I purchased NyxQuest on Steam today after trying out the demo, and I must say it is quite an engaging game.

NyxQuest is a platform game with physics-based puzzles to solve that makes one think of Trine. The story is about Nyx, a winged girl that descends from the heavens in search of her friend Icarus. If you’re familiar with the Greek myth involving Icarus and his wax wings, then you should recognize elements of it in this game’s story.

The player controls the movement of Nyx via the WASD keys. Her flying consists of being able to flap her wings for a limited number of times to gain altitude and also being able to glide for a few seconds. Zeus helps Nyx on her quest by using his power to move objects. His power is controlled through the mouse, which is one reason why the game is so engaging since you have to use both your hands to play.

The visuals are simple and clean with a healthy dose of light bloom. As for the music and sound effects, they’re nothing out of the ordinary but they serve their purpose.

NyxQuest is a solid platform game that I can easily recommend to others due to its intuitive gameplay and fun puzzles. Although the game is somewhat short, it has a low price tag which makes it worth getting.

Now for a giveaway!

I bought the 10-pack of NyxQuest during today’s Steam sale, so I have a few extra copies to give out for free. Simply send me a direct message on Twitter with your email address so I can gift a copy to you. I’ll be doing this in the order I receive the messages until I run out of copies, so hurry!

The first of four Darker than Black OVAs is out and subbed.

These OVAs take place between the first season of Darker than Black and the second season, Darker than Black: Ryuusei no Gemini. The focus of course is on Hei and Yin, and it will hopefully provide some much desired details on what happened to Yin before the start of Ryuusei no Gemini.

As always, Bones is continuing to achieve excellent animation work on their projects with this not being an exception. The first episode focuses on the relationship between Hei and Yin while placing fast-paced action scenes at the beginning and the end. Be ready for the first few minutes, it’s epic.

I started reading this manga today and quickly finished the 31 chapters that were translated. Now I want more.

A very brief summary of what it’s all about:

The son of a legendary swordsman is representing one of the sons of the ruler in a martial arts tournament that will determine which one of his 31 sons will succeed him. Lots of battles, action, and killing.

Gamaran was better than I expected when I initially picked it up. I prefer seeing a main character that’s already pro instead of a weakling that miraculously levels up.

Image Source: Manga Fox

My most anticipated anime of the Fall season: Darker than Black: Ryuusei no Gemini.

It was hands down the best action series of this season. The animation for the fight scenes were well done, but the amount of these scenes seemed to dwindle as the series went on.

The changes between the 1st season and this season felt out of place. I was surprised at Hei’s change of character along with all the focus on Yin. She didn’t seem to hold that much importance in the 1st season – at least not at the level of world affairs.

I also didn’t really like the focus on the new character (Suou) and preferred the old times with Hei masquerading as Li Shensun.

The 12 episode length of this season made the series simply too short. The ending felt a bit rushed and could have used some much needed explanations, but I guess they wanted some confusion/mysteries to remain as they work on another season.

Despite all this, it’s still one of the best anime for the Fall 2009 season. On a side note, Misaki needs to hook up with Hei already.

I just finished watching Summer Wars, an anime movie produced by Madhouse and directed by Mamoru Hosoda, and felt like sharing my thoughts while they were still fresh in my mind.

Mamoru Hosoda is well known for another one of his films titled The Girl Who Lept Through Time, which I had the pleasure of viewing previously. Watching Summer Wars reminded me of Hayao Miyazaki and films that he has worked on such as Laputa.

Now let’s look at the story and its characters. I’ll try to not include any real spoilers besides just the basic plot outline.

The main character of this story is Kenji, a 17 year old boy who almost got selected as Japan’s representative in the Math Olympiad. In short, he’s starts out in the movie as a shy math genius. He’s asked by an older classmate named Natsuki to help her out with a part-time job that involved going with her to a large family gathering.

A central aspect of the plot is a virtual world called Oz, where a vast number of people in the world have accounts. From these accounts, they can do your typical things such as making phone calls and shopping online, but more vital aspects of society like controlling the traffic lights and water/gas utilities are also accessed through Oz.

Although I find this virtual universe fascinating and reminiscent of the Metaverse in Snow Crash, it is highly impractical since it would be somewhat comparable to having everyone access their bank accounts, pay taxes, and other sensitive duties through Facebook. For the sake of the film however, the concept of Oz does work well.

The main conflict is that an advanced hacker A.I. has taken over the majority of the accounts on Oz and started to wreak havoc with them. It has that good versus evil feel to it, especially with how the A.I. is represented.

I always like anime to have at least a tiny bit of romance in it, and this film does the job with the building relationship between Kenji and Natsuki. It’s not really the focus though, but still makes it more fun to watch.

Family and family bonds are emphasized, which is something that we can all hopefully relate to. Helping out each other in times of need and also resolving disputes are normal occurrences.

This movie has it all: comedy, action, romance, and moments of sadness. It’s one of those films that make you feel good on the inside after finishing it. Getting the opportunity to watch stuff like this is what makes me continue to stick with anime.

So get together with your family or just solo it, but be sure to not miss out on Summer Wars.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

For those like me that think TL;DR: Great movie, go watch it now!

Demon’s Souls for the PS3 is being released here in the United States tomorrow, October 6th!

Judging from the favorable reviews thus far, this PS3 exclusive has potential. I played it for a bit at Anime Expo this year, and it seemed to be decent. It’s an action RPG (think God of War, Devil May Cry, etc.) that’s supposed to be insanely difficult.

Trailer:

I’m currently thinking about getting the deluxe edition over at Amazon, but still debating whether I want to drop $70~ on it now or to wait until it gets cheaper later.

Image Source: Official Demon’s Souls Website

For those of you like me that can’t wait for the second season of the Darker than Black anime to air, here’s the manga with the story continuing after the events of the first season.

I’m assuming the second season will also be the same story as this manga, although I’m not sure of this fact. If you haven’t seen or finished the first season yet, I highly recommend that you do so before the second season airs this October. Then we can share some discussion/thoughts after each episode via melative.

Yay for Hei, Yin, and Kirihara Misaki! I hope some of my favorite figure makers decide to craft them when the second season airs.

Source: One Manga