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Eva2

Survivor Series: Troll Assassination-Eva FanTrolls

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Today I’m starting a new feature which will deal with the worst of the worst of troll groups in anime fandom. The terms fanboy and troll are often used to describe devotees of a certain series, so I have decided for the sake of clarity to merge the two terms into new single one; fantroll. The definition of fantroll is a extremely devoted fanatic of a certain series or franchise to the point of delusion and who directs hatred towards fans of other series or franchises because they do not share the mindless devotion of the fantroll to the given series or franchise. For the inaugural entry I thought it would be most appropriate to start with the single greatest example of the fantroll; the Eva fantroll.

I had been aware of Neon Genesis Evangelion for some time, hearing all kinds of things about it, and when one of my friends lent me her copy of the show in 2005 and  I sat down and watched it. My thoughts on the show at the time was that it was a average mech show. This was before I slowly become aware of the phenomena that is the holy status that some percentage of the Eva fandom hold the show in.  As I heard more of ravings of the Eva fantrolls about how it was “the greatest anime of all time” (You can thank ADV for starting that nonsense), my enjoyment and opinion of the show went down considerably. Before I go into the things the hardcore fans of this show rant and rave about, I just want to be clear I do like this show.

Now I’m going to pick apart the show, and discuss some of the outlandish and outrageous claims that the fantrolls make about Eva. One of the most often cited aspects of this show is the use of Christian imagery and icons. While its a interesting element of the series, fans often read more into it then there is actually there. They forget that its a show made for a Japanese audience, and the presence of Christian symbols its just a weird novelty to the creators and not some  deep, intertwined, and complex plot element.  Moving on to the most annoying part of Eva; Shinji Ikari. Boy do the fantrolls even like to hype up Shinji , I once had someone claim to me that he was the greatest character in all of anime, wow that’s arrogance lol. Someone also wrote into Gundamn’s mailbag with badly butchered grammar and made a similar claim, but went a step further by saying that Shinji was the reason people watch mecha anime.   Honestly, are you that caught up in your worship of this mediocre series that your so delusional and pretentious to try to say this guy is the single most influential character in the history of anime? I could probably think of a 100 characters that have had more of an influence on anime.Char Aznable and Lynn Minmay are just two off the top of my head, who have had much more of an impact on Japanse culture and anime than him.  Shinji did nothing at all during the series to warrant being called iconic, in fact he’s just like almost every other mech lead character in recent memory. Another annoying aspect present in Eva is the disposable enemies that appear almost every episode for the first half of the show, this is also known as the monster of the week cliche.  This gets old fast and really saps my enjoyment of the show during the first half. The constant remakes of Eva are also extremely annoying which serve just to devalue the series and are just a cheap way for Gainax to make money off the mindless cult that worships the series as the second coming.

What all this adds up to is a symptom of a larger ailment in the Western fandom that has to do with what shows are considered the greatest by Western fans. A lot of fans in the West only see a very limited amount of anime series from Japan and there is a tendency to automatically declare these series the best there is. When they find out about other shows they tend discount these shows and go on believing that what they hold dear is the greatest without evaluating the merits of the other shows, its cognitive dissidence at its finest.

Well that’s all for this post, I’m considering what group to profile next. It was suggested to me to talk about the Sonic the Hedgehog fandom so I might do them next.

Until next time,

Devil_Survivor

fanboy-sony

Survivor Series: Franchise Innovation and Fanboy Rage

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Innovation is usually seen as a good thing by most people in any given field in human endeavor, however there are always a small percentage of die hard  adherents to something that cannot accept change in any form. This is nowhere more apparent then in video game fandom.  So I’m going to look through some of biggest fanboy dust ups over game companies trying reinvent their franchises.

OK, these are not in any particular order, there just ones I have been made aware of.  The first one is the Yu-Gi-Oh franchise, of which I’m a huge fan. There have been a lot of Yu-Gi-Oh games across many game consoles, but the three that are relevant for this discussion were on the Game Boy Advance and Gamecube. The first GBA game was the Sacred Cards released in July of 2002 and it was different in a couple respects. First, unlike all the previous games in the franchise, this game actually has a story, in fact it lets you play one of the story arcs from the show. The other difference was the rules of the card game itself were different, and that’s really pissed off the fanboys of this franchise.  The second GBA game was called Reshef of Destruction, was very similar although it had a completely original story. Now both of these games have  flaws, like most games, but they are also good games broken the formula and because of that the fanboys labeled them as inferior, which is so short slighted.  Moving to the Gamecube, in 2002 a Yi-Gi-Oh game was released called the Falsebound Kingdom that was radically different from anything seen in the franchise thus and since then. The game was a combination of the RPG and RTS genres and was not a card game at all. Instead the monsters from the cards become characters in the game to be used on RPG style teams of 3 under the command of one of the cast from the TV series. A lot of the items in the game are also cards from the card game, which shows the detail the developers put into the game. RTS element comes out in the missions in the game in which you move your teams and engage your enemies and capture bases, additionally there are other objectives to complete sometimes in a given mission. The games was received very negatively by the review community as with many games that step outside the norm. The game has some flaws, as the maps for the missions were really low rent and not very inspired, but was balanced by the great graphics of  monsters and battle animations.

The next franchise that attempted to go a different way and hit a brick wall of fanboy rage was Devil May Cry. The controversy stems from the redesign of Dante, a design that wildly changes from the previous four games. This game doesn’t even have a release date yet, its suppose to come out in 2012 sometime, and the hate is already flowing from the fanboys. You would think that people at least would wait until the game came out ,and not just complain about the visuals.

Infamous is another franchise that has felt a rain of fanboy artillery fire over the design of a character, Cole, the main character in the game. The difference here is that, Sucker Punch the developer of Infamous, caved into fanboy pressure and changed Cole back to to way he was in the first Infamous, although there was still minor changes to him to better fit the new game. Again its just kinda sad that fanboys cannot get pass such trivial things like character designs.

When Transformers: War for Cybertron was announced, the main complain yet again was superficial about character designs. The G1 40 year old virgins were complaining about why wasn’t the game using the 1984 designs. Well maybe because its 25 years after the fact, and things need to change sometimes to bring in new fans  to a franchise. Blinded by nostalgia glasses is a common medical problem for most Fanboys, and can be corrected by getting out of your parents basement, actually getting laid , and not watching porn all the time.

In sum, I just wish fanboys would come out of their formulaic comfort zone, and give a game with a different take on a  beloved franchise a chance. Its almost like fanboys are afraid of change in and out of their game life, which is probably why they cannot get out into the world and get their lives going. If there is any group of fanboys from anime or video game fandom you look to see get owned by me, please leave a comment or pm me on the forum.

This has been pubic service message from the Truth and Fact Defense Force.

-Devil_Survivor

 

 

Catherine2

Survivor Series: Catherine Review

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Hey Anime Addicts, so I finally finished main lining the wondrously busty Catherine and now will proceed to review the game. I know that this game has a big following on this site, and I hope a lot of you will read this who are not yet fans of this game will pick it up and play it because its really a one of a kind game. This game has controversy surrounding it, not only for the mature content( when I told a friend I was playing this game she said oh the sex game :P), but also for the difficult of the game itself, I’ll address both of those points below.

Background Story:

In this game you take the role of Vincent Brooks, a 32 year old, systems engineer for technology company. He’s kind of a lazy, unorganized, and very in the moment average guy with not much of a future planned out. He has a girlfriend of 5 years(amazing I know), called Katherine. Katherine has recently began to talk about getting married and then Vincent started to have very dark nightmares. The next morning he wakes next to a hot, young, and curvy girl also named Catherine and wonders he how he will get himself out of this mess.

Game play:

Catherine is two games in one, a puzzle game and what you might call a ” moral” psychological thriller. The puzzle element of the game is pretty straight forward as it involves 9 stages with various themes and lengths. At the end of each stage there is a boss stage in which a large creature will change up the wall of blocks and will attempt to kill you. In each puzzle stage there will be various items that can used to help complete the stage. Sprinkled through the stage you find “sheep”, other guys like Vincent trying to escape the nightmare and they will try to impede your progress. As you proceed through the game there will different types of blocks you will encounter, ice blocks, spike blocks, exploding blocks, black hole blocks, etc. and learning how to manage each type of block will be integral to your completing the game.  Also important is mastering the various techniques for scaling the different walls of blocks, these will be taught to you at certain points in the game.

The other element of the game, the moral psychological thriller, mostly takes place between each stage in the form of questions asked by a disembodied voice in a confessional booth and the question is usually on the subject of some issue of morality. How you answer the questions affects the ending you will get upon finishing the game, there are 8 endings in total, three for each Catherine, and two neutral endings. Some of the questions will asked at a bar called the Stray Sheep where you will interact with your friends and get messages on your phone from both Catherine. In the bar there are additional features like a mini game called Rapunzel which is also a block based puzzle game, and there is a jukebox that plays various songs from different Atlus games.

As for the game being too difficult, honestly with any game you should probably play it on lower difficult levels, learn the game,get skilled and then try to beat it on the more challenging settings. Its true this game is very challenging, in fact the develops actually created a very easy mode because people complained it was so hard. I found the game to be not as insanely difficult as people make it out to be, playing on easy I think I never dropped beyond 90 retries as there are more enough items that give retires, so on normal and hard it cannot be that impossible.

 

Visuals and Graphics:

The game play graphics are pretty good for this day and age, the blocks are rendered in nice detail and are as the characters. Where this game really shines in terms of visuals is in the cut scenes. There are two types, ones that are CG graphic or ones that are anime style. I really love the anime cut scenes, I have never seen such great animation in a game and Atlus really went out of their way to make those scenes so beautifully animated. The CG scenes are good as well, just a little overshadowed by the anime scenes.

 

Closing Comments:

I loved playing Catherine its a one of a kind gaming experience that combines two genres of games that I think no one  ever thought would go together, and yet it seems to work in this incarnation.  Its a special treat if your a anime fan like me, and most of you that will read this most likely are. This game asks some interesting questions about relationships  and what people want out of life and I found myself rethinking a lot things I thought I had figured already about life. In sum, if you want a game that will make you think, with puzzles, and you are a fan of anime this game is for you.

 

Until next time,

Devil Survivor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3ds sexy

Survivor Series: Nintendo and the 3DS: A Comedy of Errors and Redesigns

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Hey all, today I’m going to write something that I hope will cut through all the fanboy nonsense on both sides of the video game fandom surrounding the 3DS and Nintendo. I’ll probably get called a Sony hater(fanboy?) depending on your perspective, or maybe a member of the Nintendo Defense Force, whatever that is. What I’m a member of is the Truth and Fact Defense Force, and you can call me Admiral Animosity. So let us descend into the matter at hand and explore the subject content.

OK our story starts in February of this year as the 3DS was about to be released in Japan, and I was debating about whether to buy one or not. I had my DS lite since 2007, so it made sense to buy the next generation system instead of one the other DS models. Now if I was someone with a DSi or DSiXL then I don’t think I would have bought one before the price drop. The when I looked over the features of the system, the 3D without  wearing glasses, dual cameras, on board software, and much better internet over the DS, it seemed a reasonable price to a person with a an old DS system.

Now its time for some straight talk, I borrowed the bus from Chris from Gundamn, if you listen to that show you might get that joke. Let’s talk about the things Nintendo did wrong with the 3DS launch. The most glaring one of them being the insanely high price set at 249.99. If you look at every other handheld systems Nintendo every released- from Gameboy to DSiXL- not one has come within at least 80 dollars of the 3DS launch price. WTF Nintendo!!! Add to that the reports I came across about the estimated production cost of the 3DS which is set at 101 U.S.$ for the raw materials for each unit, add in other costs such labour, marketing, packaging, and R&D, and I would think the cost would not be north of 150 dollars per unit. Yet they were trying to sell it for over 100 dollars more than cost. Sure it has sold millions, but they are only so many fanboys out there who blindly buy anything the company puts out. This dried up after a bit and this gives the reason for the price drop. The next thing of note is the launch titles, which are mostly third party crap and there was not one from any of the mainline Nintendo franchises, with the possible exception of Pilot Wings but that’s a bit of a stretch. Its ironic as soon as a Zelda game rolls out on the 3DS it becomes the second bestselling game so far for the system, selling over a million copies since June 16. That’s the power of beloved decades old franchises and why they should that be included in all hardware launches.  This last one is kind of questionable and please tell me if you think I’m being unfair, but releasing a new system not long after you have released a new version of your current system, which is much cheaper than the brand new system, is not the smartest of business strategists.

To contract the negative things, let’s look at the things that were done right. Dropping the price was the best thing that Nintendo could have done, as the 169.99 price is more in line with the historical pricing of the past Nintendo handhelds, and in a cash scrapped world its better for the average consumers to afford. Bringing Netflixs on to the 3DS was a smart and innovative move as it makes it the first handheld with this capability. The on-board software is far and beyond what the DS had in its various forms. The addition of a dedicated virtual console for the 3DS is also attractive if your looking for a trip done nostalgia lane.

Finally, let dispel some crazy claims by Nintendo trolls and other fanboys. I have seen a number of claims, for instance that somehow the 3DS is like the Virtual  Boy(if you don’t know what that is it was an attempt by Nintendo in 1995 to create a 3D system, it had a black stand which mounted a red device you put your eyes up to and that displayed the 3D graphics and the input was a controller that was some what similar to the future Gamecube controller). Now it only ever sold 770,000 units and after multiple price drops it was taken off the market after less than a year, so a by the sales comparison is completely ridiculous. Supposedly the Virtual Boy was not to be released in the form it came to market in and the creator had planned to refine the design, and this was because The higher ups at Nintendo wanted to focus all the resources of the company into the N64, so one wonders what could have been if the system had been given the resources that was earmarked for it. The other major claim that has been shouted from the forums by haters is that somehow because the 3DS hasn’t sold up to Nintendo lofty exceptions( The company wanted to sell 16 million within a year), and needed a price edit so early on that this somewhat means the end of the company itself. HAHAHA!!!!!!!! Pause, Laugh, Breathe,…..OK sorry I was just laughing out loud at that total nonsense. Nintendo is worth something like 85 billion dollars, its the third most valuable listed company in Japan, and its the majority owner of the Seattle Mariners MLB team(I know that team sucks, but still an MLB franchise). Also there is the fact Nintendo will be the first company out with its 8th generation console, the Wii U and from reports its like combining the Wii with the PS3 or XBOX 360, in other words power graphics with innovative game play.  Also the Wii U is also reported to be “significantly” more powerful than PS3 or the XBOX 360. Yes, the the company’s revenue is down by a lot over last year, however this can attributable to the fact the Wii is near the end of  its life cycle(the Wii U is suppose to launch in 2012 sometime) and most people who are going to buy one have done so already. The 3DS hasn’t been selling as well as they and hoped, but looking at the new sales figures it seems things are on the upswing for the system. Its also rumored the system will getting a redesign similar to the DS lite. So relax fanboys and haters alike, the sky is not falling on Nintendo, it fact I say the future looks bright.

If you want to see a gallery of two of the hottest Japanese girls ever, known as the hardware girls paste this link, I put one in the feature image:

http://www.hobbymedia.it/30477/nintendo-3ds-sexy-gallery-di-julie-watai-la-nostra-giapponesina-preferita

you will need to then go to this site and download some files that allow Windows to view .mpo files and install them and view away on your 3DS or PC: http://www.munsil.com/MPO_registry.html

 

 

Leave luck to heaven,

Devil_Survivor

 

LOGH

Survivor Series: Spotlight- Legend of the Galactic Heroes

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I’m a little annoyed at myself for not writing something sooner, but now I have time so I will crank out 2 or 3 entries and save the others for the coming days. Here I’m going to talk about one of the longest running anime out there and one that definitely should get more airplay, Legend of the Galactic Heroes. It spans a 110 episodes in the main series, two movies, and two side stories(one with 52 episodes). Its based on the series novels by Yoshiki Tanaka of the same name and has a cult following. So let’s a explore the extremely complex world of LOGH.

The story is set in the far off time of the 35th century in which humanity has migrated out into the galaxy and terraformed thousands of worlds. For the past 150 years, two large star empires, the Galactic Empire and the Free Planets Alliance, have been at war without either side being able to gain the upper hand for very long. The story features two main characters from each side, Reinhard von Musel from the Galactic Empire, a brilliant strategist who is often looked down on by other officers because he is the brother of one the Kaiser’s concubines, and Wang Wen-li of the Free Planets Alliance, kind of a guy caught in the law of unintended consequences as he never wanted to a strategist and just wanted to be a military historian.  The story follows the lead up to a new war between the two powers, its eventually end, the aftermath and the manipulation of the conflict by Phezzan,a neutral third power, and the shadowy and very creep Earth Cult,  which is bend on having all humanity return to the nuclear war ravaged Earth.

There are several notable things about LOGH and enduring themes at play in the series. The entire franchise is either an original video animation or a film. There has never been a official English language version, sub or dub, released anywhere, but there are fansubs out there. LOGH has almost no female characters in the main cast, especially in the Empire as it appears that there is not one single women in the Empire armed forces, and because of that fact this show is often called a huge yaoi fest which is true to some extent I guess lol.  Commercialization of the series is very minimal outside of VHS\DVD\Blue ray releases and only a few model kits exist. Huge battles of tens of thousands of ships are the norm and something not seen in many series. The series has a massive cast with hundreds of named characters and the show helps keep track of them all by displacing the names when the characters appear on screen. This is a ultra violent series, maybe because it started in the 1980’s, but it none the less keeps on keeping on as evidence by the numerous close quarters combat battles and death scenes during ship to ship battles.  A discussion of which system of government is better, either a autocratic monarchy or a democracy, is the central theme.  The merit of a person is a persistence theme as Reinhard struggles against the familial connection system of the Empire to gain the power he seeks to save his sister and overthrow the Goldenbaum dynasty. Reinhard also recruits a lot of talented castoffs throughout the series, who for one reason or another angered the establishment. Personal ambition or lack there of enters a lot into the series and the consequences it has for a person and the people around them.

I really love this show, it just maybe the best space opera out there for its complex characters and very socially and politically conscience story lines.  I would recommend it to anyone who’s a fan of shows with political plots in them, like Code Geass for example, or anyone that is a fan of a show with good characters and good character development.

 

Cheers,

Devil_Survivor

 

 

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Survivor Series: Spotlight- Bots Master

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OK, so I said that from time to time I would bring to your attention shows that I thought deserved more attention then they garner when they first aired , and this one is no exception. The first offering I have for you in this special feature spotlight series is the 1993 French series Bots Master. The reason I ever saw this show as child was because executives at Youth Television(YTV) in Canada though the show would rate well with kids. I think it stood out to them because it had a story that didn’t treat kids as idiots and actually delivered a substantive story at least for a children television show.

The background story as follows; in the year 2025, robots have become part of every day life for many people across the planet. The innovation that led to this new reality occurred in a garage, when teenage prodigy Ziv “ZZ” Zulander created the first of “3A” robot series. Soon after ZZ goes to work for the  Robotic Megafact Corporation aka “the Corp” and mass product of the 3A robots begins. After sometime ZZ uncovers a plot by the president of the Corp, Sir Lewis Leon Paradim, and several other executives at the Corp to take control of the world government through a series of plots involving the company’s 3A robots which are positioned all over the world in key places. ZZ knows that Paradim is a well respected figure in the business world and he plans to run for the world presidency in the election upcoming in the next year, and  most likely no one in power will believe him without hard evidence. Facing this situation ZZ decides to embark on a covert, below the surface, guerrilla campaign to stop Paradim and the Corp and gather enough evidence to bring them to justice. Assisting him are a new generation of robot known as the B.O.Y.Z.Z ( Brain Operated Young Zygoetopic Zoids), robots with the ability to think and reason with very different personalities.  After rescuing his sister from the Corp private school, Blitzy, she joins him, and they together face a long, uphill battle to expose the Corp.

I think the creators of this show envisaged  a world where at some point there would be a one world government, like we see in so many Japanese mech animes like gundam, macross, etc. Now I don’t think there will be a world government by 2025, however its likely that at some point there will be a world government, so I give them points for presenting a possible near future world, which was over 30 years away at the time of production.  I get the feeling Bots Master was meant for an older audience, maybe 14-16 year olds,  given the more mature type of story, and the political, corporate, and social overtones.

There are several themes that appear throughout the series. The major one is the issue of corporate influence over government and methods used by companies to gain influence in political spheres. The role of the media is a also secondary theme, as the media at first has a negative view of ZZ and then as he slowly exposes the Corp, the image becomes more favorable. Another theme is how much are people willing to sacrifice to see their goals through to the end as at times ZZ questions if its all worth it. The theme of artificial intelligence plays a part in this series with the boyzz robots come to terms living in a world where robots are seen just as servants and menial labor workers.

Of course this series has some gimmicks and downsides. The main gimmick is the 3D sequences during each episode when which with or with 3D glasses you could see the action in 3D. As a child this was off the chart for me, but now its just something to chuckle at lol. Some of the characters are annoying and one dimensional and this can wear on your nerves. The use of stock footage is a bit much at times, but as an anime and more importantly an a mecha anime fan, I’m used to stock footage :P.

I would recommend this show to anyone who likes mech shows or anyone that enjoys a show with politics or addresses social themes.If you want to watch the show here’s a link to a youtube channel with all 40 episodes and its been there for years, so don’t worry about copyright law lol. I’m probably going to give it a re-watch myself soon.

http://www.youtube.com/user/cmeister2

http://www.veoh.com/watch/v15644200B5scXPCd?h1=The+Bots+Master+Ep.1

 

Until next time folks,

Devil_Survivor

 

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Survivor Series: Troll Assassination; A Troll Typology

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So its me again, coming from the 5th layer of hell, the devil that survived the fieriest of games out there. Today I’m back with the first in a sub series about the thing everyone hates(except themselves) , that being trolls. Now I have heard lots of people talk about their experiences with trolls and there seems to me that there are many types and I’m going to set out to describe each type. In research methods terminology this is known as creating a typology; which is when a researcher studying a phenomenon divides the cases in their research to better present the data which has been collected.



 

1. The hit and run troll– these are trolls that leave one comment on a forum, message board, or a social network site and then don’t ever return to continue the conversation. An example if this was in episode 63 of the Gundamn podcast during one of their mailbag catch up shows when a troll posted a badly worded and very grammatically incorrect question and never post a another thing on that forum.

2.The fake debate troll– these are trolls who at first appear to want to have a real debate with you and then make no concrete arguments about the subject being disgusted and just throw insults at you. Too examples to cite a certain one, but check site with a comment section and you should find one.

3.The one word troll– these are trolls just leave one word on a comment section of a site. Usually its a hateful and homophobic comment, these are perhaps the saddest all of the troll types. Again check any site with comment section to find an example.

4.The hate on something and then buy it troll– These trolls are the curiousest type because they will be a huge fan boys of a certain franchise, and when a new product comes out from said franchise that is a little different they trashed it ,and say that they will never buy it, and they turn around and purchased it at the first opportunity.

 

 

 


5.The inner franchise troll– In many franchises in anime or video game  fandom, there are different fractions that like one part of a franchise and decide anyone who likes another part is a moron and sets out to hate on the other fans of the franchise.  A prime example of this is the Gundam franchise,and the universal century fans vs. the alternate century fans.

6. The video troll-  This species of troll usually is found on video sharing sites like youtube. You find will find them making videos of rambling, incoherent, nonsensical rants about whatever ridiculous topic pops into their troll heads. Examples of this type is xbox or playstation fanboys making 3 to 4 videos in their parents basements about which system is better because it has all the best games and the other is for “insert homophobic slur” and losers.

7.The private message or email troll-  The most cowardly of the troll types. Instead of commenting out in the open on a forum or message board, they troll someone in email or a private message. Any website administrator could probably tell you about an email or 100 they reached from a troll.

8.The out context or straw man troll- You will find this type on 4chan using the green text to twist a commentator’s words so far around it bears no resemblance to the original meaning of the comment. On the internet is frequent known “straw manning” someone in reference to the straw man argument which is when someone misrepresents
 the position of another person.

 The Straight Dope on Trolls– Here is a good video about trolls and is a good definition of what one really is.

 

Cheers and Beers,

Devil_Survivor

 

 

 

 

 

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Survivor Series: Devil Survivor Review

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So I thought it would be appropriate for my first game review to be my namesake, none other than: Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor. This game is part of the long running Shin Megami Tensei series and its the first of the series that I have had the pleasure of playing. It also has the title of the first of the series to be released outside of Japan. Devil Survivor received very good reviews averaging an 8 out of 10. So let’s now take a look at the specifics of the game.

Background Story:

In Devil Survivor you are a high school student, who is referred to as Hero and who you give a name too at the beginning of the game,  who is about to enter his third year of high school and the game begins with you meeting your friends to hang out in downtown Tokyo. One of your friends is late and he explains your cousin gave him three new Comps, DS looking devices that are very popular with the Japanese, and he hands you one and tells you that your cousin has modified the Comps with a new program he wrote. Then you get an email on your Comps from something called the “Laplace System” and it makes some dire predictions about the future including a lock down of Tokyo. Soon the Japanese Self Defense Force announces a lock down of a large area of downtown Tokyo. Soon Hero and his friends discover that the Comps have an intriguing ability to summon demons  and battle other demons. The main characters are then attacked by demons and became aware that the modified Comps allow humans to fight demons on an equal footing and defeat the demons. They then embark on a journey to uncover the mystery surrounding the lock down and ultimately escape from this nightmare.

Game Play:

Devil Survivor is a tactical role playing game and plays much like similar games such as Final Fantasy. You have a team of three characters, but with a slight difference  that human character is part of the team along with two demons. You can have up to four teams at one time on the battlefield, however you might have many other playable team leaders in your party. As for demons, you can carry up to 24 in your Comp. One of the coolest features of the game is the ability to fuse your existing demons with ones you can buy in auctions or that you acquired other ways into more powerful demons. There are two types of battles you will encounter; ones that are plot related and free battles.  Free battles are pretty simple they just allow you to fight some enemies to gain experience to level up and earn some money to buy more demons in auctions. The plot related battles are more involved as the ones you choose will influence which character’s ending you will get at the conclusion of the game. These are called “paths” and every major character has one. The two times I played the game so far I got Yuzu(Hot chick in the pink with the very large boobs) ending and Gin’s ending(Gin is the badass in the tie that owns his own bar). There are other events which are non-battles that advance the story as well, you can tell them from battles because an icon appears next to them with a red exclamation mark and say “battle”, pretty easy to tell apart I know :P. The game is broken up into 7 days and each event you do moves the clock forward 3o minutes, so beware of this if you want to level up some more before moving ahead in the story.

Personal Comments:

I really enjoyed this game a lot, its exactly what I like in a role playing game. The game has a deep and richly realized story with many twists and turns, characters with good development(yuzu and mildori are annoying at certain points), and a simple and easy to learn combat interface. The replay value is high as there are many different endings depending on the path you decide to take. The game places the fate of you and your friends in your hands and its up to you who lives and who dies, it almost gave me a god complex lol (P.S. I’m not as crazy as I seem). I’m excited about the sequel that is coming in fall, and will review it when it comes out. If your looking to buy this game, I would go with the new version called Devil Survivor: Overclocked, which adds an 8th day to the story. I’m going to buy it for my 3DS(I was dumb and brought it at the high price early on, but I’m looking forward to my 20 free games from the virtual console and will get Netflixs soon on it). I give Devil Survivor 4.5 of 5 big boobed anime girls.

Ok that’s all for now. Not sure what I’ll review next, I’m I need to jump into Catherine because I know so many people on this site love that game.

 

Cheers and Beers,

Devil_Survivor