A Year has passed and still...

Playing Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate! Never expected myself to have such dedication for this series but i guess i can keep myself committed with it as long as i have things to do. It has been more than a year since i bought my 3DS along with MH3U copy and i still play this game from time to time. This screenshot is my Female Hunter character Hilde, which i used  myself to solo all the way through Grank with Sword and Shield and i got her a full Alatreon X set! I had Escadora X set with Ikaruga as well which was painstakingly farmed with Gunlance though i cheesed Ala with Kelbi Bow with Hilde since i can't be bothered to farm that guy too long. Compared to Lucent Narga or Abyssal Lagi set, Escadora X is very lame endgame armor but it serves as a good trophy at least. I have to say my hunter progress as Hilde is rather smooth with SnS which i went through Grank rather easily though i still need Lance for underwater as SnS is way too unreliable on those kind of battle. 

Throughout my journey as SnS user i mainly used these armor set Alloy>Lagombi S>Lagiacrus U>Lambent and i am rather surprised that Ivory Lagi Armor is very good and served me well even on HR7 which i used this set to solo the Dual Brachy without too much struggle. Lambent Set though is very reliable set as well the only downside is its lacking of armor slot and it is probably the best armor in the game if you could add Evade+2 and Challenger+2 on that one. 

Anyway after a year has passed and get to play other MH clones i still wondering the other similar games doesn't have what Monster Hunter have. Surely MH had came a long way before they reach their current fame but for me it is about how the character reflects to the player especially when you play solo. In Monster Hunter series your hunter reflects your skill as a player, if it takes you a long time to kill a monster even with a good set it means that your skill needs to be improved and the monsters that you fought serve as the obstacle for you to master the required skill to defeat them. While 3U has been alot more forgiving compared to previous game, having Endgame set doesn't mean anything if you can't use them properly which is still very true in this 3U Grank. I may not the best hunter when it comes to speedkills but i think i am very good at surviving as a Blademaster and my advice is that use MOI(moments of invisibility) to the fullest and mastering the Evade+ skill is a sign of a good hunter. Probably i will be still playing MH3U until 4 Ultimate comes out and for now i think i am going to try reaching HR100 with my LS guy.

Edge of Tomorrow

Never planned to watch this movie but since i heard good things about it, i decide to give it a go just like other thing. It was surprisingly entertaining movie unlike hollywood adaptation stereotypes which usually end up being terribad. I have read the All you need is Kill manga which shared the same base material with this one and compared to the manga the movie had happier end and less shonen tone. I find the main reason why the movie did really well is mainly because of the base material is good to boot with and rather easy to convert to suit tastes. It still makes me wonder how Tom Cruise looks still so young until now considering he has been active before he played in Top Gun

What makes me include the Muvluv in the header is that because it shares the same template with the source material of Edge of Tomorrow, in a way you can say that Muvluv is All you need is Kill with Giant Robots. Basically the main protagonist is a weak guy but gets stronger after going through loop after loop while dying in the process and in the end the main heroine is the cause why the guy can't get through out of loop. Depending in on what perspective you see Muvluv Alternative either inspired by All you need is Kill (which came earlier btw) or plagiarize it which i think Muvluv borrowed "a little bit too much". I used to like Muvluv series back then but got abit sick of it lately due to poor continuation of the series that goes nowhere which gave me the impression is that Alternative is too unoriginal. Nevertheless i believe the novel probably borrow the inspiration somewhere as well which at the moment i didn't know yet but i believe eventually i will. So Muvluv borrowed heavily on Blue Gender and All you need is kill what else the series borrowed at the time Alternative came to light?

Megaman Battle Network 2

Out of the all Megaman series, either Battle Network or Zero are my favorite ones because I spent quite a lot of time on them during my youth. I have played most of the Battle Network series back then except MMBN2 and I got to finish a playthrough recently. Frankly speaking, MMBN2 is not as good as i expected probably because i was spoiled too much with the later series and arguably one of the easier series for me as well. 

Megaman Battle Network 2 is the MMBN iteration that introduced Style system which will be perfected in MMBN3. Never expected Wood Style in MMBN2 is really broken. One of the major gripes for me in MMBN2 is that the plot feels abit dragged on especially around the Netopia arc where you fight the Gospel Navi in quick succession. 

I feel the cyberworld in MMBN2 is really small for some reason and rather disappointed that Higsby didn't make it in this game. For me MMBN2 is probably the 2nd worst Battle network series but without it there will never be the MMBN3 which is the best one in my opinion while MMBN4 is the worst one. At the moment i am reminiscing my memories with this series by doing another run for most of the games. Probably someday i will be hunting for the merchandise of this series.

Fushigi Yuugi Genbu Kaiden

In my opinion Watase Yuu is one of the best Shoujo mangaka out there even her work is not as popular as Rumiko Sensei. Just now i finished some of my past backlog which is Genbu Kaiden which is the prequel of Fushigi Yuugi. Overall Genbu Kaiden is not perfect in everything but got very good romance and you can see how Watase Yuu's writing matured over time. Simply to say if the original Fushigi Yuugi got the happy ending then Genbu Kaiden had even better romance in the series by far. As the prequel of the Fushigi Yuugi, Genbu Kaiden tells about the story about the journey of Genbu Miko who is the first out of four Celestial beast Miko summoned to book world in the Kingdom of Hokan. As the first Fushigi Yuugi story had laid out, Takiko the Genbu Miko's life ends in her journey but ended in very meaningful one, without her i don't think the other 3 Mikos are able to fulfill their role.

Inuyasha

Felt rather nostalgic recently and picked up Inuyasha manga to read. I read this series when i was in my teens and probably one that gave lasting reflection to me even though i never managed to finish reading it back then. Inuyasha is one of those series which have its main charm to be opposite of the genre it represents, for Inuyasha i feel what makes this series charming is the Shoujo-ish element even the genre the series represents is Shonen one.

Takahashi Rumiko is one of the best female mangaka out there which is the good reason why she is one of the most successful in her field and obviously she made Inuyasha to be memorable one. However just like most long series manga, Inuyasha gets a bit dragged out eventually which i believe around when Moryoumaru showed up since it gradually loses its charm as it gradually devolve to mostly battle manga at that point but still concluded decently even not the best.  My greatest disappointment from Inuyasha is that the Love triangle between Inuyasha, Kagome and Kikyo which made the series interesting is very lacking especially after Shichinin Arc and personally i wished Rumiko sensei could the what if scenario where Inuyasha and Kikyou didn't encounter their tragedy. Nevertheless the first 30 volumes of Inuyasha are very enjoyable which made it a memorable series for me even after ten years. Perhaps someday in the future i will be marathoning the anime series and the movie for old times sake. Also any recommendations for good inuyasha game out there? The PS1 one is quite fun fighting game

Tenku Senki Shurato

Revised January 2026

Shurato was one of those old anime I watched as a kid and it’s the kind of show I now think should have stayed there. I had high hopes for the series before revisiting it, but it’s easy to see why Shurato never became a major hit.

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!

Toukiden thoughts

I have tried numbers of similar games to Monster Hunter over past few years and now Toukiden goes into the list as well. I have just finished the story mode few days ago and at the moment is halfway through the multiplayer mission. I am a Spear user since i was a Lancer in MH and i find the weapon is the most versatile weapon in the game for any role and i use SPT mitama since i loved to break Oni parts and this mitama is the best for this task.

 I have tried Ragnarok Odyssey, God Eater and Lord of Arcana but in my opinion Toukiden beats them all when it comes to the potential to be a real contender to MH and even surpass it if given couple of years. While the gameplay mechanics is nowhere as solid as MH, Toukiden took all of the good things from the previous MH clones and improvise on them which are shown in the form of their core gameplay like Mitamas(which are similar to RO cards but less tedious) and then AIs which are even more competent than God Eater which was pretty good already as well as cool but not too flashy combat compared to Lord of Arcana. The main weakness of Toukiden is the lack of content which is rather expected  considering the effort spent on the first game is mostly focused on how things works in the game and after you finished Chapter 5 things are abit repetitive as the game have introduced all of the Onis variation by the time you finish the storyline. However i would say Koei Tecmo is already pretty much on the right track for this game considering the first God Eater is even less perfect than Toukiden and once a expansion title is released the game will show more of its worth. Most people forgot Toukiden is just first iteration of the series and it can't compete with MH yet as the later have come a long way before it reached the position up until now.

What i wish for the future expansion or possible sequel is more Onis obviously as well as more AI partners so it would be merrier as well as more variation of the Mitama Spells and lastly less wackier end game armors. Give Toukiden 2 or 3 years and i believe it will be a serious contender for Monster Hunter.

Even the series got really adorable Mascot!

Supersylph Yukikaze

I watched the OVA years ago which is beautifully animated though rather hard to follow and afterward i decided to get the Novels which have 2 volumes translated so far as i heard good things about them. Took me a year actually to get to read the novel but certainly this novel is well written one. The setting is your basic Humanity against Alien but what makes Yukikaze unique is the design of the Alien themselves which are called JAM in this series. Unlike most Aliens, design JAMs are not vicious looking creature like Zergs or Tyranids but instead in the novel they are deoicted as rather enigmatic beings, While Humanities managed to fight a stalemate fight with JAMs it appears that the Aliens are much sinister than they appear to be which is why they are rather appealing. Just like the OVA, Yukikaze focus on relationship between Rei Fukai and his seemingly sentient plane Yukikaze herself which feels like a romance between human and machine.

The first book is rather episodic roughly about Rei's daily life on Faery, the planet where the war with JAMs are being waged on and then the 2nd book takes up on the pace where one of the JAMs sinister plan begin to take place. For this series i wouldn't say it is appropriate to compare which works is superior but the Novel and the OVA goes hand in hand where the Novel served as the the foundation for the series and the OVA complements it. I heard there is 3rd book from the series which is untranslated yet but i hipe it will be translated one day

B-Daman Bakugaiden Saint Dragon

Back when i was a kid around 4th grade i was collecting B-Daman toys which were robot plastic model kits which you had a small B-daman to put on the ball like cockpit. And today i was digging back my old toys and saw the particular toys which was the Yellow Robot that can be combined with other 2 Robots to form a giant robot which i used to have all 3 of them. This makes me dig the net and found what i was looking for and decided to write this post. It turns out the robot toys are from particular B-daman series called Bakugaiden and it seems there is another item to be put on wishlist. This particular set called Saint Dragon have 4 robot model from White, Blue, Yellow and Black bomber can be combined together to form a dragonlike mech named Saint Dragon. By this time this product is really rare and going to cost a kidney to get one either on Ebay or Mandarake costing about more than $100.

I think i will try to find this toy when i go to Hongkong and didn't care if it is bootleg due to rarity status because these toys means alot for me when i was a kid and partially drives me to get into plastic models. First i think i am going to watch the B-daman Bakugaiden no matter how silly the series and if anyone knows where can i get this toy for reasonable price, please let me know but it would be even better if Takara Tomy decided to reissue the kit one day. Before i stopped writing at this post, here is the giant robot that i said to be the combination of the 3 robots which is called Saint Blaster.

RAH Hei Darker than Black

Up until now my impression with Darker than Black is not the best especially due to 2nd season but we can still admit the series did have characters like our favorite Chinese electric batman, Hei. There is not much DtB merchandise but at least they got a very good physical representation of this lead character from the series. The figure was released back in 2011 by medicom the creator of Real action heroes series and it cost like more than 20k yen to get one but i think it is well worth the price. I think if i ever go to Japan, this is one of the item that i will look for there considering the market price for a piece of RAH Hei will cost you an arm and a leg to get which you can have a look on Ebay. Hei kinda reminds me with the protagonist from Nitroplus VN called Kikokugai, Kong Taoluo who got couple of close similarities. What do you guys think?

Chinese electric batman predecessor?

Lone Wolf and Cub

One of the great japanese classic manga and it think it is one of the best too in depicting Edo era. Lone Wolf and Cub tells the story of a ronin Ogami Itto and his son Daigoro who went on a quest of revenge against great samurai clan of Yagyu who have dishonor and killed Itto's clan due to power hunger as Itto once held the esteemed position of Shogun's executioner. Ogami Itto is Chuck Norris in Edo era as throughout his adventure in 27 volumes anyone who face against him are dead which some of them are good people. What makes this manga special apart from the vibrant depiction of the Edo era is how Bushido is depicted in the series which is easier for reader to understand along with great doses of tragedy. This is one of the must read classic manga if you appreciate them and Sabu to Ichi torimonohikae is one of the closest title that is similar to this one.