Wobbufux Test 2: March 2016

Spring Anime Previews 2016

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

With March approaching it's final days, the Spring season is upon us! This year's bounty is quite varied, ranging from Asterisk Wars to Ushio to Tora 2 (there weren't any series past "U").

Anyways, I've made of a list, separated into "Will Watch / Looking forwards to", and "Check this out maybe". My choices aren't exactly inspired, but they definitely line up with my traditional picks. Who knows? It's always fun when something not on your list ends up surprising.

I'm a little worried, as my "will watch list" is probably not going to end up on Crunchyroll, the service I have a subscription to. My best bet is to hope for stuff to end up on Daisuki.

Edit: I actually planned to talk about Macross Delta, but I highly doubt that there's going to be any legal way of watching it. Harmony Gold has a strangle hold on the "Macross / Robotech" series outside of Japan, making it very difficult for any company to do anything with the series. So thanks for that, Harmony Gold. You haven't done anything with the series in a decade. Let it go already!

Planning to Watch:

flying witch
Kumamiko - Girl Meets Bear
Kiznaiver

Planning to Check Out

BAKUON!!
Koutetsujou no Kabaneri (if possible)
Joker Game
Sakamoto desu ga. (Haven't you heard? I'm (i Sakamoto)
Twin Star Exorcists

flying witch (J.C. Staff)

Note that the title is stylized with no capitalization. This is a wonderfully charming series. While it's title is 'flying witch', the fantastical aspects of the series aren't a huge part of the story. It's primarily a nice little Slice-of-Life set in the Tohoku prefecture of Northern Japan. It's a fun series where magic is sort of common place? Or it's not, but it's not really treated as fantastically as it usually is. This kind of relaxed light comedy slice of life thing is really my jam these days, and sort of has been forever.

* * * * *

Kumamiko: Girl Meets Bear (Kinema Citrus)

If flying witch has that sort of rural charm, Kumamiko goes all the way and sets it's story primarily out, and fully expect to enjoy myself again once the anime is out. It's a cup in a remote village way out in the sitcks. I remember loving the manga from the little bit I checked ountry bumpkin girl with her doting, goofy talking bear. I saw someone likening it to the Calvin and Hobbes relationship and it's probably one of the closer pairs to compare it to. It'll be a fun little series, hopefully fun of cheery fun and a whole lot of heart.

* * * * *

Kiznaiver (Trigger)

This is Trigger's latest project. It's locked up on Crunchyroll, so I figured I might as well check out the series that's exclusive to the service I'm subscribed to.

Most of the series on this list are ones that I'm relatively familiar with. Kiznaiver, however, I know next to nothing. Mari Okada is writing the series, so I can expect the story to be better than average (with average these days being pretty low), and Trigger's work generally has been pretty good looking when left to their own devices.

And now, the other stuff that might be worth a check. Click on the titles to go to an AnimeNewsNetwork(.com) page for the trailer.

BAKUON!! (TMS Entertainment)

Or in this case, maybe not. The series seems revolve around motorbikes, to the point where they've struck deals with real world gear companies for licensed products that the characters wear and use. Motorbikes are cool, but the main character really doesn't make the best first impression. I did a quick look through of the manga, and I'm a little worried about it drifting off too much into the moe, and given some of the characters, that might just make it a less good K-ON!. Unfortunately, it looks like it's also a booby-anime. The tight-fitting motorcycle suits, and the general riding position of bikes are likely going to become common shots in this one, making it sound a lot like a series to write off. Watch the trailer and you'll see what I mean almost immediately.

Koutetsujou noKabaneri (Studio WIT)

The next series from the studio that brought us the super massive phenomenon, Attack On Titan. The series has all sorts of things going from it. The hype of having WIT on. The character designs are really fricking cool! EGOIST is back doing the opening! The writer team from Code Geass are on it! Oh. That's where one of the problems is. See, the last series they were on ended up as Guilty Crown- a mess of a series that was pretty much a mess in every aspect except for it's music. I think the production might be trying to bill this as the next Attack on Titan, hoping it hits big, but now that it's been locked up by Amazon, for US Prime Subscribers, I don't think it'll hit as big as they think. If it does end up big at the North American cons, you should ask people how they've watched it and see how many have done it legitimately.

Being in Canada, I won't be able to watch this, despite being a Prime subscriber because 80% of the Prime benefits don't apply to my Canadian subscription. I'm looking forward to seeing how this does though. I'm genuinely interested in whether this shapes up to be a hit or a massive flop.

Joker Game(Production I.G.)

Set just before the 2^nd World War, this spy series sounds like it's going to be a supremely tense series in every way. Probably will be a stressful, exhausting watch.

Sakamoto desu ga?(Studio DEEN) / Haven't you Heard? I'm Sakamoto.

The titular Sakamoto looks fucking *~FANTABULOUS~*. If I end up watching it, it'll be to watch this fabulous walk fabulously while performing his every day actions fabulously. He is fabumax, with the greatest of ease.

TwinStar Exorcists (Studio Pierrot), Ushio to Tora (MAPPA)

Both of these are pretty true to the shounen formula, though the latter is much more so. The former has couple in an arranged marriage, which sets up it's own unique character dynamics. Part of the charm for that series is seeing the main couple grow closer and learn more about each other (almost always from other people while their partner is out cold). I burnt out from Ushio to Tora after 20 something episodes, and I don't think I'm ready for more. Twin Stars, maybe? It's looking unlikely at this moment.

GyakutenSaiban (Phoenix Wright, Ace Attourney) (A-1 Pictures)

I mean, why not?

games

Salty Hunting MH4U: G Rank Najarala

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Welcome back to Salty Huntin', a series where I rant about dumb stuff that's in Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate. It's a great game, but riles me up so much when the game doesn't do things I want it to, or when monsters have advantages against a majority of the weapon types.

What monster effectively shuts down 9 of Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate's 14 weapons? What monster is essentially the bane of blademasters? What monster will make you feel like you don't know how to play the game?

That's right, it's Najarala! This newly introduced monster struts it's stuff, showing off how utterly rage-inducing Monster Hunter can really be. If you're a Blademaster, it doesn't matter what skills you put on, Najarala will find a way around them and fuck you over three ways to Sunday. Whether it's the scales, the camera or an unlucky Bhanabra sting, you'll find something to get salty about when fighting this shitty snake.

I've raged more fighting this damn Snake than I have almost any other monster.

Ask yourself a few questions before fighting this thing.

Q: Are you a Blademaster?
A: Yes
Result: Unless you're using a GL or CB, you'll probably have really shitty time. If you're using either of those two, you'll have a slightly less shitty time.

Q: Are you a Blademaster?

A: No

Result: Gunners, eat your heart out. This is one battle that swings very much in your favour. Be careful though, he can kill most gunners if he catches you off guard

Q: Are you using an Insect Glaive?

A: Yes

Result: Have fucking fun, this fight was made for you.

Before we get into the nitty gritty aspects of what makes Najarala such a pain, let's talk about the monster itself.

It's currently the only large monster in the “Snake Wyvern” family, outside of it's subspecies, and is joined only by the Remobra. There's two features that are immediately noticeable about this monster. First is it's long, serpentine body. Secondly, are it's Ampsounders, the large, flaring scales that run down from the top of it's head. That's it's weak spot. Yep, all the way up there. The body? It's kind of hard to tell where the “body” ends and the “tail” starts, but the upper sections of the body (the thicker part) is tougher than the thinner parts. You'll definitely bounce off without high, high sharpness.

In terms of attacks, up until G-Rank, it's move set is pretty manageable. While it doesn't have a breath attack, it can throw scales out a short distance as projectiles. Those scales will cause a Hearing Flinch if you're standing near their landing site. They'll also explode whenever Najarala roars, causing a guaranteed stun. You don't want to be stunned around Najarala. Bad things happen when you are.

It's long body is used in most of it's attacks, giving it a huge range, even without fireballs or beams. It's charging tackle covers quite a bit of horizontal space, because of it's long body. It's grab attack is easy to avoid, but, again, it's long body gives that attack an impressive reach. The most dangerous of it's attacks is the encirclement. It uses it's long body to literally pen you like live stock. While in this attack, it has 3 moves: a paralyzing bite, a tail swipe that'll keep you in and a high damage burrowing attack. It'll use the encircling move whenever you're stunned or stuck in flinching animations (like reeling for roars or flying scales).

Source

By now you've probably got an idea of why this thing is a huge pain.

High Damage resistance. Out of Reach weak points. High damage, and extremely high damaging combos. Little flinching hits. There's lots to hate about this snake.

It's most accessible parts, the body and tail which are on the ground, take relatively low physical and elemental damage. It's weak point are it's ampsounders, located on top of it's head, out of reach for 95% of the Blademaster weapons, unless it's knocked down by a mount. Impact Charge Blades and Gunlances can sidestep this defence with they're flat-rate damage, but still suffer from the bullshit that happens when you're up close and personal with this dumb snake.

It's scales can travel quite a distance, occasionally landing exactly where you're standing, and the explosion they cause when they break goes a little further than it looks. Compound that with the fact that Najarala can throw out more than half a dozen of them, and then add it's ability to break them while moving (it's a specific move). It can be tough to keep track of where the scales landed especially when they're littered in various directions. It's not uncommon to be caught by an explosion just off screen. Did I tell you that these explosions are a guaranteed stun if you get hit? And that Najarala can deal 40-50% combos off of a stun? If a scale lands near you, you'll flinch, and that's just enough time for the snake to pen you in. If you're too slow, kiss 30% of your HP good bye, assuming you're using good armour. If you're a gunner, you're probably dead.

As a Blademaster, you'll have to stay in close proximinty to the monster. Being close to this thing means you'll be taking lots and lots of tiny little hits as it moves around and shifts position. It's the same kind of damage you take when a more “normal” wyvern grazes you with it's leg while moving, except it's much more annoying because it happens all the fucking time. Najarala's weird vertical size and coiled body mean that the camera will not include Najarala's head, leaving you guessing what it's going to do. Or you end up stuck in between it's coiled body, being unable to see neither your character nor Najarala's head. Either way, it's going to lead to you probably taking a hit, and that's bad.

Things are much easier as a Gunner, but those scales can travel huge distances causing all sorts of problems for slow moving Heavy Bowgun users. It's full screen charges can be difficult to dodge at a range because of how much space they can occupy horizontally, as well as how fast they can be. When charging, Najarala moves pretty darn fast, often leaving you taking a hit or two trying to dodge it's charges and tail swings.

Source: MH Wiki

Before we end this, let's talk about some counter strategies for this thing. The main big one is to not play a Blademaster weapon if you're soloing the fight. The high damage resistance, camera problems and movement of the monster just aren't worth the trouble.

Insect Glaives, however, spell a much different story against Najarala. The jump lets you reach those high up weak points. The monster's serpentine proportions make extract gathering a breeze. Mounts keep it's face on the floor, letting you whale away at it's beak and ampsounders. The Kinsect buffs give you Earplugs, shutting down one of the Najarala's gimmicks and the Glaive's general high mobility lets you control the flow of battle. Glaives probably have the best times against this monster.

The method I've taken for Najarala is to pull it way back. I've gone Gunner, pulling back the range of battle to a much more comfortable distance. You can see it's tells letting you, generally, avoid putting yourself into risky situations. Gunners, specifically bowgunners, can easily target the weakpoints, scoring high damage and an easy beak break for those hard to find Heart-Stopping beaks. A well place Pierce shot does wonders against it's long body, and delayed shots like Crag and Slice can stop it's dangerous set ups with staggers.

Lastly, Najarala is vulnerable to Blast. Very vulnerable. Grab your best Blast weapon and light this sucker up like New Years. Keep the pressure up and watch it's relatively low HP get eaten up by the explosions.

While it's definitely has weaknesses, Najarala effectively makes fighting it with Blademaster weapons an annoying and difficult battle. It almost becomes a battle against the systems of the game itself, rather than the monster. Do yourself a favour and grab a good Bowgun if you need to take a bunch of these down.

Unlike most monsters, Tidal Najarala, the subspecies, actually is completely different. Without going into details, it's actually a little bit more manageable as a Blademaster. Still annoying, but nowhere near as bad as regular Najarala is. It's gimmick is basically pinball.

games

3DS Game Re:Re:Reviews - Fire Emblem: Awakening

Saturday, March 19, 2016

Welcome to what's hopefully to become somewhat long running series. Here I'm planning to write some reviews of some games I've enjoyed on the 3DS as the system turns 5 years old. A lot of these games will be pretty old, some from the system's early line up, and some released last month. It's not a comprehensive list of what's good on the 3DS, but rather a list of games I've played, liked and think that people who haven't tried them really should give these a shot. I'm aiming for a 1 game every other day schedule so hopefully I can keep that up for a good week or two.

Today it's the much loved, Fire Emblem: Awakening.

Fire Emblem is one of those series that has a special place in my heart. I was hooked on it with the first game that came stateside back on the GameBoy Advanced (Fire Emblem: The Blazing Sword). For many people, however, Awakening was their first dip into the Fire Emblem series. And what a first dip Awakening was. It's more accessible than the series has ever been, adding the casual difficulty that removed perma-death, a feature that's core to both the story and the experience. Like Animal Crossing, Fire Emblem Awakening is one of those titles that everyone seems to have.

For those wanting a more detailed read on the Fire Emblem series, as well as the importance of Fire Emblem Awakening, Anime News Network has a good piece on the game that saved a series. You can find it here.

Awakening is probably the most accessible Fire Emblem game to date, or at least the most accessible of the ones that have come to this side of the Pacific. The game's structure bears close similarities to that of an earlier game, Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones (GBA), where you could, and still can, move around the world map and grind up some levels or support in randomly placed skirmishes. Most Fire Emblem titles don't have the option of grinding, putting much more emphasis on your tactics. Being able to over-level yourself takes a lot of the tension out of a fight, letting you strong arm your way through missions.

The addition of Casual mode, which removes perma-death of your units, is a nice touch for newcomers to the genre and series. It's a huge security blanket that may just remove a bit too much of the tension. I know it's not how everybody will play it, but there's some real tension to be had when a character, paired with a face and lots of story, is on the line every time they go into battle. On the flip side, Lunatic mode ramps up the difficulty to make it truly a challenge.

The game play of Fire Emblem Awakening is solid, much like it has been throughout the series. If you're like me, and have been with the series since the first North American released game back on the GBA, the game hasn't changed a whole lot. It's still the turn-based strategy game, though it does have that fresh new coat of paint on it to make it look pretty darn good. My favourite art style still goes to the Wii title, Radiant Dawn (Ike is one of the best Fire Emblem protagonists). There is also a notable lack of feet.

Skills make combat more complex, as you can create some ridiculously broken characters, based on the skills they have learned. Lifetaker (Mage Knight), ensures that your character is as close to full HP. Sol, for keeping HP high while on the defence. Galeforce, for making a broken character that much more broken. With Second Seals, items that let you reclass units, you could theoretically have a character with completely maxed stats, with a skill set guaranteed to make them near invincible. I've definitely seen lots of those kinds of parties in the Streetpass arena.

The story still has a bit of the seriousness from the older Fire Emblem games, but support conversations definitely took a turn towards the light hearted side, being almost entirely fun and comical. There aren't a lot of unhappy characters which gives the story this unique split between the serious main story line, and the humorous “side stories” told through the support conversations.

And on the topic of support conversations, the characters in the Fire Emblem series have always been it's strongest point. In Awakening, they're a large, colourful cast of goofy, fun characters ranging from the clumsy Pegasus Knight, Sumia, to bunny warrior Panne. From ancient manakete, and recurring series character, Tiki, to Donald, the simple farm boy who would become the most powerful warrior in the realm, but will also always wear that dumb pot as a helmet. In a series first, YOU are also a playable character. You can create and customize your very own avatar unit, holding the class of Tactician. The avatar has supports with pretty much everyone. If you play a female avatar, ending with Chrom is probably the closest to the “true ending” this game will ever get.

The conversations between these characters flesh them out as people, and telling a bit more about the world that the game takes place in. Once characters get married, through anime magic, their kid(s) show up from the future, determined to change the past and save both their world and their parents' world. The kids, both story wise and game play wise really are a different bunch of characters. They still have weird quirks and traits, but their stories tend to be more serious, as they generally only have supports with each other and their parents. Game play wise, the inherit skills from both parents, as well as some stats, making them prime candidates for being absolutely broken characters as soon as they hit the map. I definitely sunk probably too many hours into pairing up characters to result in super powerful children characters. As such, there's a tonne of replayability in this system. Pairing up different characters to see their conversations, using different characters (you're given more units than you generally need, in account of the possibility of losing characters), and even using different characters in different classes.

Since it's a hot topic with the recently released Fire Emblem Fates, I'll just put my 2-cents in for the topic of this game. I typically play games with the Japanese voices whenever possible. My game cart was probably bugged in that it'd always revert to the English voices whenever I booted it up, so I ended up just playing it with the English voices. They're perfectly fine. I liked them. I liked them enough that I got the autographs of the English voice actors for Lucina and Lon'qu. The voices in Fates have...some issues, but that's another topic for another time.

It really is one of the must haves for the 3DS. If you don't have it already, do consider picking it up.

games

3DS Game Re:Re:Reviews - Fantasy Life

Thursday, March 17, 2016

Today, we look at a game you probably won't have played or even heard of. Here's Level-5's Fantasy Life.

Fantasy Life was released October 4^th, 2014 (North America) and developed by Level-5. It was published by Nintendo for North America and Europe.

Fantasy Life is probably a title most would expect on a list of recommended games for the 3DS. It received mixed critical reviews, and while it came out with a fair amount of fan-fair, the buzz around the game died down pretty quickly. As much as it's liked, among Level-5's output, it unfortunately ends up being an “also ran” game, out performed by the likes of Professor Layton and Youkai Watch.

Fantasy Life has a similar charm to Animal Crossing in it's goofy characters and oddly calm world. As an RPG, it's definitely more guided than Animal Crossing is, but the fun to be had is largely up to how you want to have fun. Outside of the story missions, it's really about how you explore and interact with the world. Are you going to go on the classic heroic adventure as a Mercenary, hacking and slashing your way through the game, or are you going to take the more novel route, saving the world as a craftsman, like a Carpenter?

One of the best and unique aspects of Fantasy Life is it's job system or “Life” as it's known as in game. There are three Life categories: Combat, Crafting and Gathering. All of them are viable ways to play the game. Craftsmen level up by making things, while gathering classes level up by gathering the resources the class is based around. Anglers fish, Miners pick away at ores, while Lumberjacks fell trees out in the fields. The best way to play the game is by mixing and matching these classes – Craftsmen really benefit from the ability to gather up the relevant resources as Gatherer classes, while Combat classes do best when using crafted weapons, which are far superior to the store bought stuff. It's in this symbiotic class system where the job system shines. As each class is a perfectly viable way to play the game, you could complete the story entirely as one of the Craftsmen classes, saving the world from impending doom as a Chef, one dish at a time.

The story for the game is pretty generic JRPG material but the characters are just so fun and goofy that I'd forgive some of the weaker story beats that revolve around them. You're saving the world, but there really aren't any bad guys in the story. The big, dark, evil sorcerer in the neighbouring kingdom? Nope, just a goofy story made up between the kings of your country and theirs. A dark goddess trying to win the world? Never mind, she's just trying to fix things too. It's just a happy, sweet time in this world, where everything bad comes with a silly spoonful of sugar. The DLC adds another area, while also putting one very sweet bow to tie up the the loose ends left by the main story. The DLC ending really is “true” ending of the game in that it's much more satisfying, both in story and emotionally, but isn't necessary for a full experience. The main game's ending is perfectly fine, but the DLC means more Fantasy Life.

Another thing that I didn't get super into, but thought was really neat, were the houses. You can buy different houses throughout the game in each of the different cities. They serve as save points and quick travel points. Carpenters can build both decorative and functional furniture for houses – beds, storage chests, closets etc. You could essentially go all Animal Crossing on your houses and really personalize and decorate your house.

Multiplayer is a great way for gathering or crafting classes to get extra experience and hard to get items deep in the fields. Party up with some combat classes and have them take out the monsters while you plunder the land of resources. Unfortunately, the combat isn't quite deep enough to require specific tactics outside of “kill anything that's aggressive”. Still, playing with other people makes running around in the fields a fun and relaxing time.

It's not all rainbows and lollipops with Fantasy Life, however. It suffers from a common problem in that it's UI is clunky, particularly in crafting. There's no way to view the recipes outside of the crafting stations, making it a real chore to figure out what you need for that sword or table. Having the crafting recipes up on a separate device, or in the 3DS browser is probably the best way to keep tabs on items you need.

Combat is pretty simple, with (if memory serves me correct) 2 weapon combos, a charged attack and combat skills. It's definitely got some finesse to it, especially once you're up against higher level enemies, but for the most part, you generally don't need to be fighting smart to do well. My favourite part of combat is when defeating “boss enemies” (enemies in quotation marks as this also applies to “boss ore veins”, “boss trees” and “boss fish”) they turn into hauling items. If you want the loot and money for defeating them, you'll have to lug them back to town and turn them into the guild office for your reward.

For all the game's polish, the Guild Offices feel oddly incomplete. Only the main town, Castele, has the multiplayer desk staffed, whereas the same desk in other cities are unmanned. It'd be nice if those were filled to make things easier on people needing missions in other regions of the world. It'd be nice if there were a reason given for the lack of staffing at the other offices because it just feels odd to always see the vacant desk.

Another potential problem, and one that popped up a lot in reviews of the game, is that it can feel like a check list. It's simple gameplay doesn't always lend itself to fun, occasionally becoming a repetitive slog of busy work, like gathering up items for townsfolk or crafting items for people. Once you've seen the story through and all that's left are the towns people's requests, the game loses a lot of it's shine without the forward momentum of the story.

Overall, Fantasy Life is a fun and charming time of a game. Blending some aspects of Animal Crossing, RPGs and Level-5's always fun games, it's a that's great for almost everybody. My biggest disappointment with the game is that the sequel is a smart phone exclusive. It's due to be released sometime this year, and I don't think we'll see it outside of Japan.

games

3DS Game Re:Re:Reviews - Animal Crossing New Leaf

Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Animal Crossing New Leaf was released June 9th, 2013 (North America) for the first Nintendo 3DS. It was developed and published by Nintendo.

Of all the games on the system, this is probably one of those games that the majority of 3DS owners have. At the height of the game's popularity, you could StreetPass 10 people and 8 of those people would have it as their "currently playing". It's also one of the few (read: likely the only) games from the early on in the 3DS's catalogue that I'm still playing to this day. I've logged around 540 hours in game (3DS system time) so far and I think my girlfriend has somewhere around the same time clocked.

New Leaf is the latest mainline games in a (smallish) series that spans back to 2001 on the N64.

It's a “find-your-own fun” kind of game. It's a free form game that's largely about day to day life, in a Wikipedia genre called "life simulator". It's a relatively stress free time where there isn't any conflict, deadline or problem that needs a dramatic or immediate fix. I say mostly because finding out your favourite villager has decided to up and move on that day you decided you wanted a break can be devastating. Which brings me to the next point: the characters. You get attached to them and their weird and goofy quirks. They ask you for things incessantly and they'll argue with each other. While they're relatively limited in their actions, watching the town tick through the day is a magical experience that you really get invested in, despite the characters operating largely on a limited number of options. It's the kind of game that's really good to pick up for an hour every day to unwind from the real world. In your town, life's idyllic - no one's there to give you a hard time, and everything is calm, pleasant and welcoming. When the world's going to shit, there's always Animal Crossing New Leaf.

The StreetPass function for New Leaf is pretty neat. StreetPassing someone loads a model of their house into a separate zone called the Happy Home Academy Showcase. You can visit these models, poke around their house and get some hot decorate tips from people you pass. You can also order most of the regular furniture you see in the houses, making it a great place to find items you want. Talking to the wandering avatars of StreetPass'd folk can net you some nifty items, like a soft-serve cone, balloons, or pin-wheels of various colours. It's a real neat feature that ties really well into the both the game and it's spin-off, Happy Home Designer.

Warm fuzziness aside, the game's UI is clunky and is often a little frustrating to navigate it's menus and inventory screens. Have a stack of oranges in storage, and you only want one? You'll need to pull the whole stack out, close that storage window, open your inventory, pull one out, close inventory, open storage and put the stack back. It's sounds specific in that situation, but there are more than a few situations where the game's inventory management could be much better. While on the topic of inventory, the storage situation is a little iffy. You start with a decent amount of storage, but that never really increases. It sounds like a problem for hoarders (like my girlfriend), but as the game throws special furniture sets and clothing out during events, you really run out of storage quick. I think having options to increase both personal (on your person) and box storage (accessed via furniture etc.) would be a nice addition in future games. Also, give the character a backpack or something. The mayor's got a freaking axe and a shovel in his pocket, along with several bugs, fish and whole freaking weight machine. Sure, a backpack doesn't make that much better, but at least you're not walking around with whale shark in your pants pocket.

Another minor disappointment is the lack of creative options at the player's disposal. They address this in off-shoot game, Happy Home Designer,where you're given the keys to customize villagers' houses to your hearts content, in ways that would have be really cool if they were in New Leaf. Don't get me wrong; you can definitely make some very nice house interiors in New Leaf, but the additions in HHA really make me wish they ended up in New Leaf too. Stuff like curtains for the windows, or hanging light fixtures can help differentiate rooms. Another thing in HHA that I wished was in New Leaf are the outdoor furniture. Customize the front yard! While I wish it was in New Leaf, I can see why it's not. It'd mean more items, more space for the houses, which in turn could reduce where things could spawn. Lastly, we have roads. Present in neither New Leaf nor HHA, roads are pretty much the sign of a built up town. While you can build Public Works projects, ranging from sculptures to facilities, you can't build up permanent roads. You'll rely on player made patterns to put down makeshift pathways, easily swept away with an accidental press of the Y button.

While part of the game, another thing that bugs me about the game is it's “always on”. In recent years, that phrase has generally referred to constant and required connectivity, but in this case, “always on” means that the game is literally always running. Even when you're not playing, something is happening to your town while your system is off. Don't play for a while and that pristine town you worked so hard to maintain falls into ruin. Weeds run rampant, flowers have dried up, villagers have left and are usually replaced by a villager you don't want. The game is holding my town hostage, demanding that I play at least every couple of days, lest it all go to shit. It makes the game feel “alive” but at the same time, it creates this constant paranoia of checking in on it like a sleeping infant. I'm legitimately dreading the day they release the next entry of the series, because it means that my New Leaf town effectively ends. I'm actually hoping that they release a patch of sorts that lets you “retire” your New Leaf town. Putting this game away is going to be hard, like saying good bye to an old friend. Animal Crossing was always there for you, so long as you're always there for it.

Spring Anime Previews 2016

Salty Hunting MH4U: G Rank Najarala

3DS Game Re:Re:Reviews - Fire Emblem: Awakening

3DS Game Re:Re:Reviews - Fantasy Life

3DS Game Re:Re:Reviews - Animal Crossing New Leaf

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