Bravely Second End Layer Video Game Review – 70/100

by AidanAK47, posted in Game Reviews

I truly do long for the glory of old Square enix to return once again but that day looks to be coming no time soon. So till then I guess I should make do with the closest thing I can get. That being Bravely Default. Though published by Square Enix, Bravely Default is made by Silicon Studio and truly they are the closest to capturing the spirit of Squares once great rule over the RPG. Though they just seem to be falling short of catching it. The first game of the series held a lot of potential. The battle mechanics where spot on perfect and the system took the best of the JRPG and removed much to the negatives to it. For example, you can alter the encounter rate at any point in the game. Random encounters were once the necessary evil of the genre in that they made traveling anyway a pain when you just seeked to reach the end of a level. In this game you could turn up or off the encounters whenever you wished so you can only face them when you need to. There are also things such as having a speed up button for combat and the game’s most defining feature. The ability to take multiple actions in exchange for skipping future turns. Two of these are small changes that remove a lot of the tedium of RPGs; so much so I wonder why it took this long for someone to implement them. The third gives a whole new depth to the turn based battle system. However while I can lavish praise on the game’s mechanics, the same cannot be said for it’s story. The story of bravely default is passable and has some neat aspects but the game truly suffers from it’s last arc. For you see before facing the last area you are forced to fight the same four bosses, not just once, or twice, or three times, or even four. Five times people, you are forced to fight the same four bosses five times over. When I played this it felt like a joke. I just couldn’t believe someone thought this was a good game design decision. Part of this could be blamed on how this boss rush seemed to be a part of a sort of updated version of the game but it still a terrible idea. The bosses don’t even change, they just level up which forces you to grind. Story Wise I can sort of understand the intent but it’s never a good idea to make your game intentionally tedious. Sorry I ranted quite a bit but despite the flaws in story and that last boss rush, I felt that this game could have a great sequel. Which brings me to Bravely Second. As to how I have it despite it not being released in america, us europeans got it before you Americains. So consider this a head up on what to expect and trust me when I say I won’t spoil.

After the events of the previous game has saved the world, we now have a new crysis. On the day the Church and the army decide to work hand in hand for the future, a mysterious man called the Black Kaiser crashes the ceremony and kidnaps the pope who is Agnes from the previous game. Having been completely defeated a young boy from a noble household and two friends of a royal army known as the crystalguard set off to assault the Kaisers floating Fortress and free the pope. The story of this game is better…I guess? The Kaiser is a villain that had a lot more layers to him than the villain of the last game and at least it puts aside the old plot of awaking crystals. However it does share a number of weaknesses with it’s predecessor. For one I think this series has now a tradition of having a main party with two fun characters and two dull characters. Two characters make a return from the first game, those being Tiz and Edea. Edea’s still fun but despite the fact that Agnes isn’t around for Tiz to constantly fuss over, he’s still a rather boring character. Our two new characters are Yew and Magnolia. Magnolia is an strange addiction whose background honestly sounds utterly ridiculous. She’s a bold sassy girl from the moon whose occupation is being a Ba’al Buster(Take note, that is pronounced “Ball Buster”. Clearly intentional and makes me smile every time.) and happens to sometimes speak in French because…people from the moon are French.(I know. I think it’s weird too but just roll with it) Yew on the other hand is not really that notable. He’s a bookworm, is oddly optimistic despite being meek and has a very strange saying of “For the gravy!” or “Coup de Gravy!” Other than that, despite being a step up from Tiz he’s still not all that interesting. The enemies you face fare a lot better as they all have their own reasons and distinct personalities. I also like the level of playfulness with the narrative. It doesn’t take itself too seriously and does make fun of itself at times. The main narrative does have a lackluster hook though as it mainly involves you chasing the Kaiser’s floating fortress all over the continents as he sends his elite members down one by one to fight you. There are also these creatures known as Ba’als that pop up now and again but really serve little narrative purpose besides being bosses at the end of some areas or things you can fight in the rebuilding mechanic of the game. The character interactions do work well to fill the less exciting parts of the story.

Taking over from Revo from the first game we have a new composer for the music called Ryo and I certainly pity the man. Revo’s Bravely Default soundtrack is excellent in its mismash of folk instruments and rock. It’s a soundtrack that gave expectation for the sequel to live up to and Ryo simply cannot meet those expectations. He is far from a bad composer as his boss themes do hold some promise as to how he can grow but he has far too heavy a reliance on electric guitar which makes his ost sound too derivative. The gap in quality is further emphasised when tunes are reused from Revos soundtrack which truly makes Ryo’s music feel inferior by comparison. In one battle there was points were the music switched between Ryo and Revos music that showed the wider range of instruments used by Revo and the impact. There are a few standouts in Ryo’s soundtrack, as I said I do like the boss themes, but it is an undeniable step down. As for the mechanics they remain the same as the previous game which is good as they were perfect. The only change in that area is the new jobs which you can obtain. There are some stranger jobs now like Catmancer and pastry chef but they do open up new tactics to play. Leveling up a job class remains a gratifying experience and the level of customization you can have for your own team is staggering. There’s also a gamble feature where if you defeat all enemies within the first turn then you are given the option to fight another battle with exp gain and Jp gain increased. If you manage to do the same in the next battle then the multiplier goes higher. However you do not reclaim health or character turns when you do so. So it’s a matter of risk and reward. As far as the general gameplay goes, it’s all good. Returning features include the Bravely second ability(Which I for the most part completely ignored) and a feature to rebuild a town in exchange for new abilities and items. However you can no longer buy from shops built in this town and I found it’s a lot harder to become overpowered in this game than it was in the previous game. Though pro tip, you can level up quite fast by going to Gaap Keep and making use of a lot of phoenix downs.

Here comes my biggest problem with this game and I must say that in all the reviews I have read there doesn’t seem to be hide or hair of this massive glaring issue. Perhaps it’s not quite as noticeable as I make it out to be but I must warn you if you are a fan of the previous title. For you see, Bravely Second recycles a heavy amount of content from the last game. You may think that’s not so bad but listen to me on this. It recycles a massive amount of things, so much so that I was getting a lot of deja vu while playing it. The world map is reused, the dungeons are reused, music is reused, enemy models are reused, and towns are line for line reused. It is to such an unbelievable degree that I truly question just how much of this game is truly new content. It feels very much like a glorified DLC expansion quest than a genuine new title. I so tried to ignore it and think to myself “But hey it’s not that bad right. The story is different.” but it nagged and nagged at me the more I played. I mean if you must make use of an old area then wouldn’t it be only right to change the layout? I mean I am going through the exact same area, pressing the exact same switches and seeing the exact same paths I saw in the first title. This is beyond lazy. This game may have dodged the problem of having a series of boss rushes near the finish line but it has filtered that same level of repetition throughout this title. I wouldn’t blame you if you felt you were done a replay of Bravely Default while playing this game. For those jumping into the title from this entry it shouldn’t nearly be as much of an issue though.

Speaking off topic slightly there has been controversy regarding this games localization. The biggest issue is that a character who was previously based on a native american style was changed to not offend native Americans. What I find most amusing about this change is that in order to not offend native Americans they changed a native American character into a cowboy. Now I don’t know about you but to me that seems far more offensive than simply having an Native american character. As for the change itself it actually makes more sense as the character’s skillset is based around guns and sniping. Through the localisers missed a bit as her skillset is still referred to as “Shamanism” in the localized title. The other controversy involves the side quests of the game which take on an interesting approach. There are a number of side quests in the game which can gain you jobs which were featured in the previous game. However each side quest involves a dispute between two job holders over an issue. You must choose which persons side to take and in doing so you fight the opposing side and obtain their job. Here is the interesting part, the game points out that you will not be able to obtain the other job for the rest of the playthrough and the argument between the job holders is usually not a black and white issue. For example, do you allow a jewel that produces water to be used to quench the thirst of dying desert nomads or let the jewel be researched to create a potential new energy source which could let to untold good? Do you allow a unknown song from a famous composer to be remade by a diva for modern appeal or respect the composer’s wishes for it to remain as it is? Lots of moral dilemmas which have no real right answer but create a dissonance between your needs as a gamer and your own ideology. For example I was caught in a debate between making a school Coed or having separate schools for both genders in a country which was primarily governed and populated by women. I was on the side of making the school Coed as I heavily disagree with the opposing sides reasoning. However a job which I had been after from the very start, the monk job, also sided with that argument. In order to obtain the monk job I would need to side with someone whose argument I disliked massively. It was an fascinating experience. I sat lost in thought over just what was more important to me. Do I stick to what I believe is right or toss my beliefs aside to get what I need? I was truly impressed by this feature which makes it all the more disheartening at just how they ruin it. For you see, while trying to keep this as vague as possible, something happens which effectively negates these choices and allows you to go back and obtain the jobs you missed. My hard thought out choices just invalidated like that. So I then disregarded my ideology completely and just sought out the jobs for completionist sake. In doing so I found out that it really didn’t matter what I picked as regardless everything turns out fine in the end anyway. Part of the controversy was that the more dark consequences of these choices was changed in the localization version which I don’t like. However regarding what happens to your choices in the end it’s really doesn’t make the pointless nature of the choices any better.

Looking back on my playthrough of Bravely Second I can’t help but feel that this series has the ability to reach greater heights but once again it has missed this opportunity. The heavy amount of reused assets, the lackluster soundtrack and a still lacking story hold back a fantastic battle system and RPG mechanics. I did quite enjoy it but I admit I was getting quite sick of it as I neared the end of my playthrough. The ending salvaged a good amount of my feelings and I say this game is good but not great. But I still look forward to another Bravely title for they have all the ingredients for the perfect JRPG and all they need to do is get them all together. Better yet, why not make a full console title instead of another handheld. Truly all that is needed is a better writer and to have Revo to come back for the soundtrack. Give it a graphical update for good measure and cut it out with the lazy padding and recycling. With that what you would have would surely be an RPG to remember.

Some Quick First Impressions: Kiznaiver, Bungou Stray Dogs and Koutetsujou no Kabaneri

by AidanAK47, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Kiznaiver

Short Synopsis: A mysterious girl Kidnaps six strange characters and makes it that they share pain between all of them in an experiment to find a solution to world conflict.

My first thought when watching this was that this was fairly mellow for a trigger series. The likely explanation behind that is because the director who gives it’s shows it quickfire humor and energy is busy animating a ten minute anime series called Space Patrol Luluco in this season. Not to say there isn’t any distinct “trigger” in this show as a moment where the mascots wheel a character through a hospital with disco balls would heartly disagree. I am really liking the opening as with watching a lot of standard opening animations season after season it’s nice to see someone try something difference. Kiznaivers Opening is mesmerising though could make people potentially dizzy. My potential rating would be higher if only I was aware of just where this story was going with this concept. My closest guess would be a kind of story like Kokoro Connect which involved a group of kids linked together by a supernatural affliction and the drama that came with it. If that’s the case then I am fully on board as I felt that Kokoro never truly did the excellent concept justice. I am also happy to see that Trigger looks to have gathered funds from it’s previous projects because there is very little penny pinching with this animes animation. In fact I will even say this, Kabaneri may have the best art of the season but I think Kiznaiver has the best animation. There is a definite feel of passion in the movement and the characters feel truly alive. Not only that, while they are not truly original(In fact a number of them may remind you of previous Trigger works) they are all pretty likeable and distinct. I am interested to see where this goes and seeing as Kiznaiver won the straw poll in my season preview it looks like I will be letting you know just how this turns out.

Potential: 85%

 

Bungou Stray Dogs

Short Synopsis: A group of supernatural detectives named after famous authors try to track down a tiger chasing after an abandoned Orphan.   

Even animated my impression of this story still remains the same. Perhaps it’s the resemblance to Blood Blockade battlefront that causes me to not get engaged in this or it could be just a lack of interest. I give this a middling mark as I think there could be those who could find this interesting but it just doesn’t appeal to me. There was a significantly large amount of comedy involved than I remember and one or two jokes got a smile but the rest didn’t really hit me. The twist at the end of the episode does open up possibilities for the rest of the show but the characters feel like they are trying too hard to be comedic. Especially Dasai with his jokey obsession with suicide which I find is rather disrespectful to the author. How much actual detective work in this show looks to be minimal as it’s seems to be more along the lines of meaningless term for a supernatural task force. We only know of three characters so far and I mainly just know their comedic quirks rather than personalities. This is a show I have difficulty making a judgement call on so I think the best way to see if this is for you is to just check it out yourself. It has it’s interesting aspects but it just doesn’t do anything for me.

Potential: 50%

 

Koutetsujou no Kabaneri

Short Synopsis: Our MC tries to build a new weapon in a world where people build huge walls to hide from the Titans…um I mean Kabaneri.

It’s rather redundant to say just where the inspiration for this show came from and it screams it with it’s every phore. Now by all means I am not against making use of a similar idea; if you can take a concept and turn it’s themes to present a new perspective then there is no shame in making use of a popular property as a base for your own story. However if you are going to do that then you should make use that the changes you make to the idea to differentiate it are there to make it more interesting and not more derivative. Sadly I think that Kabaneri has taken the latter route in it’s execution. The switch from Western to eastern culture for the setting is quite interesting but switching titans for zombies is just a bad move. Titans were interesting because they presented a new challenge to taking them down that made it more dynamic and exciting. Now they are just zombies which are essentially so overdone to an massive degree. Zombies are the standard now. Couldn’t we have gone for something more interesting like say ghosts or centaurs or something? So there is a heavy amount of borrowing from another source and what it has added in to replace it is significantly more cliche. However there is merit to this one. For one the artwork is very pretty with character designs invoking the style of 80s to 90s OVAs. Not the bland style of Endride but the more Ninja scrollish approach. Also like Ninja scroll we have plenty of gore. Uncensored for your viewing pleasure. Sawano is doing the OST though so far it’s far too reminiscent of his previous work. The biggest problem here is the writer who hasn’t written anything good after Code Geass. The story already has logical plotholes. For example, why did they get the first train to stop before pulling down the drawbridge yet lower the drawbridge for the second straight away? Why does the main character have a device that looks to be for the primary use of choking someone? What’s the point of building walls to keep out creatures that look like they can climb things without trouble? As well as a lot of people acting really dumb just to make the protagonist look better. I don’t have much faith in this writer and I think the plot holes are only going to get worse from this point on. However perhaps we can look past that and just enjoy the pretty visuals.

Potential: 60%

Some Quick First Impressions: Anne Happy, Bakuon!! and Netoge no Yome wa Onnanoko ja Nai to Omotta

by AidanAK47, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Anne Happy

Short Synopsis:   A group of girls are placed in a class for the unlucky

I feel like I watched lucky Star with a slight variation on the main characters. Can’t really say much about this one. The comedy relies on how these girls end up in unfortunate situations due to their own characteristics. Super Genkai girl keeps getting into trouble while trying to help animals, Sick glasses girl keeps getting injured and is self deprecating and the most normal girl of the group is in love with a construction sign mascot. The problem is that I have seen this before. Somewhere or somehow I have seen these elements before and it leaves me quite unamused. This isn’t bad but more…pointless? I mean there are much better comedy alternatives and better “Cute girls doing cute things” alternatives. I see no reason to recommend this show at all.

Potential: 0%

 

Bakuon!!

Short Synopsis: Cute girls love motorcycles the anime.

If we are going to go with the tired concept of mentality regressive girls hanging out in a club then at least we can stick some motorcycle trivia on to it. I can’t say this one is breaking any anime conventions but being about a girl who’s getting into motorcycles at least gives it a new tropic to work with. Our main however seems like she has a fairly low IQ with her riding her bike to school while making motorcycle noises with her mouth. Accompanying her we have a overzealous motorcycle euteusinest, a older girl who never speaks or takes off her helmet and a girl with a taste in horrible motorcycles. It’s mildly watchable I guess and if you are into this kind of show I believe this will give you your fix better than Anne Happy. While this kind of show isn’t for me at least the slutty inner motorcycle voice that instructs the main got me to smile.

Potential:30%

 

Netoge no Yome wa Onnanoko ja Nai to Omotta

Short Synopsis: Guess what? There are women on the internet. I know, shocking.

I am not amused. So our main protagonist happens to find out that the people he parties up with in a online game are all female and this so called in game wife happens to be a single, beautiful big breasted girl who’s all over him. You know I am not against wish fulfillment anime, after all a lot of entertainment I do enjoy is essentially wish fulfilment. But can we not have it as thinly veiled as it’s presented here? Look, I can certainly relate to wishing to find a girl who happens to share your interests and happens to be a looker but let’s have some realistic standards here. Besides this so called perfect girl would annoy the holy hell out of me be it in real live or in a game. I mean just think of her clinging to you like this while talking in this high voice that could grate cheese into fine powder and you will find that some things work better in theory than in practice. We have a harem incoming as our twin Tail tsundere(Pointed out by the characters onscreen to be an anime cliche but again doesn’t mean you are subverting it by drawing attention to how lazy your characterization is.) is already attached to our main. The student council president is clearly a work in progress and spoiler warning but that guy who the MC was humiliated by confessing to while thinking she was a girl was actually his young female teacher. Ain’t that convenient? I found this to be rather cringe worthy and quite insipid. As the anime showed highly animated versions of the characters talking within the game I couldn’t help but wonder just how this was really happening. For we see scenes of them displaying and reacting to each other in game but when we zoom out back to real life we see the game has the graphical fidelity of Runescape. So technically those scenes displayed ingame are straight up impossible with that interface. Either way this is not funny nor worth your time. Give it a pass.

Potential: 0%

Some Quick First Impressions: Joker Game, Sousei no Onmyouji and Macross Delta

by AidanAK47, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Joker Game

Short Synopsis: In the beginning of WWII a group of spartan trained spies attempt to catch an American spy hiding in the country.   

Marvelous. Maybe it’s the lack of teenagers, maybe it’s the uncommon setting, or just maybe it’s because the spy leader is remarkably similar to Houzuki from the visual novel Sharin No Kuni but I loved this episode. Our protagonist is a straight laced Japanese Nationalist which makes him the perfect viewpoint for this story. As while we aren’t the type to die for the glory of Japan, our mains straight laced morals act as a good venue to highlight the nature of a spies work. For we aren’t dealing with the guns and glory James Bond style of spy but instead the true nature of a spy. Deception and stealth are the name of the game with combat being the last resort. This opening episode sets that up perfectly as we have our team of spies introduce our main to the “Joker Game”. On the surface a normal game of poker but on a deeper level a game of sabotage and deceit as players try to out cheat other players through bribery and hand signals. Having thus be viewed from an individual whose doctrine is set in honor gives us a clear picture on the nature of a spy. A spy resorts to any means necessary to complete the mission, no matter how dishonorable it would be to the masses. The atmosphere of this episode had a level of style that immediately caught my attention from the opening. However what’s obviously going to be a rather controversial matter is with the setting. As we all know, Japan wasn’t exactly playing with the good guys in this war so how that is shown here might cause some outrage if not handled delicately. However if this episode is an example of what is to come then I am very much looking forward to how this turns out.

Potential: 95%

 

Twin Star Exorcists(Sousei no Onmyouji)

Short Synopsis:  A boy becomes an exorcist again to save a strange female exorcist.

SIgh…oh Studio Pierrot. First let me say that this first episode wasn’t bad per say and I am more in despair over how the rest of this series will likely turn out. I have read the manga of this and I can say it’s pretty good. Nothing revolutionary but a fun read. Now the first chapter or two of this series is admittedly not all that impressive as it plays by the numbers up until the main defining aspect of this series. (Namely about how it has been foreseen that these two are destined to get married and give birth to an exorcist who will save humanity) This first episode does cover the events of the first chapter but rather loosely. There are lots of small little unnecessary changes such as adding additional scenes and omitting some jokes. One casualty is that in the manga when Rokudu jumped into the water to save Benio; she had already swam to the shore and saved herself. Then she needed to jump back in to save him because he didn’t know how to swim. Considering how the humor was handled here though I think it would be less amusing. Jokes that were in the episode that made me smile in the manga left me stone faced here. It’s hard to pin down but there is something off about the presentation here. Of course that could be because the animation is fairly lackluster and considering it’s Studio Pierrot that’s really to be expected. The soundtrack is quite disappointing as the music featured in the PV looks to be the opening theme and the episodes music really isn’t noteworthy. Most of my gripes with this episode are surely minor as it did a decent job despite the needless changes. There is terrible news that comes with this however for you see I have heard word that this anime will have four cours. Now that’s pretty rare for an anime to have four cour’s and would be a cause for celebration…if the manga didn’t only have enough material for about an cour and a half. Filler ahoy! We already have an anime original character who has only been heard yet already annoys me. Looks like we have another Naruto adaption on our hands people; if you remember; the first part of Naruto was 220 episodes long and more than half of that was filler. But who knows? Perhaps they can pull through and present us with an original adaptation with it’s own merits such as the original Fullmetal Alchemist. I highly doubt it but hey they haven’t screwed up yet. Yep, not yet but sadly eventually.

Potential: 30%

 

Macross Delta

Short Synopsis: Saving the world with Mecha and JPOP idol tomfoolery.  

Um….hah? I am rather perplexed as to how to react to this one. I was um…new? Our story revolves around a stowaway girl who wishes to join a group called Walkyurie which is some kind of Galaxy counter terrorism organisation mixed with a JPOP idol group. Their main job is to stop cases of a virus called VARS which is a strange disease which causes people to have tons of engorged veins on their skin and start causing destruction through…suicide bombings…and mass shootings…and the attack in this episode is in a middle eastern named planet…subtle guys. Real subtle. My ventures into the Macross franchise haven’t been many(Those being Plus, Zero and Frontier.) but I think the series has moved very far away from what Macross is supposed to be. Them Idols throwing around magic shields and such while singing JPOP were a bit too reminiscent of Symphogear and completely ridiculous. But I suppose that’s the big issue here. I am supposed to take this seriously or laugh and just roll with it? Based on the presentation I can’t really tell because it goes from serious mecha battles to magical girl idols with the same level of sincerity. One of the idols fires a laser that turns into a bunch holographic back up dancers. Our main protagonist has a method of fighting that makes his robot look like it’s dancing. Our main heroine has this weird design were one of her strands of hair ends in a heart which glows. Is that some weird growth or is she some kind of alien hybrid? Or is it there just for no reason? I mean really, just what am I to make of this? I guess there were parts I liked…maybe? Mecha seems decent and even some of the JPOP is catchy despite being cheesy. I was getting reminded of Frontier and that wasn’t too bad a show. But for the most part I just don’t know how to react to this.

Potential: 40%

Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu – 13

by AidanAK47, posted in Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu

So we reach the finale of the first season of Rakugo and against all odds we have a second season to look forward to. The last episode of this season capped off the end of Yakumo’s tale and returns to our characters from the first episode. Through it now some time after Yakumo told them his story and Yotarou from the first episode has just become a shinichi. Konatsu asks Yotarou to do the same story her father did for her long ago and we have a moment were  we the audience know just how much meaning this story has for her yet Yotarou is completely clueless. Yotarou has very much become a new incarnation of Sokeroku and while his performance isn’t as good as Sokeroku’s, it is certainly reminiscent of it. How Konatsu has changed is something I find quite interesting. Her mother was very much stuck in the past and dependent on men to survive. Yet Konatsu has gotten pregnant and is determined to raise the child as a single mother. Konatsu is very strong a self sufficient which was likely birthed by her desire to support her father as a child and her standoffish relationship with Yakumo. On why she got pregnant, Yakumo insinuated that part of this was out of spite for him however Konastu makes it clear that she will not stand for her father’s line dying out. However I wonder why she is so adamant to not name the father. COuld it be this was the result of a drunken night with Yotarou perhaps? Maybe that’s why she was so surprised by his marriage proposal out of the blue. However that is quite unlikely.

Then this episode lets out the words that was being hinted front the start. Yotarou has decided to inherent Sukeroku name. The scene with Yakumo at the grave of Sokeroku venting his frustrations with a mirage of Sokeroku was excellent. Even after all these years his death still eats away at him. He feels that he failed him and that he couldn’t keep Rakugo alive as he wished. And in his ventings the mirage slips into the fog and Yotarou replaces it. We know what Sokeroku wished, a rakugo that never changes and a rakugo that changes with the times. Yakumo has kept one side alive and now I believe Yotarou is the key to being the second side Yakumo needs. Even Matsuda mentioned this fact to Sokeroku himself in the last episode. The crowds need both the styles of Yakumo and him, without one it felt as though something was missing. But Yakumo also mentions how he failed in raising Konatsu which I think he really shouldn’t blame himself for that. Konatsu and him had a standoffish relationship even before Sokerokus death so regardless to how he tried I doubt he could have raised her better. Well maybe he should have let her do Rakugo but admittedly in this time she wouldn’t have much hope in a profession such as that. So we end this season on a bit of a cliffhanger as now as Sokeroku has acted as a guiding light for Yakumo, he too must act to transform the rough Yotarou into the new Sokeroku all the while dealing with the issue of Konatsu’s baby and the mystery as to who is the father. The next season should prove to be quite interesting.

Final Fantasy Type 0 HD Video Game Review – 30/100

by AidanAK47, posted in Game Reviews

There was once a time when Square Enix was the king of RPG’s. You name a beloved classic RPG from the SNES era and chances are it’s a Square RPG. However in recent years the quality of their games has gone down immensely. One could blame the advent of voice acting which highlighted the clunkiness of their writing. Others could blame them placing too high a focus on storytelling as gameplay becomes more basic while cut scenes grow ever more flashy. I personally place blame on Square trying to move away from turn based systems and focus on an action RPG approach. But what is truly an amalgamation of everything that is wrong with current Square is right here, in this game. And boy is it bad. I knew walking into this game that I would not be experiencing a standard final fantasy title but even with that mindset I wasn’t truly prepared for what I got. At this point it’s safe to assume that I am a Final Fantasy fan. I have played FFs 1 to 13(omitting 11) and I always thirst for a new Square title. Though no matter how much I love the series, there is no possible way I can love what it’s become.

On to the story and boy, it sure is a story alright. So this is a world with four kingdoms based around the four gods from China. Dragon, Bird, Tiger Tortoise each with a crystal of water, earth, fire and air. No real reason to throw the four gods of China in there but well cool points I suppose. Long ago, the four nations lived together in Harmony. Then, everything changed when the fire nation attacked. Well actually it was the tiger nation but this is pretty much sums it up. The tiger nation of Milites just decides to start conquering other nations. When they attack the bird kingdom things look dire when they jam the crystal and cut off the nation from its powerful magic. But along comes class zero, a group of twelve people created as a secret weapon that can fight without crystal power. So the nation must depend on class zero to reclaim their land and defeat Milities. Now let me make one thing absolutely clear. The writing of this story is completely, utterly, without question, horrible. I thought Valkyria has bad writing but it truly doesn’t even compare to the level of terrible of this. This is some of the most hackneyed amateur storytelling I have ever seen. Why is that? Well for starters the plot holes are abundant. The most glaring example has to do with the nature that when people die in this world then all memory of that person is wiped from everyone’s memories. An interesting concept I admit but it just opens the way of an abundance of logical failings. For example a big part of one of the characters arcs is that in the beginning his brother died because he delivered a message to class zero in the middle of a battle. Why was this message so important? Why did class zero ask for this person specifically to deliver it? Nope not important, what is important is that right in the middle of enemy territory one of their commanders decides that now is the perfect time to call this kid called Machina out and specifically let him know that class zero got his brother killed. He even outright says it “You could say they are the ones who killed your brother” This guy isn’t working for the bad guys and looks to be doing it just to spite the doctor who created them. When class zero is your main line of defense against a total destruction of a nation one would think self preservation would win out over personal vendetta. He straight up says this to another leader and she just says she doesn’t care as long as he keeps her out of it. This causes Machina to hate class zero and act antagonistic towards them. This is all undermined by the fact that he shouldn’t even remember his brother at all so he’s getting all angsty over someone he doesn’t even remember. it seems the details on this memory erasing is vague as a queen of the dragon nation dies later on and yet people still remember their was a queen and someone even tries to get revenge for her. This whole memory thing just doesn’t make sense in general. Speaking of the queen, class zero are accused of killing her and laughably nobody, not even their own advisors, think they didn’t do it. Made all the more ridiculous when because of the queen’s death Milites forms a convenient treaty that means they have control over the dragon nation crystal and the dragon armies support to help take over the bird nation. I mean does no one leading bird country have a brain? Well there is the one person that created class that looks to know whats up but she seems satisfied to just sit back and do nothing. What follows is a big battle that has bird country somehow come out on top and win the war but straight out of nowhere demons appear and start ending the world. Everyone blames class zero for this because…um…because. Class zero decides to save the world and defeat the endboss to start so new world order or something. I had long lost interest at this point.

I am cutting down the story a bit but that’s what it boils down to and I feel like I just witnessed a teenagers first attempt at writing a story. It’s hard to truly pinpoint every example but the dialogue in this game never sounds natural and certainly is made all the more unnatural when read out by voice actors. No disrespect to them, they did all they could with this script. It keeps throwing out terminology without putting meaning to it. Expecting you to be interested enough to study up on lore just to explain why a Queen from another country can up and decide to call an end to a war between two other nations without question. l’Cies also make a return from FF13 and the game expects you to have played that to understand what they are all about. The game’s cinematic are littered with utterly useless voice over with black screens of text telling you exactly what you just saw. You see Bahamut unleash an attack on the enemy army, suddenly the screen goes black showing text which is read out by voiceover. “Bahamut attacked the enemy army” Yes, I know. I saw it and there is no reason to spell it out. I have heard if “Show, don’t tell” but this may be a case of Show and tell. Worst of all is the characterization. One or two characters get what could be considered an arc but in a cast of 14 playable characters they are all one dimensional caricatures. They are named after playing cards (except Rem and Machina because they ran out of cards) and there personalities are all defined by one single trait. With the leader being the blandest and most forgettable of all. The characterization of the villains is just as bad. You learn nothing about the main villain, just that he loves to talk in that old mastermind talk which assumes everything is going to plan. The other villain to get any screentime is a guy with an eye patch who you fight twice in the whole game. Theirs this cringe worthy moment of him talking to a subordinate whose gimmick is saying the word “fricking” a lot and it’s clear she’s meant to be saying the other F word. This character is introduced in this one scene and this one scene is her only real appearence. Her sole role is to humanize the captain before he has a heroic death scene but it’s just so forced. The death scene itself is equally stupid as it all happens because some random crazy soldier(He’s not even a mechanic) installed the base equivalent if a nuke to the captain’s mech on his own and…no one noticed. Isn’t there like whole teams of people checking this thing? I mean this bomb wasn’t some small device, it was like this big metal ball the size of a car door. And not one person noticed it being installed on the mech? Just ridiculous.

So the stories a bust but what about the gameplay? Well as stated before this does not play like a typical final fantasy game. There are no turn based battles while random encounters are still here on the world map. Instead what we have is a kind of inferior kingdom hearts system. Battles are fought in real time with four buttons assigned to certain actions. You have a standard attack, one for a special attack, one for offensive magic and one for recovery/buff magic. It’s interesting that they gave each character a different moveset and you are encouraged to use them all as in this game you have no way of reviving characters if they fall in battle. You only get characters back if you finish the mission or go to a town. But here’s my problem with it. There are nine melee focused characters and five projectile focused characters. Against flying enemies a melee focused character is useless as they fly out of your attack range. Now guess how many of the bosses are flying types? Here’s the answer, all of them. More or less all the bosses stay out of a melee attack range so if you lose all your characters who can attack from a distance then you might as well start the mission over. Any boss that isn’t a flying type is an unwinnable battle and there are a lot of those. A number of chapters end with you facing an impossible to defeat enemy where your only option is to lay down and die. It may be possible to defeat them in a second playthrough, provided you even wish to do a second playthrough. Though on a first playthrough when after getting beaten up by a gauntlet of enemies you are then greeted with a boss battle you cannot possibly win it’s a bit of a spit in the face for the player. What’s really a spit in the face of the player is the final boss battle which goes the opposite route and is impossible to lose. The entire last dungeon is ridiculously easy now that I think about it. The game has giant difficulty spikes in the missions beforehand but the finale has you fighting slow moving giants that are at half your level. Though on that matter I was relieved as I was long tired of the games cheap difficulty in previous missions.

There are three points of gameplay. The first is breaks which are periods where you can run around a academy and talk to people or go outside to grind levels. These parts are wasted as you can’t actually interact with class zero but instead with side characters that mean little to the plot. Grinding is terrible in that it is necessary and a slow arduous process. You can only level 3 characters at a time and you have 14 to keep even. And they will need to be as if you lose your mains in a mission they are the ones who will have to finish it. Even when given a Growth egg which doubled exp this process was just as slow. The break segments between missions mainly serve as filler and I mostly found myself fast forwarding to the missions. Then there are the Real time Strategy missions which is not really an accurate term for them. There’s no strategy, you are told what to do and what you do is exactly the same every time. You kill enemies coming from a base so the soldiers from your base can take over the enemies base. The order you take over the bases is determined and there’s no skill in it. This aspect is woefully lacking and there are a grand total of three of them in the entire 20 hour game. It’s just a waste of time. The last point is the bulk of the gameplay which is you going through a series of rooms and killing enemies. This is the pattern. Enter a room, kill all enemies, enter the next room, kill me all enemies, rinse repeat till boss. The environments may change and the enemies may change but the experience remains a linear series of rooms filled with enemies with little change besides occasionally being asked to press A somewhere in the map and kill all enemies.

I am aware this is a HD release of a PSP game but visuals are very telling of that fact. I pity those who spent for the same price as a main PS3 title. I at least can say I got it off steam with a heavy discount. The CGI cutscenes may look very pretty but the gameplay visuals are bare bones. Almost PS2 level. Music is fairly unremarkable which is a deep disappointment for a FF title. So after all the negativity is there anything good I can say about it? Well the final level did have interesting challenges and small moments of great visuals. The ending I quite liked as it showed that maybe underneath all this was a genuine effort to make something great. And truthfully I like that they had the guts to take that route. Though despite efforts to make this a darker story I found its darkness more juvenile than mature. Dark storytelling takes a great writer, one who can weave tragedy and handle subtlety. This writer wasn’t even close to that. After all, you can’t attempt to write a story you want readers to take seriously when you have a bloody Moogle giving out objectives with a “Kupo!” In fact that does highlight an impression I get of Square Enix. Back in the NES era of gaming a little company was going out of business and they decided to make one last game before they were snuffed out. In order of it being their final project, they named the game “Final Fantasy” and that title sold so well that it saved them. Square is in trouble once again and they are expecting the title to save them once again. But they now seem to hold contempt for the classics they made but in a odd situation depend on their nostalgia. They once claimed they will never remake FF7 till they make a game that surpasses it and we’ll they couldn’t. Now they are remaking FF7 but the product bares little resemblance to its classic counterpart. They seem determined, nay obsessed to prove that new Square is better than old Square and in doing so have disregarded just what made them great in the first place. So many fantastic IPs like Chrono trigger, the world ends with you and Secret of mana(I highly doubt adventures of mana would have got an IOS remake if it wasn’t called Final Fantasy Adventure) are left aside while Square keeps trying to shove flashy graphics and barrels of lore down our throats. Square listen. Stop trying to be cool. You are not and it’s embarrassing. Stop trying to make movies. Make a game with a fun gameplay system and levels. Stop trying to make real time battle systems with only simplify down strategy to its bare necessities. Return back to a turn based system or go for the best of both worlds like Grandia 2 did. Want proof this is the right choice? Well look at Bravely default. In fact, give up on all future final fantasy titles, take Bravely default’s gameplay mechanics, pretty up the graphics to console level, get Nobuo Uematsu back or bring in Revo to do music and hire a damn good writer to write the story. There, a masterpiece.

Some Quick First Impressions: Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu, Hundred and Seisen Cerberus

by AidanAK47, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Re:Zero kara Hajimeru Isekai Seikatsu

Short Synopsis: A boy is summoned to another world where he finds himself reliving the same day over and over again.

Wow. ANN is not pleased with this one. I normally don’t check out their first episode preview because well I have to watch all these shows anyway regardless of how bad they are. But I heard they blasted this one pretty hard. It’s on these kinds of shows that make me glad that I go out of my way to check the source material because I could very well be doing the same thing if I didn’t. Not to say this double length feature episode was bad but despite subverting cliches it also adhears to cliches as well. Our protagonist is well aware of the other world genre and is thinking that now he is in one that he will be getting some sort of special superpower. Technically he did but it’s far from desirable. It is true that addressing a cliche is not subverting a cliche if you still use said cliche. In this case the main thought he would encounter a cute girl. He did but said cute girl ignores him and runs off to leave him to get beaten up. But then another girl shows up and helps him. As I said, in some ways it subverts and in others it sticks to the standard. Can’t say I am fond of our heroine as she does seem a stereotype and remains so for as far as I have read into this story. However I do think this story is still worthwhile because you can claim it’s following the standard but if the standard involved seeing the protagonist dying horribly over and over again then I would think much better of the genre. Our self proclaimed hikikomori Subaru may be a guy with decent strength but he isn’t going to be gaining godly power like much of our usual other world protagonists. I like the guy as well because at least he’s a step above the standard. Sure his comments about this being an other world story at the beginning are annoying and quite frankly he should have noticed that his was in a time loop by the second run but the man has the drive to learn. I wasn’t too fond of the first episode and in that I think it was a wise decision for white fox to make this a double feature. So far they are doing a great job with adapting the source, in particular I like how they handled the beginning with intercutting scenes of his first death with his time before entering the world. I am not going to make any promises of this being great(For one I believe caricature characterisation is a big weakness in the source) but I think some critics will start changing their tune as the series continues. Besides, I hear the author is a Sadist and if that’s the case…(smirk)

Potential: 90%

 

Hundred

Short Synopsis: A clearly mentally unstable girl challenges a boy to a fight…just..screw it. I don’t care anymore

Can I please have the brain cells that died while watching this episode back? I mean good god just how utterly insipid is this. I am insulted, purely insulted at the outright lack of effort. Truly just how stupid do you think I am, show? Do you honestly believe that I think that girl crossdressing as a boy is a genuine boy? A boy who wears ribbons, has a ponytail and enacts a level of physical contact that would have any normal guy reeling back and asking just what the hell is wrong with you? Oh sure us guys give each other lap pillows all the time. And oh no it just gets worse. A student council president that can expel students? Just…what?! Why? How? Isn’t that just asking to be abused? Not a clingy incest imouto! For the love of god leave some cliches to go die! Also every big boobed girls first appearance is first her chest and then it pans up to show their face. Sort of like the show is saying “Hey look at these breasts! Aren’t they massive!…Oh yeah she has a face too.” So I could go into detail about what this show isn’t worth your time…but really why should I bother. Look if this show isn’t going to put a modicum of effort into presenting a story then truly why should I even try to critic it. Instead I think I will just ask questions. What’s up with main protagonists and fire flashbacks? Is there some kind of pyromaniac who transcends dimensions just to set fire to any place in a flashback? Why was there a minutes worth of some pretty impressive animation for what amounts to our protagonist talking with two other students? Do people not confuse the Monster Savage with the actual term for a Savage? Isn’t there better alternatives to fighting them than using crystals? Biological warfare for example? Isn’t it really inconvenient to have a school on a boat? I mean yeah, Savages are about but I think that Kids that get sea sickness would be screwed at this school. Why is that council president idiot trying to expel two students for being late to a opening ceremony while giving some silly tripe about teamwork when later a clip of her fighting shows she doesn’t work in a team at all?! Just…just…GAH! Hell with it! What’s the point of complaining? It’s crap, it’s lazy, stupid and probably going to get a second season. This just goes to show that for every good Light Novel, there will be a hundred “Hundred”’s.

Potential: 0%

 

Seisen Cerberus

Short Synopsis: A boy seeks out artifacts that were used to seal a dangerous dragon in ancient past.  

After Hundred, I was far removed of patience so perhaps this might not be a fair assessment. But regardless of how I feel currently I think my opinion on this would be the same. I feel pretty indifferent to it. The writing certainly isn’t notable. “He’s holding that sword with one hand. He must be a real master of the blade” Or maybe he’s just strong? Doesn’t really speak for his skills as a swordsman. The artstyle is not all that appealing and I can’t say the music made an impact. What I am seeing here is checking the boxes for a typical show of this mediocre caliber. However what really kills it is the feeling of the dialogue. Every word that comes out of a person’s mouth feels staged, like they pulled it out a recommended selection of lines that would be appropriate for the scene. It’s all just so artificial and this show should be convincing me to feel something for it’s story. It could be fun for some but I think the majority will find no reason to continue.

Potential: 20%

Some Quick First Impressions: Boku no Hero Academia, Endride and Kuma Miko

by AidanAK47, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Boku no Hero Academia

Short Synopsis: A boy with no superpowers wishes to be become a hero.

For the most part I need to reiterate what I said in my said in my season preview about this show. There is nothing particular wrong with it as it does make at least a pretty decent Shounen. If I had to fault it for anything I would say it’s uninspired. There are a lot of aspects which reflect other shounen series and it feels to me like it’s following a formula. But what bugs me the most is that it goes for the less interesting story when it had a potentially greater story in it’s beginning. Midoriya is powerless and despite his desire to be a hero he has no realistic means of achieving it. What comes to pass in the next episode is that he is given a means to obtain a quirk(Aka power) but to me that undermines the lesson of the start. It would have been a far more powerful and interesting story if Midoriya had to make use of his intelligence and cunning to make a name for himself as a hero without a quirk. Which would make him an inspiration for all the quirkless. But instead we have him reinforce the class division and make it that he can only succeed by obtaining a quirk. Still if you can push aside that thought then this can be a decent shounen to watch as we do have some impressive animation on display and a decent hook. (Try not to compare it to One Punch Man. It only comes off worse for it.) It will be a fun little show to watch in between series.

Potential: 60%

 

Endride

Short Synopsis: A boy who loves crystals is dragged to an alternate world.

Well that certainly was something so bland it could be classified as a cheap 90s OVA that was made in the present. There is something about this that just has an aura of cheapness in it’s conception. The protagonist is run of the mill besides his fixation on crystals, the artwork is utterly generic and the setting screams that it is a cheap knockoff of other done to death settings. Even the animation is utterly lackluster as the fight scenes in this episode were determined to show anything other than the fight itself. Watch in awe during a fight as you see a boy with a strained look on his face while weapons clang in the background. The weapons as well just look bad with the main villains weapon resembling a safety pin with a spear stuck to one end. I would be exaggerating if I called this terrible but in truth it is something worse. This is forgettable. This is the kind of anime that is lost to the ages to never be remembered. It isn’t good enough to be recalled nor bad enough to be hated. It’s just…bland.

Potential: 0%

 

Kuma Miko

Short Synopsis: A girl wishes to go to school in the city but is stopped by her guardian who happens to be a talking bear.

This is pretty fun. It’s an enjoyable comedy with some good jokes and decent comedic timing. The chemistry between Natsu the bear and the miko is smooth and makes the nature of the screwball comedy work well. The artwork is bright and pops out while the character designs are easy on the eyes. Natsu’s transitions from bearlike to nonthreatening is nicely done. I liked the reference to Jaws in the beginning and the folktale that happened to sound like a bizarre hentai doujin. Though I must repeat that this likely isn’t going to impress you if you are looking for a laugh out loud comedy. I smiled but I find the show decently enjoyable at best. This isn’t something I see being top of the season.

Potential: 60%

Some Quick First Impressions: Ace Attorney(Gyakuten Saiban), JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure – Diamond is Unbreakable and Mayoiga

by AidanAK47, posted in Some Quick First Impressions

Ace Attorney(Gyakuten Saiban)

Short Synopsis: Our protagonist is a lawyer that says “Objection!!”

Its as I feared. For you see in video game adaptions you have to rip out a core part of the experience and pray that another aspect has enough strength to hold it’s own. In this case it clearly cannot do that as all tension was ripped from the situation. This is admittedly the tutorial case for the game and watching the anime it’s clear that an anime only watcher could notice that. The dialogue that clearly made reference to game mechanics and the visual text boxes that are clearly there for the fans of the games. In the games the tension of the case was there because it was you who was looking over the court record and finding inconsistencies in the witnesses statement. When you cut out that aspect it just feels like Phoenix(Calling him Naruhodo just feels weird to me) is pulling the answers out of nowhere with little effort. This could be remedied in future episodes as we follow him investigating the case but it won’t fix the problems in presentation. This entire episode just felt off. The beginnings pacing was too fast, the music felt inappropriate and terrible, art is passable at best and something wasn’t right about the animation. To me this feels like it wasn’t a top priority project for A-1 pictures and something about it just makes it seem lazy. But perhaps the fault simply is that Ace Attorney can’t transition to anime because it’s game format was an important part of it’s charm.

Potential: 30%

 

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure – Diamond is Unbreakable

Short Synopsis: Once again a new Jojo must face a Bizarre enemy

The first thing you will notice is the art style which is very evocative of the Bronze age of comic books. It takes some getting used to but it is a rather interesting style despite the strange use of colour. It seems I will be able to enjoy this series without watching the rest of stardust crusaders as we seem to be on a brand new storyline. My only question being just why is Jotaru’s cap fused with his skull? Did something happen or is that just a weird design choice? Either way this is looking to be a return to form for Jojo as our new protagonist has a much more interesting power and personality. His way of snapping when someone makes fun of his hair is quite amusing and the weird method he has of fighting opens up a whole new layer of possibilities with future encounters. The presentation is very old school and has a certain charm to it. If you seen Jojo you know what to expect here and I can say it’s still delivers on that. Whether it can keep up the steam depends on how this Arc turns out.

Potential: 70%

 

Mayoiga

Short Synopsis: A group of crazies are on a bus trip to a secret village to start their lives over.

While it hasn’t been confirmed, it looks to be certain this is a horror anime. For this episode has ominous vibes throughout and I like that. There is a lot of potential here in the eerie atmosphere and a huge cast full of mentally unstable characters each with their own problems. Of course because it’s such a huge cast there are a number of stereotypes present. A rapper, a chuunibyou, a delinquent, smart glasses guy…the anime spends five minutes just having each one introduce themselves. There are a few interesting one such as a girl with obsessive compulsive disorder and a girl wearing a hoodie who looks to know more about this than the others. I would complain that this is far too huge a cast for a twelve episode series but there are heavy hints that a lot of these people will be killed off. I am fairly interested in what is to come but I am also worried as horror such as this requires a subtle hand. Subtlety is not Okadas strong point. I like the foreshadowing this episode had but a lot of up was in your face. Such as two songs that happened to have grim lyrics and some pretty big signs that these people are already dead and this is some kind of purgatory. Okada is going to need to restrain herself and not up the melodrama to cartoonishly exaggerated degrees for this horror to be good. Still I wouldn’t mind a nice anime slasher flick myself either. There’s a lot to like here but I need to see just what Okada is going to do with this setup and characters. I hope she pulls through on this because anime horror is sorely needed by the medium.

Potential: 80%

Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu – 12

by AidanAK47, posted in Currently Watching:, Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu

Well Sukeroku was just five days away from retirement, not afraid of anything anymore, gonna tell Miyokichi he loves her after the battle, followed by a around the world trip on a boat called the live forever, put on a red shirt and kiss Yoko Littner goodbye. Yes, the Grim Reaper was clearly sharpening his scythe this episode as Sokeroku expressed how this was the turning point for him in his life. Thoroughly expressed by him telling a sentimental story about a man who cleans up his act after his wife tells him a white lie regarding a wallet found on the beach. This story truly exemplifies Sokeroku to the core as this too was a turnround for him. A chance for him to make his daughter happy and win back his wife. This story was like a promise to Konatsu that he planned to make things better from now on. All sorely ruined by Miyokichi.

I find that this episode has thrown a wrench into my previous assumptions about this little love triangle. Miyokichi is obviously still in love with Yakumo but against my previous impressions Yakumo somewhat accepts her. I say somewhat as I am not certain as to his exact intentions. I think that seeing her current state awoke guilt in Yakumo and he felt that if he accepted her feelings then perhaps he might be able to bring her back together with Sokeroku and Konatsu. Sadly Miyokichi looks to have lived up to her curse promised before and attempts to drag Yakumo into a lovers suicide. So stopped by Sokeroku who bursts in promising to give up Rakugo and focus on her and Konatsu. Considering Sokeroku just returned to what he truly loved this felt like a betrayal to me and I would like to think his words were simply to keep her from the edge of the balcony. I think he knew that Miyokichi truly didn’t want to die as he noticed her shaking when he caught her in his arms. What also surprised me was that this actually looked like it worked as Miyokichi started to get shook up by his words. I still believe their relationship came about out of necessity but it is possible that in the years spent together some love could bloom. After all, Sokeroku actually knew her first name when Yakumo did not and is that a sign that maybe they held a special connection that Yakumo didn’t have with her? Perhaps if Sukeroku put work into finding a job and supporting them things wouldn’t come to this. Fate however, is a cruel mistress and if you tempt her then she will ruin you gladly. That or maybe one shouldn’t install tiny balconies made of cheap flimsy wood because it breaks to drop Miyokichi to her doom. Sadly Sokeroku managed to catch her but with Yakumo being the only one holding him up it just ended up being a lovers suicide just as Miyokichi intended. Just with the wrong lover.

So did Sokeroku truly mean what he said to Miyokichi? Could he shape up and get a job? Truthfully I think not. Sokeruka was a man made for Rakugo and even if he tried his hardest I fear he will fall into old habits in time. To take Rakugo from him is like taking his heart and without it he is but a lazy neet. But I certainly seen he had no intention of returning with Yakumo to inheret his masters title. He knew better than Yakumo that nobody would allow him to have the name. We finally know how he died and the reason Konatsu caused him of killing her father. I would say that Miyokichi is the main culprit in this mess as she was the one to cause this whole situation. From this it looks like we will be returning to the future and with this story we finally know just what Yakumo intends with Yotarou. He wants him to take up Sukeroku’s mantle and provide the Rakugo he cannot. To be the guide to help Rakugo survive to the modern age.