Today’s a very special day (no, not St. Patrick’s Day). But first I need to write about a game I’ve been playing recently, because that’s what you all come to this blog for, right? Video games!

GAMES!!!!

Holy shit…

Those words, as well as other expletives kept going through my head as I spent a huge chunk of last weekend playing Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2. I played the first game, intrigued on the concept of personifications of consoles and the game industry. It’s referential, sure, but at least it was stuff that I could recognize almost all the time. Except for the part where the game played like garbage, and when I hit a wall that would have forced me to go back and grind some more or rethink my strategies for the party, I stopped playing. Not even the stuff surrounding the game could convince me to keep going. A year later, similar to how I discovered the first game was coming stateside, I learned just weeks before (thanks to Pixel Prinny) that the sequel was comin. Two crazy things about it: 1) The game almost slipped past me in the same sort of way, and 2) a goddamn sequel to Hyperdimension Neptunia was made. With expectations set to be disappointed on the gameplay side once again, I put the game on my Gamefly Q and waited for it to arrive. I received it at the start of March, and waited to start playing once my parents were gone on vacation because then I would have the PS3 to myself.

So guess what? It’s Hyperdimension Neptunia, but way better. Not so much that it will change the minds of people who weren’t down with the concept from the start, but for someone like me who was severely disappointed by the first game, any sort of improvement was welcome that I didn’t care if it wasn’t the best it possibly could. Now I’m probably gonna sound like I’m out of my frickin’ mind, but this game MIGHT be an early GOTY contender for me(?) At the very least it will get some sort of mention at the end of the year.

So the first thing I see after starting a new game? FMV of a Japanese guy giving a health warning and telling me to play it in a proper environment or whatever and enjoy the game. And then you get a trophy, further proving yet again that Japan doesn’t care about Achievements or Trophies. Alright game, you got me. Then I’m presented with a few CG images, which the game then gives me more trophies for. Wow, 3 already and I haven’t played the damn thing yet. There’s a few cutscenes, the CPUs are held in bondage (possibly one of the reasons for the game being rated M, but not likely), and framerate is all over the place. What follows for the next hour is control of Neptune’s sister, Nepgear, who is much more mature than her older sibling yet horribly self conscious of her lack of power, similar to several other stereotypical JRPG protagonists. Very much in contrast to her sister, who is carefree and has the mental capacity of a 6 year old. Eventually Nepgear’s reluctance gets resolved (most of it) when she activates here Hard Drive Divinity and starts kicking more ass. The game continues to open up, and proves to be a fairly decent JRPG. Not the greatest, but it might as well be by the last game’s standards.

The thing that had me confused for a while was the story. I did not realize until researching afterwards that the game is in an alternate storyline from the first one, which makes sense now because I recognized characters like Gust and Nisa, yet the rest of the main cast did not. It’s both good and bad, in the way it’s conveyed. IF and Compa know each other like they had been around for a while, like when they join up with Neptune in the first game. The good thing about it though is that I did not have to finish Neptunia in order to get everything in this game. Besides the roles of previous characters being reset, there are new characters such as the CPU candidates, who are handheld representations of the main CPUs. Hence why there isn’t one in Leanbox, the game’s representation of the Xbox 360. Other new characters are the oracles of the nations’ bascilicoms, not counting Histoire who was already in the first game. Throughout the game the main cast is constantly running into Underling (and later Pirachu. No, that is not a typo.) who has as much persistence and annoyance as something like Team Rocket.

A lot of crazy stuff happens during the course of the game, and there are…moments in the game that made me especially glad I was the only one at home to witness them. As I was playing I was still wondering how the hell this game got a higher ESRB rating than the first, and after one particular instance, I kind a raised an eyebrow. Heck, there were probably two, but the second one had me kind of shocked. Even Underling herself acknowledges that the whole thing is kind of fucked up. I’m not even gonna describe it, but I’ll leave it at this: Gamindustri has to have some form of Megan’s Law if this shit is happening. The other instance that came to mind I actually laughed a bit, which may or may not make me a horrible person. Again, it’s stuff that unless you were on board with Neptunia’s weirdness, this won’t change anything for you. Heck, it’ll probably turn you off even more.

The game reference stuff in the humor has been expanded on. In the last game, a lot of the jokes were just in the text. Now there’s a lot more visual stuff, specifically the enemies, that really straddle the line between what’s legal and what’s infringing on copyright. The thing with Pirachu’s name is an obvious one, but there are several others such as Clyde (One of the ghosts from Pac Man) and Ms. Clyde (with a bow in her hair. Need I say more?) Then there’s a bunch of Space Invader enemy rip-offs, each ending with the word “vader” in their name. There’s also a red plant with teeth called Piranha Flower. Besides the visual stuff, there are plenty of jokes and references to games and game development ideas in quest descriptions. Also, there’s a city (that you can’t go to BTW) on the world map that is just called Midgard. Obviously the name is from Norse mythology, but the most immediate reference is Midgar. I’ll admit, for a minute I thought they did straight up take the name from FFVII, but then there’s the question of whether the extra “d” at the end was intentional or not.

Of course, most of what I talked about already just has to do with the humor and the setting and characters. What about the game part of it? Well, like I already said, huge improvement to the game in many areas. There are no more random encounters, which is a big plus for me as I can’t stand them, even if I try to play an old game that has them in a vacuum. The battle system is better, allowing you to select which items you want to use, instead of setting a percentage to them on a party member and pray to God they use it when necessary. You don’t have to wait for the landmasses to come in range and go through a mini dungeon to reach the next one. The quest system works well as you can potentially knock out several at once as you go along the main questline, and then return to town to rake in the rewards. A lot of it is way more playable and kind of fun, even if it still is not the best JRPG made, or at least one of the best. Only gameplay problem that still persists is the framerate. Sometimes it will be smooth, but a lot of the time it’s very choppy and slow.

The other problem that still persists is the presentation and production values. As much as I enjoy the bizarre nature of Neptunia, the problem is…well, you know how people criticize some handheld games for being too much like a console game and questioning why it’s on the platform that it is? I’m having that same issue but in reverse. I’m used now to the fact that the game’s dialogue and story bits are predominately told in a visual novel style, but for a game that’s a PS3 exclusive, one that I’m playing off of a blu-ray disc, I kind of expect more, especially for an RPG. If it was a PSP game I would probably be more forgiving. Heck, making it a PSP game would have made a WHOLE lot more sense since the main character is a handheld representation, so there you go.

Oh, and very late in the game some of the bosses start using one hit kills that makes things kind of annoying, and forces you to play way too conservatively, spending more time healing than attacking. In fact, I’ve stopped playing the game now because of that, and I’m actually really close to finishing it. I’m just not finding much motivation to go through those battles. Plus I wanna make sure I get Kid Icarus Uprising next.

Despite that, I’ve definitely enjoyed what I’ve played of the game. The game play is better, the story and humor is crazy, sometimes fucked up, it’s a whole lot better. And that’s all I can think of to say about this game. I’ve exhausted as much as I can.

Oh wait, there’s a scene in the game that’s at a concert where a guy shouts something like “Nepgear is going to be my waifu,” which is probably either the best worst line in the game or the straight up worst line in the game. Either way, it’s still horrible, but that’s kind of the point, I guess? I don’t know. I’m sure the localization team just had a field day with this game.

Wait, nevermind, ONE MORE THING (this time for real). The event you go through to get Inafune as a power for Nepgear in the game is hilarious, and so is the attack. My only disappointment is that he isn’t an actual weapon you equip on at all times. That would have been way more hilarious.

Alright, NOW I’m done.

And the Rest

Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution

Just on a whim Sunday afternoon I got out my stick and did a quick arcade run in VF4. Picked Kagemaru, went through all the opponents, and I beat Dural. This is the second time it’s happened for me, just playing the game, not trying to accomplish anything specific, and I beat the final boss that has beat the crap out of me countless times in both VF4 and 5. I guess that’s the key to my success, is to not have a specific plan. Just play.

The Witcher

I had not played the game since Finals happened last week, and Neptunia mk2 ate up most of my weekend. Got some time in on Sunday, made a little more progress in Chapter 2. That old woman in Shani’s house gave me a lot of trouble. Took me atleast a dozen times of going in and out of the house to try and trigger the right conversation with the hag. Went from a drinking contest, to her constantly telling me to make myself at home, to asking for a gift, to finally me giving her money, and I could FINALLY see Shani. And she agrees, that lady made things hell.

Things Other Than Games

I don’t have much to say here. Fourth quarter has started, a bunch of stuff for the seniors is going on leading up the graduation, none of which I have any desire to be in. I just want out of here now. Anyway, enough of that. Now for what’s important on this day…

Toonami's 15th

March 17, 1997. The day that the revolution was televised. As of today, it’s been fifteen years since Toonami first came on the air. For me, this is kind of a big deal.

Toonami was the shit.

It was a big part of my childhood, to say the least. It was the thing that made Cartoon Network a channel worth watching, as I didn’t really find any of the other shows that interesting to me. It introduced me to anime, even when I didn’t know what it actually was. The shows they aired, while edited in spots, were really good picks, and it was all wrapped around a really sweet design and atmosphere. The two things that made Toonami amazing were the shows, and the presentation. Especially the latter. Moltar was fine and all, but the block really got my attention when they introduced TOM and the Absolution (one of the coolest ship designs I can still think of in my mind). For a fictional character, TOM was a really cool host. He was sardonic, gave some sage-like advice, and (with the exception of TOM 1) voiced by Steven Blum. Not to mention the voice of Optimus Prime, Peter Cullen, would narrate for some of the promos. It’s the stuff that no one is really being required to do for presenting a block on a TV channel, but they went the extra mile with that stuff, and I am grateful that they did.

My memories of the shows they aired, unfortunately, are a bit foggy. Dragon Ball Z is a pretty obvious one to remember since they aired it all the time. Shows in the Gundam franchise were fantastic as well, G Gundam being the one I saw the most of. Tenchi Muyo, Yu Yu Hakusho, Rurouni Kenshin, Fucking Reboot, a lot of good stuff. Some stuff I skipped over, like Sailor Moon, with the exception of one episode that I did not pay attention to the details of other than waiting for the good shows to come.

Man, just thinking about it warms my heart. So as I post this entry I am currently watching a lot shows that aired on Toonami. It includes shows that I saw and enjoyed, it includes ones I didn’t know were on there to begin with (like Ronin Warriors, or Blue Sub No. 6), and some shows that I skipped before for various reasons. Here’s the list I’ve put together:

Dragon Ball

Dragon Ball Z

Sailor Moon

Reboot

Gundam Wing

Robotech

Ronin Warriors

Tenchi Muyo! Ryo-Ohki

Tenchi Universe

Tenchi in Tokyo

Cardcaptor Sakura

Outlaw Star

Blue Submarine No. 6

The Big O

Mobile Suit Gundam

Gundam 08 MS Team

Zoid Chaotic Century

Zoids New Century Zero

G Gundam

Yu Yu Hakusho

Rurouni Kenshin

Gundam SEED

Samurai Jack

Rave Master

Megas XLR

Dragon Ball GT

So yeah, that’s a lengthy list, and how do I expect to get through them all in a single day? The answer: I don’t. I’m going to marathon as much of this stuff as I can, and then after that I’ll continue to watch a couple episodes of a few shows each day. It’ll mostly be the Dragon Ball stuff every day with the other shows on top of that, since they don’t run as long. And yes, I did put Sailor Moon and Cardcaptor Sakura on there. Sailor Moon I decided I would give a chance only because a friend of mine whose doing something similar watched it and enjoyed it, so I figured I’ll try watching it as a show that’s of good quality, regardless of its intended audience. Same goes for Cardcaptor Sakura.

Most of these I’m watching on sites that have the episodes available for streaming, with the exception of Reboot and Yu Yu Hakusho. I got the definitive mainframe edition of Reboot for Christmas, and I got all the episodes of Yu Yu Hakusho on DVD, courtesy of said friend that’s doing this similar thing.

It’s gonna be crazy for sure. Since I have the house all to myself, no one’s gonna mind I have this stuff going on into the early hours of Sunday morning, or whenever it is I pass out from exhaustion.

I love Toonami…

In Conclusion

So that's it. A big ass write up on a niche JRPG and me reminiscing about the greatest action cartoon block of all time. Hope you enjoyed reading it.

Stay gold.