Unrelated reviews
Jul. 13th, 2013 09:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroAngel: The End – A hardbound collection of the last three trades worth of IDW Angel comics, which followed the “After the Fall” trades in a semi-official season 6. I had lost interest in those comics fairly early on when they sold me a book at that 50% filler and they didn’t seem to have much to use except flash and glam. I figured I’d give this a go when I picked up a used copy for cheap. As opposed to the Buffy continuation comics, which at least told a coherent ongoing story for a while, this book breaks down into dueling writers, each introducing a bunch of new supporting characters shortly before the next writer unceremoniously kills them and brings in someone else. Characters they can’t kill (such as Spike or Illyria) get shuffled off to do “something else” when the writers don’t want them around, then return without fanfare. Angel Investigations moves out of the Hyperion, but then that plot is dropped and the next story has them back again. And everyone is always “as strong as they need to be” and no stronger to make the plot work. It’s generally sloppy, doesn’t live up to the series itself, and is only worth your time if you’re a particularly hardcore fan. Oh, and it makes no sense whatsoever with the reveal late in Buffy Season Eight, but you could probably have guessed that.
God Medicine - Hukkokuban - The Demon that rules the Phantom world has discovered a portal to a parallel world he can conquer. In that parallel world, three kids bemoaning the cancellation of a video game called Phantom arrive at the portal to watch the heroes be defeated by the Demon. They absorb the heroes' souls and are drawn into the Phantom world to challenge the Demon themselves. The acknowledgement that Phantom is an RPG world is notable. The kids ask the king for a fetch quest straight off. (I'm not sure how much of this is the fan translation, which appears to be top-notch.) The game itself is pretty standard linear rpg fare, though on the advanced end for a Game Boy game--the stores tell you how much of an upgrade items are, and auto-equip them. Characters have 3 sets of MP (for attack, healing and status) and recover fully when they level up. For the era (released in 1993, re-released with updates in 1998) it's impressive, but like most Game Boy and NES rpgs, it's too slow for the modern-era player. I'm reminded of Wozz in a bunch of ways, as this feels like a transitional game with a bunch of good ideas but a thoroughly mediocre execution. Had I been able to discover this in 1993, it would have been amazing, but games have moved on.
God Medicine - Hukkokuban - The Demon that rules the Phantom world has discovered a portal to a parallel world he can conquer. In that parallel world, three kids bemoaning the cancellation of a video game called Phantom arrive at the portal to watch the heroes be defeated by the Demon. They absorb the heroes' souls and are drawn into the Phantom world to challenge the Demon themselves. The acknowledgement that Phantom is an RPG world is notable. The kids ask the king for a fetch quest straight off. (I'm not sure how much of this is the fan translation, which appears to be top-notch.) The game itself is pretty standard linear rpg fare, though on the advanced end for a Game Boy game--the stores tell you how much of an upgrade items are, and auto-equip them. Characters have 3 sets of MP (for attack, healing and status) and recover fully when they level up. For the era (released in 1993, re-released with updates in 1998) it's impressive, but like most Game Boy and NES rpgs, it's too slow for the modern-era player. I'm reminded of Wozz in a bunch of ways, as this feels like a transitional game with a bunch of good ideas but a thoroughly mediocre execution. Had I been able to discover this in 1993, it would have been amazing, but games have moved on.
