Simulblast! Week 003 Of Fall 2013
This week on Simulblast the players officially begin to plot against one another. Who will you support in this war? Vote for your favorite before their chance slips away!
This week’s challenge: Analyze your anime as if it was a video game. Talk about the graphics, gameplay, and more! Be as creative as you’d like.
Meganebu! (Episode Three)
Player: Kanashimi
Class: Boss
Another episodic release of Meganebu! brought to you by Studio Deen. A development studio usually known for their fantasy and action, but have a habit of giving us a comedic female-focused title when we least expect it, has continued to produce odd hilarity with Meganebu! It was recently announced that US fans can get a chance to enjoy this title full of glasses and large mechs as Sentai Filmworks will be bringing the series to our shores.
This entry has an unorthodox set-up and leaves little exposition to those new to the franchise. Our heroes, the Glasses Club, are speaking with a new character in his restaurant about youth. Obviously, the owner of said restaurant wears glasses as well. As they’re eating, Hayato wonders about the idea of the standard hour being shorter. Akira compliments his thinking and this is where the action finally starts off.
Akira gives the call to Yukiyo to begin fixing together their next set of x-ray glasses. Here, you can import your save from the last release or start fresh, but the benefit of importing your save file is immense. Your previous levels in engineering carry over and the simulated construction is extensively easier in this way. After using Yukiyo to prep your supplies as instructed by Akira, there’s a sudden scene change that also changes the dynamics of the game.
Your instructions are simple, “Metal Gear that ____!” Acting as Mitsuki, you find yourself in the school after dark with the straightforward directions to watch out for any teachers. This section can be a little boring since you, yourself, aren’t moving the character to avoid the staff. Instead, you’re warning your fellow club-mates when to move and when not to. It’s a fairly basic concept, but it can still be somewhat tricky to do it in one go. From here, you’re given a limited amount of time to replace every clock in the school to complete, “Operation 55 Minutes In An Hour!”
As the club removes the last clock in the room, you find a secret item (well, can’t be that secret if it’s mandatory)! The item is entitled, “Ray-Ban Teardrop Gold Frames” and you can use Yukiyo to prioritize their repair. You have the choice of doing this or trying to find a method to replace the school’s largest clock (which realistically would be impossible). As you leave the area, the scene reveals the club has been spotted, but by whom…?
For once the Glasses Club actually succeeds in making many of the classes end sooner, but their plan is eventually discovered when the teachers realize all of their watches and cellphones are running at a different time. However, this breakthrough allows Yukiyo to discover a new method of creating the thirty-fifth version of his x-ray glasses. Nonsense ensues when there are no females around to test the glasses on, so instead you’ll use Mitsuki. The glasses fail, as per usual, but instead they discover the person who spied on them earlier who can only be seen with said glasses.
Apparently the glasses can see ghosts instead of seeing through clothes. They unleashed said ghost by finding those “Ray-Ban Teardrop Gold Frames”. The ghost wears glasses, so from here you can decide whether to let him join the club (or party if you will). If you say no, you just get stuck in one of those choice loops. You know what I’m talking about. Luckily this ghost is a major stalker and follows Akira home to bathe with him, sleep in his bed, and all that other stuff fangirls go nuts over.
In a dramatic turn of events, we find out that this ghost broke his friends glasses, the special item found earlier. He got into a fight about it with his friend, and when he went to apologize, he died due to a traffic accident. Due to the fact he hasn’t returned the glasses, he is unable to rest in peace. Akira figures out that the restaurant owner is the person he fought with and they wake up earlier with the club to confront him the next morning.
There are tearful moments that I don’t dare spoil, but it’s a rather sweet and dramatic turn for the series. Unlike previous installments, this one had some serious tone to it despite the inclusion of a random ghost.
As per usual the title stands out due to the bright colors and unique music choices. It’s got a bit of Jet Set or Katamari with its cel-shading, but goes farther to incorporate vector-like effects. While everything is still rather wacky and inconsistent, there was a relief to see something more to the title. Considering the type of media one would expect a deeper sort of storytelling, and, to be honest, Meganebu! harkens back to the older days of video games. While it’s not some soaring adventure, it does have some lighthearted journeys that remind me of the beginning of Dark Cloud 2, for example. I feel like there’s a lot of growth in the series as a whole and that, by continuing on this path, we’ll see character relations grow deeper. Assuming they don’t just throw what happened here out the window and just go for all comedy next episode.
Kanashimi attacked a player this round and used a 100 points to activate Bonus Stage! A random number generator is used to pick any power off the list and is applied to the player of your choosing (including class specific powers). The effects of said power, and the points deducted will be viewable next week. Kanashimi also completed this week’s challenge and is rewarded an extra 20 points.
Watch Meganebu! on Crunchyroll or talk about this episode on our forums.
Galilei Donna (Episode Three)
Player: Christmas
Class: Guest Relations
The video game world has been pretty dominated by DLC lately, so it’s nice to see a few game turn back to episodic content. I was pretty happy to pop in the latest installment of Galilei Donna, the latest action/mystery game from noitaminA. While the first chapters of this game have been a little slow, I’m sure they’ll pull out the stops and impress us before long.
The story has been pretty simple: three girls who are descendants of Galileo have been caught up in this big conflict to find one of his hidden inventions. We’ve got each of the girls to switch between as playable characters, but I’m sticking with Hozuki since she’s got tons of cool gadgets to make up for her small size. The game does a decent job of making you swap between all three, since they all have a special skill needed to progress farther. Hazuki mostly focuses on gathering info, and Kazuki has some decent martial arts skills for dealing with tricky spots that we need to get through.
This chapter of the game is mostly based in the central hub area, the airship Galileo. It has a feel similar to Final Fantasy X’s airship with everything laid out. After going through a bit of exposition, expected for this early in the story, we get the chance for some interesting air combat. I thought I was doing something wrong when the enemy mech grabbed me, but it turned out to be a scripted scene where the Air Pirates come and help us out.
After the air confrontation, we have a chance to get more information about how to hunt down the Galileo Tesoro, and why these two organizations are after us. In true episodic fashion, we get a cliffhanger that leaves me wanting more. It seems like the majority of the production for this section of the game was devoted to the flashy air combat scenes, but it’s a nice departure from what was shaping up to be just a point and click mystery style game.
Overall, I was a fan of this episode, but if you’re not into this style of storytelling yourself then you’re probably better off waiting for a package deal. Most of these episodic games have a single disc release after the last episode comes out, and I expect this one to follow suit. The graphics are still super crisp and easy on the eyes. Overall, I give this episode of Galilei Donna and 8.5 out of 10. It gave me just enough to keep me going, but left me hungrier than I would like. Hopefully we get more filling game play next time, but we’ll have to wait until then.
Christmas was attacked! That means next week he will have to defeat his opponent by overcoming their power. If he fails, he will gain no points during next week’s Simulblast. Christmas also completed this week’s challenge and is rewarded an extra 20 points.
Watch Galilei Donna on Crunchyroll or talk about this episode on our forums.
Gundam Build Fighters (Episode Three)
Player: Elk
Class: DJ
Hey everyone and welcome to the latest edition of Elk Plays Gundam Build Fighter!
As you all already know this is a combination Fighting/Otome game produced to appeal to both guys (with Gundam battles) and women (with the social/dating aspect)
Last episode of Elk Plays ended with the seemingly main romantic interest Reiji losing in a Gundam Battle to likely one of the other main romantic interests, the school president. I chose to back Reiji up as he swore revenge, so I doubt Sei will be getting with the president any time soon.
In this episode you see more of the main female romance interest, who we see in the game’s intro cinematic piloting a Bearguy, which will be awesome when we get further in the game. With some dialogue tree choices, we’ve seemingly seduced her into the world of Gunpla in a flashback scene, and learned more about her; she’s an arty type, which makes sense considering her Bearguy seems to be quite visually modified, as opposed to the technical modification the Build Strike has.
While that is happening, it seems like Reiji is hanging out with Ramba Ral and some other older men. Is he maybe into that? Perhaps that route only happens if you pay too much attention to the female interest during this section of the game; I’ll have to check that in another playthrough. Regardless, the optional side story has some more action, where we get back into the battling side of the game. You’re forced to play as a Ball to level up Reiji’s piloting skills. These battles are quite challenging, but a guide I read says it has a definite impact on later stages, and the difficulty will really ramp up, so it’s important to play these missions. At the end of this chapter we finally get some more action, with the new Build Strike Full Package. This is MUCH easier, especially after the super hard Ball missions, but like I said, the difficulty will ramp up quickly.
Of course that’s not to say I ignored the Reiji route this entire time. We did learn more of his back story, though it was presented in such a silly way it could just be an emotional wall he’s built up to keep people out. In a game like, this makes more sense than the straightforward “actually an alien” plot point. I would only guess this will resolve itself later, and only if you lock yourself into the Reiji route.
Currently I’m not sure which route I’m going to lock into. If you want to suggest one of the romance routes, feel free to vote for me this week along with an extra note telling me which route to take. Obviously this early in the game I can shoot for any of them and have it be pretty much open (even the hard to get “Ramba Ral Route”).
I know in my last Let’s Play article I said I would give some early scores for the game and a general “thus far” review.
Gameplay:
I thought the Otome game section would be kind of lame (being a dude with most of the choices being shonen-ai), but honestly it’s just an interesting way to take control of the story. The fact that they threw in a token female love interest for the guys also helps, but like I said: the route I choose is up to you. Vote for me along with your route choice to have your voice heard!
On to the Action segments of this game. I have to say it’s a really tight 3D mecha fighter. It’s not as complex as Armored Core, but what it lacks in pure customization it makes up with solid controls, fun play styles, and a sense of immersion given the fact you’re playing a game within a game.
Graphics:
As my friend Barry who helped me out with the multiplayer last episode said, the graphics aren’t top of the line compared to other similar games out there, but the animation is fluid enough for the 60fps gameplay, and the graphics are more than enough to get the point across.
Music/Sound effects:
Each stage track really sets the mood for the battle that is taking place, and the Otome tracks, while more like something you’d find in a laid back anime, are exactly what’s needed. In the Action segments, the robotic movements are on-point and the weapon and damage sound effects really enhance the immersion.
Story:
It’s an Otome game/Fighting game Reese’s. If you’re playing this for the story, you might as well be playing a MUD for the graphics. Of course the story is going to be slightly cheesy where there is story, and non-existent when it’s not needed.
Replayability:
Obviously on the Otome side you have all the different love interests’ routes to go through, and even then most if not all have more than one ending. When it comes to the action, having modes dedicated to just the fighting is enough to keep you playing even after you 100% the story mode.
Online:
Currently there isn’t a lot of competition online. Likely because the game is so new and people are still playing through the story. Once it starts showing up at tournaments I expect to see a drastic rise in the online base of players. Balance is a bit of an issue, but if the devs want their game to have staying power they can patch in balance once the scientists in the lab have calmed down, and we get a clearer picture of who is OP, and what needs a counter.
Elk attacked a player this round and used a 100 points to activate Bonus Stage! A random number generator is used to pick any power off the list and is applied to the player of your choosing (including class specific powers). The effects of said power, and the points deducted will be viewable next week. Elk also completed this week’s challenge and is rewarded an extra 20 points.
Watch Gundam Build Fighters on Gundam.Info or talk about this episode on our forums.
Log Horizon (Episode Three)
Player: Siege
Class: Content Provider
Log Horizon. Log Horizon. Log Horizon Log Horizon Log Horizon.
Where do I begin with this game? Let’s talk about the positives to start, I guess. The graphics are pretty. That’s about it.
Couple the graphics with almost empty caves, HUDs that take up the player’s entire field of vision, and a slew of useless character classes, and you get a truly abysmal gaming experience.
Oh, I’m supposed to be talking about Log Horizon the anime. My mistake.
This episode showed a little bit of promise, but also lets slip its origins as a forum story. For one, there’s some significant lapses of judgement. At the end of last episode, the party mounted griffins to fly to their destination. That’s fine, whatever. It is revealed that the griffins can only be ridden for four hours at a time. That’s also fine (although I can’t imagine a game world that takes 4 hours to travel short distances being terribly fun).
When the party comes to a cave is when the severe lack of judgement comes into play. They are well aware that the cave is dangerous ans possibly deadly. And yet, instead of setting up camp until they can use their griffins again, they decide to go in. They were already well ahead of schedule; I think their ability to finish the mission is a little more important than saving a little time.
Speaking of their mission, after collecting my thoughts from last week, I remember that they’re travelling in order to save a girl. She’s a member of a guild in the town where they started, but I otherwise have no idea why she’s important. The scene cuts to her a few times, but all that’s revealed is that she has the completely useless character class of “Maid” and that she’s shacking up with the mystery cat man from the credits.
The girl’s complaints about her subclass are not the first in a long line of complaints the characters have. There’s been a running gag that the food in the game tastes absolutely awful. They’ve shoehorned it in to every episode so far, and it has really lost all the humor value. The tiny ninja girl also complains when the party thinks she’s a child, when she’s actually as old as the rest of the party. Yet, no one complains about not seeing their families ever again or about how they have no idea what brought them to the world of Elder Tale.
Though, for once, we are given a short glimpse into the main character’s life outside the game. He used to work in CAD drafting, and is an engineering student who was about to graduate college. While I can relate to both of those things, I can’t help but think of how much everything about this character screams self-insert-for-the-author. He’s the cool collected type, always pushing his glasses up on his nose and coming through for everyone in the end. He’s also unappreciated in real life but renowned in-game. It all feels very Mary Sue to me, and I don’t like it.
There’s also some lightly-implanted subplot about people being killed in the streets and having their things stolen. It seems like it’s going to become relevant later, but I don’t think it can come soon enough.
In the end, nothing in this episode has redeemed Log Horizon for me. It’s still a chore to watch at the moment, and I would really love it if that changed.
However, I’m not holding my breath.
Watch Log Horizon on Crunchyroll or talk about this episode on our forums.
Diabolik Lovers (Episode Three)
Player: Midnight
Class: DJ
As we click continue, we move into part three of our lets play of Diabolik Lovers. We last saved right before we open up to the most awkward family dinner. We have a few options here, ‘eat dinner’, ‘pick at it’, and ‘don’t eat’. Lets see, I think if i was in this situation i’d suspect the food of being drugged so they could drink my blood. So I’m going to pick the ‘not eat’ option.
Oh, scolded and told I might get anemia. That would be unfortunate for you, wouldn’t it blood sucker? Shu excuses himself from the table before everyone else, and we get a whole bit of explanatory dialogue about how he’s ‘spoiled’ and never attends the family meal. The shota boy, Kanato, continues to creep me out completely by talking to his teddy bear and attacking his food with his fork while laughing like a mad man.
We get out next option of ‘stick around’ or ‘return to our room’, well it doesn’t seem like there is much to do here in the dinning room so lets head back to our room.
Upon returning to our room we search the room and discover Ayato sitting in our chair. We enter a dialogue session with him. An attempt to escape from him to go take a bath leads to a scene where he is forcing hickeys. Saying over and over again how he wants us to feel pain, to stop making sounds like we like it. I’ve discussed this before, but the feelings of awkwardness and disgust, along with the concepts of a women enjoying something she is being forced into, always sets me on edge. The hickeys are supposed to serve, I believe, as some mark of claim of ownership. A dialogue option to say we’ve been feeling faint seems to be the right choice, as he lets us go to take our bath.
Moving to the bathroom we find Shu already laying fully clothed in the tub. This is where the focus switches to him for a bit from the Ayato/Yui focus we’ve had in the previous two parts. We get another small and vague backstory of sorts; why does it seem all these boys have some kind of backstory involving the water? We also learn that each group of the brothers are from different mothers, explaining why they are all so different. After this discussion, Shu bites into Yui’s neck.
Dialogue options:
‘I knew it’
‘I thought you were different’
‘Get off of me!’
With some thought about his total disinterest, we go with ‘I thought you were different’ which proceeds to remind us that he is a vampire and that he is no different then the rest of them. However, the only thing I found myself thinking throughout this entire scene was how his mp3 player wasn’t short circuiting in the bath. Maybe it was. Does it even play music? Is the mp3 player just there for show? Are the headphones just there to shut out the noise of other people? If it is playing music, what kind of music is it? How many songs are on it? I honestly found all of these questions more compelling then anything else I’ve seen in this.
Shu’s headphones aside, we return to our bedroom, presumably without our bath, to find Ayato still waiting, ready to drink some blood; though, as he advances, he finds that something is wrong. Noticing the bite marks, he becomes massively possessive. Figuring out who the bite marks have come from, he decides to challenge Shu to a game of darts. The prize? Yui, of course. Does she have a say in this? Nope, not a single one.
I’ll stop here and say once again that I’ve noticed that the graphics in this game are very beautiful; I think it might be the lighting in the room, but I noticed at this point that every character has very beautiful eyes. They seem to glow in a certain way that is really pretty to look at.
That aside, we move into the most interesting gameplay we’ve had so far: the dart mini game. Press X at just the right moment to hit the center of the dart board. However, Ayato doesn’t seem to be very good at timing. All of his shots missed the mark. At least they hit the board. Shu on the other hand seems to have a perfect sense of timing: they all hit in the center of the dart board. It seems like, at least for now, we’ve become Shu’s prize. I think it’s time to save the game.
Overall? This was a lot of the same, just with a slightly different character focus.
Watch Diabolik Lovers on Crunchyroll or talk about this episode on our forums.
I Couldn’t Become A Hero, So I Reluctantly Decided To Get A Job (Episode Three)
Player: Bobby Henshin
Class: DJ
Welcome all to the third installment of our new game series, “I Couldn’t Become A Hero So I Reluctantly Got A Job!” We continue this series with the first morning of The Demon Lord’s daughter, Phino, moving into your apartment building. The graphics have already improved from the previous versions as you can seen when our hero, Raul, walks in to stop her alarm clock to see her developed…pixels hanging out.
After you get her to change her clothes, you both head to work. We meet new playable characters and new villains. Our first new character is Lore Beriferal, or, as our hero calls her, Lore-Sempai, who is the magical engineer of your party. Using magical machines to destroy her enemies, she is a great damage dealer for your party. She also fixes defective magical items brought into the store. Other old characters return when your rival, All A, returns with her strong attitude and flexibility.
She meets up with Raul to boost his confidence and try to make him become a hero again.
Now we meet the strongest villain your party has ever faced: A Magical Air Purifier! …I’m serious. When a new magical air purifier is delivered to your store, Phino turns it, on and hundreds of monster hands come out of the purifier and attack everyone. Your returning rival, All A, goes on the attack with just her bare hands and a broom, until she too is trapped in the evil arms. This is where our game reaches it’s M rating (sorry, kids). Phino tries her best to save All A but to no avail.
Raul, with a new found confidence brought on by Phino’s bravery, runs to the store room and pulls out his old sword from a broom closet. Here is where you get to take part in the game’s new 360 battles system where you can time your evades and attacks while flipping in the air and unleashing powerful magical sword attacks at your enemies. After using this system to remove most of the magical arms, you take control of Phino to turn off and finally defeat our villain. With these new and improved graphics and battle system, we hope that this third installment will be a welcome addition to your collection.
Here is what critics are saying about this exciting third installment.
“This new installment really shows how far the animation has come from the first one. You are starting to learn more about the characters and actually feeling for them. It may have taken 3 games, but it was worth the wait. Hopefully there will be more battles yet to come and more details
on battle magic used in this new world.” 8/10 ~ Henshin Magazine ~
Watch I Couldn’t Become A Hero, So I Reluctantly Decided To Get A Job on Crunchyroll or talk about this episode on our forums.
Beyond The Boundary (Episode Three)
Player: Zero Gravity
Class: DJ
Starting off where the last episode left off…
After forcing Akihito out of her life, we find Mirai once again trying to kill a youmu. She hesitates once again at the last second to kill it, but the youmu is quickly dispatched by a raccoon-cat-badger-basketball-thing when it tries to escape. It turns out the badger is under the control of Mitsuki, who offers her the stone left behind from killing the youmu. Mirai quickly rejects, not wanting to be a charity case. A girl in the far background is foreshadowed.
We then cut to a meeting between the eldest sister of the Nase Clan, Izumi Nase, and Miroku Fujima, an interrogation officer of the Spirit Warriors’ Observation Department. Miroku claims he’s there investigating the Hallow Shadow, noting it was highly unusual for such a class of youmu to appear in that area. It’s here we learn that youmu are the manifestations of humanity’s dark side stemming from greed, malice, lust, and so on. Izumi proclaims she doesn’t care how they’re made; he sees them as fish and Spirit Warriors as fisherman.
With the help of Ai, Akihito finds Mirai downing a cup of instant ramen. He deduced it was all she could afford, since she couldn’t even afford plain udon noodles, despite refusing the stone from Mitsuki earlier. Mistuki had apparently traded it in, and gave Akihito the task of delivering the money to Mirai. The stone ended up being worth ten-thousand yen. Despite Mirai’s statement earlier, she takes the money, suddenly filled with excitement as to how much instant ramen she could buy with ten thousand yen. Akihito asks her to stop by the club, to which Mirai replies to stop asking. She promises not to use Akihito as stabbing practice as long as he leaves her alone, much to the annoyance of Akihito.
While walking in the halls, Shizuka comes to cross with Mirai, who tells her that she is also a teacher at the school outside of her Spirit Warrior job. She then goes to remind Mirai that the Hallow Shadow is supposed to pass by that night and that everyone is supposed to bunker down until it passes, also oddly indicating the profits of defeating it. At the club room, Hiroomi and Akihito begin to talk about Mirai’s clan, a clan that can control blood. While Hiroomi states that he’s under no obligation to tell him, he truly doesn’t know anything. What breaks out is a sudden class of ideal fetishes in terms of bust, sister-complex and bifocals, which is then disrupted by Mitsuki, who secretly passes a note to Akihito while teasing her sister-complexed brother, Hiroomi.
The note asks Akihito to meet at a rendezvous point at a train station. Mitsuki wanted them to be alone and unheard, going so far as to set up a cage (a barrier of sorts). Akihito learns that there’s reason to believe Mirai would be after the Hallow Shadow via information relayed to Mitsuki by Iori Ichinomiya, an information specialist who contacts people by connecting his brain to the internet. Although it’s not known why Mirai would do so to Akihito or Mistuki due to her inability to kill a youmu, but a rumor, which is more of a ghost story gives a hint to Mirai’s past.
The Hallow Shadow reaches the city, causing all the youmu in the area to get riled up, creating a rather creepy atmosphere. It’s then revealed through this rumor that a cursed blood clan member killed a girl from the Inami clan when she was possessed by the Hallow Shadow. This gives Akihito leverage to confront her regarding taking on the Hallow Shadow. Mirai continues to shrug him off, reminding him it’s none of his business. As the Hallow Shadow approaches closer and closer, youmu begin to act up. As Mirai leaves to fight it, Akihito continues to plead with her to give up, and to stop, worst case scenario that she’ll be killed.
Mirai finally caves in and tells Akihito why it’s important for her to kill the Hallow Shadow. At a young age, the Inami clan took Mirai in despite her cursed blood. Even in the clan she was kept in isolation, the only exception was her best friend Yui, who ignored her “cursed blood”. It was when Yui was entering high school that the Hallow Shadow attacked, leading Mirai to killing her friend. Mirai continues to rip into Akihito saying he knows nothing, as a half youmu with friends and loved ones, while she has been hated her entire life for something she couldn’t control. Spirit Warriors who can then create barriers are finding themselves under attack by aggressive youmu, including Hiroomi and Izumi.
Mirai reaches a mountain side where the Hallow Shadow makes it’s appearance. As Mirai prepares to contend with it, the mysterious girl from the beginning of the episode attacks Mirai with a chainsaw-like spear. Mirai recognizes the girl as Sakura. She pleads with Sakura to leave so she can fight the Hallow Shadow. The girl named Sakura continued a relentless attack on Mirai, asking Mirai why she continues to live, her weapon proving capable of cutting through Mirai’s cursed blood. Just before the finishing blow can land, Akihito appears, ramming into Sakura, saving Mirai. He then tells Mirai that she’s the one who doesn’t get it.
End Episode 3.
While I didn’t initially have any real expectations for the series with the first episode, the series has definitely hopped away from the “slice of life” label I gave it earlier. In fact, I dare say it even at times gave me a horror anime vibe; the parts with the youmu going nuts with the Hallow Shadow’s approach are genuinely creepy. The music adds to the great atmosphere of the darkness that surrounds Mirai’s past. The comical aspects never lose their charm, even at the risk of repetition. I really can’t say too much without spoiling more than I already have. Believe it or not, I find this episode, if not this series, is very Halloween-esqe, especially with it being so close to Halloween itself. Perhaps it’s the day of the dead that gives it such a good atmosphere? We’ll see when I look into Episode 4 next week!
Watch Beyond The Boundary on Crunchyroll or talk about this episode on our forums.
Outbreak Company (Episode Three)
Player: Kayarath
Class: Content Provider
So, Outbreak Company is a school management sim set in a fantasy world, where you teach the various fantasy people Japanese culture. When I put it that way, it sounds quite preposterous! Well to call it purely a sim wouldn’t work either. I think the game is really about different cultures interacting and how education can bring about a more equal society. There is also some dating sim elements as well, with both Myucel and Petralka expressing interest in you. The story is actually a bit heavy, so I won’t begrudge random events like the protagonist talking about the wonders of small breasts. Every game needs its moments of humor..
What I find really strange is that they built an exact copy of a Japanese school. It just seems out of place in a fantasy world full of dwarfs and elves. Did they just copy pasta the school assets from another game the company already owns?
I can’t say much about the gameplay, though, because another random event occurred after just a few days of management; a terrorist attack! When I was told that promoting ideas like equality could have consequences, they weren’t kidding! As Malaia Yousafzai can tell you, people will violently oppose education for all. This random event was quite a spoonful. There were plenty of dialogue choices to pick, and I wasn’t expecting half of them. It also showed all the characters being badass, with Petralka saving my life with just a few words, and Minori and Myucel getting to take down a bunch of bad guys. They do tell you that these people can fight, but seeing it in action really does take it home. Remember, it’s always better to show then tell.
Honestly, this is a game that keeps surprising me. I thought it would all be fantasy fan service but it’s more of a fantasy deconstruction. I haven’t even begun the real challenge yet. How will the noble children and common children interact? Can I mange public opinion to not get ganked again? Which girl will I get? Find this out and more in the next installment of Outbreak company!
Watch Outbreak Company on Crunchyroll or talk about this episode on our forums.
Kill La Kill (Episode Three)
Player: Knightshade
Class: DJ
This player did not turn in their episode summary for the week. As such, they will not be awarded 50 flat points or the additional 20 for doing a challenge. Knightshade is considered a no-show and as such has lost a dollar of his original bid. He has four more chances before he will be kicked out of the competition.
Watch Kill La Kill on Crunchyroll & Daisuki or talk about this episode on our forums.
Nagi No Asukara (Episode Three)
Player: MakiMaki
Class: Content Provider
This player did not turn in their episode summary for the week. As such, they will not be awarded 50 flat points or the additional 20 for doing a challenge. Maki is considered a no-show and as such has lost a dollar of his original bid. He has three more chances before he will be kicked out of the competition.
Watch Nagi No Asukara on Crunchyroll or talk about this episode on our forums.
Week 003 Tally
- Christmas: 470
- Kanashimi: 470
- Elk: 350
- Siege: 260
- Midnight: 230
- Bobby Henshin: 190
- Zero Gravity: 170
- Kayarath: 160
- Knightshade: 100
- MakiMaki: 70
Next week’s challenge: Make sure to somehow tie your review with a convention in some form since it’s Youmacon week!
Make sure to vote for your favorite review below! You can give your favorite an extra 30 points.
I’m not going to lie, Bobby’s made me laugh the hardest. In fact I will continue the series after that awesome review. XD I almost thought about dropping it, because it was all moe and fan service with no plot. I might pick it back up now just because Bobby’s hilarious writing skills.
I can’t vote, but if I could, I would have voted for Kay. I thought his was the most thought out.
gotta go w/ kana. you better be happy I read this on my phone.
I’m really torn between Elk and Henshin’s review they were both really good and definitely went all out for the video game challenge which I really enjoyed. But my final choice will be Elk because the concluding points were so excellent with the challenge.
However I do think I’m going to start watching both “Gundam Builders” and “I couldn’t become a hero so I reluctantly decided to get a job” because of Henshin and Elk’s excellent and fun reviews.
If I could vote I’d probably vote for Midnight. Just sayin’.
If i could vote, I’d vote for midnight. oh wait, I can! I’M VOTING MIDNIGHT!
I watched a few episodes of Diabolik Lovers, and my god is Midnight portraying how I feel. All of the votes to her, and a boat… in fact… forget the boat, that’s going to be gift wrapped for later so she can sink the episodes in the sea when she’s done.
Really like the banner, made me wanna vote for Elk, but instead Kanashimi is getting mine today.
XD I actually read multiple ones; still had to go with Kanas, as leaving me wanting to watch more despite BRIGHT COLORS WTH the first time
Last minute call, but Kana got me to start watching the glasses freaks… thx for that -_-
I’m sorry but Elk just keeps knocking it out of the park. Gotta give him another vote this week.
elks got my vote
Kana’s got my vote today! GO KANA GO KANA GO KANA!
my vote for Kana!