Harvest Moon

Harvest Moon (牧場物語, Bokujō Monogatari) is a Farming/Ranching RPG Simulation game. There are many versions of Harvest Moon the original Super Nintendo version, a Nintendo 64 version, game cube, wii, play station 1, 2, portable (PSP) and most likely but not confirmed one for 3 will come out one day, there are smaller versions for the gameboy, gameboy advance and DS. This is a causal game that would be extremely fun to some or dull to others depending on your gaming preference. Depending on the version depends on which gender you have and what you can do.  I am going to talk about the versions I have played to a good enough extent to actually know them.

In the Original Harvest Moon you could only be male and had the choice of courting and marrying 1 or 5 village girls. To do this you have to restore your farmland, raise and care for live stock, expand your house twice, befriend most of the village and of course make sure the girl likes you, dating all 5 wouldn’t be good. Once you do all this you propose to the girl of your choice with the blue feather and you get married you live with your new wife living the same, farming and caring for your animals working hard to make money and more profit, you even have a child or two if you get married early enough. All this is done in 3 years at the 3 year mark your father comes to visit and see how you are doing, you get your results and you beat the game, this version is small.

The Nintento 64 version is basically the same, better graphics though, you restore the land, raise animals, marry a girl, except in this version once you reach your three year mark you can opt to keep going and you just keep living forever, never aging, your child will never be older then a toddler in this version.

The gameboy versions are the same as well as the play station ones to my knowledge I have not played them as much as I would have liked to sadly. The gamecube version is also the same with a few added details, there is a female version of each game with this one where you get to marry the boys, yay.

The wii versions I must say are my favorites you have to do all you did in the past games plus move, for example in tree of tranquility you have to find and restore each harvest spirit’s rainbow by collecting ingredients for them, which is harder then you may think, then you have to restore the Harvest Goddess’s tree. In Animal Parade you have to with the help of your little harvest spirit’s advice restore the land and its former glory by finding all the harvest spirits who have lost their energy, which then revives the harvest spirit and you will also get to meet the harvest King, I have no finished this game.

The Games are all basically the same which is why I say depending on the types of games you like to play would depend if you like this one, I give the series a 9 out of 10 for great improvement.

One Piece

One Piece

                This anime is much more popular than the last two mentioned before. It was shown on American TV stations such as; WB Kids, Nickelodeon, and Cartoon Network. Besides two other anime, it is one of the most popular anime series in the US, and the longest running by far, on air since 1997. Seeing as though it’s been running for that long there must be a lot of episodes, right? Correct. As of now, there are 479 episodes. So newbies, if you have homework, appointments, projects, or just stuff in general you have to get done, GET IT DONE FIRST. One Piece, despite its silliness, odd characters, and unique art style, is a VERY ADDICTING ANIME. Heed this warning, make sure you have a lot of time to spare before sitting down, getting comfortable, and watching this show.

                The storyline has its own streak of originality in it. It’s about pirates. The main character, Monkey D. Luffy (or just Luffy), is a rookie pirate who dreams of becoming the greatest pirate on the seas, The Pirate King. Despite being a newbie to the world of pirates, Luffy is extremely powerful and stretchy thanks to a ‘devil fruit’ that turned his body into rubber. Because of this fruit, however, he becomes an anchor and will never be able to swim again. But that doesn’t stop him. Luffy is very relaxed, silly, naive, and on some occasion (or most…), downright stupid… Yet, it’s because of his strange personality that people are drawn to him and thus, join his pirate crew. The adventures in this anime make it worth watching. There are almost no fillers and the characters are so quirky, it’s really hard not to love them. J

                I love this anime. For the longest time, I avoided it because the artwork was a bit strange and at the time of its American debut, it was all the anime fans talked about, and I was sick of it. But, after a while, the hype died down and my curiosity grew. I caved, one day, and I’ve been hooked ever since. So fans, don’t judge a book by its cover...or in this case, an anime!

Shadow of the Colossus

Shadow of the Colossus

                I believe in the last game review, we went over what characteristics made a great video game; and I believe ‘simplicity’ was one of them. With great graphics and subtle background music, Shadow of the Colossus was definitely a simple-story game. You had one objective and one objective only. There were no ‘side quests’ or ‘side missions’ to be completed while you were fixated on the actual story, whereas in many other games you had the option to do so before moving on. Nope. This game has a one track mind and a one road story. This is a great game to play when you don’t want to worry about hidden items that may come handy in the future, extra missions that could answer small questions about the game itself or getting into unwanted fights.

                However, I don’t want to give the impression that the game is in any way easy, because to me, it wasn’t. For starters, the story to the game is quite simple and well known. You, as the main character, trudge up the mountainous stairs to a temple where you set a beautiful girl down on the altar. She was your lover… and she is dead. You pray to the gods for a way to bring her back to life and the gods give you a mission to make it happen: kill the colossal creatures that roam the earth. There are about 16 creatures you must fight and kill, and they are not small beasts. Oooh no. These guys are bigger than whales, and the fights are time consuming. For each colossal, there is a weak spot somewhere on its body. In order to kill it, you have to climb the tuffs of fur on its body and find it. Good luck.

                My thoughts? I love this game. Simple, quiet, beautiful landscapes and a horse (Agro) you can ride to the ends of the earth with, it gave me the feeling that I was exploring a long forgotten land. It’s a nice feeling.

Azu Manga Daioh

Azumanga Daioh (The Animation)

                Wouldn’t you like to just sit down, pop in a light show and not have to worry about having to ‘think’ in order to understand what’s going on? Azumanga Daioh is the perfect anime. A show about nothing, it is always compared to the American sitcom ‘Seinfeld’.  This anime is for any age and will have almost everybody laughing with tears. For this show, it is the characters that make it hilarious and fun to watch. For example; Sakaki (my favorite character) is a tall, silent, and athletic, high school girl. Because of her quiet personality and strong physique, Sakaki is often mistaken for a delinquent, or a scary person. However, she is a girly-girl at heart and all she wants to do is to show cute animals affection, especially cats. However, whenever she approaches a cat, it will either run away, or bite her hand.

                The storyline also demands a quirky set of characters. Because it’s only a show about a group of girls and their high school lives, the plot is extremely flexible and almost anything can happen. Had it just been that, it would have been an extremely boring anime. L But it’s not. It’s weird, funny, and it give you endless giggle fits. The events that occur in the anime are also very memorable. You’ll be quoting and reenacting them for weeks!!

                In my opinion, the show was intelligently done. The jokes played in very well, and the characters, oh, the characters, had me on the floor laughing. It was worth watching and I think any anime fan will agree. It was a good anime with an ending that will leave you nostalgic and teary-eyed.

Okami

Okami

            What makes a good videogame? Some say graphics; whether they’re unique or dumbfoundingly gorgeous, some say storyline;   something original, simple, complex, or intriguing, others say game play; the controls have to be simple and easy to remember and the movement has to be smooth and lucid. Okami has it all. With visually stunning artwork and graphics, a storyline that will make you laugh and cry, and controls that a toddler can figure out, Okami has won the hearts of many gamers. For quite some time, Okami was an underground game; not many people heard of it and there was no advertising for the game. However, it seems that sometime in 2008, the game made a comeback and is now amongst the ‘Greatest Hits’.

                The story takes place in ancient Japan, in a little country called ‘Nippon’. An evil was awakened by a fool and the guardian of a small village summoned the reincarnation of the statue of the previous God, Shiranui; a snow white wolf named Ameterasu, the Sun God. Following the legend, a story told for over 100 years, Ameterasu must follow in Shiranui’s footsteps and set things in Nippon right again using her godly powers, The Celestial Brush.

                In my opinion, this game is wonderful. It is simple, fun, and addicting. The characters are quirky and entertaining and the ending will leave you touched and begging for more. That, and the fact that you get to play as a wolf god was just really cool. :)