Skyrim

A bit old, but still, I feel an amazing need to write this game. Or it could be that odd tumor in my brain that's making me silly things.

.... Nah, it's probably the former.

This is what everyone thinks the main guy looks like, but he goes through plastic surgery every other day.

Now, I've played a few open-world games before, like Assassin's Creed 1 and World of Warcraft. However, they didn't feel all that 'open world' so much as 'do this, get this', as in basically just a sequence of linear things made to look like it's open world. I've heard of the Elder Scrolls series before, but never managed to play them. But lo and behold, while I was in China, I got a copy of Skyrim and decided to give it a whirl. Why not? I had nothing better to do with my time, being an introvert shut-in and all, and I heard so many things about it, it was insane. So, I decided to play it on my laptop (a big mistake, but it won't influence this review) and give it a whirl.

Yeah... suffice to see, I didn't see the outside world for a few months.

How many goodies do you think are lying in that world...?

The premise of Skyrim is this - you're an unknown captured person who was captured in the first place for simply being at the wrong place at the wrong time. A misunderstanding and a jackass captain later, you're literally up on the chopping block, a dragon shows up and - I didn't get whether it was trying to save you or kill you at the time - and you run the hell away as fast as possible. After getting out and having a few more misadventures which involve some bandits, giant rats, and creepy-speaking undead, you find out you're the Dragonborn - a mortal with the powers of a dragon. Armed with your powers, you go out to save the world! ... if you're not distracted along the way for the next week or five.

The thing about the Elder Scrolls series is this: There IS a main quest plot, but they're made in such a way, you're most likely going to get sidetracked by the sheer number of sidequests thanks to this gigantic world you have the luxury of exploring. After a few beginning missions, I found myself running from one end of the world and back, doing sidequests, fighting, smithing, mining, etc etc etc. I became VIPs and confidantes of generals and kings, single-handedly ended wars and conspiracies, going into tombs like a beggar and coming out as rich as Bill Gates. About a week had passed by with me doing nothing but sidequests and dungeon crawling before I noticed that I didn't make a hint of progress on my main quest. I considered doing it... then threw it on the 'quests to do if I'm ever passing the area' list before continuing.

"Morning, Ralph." "Morning, Sam."

The diversity meant that the enemies you fight against are diverse too, from your classic undead to your run-of-the-mill wolves and bears to more fantastic enemies like automatons to floating undead priests who fire bolts of unholy destruction on your unfortunate rear to, of course, dragons. Now, the thing about dragons is that in most games, dragons would be treated with respect and fear - plenty of gold to be had, sure, but a tough fight to come. In this game, after a few first encounters to them, dragons literally become nothing more than oversized mosquitoes - they're THAT annoying. They show up, burn stuff, you kill them and get back to what you're doing. Occasionally, they might roast that villager you've been meaning to talk to, but that can't be helped. Maybe that was the point - make yourself so badass, dragons are literally nothing more than pests.

Drunken targets ftw!

The plotlines themselves are intriguing, and the characters interesting too. Skyrim does a good show that not everything is black and white, and most of the characters have good and bad aspects to them well-mixed. Most of my more favorite characters belonged to the more 'evil' guilds - the Dark Brotherhood (think organization of religious hitmen) and the Thieves' Guild. The characters were murderers and thieves, yes, but they they weren't immoral and honestly, they seemed like people I could get along with just fine. They had a great sense of humor, personality, and seemed to be like real people. The other organizations... eh. Heck, my favorite character of all time was an atoning dragon who was THE wisest and nicest guy in the game - and dragons are the bad guys!

That being said, the game does have a lot of issues. For one thing, the game suffers from fake difficulty, i.e., only increasing the damage done by the enemies while buffing their health to stupidly high levels. Not that fun. Also, the game is absurdly unbalanced in your favor. You'll most likely be robbing anything not nailed down to boost your personal wealth, and even if you're not, the tombs and dungeons you'll be raiding have enough treasure to make you fabulously rich with one dive. And once you figure out certain exploits, well, suffice to say, you're invincible. Also, the game suffers from an outrageous amount of bugs and glitches. Some are amusing, but some break the game and make it unplayable. But with a huge game like this, it's hard to patch every single thing.

Rockets are for sissies! REAL men use a Giant's smash to get to space!

One last thing to talk about: Mods. If you're running the PC version of Skyrim, then kiss your life goodbye. Although the game is already huge (and the expansions make it even worse), there are literally thousands of mods to install to your game. These mods can do anything from make people look better, to adding gorgeous homes, to even adding dungeons and entire quests/campaigns for you to do. Some mods are serious, others are silly, and a good deal should not be shown to the good little boys and girls out there. Mods are easy to install and so addicting, I do NOT recommend it for anyone without a lot of time to kill.

And that's it for Skyrim. A game I highly recommend if you can look past its many but very small flaws. Pop it in, then prepare yourself - you're gonna be there a loooong while.

Oh, and here's a funny picture as a last note.

The World God Only Knows

And today, we're talking about one of my all-time favorite anime/manga series. Bleach? Much as I am a fan of it, no. Fate/Zero? I've talked about it to no end and I've already made a post about it, so no. History's Strongest Disciple Kenichi? Nope. This is a romantic comedy of all things. Normally, this is the territory of women and girls (not saying that guys can't enjoy it - I'm only saying it's usually girls and women), but it uses its elements so well and so originally that it has become an extremely unique series in its own right.

Ladies and gentleman, I give you: The World God Only Knows.

Our hero, the devil he's made a contract with... and his targets.

The protagonist, Keima Katsuragi, hits quite close to home for a good deal of readers. He's an absolute otaku who plays games rather than do anything else, prefers the 2D world to the 3D (the real) world, anti-social, you name it, he's got it. As for what his otaku specialization is... (yes, some otaku like or specialize in certain aspects than others), his is dating sim games. And he's good at them. REALLY good. So good, he is known online as 'The God of Capturing'. That being said, all his crushes are 2D video game girls, with special mention going to a girl named Yokkyun, a 2D girl that he's almost literally head over heels for, while 3D girls repulse him. But one day, he gets a message on his PFP (PSP) challenging him to capture another girl. Keima, being the proud God he is, accepts.

And in doing so, inadvertently signs a deal with a devil to help capture evil spirits. Um... okay.

This is our ever-so-scary devil. Fear her.

So the premise is this: Keima has been contracted by Elsie (the devil above) to flush out and capture evil spirits. Said evil spirits take residence in the gaps in girls' hearts, caused by things like depression, self-esteem issues, jealousy, etc. It must be girls since they give birth to children, which is their method of reincarnating. In order to force them out, those gaps must be filled. There are various tactics to do so, but the most risky yet effective method is... love. Naturally, Keima wants out of his deal immediately... only to find out that both he and Elsee have collars that take their heads if either of them back out. And so begins their wacky adventures of capturing evil spirits, making girls happier one female at a time.

The very first target, Ayumi - a track star who will inadvertently plow into you if you're not careful.

Every arc is a new girl, picked out by Elsee's detector (the skull decoration in her hair). Each girl of the arc has a different background, attitudes, etc etc, all of them unique. And each one almost more or less conforms to certain stereotypes that harem or romantic comedy anime have. There's the really, really shy type, the tsundere, the tomboy, etc etc. Keima has to tailor his strategies and tactics for each girl, factoring in not only their personalities, but their history, environment, and even the effects of other people around them. His strategies always have the same justification (Apparently, it works in dating sim games) but hey, they work! This gives the plots a lot of variety that one simply doesn't see in a lot of romantic comedy genres these days.

The cast of characters is kept to a relatively low number at the beginning chapters, each arc focusing more or less on only Keima, Elsee, and the girl of the arc. This works extremely well for this series, as it allows for a great deal of character development for all concerned in the arc. Later on, a number of former capture targets reappear, but the cast never feels stifling or overwhelming. Each girl has a lot of personality and backstory thanks to each of them having a full arc to flesh out their character development. The supporting characters never feel needless or unnecessary, as they contribute to the plot of the arc (or overall) as much as Keima or Elsee.

These are all Keima's capture targets. Eat your heart out, Ichika!

While all in all a very great manga/anime to read/watch, it does suffer a few flaws from time to time. The cliches here, despite being used well, fly thick and fast. There is a reason why Keima's strategies work despite being based on games. The series at times feel like a popularity contest, with the more popular characters reappearing as supporting characters or even having important parts of the plot while the less interesting ones fall by the wayside and are only given a summary mention. That said, perhaps it was written in such a way that the ones who would become supporting characters would be more popular than the ones who wouldn't. If Tamaki Wakaki had planned that, he is a character developing genius. One last nag is Elsee. She remains a near-constant ditz because that's her charm, but as a trade-off, a lot of outright character development is sacrificed, making it either very subtle or at times non-existent. Perhaps because of that, when something serious comes up, she's usually just shooed out before she can do anything.

Let's be honest - if my assistant fangirls over fire trucks, I'd shoo her out of anything serious too.

That being said, I pretty much had to nitpick in order to find the flaws. If those are the only nitpicks I have, then there's very little to complain about the series. It's definitely not for the action junkies who only like watching flashy fight scenes and explosions, but it's a quirky romantic comedy that will probably have you burst out laughing more than once and charmed by the romance which develops at a believable pace. I highly recommend anyone to watch it - yes, even the action junkies. This series was my first real introduction to the romantic comedy genre in manga, and I have not regretted it.

So watch it or read it. GOD COMMANDS YOU.