G Generation Spirits [First Impression]

I’ve been playing the latest game in the G Generation franchise titled Spirits. This game is the first (or so what I’ve heard) all-UC only game in the G Generation games. It goes from original Gundam all the way to Crossbone. I’d wish to see Gundam X series in it since it does deal with The One Year War (or ten years or so after it). I’ll break down what I think of the game after playing through it a bit.

Graphics: The game offers pretty great cutscenes along with the in-game battle animation. It is not as flashy as that of Super Robot Wars, but it is definitely up there. The scenery/battlefields are designed quite well and the sprites icon used are pretty good too. The menus look nice and just the overall game is designed well.

Sounds: The music is from their respected series, so nothing special there. Sound effects are the same as those used in the previous G Generation games, but it doesn’t get old. The one thing I really like is the classic sound FXs you’d hear in the series such as the Zaku eye turning on/lighting up and all.

Gameplay: The gameplay is quite simply to pick up in my opinion, but actually doing well is another. The game’s difficulty isn’t extremely hard nor is it easy. It will require some thinking on how you will organize your units and where to go, whereas SRW required the same idea, but not always if you had fully upgraded units. The upgrading system is slightly weird and you can always buy units that are not part of the series giving you a slightly/higher chance of winning the scenario. The “operator” menu is pretty easy to understand also even if you don’t understand Japanese. The game’s understandability is pretty easy and is probably a little more easier than SRW. The only parts that one may have trouble on are upgrading parts and attacks and all, but shouldn’t be too hard.

Overall: In the end this game is well worth the time to pick up and play. Highly recommended to those who like Gundam, like games such as Fire Emblem or SRW, or have a lot a free time on their hands.

~Kevin~

Are Anime Series Starting to Lose Originality?

Okay for some reason or another I’ve been getting a sense that many series I’ve seen lacked originality. Now I’m not saying series borrow from each other, but more like…theres this lack of difference in either story, character or theme in general.

Now I won’t say I’m right and everyone else is wrong, I’m just giving my input on what I’ve seen, if you feel differently please feel free to say so.

Lets begin with a look more well-known series… Why not take Bleach and Naruto for example. Now being Shounen Jump-related I can tell this. Both share many similarities between each other, but lets look at series related to them outside of S.J. for a bit. Lets take Kiba for example (since I’ve just finished it). Now its not an exact parallel series, but it does share similarities.

Such examples being the protagonist is constantly looking to get stronger in order to protect those close to them. How about the protagonist going berserk and becomes insanely strong, but soon is able to control/fight that inner “demon” and break free? Thats just a small example.

Another one that I’ve noticed is in most H-games-to-Anime series…those slice of life series. Personally I love those kinds of series, but once again, originality is lacking. Lets take one my favorites, Da Capo, and compare it with something like . . . Kanon (which is also a fav’d series). Lets compare, we have the normal girl that is somehow really close to the protagonist male (child-hood friend, non-blood related sibling, etc). We have the female who is an animal of some sort (both Da Capo and Kanon had a female character that were a cat [correct on Kanon?]). We get another Child-Hood friend who has something done to them during the past (Kanon being Aya in coma and Da Capo’s Sakura being forever young). Now that doesn’t cover all the characters, but its about there. Although this is not completely true for ever series, there is some way or another where one can find a relation to a character from something else.

Lets take a look into the atmosphere/feel/theme of series now. Using Code Geass and Death Note (oh boy no one saw this I bet). Both of which are based around outsmarting the opponent. In this conflict we see the protagonist and antagonist both pushing back and forth and almost without a victor. Since Code Geass still has a second season coming up I can not say that the outcome of the series is similar to that of Death Note’s, but you can see a similarity.

Personally I just feel like I’ve seen too much of the same thing over and over again, and although thats not a bad thing, I’d wish to see some more originality. I must say though series such as Genshiken and Haruhi were quite original from my views, but there are probably more series out there that I’ve seen that are just as original, but I’ve failed to notice them.

~Kevin~