Umineko Episode 7: Requiem of the Golden Witch

And finally the penultimate episode of Umineko no Naku Koro ni Chiru: Requiem of the Golden Witch – a tale of Beato’s funeral. As in other Chiru arc, the aim of this episode is to provide the much needed answers to the many mysteries presented to the readers throughout Beato’s game in the first four game. From the last episode, we saw the conclusion of Battler and Beato’s fairy tale with a fitting ceremony between the two, which allows Beato to have an eternal, peaceful rest. In episode 6 and 7, we learnt 2 important points that could answers the many questions posed in Beato's game: the incident involving Natsuhi and a certain “baby” occurred 19 years ago, as well as the key phrase “without love, it cannot be seen”. These keys were thoroughly elaborated in Requiem of the Golden Witch, which eventually answers one, no, probably two main aspects of a mystery genre: “who dunnit” and “why dunnit”. The third aspect, “how dunnit” was partly answered in the Tea Party, but it was only one of the many possibilities existed in a cat box theory.

To be honest, it was hard for me to write this review because there are so many informations in episode 7, and arranging them in the most possible manner was quite challenging, especially since I was planning to make this review shorter than episode 6 (but in the end failed).

Will and Lion, the main protagonist for Requiem

As a start, there’s probably a need to clarify the 3 forms of Beatrice in the story: The first Beatrice, whom Kinzo met in his young day, the one that grant him the wealth of 10 tons of gold. The second Beato, which is the Kuwadorian Beato, whom Rosa claim to meet almost 20 years ago and accidentally fell off the cliff. She was the child of Kinzo and the first Beato, whom Kinzo belief is the reincarnation of the first Beatrice as she died right after giving birth to the second Beatrice. And finally the third Beato, which is the witch of Rokkenjima night and the legend of the Island.

Episode summary (spoilers and tl;dr ahead)

With Bernkastel as the new Game Master, she decided to use a new piece, a new character named Willard H. Wright (aka Will) to solve mysteries surrounding the death of Beatrice. Will is a former ace chief inquisitor of SSVD, who once known for his ruthlessness, but now a good detective/inquisitor who cannot ignore the heart contained in a particular case. After reading much of the fragments of the previous tales given by Bern, he was brought to a new fragment, a new alternate world, which promised so many irregularities. Oct 5th, 1986, yet it was a different scene at Rokkenjima, because what took place in the island on that day prior to the family conference is a funeral – held by Kinzo (who at that time was still alive) to officially declare the death of Beatrice. Will’s aim in this game is simple – finding the culprit that killed Beatrice.

Since Will had read through all previous fragment, he found so many peculiarities in this world. Aside from the fact that Kinzo is still alive, he also was introduced with a new unfamiliar character as his assistant throughout this game– Ushiromiya Lion, which in this tale is the adopted child of Natsuhi and Krauss, and the true successor of the Ushiromiya family selected personally by Kinzo. It's not even told what's the gender of Lion as Lion's appearance was rather androgenic, but later it was evident that Lion is a female. Will also noticed that some of the servants (eg Shannon) seems unfamiliar with Lion, which means he is not alone who find Lion's existence strange. Additionally, Battler didn't come to that year's family conference, while the portrait of Beatrice which was hanged at the main entrance was not accompanied by the epitaph of the gold. Lion also had no recollection of the witch's legend, or the epitaph.

Anyway, Bern already set up barriers around the area, so unless Will and Lion solved the mystery asked by Bern, they will forever be trapped in that area. Will was granted with “Theatergoing Authority” – a power that allows him to interact with the person he touched in another world. Will’s started to investigate by asking various questions from almost every family members of the Ushiromiya family, which unfortunately provided him with the information that he already know (eg Rosa’s meeting with the Kuwadorian Beatrice, and Maria’s obsession with cult and magic). His meetings with Kinzo however resulted in some of the most important backstory of Umineko – about the Kinzo’s past, his meeting with the first Beato (named Beatrice Castiglioni). Briefly, in 1944 Kinzo met Beatrice when the Italian Army submarine that she board made an emergency stop at Rokkenjima, which at that time was a military base. It was during those times that the two of them started to become affectionate toward each other. It was then revealed that the sub also carry the 10 tons of gold which belongs to the Italian army. Consumed by greed, both the Japanese and Italian officials on that island started killing each other, eventually leaving the only people who's not affected by the gold, Kinzo and Beatrice alive. Beato and Kinzo, In the end, the gold belong to Kinzo who survived the incident, who then build his fortune and brought the entire island, building 2 separate mansion for his family and Beato.

Now that Will had finished asking everyone, he’s ready to solve all the mystery of the death of Beatrice. This Beatrice actually refer to the 3rd Beato – the witch Beato of 1986, and not the Italian Beato, or the Kuwadorian Beato. Will explained that there are 2 culprit involved in the death of Beato – the human who can create and kill Beato (the living cat in the box), and the human who can kill the entire concept of Beato (the dead cat in the box). And to her surprise, the dead cat is Lion herself. Will deduce that Lion is the alternate persona of Beatrice, because way she didn't even know about the legend of the witch. Basically, Lion is the same exact child that fell over the cliff on the incident 19 years ago, caused by Natsuhi's rejection toward the baby. In this extraordinarily rare fragment, somehow Natsuhi accepted the baby and the baby went on to live to be the present Ushiromiya Lion. It was also mentioned that Lion is actually the child of Kinzo and the Kuwadorian Beatrice, which can only mean one thing - due to her sheer resemblance toward her mother Beatrice Costiglioni, Kinzo committed the forbidden sin of impregnating his own daughter - the Kuwadorian Beatrice, and resulted in the baby that is Ushiromiya Lion. That explains the strong affection that Kinzo had toward Lion. And hence, Lion's existence virtually wipe the necessity of having the legend of the witch Beatrice, because Kinzo already had something important to him, which is Lion. Nevertheless, Kinzo deeply regretted his mistake and vow to atone for his sin by making Lion a proper Ushiromiya Head, or in other fragment, apologize with all his heart to the revived Beatrice before having his last breath.

With the mystery behind Lion's existence unraveled, it's time for Will to expose all the secret and truth behind the mysterious murder of Rokkenjima on 1986. For that, he asked the "culprit" to come forward and reveal the motives - the "why dunnit" aspect of the mystery. The motive, the reason why the culprit had to commit a game-like crime on Oct 5th 1986, putting even her own fate on the line. Another new character was introduced to personify the culprit - Clair vauxof Bernard. Clair then told a tale of her life which reveals the events from her early days to the moment when she solved the epitaph of the gold and become a true witch, which eventually leads to the motive of the mass murders. Her tale was told in 9 chapters in total.

Her tale began when she was chosen to become a servant at the Ushiromiya house at the very young age of 6 – although in actual she was 9 years old. The servant, known as Yasu, was the exact same baby that fell off the cliff 19 years ago. Somehow she miraculously survived albeit with grave injuries. Genji, fearing the worst possible future if Kinzo would commit the same sin again, decided to lie about the baby being dead. This whole tale of course would not happen if the baby did not fell off the cliff. Due to her young age, she still was lacking the necessary skills to do the regular work, so she often only helped other servant, while also completing her school. The fact that she became a servant at such a young age made other regular servants feeling uncomfortable, and for that reason, she was often scolded for her clumsiness and the way she often forgot to put her things. Until one day when she met and made a friend with a witch who often hides things she lost, named Beatrice (though in fact, she was Gaap in the appearance). Since the witch often pranks her, Yasu asked Kumasawa for an advice to avoid losing things. The charm she learnt from Kumasawa (string attachment and “omochikaeri” charm) drastically changed her as the witch often unable to hide her stuff anymore. At the same time, Yasu also developed interest for mystery novels.

Some years later, an incident totally changed her life. One day, she was introduced with the wonder of magic by Gaap, which totally charmed her and made her changed her way of life. That night, she told her roommate, Shannon (who is her ideal servant and was very close to her) that she want to quit as a servant and become a witch. And in that instant, she become a witch, erasing her memory from Shannon. And from that onward, Yasu become Beatrice, while the old Beatrice become Gaap. Beatrice feel content with what she had as a witch so far, but she still lacked something, as thought by Shannon – love.

It was somewhere in 1980, 6 years untill the Rokkenjima murders. The scene then switched, showing Shannon having a chat with “someone”, talking about mystery novel. It was a teenager’s chat, but eventually ended as what Shannon thought was a love confession, along with a certain promise made by that “someone”, saying that he will return with a white horse to take Shannon away on the next year. It was this incident that triggers the great misfortune on 1986. And that "someone" is none other than….Battler.

That year too, Battler’s “mother” Asumu died, and Battler got very upset that Rudolf immediately remarried to Kyrie, as if disrespecting his deceased mother. For that, Battler decided to forsake the Ushiromiya family and live with his grandparent of her mother side. Due to this incident, Battler did not attend the family conference for the next 6 years, completely forgotten about the promise he made with Shannon. One year after another, Shannon kept on waiting for Battler to the point that she suffers dearly from her love sickness. Added to her pain, Beatrice aka Yasu kept on saying that Battler would come back to Rokkenjima someday, giving a false hope to Shannon. Until 3 years later, on 1983, when Battler wrote each of the cousin letters, but completely forgotten to write one for Shannon. Her final strand of hope finally crushed when in one of the letter, Battler said he didn’t plan to return to Rokkenjima…For all these years, Shannon has been a living dreamer, creating illusion that is the promise made with Battler that she misunderstood as a confession.

Hence, Battler’s sin is not that he forgot the promise he made, it’s just that he simply didn’t remember making that promise. She’s unable to hate Battler, since he didn’t even break his promise, and this really hurt her feeling, because as long as she love Battler, her pain will always continue. Beato who feel guilty for giving Shannon false hope, decided to release Shannon from her pain, and hold Shannon’s bud of love to herself so that she can learn one aspect she lacks – love. And for that, she will also be the maiden in love with Battler and wait for his return to Rokkenjima in place of Shannon…

A year later, another miracle occurred as Beatrice somehow managed to solve the difficult riddle of the epitaph of the gold. It all started when Kinzo ordered the portrait of Beatrice to be hanged at the main entrance, along with the epitaph. Beato decided to try solving the riddle. It was indeed a very difficult riddle, which took her days to find clue and answers. That eventually led her to the Golden Land – the underground VIP room unlocked after she solve the riddles, along with the 10 tons of gold inside the room. Genji then came to congratulate her, saying how miraculous was it that the one who solved the puzzle is none other than Beatrice – Kinzo’s descendant herself. That brought her to Kinzo study, where Kinzo announced that she would become the new Head, and then deeply apologized to her for his past mistake (incest), and ask for her forgiveness. With that, Kinzo has no more regret in life, and passed away soon after. Nevertheless, Beato didn’t want to be the new Head as she already got what she want – learning about who she is. For that reason, she wish to remain her usual self, while Krauss becoming the new head. After all, her heart still was missing a piece – the return of Battler…

As a last resort, Beatrice finally decided to abandon everything and leave everyting to the choice of the roulette of fate, and the roulette chose the specific date – those days in 1986 as the day where absolutely no one could escape if the epitaph was not solved again. And with that, Clair/Yasu/Beatrice’s confession is over. Before she gave her final farewell, she want to entrust her final moment to Will – so that he could solve all the mystery behind the crimes in her games, as the last rite of her burial. And with that, Beatrice/Clair/Yasu’s tale had finally ended, all her riddles had ben “solved”, leaving her with no regret. Inside her coffin, there was the game tale written by Battler, which was probably the happiest possible tale for Beato – full with love and happy tale, most fitting tale to put in her coffin.

The funeral is over, and Bern released the barrier. With that, the core story of Umineko no Naku Koro ni Chiru: Requiem of the Golden Witch ended, and the funeral at the chapel Is adjourned…

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Man, this whole thing feels like Battler is the bad guy for making a girl cry. But its kinda funny that a misunderstanding between Battler and Shannon triggered all these massacre. Now the phrase that was so popular in episode 6: “Without Love, It cannot be Seen” made a lot of sense

Nevertheless, this game really give me a lot of surprise, but mostly in a good way. So many irregularities and inconsistencies right from the start. New character Will aka Wright. Beato’s funeral. Ushiromiya Lion. The Future Head, with Lion chosen instead of Krauss. The Silver Ring of the Head. Shannon stuttering, looking unfamiliar with Lion. Kinzo’s presence at the funeral when he’s supposed to be dead at that time (1986). Piece Battler not attending. Epitaph of the gold and legend of the night witch not existing. Lion’s existence was looked to be forced upon by Bern that it create many irregularities, even to the point of causing confusion to the dining table seat arrangement. But her existence also explains a lot of the mysteries in Umineko, since she was the other side of the coin (dice?) that represent Beatrice, Yasu, and of course, Clair herself.

A lot of answers were explained in logical manner, with little interference from magical perspective. The source of Kinzo's gold, the answer to the epitaph, the three versions of Beatrice, and most importantly, the "promise" that become the motive of the crimes on 1986. This episode looked better than ep6 because we’re served with something new and fresh. Free from the game board duel of reasoning. No more pointless word games (unless if you count the epitaph solving part). Will and Lion’s presence really made this episode interesting. Will was pretty incredible himself. He claim to simply skimming the notes of previous episodes given by Bern, but he still know much detail about them. He was also a rather tactless and unmannered man, but that kinda made it funny to see whenever Lion try to correct his manner (and Jessica's) of speaking to the relatives by pinching his butt.

Aaaaaand, another theme of this episode is…..WINCEST. I kinda suspected it at first, but wow Lion’s history definitely left me with a big gap on my mouth. Not often you find a novel, a game or a story that deal with this kind of incest. Kinzo got Beatrice pregnant with Kuwadorian Beatrice, then due to his burning passion and obsession, he got that Kuwadorian Beatrice pregnant with Lion. And hence, Lion is both Kinzo’s child and Beartice’s Grandchild. Would be “interesting” if there’s a fragment where Lion is accepted and Kinzo commits the same sin again. Nevertheless, Kinzo's past story about how he met Beatrice Castiglioni (nicknamed Bice lawl) was a really interesting one, perhaps one of my favorite moment in this episode. Those scene remind me to the current Battler-Beato (especially since the young Kinzo really resembles Battler). At least we know how deep Kinzo's love for Beatrice and why he looked like a madman trying to revive her. “I wont let you die. Take some responsibility. After all, you’re the one kidnapping me”. Damn nice line XD

The part in Clair's story when it was reveled that Battler made some promise with Shannon really surprise me. I mean, the person Shannon talked to was never shown, and it totally made me think that she was talking with George (without considering the person's interest in mystery novel). I decided to go along the story anyway, then its explained why. That's one of the biggest psychological mindplay that I’ve been tricked into. It feel weird to see magical element stil fused with Shannon and Yasu life story, because if Shannon was the one that made the promise with Battler, then it also partially made her the main culprit. But in this story we're shown that magic still involved when Shannon transferred her love to Yasu, implying that Yasu, the child of Kinzo and Kuwadorian Beatrice was totally responsible for the crime. Poor for her though, since the one she wanted to understand (Battler) didn’t, while the person she didn’t know (Will) did understand.

The Epitaph of the gold was revisited again. In episode 3 and 5, we’ve learnt quite a lot of hint when Eva and Erika discussed about the word play involved in the creation of the epitaph, and it was indeed a beautifully crafted riddles. This time, it was the Beato originated from Yasu, aka Lion’s alternate self were able to solve the riddle, with Will playing the role of explaining the intricate details of the solution to the riddles, from the way they start searching the Taiwan map, to the key word of Danshui Line, Qilian and Quadrillion. Indeed, a very complicated riddles.

Will’s answers to Clair's riddle of the murder in the Beato's game were rather confusing (all with Illusions to Illusions and Earth to Earth). But then, it doesn’t mater what method the culprit use to kill, because in the end, almost everyone died and that’s what matter. It’s like a cat in the box. Regardless of the red truth etc, nobody from outside know in what situation the victims were found etc, only those survived, and then died knew. When we open the box, we get a tale where no one except Eva survives. And since Eva died without saying anything, all the truth is shut inside the cat box, leaving anything possible with endless possibilities. Hence that’s why the motive or the “why dunnit” was heavily focused throughout this episode.

Will’s had show that Beato's fantasy is a mystery. In a way it was good that it’s sensible, but also, not that good because we still wish to know the method of murder, the tricks etc, even if they all are mere fakes. And all in all, the core episode of Requiem of the Golden Witch ended with a good note. That was the case, until the Tea Party. It was a damn long Tea Party, which is still part of Bern's tale, although she was no longer the Game Master. And it tells how the murder in the Island could be conducted from human point of view, with Rudolf and Kyrie becoming the main culprit. With Lion and Ange spectating the show, it become a painful experience for both, especialy Ange who was forced to see her parent committing murders and even seeing Kyrie admitting she didn't even love Ange. Of course, this is one of the endless possibilities inside the cat box. But after reading through the Tea Party, I don’t even know what’s right and wrong and it got me confused =_=

The episode was ended with the final segment of the Extra, which showed Battler visiting the lamenting Ange who didn't attend the family conference in 1986, and consequently lost her entire family. Battler finally promised to tell the truth of Rokkenjima on that day of 1986, and promised that it's not to be a sad or painful story. The final game, made just for Ange, awaits us in the Twilight of the Golden Witch, answering much of the "how dunnit" aspects of mysteries of Rokkenjima murders.

Great episode overall.

Umineko Episode 6: Dawn of the Golden Witch

Last year someone left me a message asking about Umineko no Naku Koro ni Chiru Episode 6 review, which at that time I’ve read halfway through. Then last December the English translation patch for episode 7 was released by the Witch Hunt Translation Project. Unfortunately at that time my PC, along with most of my Umineko materials were still in the process of being shipped from Australia, so it is not until early this month, when my package arrived that I was finally able to continue my reading. So I started reading episode 7, only to find something seems missing. After I recheck my notes for Episode 6, I realize that I actually haven’t finished reading episode 6. Probably I stopped halfway through due to my Honours assignment. No wonder I can’t even find my review entry for episode 6 -_-

Anyway, I decided to re-read episode 6 (refreshing memories since I already forgot most of the stuff from this episode) and for the sake of completion, do the review for that episode first, before continuing with episode 7's. Recent mystery anime (Yakumo and Gosick), plus lots of Kindaichi manga I read since coming back kinda revived my interest toward this genre, and that made me want to continue Umineko even more. After finally finishing episode 6, my thoughts on the episode: nice conclusion, but not quite satisfactory.

Battler, the new Game Master

Umineko no Naku Koro ni Chiru Episode 6: Dawn of the Golden Witch is the continuation of what happened in episode 5, which saw Battler inherited Beato's board as the Game Master after learning about the "truth", the sin committed by Battler that was often mentioned back in episode 4 which become the catalyst of the mass murder in Rokkenjima. This episode saw the addition of a few new characters which play pivotal role in this episode:

• A Hanyuu-wannabe who had 2 persona: a mystery novel writer, Hachijou Toya (aka Hachijo Ikuko) who claims to know the "truth" of Rokkenjima and wrote/forged many previous variant of Umineko tales; and her other persona in the magic world, the Witch of Theatergoing, Featherine Augustus Aurora, who observe each previous Fragments of Rokkenjima tales through Battler's eyes. It is the meeting of Hachijou Touya with Ange early in this episode that triggers the start of Episode 6, from the world of 1998's view.
• The Demon of Love, Zepar and Furfur (one of them is trap btw), playing crucial role in many scenes throughout this episode, from mediating the love of the couples, to the marriage at the Purgatorio Cathedral. The strangeness of this pair reminds me to Bonbori and Hozuki of Otome Youkai Zakuro...
• Moetrice, aka new Beato. Well, not really a new character, but she is essentially a revived Beato with the same exact physical features as the dead Beato, but with totally different personality - pure, innocent, moe Beato who is unable to use magic and claims to exist for the sake of Battler. She was the result of Battler's attempt to revive Beato who died at the end of episode 4. Although it was impossible for the old Beato to be revived, this new Beato can still be molded to become the old 1000 years old Beato (with the screwed up personality and evil grin). Moetrice met with the old Beato, one that simply play the role of the "witch of Rokkenjima night" which has no recollection of the Beato (game master) that died in episode 4, and throughout the episode, both tried to understand each other in order to become the ultimate Endless Witch that Beato once was, with the new Beato also learning much of her past thanks to the older Fragments lent by Featherine, in addition to her constant support to Battler who still battles Erika on the game board.

As mentioned, Ange’s meeting with Hachijou in 1998 tells much about the reality of many previous Umineko Fragments, when Hachijo admitted of forging all those tales, claiming they were the “truth”. She then asked Ange to read her new manuscript, which is essentially this episode itself where Battler play the role as the Game Master, battling against Erika who had sworn to avenge the humiliation she suffered in episode 5. As Ange read through the new tales, she gave her thoughts and interpretation about what’s been happening.

Erika continued her ever presence as one hell of an irritating, obnoxious bitch. As soon as the piece Erika arrived as an uninvited guest at Rokkenjima, she showed her arrogance and detestable attitude as an “intellectual rapist”, looking down on everyone’s intelligence while boasting about her knowledge. Not only that, she even involved in petty argument about the existence of magic against Maria, mercilessly crushing Maria’s child hope with her blue and red truths. It gets worse as the game started. Despite the previous defeat, Erika decided put herself in handicap situation by relinquishing her authority to use Detective Proclamation, the advantage that gave Battler so much trouble in Episode 5 (eg the duct tape seals that gave her power to create closed room and prove one's alibi). However that was one of her trickery to lure Battler into inescapable trap. A very sly and shameless acting by Erika and Bern then managed to fool Battler to give her 3 duct seals tape, which proves to be a fatal mistake by Battler as Erika fully utilized them to trap Battler into his own destruction.

Love seems to be the main theme of this episode, focusing on the love of the couples we've known (Jessica-Kanon and George-Shannon), as well as Beato-Battler, and the forger of this tale, Hachijou Touya (aka Featherine) cleverly incorporate this element with the first twilight of the game. Some of the love story early in the game were actually quite boring for me, although it holds much significance to the progress of the game. Kanon finally realize that he really want to be with Jessica and don’t want to lose to Shannon and George. There's a trick to their love however - since they are furniture, they're half complete as a human and needed the miracle of magic to succeed in their love. And for that, they need to golden butterfly brooch given by Beato to Shannon in episode 2. Since there’s only 1 of that Brooch, the pairs need to compete for it, at the expense of the other pair's love. That's when the new Beato somehow got dragged into the game, which eventually also drags Battler (the game master) into the game, as her partner. The pairs need to overcome trials given by the demon of love Furfur and Zepar. For the first trial, they just need to show their resolution to kill one person in the island. They all succeeded (some with nice fights, some with little effort needed), and coincidentally, these become the first twilight of Battler's game, with all victims were then placed in a comfortable "closed room". It kinda surprised me to see Battler picked his own piece as his sacrifice (since in all previous game, the piece Battler was never be the victim), but as the game went on, it was clear why.

Since all 3 couples passed their first trial, further trial need to be done to eliminate other couple, hence a direct duel between couples were held for the second trial. But it was not meant to be, because as the piece/player Erika started to investigate and reasons for the first twilight, player Battler was caught with Erika’s dirty tactic and hence unavailable to take part in the second duel. Battler’s trick for the first twilight was actually quite simple that it somehow disappoints me because it was far from unsolvable compared to the mass closed room trick that Beato showed in the first four games. Anyway, at first it was all fine for Battler, but his decision to grant 3 rooms worth of duct tape seals to Erika really cost him dearly, as Erika immediately use 2 of the seals to prevent the surviving people to commit further crime, while also using the remaining 1 on the room she suspect the culprit’s “corpse” was hidden. To make things short, various red truth that Battler and Erika use eventually came to haunt him and create a Logic Error – a situation when the statement of red truth conflict with each other which made the closed room unsolvable by human trick. By default, the rule of the game stated that for each of the mystery in the game which the witch side claims were the work of magic, the creator (aka the Game Master) must also design it so that it was also possible to be done by human trick no matter how ridiculous it was (small bomb anyone). Battler however was unable to solve that certain closed room thanks to Erika’s twisting word and trickery. Hence, Battler was trapped inside the room until he can find a trick which can solve the riddle…And with that, just like the 5th episode, the game board wa suspended midway through.

And just when all hope seems lost, the new Beato managed to regain most of her memories thanks to Kanon who earlier lost in his duel against Shannon in the second trial, and come charging to the Cathedral where the subdued Battler and Erika were, enduring various attempted attacks from the Siestas before challenging for one last time. Her goal is simple – solving Battler’s closed room riddle and frees him from the hell that is the Logic Error. She come up with new tricks, with even more ridiculous red truth that a normal human probably can’t hope to solve, which left Erika totally defeated, ending the neverending fight of the game board.

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So many twists and turns in this episode (well every episode did, I guess), and as usual, the game managed to stir my emotion in man occasion. The disgusted hate toward Erika, the sadness for Beato who try to search for herself, the pity toward Battler who lost in his Logic Error, and of course, the marriage at the Cathedral (contrast feeling for Erika and Beato's marriage). And again, once the red and blue exchange begin in the middle of the game, it’s hard for me to stop reading that I ended up reading for many hours straight, just because I don’t want the tense to wear down and had to build it again when I continue re-read it again lol.

Usually we saw the fights to solve the closed room and other murder cases done in the Tea Party or the Extra, but it surprised me that everything was finished in the same core episode. As for Battler’s game, I think he sucks in designing this game (or we could just blame Hachijou Touya for that), because as I stated earlier, his closed room trick was fairly easy to solve even for the average reader. Maybe it was partly because he designed it as a mere prank, only for Erika to spoil it with her own murder. But we got to feel for Battler. He always fought in disadvantage position in every game. I mean, he didn’t get the sheer help Erika receive from Dlanor when he fought Beato in the first 4 games. He didn’t even get to use blue truth until later in the Question’s Arc and had to rely on her own twisted logic to solve the closed room trick, which considering Beato was the designer, were almost impossible to solve.

The new Beato certainly caught me by surprise, and eventually, she really made me smile. I just can’t stop having a big smile on my face when she popped up at the Cathedral, with the overwhelming presence and oh-so-screwed up smile on her face and march right through the hurdles. How she regained her memories, I had no idea, but that scene when Ronove, Gaap, Virgilia and the 7 Stakes of Purgatory made way for her was really animation worthy. And the amazing thing is, despite her merciless and evil expression when she made her appearance, she was still able to show back her regular face when she spoke to Battler. Probably the best scene of this whole episode, too bad there’s really not many more interesting scenes. Jessica and George’s battle against their victims was splendidly done too, but still can’t match the great scene at the Cathedral.

There are quite a few things unanswered in my head as I finished the episode. The riddle part, like Beato’s solution to Battler’s Logic Error is already cumulated since even the first episode, but there are also other things. Like how the old Beato regained her old knowledge as closed room master after gaining the traits of the new Beato (who supposedly vanish due to her lost in the trial). Also, I don’t quite understand is the importance of the only gold text used in this episode by the old Beato: "You used magic to create a golden flower petal inside an overturned cup. It was a splendid bit of magic". Was it to deny the blue/red that it was a mere trick/sleight of hand? And Erika’s sudden Yuri conversation with Dlanor in her guest room, what the f%^# was that?

Anyway, since everything’s settled in the main core episode, so what did the Tea Party and the Extra left us? Not much, but it was a significant one. There’s the rreal marriage ceremony of Battler and Beato, which marked the end of their game board and in accordance to the epitaph, satisfied Beato and put to her sleep… I’m not sure if I’d be happy with this. Anyway, now that the tale has ended, Ange gave her final thought and excuse herself, whilst also wondering if she actually ever met Hachijou (since in episode 4, they went straight to Niijima before going to Rokkenjima). The Extra was a bit more meaningful; because we learnt that Featherine is actually Bern’s old master, and now that the game of Battler and Beato has ended, Featherine handed the game board to Bern as the new Game Master, all for her to satisfy her grudge toward Battler. This reeeeeaaally smells fishy.

Overall, it was a definitely a great episode to read, and most importantly, it ends in a good note for Battler and Beato. As the second episode of the Answer Arc, we expect to get something out of this episode that can answer the mysteries in the Question Arc. In episode 5, the key event revealed to us is the incident of 19 years ago related to Natsuhi and the newly born baby. But I'm not really sure what I've learnt from this episode, aside of the phrase "Without love, it cannot be seen".

As a whole, IMO this episode was less epic than episode 5 due to the lack (or the one-sidedness) of arguments involved to solve the case, which really is just a single closed room (2 if you include the rooms in the guesthouse), all for the first twilight; and no living/visible culprit to blame or defend (like Natsuhi in episode 5). The new Beato did made the episode more interesting (for me at least), but that probably wasn’t enough to cover the weaknesses I mentioned. Well, the end was worth it so it’s all good in the end. Oh and the ending theme “Birth of a New Witch” was awesome.

Episode 7 is going to be awesome, with some really intriguing changes and surprise, and provides more sensible answers to the mystery in the first four episodes.


p/s damn this is one big tl;dr. I want to make it shorter, but I feel many things won’t make sense if there’s no summary of the episode -___-

Vanquish - the [bloody] fast and furious

Title: Vanquish
Developer: Platinum Games
Platform: PlayStation 3 (PS3), XBOX 360
Genre: Third person shooter
Release date: October 2010 (all version)

The second game I recently ordered from Play-Asia. When I first looked at the gameplay demo on youtube, it instantly caught my interest because it really remind me to one of my favorite 3rd person shooter games in xbox360, Gears of Wars. And after about 3 days [or roughly 7 hours and 45 minutes, game timer], I was finally able to beat the game [in Normal mode]. Quite short, but in general I was deeply impressed with the game.

One word to summarize the gameplay - FAST. Fans of 3rd person shooter with Cover features, such as Gears of Wars will be familiar with Vanquish's gameplay. Yes, the gameplay had almost everything you experienced in GoW - emphasised on the Cover feature. Then added with some more awesome features - slow-motion [ala Bayonetta's Witch's Time] and dazzling sliding movement booster that allow you to move across the field at incredibly fast pace, all thanks to ARS suit worn by the main character, Sam Gideon. These flashy sliding movement is what makes Vanquish unique and enjoyable. It took me quite awhile to get accustomed to the gameplay, but once I got the feel of all the aiming [yes I suck at FPS/TPS in console], sliding and AR mode [the slow-mo features], every fights and boss battles become much manageable, and enjoyable.

The game on Normal mode wasn't hard, and could easily managed by players who are experienced in console 3rd person shooter games. The game really want you to fully utilize the sliding and AR features, hence most of the time you will find ourselves moving across the field at insane speed, while at the same time trying to focus on killing the enemies. Good thing the button was pretty responsive and you can go from sliding to covering and shooting without much effort put in pressing the controller's button.

Example of Vanquish's gameplay, utilizing almost all the features the game had to offer.

The boss. They're hard and require some strategy to beat, and you'll likely end up repeating the boss fights due to unfortunate death [especially the first boss fight, which took me almost an hour to figure out how to beat the crap out of him], but overall the fights are not the type that will make you wanting to pull your hair out of frustration. Again, exploiting the sliding and AR mode is the key in most fights.

In term of graphic, the game was greatly designed in detail, from the field, character suit, monsters and special effects during battles. It doesn't get messy even with with all the flashy slidings we made in battle. Minus 1 point for the character's facial expression. As for story, I personally think the plot wasn't properly developed [heck who care about plot in an action game anyway] as there are certain things in the game that weren't introduced properly [eg Burn's intention and the professor dude's purpose in the game]. The fact that the story was left hanging left even more questions unanswered, but it definitely signs that a sequel is coming.

Nevertheless, the game was relatively short and can be completed within 8 hours, but they do have replay value. As you complete each chapter, a new Challenge mode is unlocked which basically test your ability to utilize the game's feature at its fullest. Also, harder mode were unlocked once we finished the game [God Hard mode, and it really blows your mind]. Well, it also doesn't hurt to repeat earlier mission to improve your score.


Overall, I would say that Vanquish is one of the best game I've played this year. Solid gameplay with the flashy sliding and slow-motion features, coupled with awesome graphic and some replay value. The story was a bit weak, but then that's not the focus in an action game. Totally recommended for fans of 3rd person shooter games.


Verdict: 9.5/10 [amazing all around game]

Review - Resonance of Fate [XBOX 360/PS3]

Steampunk Slice of Life at its best

The time when the earth's surface is heavily contaminated with toxins to support living things, human resorts to create a gigantic Tower-like structure called Basel to survive, designed to purify the atmosphere. As times goes, civilisation formed inside the Basel as building houses and cities were built inside the structure, which in turn put additional strain on Basel's gears. As more people settled into this tiny constructed world, they come to repeat the mistakes of the past....

That's the premise underlying Resonance of Fate. The game offers grand experiences and excitements to you in a way you rarely see, both in term of gameplay and story telling.

Developer: tri-Ace
Publisher: Sega
Platforms: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Release dates: Jan 28 (JP); March 16 (NA); March 26 (EU) 2010
Genre: Role-playing game

Story: 7/10

Depending on how you perceive the story telling, I can say that the rating for the story can go from rock bottom 0 to almost full marks 10. Really, Resonance of Fate uses unique approach to tell the story. In jrpg, we often see how the plot-driven story emphasised on character development, journey and interaction with the antagonists, and in the bigger picture, how they are related to the world's crisis. This is not the same with Resonance of Fate. The story can be very confusing. Each character's background was vague, and even what's actually happening throughout the game were not explained properly, making things rather confusing to players. From the way I see it, Resonance of Fate is a sort of Slice of Life - not plot driven, lacks in-depth story and everyone is a winner in the end - pretty much what you saw in most slice of life tv show. The story focus more on the actual characters itself rather than the theories behind the world - the likes of Basel's existence, Zenith and quartz, and pretty much what's been told to you during each chapter. They are all significant in giving the rough idea of the character's background, but in the end what's importantly they are all live happily together - even though we never know how the world surface is restored, what's Rebecca (the loli demon girl) really is, and many more. We are free to speculate what's actually happening rather than seeing straight, linear plot-driven story. Hence, although the story might be poorly presented, the way it was told and how Tri-Ace made the main three characters revolve around the story without delving too deep into the matter were rather fascinating for me. I would love to see some kind of sequel where Tri-Ace would actually put more effort in explaining the story.

On top of that, Tri-Ace made up for the lack of story with funny and interesting characters, and a lot of comedies, on and off the scenes. All three of them are likeable, although I would argue that sometimes Zephyr can get on my nerve with his emo attitude, slightly. Vashyron with his pervertness and tendency to tease the other two; Zephyr with his "night vision" but always with that serious look on his face, while the cutie Leanne is, well, do I really need to say? She's almost always become the victim of the other two's teasing, even in battles. Hilarious stuff. On top of that, they are all so close and cares a lot to each other.

p/s: as I mentioned previously, there is a very good topic on gamefaqs board discussing and speculating about the story, which can be found here.

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/genmessage.php?board=959317&topic=54076899


Gameplay: 9.5/10
If anything, the gameplay is probably one of the most memorable features of Resonance of Fate, and quite simply one of the most enjoyable combat system I experienced in awhile. The game applies a unique modification of Turn-Based concept similar to what you might see from Valkyria Chronicle, and another Tri-Ace game, Valkyrie Profile Silmeria (opps..). In short, you control 3 (and the only available characters in the whole game) characters in battle. Each characters take turn to attack, either by charging standing still and charge/shoot or perform what is called "Hero Actions", where they run along a pre-determined path, shooting and performing various acrobatic maneuvers. There's more to that. There are more features to the gameplay, like Bonus shots, Smackdowns, Tri-Attacks (where all three characters attack in unison), Hero gauge, Resonance point, many of which are probably only made sense if you personally play the game or watch it on youtube or something. Simply put, memorable and enjoyable.

In battle, you can wield either handgun, machinegun or grenades to attack enemies, with additional MG rounds to deal extra bonus effects/damage. You can even dual-wield HG or MG for some extra kicks. Handgun allows you to deal direct but weaker damage, while machine gun deal regenerative but stronger scratch damage. While there are many types of grenades you can use - poison, electroschock, freeze, oil, simple hand grenade etc. Leveling in Resonance of Fate is unlike normal rpg - characters have their own guns/grenade levels, and a character 's level is the sum of each of their weapon - HG+MG+Grenade. Each maxed out at level 100, making it possible for each character to go to level 300 max. To add efficiency in battles, you can customize your HG and MG by adding numerous parts - scope, extra magazines, adapters, barrels to the point that the weapon looks ridiculously over-customized. Too bad these were not shown visually in battle. Anyhow, since the combat system really revolve around MG scratch followed by direct damage clean off with HG, hence only Machinegun is worth leveling to the max level because of the full scratch bonus, and the only reason you want to level the other two weapons is to get some extra hp (veeeeeeeery crucial for bonus dungeon Neverland). I'd like to give the gameplay a full 10, but minus 0.5 point because after awhile, the strategy for each battle become stale and you'd pretty much stick with one method - full scratch enemies with machine gun, then finish off with handgun or grenades.


Graphic/Visuals: 10/10
My, who doesn't like steampunk concept? Resonance of Fate is probably one of THE most beautiful games I've played in recent times. Remember the stunning sceneries in Valkyrie Profile Silmeria? That's what you see in Resonance of Fate. The cities and characters were beautifully designed that I really was left speechless the moment I start playing the game - simply amazing. Some of the downside as far as the graphic are concerned is that the the battle field lacks varieties- in the same dungeon, one room and another doesn't really differ much. One more thing, I would love to see the customised weapon to be seen exactly as it was customised, but thinking that at end game you can have something like THIS, I guess it's better not to show the customised part in battle lol.

What else. Character design. Another magnificent creation from Tri-Ace, far outclassing their work in Star Ocean 4. Imagine the fact that 8,000 polygons were used for Leanne's hair alone, with a total of almost 40,000 polygons for each character. Tell how much details they put on the visuals. Adding to that, you can play Barbie with your characters - A LOT, and I mean A LOT of costumes are available for you to play with. You can switch their tops, skirts, jeans, jackets, boots, belts, scarf, and even hair and eye colors. And the good thing, their costumes appeared in cutscenes exactly as you customize them, except in certain scenes where a character sticks with a white shirt. Beware though, since there are too many options, sometimes you might end up spending hours just to choose the best outfit for your characters!


Sounds/Music - 8.5/10
Overall the musics are not really memorable, but Tri-Ace uses variation of musics to fit with the scenes and battles. Something for everyone to listen to, from bass, techno to jazz and hard rock. The musics itself changes frequently in battle into a more upbeat, fast tempo music when you made Heroes Action and performing Tri-Attacks, making the battle even more lively. Talk about the voice acting, again, almost a full score for me. At the start of the game, they allows you to choose either English or Japanese voice, although this can't be changed in-game. Both versions are well casted, each character really comes alive with their voice acting without some fake, misfits voice (*COUGH* STAROCEAN4*COUGH*). Vashyron (Ken Narita/Nolan North) sounds like a mature elder bro, Zephyr (Hiro Shimono/Scott Menville) like a rebellious teenager, while Leanne (Aya Endou/Jessica DiCicco) like a fine but a bit spoiled young lady :3


Quests/Replay Value - 8/10
The game is divided into 16 chapters, and you have the freedom to choose when you want to advance to the next chapter. There are 60+ quests in total in the game, some story-related and some are optional, all which are only available in specific Chapter. Given you control when chapter advance, there's really no reason not to complete all quests for a nice Achievement/ Trophy. With that said, the quest lacks varieties and in every chapter, you pretty much do the same odd job - kill enemies in the marked hexes, explore dungeon to fetch something, or just a simple deliveries. Other than that, there is also Arena battles for you to train your characters and get some awesome items, some of which are extremely useful in bonus dungeon Neverland. Speaking of Neverland, it was a typical Tri-Ace end game dungeon, like what you've experienced in Seraphic Gate or Cave of Seven Stars. Except that the enemies in Neverland is extremely nuts. Careful preparation really is needed just to pass your first random encounter in that place - the enemies are so strong that they can easily 1-hit kill you if you are not prepared enough.

Typical of Tri-Ace, Resonance of Fate do have replay value, depending on how you see it. Remember Valkyrie Profile Silmeria's 50 Crystal run? It's the same with Resonance of Fate. Everytime you beat a game in higher difficulty, you unlocks and even higher difficulties...until 10 times. Worth doing? Maybe for a challenge. If you re-do the same difficulty run, you keep virtually everything you possessed - levels, money, items, clear hexes... this is not the case if you play through a new difficulty though. Nevertheless it's still worth playing the game a 2nd time for the fun factor, plus you get 2 Achievements/Trophies by completing the game for a second time.


TL;DR -
Overall, Resonance of Fate offers a refreshing experience for those who seeks something different in jrpg - addicting gunhappy combat system with slice of life story, coupled with magnificent visual to please your eyes. The game lacks varieties in quests and dungeon exploration, but this downside was covered by the entertaining gameplay; while the lacks of depth in story was complemented by interesting characters and light comedies all around.


overall verdict: 8.6/10 - a worthy addition for Tri-Ace fan

Bayonetta - I'm a Bi... I mean Witch

It's surprising that this game is listed to be shipped within 5-15 days on Play-Asia despite being a relatively new game (though right now it's already listed to be shipped within 24 hours). As a result, it took me over a week to wait for this game to actually be shipped, and arrived at my home last Monday. And I finished the game a day later...lol. Nevertheless I still have a lot of things I have yet to do, like the Alfheim challenge (pretty much like the Secret Mission in DMC), Witches fragments collections, Hard/No Climax mode difficulty as well as some other minor achievements.

Bayonetta​ (ベヨネッタ) is an action game for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, directed by Devil May Cry and Viewtiful Joe creator Hideki Kamiya at Platinum Games in cooperation with publisher Sega. Set in a fictional city in Europe, the game centers on its eponymous character, Bayonetta, who uses pistols and magical attacks to defeat enemies. The game has five difficulty settings; its two easiest settings contain a game mode playable with only one button, similar to a mode used in Devil May Cry. Its developers designed its characters with modern style and fashion in mind, and composed for it a largely upbeat and feminine soundtrack.

Links:
Bayonetta@Wikipedia
Bayonetta official website

Hm..I'd better made this one short.
Coming from the developer of DMC, you can pretty much expect that Bayonetta shares much similarity with the former. Though I'd say Bayonetta (person) is far more powerful than Dante because she can do what Dante do right from the start (Air Hike anyone?), most of her purchasable skills are fairly cheap, and she can summon some nasty monsters and torture devices to..well, torture your enemies :) She can even put guns/claws on her toes and still able to shoot them at will, wtf?

Fun game with lots of features offered - lots of different combos; Witches Time to slow down time as you dodge attacks; Wicked Weave as finishing in combos, and summoning demons with her hairs to finish bosses off. Kinda funny to think that Bayonetta's clothes is made of her hair, and hence when she use Wicked Weave and summons demons (both which use her hairs).....you know what I mean lol. The gameplay probably shine the most during these bosses fight, in which more optional movements and tortures options become available. The wooden horse torture is nasty :3

Bayonetta video showing various aspects of the gameplay, against one of the higher ordered enemies. And the torture moved I lol'd the most when I play :3

Overall the game is fairly short (15 Chapters + Prologue/Epilogue, it shouldn't even took more than 10 hours to finish Normal mode) with noticeably lesser normal mob battle, making the bosses fight looks more significant. Despite the short time I had with the game, I thought Bayonetta is really fun to play, it offers a fresh take to action game with the likes of torture finishing move and Witches Time. Though if you want some seriousness in battle, then perhaps DMC is a better choice, but it still worth giving Bayonetta a shot. Getting Achievements in Bayonetta is easier than DMC too, although I have to say that the Alfheim challenge can be very frustrating for someone with average experience in action game like myself. Maybe I need to practice more, but for now I'd put this game on hold.

Anyway, Bayonetta remind me a little to the world of Umineko. Witches and humans exist in separate dimension (Purgatorio anyone?) and cannot interact unless they cross barrier, although witches and everything from their realm are still free to destroy the objects in human world. To some extent, Bayonetta (person) herself remind me to Beato, seeking her real identity after awakening from 500 years of slumber.

ps: If Kratos fight with brute force and Dante fights with style, then I’d say Bayonetta fights with some sort of elegance.

[XBOX360] The Last Remnant

The Last Remnant (ラストレムナント) is a Japanese role-playing game developed and published by Square Enix. The game is directed at both Japanese and Western audiences and had a simultaneous release in Japan, North America and Europe, on November 20, 2008 for the Xbox 360. The Microsoft Windows version of the game was released on March 20, 2009 in PAL territories, March 24, 2009 in North America, and April 9, 2009 in Japan. A worldwide release on the Steam network occurred on April 9, 2009. A PlayStation 3 version of the game had been planned, but published reports speculate that it may be canceled due to the game's poor sales and mixed reception.

The game was directed by Hiroshi Takai and was the first Unreal Engine 3 game to be released by Square Enix. It is intended by Square Enix president Yōichi Wada to "become a cornerstone for [their] worldwide strategy". Art direction was overseen by chief artist Kimihiko Miyamae and art producer Yusuke Naora. The game's soundtrack was composed by Tsuyoshi Sekito.

The Last Remnant@Wikipedia
The Last Remnant Official Website

The Last Remnant is the 3nd game I finished in this semester break, after Magna Carta 2 and Lost Odyssey, and also the longest time consumed to finish and get a full 1000G (~3 weeks). I wonder why my review comes not in order of games I played though. TLR is one of the first game I purchased (around December 2008) when I bought my 360 last year, yet it took me so long before I really started playing the game. As I said before, one reason is because before this I was playing on an old SDTV which really hurts my eyes, and as a consequence, it made me thought that the gameplay is crap. Things changed when I played it with HD monitor though. Overall I can say that I love the game very much and deserved a place in my top 10 jrpg played in the last decade.


Gameplay: 8.5/10
This is probably the most difficult thing to judge about TLR because what one see at the gameplay is not what other see. The game utilize what they call "Turn-based, command-based system using symbol encounters." In a simple term, battles were carried out by giving out a general command to a union (group consisted of units aka your characters) to attack the enemies, use skills, magic, healing or simply stand by. No exact command can be given so you can't force a character to use the skills that you want to use. The inability for players to choose exact skill is probably what made some players dislike the gameplay, because sometimes the tide of battle can turn horribly if they didn't carry out their specific command. Looks simple at first, but can be complicated if you factor things like character's stats and abilities, formations and leveling.

This video demonstrate how TLR battle system took place, though this is carried out at very high BR (132), fighting against one of the DLC boss of 360 version, the Lost Remnant.



One unique aspect of the game is that TLR is NOT GEARED TOWARD LEVELING. That is, there is no such thing as Level in TLR, but your whole party' "level" is indicated by "Battle Rank (BR)" which indicate you strong are your party relative to the enemies. You can't simply improve your character's stats by doing massive battles grind like you'd usually do in traditional rpg but rather, stats is gained by fighting against monsters with much higher Battle Rank. Which is why it is a good idea to AVOID fighting against any monsters in early-mid game and focus on a few huge grinding session against strong enemies to raise the party's stat. This aspect can also be another drawback for TLR, because you would not know about this BR shit unless you read proper guides. And hence, as some reviews said, TLR is "strictly for hardcore". Can't argue with that...

The game offer a degree of character customization, particularly in weapon/skill style. With this, he can be build into a gladiator, healer, mage, warrior and many more classes, although this is pretty much limited to himself only, as other heroes/leaders has fixed style/class. Other aspects of the gameplay includes morale system which effect various things in battle (eg damage/crit rate), and Remnants, which is part of the plot which allows certain characters to use super skills. At certain high BR, certain heroes/leaders can also learnt specific ultimate battle skills which is unique to weapons they equipped, called Weapon Art.

Graphic: 8.5/10

Another hard aspect to judge TLR upon. Coming from Square Enix, there's absolutely no doubt that the visual would be stunning with great design of the environment and effects in battle. Places like Vale of Gods and Crookfen looks so real that you wish you could actually stand there. However there are quite a noticeable graphical issue on the 360 version, in particular frame rate problem in battle whenever there are too many units on the screen. It really lags the battle when that happened, good thing this is not a real time action game like DMC or you'll rage to death over this problem. It seems like this problem fixed in the PC version though.

Story: 8/10

To some extent, the story are stereotypes to what you'd see in today's jrpg, but still refreshing with the plot they use. In the world, dwelled 4 race - mitra (human), qsiti (the midget), yama (big guys) and sovani (4-armed dude). There exist Remnant, mysterious artifacts which grants various powers but that itself disturbed the world's balance as there are many who went after the power. One day, the main hero' sister Irina was kidnapped by a mysterious group, which led the hero (Rush Sykes) to chase after her and eventually joined force with ruler of Athlum, David Nassau and his underlings as they seek the kidnapper, and learned more truth about Remnant.
What I like about the plot is that it doesn't restrict itself with the oh-so lover's romance like many other rpg does, and the whole truth about remnant was only revealed in the very last moment, because to be honest I really wouldn't expect that it would go that way. In a way, the ending is also typical of what you see in other rpg, still.

Others: 9/10

Also depend on one's point of view. The game offers a lot of quests and guild task, some which almost certainly require you to face lengthy battle. Some of them can be annoying, but they're nothing compared to trying to grind rare items in this game for uber weapons/items, which is THE REAL annoying/tedious thing about TLR. The game itself doesn't take too long to complete - if you didn't aim to get a full 1000G. I remember almost finishing disc 1 in my first go (not doing much sidequests) after just one day. This contrast if you aimed the full 1000G, as I myself took almost 3 weeks to get every achievements, and half of those time was probably spent merely on grinding rare bosses/items.

Talk about the achievement, it took quite a lot of your time to get 1000/1000 for TLR. Three quarter of your TLR playing time will probably be spend doing the quest and completing the achievement, because not only you need to look for rare monsters, you also need to make sure that your party is strong enough to take down The Fallen and Absolute Conqueror, each contribute to a large portion of the achievements. Some of the achievements description however was too vague for players to understand, and hence the usage of guides is a must. I personally utilize every single resource I could get reach to complete the game: The TLR Wikia, Hero stats Database, Gamefaqs guide and boards, X360Achievement boards... everything except Brady's guide, which I never bought anyway. As such, how you enjoy the game depend on how much can you tolerate the battle system, graphic and quests in TLR.


TL;DR: overall The last Remnant can be a hit or miss - depend on what you're expecting, you can end up loving or hating the game. The combat system is unique with the introduction of units, unions and formations but sometimes the unreliability of the command can be frustrating. Graphic was superb but sometimes suffers from frame rate issues in battle. Nice plot, a good amount of sidequests offered and the game itself is relatively short, but gunning for full 1000G will require 200% more time than the game. And lastly, grinding for items can be tedious.

overall rating: 8.5/10. Would I recommend it? It's really hard to say, because some people might not find the gameplay appealing, but for sure, the game hits me on all cylinders.

Enchant Arm - the review

Enchant Arm is the 4th game I played since the start of my semester break and it took me roughly a week (or about 40 hours in total) to finish the game with full 1000G. Well, maybe I should say "virtual 1000G" because I'm playing the bugged Asian version hence no matter what I did I'd miss 3 achievements/300G as stated in this post. Sure it frustrate me because it won't let me to get the full complete on the game, but there's really nothing I can do to get that 300G. An okay game overall, but not great in my book.

Enchanted Arms (known as [eM] -eNCHANT arM- in Japan) is a science fiction/fantasy-based role-playing game for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Although the game was intended to be an Xbox 360 launch title for the Japanese market, its release date was pushed back to January 12, 2006 by the developer, From Software. Ubisoft published the game in August 2006 in North America, and in September 2006 in Europe. The game retitled as Enchant Arm for its Japanese PlayStation 3 release.

Since its release, it has been confirmed that the game uses only a single DVD, in contrast to earlier multi-disc reports. It also comes with an art book and mini-calendar in Japan. The supplementary content included with the initial American product shipment was a 48-page prequel manga.

Links:
Enchant Arm @ Wikipedia
Enchant Arm official website


Gameplay: 7/10

In short, Enchant Arm features simple, fast-paced turn-based combat system. Battle took place in 3x4 grid squares where players are allowed to move within their limited move square, before taking action (attack enemies, use items or simply standby to recover EP). Each action require EP (aka mana/mp) and each skills used in battle have a certain set of damage dealt. This damage is fix and cannot be reduced in any way (except by -x% DMG skills) but can be increased by improving the character's stats. Turn-based rpg hasn't been my preference as of late, but at least I find Enchant Arm's gameplay not as boring as many other turn-based rpg. And the fact that we can speed up the battle by pressing Y made things even easier, this made almost every battle ends within 20 seconds. The drawbacks to the combat, as far as I concern is the ridiculously high random encounter rate. It's nice if you want to level your characters and get some SPs to upgrade your stats, but it's getting annoying when you want to explore dungeons without too much interruption. Good thing there are skills that allow you to avoid random encounter entirely, obtained through the casino at 100,000 coins.

Another aspect of the combat system is the inclusion of extra entities known as Golem to help you whenever you are short in party members. Basically it's like an extra soldiers to help you in battle, each with their own set of limited skills and abilities. I find golem to be useful only in early game when your party isn't complete yet, but later on they serve little purpose as your human characters outpowered the golems by miles. This however changed late game when you have access to stronger golem, although there are still choice whether you want to ditch one or two human and switch them to golem. I personally use all humans in my party until the end of the game, until I got Infinity (Omega in US version), swapping him with Karin and beat the crap out of the Queen of Ice for the lulz.

Story: 7.5/10

Well, not much can I say about the story. The story take place in a world where golem (or what we call magic-powered robot, sorta) exist to help human with their lives. One day, a Devil Golem named Queen of Ice was awakened due to the main character, Atsuma's mysterious power possessed by his right arm, and thanks to that, the Devil Golem went rampant and froze the entire city. Atsuma survives and later meet Karin and Raiga, and from then on they travel together to solve the mystery behind Atsuma's hand, and to stop the Devil Golem from awakening other sealed Devil Golems in other city...

Although the main character Atsuma can be irritating with his nonsensical stubbornness, the remainder of the story is rather enjoyable, and some of the scenes are quite humorous. You still see the kind of jrpg textbook plot of "spiky hair hero with identity crisis, met some kind of princess and went on journey to save the world", but at least it's not as cliche as Magna Carta 2 as far as i can say. The value of friendship is emphasised much in Enchant Arm, to the point that sometimes they looked like they're homo to each other lol. Well, save for Makoto since he's transvestite.

ps: Atsuma's dense nature is unbelievable. For someone not to realize other's love for him even after she confess to her is..I'm at a loss of word = =


Graphic: 6.5/10

The graphic was okay, but not that spectacular if we look at what xbox 360 is capable of. The special effects used in battle is also average at best. The characters design is one of the worst I've seen, so bad that I thought even some of the female golem looks better than the humans (yes, I'm looking at you Yuki). Well, except Sayaka maybe, she's not that badly designed (except for her *coughchestcough*), plus she's voiced by Sakaya Ohara♥.


Other Features: 7/10
The game does not offer that much sidequests, but there are one big secret dungeon (Holy Beast Shrine) for players to explore, although it is more like a compulsory dungeon because the final boss is almost impossible to beat without getting some decent HP/levels from the dungeons. There's also casino for you to get some nice items, and collecting golems from all over the world. Unfortunately, NONE of these quests count for the achievements for Enchant Arm. Yes, you can easily get a full 1000G simply by playing through the story until the end, which is a pity because it doesn't really require much effort. Though as I stated before, those playing Asia version will stuck at 700G because of the bug. There's New Game+ too, but only playable through Xbox live.


TL;DR - Enchant Arms has a fairly simple gameplay where there are high encounter rate which is balanced by the quick-paced turn-based combat system. Friendship value is emphasised on the story, although overall the plot is typical of what you'd find in today's jrpg textbook. Graphic was decent, but the character design was terrible. Some nice sidequests, but none were achievement-related. Overall the game is fairly short, which can be completed well within 40 hours.


Overall rating: 7/10. Worth playing? Maybe, but maybe not. Depend on your taste I guess. For me, it's only worth playing for the free 1000G :3