Anime Review: Death Note

This weeks blog is about an Anime series that I really like called Death Note. Before I write what I like about the anime series, I'll give some background info on the series.

So this series is set in modern day Japan and it revolves around the main character called Light Yagami. Light is a normal high school student that is at the top of his class and number one student in all of Japan. Because he's so smart, everything seems boring and dull to him. But he also thinks about the world and how bad some people actually are; he thinks that the world would be better off if all the bad people died. This would mean no more war or unnecessary deaths and a much happier world.

Light/Kira

Then there is another character that is also very important to the series because he's the one that sets everything in motion. His is is Ryuk and he's a Shinigami (Soul Reaper). He is a lot like Light in the sense that he is also bored with life. He doesn't live in the human world, he lives in the Shinigami world which is an alternate dimension. The soul reapers that live there don't really do much, and Ryuk thinks that he has to do something to entertain himself. So he decides to drop a Death Note onto the human world.

Ryuk

A Death Note is something really simple yet interesting. In the anime series, the soul reapers don't kill human just because they can, they do it so that they (the soul reapers) won't die. Whenever a soul reaper kills a human, the left over time that they still had to live gets added onto the lifespan of the shinigami. So as long as the soul reapers keep killing, they won't die. But they don't kill humans with a scythe or a weapon of any kind, they simply write the human's name on a book called a Death Note. Each Shinigami has one Death Note, but Ryuk somehow managed to get his hands on two of them.

So when Ryuk decides to drop one of his Death Notes on to the human world, it lands in Japan at the same High School that Light is attending. Light sees the notebook and picks it up thinking that someone must've lost it. He flips through the notebook and finds instructions on how to use the book to kill people. At first he thinks that its a hoax, kind of like the chain letters that we all get from time to time. But he gets curious about the book and decides to try it out for himself and see if it actually works.

But he's careful as to pick his first victim. He doesn't want it to be someone that he knowns because it would attract to much attention. So he decides to kill a man that he sees on the news that is holding some students and a teacher hostage at a nearby school. He writes the name of the criminal, and 40 seconds later (just like the book says) the criminal died of a heart attack. He thinks that it might've been a coincidence so he decides to test it one once more. He decides to help a woman that is being harassed by a group of bikers. 40 seconds after writing the name of the head of the bike gang, the man dies.

Light is convinced that the book is real and he can finally put his plan to work. In the past, he was only able to think about what would happen if all the bad people died, but now it would be a reality. Light would make the world a better place and eventually become the God of the new world he creates. Since Light is the owner of the notebook, Ryuk has to be with Light at all times. But Ryuk is not there to help Light, hes there to be entertained and because he has no other choice. Light starts to kill criminals everyday in an effort to get his plan into motion. People start to notice that a lot of criminals are dying, and everyone is scared of doing anything wrong. They automatically assume that someone somewhere must be doing it and people start calling that person Kira.

But all the killings also grab the attention of the worlds best detective known simply as L. He has selved numerous cases in the past, and has never left a case unsolved. Since all the killings are occurring in Japan, he assumes that the killer or Kira must be a Japanese person. There's not much to say about L, besides that he is a very peculiar person.

L

So L and Kira have a battle between each other. Kira is trying to change the world, L is trying to put him behind bars. They have to outsmart each other in an epic battle of wit and deception where the slightest mistake can get one of them killed. And Ryuk, the one that is responsible for everything, is just standing by laughing at the humans.

That is the basic background of the series. There is a manga series that ran for 13 volumes and the TV series that ran for 37 episodes. The anime series does a great job at sticking to the manga, so no matter which one you take up, the story is pretty much the same. This is a great series, but I can't say that I liked the ending. I won't say what it is, but you should watch it and decide for your self if its good or not.

If you've watched/read this series, please let me know what you think about it.

Thanks for reading.

Game Review: Assassin's Creed

So I've decided by now that I'll alternate between anime and game reviews, unless there is something that I absolutely have to write about. Anyways, lets get started with this week's game. 

Assassin's Creed is a game that has been out for sometime (2007), but its still a great game that has developed into a great series as well. So I'll start out with some of the background story of Assassin's Creed.

The first AC (short for Assassin's Creed) was released towards the end of 2007 and its a historical fantasy/action game based around the Crusades with some science fiction elements added onto it. It sound weird to say that there is science fiction elements on a game that is based around the Crusades, but let me explain.

The story starts out with a man named Desmond Miles that has been kidnapped and he doesn't know where he is. He finds out that he has been kidnapped by modern-day Templar group operating under the name of Abstergo, which is a corporation running operations worldwide. At first he doesn't know why a secret organization would want him, but once he starts talking about his past is when we find out the truth.

Desmond was raised in a "Farm," which is a codename for headquarters of another secret organization simply known as the Brotherhood. The Brotherhood is a group of assassins that have existed since ancient time, and they are tasked with protection humanity at all cost. But when Desmond was 16, he decided to escape before he learned any of this information. Since then, he had been living outside of the system and trying to not leave a trace of his existence. But he made one mistake, he decided to get a drivers license for a motorcycle and that's how Abstergo was able to find him. Desmond learns that he is a descendant of of a long line of important assassins in history, and that is why Abstergo wants him. 

Abstergo knows that there are items that exist known as Pieces of Eden that have the power to control humanity, and they want to use those items to control the world. The Templars have been looking for these items since ancient times, but the Brotherhood has always been there to stop them and make sure that humanity keeps its freewill. So in or to find these artifacts, Abstergo has developed a machine called the Animus which is able to extract memories from a person's ancestors through their DNA. This is where Desmond comes into play.

Throughout the game, Desmond will be placed in this machine to relive the life of one of his ancestors called Altaïr Ibn La-Ahad. Desmond will have to assassinate Templars in the time of the Crusades to be able to protect one of the artifacts that the Brotherhood had acquired. While he assassinates Templars that have committed "sins" against the people, Altair learns of the powers of the artifact and who he should actually be protecting the artifact from.

So that's the basic story behind AC. I liked the story of the game, but there were a few things that bothered me while I was playing. One was the repetition of the game. In most games you have to repeat things quite a few times in order to achieve certain goals. But they went a little over board on this one. In every assassination (nine in total) you had to do the same things in order to kill the Templar you were after. Let me explain.

You would get to a town, and the first thing you would have to do is talk to the head of the Brotherhood in that town. Once he told you who your target was, your job was to go around town and collect information about the target as well as doing some side quest in the process. Once you had all the intel you needed, you went back to the safe house and report on what you found. Then you would finally be able to kill your target, which was no easy task. It usually involved sneaking into a place that was heavily guarded. Once you killed the target, you had to rush and get out of that place before the guards killed you. You see what I mean? It doesn't sound too bad here, but try doing that over and over again for a few hours and it gets borring.

I liked the combat system, because it was set up in an open world kind of way. You had the option of using multiple weapons like a hidden blade (usually used for stealth kills), knifes, or a sword. There was a few glitches with the game; like if you jumped off a ledge, it would sometimes get stuck on something and Altaïr would just float in mid air. They released a patch later on, so it wasn't too bad.

Apart from what I mentioned, I enjoyed the game very much, especially the story. Like I mentioned at the beginning, this game has developed into a series and I plan to write about AC2 in 2 weeks (which is even better in my opinion). I liked this game, but I hesitate to recommend it to people because of the repetitive factor. But if you don't mind it, then its a great game. But you should still check it out, because once you get to AC2, its totally worth it.

Thanks for reading.

Anime Review: Fate/Stay Night

Last time I wrote a review about a game, this time its about an anime series called Fate/Stay Night. First, some background story about Fate/Stay Night. 

Fate/Stay Night was originally a visual novel in Japan. A visual novel is basically a story, but instead of just reading a story out of a book you watch the story from your computer. You also have to power to "influence" the story by making crucial decision through out the story. Then depending on what you did, there is different endings for the story. So, a person can watch the same visual novel multiple times and get different endings.

After Fate/Stay Night became a huge success for the company that created it, they decided to move from just a visual novel and branch out to other popular forms of media in Japan. The first thing that they did was to release a manga series based on the visual novel. Eventually they even made sequels to the visual novel and then they adapted the original to a 24 episode anime series.

Since you can't make a TV show that keeps repeating over and over again with different endings, they decided to take the main story arc of the visual novel (along with bits and pieces from other arcs) and adapt it to the anime series.

So the basic idea of the story is that there is people that can use magic called Magi. Among those people, there is a select few that can use their powers to control a hero from legend that are known as Masters. These Masters use their servants to wage war against each other every 10 years in hopes of being able to control the Holy Grail. If one of these masters were to control the Holy Grail, the Master and the Servant could then each have one wish granted. 

There is a total of 7 classes of servants that are allowed to fight in each Grail War. They are: Saber, Archer, Lancer, Berserker, Rider, Assassin, and Caster. The picture above is the warrior of the Saber class also know in history as... King Arthur. Well, her name in the visual novel is Arturia Pendragon. The creators thought that it would be interesting to switch the gender of a king from a famous legend. Personally, I like it better this way. :P

Anyways, I won't write more about the series because I'm afraid that I'll give to much of the story away. If you haven't watched this, I totally recommend it. I always watch anime in Japanese with English Sub-Titles because I don't always like the voice actors in english. But I guess this is more about personal choice.

Thanks for reading.

Game Review: Final Fantasy 13

So first of, I know that this game has been out for some time. But I this is a series that I really like and I wanted it to be the topic of my first post.

First let me give you some quick background information about the game and the series. Every Final Fantasy game is set on its own universe, unless otherwise stated. For example, Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII are not connected to each other in any way. But, Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy X-2 are connected.

Final Fantasy XIII is set in a futuristic society and is set in a flying shelter called Cocoon which is under the Sanctums rule. Everything is provided for the people living there and everything is really peaceful. But it wasn't always like that. In the past there was a great war between Cocoon and the world below. The enemies of Cocoon are known as the fal'Cie. But there hasn't been any major conflict between the two groups for some time.

One day, a dormant fal'Cie is discovered inside Cocoon and all hell breaks loose. The people of Cocoon are consumed by fear and panic and choose to exile everyone that lived around the area where the fal'Cie was discovered.

The game allows the player to control a total of 6 characters through out the game. They are: Lightning, Snow, Hope, Fang, Vanille, and Sazh.

This game combines a great story with fantastic visual world and character design. Battles are fought in real time, so it keeps you engaged and on your toes. But you also have to think about how you will structure your team. You have to know when to switch roles and go on an all out attack formation or a defensive formation in order to survive.

The characters have a hard time interacting with each other at the beginning of the game, but as time passes you can see how they develop a friendship. This makes the characters feel more human and less like dolls moving on your screen.

If you've played any of the Final Fantasy games and haven't played this one, I totally recommend it to you. This game is challenging and is another great game in a long line of fantastic stories.