Haunting grounds

Review by LemonPenguin

Introduction

Haunting Ground (or Demento in Europe and Japan) is one my favorite survival horror games. Now let me tell you why. First of all, it's a very unique game. But, like most unique games, it isn't for everyone. Haunting Ground is a survival horror which was developed and publish by Capcom in 2005, for Sony's PlayStation 2. It's about an 18-year old girl named Fiona who wakes up in a strange castle and pairs up with a white German Shepherd to escape the castle.

Story
18-year old Fiona Belli awakes in a small dog cage after surviving a car accident. Dressed in only a blanket she sneaks out and makes her way towards a huge castle. Once inside, she's greeted by a creepy maid named Danielle who gives her Victorian-styled clothes to wear. Things just get weirder from then on. After being chased by the childish, albeit humongous groundskeeper who just wants to squeeze her a little (more like crush her to death), Fiona finds a white German Shepherd painfully tied to a tree. She sets him free and remembers his name from a collar she found earlier: Hewie. Fiona and Hewie team up to escape the castle and it's strange inhabitants. It seems that everyone except Debilitas once something...from inside of her. And they will stop at nothing to get it. It's up to the player to help Fiona and Hewie through the castle, escape the pursuers and survive. Along the way they meet a dangerous and mentally disabled groundskeeper, a creepy and unstable maid, a creepy hooded stalker and a mysterious old man who appears to be helping them, or is he? I give Haunting Ground's story a 9/10. It's very original and the story is very well developed throughout the game with plenty of cinematics and even a small plot twist that will make you want to escape the castle even more.

Music
The music in Haunting Ground/Demento was composed by Seiko Kobuchi from the Resident Evil series and she did an incredible job with it. Each pursuer possesses their own chase music and each stage of the game has different background music for when you're not being chased. Not only that, but everyone gets their own boss music. The background music is pretty creepy and will really keep you on edge, and the chase music really gives you a sense of danger. There's also a really heartwarming theme for Hewie. I give Haunting Ground's music a 9/10 for how well it blends in with the atmosphere and for how really well done it is.

Graphics
Haunting Ground's graphics are really good. The characters are really realistic and it's not even uncanny valley realistic like in Clock Tower 3. The characters are really well done and the backgrounds and areas are well textured and constructed. The design is fairly Gothic (then again, it is a castle) and pretty chilling at the same time. I give Haunting Ground's graphics a 10/10 because of how well done they are. 

Gameplay
Haunting Ground's gameplay is very original. To start off, it's very similar to Clock Tower 3's gameplay. In case you've never played or even heard of Clock Tower 3, I'll tell you how it works. You and Hewie walk around the level looking for items and such to complete puzzle and work your way to the next area. All you have to do is find an item or two, do a little backtracking, get some keys and carry on. Simple right? Not really. While you're exploring, certain cinematics, actions you perform or simply after a certain amount of time passes, your pursuer will begin chasing you. While being chased you cannot examine objects or use items. All you can do is choose to either run and hide or fight. Fiona isn't very athletic so she's fairly weak and all she can do is kick and do some form of tackle. However, Hewie is a dog. Dogs have teeth. Using the right analog stick you can command Hewie to sit, search, come to you and, of course, attack. Hewie's main attacks consists of biting the enemy. 

He can also learn new moves like dodging. You can also charge his attack for extra power. However, the pursuers will not only attack Fiona but also attack Hewie. As Hewie gets hurt he becomes slow and feeble. You can replenish his health using certain food items. If Hewie gets hit too many times, he'll collapse temporarily. Or, if you're on Hard Mode, he'll die and you'll get a Game Over. Hewie also has an invisible friendship meter. You can make him like you more by praising him when he's good and feeding him treats. However, if you hit him or scold him too much, he'll like you less. The more Hewie likes you, the more he'll listen to you. If he doesn't like you, he'll just run around and ignore you and even attack you if you get him really angry. Now for Fiona. Fiona, unlike most video game characters, get scared. Like in Clock Tower 3, you have a Panic Meter, and if you're Panic Meter reaches max, you'll go into Panic Mode. There isn't actually a gauge for the Panic Meter in Haunting Ground. The Panic Meter is the screen. As Fiona gets scared, the colors begin to fade from the screen, the screen begins to pulse and Fiona begins to stumble a bit while running. While in Panic Mode, Fiona will move uncontrollably and will trip all of the place. You'll know when you reach Panic Mode because the screen goes negative for about a second and Fiona lets out a shrill scream. The screen turns almost completely black and white and it becomes a lot harder to control Fiona. Also, the only command you can give Hewie while in Panic Mode is "help" and you better hope you've been nice to him or he's not going to help you. Now here's the catch: While in Panic Mode, you can fall over. This is your weakest position. Once fallen, you can't get up until Panic Mode is over. The screen becomes nearly completely black and white and pulses. All you can do is mash buttons and try to crawl away as your pursuer comes in for the kill. Eventually though, Fiona will get up and Panic Mode will end. So how do you die? First of all, Fiona does have health of some sort, but her health doesn't actually run out. If Fiona gets hurt or if she runs for long periods of time, her stamina runs out and she becomes much slower and weaker. You can replenish your stamina by using certain items or by drinking water at the sinks scattered throughout the game. Anything that kills Fiona will be a one hit kill. No second chances. ..

Your pursuers can attack Fiona and take away her stamina and cause her to panic. They can also use their "finishing moves" of sort which can kill you. Basically either you get hurt and panicked, or you die. For example: Debilitas, the game's first pursuer can either punch Fiona, or he can grab her and put her in a death grip which will kill her if she doesn't get out soon enough. It seems easy enough as long as you stay away, but your pursuers are pretty fast and Panic Mode makes you extremely vulnerable. If fallen while in Panic Mode, your pursuer can easily come in for the kill. Now onto hiding. If you don't want to fight, there's plenty of places in the game to hide. However, don't hide in the same place too many items or your pursuers will find you easier. There's also several traps in the game that can kill you, so be careful of that too. I give Haunting Ground's gameplay a 10/10 for how original and fun it is. ..

Replayability
Haunting Ground will only take you about 10 hours or less to beat the first time. But, it has A LOT of replayability. To start off, there's 4 different endings to get. Not only that, but there are 11 different play-types to get. What play-type you get depends on your statistics at the end of the game such as your play time, how many items you found, your dog level, your Panic Mode count etc. And, to top things off, both Fiona and Hewie have multiple costumes that can be unlocked which can boost their attack, stamina etc. Then there's also Hard Mode which can is unlocked after beating the game. In Hard Mode the pursuers are faster and stronger and Hewie can actually die, resulting in a Game Over. Also, there are more medallions and less items. Medallions can be used to create alchemical items and equipment to help help you through the game. I give Haunting Ground's replayability a 10/10 because it's one of the most replayable games I've ever played. 

Overall
I suggest you try to rent Haunting Ground before you buy it. It's not for everyone, but if you like survival horror you should definitely check it out. It's not "Silent Hill scary", but it does keep you on edge. If ever given the chance to buy it, definitely do. It's a great game and is definitely underrated in my opinion. I give Haunting Ground a 10/10. It's a great survival horror game and whether you're a fan of the genre or not, you should really check it out.

  

Ratings

                                                                                                                                                   

Gameplay....9/10

Graphics......9/10

Story............10/10

Sound..........8/10 

    

Cosplay

                                                                                                                                    

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Final Fantasy 7 - Crysis Core (PSP)

Review by Darksun45230

Over ten years ago the role playing game called Final Fantasy VII premiered on the Sony Playstation. A lot of people, and I mean a lot of people claimed it to be the greatest game of all time. If you ask this reviewer, yes, he was a fan too. The contents of this review however will not be based on the popularity of the Playstation version, but of the contents of this game, and its own merit.

Storyline
The game takes off with Zack Fair around familiar scenery. From the very beginning the player is taken on an adventure deep within the world of Final Fantasy VII. Soon you explore the mindset of optimistic Zack and his friends, mentors, and heroes.

We're introduced to vivid, realistic characters. With doubts, fears, and pride, all with just a few pieces of dialog. If you don't pick up on the subtle hints, you might get lost. As you move on, you travel to familiar scenery that one would find in Final Fantasy VII. Meet people, both new and familiar. And unveil mysteries to people that's only dream is to regain their lost pride. From beginning to end Crisis Core delivers a witty, romantic, and tragic story leaving one moved in heart and soul by story's end.

Gameplay
First, you have to ask a few questions. Does this compare in gameplay to Final Fantasy VII? What's been changed? Will my experience be different from before?

The Final Fantasy series has evolved from a turn-based combat system. One you might find in titles like Dragon Quest VIII or Final Fantasy X. Now we enter the time of the action based combat system. You've seen these types of combat in Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy XII. So is it better?

The changes are many making the adapting no easier. With a turn-based system, your characters and enemies stood in place. You could take all the time you need to make the next attack. And when you did you scrolled through a small menu and selected it.

Now let's compare that to the action-based combat. Your enemies move around a lot. You too are not limited by your movement. However, you don't have all time in the world to attack, because enemies don't wait. When you want to attack you scroll using the same menu and selecting an attack. And unlike a turn-based system, it acts immediately.

Accuracy has changed too. In a game like Final Fantasy VII, in turn-based combat all one needed to do in order to hit the enemy was cast a spell or attack normally. However in Crisis Core, you have to know who you want to hit. Here's an example. I want to use the magic Blizzard (the renamed Ice) against an opponent. The catch here is that a large block ice appears over the enemies head, that enemy has to stay put for less then a second for it to connect. If he doesn't, you miss.

Many environmental factors apply now. It's no longer just scenery. In an action based combat system, it's a disadvantage to be on a narrow catwalk during battle. In fact it's gotten this reviewer killed on many occasions.

In Final Fantasy VII, you had slots on your armor that allowed you to attached magic stones to them. These stones allowed you to use spells like Fire, Ice, and Cure. Now in Crisis Core we have that and more. Materia doesn't act all that different in Crisis Core. The catch is that you start out with only a few slots. And stay that way for a long time. The days where you could pack eighteen Materia into your armor is over. Long over. Now, you have to decide who you want to play as. This is done in order to balance the action-combat system. Plus the negative stats have been removed.

Where did the summoning go? It's not dead. You still can summon. However, it's not as easy. I'll get more into this later as we approach the DMW system.

Good news. You can level Materia. The difference between the Materia leveling in Crisis Core and Final Fantasy VII is simple. You get stats from Materia. In FFVII, you were restricted to Materia where when applied increased a certain stat and decreased another. Now there are no negative stats, just positive. And to make this even better, they added a whole new system, the Materia Fusion system.

The Materia Fusion system mimics a fusing. You combine Materia (taking away from the SP points, which are gotten from hitting enemies in battle) and making a whole new Materia to level. There are is a list of Materia combinations that make better Materia. Some Materia can only be acquired from Materia Fusion. It's a great way to get those extra stats.

Moving on, we arrive at the DMW system. The Digital Mind Wave System. How does it work? Better yet, what does it do? The DMW acts as a leveler, a gauge to use special attacks called limit breaks, and to summon monsters.

We begin at leveling. In this game, there is no experience. Instead, we have the DMW reels. Let me begin with how it works. When you hear the words “Power Surge” during battle a reel appears. There are faces on each reel; if the faces match by the end of cycle then you activate a limit break. It happens often. Now how then do we level? It works in a similar way, because there is numbers on the side that reel as well. When those numbers match “777” you level. Now you may be wondering how this is all possible. You may be asking ‘hey, how the heck can anyone play this game if leveling is so random? I don't want to end up level ten by the end of the game or overpowered too early.'

My best guess is that there is a hidden experience counter that gains as you defeat more and more enemies, or hit them. When that counter reaches the max the reels start and you level up. You can level up Materia in the same way as well. Materia also has its own hidden experience count depending on if it's attached to your armor. Sweet.

At last we arrive at summoning. What's changed? Will I like those changes? It's up to you. Unlike the system we were so used to in Final Fantasy VII where all one had to do was attach a summon Materia, this involves using them via DMW. When we achieve “Power Surge” and the limit faces are reeling, they sometimes change to befit a whole new reel. Summoning faces. Like Ifrit or Bahamut for example. When all those faces match then you summon them, which are basically performing an attack. Luckily, we can skip the sequence by pressing a button and getting to the results. Thank you!

Acquiring summoned monsters has also changed. Instead of receiving Materia outright, you must defeat them during a side-quest; buy them at a shop, and many other ways. Along with an astounding array of abilities that accompany them whether it be Odin's Zantetsuken, Bahamut's Mega Flare, or Phoenix's Rebirth Flame. The summon monsters are not something to pass up.

I did mention the Limit Breaks. For those new to Final Fantasy VII, a limit break happened when a character took a lot of damage. What is it exactly? It's an attack that did damage beyond what a normal character could do. Hence, Limit Break. In Crisis Core we explore Zack's many limit breaks. I can't tell you who the faces belong to sadly without giving away key plot points. Each face has its own limit break for Zack; let's start with the shadow limit. You'll get a lot of this at the beginning of the game, where the reel lands on a shadow face. When it does you'll perform a series of random slashes at one enemy. There are others that allow you get a critical hit each time you strike at an enemy, one that completely heals you and then some, and one in particular that performs a nasty combo on an enemy. Limit Breaks are a nice addition to Crisis Core. Don't neglect them.

Now it's time for the bread and butter of the game, missions. The storyline is separated into many missions; many involve combat in one way or another, while some don't. From the start, you are introduced to these quests, three-hundred total, that involve defeating a certain enemy, a summon monster, and heck about 1000 soldiers. With three-hundred missions it's bound to get repetitive. But they increased the difficulty so at least we can have fun!

You won't find WEAPON in this game. Sadly, we don't get to fight hulking monsters like that. So what does that mean? There're no bosses? No. At the end of the three-hundred mission road, is none other then a woman named Minerva. She serves as the games almost unbeatable boss. Who is she? Well, you'll find that out.

Though same changes are small while other big, they affect gameplay so that the overall experience is different. Will your experience be different? Yes. Will it be worse? That's up to you to decide.

Graphics & Music:
As soon as you pop in the UMD and start playing you'll recognize a familiar tune. Ask yourself, ‘haven't I heard this before?' If you have then you've played Final Fantasy VII and watched a few of the compilations. Right away we hear the music played from the Bomb Mission. Of course it's been radically altered, but the same nonetheless. So will this game do ruin to the music you've come to admire of the years? Do you really care? What about graphics? Are they truly what this reviewer is talking about?

The tunes you find Final Fantasy VII and LAST ORDER FFVII are very much present here. Often music has been redone with a different instrument. Other's are completely new, and sound great. With the sync of a heavy bass guitar along with thundering drums, it makes for one heck of a soundtrack!

Graphics, what makes them so special? Why am I so avid in saying that they are the best on the PSP? Let me start. At say, summoning. When a summon attacks, the graphics are so clear and definite that you can see the smoke pouring out of Ifrit's mouth. Maybe it's the stringy strands of energy forming at the base of Bahamut's mouth when he performs Mega Flare that get me. Must I go on? Okay, I will. Maybe it's the sparks that fall from Odin's blade when he brandishes it? Or dull blue flare in his eyes as he rides along a broken battleground waiting to deliver the next blow. It's not what's been placed; it's where they've been placed during the story. It's hard to explain without revealing spoiling the story. But you get the idea.

Overall, it's easy to be amazed by these fluid, flawless CGI sequences. As for the soundtrack, it will have fans of the music hooked, heck; I'm listening to it right now!

Overall
Angels have but one dream. To find this out one must play. Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII is the best game of the Role Playing genre. If not, one of the best PSP games of it's time. With unforgettable, realistic characters, the best music and graphics to date, and an epic yet tragic storyline about lost pride, this is a worthy title for all.

Ratings

Gameplay....7/10

Graphics......9/10

Story...........10/10

Sound..........7/10

Cosplay

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Rumble Roses (PS2)

Review by Tom Servo

The three things most important to mankind as a whole today are food, sex and cars, in no particular order. All three have made huge inroads in both print and film media, but for many years, only cars have had any luck in the realm of video gaming. Oh sure, there have been games based on food and sex before; But aside from the Dead or Alive series and maybe Burgertime, the field has been somewhat barren. It's not for lack of trying, it's just that in most cases, excluding the DOA fighting games, the focus was more on creating scenery to ogle as opposed to a fun game with scenery to ogle.

In my latest review, I tackle one from column B: "Rumble Roses", a fairly decent game even if you were to remove the all-female cast and replace them with, say, horny Japanese game developers. Fortunately, the horny guys only helmed the game's creation and gracefully stayed out of sight in the game itself. And now, I begin with the game's category you'll doubtlessly notice first:

GRAPHICS

Very rarely does a game that scores a 10 in graphics do well anywhere else, which is why I generally avoid them. But let me say this: This is most likely the best you'll ever see from PS2, the game simply looks amazing. There are no sharp edges to be found anywhere on or near the characters themselves. Jaggies? If they're there, you have to look pretty hard to see them.

Attention to detail is abundant as well. Clearly, the developers spared no effort in creating the lovely cast of wrestlers. From the soft earth that covers each characters body in a mud match to the tiny birthmark on the protagonist Reiko's upper chest to the often embarrassingly skimpy swimsuit costumes, there's plenty to ooh and aah over in Rumble Roses.

Of course, I have to note that while the entire roster is quite gorgeous, some of their costumes and personas are in quite bad taste. Behind every one of these wrestlers is a young woman who's very happy with her benefits package, no question. Nothing, but nothing is ever "understated" in Japanese pop culture, and RR is no exception. The game seems to use sex appeal like a baseball bat, hitting the player about the head with it's over-the-top teasing. Not a serious complaint, mind you, but one worth registering. Overall, this was obviously the most important category to the game's makers, therefore it deserves many accolades. Take a bow, guys. And then, wash your hands.

SOUND:

While the graphics are face-rockingly gorgeous, the music and sound effects are a good deal less impressive. I've finally settled on the fact that most video game voice acting is intentionally as bad as it is. You simply can't accidentally record dialogue of such poor quality. Every single one of these girls is fighting an uphill battle convincing me that they're there to do anything but titillate the gamer. Boo.

Many of the various effects are not quite so awful, but still nothing special. The punches, mat slams, bones cracking etc. strike me(har har) as somewhat phony. However, the various yelps, moans, grunts, screams, cries, gasps and squeals caused by the submission holds do a fine job of illustrating that the recipient is in no way enjoying herself. It's just when they open their mouths to do anything but express pain, the illusion is shattered.

Music is an oddly mixed stew, some great tracks are included, but it's mostly the instrumental lite-metal that's par for the genre. Some tunes, on the other hand, are bad enough to actually inflict pain. You will know them when you hear them, but I'll give you a clue: He ruined Van Halen, and now he has his sights set on game soundtracks. Need I say more?

GAMEPLAY:

Rumble Roses was distributed by Konami, which is a good sign, and was developed by Yukes, the team behind the rapidly improving SMACKDOWN! series, so you kind of have an idea of what to expect here. There are several impressive moves you can do that have never been seen in a wrestling game before, many of which look very painful(if a little easy to escape from). And pulling them off isn't too hard.

There are three special moves for each girl: A "killer" move, which can be done when an opponent is standing, a circumstantial "lethal" move, and a "humiliation" move. The humiliation move is thankfully the only one to make good on it's name. To do these, you must earn special move points, which you get by pounding your opponent. When you get a point, you can use the L1 button to perform a "killer" or "lethal" move. However, some moves will cause embarrassment to your foe, indicated by a small heart near her name bar filling with red. When it fills completely, She will visibly blush and beg you to lighten up. At that point, you can hit L2 to unleash a extremely painful "humiliation" move.

There are, of course, some caveats. The reversal system is nowhere near as simple as it was in, say, "SMACKDOWN!: Here Comes the Pain", meaning you'll take more of a beating than you would like to unless your timing is spot on. And the controls are not programmable, which is never a good thing. After using SMACKDOWN!'s default control scheme: "X = attack, circle = grapple, square = action and triangle = run" for a full year, I simply cannot get adjusted to RR's "X = run, square = attack, circle = action and triangle = grapple" layout. Why doesn't every game allow you to re-map buttons? It's not as unforgivably bad as forcing you to use the frustratingly un-ergonomic analog sticks for movement(a pox on you, Silent Hill 4!), but it's still very irritating nevertheless.

As for the cast, most of the popular fantasy characters are represented. 20 in total, but only 10 at any given time, thanks to the alignment system. There's Reiko, the sprightly protagonist. Dixie, the southern belle who can go to the mat with DOA's Tina any day. Aisha, the Beyonce-type performer. Evil Rose, the S&M-ish psychotic. And several more including the punk rocker, the dominatrix, the naughty nurse, the ninja, the cheerleader etc.(Some personas inhabit the same character). Hell, the only two archetypes that didn't make it are the sexy secretary and the French maid. In their place the have Makoto, the young judo gold-medalist and Aigle, the Mongolian simpleton. Both seem a little out of place to me, but perhaps rattle-headed Mongoloids and pouty judo champs are considered sexy in Japan, I don't know. And the nationality ratio of the wrestlers is seriously imbalanced. Out of the 10 principal wrestlers, four are Japanese, two Canadian, two American, one Mongolian and one the always frustrating "Unknown". Once again, Poland is tragically underrepresented.

Back to the alignment system: Each character has two different styles, one good, one bad. Their alignment can be changed by fulfilling "vows". Before an exhibition match, you can set vows like "use lots of weapons" or "don't use weapons". By fulfilling them, you shift their personality to become more good or more evil. This is a novelty, but provides quite an irritation as well: Only half of the roster is available at any given time! So Reiko can fight herself all she wants, but it's not possible for her to fight her own alter ego, Rowdy Reiko. Make sense? I didn't think so either.

Enjoy specialty matches, like tag team, backstage, cage matches and such? Well, you're S.O.L. here. There are only two types in Rumble Roses: Straight-up wrasslin' and the mud match. Yup, mud wrestling. The good thing about both of these is that there's no referee, meaning no doughy, unctuous guy in a striped shirt to snatch your weapons away, get in the way of your moves and reverse them on you, or disqualify you. And best of all, no more invalidating your special attacks just because your hapless opponent touched a damn rope. Missing him already, huh?

The fighting engine is a simplified form of the SD! engine. Since the SD! engine is already a simplified form of wrestling, it's safe to say that RR isn't as deep as SD! or any of AKI-developed games of yore. Which reminds me, eventually I'm going to obtain and play one of these "legendary" AKI wrestling games, and if it doesn't shake the very foundations of my beliefs of what wrestling games oughta be, I'm going to to owe several of you a violent pimp-slapping.

STORY:

Penning a story for a fighting game is no easy task. It's easy to explain why Solid Snake is sneaking around a missile base popping people's spinal cords, or why Leon is blasting hordes of zombies in a doomed city, but providing a context for why a gaggle of allegedly sane people decided to punch, kick, stomp on groins and twist each other into byzantine shapes is not so easy. So the background stories for fighting, wrestling and other such games are at best tenous, and even better still omitted entirely. Rumble Roses is no exception, so I'm just going to assume they were going for laughs here and move on.

OVERALL: 

The idea behind games like DOA: X-treme Beach Volleyball, BMX: XXX and Rumble Roses is always sound: That beautiful women are beautiful and worth looking at. Where DOA-ball and BMX:XXX went wrong was assuming that looking at beautiful women would carry the whole game by it's lonesome(I take that back, BMX:XXX was a bad idea from the get-go). This is incorrect. Rumble Roses takes and aesthetically pleasing premise and pitches it on a more solid framework, making it a worthwhile purchase for all but the most die-hard wrestling fan or Mennonite.

Ratings

Gameplay....7/10

Graphics......9/10

Story...........10/10

Sound..........7/10

Cosplay

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Angel Beats

Review by nihonreview.com

Synopsis: Otonashi Yuzuru wakes up one night in the middle of an unfamiliar school with no memories other than his name. He is met by a girl holding a large sniper rifle, Nakamura Yuri, who tells him that he’s dead, this is the afterlife and that she leads a guerilla group fighting against fate, God and the controller of this world, the student council president who they call “Tenshi”. Yuri wants Otonashi to join her group (and to help think up a new name for it, as the team originally calling themselves the “Afterlife Battlefront” shortened to the SSS, can’t seem to settle on a decent title), but Otonashi isn’t so convinced and wants to hear Tenshi’s side of the story. Tenshi, however, reciprocates by stabbing Otonashi in the heart…

Angel Beats! is a bizarre and enigmatic anime, filled with paradoxes. Aesthetically, when it chooses to be, it’s utterly breath-taking but the character designs, generally the most emphasized visual element of a series like this, are often inconsistent. It borrows elements from a line-up of other popular anime, yet it exudes a feel that’s genuinely individual. Its plot is completely haphazard and the writing is (I won’t mince words) terrible, yet it still manages to be so sentimental. I honestly don’t see any hint of cynicism from this series. It’s clumsy and often poorly executed, but I have no reason to doubt its earnestness. For an anime so flawed, Angel Beats! always tries hard, and (ironically) has its heart in the right place.

An anime original written by Key ornament Maeda Jun, Angel Beats! is a massive departure from Maeda’s usual works. While most Key series deal with their signature mix of romance and drama leading up to one (or many) deaths, Angel Beats! is set in a post-death purgatory and the romance (and also to a fair extent, the drama) are very much suppressed. Comedy and mystery are the order of the day. Seto no Hanayome’s director, Kishi Seiji, is completely at home with Angel Beat!’s random flavour of comedy… it’s about the only thing the show executes with consistency. The show loves sequences of repeated jokes and isn’t afraid to make light of the rules that govern death in this morbid afterlife. The SSS regularly find themselves having to “sacrifice” members to navigate booby traps or sabotage exams which result in ridiculous over-the-top death scenes and physical comedy which is kept fresh by little unexpected twists each time.

The mystery, on the other hand, is a mess. The rules of the universe, as we’re introduced to them, are unnecessarily misleading, and the way Yuri shows her understanding (or lack thereof) of the way things work makes her unintentionally suspicious. New questions crop up almost every episode and the answers come approximately one episode later and seemingly from the gusty garden galaxy. Many of the plot-driven conflicts end up being little more than meaningless diversions, created by misunderstanding and there’s only two cases where characters act even remotely sinister, the first of which results in repentance and a reversal and the second of which is a plot device. The pacing is haphazard and the regular plot twists means that the direction changes almost by the episode. Sure, it makes for an unpredictable experience, but it also makes for an incoherent one.

Every now and then the show will dedicate an episode to a character, and we really ought to have had more episodes like these ones, since this is where Angel Beats! is at its most heart-warming and dramatic. After Otonashi’s realization about two-thirds of the way through, I thought an emphasis on the characters was going to be the order of the day for the rest of the series, but that wasn’t to be, seeing as how Angel Beats! evidently can’t hold the same tone for more than an episode. While I wouldn’t say the execution was superb even in its sentimental moments, we at least get some insight into the characters and some rather socially and philosophically relevant (if didactic) messages on organ donation, caring for the sick and, on a higher level, finding your place in life and rebelling against God.

I adored the ending. The final episode almost seemed detached from the rest of the show with the characters behaving vastly differently and a relaxed tempo in a story that otherwise acted strapped for time. But the finale itself was so romantic and overflowing with genuine emotion thanks to a good plot twist (arguably one the show’s few) delivered with punch. It was a fitting end to a show that was, in spite of its flaws, rewarding overall. Sure, the pacing and script were woefully inconsistent and the show clearly bit off more tuna than it could chew, but the comedy and the likable, heartfelt characters made it worthwhile.

Episode List

01	"Departure"
02	"Guild"
03	"My Song"
04	"Day Game"
05	"Favorite Flavor"
06	"Family Affair"
07	"Alive"
08	"Dancer in the Dark"
09	"In Your Memory"
10	"Goodbye Days"
11	"Change the World"
12	"Knockin' on Heaven's Door"
13	"Graduation"
14	"Stairway to Heaven"

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