Solatorobo: Red the Hunter

At first i thought this game is a furry game with robot but turns out more than that and i can see why Xseed decided to bring this game to western shore. Solatorobo is probably one of the DS game that is released near the end of DS lifecycle that got really good production value. I am not into furries, in fact i avoid them like plague and i like Solatorobo because it is genuinely good game. The story is typical JRPG and quite lighthearted. In the game you play as Caninu(Canine + Inu) hunter called Red whose daily hunter life changed when he encountered a Felineko(Feline + Neko) called Elh who made a contract with Red to Seal the great Beast Lares before it plunge the world to calamity. The gameplay is rather simple where Red piloted robot called Dahak and Judo throw people around. Also the storyline is divided into 2 parts where the first part feels like whole tutorial.

What i find really charming from this series is the world setting which is just vibrant and colorful, a good one for a JRPG game. I find the mecha designs are very cool as well but quite underused and somehow the mecha kinda reminds me of Tron Bonne and Bumpy trot. As for music they are very good for a DS games and have some feel of .Hack along with it. My gripe for this game is that all of the good stuff in the games are underused and the game is too easy even the final boss is pushover. If Cyberconnect ever plans a sequel for this game i would say it is quite easy for them to pull it off considering the potential of the series are not fully used yet. I will probably play this game until i get the Dahak Omega which is the picture below and going to get Tail Concerto a try.

Super Robot Chogokin GaoFIghGar

It is bound to happen when Genesic GaoGaiGar got its SRC that GaoFighGar will eventually get one as well. Rather late for pre-release post but the SRC will be released on July this year with the price tag of 7500 yen, not as expensive as Genesic but still costly for an SRC. GaoFighGar is Gai's new mecha after Mamoru left Earth with Galeon and capable of purifying Zonder Metal without any problem. The mecha debuted in GaoGaiGar 8 Episodes OVA and saw its rule rather short but aesthetically, GaoFighGar is one of the cooler mecha in the series while still look rather modest. I recalled in Alpha 3 GaoFighGar is still very good Boss Killer despite lacking of any ALL attacks. If you like GGG i would say GaoFighGar would be on the high priority list to get for the SRC.

The World God Only Knows final chapter

Since the last Arc i know things are not going well for this series but i didn't expect The World God only knows would be concluded in sunch really disappointing way. While i don't mind with who Keima ending up with in the series, it feels the story from the last few chapters just fast forwarded and skipped plenty of important details which is the primary reason i see the conclusion for the series to be unsatisfying. I guess the publisher decided to stop the serialization which is why we got such abrupt ending though i suppose it is bound to happen when the author dragged an arc too long. In the end TWGOK ends up like those mangas that interrupted midway and failed to make a significant impact itself. Let see how the Author will cope with this and how the next work will fare any better

Flower

There have been some debates for years already whether game is capable to become an art form and in my opinion, a handful of them can be considered to be an art but indeed majority of games can't be considered as one. One of those game that i considered to be artistic is Flower, a simple title yet offers immersive even though short experience and powerful message. The gameplay is very straightforward, you control a flower petal and try to bloom other flowers in the stage and getting bigger in the process. Throughout the game, Flower try to deliver message about the relationship between human and nature and i feel the wish that this game contains is that someday the relationship between human and nature would be more harmonius than the present which is not that ideal. Flower is quite similar with Journey which is another game developed by the same company as they share the common theme which i believe to be Life, Death and Rebirth though Flower heavily emphasized on the Life part where as Journey focus on the latter aspects.
 
For me an art is a crystallization of human expression manifested in physical form which contain a strong emotion or a wish and Flower fits very well in this description which is why i consider it as a work of art. For a game to be an art it can only rely with its visual and audio to deliver the message which is abit tricky and that's why most of the games are just merely entertainment. If you only like intense action game you probably will not like Flower but if you look to unwind yourself and seek tranquility in game i think you will appreciate this game. I still feel 6 stage is abit short for Flower since i feel alot more can be explored with this game as the medium for instance an oriental stage with interactions of the water ripple with the contrast between past and present would be interesting to see. If you like Flower you may try Zen Bound which got different gameplay but works wonder!