Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days - review

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, a game for the Nintendo DS, is the fourth story installment for the Kingdom Hearts series. It follows the story of Roxas, which (if you had played Kingdom Hearts II all the way through) is Sora's Nobody, or basically a form of Sora that doesn't have a heart. Event-wise, it takes place during the year in-between Kingdom Hearts I and II, Starting at nearly the same time as Chain of Memories.

Although the story is about Roxas, it focuses on three individuals in particular: Axel, Roxas, and Xion, all members of Organization XIII, which is a group consisting of the most powerful nobodies amongst all the known worlds. The focus particularly is about their friendship and their attempt to maintain it, regardless of the other forces at hand.

The story itself is one similar to any of the other Kingdom Hearts games: it starts off simple, mostly just figuring out how to play; but it becomes very long, especially if you want to do all the side missions and stories.

From left to right: Axel, Roxas and Xion.

Gameplay follows the pattern similar to other Kingdom Hearts games, too. 3D environment, lock-on, use magic and different keyblades to defeat foes.

Differences from the other games in the title series make this a new animal to tackle, too. You don't just level up. It is in the game, yes, but it is treated differently. You are alloted slots, and everything that you would use in the game will take up at least one slot, depending on the power of the item. The items are called panels, and there is a panel for everything. You want to level up? Gain enough experience from defeating enemies, then put the level panel you obtain into a slot, as an example.

A big difference in game mechanics that I liked was the Keyblades themselves. Different keyblades not only looked different (obviously), but they were used differently. Some blades would have a small amount of hits per round but deal typically a great deal of damage, while others had long chains of hits per round, but deal little to moderate damage. Additionally, those chains would be assigned to use on ground only or in air only. You could attack either on ground or in the air regardless, but you could only do the chain on one of them.

And another difference, which I think was the biggest and best, was the introduction of multiplayer. Up to four people can play together on a mission, each person initially being able to play any member of the organization. Then, when you get to certain parts of the game or unlock specific parts of the game, other characters become available to play in multiplayer, from Donald or Goofy to King Mickey to even Sora himself.

A screenshot of the multiplayer system on the game.

Score: 4 out of 5

The game was good. Very good. I had no real complaint with the control scheme or even the panel system. Rotating the camera was semi-difficult at first, but I quickly adapted to that.

The story was also good. It answered most of the questions I had that had arisen when going through both Chain of Memories and Kingdom Hearts II. Some other questions arose, but will most likely be answered by the next installment in the Kingdom Hearts series, known as Birth by Sleep.

The main issue I had was the amount of time it took to beat the game. I know, it had to complete a whole year within the game, but some of the missions were difficult, and if you wanted to do all of the side quests and unlock as much as you could, you would need to put in nearly triple the amount of hours. I am aware that Kingdom Hearts games take a while to beat, but I put a lot more time into this game than I originally intended.

Still, it is a good game. It is a must-have for anyone who is a fan of Kingdom Hearts, and will answer most of the questions you had about the series.


~Koubo

Gurren Lagann - Review

For me, an anime has to have a good blend of action, drama, and even romance for me to really get into it. There are only a couple animes that I rank as my favorites. Martian Succesor Nadesico is one of those, and now, so is Gurren Lagann.

Gurren Lagann starts out fast and stays fast throughout the entirety of the series. I have to admit, when one of my friends first introduced me to the show, I felt trepidation about whether or not I could get into it; I'm not usually one for giant robot animes. Nadesico and Evangelion were about the only two I could ever really get in to. So, when I first started watching Gurren Lagann, I had all but decided that I wouldn't like it. But, after I watched the first few episodes, I became hooked. I wanted to watch more of it, but didn't want to spend the large amounts of money that it would cost to buy the DVDs. So, I started looking around for a deal on it. That deal came from the iTunes Store. I found the entire series on sale for only $26.00, so I immediately downloaded it and started watching.



While the series does dwell quite a bit on the giant robot (Gunmen, as they're called) parts, that's not what it's all about. The Gunmen fight sequences are spectacularly animated and pleasing to the eye (the final battle of the whole series blew my mind). But, the thing that really drew me in was the relationships between the characters (all of which were also extremely well animated. I'm just going to say this now; Gurren Lagann was one of the most visually pleasing animes I have watched.) What starts out as a love triangle between what seem to be the 3 main characters, Simone, Kamina & Yoko (I say "seem to be" because, in my opinion, most of the characters could be considered "main") draws you in and makes you feel for each of them. And it's not just the relationships that are well thought out. Each character in the series has their own quirks and personality that endears you to each of them.



Probably one of my favorite things about this anime is what they did with it about 7 episodes in. I'm not going to say what it is, but I will say that when if first happened, I felt betrayed by an anime that I was growing to like more and more, but then, later in the series, I knew that the story wouldn't have been nearly as good if they hadn't done it. It really did make the series enjoyable.

Gurren Lagann is divided into 2 different story arcs, each lasting about 13 episodes. The first deals with the rebels from the underground cities seeking out and destroying the Spiral King. At first there are only 3 of them with only 2 Gunmen (Gurren and Lagann, which can combine to create the powerful Gurren Lagann), but as the story progresses, more and more rebels join the cause and each ends up with a Gunmen of their own, eventually making a formidable army, known as Team Dai Gurren. I thought I had seen big robots before, but some of the Gunmen in Gurren Lagann are ridiculousyl huge. Just when you think you've seen the biggest of them, they throw an even bigger one into the story. But, instead of being silly, the bigger and bigger robots made the story. The first arc of the story ends with Simone destroying the Spiral King and the rebels all celebrating. But, as the Spiral King is dying, he utters what sounds like a prophecy of the future which basically says when the population of humans on the earth reaches 1 million bad stuff will happen.

Start the second arc, which takes place years after the end of the first. The rebels have built a city of their own and have advanced greatly in the few years that have passed. Simone is the ruler of the city and the members of Team Dai Gurren are all high up in the New Government. The action, once again, starts right off when a tear in the sky releases a strange looking Gunmen just as the 1 millionth person is born on the surface. Simone gets in Gurren Lagann and heads out to fight the new Gunmen, eventually beating it by using his signature drill attack. The Gunmen explodes and the fragments of it fall to the ground... and explode on impact. Much of the city is destroyed. Simone is overthrown as ruler and placed in prison, but is later released when they realize that only he and Gurren Lagann can defeat the new enemies. As I said earlier, the giant robots keep getting bigger in this series, and in the second story arc, this is just as true. The moon eventually becomes a Gunmen that can combine with Gurren Lagann to make a huge fortress. Soon, they find out that the attacks are from the Anti Spiral race and set off into space to fight them. I'm not going to go into too much detail, but as the story draws to a close, the battles between Gunmen become more and more epic. Eventually, the heroes triumph over the villains and live out their lives in peace.


Easily the most epic Giant Robot I've ever seen.



There is so much more to the story than what I've written here, but I don't want to give too much away. I'd rather you watch the series yourself to find out just how amazing this anime really is.

My final score: 5 out of 5.

This anime has one of the most gripping stories I've seen in an anime and leaves you wanting more after each episode. I know for sure that I'm going to be watching this over and over; it's just that good. With excellent character development and stunning animation, this is easily my second favorite anime. I highly recommend going out and watching all of it, you won't be disappointed.