One of the Best Ever.

On the topic of anime, this season lacks a lot of something. Fall usually bring something good. While Summer was usually the weakest in term of offer. Summer 09 had Bakemonogatari, Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 and Umineko. Fall? Not so much. With the exception of Darker than Black, IF you liked the first.

On the bright side, the bullshit “Vit LK with no AGI hitting 190 aspd” is gone. But at what cost?

Two-Handed Quicken + Berserk Pot

No Buff.

Is it some kind of fucking joke? My pre-renewal Knight hit 183 ASPD with 80 AGI and 2HQ, 80 AGI pre-renewal would be something like 100-110 in Renewal.

We get -15 ASPD penalty for wielding a shield, that is the heaviest penalty of all class. We are talking about a class designed, from afar, after knights in real world. In other words, professional and trained soldiers. To add to the injury, its specialization, two-handed swords, get mediocre to average ASPD. We are talking again about a character class supposed to be WARRIORS, not your pencil-armed scholar. I am really starting to believe that someone, in the Gravity staff, hates the Knight class with a burning passion.

To give you an idea, Guilltone Cross class (the assassin evolution) can hit 180 with as much AGI as the RK in the screenshots AND less buffs than a Rune Knight.

As a AGI Knight player, I am MORE than angry here. I am even more angry when others serves me the LOL FRENZY argument. It’s fucking bullshit, no LK/RK in his right mind would activate Frenzy unless he knows he is going to die and that he needs an extra boost before the death. Moreover, Frenzy get OWNED by Dispell. So, here you go FRENZY and suddenly LOL you are down to 0SP and 1HP.

Then I read “lol get a ASPD song Minstrel”. Are you fucking kidding me? Have you seen the current party mentality of RO? Even with Renewal, it have not changed that much.

Just remember when the 3rd classes were announced:

“Looks like a fast attacking type.”

BOLDED AND UNDERSCORED.

What do we have now? Our class, two-handed swords specialists, HAVE TO DISARM THEMSELVES AND PUNCH THE FOES TO HOPE TO REACH 190 ASPD! What kind of shit is that? Seriously, fuck, I want to be able to hit 180ish ASPD with at least 90-100 base AGI with 2hQ and berserk potion SOLO. Hitting 190 with frenzy only serve to ice the cake. Leave the 190-193 ASPD to the extreme ASPD Full AGI High Dex RKs!

What we knight players get now is the equivalent of being bitchslapped while we are all chained, gagged and shackled.

Fuck that.

Take a simple setting: Zombie apocalypse.

Zombie apocalypse is one of the premises, along with the good old “quest for revenge“, that will never get old on me.

Then take a strategy: Stationary Defense.

It works in some case, it don’t in others. In the context of a tower defense game like Plants vs Zombies, it is viable.

Then take weapons: Plants

It sounds silly, but in the world of Plants vs Zombies, those are your best friends. + it is eco friendly.

Plants are powered by solar energy, it comes from… the Sun and plants like sunflowers and sunmushrooms (forget your biology class here). Then comes an arsenal of offensive and defensive plants. There are those that shoot peas, normal ones, freezing ones, repeating ones AND, upgrade of the repeating, the gatling one. There are explosive plants, for one use, zombie eating plants and zombie crushing one. Then for the defensive, there are the wall plants, the ones that explodes like mines, etc…

In the zombies side, there are the normal zombies, those with many kind of protections like doors, buckets, etc… Then there are those that tries to get around your protections by pole vaulting, pogo hopping or some even rides dolphins. And others digs underground to eat your defense from behind.

At the start of a level, you are given a limited number of slots with a limited number of seeds for your lawn. You are also shown what kind of zombies you are facing. If you are seeing a Digger, you may want to choose a mine or/and a plant that shoot forward AND backward. If you see one that flies with a balloon, a cactus in your arsenal may be a good idea.

The management comes in the form of what to pick, what is cheap but efficient for the level. This is especially true in the night levels where sun power don’t come as easy, safe for the sunshrooms (you can be balls-out and take the sunflower). There are also the terrain that works against you, the pool is one example, another example would be the presence of fog, then the time of the day. At the moment, night + pool + fog is the worst to me.

Completing levels gives you new plants, and may unlock mini-games for great replay value. Another catch of these mini-game is the money reward that allow you to buy new toys from Crazy Dave, the shop owner and, I think, your neighbor who also brief you on some missions.

This is an addictive and excellent game that works even on those that sucks in tower defense games like I do. I think that the only way to make it more awesome would be some kind of online mode where one side can be the gardener, and the other play the zombies. Try it.

I have been messing around a lot, especially Sanae Kochiya A. For a very stupid reason:

Her spellcard

Yes, a motherfucking huge snake. Of course, her other mode is as fun, her spellcard B is like FROG NUKE! In other word, she let something that looks like a vortex go. Then after roughly two seconds, the thing go off like a nuclear explosion.

The game is not really forgiving, you tend to lose a lot when you lose your life, the scoring system with the ufo is rather fun to do in the middle of a heated grazing session.

More about the UFO system thanks to Phean:

Gaining life/bomb
It’s quite new and it can be a blessing or a hell. First you need to gather the coloured UFO’s and if you have a three of a kind ( 3 red/blue/green ) you’ll get a big UFO on your screen to get shot down. Depends on the colour it drops different things.
Red: this one drops a 2/5 life and release everything that he had gathered. If you let him gather up to 100% he’ll drop another 2/5 life
Blue: Everything he gathered he’ll drop and you’ll get point bonus depends how many he had gathered.
Green: Same as the red one, but with bombs

You also can have three different colour in that case the power item he gather with have double value.

At this point, depending on the character, and the challenges you set yourself, it is more profitable to go for bigger score, more life or more bomb. As example, Sanae’s shots tends to be on the weaker side, but it is offset by her bombs, especially Frog Nuke; therefore, going for bombs and lives first over scoring may not be a bad idea.

The UFO system pushes the player to be a little more audacious and daring. Especially when you are in need of those life, bomb or score bonus and seek a special combination. More than often, you’ll find yourself in trouble for grazing in a bad spot while you were pursuing the ufo that switched to the color you wanted.

On the bosses. One of them, the headtowel wearing trap/reverse trap makes me wonder what the hell ZUN has been drinking again. So now Gensokyo is welcoming folks from 1001 Nights? Oh well, after lunar aliens and vampires, nothing should surprise me anymore.

Oh yes, TITANOBOA and Frog Bomb. I liked Sanae a lot already, thanks to Happy Flame Time‘s doujins, but now I am liking her even more. And Sakuya’s absence does not appear to me as much of a big deal. Maid already have like four games for her.

New Touhou in progress. Who in pooshlmer said ZUN gonna leave Touhou 4eva?

Among the good news, Sanae is a Good Girl playable and bombs as we knew them from EoSD ARE BACK.

Yeah, and Sanae is a good girl. Apparently we are having three playable characters. I somehow wished for Sakuya to be in, if not for matching the top 4 of the Touhou 6th Saimoe. But having the Wind Priestess joining the gang is a BIG recognition. I guess the effort of doujin artists have paid.
Not if only she joins Scarlet Weather Rhapsody in a patch…

EDIT!

Japanese artists are FAST

In before South Park jokes.

However, the link I posted cast a different light on the sentiments of ZUN. You can read here the legitimate concerns of a creator, his fear to see his own creation slipping through his fingers and not being able to determine what’s canon what’s not.
This is a feeling I can fully feel after having seen one of my favorite authors getting betrayed twice.

People then arrogantly claims that Touhou would not be the phenomenon it is without the works of the fans, others accuses ZUN to cling on his creation, wanting to keep it in his own private club of fans. Others blames the “poseurs”, those who have known Touhou only through the bandwagon effect, the memes, the Iosys flashes, the doujins, the musical remixes, the fighting games, the windows shoot-em-ups (according to this reasoning, only those who have played Touhou games since the PC-98 games since the day they were released should be called true fans).

From the point of view of a casual fan who have gotten introduced to Touhou through Twilight Frontier’s “Touhou: Immaterial And Missing Power”, what do he think that ZUN think? As a aspiring creator, I can understand this fear. When one create something, it is always good, as a great motivation boost, to know that people not only read/listen/play what you do, but also comes up with fanarts, musics or any derivated works. It shows the interest that your brainchild, characters or universe, have sparkled. The work, in this case, ZUN’s, managed to reach people’s hearts. But slowly and surely it reaches the mainstream audience, sooner or later people would want it to be adapted as a series or a movie. These visual medias have a bigger impact on the majority of people than any others, the power of images, etc… People, especially the casual and mainstream audience, would likely take the canon in the movie, series or anime versions as the single and undeniable truth, the way the characters should be, the way the story had to happen.

(examples are plenty. I have run across fans of the “Hellsing” anime, the Gonzo version, who outright denied its original source, deeming it as “kiddy action gore freak show”. Ask the average Joe who have watched the trilogy “Lord of the Rings” if he have read the original books. People who have only seen the animated version of Hokuto no Ken, and never read the original manga are missing out a rich story, etc…)

For a sane and self-respecting author, it is a thought that is not bearable.

This is also why ZUN keeps on insisting that fans who draw doujins, make doujin anime should keep on reminding the customers that their works are derivative works, alternate interpretations of his creations. ZUN is well aware that his fans and their works are one part of the phenomenon and one part of the strenght of the community.

Fans, I hope, are aware that the phenomenon keeps growing because ZUN continues to release games, and occasional collaborations with doujin authors (Silent Sinner in Blue), with these games, new characters appears, waiting to be interpreted.

It is because God (I mean ZUN) and his fans works together that Touhou is now the way it is. Fans are attracted to it because the characters’ personalities could be seen as raw blocks of clay with general outlines, these blocks of clay are waiting to be shaped up according to the wishes and personal vision of the artist or the writer. The results then can touch any genre and any style, slice-of-life, romance, action, horror, cute, badass, creepy. The symbiosis worked to the point that ZUN acknowledged some quirks from the fans as canon (Cirno being called baka or the nameless devil in Patchouli’s stage being called Koakuma).

By publishing this, I think ZUN wanted his fans to keep their heads cool, not to jump their guns or carry away over a doujin anime with a professional voice cast. If I interpret it correctly, he want the fans to still remember that their interpretation of the characters is still in their hands and should not be dictated by a audiovisual work (animated series) that is not even official. In the end, Touhou is still his creation first, and fans should always remember that. Anyone is welcome, as long as they gives due and rightful credit (the shoot-em-ups and ZUN).

PS: Remember, ZUN get $$$ only when his fans buy his GAMES. Not from the doujins or the musical remixes. Therefore don’t throw accusations of greed.

This is the kind of news that pulls me out of the DC Washington Wasteland, yet leaves me with mixed impressions. Maikaze, a doujin studio known for these videos, have apparently brought their announced project to completion.

This was drawn by a fanartist some weeks ago. Yes, be very afraid by how accurate it was.

They even announced the following voice cast:

Hakurei Reimu – Nakahara Mai (Mai Tokiha (HAX SIGN BURN EVERYTHING), Ryuugu Rena (Scary Yandere), Nagisa Furukawa (Dango Girl))
Kirisame Marisa – Sawashiro Miyuki (Shinku from Rozen Maiden)
Shameimaru Aya – Fujimura Ayumi (Ayano who always get her skirt blown in Kaze no Stigma)
Patchouli Knowledge – Takahashi Mikako (Caro from Nanoha StrikerS)
Izayoi Sakuya – Tanaka Rie (Suigin Tou, Maria (Paddo Ja Nai!))
Remilia Scarlet – Tsuji Ayumi (Guchuko from Potemayo)
Ibuki Suika – Toyosaki Aki (The green haired female lead from Umisho)
Hong Meirin – ???
Narration – Inoue Kikuko (Do I need to say more?)

If you guys have o effing idea of how they sounds like, here is a nicovideo link.

I like this voice cast better than the one from the video I posted some months ago.

Now that I think about it, the biggest unknown about this project is the genre. Will it be a slice-of-life like flip-flop? Badass action like Tohonifun? A mix of both? Trailers seems to point to the mixed genre option?

All the western fans needs now is to wait and see. C75 seems to be so far.

They are the choices of the japanese fans.

For those who don’t want to pause, the list is below:

Note: I do not agree with all these choices. Sometimes, I felt that the fans were too biased against the new voices, pulling ones I hardly heard (like Reisen’s).

Noriko Hidaka (Akane Tendo) as Reisen

Doesn’t quite compute. I’d have chosen someone like Ryou Hirohashi (Kyou Fujibayashi, Alice Caroll).

Saeko Chiba (Natsuki Kuga, Dokuro-chan) as Tewi

Good choice, I’d say.

Yukana (C.C, Reinforce Zwei) as Kaguya

I had Yukana for another character. I think that Rie Tanaka (Suigintou, Yomi) would be a fine Kaguya. Tohonifun had shown a Kaguya whose reason was wavering under the weight of her immortality. Somehow, Rie Tanaka can bring it out.

Kikuko Inoue (Belldandy) as Eirin

Just perfect. You can imagine her change of tone when she was just playing around and goes into her very serious mode.

Satsuki Yukino (Chidori Kaname, Shion and Mion Sonozaki) as Meilin

I’d have chosen Natsuko Kuwatani. “aru~”

Yukari Tamura (Nanoha) as Patchouli

Not bad as a choice.

However, for Patchouli and Meiling, I would have chosen these both girls.

Yui Horie (Ayu Tsukimiya) as Koakuma

Easy choice huh? I’d have picked Yukana (Reinforce Zwei) honestly.

Miyuki Sawashiro (Shinku) as Remilia

Talk about an easy typecast. I’d have picked Yuuko Goto.

Mika Kanai (Satoko Houjo) as Flandre

“Nee-nee!! Nee-nee!!!* break down*”

Takako Honda (Anko Mitarashi) as Sakuya

My choice? Sanae Kobayashi (Reinforce Ein, Ennis). She is not only an underrated seiyuu, but she is also a perfect match for Sakuya-san.

Tomoko Kaneda (Chiyo-chan) as Chen

Compute.

Yuki Kaida (Kurapika) as Ran

My pick? Junko Minagawa (Akira Ferrari from Aria)

Megumi Hayashibara (Rei Ayanami, Faye Valentine) as Yukari.

While Megumi Faye would be a convincing Yukari. Yukari’s playful attitude, big sister-like vibe and charisma bring me memories of Chikaru Minamoto from Strawberry Panic. Imo, Saki Nakajima (Saki Kijima, Dorothy from MAR and Chikaru Minamoto) would be perfect as Yukari Yakumo.

Haruko Momoi (San Seto) as Youmu

Imo, Yu Kobayashi (Setsuna from Negima) would be a better match

Mitsuishi Kotono (Excel, Misato Katsuragi) as Yuyuko

I think that Sayaka Ohara (Alicia Florence) would be a far more convincing Yuyuko, ara ara~

Hiromi Tsuru (Bulma, Ukyo Kuonji) as Sanae Kochiya

Oh japanese fans… Imo, Rina Sato (Haruka Minami) would compute more.

Ai Nonaka (Fuuko Ibuki) as Suwako

moé~

Yuriko Yamaguchi (Nico Robin) as Kanako

Somehow, Kaori Shimizu (Signum) would be a nice Kanako.

Yuki Matsuoka (Tsuruya-san) as Komachi

No prob with this one.

Kana Ueda (Hayate Yagami) as Shikieiki

Oh, the terror of trials in pretty costumes.

Yuko Goto (Mikuru, Bell Zephyr) as Hina

I don’t agree. Miyuki Sawashiro would be a better match :p

Yu Kobayashi (Lala Gonzales) as Keine

Aya Endo (Miyuki Takara) would compute more.

Ami Koshimizu (Horo) as Yuuka Kazami

I’ll go for Miki Itou (Takano Miyou), she’d be the perfect match for CRAZY FLOWER BITCH!

Marina Inoue (Kana Minami, Erio Mondial) as Wriggle

I’d say Rie Kugimiya, with a voice range close to her role as Alphonse Elric.

Rie Kugimiya (Shana, Nagi, Louise) as Nitori

My choice? Yui Horie (Ayu).

Rei Sakuma (Shampoo, Aika Sumeragi) as Rumia

This added more weight to my opinion regarding their choices, too little trust in their new talents.

I’d personally go for Kaori Mizuhashi (Vivio Takamachi).

Megumi Toyoguchi (Revy, Kirino, Winry) as Aya

Knowing Megumi’s talent, she can make a very convincing \SHAMEIMARU/

Ayako Kawasumi (Princess Henrietta, Shizuru Minamoto) as Momiji

I don’t mind it.

Paku Romi (Edward Elric, Nana) as Mokou

Perfect Voice.

Satomi Korogi (Chi) as (9)

I don’t care enough about Cirno. So meh…

Ikue Otani (Gash Bell) as Suika

I dare to say…. *gasp* Aya Hirano.

Mai Nakahara (Rena Ryuugu, Nagisa Furukawa) Alice

Do Fucking Compute. Especially in yandere mode.

A nice alternative would be Mamiko Noto.

Akemi Okamura (Nami from One Piece) as Marisa.

My choice would be Chiwa Saito.

To be Decided as Reimu

Who would be a fine Reimu? Switching from cute Reimu to Badass Reimu and Grouchy Reimu? Who? I would like to give my vote of confidence to Minori Chihara (Chiaki Minami, Yuki Nagato). I know some who would object to this choice because the thought of Yuki Nagato cast memories of emotionless voice acting. I’d say, shut the fuck up and watch Minami-ke.

Another choice would be Houko Kuwashima (Claire from Claymore, Tomoyo from Clannad).

So let’s begin the one for October 2008:

A like

Alice Caroll from the Aria series. Just because everyone woud like to have her as Junior. And I still like her better than Hinagiku.

B like

Bunny girl. I have written a small article trying to grasp their appeal. Maybe you’d need to dig it to read it.

C like

Chiaki Minami. Because the anime world needs more abrasive lolis like her.

D like

Dansen. It would not stop.

E like

Eirin Yagokoro.

　_, ,_ ∩
(　ﾟ∀ﾟ)彡　えーりん！えーりん！
　　⊂彡

F like

Flandre Scarlet. Flan ;_____;

G like

Genderbending. Can lead to great things.

H like

Hong Meiling. One day, someone will remember your name.

I like

Iku Nagae. Three words: Saturday Night Fever.

J like

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. As epic as a shounen can be.

K like

Koakuma. Cutest little devil in this corner of internet.

L like

Little Busters. I half-expect Kyoto Animation to pick up this one after they are done with whatever they are doing.

M like

Mountain of Faith. The Kochiya family is growing on me, slowly.

N like

nyoro~n

O like

Oyashirosama. Delicious horns.

P like

Patchouli Knowledge. Look at these albaster thighs. *grabs tissue box*

Q like

Queen bongiorno. Surprisingly, it was not as bad as I have thought. It had hawt Toshihide Sano artworks and a nice story about reincarnation.

PS: I leave the NSFW pics to Hemisphere lol!

R like

Reisen Udongein Inaba. Stupid sexy useless little bunny.

S like

Sakuya Izayoi

Greatest Maid Ever

T like

Tenshi Hinanai. She is M. Really!

U like

Ulver. Listen this.

And that.
Then you’ll understand why I love this band.

V like

Vampires. It’s a long love story between this genre and me. But I am discerning enough to tell the good vampire stories and the bad ones.

W like

Winchester Bros. If I had to choose between Buffy Summers and them, I’d pick the brothers. I enjoyed the character dynamic between the brothers more than the one with Buffy and the Scoobie team.

X like

Xena the Warrior Princess. Ok, I only picked it because one of the folks in IRC have a nick that starts with Xena. To think more about the series, it was best enjoyed if you don’t demand something on the level of the first “Conan” movie or Jackson’s LoTR.

Y like

Yukari Yakumo. The Embodiement of the Chaotic Neutral alignment in Gensokyo. Deliciously whimsical.
She was another Touhou character that slow grew on me.

Z like

Zettai ryouikki. Enchant Bishoujo. Blockers are not considered as blocking against the enchanted “Bishoujo” creature when she attacks.
- “NNNNNNNNNNNNGGGHHHHHH!!”

Here it is, my alphabet. Something I used to do sometimes in my livejournal.