Gamasutra feature: memorial

Nice memorial article for Ryu Umemoto here:

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/178187/memorial_composer_ryu_umemoto.php

He was the composer for the old C's Ware games - Desire, Eve Burst Error, Yu-No, and later worked at Cave on shoot-em-up soundtracks, including composing the music to Akai Katana, which I bought recently but haven't played yet.

He died last year at the age of 37, from a bout of sudden illness.

Demon's Score (iOS app)

I got Demon's Score on iOS (my boyfriend carelessly left his iPad in my house, you see....), mostly because:

http://www.joystiq.com/2012/09/12/square-enixs-demons-score-features-all-star-composers/

AMAZING composer lineup.

Includes: Naoshi Mizuta (Final Fantasy XI), Yoko Shimomura (Mario & Luigi games, Kingdom Hearts), Kohei Tanaka (Sakura Wars, One Piece, Gunbuster), Keiichi Okabe (Tekken, Nier), and 2 members of Zuntata (Taito game composers).

You can hear some clips of it here:
http://www.square-enix.co.jp/smart/demons/en/#!/character1

Official Promo video

And...

1. It's got really annoying voice acting, oh my, that's so annoying. Is that teddy bear supposed to be a Gilbert Gottfried impersonation or something?
2. The story is "so bad it's funny", it's a hoot. Nothing astounding, very stupid. XD
3. I don't like the heavy rock tracks much.... which unfortunately is the opening music and tutorial level... there's some nice violiny tracks after that... then some funk... it's quite a mix. Listen to the samples on the official site. I really wish there wasn't so much of this heavy rock though, it's pretty uninteresting.
4. The gameplay suffers from the same problem that Ouendan has. There's a bunch of stuff going on as you play - a story is taking place.... but you are too busy prodding a screen and putting your hands in the way to pay attention.
5. On the bits where you need to rapidly tap the screen as much as possible, the obvious thing to do is take advantage of the iPad's multi-touch capabilities and use 4 fingers at once. Unfortunately, if you do that and slide, it takes you out of the app... which makes you restart the level. Grr! That's what you get for trying to be smart
6. And this is a big one.... it's a game you pay for, it's £4.99 which is kind of a lot for an app. That's not the problem. The problem is the unlockables - when you defeat a demon you are supposed to be able to sign a pact with it in order to use that demon. Each has its own defense and experience stat. However, after each level beyond the first one, when you go to sign that pact it pops up something to say it'll cost you £1.99 to unlock that. This adds up to a lot of money and seems really unfair considering you just laid down some money for the game.

Other than that, it's a pretty fun game, though nothing outstanding. It's fun and quite ridiculous. Could do with more morale boosting from a team of male cheerleaders though. No way am I going to buy any of those extras; even if they seemed worth it, I would feel bad supporting this kind of payment scheme.

Indie game bundles

Three indie game bundles going on at the moment:

Humble Bundle

I recommend this one particularly for Torchlight and for the Shatter soundtrack.

Indie Royale

This contains an exclusive localisation of a doujin game called Bunny Must Die! which is a 2D platformer, among other fine games.

Bundle In A Box

This contains Space Giraffe, which I reviewed a few years ago. It's a great little shoot-em-up, very different. Totally immersive because it requires you to use senses you migth have forgotten even existed.

They are all pay-what-you-want, some allow you to donate to charity.

angela no Music Wonder Dai Circus 5th - Fafner in the Azure Marugoto Zenkyoku Live!! Blu-ray

I treated myself to a Japanese Blu-ray in exchange for a huge sum of money. It's a recording of a live concert by the group angela who are known for their songs for anime such as Uchuu no Stellvia, Soukyuu no Fafner, Jinki: Extend, Heroic Age, Shikabane Fighter, and Asura Cryin'.

I have to admit, I didn't take to the lead singer - atsuko - straight away. Her distinct vocals must have overwhelmed me. They are.... somewhat piercing. But, after time.... I realised, she's really good and is especially great at nailing songs for live performances. Such a natural it appears almost effortless.

A few of their earlier albums are available in America, if you want to pick up Sora No Koe, I/O or PRYTHM, I recommend you go to rightstuf because they sell them for only $5 US dollars each.

So, I bought myself a Blu-ray direct from Japan, priced at 6000 yen (but somewhat reduced because I had a stack of loyaly points to spend... but then it was caught in customs and I had to pay another £17-something on top of that). So, uh, yeah. It's, um, cheaper than actually going to Japan....

It's called "angela no Music Wonder Dai Circus 5th - Fafner in the Azure Marugoto Zenkyoku Live!!" - Yes yes, that is one looooong title!

Here's the front:

Here's the back

And here's some of what's inside

The packaging isn't very impressive, I suppose. The blue thing with the cartoon of angela and a lion is actually a booklet full of info and interviews (if you can read Japanese), and photos. I don't know if it's clear enough on my photo but the back lists 14 songs... followed by two encores containing another 10 songs! (Full tracklisting is available here on the Starchild website)

It's a Soukyuu no Fafner concert, certainly. But it's also a circus. So there are many, many songs from Fafner and its offshoots, intersperced with clips from this tragic sci-fi anime, and clowns and acrobats run on and bounce around, and so on. They also perform some songs as their alter ego band "Domestic Love Band", doing raucously arranged versions of their songs with gusto that's kind of punk, kind of rock, almost like Tokyo Ska Paradise in places... really different and really good in an unexpected and fun way.

I'm actually only part way through watching this (it's 3 hours long!), but from what I've seen so far it's been really great! If you want a look, I think I spotted a few clips from this concert up on youtube. Otherwise, you can buy yourself a copy from CD Japan here: angela no Music Wonder Dai Circus 5th - Fafner in the Azure Marugoto Zenkyoku Live!! - [Limited Release] [Blu-ray]

Ni no Kuni : Wrath of the White Witch - Wizard's Edition - PS3

Well, Ni no Kuni is coming out in the UK.

It's a video game that's a co-production between Level 5 (who make the Professor Layton games among other things), and Studio Ghibli (who make critically acclaimed boring films about heroic young girls befriending strange things).

I'm not that interested in it myself, but it's supposed to have had some good reviews and my boyfriend has asked for the super special edition for his birthday present. Even though his birthday is in November and the game doesn't come out until mid January. Ah well, that's his choice.

It's up for preorder on Amazon UK for £69.99: Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch - Wizard's Edition (PS3)

And comes with the game, an uncute cuddly toy, some exclusive DLC codes, and a 300 page hardcover book. Very pretty.

Rose Of Versailles is licenced by Rightstuf / Nozomi Entertainment!

Rose Of Versailles is one of my all-time favourite anime series, I've been hoping someone would license it for an official English subtitled release for years.

Rightstuf / Nozomi Entertainment have just announced that they've got the license - it'll be streamed via viki.com this winter, and be out on DVD sometime next year.

The moment I hear of a DVD release, I'm going to preorder it!

They are also taking questions from the general public to ask Riyoko Ikeda - the original author of the manga - until 1st Nov.

Official Site