long and poofs before they can really make use of it with comedy acts and emotions of the party swelling around it in an entertaining manor. Followed at the same time with a letter of invitation to Darknesses family din din time for Kazuma, and maybe his friends. Yknow to show the appreciation of their actions of defeating Demon Generals.

With the invitation of Princess Iris and Kazuma’s thoughts swelling of a younger sister fantasy swelling, the time to go was upon them. Not without the usual shenanigans of the party at such a formal dinner they were invited to attend. Ending on a surprise swoosh from Iris taking Kazuma back home :mrclean:. The others in the palace are not entertained by such actions she had done but are forced to accept it without complaints as it is her wish for her to have him there.

With Kazuma and Iris adventure beginning, it is a swell time of him teaching and showing her the *best* stories and tales, along with the neet  life coming full circle. Kazuma couldn’t ask for a better life in his mind. The end goal of Iris having him there to keep her company does not last long, but the entire time before the rest of the gang arrive is filled with great moments one would expect and hope Kazuma to bring into the palace. Situations along the lines of convincing Iris to call him Onii-san and his morning routine of summoning Sebasti---Haidel and the maid Mary to dress him coming after. Wouldn’t have expected any less from our boy.

The crew arrives and puts an end to all this though lol. Before leaving though the thief must be caught, who creeps around the capital. Only really putting themselves in this position so they could stay just a bit longer in the capital. They get to stay at fatasses ~~Alderp~~ place while they attempt to catch the thief. In the midst of this the Demon Kings army attacks the Capital and Kazuma and others take up arms… sort of hehe. They do take part and Eris is not so happy to be seen again, must have been all the lil guys who were part of the demon armies attack force.

Shortly after the wave of defense is fended off, Iris, Kazuma and Megumin are able to talk and before they know it… Bodies be swapping and nefarious acts are once again upon the great hero who caves to temptation. Only to be cut short by a time limit, shot back into the wrong time wrong place due to the generous words of *encouragement* that Megumin is able to speak at that exact time. However, with another Thief attack that night, and a failed capture, one thing leads to another and the gang is sort of voluntarily asked to take a long leave from returning. Iris keeping secret and knowing the secret of the Thief of the night exposed in a inner monologue.

With the return home Darkness starts to act a bit off, basically demanding they fight and take down a dragon for unknown reasons. The party accepts and questions why the seemingly forced need to do so. Instantly upon completion Darkness leaves a letter and poofs, making her demands all the more understandable…ish. Kazuma and others go to her home and demand a explanation which they are instead chased away for harassing the gates. Kazima does sneak in and on the way out after seeing Darkness for an explanation catches a quicky with the dad… hmm, probably not the best of word choice. Anyways, the dad is completely in Kazumas court to say the least.

A revelation that was unexpected befalls the party though and that is Darkness now has a set date for marriage with Fatass. The reason exposed being related to the destroyer and the damages caused by the disaster of the time totaling up over 2 bil. With Darknesses family inheriting the cost ect ect, bad things happen and more details are given. Core point is Fatass is to marry that masochist. Kazuma aint having it though and will gladly sell all his ideas and scrap up everything he is able to, to repay and buy Darkness out/back from fatass during the wedding ceremony.

Finally the great escape with Darkess in hand and a explosion to match, all while the adventurers of the starting town are around occurs. Shortly after Fatass not able to detain or catch the gang. But also the end  without them needing to leave town either due to… certain circumstances allowing them to live their peacefully hectic life for a while longer.

Visuals/Music:

The visuals are great and only improve on what was set as foundation of the past seasons. The flow of characters from the foreground to the background is simply on point. Vividness of colors popping matching with the entire feeling of the show while being able to compliment the parody story it is known for. Not a lot to say and even less complaints, especially for this being a TV release. It should only be more polished and worth entertaining on the BD release where things are looked over to be even better.

Music and ost’s, hmm, have to say this is the only opening that is sort of a miss, not that it is bad. Just not one that I wanted to listen through every week like the previous openings. However the ending, oh thats another story. Quite literally another story as well since it includes a subplot story of finding a tadpole and bringing it back to the toads lol. It features the cast singing as the story is told of meeting after a long time away. I listened through it fully and sometimes multiple times each week. Easily puts a smile on as it plays and the visual story is told.

Ost wise, its good, they are placed accordingly but with nothing too stand out. Not a bad thing and with the way they are used keeps the viewer immersed. Most of the eps are paced and done well enough that the person sits there and questions with `it is already over :sadness:` and that is perfect.

Final Thoughts:

How to simply put it.. we back lol. Great anime and for those who have enjoyed the adventure so far, there is no reason to put off continuing. It’s a pleasure to watch through each episode and witness the interactions and background snippets of the characters and what they are doing.

For those who have not started konosuba yet.. well well, why wait :D

Characters (main) – 5/5

Characters (sub) – 4/5

Enjoyment – 5/5

Visuals – 5/5

Music – 4/5

Story – 3/5

Overall Ratings - Rec: 4/5 Raw: 86%

Condensing both parts into a single review… since it is one season. Do not see much reason to split.

Child labor, human experimentations, war, AI, gundamgundamgundam ~~mechs~~, and an entire country that takes advantage of it while being on the brink of destruction to lose it all. That is one way to summarize up the overarching theme of 86.

A lot of history and such to lay down first that paves the way for how and why the story progresses in the way it does. First being that the entire story revolves around something called the Legion war. Legion being a name for the enemy units that are AI/automated military units set with one quest… destroy all surrounding nations and world domination. The Legion were created by the Empire of Giad. These military units were created with a partial joint venture alongside United Kingdom of Roa Gracia and Alliance of Walds tech. Joint venture is used very loosely as the creation was anything but a spunky and encouraging situation. It was more of using those nations technology, combining them together and crafting something even more powerful to be used for their own reasoning, that reasoning being destruction of all around them.

After they had created the legion and sent them to invade all the surrounding countries, well their internal situation of royalty, kings and queen’s monarch… was not doing so well. It was already in shambles and put into question for their histories past 200 years. However, a short 5 years after the war had started, an internal revolution of its people had decided to say no more. The deeds and acts of what the war is doing they could not stand behind, ultimately destroying what little structure the country had left. Simply put, there were 2 wars going on at the same time, one with its people and one with outside people. Only able to have this happen due to the military not being armed by its people. A situation that is uniquely designated to the events that had met at just the right time.

However, this overthrow take down the guvment was not something they had thought clearly through to the end. As now with a new Giad rising from the ashes of its peoples doing, The Federal Republic of Giad… well they had no idea or way to stop the Legion. The legion was now assumed to just be on the never ending last order of kill kill kill. Which, mind you, the legion was very good at. Due to them being AI, only compounding the problem since they have a sort of sentience. Where they continue to learn, adapt, and grow. To the point the Legion is now harvesting the brains of the dead soldiers they kill on the battlefield, yknow, to further strengthen and grow in power. So, the old Legion is only a shadow of what it is now. The longer they go on for, the harder they are to win and beat. A very large oversight on the Giads people who decided to overthrow and take down the ones in power, the only people who had a way to stop such a thing from happening.

Jumping over to The Republic of San Magnolia, one of the nations that Giad has sent the Legon on. A primary race of superiority complex people called Alba. Their beliefs are simple, they are the best and only the best, every other race is below them. However, this did not stop them from enacting regulations and law that has the outward appearance of the complete opposite. They welcomed other races and people to come to their nation under the guise that they are all equal, mind you this is all a underlying ideology of the Alba. How the day to day went was probably normal interactions and say a person did something wrong, instead of blaming the problem on the situation, it would likely had been along the lines of `well of course you did it wrong, you are not an Alba, like I, after all`. So they were racist and discriminatory, but not in an absolute form, moreso in ideology where it wouldn’t effect their normal day to day life and interactions with others. Think of old monarchs and elites of medieval times, they just were built different so to speak, but instead of a few it was an entire race like that lol. Their beliefs are not entirely without warrant though as they were believing themselves to be the most technologically advanced ect ect.

With the open immigration laws and regulations in place, many other races and people from various countries would go to the Republic, they had better standards of living and were generally a better place to live than most other places of the time. Things were sort of a pseudo golden era one could say. Where everything was peaceful and joyful… unlike the Giads empire 200 years of oppression that was currently going on and the start of the war.

Speaking of the start of the legion war, well that is something to talk about. The legions attacks on Republic were entirely one sided. Within a couple weeks the Republic was forced to release and fold land left and right. They made the call to hold up within 85 districts that centered around their Capital, making defense of their remaining land and nation easier. This is due to how powerful and outmatched the Republic was. There was no winning with the power discrepancy.

With this happening, all the people not Alba, are dubbed Colorata, more political drama ensues given the circumstances and losing so greatly in their war against the legion. Their elitist superiority ideology was forced to an extreme during these times. Where they were not outwardly racist, they are now just saying fuck it, lets throw down. With some changes in their government, a bit of push here and a agenda there, next thing to happen is all the Colorata are shafted and hard. By that I mean they are forced out of the Capital, with any outside the 85 districts also forced to do their bidding. There would be no pushback on these atrocities as it is only what the people ~~Alba~~ of the nation want. Similar to how Hitler was put into power and all that happened. The people and ideology push for an extremist action, and it happens, doesn’t matter who was in charge since everything happening in the country would have led to that point regardless of the face in charge. As one could guess, with such political drama occurring, this severely dampened and essentially halted the scientific improvement compared to the other nations. Their once supreme nation is now subpar, but that can’t be in the mind of the Alba, they are superior to all after all.

All the Colorata with this new enactment are the problem, pushing the entire blame onto them. It could not have been the Albas fault, there had to be a group to take the fall. As such, by then being forced to do the Republics bidding, that basically means… any scientific experimentation, child labor, or horrific thing that the nation needed done. They are the 86^thdistrict. All their rights are void and gone, civil rights, nope, internment camps yes.

With some of the 86 trying to fight back, it wouldn’t last long, the nation and its people’s ideology has spoken. What little resistance there could have been, it is quickly shunted. Upon the initial happening of this event, any and all 86 are forced to build what is dubbed as the Gran Mur. The Gran Mur being a great wall to surround the 85 districts that the Republic is holding up around, hoping to defend until they can win the war. It was shortly after the wall was built that the scientific advancement had been made where they created the Juggernaut. This was 4 years after the war had officially begun. At which time the Empire had intercepted a message stating the Empire had fallen alongside the life of the legion was just 6 years. Knowing and assuming the legion was only 6 years until they couldn’t work any longer, a new strategy of defend and hold out until their time was finally at an end had immerged. With the public now thinking that its just 2 years away before things can be back to normal, the war will be over, and everything is perfectly fine. The nation is supposedly holding out and strong so there is nothing to worry about. The same public that is told the Juggernauts that the country had created were controlled by processors and there is no human life being lost. When in reality a processor was an 86 human. Not that the public knowing would have made a difference though, they would have likely just dubbed it as a `get what they deserve` situation.

However, the country higher ups know that the Juggernaut is manned and crewed by people, and that their actions of using them until they are dead is inexcusable to others, they basically assign a death timer to all 86. If they are all wiped out, problem adverted once the war is over right… lol. How did the government and military convince the 86 to do this? Well, besides that they are locked in internment camps forced to do their bidding regardless, simple, they offered a pseudo declaration that any 86 *could* get their citizenship and national rights reinstated. All they had to do was serve a short 6 years in the military. A bit confusing on timeline wise, this was happening before the nation received official notice that Empire had fallen, lots of political situations happening and overlapping one another. This is after the Colorata are branded 86 and Gran Mur was built around the 85 sectors.

With the 86 believing at first, they could regain their rights after the short 6 years of war, well the Republic knew better than to let that happen. Their war crimes would not be tolerated by other nations and the knowledge of such could not be let out of what the country had done to these people. So it was entirely a death assignment covered by the promise of freedom. Say a 86 was nearing the end of their service, just about to reclaim their citizenship, they would be sent on a death mission. If they survived, another and another until their death was secured. The start of service would be harsh but as time went on the enlistees would be transferred around based on their service time, the longer time being thrown into harder and harsher squads that would latently have a higher casualty rate in hopes they would die before their time is up. Which worked wonders, none ever could get to the 6 year mark due to how the Republic would work it to never happen.

That’s not all though, remember that claim of the best by date the Legion had? Ya the legion are AI and well, found that taking the dead bodies from the battlefield and harvesting their brains would circumvent this entirely. They figured out how to preserve themselves and push the past towards their one goal of world domination. After the main suicide squad learned of this, well it was reported to the higher ups, yet there was no acceptance of such talk. Simply ignored and brushed aside. The higher ups were not about to listen and decided that pushing and forward attacks wouldn’t be worth it, the nation would suffer too much, even though not doing so would also cost the nation. It was then that their demise was ensured. A demise they voluntarily waited and took rather than could have potentially stopped.

How the Legion finally ended them, well they pushed hard, broke through the Gran Mur and used a *measly* 800mm round railgun to, ugh, for lack of better words, decimated the nation with ease. Killing an estimated 10 million Alba, which at this point in time was a majority of them, a very large percentage of the countries people.

Skipping the remaining history of the Republic for now, lets get back to the new Giad, that was built off of the revolting empires people. Now called Federal Republic of Giad. This new Federacy is built upon equality and justice, with justice being their defining trait. They would be most similar to a modern society where there are no longer monarchs and hierarchies of old. Every person is given equal opportunity… not that equal opportunity means equality as a whole. Money is needed instead of blood line. Very capitalistic. Better than the empire of old in most regards.

Remember that with the founding of this new Federacy, there were no longer any people from the old Giad Empire that would be able to stop the Legion. The Legion are on their own devices now. With the squad that discovered the legions advancements now inside this new nation… it helped them in recovering the Empires land and also allowed access to a communication line between 2 other nations. The United Kingdom and Alliance of Wald. Quite a coincidence, might I add. Anyways, these two nations are in a military alliance compliance as the situation is now quite clear with how devastating and powerful the Legion are becoming. One nation could not take them on alone. Also, that both nations are happy and glad, sort of, that they are not the only ones left alive given how strong the legion are fighting every other nation at the same time.

Shortly after communications are made, there is a necessary assault on the weapon called a 800mm round firing mech rail gun that has range to target each and every nation remaining from deep within the Legions territory. As one would guess, this furthers cooperation between these 3 nations with a clear goal in mind, stop the Legion.

As this is all unfolding, the assault on the Republic is happening and their fall is certain. Had they heeded the warnings of such a large scale attack and weapon, things might and likely would have been different. Quickly a squad and mission to destroy this powerful mech was initiated and started. Each of the 3 military alliance nations involved and doing their best to assist where applicable.

A quick side note for why the nations lost contact in an era of mechs and high tech, the Legion said no more of that and had created a way to disrupt their old ways of long distance communication. They sort of mass produced a butterfly like unit that would stay in the air around nations, cutting any cell and radio waves, thus preventing communication between them. The Republic did counter this in their nation with an invention but that is quickly shown and realized as the show goes on. The Republic tech was shared, and reverse engineered by the Federacy via the squad that made it out and into the Federacy during their last mission which they were proclaimed dead.

With the success of the large scale attack, the Federacy was able to make contact and found what little remains of the Republic had left. They offered and supported the Republic in any way they were able. Although met with disdain from the populus that leads back into their superiority ideology of the nation.

However, the Republic does send a strategist to help in the war, who is then met with an unexpected reunion of sorts that ends the split first season of the show.

Visuals/Music:

A1 did the animation of 86 and they honestly have stepped up their game once again. Not quite on par with SAO: Alicization but it is definitely close. When they need or want, they can truly deliver top tier animation. Very few times were things not feeling right. A few times the necks of the characters when looking or at certain angles would be off. Only reason they are standout is due to how clean and well the rest is done. This is the BD release and could have done a tad bit more polishing on some areas, but again it is all minor complaints that when watching don’t detract much if at all from the rest.

There is CG and a lot of it, like jumping crawling and parkour mechs type of CG, yet the way it is incorporated and blended in, its up there with the better CG. It is not bad even though very noticeable. The animation as worked around it and is done to an exceptional level. It is there, it works.

Audio, oh, the audio is something else. Then again, what can one expect from Hiroyuki Sawano. That man just knows how to touch the OST cords in all the right spots. Every track is like the rest of the shows he has made them for, top tier. Cant get better than them, only on par. Tag that with the proper placements done by A1 knowing just how and when to place each track, makes for quite the viewing experience. Silence when needed to better impact a emotional scene, sound effects that match and there are no complaints only praise once again for a job well done. Add it to the list one might say lol.

Might as well mention the opening and endings. First part opening, its good, Hitorie makes a nice song, although not the best and is skippable without much question. Ending though, its hard to see why or how a person could simply go past it if it is not to get to the next episode. It is also a Sawano track and damn, guess this is just a wankfest for him at this point lmao. Mizuki voacals though, simply beautiful voice to cover on top of a Sawano track. As for the second opening, Amazarashi comes out to do it. First time listening I skipped through but quickly after the first couple eps I found myself just letting it go, the song became a favorite quite quickly, even if it gave off a lot of MHA vibes due to how perfect that song he made for there was, `Sora ni Utaeba` . None of the background girls chimes this time, although they are not needed. Noth great in their own respect.  Last and second ending done by Regal Lily was fine, certain parts of the song really hit but others are a miss, she has a similar feeling and mix of a Eureka seven and Dororo song. It is interesting to say the least.

Final Thoughts:

Well to say this anime is anything but highly recommended would be a disservice. Anybody that wants a very involved story should check it out.

The characters, coming of age, emotional aspect and more is all omitted from this as it would be wrong to take from the experience of knowing and getting attached to them. They are not the best written and clearly had faults, in both the main and sub characters. That honestly does not detract from them though, they are done great like all the other aspects of it.

Characters (main) – 4/5

Characters (sub) – 4/5

Enjoyment – 5/5

Visuals – 5/5

Music – 5/5

Story – 4/5

Overall Ratings - Rec: 4/5 Raw: 90%

A story about the post Demon King era. Where the lives of the party that took them down have aged and are at the end of their lives. However, our main girl… ehm, best girl, Frieren, however is not at the end of her journey. Due to being an elf, the time perception to her is on a different scale. To her, it was only moments ago that the journey with the countries heroes had come to an end.

With the realization that the time they spent with this group of heroes was short. She starts to come to want to learn more about the humans and emotions in general. Something that is shown throughout to be lacking in expression. Not that she does not have them, moreso that she is not able to express them in the ways a human would. Frieren clearly states she does not understand such thoughts, all while being caring person herself… well in her own strange elf ways that is.

Himmel, the main hero she had partied with has officially passed on which had sparked her own personal journey to learn more about the humans. With emotions of regret of not spending more time and learning about Himmel and the party members. Knowing that the life of a human is short, but not understanding that the life they live is brief to the point of lost time and skips in between meeting when put on the scale of an elf is a flash. Fireren has a lot of mixed and intricate emotions swelling up that further pushes her need to know more. All while being herself, calm and outwardly emotionless.

Another 20 years pass before Frieren meets with the drunka--, ehm, Heiter. Who is now also nearing the end of his times but has taken in a small child. He requests that Frieren teaches her magic and cares for her as his final will request. Linking back to this is what Himmel would have done in terms of him taking in the child.

While Fern and Frieren are traveling together, they meet with Eisen. Eisen, being a dwarf is able to live longer than humans but nowhere near as long as an elf. Shown in how his age is starting to take a toll on him. He does however have a disciple as well which is shown shortly after. Eisen pushes for Frieren to visit Ende and seek a specific place where she could talk with Himmel even though he had passed.

Meeting with Eisens disciple, Stark, he agrees to follow along with the journey they are on. Mainly because of the request that Eisen had made but also with a side of wanting to meet back together and be able to express his journey, his adventures and times he had in between their parting.

With the main gang now together and pushing forward towards a fairly clear goal of what the end will be, the first instance of real demons is had. Showing their personality of how they are by definition evil. Lacking any sense of emotions and are simply wild animals with vocal cords if one was to put it in simple terms. They abuse, do bad and are arrogant in the ways only a demon could be. Manipulating the higher ups in the city for their own good until they are stopped by the trio. This also is a small showing of the strengths and personalities of the party. Especially the tier of power that Frieren is at. Although her level considered to be godly to humans is mearly below average for an elf of her age when put in perspective of her own kind.

With the demon arc out of the way, another member enters the trio… Quadro [?]. Well, he does not last long as their goals compared to his quickly align as fast as they branch away. Likely not an end but with an unlikely reunion on the current journey. It was a farewell as quickly as a welcome was in progress. Inevitably leaving the core trio back at their journey to ende.

However the journey cannot continue until one or both Frieren or Fern become a first class mage. Reason being the demon activity in the northern lands where their journey is taking them, is high activity of danger. Where one of the party members must be qualified under such rank to be permitted passage.

Without the qualifications met, they are forced to break and persue the test to become a first class mage. A test that is only once every 3 years. Lucky as they are, the wait is not too great for the next test. Many new and interesting characters are met in the first phase of the test. The test demanding that all participants are split into groups of 3, each only needing to catch a bird. Easy as it may sound, there is always a catch. Along with the fact that no matter how one acquires the bird is not specified, just that they have to have one by tests end and maintain hold of it for the sundown of the final day. With none of the 3 grouped members passing this stage with or without the bird if one of the members has perished or is resigned from the test.

To no surprise, both Frieren and Fern are able to pass with their group and bird in hand. Capable of proceeding to the second phase of the test. A second phase made exceptionally harder due to the fact that Frieren is involved indirectly due to how powerful she is. With a struggle, many are able to cooperate and pass this test, not without several failing.

With the final phase of the exams finally in session and out of session before some are even able to speak a word let alone words. Luckily the odds were in Ferns favor though as she was one of the lucky few while Frieren got a 1000 year ban from magical facilities across the country. Bit of a stark difference in their end results for the exams. And with the exams officially over and their journey to Ende able to resume, a brief goodbye is given to the cast that was introduced along the arcs happening with a cut to black indicating the journey will continue again.

Visuals/Music:

The visuals while more simplistic offer a clear and enjoyable viewing experience. With the animation matching that of a story telling esque feeling. Where there is not a lot of detail where detail is not needed. It has a older styling that is brought to the present. Comparing the visuals to something like Made in Abyss where they are extensively detailed and movie like, this comes across as more of a story that matches with the story and elements surrounding the themes. It is a perfect fit for the anime and the story. No complaints, but then again, it is Mad House who is known for peak animation and stories.

Although not everything is in a more simplistic storybook type of animation, when the fight scenes come on or magic is used, the detail and visual cartography is brought up to what makes the easiest way to express it as eye candy. Honestly not much to say except it has been done to Mad House standards.

As for the music, most of the time it is not noticed or realized. Which is a very good thing. It melds with the scenes and does not break immersion. Exactly what a person would want. However, that being what a person wants, there are not any standout OSTs that push it to the heights of memorability. It works very well but that’s about it.

As for the opening and endings… I mean, sitting through them each time and enjoying Milet’s ending `Anytime Anywhere` was quite a blissful thing to have from start to finish. The openings debatably *worse* but in a loose sense as either of the opening or endings are very well done. Worse in this instance is not a negative but rather there for comparisons sake.

Final Thoughts:

Not much to say except it’s a highly recommended anime to basically anybody. It touches on a balance of acceptability of a great wide many. For me personally, it does not have that emotional impact to push it into a favorites tier… yet, but this definitely by the end if it keeps up the road will likely reach it. There is a high amount of emotions that is poured into the show and characters that lead a person to get attached to them in a short period of time. They are not the most attractive and are more along the lines of average and personally, I like that better. There is nothing too special about them and they feel more real as characters. Not people that are perfect idealizations of a persons imagination. They feel and come across as people anybody could meet and get to know if that makes sense. It really helps push the connectivity and relative ease of becoming attached to the characters in the story. Be it they are shown for a single episode or tag along the trios journey for a short while. Sub characters are fleshed out and feel as though they could show up at any point in the future, being able to continue where they left off without ever feeling wrong or misplaced. Every character has their end goals and the paths happen to intertwine every now and then. Each intertwining is what we are shown. Really feels like a adult telling a story to a child, basically reflecting the personality of Frieren and her age. It parallels together with the rest of the story.

Great anime that tells a very soothing type of story. The approach of showing the after effects of a kingdom immediately after the demon kings defeat is something else. Quite special in that most other stories are directly how a party defeats the great calamity or are many years after where it’s a distant past that nobody knows of and is more of a legend.

Characters (main) – 5/5

Characters (sub) – 5/5

Enjoyment – 4/5

Visuals – 5/5

Music – 4/5

Story – 5/5

Overall Ratings - Rec: 4/5 Raw: 93%

Definitely toned down and a lot less exciting as the first one. The edge has been dulled one could say. Instead of the very graphic and teetering into NC17 territory, it simply doesn’t tow any line like it. The depictions and such are more or less shock without the value. Could even say it is a great value brand compared to what came before.

Anyways, there are a few small arcs that get covered. The first being a fair turn off. A lil red headed boi comes out and decides he knows everything, he is the best, the one, he can’t be beaten. Yet reality shows he lil B. As in, the full interpretation of it. All talk no bark, an old dark in a young body without the knowledge of the years. Quite sad, but more than anything annoying. Yes, indeed, it is the annoying type of sad. Our main man GS, for some unknown reason…ish, befalls his pity onto him. Houses this bastard only for him to complain of the generosity.

This boy is however related to a certain somebody, who is being talked down to by everybody around for the way she died. The boy, being her sister is of course not liking it, yet this only feeds into his annoyance. With this boys arrogance, he is on a goblin slaying mission… then fails horrendously, couldn’t even do nothing except cry to be honest. A shameful showing for his proclaimed greatness that all saw the facade of.

Bit of a training arc with this little shit involved, village attacked, he has his *moment* and well finally disappears the rest of the season. Although this was a third of the season, a shame. Straight into the next arc of the elf getting married :flushed:. Ah, not that elf though, it’s the sister and her, wait a minute, her cousin. Well, you know, sometimes its best to not ask questions of the backwoods towns. Keep it in the family is what goes on, may the blood never leave this fam I guess.

This is a big celebration though, no matter who the two are that are getting married. Elves don’t often marry and when they do, the celebration must commence. Goblin Slayer and friends are invited. Cow girl and even the guild lady are brought along on this adventure. Before leaving Big ole bitty maiden that is petrified of goblins and GS have another talk hehe. Pre for the next arc though.

The travel is not long before the goblins make their heinous showcase once again. They are short lived with the presence of the one dubbed their demon. Making it into the elves forest and the celebration occurs… the goblins decide to try and crash the party riding on what is apparently an elephant, but its not GS just doesn’t quite know they are different creatures.

To find the source of who committed such acts, GS and gang head out to the north. Find the spot and crash in to say hello. These goblins are starting to experiment in a bit of the dark arts. While it did not last long it does show some goblin tribes have a bit too much time on their hands and favor the dark lords.

Things are taken care of in a wash of a victory… something that the elves will have to figure out how to clean up later. GS is about the killing not the responsibilities post mortem. With the goblins finally dealt with and no longer to tarnish the cousin sister marriage, the feat and fun can commence. Upon their return to the guild, they had taken a quest to kill even more goblins, those little shits never die. Extermination is not enough, genocide is a must in these instances. But, oddly this time is a sea goblin, or not a goblin a large no goblin involved endeavor of the long fish slaughter.

Big ole bitties is in need of a strong independent GS to guide her to the capitol. Where he and he alone can be the one to help get her to there. Eh, his mates can tag along too I guess. Some goblins with a peculiar mark on their back are found, killed and the capitol awaits.

Priestess and elf :mrclean: decide to take a refreshing bath while they wait in the city before they all head back home. However, this is cut short by a certain princess that decides she is strong and independent without either of those two aspects. Common theme this season to start and end it on that.

She causes trouble for the priest, by being a thief and stealing something very precious to her. She is pissed now. A lucky coincidence is that this princess decided to go on an adventure to show how little of those two aforementioned aspects she has, immediately getting nabbed by those strange marked goblins. Oh, and this is not even a horse ride distance out of the city. Can probably see the location from the gate. Safe to say, if she couldn’t handle the other side of the moat, there truly was no hope for this damsel now in distress.

GS and crew overhear about this and immediately head out to rescue said princess in the utmost secrecy. They quickly find where the princess got captured outside the main gates. Following the trail of goblin back to their hideout, down the hole and there she is. Sitting on a sacrificial alter. This time the goblins are even more hardcore of their dark artes. With them now doing blood sacrifices hehe. Although partially failed, they were able to summon a single arm of a greater demon. Which was excessively powerful for what it was. With the way it was killed pretty quick witted.

Sadly this was not the last worry. They were deep in this fortress. They needed to escape. Be it easy to get back to the entrance, cleaning up the remnants as they go. Only to exit the front gates and see endless rows of goblins anticipating their arrival. Luckily GS is batman and prep worked the big ole bagitobotitymity sword maiden. She decided today was not the day to be held back by the fear that encapsules her today. As succumbing to it would only result in GS’s death. Knowing that they have a bit of a down low special connection she there for him when needed. Pops a spell that showcases why and how she gained her rank. Followed by an army behind. Immidiatly followed by GS walking the all too familiar path of home and thinking, `wtf, aint nothing change, I just kill and come home… again and again`. A topic of inner development that is pushing to better allow for his humanity to come into question, Even if by the end he sort of shrugs it off. Should hopefully be further expanded in the next season if there is one.

Visuals/Music:

Similar to the first season the visuals are very nice. They are clean and showcase a darker theme. Not as much as the last season but still I would say on par with it. The flashy effects, blood and combat injuries not left to black blobs or some censored mess. Animation and fluidity of the movements is solid and well done. No real complaints. There could and might be fixes done to Blu-ray release. Mainly with the background or enemies at times not feeling the most alive. It does feel like budget cuts in this aspect, but in this current season and the past few mappa studioes really puts a high bar of what high quality animation is in the current day.

Music is great as well. Mili doing another opening with her voice being nice and soft while portraying the visuals to compliment the darkness of what makes goblin slayer, goblin slayer. OST’s while on a similar tier to what the opening sets, well sometimes they are not placed the most appropriately. There were a few times they felt a bit out of place. Felt more like a lack of variance that was needed to fully capture every scenes moment properly. Looking at the OSTs from a stand alone perspective and they are simply :pacha_perfect:. The ending… well it helps to compliment with a bit of a brighter mood compared to the rest. Offers a nice balance when compared to the rest of the OSTs. No complaints either. Only real problem was the placement of certain scenes.

Final Thoughts:

I recommend it to those who watched the first season. It may be a bit of a drog at times to get though, it is worth it though. Have it on as a secondary thing, not too much happens that would need utmost of focus.

As feared from the ending of the first season. They have taken the tone down approach to showcase the story. Obviously, this was a must to maintain funding and the capability to produce another season. Sad as it may be though, would have loved to see the studio go hard on for pushing the limits even further… as improbable of a scenario that would have been.

The background notion of GS starting to question himself I do believe could go somewhere and take the series to similar heights if it is executed properly. This may even work well to offset the dark themes and transition to a more softer goblin depictions, but the source material and adaptation will define if that’s the path they follow. As it is now, its good but not great. There are great aspects, just not enough of them to make the show a favorite by any stretch.

Characters (main) – 4/5

Characters (sub) – 4/5

Enjoyment – 3/5

Visuals – 4/5

Music – 4/5

Story – 3/5

Overall Ratings - Rec: 3/5 Raw: 73%

Immortality is something that every person from no power up through a high ranking position tend to strive a dream to achieve. Immortality to continue their admirations through to the end and beyond. However the way of achieving immortality is always an illusive reaching dream that has never been reached. Only seen and heard about in legends.

One such legend is that the source of becoming immortal is found on an island of unimaginable fears. A place of true hell that any who have visited have never been able to return from in their natural state. With only recorded and seen visuals of those who have returned, in such a state that is not unlike anything human.

The Shougun however, does not care of the obstacles that are in the way. With the looming possibility of becoming an immortal, he gathers up the strongest available. Gathering them is the easy task of grouping the outlaws and criminals with sentences that are inescapable until death. Their promise of freedom is the reward they will receive upon finding and bringing back the item that will make the Shougun immortal. It seems to be a fair deal, except there are only a certain number of spaces available to be shuttled over to this island of hell.

When all the criminals are done killing eachother with only the strongest remaining that meet the total requirement to not overflow the slots. There is another that is tagged along with them. Elites that are trained and specialize in executions. For if any of these chosen criminals are to break free or try to escape, they shall be executed without thought on the spot. It is a mutual agreement of peace that both *partners* will share on this adventure.

Once on the island, it is clear that nothing is as the picture book would have shown. Their imagination couldn’t comprehend without first being a first hand man on the ground. A place of seeming wonder, untouched by anybody else. An adventurous land that will soon show its true color.

Shortly after the search begins, death reigns upon them as unidentified and mysterious creatures gang these visitors who have come to this foreign land. Many die in the process while only a select few are strong enough to outwit this lands challenges. Delving deeper to the forests core, learning more as they go. Some encountering what would appear to be inhabitants that are willing to express their knowledge of the land.

With certain points slowly unfolding and a callback to yin/yang and the truth of the immortality legend being expanded upon to them. Where its more of a fma philosophers stone than anything else. Further sealing the fate that will come to those who enter the island. None escape yet a true cycle of life is funded for those who are for lack of better words one with the figurative philosophers stone that the island hosts.

Wrapping up the season with those who are directly connected to said stone above, fighting and furthering those who are left. With the remaining few grasping onto a higher power that was latent inside every living thing. Only now able to begin to realize how to utilize it. Natures Chi to be simple, the flow and motion of the ocean… not that ocean though :mrclean:.

Visuals/Music:

Visuals are quite simple, it is a MAPPA production and they have a low bar of peak animation. Be it CGI incorporation or just raw dog 2d from start to end. Their animation is top notch with little criticism to say. Vibrant colors, smooth animation, clear expressions of characters faces and emotion. All the goods with only problem being, there is only a single season. From the water to the clouds and background landscapes, its all done quite well. Not movie esque, moreso high quality for seasonal. It’s a joy to look at and enjoy watching.

Similar to animation, MAPPA doesn’t disappoint when it comes to music either. Entire OST is packed with unique and engaging soundtracks that suit the mood and feelings of each scene. Bundled with the ending and openings being ones that are listened through before having a chance to skip… very easy to say the viewer is immersed enough to breeze through only skipping the preview for the next episode.

Final Thoughts:

Highly recommend Hells paradise to any that are wanting a unique experience that is different from any of the generic trends. Main problems would be that the shounen genre does have its head poking through with a breaking of suspension of disbelief through how much damage the character takes. Certain fights could have been planned out better for how the enemy is defeated. At a certain point the character should just be mincemeat dead, yet now has a stronger attack than before… shounen genre though so have to keep within the previously set bars and standards that are from the genre. That’s part of what the story is going to have, a fall and great powerup to not fall. I would say that is the weakest point of the series. However, the fights are animated and executed animation wise with choreography that counters such points to a degree that its more than bearable. Overall it really does not detract from the show, more of something to be aware of.

Final note is while Yuzuriha is a girl, best girl is still Sagiri hehe. It was a tossup and depending on the mood swings either direction. Sagiri more of the keeper rather than lets get fucked up one :D lol.

Characters (main) – 4/5

Characters (sub) – 4/5

Enjoyment – 4/5

Visuals – 5/5

Music – 5/5

Story – 4/5

Overall Ratings - Rec: 4/5 Raw: 86%

Well well here we are again, another racing game for the kids… although it is not quite a racing game, it’s a sim dad. Hmm, racing sim does appear to better suit it rather than game. Albeit both are interchangeable depending on the use case of it lol.

Jann is a youngin seeking the thrill of driving. Yet the only way he has done so is through games. Going as far to buy a full racing setup for himself to enjoy. Until one day his friend lets him know that there is a message on the display saying he has been chosen to be one of the few selected to participate in a special offer. Sounds like a scam, although it is real. The offer being, if he is able to compete and complete a race with the other selected few around the world, he has the chance to work with a real race team.

Of course, he wins it, a close call to keep suspense high. Something this movie has done a great job of keeping tensions high even during what would normally be the down or low points. At the camp, the others are introduced. Some cocky and others simply bursting full of excitement at the opportunity to potentially have their dream become a reality through playing a game.

Throughout the training camp there are other participants dropping left and right until its down to the final few that are to race to achieve a victory. The winner being the one chosen to move on to the real races. Races that all other participants are laughing at how a *gamer* could possibly endure long enough to even complete a lap. Without fail, Jann surprises them all by completing the race. Albeit, not at a good position.

With his low ranking, the other teams have a certainty that their beliefs are a reality. A reality that he stands no chance with them in this ring. There are six more to go though and by the end Jann makes it. Just barely inching his way into obtaining his license. Allowing him to participate in a circuit. Nurburgring to be precise.

Before that though, since he is in Tokyo, a place he mentioned was a location he was always envisioning going to, he couldn’t help but hit up his special som’n som’n and enjoy the remaining time he had there before his first big time real race.

Things were looking great. Even as the race started, Jann led a strong positioning, taking others positioning left and right until an incident and fluke occurrence happened. Leaving him hospitalized with a spectator in the most unfortunate circumstance. Janns mentor was not about to let this stop Jann in his tracks though. He pushed Jann through so that the same fate didn’t have to afflict Jann as it did him. As his mentor and team leader expressed what happened to him 15 years in the past. Which ultimately led him to were he is now, with a regret that cant be fixed. Passing on his experience to Jann, Jann is able to make the right choice and move forward instead of stopping, standing still from then on.

Making matters worse though, several others teams are only trying to use this instance of what happened on the Nurburgring circuit as reason that no virtual drivers that learned to drive through simulation should be allowed to even touch a real track. Wanting the team shut down and any further from being able to have a similar opportunity. Even though the incident was anything but the fault of the driver.

To make all the others realize how wrong they are and to strengthen the financial backers confidence, the team decides to take on Le Mans Race. Not only participate, place and stand on the podium, regardless of the ranking they receive in the end. Needing two other drivers, the team brings in two of the other racers from the training camp. Helping them get ready and pushing them to take on the greatest and hardest race in the world. Each needing to be at their peak for the entire 24 hour long race, mid day, through the night and morning until the full day has elapsed.

Many familiar faces appear at the Le Mans. Each with their own history from the previous races that spark a fuel inside to prove to them that it is possible to be a real racer through the perseverance and hard work of topping their trade. Jann, partway through shows them why he was the right choice and with a few happenings and main events that occur, the race ends with a well deserved placement. Immediately followed by a quick conclusion and more showcasing of how Gran Torismo the game is taken care of. Taken care of from how they scan vehicles and sounds ect from real life into the game. Tagged with information regarding Jann and his over 200 races to date.

Visuals/Music:

Visuals were done very well. They kept true to it being a video game movie first while blending it into reality. Several shots of a cars breakdown or lap lines, positioning placement above the car, and even the cars camera angles and timings. Inner workings of pistons, cranks and other components of the engine are shown in action with a blown out breakdown mid races. It was very nice to see how it was integrated in a way that did not affect immersion and really blended well with the rest of the movies presentation.

Music was also a strong point. From the car sounds, to the emotions that were conveyed through the voices. Background music melded just right to not stand out while not being too soft to lose any of the tension that was built up. It was able to ensure the viewer was able to keep engaged at every point with the smooth ramp down to cooldowns before the next big moment flowing nicely from one point to the next.

Final Thoughts:

Somehow a video game movie that is done right and very well at that. Went in with lower than normal expectations. Especially after some previous films seen in the past few weeks. It helps a lot that it is based on a true story though. They didn’t shove the game into the viewers face to make it feel forced. It was story first, with the game promotion being second. Nothing very standout that would or even should be changed. It did well for what it was and I would highly recommend others watch it. Quite the story of gamer to motorsport champion. The racer doesn’t need to be the best to tell a good story, with this film proving just that.

Overall Ratings - Rec: N/A Raw: N/A

NOTICE: SnA is a lewd SRPG game. If not of age, do not play.

Time to 100% – [True 100% with completed information page]
Playthrough 1: 68:03 [hr:min]
Playthrough 2: 40:48
Playthrough 3: 31:52
Playthrough 4: 27:30
Playthrough 5: 15:02
Playthrough 6: 12:57
Playthrough 7: 10:10
Playthrough 8: 7:41
Playthrough 9: 3:10
Playthrough 10: 10:26
Playthrough afb 1: 20:55
Playthrough afb 2: 2:17
Playthrough afb 3: 2:44
Total Time: 253.58 Hours

Common Route –

Well well well, another Eushully game down. This time decided to go for a full 100%. As in completed CG and index/information page… a mistake or a accomplishment, still not entirely sure. It was a long haul that’s for sure though. Will leave out plenty of details in the overview sections to not spoil the experience for those who do decide to play.

Anyways, lets start off with the common route. This is the first 4 chapters that will be the same regardless of ending route chosen. There are 3 ending routes total. Angel, Devil and Human. Common route goes right up to the branch point that locks in the remainder of the game.

Starting out with a vision of some characters that are not going to be seen for quite some time into the game. It shows that there is some sort of war going on. Wouldn’t be a Eushully game without some action after all. Shuuya appears soon after with a memory of their past, just before waking up and getting ready for school. Learning that he is alone without parents living with his sister in a town called Tengyou City. Tengyou City is home and headquarters to the worlds most technologically advanced company, MHI. MHI has stunned the world with its revolutions in tech by bring a stronger, lighter and cheaper building material called Mithril Steel, Modern Medical Care to cure once uncurable diseases and medical issues, true AI alongside another product called Renewoil. Renewoil is an alternative to the fossil fuels used in the once modern society of old. With both these products having implementations across a multitude of fields with the wide range of capabilities they have, MHI was able to ground itself as one of the top corporations of the world. With a direct competitor of theirs being Mitaka Ceramics. Both companies being revolutionary for the time, bringing the world into a new era.

In the city of dreams for most, Shuuya is able to live and go to school. Currently in 2^nd school as a second year. As he heads to school, taking public transit, another one of MHI’s great accomplishments is seen. This time an airship that is of MHI’s complete state of the art machine. It is a airship that MHI donated to the Japanese government to help bolster their status and hold in more political prowess. It is a ship capable of bringing any place to its knees in a matter of minutes from its sheer strength and firepower. Both Shuuya and his friend Kaito are in awe at the sight of it flying overhead. Kaito, who is Shuuya’s best friend more enthralled with it than him.

Making it to the school they head to class and nothing out of the ordinary happens. For now it is life as they know it. Only difference is Kaito and Shuuya decide to go shopping together and the other best friend Akari. Akari, who met up with them late to class due to her Gymnastics club practice running up the clock to school starting time. All happy rays and sunshine though for now. There is a clock counting down to what is to come though, unbeknownst to them.

In the middle of shopping they are met with another friend of theirs in trouble. Madoka is in trouble and the trio jumps in to save her. After the fight all four are now headed to the local clinic to do a checkup on the injuries to make sure they are alright after what they got hung up into. Luckily nothing had happened and they leave promptly after arrival, however a strange event takes place that effects all 3 of them after Madoka parts ways. Next thing they know they are waking up from a strange dream and met with an unfamiliar surrounding.

All three of them being separated now, Shuuya is confused and worried as he makes his way out of the room he awoke in that is all too familiar yet very distant feeling. Kaito is the first he finds and they group together to search for Akari. Only to hear a scream coming from another floor, it has to be her, given the sound of it. They both rush down to see what is going on only to be met with a locked door. Upon finding the key and opening it, there is a strange monster attacking Akari that they must fend off to save her.

After saving Akari, the three seek to find a way out. Hearing a voice that is familiar to them but not realized at the time they heed its advice and go through a mysterious portal. The portal shoots them back to their homeworld out and away from danger that they were surrounded by only moments ago. All confused and lost feeling, they wrap up their thoughts to one another and head home for a well needed rest, ending the prologue.

Chapter 1 officially starts with a bright new morning with Mirai, his little sister, greeting us once again. Shortly after with us heading to school as if nothing happened… sort of. Of course when the three amigos meet up again they cant help but discuss and plan out a day after school for what they will do.

With the school day coming to a close, the three of them head back in the direction they came out of the portal the night before. Kaito splits and preps stuff for the night run into the portal. So in the meantime, Akari and Shuuya get to spend some time together. Visiting Shuuyas old caretaker Masoho and a small interaction with Madoka again today. Masoho being a MHI employee that works directly under the top scientist Miyahara Gonzou. Masoho was saved by the tech of MHI by splitting her from her sisters body as they were split in the whom at birth, fused twins. Her twin Maki has the original body while Masoho was put inside of MHI special mechanical body, mind intact. Truly illustrating how powerful MHI tech is.

After the small interactions, Shuuya and Akari split to go home for their own preparations. Time flies by and the time to meet up with Kaito is now. After the three are together, they all head into the portal to this other world once again, this time by choice though. With the sole purpose of learning more about the world and discovering its secrets the adventure starts. Peeking around the town, there are sights that are all too familiar, places they have seemingly been before, yet shouldn’t have been due to the nature of their arrival. A monster is spotted and they quickly realize the danger of it so heed off to explore elsewhere for now.

After discovering a entrance into the GO-I-S-Building. More trouble happens as they are put into a situation where Kaito makes the brave decision to distract the monsters for Shuuya and Akari to have enough time to get away. Kaito awakens his otherworldly power and finds a place to make a stand after hiding away for safety. Shortly after things settle down and they are all able to reunite once again, they make their way home for a well deserved rest. However curiosity killed the cat and they feel a need to go back again. They must defeat that monster they found in the middle of the road, its dangerous to be chillin there like a frog on a cold days night.

The next visit they do has them ready to fight the monster. When they do and are able to defeat it, something happens though, it is as if the world they are in is falling apart. With such frantic emotions running high, they aim to have an immediate need to stop or at least halt what is going on. They come to the conclusion of using the particle cubes they were coming into contact with that sparked their powers to awaken. Luckily, collection enough of these quells the world tremors and feelings of self destruction. Again, earning them a night of rest to calm down from the events that had been unfolding in front of them in this undefined world they find themselves able to enter into.

Chapter 2, starts with a back to normal kind of day of heading to school. This time , them three are called into the school presidents office. Narumi is wanting to see them and has something to discuss with them. None understanding exactly why she would want to, since they are leagues apart. Her being a third year, older than them and being the daughter of Mitaka Ciramics, who is a competitor to MHI. Narumi slyly insinuates that she knows what is going on and what they are doing. More confirmed by the fact she is visiting the unfamiliar world with them, to show them something. She confirms and answers some questions along with confidently informing them of what will happen next there. The world they are visiting is one that their home world is being dragged into and the next portion to be dragged in will be on Sunday. She tells them to be ready for what is to come and help her reduce the fatalities where possible. Preparations are set in motion for the anticipation of the next piece of the world to fall into there on Sunday.
Sunday is here, exactly as Narumi states, the piece of the city she said would fall into this world is happening. This time however there are devils and angels all around, its an all out war going on. Each side, devils and angels, wanting to claim this land as their own territory for their own war that has been happening in this world for supposedly hundreds of years. In the middle of all the chaos, Shuuyas sister, Mirai’s bag is found. Showing that she did not listen to her brother by staying away from that portion of the city today. With how bad this is seemingly becoming, they immediately set off to find and rescue Mirai and any along the way to get to her. Luckily they are able to find her just outside of the portion of the city that got taken away. She is however in the middle of a battle and is saved by a classmate, Atori. Atori flees the scene and without too much thought about it, Shuuya and others have the one tract mind of getting out of here, going back to home and returning safe before any further questions are put forth. Mirais safety came first and foremost. All up until the portal is gone, with no way back to their world just as another event unfolded, their school was being pulled into the world as well. This is much quicker than Narumi has predicted, which has everybody up in shambles as to what is going on. One thing is for sure though, they must go there and help save any who might be hurt and all those who are definitely confused as to what is happening.

Chapter 3, the final common route chapter leads right off into the fray of getting to the school with Mirai not feeling well. Her not feeling well putting even more pressure on the group to get things solved as quick as possible. Once the long trek to the school is complete, they finally get some time to rest.

As quickly as the events are unfolding, the chapter nears its end where the devils are raiding the school. With the fight to fend off the devils being the end of the common route. Either lose to the devils and submit or game over, complete the invasion, and join their side by choice of options, deny the devils and accept the angels offer of savior or deny the angels and devils both to follow a solo route alone in this unfamiliar world. Each of these 3 paths leading to a locked out sub heroine ending choices too.

Routes & New game+ Content –

HUMAN –

With the denial of both the devils and angels offers, there Is only one thing left to do. Decide how to best fend for ourselves in this new and ruthless world of creators, devils and angels all while trying to figure out if there is still a possibility of getting home one way or another. Alongside protecting the students and others who are now trapped in this world.

First course of action is to take a gander at what the other territories are up to. Bit of espionage to help gather as much information as possible before making any bold moves. After some sneaky snek quickies, its time to gather resources such as food from the surrounding buildings to help collect a surplus so it hopefully wont become an issue before it is too late.

After securing some supplies, it is noted that there are students that are in potential trouble and need rescuing. They are located at a place called Hoyou Logistics Center. Once there, there are several creators that are surrounding the students. Many of the students being scattered around the place where each needs to be rescued before the creators engage in battle with them and turn them into a creator. It is a dangerous mission that must be done. Shuuya and others quickly rescue them and take them back to the school to join with the rest of people that have decided to stick with Shuuya/Narumi’s group.

Once back, the perspective changes to Sayane. She is with her butler and infiltrates the devils to show off a feat of strength in hopes they submit or at least follow along with her plans. This is where a lot of her backstory are learned and how her relationship with her father is, how her and her butler are bundled together, while also learning more of the secrets MHI has. She is fighting and making any that stand in her way to the destination at hand kneel before her.

With the devil fort subdued and under her control now, Gilizel pops out of seemingly nowhere and instead of putting up a fight, he heads what Sayane says and just goes `sure thing mah queen.` Gil gives Sayane a fair amount of information regarding what is going on in this world with its political standings and happenings. Informing that Shuuya went against her assumption and has gone solo instead of taking coverage under the angels. Now knowing this, she flips to a completely different plan of action. Wanting to go with the students as well and fight alongside, but will need to stop by MHI first to do a bit of a side quest…. A side quest that, well may not end as she anticipated. She is able to break in and find out what that there Miyahara is up to in regards to the creators. Pushing further in to attempt to take over MHI’s Hachio, the same one mentioned and witnessed earlier in the beginning of the story. Miyahara is one step ahead of Sayane though and all this was simply a trap. He does monolog and describe how part of his plan is to keep using the creators in such a way that proceeds to illude to both the angels and devils that the human faction, Shuuya/Narumi, are the ones behind knowing how to control creators. In doing so will insight a ensured conflict of both the angels and devils attacking the human faction since those two sides, while they hate each other will refuse to let that happen. In their view, letting the humans take control would be ensured defeat for both of them. Mutually assured destruction type situation, they are not working together yet working towards the same goal of stopping the human faction before continuing their war. Anyways, before long in this revealing conversation between Sayane and Miyahara is concluded it gets put to an end in the favor of Miyahara, left on a more on that later note.

Back to Shuuya’a perspective at the school. Unaware that they are being framed and part of a grand scheme for the angels and devils to attack them down… they are having to come up with a plan and fast for how to react to the events unfolding in front of their eyes. Everybody at the school is quickly aware that there is going to be a large scale attack brought down on them by the devils and angels. Not necessarily for certain an attack is imminent but rather that the enemy forces are increasing, so its easy to follow a logical path that they will be attacked which is where the mass panic and worry is spreading out from.

Narumi is worried not just about the forces and school but something bigger on her mind is the state of her brother. The depot visited was one that her brother was overseeing, and while they were there… he was not seen or heard whatsoever. With how many creators were there, it makes the worry in her heart quell to a higher state, raising anxiety and worry. She tries to brush it aside and has another reason for going back to the depot. The depot is suitable for finding weapons and being able to arm the school to better protect them from what is soon to be an upcoming battle.

Once back at the depot, collecting weapons and supplies, her brother is found. He has been converted into a creator though. He has seemingly lost all consciousness and her fears came to fruition. Not only this but the exposition of creators being tested on. With Narumis brother in charge, it is clear that Mitaka and the creators were closely linked in some way. Narumi’s brother being one of the creators that had burst out of one of the experimental tanks. He must be stricken down now. When he is felled, he quickly recovers and vanishes at the same pace his recovery speed is. As he escapes Narumi confirms and expands on information regarding the facility, Mitaka ceramics and her brothers involvement with it all here.

Her brother must be fought and taken care of, but that is an issue for another time since the original purpose was the get supplies for an impeding conflict that is about to arise, involving the entire school. So with that, supplies are taken back to base and the war begins shortly thereafter.

With the war at hand, it is mainly the devils and angels fighting it out on their own with creators tossed in here and there. The first phase/area is where Rufadiel and Shehira are fighting one another. With the regular generals underneath being Ernst and Gilizel of the devil factions and Mehisha of the angel faction. There is a choice to stop each of the generals or leave them be as they fight and close in on the human factions area of the school, needing to prevent them from overwhelming us and taking us down.

Gil in this instance trying to offer yet another deal where we join his side. This time he would exchange information about the creators. Not knowing that he knows Sayane and a fair amount of information regarding them. A quick response of too bad we reject will do and he just backs down. Ernst involvement in this part of the war is minimal and she is more interested in checking whats going on, after all she is only interested in the angel Ragutas, her mortal rival. She does inform Shuuya that he is very similar to Ryuuji and bids Shuuya a farewell till next time.

This is not the end of the war though as the fighting is still at large and if anything bigger than where they currently were, and be it at the front of the school area too. Rushing over it is shown that this is in fact true. The main battle participants here being Ragutas of the angels and Quinolraza and Vaza of the devils. With mainly Vaza and Rafutas heading to the school, similar to before with Mehisha and Gil. With Quinolraza being the one in Ernst position. He is less interested in this fight. Vaza and Ragutas are to be stopped before entering schoolgrounds. They both must be fended off before it is too late.

In the middle of this battle going on, Hachiyo makes an appearance. It demonstrates a small portion of its firepower by carpetbombing the battlefield. Killing many in the process. And with this power shown, the battle is almost immediately stopped as there is now a bigger threat than could have been imagined prior. Both sides withdraw as rapidly as they can to come up with a plan of action. Shuuya included, he heads back to regroup at the school to decide what the next course of action is going to be.

Hachiyo lands and surprisingly it is Sayane who steps out of it. She is inviting all at the school to join her in returning back to MHI headquarters. Narumi is against this and senses something is off. Not just that it is MHI or Sayane is involved. They may not get along but there is something bigger at play she feels. Sayane doesn’t back down and states that it should be up to the individual to decide rather than a sole person. Shuuya pushes more questions towards Sayane with a great feeling of something being wrong with the picture being drawn out in front of him. Gil also appears and sort of forces himself into the group, stating that he is all alone, nobody to turn to ect ect type sob story lol. Could say he is granted pardons but not acceptance at this point in time. Some talk among students, gil and kaito happens that helps add more questions and some clarity to the situation at hand.

Before long though, while the decision is being made to either go with or not to go with, a notice is posted to the school board claiming that Mitaka and therein Narumi is behind the entire situation they are in currently. With this notice posted, Narumi obviously gets frustrated but doesn’t let that stop her judgement. She decides to call everybody to the auditorium to discuss and explain her point of view and information regarding the claim being made. Discloses that Mitaka did discover the world and has been researching it but MHI is to be feared. Not disclosing too mch information in regards to how or why. This doesn’t instill the most confidence with every student. Sayane cuts her off from explaining further and only excited the situation further. Narumi cant have much more to say on the subject at the time and is at peak frustration. There is then a forced vote that occurs and the mass majority of nearly every person there votes to leave with Sayane instead of listening and heading the warnings of Narumi. Narumi heads to the rooftop to cool off and catch her composure from the events that had just happened. Shuuya joins her and talks a bit with her.

A few brief moments later we head off into Hachiyo. However, something occurs not long after the flight takes off. Consciousness is lost and all who went are now captured by MHI. It was a trap just as Narumi was fearing.

Shuuya wakes up to an even more unexpected happening. He is in forced intercourse with Sayane. During which he can hear her inner conscious voice communicating with him. He learns that she is being controlled by Miyahara and was captured by a trap he had set and planned out while she tried to take over Hachiyo. With a bit of extra effort :mrclean: Shuuya is able to break her free from the control that Miyahara has on her.

Narumi is in the same room as them as this is happening, however was still unconscious during the whole ordeal. She wakes up shortly after the events unloaded. Shuuya then fills her in on what is going on and all three of them head to save Dojiro, Sayane’s butler. After saving him Sayane is planning to take control of the ship. As she is the only one able to since she is the daughter of the director, she is able to control the ship.

In the process of saving Dojiro, it is clear that he has also been brainwashed by Miyahara. This time however he is cleared back to normal by different means, no snu snu of old man, thank god for that. With him fixed up, Chihiro then walks in and we are left at that as Mirais perspective kicks in.

Mirai is woken up by her dad Ryuuji. They are then trying to make their way to reunite with Shuuya. Once together the story about why the parents had to leave is explained. It was a deal made with MHI about having them offer their medical prowess to cure their children in exchange for them helping MHI. They became test subject slaves in a sense to MHI for using their assistance. They couldn’t say no as it was to save their childrens life, even knowing that they might never see their children again, the fact that they would be saved was enough for them to accept such a hard choice. MHI abandoned them though in this world once their *use* was up. Leaving them to fend for themselves. Both parents deciding that the best way for survival and higher hopes of seeing their children again would be to split up. One on each faction, the devil and angel. So that no matter who came out on top one would survive.

Miyahara shows up but not in person, in a gesture of expressing answers to Shuuyas questions. It is obviously part of his plan, not that it mattered though. Shuuya asks questions and we get the answers about the world we had most wanted to know. Followed by the real question of what HE is planning in this world. Miyahara responds with a quote of not understanding why humans are in the position they are given the potential, and shall be the one to help unleash that potential to its fullest. Almost in response Masoho is on the coms stating that the prep work is completed and the plan shall now proceed to the next phase.

Miyahara then proceeds to offer all of the gathered devils, angels, creators and humans to an entity called Ganoel, who is an angel of wisdom, a second rank angel, Cherub. Upon this offering the angels body manifests into this world. Taking form of where MHI headquarters once were. Miyaharas core plan is taking shape. A capability to rule over creation through the power of a Cherub. To be able to revive the 42 Pillars of Solomon.

With this all happening the final chapter and battle are now in full motion. Everybody remaining rushes into Hachiyo as the Cherub is absorbing the world into itself. As quickly as they are fleeing the scene they are coming up with a plan. Both parents propose working with their factions and using their assistance to put an end to all of what is happening. With a new plant to attempt to enlist the help of both factions freshly made, its off to the angels territory. Once there it is a complete warzone at the time. Creators and devils are hitting them hard. Hachiyo makes a bit of a bombing pass before entering the frey for finishing off the remainders, rescuing the angels along the way to Rufadiel. Chihiro there attempts to convince her to allow help taking down Ganoel. With promising results, we are granted permission to see Nolfaza. Nolfaza quickly comes to an understanding and allows for his assistance when the time is needed in the coming battle against Miyahara.

Quickly over the devils territory a similar fight is happening. This time with only creators raiding them in full force. Ryuji is needing to meet up with Shehira to reason with her to allow us to meet with the devil leader. Fighting to get to her we are met with Vaza and Quinolraza in the way before making contact with her. She is understanding like Rufadiel and we are onto meeting Selberg. Selberg like Nolfaza agrees and accepts to assist in the coming war too. Although his reason for lending his assistance is not only because of what was said but for personal reasons of feeling betrayed. There is a revelation and Shuuya has to hold his tongue for the acceptance of a greater cause.

With both sides in agreement to lend their assistance, a brief downtime before heading out is made. It allows for finishing up some leftovers and minor tasks. With the short downtime over, and the war now at hand. Both Selberg and Nolfaza work together to bring down Cherubs barrier while sayane piolets Hachiyo into a controlled crash right into it lol. A fight through all of Miyaharas forces and controlled creators is a required means to getting to the end and finally stopping his plans from fully occurring. However just before the final battle Masoho comes to greet us one last time. She confesses to a few things and has come as an apology for standing in their way while expressing that it was something she had to do. With emotions at their high its finally time for the big man. Mitahara is at the top and is finally in sight now. He flexes a bit in showing that his power of creation is nigh. With fusing an angel and devil right in front of them then poses a question and offer to Shuuya. Shuuya halts himself before answering with a pass. Knowing that this way of forcing the merge of both angels and devils is something he has already accomplished, yet not through force, they are both helping and working together to end this entire situation currently happening. More of course was discussed and happening, however the end result is a clash or core ideals, in which the only way out was to have both Shuuya and Miyaharas ideals clash together and the victor becoming justice in a sense. The winner is the right, the loser is the wrong.

With this hard pressed battle finally over the entire Cherub fortress is collapsing in on itself. Shuuya being the winner of ideals. Everybody is to rush to escape, forcing their way to Hachiyo as fast as they are able to. Creators are rushing and slowing down the escape and as they near the end, the allies gained, be it devil or angel are falling one by one. Fighting together for the ability to allow Shuuya and the humans to escape while they sacrifice themselves.

As this is happening, it cuts back to Miyahara where Atori has somehow made her way to him. Informing him that his way of pursuit was not wrong. That choosing to pursue ones life goals and set purpose. As she dies, leaving these lasts words to resonate within him, Miyahara turns to Masoho, who is also standing by him at this time. He asks if she is going to leave him, with her response being different than one might expect. Evading the question directly and rather saying she is happy to have been able to see Shuuya and Mirai one last time. In response Miyahara tells Masoho to leave him and Atori alone for their last moments.

As she leaves an unknown voice makes contact with her. She is not surprised by this happening and a quick dialog takes place that is further explained in subsequent playthroughs EX content.

Back to Shuuya escaping, he is able to make it to Hachiyo. Albeit that a few have lost their lives in hopes for him to reach this point. He and the remaining others are able to escape. Once landed, the students that were once thought to be dead but claimed to be safe by Miyahara are just that, safe and sound. They all slowly awaken one after another. Proceeding quickly after with the remaining able to finally go home to the world of inevitable fusion which has already begun.

ANGEL –

After the school defense and choosing to side with the angels, it is time to break away from the school itself. Plans to march right down the block to where the angels are holding up have begun. There is an attempt to save as many students as possible with a 3 system defense where Madoka is leading from further away/scouting, Shuuya is the main leader pushing forward through the creators to get to the angels territory and Narumi assists where able. With reasons as to why she is not the one taking full charge of pushing forward.

With the battle to get to the angels territory finally over, several others and Masoho’s sister, Maki, is found consoling and pretty much preaching the words of thyne lord and savior. Being an assistant to those around to help quell fears and worries, a much needed event for most of the people that are now trapped in this unfamiliar world.

While settling in and talking with Mirai there is a all too familiar face that appears in the distance. Doubt and clouded judgement make for feelings of `it cant be true`. Shuuya catches up to her and the thought comes to reality, it is their mother. Their mother who had left them at a young age after their MHI treatment. With conflicting emotions of resentment and joy swelling together, Mehisha breaks the mood without any consideration to it at all. Only stating that Rufadiel would like to see him, Rufadiel one of the leaders of the angels.

With the meeting of Rufadiel a must at this point, Shuuya follows along and doesn’t have negative impressions of her in the same way that Mehisha has been coming off to him since their first encounter. Rufadiel quickly gets to the meat of the convo though and expresses how she may know a way to get everybody back to their world. They would need to infiltrate and explore into MHI Headquarters. However, getting into the place would be no easy task given the location is inside devils territory. It would be a fight to get in and a fight to figure out the details of confirming her hypothesis that the place holds a key for how to get home. Before leaving Chihiro adds in, stating that their dad is here too, but working alongside the other side as a choice they were forced to make in hopes of survival after being forced into this world by MHI and their deal with them.

Shuuya ignored what she was trying to say for the most part and heads off to Narumi to discuss the plan of action for how to go about infiltrating MHI. Once finished and talking to Rufadiel once again the search is on and into the fray the squad goes. Mehisha and Chihiro are working with them to assist in showing the way to MHI headquarters.

There are some interactions between Chihiro and the others but Shuuya is stubborn in his resentment not letting it get past the mental barrier he had set up. Hard pressed to accept her back into his life after what he viewed as her abandoning him when he was young. Narumi had even made a first step to talking with Chihiro, expressing how she is sorry that the reason they were trapped here, at the core, is likely a direct result of Mitaka Ceramics. Mitaka enabled MHI with forbidden knowledge that they misused in getting them trapped their for their own research purposes. Through the openness Shuuya finally starts to open up to her as MHI comes into sight and they are able to slip through the defenses into the facility through one of the devils fortresses. By the end of sneaking through and fighting their way to the gates/doors of the facility, Chihiro becomes more aggressive in wanting Shuuya to open up and talk with her. Telling him that the deal struck with MHI and her was only made so that they could be saved. They sacrificed their life for them in a sense. She was trying to not explicitly state this for personal reasons but ends up doing so as a way of making amends and not hiding anything from him to gain trust back.

Oddly as they open the doors to MHI and find their way inside… something is just off, there is seemingly nobody here. Its nearly empty, not filled with creators or devils. The place is up and running still but it just isn’t right. So they take the time to explore around, fighting the few creators that appear in hopes to find some way to progress further in through the locked doors.

A short while later, fighting the seemingly too plotted out and placed creators, a access card is found that conveniently lets them progress further into the facility. Not much thought is taken as one way or another this is a must to finding the answers they came here for. Kaito is able to use his ability to sift through computer data with the most valuable entries locked behind tiered access that the console viewing from does not have permission to view. As they head back to find where the access card picked up can unlock, the place is seemingly filled with creators now. Although, without much dismay they make quick work of them as they seek out the next area they are able to access.

In the middle of exploring more of the facility they hear a distressing call for help and rush to see what is going on. It ends up being one of MHI’s special service members of MSC ie Soldier. Once the events are concluded and a unwelcoming ending statement by the person is felled to the casts ears, another card is found that she happened to drop. It happens to be the card needed to access the next zone of the facility. Things are seeming to be too coincidental but again, these thoughts and worries cannot be dwelled on too much as the answers sought for are not yet found.

With the higher security clearance given, Kaito is able to view more classified information and along with it a heavy revealing fact that all the creators here are truly MHI experiments. Not just that, they are what they are claiming will be for human evolution and all of MHI’s breakthroughs are fundamentally founded and based on creators. Meaning their medical advancements, renewoil, mithril steel ect, its all because of this world that they came to be. With the end of the logs reached and a short exploration later, the MSC member is found yet again but this time with a friend. Of course they are swiftly dealt with yet oddly enough happen to drop another card with higher clearance than the last as they make their escape.

Making their way to where clearance and more progression can be made a familiar face appears with a deal to them. Atori, right in front of them informs that if Shuuya and Mirai are to come along nicely, everybody else will be allowed to go back to their world. Obviously they deny it, so she fights and in doing so learns that it is a message she was there to relay. With denial and her losing the fight, she lets them proceed further however, letting them know Miyahara and Masoho are both awaiting here and awaiting them sooner than later.

As they proceed to continue onward Atori tells the leader of MCI to ensure their capture. With it the leader makes his way to intercept and fight to attempt to capture them. He is accompanied by the two others that had already been fought and beaten up to this point. This time all three of them gang up to no avail. Before the fight ends, one of them finds a way to get under Shuuyas skin and make him act spontaneously, leaving him wide open for an attack. Madoka jumps in front to save him and in the process has the worst happen. She is not dead but Erwin would surely understand her situation at this point. Forced to retreat back and hide, Shannelle assists in trying to heal her the best she can with the given time they are able to procure.

With a more steeled mind in place, a rush to the top floor is now imminent. Answers must be found and things are quite serious at this point. Rushing through the next set of doors uncovers an all too familiar face though. Masoho is standing there, awaiting his arrival. Everything has been planned out too particularly from the start of their arrival it would seem. She lets Shuuya know that Soldier has been ordered to stand down and it is safe… for whatever that is worth.

Shuuya is confused by this gesture, but doesn’t let It show as he demands a metting with Miyahara to get to the bottom of what is going on right now. She allows for the meeting to happen and off to Miyahara. Miyahara is now right in front of him, without hesitating, Shuuya gets down to business wanting to know how they could get back home. Miyahara simply looks and proceeds to display Chihiro in a device, letting him know that this is how they get home, through the use of using both Mirai and him, the place they are in right now is how they get home. Shuuya does not like how this is all unfolding and proceeds to gather information on how and why that is the case since a man of his stature would surely know of another way to get home or could figure one out. Miyahara of course does know of another way home then brings up Selberg, the lord od devils. In the midst of this Mehisha loses temper a bit and needs to know how a human like him could possibly know of the existence and details regarding Selberg, let along how he knows Selberg has a gate back home.

So it is clear the only ways to get home now are fight through to Selberg and take use of his gate, or let Chihiro be the core of Miyaharas gate with the swap of Shuuya and Mirai being the only others that could take Chihiros place in order for the gate to work. The answer to the end is clear and they all are forced to make their way back out to regroup and calibrate all the information together that has been learned by this expedition. Heading back to also gain the views of Rufadiel for support of the angel forces in the next phase of plans that are going into motion sooner than later.

A entity that has been hiding steps out the moment the group leaves the facility and without hesitation cuts down Miyahara, with Masoho left alone. Her being there that will likely help this person weather she would want to or not, given who they are.

Back at the encampment with Rufadiel, discussing everything discovered for better clarity on what to do next, Rufadiel answers in an expected way with similar views on how to act next. With the downtime between preparation, Shuuya decides to take a peek on Masoho one more time at MHI. Once there, he is able to discuss with her and learns that she could assist Madoka by helping her so we do just that. Going back to the encampment, talking with Madoka and getting her to go back to MHI with us this time. Right as they are leaving, information about Atori is given and an emergency event begins. She is injured and must be saved, so before helping Madoka, Atori is saved and brought under the safety of angels territory. Shortly after she is saved, Madoka can then officially be helped by Masoho at MHI. Once those things are all settled and back to the new normal, Rufadiel is ready to make the next move in striking against Tardarum Fortress.

Tardarum fortress being a place that is guarded and under control by Quinolraza, one of the highest ranking devil generals. The fight with him is prolonged by Shegira destroying the bridge that leads directly to the fortress. Meaning that thre is a longer fight to get inside to be able to take him down. This does not slow Shuuya down as he rushes around and straight into the fortress. Once inside the fortress it is a very straightforward fight through the place finding Quinolraza, defeating him then quickly leaving to the safety of the angels territory.

During the celebration of a monumental victory over the devils, Mehisha reveals something surprising. She is appointed as his guardian angel. They express themselves and Shuuya accepts her as guardian angel. In doing so conduct the contract for officiality.

More in the background, the angels have finished clearing out the entire MHI base and is now converted over officially to the angels territory. It will from here on out act as the primary base of actions to launch attacks out towards the devils as well, given its positioning, it makes the most sense.

Quickly on the tails of the last battle comes the next general though to keep the momentum going. This time it is straight into the mare layer led by Shehira. As the battle through mare layer is at its high, memories and visions flash through Shuuyas mind. Mot swayed, he pushes onwards with the assistance of Rufadiel to destroy a magical beacon that is amplifying and assisting in hindering their progress to finding Shehira. It is all a trap though and without realizing in time Shuuya and Rufadiel are caught in it. Luckily a contract was formed with Mehisha though as with it they are not lost just merely afk until she is able to rescue them… hopefully sooner than later. But this is a perfect excuse for both of them to have some idle chat and learn more about each others views and preferences. Eith the delayed savior of Mehisha showing up and reuniting everybody, the final phase of this raid can finally occur. Taking down Shehira and in her last moments everything Is interrupted by explosions.

Hachiyo is bombing the place open, and steals Shehira away before the official end happens. Confusion runs amuck as to what is happening but one thing is certain, having Shehira taken away in this manor can only mean more trouble to come. Quickly realizing the place that Hachiyo is flying off to is where the other battle between Ragutas and Ernst is happening only adds to the frantic reality that they are targeting the generals for some unknown reason.

In an attempt to save them, Shuuya rushes to save or assist Ragutas. Shockingly on the way he sees his father Ryuuji. He is stopping them from proceeding further as he is here for Ernst. After the battle with him, Ryuuji finally decides to let us pass through. With Ernst gone in pursuit of Hachiyo and Ragutas still here injured, conversations are made quick. Heading after Ernst they find her in a similar state to Ragutas. Both of them decide to fight it out one last time, this time without interruptions though. Ragutas wins and Ernst accepts him killing her. As this happens Ragutas looks to Rufadiel to finish what has been started in the war currently, and as that statement is being made Hachiyo is on the way back for another bombing run. This time harder to defend than the last, but somehow Shuuya and company manage to do so with the help of the angel leader Nolfaza appearing out of seemingly nowhere. With the last bombing run completed Sayane and Hachiyo fly off further into the devils territory, leaving the rest with air to breath and make it back to safety.

Now finally able to recover, the final push is clear, its is nearly time to charge against Selberg and finalize/complete the plan of taking his gate to return home with. A family reuinion of the Senzakis concludes as preparations are complete and the plan is solidified. The time to charge in and take out Selberg is finally upon us.

At the gates of Selbergs castle, Hachiyo is there too, and for the first things first, taking over Hachiyo is a must. With the help of Rufadiel, the voarding process if relatively simple as everybody is transported inside of it. Once inside though it is a constant battle with Soldier and creators until it is finally captured and taken under control. Multiple blockades and hardships of who to fight through do take place but none of it is able to stop the mission.

With Hachiyo under control after all the troubles to do so, Masoho has her hologram there and assists with the limited control she has over the vessel. Letting Shuuya know that the battle Nolfaza is engaged in with Selberg will hold no fruit as the body he is attacking is not his real one. His real body is hidden away in a subspace dimension that they are going to need to break into in order to truly put an end to the devils. Literal seconds after describing the situation to him Masoho finishes crashing Hachiyo into the place.

With that unexpected entry into Selbergs place, it’s a rush to find him. Fighting powerful devils all the way to his location that is protected by a large erected barrier that prevents further progress. The barrier is quickly taken down by defeating 3 specific devils but that is not the end of the troubles. As they are rushing in past the barrier something hits them on a mental level. Shuuya is frozen there, stuck in a dream life state up until Mehisha is able to burst him free from it. Both Mehisha and Shuuya are assaulted by Selberg and manage to hold out long enough for Nolfaza to break into their location, freeing all under the mental grasp that Selberg had over them.

With all that has happened, Selberg admits that Shuuya is worthy of taking him on with his true form, hopefully the final one too lol. Working further into the depths of Selbergs pocket dimension and his true form is now in front of them. The final battle begins and ends shortly later  with Shuuya emerging victorious. As selberg existence fades, he grants Shuuya the necessary power to control the gate by imprinting it into his mind directly.

Heading back to Hachiyo reveals another sad piece of information, that Masoho used herself in place of Chihiro to enable the gate to work. Saving his mother but sacrificing herself in the process, being fused together with the gate acting as its core die functionality.

Back at MHI with Chihiro now safe, a wholesome moment between their reunion occurs and everybody is safely able to return home through the gates no under their control. Credits and end scenes roll with concluding events and a satisfactory credits that ties everything up nicely before the official credits screen starts to play.

DEVIL -

Accepting Gils offer to join forces with him since he promises protection and answers, has everybody on edge. The devils are not known to be nice and it clearly shows in how they act, yet they are keeping to their word as of now so its not all that bad.

Time progresses and still Gil hasn’t fulfilled his end of the bargain where he I supposed t explain in more details the world they are currently in, what their powers are and the intricacies surrounding them. Gil does however deiced to disclose that a US military base has been taken into this world. Due to it being a US base, it should be packed full of high end weaponry and equipment that would assist in the upcoming battles.

With a short goal and need in sight, Shuuya and others set off to investigate and obtain a defensive/offensive advantage before the angels and other devils find out about the place and raid it, taking all the goodies.

Unsurprisingly the plan is simply not working or going as expected. The devil that was supposed to be guarding over the place is gone and the place is in utter destruction. Pushing further inside the base has us finding Sayane and her company slaughtering devils, creators and practically anything that moves. Disclosing some key information about why she is at the base and MHI’s involvement/discoveries about the world they are trapped in. Her words meaning that Shuuya and Mirai are simply test subject and not really patients they saved out of their good will. There was a ulterior motive going on.

As Shuuya and Sayane are talking, the devil Vaza’s forces rush in and capture her, taking her hostage and wanting to kill her for all the damage she has done to his forces. Shuuya of course wont let that slide so follows and listens to Gils advice on the shortcut to get to Vaza quick. Once there, Vaza and Sayane are going back and forth with Gil interrupting and putting forth a compromise that would allow Sayane to be saved. It is the devil route and so Shuuya mates her simple as that… then they make their way with Sayane in arms out of the base and back to the school with the rest of the companions.

Once at the school Sayane discloses that Miyahara and Selberg are the two key factors in how to get back to the real world. Gil interludes with a statement about how he is able to arrange an audience with Selberg. As shocking as this was, everybody sort of accepts it and pushes forward with this plan to get an audience with selberg. Gil leaves out the details that Selberg was looking to obtain some of the test subjects that MHI had created, such as Shuuya, Mirai and the other humans with special powers that awakened in this world. Luckily nothing bad happens except a `wtf man` towards Gil.

Not a lot happens after until they get back to the school where everybody there is riled up about working with the devils and how uncomfortable they are about the entire situation. Tensions are high and nobody is happy. Sayane doesn’t help much in this regard as she is up to her games yet again, this time with the sisterz. Telling them that in order to help shuuya properly they need to dedicate their bodies to him… so they do just that and Shuuya mates his sister and her two best friends heh.

After all the lust settles from the air, Narumi comes in and has found a spot she thinks will allow access to see what the angels are up to by means of investigating the humans that went with the angels. They are all huddled in poor conditions of a encampment outside the city hall with the angels *protecting* them but not to the extent that they assumed they would. Some more information regarding the angels is had and before they realize Rufadiel is in front of them readying an attack. Due to this being in angel territory there is no other option but to run or cooperate with their demands. Of course they will not convert over to the angels side after learning what they do now. The odds are seemingly better with the devils. Gil creates a distraction just large enough for them to make an escape without losses.

Rufadiel is not wanting to let them go and with her resolve, the fight with her ensues. Oddly she is misguided in her strength and with her misguided judgement for how to take them down is her self taken down instead. She then gets taken as a prisoner of war back to the school basement.

With the capture of Rufadiel, Selberg immediately makes a summons of all the devil generals and invites Shuuya along as well as a gesture of acknowledgement for his achievement to capture Rufadiel. Ernst and Shehira during this meeting let Shuuya know that he is welcome to stop by their fortresses later for further conversations. Gil is given a territory to rule over and further plans of action to go after another angel leader will be soon to keep the pressure on them and force more shifting power balance in favor of the devils.

Once the discussions are all over, Shuuya heads back to base then over to Ersnt and Shehira to discover what they wanted to show and talk with him about. Oh and Rufadiel in the school basement is being *interrogated* by the meat shepters of many with no signs of breaking and disclosing vital info for them. Ersnt tells him about his father and how he is working with them and Shehira, being a mare of course informs him about sexual empowerment rituals hehe.

In the middle of his return and talking things over with Gil, Atori pops out of nowhere, sent over by Miyahara. Atpri is only wanting to meet with Shuuya, as per Miyahara demands her to do. Atori lets Shuuya know that Masoho is here with Miyahara working together. They will not be able to meet quite yet though due to the increased activity of angels and danger that it would cost to meet at this very moment.

With Ragutas takedown plan moving steadily along, the time has finally come to make a move. It would be one step closer to being able to meet with Miyahara and solving the problems of how to get home. Having the cooperation of Miyahara as a side gig means that there is a fallback for how to get home. The devils are a primary way but if need be, Miyahara is also an option. Either path tentatively open at this point.

With he battle of Ragutas taking full bore now, Shuuyas job is to maintain control over City hall. The battle going on in close proximity to Shuuya is off, with Sayane confirming that Ernst is in trouble, things are not going quite as planned. So Shuuya leaves his position to help Ernst.

He is able to save her in time but Ernst is in a large amount of distress about leaving and insists that she has to go back and help her companions… the ones that are all dead from the battle. Gil intervenes with a comment about the only help she needs is this dick, so Shuuya and him do a vit of a tag team on her. She comes back to her senses and Shehira wasn’t lying, the power of sexual increase is in fact real. Ernst now, better [?], joins with to take on Ragutas. Fighting all the way to him and felling this beast, Ernst is neutral on the entire situation and pleased enough to have an offer for Shuuya to become one of her subordinates.

The battle against Ragutas was a great one with many losses, Vaza, as pitiful of a creature he is was wiped clean by lowly creators, Quinolraza had his forces decimated to near nothing and Ernst on the weak side in a similar position to Quinolraza. Shuuya and his group are really the only force that was not heavily impacted by the war taking down Ragutas surprisingly. With such losses and Ragutas felled, both sides tactically retreat for regrouping and further discussion of what happens next.

Once regrouped at the school, Kaito is infuriated on how Gil somehow lost Rufadiel. When she was clearly locked up and then disappears as soon as the battle starts. Tensions are high and suspicions of a spy and how MHI is not as friendly as they let on to be are in the air. With the suspicions around MHI they will have to be confronted about what is going on, since if they are not truly with the devils than they are not truly with our forces either. Something is definitely off and not feeling right at this point.

Lot of drama ensues at the school and even worse situations occurring on the angels side with how poorly the humans that took refuge there are seeming to be. Everything seems to be going downhill. Anyways, it’s MHI time and the group heads off to get some answers from Miyahara himself. And once they arrive, they find that Quinolraza is there causing trouble, tearing through Soldier forces and being a menace. Miyahara and Masoho know that Shuuya has arrived and put out some tests for him to handle since they feeling a bit frisky. All factions seemingly are here and fighting in one form or another. It is pure chaos. With a clear goal in mind though, its time to break through to get to Miyahara for our long overdue meeting for some answers.

Fighting through Soldier, creators and many different types of other enemies, scanning terminals along the way using Kaitos ability to learn more secrets about MHI themselves. It is apparent that what Miyahara has planned is not quite in line with what the company itself is wanting, at least that is the interpretation Sayane gathers with the findings.

Quinolraza still being a menace is the first major fight that ensues, he has been hlding back going off on us since the first meeting. With him and his amped up self from performing *rituals* with the angels at the place and simply destroying everything he could, he is much stronger than he was prior. Albeit stronger, not strong enough to fell the main man Shuuya though. Miyahara has plans for his near corpse like state and grants his final wish, taking him away to probably be seen again sooner than later.

Nolfaza is here, the leader of the angels and has a short conversation with us before realizing words do not good and fights. With his monstrous strength, it is a losing battle and a retreat is necessary, somehow making it out alive to safety, away from his reach. Retreating into a generator room, and working our way out from here, Masoho makes an appearance. She doesn’t say much except that its time for the long awaited meeting with Miyahara.

Miyahara has since fused with a creator and does not want to spend much time idle chit chatting with Shuuya. However he does humor him and answers his questions, however few they may have been. Expressing that Selberg is no threat to him and that he is the one in control of how tides of war shift, he is the reason that humans can push forward in evolution through fusion rather than natural selection as it is a logical step to take for the next stage, and that since the worlds have started to fuse, there is no stopping it, what is started cannot be stopped.

Miyahara is up to no good during this conversation and is only put to a halt when Nolfaza breaks in and says its time to stop. Faltering Miyahara for long enough to enable an opening to take him down. Nolfaza stands there without much to say except a congrats to being able to take down Miyahara like this.

Unsurprising to Nolfaza but surprising to the rest of us… The energy released through the death of Miyahara is funneled directly into Mehisha. With all the power that she is taking into herself, a new form is made, she is becoming a Goddess.

Mehisha in her new goddess form simply utters words that dismay everyone there in how she is going to put a end to the devils. She leaves and transfers the humans along the way back to their homeworld.

She head straight for Selbergs layer and subdimension he has been hiding in. Mehisha makes short work of finding his true form, killing him in only a single swipe, letting all know the war is over. The devils have lost while the angels are the victors.

With all the events that rapidly happened, Shuuya knows that Mehisha is not going to spare the lives of those humans who chose to side with the devils. It was clear to him that the battle was not over, at least for them. Heading back to the school to check on everybody there and the situation is as bad as expected. Emotions are at an all time high and near the tipping point of no return. Somehow Shuya is able to temporarily quell it all down, but it cant last for much longer.

Heading back to see Masoho and get a battle plan in motion, Masoho informs Shuuya that she does have a plan to engage Mehisha. The plan boiled down to fight her, beat her, mate her, take the gate back and become the victor. Sounds simple enough but Nolfaza and the remaining angelic forces stand between current progress and end goal.

Once prepared and ready the strike on the angel fortress begins. It’s the final battle to decide the end. Eushing through the fortress, Nolfaza makes an appearance. He tries to stop us from proceeding further into where Mehisha is. He, although very powerful, is not strong enough to stop us and is defeated.

Now with Mehisha in sight, Shuuya asks her one last request, to let them all go home, but MEhisha while accepting has a condition to abide by. She states they need to let go of all the powers they gained from this world. Of course Shuuya says no, not only for uncertainty that she will hold up her bargain but the fact that the powers hold meaning to them and so the battle is on.

With her taken down, Shuuya gains the power of the gate and becomes a higher being himself. He is now able to teleport any and all pieces of this world back to their world, people included. Things seem to be great, it’s the good end right?... well sort of. Shuuya makes things right and normal again, with all the people and places put back to how they were prior to the event. Things seems to be perfectly normal, except that when he is in the real world he is an upstanding citizen, the best of the best, classy type of guy… but on the inside, er, warped world, he himself is a warped one. He is wont stop at the power he has obtained and wants more, well that and along with his sex dungeon lol. He strives for a greater test of his powers. Leaving the real world alone for the time being and conquering other worlds he is able to visit through his special powers that are on par with a god. One world simply enough for the man lol.

DREAMLAND –

Dreamland is the answers to questions posed during human route ending where Masoho was talked to by some unknown entity. Atori is where she can have her route done here. Although it isn’t a true route, while at the same time is the real route since dreamland takes place outside of time and space. So technically this might be considered the real route yet its not the real route due to being out of space and time. It is temperamental for them both to come back to reality. 4^th+ dimensional type stuff that goes down in this one. Ganoel and Haagenti are the two introduced here. Ganoel being the second rank angel, Cherub. Haagenti being one of the 72 Pillars of Solomon. Their powers are relative to eachother.

To keep it brief, there are 3 stages to dreamland, each ending at set points. Once entered, it ends there and can only access it again once a certain story point/chapter has been reached. Completing dreamland unlocks 2 control leader with leader crafting/selection.

Ganoel is under control by Haagenti and by the end it is fighting against him while learning more about Atori and Masoho. Freeing Ganoel from Haagenti and fighting him and not accepting his options to end it and conclude things once and for all. Dreamland is involved in a separate space outside of all the timelines that adds to how every possible route taken with each of the companions is possible.

AFB –

AFB is Kaito’s game that he lends to Shuuya to test out about a hero beating a demon king. It is append content and not included in the base game. It is like a traditional jrpg with the card battle system applied on top of it. There is a new leader card given and can potentially be the first 2 control leader accessible by the second playthrough. It is very hard but doable since I did it right after first playthrough lol. There are 2 different endings, one is the true end by collecting all companions that will grant access to being able to use shuuya 2 control leader card while not collecting all of them is a standard ending. either option will lead to different cg, similar end result.

It starts out with Shuuya meeting Mehisha in a town with rumors of a legendary sword. Heading to a cave to find it. They head back to the village then to a port town. Meeting potential companion. The sword she tells them is on another continent to the east. However, to get there they need to find the captain of a boat. The captain being another companion that can be gained. She is in a bandit den currently. So heading there to save her, some shenanigans happen and quickly after things resolve the boat is unlocked and possible to go eastern continent.

Once through the port, its onto Mt. Fuen. At the top another potential companion is met and we are told about the sword being locked away in a sky temple. Yet to get there is not a simple walk there. To get there we must meet yet another companion. A companion that we are not told about until we head back to the first port town to ask the all knowing lady. She knows but wont give information until we do something for her. So we are off to complete her task and bring bac the item requested. With the item in hand, she is more than willing to tell us about a legendary craftsmen that we are now seeking out… back on the eastern continent.

The craftsmen informs that she is able to do what we need if we are able to bring her four different angel feathers. Feathers that can be found around the Mt Fuen region. Once all the feathers are found, she helps and we can finally get into the sky temple. However before leaving might want to take on the 2 dangerous species monsters that are only accessible through AFB playthrough. These bosses are likely a 4^th playthrough onward though so save prior to engaging. They are extremely difficult battles.

Once in the sky temple, its very straightforward of find how to unlock the door and once we are through the sword is right in front of is. Grab it and head to the demon kings land. Push through his land and fight through his castle where the [Sisterz] are found to be the 3 main fights leading up to the demon king. Beating the demon king ends the afb campaign, and if all companions gathered, then one more battle and more scenes are unlocked. Content is all transferred to the next playthrough a player chooses to do.

EX Content –

There are 2 different EX content storylines. First being Bathhouse and second one that brings old Eushully game characters for a fun school festival story.

Bathhouse story is as it sounds where once its unlocked, Kaito will come along every now and then throughout the main story, no matter the route and let us know its time for another round at the bathhouse. Once in the bathhouse… got to do a bit of snekery to a certain location marked on the map. If able to make it there, its all viewable, every last bit of the grill that he has intel is visiting the place that round lol. Each entry progressively *harder* than the last without any of them really providing difficulty. Its more of a quick and fun event with a nice enjoyable finish. Dojiro will be on his ass quick and has a wide vision to catch him too. Got to be careful and swift but its for a righteous cause of completion so it will be accomplished. Just make sure to save prior. Similar to arena tourney, if failed once that’s it for the playthrough, unless saving right before attempt to load back into for another try.

With the outsiders EX content, one must beat a certain someone in the arcade during chapter 1. Once she is beaten it will allow access to orcville and the rest of outsider optional content. It is very easy to miss since the beginning is day limited pretty hard. Will have to do several events during lunch and after school and eventually the next stage of content will pop. Eventually a cultural festival event will happen and things will lead up to it. If the orcville and other special lunch events are viewed then the rumors of ghosts will happens and we are off to find the core to the rumors… leading to a unexpected cameo from the eushully meister game that got most into this genre from the looks of it lol.

The cultural festival officially begins with all the fluff prior being completed. It must be beaten, so save prior to fully complete. There are a lot of fun moments and lines throughout this append content which are best experienced. Its all 2^ndplaythrough optional onwards. Well worth the investment to unlock since its pretty easy to trigger. Just make sure to follow up with these cameo characters before the initial battle with gil’s forces begins so that all 3 will be collected into companion page alongside several cards added to the deck pool.

Sub-Routes [Heroines] –

To not spoil too much of the details of each heroin experience, lets start and go in the order I chose to get each.

Arisa is one that acts crazy, one of the hardest to unlock due to the amount of quests needed to be done and active searching to accomplish said quests. She is crazy and never stick dick in crazy they said. Her story is one of my favorites and although she is crazy she can be wifey. Imagine memories forced to forget and knowing the fact that it has to be lived with. As in not enough *memory* to store enough of the good times ☹

Mehisha is stern and stronk, rules are rules, humans are a hassle but Shuuya makes an exception breaking her perceptions. Learns that angels eat but don’t need to eat and are true whamen where they don’t use bathroom, what goes in is 100% efficient and will not be gone lol. Wholesome one and worthwhile, default and the true end for angel route.

Sayane true end for devil route. She prestigious, cant express true feelings and is a complete bitch at times. But I can fix her, oh I can fix her right? Well she likes it rough so one thing is going to give by the end at least lol. She a fun one.

Madoka just teases constantly and got dem child bearing hips hehe. Erwin from SnK and her have a lot in common, if only they could left hand wave to eachother. Couldn’t be right hand since that would mean they were right [?] hmm, should probably stop there lol. Anyway she is cute, and like to push boundary tease, has emotional damage and feelings of loneliness and separation from those around her directly from the events that constantly happen to her friends she gets close to around her. She is probably very relatable to a great many people compared to a lot of other selections. Cant fix what is already repaired :mrclean:

Shanelle, big tiddy loli, best friend of sister. Ph there is a lot that can be done there, a lot that has already been done too lol. She is the most gentle passive aggressive out of them all. Probably into some heavy bdsm but not because she wants to ofc, its not her idea, its shuuyas… honestly one of my least favorite routes, not bad, just was not that interested in her as a character. Very traditional, can cook and not much bad in her, unless shuuya counts kek.

Akari is the childhood friend. She doesn’t want to vocally accept the feelings. Its your fault for not getting it, how could you not get it, oh my god nvm, I just, ah, lets talk about this some other time type of girl. Outgoing and faithful though, very typical girly type lol. Nothing too aggressive, passionate and soft :bluzh:

Mirai… well well well, whats wrong with my sister? She is perfect, gentle, kind and honest with feelings. So what if we bathe together at the fresh age of nearly hs grad? Its sexual, er sensual, ah, I mean passionate, wait wait wait, what im trying to say is its just family matters. Mom agrees so whats the problem. Dad just looks and acts in forced acceptance of the disappointed dad look but im the dad now hehe. Heres to the disabled chiled. Mirai is honestly precious though and has some of the best written scenes :eyes:. Cute, small precious and fits a lot of kinks knowhamean. Keep it in the family for best results /shrug lol

Narumi is true human route end. She is the best at trying her best, she may not be the best but doesn’t need to be. Better to be imperfect to always have something to strive for than perfect and stagnate, very smart and has the right kind of intelligence inversely related to how clumsy she can be on a personal level. All in spite of her stoic appearance. She constantly tries for more and improvement. Wholesome, friendly and wants whats best. Albeit clumsy a good wifey for a fun enjoyable time together. Cant go wrong with her, especially since theres a curve heres a curve and that’s a curve I like hehe.

Last but not least we got Atori. She doesn’t have a official ending route and instead has a transcended route by being part of dreamlands outer dimensional space. So technically she is above the rest just because she transcends time and space [?]. If Atori could have a regular ending she would have been on par with my favorite. Her personality is great, looks are just right and I guess it’s a theme but also has some pretty heavy daddy issues. Its an ending that is explained that simply cannot happen through normal means. It helps add to the emotional context behind her as a character, further adding to her character, even though the ending is temperamental to the main story she is in a way the true heroine from the perspective of no matter the choice selected she is chosen on a outerversal level… even if its temperamental. Even if all stars aligned a real ending just couldn’t be.

Gameplay/Quests –

Well after all the story comes the gameplay and quests lol. At the core it is not that hard of a game in most normal combat. There are definitely a fair amount of hard and challenging battles. Even in the far end game having multiple that really put to the test the deck building skills.

It is all card based combat. A max deck of 30 cards. Starting combat will have 6 cards drawn from the top of the deck. The deck is rng shuffled based on the cards of selected deck built. Each card will have a control value and cost associated. The leader card is the card used for winning or defeat. If the leaders card health reaches 0, then it is game over. Game over with the option to either retry or go to the title screen to load back a previous save.

The leader card starts in the front line middle of the field. Enemy always has first turn of laying cards and positioning first. They cannot attack on their first turn. However, on our first turn we can attack the enemy. With the leader car in position the connecting squares are charged up with a control value. The control value is directly what allows cards to be summoned. The card in hand has to either be equal or less than the control value on the board. Each summoned card has its own control value and increases the overlapping spaces values. The higher the overlapped values is how stronger and very high cost cards can be summoned to the field. Some of the summoned cards will have various actions that can be done depending on the card placed. Some actions will use the turns actions of that card skipping its battle phase for the action while other cards can use an action and still attack. There re also field passive active abilities that can be at play when a card is placed. One such ability would be that all FLW or front line warriors are debuffed in their control value, cost value, attack or heath ect. There are effects that sometimes can be applied by use of action, AA or attacking said card. Lots of variations and possibilities at play here to add a wide amount of diversity into the cardplay.

Once cards are placed, abilities are applied or used, the attack phase can be initiated. Simply dragging a card onto an adjacent enemy card is all it takes. The enemy or player being attacked will be forced to defend or block if able. Blocking can be initiated by defending an adjacent attack where it overlaps the card next to it. That card can either defend or choose to not defend. If the attack overlaps a leader card, the leader cannot defend for a FLW. Sometimes there are abilities that mix this up where a rearguard, or backrow card, can defend the front, or there are also abilities that force no defense possible even though it’s a side adjacent attack happening. It all factors into the strategy part of building and crafting offensive and defensive decks.

FA or finish arts is something that us an ability which changes based on the partner selected before battle. The leader and partner selected can be the same character. The FA is the special ability that can be used once the gauge reaches 100%. Many different abilities can be had and used. Each unique with some being more useful than others. Some battles do not allow for them to happen though and these are set under conditions. Each battle will have conditions and requirements to play under. Most having none, some having turn limits and other conditions being along the lines of no use of X types of cards or items.

Items are as one would expect with healing items, control item boost, cost modification items, cure effects inflicted ect. Most with variations of healing more per use or less ect. Its simple and very straightforward.

A player can undo the actions made during the current turn, at a cost of performance points. A partner passive can disable that though. Same goes with escaping battle. When clicking escape, if able to escape the player loses 30 performance points if a certain party or leader isn’t selected to have a passive on that reduces the amount down. Once attacking, placing cards and using abilities is done, clicking the end turn button moves onto the enemy phase where they do the same sequence of events. Up to a max of 99 turns unless conditions otherwise state restrictions.

Onto how to get cards, they can be crafted, bought, earned through quests or most commonly copied by using a shuuya card to kill a enemy unit. Although not all cards can be copied and there are restrictions based on the current level skill shuuya has that allows up to X tier card to be copied ~~with restrictions~~. Once cards are earned they can be placed into decks. Mix and matched with a max of 4 copies of a card per different card. There are options to sort the cards by cost, number life points or attack points, along with category separation of leader cards, inorganic, human, creature, angel, devil, demon and hero races/categories. Each card will have a level that can increase to sometimes only level 1, or up to level 9. Each level slowly boosting the cards capabilities. There are item slots that are slowly unlocked on some cards while others come with a pre-unlocked amount.

Items are earned in crafting, found on the field, quests or purchased. Every card can have at most 1 item equipped to it, each item having a different item slot requirement. So if a card has 2 item slots but the item requires 3, then it cannot be equipped, however a 1 item slot requirement on a 3 item slot card and it can be equipped at the sacrifice of not being able to use the other 2 item slots on that card since there can only be 1 item equipped at a time. Some items have requirements besides item slots. Being that it might need to have a certain race, card name or some other requirement before equip is allowable.

On the main fields that can be traversed around, there are cards and money that can be picked up. Alongside there being plenty of enemies to encounter and fight. There are certain spaces that require abilities such as flight or excavation to gain access to. These are gained by certain companions being in the party that have said ability to match with it. Dangerous enemies are scattered throughout the maps and are very powerful enemies to take down. Most of which are too hard for the first playthrough without the use of items or severe crafting and farming. There are also hidden items that require a certain crafted or bought items, one called SR glasses. Each route has different field accessible and allowed to be accessed. Some are missable, most are not.

There are turns that pass by with each movement costing action and time points that count up the turns. Most of the time the turns do not matter. There are however events that happen where turns are limited. Just depends on whats going on at the time. Hovering over the bottom left enemy profile cards and clicking them if they are visible in leaders range allows for a drop and deck table to be viewed. Good for farming reasons or knowing what fights to avoid. Friend info in the top right that takes straight to the quest page, saves a few clicks.

The turn order and enemy cards at the bottom left show how long until the enemy turn is current. Most enemies will move and if within their visible range will proceed to try and engage the player… most of the time. Sometimes they are programmed to not move so the player has to choose to engage rather than the enemy hunting down the player. Visible range is a modifiable stat based on the partner and leader combo selected. 2 different ranges. First range being what is completely seen and second search range shows unknowns. Greater secondary range is better for less wasted turns while further initial visible range allows knowledge of if its an enemy or item pickup. Both can be modified and changed depending on playstyle.

There are 3 different shops that unlock by means of one only on 2 of the 3 routes. 2 of the shops are always available no matter the route selected. In the shop as stated above items, battle cards or materials for crafting can be purchased, or even sold here. Sometimes even key items are available in certain shops that can be purchased for special events to happen or progress towards. The third one makes sense from a story perspective why its not on one of the rotes. Each shop has different goods to offer, and more stuff is unlocked in the shop depending on achievements made that playthrough. Mainly achievements through the arena.

Speaking of the arena, this is the place to test skill against various battles. A mock battle to test decks out in, even though id recommend real fights on maps as they give rewards and are generally better than using this option. Standard battles which are a list of battles that can be fought in any order the player chooses. Losing these battles doesn’t affect anything, can continuously try again until its won. Same goes for knockout battles, however these must be fought in a predetermined order. Then there are tournaments, only one per arena though. These are one time go at its with the winner gaining a big prize. Lose the tourney and better to reload a save and try again otherwise its missing out on further arena content. Win normal arena unlocks backstage arena, which beating that unlocks shop materials that can be bought as well as some of the most challenging battles in the game to be accessible. In that it will require a minimum of 3^rd playthrough onward before thinking about challenging them… given the cheese Sayane deck hasn’t been crafted. But even then some of the conditions will null that deck lol.

After the route selection happens, very shortly after will have a world map hub that allows for fast travel to most locations. One being crafting, err, training location. Side note of 3 routes is how arena can be found if the proper key item is obtained. In training camp where crafting/alchemy is performed, this is where all the big boi cards can be had. At the cost of way too many materials and likely will require playthrough 2 or 3 onward to really start delving into for time and ease sake lol. It is similar to the shop in that battle cards, equipment materials ect can be made instead of bought. This is the only place leader cards can be crafted or had, be it that dreamland is completed first. Dreamland being a place that is either accessed on second or third playthrough and having crafted a item called hourglass. Most will likely encounter and do this on 4^thplaythrough though unless there is prior knowledge of what to plan out on the initial go at it.

Last but not least is the information page. On there is as one would expect with current quests displayed, previous quests as completed or failed, and tabs for index that display every card or name referenced along with details regarding it available.

Quests themselves are very simple. They are the main driving force of what to do next in the events of the story and then there are friends quests. Event quests are mandatory… 99% of the time while friends events are optional.. 99% of the time. Quests will display a requirement, be it collecting C items, cards or do a certain task for completion. Most will have time limits that are based on current chapter while some persist one playthrough to another and provide assistance with the rewards they give each subsequent playthrough. Most friendship quests being directly related to getting the heroine route selected, those are all time limited. Each heroine with their dialog choice option to be yes or no with them. Top choice is no, bottom yes, go further.

Battle points are the currency to purchase stuff and performance is a small amount of points given to the player each battle. Higher performance will result in a higher party rank. Each party rank up to a certain point unlocks more goodies and content.

With each character on the companion list, everybody will have a max rank of level 9 on first playthrough. Then on subsequent playthroughs all the way up to level Z, or lvl 26 for a total of 35 levels. Cp gets progressively higher per level up to a max of 9 999 per level. It will take a while to get everybody max and shouldn’t be a top priority. They will get there sooner than later and well before all the farming is done for crafting all items. That about covers everything gameplay related lol.

Sound and Visuals –

Sounds are on par with other vns of eushully where they are good enough and more than get the hob done. None are out of place or feel wrong. Many many of the sound effects overlap from one game to the next. Not a bad thing to do and it adds a lot of familiarity by doing so. Prime example of if it aint broke don’t fix it. Wouldn’t want them changed for the sake of being changed.

Where it really shines and is fresh is the OST’s. Wow, simply put would be the one descriptive word. It is an outstanding soundtrack that they made. From the intense moments to the sad and hardcore ones. There is a track that will match. None of them are tiring and after all 250+ hours in the game, easily could go another multiple hundred hours with these tracks as background music and not be tired of them. There were even times id just open the game and have the title screen piano track play in the background. Only to realize hours later that its still on. Only praise for whoever took the task of creating and implementing it. Only downside is that some tracks are too far between with how good they were. Namely the final boss OST, however with it being so sparse, it adds a higher level of fidelity to it. I may want more of it, but at the same time appreciate that it is not overused to become like the rest of them which are played in normal combat. When certain tracks kick on like that one… the moment it starts its meaning things just got real and better sit up for it if its the first round through.

No male voice acting yet, that comes in later Eushully titles. The voices they have for all the grills in here are clear and crisp. Rufadiel being one of my favorites since she is part snake and they even added in a little lisp to the pronunciation to better represent her character. Another small attention to detail that helps show the devs truly do care.

Visuals are like any other top tier eroge game. Art direction is on point with well designed CG and scenes to correlate back to. Plenty of scenes and variations of each cg artwork piece. Although there would be one complaint of consistency between the cg of how the sizing and looks of one might be a fair bit different than another. Not that the character is unrecognizable, that is not the case. Each character is clear and understood at barely even a glance which is as expected, moreso that it is clear when different artists drew each piece. The stylings could have been better and more closely represented between them. Although this is a relatively minor complaint in the grand scheme of things and more CG the better, regardless if some may have different proportions than the other. That is also to an extent though, should be pretty clear balance line of what works best.

Overall and Final Thoughts –

Oh this is a huge overview and review lol. Most being story related lol. A massive amount of content to go over. With most of the routes leaving out a large portion of details. Plenty of discovery, twists and more to be had if wanting to play through it all.

I would highly highly recommend the game to others, it is very fun, very time consuming and simply enjoyable to play. It would easily be up in top games list I have. Do not think ill be replaying it any time soon, mainly due to the sheer size though.

I would say my thoughts are probably expressed well throughout the entirety of here, only positives with very little critiques here and there. Main gripe would be there needs to be better organization and filtering for crafting, enemy locations, enemy drops and objectives ect. Its bearable and for the most part good enough, yet there is still a lot of room for improvement on that part.

There are a couple tidbits regarding CG and a items, once sr glasses are had, go through every route, every location and every event again for a certain premium and regular figure that will likely be missed. In devil route, do Ernst optional event but do not save them and on devil route complete all of Narumi events for a special cg ending there too. Also ensure that ap3 video side stories are completed to unlock the arena special content. It will be needed to unlock the rest of crafting. There is one double star item that can be made in the first playthrough, make use of that while farming and finishing out the collect 45 double stars lol. Shouldn’t need to farm too many of them by the last playthrough, at most should be up to about 20 if not collecting stuff and fighting copy per playthrough.

Taking on AFB after first playthrough is a complete pain, probably best to hold off until third or fourth time through. Not necessary to wait but will save many many hours. Given that the amount of time it takes will save a great many of hours later, its easy to sway one way or the other. Mehisha ability would greatly reduce the time it takes to finish it out to unlock 2 control leader in there. However that means angel route first time through so it is even remotely feasible heh.

Most other stuff like quests just take time and shouldn’t be a primary focus. If playing all heroine routes, they will either be completed or near completion by the last route. Have the stuff on back of mind and even make a checklist of things to knock off by the end of the playthrough, updating it along the way. Made one starting the 4^th playthrough and helped a lot for finishing things out and keeping pace with it all. Haagenti is a leader that once dreamland is completed should be powered through to craft, he is very powerful and my favorite to use. They are all situational though and vary depending on the battle for what leader is best.

Eushully simply put knows how to make a great game.

Characters (main) – 4/5

Characters (sub) – 4/5

Enjoyment - 5/5

Gameplay – 5/5

Visuals – 4/5

Music – 5/5

Story – 5/5

Overall Ratings - Rec: 5/5 Raw: 91%

Lizardman with a naked man popping up when lizard gives head? Well that’s pretty much what this is. The mystery aspect that is somewhat answered by the end is who the man is inside of him and who caiman used to be before the lizard incident.

Story is there, while at the same time not really there. Things happen, stuff progresses yet nothing happens at the same time. It is a very strange story with progression yet no progression by the end. The viewer is left in the same position they were when they first started the show. Sort of contrasts well with the world that has been built up and the craziness of the show itself.

Basic premise and mystery is that our boi Caiman got his head turned into a lizard. How [?], one might ask. Well in this world there is a place called `The Hole`. The Hole is a city, or I guess place that certain sorcerers go to. When they go, they go to fuck around with the people by casting their magic on them. They are the test subjects for their own pleasure or experiments. Once they are done, they simply go back to their world. Caiman is one of the victims, or at least is assumed to be one of the victims from his point of view. He does not know quite what happened and its heavily inferred in this season to be the case.

Simple overview of Caimans past is he was minding his own business and then bam, man in ally, Caimon headless, Caiman wake up, Caiman not headless no more, Caiman lizard head unlocked, Caiman immune to magic now. Nikaido finds Caiman, Nikaido brings Caiman to doc. Nikaido also cooks dumplings, Caiman like dumpling. Caiman not original name and was given this name by Nikaido. Nikaido and Caiman friends. As eps progress, they not friends but still friends in the end.

Nikaido without spoiling is a loose love interest, it’s a bit strange and weird. She has a dark past that isn’t too well explored in this season. Still so many questions. This overview is really all over the place and wont make too much sense until after viewing everything lol.

Anyways, a man named En is from the other world, the world that is not The Hole. En is king tut type of person and is searching for a partner. A partner that can control time so that he can attempt to fix a mistake/wrong that occurred in the past. He is a revenge story and main antagonistish. There are clear both sides and depending on the side taken either position is easily defended as the righteous ones.

With these 2 groups, Caiman and Ens, they are both trying to solve a problem they have. With both problems shown to be heavily linked to one anothers past. En is head of the sorcerers that go to The Hole. En keeps sending more sorcerers to try and kill Caiman since Caiman has been going around killing all of the sorcerers sent into the city. Caiman, has 2 paths of reversing the lizard head magic. One being kill the sorcerer that cast it on him, hence why he has been on a killing frenzy to hopefully kill the right one and poof he is *fixed*. Other option being that he finds out information of who the person is that did this to him and have them reverse it. However, with sorcerers in caimans world being the main killers and ones that torment his people… that is not a likely solution and one he could care less about. Moreso since he is amnesia struck after the incident that made him like he is now.

Rest of the details would be in regards to world building and such that happens episode to episode. Really not a lot that happens. First half is exploring The Hole, while the second half is exploring the sorcerers world. Both parts have their sub characters for each side. These characters are fleshed out enough to be cared about while not being pushed to be too important.

Visuals/Music:

Visuals are quite different. It is MAPPA however, and MAPPA knows anime. While it is CGI based, it is a very well done mix between the backgrounds and foregrounds. After the first episode, the viewer should be used to it. Animation of characters is still eh… mainly due to the CGI and how it works. It flows nicely with the aesthetic of the show though by not looking out of place too much. The fight scenes are not shy to show blood, guts and gore, sort of a MAPPA signature of not backing down from the intense moments. It is not over the top, and is also done in a way that is good enough to match with the rest of the show while keeping immersion. There was not a point where immersion should be broken due to CGI related problems. Pausing on most scenes with backgrounds is pleasing. Backgrounds being in the instances of Caiman in bed waking up and the room itself holding a lot of detail, pausing when they are in an alleyway and observing how the walls are architected  or even the panning landscapes of the city itself. With better CGI implementation to get rid of the jankiness of the movements feeling wrong or off at times being the main complaint and main reason it wouldn’t be perfect visuals for what the show is.

All the music and OSTs are very nice too. They are not amazing yet do not need to be. They are good for the scenes, keep the viewer immersed while not seeming out of place. Sound effects and OST’s are done right. Topping off with multiple ending songs, 6 to be exact. Each with their own feeling that goes with the episode. It is pretty crazy to have this many for such a short show. Only one opening but that honestly doesn’t matter too much since every ending song is on par with the openings quality. Very easy to listen through the ending before the next ep and realize the ending is already over. The visuals for the second endings first few seconds are probably my favorite. The forth are a close second. Both very simplistic where one is Caiman walking and the other is a *family pet*of En looking around. Can go either way with all of them though, all great songs.

Final Thoughts:

Dorohedoro is a strange one. It is an easy recommendation to most people though. There is a lot of craziness that happens and the characters from both Ens side and Caimans side offer a pleasant contrast with eachother. Especially when they interact. The baseball game episode was one of the standout funny moments.

The show itself could easily be a lot better or pop off so to speak. There is a lot of potential with all the world building that had been done. If the main casts characters would be fleshed out more with a better story progression it would easily go up in ranks. Main turnoff will be the CGI for most. Although I would say that the CGI here is quite easy to get used to and overlook due to the experience and ride this anime will bring. It really does have a cult classic feeling to it even though it is not a classic yet.

Final thing is that all of the personas and how easygoing really sheds off onto the viewer with every ep. Especially with how smooth Caiman is with things that happen, namely his new job interaction that happens mid series when he goes to the sorcerers world lol.

Characters (main) – 3/5

Characters (sub) – 3/5

Enjoyment – 3/5

Visuals – 4/5

Music – 4/5

Story – 3/5

Overall Ratings - Rec: 3/5 Raw: 66%

Time to Complete – 33:20 hr:min
Time to 100% collectables – 47:00

NOTICE: Galaxy difficulty

The Main Game –

With our boi Edge…er, Raymond, not Edge. They look similar, might be related by generations apart. Anyways the game starts out with a selection between either Laeticia or Raymond. Similar to an older Star Ocean game from the series. Depending on the character chosen, the story will unfold from their perspective. Only an optional character is locked behind the person chosen. Neither is necessary. I chose Raymond. Did not enjoy the game as much as expected so will not be playing as Laeticia’s perspective. Might in the future if the urge to play again ever arises. Overview of story will be from Raymonds selection and no contrast comparison between the two.

Taking place in the year 583 SD, Ray is a captain of his families Lawrence Logistics and helms the Ydas. In the opening scenes the Ydas is approached by a Pangalactic Federation battleship, The Astoria. Without warning they are fired upon and forced to flee. They flee to the nearest planet the game primarily resides around, which is in the Aster System [Aster IV]. With a successful escape in escape pods, an unfortunate thing happens where Ray is separated from his crew. The first thing that Ray does when landing is worry about finding the rest of his crew. However, this is where some locals come in. Our girl Laeticia is one of them with her faithful Alberd. Alberd being a bit aggressive towards Ray for a obvious reason. They saw a foreign object fall from the sky and a strange man immerge from it. This world has not developed enough to comprehend the concept of flying globally let alone galactic or above. With the curiosity that Laeticia has towards Ray, she asks for his help and in return will help him find his friends/crew who also crashed onto the planet.

Laeticia asks to find a person called Midas and in finding this person, save her kingdom that is on the brink of war with another nation called The Vey’l Empire. With the agreement had and Alberds skepticism, they are off to find the wizard… which oddly is fairly accurate in this scenario.

Once they reach the ruins, guided by the help of Laeticia and Alberd’s knowledge of the terrain to get to where this escape pod crashed, they are met with a odd fate. It is not a crewmate, however it is a companion, or at least soon to be one. DUMA. DUMA was part of the cargo that the Ydas was carrying and unbeknownst to them is a living thing of sorts. IT clings to Ray and offers support in the form of battle and other services :mrclean:. The small gang heads to the nearest village to discuss things further about the plan of action.

With a plan set on how to hopefully track down this illusive wizard, in the morning they head out and to a town called Derlryk. Delryk is where somebody that was closely connected to Midas resides. In search of Marquis, who hopefully knows of Midas’s whereabouts, appears to be doing some sort of research in the mines. Yet when they leave, a tragic event happens that the mines are under an event of great havoc. Pure coincidence obviously, since how else would such a convenient trail of events be occurring one after another. Anyways, Marquis’s assistant who claims to only be 15, heads with them down into the mines. ~~she don’t look no 15, yet the loading screen info cards displayed such info, unbeknownst to me until about several hours into game lol.~~ With a short merrily skip through the mines and back with Marquis in tow, things are settled with some interesting wormies curved back to their holes. Yet even after this definite struggle to bring Marquis back safe, he still refuses to tell us where the Magic man is hiding. Keep your secrets we say as Nina then says, lets do a bamboozling to this old man and pull a fast one on him… and by that I mean lets all tell him we are leaving on this adventure to the port town Rythal.

Oddly when we make it to the city, things are off. Everything is dull, gloomy and quite sad. This is when Nina explains that the state of a disease called The Rot is happening and is spreading fast. It is a disease without a cure and would like to research and find a way to make the incurable, curable. Alongside this, Alberd decides to play a game as well and collapses so he is sent off the local nurse clinic. The doctor here tells us that he is not able to cure Alberds problems and to report this back to Marquis. Due to this, we head back over to Marquis. Only for marquis to tell us that the man he refuses to disclose the location of is the only one that is going to be able to fix Alberd. This time Marquis caves and discloses the wizards secret location. And with such information at hand, the gang and Nina head off to officially find the wizard, no more detours for little girls on this trip hehe.

With the arrival at the village Midas resides in, at the gates, many a plethora enemies attack only to be felled by our blade. Midas, a bit unamused at such actions reluctantly allows us passage into the village for a meeting. Inside his home, he informs us that Alberds arm has 6 months to live, with the ability to fix it improbable. Laeticia is unsatisfied with such a response is interrupted by a distress call to Ray from Elena about her emergency pod entering orbit in line for a inevitable crash. Ray at once starts to rush out, but not before being stopped by the others, telling him that they will join along. Midas included as he exposes the route that can be taken for efficient travel to the pod. With Midas only really agreeing to join along due to the curiosity akin to Laeticias where they just love them some foreigners.

Quickly making their way to Elena, they find her in critical condition. Elena, as bae as she is insists that they leave her to die and is having a bit of a emo phase, death gloom and all. Ray of course, has enough of this and slaps some sense into her by informing her that she will not die on his watch and he personally will see to it that she is fixed back up and operational. They go back to his pod to collect the necessary parts to repair Elena.

At the pod there are a great many people surrounding the invisible pod that should be undetectable to any on this planet, given their current technology. Yet here they were, scoping it out and trying to pry their eyes into eh abyss of future tech. Quickly dealing with such pests, grabs the parts and heads back to Elena where repairs can be under way. Once they are, Laeticia splits with Alberd and Nina to find out any possible information regarding these strange people that were investigating the downed invisible pod. Shortly after a not so green eyed or people eater purple man attempts to stop both Midas and Ray. This purple man spews some mumbo jumbo that doesn’t make too much sense as he is getting knocked up, then retreats. Shortly after, the repairs are complete, Laeticia and others are back and Midas officially declares himself part of the gang gang gang. Leading to a return to Rythal so they could get to the Capitol. Yet Rythal is now in even worse shape then they first saw it in.

Rythal has been struck by The Rot, the uncurable disease. Midas is inflicted by the disease too, which means it is a necessity to deal with it now. Without him Alberds arm cannot be fixed afterall. Some investigating and use of future technology, a cure is made and a massive dilemma is brought up to Ray of saving or not to save the locals from the disease. Giving them access to tech they don’t know can and almost certainly will lead to unexpected consequences later on. Ray does not care and insists on making the cure through the use of future tech the planet cannot comprehend. Although it is using ingredients found on this planet so it isn’t all doom.

With Midas back to full health, everybody heads off to a port town called Cotto for procurement of supplies for remedies for The Rot. At Cotto, Laeticia is reunited with a long lost Theo, her cousin. Rumors spark of a foregner being the cause of the disease spreading. With Ray being a foreigner, he is prime suspect. He is in complete denial that the one spreading it could be his crewmate. So they investigate for both closure on this subject and the ability to gather the remedies to put an end to the Rot. Off to the mountains next.

Once at the mountains of Cottorinth, it is in desperate needs of help too. Things are not looking good with more of them wormies, and worse, a futuristic research facility that could not have been built by the locals. As they rummage through this facility and mountain, the foreigner appears. Luckily not being Rays crewmate and rather another one of them purple people. They fight, she escapes, the remedy for the disease is found. Happy ending for all, alongside the information that these purple people are helping the Vey’l Empire, are from another planet and are the reason for this disease. Hmm, more questions it seems and the pltot grows everso thicker.

Once back to the port, Theo sees us off and to the Royal Capitol we go. Bad news though, once at the Capitol, Neyan informs Laeticia that Chloe, who is the last remaining crewmate unfound, has been captured by them. She is currently being held in the Baldaar Citadel. A place that is the frontline base of operations for the soon to be war with the Vey’l Empire.

Once there, we meet the king, chloe gets released, some wholesome moments with best girl Laeticia happen and in the morning things get nasty. War at last, Vey’l is attacking. They are attacking with tech that is too advanced and makes it a completely one sided war. Them purple people really are helping them out it would appear. With such a disadvantage, retreat is imminent and the desire to complete a device called Fulga is brought up. Fulga being an idea that the three wise men were trying to produce 14 years ago, before the… incident. To be able to achieve such a feat, a special resource is needed. One that can only be found on the continent to the south. Off to Cotto for a boat ride down south.

As they arrive at Nihlbeth, Malkia, the leader of these lands makes herself known. A deal is struck to kill off some attackers in exchange for her helping gather the resource requested to complete these flying ships. And now a purple person stands in our way, not for long though. Before obtaining the resource here, since Malkia is around and Midas has to keep up a good impression, Alberds arm comes first. They repair is underway as more danger approaches the shores of the Kingdom. Ray stays while Laeticia takes her leave to check on things back home as the resource is obtained by our main man Ray. After finishing up, Ray learns a bad secret and coms are cut between Elena and him. Malkya is forced to use her secret technique and within a blink they are standing side by side Alberd. After a brisk walk here, door open there type thing, we make it in time to stop a unspeakable fate that was nearly forced upon Laeticia.

One thing leads to another, and Laeticia ends up hook line and sinker, becomes a bride to be. complete 180, yet she is smart enough to not ball and chain just yet so completes the 360 alongside the completion of the fulga. Cancel the wedding and cancel the kings life, or so it seemed. Marielle who is other best girl, is forced to break the laws and do them illegals tactic to save him.

With everything settled, its time to take the war to the homeland and Kingdom of Vey’l. Unsurprisingly, things are dealt with relatively easily with more questions to boot. Such as Scorpium, DUMAs exposed lil secret, and how the Emperor even got involved in the first place with these foreigners.

Anyway, with the old king gone and taken away… A new king was appointed, peace talks ensues and the war is officially over between these nations. Ray believes his journey to be at an end now and bids farewell to the people of this world. Yet we all know that couldn’t have been it. A Scorpium ship attacks Marielles The Akizuki and they are forced to escape back to Aster IV.

Twas Bohld’or, the emperor. He is not done yet. So, our journey ramps back up and we go to the crashed Vyr ship, where Bohld;or is hiding out. Yet again he escapes our grasp and instead is transported away on a Scorpium ship. Ray is not having this though and decides that they will pursue him this time and put an official end to it all.

After they all say their goodbyes to the appropriate persons, its finally time to take to the ocean of stars. This time aboard Ray’s brothers The Aldous. He finally made it lol, only took 80+% of the game. While in the stars, they meet a Federation ship that bleeds a bit more info and insight into Scorpium and how they are connected to the Federation. Mainly how there is amass corruption amongst the higher ups and they are called the centralists. A change of course happens, a battleship gets disabled and boarded, more information learned. JJ is Scorpium but the good kind, not the centralist kind. With a save of people here and an escape there, next thing we know its time to meet up at the Scorpium colony to get more information of the centralists. Since the Scorpium are a hybrid organic inorganic that share a collective cognitive network that can be accessed by organics. Information about the Scorpiums inner workings and how and what they are, is exposed. Alongside the centralists is an extremist ideology that may stay true to Scorpiums core objective is not reflective of the whole objective.

Centralists attack, they die, Antonia informs Ray that it is not over and they need to get to their homeworld. Rays homeworld Vergald is being attacked by Scorpium Centralists. Briskley as the gang can, they head to Vergald in hopes of stopping such war crimes from getting too bad.

On the way, the objective and true reason centralists are trying to attack Vergald becomes clear. Its for their technology of how Elena was created. The Symbo Drive. Making our way to where it is, inside Provenience Caverm, Bohld’or and Remington are once again to be faced off against. Of course losing the battle that is, yet this ending cant be right. Especially with the passing words of a should have been dead man not sinking in or making proper sense.

However, it all makes sense once they return to Aster IV to say their official goodbyes to Laeticia and the others. There is a huge Scorpium Spire above Nihlbeth. Well, goodbyes are not in order yet as that needs to be dealt with first. Rushing into the Royal Capitol we get a report on what is happening. With properly informed knowledge in an unexpected way, its time for the Spire to come down. Quickly heading over to the spire and making the way to the top, they are faced with the necessity to have to fight Bohld’or in the virtual network of the Scorpium. DUMA comes in handy when knowing the secret ways of being able to do so, while still keeping their bodies from becoming Scorpium fused. After a short struggle it is finally over and Bohld’or is defeated with a proper closure to the story and a heartfelt goodbye amongst eachother.

Gameplay & Optionals –

Similar to other Star Ocean games it is a realtime action arena style combat. Unlike the others though there is no dedicated fight arena. There is instead a zone that gets put around the local map area. This red zone that is indicated on the map is the fighting zone of the current encounter. To escape battle, a player needs to run outside the red zone, with some that are not able to be escaped from… yknow them being a boss of sorts lol.

In battle, a player is able to use AP. AP is what is used to activate skills and abilities. There is no basic attack or mp, it is all AP bar based. The AP bar starts out as 5 bars, doing blindsides and surprise battles. Very annoying that this is the design choice. Not terrible and does force a player to play more proactive in learning the mechanics. Although not necessary to really get in depth learning on them since the lowest amount 5 is enough to do any type of skill at least one time. A max amount of 15 AP can be acquired. These AP gains are not permanent. Anytime the player is killed or knocked back/down while controlling said character, will result in a AP reduction. So that does mean a quick swap of unavoidable situation that would otherwise lead to AP loss will avoid the negative impact. Oddly this is how the game wants to be played. Swapping through the characters and chaining combos one to the next. Honestly I did not feel that strongly about it and refused to constantly swap characters. Played as my main man Ray from start to finish with little time between each of the others. Not able to properly gauge their abilities since I did not spend a lot of time on them to learn their playstyle. Skills are learned through SP and upgraded via the same SP. Each skill learned will need to be equipped on the battle chain combo screen.

Shotgunning some generic carryover combat related gameplay is, status buffs and ailments ranging from confusion, frozen, burn ect, they are here, certain targets have weak zones, target and destroy them for a benefit in the fight ~~or brute force it to death, either works.~~ Vatting, or ultimate moves are here, there is a vatting gauge instead of various other names this skill has been called in games. Dodge, like its dark souls to avoid damage… or knockback and AP loss. Even if a passive equipable skill for ray is to basically never have him knocked back lol. Target lock and selection is present, self explanatory, can lock onto a certain target, or targets weak point to have auto attack rush directed at that area. There is healing abilities, with certain passives equipped, never going to need a healer as it is inefficient means to an end. Some enemies cant be blindsided, be it worms with no eyes or stronger enemies with enhanced perception.

Alright with those out the way, there is a DUMA mode that can be altered between. Once is focused on defense of everybody and the other attacking for the selected current character. Each has their advantages. Defense mode being that vatting cannot be used in exchange for the other buffs. No limit to the number of times that can be swapped between. Swaps in an instant. With DUMA the well timed dodges will result in a increase of VA guage. VA gauge being the secondary bar under AP. This bar determines a few DUMA related stuff such as blindside length and is straightforward to learn in combat. Last thing is AP gauge will recharge when not attacking. When dodging the AP gauge does not charge to encourage smart uses of dodge instead of rapid dodge spam since there is an invincibility frame that can be boosted through factors.

Well before stating what factors are, lets start with levels. A player can level up to a max of level 255. Each level is the usual boost of stats by a tad each time a level up happens. Levels grant SP too. With the SP, it can be spent on the skill tree or spent on upgrading the abilities gained from said tree and IC, which is item crafting. There is an item called SP seeds and it will grant selected character used on 50 SP. A character can only max everything out if they get level 255 and only spend SP on everything but IC skills. Spending any SP on IC skills will result in the need to farm SP seeds to compensate the difference.

Items follow suit with the norm, there are healing ones, and status affecting ones such as active items that are bombs to be used on an enemy. Alongside items there is equipment. Equipment is as it sounds and is as follows on each character, Weapon, Armor and 2 Accessories. Each character has their own specific weapon type while armor can be somewhat mixed around and accessories are freely used between any of the party. Item creation is something that is unlocked through completing Welches demands. Each quest completed unlocks more and more of the possible crafting capabilities. Early use and abuse of crafting will break the game, so be forewarned. Crafting covers things from upgrading mined type ores to higher tiers, crafting any item ect. Even crafting of Es’owa pieces.

Es’owa is a side mini game. There are tons of people that when interacted with will want to match up and fight. The game is fun and worth the effort. As every piece obtained is an accessory. With some of the most powerful factors being obtained through these pieces. A nice lil nod to the other games is how each piece is a character from the verse. Good memory tester for the previous star ocean games that’s for sure. In Es’owa there is a deck that is put together with these pieces. A max of 4 pieces that are the same can be included in the deck. Each piece varies in abilities related to the game itself and is fun to see what the strongest deck can be created from pieces available is. In each game, there is a chess board style and the goal is to summon your pieces onto the field and have them deal enough damage to 0 the opponents health bar. Once opponent hits 0 health, then that player wins. There are some quirks such as surrounding a opponents piece will send it to the graveyard, or pro status blockade a large group of pieces to wipe them all off the board. Careful as the enemy can counter such moves at times as easily as the play is set up.

Sometimes these opponents are found in inns. There is something else that can be done in inns though and that is resting. There is an option to eat or regular sleep. Regular sleep offers no bonus, sleeping offers a bonus listed for the selected food. In combat these boosts can be very useful. Health persists battle to battle so it is wise to make use of inns when needed since items used to heal can go quick… alternatively set a certain 2 passives and never worry about healing heh.

Outside the inn, well that’s towns and what towns have to offer is quests. Quests are usually fetch or basic types that are very straightforward. Some offer good items, others are more of completionist reasons to want to finish them out. Scattered throughout a town will be DUMA points. These points are used to boost DUMA skills. These skills are useful in combat or on the main out of combat field depending on whats selected. They can only be upgraded by finding a certain amount of the DUMA crystals. Also in towns is where secret private actions occur. Each character has their own private actions that are needed to be seeked out to see. These are the only missable things in here. Make sure to visit everywhere and everything.. often or look a guide up to not miss them. These interactions will lead to an increase connection with whatever characters they take place with. Once the relationship is at a certain point there is a bonus near the end of the game for each that has obtained the certain tier. Err, there is an item to artificially boost this too. Although doing so misses out on their convos and scenes that the private action provides. To each their own depending on the means to an end lol. Oh, do not fast travel since there are a lot of events that only happen once and if fast travel it will skip them depending on the location traveling to. Again a guide will walkthrough the times its safe or not safe to avoid missing anything like that. Not forgetting about factors, factors are bonuses that weapons can be found, bought or crafted with. A mac up 4 per weapon. Each factor can be mixed onto any piece of gear and is how the game can go from average dif to abysmally easy blink and enemies poof in a matter of minutes ~~via save scumming since every part of crafting is rng on rng with rng on the rng. Without save scumming, expect the artificially inflate time spent on game to double its that bad.~~

There are also these wee ittle bunnies. Find, capture and take them to the big bunny on top a certain hill and be awarded with various items and things. Some of which awarded are passive global boosts. I think that is about it for gameplay. There is a packed amount as expected for a JRPG… even if its more leaning towards a action based as time goes on.

One last piece is post game content. Gabriel and Ethereal Queen make their return. Each having their own dungeon and Santa shop. These 2 shops are crucial at the end for crafting. Gabriel has a trial of rooms to beat before being able to access him and da queen has 24 floors of *challenge*. With both they start with 2 wings and go up to 6. Must beat them both 3 times to fully complete the dungeons and must fight them 4 times total to gain enough of their drops to complete santa shops quests. There is one other end game dungeon that is found near the shrine. A quest alongside that is asking to kill some enemies in there. This place is called Den’mohr Delve. This is also the place that is where gold farming can occur. Wont spoil the secrets and discovery for that portion though hehe.

Sound and Visuals –

The sounds are good and keep a player immersed. None are out of place or seem wrong. Audio had no problem from start to finish. Which is something that the visuals cannot say the same of. This is simply put a poor port in that regard. It is playable just not polished. The remaster port of TLH that debatably has better graphics tends to run leagues better than this one, which makes no sense. Not much else to say since none of these points was very standout at all. They are average and do the job. The art direction however is something that is nice, its mainly the poor port quality that hinders it down a notch. Chests and such are hard to see on the world map. Items and enemies do not stick out, it sort of blends together without a proper outline or consideration for these factors. Quite a shame since a bit of polish would have excelled the visuals from good enough to a proper tier above their previous iterations. Make sure to change to visual quality over fps as this will lead to greater 1% lows and nearly eliminate all stutters. A high fps with stutters is marginally worse than a lower 40-70fps fluctuations with constant 1 and even 0.1% fps dips that cause stutter. Without enabling visual priority in settings, the combat and game was nearly unplayable. That comes down to the poor quality port and optimization. These should not be problems at all given the graphical fidelity of the game.

Main noteworthy thing that makes the sounds memorable is the intro song done by HYDE. The song Pandora is excellent and instantly went onto a playlist. It really sets the mood of the game and tagged alongside the traditional grand type of music star ocean has, very well done in that regard.

Overall and Final Thoughts –

This star ocean game I would recommend to others. Although it’s a iffy one at that since the overall time to complete through to the ethereal queen is low. At 50 hours that should not even have completed the base game story and yet it completed the base game and all post game content. For a JRPG and a star ocean game that’s unacceptable. Was not speed running it either to make matters worse.

Anyways, it is fun, the characters have enjoyable interactions. Although the cast is a lot weaker than past games, they do the job and are not bad characters. Ray has the same VA as Edge which is a plus and might sway over some to play it just for that reason.

I probably will not play this game again in any near future. If or when I eventually do it will be done through Laeticia point of view. There are various events that play out different from her perspective, just don’t have the will to bumrush through it for that though. If it was the last hope or other star ocean game… things would be speaking differently.

Also this is star ocean, yet not much star in this one. Only 4 different star locations. No dlc planned afaik either to flesh out space a but more. A shame on that part.

Wish the game was longer with more content and a hell of a lot more polish. Sadly, that is not what was given and what we got is left with a taste of meh instead of what the other SO games leave the player with.

Characters (main) – 3/5

Characters (sub) – 4/5

Enjoyment - 3/5

Gameplay – 3/5

Visuals/Art Direction – 3/5

Music – 4/5

Story – 4/5

Overall Ratings - Rec: 3/5 Raw: 68%

Time to Complete - ~20 hours
Time to 100% collectables - ~29 hours

NOTICE: Normal difficulty

Quick statement about the playthrough time… Well it is pretty short. By that I mean for a open world concept type of game. It would have been a big enough world if this game was released back in early to mid 2010’s. however it was not and it with many other games starting to take on large scale open world style gaming, it is inadequate when compared. However, when putting it in the scope of Halo franchise, then would be safe to say it is fair enough.

The time to complete collectables. Took about 15 hours, campaign, about 10. The remaining 5 hours was trying to figure out how to get the most out of my poor old GPU, a gtx 970. It does not have enough vram, and no amount of adjustment could fix that issue. More detail about that in later section.

The Main Game –

It is short and sweet, stop the banished from achieving their goal at all costs. While having Cortana linger in the background, slowly uncovering more details about what and why she did what she was doing. Or in short, trying to steer a bit better, given the mess Halo 5 was.

Everything takes place immediately after the ending of Halo 5. The infinity is near a ring and is destroyed by the banished. Atriox created the Banished in opposition to the Covenant. He did not like how him and his fellow brutes would be sent to their death all while needing to be controlled by entities that were not on par with him. On par being in relation to a brutes history of strength and brutality. Well, that and the false cause that was being pushed. He a brute though and while smarter than the average is still one at his core.

As the Infinity is being raided and destroyed by Atriox, Atriox fights the master chief, wins and throws him into space where he was presumably dead. Master Chief was lucky though… and this time only had to wait 6 months out in the cold depth of space until being found by Echo 216. Whose name is only given at the end of the campaign, so won’t spoil that bit. Echo 216 was able to reawaken Chief by shoving a massive cable into him to jump start him like a car. He is a machine after all. This time a bit too literal of a machine lol.

In the six months that have past, we are now shown that the halo ring the infinity was near had been badly damaged somehow. Yet the banished are still here and seeking to obtain control over the ring. A warship that EMP’s Chief and Echo 216 also happens to be in the area. Of course, Chief isn’t going to let it go so does what he does best, grabs a pistol with a single bullet and heads off to destroy it.

While he enters and explores the ship, it was a clear notice that the warship was going to be a major push to achieve success in capturing the halo ring. John, however, halts their plans. Working his way through to the cooling chambers and destroying them. As he destroyed these cooling lines, Escharum, takes a peek and gets a bit invigorated by the sight of Chief. Happy rather than angry about the entire situation. Since while losing the ship is a great loss, a greater win is knowing he has the chance to take down the universe’s greatest hero. As a nice gesture though, he lets Chief know that they will claim the halo ring, repair and use it for their plan.

While Echo and Chief head to the ring to finish a war and answer some questions, a distress signal is received. Both are unsure what it is but being a spartan, he is insistent on checking it out to save it, be it a trap or not. At the source of this signal, it’s where one of the purposes of the halo ring is, storage and saving of a mass many species are stored. Stored for later use to repopulate the galaxy after the rings are fired to stop the flood. Some basic halo lore put into simple terms to keep it somewhat short. At the center of this room where the signal is distressing from, an AI is found. One that looks remarkably similar to Cortana yet named `The Weapon`. This Ai is basically a clone of Dr. Halsey, which was possible and explained through outside book lore. TLDR, blue team during shadows of reach obtained brain samples of Halsey. The weapon AI’s purpose was to infiltrate the halo rings security system, play some shenanigans to bait Cortana, then once Cortana was there, lock and confine her there for retrieval. Chief would then complete the retrieval, bring this sealed Cortana back to Infinity and have her deleted. As many have guessed, that was not what happened and there is no more Infinity with many other plan changes. This Weapon AI mentions that Cortana is deleted, yet she herself was not for some reason. The weapon AI was supposed to be deleted automatically upon completion of her objective. Another mystery to uncover by the end of this halo.

They make their way to the surface. On the way up they find a dead spartan and at the surface see that a cylix is empty. One that is supposed to contain the Harbinger. The banished had set her free, with more questions added to the backlog about what is going on. On the surface Chief makes way through several Banished forces, then gets another signal, this time from UNSC. This sets the ground for reestablishing UNSC on the ring as the game progresses.

With this new signal leading them to a place called The Tower, a place that is meant to interrogate its victims brought to the place, also run by Chak Lok, Chief makes it known that he gon get some Soon™. Entering into this facility, a Spartans armor is found, a Spartan named Griffin. The armor was removed from him with him being at the top of the tower in a torture/interrogation device. Chok Lok is here to say hello… or should it be farewell. Anyways, Griffin is freed from the pain of the device only to die, but before he does is able to convey some important info about the banished. They are uncovering a place called The Conservatory.

Somehow the banished were able to modify a mining laser type weapon to mine through Forerunner metal, which is known to be near indestructible. After disabling it with a bit of backlash from an unhappy Brute named Brassus. Chief makes his way down to The Conservatory. A monitor is spotted and is spouting some words about the Harbinger being free while her exile was absolute yet she is now free. Short lived as she is being torn apart by some enemies and quickly falls out of sight while claiming she will not expose the location of `The Endless`. Curiosity killed the cat, and Chief heads down to where the monitor had fallen. On the way down, it would appear the nonsense being spouted wasn’t such nonsense after all as the Harbinger is communicating directly with Chief, like a whisper in the ear. Once at the bottom more whispers happen. Then shortly later the Harbinger is encountered with her going off about how the reclaimers are not the truth, she is the truth. And this truth is the endless, the endless shall be set free to climb to the top, not the false reclaimers. Sort of a conspiracy nut that is expressing that the Forerunners were all liars and full of lies, hiding the truth behind `The Endless`. She also shouts about how she is going to do a reformation of this halo ring. Instead of using the arc to repair it, the reformation would do what she wants. Details about speed not really known but the process is shown and expressed. Same end goal as having the Arc repair a ring though.

Chief heads over to the Spire. At the top of the spire, a sub monitor is shown with open arms. Even explains that the reformation is happening but needs a certain chain of events to happen first. He takes a brief leave and in that time Chief rushes to disable said process. The monitor returns with some not so open arms and believes that John is there to cause harm. Typical Monitor fashion has him attacking and failing to win the fight. During this time the weapon AI was unable to disable everything and was met with resistance from The Harbinger. To top things off, this spire has come to a halt, so John does what he does best and jumps out the window into Echo’s Pelican. The weapon AI narrows down what spire this interception was coming from and off they go.

Things are not so easy though and the banished have a few anti aircraft cannons deployed and ready that prevent the mission from proceeding further. Simple work for chief though as he simply goes and destroys them along with banished forced with ease. This is where the real goals of the banished are officially revealed. During the disabling of these anti aircraft cannons, the head big man himself, Escharum taunts us about how the place they are at is The Auditorium. Claiming that The Auditorium is where the endless are stored, with the Harbinger there with him and having the same goal. That goal being to use the reformation to repair the ring, then free the Endless, not fire it. Ending with a threat of 2 Brute Spartan killers that are on their way to take Johns head. Obviously, John looks a bit dumbfounded as he easily wipes them from existence and proceeds onward. There was a wholesome human moment for Chief connecting with Echo on some reflection of the past actions chosen.

Proceeding into the command spire that was the apparent source that interception came from to stop the reformation. Well, the Harbinger beats them to it and locks them out from being able to do anything. Plan B, head to a few other spires to collect information from their data to get a raw access key built from their pulses to hopefully put an end to it, third times a charm right.

Harbinger has been keeping a hidden gaze and during the data collection phase of plan B, it was a trap where Harbinger is going to attempt to use the Weapon AI in an attempt to start the spires and proceed with her plan. This doesn’t stop them from pushing onward though and with a raw data key potentially recreated they head back to the main spire, underneath it and into a place called The Nexus. Which the Nexus is shown to be a command center for the Spires located around the ring in simple terms. With the Weapon AI connected to The Nexus, The Harbinger attempts to take control. In response, John tries to initiate the deletion of her to prevent such an event from occurring.

With the deletion sequence being `Red Flag`, `034`. And `Samuel`. Red Flag meaning operation Red flag, a top secret planned operation that was meant to put an end to the 27 year war against the covenant. Yet was unable to occur due to the fall of Reach with the UNSC being pushed back to Earth. 034 and Samuel in reference to the first Spartan 2 to have died in battle… a spartan that died protecting John himself. It was a loss that weighs heavy on the Chief, changing him as a person to the core. The weapon AI counters this deletion initiation with John not understanding how she was able to break protocol. The Weapon AI responding with sadness of not understanding why Chief does not trust her and tells him that she was able to obtain the sub monitors encephalon. All this effort was for nought though as The Harbinger informs them that what she wanted to use the reformation for is already being done. Oddly enough, the reformation isn’t being used to repair the ring. Her goal is different than that after all. The Harbinger wants to reform The Silent Auditorium. A place that has no information stored about it. Something that the forerunners had tried to hide, relating directly to The Endless.

On the way out, they back to the surface, deactivating the spires was finally able to be done. Which makes the words of the Harbinger all the more ominous. It would have appeared she was wrong, and it was not too late to stop what she and Banished were doing. As they were just about to leave, The banished stalker finally makes his appearance, taking Echo 216. Chief is frantic and tries to stop it but is unable. Followed immediately by telling the Weapon AI to open a portal to wherever he is being taken so he can go save him. Linking back to earlier connection moments those 2 just finished having for why he is more determined than usual to save him at all costs. Even though Echo is being used as bait to lure in Chief, Chief simply does not care.

Teleported to The Repository, John gets taunted and sent coordinates to where Echo is being tortured, The House of Reckoning. Quickly Chief fights his way to there. Peeking through a window on the way, The Silent Auditorium is revealed with Banished heading towards there. Bigger concerns are of the essence though. Making his way to and through The house of Reckoning, he is met with resistance from Jega 'Rdomnai. Jega 'Rdomnai being the one who had taken Echo 216 moments ago. Chief slays him in battle to push onwards to the exact location of Echo 216 with Escharum waiting patiently for his arrival. Upon Escharum’s defeat, Chief shows compassion towards him in the form of a warrior peace, since they were two sides of the same coin, both fighting for their people. Different perspectives and end goals yet similar on a more core level.

Finally, The Silent Auditorium is upon us. The place of Cortana’s death. The place where everything started and ended in regards to Infinite. A place where the questions posed up to now are finally answered. In the fight with Harbinger, she says that she has what she wanted, she found the Endless. With the next scene showing an unexpected person releasing the Endless.

With that is it finally concluded, ending on a sneak of what the next halo chapter will be… It is quite a ride. There is still many many more details left out to explore and encounter first hand though. It is quite a lore packed game. ~~including legendary ending and all audio log details that could easily make this section about 3x or more longer lol~~

Gameplay & Optionals –

First person shooter that started it all. Halo goes back more to the roots with a more modern implementation of features. Features such as clamber, slide, run ect. All flow so nice together with a highly enjoyably fluid gunplay. It is about as fun as Halo Reach gunplay. Only that Halo Reach has more and better guns. If the full line of Halo weapons were brought forward… then that would easily rank it higher.

Campaign is for the most part open world. The player is able to go around and seek out a multitude of activities. Activities ranging from destroying Banished towers, discovering skulls, capturing FOB locations, taking on Banished bases and more. Most of these map shown activities are optional and do not need to be completed. A player can rush directly into story missions if uninterested.

What makes a big shift from other halo games to now is the implementation of RPG elements. Not just adding a more expansive and open world map. It is very basic and primitive RPG elements but nonetheless they are here. Spartan Cores are found and collected on the map and can be used to upgrade armor abilities and base shields. Every upgrade does help, they are not game breaking or shift things drastic to a certain meta. They are also not needed at all and playing normally through missions would otherwise be like previous games, shoot first point later and kill all the enemies = win.

Audio logs add to the lore and help explains some things that are confusing at first. Such as the Banished or simply more intel about the world. They are worth finding and listening to. Skulls are the usual, however, simply finding them is all that needs to be done. No need to carry it to end of a mission, just need to find them on the world map or specific mission.

In a few of the missions there are mission exclusive skulls and intel. Missions can be replayed by hovering over them and selecting replay. With the replay option, it is possible to change difficulty, select enable or disable skulls for said mission as a usual halo game has it set up.

At a FOB, a player can summon weapons and select vehicles to use. The more optional objectives completed grant more points, with the points more stuff becomes available. Along with special variant weapons that are only obtained by taking out specific marked targets. Upon these targets’ death, a special variant of said weapons can be summoned at any FOB. There are also some marines around them that, if a vehicle is summoned in, they can hitch a ride with you for better or worse.

There is multiplayer and forge. They are a bit out of scope of this review and a player either loves or hates it. With multiplayer, it would be more enjoyable with all the traditional halo weapons instead of the limited ones available here. Time will tell if they get released or not though.

Sound and Visuals –

Sounds and OSTs are up on par with other Halo entries. They are enjoyable to listen to in the background when they play. Especially when a more original Halo theme esque one starts up. Really sets the mood and helps with immersion. No real complaints, except that more halo OST playing throughout the open world would have been welcome. Understandable why it was not though. A option to increase or decrease frequency would have been appreciated.

Visuals, I cannot really give much information on. When the textures rendered and worked, it was great. Even if it was at everything low. Final score below is determined by other videos showing max/ultra. For me, my gpu is too old to properly handle the game. It is playable and for the most part was 60 fps with some areas in the open world to dip below 50 for a bit. Not often did that happen. A few of the missions are standalone rendered areas that are separate from the open world. In these areas everything looks great. However, in the open world it is very demanding. The moment I was in the open world, most textures rendered as far LOD. It’s a shame. Could be a mix of poor optimization, and low end gpu by current standards. 4 gigs of vram simply is not enough no more for demanding open world genre games. Looking at the streams and videos of others that can render the game properly, would have been nice to view and give a proper appraisal.

Overall and Final Thoughts –

Honestly, it is a game that I do recommend to others. If there is any sense of halo fan left after 343’s… legacy has tarnished the franchise in comparison to hay day, do play it and give it a chance. There is a lot of lore and on the initial playthrough, was only moderately impressed by it all. Only after looking over everything, collecting and listening to all the lore did I realize how well it all does flow together. Looking forward to the next installation.

There is severe mismanagement with 343. As shown with the release and launch of their Halo games. It is usually constant let down and sadness that ensues. I will still refuse to purchase a new Halo game at full price until things hopefully change. The story has gotten a lot better. Especially when compared to Halo 5. Even though Halo 5 does have good lore… if locke was removed. There was severe amount of restructure around halo 5 and halo infinites games, further feeding into the mismanagement and drama behind the scenes. Original trailer Craig enters chat lol. Sadly, it will probably be another `make a book to continue the story then release next game that takes place immediately after the book`. Which doing this only further harms the franchise. It leaves people guessing and not understanding things without taking outside knowledge into the game to understand the story. Something that should not happen. The games should tell a comprehensive story that is contained within one to another. Outside source being the details and further relish for the fans to consume. If their games continues right when the last left off, things would be better. At least having a intro explaining/showing the time gaps between them for people to understand it all.

Characters (main) – 4/5

Characters (sub) – 4/5

Enjoyment - 4/5

Gameplay – 4/5

Visuals/Art Direction – 5/5 [basing visuals off of what ultra looks like from those with more capable hardware]

Music – 4/5

Story – 5/5

Overall Ratings - Rec: 4/5 Raw: 83%