Dear Kunsel, Bravely Default, and MekakuCity Actors.

Jun 16, 2014 22:01

I have an important link to share that will be of interest to any FF7 fans who read Dear Kunsel - lithic_rune has written a really good sequel here that should satisfy a lot of people left unhappy with the original ending.

In other news, I've been playing a lot of Bravely Default recently (although it has been struggling to fight for time with FFXIV - luckily for Bravely Default, I cannot take FFXIV everywhere with me.) and it is pretty special. It reminds me a lot of FFIII with the job system, but wow, it is great to see some real innovation in the turn-based RPG space. Every possible thing you might want to complain about is controllable! Sick of random encounters? Turn them off! Want to grind an area? Turn the encounters way up! Made a misstep and your party is in danger of being wiped out? There's a cool cheating time-stopping move for that. Battles getting a little repetitive? Set your battle commands to auto! Speed up the anims! It's all so gloriously customisable. And it uses Streetpass too, which is great, because that is still one of my favourite features of the 3DS.

The Brave and Default system adds a whole new layer of strategy too. For easy enemies it's sometimes worth just throwing all in and taking a risk by spending your turns into deficit, but against bosses it's default all the way, and only spending turns when you have a surplus (or in emergencies). Heaps of fun.

The story is (so far) pretty awesome too. The world and art are beautiful. I was also pleasantly surprised by the voice acting? Agnes's grates a little sometimes but does suit her, everyone else I have to battle the constant agony of indecision between racing through the story at reading speed or hanging out to listen. Edea especially. Some of the villains have great affectations, too. Some top notch writing in there, well above standard.

On the anime front, has anyone else been watching MekakuCity Actors? I have been a slavish fan of Jin's since way back with Kagerou Days and Headphone Actor's release, so was super excited about the anime. I'm a little indecisive how I feel about it so far, though. In some ways it feels like the songs get a little shoehorned in and overshadow the story - I would have been okay with just instrumental versions of some of them, or having them play over the end credits of their relevant episodes.



I do really love the uber-stylised look, but sometimes it's so stylised as to get a little confusing. Actually, the anime requires a lot of patience. Things didn't even start making any sort of sense to me until about episode 9, and that was even with familiarity with the start of the manga and all the various songs! I have been re-watching episodes since and they get better once you start to realise what is actually going on. Then you have some serious 'holy shit' moments, but how much harder would it be for someone who didn't have any context?



This screen still sent shivers down my spine though.

Is anyone else watching this one? How are you finding it?

final fantasy, too much spare time, video games, fangirling

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