Got that post-con sad feeling a bit. No matter though; here is a review of our experience at the 2008 New York anime Festival and yes, the picture above is my fiancee, Danielle with none other than Vampire Hunter D creator, Kikuchi. Here's the run-down:
Day 1:
Left for the LIRR to head on over to the Javits center in the city. Got there at around 1:30pm and without a hitch headed to the main room where the first site was the Bandai booth that looked much like a stage than that of a booth. Got to check out other booths, stores, the array of fan art for sale, took pics of the cosplayers and even said hi to Ben Boyles of OtakuUSA magazine whom I've been speaking to before the con on this site's eventual inclusion in the magazine (more on that in the future). We then went to a few panels including the Kikuchi panel to meet of course Vampire Hunter D's creator, Hideyuki Kikuchi. During the panel, Yoshitaka Amano, the original Final Fantasy character designer and Vampire Hunter D artist snuck in to suprize Kikuchi and fans alike. After the panel, Danielle was able to snag a quick signature from him in her Vampire Hunter D vol2 book. Watched a bit of Lucky Star and I'd have to say...I need to buy that anime. The night progressed and we head back home via LIRR as we continued to do the rest of the weekend.
Day 2:
For the second day we arrived at around 11:00am but as expected, the entrance was simply packed. This was the case much of the day as the entire con was simply loaded with people. Screw the economic crisis, otaku and the entire game and anime business is doing fine with or without Wall Street. The crowd did prevent us though from getting Amano's signature and I couldn't even get a chance to try out my luck in the voice acting, but I will be doing something down that line though with the help of this site and my current projects. We did manage to make it to the Vampire Hunter D panel with Amano and Kikuchi being there. I also got to meet and get signatures from the original English voice actors from Speed Racer and Trixy (Peter Fernandez and Corinne Orr) While waiting for their autographs, Danielle saw Kikuchi in the corner of the hallway and we she approached him and his translator, they invited her to take a picture with him (first pic above). Kikuchi fans across the globe are probably ticked at that one ^^; We then saw Vampire Hunter D: BloodLust (holy crap it was awesome...and yes I didn't see it prior ^^;) and headed home.
Day 3:
After such a long weekend going back and forth from our home in eastern Long Island to the City, we woke up late for the 3rd day and didn't make it in time for the final ceremonies. No matter, we head down to Chinatown where we were able to shop a bit, eat some sushi & ramen along with meeting up with some Anime Fest cosplayers who too didn't want to give up the weekend out. Overall we had fun and next time though...I'll be sure to utilize my anime store ownership to get professional passes to avoid the crowds ^^;
Best part of Anime Fest 08:
*Meeting with Kikuchi, getting his autograph and getting a super rare photo with him that even Japanese otaku would be jealous of. Best Cosplay of Anime Fest 08:
-The Gurren Lagen Cosplayers of the Bandai Booth -Shockwave -Ronald McDonald Sephiroth (see the gallery for that one) -The creature from Spirited Away (forgot its name ^^;) Weirdest thing of Anime Fest 2008 O_0:
-The mid-aged, ugly, smelly, sweaty fat guy with the dirty Belldandy shirt. (No kidding, I didn't think the citizens of my home town of Selden would make it to there.)
Overall, I can't wait till the next convention we go to and its very good to have finally went to one again after almost 4 years.
(All of our pictures are now live on our Anime Fest 08 MobileMe page.)
Looks like my comments about the US economy got me on the front page of businessweek.com! My anime business and my old health business got me to realize different sides of the financial spectrum and as some of you know, many of us (including myself) were furious about that now failed Paulson $700 bailout plan that was going give the crooks who stole from the US the money back. I know this isn't really otaku related but I would assume that man of you can't avoid the news on it so I''m extra happy to see that my comments got me to the front page of the biggest business site on the web. You have to be living under a rock to not know that the US economy is in the crapper. Caused by the nepotism between Wall Street and the government, greedy Real Estate agents and loan sharks and an overpriced and overrated college system that teaches everyone to be worthless 9-5 cubical-slaves, this economy was just a house of cards that was ready to fall. All isn't doom and gloom though; one of my anime wholesalers, Diamond Comics did a report on the increase in sales anime and collectible goods and the turnout at the New York Anime Festival 2008 sure doesn't show signs of a recession there. Thankfully the internet has given all of us a voice and I'm very humbled and honored that I'm featured on the front page of one of the biggest business sites in the world. I of course commented about the incompetence of Treasury Secretary Paulson. Here's my entire comment:
"Secretary of Treasury Paulson was the CEO of Goldman Sachs, turned the company's $30 Billion debt into $100 Billion. The guy is not even qualified to count your cash as a teller at any bank let alone come up with anything that deals with money or in this case, have the US taxpayers write him a blank check. The guy hardly qualifies enough to flip burgers since there would need to be someone there to make sure he doesn't miscount the orders!"
Anime Fest 2008 was one crazy time. We weren't able to make it to the final day due to pure exhaustion and a long train ride so we spend the day with some other after-party otaku in Chinatown. Had some sushi, bought some items and had a good time. Though I wasn't able to get into the voice acting thing there, its not the last you'll hear of my attempts of breaking the Seiyu biz. A full recap on the event soon.
(check out the nice Gurren Lagen cosplayer that was in front of the Bandai booth)
Heading to the third and final day now(late). Definitely saw some cool and interesting stuff at the 2008 New York Anime Festival. One to take notice to was the android pictured here and of course some crazy cosplay and big name anime company booths. More on the whole convention in a bit but now... On to the train.
Pretty cool first day. I would have had more blog posts but the iphone wasn't fully charged so I had to get as many pics as possible thus sacrificing tweets and live posts. No matter it was fun, funny and there is more to come. I'll be uploading pics to my MobileMe album (check link on previous post) right now so check them out. Oh, and don't forget to comment these and any of my blog posts, as another reminder, some random commentors will win free Death Note Movie II tickets.
Some of you know that Danielle and I will be at the 2008 Anime Fest today (and all weekend) Since blogger is finally fixed, I will be giving some live updates at the event. Be sure to check the blog out all weekend for the cool stuff Danielle and I will be participating in. One thing is certain, I will be at that anime voice actor contest on Sunday. The winner will become an true voice actor with a gig, so wish me luck ^_^ For any of you that have Twitter, you can view my updates there as well, along with other micro-updates I can put here (yet). Images will be uploaded to my MobileMe account, here. Be sure to comment to get your chance to win Death Note Movie II tickets. If any of you are going to be there, I'll be wearing a red Super Mario shirt talking about "How To Score a Princess" I'll look almost like a Target employee so don't be afraid to introduce yourself. Heading out to the train station now...talk to you all in a bit.
Hey, US otaku! I have some great news for you. Here at Chuck's Anime Shrine, I've been given the honor to award a few of my blog readers , Free Death Note Movie II Tickets! That's right, Chuck's Anime Shrine (me) along with Fathom Events and Ignite Social Media, the companies that are bringing the movie to America, are proud to award people who comment on my blog this offer. This is obviously for US readers only and for people who can make it to the showing on the 15th & 16th. Like the first movie, this one is in select theaters only so here is a list of them for your reference. The rules are simple, just make relevant comments on any of my blog posts here and you might be randomly chosen. Me and Fathom Events and Ignite Social Media need to be able to contact you so please try not to leave anonymous comments. Be sure to use a Live ID or blogger account that has some sort of access to your email or simple leave it there on your comment.
Holy frecken ass-crackers! For some of you that were wondering... yes this blog was down for exactly one week. Why, should you ask? Because Blogger goofed up last Friday. There has been so much news going on and I've been sitting like a middle-class person at the recent financial hearings. So glad to be back. I was sick last weekend with the flu and my webhost kicks the bucket the same time blogger got clogged yet they denied that they didn't work for one week. Anyways, today is a huge day since I'm taking the train now for New York Anime Festival 2008. More on that and FREE Death Note II: Last Name, tickets!!
Here's yet another game I was meaning to talk about and for those who grew up as gamers in the 80's and early 90's, you're going to love this. Like the Strong Bad game I mentioned, this also a Wiiware game and this one is a vintage gamer's dream from the looks of it (pun intended). This is indeed the sequel to 1996's MegaMan 8 for the Playstation. Yep, this is classic MegaMan vs. Dr. Willy and his gang of messed up robots. Even more amazing in this day and age, its kept the same 8 bit graphics we remember it by. That's correct, its a brand new MegaMan game with old-school graphics. Images of my days playing MegaMan 4 back in 1993 come to mind in lovely retrospect.....anyways this is an artistic choice by the creators that make us "inde" developers know we got a shot. It makes us old-school gamers feel right at home.
In case any of you haven't heard already, there is a fun game out that features characters to a site that I have linked to and been a fan of since the beginning, Homestarrunner.com. Yep, in case you've been living under a rock, you can play as Strong Bad in the game called "Strong Bad's Cool Game For Attractive People." I got the Wii so I should maybe download it. Kudos to my friends at Homestarrunner for getting a game out. I stare at the code of the Fumi Project with high hopes but until I'm free from the 9-7 BS...it'll be sitting there. Soon though, soon I'll get a game ^_~
Last but not least in the image samples for the new gallery system for this site is a section I noted a while back and that's a gallery of anime figures. We all know we love to check out all the anime figures both past and present. The ability to show off your own findings and collection will hopefully be there too. Also, a higher resolution if I can make them, too
Check this out everyone. Good friend and blogging role model, Danny Choo just had his own feature story on CNN. It's nice to see a bit on Danny's famous family heritage and of course to see anime and anime figure be in the videos of CNN ^_^. Didn't exactly like how CNN emphasized the word "geek" in their video, though ~_~. Big congrats to Danny. It goes to show how it doesn't matter what your passion is, what matters is that you go for it. You don't have to live in the shadow of your family's expectations to be successful (also great to see Danny's father supportive of him as well). As for me, I started out as a computer programmer (for video games though) but as you all know, I don't want to work for someone else since to me having a job is just like modern-day slavery. Having this site and an anime store has brought out my passion and yes, even more money. For those who were wondering about when my retirement will be from the 9-5 rut, it won'r be this Friday like I wanted to be but very soon. Like Danny, I hope that just the traffic alone from my anime site will also pay for the bills and thus is one of the hopeful goals of version 4.0 of this site. Of course, Danny's hits are through the roof and I'm just a 200/person a day blog for now but I look up to his example as an otaku, business owner and web master as should you all. Congrats again Danny and thanks for showing us otaku that we are part of something big and something we can be passionate about full-time that is fullfilling to our heart, soul and yes..our wallets too, but that of course is a byproduct of the passion, never the main goal.
(Oh and Danny, I promise to make anime.fm alot better, too since it needs some work. I need to make sure its the $15K site godaddy.com says it is ^^;;)
If any of you have been to my AMV section you might have noticed a new amv under the Fan Submission part. Thanks to Youtube member Patricktiel for this sick amv about well... making amvs. Thought you guys would get a kick out of it. If you have an AMV you made and would like to promote, let me know. I'll try to add it to the blog but I will certainly have it on the AMV section. Also expect a better looking AMV section in version 4.0 which I promise you I'm working on...just my job has been eatting my time and at home I'm packing so many anime figures before and after work @_@
As promised I told you that I'd pass on some amazingly good news if you are a Dragon Ball Z fan and if you are completely disgusted about the direction of 2009's Dragon Ball Movie. As the blog title says, there will be a 14th Dragon Ball Z animated movie! Granted there was a few movies made after movie 13 but none of them had anything to do with the Dragon Ball Z arch in the story. Named Dragon Ball: Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return!! This brand new project coming from the creator himself, Akira Toriyama takes place right after the death of evil Majin Boo, the gap between DBZ and GT. I know many fans complained about the ending of Dragon Ball Z and how it just ended with Goku training Boo's reincarnation. I didn't mind it much and with the enormous work Akira Toriyama put into all his work...you want to give the guy a break. Otaku most likely will go nuts to hear that the story revolves around yet another unknown Saiyan named Tāburu who actually looks very, very much like he could be Vegeta's kid, so Trunks might have a half-brother. Tāburu is pursued to earth by two aliens named Abo and Kado but other than that, nothing else is really known about the plot. It comes out in November in Japan so we'll hear more of it soon. This hopefully will help those who fell off their chair to see Fox's white Piccolo ^^;;
Looks like the schedule for the 2008 New York Anime Festival is up and running. there are many events that Danielle will try to go to, in particular we will definitely will attend the Amano and the Hideyuki Kikuchi panels. I will most definitely be at Sunday's Voice Actor panel where the winner will become an anime voice actor!! It would be pretty amazing if I win that contest since being the English voice of an anime character would be a dream come true. Win or not, you can bet to see me there trying out...Danielle probably will shy away from it eventhough she once voiced Sango with Richard Cox at a panel ^^. We will also most likely be at the Gurren Lagen panel too so I'll hopefully try to wear something that will show who we are so any of you who will be there could maybe meet up with us. I will utilize my iPhone for live updates as well.
As most of you have probably heard many, many times today, today marks the 7th anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Being that I'm in New York here on Long Island, I can't help but to write about it. About 500 people from my area died that day, people who were just at work on a nice, clear morning who didn't know what was to take place. There's a make-shift memorial of the Twin Towers just a block away from me on a neighbor's front lawn. It's been there since about a month after the attacks, and everyday, while the world and even this country kind of forgets 9/11 throughout the year, except for today, I continue to salute it and remember. I also didn't forget that al Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden and most involved are still out there along with the evil known as extremist religious fundamentalism that is the root of this act like this and acts similar from the past, present and future...even though it almost seems the US has forgotten this with its mindless Iraq war and thinned out troops in the lands of our real enemy.
I was just starting my senior year in high school. Within a week's time of being there I already knew my packed schedule with almost all AP classes was to be way too much for me being I was also working full time as a semi-manager at Friendly's Ice Cream. This website was maybe just a few lines of HTML code on my web design class computer or just a sparkle in my eye. I was getting a bad case of "senioritis" and wanted the immense free time I could have for anime drawing and my site if I cut the AP courses. As each bell rang I threw in the towel to each AP course but it wasn't long before I heard the commotion in the hallways. At first people thought it was just a freak accident and some misguided small plane hit the towers. Then, shortly after the second plane hit, the worry began to creep in. I was handing the books to my AP biology teacher while she viewed the image of the second blast on the classroom's computer. It was then that we were told to sit and listen to the radio report live. I was in a state of disbelief. When they said one of the towers fell I thought they meant the large radio tower on one of them. I never thought they could have possibly meant that one of and then shortly later that both of the enormous Twin Towers were falling to the ground. Middle of the radio broadcast the bell rang for the next class and everyone was on their cell phones. Practically my whole family was in eastern Long Island with my mother being a stay-at-home-mom and my father being a home business owner so I didn't have a cell phone then nor did I have reason to call my family. I still can't get and will probably never forget the image of all the students of Newfield High school in the hallways. Many were crying and scared on their cell phones as they tried to reach loved ones. It was utter chaos, sadness and confusion. There were many who didn't and never will.
At the same time my fiancee, Danielle of whom I didn't meet till March of that school year was worried about her father, Alex who was just a block away from the towers. Alex told me the scenes were something he wouldn't forget. Many didn't see much of an issue with the first plane but when the second hit, he said everyone began to panic. He was fixing parts of a building nearby when he saw the explosion with paper flying everywhere. Shortly after he heard loud thuds hitting the ground around his building but those were not debris but the bodies of those who jumped from the tops of those 110 story buildings. A site I doubt will ever get out of anyone's mind.
So, on this day, 7 years after it all happened, I was driving to my chiropractor's early in the morning and this year like every year at about 9:00am a surge of sadness hit me and I began to cry for those who lost their lives. Many of my friends lost a loved one and in me still burns the anger for Osama Bin Laden and all like him. If given the chance I'd take no second guess on deterring al Qaeda any way I could whether it be to destroy any possible computer system they have or just simply break their faces in. So while the world remembers 9/11 today, I will continue to salute that Twin Tower memorial near my house everyday like I have for the past 7 years and may all my condolences go to all the families of those lost. If given a chance I will defend their honor and I know many of you would too.
Thanks to dragonballmovieblog I was able to get some screen shots of the upcoming Dragon Ball Movie trailer. You finally get to see what Piccolo looks like and basically....well you be the judge. To me it looks like Piccolo was recycled from James Marshers old Buffy make-up and costumes. It's also starting to make otaku across the web wonder if anyone making or staring in the movie even seen an episode of Dragon Ball, or Dragon Ball Z. For the good chunk of you that probably have a palm mark across your forehead after seeing this...I got great, great Dragon Ball Z news that I'll share in the next few days. Some of you might already know what i'm talking about but at least in November you will be able to feel alot better if think this movie will leave a bad taste in your mouth.
If any anime figure creates a nosebleed, this is the one to do it. Check out this very sexy figure by Orchid Seed. Lala Pipiruno Pipiru Paparemmo, is probably one of the longest and weirdest names I've ever seen on an anime figure. More tissues are needed to plug your nose from gushing blood since this figure is also a cast-off figure...granted there's not much to cast off here. It's actually one of the first figures I've pre-ordered from my new dealership with Mile-Stone and I'm getting a case of 10 sometime in late January, so if you want any, I can get it. She sells though for about $85 and without telling you, she's for collectors 18 and older.
Here I go again with another preview of the new galleries that will be coming soon. This one is something I sort of had but images of me, Danielle and other cosplayers of the 2002 I-Con convention is not enough. Soon there will be a gallery of the best cosplay pics I find on the web and from any conventions I go to, like the upcoming 2008 New York Anime Fest. Like the other sections, I plan on having a version that users can upload their own cosplay pics, too.
As per BusinessWeek a few days back and into affect as of two days ago, the Xbox 360 is now only at $199.99 here in the US. As the article states, its an effort to try to hack away at the profits of the Wii. This comes just a before we soon will see the new and ver "Wii-styled" dashboard upgrade. As someone who has both systems, I could care less who wins the fight this x-mas, just keep pumping the cool games and accessories ^_^
Ok, I just had to get this off my chest. For the most part, many of us American otaku could care less about politics, myself included. If you follow the news at all, we all know that we are less than 60 days away from one of the biggest elections in American history. I was born on November 8th, 1983 and that actually was Election Day then so I guess I should mention this upcoming Nov.4th benchmark date. Granted, like many otaku, I'd rather take a plane to the land of the rising sun and avoid the countless stupidity that America has shown so far in the 21st century. In the global arena, America is like the annoying drunk at a party with his pants down shouting "I am the greatest!" yet you know that he just soiled himself and probably doesn't have the money for the taxi back home. As someone who lives in one of the most anal parts of the US, New York's, Long Island, I've come to see all spectrums of the American people from the ass-backwards over-religious conservatives who would bring the second coming of Christ, burn all science and logic documents, and make sure we all are one color and race..to the elitist, wine smelling "I'm better than you" types of people. Lets face it, you don't have to ask an Otaku twice that America needs change. Both candidates are shouting this and its expected in every election that goes on in this nation.
The main issue though, I feel, that is the root of the American problem is actually something that the country can't seem to grow out of, which is sadly the conservative, mainly Christian fundamentalist take on reality... a statement which in itself is an oxymoron. In this time, more than ever we need to look to the future and drop the crap of the past; something a religious fundamental person can't shake free from. As American otaku, we have fallen victim to such garbage. Remember how bad Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball Z and other anime was beaten to a pulp and filtered for kids by American censors? Vegeta did not blast enemies to another dimension, he freaken killed them! At times in the series he punched his fist through others and also decapitated them. It's this Christian Fundamental fog of judgment that made them think, "Anime is just cartoons and cartoons are just for kids." It took till really about last year for the true uncut Dragon Ball Z to be sold here in the US on DVD, which is 10 years after they were first aired in America and 20 years after these episodes where aired in Japan. Yes, for some of you that didn't know, the Boo Saga ended in Japan in 1989, hell, GT ended in 1995.
Now that is just one example on how we gamers and otaku have been given the short end of the stick here because of this ass-backwards mode of thought. I don't believe kids should be subject to violent and adult material but you don't take a work of art (anime) and bastardize it because it doesn't mention enough about God, Jesus and the 10 commandments. Showing kids the countless lives and societies lost from the conquest of the Christian, Islamic and other fundamentalist religious groups is something these people also can't show due to how graphic and wrong it is. So even they have to water down their own history and facts. One of the people who all us Otaku and especially gamers love to hate was one of the, if not the main host of the Republican Convention that ended last night, Joe Lieberman. Lieberman is Mr. Anti-Video-Games and Mr. Anti-Anime, if you don't believe me, look it up...the ESRB ratings are all from his wining about the game, Night Trap...just as an example. If given his way, everyone from 2-32 would be only allowed to watch Veggie-Tales on their TV with their thumb up their ass. Just hearing that this guy almost was the Vice-Presidential candidate for McCain made me want to pack my bags for Tokyo and thus why I had to stand up and ramble on like I am now.
To make matters worse, it really does appear that McCain will be the next George Bush, which will also not be in anyone's favor in this day and age. For the first time, as of the end of last year, I actually went and registered to vote. At the age of 24, like I said, I never cared about politics and like many of you, I felt that no matter who wins, nothing will get done. I feel though that at least with Obama winning the election, the country will tip in the right direction (and not that kind of right, thankfully) since we will have someone who is young, new and doesn't seem to have religious idiocies clouding judgment. He seems to have just common sensical morals of decency that all religions talk about yet many of them historically never followed.
Now before you go and state that I'm some anti-religious atheist, I'm not. Religion has its place in the world but as a nation here in the US and in many parts of the world, people need to come to terms that its the pushing of these beliefs instead of using such noble moves as the Law of Attraction through kindness of others, non-racial and non dogmatic acts of common sense to better their religious group. History has shown that fundamentalist religious groups have been the cause for 90% of all wars and the slowing of humanity's progression. As for us Otaku here in the US, more of this type of thought will cause the so-called leaders in Washington to pass legislation to limit anime, anime figures, anime conventions and videogames. We have seen it already and if more of these types of people are in office through McCain's election and have too much of a say, expect more of your rights to be taken away as otaku. I'd go as far to say a world like Code Geass wouldn't be too far from the truth with us being Britannia because of a tyrant leadership. Of course, don't get me wrong about the US and world's major issues like the economy and terrorism, if you read my other blog, you know how I talk about those topics. The reason why I point out the chance of us as otaku losing our rights to view unedited and unamericanized anime is because history goes to show that its these minor topics that are the ones that actually get laws put to them to make the government look like they are doing something even though they are ignoring the major issues. "Well, a 2 room shack on Long Island goes for $500,000, banks won't give loans above $50,000, taxes are through the roof, there's no health care system, high-priced schools teach kids to be nothing but cubical-slaves and even then there's no jobs for them to sell their dignity to for a paycheck but hey, wait..looks like Joe Lieberman just sent a bill to Washington that banned the anime "Candy Boy" because it showed signs of incest lesbianism and it passed. So glad to see they are getting rid of gay stuff because that is the most major issue to the American way of life. Go US government!" (obvious sarcasm in the last part of my little "for instance" there).
As a fellow American otaku, if you are like me and didn't vote or registered, do so and I'll be supporting Obama. I'm not one to force or say who you should vote for, an act that would be making me like the religious nuts who want you to read a bible or be seen as useless, but to me Obama is the correct one of the two. Oh, and yes that's a picture of Obama from the Air Gear manga. Below is yesterday's Daily Show and Colbert Report episodes. If you are not scared of McCain winning the election...view these episodes. If you didn't get the point of this very large blog post.. I, Chuck Gaffney, owner of the anime store and fan-site Chuck's Anime Shrine, support Barack Obama for President.
Ok. One thing my site lacks that many anime and otaku sites have is an idol gallery. Now the reason for me not having one all these years is simple, I didn't want to upset my fiancee ^^;;. Now that this site is becoming more and more my bread and butter, the thing I want is a full + diverse site and of course many many hits and lets face it, having Japanese idols on a site...generates hits. I will of course keep things PG-13 and clean. When I set up the new gallery I should have a user updated version of the idol section but if anyone violates that with bad pics (or any section for that matter) their IP address and email will be banned... so let's keep it clean people. You all know where to go if you are looking for those types of pictures anyways. So for the first time on this site, may I present the first Idol pic. Don't know her name but if you do, drop it in the comments.
(Danielle, if you are reading this, I posted these up for the betterment of the site not to ogle over ^^;;;;;;)
This is more of a preview of what will be in the new gallery coming up for the newest version of Chuck's Anime Shrine. Trust me, there's much more where this came from. Enjoy this cute anime girl for your online photo collection.
(Sorry for the semi-double post today, forgot I preblogged this a few days back ^^;;)
I can't do posting of pics without showing my fav girl of all time from videogames and anime, the lovely Tifa Lockhart. Enjoy this nice fan art of her.
Hey everyone! Got a chance to sit down and get some hands on experience with the Xbox 360 version of Soul Calibur 4. My current Xbox 360 is suffering from the one ring of death so its going to be sent to Microsoft for repairs. Due to this, my review won't be as in depth as for other games but I got a good day of playing thanks to a good friend of mine who might down the road be my brother-in-law. Anyways, on to the game.
Graphics:
Nothing short of spectacular. Like the previous Soul Calibur games, SC4 manages to utilize the graphic engine very well to bring not only nice looking characters but amazing flow to their movement and fighting that makes it seem like real people (or creatures) are involved and not lifeless dolls. Backgrounds are just as fluid and as graphical as the characters in the arena so there is a great sense of depth to the stages. Wasn't able to unlock all the levels in my allotted time but that's a good thing, since that means there are some to chose from. Most of which have the common closed environment or the familiar open area with the loved or hated ring-out possibility. One stage I noticed does have a row of soldiers that slowly move in and shorten the playing field. Chances are there are more things like that in the stages I didn't play. Speaking of armor and clothing for that matter, great detail was put into the look of them. One quick look and you can see that the Xbox 360's textures were used very elegantly to give the correct texture of even the most detailed clothing. Granted I didn't play the Playstation 3 version of the game but graphically both Xbox 360 and PS3 are about the same with PS3 being the one slightly better but chances are playing both versions of this game, as I'm told seem almost identical graphically. In other words, the characters, the background and also the special effects looks amazing and not plastered in.
Story:
Some people complained that they can't see how Yoda, Vader and the whole Star Wars Universe could be added to the whole Soul Calibur storyline but with my first story-mode win being that of Yoda, it seems fine to me. Other than the main story being that of Sigfried's fight against the Soul Blade, most of the characters are mainly on the outside of this anyways, so no complaints on my end. each character does have an in depth role that connects to the two blades and with each other in some way. If you get confused, the more you play, the more a character-relation-graph gets filled so that should fill in the gaps anyone would have. Its a fighting game, so storyline should not be a big issue for any player but there is one there for the reading if you so wish.
Music:
Anyone who's play a Soul Calibur game will be familiar to the type of music played in SC4, the chimes of knightly valor and honor like a modern medieval brawl is the same here. For those who are wondering about any Star Wars tracks, you'll be happy to know that the theme from the recent movies is there and with matching stages, too. Not sure if there are any more SW tracks but everything sounds good and if I had some surround sound in my place, I would like it even more.
Game Play: Now for the most important aspect of any game, especially for a fighting game. Fans of Soul Calibur will be pleased to know that the fast fighting action from previous versions is alive and well on the current systems. The fast old-school-like fighting is there and yes, so is the old-school dieing many times in the harder challenges. Yet, whether you are a veteran fighter or a button-masher, SC4 continues what the SC series does for both types of fighters and make both feel at home with a few new additions. These few additions include a first player mode that works like Dark Stalker's Tower Mode where you fight your way up a tower and if you lose, you descend. Also added (at least I don't remember it being in SC3) is the ability to increase the skill level of your character. This gives an almost RPG feel to it and unfortunately in my shortened time I wasn't able to see what difference the increased levels bring.
The Story Mode plays a bit differently too compared to other titles. In the stages you face per character, you will fight more than one enemy per stage. They are divided by the main characters and some randomly created ones (you can also chose random characters for yourself as well). Sometimes they join you and you can have a backup for when the later levels hand you on a plate. Speaking or random characters, the Character Creation Mode is there and this time you can customize the main characters as well and add that customization to their clothing list before battles. Didn't play long enough to see if you can create other characters from scratch like in SC3 but with all the unlocking you can do, it'll of course be a nice long play through to get everything. Being that Soul Calibur is the Gran Turismo of fighting games, this doesn't come as a surprise.
One last addition to the gameplay I must take note and its a big one, is the new Soul Crush ability and armor/clothing slashing effects. Some of the characters have extra armor and clothing (except for Ivy of course ^^;;) and that's because in the course of your fighting clothing and armor gets hacked away. It adds great realism to the fighting and though you won't see any IkkiTousen-style clothing mishaps, its pretty cool all-in-all. The hacking of clothing is also part of what I feel is the best thing to add in the fighting game and that's the ability to do the one hit kills (that look amazing by the ways) if a character defends too much. It doesn't happen very quickly so don't worry if you need to defend but if you are cheap with your defence (or the CPU is), payback can hurt very badly here. This adds the perfect balance to what I feel is the perfect fighting game. I give this game a 10 out of 10 with the only issue being that the loading times in the character select might be sluggish, and the Xbox Live aspect of it lags a bit too, but that's not much of SC4's fault as it is my network's (and the company running my home internet's fault). Enjoy this game and once my Xbox 360 comes back, you can fight user Chuck Gaffney (me, yeah I used my name ^^;;) as my look-a-like, Kilik.
Happy Labor Day to all US visitors and today will probably not be much of a day off for yours truely but that's ok since today will be filled with me wrapping up loads of anime figures for the store. If I can take a break from all the boxing I should be on the way to start version 4.0 of this site. With the success of the blog this past year, the store, the recent news that Flash will be searchable and the inclution of my iPhone as a tool, a facelift is needed. What I plan on adding is the following: a mobile section for iPhone and other mobile users, a newer anime gallery that syncs with MobileMe or Flickr, user generated gallery, long awaited series sections, possible twitter feed and posting, and a better forum (since it's been rather dead as of months ago). With my job still eating lots of my creative time, expect me to take a bit of time on some of these (something I've been saying since the site's start ~_~) Let me know what features you'd want, be great to know, too.
Before I hit the hay tonight and just before we say goodbye to August and soon the end of Summer 08 , enjoy this anime girl of the day, this being the lovely Yo-Ko in summer attire. Don't forget any summer and don't be sad with the back-to-school or the end-of summer blues. Just around the corner there will always be fun in the sun and a hot anime girl in a bikini.
