Toukiden 2 Demo thoughts

 Picked up the demo on the Vita and i would say Toukiden 2 got really awesome demo. By the time i write the post i have fought the main monster called Shinragou which looks similar to Cthonian Fiend/Gouenma but use more punches. Compared to the first game, looks like Toukiden 2 are getting plenty of new features to keep the series fresh. For a demo i think Toukiden 2 is quite impressive as it 's length is almost close to a single chapter for hunting game and definitely way better than MH4U. You still get lots of things to do even if the there are only 4 available weapon style as there are plenty of to-do stuffs even after you beat Shinragou which by default conclude the demo.

Megazone 23

 Seriously i regretted that i didn't this series earlier since it is just really amazing OVA and easily one of the best in its time. Megazone 23 is an 80s Cyberpunk Mecha OVA featuring transforming motorbike mecha and a showcase what a mecha series could achieve if it is not a toy commercial and easily part of the genre in its pinnacle. The series are consisted of three parts each revolves around a mysterious girl named Eve and how the protagonist's life changed as he seeks her. For an OVA of its time it is a splendid work of art utilizing its medium to the fullest. On top of that it explores uncharted part of Mecha genre in its own way while at the same time juggling with Cave Allegory. My personal favorite part of the OVA is the Third part as it offers amazing futuristic concept which was pretty innovative for its time. Also personally this is the best work that Shinji Aramaki designs were featured as Megazone had the most coherent storytelling out of the series that Aramaki's work featured in. No Doubt this series is one of the more inspirational mecha series and i noticed some of series that took direct inspirations from it. The recently discussed Video Game Gunbike certainly took plenty of its inspiration from Megazone and Armored Core series especially third generation with its bleak dystopian setting. The moment i look at Prototype Garland, i immediately noticed that it is the base model of the original Nineball. It is such a shame that such we didn't see much of great mecha OVA of this caliber and seriously Eve need more figurines for her.

Side Comparison bet

Destroy x Revolution

 If a man had a ring that makes him invisible, will he commit injustice with it? That is Plato's "Ring of Gyges" tale opening a question whether a man will preserve his humanity if he had an absolute power. I never expected a Japanese manga able to re-tell the the topic long-discussed since antiquity in modern settings competently. No less expected from the mangaka of Holyland, Destroy x Revolution raises the question whether a man will abuse his newfound omnipotence through the story of friendship between two boys, one average student that possess ESP Power and another one a popular guy who harbor radical ideals wishing for a change in the World. Together they worked as terrorist group known as "Inquirer" sabotaging Japan in order to destroy the society system that they deem as corrupt. While the Drawing may not look that good, the story makes up for it as it displays raw emotions realistically while making us readers question our existence by reflecting upon Society issues. Not many manga that can pull that of and if you like Parasyte or Holyland you will definitely like this manga. All the manga need is a proper conclusion and it will be a masterpiece. But yeah, seeing bunch of Lawful-Evil 3rd rate Politicians getting thrown into Chopping blocks is quite satisfying too.

SRW MX second playthrough finished!

 I think it has been five years since i completed my first run of SRW MX and i guess due to some nostalgia factors, i decided to do another playthrough of the game on my PSP starting from last month and finished just now. This time i used Garmraid instead which is the Super Robot counterpart of Cerberus. While Garmraid is a decent unit, in the end i feel that Garmraid Blaze is not as cool as Cerberus Ignite when it comes to design. SRW MX had a lasting impression for me since it was one of the early SRW title that i played when my Japanese was rather lacking. As my Japanese language skill got better over past five year, this time i get to appreciate the storyline and the character's interaction better than last time.

I named my MX Squad Alpha Numbers lol

The Meioh Attack simply pwns everything

 For my second playthrough of SRW MX, the game are much more a breeze with extra funds and PP but on top of that MX NewGame+ allows you to keep Upgrade Parts from previous run so you can have fun with those extra Haros. While i got my bias over the series i feel that MX gameplay mechanics and interface doesn't age really well like other pre-Alpha 3 SRW which prevents it to be the best of the series. One of my main gripe over SRW MX is that some of the units will still suck even if you fully upgrade them, i suppose i will just stick with Zeorymer for asskicking purposes. Also the game doesn't have much incentive to play another playthrough compared to other SRW. Nevertheless to this day SRW MX still have the best musical score in the SRW and all it need is some update on gameplay mechanics and it will be a perfect SRW. After playing SRW MX for 2nd time i think i will do some revisits on the mecha series featured on the game like Rahxephon and Zeorymer and probably in near future i will be updating the game article as well.

Also Condolences for Yuko Mizutani's Family and Friends over her recent passing away, her role as Excellen in SRW OG shall be missed

Otaking's R-Type Tribute

 I don't post people's fanmade videos in general but i think this one is an exception since it deserve much more views. Mr Otaking, a reputable tripfag on /m/ who made himself well known on Youtube for animating fanmade Star Wars TIE Fighters video. Recently made an R-TYPE tribute video. Like the previous TIE Fighter videos, the R-TYPE videos are just filled with plenty of awesomeness with way above average quality for a fanmade video. Seriously Mr Otaking worth to be respected for creating such awesome homage to the glory days of Mecha back in 80s.

 While i am terrible at Bullet Hell game, i always attracted to these genre because they tend to have delicious mecha design. R-type was one of the more well known shooting game back in the Arcade age in particular for its insane difficulty and rather grimdark setting. While i never played the actual shooting game, it was a horizontal shooting game similar to Gradius and popular enough to spawn plenty of Sequels. It is such a shame that the series developer; Irem gave up everything on its gaming library when it went bankrupt few years ago which basically stopped the re-distribution for their once popular games. I suppose one of these days i will finish my R-Type Tactics playthrough for the sake of respecting the series. Also if you want further informations about R-Type series, you can just look at HardcoreGaming101 Article.

Speed Power Gunbike

One of PSX mecha game that i recently added to my Japanese Vita library and it was such an unpolished gem. Gunbike was the first game released by Inti Creates which developed games like Megaman Zero and the recent Azure Striker Gunvolt. It was a racing mixed with action game but what makes it special is that it features Transformable Motorbike Power Armor which resemble something from Shinji Aramaki's Megazone and Mospeada's design. As a mecha fan i find the concept that Gunbike offers are really interesting concept despite the gameplay mechanics are unpolished. To this day i still wonder why there are no developers interested to develop something out of this much unexplored subgenre of mecha game

Vision of Escaflowne

 By this time i think i have seen many wasted potentials throughout Japanese animes and Mecha genres always had these series with awesome concept but falls apart when executed. Just like anything, the greater the hype an anime brought to the viewer, the greater disappointment the series will be when it didn't live up to expectations. Vision of Escaflowne would have been a Great Fantasy Mecha Anime as it had really promising start but somehow in the end fail to make use of its amazing production value. Escaflowne had Shouji Kawamori's design, Yoko Kanno's music score and it did its own thing which would have been a winning combination.  While i dislike Shoujo element of the series it wasn't the dealbreaker.  To me the moment Escaflowne went downhill is during halfway of the show as if something put a halt to the world-building effort which in the end we got a half-baked series. The biggest disappointment to me is that Escaflowne could have been a genuinely perfect marriage between Fantasy and Mecha and proved the genre can be something more than a Kid's toy commercial. I think the series would have fared better as OVA instead of running tv series as the latter tend to distort the original materials alot due to demands from many side. In any case Maaya's Sakamoto performance on the opening was really stellar considering it was her first leap to the industry.

New PS Vita Get!!

 After few years of hassle swapping memory cards for switching PSN account i decided it is time for me to get another Vita for my Japanese PSN. At first i was looking for Light Blue color for my new Vita but settled with Aqua Blue PS Vita Slim along with some other rhythm games. I used my Japanese PSN for mecha gaming purposes because regardless of the gaming generations, majority of mecha games never made it to the west especially the good ones.

 Personally I find Vita had potential to succeed just like PSP but Sony screwed up the platform for being too ambitious even though the machine got better potential than 3DS. In the west Vita never become a big thing because Sony didn't adapt the market situation and did some poor decision like putting useless gimmicks on the platform that jacks up the price which in the end resulted in 3DS reigning over the already shrinking portable market by Consoles and Steam. My biggest disappointment toward Sony is letting Monster Hunter to be 3DS exclusive which means something wrong with their PR toward developers and the mecha games released on Vita so far are really half baked compared to what PSP had. Nevertheless i still really like my Vita which Sony didn't have much faith on it.

1/100 MG Hyaku Shiki Kai

 Just when i am on my second playthrough of my SRW MX, Bandai announced the release of the MG Hyaku Shiki Kai. Personally i find the announcement is kinda random since the mecha doesn't particularly stand out or really that popular. The MG will be released on July this year as Bandai Web-Exclusive with the price tag of whopping 10000 Yen! With that money you can just top up a bit and get MG The O or Sazabi Ka instead which seems to be a better choice. From the apprearance it seems that MG-Hyaku Shiki Kai shares most of the Hyaku Shiki part save for Shoulder, Backpack that kinda remind me with Layzner and the elongated head design which stands out the most from Hyaku Shiki Kai design.

 From what i see i guess one of the reason Bandai decided to release Hyaku Shiki Kai to make use more of the Hyaku Shiki 2.0 molds to compensate for the R&D cost. Also the reason why SRW MX relevant to Hyaku Shiki Kai is because from what i know it was the only non Gundam video game that feature this guy and on top of that the one who pilots it is none other than Quattro Bajeena! To be exact it was the Full Armor version of Hyaku Shiki Kai which is decent unit in the game if overshadowed by other Hard hitters. Anyway i don't think the MG Hyaku Shiki Kai worth 10k Yen as it doesn't have much points to justify the price. But i am still crossing my hand if the Kit will ever get the Full Armor version which comes with upgraded Mega Bazooka Launcher if possible.

Capcom Figure Builder Standard Models

 Recently i have been gathering some Monster Hunter mini Figurines after i got my hand on the CFB Rajang. These are known as the Standard Models from the CFB series whereas my Rajang figurine belong to Creator's Model series. I guess the popularity of Monster Hunter Online in China warrants plenty of these figurines to be sold on Taobao around 30 to 50 RMB on average but some Vendors sell them for 20 RMB a pop as mystery gifts which are even cheaper compared to the Japanese retail price. Surprisingly the quality of these figurines are quite high for Gashapon-tier figures and perfectly captures the ferocity of the monsters. So far i had 16 of them which consist mostly Brute Wyverns and i notice that the quality of the monsters figurine from 3 Ultimate onward tend to be better than the older ones. Also I am still crossing my hand on CFB version of Zinogre and Rathalos.

Just look at the full post to see all of the individual monster figurines

Genesis Climber Mospeada

 Watched this for Mecha and got some Power Armor action instead. Mospeada is a series inspired by the first Space Dimension Macross and it would have been a thing if it was released after Zeta Gundam instead. Trying to follow up Macross success with VF-1, Mospeada features transforming jet-plane mecha called Legioss which are pretty cool but the main highlight of the series are Motorcycle that can transform to Power Armor for the armor called Mospeada. The mechanical design for this series was one of the major works of Shinji Aramaki who also did the designs for last Starship Trooper CGI movie and seriously i have much respect for this guy! Apart from the rather shady Adaptation as part of Robotech, Mospeada would have been a great series if it were executed properly.

Taiyou no Yuusha Fighbird

 4th Yuusha title that i finished watching and this makes it halfway to go for me to complete the series! Taiyou no Yuusha Fighbird is the second earliest title out of the series timeline but still an enjoyable ride. Overall the Fighbird feels rather generic compared to other Yuusha series as it still haven't broken away from Kids Super Robot Show mold of the 80s and create the distinct Braves identity that will began to take shape by the 3rd series, Da Garn. Fighbird's Yuusha design are still rather plain and not too flashy compared to the later titles and for some reason still resemble Machine Robo or Transformers design. Also just like Da Garn, the supporting Yuusha Robots in Fighbird still doesn't have much distinct personality save for a few opportunity nearing the end of the show. Nevertheless Fighbird definitely tried to set up the distinct trend for Yuusha series which will pay up its effort