Gitaroo Man - Go from beta as **** to an actual GUITAR HERO!

When people think of Music video games, usually the first thing that comes into their minds is either "Guitar Hero" or "Rockband". Of course, that's not really the case for a guy like me, I only think of the true guitar hero: Gitaroo Man. For anyone who played this game, they will agree that it's an overlooked instant-classic with an amazing original soundtrack, unique personality, and a heart-warming story that will still move you to this very day.

Released in the U.S by Koei in 2002, this game has quite a devoted following. It tells the story of a kid named "U-1", a dorky kid who has incredibly low self-esteem and confidence issues. He has his eye on a girl named Pico but ends up being cock-blocked every time by the popular rich kid Kazuya who is not only rich and popular, but a gifted skateboarder and straight A student as well. U-1 just can't compete with that! His only friend in the world is a talking dog named Puma who teaches him to play guitar by strumming on a tennis racket. It turns out though, that Puma was really prepping him for combat training as a little devil named Panpeus appears in his room demanding the gitaroo that U-1 had no idea that he owns. Puma then transforms in a robot and throws a futuristic looking guitar at U-1 which transforms him into Gitaroo Man who immediately engages Panpeus in an amazing battle of dueling instruments to the death! Turns out that Panpeus is just an angent of an evil emperor who goes by the name of Zoey who is out to capture all 8 gitaroos and rule the universe with it, so it's up to U-1 and Puma to gather all the gitaroos, free his people, and defeat Zoey once and for all. It's all a crazy plot, but it definitely adds a lot of color to this game.

Unlike Guitar Hero or Rockband, this game does not use a plastic guitar controller. It's style of gameplay is completely different as you rely mainly on positioning of your control stick and well-timed button presses as the game tells you what to do. Each song in this game is a battle between Gitaroo and a evil Gravillian agent that starts with a "charge" phase where Gitaroo Man must play to the best of his ability to obtain the optimal amount of health for the fight. The "Attack" phase has Gitaroo Man on the offensive dealing damage to his opponent. The "Guard" phase puts Gitaroo Man on the defensive where he must dodge all incoming instrumental attacks and any missed step will result in damage. If Gitaroo Man survives the duration of the song, he goes into the "End" phase which is a rather lengthy guitar solo that will defeat his opponent for victory. And with each victory you give a Japanese woman an orgasm as she says "You wiiiiin!" in the most inappropriately sexy way possible.

So, let's talk about the music itself. Simply put: I think it's one of the greatest video game soundtracks out there. There's something to like for everyone here. You fight a synth-board-using flying robot in a J-Pop song, you fight a trumpet playing guy in a bee-suit in a funky jazz song, you serenade a girl with an acoustic guitar, you fight skeletons with Spanish guitar, a shark with turn-table pectorals in reggae, and almost anything a guitar is used in is well represented in this game. The graphics might not suit everyone, but there is plenty going on in the background but you can't pay attention to ANY of it unless you want to lose.

Length-wise you can beat this game in 2 hours, maybe less, but that's only if you're REALLY good. You're going to end up repeating songs over and over because the later stages get really crazy. And even if you do manage to clear it, there's "Master's Play" which makes all the songs even harder and mixes up the songs a bit! Originally, this game was pretty rare because of it's limited print, but it got a reprint in 2006 due to the crazy fan-following it got. So this game should be pretty easy to find if you know where to look. I got the game before the reprint, showed all my friends the game and they went crazy for it. One of them even went as far to spent over twice as much as I did just to get his own copy of the game and he still think it was worth it (and it is.). The game was even re-released on PSP as "Gitaroo Man Lives!" featuring a co-op mode and 2 new songs!  If you want a truly unique music game and you're sick of Guitar Hero then you need to check this out.

Episode 12 - Bonds Between Us

We did it, we're finally here. The final episode everybody! I got to say, I never thought I'd get the opportunity to actually get this far, but here we are....

The story could have easily ended at episode 11, but the game writers decided to throw a wrench into things and suddenly reminded you of what you set out to do since the beginning: Rescue the dame!

Raidou's journey traverse both space and time, in what might be, the lengthiest and most difficult episode of them all. As you enter the dungeon, you'll find yourself travelling through time starting from the 1930s all the way to 2050 onwards! Heavy references to the events of other Shin Megami Tensei games are referred to, and you might miss a good deal of them without even knowing it! There is also a high enemy encounter rate, so you are more than guaranteed to run into a fight every 10 steps or so. And if you think that's bad? Well, be prepared to fight every boss you encountered since the start of the game! Only HARDER!

The final boss? Yeah, it was awesome. Raidou is stronger than a god, so says the final boss. Really, you'll be fighting off all sorts of crazy stuff and then laying the smackdown on all sorts of things. Truly a battle worthy of an end boss fight. But was it difficult? Well...not for me. I've been stockpiling all the items I gathered since the start of the game so I had plenty of ammo to go all out on the fight. You know I only used on demon on it. And that was Belial. For a demon right out of hell and the bible, he sure was a bro. For those that are curious, here's a medley of all the final boss's three forms. A bit spoilery, of course...so watch at your own risk. You'll still have no idea of the plot leading up to it, so I guess it's alright!



I have to say, I had a lot of fun with this game. A hard-boiled detective mystery featuring government conspiracies, mythological beings, and a talking cat turned out quite well! I must thank you guys for following this blog while I pushed myself to finish a game I might not have finished otherwise. Even though I could clearly tell a lot of you hated this game from the comments!

So what's the plan after this? We'll see tomorrow...it's definitely not going to be a New game plus run through I GUARANTEE YOU THAT!

Until then, later!

Episode 11 - Mission to Space

Great episode! Not much in the gameplay department, but the plot is nearing it's conclusion!

Overall, this episode was short. Mission to space is all about Raidou and friends trying to build a rocket in order to destroy a satellite powering a rampaging soulless god. At this point of the story, Rasputin is no longer a problem as he much prefers to flirt with women in bars during what is quite possibly the end of Japan as they know it.



Rasputin actually helps you out now that his contract is up. How nice given that he was always trying to kill you during the early parts of the game. The episode ends on a tragic note, however, with the loss of a certain character who sacrifices himself to ensure the mission's success. Don't watch the next video if you don't want spoilers!



NEVER FORGET

Tomorrow will be the last episode for sure in this long ordeal of a game! Look forward to it.

Episode 10 - The Capital in Flames!

I particularly enjoy the beginning of this song. Well, sorry about disappearing yesterday, but the trust me I spent ALL DAY playing this episode. Not that it was very long, in fact it wasn't. I did, however, spend an ENORMOUS AMOUNT OF TIME grinding like hell for some of the optional bosses. More on that later...

You can pretty much gather what goes down just by the name of the episode, can't you? When Raidou was out screwing around in another world trying to get back, everything has gone to hell and quite quickly. We're approaching the end of the game, so of course it's about to get very real.

Now, the boss of this episode is pretty unique in that it forces you to adapt to his rules. Plot wise, this guy is very important, so I'm not going to give context as to what's going on. He will, however, bind your demon and permanently send him back into your demon tube in which you are NO LONGER ALLOWED TO USE IT FOR THE REST OF THE BATTLE. I soon found myself running out of demons, forcing myself to take him on one-on-one more often than not. I should say I was frustrated, but I had fun with this fight. Lots of running around, blocking, and demon maneuvering kept things interesting.



This guy obviously had a long fight with it, but it's one of the few boss fights out there that encourages you to fight smart and not just mash the attack button every time. Use the block button, people! It'll save your life someday!

Now, I spent the entire day in this episode because there are some secret demons you can unlock, but you have to be an absurdly high level in order to get them. In the process, I did a ton of fusing, a ton of fighting, and fought a boss that was harder than the one in the video I just showed! Let's see what I ended up with!

"One of the 72 demons of the Goetia. It led the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ruin, and prosecuted Jesus. Those who summon Belial are granted high social status"

This guy, Belial is the strongest demon in the pyro class. And he's HUGE! Summon him around town and he's at least twice your height. Seriously, this guy is powerful. He also comes with Astral burst which is one of the most powerful techniques in the game! Max 999 damage! I got him through demon fusing, he was actually necessary to have in order to complete an optional quest which leads to:

"A ghost who appears as a small blonde girl. She seems young, but her magic powers are formidable. She is either the ghost of an English girl who died a sad death, or an evil spirit from a fevered writer's mind."

A little girl?! Well, everyone knows little girls are pure evil so I guess it makes sense. Alice is an optional boss fight, which defeated, will allow you to create her via fusion. With Belial and Nebiros (see early episodes), you answer the payphones scattered around town and she'll suddenly appear asking for you to die for her. This fight was significantly more tougher than the actual boss fight of this episode thanks to her many "death" skills like mudo and curse. You can be fine one second and down to a quarter health the next! But she eventually went down and now I feel more manly than ever having a little girl follow me around town.

"In Japanese mythology, the Kudan is a supernatural creature that is born with the body of a cow and the head of a woman or a man. It comes into being just before an accident or disaster happens, predicts the upcoming calamity, then promptly dies. The Kudan's prophecy will always come to happen, and as such it is considered an extremely ill omen."

Great, a floating cow with the head of a human woman. Nothing weird about that. Kudan is essentially the Raikou/Suicune/Entei of this game. She'll appear to you in a random battle, and almost certainly run away before you have a chance to kill her. Thanks to her absurdly high defense and healing abilities, killing her is a challenge, but thanks to Belial I pulled it off. A fun thing about her is that bullets HEAL her. Oh yes.

This is going to be done before the week is over I guarantee it! Until then, later!

Episode 9 - The Two Summoners

Better. MUUUUCH BETTER. After the headache that was episode 8, this episode proved much more enjoyable. As the last episode ended, Raidou was thrown into an alternate universe where he meets his alternate self with a bad-ass scar. You'd think there would be some epic fight between the two, but obviously neither Raidou is an idiot. The two, instead, try to find a way to send our Raidou back from where he came. So today featured a rather enjoyable series of 3 boss fights, that were tough but fair given how far I have progressed in this game. There was one tricky puzzle, but the game decided to make the zone enemy-free so you can solve it in peace, it actually wasn't as hard as I thought it might be, only took a little bit of thought!



Orochi is the 3rd boss of the area. His ice spell will hurt you if you get too close to smack him with your sword, and his little friends are all over the place trying to make your day worse by buffing him. I found this fight amusing compared to the one in the previous episode.

I got two new demons during my time in this episode. Let's check them out:

"A warrior queen of the Land of Shadows in Celtic lore. She taught the Irish hero Cu Chulainn the art of war, and gave him the spear Gae Bolg."

Scathach is a fun one. I fused Triglav and Rakshasa to get her. I got her pretty late in, so I haven't had a chance to see what she really can do. Let's hope she's good...

"This beautiful goddess of love is one of Shiva's wives in Hindu mythology. She won Shiva's love, overcoming his asceticism."

Hey it's Parvati. Part of the volt class, she specializes in electric attacks like spark and has the healing skill media, which heals both Raidou and herself at the same time. She has a motherly attitude in this game, and enjoys talking down to you as if you're her son. "Don't overeat while I'm out". Overall, I'm liking her a lot so far.

Now this episode is over, we are fast approaching the end of the game. Expect the conclusion sometime this week. I'm looking forward to the end myself!

Episode 8 - The Demon and the Steel Tower

My eyes hurt, I'm exhausted, I never want to play this episode again. This episode was in a word: infuriating. Most of my woes are self-inflicted, however, as I spent the early part of this episode grinding and demon fusing which was not only time consuming but VERY expensive. And then, when I felt confident in my abilities to handle anything this episode could throw at me, the game treats me to a maze! OH BOY! I SURE LIKE BACKTRACKING AND RUNNING INTO A RANDOM BATTLE EVERY OTHER STEP! But you know, that's not even the worst of it. Nope. The boss at the end makes everything else seem like a walk in the park!

Oh wait, uh....basic plot of this episode? Uh, Raidou investigates a radio tower. Stuff happens. RAPE. Rasputin appears. And that's pretty much it. Really, let's just move on to the boss....



Hardest boss by a mile so far. For one, Leanan Sidhe I couldn't use, because she would betray me thanks to the boss's "curse bolt" which effectively "charms" her so she would HEAL THE BOSS. It's bad enough that this boss hits hard, but he also has a ton of HP. I spent quite a long time fighting this boss and each time a demon would heal him, it would make my job that much harder. Yeah, this wasn't very fun at all...but hey NEW DEMONS!

"The king of the Naga, a half-man, half-snake tribe in Hindu myth. The dragon kings Nanda and Takshaka of Buddhist myth fall into this royal category."

Hells yeah! Anarchy in the capital! Raja Naga is the latest ice demon, he helped a lot in the boss fight until he started HEALING IT! Not cool, bro.

"Triglav is a god or complex of gods in Slavic mythology, similar in nature to the Trinity in Christianity. Triglav is a unity of three gods. The exact members of the triad vary by place and time. An early variation included Svarog, Perun, and Dajbog. Later, Dajbog was replaced by Svetovid or Veles. Triglav is usually described as a fusion of these gods. More rarely he is said to be their son. It may also be a unity of lesser gods (Lesser Triglav)."

Triglav is great. He's immune to bullets, does great physical damage, and is a great healer as well! Which is why I didn't use him :(

"Japanese god of words, thought to be the deification of echoes. Said to proclaim good and bad in a single word, and all words uttered by him come true."

Hitokotonushi is immune to death spells and bullets, has a powerful wind spell and a great healer to boot which means...OH CRAP I CAN'T USE HIM ON THE BOSS EITHER! CURSE MY DESIRE FOR DEMONS WITH HEALING ABILITIES!

"The demon Nebiros was first mentioned by Johann Wier in 1583. He is supposedly the most valiant Marquis of Hell, has nineteen legions of demons under his command."

Ah, now here we go! Nebiros isn't immune to bullets at all! Oh but he's immune to physical attacks, has an instant kill spell, increases magical defense, and he doesn't have a healing spell...PERFECT FOR THE BOSS! Things were much easier with this guy...though much slower in progress...

I'm glad this is over with. Hopefully episode 9 would be less of a pain to deal with.

Later.

Episode 7 - The Cursed Detective

Oh boy! Episode 7 is complete! Let's keep this devil summoning train going! CHOO-CHOO!

This one was pretty fun as they mix things up a bit to be interesting. As the episode title implies, Raidou Kuzunoha willingly gets himself cursed to save the life of a Navy Admiral. As he bears the brunt of the curse, he must track down its source and stop it once and for all.

The curse gives you an inverted look, which not only looks kind of cool but also makes you regularly take damage after a certain number of steps! Yes, it's like a slow acting poison and you got to make sure to keep your health up while exploring the dark world. Due to the episode 6 ending so sudden, I haven't had any time for demon fusing or item buying, but overall, I was still well prepared! All my demons from the previous episode were ready for the challenge, and I ended up using ALL of them to solve puzzles. Go team!

The boss of this one was pretty interesting, not only did you have to deal with the constant trolling of two Utai Gaikotsu (read: giant floating skulls who keep teleporting you to the beginning of the map) before you even face him, but the boss was even more challenging than the one before because it has multiple forms!



The dude in the video obviously had a much tougher time than me because he didn't have lovely lady Leanan Sidhe to back him up! Props to him for taking advantage of demon weaknesses though.

So, is Leanan Sidhe overpowered? Probably not, she has little offensive ability but she does know how to stay out of trouble and keep me alive when I'm running around like a jackass distracting the boss. I probably should upgrade to a better demon soon, but we'll see what happens. I have nothing new to show you, because, as mentioned earlier, episode 6 took me straight to the problem area of episode 7 so there was no time to fuse! But expect some new ones on episode 8! Game is becoming more interesting with each passing episode! I can't wait to finish it!

Until then, later!

Episode 6 - Secret of Five Fudou

WELL THAT WAS EASY! This episode was a joke compared to Episode 5, not factoring in my super elite MLG skills of course! Which is a bit sad since there's not exactly much to talk about, there's no major fights in this episode and it can pretty much be completed in 10 minutes if you knew exactly where to go. Really this episode was just a transition to episode 7 where some major stuff is about to go down....PROBABLY!



No interesting fights to show, but enjoy the town music that plays ALL THE TIME when you're running around investigating stuff! But I'm sure you're wondering what I did in this episode besides idle like jackass on the status screen. Well, the most important things I did in this episode was pick up a package, escort a girl around town, talk to some yakuza, drink a soda, buy some ammo clips, set an old lady on fire, and dig around in dirt. Nothing special, unless we're talking about the plot here but that would be spoilers! OH NO!

At least I got one demon to show you guys:

"Izanami sent them after Izanagi at Yomotsu Hirasaka, the entrance to the Yomi, the Japanese land of shadows. The army of these monsters is led by Yomotsu-Shikome."

Ikusa is an odd sort, I've just been using him in battles to max out his loyalty. Not really that helpful but whatever. Sometimes, certain demons are just fodder for fusing! 'Tis the fate of Ikusa...

Looking forward to doing the write up for episode 7 tomorrow!

And now something different, turns out this game has a prequel novel written for it called: "Raidou Kuzunoha vs. The Messenger of the Dead". I assume the "Messenger of the Dead" is Colonel Sanders grinning menacingly in the background. Who could ever trust such a guy?

Later!

Episode 5 - Confrontation

And I'm back. I admit I've been putting off this chapter for a bit, but I sucked it up and kept keeping on! Why? This is the chapter I stopped playing the game almost two years because of a really irritating fetch quest where you have to find 10 pieces of notebook paper scattered throughout this one area. The whole thing was just irritating if you didn't have the right demon and the frequent random battles didn't help alleviate the problems either. But I decided to deal with it today, and overall it wasn't so bad! Let's have a look at the boss fight of this episode, shall we?



Overall, its one of the more challenging fights I've come across, but Leanan Sidhe still keeps things easy! Seriously, I only bring her out on boss fights, and she still manages to keep me alive along with herself.

Another interesting thing about this episode, is that I've ran across a LOT of zombies. More zombies than in any other episode, two zombies were actually nice and helped you find the 10 pieces of paper needed to advance through the story. And other zombies were smart enough to run away when they saw Raidou coming. Oh yeah, some of them had guns too....truly scary....not really, Raidou still wrecks their stuff any day...well, enough about that. In the duration of this episode, I just used the same demons as I did the previous one! But let's check out two new ones!

"Incarnations of long-lived cats in Japanese mythology. They have various powers, including human speech and control over the dead."

Nekomata is what you'd pretty much expect. An agile character who can charm demons to fight on your side temporarily or put them to sleep...or just slap them around a bit. Not much in support, but she's fun to have around...

"In Japanese mythology, a Utai-gaikotsu is a monster born when the negative energy of a person who was subject to a particularly violent murder possesses the remains of that person's skull. The Utai-gaikotsu then seeks revenge on its killer by making up a song detailing its death, and singing it repeatedly to either drive its killer insane or alert others to what happened to it."

This guy, OH MAN! Utai-gaikotsu is just awesome. For one thing, it's a giant floating skull that is bigger than you: running around with him in public is hilarious as it almost seems like he's trying to eat you like a skeleton pac-man! Oh and he can fly, read minds, freeze opponents and keep me healed...cool! This game has no shortage of awesome demons, that's for sure.

Well, I'm glad I'm got through this episode because I've now ventured father into the game that I originally have before. Let's hope this game pulls through with some great episodes down the line!

Later.

Episode 4 - The Case of the Missing Shipments

And here we go...I'm a bit late with this because I've been busy acting like a jackass all day, the constant grinding and demon fusing slowed me down too, but I managed to finish before the day was done. At the very least, this was a fun little chapter with some funny bits involving Gouto the talking cat. Of course this episode ended with a surprising twist involving everyone's favorite Russian monk: Rasputin!



This is the first time you get to take him on one-on-one and the party gets crazy when he starts bringing his god damn matryoshka dolls and sends them after you...

For those that are wondering, a matryoshka doll is one of those things I posted above. Durr...I suppose this episode was pretty short, but I spent far too long just raising the levels of my demons and trying out many different fusing combinations. Let's see the demons I ended up with in this episode now, shall we?

"Okuninushi (大国主) is a Kunitsugami and former ruler of Izumo, until Ninigi took over. In compensation he was made ruler of the unseen realm of spirits and magic. He's said to be the God of Nation-building, Business, and Medicine."

Okuninushi is a pretty tall guy and my latest ice demon. He was pretty to handy to have. Powerful ice spells, good melee ability, healing potential, and the ability to reduce random battles encounters via his "intimidate" skill made him pretty handy to have during this episode.

"Shiva’s first consort in Hindu myth, she threw herself into a sacrificial fire in protest of the father’s treatment of Shiva. Reborn as Parvati, she was reunited with Shiva."

Sati was the result of a whole lot of fusing shenanigans. Truth is, I just kept her around for the eye candy. But she's actually pretty good in battle too! I reluctantly fused her to make Okuninushi, but I brought her back via the demon compendium. Cost half my money though.

"An insect demon that takes the form of a woman with her hands tied behind her back. It arose from the hatred of a girl named Okiku, who was falsely convicted of a crime and executed. Note that this Okiku is different from the Okiku of the Bancho Sarayashiki, but they are often seen as the same person."

Oh...oh god....nobody even wanted to draw Okiku-mushi.....uh, she can charm enemy demons, cause group damage, and she can read minds...I ended up using her more than I thought really...

"Oboroguruma means 'gloom cart' and was first seen on the streets of Kamo, Japan. It is a spirit being that is manifested from the grudges and negative energy of those that have died during disputes over vehicles. It appears during dark and foggy nights when all that can be heard is the creaking of its wheels, and should anyone be foolish enough to investigate, they are met by the grotesque visage of the Oboroguruma.

It was originally said to be the vengeful ghost of a lady killed over an ox-carriage, and it appeared as a carriage with a huge misshapen woman's face. Other variations of the story have been told in modern Japanese urban legend involving more modern vehicles."

Hells yeah, Oboroguruma! That crazy car I fought back at episode 2 is now mine to use! Run over demons, mazio spells AND increase my attack power? F*** YES YOU'RE THE BEST DEMON CAR EVER!

Yes, Leanan Sidhe! I'm going to cry when I eventually fuse her with something. Rasputin can't even HURT HER! And with her around, she makes sure nothing can even put a dent in Raidou's health. I honestly should be using her more than I am right now as I only use her on tough fights...

Well, I'm like...exhausted as I had a busy day today. I'll be sure to see what you guys are up to tomorrow though! Until then...later!

Episode 3 - Dark Summoner

Episode 3 is complete, and boy was it a doozy! There wasn't much legwork/fetch quest to do in this episode, instead the entire thing took place in a GOD DAMN MAZE. And trust me, navigating a maze with random battles isn't VERY FUN AT ALL. Because I got lost, I ended up gaining 13 levels in the duration of that maze. At the level 32, you just can walk up and rape the boss.

What was notable about Dark Summoner was the offical debut of Raidou Kuzunoha's "Gary Oak". Who? Mother fucking Rasputin.

You know, that Russian guy. He's the asshole who created that god damn maze and was mysteriously trolling you in the first two chapters as well. Now, they didn't have pokeballs back then to capture demons, so this fucker stores his demons in matryoshka dolls! He has all the answers to what's going on in the story, but he isn't going to tell you...in fact, he's there just to make your day worse! Of course, this isn't the last time I'll see Rasputin, that's for sure! Here's the boss, since it's pretty much the only fight of importance in this episode:



Yeah, that guy had a MUCH harder time because of his demon choice. I'll show you what I used to get through the maze and boss itself:

"A winter fairy of European descent. Normally an innocent creature, but if provoked, he will kill his victim by covering him in snow. It is said that he is the one who leaves those beautiful icy patterns on windows in the morning."

Still Jack Frost! I fused one that is able to use Zan (wind damage) and mabufu (group ice) damage so he's handy to have. He's the demon I have walking around with me because he picks up items at random intervals. Given how items are EXPENSIVE in this game, it's a very handy skill.

"An evil monster of Japanese lore known for its hideous appearance and brute strength. They loot and plunder villages, massacring the townspeople with their iron clubs."

Oni is just pure muscle. He boosts up defense for both Raidou and himself. Very handy to keep around during the bigger random battles.

"A beautiful fairy of Irish lore that yearns for a human man's love. She drains her lovers' lives in return for granting them artistic inspiration."

Leanan Sidhe is a very classy lady. You get her if you fuse two demons of the same class together. So I had to sacrifice Orthrus and Pyro Jack but it was worth it! Given that she has the strongest healing abilities of any of my demons so far, and she immune to damage from everything the boss threw at her, she just makes battles easy. My favorite so far.

Well, I'm almost approaching where I originally stopped playing. As for how many episodes are there? There's 12 of them! I still got a ways to go...but I'm determined to finish this game ONCE AND FOR ALL.

Also, I'd like to see this guy take on Pokemon Trainer Red...

Episode 2 - The Red Cape

So far so good as Episode 2 has just been completed. It was a bit longer than the first episode, and came with a few twists and turns. I ended up getting lost a few times and ended up overlevelled a bit when it came to face the boss of the chapter. One of the more unusual things about this chapter was the mid-boss fight with Volt demon Oboroguruma.



Not the most awesome of battles, but yeah, you fight a evil car.  The boss is a joke though, the guy in the video was obviously toying with it.  The real boss was much tougher (but I won't show it here!), and took quite a while to beat.  At any rate, here's a short list of favorite demons I used to get through the chapter:

Jack Frost...because, come on, he's the fucking pikachu of the Shin Megami Tensei series!

Moh Shuvuu because of healing ability, and she's handy outside of battle for her "scout" and "fly" ability to get those hard to reach items! 

Orthrus because you need to roll with at least ONE badass demon bro...

Oh, and Mokoi. Despite looking like a retarded gumby, he can read people's minds and pick up loose change at random times during exploring. A friend indeed.

Overall, fun episode, looking forward to keeping on. Later...

Episode 1 - The Missing Girl

Just a quick update, as I got work to do...

First chapter of Raidou Kuzunoha vs the Souless Army has been completed with little difficulty/grinding. Of course, that's to be expected since it's ONLY the first chapter. However, one little quirk about this game is that it uses a random battle system, and usually those are pretty irritating to those who aren't used to JRPGs in general. But what sets this random battle system apart from the others is that you're not safe ANYWHERE not even in the towns! Talking to NPCs? Watch out because you're about to be RAPED IN THE BUTT by a bunch of zombies! So, expect to hear this song more than once:



Oddly enough, I still haven't got sick of that tune. Which is good, because it will play A LOT. This next video shows how simply wandering around the map is just ASKING for an ass kicking:



As you can see, he ran into 2 fights in that 2 minute video. Some people would view the random battle rate as a bit excessive. Not that I mind it of course! I'm just trying to think how a NORMAL person would see playing it. This is why I can't be a game critic, I'm far too forgiving. Oh well, I'll get to work on the next chapter. Until then, later....

R.C vs His Never-ending Backlog

Hey guys, a relatively brief blog entry for today. As implied with the F-Zero article, I have a backlog of games that borders on ridiculous. So I figured it would be fun to use the next few days to document my futile attempt to actually PLAY the games I buy.  So, this week my game of choice will be:

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner: Raidou Kuzunoha vs The Soulless Army is a game that I actually played through a bit but I actually stopped around halfway for some strange reason I can't recall.  Anyways, it's been so long that I forgot what it even was about so I'm starting the game over and hopefully I intend to finish it this time!  The main reason I'm going to finish this?  It's simply because I bought the sequel: Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner 2: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon around 2 years ago and it's still wrapped doomed to never be played...ever...or will it?!

For those who never heard of these games, it's like the Pokemon series in that you fight and catch monsters (called demons in this game, that are actually based on various religious/mythological creatures) and you fight alongside them solving mysteries and other shit.  All I remember plot-wise is that it takes place in 1920's Japan, and Rasputin trolls you a couple of times...



This game will take 30 to 40 hours if I speed through it, but most likely longer since I like to dawdle like a jackass with games like these. At any rate, let's try to clear a chapter a day! Later!