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Fuwanovel Battle Royale - Volume 2 - Chapter 1: The Beginning <??> Watched the screen in front of <him/her?> intently. Everything was ready. The time had finally come. All that planning, all that preparation. It had all been for this moment. “All the pieces are in place. Well then, let’s start the game, shall we?” <??> Pressed the button before <him/her?> with a wicked smile. “Hear me, members of Fuwanovel. You are here for a single purpose; to entertain me! Those who have their name announced over these broadcasts shall enter the arena, and fight to the death! Anyone and anything you see out in the arenas will be an enemy, so be careful… And ruthless. As far as the rules go… There are none, heh. Good luck.” Day 1: Members in this chapter: “The game has begun. Good luck.” “‘Alright, time to hunt.” Ranzo jumped down from the platform he was standing on, numbered ‘11’. He had woken up inside an unfamiliar room just moments before, where he had found his suit and weapons. After a short, confusing briefing from the person in charge, Ranzo’s <cell?> had opened, and he could walk out. What greeted him was a massive forest, full of large trees towering high above him. The large trees blocked out almost all the sunlight, making it hard for Ranzo to see where he was going. But, it was either straight ahead, or back to the cell, so Ranzo chose to keep walking. The “briefing” had been simple. “You are stuck here. You are to fight anything and anyone you come across. If you are the last alive after the game is over, you win. If you die, you lose.” “Gee, really? If I die, I lose? That’s a shocker.” Ranzo spun his scythe around his body with precision while he walked, clearly used to handling the weapon. A sabre hung from his waist in a makeshift sheathe, crafted from his belt. After having advanced through the forest for a good ten minutes, Ranzo reached a suspicious looking cave, marked with a number— “7”. “Hm, another contender?” Ranzo whispered, and gripped the handle of his scythe firmly while he scanned his surroundings. If his hunch was right, the numbers represented contenders in the “game”. He was 11, and “7” was a different Fuwanovel user, also entered in the game. Crack. Ranzo spun around instinctively at the sound of a branch breaking behind him, and in the same motion, he threw his scythe forwards. The sound of metal colliding with metal made Ranzo flinch for a brief second, and he lost sight of the person who had knocked his scythe out of the air. “Tch.” Ranzo gripped his sabre and chased the mystery person, like a wolf rushing towards a sheep. He had no plan. The only thing going through his head was: kill it. Whoever or whatever it was; kill it. Meanwhile SeniorBlitz ran as fast as he could through the forest, like he had the grim reaper himself on his heels. That was in fact what Senior had thought for a second when he saw the scythe fly towards him just moments before. Senior was not well versed in any kind of combat. He had, in fact, never been in a fight in his entire life. What he did have, however, was a special ability. The ability to know what to do, where to go. He couldn’t explain it well, but there was something guiding him at all times. If he was about to trip and fall, something in his mind would tell him to stop. If he ever got lost, something would guide him back home, even if he had no idea where he was. It was thanks to that power, that guide, that Senior was still alive. He had seen the scythe coming seconds before it was thrown, and had used the sword that was given to him at the start of the game to block its path. He had sadly dropped the sword in his escape, and was therefore now unarmed. “Stop running my friend, I wish you no harm!” His attacker was shouting at Senior from behind. Thanks to his ability, Senior knew that he would be able to shake off his tail if he just kept following the path laid out in his mind. He did not look back, he did not falter. “Tch, you little… How long do you plan on running for?” “I’ll catch you eventually you little slime! Just you wait, I’m coming for you!” The voice of his attacker grew distant, as Senior just kept on running through the forest. Before long, he had completely shaken off the madman running after him. “Haah, haah, haah…” Senior finally had the opportunity to stop for a breath. With his hands on his knees, he spent a few minutes calming down. He knew that the man behind him would not be able to find him for at least another ten minutes, thanks to his ability. “Alright, time to find a better place to hide.” Senior got back up, and started walking through the dense forest, looking for shelter. He figured it would be smart to find someplace safe to gather his thoughts. It would be best to do so before nightfall, so he started walking faster, following the path lit up in his mind. “Just about another hundred meters this way, and— Huh?!” “GRAARGH!” Senior was so focused on following the path to “safety”, he paid no mind to his surroundings, and did not notice the strange creature approaching from his left. Whatever it was, its massive jaw closed around Senior’s chest, and he was lifted up into the air and shook brutally back and forth, the sharp teeth of the beast ripping his flesh apart with each movement. “GYAAAAH!” Senior let out a primal scream, and tried to punch the creature with his free arm, but it was no use. The beast’s iron jaw remained closed, and the life soon drained from Senior’s body, as most of his organs and blood poured down onto the grass below him. His entire torso had been ripped to bits, and what was left of him was soon devoured by the beast, leaving only pools of blood and a few chunks of flesh behind. About an hour later, Ranzo arrived at the scene of Senior’s death. Taking one look at the pool of blood and gore, Ranzo clicked his tongue, and turned back. “Guess someone got to him before me. Oh well, time to look for the next guy, I guess.” Whistling a song to himself, Ranzo spun his scythe around, matching the song’s rhythm as he walked back into the depths of the forest, looking for new prey to hunt. Elsewhere: Arcadeotic sat at the end of a cliff, looking at the waterfall below him with a emotionless expression, balancing a katana on his feet. A single sudden motion would surely send the sword tumbling down the fifty meter long drop. Arcadeotic was wearing a blue yukata, stained red with the blood of a pack of wild boars he had killed an hour ago. After cooking some of their meat on a fire, he had eaten some for himself, then tossed the rest down into the abyss. He had no intentions of sharing the meat with anyone else, nor did he want the smell of the meat to attract possible predators. He had extinguished the fire as soon as he was done cooking the meat, but it might still have notified someone of his location. Nevertheless, Arcadeotic sat completely still on the cliff, staring out into nothingness. Sure enough, after another few minutes, the sound of footsteps could be heard behind him. Still, Arcadeotic remaind motionless, not facing his attacker. Sneaking up behind him was Thatcomicguy, clutching his spear with his right hand. In his free arm was a wooden shield, covered in thick leather. Other than his weapons, Thatcomicguy was completely naked, though his body was covered in blue war paint. Thatcomicguy snuck up to Arcadeotic until he was a mere two meters away, then stabbed at Arcadeotic’s back with his spear. Right before the spear hit Arcadeotic’s back, he jumped straight up into the air, grabbed his katana, and in the same motion as he drew it from its sheath, he cut at Thatcomicguy’s chest. Thatcomicguy barely had time to block the slice with his shield, and was forced back a few steps from the impact. Meanwhile, Arcadeotic landed gracefully on the edge of the cliff, and quickly moved in for another attack, cutting at Thatcomicguy’s left foot. Arcadeotic closed the distance between them in a second, and mercilessly sliced a deep cut in Thatcomicguy’s calf. “Ugh…” Thatcomicguy groaned in pain, and pushed his shield forward defensively, hitting Arcadeotic in the chest. Arcadeotic fell backwards, but quickly regained his balance. For the first time in the fight, Arcadeotic glanced at his opponent, and chuckled. “You look ridiculous.” Thatcomicguy paid him no mind, and tried to focus on his plan of attack. He should have the upper hand, even with the cut on his leg, as he had the longest reach thanks to his spear, and a shield to block the katana’s slashes. The leather on his shield had taken a hit already, and was already starting to come apart. It probably wouldn’t last too long. Seemingly having come up with a plan, Thatcomicguy stepped forward. Although the pain in his leg was nothing to joke about, he did not let it stop him. “Yeah, well, we’ll see who gets the last laugh.” Keeping just enough distance between himself and his opponent, so that the katana would not be able to reach him, Thatcomicguy thrust his spear towards Arcadeotic. Arcadeotic easily deflected the thrust, but as he was about to counterattack, Thatcomicguy swiftly changed his grip, turning his spear downwards towards Arcadeotic leg, and dug the tip of his spear into Arcadeotic’s knee. Arcadeotic winced in response, but didn’t let the pain stop him from fighting. Not wasting any time, Arcadeotic slashed two times, but both attacks were blocked by Thatcomicguy’s pesky shield. “Tch.” It became impossible for Arcadeotic to stand on his wounded leg, which meant he would be at an even bigger disadvantage than before. His strongest point was his speed, but without his full mobility, he would be unable to close the distance between himself and his opponent fast enough to stop the spear from keeping him at bay. “... An eye for an eye, huh?” Arcadeotic said to himself, as he tried to come up with a way out of the dire situation. He had cut his opponent’s leg, but in return, his own knee had been damaged. Both of them were less mobile, but it seemed like his own injury was a bit more serious. “Well, what can you do.” Arcadeotic walked forward with awkward steps, his wounded leg mostly just being dragged along the ground. “I’ll end this with one strike.” The bold statement from Arcadeotic made Thatcomicguy snicker. “Oh, is that so? Well by all means, come at me.” Thatcomicguy spat back, readied his spear, and covered his chest with his shield. There was no way Arcadeotic would be able to attack his opponent’s torso. And yet… “Hmph!” With a grunt, Arcadeotic jumped forward, and with all his might, he slammed the flat side of his sword into the wooden shield. The impact made Thatcomicguy stagger, and he let out a painful groan as he put all his weight on his wounded leg. Still in the air, Arcadeotic slashed downwards. His sword moved along the rough leather covering the wooden shield, until it reached Thatcomicguy’s exposed shoulder. The sharp blade slashed open the naked shoulder, making Thatcomicguy drop his shield. Unfortunately for Arcadeotic, he was unable to brace himself properly after the attack, and he crashed into the ground, dropping his katana. The air was knocked out of him as his chest collided with the rough ground. But, he wasn’t done there. Although the world around him was spinning, he used his healthy leg to kick violently at Thatcomicguy’s wounded foot. “Guaaah!” Thatcomicguy screamed, as he too fell to the ground, paralyzed by pain. Crawling towards his katana, Arcadeotic was ready to deliver the finishing blow. He gripped the hilt of his weapon, and turned towards his fallen enemy. Although every part of his body hurt, Arcadeotic somehow managed to stand, and moved towards his prey with clumsy movements. “Hya!” As he reached his target, he brought his katana above his shoulder, and slashed mercilessly at Thatcomicguy's neck. Clink. The sound of something breaking made Arcadeotic look at his sword in confusion. The katana’s blade had snapped in half, most likely a result from his fall. And since the blade had broken mid swing, he had not actually hit his opponent. “Well, shi—” Before Arcadeotic could finish his sentence, the tip of a spear dug into his throat, making a spray of fresh blood shoot out from the wound, dying Thatcomicguy’s skin in red. As Arcadeotic’s dead body hit the floor, Thatcomicguy dropped his spear, as the strength began to leave his body. “You… Tough bastard…” With those words, he passed out. Meanwhile, at the outskirts of the forest: “How’s this place?” “Hmm, looks good. We’ll camp here for now. Someone start a fire.” “Ugh, do you think there are any more of those things out there? I’m not sure I’m comfortable sleeping here, out in the open…” “Don’t worry, we’ll take shifts keeping guard. #28, #6, you two take the first shift.” “Huh? Who died and made you the boss?” Four figures, covered in mud and blood, were talking under the cover of a giant tree, just half a kilometer from the edge of the forest. The four of them were members of Fuwanovel, and contenders in the death game that had started previously that day. But, neither of them wanted to kill their fellow members, and as a result, they had formed a team. Shortly after they teamed up, however, they were attacked by giant monsters that seemed to live in the depths of the forest. Hungry and tired, the four of them had finally reached a seemingly peaceful area, and were setting up camp with what little resources they had. The four members were Sayaka (#28), Norleas (#9), Shikomizue (#13) and Kiriririri (#6). Shikomizue was the natural leader type, and had taken the lead of the group as a result, something that did not sit well with Sayaka. “Why do I have to listen to your orders, huh? I’m tired too! I want to sleep just as much as the next guy!” “Look, I don’t mean to be rude here, but in terms of actual combat abilities, me and #9 are the strongest. We need our rest, so that we can protect this group when the time comes. You and #6 are… Well you know.” Shikomizue gestured towards Kiriririri, a small girl with silver hair, who was poking the ground with a wooden stick, paying no mind to the conversation that was happening around her. So far, she had not participated in the fighting at all. “Okay, I’ll give you her, but we’re not that crazy! Master and I helped you in the fight against those… Those things, didn’t we?!” Sayaka pointed in the direction they had come from, where the group had fought against numerous strange beasts. Shikomizue scratched his head awkwardly in response. He did not want the group to start fighting among each other, as that would just make things worse. He wanted to figure out what was going on, and how to get out of it. In order to do that, he needed to get as many people as possible to form a team. If no one killed each other, the “game” or whatever it was, had to come to a stop. That was the conclusion he had reached. “Fine, I’ll take the first shift, along with… Her.” Shikomizue looked towards Kiriririri, who had just finished drawing a strange symbol in the grass. “Alright then, let’s get that fire going and—” “Get down, something is coming.” Norleas reached behind his back and fished out the two daggers he was storing in his jacket, then crouched down, signaling for the others to do the same. The group gathered together, and those who had them drew their weapons. “What did you see?” Shikomizue did not have to wait for a response, as a large bear, covered in metal plating, walked past them. It was looking around, like it was searching for the group. It looked… Off. It looked intelligent, just like the other beasts they had fought that day. “Something is definitely not right with these things. They started attacking us right after we formed a team. Almost like… Someone doesn’t want us to team up.” Shikomizue thought to himself, as he recalled the days events. Actually, every time they had been away for combat for a certain period of time, something would come and attack them. Almost like something, or someone, were controlling them. If that was the case, then... “Master, behind you!” Sayaka shouted to himself, and jumped forward. In the next second, a large paw covered in metal slammed down on the very spot Sayaka had been standing. Reaching into his maid uniform, Sayaka fished out a strange statue, in the shape of an anime figure. “They know we’re here master, so we might as well make some noise.” Turning the head of the statue around 180 degrees, Sayaka threw it behind the tree, where the second bear had attacked from. “Everyone, if you don’t want to go boom, I suggest you run!” Moments later, the figure exploded, turning the ground beneath it to ash, blowing the bear to bits in the process. The other bear was alerted to their presence, and jumped at Norleas, who slashed at its snout with his daggers before it had time to react. The beast roared in pain, and slammed its massive paw towards Norleas, who elegantly jumped out of the paws path, and went in for another attack. While the plate armor proved to be an obstacle, Norleas still managed to bring the massive beast down in a matter of seconds, as a flurry of dagger cuts tore into its hide like it was butter, always finding the unprotected parts of the bears body. Meanwhile, Shikomizue was fending of two wolves with his wakizashi katanas, holding back one wolf with each blade, as he pressed them against the wolves sharp fangs. “Where is #6? Someone cover her.” “Yes, yes, Master and I got her, don’t worry.” Throwing explosive statues at everything that moved inside the forest, Sayaka jumped around Kiriririri, who was sitting on the ground, watching the fighting happen around her with an indifferent expression. “Ohh, we’re gonna make master so proud, yes we are, tralala.” Sayaka sang as he looked up at the sky, throwing statues now seemingly at random. A few landed close to Norleas, but he simply moved out of their path with incredible speed each time, still slashing and stabbing any beast that came in his way with his daggers. The group fended off countless beasts, until finally, only one remained. It was a massive tiger, also covered in metal plating like the bears from before. The beast’s eyes were glowing in a strange blue light, and it moved faster than any other creature they had fought so far. Sayaka had tried throwing several statues at it, but it always got out of the blast zone before it was damaged. Norleas was unable to get close to the beast as well, as it was simply too fast. Shikomizue knew they were out of options. “Tch… Is this really how it ends?” He clicked his tongue, and started to walk towards the beast while he shook his head. “Am I really doing this?” After glancing over his shoulder, taking another look at his three teammates, Shikomizue nodded, and closed his eyes. “Listen up. I know what’s going on. These things are being controlled by someone. As long as we’re in a group, we’ll be sitting ducks. They are either being controlled by whoever started this fucked up game... Someone who wants us to keep fighting, or it’s another contender, in which case we should split up to try and find the bastard. So... Guys, split up. Run. For now, just get as far away from each other as possible.” “GRAAWRH!” Like it understood what Shikomizue was saying, the tiger roared, and charged at the group. It was not happy. “Yes come on, you stupid cat.” Shikomizue charged as well, running straight ahead, towards the beast’s fangs. Then… “GUAAH!” Shikomizue screamed in pain, as the tiger bit him, its large fangs digging into his left side. “I’ll keep this thing at bay… You guys… Run away… Now!” Lifting up his free arm, Shikomizue gripped his katana firmly, and slashed at the tiger’s front legs, which were not covered by armor. That should slow it down. The thing was, it would have been impossible to target its legs without making it stop first. And, the only way to do that was to make it stop moving, for instance, by letting it bite one of them. Shikomizue had realized this a while ago, as he watched his comrades fail to hit the beast, and he had given his own life so that the other three could live. “You guys better figure out what the fuck is going on here, and stop this ‘game’, alright?” Shikomizue looked over his shoulder, watching as his allies ran into different directions. No beasts chased them. Pleased that he his plan had worked, Shikomizue fished out a cigarette from pocket, and moved it to his mouth, his hand shaking. He didn’t have anything to light it with, but he still put it in his mouth, and took a deep breath, closing his eyes. That was his last breath. Norleas walked through the forest in silence. His daggers were still dripping with blood from the countless monsters he had killed. Still, he had not even broken a sweat. Killing was his job, after all. It was a breath of fresh air for him to kill beasts instead of people. It was strange. The person whose job was to take people’s lives had chosen to join an alliance to avoid killing others. It was different this time, after all. The people in question were his friends. His fellow Fuwanovel users. There was no way he could kill them. Sensing something moving behind him, Norleas gripped his dagger, and prepared for battle. But… “Oh, it’s just you.” He lowered his weapons. Behind him stood the strange girl from before, Kiriririri. “What, didn’t you hear what the boss said? We’re supposed to split up. What, are you scared in the dark by yourself?” Kiriririri didn't’ say anything. She simply lifted her arm, pointing into the darkness behind Norleas. “What? What is… It…” Norleas turned around to look at what she was pointing at, and suddenly felt a sharp pain in his abdomen. Looking down at his own stomach, he saw a silvery blade sticking out from his chest, covered in fresh blood. “Wh-What…” “Hehe.” The laughter of a little girl was the last thing he heard, as his lifeless body fell to the floor. Kiriririri pulled the sword out of Norleas’ corpse, and it soon turned into light particles, vanishing into thin air. Kiriririri then simply kept walking through the forest with an emotionless expression. Kiriririri: Status = Alive Sayaka: Status = Alive Wildcards This Week? None Dead This Week: Still Alive:

Beat Valkyrie Ixseal Review Choukou Shinki Ixseal, (Beat Valkyrie Ixseal), is the newest game in AliceSoft's "Beat" series. (Same universe as Beat Blades Haruka and Beat Angel Escalayer.) Though, while the game is set in the same universe as the other two games, it can be played without having played either of its predecessors. (The only connection to previous games is a few small references, that are not important to the story at all. In fact, I'd recommend playing this game first if you plan on playing a game in the series. I will explain why later in the review.) Similar to its predecessors, Ixseal is a gameplay/ VN hybrid, where you advance through a number of stages, defeating monsters along the way until you reach the area boss. Upon defeating the boss, the story progresses, and you move onto a new area. In between gameplay aspects, you see normal VN styled scenes, which makes up the bulk of the game. The game is voiced throughout all the story segments, as well as the H-scenes. The only portions of the game that are not voiced are "filler" scenes, that appear between gameplay segments, outside of the main story. These are normally only added for comic relief, and are not actually important at all, so the lack of voice acting in these scenes means quite little. The story In Ixseal you play as Oudou Tsuguhiko, a perverted man who swears he is the true "demon king," the most powerful evil being in the world. His dream is to make all female students in the world wear bloomers as their official uniform, through the use of his demonic powers. His best friend, Kirika, always brushes Tsuguhiko's talk about demons and such aside as jokes, but it turns out that he is actually telling the truth. With the help of his servant demon Bezel, Tsuguhiko's true power as the demon king is awakened by a dark ritual, and the power of the seven deadly sins, (the source of the demon king's power,) pours into him. The ritual is interrupted shortly after, however, as an angel with the name Xillia shows up, with the intention of killing the newborn demon king. Bezel and Tsuguhiko escapes, but things only go downhill from there for Tsuguhiko. He is betrayed by Bezel, who steals six of the seven deadly sins from his body, and uses them to awaken six powerful demons, leaving Tsuguhiko with nothing but the power of lust in his body. Bezel tries to take Tsuguhiko's life, but fails because of the angel, who finally catches up to them, driving Bezel away. Sadly, Tsuguhiko's friend Kirika is killed in the struggle. Kirika is revived by Xillia, but this takes up nearly all her power, leaving her defenseless against the demons summoned by Bezel. But, through the power of lust, which still resides within Tsuguhiko, he powers up Xillia with demonic energy, and she changes forms from an angel, into the ideal warrior in Tsuguhiko's mind— a valkyrie. With the power of lust, the demon king powers up Xillia through sex, and with the combination of her own power and demonic energy, she grows stronger, ready to take on Bezel's army. Bezel, along with six of the seven deadly sins, (in the form of powerful demons,) plan on absorbing energy from all humans, so that they can take over the world. The demons create a barrier over earth, stopping other angels from coming down from heaven to help, leaving Xillia alone. Now it's up to Xillia and Tsuguhiko to stop the demons' onslaught before it's too late. While the gameplay part of Ixseal might make it sound silly, (have sex with the heroines to make them stronger, by injecting them with your demonic energy) the story is miles better in Ixseal compared to Haruka. I'm not sure I'd call this game a nukige, actually, as the story does truly work by itself, not relying on the abundance of H at all. (Unlike Haruka, where the H content is the most appealing factor by far.) The characters are well designed and interesting, and the story is good. Lastly, the protagonist is very well done as well. He is actually powerful; he is the demon king, after all. The story is about taking back the deadly sins stolen by Bezel, powering up Tsuguhiko with each boss defeated. While he does not do the fighting himself, he does not feel like a pointless plot device. You actually feel like you are the demon king, trying to reclaim your powers, and not a can of gasoline that exists only to power up the heroines. (Like in Beat Blades Haruka.) Sadly, Ixseal wastes a lot of its potential by sticking to the same formula that Haruka did. Instead of making it possible for the player to choose how to guide the protagonist from the start, (choosing to be good or evil,) the game has it set in stone that Tsuguhiko is a good guy at heart, and he acts like the biggest vanilla-pleb in history towards his comrades, despite the fact that he is the demon king, and his objective is ultimately to reclaim his powers. Not exactly what you'd expect from the demon king. The story is good, but it would have been even better if there was more choices in terms of how the protagonist acts, in my opinion. The more you learn about the origin of his powers, and the history of the demons, the more you feel like making choices to impact his decisions, but you are left following the linear story until the branching point that only appears towards the end of the story. Another issue I found with the structure of the game is that it is very similar to Haruka at its core. While the story is different, and the characters' motivations etc also differ from that of Haruka's, it still shares enough similarities that the story can become predictable if you have played Haruka. Because of this, I would personally recommend reading Ixseal first, if you have not yet read Haruka, as the plot twists will be more surprising. And, seeing as the story is without a doubt better in Ixseal, this way you will get more enjoyment out of the game, compared to if you read Haruka first. That being said, the game is still good, and some predictability won't ruin that. The gameplay: Similar to Beat Blades Haruka, the gameplay comes in two stages. The first stage is all about buffing your heroines by sleeping with them, raising their stats in the process. Then, you advance through an area, defeating monsters, collecting power-ups, and fighting bosses. Each time you lose against an area boss, you see a rape scene with that boss, (with a maximum of two scenes per boss,) and the heroine's "lust" meter is filled up with one stage. (If the lust meter gets maxed out, you will get a bad ending.) These scenes can be disabled in the menu, if you do not like to see scenes of that nature. Seeing as what types of H you make your heroines do during the first phase of gameplay is up to you, you can freely choose to be evil and only see dark H, or be nice and only see vanilla. (Or do a mix of both!) You also have two other meters to keep an eye on. The love meter, and the demon energy meter. (Actually has a different name, but this sounds cooler!) While this might sound complicated, it is actually very simple. The love meter is raised by doing things like going on dates with the heroines, while the demon energy meter is raised by doing evil things to the heroines. Depending on the stats you are left with towards the end, you can choose an ending with your favored heroine. Just like Haruka, the boss fights can prove difficult if you do not boost the stats of the heroines properly, so do be careful there. Overall though, the difficulty has been decreased quite a lot. While I found myself failing quite a few times during my first playthrough of Haruka, I did not get a game over screen once during my first playthrough of Ixseal. H-scene and ending variety Beat Blades Haruka is known for being filled with all sorts of H-scenes, ranging from normal vanilla, to hardcore rape, beastiality and more. Ixseal also has a varied roster of H-scenes, though not as many as Haruka. (I believe Ixseal has a bit over 100, while Haruka had over 150.) But, seeing as Ixseal is more story driven than Haruka was, they might have opted for more focus on the story instead of adding extra H-scenes. But, while the game has less H-scenes, the quality has not dropped. Even the vanilla scenes are quite good, (I phrase it this way, as I did not exactly play the game for the vanilla personally.) The voice work in this game is amazing, which adds a lot to the H-scenes. There is a large variety of different H in Ixseal as well, with most scenes being very hot. So, while this might not be as nukige-ish as Haruka, it sure does have its fair share of good H, too. Now, the endings. I had high hopes for the Ixseal endings, especially the bad ends. The Haruka bad endings were very good, though way too short. Seeing as we are literally the demon king himself in this game, I was hoping that the bad endings would be longer, and even better than Haruka's. The game has six primary endings, one bad and one good for each heroine, a harem end, and a "normal" ending. You can also get other types of bad ends through the game, but these six are the main heroine endings. (For comparison, Haruka had three endings per heroine, a good, a bad and a brutal end.) In Ixseal, they did indeed make slightly longer endings, though they still felt too short to me. The bad ends did somewhat live up to my expectations. I don't want to get into details to avoid spoilers, but they felt satisfying to a certain extent. (To me at least, as I want dark bad ends.) And dark they were. Kirika's ending was something out of an utsuge, and Xillia's bad end was definitely a cool way to tie the "evil" side of the protagonist into the main story. That being said, they were still too short, which in turn still made me feel a bit disappointed. With how long the game is, and how much build up there is to the climax of the story, I would have wanted endings at least twice as long as the current ones, perhaps even longer. Still, they were pretty good, all things considered. As for the good endings, they too were well done, and even though I did not have any plans on caring much about the vanilla side of the game, I do have to admit, I felt some feels towards the end of the good routes. Sadly, these too were a bit too short as well. If they do make another game in the series, I hope that they finally make the endings a bit longer for that one. Music, art, the heroines and more. Like I mentioned above, the voice acting in the game is stellar. It had to be hard delivering some of the messed up lines in this game with a straight face, lol. The six demons representing the deadly sins were all handled well, and all come off as creepy and "demonic" in their own ways. I especially took a liking to Pride and Wrath, as the two really fit perfectly for the roles they are meant to fill. The VAs do a great job of bringing the "essence" of their sin into their character in their voiced lines. The heroines were... good and bad. While Kirika had lots of unique aspects that made her fun and different from her "counterpart" in Beat Blades Haruka, Narika, Xillia was way too similar to Haruka in my opinion. The two are basically the same, boring character, just in different settings. That being said, Xillia has a very good backstory, which makes up for some of her blandness. Overall, I wanted the heroines to be more unique compared to the heroines in Haruka, and found myself a bit irritated at the similarities at times. Nevertheless, the story for each heroine was done well, so it was not a complete bust. Also, Kirika's ass is just amazing. (/ω＼) As far as the art goes, it's just great. The resolution was stepped up to HD, (Haruka's resolution was 800x600, which was a disappointment in my eyes.) The art is consistent and well drawn, and some of the CGs are truly badass. Like I mentioned before, the character designs were great, so I have no complaints about the art at all, tbh. I'm not really a music guy, so I can't give a detailed review of the music, so I'll just say this: I liked it a lot. There are over 30 music tracks in the game, all well fit for the scenes in which they are used. I especially liked the opening. Definitely a game I'd consider buying the OST for. Conclusion: Ixseal is much better than Haruka in my book. Pretty much everything I felt was lacking in Haruka was improved in Ixseal, (although it did not quite win me over when it came to the game's endings.) The story, characters, art, music and gameplay have all been improved, making a great overall experience. I rated the game an 8.4, which would have been even higher had the endings been longer, and more thought out. Still, this is a very solid game for both vanilla fans, and people like me, who likes games with darker H. If you're a fan of demons, angels and such, you'll definitely like this game. I am personally a sucker for anything that involves the seven deadly sins, so I was hooked from the start.

Shadow of The Colossus for the PS4 is a remake of the PS2 game released back in 1876. The graphics hasn't been lightly touched here and there to make another profit from idiots like me who buy a game they already played and beaten. The graphics have been worked from the ground up to appear like modern day graphics. The game supports 4k resolution, and the environment has been reworked to include more textures, such as grass and rocks. You may be asking yourself "Mitch, the hell are you doing writing anything? Your grammar and sentence structure is so bad that I've contemplated blocking your illiterate ass several times." and you would be write. You may also be asking yourself why these details matter at all. Who cares about a little grass and some added rocks here and there? Well, you see with most remastered's they simply just up the engines lighting and maybe a few fixes on textures and character models, but to have a complete remake? That's something to be praised for. How many times has a game been just essentially re-released as a "remastered" and hardly anything was added? I mean, just look at the major differences from ps2, ps3 and the ps4. There is an obvious difference between each version outside of just simple furthering the render distance and upping textures. The PS4 version is the version you must have. It brings to life a level of definition that honors the original creators art. What else the remake adds is a photo mode with filters that can be accessible at any point by pressing down on the d-pad. New collectibles, the game keeps tracks of your statistics, and changes the controls a bit while still keeping the old school feel. Speaking of the old school feel, all you do is still kill colossi still. No new enemies, no hidden collectibles to gather except for some gold coins which no one is sure what they do if anything, no new colossi, just the same old giant, albeit pretty empty world. Of course, this emptiness could've been intentional and not simple a limitation of what the ps2 can handle. Now, there are bigger worlds from the ps2 era with more going on, such as GTA San Andreas, but you have to keep in mind that structurally, these are two different games. Now, I know its hard to wrap your head around the fact that this is not the same as this, but please bear with me here. GTA San Andreas focused on the feel of a large, living, breathing city. With citizens going about their day, gyms, fast food joints and a plethora of side activities. But the character models for GTA SA was very plain as far as animation is concerned. Sure there were unique ones with characters having arms stuck to their side, some people who slouch as they walk, etc, etc. While Shadow of The Colossus's character animations were complex. The main character flailed his arms around like he was constantly trying to shake something off, but it was detailed nonetheless. And of course there's the massive colossi's animations as well. Each was unique in design and in animation. This of course took up space on the memory and it worked. But enough of that, lets go back a little. Lets just take a step back from our monitors and look at the decision to keep the world practically bare to maybe give the player and the character you control a sense of mystery and forbiddeness in the land. The character is already doing something that is seems atrocious to his kind and even the gods as he is slowly punished for slaying these ancient creatures for a selfish reason, that is, to bring back a woman who has died. Apparently sacrificed for some ritual as well. The sense of loneliness is exactly what the character is. Alone. He acts on his own decision to bring a life that has already gone frolm the world and apparently for a pre-established reason. But dammit, he's gonna do it! He will climb that forbidden mountain, even if it means his life! He is being selfish but he must see it through for the one he loves! Of course, take that as you will. Still doesn't change the fact that it is quite empty aside from lizard tails and fruits to eat. Something carried over from the ps2 that back then wasn't as big an issue as it would've been today if it was first released today. A trip down memory lane except better than you remembered. With all the high resolution textures and character models your eyes can barely handle. And, for those who have been curios about this games hype back in the day but never got around to it, now's your chance... assuming it goes on sale, because 40 bucks is a bit much, despite my weak will caving into the idea of owning this game.