Shin Megami Tensei IV Apocalypse (Final) REVIEW

This is a review for Shin Megami Tensei IV Apocalypse. There are spoilers. You have been warned.

Dagda and Nanashi

In Shin Megami Tensei IV Apocalypse, the story follows the story of protagonist Nanashi, who has died in battle facing Lucifer's demons. He meets Dagda and makes a deal with him. Revived by Dagda, Nanashi fights against the demon forces using his Demon Summoning Program. He  becomes a Hunter and follows Dagda's orders.

Nanashi, now a servant to Dagda, must carry out his orders to grant Dagda's wish. Or will he? The choice is ours, for we play as Nanashi. Believe in your choice and do what you believe is right. Will you be grateful and return the favor or will you back stab the god that saved you?

Gameplay

The Demon Summoning Program is a program. It allows you to summon demons to fight for you. And it allows you to fuse demons. Fusing demons is a classic feature in the Shin Megami Tensei series. It is also its main sell point. There have been many games that use this "fusing" feature, but Shin Megami Tensei stands above all of them, because it's literally a finger to companies that are too scared to offend the touchy people of this world. This is probably the true reason why all games from the Shin Megami Tensei and Persona series are all rated M (17 years and up).

Apocalypse is an open world game that allows you to freely explore Tokyo. Through out different parts of Tokyo you can find different kinds of demons. Enemies will appear as 3D pixel figures. To fight them, use the attack button to start the battle. If you run straight into them without properly striking them the enemy might have a chance to start first during the battle.

The battle itself is turn-based. Your character and your demons will each get a "token". Using up all these tokens means the end of your turn. You can reuse tokens by hitting a enemy's weakness or by getting a critical hit. Using this function to prolong your turn will quickly turn the sides in battle. However, the enemies can also do the same. Each enemy in the battle will have more tokens that yours, especially bosses. During battle you can also have conversations with your enemies. 

When having conversations, you can either recruit, trade, or "fundraise" with your enemies. Trading and fundraising is exactly like it sounds. The more complicated one is recruiting the demons. To recruit the demon, you must please the demon. They will demand items, money as well as HP and MP. Sometimes they might even demand the lives of your allies.

Basically, the goal is to recruit demons and fuse these recruited demons together to create stronger demons.
Simple, yet addictive.

Personal Thoughts

On my first play-through of Shin Megami Tensei IV Apocalypse, I was a good boy and stuck with Dagda 'til the end. I even killed my allies in the process. Did I regret it? Yes. After completing the game, I felt empty. Is this what I get after becoming the new ruler of the universe? Yeah. It is. It's great.

This lonely ending only want to replay the game again. This time I sided with my friends. Yes, I felt really bad about replacing  rebellious Dagda with obedient Dagda, but it had to be done. At least I got to see the statue of both Flynn and Nanashi standing tall over Mikado. That was glorious.

I really enjoyed this game! I literally spent half of the time in the game, fusing demons the the Cathedral of Shadows. It was really cool fusing demons and getting a Mermaid with certain skills! Its like customizing your Pikachu with certain skills and overwhelming everyone with it. To me that was the best part of the game. 

The worst part was going through YHVH's Universe. It's a giant massive dungeon that makes you go around in circles. There wasn't really much of a challenge beating it. It was more wandering around than actually fighting. The background music didn't really help either. It was this really repetitive chanting that made absolutely no sense at all. If there is something good about it, it would be gathering the two exclusive sets of armor only found in that dungeon as well as fighting YHVH Himself. 

(I'm sorry if this offended you. Especially to those who are heavy believers.)

Shin Megami Tensei has always giving us interesting stories by directly referencing different religions and cultures. By using the backstory of entities like Shesha, the makers of Shin Megami Tensei were able to create a story with a modern setting to the past. The Percy Jackson series is a very similar to Shin Megami Tensei in this aspect. In short, I really, really liked this game!

Thanks for reading!

-MT

Re: Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu REVIEW

There is no way I can NOT talk about this. Let's start with some questions. (Spoiler alert!)

1. Is the anime good?
2. Was it cringe-ful?
3. Is the plot any good?

To all of these questions: Yes

Here's a quick summary of all 25 episodes of Re: Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu.

Once upon a time a man by the name of Subaru came out of the convenience store late at night. After taking a few steps he found himself in a medieval market under the sunlight. He panics and tries to find a way home, but encounters some thugs. He is then saved by a really, really pretty girl that instantly captured his heart. He then decides to help the girl find something that she had lost. He dies in the process. Oh no! BUT WAIT!

Subaru then finds himself in the market and he finds himself going through events he has gone through previously. He realizes that he is capable of resetting his life, similar to a game save. Using this skill, he uses trail-and-error to get the ending he wants. His wish is to protect and support the girl that saved him before: 

Emilia. 

Now here the meat I wanted to get to: Talking about Re: Zero

Re: Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu is a cringe-fest. There is SO much cringe. Every time that bastard Subaru gets desperate, he makes this twisted face that makes me cringe so hard. It is hard to find an anime that has so much cringe. (I'm looking you Watamote.) This just shows how great this series is. It is constantly bringing out the cringe reaction within you, while keeping you interested with its top-notched cliffhangers.

This show is twisted. The author is very sadistic and wants to torture poor Subaru to the ends of the earth. The author constantly kills Subaru in many various ways. They include being sliced, stabbed, cursed, maced, suicide, and frozen.

It's not easy getting the perfect ending you know.

Because Subaru has the power of resetting, this allows the author to make multiple situations with the same scene. I know it sounds obvious, but this is a critical feature of the series that allows the reuse of same scene if the author has many ideas and possible conclusions for that one scene. The setting of Re: Zero is entertaining. 

It is also very efficient.

Accompanying the gruesome story is its art. It's art is fine. It is enjoyable and to be honest, quite standard. But Re: Zero truly shines in Subaru's gruesome, twisted, and a bit psychopathic expressions. His expressions truly shows how desperate he is and how far he is willing go to get his way. That alone makes Re: Zero an amazing anime. But what's a good anime without cute waifus? All of the main female characters are cute. SUPER cute. 

If you haven't watched Re: Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu, I seriously recommend it. It is a simple, yet interesting anime.

Thanks for reading!

-MT

Here's a section of my personal experiences with Re: Zero. (Spoiler alert!)

I wasn't too interested in it before, but after watching it I was hooked to the cringe. As I said before, I cringed in every episode. Subaru's face gets me every time. Emilia was my favorite until she had that fight with Subaru. I feel like she doesn't understand Subaru's pain, and I don't blame her. But Rem on the other hand, seems to kind of sense that Subaru is in some sort of extreme situation that no one, including her, can possible understand. That alone makes me root for her. 

The confession scene just enforces that. I'm sorry Emilia fans. I betrayed you. :(

Terra Battle ABOUT

Terra Battle is a mobile game developed by MISTWALKER, which is founded by Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of the famous game series Final Fantasy. It has beautiful art, characters, and soundtrack made by well known artists. Terra Battle can be described with one word: candy.

Terra Battle takes place in a crumbling world where the ecosystem and the world itself is falling apart. To literally save the world, a party search for the Maker. You follow the party’s journey and see the story unravel itself to you.

To progress in the story, you must battle against enemies and clearing stages. This battle system gameplay is what makes Terra Battle unique and independent from all other mobile games. To attack, you must move your characters so that they “pinch” the enemy. It sounds and is very simple. However, the real beauty of the game comes after you finish “pinching” the enemy. If you have unlocked certain skills for your characters, colors of the rainbow will streaking across the board, assaulting your foes.

Accompanying the flashing colors is the energizing music that will make your body race and will urge you to do it again. Outside of the battling is calm soothing music. It’s peacefulness serves as a balance from the exciting music from the battling. It truely calms and give peace to the heart.

The characters themselves are intricately designed by famous artists such as Nakaba Suzuki, author of Nanatsu no Taizai, and Kimihiko Fujisaka, artist from Fire Emblem: Awakening. Each character has his own detailed background and a brief summary of their past and desires. By obtaining certain characters, you will be surprised to find a small conversation between the characters. Makes you wonder: “What will these two dynamic characters will talk about?”

There is still so much about Terra Battle I would like to write about, but I’m afraid that I will spoil too much for you if you are interested. It is a really flashy game that also includes beautiful artwork. If you were to take any background image from Terra Battle, it could easily be your favorite wallpaper. In fact, I am currently using the “Tavern” background as my smartphone wallpaper! I hope you can find as much enjoyment as I did! The game is available for both iOS and Android. If you are ever stuck in the game and need advice, head to the official WIkia page and you can find some kind people to help you!

Thanks for reading!

-MT 

Official Site: http://www.terra-battle.com/en/

Official Wikia: http://terrabattle.wikia.com/wiki/Terra_Battle_Wiki