Friday, August 04, 2006

Blood+ spurting from the nose

Putting a Blood+ pic cuz it's oh so fitting for my mizugi theme and cuz it's the weekend and i'm lazy to post a lot of pics. No no, the truth is i've recently been playing the PS2 game, Blood+ Souyoku no Battle Rondo (borrowed from a friend who's a fan). The game has an original story that only require one to watch some of the anime since it takes place w/in a span of a week between the anime story. It's a pretty short game and only fans need apply IMO. It's heavy on story ala Xenosaga as cutscenes usually a last a minimum of 5 mins to 15 mins. So it can drag if you don't understand JPN. However, you do have to stay awake as there are action events that pop up during the cutscenes that require you to hit the buttons correctly or make a choice ala Shenmue/RE4. The results of these changes the cutscenes. The actual action part of the game is pretty fun but is actually quite simple and lack depth of many other 3D/action games. It's basically a hack and slash game in this department where you basically fight and build up a meter and then perform a special attack on the enemy (there's only 2 kinds) and finish the enemy w/ a finishing move (pressing [] + X). But because the games cutscenes are so long, it makes this action part fun cuz you've just been waiting to do some killing. The game probably lasts 3-4 hours and much less if you don't include the cutscenes. it'll require 2 playthroughs to unlock all the cinemas which you can't even skip. With that said, i advise ppl not to purchase this game at full price. It's worth like 10 bucks or less. It's not a bad game though as there's a pretty deep story and the gameplay part can be really fun and has potential to be better. Fans should enjoy as it'll feel like an interactive OVA episode. I'm interested to see how the PSP game will play, though it looks like it's more in line w/ animation story over gameplay. However, i'm more interested in this month's second Blood+ game, Blood+ ~One Night Kiss~ as there seems to be more gameplay action. The Killer 7 style graphcis are pretty neat and fitting too IMO (w/ the dark setting), though i liked Rondo's style better as it fits the anime more.


some game news i want to mention:
DBZ RPG announced for DS
if you're savvy w/ the JPN lingo, a Bleach DS interview about the 2nd game.
Finally it was noted by big game sites (like IGN, Gamespot etc.) that the following PS2 games would be greatest hits,
- SOCOM 3: U.S. NAVY SEALs
- Shadow of the Colossus
- Ratchet: Deadlocked
- Jak X: Combat Racing
- Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves
These games will be 'officially' 20 USD on August 6th. However, I picked up Socom 3 and Shadow of the Colossus (gave SotC to a friend as a gift when i got it at Christmas, since i never got around playing it due to my huge backlog of games) today for 20 bucks Canadian. For those in Canada, if you have a Rogers Video near you, go buy it there as they sell the Greatest Hits games for only 20 bucks instead of the usual 29.99 CDN. So yeah, pick 'em up if you're interested in any of the titles.

Hisayuki updated his site today w/ a new top page pic and he mentions about the Dendoh DVD Box for R2. For those who forgot, this DVD box comes out on the 24th of November this year and cots a whopping 40,950 yen. Sadly my student living costs can't accommodate this. Hope a R3 set appears somewhere in the near future or i'll get the R2 set when i'm in JPN and it's on sale :P...either way, i will own the show sometime in life ^^.

11:42 PM Aug. 4 edit:
Didn't do too much tonight 'cept chill. Anyways, totally forgot about this, and my hisayuki related post just reminded me. So yeah, being the biggest Hisayuki Hirokazu fan, i just want to note that he's got a 2nd Queen's Blade book coming in w/ the 3rd wave of QB characters that i last mentioned. Her name is Elina. She'll be released in September and you can count on me getting it but like i said i won't actually have the book until october or november. It will be coming in w/ my other Queen's Blade book that i have ordered and pushed back for almost a year now :P. Check out HJ's goods page for some more goodies like a Hisayuki Reina/Leina towel and the fandisc w/ some awesome Eiwa art of his Tomoe and Risty. I'm debating on F.S's Menace as i decided to cancel his Echidna as there was only 3-5 artworks that actually look nice. The rest of the art of Echidna looked meh, mostly her face. So i'll wait and download before i buy Menace, though i do have it preordered. Also, the Megahouse Hisayuki Reina fig has delayed to September now instead of August (Nowa has been delayed to Sept. as well).

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

hahaha

somebody needs to tell those two girls that the heat will only seem worse with that kind of activity but, i highly doubt they care XD

R8 said...

well, they are just trying to cool off in the shade. it may be a bit too relaxing in the shade.

Anonymous said...

Hey man. Just been reading your updates since arriving home last night from holiday.
Much gaming went down in the local arcade - I left with Outrun 2 plastered in my records ;)
Got to play some new games for the first time too - Virtua Tennis 3, House of the Dead 4 and Virtua Cop 3. All very sweet, especially HotD 4.
Unfortunately no Initial D or any fighting games aside from Virtua Fighter 4 but oh well.

Anyway, I'm trying to keep up with all the recent gaming news over the past 10 days or so...I think I've seen all the big announcements like Jump Superstars 2 etc. That game will be cool with online play.
Oh yeah, I got the DS browser just before I left. Very cool for portable internet use, the only real downside being the lack of video support.

Haven't had much time to play Bleach HtS 3 much lately but I'll be flat out with that, Tekken DR and Ultraman once I'm done charging. From the brief time I spent it seems so much bigger than the other 2 games with loads to do etc.

Anyway, that's pretty much it. I'm missing the 4 hours of anime per day that shows in Barcelona (so much good stuff like One Piece uncut) but I have a nice little backlog of DVDs to get through ;)

Talk to you soon!

R8 said...

@ johnny: hey, hope you had fun in spain!
i'm surprised, some of those games are pretty new. It's kind of a bummer that there's no fighting games 'cept for VF4 (Final Tuned?). Yeah, that lack of vid support does kinda suck i heard and is one of the reason my buddy tells me why he won't get it yet.
HtS 3 is bigger and more fun cuz of the immense upgrade in characters. It's still essentially the same old HtS fighting engine (which IS sorta meh). Still, for fans like us who gives a fuck?

Anonymous said...

Yeah, the new stuff surprised me. I didn't have all that much money with me so I couldn't go crazy with playing stuff as I had to eat etc, but I definitely got a lot of gaming in. I seriously hope HotD 4 gets a PS3 port at some point.
As for VF4, I think it was just the bog standard one. I was tripping out as at first I thought it was VF 5 but alas, it wasn't to be :P

About the DS browser, it's super sweet for like browsing forums and stuff at night in bed or whatever. I don't usually post on forums using it though, just cool for a quick check.
This site is a nightmare though with all the pics! XD

Anonymous said...

was kinda wonderin if thats actually in the blood+ episode.ive only seen the show on adult swim so obviously they wouldnt show it. can someone let me know?