Game of the Month: Ys X: Nordics (Nihon Falcom, 2023)

Hooray, I have an opportunity to talk Ys again. This might be it for a while with no clues as to an upcoming Ys XI so I'm going to enjoy it while I can. I went over most of the elementary stuff for Ys X last month—what it's about, what's new, whether it's been stacking up to its predecessors—so now this time I can be all obsessive about its mechanics. Just as a recap though: Ys X is set between the first two Ys games and, I believe, the fourth (semi-recently remade as Memories of Celceta) and sees Adol and Dogi run afoul of a Norman Viking fleet while the duo is on their way to Celceta with the Ys continent's own Dr. Flair in tow. Momentarily waylaid at the Romun town of Carnac, Adol discovers an imminent invasion of the Griegr (a spin on the Norse undead draugr) and joins forces with the Norman tribe's princess, Karja, in order to rescue the villagers of Carnac after the Griegr invasion comes to pass. Much of the game has you sailing from one island destination to the next across the expansive Obelia Gulf, deterring the Griegr's "Trident" of three tough lieutenants as they seek to resurrect their king.

Since you're fighting with Karja throughout (barring a few occasions when you get separated) the game is built around cooperative combat, albeit not in the sense where another human is involved. By holding the R2 button you combine forces and your skills become duo skills, which are more expensive but typically more damaging. Another benefit is that R2 puts you in automatic guard mode, allowing you to tank any hit though only to an extent before the guard is broken and the enemy can get some free hits on you. The ideal way to take down bosses, especially on the higher difficulties where they can usually one-shot you, is to employ R2 at the right moment for a perfect guard. This often has the effect of stunning bosses temporarily, allowing you to get some hits in, but also greatly increases the "Revenge Gauge". As this gauge increases, so too does the strength of your next special: it works like a multiplier, increasing damage output by 2x up to 5x (you have to find books out in the world to increase its maximum). This creates an unusual—for Ys if not for more deliberate action-RPGs like the Souls series—dynamic where you're relying on boss patterns and learning when to hit that R2 for the best timing, rather than just flying in firing off all your best attacks.

I found it a very satisfying new paradigm for the game and one that sort of turns a problem that the previous two Ys games had on its head a little. In Ys 8 and Ys 9, which were both stellar games by most metrics, you had what were called Flash Guard and Flash Step: perfect guards and evade rolls, respectively, that conferred really devastatingly powerful buffs for a few seconds each. It got very easy to keep activating them over and over too, as Flash Step would slow everything down making it that much easier to then Flash Step/Guard again and stay in that state. Since Flash Guard also made all your attacks criticals it almost trivialized a lot of the boss fights in those games: even if you're not a fan of higher difficulties, playing 8/9 on Nightmare difficulty (the second highest, and the one that typically has an achievement attached to it as an incentive) was almost required to get the most of out those games, or else you'd have to restrict yourself from overemploying these cheesy techniques and spoiling the level of challenge for yourself. In Ys X, it's now mandatory on those higher difficulties to get that timing down, not just an optional "press button to win" tactic.

As is always the case in Ys, the combat is only half the equation as to why I adore this franchise. The other is the open-world exploration aspect, giving you tons of islands to visit with their own checklists of treasure to find (or dig up, once you have the option), sealife to fish, and bonus mini-bosses to put down once you're close enough in level. There's also the ship battles with their multiple ammo types and enemy ship types to conquer, though I will say that particular part of the game did feel a little undercooked. It fits Ys's usual attitude of just wading in causing an unholy ruckus though, ramming into a ship one moment before peeling away with a devastating close-range cannon volley the next, and once you're several upgrades in and are taking down entire fleets in seconds it's a great deal of uncomplicated fun. That's pretty much par for the course for the Ys series as a whole, one that really helps you appreciate how much stronger your party has become (and how much better you are at the game's systems). My love for Ys is why I'm understanding of those who get really into Musou games or Monster Hunter: there's some manner of dopamine delivery system going on with that simple enough loop of pounding ever bigger armies or monsters (or monster armies in some cases) that can make for a fantastic "end of the day, turn brain off" gameplay experience at the expense of something a bit more substantial story- or systems-wise to sink your teeth into when you're in the mood to concentrate. Ys has been making great strides with more involved stories with 8 and 9 and X almost feels like a step back in that regard, since it remains pretty straightforward right until the end with the obvious twist coming a mile away, but the intricacy of its duo/guard parry system does at least give that side of things a bit more calculated aspect.

Ultimately, I'm probably going to rate X just a smidge behind 9 mostly because the story and the new ship system is a little lacking in comparison to 9's urban traversal silliness but that's still going to stick it firmly in my top 50 RPGs of all time (which doesn't sound like much, granted, but I've played a hell of a lot of the things) and a case where I'm happy Falcom is still attempting to take the Ys franchise in new directions when they could so easily pull a Dragon Quest and just keep delivering on what the long-time fans are expecting. I wonder if there's some internal division at Falcom where the Ys guys, traditionally thought to be the flagship, feel inadequate compared to the ever-soaring Trails franchise in the development offices a little further down the hall. I don't know enough about that company's structure one way or the other but if there is competition I hope both franchises continue to improve as a result because they really are in a league of their own these days, albeit with FromSoft presenting quite the rival to overcome.

Oh, before we go I uploaded another combat video for demonstration purposes:

You can see when the icons on the right switch from blue to red/yellow that I'm in "duo" mode, changing the specials I have available to use. The enemy tosses out attacks with a red-tinge and a blue-tinge: the former are unblockable without the duo block (if you get a perfect guard on those you can perform a little cutscene counterattack, as you can see in the video) while the latter require you hit the evade/run button to escape damage. I certainly could've framed this fight better but I hope it shows off the energy and pace of a typical Ys X encounter.

Other Gaming Tomfoolery

Might and Magic VI: The Mandate of Heaven (New World Computing, 1998)

Sadly, I did not reach the end of this game before March was over like I'd planned but I also feel like I'm in spitting distance of the conclusion. After completing all six council quests and then an additional mission to oust a traitor in said council, I accessed the "Oracle" of Enroth—actually a massive ancient supercomputer underneath Free Haven—and was informed that I'd need to provide it with some additional memory crystals (I guess they're like futuristic RAM cards?) before it can computate an answer to the devil problem. That means scouring four enormous dungeons—the lich-infested Castle Darkmoor, the remote Castle Alamos far north of Silver Cove, the Supreme Temple of Baa on the equally remote Hermit's Isle which is a month-long ship journey away (though the isle apparently has the only means of de-aging my artificially boomer-ized crew), and Castle Kriegspire which is the only one I'd already cleared out—and presumably there'll be one or more big dramatic dungeon raids to quell this interstellar invasion army for good and finish the game. My party's absurdly strong now with all their relevant skills at mastery level so it's mostly the case that I'm powering through these dungeons as quickly as I'm able. I still need cash—level ups are getting more and more expensive, and I could always use the extra HP and MP if less so the skill points—so I am stopping for treasure caches and the like, but I'm fully in endgame mode now and hope to be done a few days into April.

As for my final impressions on the game, I can certainly see the argument for why The Mandate of Heaven is sometimes regarded as the series peak. I personally have more affinity for For Blood and Honor (i.e. Might and Magic VII), which has a tighter running time with a more interesting story and set-up as well as some necessary gameplay tweaks to the skill and magic systems, but VI is the series' equivalent of Final Fantasy VII or Super Mario 64 in the sense that it was able to burst through that difficult "jumping to (sorta) 3D" paradigm shift and not only stick the landing but provided one of the best games the series had ever seen. The impact of that means that, even if some of its sequels are technically better games, it's going to leave a significant impression the others simply can't replicate given their more iterative natures. It's not a game franchise you can take too seriously, as you might expect from those screenshots of my party pulling funny faces or walking into a room with a thousand enemies just milling around, but it is considered one of the pillars of the CRPG genre for a reason. Glad I was able to finally fill in an important historical milestone as a self-avowed RPG player (though speaking of Avowed, that's another first-person RPG I'm going to have to make room for sometime soon).

If you're curious about my mighty and magical travails so far, I have a three part blog series: Part One, Part Two, and Part Three (links will again be at the end too).

Even though I'd planned to put Super Mario Sunshine to rest for a while, letting Mario doze away on that deckchair facing the perma-sunset of Sirena Beach, I couldn't help but be curious about the massive fan mod that is Super Mario Eclipse. Initially, I only checked out its little tutorial area to see the new mechanical additions—most of them were welcome tweaks to the functionality of F.L.U.D.D.'s three alternative nozzles, like adjusting speed with Turbo—but once I'd gotten into the game proper I started to realize just how crazy this thing is. The first and most notable switch up is how every course is now connected in an open-world fashion: you could enter Bianco Hills and find a passage close to the river that winds down to Ricco Harbor, or a tunnel into Corona Mountain, or a cliffside path leading to Pianta Village. More than that, there were a bunch of brand new courses many of which are as involved as the seven already in the game (though with a mostly repurposed DLC sort of vibe, kinda like how Majora's Mask felt like an expansion pack for Ocarina of Time) and I took one glance at the bottom half of the achievement list and realized I was only seeing the tip of the craziness iceberg to come. With twice the number of collectibles—putting it dangerously close to DK64 in terms of the sheer amount of crap to pick up—it's something I'm inclined to peck away at for some time yet. Sadly, all the original content is untouched and I'm getting a little tired of seeing it after last month's playthrough and a half, so I might try to alternate that with the new material. Man, though, the QoL stuff alone is making this playthrough super stress-free. Well, until I have to hop into the pachinko machine again at least.

Picross 2 for Game Boy has one of the busiest communities right now, almost certainly owing to the fact that it's a direct sequel to a game that was recently added to NSO but possibly also because it's a picross game notable for some fun original ideas. Jupiter would later incorporate a few of these "mega picross" puzzles into many of their Picross e and Picross S installments, where you're completing a grip of puzzles to create a larger composite image, but here they take center stage where both Mario and Wario have their own distinct selections of multi-phase nonograms to solve.

As always, I prefer the Wario ruleset to the Mario one, so I'll be enjoying the latter half of this playthrough more than the former I'm sure. It's also, like Eclipse, one of the bigger games I've played from its particular genre so it might just keep me busy for a chunk of April as well. There will come a day, eventually, when I get tired of picross. (Though I'm sure the day when people get tired of hearing about me talking about picross has long since come and gone.)

The "Indie Game of the Week" of the Month: Minishoot' Adventures (SoulGame, 2024)

Another stacked month of Indies. Well, four of them. Stacked more in a quality than a quantity sense, starting with this month's star Minishoot' Adventures (#412), the "Zeldershootz" that made some amount of an impression last year even for as busy as 2024 was. Transplanting an upgrade system, including both passives and traversal-enabling movement types, onto a twin-stick shooter format remains a real neat idea and the simple aesthetic lends itself well to both its minimalist cartoon charm and in how it makes it easier to follow enemy projectiles and maneuver accordingly. Best of all, it gave me yet another horrible new genre name with which to terrorize and annoy my peers, so what's not to love?

Two very close runners-up were Carto (#410)—a delightful top-down puzzle game that had you arranging the world one map tile at a time in order to solve riddles and make progress—and the equally geographically trippy first-person puzzle game Manifold Garden (#411). Definite birds of a feather those two, though their tones couldn't be more different from the wholesomeness of Carto to the deeply disorienting Brutalist strangeness of Manifold Garden. Still, they were two games where getting your bearings was often half the job. Last, we have the ambitious but flawed Trifox (#413), another borderline Zeldershootz with some novel ideas for creating your own weapon and gadget loadouts from three class archetypes, which you could mix and match to your preferences, in a blocky world of gun-toting anthros. I did appreciate its moxie but a few too many irritants almost had me writing it off.

I have next month's slate already curated and downloaded. It's been a while since I played one so there's two explormers in there (go figure). There's also a nominally-appropriate RPG to match this April's blogging feature along with the other alligator game I have that isn't Lil Gator Game. It is weird that I have more than one alligator game, I agree. I just keep snapping them up.

Mastering the Master System (Part Three)

More Master System games! I'm stuck in this place between wanting to play the best known Master System games (which traditionally are also those of the highest quality) and wanting to prioritize those that have attainable achievement sets for the sake of this silly "64% rule" I insisted upon. I've also my own preferences, like the games I grew up with and the ones I've been meaning to try for decades now. Fortunately, especially for the oft-cursed "random" slot, we're only talking SMS games that have RA support which also means they're the only SMS games anyone gives a hoot about. The generic sports titles and other also-rans typically don't get that privilege; at least, not until the major stops are all covered and the contributors there can start sweeping up the remainders.

Regardless, the games covered below are distinct spins on three respective pre-existing properties: we've one computer game port, one "just about legally distinct" clone of a NES favorite, and one adaptation of a popular manga (just a few months shy of the upcoming next season of Game OVA, even).

Ys: The Vanished Omens

• Type: Selected
• Developer: Falcom
• Release Year: 1988

It's been an Ys-y March for me, having completed both the first and last Ys game chronologically in the same month. Of course, if we're talking the timeline of the series the events of Ys X happen directly after those in I and II so they're not that far apart in that respect. The setting and characters of Ys I came up a couple of times in Ys X even: they have a habit of referring back to previous adventures even if there's a significant gameplay difference between where Ys was in 1987 (or 1988 for this port) and the Ys of 2024. Ys: The Vanished Omens, a.k.a. Ys I: Ancient Ys Vanished, debuted on the PC-88 which was Nihon Falcom's main avenue at the time. Designed to be a bit more accessible and arcade-like compared to Falcom's previous RPGs, Ys was well-regarded for QoL ideas like recharging health bars (when standing still and not in a dungeon) as well as its "bump" system of combat that had you correctly lining up the hitboxes of moving enemies instead of tapping a dedicated attack button. Ys I saw a great many ports and remasters over the years, the more recent releases usually bundling it with its sequel Ys II: Ancient Ys Vanished – The Final Chapter given the two games have a contiguous storyline and they're both relatively short on their own. These days, the Ys I & II Complete version found on Steam is probably the most convenient way to play it. That's no good for me back here in ye olde '80s Master System land though, so let's see just how antiquated this feels.

Ys 1, or I guess "Y's: The Vanished Omen" going by the Master System game case's spine (so that's where that errant apostrophe came from), has you play as the warrior... Aron? Well that's not right. You're Adol "The Red" Christin and at this time he's a fledgling adventurer who has come to the town of Minea in search of fame and fortune. Turns out there's a whole quest that needs doing to recover six magical tomes relating to the history of the missing continent of Ys and take them to the ominous Tower of Darm (or Doom in this translation) to summon a path to this lost land all the while defeating the sorcerer that threatens the peace, Dark Fact (or Dulk Dekt here; sounds like a Yu-Gi-Oh villain). Most of Ys 1 takes place around Minea, which acts as a central hub and requires you come back fairly regularly to buy new gear and complete side-quests, and the outskirts with a bunch of exterior and interior locations to explore. Otherwise it's a pretty simple action-RPG that relies largely on your level and equipment to determine how likely you are to defeat a boss: sometimes just grinding an extra level or farming gold to buy the next weapon or armor upgrade is enough to turn the tables on a troublesome foe, and that same model more or less persisted up until the Napishtim games (those released between 2003-2006).

I won't go into all the sordid details of the playthrough—feel free to pick up Ys I & II: Chronicles from Steam if you're interested—only that this version of the game is kinda weird. Much of this comes from the simplification process that console ports of PC games naturally undergo but there's a level cap that you hit right around the time you defeat the boss of the mines—In fact, without the best equipment available at that point and max level, you can't even scratch him—but that only marks the approximate halfway point of the game. The imposing Tower of Darm is over twenty floors tall, compared to the next largest dungeon of the Palace at five, and is full of tough monsters and traps that you can't overcome by just running away and gaining a few levels, since that's no longer an option. The only means to survive is by finding the ultimate gear hidden within and to make liberal use of your rings, especially the heal ring that lets you regenerate inside dungeons (though you can still regenerate normally in any of Darm's exterior areas, which are staircases that wrap around the tower). It's pretty much the Ys I I remember in my other, more modern encounters with the game and with its "save anywhere" functionality (with multiple slots so you don't screw yourself over) it's still pretty accessible. It even has a passable rendition of the game's best track, Palace of Destruction. (Here's the Saturn version for comparison.) (And the PC Engine CD version.) (And the Steam version.) (I like this track a lot.) (Also, it was composed by Yuzo Koshiro, who founded Ancient which made Sonic 1 SMS. Small world, huh?)

OK, before we're done, let's talk this achievement set. We're once again dealing with some no-damage boss clears (getting tired of these things already) which were mostly not an issue besides the fight with two demon heads just prior to the final boss. A rock eyeball monster with a random and fast attack pattern took me a while though, as did the initial boss fight against a Wizard due to the fireball traps all around the arena—the gargoyle boss in the mines and final boss didn't even have no-damage achievements, due to how tough they were. There's also a few mutually exclusive achievements: you can find rings in the game that greatly increase your survivability but none are strictly necessary, so the biggest achievement is for neglecting them completely (ironically, the one you are allowed to use is the Evil Ring which kills you immediately outside of one particular story-critical scenario). There's also an achievement for keeping the maximum amount of non-equipment items: these include vendor trash you can sell for some much needed capital early on and quest items you can simply refuse to hand back to their sponsors and forgo their rewards (one of which being a ring, so it'd make sense to combine those two into a single run). Besides the no-damage clears I'd say it's a pretty intriguing set that has you approach the game in some slightly more challenging arrangements: I skipped those item-exclusionary ones because there were also a bunch of achievements for collecting said rings and completing said side-quests, and those were much easier to earn with the one playthrough I was willing to spend here. On the whole, though? Ys: The Vanished Omen (SMS Edition) was pretty rad and my new front-runner for best RPG on this console, especially since Golvellius doesn't really count.

• Achievements: 47 (of 50) / 94% / RR: x1.63

Master of Darkness

• Type: Selected
• Developer: SIMS
• Release Year: 1992

Last month I played the Master System Zelda so why not follow that up with the Master System Castlevania? Castlevania didn't stay off Sega platforms for long—1994's Bloodlines for Genesis released just a year and change after this SMS late-bloomer did—but that was enough time for Sega's own SIMS (a subsidiary comprised of Sega and Sanritsu staffers) to try their hand at some classic gothic horror platformer action. The stalwart Dr. Ferdinand Social discovers through his connections (his Social network, as it were) that the recent Jack the Ripper murders might have an even darker purpose behind them than a simple distaste for sex workers: blood sacrifices in a conspiracy to resurrect Dracula at his castle in Transylvania. It's as good a theory as any. The game has you first traipsing across London before you follow the trail back to the villains' base in Romania, employing a combination of weapons that balance range and damage (with some finite sub-weapons) to carve a path forward. The game debuted on Game Gear, where it was called Vampire: Master of Darkness in the US and In the Wake of Vampire in Japan, then later saw this Europe/Brazil-exclusive Master System port.

Master of Darkness may be pretty overt with its inspiration but it's not the pale, bloodless imitation you might expect. It controls as well as classic Castlevania, is far more generous with health and lives barring a few nasty insta-death pitfalls, and adopts not only Castlevania's sub-weapon system of finite-use ranged weapons but also Ghosts 'N' Goblins's multiple melee weapons. Said melee weapons range from the initial dagger, which has the lowest damage and reach, to a cane (decent range and damage), the rapier (same as the cane but a little slower), and the axe (highest damage but has less reach than the cane and rapier). Naturally, while you'd be happy with any of the others, you never want to have the dagger; which is why it'll often drop from the game's candle equivalent right when you least want it to. These "dagger traps" persist right up until the final boss: the very last item drop of the game is one. The structure is much like Castlevania or Ninja Gaiden in that you have five "levels" but they're broken up into three increments each (except the last, which is a straight shot to the final boss gauntlet): if you die you reset to the start of whichever of the three segments you're in, and continuing after a game over puts you back to part one of that level. Extra lives are plentiful enough, at least, so it's feasible you could 1CC this game on your first attempt. I managed it on the second try. It does feel a little less feature-rich than your typical Castlevania—the boss of the third, fourth, and half of the fifth level is the same guy, for example—but if we're talking 8-bit Castlevania, or "We Have Castlevania At Home" even, it's definitely serviceable.

So, let's talk achievements. The no-damage bosses are back, now more irritating than ever since the set bars you from using the in-game level select cheat to get to them faster; there's one for each level for finding all the item drops (some are hidden in walls, as you might surmise considering where Master of Darkness could be getting their ideas from); one for each level for completing it without dying (not too bad); one for each level for only completing it with the dagger and no sub-weapons (literal torture); and one for collecting enough of a specific sub-weapon to max out its inventory, which is 64 (some sub-weapons are found in groups of eight rather than sixteen, making it tougher—I'm pretty sure there's only 64 stakes in the game, so if you accidentally use one by hitting up and attack that's that achievement voided). Finally, we have a high-score target of 200k (made it on my first run, if only just), holding onto nine extra lives (just about possible even if you die a couple times), and the no-continues win. Relatively fair set but it would mean several playthroughs to get everything: fortunately, like Castle of Illusion, a single run of Master of Darkness is only going to take about two hours tops. It's a fair enough set and I could probably earn most of them eventually with enough time and patience, not that I have much motivation to do so for those knife-only runs. Like trying to jab the Wolfman with a toothpick.

• Achievements: 31 (of 40) / 77% / RR: x4.45

Hokuto no Ken

• Type: Random
• Developer: Sega
• Release Year: 1986

The randomizer has decided it was being too kind in giving me a beloved arcade conversion (well, the original game was beloved, maybe not so much the conversion itself) in January and a fantastic Disney platformer in February, so it's dropped this on my lap. Getting an early start on Game OVA this year, at least. Hokuto no Ken is best known on this side of the world as Fist of the North Star: the post-apocalyptic martial arts manga and anime about a stoic warrior with a conspicuous Big Dipper scar tracking down his lost love and the villains who kidnapped her across a barren wasteland. He also says "atatatatata" a lot. Both this original Japanese version of the game and the greatly edited version westerners saw—named simply Black Belt—have their own separate achievement sets, so we could find ourselves randomly pulling Black Belt as well before this feature's through. Wouldn't that be a treat? At least Sega themselves developed this, so it probably won't be as bad as the zero-budget Famicom and Super Famicom adaptations (though sadly I doubt it'll be a patch on the Ryu ga Gotoku Studios game).

Ah, I was curious how Sega would approach this license given brawlers weren't too prolific in 1986. After all, Double Dragon was 1987 and Final Fight was 1989 so the belt-scrolling brawler hadn't really been codified yet. Turns out they just copied Irem's Kung Fu Master/Spartan X, which is as good an inspiration as any back then. To be fair, Kung Fu Master and contemporaries like Rush'n Attack did see some success with their particular "enemies pour in from the sides, take them down in one hit" approach so it was probably seen as the preferred way to make martial arts games like that back then. As you might expect, Ken just walks to the right while fighting various thugs and soldiers as they pour in. Every while you're interrupted with a mini-boss fight against some named (not in-game, but presumably in the manual) goons from the source material. These include the four playing card-themed villains Spade, Club, Diamond, and Heart in Stage 1 as well as the imaginatively named "Major" and "Sarge" on Stage 2. At the end of each stage you have a proper one-on-one fight with the boss: these play just like the rest of the game's combat, but the character sprites are larger and there's often a tactic you have to intuit to defeat your opponent since they often hit pretty hard.

Unfortunately, with no continues I ran into the limits of my fighting game skills pretty quickly with the Colonel boss of Stage 2 and decided I didn't want to go through all of Stage 1 and 2 again to get back there. I was no closer to figuring out how to beat him either, besides sticking close so he didn't toss another boomerang with an unpredictable trajectory (you'd think it'd go backwards, right? Back to the holder? But it sort of floats up and around a bit instead). The achievement set is pretty normal progression stuff, plus a tip on how to earn the E (health) and P (invincibility) power-ups, but obviously as I didn't get too far I couldn't earn most of the story ones. Going to have to take the L here, as I imagine I will have to with several SMS games that were made firmly within the brutal arcade game development mindset. Either way, that's the last I want to think about anime for a while.

• Achievements: 9 (of 28) / 32% / RR: x3.99

The Weeb Weeview

Well, it's time to think about anime. The winter '25 anime season just drew to a close so I'll put together a short list of my favorites from the past three months as well as reiterating a few I probably should've been watching instead, had I more sense or taste.

1. Solo Leveling Season 2: I realize this show's become something of the Rick and Morty of anime (excepting the actual Rick and Morty anime) in terms of garnering overhype from the worst corners of the internet and that really came to an unpleasant head when a contingent of stunted manchildren got upset, ironically, at a scene where the cool, dispassionate hero broke down in tears from sheer relief after saving a family member. Even despite all that, though... holy smokes, the animation this season. Some of those fight scenes left me both speechless and breathless, even though I knew how they were going to pan out. It's been a real visual treat episode after episode and if I was the creator of this property I don't think I could be happier with how it's been adapted. If there's any show this season I was on tenterhooks waiting around for the next edition to air, it was this.
2. Apothecary Diaries Season 2: Apothecary Diaries continues to be the total package—beautiful, mysterious, funny, suspenseful, intriguing, romantic, and it has a great sense of cinematography with some quality animation. This season furthers Maomao's involvement with the Imperial Palace despite her best efforts to not get involved with intrigue so she can peacefully experiment with all the medicines and poisons she's into concocting. It sometimes feels like anime loses something of the quieter moments in the manga and novels they are adapted from, since every second on screen probably costs god knows what and they need to keep things chugging along for the sake of that 22-minute episode length, but Apothecary Diaries never seems to fall afoul of those adaptation woes and has everything perfectly paced. My only issue with the show is that I've yet to see Maomao write a single thing down in a diary of any kind. False advertising, man. (I'm the first one to make that joke, yes, you would be correct in assuming that.)
3. Shangri-La Frontier Season 2 (Cour 2): This show's still great but it's kinda falling into that pattern that longer serial anime does where you tune in because it's amazing and you're invested in the characters and whatever arc is going on, but because you're so deep in the weeds it gets that much more challenging to sell others on the show—or specifically, what makes this particular season (or half a season) riveting in particular. This arc does have the interesting dynamic shift that is getting all three Wolfgang members in the same place IRL—the pro gamer of the group, Oikatzo, has decided to unleash the ingenuity (and unpredictable malevolence in Pencilgon's case) of his scumbag SLF teammates on an unbeatable eSports team from the States as they all compete in a curious spin on a VR Marvel Rivals type—even if protag Sunraku insists on wearing yet another ridiculous mask around others for the sake of his showmanship. Meanwhile, in the SLF game, we had the mid-season deal with one "raid boss plus plus" "unique monster" and towards the end we're moving closer to a fight with another (in a really cool vertically flipped underwater city setting) so it's still bringing the big, pivotal battle scenes. It's just an enjoyably hyperactive series about the joys and travails of taking video games far too seriously: something I'm sure folks on this site can empathize with.
4. Sakamoto Days: It sort of ended mid-arc (turns out we're getting the second half of this season in the summer) but Sakamoto Days has been a great deal of fun between its action-comedy scenes of hardened hitmen being brought down, non-lethally, by the unflappable titular former killer, current portly family man protagonist. We've expanded the main cast to a ragtag group of mostly benevolent underworld figures—a psychic hitman, a mafia scion, and an exceptional (if not too bright) sniper—and now it seems the show's looking to jump into a storyline surrounding four very terrifying serial murderers let loose in Japan to hunt down Sakamoto and the elite Order of peace-keeping assassins he used to belong to, so I could certainly see the series getting darker in the near future. For now, though, there's some great physical comedy and deadpan delivery gags to enjoy in this season: I think if you were a fan of Spy X Family's unusual combination of wholesome family moments mixed with combat scenes between idiosyncratic assassins this is definitely on a similar wavelength.
5. Zenshu: The expectations I had for this to go crazy meta didn't quite pan out but as an isekai story it felt like it had something to convey rather than the standard "hey, this is a cool hook for one of these, right? Let's see how far we can stretch this gimmick out" set-up. Something about the pacing and the style really reminded me of western animation too, as I said last time, even if its characters are fully entrenched in the world of producing anime. Also? It's kind of refreshing to have a one-and-done season of narrative. In most cases, if an anime is popular it's able to finish the story created by whatever light novel or manga it's based on but that might take several seasons of potentially diminishing returns if the budget's struggling or the plotting's just petering out. Most adaptations just get the one season and leave things hanging just in case they ever find the means to adapt more. With Zenshu being an anime original it had a pretty definitive conclusion if one that arrives a bit suddenly, and it's odd how novel that feels.
6. From Bureaucrat to Villainess: Dad's Been Reincarnated!: Though this first season leaves us with more questions than answers the balance of humor and good vibes has made it an uncomplicated treat, with its protagonist doing his darndest to melt into the background as an avuncular support role to the game's featured cast of teens only for it to backfire by having his even-tempered and wise contributions turn him into the beloved center of attention. I've seen plenty of spins on the "reincarnated villainess" trope—it's the shoujo equivalent of "Japanese dude gets cheat powers and becomes an invincible adventurer"—but few are as novel and wonderful as this. Just keep in mind it can be a bit on the dry and leisurely-paced side (it's going for a more cozy slice-of-life thing after all).
7. Welcome to Japan, Ms. Elf: Pretty much a similar case to the above, using the isekai format to present a story full of positive feelings and cute moments in lieu of anything more conflict-focused or emotionally charged. A meetcute between an elf and a Japanese dude who has been travelling to another world (literally, it turns out) whenever he goes to sleep. As I said last time, it can frequently feel like a Japanese tourism commercial but it still has its charms.

Not seen Re:Zero Season 3 (still halfway through 2), The Red Ranger Becomes an Adventurer in Another World (sounds like a pretty good isekai for tokusatsu fans?), the second season of 100 Girlfriends (which is apparently hysterical), and a few others that have been recommended by the usual YouTube crowd. Well, something to consider catching up on next time there's a duff season.

Speaking of which! (Perhaps!) Here's what I can say about next season's anime slate based on either watching their previous episodes or from reading a smattering of their manga:

• Apothecary Diaries Season 2 (Cour 2): Well, yeah, of course I'm planning to keep watching this. Maomao still has to solve The Mystery of Jinshi's Frog after all.
• I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years Season 2: This is one of those iyashikei (cozy) isekai that every season's line-up has to have for some reason, and is about an immortal witch that was formerly an OL who wished for more time to spend on her hobbies (and sleeping) and ends up acquiring a collection of pseudo-daughters and pseudo-wives through no real fault of her own. First season was cute and moderately well-animated so I'm not surprised it wrangled a second, though it is fairly rare for anything GL-coded (or indeed BL-coded) to pull that off.
• Wind Breaker Season 2: The first season of this "banchos will be banchos" highschool brawler was a pleasant surprise in part because of its kinetic fight scenes but also for a great deal of character work, conveying the neuroses and passions and frustrations of this growing cast of scrappy teens in a manner similar to a highschool sports drama anime. It could also be charming and funny between the punch-ups too, especially in the loner protagonist's inability to comprehend any genuine appreciation and friendship shown to him. If you ever wanted a Cromartie High played mostly straight this could be something you're interested in.
• Go! Go! Loser Ranger! Season 2: Somewhere between a violent The Boys-style Super Sentai/Power Rangers parody and a tense "agent deep under cover" potboiler, the first season of this was some suspenseful and unpredictable fun if a bit sluggish at times. I'm looking forward to seeing where that narrative goes next now that the thankless work of establishing the premise and characters has been done. It almost has a sort of Star Wars: Andor quality to it, mostly in the way of "what is this guy's plan? He's hopelessly outgunned here" underdog energy.
• The Beginning After the End: Adapted from a webtoon of some repute, probably one of many such adaptations to follow fellow webtoon Solo Leveling after that show's success, this reincarnation fantasy (not isekai, though there's some overlap) is about an ancient legendary warrior king who reawakens inside the mind of an infant—ironically, the infant's called Arthur but not the ancient king—and goes on to enjoy the sort of carefree idyllic life he couldn't have in his past incarnation what with all the many regal responsibilities and assassins to thwart. It's not to last though: the little dude is quickly thrown into one disaster after another and must rely on his old instincts to survive. It's a bit more dark and serious than most anime working in this space but I remember enjoying its pacing and how it was one of the few resurrection stories to really broach the horrific but oft-overlooked fact that the protagonist basically destroyed and supplanted the soul of an infant and has to come to terms with it. (I did think it was another Korean manhwa like Solo Leveling—which is why I brought that up—but the original web novels are American in origin? It was only the webtoon adaptation that was Korean. I'm not sure what ratio of the former and latter will contribute to this anime.)
• From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman: Less typical than most fantasy manga set-ups but one that still pops up here and there (there was a recent show about a one-legged guy with a S-Rank adventurer daughter that's similar) are stories about underappreciated middle-aged warriors living a peaceful and quasi-retired state of being out in the middle of nowhere who suddenly find, later in life, the recognition they've long been denied. In this case, protagonist Beryl (cool name bro) has trained, in his small town dojo, several youngsters who went on to find much greater fame and fortune in the kingdom's capital. Those now-adult royal knight commanders and S-rank adventurers seek to give their sensei the laurels he is owed by way of a cushy guard instructor gig despite his humble reticence. Of course, it goes without saying he's absolutely cracked at swordplay. I adored the fight scenes in the manga—very deliberately staged and choreographed without relying too much on magical powers or other OTT OP contrivances—so I hope this adaptation does them justice.
• I'm the Evil Lord of an Intergalactic Empire: There was a comedy anime a little while back about a guy who got isekai'd into an otome game (it had a pretty overt title like most of these things do, like "Trapped in an Otome Game") that balanced sci-fi and fantasy elements, creating an interesting thematic chimera world that he nonetheless despised because the game it was based on was obnoxiously difficult and he was forced to 100% complete it under duress. This anime has a similar vibe and set-up: Some dude is robbed and betrayed by his wife and her playboy grifter side-piece in our world, dies in poverty, decides he's going to be a heartless monster who only looks out for himself in his next life as a son of nobility in a Legend of the Galactic Heroes type of space opera setting, and ends up accidentally becoming the most benevolent dictator that ever lived to the chagrin of the demon lord who only ushered his isekai transfer between worlds because he intended to feed off the galaxy-wide despair that this guy's happy accidents are absolutely not creating. The manga is really funny in that The Eminence in Shadow format of a series of farcical misunderstandings surrounding a dude that's way too strong and exercises that power for the dumbest reasons. Really, though, I just want to see more of these comedy isekai shows go the whole spaceships and mecha route instead. I love fantasy and all but there's a capacity limit, you know?
• The Unaware Atelier Meister: This one is pretty par for the course for fantasy-bound anime these days, especially those in the increasingly crowded "my party betrayed me" genre (we had two of these this season alone! Three if you count the last few episodes of Arifurteta that aired this winter). Cheerful dude appears to suck at all the classic RPG roles of combat, magic, healing, etc. but is a genius when it comes to support duties like crafting potions and gear, cooking, building temporary shelters, maintaining the party's equipment, or analyzing dungeons for monsters and treasure. All the miscellaneous shit you dump on the guy at the back. Despite his utility, he's told to hit the bricks and has to pick himself back up with new party members that appreciate his talents more. There's a few funny moments about his background (apparently his entire village was full of absurdly talented people) but I can't imagine something this generic will cause much of a splash. Might be fine for something to stick on while I'm eating, which of course is why we're here.

Incidentally, while we're on the subject of Korean manhwa that I've been into lately and would love to see a Japanese anime studio take a swing at adapting, I think The Greatest Estate Developer is hilarious, SSS-Rank Survival Hero is super interesting and surprisingly layered once you look past its insane premise and the generic name, The Top Dungeon Farmer is cozy as hell and cute as a button, and I'm the Max Level Newbie and Return of the Disaster Class Hero might be two of the few out there to rival Solo Leveling and its bigger shounen contemporaries like Jujutsu Kaisen on sheer spectacle alone. Murim Log-in's not bad either (I like its irreverence) and I've enjoyed what I've read of The Reborn Young Lord Is an Assassin and The Swordmaster's Son, both of which have a similar dark fantasy "do over" time loop premise as the OP protag dies and goes back in time with all their skills intact to alter the course of events that led to said demise. Heard good stuff about Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint too (supposedly already getting an anime) but, man, I've probably plenty on my plate right now.

Anyway, despite being bummed that a quarter of this year has already come and gone in a flash (damn you, slowly diminishing perception of time) this new anime season—and several more backlog games to investigate too, and a chaotic avalanche of a recurring blog feature for April—is enough to keep me trucking along for a while yet. See you next time for more video gaming goodness.

Too Long, Do Relinks

• Indie Game of the Week 410: Carto
• Indie Game of the Week 411: Manifold Garden
• Indie Game of the Week 412: Minishoot' Adventures
• Indie Game of the Week 413: Trifox
• Might and Mento: The March-Date of Heaven: Part One
• Might and Mento: March-Date of Heaven: Part Two
• Might and Mento: The March-Date of Heaven: Part Three