Reviews by Fernando Leonel Alba

*Descargado para PC el 30 de noviembre de 2025, empezado el 12 de diciembre de ese año, y terminado el 11 de enero de 2026.

Aunque más que nada positivas, de Xenogears escuché cosas mixtas por años. Que es uno de los mejores RPGs de la historia, lo mismo de su generación, que tiene una de las mejores historias de los videojuegos, sino la mejor, que es inspirada por Evangelion (razón por la que lo jugué), que envejeció mal y que decae en la segunda mitad para terminar de forma decepcionante. Todas estas cosas me parecieron medianamente ciertas, pero también algo exageradas.

APARTADO VISUAL

Para empezar por lo aparentemente más fácil, esperaba que Xenogears se viera peor de lo que me terminé encontrando, y más después de un comentario que me hizo un amigo. Es un juego de la primera Playstation y salió en la época de transición en videojuegos del 2D al 3D y de los sprites a los polígonos, hecho notable en esta entrega que continuó optando por la primera opción para los personajes y el mundo, y la segunda para aspectos mecánicos, enemigos, mechas, y algunas cinemáticas. Además hay escenas animadas en estilo anime.

Los sprites son distinguibles, claros y expresivos para los personajes importantes, incluso es posible ver en un espejo al equipo conformado en cierta parte del videojuego, y sus animaciones son cuidadas. Lo mismo no aplica realmente para los personajes menores, obviamente, ya que estos son reutilizados y aplicados a lo largo y ancho del elenco, incluso si el sprite no refleja el modelo hablante del personaje. Pero en definitiva prefiero este apartado visual a los polígonos que se acostumbraban a usar por aquellos tiempos.

Los modelos 3D son naturalmente algo más toscos y envejecieron un poco peor, pero al considerar su tiempo, uso narrativo (es decir lo que significan los gears y monstruos dentro de su mundo) y jugabilístico, tiene sentido y suma esta distinción visual entre sus diversos elementos, y el resultado final no está mal. En el segundo disco hay momentos de cinemáticas especiales realizadas en CGI, que se ven notablemente mejor que su contraparte jugable, y que de hecho me sorprendieron por su calidad, y más para su época y envejecimiento en el tiempo.

No sé si fueron responsables de éstas, ya que hay varios estudios acreditados en la animación del juego, pero uno es Gonzo (Kaleido Star, Welcome to the NHK, primeros anime de Hellsing y Full Metal Panic!, entre muchos otros), que a principios de los 2000 produjeron muchos títulos animados con calidad visual cuestionable y mal envejecida, y más para el CGI, así que si se hicieron cargo de este apartado, el resultado sería una grata sorpresa, casi al nivel que mostraron en Sentou Yousei Yukikaze.

Las cinemáticas animadas, repartidas de forma distanciada entre sí a lo largo del juego, son lo esperable para la época, y fueron un espacio estético medianamente nostálgico y reconfortante para alguien como yo. Diseños cuidados (mejores que como se reflejan en la portada je), cuerpos estirados pero adultos (no como se verían hoy en día), buena animación, colorido oscuro que ya no sería posible replicar mediante animación digital, todo lo que suma a los momentos de ambientación pesada de la entrega.

Éstas están acreditadas principalmente al estudio Production I.G (Ghost in the Shell y Haikyuu son sus títulos más famosos) y sorpresivamente Deen, responsables de algunos desastres visuales y/o narrativos como la primera adaptación animada de Fate/Stay Night, Higurashi, Umineko, las recordadas (para mal) temporadas finales de Nanatsu no Taizai, Log Horizon 2 y 3, The Reflection, y mucho más. Para ser justos, el estudio cuenta con productos competentes como las primeras entregas de KonoSuba, parte de Samurai X, e increíblemente las OVAS precuela de la serie, que son su mejor título en todo sentido, y algunos títulos sorprendentemente maduros para ellos, como Shouwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjuu y Oooku. Lo que quiero decir es que son una moneda al aire, y esta vez cayó del lado correcto.

Otro estudio acreditado es Bee Train, responsable de muchos anime melancólicos de principios de los 2000, entre ellos .hack//sign, y vaya si se nota en los diseños y ambientación.

En fin, lo visual me sorprendió para bien, y la colaboración de estudios de animación me ofreció un resultado grato que hoy por hoy no sería posible de lograr, así que creo que este apartado merece entre 7 y 8 puntos.

SONIDO

Esto va a ser lo más breve posible. Hay poca actuación de voz, limitada más que nada a sonidos de lucha realizados por los personajes en combate, pero está bien, y mejor en las cinemáticas animadas, al menos en el japonés original. No sé si es cosa de la versión que jugué yo, pero hubo momentos donde podía escuchar las voces en inglés, puntualmente al finalizar los minijuegos de cartas, no sé qué pasó ahí.

Los efectos de sonido son trabajados, diversos para los distintos momentos, elementos y enemigos mecánicos, así como otros orgánicos, y distintos tipos de armas. Si bien han envejecido, se ve que el equipo responsable estaba orgulloso de ellos, ya que hay un personaje del juego que te deja escucharlos.

La música ya la había escuchado hace años, ya que este es el aspecto que indiscutiblemente es considerado el mejor del juego, incluso entre aquellos que no son sus fans. En su momento me pareció la mejor banda sonora de videojuegos que había escuchado en mi vida, hoy por hoy, después de haber jugado el juego y de haber escuchado mucho más del medio y otros más, ya no creo que esté a ese nivel. Pero vamos, decir que la banda sonora no me parece de diez puntos sino de nueve, tampoco representa una gran pérdida. Hay una mezcla interesante entre temas futuristas y rurales, orquestas e instrumentos de cuerda acústicos, influencias no sé si de shamisens o cítaras, capaz más lo último, y sonidos tanto occidentales como orientales. El tema de Solaris es definitivamente un cachetazo a la ambientación, pero supongo que encaja en el sentido narrativo de vida tranquila e ignorante que querían reflejar en esa ciudad/país...justo antes de sufrir su más grande tragedia en 500 años.

Y ya, no tengo más que comentar del audio, es el apartado más sólido con diferencia, merecedor de unos nueve puntos.

HISTORIA Y PERSONAJES

Y acá viene con diferencia lo más difícil de comentar del videojuego, sobre todo para alguien como yo que no le presta tanta atención dentro del medio. En un principio, sí, la historia de Xenogears es la mejor de los videojuegos. Es el meme de "primera misión en un JRPG matar un animal salvaje, última misión matar a Dios", y está dentro de todo bien construida.

Un pequeño pueblo se ve víctima de un cruce entre dos ejércitos en guerra, de ahí viene Fei, el protagonista, que se ve obligado a dejar lo poco que queda de su hogar, y distintas circunstancias lo llevan a encontrarse a los y las que serán el resto de personajes importantes que conformarán el grupo jugable y los distintos antagonistas. Así se topa primero con Bart, un pirata del desierto que lidera un submarino que se maneja primero sobre la arena y después el océano, a quien ayudará a salvar su ciudad Nisan y recuperar su país Av, uno de los que se encuentran en guerra, y de quien se volverá un gran amigo con el tiempo.

Luego de unos enfrentamientos, el protagonista se verá encarcelado por la nación enemiga Kislev en una ciudad prisión y obligado a ser un luchador. Ahí conoce a RICARDO BANDERAS, alias Rico, un mutante quien se volverá otro amigo y miembro más del grupo.

Otra vez, después de perder otro combate, el protagonista deberá ser ayudado por un cura pistolero llamado Billy Lee Blanche (Black en inglés), quien se enterará que la iglesia a la que sirve crea a las mutaciones que se dedica a matar, como parte de experimentos para crear cuerpos adecuados para una transmutación metafísica que derivaría en huéspedes para el tal dios, y los primeros humanos en la Tierra. También se une al grupo, y es muy interesante que durante esta parte no se utiliza al protagonista en ningún momento.

En algún punto de la historia, el grupo protagonista llegará a una ciudad/país/fortaleza flotante, Shebat, que está en guerra con la principal nación antagonista Solaris desde hace 500 años, y desde ahí se unirá al grupo María y evolucionarán los mechas.

En una misión para hacerse con un arma en particular, el grupo se encontrará con Emeralda, un ente creado artificialmente con nanomáquinas, como no podía ser de otra manera en un juego de ciencia ficción japonés, que se unirá al grupo y que expandirá la historia al aportar hechos ocurridos algo así como 4000 años antes.

Y una vez conformado el grupo, el segundo disco estará dedicado a la guerra abierta contra la nación antagonista Solaris y los enemigos principales que quieren unir a toda la humanidad en un solo organismo para así revivir a Dios.

No mencioné a los dos personajes más importantes después de Fei, Shitan Uzuki y Elly, porque hablar de ellos implica adentrarse en Solaris y terrenos de grandes spoilers. El primero es un misterioso mentor y ayudante, y la segunda una enemiga luego aliada y mucho más para el personaje principal.

Es decir, países en guerra, gente inocente involucrada, iglesias manipuladoras que experimentan en personas, transmutaciones, nanomáquinas, distintas reencarnaciones a lo largo del tiempo, aspectos metafísicos sobre unir a toda la humanidad en un solo organismo unido a Dios, que a su vez viene del espacio exterior, es en muy resumidas cuentas la historia de Xenogears.

La escala es tremenda, es como si se combinara Neon Genesis Evangelion, Fullmetal Alchemist, Mobile Suit Gundam, Final Fantasy (se sabe que el juego fue inicialmente propuesto como una entrega más de esa saga), y más, todo dentro de un solo paquete, que a su vez mantiene su propia identidad y originalidad.

Y he de decir que en general está bien construida, ya desde las primeras horas de juego se ven cinemáticas intermedias o personajes secundarios y menores que adelantan los elementos religiosos y metafísicos más allá de los bélicos y de ciencia ficción, que tendrán más peso más adelante. Por años hubo que leer y escuchar a fans de One Piece decir que Eiichiro Oda es un maestro a la hora de anticipar aspectos de su historia por siluetas, nombres o personajes que tienen relevancia recién cientos de capítulos después, pero esta sí es una historia que efectivamente se presenta gradualmente, y que se expande sin olvidar ni dejar de lado lo introducido anteriormente, sin sacarlo de la nada, y que hace crecer al elenco pero que a su vez lo mantiene presente y relevante desde el inicio y desde que es introducido. Además, tiene un mundo también diverso pero mejor hilado y construido, además de explorado a través de la jugabilidad.

Otra cosa que quiero destacar es que si bien hay aspectos de la historia que son presentados a través de exposición, sea en descubrimientos, lecturas o relatos, eventualmente, salvo el nacimiento de los primeros humanos en la Tierra, casi todo lo demás es mostrado. La guerra de 500 años atrás, el pasado de Lacán, Kim, Grahf, Kahrn, Emeralda, Sophia, Karellen, Id, Sigurd, Ramsus, Uzuki, etc. Creo que solo faltó explorar más a Jessie. Pero el punto es que sí, Xenogears es una obra que cuenta mucho, pero también, a la larga, muestra.

Digo, hasta los puntos de guardado que se encuentran a lo largo del juego tienen una razón narrativa dentro de la historia.

Como dije, todo personaje importante, y algunos no tanto, así como los antagonistas, tienen un trasfondo que explica sus motivaciones, acciones, forma de ser y relaciones.

Fei Fong Wong, es una de las “cabras” (G.O.A.T) inspiradas por Shinji Ikari de Evangelion (siendo Elijah Ballard de Eden: It´s an Endless World otra). Un joven amnésico que inicialmente se ve involucrado en una guerra en la que aparentemente no tiene nada que ver, y por lo que inicialmente no quiere subirse a su mecha, como el protagonista que lo inspiró o Amuro Ray de Gundam. Lo vemos rechazar toda forma de lucha y violencia al principio, a pesar de ser un artista marcial, y ser más bien cerrado sobre sí mismo y pesimista, además de negar su responsabilidad en la tragedia de la que formó parte. Luego se descubre su pasado trágico y traumático y su trastorno de personalidad disociativo como mecanismo de defensa mental (también anticipados), sus múltiples pasados en reencarnaciones pasadas, y su desarrollo consistente en formar lazos con el resto del elenco y en asumir su papel de luchador para proteger al resto, salvar al mundo y sacrificarse por otros.

Es algo que toma principalmente de sus interacciones con Elehayym Van Houten (alias Elly), la deuteragonista del juego. Inicialmente enemiga pero aliada temporal, luego ausente en las primeras horas de la obra, hasta recuperar su rol antagonista y después unirse al grupo principal. También un personaje con suma introspección, que proyecta sus culpas hacia los demás pero que a la vez es consciente de eso, con también un pasado traumático explorado, y alguien con dudas sobre su nación y cuerpo militar. Es manipulada mentalmente algunas veces a lo largo de la historia, sea por drogas, un poder de hipnosis mental, o un ente sobrenatural metafísico. También tiene una situación familiar medio telenovelesca pero posible y bien tratada. Además tiene un lado dulce y casi maternal que es acrecentado a través de reencarnaciones pasadas, cada una con su pasado propio. Buscaba un lugar de contención en Fei y es quien más le inculca aceptar la responsabilidad de luchar y el afán de sacrificarse por alguien más. Es un spoiler pero sí, desarrolla un romance con el protagonista, y es un aspecto construido de una manera realmente destacable.

Shitan Uzuki, el doctor/mecánico/ingeniero/investigador/artista marcial del grupo. Un personaje del que no veo suficiente reconocimiento en la red. Está bien, es cierto que en buena parte de la historia es misterioso y es el típico personaje de exposición del juego, pero también es un tipo carismático, a través del cual se anticipan múltiples aspectos de la historia y la caracterización de Fei, y alguien con un gran pasado y rol de doble agente que termina siendo el tritagonista de la obra (si es que no lo era desde el principio) y uno de los más grandes aliados dentro del mundo de Xenogears.

Bart, de nombre mucho más largo pero también spoilero, un joven, impulsivo y grosero pirata del desierto, comandante de un submarino de arena que luego se maneja en el océano, y que por razones de la historia después se convierte en una nave que vuela y se controla más o menos con controles de avión. Comienza como un rebelde que ataca casi a diestra y siniestra en el desierto pero principalmente a unidades de Kislev y Solaris, y tiene una buena razón para dudar en un principio de Elly. Eventualmente acepta el rol de líder que le toca y es responsable de la tregua entre dos países en guerra y una de las primeras evoluciones de los gears (no lo dije antes pero así se llaman los mecha del juego).

Billy, un devoto cura cazador de lo que creía eran monstruos ex humanos de espíritus débiles y malditos, que resultaron ser víctimas de experimentos de transmutación de la iglesia, por lo que su mundo se vino temporalmente abajo. También sufrió abandono en cierta forma, y eso lo llevó a crear su propio orfanato, y si bien no se explora tanto, luego de su descubrimiento tiene sentido que se una permanentemente al grupo principal para expiar su responsabilidad al combatir al mal del cual alguna vez formó parte.

RICARDO BANDERAS, alias Rico, inicialmente un rival y luego un aliado, un luchador prisionero mutante que busca matar al rey de Kislev por prácticamente esclavizar a los suyos, y es todo lo que se puede decir sin spoilear.

Karellen, en cierta forma el antagonista principal de Xenogears y el equivalente a Gendo Ikari en esta obra, aunque algo mejor trabajado. Todo lo concerniente a este personaje en un spoiler, pero básicamente, como parte de la guerra hace 500 años fue que inició su investigación de la nanotecnología y su plan para unir a toda la humanidad en un solo organismo unido a Dios. Lo que lo distingue de su contraparte en Evangelion es haber logrado su objetivo, pero a la vez aceptar el error de su camino, y alcanzar una catarsis a la vez que haber entendido a los protagonistas y aceptar las diferencias de perspectivas. Además, como un típico villano del tipo “mente maestra”, realmente cumple muy bien su rol.

Hay más personajes de los que mentar cosas, pero para no extenderme todavía más, quiero decir que Ramsus empeoró un poco para mí con su descenso a la locura, pero se me hizo razonable al explorar su pasado, y Grahf, un personaje que al principio me parecía poco más que una herramienta argumental unidimensional, mejoró mucho para mí una vez que se mostró su trasfondo, y una prueba de la manera en que Fei se podría haber desviado del camino.

Pero incluso otros personajes que parecían ser solo títeres, alivios cómicos o unidimensionales, tuvieron sus momentos para destacar o mantener a raya a otros que parecían tenerlos bajo su control, o tuvieron sus trasfondos explorados, y salvo algunos muy secundarios que son desechados de la historia en el momento justo, no hubo ninguno que me pareciera de plano malo.

Ya después de haberle tirado muchas flores a la historia de Xenogears, tengo que reconocer que lo mismo no puede hacerse con su argumento en sí, o más precisamente con su escritura.

Para empezar, para una obra bélica como esta, definitivamente hubiera sumado alguna muerte importante y permanente. Está bien, reconozco que el elenco principal tiene una razón narrativa y videojugabilística para mantenerse completo hasta el final, y que muchos personajes secundarios menores mueren, así como otros pierden seres queridos, pero en serio que al juego le cuesta matar incluso personajes secundarios de los que ni se explica la manera en que sobrevivieron (el capitán). Además hay otros que sin explicación tienen un rol disminuido y desaparecen sin explicación de la historia (Jessie). Y me pregunto, ¿tan imposible hubiera sido matar a algún principal? Final Fantasy VII lo hizo tan solo un año antes.

Otra cosa es que al juego le gusta emplear elementos de guiones flojos como las salvadas o poderes de último momento. Shitan que aparece de la nada para salvar a Fei en el bosque, Maison que salva a Bart de la nada en Av, todo lo concerniente al dios de los los Chu-chu podría haber sido reducido y ella sacada de la historia y no habría afectado en nada.

Hay momentos cómicos para aliviar algo el tono, de los que no soy especialmente fan en prácticamente ninguna obra, pero todo lo relacionado a Big Joe y que él maneje la tienda más importante de todo el juego, en una zona opcional y secundaria, no lo voy a entender nunca, ¿chiste de los desarrolladores tal vez?

Otros puntos flojos son la trama de María que tuvo algunos momentos muy melodramáticos, todo lo concerniente a Grahf/Kahrn/Lacán/Wiseman, que se resolvió más de manera emocional que lógica, la desaparición de la historia de Jessie, un foco menor al necesario en Billy y Rico al final, sobre todo al considerar sus roles narrativos para con distintos aspectos de la historia y los temas.

Otra cosa que nunca voy a entender es el por qué de hacer misiones secundarias opcionales relacionadas con la historia principal, personajes como Kim o Emeralda no hubieran significado ni de cerca lo que terminaron siendo de no ser por esa parte de la historia que podés saltarte.

Y es algo muy dicho que Xenogears empeora en su segundo disco, y sí es cierto que la narrativa sufre un poco en la segunda mitad, ya que aparentemente el equipo se estaba quedando sin tiempo y recursos (algo curioso considerando ciertas partes de este segundo disco), y optó por inspirarse de más en Evangelion, y mostrar imágenes estáticas de Fei, Elly y en menor medida Shitan contando buena parte de los hechos ocurridos en este tramo de la historia. Aspectos importantes del argumento y secciones del juego que deberían haber sido jugables son dejadas como imágenes estáticas con un breve relato escrito, algo que fue medianamente aburrido de atravesar y un poco decepcionante de presenciar.

El final fue satisfactorio, tanto los protagonistas como los antagonistas lograron sus objetivos y obtuvieron una catarsis, y fue una muestra de que se puede hacer un final alternativo al de End of Evangelion, sin que se vuelva en la cagada que deshace todo como el del manga o las películas Rebuild. Mi única queja es que se tendría que haber trabajado más a Rico, y se necesitó de al menos una cinemática más que mostrara el verdadero regreso de los personajes, una especie de epílogo que muestre a Billy de vuelta en el orfanato, Rico en Kislev, María en Shebat, y así.

En mi opinión la historia cierra entre un 7 y un 8 pero los personajes me convencieron lo suficiente para darles un 10.

JUGABILIDAD

Este es un apartado complicado para tratar porque mientras que el resto los tengo medianamente trabajados a través de distintos medios, éste es uno que estoy pensando y tratando por primera vez (vaya primer juego para elegir reseñar), y en definitiva el más importante en este medio.

La manera de jugar en sí de Xenogears no es la más innovadora, es un juego de rol con su grupo de hasta tres personajes controlables de un total de siete u ocho que manejás al final del juego (nueve si contás a Chu-chu, yo no), y el combate es por turnos como en casi todo título del género limitado por la tecnología de su tiempo. Lo que sí suma es acción en tiempo real, con barras que cargan el orden de ataque de los personajes jugables y los enemigos, y un combate por combos que parece sacado de un juego de lucha. Es una opción arriesgada pero es posible pasar turnos con ataques simples para cargar más poder de ataque para realizar un combo extenso en turnos posteriores, y así hacer más daño de golpe. Las distintas técnicas de a pie (es decir, sin los gears), se desbloquean de una manera un tanto curiosa, por nivel, sí, pero para sumar los 100 puntos necesarios para desbloquearlas es preciso usar sus comandos de antemano.

Lo que quiere decir esto básicamente es que si una técnica es triángulo, cuadrado, equis, vas a tener que desbloquearla haciendo esa secuencia de comandos de antemano, hasta llenar la barra de puntos en 100 y desbloquear esa habilidad, pero ¿cómo sabrías eso sin una guía que te lo diga? Además este punto se vuelve extraño a partir de cierto punto con las técnicas finales de los personajes, ya que se estancan en unos noventa y tantos a pesar de que seguís introduciendo los comandos. ¿Qué hacer ahí? Básicamente hacer que el personaje use las teclas o botones de ese comando, a través de turnos separados, o también se puede hacer con los distintos personajes del grupo, otra cosa que descubrí solo por ver videos a modo de guía, y que no podría haber descubierto por mi cuenta.

En cuanto a los combates en sí, se presenta una diversidad de estilos debido a la variedad de personajes. Así Fei y Shitan con técnicas de artes marciales cuerpo a cuerpo (el segundo más tarde utiliza una espada), Bart tiene un látigo, Emeralda también ataca cuerpo a cuerpo pero además es fuerte en magias, lo mismo, y más todavía, respecto a Elly, María usa su gear incluso en sus ataques normales, por lo que si no mal recuerdo usa EP (mana) en todo momento, pero me puedo equivocar, Rico emplea movimientos de lucha libre, aunque eso no supone un cambio a nivel jugabilidad, y finalmente Billy es el de dinámica más única, ya que todos sus ataques son disparos y por lo tanto consumen munición que se debe comprar, y algunas de sus técnicas tienen perspectivas únicas, como en primera persona, por lo que es algo tedioso de tener que lidiar con el coste, pero genial visualmente.

Por otro lado están los combates en los gears, que si bien emplean las artes marciales, las armas de Billy o las magias, son mucho más limitadas en movimientos y animaciones, y más para las técnicas de Rico, que son completamente reemplazadas por ataques de disparos y bombas. En definitiva, la otra alternativa es notablemente más divertida y preferida.

Hay momentos en los que por cuestiones narrativas la jugabilidad es algo modificada, y así tenés combates 1v1 usando a Fei, o combates con gears en los que la jugabilidad es completamente diferente, y es una bocanada de aire fresco que hace a esas secciones memorables y divertidas.

Más allá de eso, y como cabría esperar de un digno RPG, Xenogears también cuenta con secciones de acción/aventuras y exploración, por lo que es posible por ejemplo controlar a Bart nadando en una cloaca, o después infiltrándose en un palacio, para lo cual se puede optar por un estilo de juego tipo sigilo. También habrá momentos laberínticos o de mini rompecabezas, pero no sin sus reintentos gratuitos y mapas para ayudar, aunque yo usé videos como guías porque son muy malo para esas cosas y me desesperan. Algunas de esas partes ofrecen pistas claras, otras ninguna y no son que se diga intuitivas, así que en cuanto a que tan claras son, es una moneda al aire. Pero al menos hay variedad de jugabilidad gracias a estas secciones. Oh, también hay momentos cerca del final que hay que esquivar rayos láseres en caída libre, muy divertido.

Si bien también hay que trasladarse por el mapa por tierra primero, agua después, y luego aire, en estas partes hay más que nada movimiento, y típicos combates de gears. Lo que sí hay son secciones de plataformeo, y aunque están bien y son una propuesta interesante, a veces los saltos pueden ser muy justos, y la cámara rotativa manual puede dificultar un poco el manejo y llevar a equivocaciones y unas pequeñas trabas de carga, algo esperable de la época pero que merece mención.

En definitiva el gran problema que tiene la jugabilidad del juego para mí es el mismo de todo RPG viejo, la necesidad de subir nivel por grindeo/farmeo, estancarse en lugares, dar vueltas como tonto, esperar a que aparezcan enemigos, pelearles, matarlos, sacarles oro o ítems para vender por más oro, y comprar objetos caros para potenciar los gears o personajes. Es extenso, tedioso, repetitivo, aburrido, cansador, alarga artificialmente el videojuego y hasta crea una disonancia narrativa, sí, tengo que ir urgentemente a este punto de la historia, pero primero voy a estar horas o días farmeando para comprar potenciadores, BRB. Detesto el grindeo, celebro que el medio haya evolucionado a un punto en que ya no sea necesario para subir de nivel, mejorar personajes y equipos y ganar los juegos, y empeorar experiencias en el proceso.

Al menos puedo decir que los distintos enemigos tienen distintas mecánicas que ofrecen algo de estrategia y variedad a los combates. Algunos son más resistentes a los ataques físicos, otros a mágicos, los hay que tienen poca vida pero resisten las grandes técnicas cuerpo a cuerpo, otros se curan con tus magias o ataques así que hay que vencerlos con objetos, otros roban vida o EP (mana), otros te matan de una pero después se vuelven débiles, etc.

Esto es más destacable para los jefes, no hay dos iguales y si bien la mayoría se pueden vencer de forma convencional, otros están resguardados por guardianes, otros son más fuertes o se autodestruyen causando gran daño al ser vencidos, otros se curan por momentos o contraatacan con mucha más fuerza según tu daño, así que hay que medir bien los tiempos y maneras en los que atacarlos, otros roban y dañan por combustible de los gears, etc. Y toda secuencia de jefes difíciles y molestos, o extensa por muchas peleas encadenadas, es luego recompensada con una regeneración de estadísticas o peleas sencillas luego de secuencias tan despiadadas.

Me faltó mencionar que hay una posible misión secundaria en algún desierto, pero es solo para obtener unos objetos en una cascada de arena y tras vencer a un dragón potenciado en esta sección del mapa, ninguno de los cuales usé, así que salvo por la experiencia y algo de oro, esta sidequest me pareció innecesaria, algo confusa que no habría resuelto sin una guía, y una pérdida de tiempo. En mi opinión la jugabilidad se encuentra en un punto intermedio entre siete y ocho puntos.

VALOR

Este es un aspecto que suelo medir al combinar la fama, memorabilidad y propensidad a ser revisitado de una obra. En este caso, Xenogears es un título conocido, y mucho en el mundo del gaming, pero no tanto como sus posteriores entregas, y no es mundialmente famoso como los Final Fantasy por ejemplo. Es extremadamente memorable, y si bien sus distintos jefes, algunos de los cuales pueden saltarse, el hecho de tener posibles misiones secundarias, variadas configuraciones de equipos tanto en personajes como objetos, creo que estas cosas se presentan en niveles más chicos que en otros títulos (los cientos de pokémones por entrega terminan siendo coleccionables, por ejemplo), que saber la historia una vez terminada, y tener que pasar por ese molesto grindeo, limitan la rejugabilidad del título, así que este apartado lo califico con unos siete puntos.

DISFRUTE PERSONAL

Este es el apartado menos importante para medir la calificación final de un título para mí, pero al menos en esta primera reseña lo quería incluir. Básicamente si bien hubo partes que disfruté y me parecieron épicas, sobre todo cuando ganaba un nuevo personaje o me encontraba con una nueva forma de jugabilidad, y la historia me atrapó, las secciones en las que necesité una guía y las entre 15 y 20 horas que tuve que meter de grindeo, junto a la sensación final que tuve que si bien fue un poco de emoción, fue más de alivio, me hace dejar este apartado en un punto medio, con unos cinco puntos.

CONCLUSIÓN

No soy un versado en los RPG, es un género que elijo evitar porque no me gusta por su extensión, texto, ritmo, repetitividad y necesidad de grindeo, al menos en los títulos viejos, por lo que no sé si este es el mejor de la historia como escuché decir algunas veces (no creo, como todo, las cosas evolucionan), pero sí puedo decir que aunque a mí personalmente no me terminó de gustar, lo considero un buen juego.

Es fácil para un videojuego sacarme una calificación alta, y cuando considero este mundo enorme y cuidado y el detalle puesto en casi cada apartado de esta obra, y la apreciación que me dio por todo su trabajo final, (algo que no supe demostrar más joven con por ejemplo, y aunque no tengan nada que ver entre sí, los primeros God of War), me parece que al final el título merece estar en algún lugar de la lista de cientos de los mejores juegos que jugué, pero no entre los primeros puestos.

Tiene sus fallos tanto narrativos como mecánicos, y más en la segunda parte, pero no me parece que sean ni tan chicos como para ser ignorados como lo hacen sus más ávidos fans, ni tan grandes como para restarle méritos, tal como lo hacen sus detractores, y que son más que nada resultados de las limitaciones técnicas de la época que otra cosa. Quisiera que este juego llegara a tener un remake, aunque seguramente perdería parte del encanto estético tan característico de su época, y una adaptación anime, cosa que ya no es posible y que sería peor que la que tuvo Xenosaga. Al final del día, al menos por ahora, cuando pienso en este título, me viene “un gran juego” a la cabeza, por lo que lo califico con un

I very recently got to finish the YoRHa: Pearl Harbor Descent Record manga after two years and I’m glad for that, for it is always good to consume another version of NieR: Automata, or well, a part of it. This is based on the Ongakugeki YoRHa Ver.1.2 stage play from 2014, so it actually predates the videogame in question, and it ran from 2020 to 2024, so it even predates the episodes of the anime that showed the same events. I gotta say it is actually the best version of it that I have consumed until now, partly thanks to its duration.

It is short, with less than twenty chapters, yet that is still better than the limited runtime of the stage play, only episodes 6 of the first season and 5 of the second dedicated to it like in the anime, or just the Anemone: Encounter, Understanding and Separation logs without even some cutscenes like in the videogame.

Just like in the animated series, Anemone is replaced with Lily for some reason, but without the latter’s role from the anime, her character arc and thus justification for that change remains incomplete, not that you would mind it though if you didn’t play the videogame.

Anyways, this is going to be rather short as I’m not going over the whole details of this world, something that I already did while reviewing the anime, androids fights for humanity against robots, in a far dystopian future, and this story is about an android squad storming a robot server, at first.

The reality turns out to be that what seemed to be a reconnaissance mission of a simple base, is actually a suicide mission about taking down a major enemy headquarter that’s about to deal a huge strike on humanity. Essentially, a way to portray that soldiers are sometimes (if not often) lied by their superiors on what their missions are really about, and that they’re seen as disposable forces and sacrificial pawns of sorts, further reflected on the mission being an experiment, to see the androids’ durability and behaviour during it, so they can improve on later models, and the robots even let them get far to satisfy their curiosity in turn. All of which was fairly known if you consumed its chronological sequel, the main game, or really another version of the same events.

And as you can expect from something of this franchise, the stakes are high and characters are going to face far larger and stronger armies of enemies, thus they ARE going to die, in rather tragic ways.

What makes this version better than the other ones besides its length, is focusing a lot more on its cast, both the android squadron sent from space, and the one inhabiting Earth. Every girl has either backdrops, introspection, interesting dynamics among the others, or maybe all at once. Even some, I guess, prototype Operators, with actual names in here, doubt the commands and are replaced because of it. There are even some flashback scenes showing interactions between Number 2 and the YoRHa commander, so the former’s feelings of being betrayed and actions on the other media are bigger, if they had any continuation.

Which is the main issue of this manga, the fact that it’s clearly only a small part of a bigger story, leaving stuff of its setting without much exploration and even less of a conclusion.

Also, although the characters are explored, they have different interactions with the others, their insecurities and abilities are shown, and each one has at least runtime dedicated to them, it is not uncommon for they to die shortly after being fleshed out, thus remaining underdeveloped and without a catharsis, kinda expected from such a tragic plot. They don’t even get their flowers-based names like in the anime, though maybe that’s an anime only thing, so I’d let it slide.

The only character that feels that gets proper development and a slight sense of catharsis would be the main one, and even those feel rather rushed or incomplete because, again, this is just a part of a much bigger story. Also she gets a sudden power increase near the end of the manga as if it was a fighting shounen. Even the narrative ends with a cliffhanger after a crucial point in the mission, followed just by one or two pages of the protagonist in the far future.

The manga was drawn by the same artist of stuff like Rakudai Kishi no Cavalry, a battle school romcom, and Zombieland Saga, an idol comedy, not the kind of author I would expect to draw a tragic sci-fi war drama, but the artist did fine. Maybe not as raw as I would prefer the art style or brutal as I would prefer the action to be, but still well drawn, good backgrounds too, and the effects can be very interesting, darkening the whole looks at times, and the machinery for the machine life forms and the fights can be very detailed when it needs to be. The action scenes have good sequences and composition, though not that impressive, especially when it comes to movement. The girls look pretty, as you would expect from this Megumu Soramichi, given his other works, but not that different one from another, and you don’t really notice their android details in their joints or other stuff that much, probably excused by being early models, I guess.

So as a whole, this is a fast paced, good looking, well drawn, and overall polished sci-fi war drama with a somewhat interesting topic, high stakes, permanent deaths, and multiple perspectives and characters that are looked into, so I’d say it’s a very good manga as a whole, even if it misses the extra steps on characterization and a strong narrative closure.

Este es un producto argentino por lo que amerita una reseña en su idioma natal.

Al fin, después de tantos proyectos truncados a medio camino, hay una serie basada en El Eternauta, la mítica historieta de ciencia ficción argentina,y digo basada en porque como adaptación presenta muchos cambios y una actualización moderna con respecto al original, con sus pros y sus contras.

Si bien el material original al final del día es decente, hay que considerar que lo es principalmente para su época, y que tiene cosas que han envejecido de manera desfavorable, siendo la principal de ellas la exposición. La misma no solo cuenta a lujo de detalle todo lo que los personajes piensan a través de diálogos o pensamientos, sin dejar nada a la interpretación del lector y a la fuerza del dibujo, sino que incluía mucha narración metida de por medio, y recapitulaciones debido a que su publicación inicial era en forma de historietas de diario en vez del libro que hoy es tan conocido.

Otro aspecto que no envejeció muy bien es lo meta que es que su propio autor fuera un personaje presente en la historia que al final de la misma decide publicarla a modo de advertencia al público, en una forma de sugerir su posición política respecto a quiénes son los invasores, si se tiene en cuenta el contexto de publicación de la historieta, algo aún más evidente cuando salió la segunda parte, la cual se rumorea que ni siquiera llegó a ser terminada por el mismo Oesterheld.

Pero bueno, dejando a un lado mi opinión sobre el original, he de decir que esta serie es una especie de salto en producción para una ficción de mi país, combinando prostéticos, efectos prácticos, filmación en locaciones reales al aire libre durante la relativamente reciente pandemia, y mucho CGI tanto para los fondos como para los efectos especiales, que se ven bien, pero nada del otro mundo, menos en los tiempos que corren. También hubo polémica por el uso de inteligencia artificial para la serie, cosa que no detecté así que no sé si fue usada durante la filmación o para algún factor externo como la promoción o algo por el estilo.

En cuanto a la ambientación, los efectos de sonido están buenos, nada maravillosos ni súper inmersivos pero cumplen y más que bien. Quisiera decir lo mismo del resto de factores que suelo agrupar en esta categoría pero, aunque decente, la actuación en la serie sigue los estándares más monótonos casi teatrales e influenciados en su momento por el realismo italiano de una producción argentina, por lo que es su apartado más flojo, sobre todo para un público acostumbrado a consumir productos internacionales.

La música, al igual que las tantísimas referencias visuales en los fondos, está impregnada de un colorido local que a los argentinos nos deleita y cuya inclusión en nuestras producciones nos caracteriza, pero me pregunto hasta qué grado pueden interpelar y convencer a extranjeros. Es decir, algunas canciones de la banda sonora encajan líricamente con lo que sucede en escena, pero no tanto musicalmente, y otras claramente están insertadas más por una cuestión identitaria que narrativa. Hasta esto se perdió en cierto sentido en algún momento, ya que en el último episodio usaron una canción en inglés (Let It Snow de Sinatra) para complementar la “nieve” del escenario…cuando ese elemento ya casi no tenía peso en la trama. Aún así voy a acotar que el uso de la música en esta serie es mejor que en Arcane.

En cuanto a la narrativa, la serie claramente fue pensada para incluir algunos aspectos sociales históricos y/o actuales de Argentina a la par que la trama, gente en reclamo por el suministro de luz, venezolanos que trabajan como reparto para locales principalmente de comida, discusiones de consorcio por cuestiones edilicias, quiero creer que en parte debido al éxito del Encargado, cierto nivel de bullying y bromas escolares aunque sin llegar ni de cerca al nivel de obras internacionales a la hora de mostrar el tema, población china en Argentina, muy presente desde hace mucho, parejas separadas, familiares con relaciones no muy buenas, etc.

Una diferencia clave de la serie respecto a la obra original es darle una razón personal más fuerte al protagonista, Juan Salvo, para involucrarse en el conflicto. En la historieta lo hacía básicamente porque es el personaje principal, en la serie para buscar a sus seres queridos que están allá afuera en riesgo de entrar en contacto con la “nieve” tóxica. Su hija es adolescente en esta versión porque todos los personajes fueron considerablemente avejentados, lo cual tiene sentido porque francamente casi nadie de la edad que los personajes tenían en el cómic tendría hoy en día el nivel de experiencia de vida, educación, pragmaticidad y el afán de coleccionar antigüedades como los que el elenco necesita para hacer avanzar la trama.

Otro cambio importante es ahondar más en los personajes secundarios, mostrar lo que Favalli y el grupo hacen y viven en la casa y el barrio a la par de las salidas de Salvo, divisiones en el grupo, reagrupaciones, desarrollo de distintos tipos de relaciones entre algunos de los personajes, un rol importante para Favalli hacia el final de la temporada, un papel para Elena y Ana, las esposas de los dos tipos más importantes de la historia, algo de lo que carecían completamente en la versión original, y una creciente relevancia para Lucas y Omar, entre otras cosas.

Con eso dicho, no quiere vender al reparto más de lo que amerita, ya que salvo por dos personajes, destacan más como herramientas argumentales que por sus presencias, personalidades, trasfondos o desarrollos, los cuales son más bien básicos, insinuados, repentinos sin mucho enfoque, o directamente inexistentes, debido también en parte a la falta de un cierre para la historia y serie.

Otras cosas que le destaco a la tira en comparación con la original es ahondar más en la sensación de paranoia y desesperación inicial de la población. Eso ya se mostraba en cierto punto en la historieta, pero con mayor frialdad y crudeza, al mostrar a alguien volviéndose loco dentro de un grupo y siendo asesinado por el mismo para evitar mayores riesgos para el resto. En esta versión el protagonista se cruza con casi un edificio entero que quiere robarle primero y matarlo después, y un vagón de tren repleto de gente desesperada por el hambre y la sed y a la que luego vemos como cadáveres. A eso hay que sumarle todas las demás personas y animales a las que vemos morir o muertas por la “nieve” tóxica, y lo aterradoras que resultan la efectividad e inmediatez de su efecto.

Algo en lo que la serie se enfoca mucho y a lo que da mucha importancia es el tema de la cooperación, el trabajo y supervivencia colectivos, y la idea de que nadie se salva solo y se debe trabajar en sociedad, retratado en el grupo principal, otro que sobrevive a la par en una iglesia y con cierta delegación de tareas, un tercero que se organiza como un ejército, más tarde en el trabajo en conjunto de la población junto a los militares frente a los enemigos extraterrestres, incluso los alocados y violentos del edificio, planifican y actúan, justamente, en conjunto.

Otro tema importante aunque con un espacio de tiempo en pantalla menor es el sentimiento nacionalista y patriota, reflejado en la asosiación entre pueblo y ejército para recuperar conecciones y comunicaciones y enfrentar al enemigo invasor.

Y finalmente, como el mismo campo electromagnético terrestre es afectado en la serie, y por lo tanto también lo es todo lo electrónico y digital, hay una recuperación de la importancia de lo analógico y de antaño, identificados en algunas líneas de guión, siendo la más conocida y recordada, “lo viejo funciona, Juan”. Además, mediante el rol de Favalli en la tira, se rescata la importancia de la educación en profesiones como ingeniería o mecánica.

Estos temas presentes en la serie son de alguna forma el equivalente moderno a la expresión sociopolítica del original, aunque dirigidos hacia otro lado y actualizados para los tiempos que corren. En tiempos de crisis de representación, política, social y económica del país, y de individualismo, de entrega del país y territorios nacionales, y demérito de las ciencias y la educación terciaria y universitaria públicas, y de uso desmedido y dependencia de electrodomésticos y demás artículos y herramientas digitales, las temáticas abordadas en la serie son más que destacables.

Una última cosa positiva a destacar de esta versión es que Juan Salvo sea un veterano de Malvinas, una acertada actualización al personaje original y acorde al presente de la serie, una pizca adicional de identidad local para el producto, y una dimensión simbólica adicional a la nieve de la serie, la cual le da a las visiones del protagonista el componente adicional de ser un conductor de estrés postraumático, además de funcionar como herramienta argumental ligada a las memorias del personaje principal y sus viajes en el tiempo, elemento que la serie retiene de la obra original.

Ahora bien, con todas las cosas lindas que dije de El Eternauta, también hay que decir que hay bastantes momentos de vida cotidiana que están solo para relajar el argumento, la historia, el tono, el tiempo, el ritmo, los personajes. Por lo demás no aportan mucho o directamente nada y no es como que el elenco sea más explorado o desarrollado a través de ellos. También he de decir que la comedia presente en la serie es bastante mala y juvenil, e incluso es referenciada en una escena que se supone sea dramática y trágica. Y ya que hago referencia a esa escena, hay cosas que son extrañas y no son del todo explicadas, como la repentina locura de Lucas en ese momento, aunque tampoco me parece mal dejar cosas a interpretación del público, justamente algo que realmente no hacía la historieta. Y bueno, obviamente la historia todavía no está terminada, y me preocupa el uso de viajes en el tiempo como herramienta argumental a futuro, eso casi siempre es un problema porque o vuelve a la resolución de los eventos conveniente, o prácticamente obliga a los personajes a ser necesariamente reactivos frente al argumento, pocas veces proactivos.

Por ahora, El Eternauta mezcla decentemente una esencia argentina con una premisa y temas importantes, interesantes y universales, y es un progreso en cuanto a una producción salida de Argentina, así como una mejora en caracterización respecto a la obra original. Con eso dicho, la ambientación y el ritmo presentan problemas, hay comedia y escenas que no suman nada, los personajes son más herramientas argumentales que otra cosa, y la historia todavía no está terminada. Considero que merece un 6/10 por ahora, con esperanzas de que mejore en su segunda temporada.

Note: This will cover both seasons

I barely remember coming across this series by accident by looking through some list, and what a pleasant surprise it was from its premise alone. Workers from a certain company get their brains surgically separated while at work, supposedly to let them work at ease and without the stress from outside, yeah, as if that doesn’t sound like a bad idea from the get go. Well, as we will find out later, the actual people that registered from outside in the first place have several reasons to work there, loneliness, depression after losing their partner, looking for someone, lack of better options or for propagandistic purposes, to promote the process as a good thing.

Although the script is good, what really surprised me was the directing, and even more so Ben Stiller being one of the directors. Although the setting is limited to the office and a house, the characters look like normal people in suits, and the CGI used in the series is not that good, the show manages to look good thanks to a polished production and well made backgrounds, alongside constant use of dynamic camera movements, cameras on rails to follow the characters yet not looking blurry at any moment, sometimes mirror angles, lots of closeups to highlight key details that either show off the good acting or make stand out elements that will be relevant to the plot at some point, fastly interchanged quick cuts to switch from the two people sharing the same body and their perspectives, to the point that the series appeared to be fantasy during the first episode, and so on. Even the weird goo-like CGI is excused when it is revealed to be the remnant memory of black paintings done by the character who was seemingly having hallucinations caused by stress and fatigue.

Since Severance is a mystery show, it needs to have a suspenseful soundtrack, and it sure does, sometimes the music can be quite haunting on top of stressful, and the sound effects are pretty immersive. The acting is one of the best things in the series, both for the creepy looking characters with their fake smiles or their dead looks in their eyes, and the cast that technically plays two different characters depending if they are inside or outside the company, managing two different personalities and sometimes even looks very well, with the highlights being the scenes when one of them changes to the other.

As you would expect from the premise, we see characters wanting to leave, desiring to find out about their lives outside, feeling confined in their workplace and without an actual life, as they clearly are, people from outside pointing out the dehumanizing aspect of the process, and even someone who could leave trying to connect with the main character to explain something to him, and suffering the constant switch ups in his head, both on a mental and a physical level, and even people falling in love with different people outside and inside the building, and the expected consequences when finding out than someone they like inside might already be married outside.

At the same time, the series is clearly a bit of a dark satire of corporativism and office work. People are isolated from everything outside, they barely know about other departments in the same building and what they do, even less so about what they are working for at the end of it all, and they are filled with small self help rewards and places and have to do some cringy team activities for more affinity and building a healthy workplace or something, while in this setting they also get some would they be true or not facts about their outside versions to calm them and make them feel that they are doing fine, I guess.

We also see the antagonists logically watching over the protagonists, prohibiting them from leaving the office, retrieving chips from brains of people that were going through a reintegration process to basically unify their brains once again. But I also have to point out how they let important people without constant watch and harm themselves, and how weird it is for them to let them be nearby people that know their outside selves, why would you risk your whole system like that? Eventually we get an explanation and repercussions, but you would think there would be countermeasures beforehand or quickly implemented after the fact, and also the chip retrieving scenes can be a bit weird, as definitely are the other departments that are found throughout the season, and what the heck was that ritual room and scene even about?

As the second season begins, we see the antagonists reforming the office, logically separating the team but uniting it once again for the sake of completing the project at large, new work conditions and places for the sake of preventing the finale of the first season to happen again, with even stop motion videos, also proving how powerful and untouchable the company really is, and the new floor boss supposedly checking on the mental wellbeing on the workers, while simultaneously dividing them from the inside.

Unlike the first season, we get more shots and scenes and events and story on the outside, exploring the time between the two seasons, the team besides the protagonist getting fired and trying to redo their outside lives before coming back in, and even suffering discrimination for going through the severance process while trying to find new jobs. Also now the team is divided for good after a certain event, and the new floor boss is reprimanded for letting things escalate to that level, which is more logical than how things were happening in the first season.

For the psychological side, we see the protagonist suffering from the same confusing episodes of memories switching as the character from the first season did, and even the same physical consequences, which raises the tension after we have seen what happened to the other guy.

There’s also an almost whole flashback episode to explain the situation of one of the main couples and how they got to the chronological beginning of the story, recontextualizing the plot, their motives and their interactions up until that point, exploring new themes, and a much needed look into what the company intends to do with this process, even if that ended up raising more questions as well. We also finally get to know the origins and the beginning of the severance and how the company has been affecting entire towns for who knows how much time with almost even religious arguments and followers.

There’s even a bit of an existential aspect in the season, as both sides of the protagonist confront themselves near the end and the inside points out that the outside basically asks for him to give up on the little everything he has in his life, even he himself as a whole, for the sake of the person who created him and only decided to reach him in times of need, and isn’t he right about all that? Easily one of the best moments of the series.

The atmosphere is as good as it was in the first season, if not better, and the production went up a notch with more general shots, more variety in settings and backgrounds, more dynamic movements with even more action scenes, and no more weird looking CGI. Unfortunately the directing wasn’t as varied and interesting as it was in the first season, and the pacing is quite slow in the beginning, and quite fast near the end, making some events feel convenient and hurried as a result, thus this entry is not as entertaining and well written as the one before it.

And I have to point out the weak points in the story. Why is the cabin not being monitored at all? Why is the company letting such a valuable woman go her way with such ease with all the potential risk she means for them? Why even have outside activities at all, with, again, all the potential risk that that means for the workers and even a very important person for the company amongst them? Why is the security in this company so bad that it is basically composed of just one guy? Would the plan of the protagonists even work against such a huge and powerful company?

And there are things that just feel weird for the sake of being weird, the whole backstory about the creator of the company, the whole goat department, their outfits, some lines of dialogues feeling cryptic or weirdly written just for the sake of sounding mysterious, the whole thing that are doing with the Cold Harbor file and all, like why? Because corporations are weird and evil?

And I have to say that a good portion of the focus on this season is dedicated to slice of life and romantic moments that are not as interesting as the psychological, sociological and philosophical aspects of the premise and concept.

I hope the third season gives an actual closure to the characters, resolves the loose ends about what this corporation even does and how it does it, they actually take actual measures about all the mess at the end of the second season, I hope for the series to stop having weird for the sake of being weird moments and scenes, and show the consequences once it is known outside what happened on the inside.

Basically I want the series to end on the next entry, because otherwise the show would overextend its welcome, drag itself unnecessarily just for the heck of it, and eventually decline in quality as a result. I rate the first season with an 8/10 and the second with a 7, thus a 7.5 for the whole thing for now.

Note: This will cover both seasons

Never thought I’d be covering Star Wars of all things, in part due to being so famous and talked about there’s close to nothing to add to the discussion about it, and part due to not having much material to work with, the original trilogy is a fine action adventure space opera and that’s pretty much it. Plus I’m mostly unfamiliar with this universe, I did watch the prequel trilogy, some episodes of the 2000s cartoon, Rogue One, and Visions, if that counts, but that’s about it.

Speaking of Rogue One, it was a fine movie, definitely more serious and slower and kinda more boring than its chronological sequels, at least on its first half, but by fleshing its cast slowly, bothering to give an explanation to one of the weakest aspects of the movie that started it all, and literally going out with a bang, made it a worth watching experience on its second half.

So, for whatever reason they came out with a prequel about one of the protagonists from Rogue One, years later, and after the character’s role in the franchise was over, which doesn’t sound like a good idea in the least, but since the reception about it was largely positive and the series was considered to be the best Star Wars thing in a long time, eventually I was curious about it, and although I did not enjoy the first season, knowing that the show ended on its second season without dragging unnecessarily made it worth to watch the second season. As it turns out, Andor is the best Star Wars thing that I watched in my life.

The premise explores a part of this universe regarding the Rebellion, yet nothing about the Jedis, the Siths, the force and anything like that. No space magic, no fancy lightsaber fights, just politics and occasionally some shots here and there. I’m sorry the focus is on politics? Half the reason why people didn’t like the prequels? What’s going on?

Well the answer is simple, it turns out that dealing with politics interests people as long as multiple perspectives from both sides, intense plotlines and characters whose drama you care about are happening at the same time.

The series does not start that strongly though, and its pacing is definitely slow, even more so for what one would expect from Star Wars. Initially we see Andor as a wanted man with just enough information, but a lot of it is missing, and it takes a little while for him to connect with the actual plot and join the Rebellion. Once he does, it’s interesting to see how everyone distrust him for possibly being an enemy spy or something, and when he finally takes an active part on the strikes against the Empire, is actually caught, and his actions end up harming his close ones and town, every action leads to consequences.

The series slows down a little once again in the middle while he is imprisoned, and it has some silly bits here and there, but exploring that setting and coming up with believable ways for him to escape, while taking its time for the characters to be convinced, plan the escape and actually set it in motion, made it overall well written and thus was worth stopping the plot for it. The finale ends up with him actually joining the Rebellion for real, and shit getting real, though it can’t be denied that things take a quick and abrupt turn on the last episode.

The second season also starts slowly with Cassian being stuck with a bunch of idiots, which translates to more silly bits here and there, but luckily unlike the first season, the rest of the cast actually tries to move the plot forward, partially thanks for all the buildup and following their lives a little on the previous entry. Once the series finds its pacing it becomes great, with permanent high tension and consequences everywhere and for everyone, as both sides have spies and double agents constantly watching the other, and lots of characters actually die with close to no plot armor to be found. The rebels die in battle or being captured or are removed from the plot, the people from the Empire die in battle or due to their own incompetence or as punishment for either messing up or failing to meet the expected results. I’m sorry, am I watching Star Wars, or Legend of the Galactic Heroes?

And throughout the season we see the Empire constantly watching several townsfolks in search for rebels, even infiltrating them, and mining the needed material to build the Death Star, a secret to even most of its staff. Meanwhile the rebels also infiltrate the Empire, killing their own members when they are about to get caught, finding the traitors amongst them, and also having differences among their own files. At the same time we follow another political aspect through the perspective of Senator Mon Mothma, such as a political marriage, and political deals with other congressmen, while being pressured and eventually chased by the Empire.

As for characters, I can’t say I remember everyone with their names at all, but the way everyone is cautious and their relationships with each other made them a very good cast. Mothma was more memorable here than in whatever movie I saw her in, Andor has a good arc of reluctantly joining the Rebellion by accident or not wanting any part of it and desiring peace instead, to becoming such an active member of it, even going as far as risking his own life to save key members of it. Then we have Kleya with probably the best backdrop in the whole series, Dedra trying to manage her position on the Empire and her personal relationships simultaneously, Syril going through the same things yet also being a spy, and dealing with his overprotective and meddlesome mother, and Luthern definitely being the best character of the show, being the brain behind the whole Rebellion and an infiltrator at the same time.

Production wise, the series is very good for a tv show, everything looks polished and although a bit repetitive, the backgrounds can be quite absorbing, and the special effects are good both when it comes to practical and CGI. Since a lot of time there isn’t any action, the series can be quite static to look at, and without very interesting camera angles, and there’s an overabundance of human looking characters compared to actual aliens, so the designs are the least inspired and worst aspect of the series.

The sound design is as good as you would expect from Star Wars, both for the returning iconic sound effects and for the newly introduced ones, the music is very good but perhaps not at the level one would expect from something out of this franchise. The acting is good, definitely better than any I’ve seen from the movies I’ve watched from this IP, but I didn’t find it impressive or anything, just quite good.

The finale sets up Rogue One very well, though not as much as to become repetitive about what it’s already shown in there, and gives another dimension to Andor as a character, making his dramatic outcome in the movie even a lot more tragic.

If I were to criticize something about it, there’s pacing issues and the beginning and some other episodes weren’t as good as I already said, there are some last moment saves here and there, and Bix was disregarded very dirtily from the plot. Showing a character struggling to take action due to trauma is fine, but completely removing them from the plot altogether in such a way that they don’t contribute anything to it is a completely different thing, the writers basically turned her into a housewife, and not even a very good one at that, as we are made to know that Cassian is a better cook than her.

Nevertheless, as a whole, I didn’t enjoy this series because of its pacing, comedy, and the universe it belongs to not interesting me much, but it was otherwise strong and much better than I hoped it would be, and one of the best series I’ve watched in a while. I’m nowhere near enough to notice if there’s any major plot hole regarding the continuity of this franchise, though I remember seeing Mothma on some movies so maybe there are some chronological incongruences around her, which would mean a writing issue, but for what it did as a whole, it was a great one. It kept things going, had permanent consequences without bad writing, fleshed out its cast, wasn’t rushed, didn’t mess up in its second season like quite some shows that I watched recently did, and it didn’t overstay its welcome. I score the first season with a 7/10 and the second with an 8/10, which would round the whole thing at a 7.5/10, pretty good stuff.

Note: This will cover both seasons

Well time to review a third videogame adaptation in a row, but this time about a game I didn’t even play nor watch playthroughs of, so the comparisons I might make with the original will be very little and thus won’t be a very important part of this review and my criteria about the series.

The first season of The Last Of Us proves that you can make something great even out of a generic premise. To its core it’s a by the numbers zombie apocalypse show with all of its usual elements, but on closer inspection its execution makes it worthwhile without needing to be something very special.

First of all the production is very good, even more so for a tv show. The series combines both real locations, practical effects and animals with computer generated images, blending both really well and somehow even managing to confuse some people. The show is more drama than action oriented yet the most thrilling scenes and the fighting moments are well choreographed, filmed and portrayed, with no blurry camera motions or similar annoying stuff. For a little bit of negativity, that also means that the series can be a bit static at times, and the characters look normal and not exactly like their videogame counterparts, if that matters, while the infecteds don’t have a very distinctive design.

The atmosphere is also good, with a properly somber and kinda mysterious soundtrack that still knows how to sound epic when needed, and the sound design is one of the best aspects of the show, with every single sound effect adding to the intense mood of the series, every shriek, every grunt, every step, transports you into there. The acting is also very good from everyone, something which would be somewhat missed on the second season.

The initial premise is based on an actually existing fungus. Whether it would be even near to cause something remotely close to what it does in the show is debatable, and it sure was when the first season came out, but it is a nice addition.

As it is usually the case with post-apocalyptic fiction like this one, the focus eventually switches to show how humankind deals with the situation, which normally causes two types of reaction, Those disappointed by the lack of presence of a monster threat, and those that praise the look at human behaviour under such dreadful situations. I happen to belong to the second group because I think people fighting off zero dimensional monsters can only get you so far before the action becomes repetitive and the thrills stop being, well, thrilling.

But it’s not like the infected get sidelined for the sake of the human drama, the show knows how to balance the thrills with the sociological themes, not undermining something in the favor of the other thing, despite clearly focusing on one genre. Another positive aspect is how the superhuman threat remains consistent. There are several types of infecteds, each one looking and acting in a certain way, despite sharing common characteristics, and the rational humans know how to react to them and fight against them because of that. Besides, unlike other zombie type of fiction that I’ve seen, the infecteds in here do not change their capabilities in strength or speed nor their behaviour for the sake of the story plot-armouring the humans.

The other aspect is very well handled, showing humankind organizing and working in groups to survive instead of becoming crazy beasts or anything of the sort, which is not that uncommon for monstrous hordes invasion type of stories. Even amongst the most paranoidal and evil characters, they stick in groups to fight against the infected, as well as other humans, cooperation is key to survive and live, even more so during the apocalypse.

Since I normally review animation, I think it’s worth mentioning that live action series have the advantage of 40 minutes to an hour of runtime per episode, thus even characters that appear for just one episode can get explored and be fleshed out, and that’s certainly the case here. But obviously the characters that are most looked into are the two main ones, from their pasts, their losses, what they can and can’t do, their weird father-daughter dynamic they build upon throughout the season.

What I appreciate is having an experienced, veteran, middle aged lead, who is knowledgeable about different topics and how to defend himself, and the way he teaches stuff to the coprotagonist. She on the other hand is obviously important as a plot device for being immune, and adds a bit of humanity, morality, light mood, and yet still a traumatic past that forced her to be able to fend for herself, and yet can’t simply overpower everyone she comes across. Unlike power fantasy stories for teenagers, the little girl here will certainly struggle and see herself bested by the antagonists they face here and there. Even Joel himself will have health issues that will make him suffer at times.

And I appreciate how there are actual stakes in the series. Obviously the main leads won’t die, but their partners and friends sure will, and their families are going to be in need of rescue.

Another good aspect is that the protagonists will sometimes have to antagonize other innocent people trying to survive just like them, with the final episode being the most famous peak of gray morality in the franchise, at the very least the best handled moment with that intention.

For the negatives, how many zombie stories do you know that have actual endings? Yeah, this one is another case too, though there’s an explanation here, and a sense of closure and catharsis along with it, plus the outcome will come back to bite the protagonists in the ass, which is always welcome in a sequel.

Then the seventh episode, Ellie’s flashback, which adapts the DLC of the first game, was certainly introduced weirdly into the narrative. But worst of all was the third episode, which yeah yeah I know it was one of the most popular and beloved and highly rated, something that I never understood.

First of all, it adds nothing to the plot, because the characters aren’t seen ever again, essentially meaning that the episode was a waste of screentime. And I know that the couple was very cherished by a lot of people who in turn cried with them and whatnot, but all I saw was one man trespassing the house of another, asking for a shower, clothes, food and even a piano piece, then jumping onto him for sex and to stay, to later pretend to change the other man’s life. I don’t see how any of this is romantic nor adds anything to the narrative.

But besides those issues, the first season of The Last Of Us was the best I could ask for a series of its genre and kind, with both a sense of thrill and good drama, sociological aspects, stakes, and characters that are looked into. Even the lack of an ending is excused and there’s some sort of closure at the end of the season. I rate the first entry with an 8/10.

Unfortunately, just like it happened when the videogame when it came out, according to its reception, the second season was a huge drop in quality compared to the first. Not in terms of production though, which remained just as good as it was in the first season.

I wish I could say the same for the atmosphere, but even though the sound design and the music keep the same level of quality, it is not exactly the case for the acting.
Everyone did a really good job, except for Bella Ramsey, and I don’t understand why. She killed it during the previous entry, so why does she underperform here? I don’t know, maybe it’s a directing thing, but she certainly does not emote much during some scenes, and lacks a bit of needed intensity for some other moments, even more when you compare them with the videogame, and that’s an issue when the character she plays is the protagonist of the show.

Regarding the script, the main problem is how silly some moments are, probably in part because of a lighter mood. Downtime scenes are needed to make the audience care about the characters, but it’s not like they are being fleshed out here. Also, the cast is so used to fighting the infecteds, there’s not the same sense of thrill, which makes sense of course but it’s a natural course of any zombie story if they last for more than needed and why they stop being entertaining after a while.

I said that but when it comes to humans, the main characters are outclassed almost every time. There have been complaints about the way Joel is written in this season, and although I was not having issues with it, that changed after the flashback episode, he should have been more cautious to remain consistent to how he used to be. And Ellie is a lot worse, she was more capable as a kid than as a young adult, though I guess it makes sense because she was fighting common people before, and actual militia now.

Also, I did not expect this show to have plot armor, not because of the infected, Ellie makes use of her immunity consistently and several times, but something always happens to prevent her being killed by other people. And I have to point out that some characters were saved by out of nowhere last moment saves.

Although there were moments when they were fighting off infecteds, it seemed to me that these were considerably less than in the previous season, and I didn’t understand why they let them advance so much in the second episode before attacking them, but it came out alright I guess.

Another issue is the lack of sociological themes, since the main cast already established themselves in a somewhat secured place, they no longer interact with other survivors in any way. Instead they are trapped in the middle of a war between two messed up armies, which is never fully explained to the audience. I mean it’s understandable for the protagonists to be clueless about it because the conflict does not concern them, so why would they know anything about it?, especially when they are trying to avoid it, but we as the viewers are almost just as lost to what’s going on because the focus of the narrative is not there. It seems that part of the plot will get on that in the next season though, so maybe we will get an actual explanation about it.

But at the end of the day the worst aspect of the season was the romantic elements and the way they were introduced in the plot. Was it really necessary for a pregnancy to be revealed after such an intense episode and scene? Was it necessary for it to be immediately followed by a sex scene? Why are the characters talking about a three way parenting? Does the guy even know? Is he being cuckolded? And it’s all so silly to be thrown in the middle of all the seriousness, it clashes a lot with the rest of the show.

Oh, and what was that final scene and cliffhanger at the end about though? A tease to a switch in the narrative for the next season, maybe?

Not everything is bad or undercooked though, at the end of the day it wasn’t really a bad season, there were some good scenes, moments and episodes here and there:

-Like I said earlier, the aftermath and consequences of the finale of the first season coming back for the protagonists is an interesting setup.

-Despite how the narrative treats him, the cuckold guy is very rational and one of the best characters introduced in this entry.

-Dina is also fine besides her conflicted emotions.

-Ellie accidentally killing off two people and what resulted off of it afterwards was probably the best scene in the whole season.

-The series begins to build the whole theme of revenge, reflected on how most of the town is against Ellie and her quest for vengeance after the second episode, because it could probably be a disaster for them in the long run.

-Abby does not seem to be that bad of a character, refusing to kill those she considers innocent, though she remains fairly unexplored.

-There’s a flashback episode just like in the first season, and it recontextualizes the whole of this one, mainly the drama between Ellie and Joel, to the point I ask myself why didn’t they just start with that one instead.

As a whole, the season was a big drop in quality compared to the first, but still had some good stuff in it, making it possible for the third and hopefully last one to save the series, but as for this one, I can’t give it more than a 5/10, dropping my score of an 8 for the first to a 6 for now for the series as a whole.

Note: This will cover both seasons

Just like the first series was not an adaptation but instead based on different games, the Nocturne spin-off sequel is based on Symphony of the Night, but even more so, Rondo of Blood, while also featuring an older version of the protagonist of Harmony of Dissonance.

The setting changed completely to 19th century France, around the same time as the French revolution. If you played the games you will instantly notice one major change around Anette, who was not only raceswapped but also wrote in a totally different way, to deal with the theme of slavery and tie it with the theme of freedom of the setting and time period themselves.

I don’t exactly remember if it was the case with the games, but the whole cast was changed from the experienced fighters from the previous series, to reluctant and traumatized teenagers in this one. This change would normally translate to more explored and better characters, but the reality is that the cast here is not handled in a very interesting way.

And the cause of that is both that the amount of episodes is quite low compared with the first series, and the pacing is very weird, sometimes too slow and sometimes too fast. Thus half the first season the heroes don’t know jack about what’s going on, have to learn what to do from older generations and introspect about their pasts, while the plot is taking place somewhere else.

Yet at the same time, in just a few episodes, Ritchter the protagonist is capable of besting the big bad when he couldn’t do much just some episodes earlier, the final showdown really kinda comes out of nowhere and goes by quite fast. At least the fight and animation themselves were quite good, even though I was not as impressed with them as I was while watching the previous series. I will say though that the demons in the show look heavily inspired by Devilman, but done a lot better here.

Oh and there’s a bard in the main group for some reason, only there to provide some tracks to the background music and then be turned into a demon. Since I mentioned the music, I might as well talk about the audio department, and as usual I don’t have much to say about it. Good music, good sound effects, I only watched the show in Latin American Spanish this time, so I don’t know the original, but the dub is also good.

Unfortunately the second season is everything that was said about Arcane season 2 and more. The characters remain boring and don’t go through any major changes in this season, as everything that was there to explore about them was dealt with in the previous entry it seems, and let me tell you that the cast ended up being very blank because of that.

Ok there’s some emotional and psychological focus on Maria I guess, but it’s handled quite poorly. Her capabilities, the very nature of her powers, and her personality from edgy to pure again are all changed literally from one episode to another. The show tries to tie her arc with her mother and her conflicting hybrid nature, but she too can feel inconsistent and without a lot of focus to her to matter much nor help the writing of her daughter much.

Wanna talk about Annette? She’s just a literal plot device in this season, just a catalyst for an ancient entity whose powers are boring and add nothing to the battle choreography.

The bard is still there, now as a demon, but still only just to sing, only to somehow overpower a seemingly more powerful and older demon with relative ease and no explanation in the final episodes.

There’s betrayal on the villain side just like in the original series, but over here had very little build up, the character in this case wasn’t nearly as interesting and looked into as Carmilla, and his contribution to the final showdown was minimal.

There are issues with the theme exploration as well. The French Revolution seemed to be a big part of the themes in the first season, yet over here they ended up being just background decoration. And also, two side characters had a theme of racism and homosexuality going on, but they are either barely mentioned or don’t get enough focus as the previous series, or even the first season of this one.

The characters are still inconsistently capable. They keep messing up in juvenile ways, because they are inexperienced teenagers and not seasoned veterans like the previous cast, yet they also somehow overpower not one but two major villains in the final episodes.

Speaking of which, the finale of the previous season is undone for no reason. The major villain from the first season was killed at the end of it, yet revived in this one, had her backdrop story shown in a hurry, and revealed to become the major villain again in the most predictable and underwhelming plot twist ever. This also translates to not one but two disappointing final showdowns against two major villains, both taking place in a hurry in just the two final episodes. And although the animation was spectacular, I have to say that I wasn’t nearly as impressed with the battle choreography and the abilities of the characters, as I was with the original trio from the first series.

I don’t know if Nocturne is gonna get a third season, there was some stuff left a little bit unresolved to excuse it, but as it is now it’s a very inconsistently paced and underwhelming show that needed more episodes to flow more naturally and have better writing and theme exploration, which is a shame because superficially there are elements for a good story in it. I give the first season and the series as a whole a 5/10, but the second season deserves a 4/10.

Note: This will cover the whole series

Now that I got my warmup with Arcane out of the way, it’s time for a review about another videogame adaptation I actually wanted to write, the Castlevania series based on Castlevania III, bits from Symphony of the Night, characters from Curse of Darkness, Simon’s Quest and Rondo of Blood, and elements from Lord of Shadows, but not really adapting any of those titles.

I find it important to clarify that, as many fans of the franchise didn’t like the cartoon because of its many differences with the videogames. Again, the show is based on the IP, not an adaptation of it.

The second thing to clarify is that the series is not anime, or at least not in a traditional sense in the West. It’s based on a Japanese IP, and has a Japanese dub, but was mainly produced in the US, by American studios, and its original version is in English. Part of the staff that animated it did work on anime though, so that’s why it is included on some anime databases, but technically speaking that would make it an anime-inspired cartoon at most, despite the label Netflix uses to classify this show with.

Even though I said that, the series can be compared with the likes of Hellsing for its vampire hunting and religious elements, or JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure for similar reasons, plus a similar narrative of a family fighting off vampires or people influenced by them for generations.

The series takes place in 15th century Romania and follows Trevor, a reluctant hero belonging in the long line of the Belmont family of vampire hunters, doing what he was trained to do more because of things happening around him than he willingly jumping into the action. That is my way of saying that he kinda bumps into the plot than moving it on his own.

The other main characters, the elemental mage Sypha Belnades, out for protecting her close ones and as payment for being rescued by Belmont, and Alucard, son of Dracula and thus the one character with emotional stake in the series, are thus more interesting than him.

As for the antagonist himself, we see him being feared yet wanting to live his life on his own, slowly falling in love with a human woman and thus becoming more accepting of them, before turning against them after being accused of being a demon and his wife of being a witch, and getting attacked.

The production is very good. The artwork is constantly solid with no quality drops, the character designs were fairly updated from the videogames but more or less kept the essence from the originals, the style is both anime inspired but also fairly grounded. The backgrounds are also done well but kinda limited on this first season, and the special effects are overall good but the weakest part throughout the whole series. The motions are good but the show did not get to show off much on this first season.

I can’t say much about the audio department, it wasn’t particularly remarkable. Good sound effects and typical epic, fitting soundtrack I guess, the opening was very short, simple and boring though. I struggled with the voice acting not because it was bad but because of the accents which made it very hard for me to listen to the original version, so I switched to either Japanese or Latin American Spanish, both of which were good, and had some differences in script from the original.

The first season was very short, clearly just to see how well it would be received and to form the main team and present the series, but it is overall fine for what it is, I rate it with a 6/10.

The second season has some silly comical bits here and there to show the dynamics between the two male leads but it is mostly more serious, and starts to develop the main romance of the series, while also and more importantly advancing the plot. The pacing is not the most engaging, as it takes several episodes of planning and magical stuff for the heroes to find and attack the villains, but having the villains’ castle being hard to approach makes it more believable in my opinion.

Obviously you can’t have an entire season with just that, so this one focuses a lot on the side of the bad guys, introducing characters and elements from Curse of Darkness and showing differences amongst them in personalities, loyalty, bloodlust, ways of fighting and hunting, and a betrayal taking place underneath. We also see the main villain remembering times of peace and what his loved one would have wanted, as well as having a sort of emotional reencounter with his son, mellowing down basically, and thus partly responsible for the internal conflicts between his followers.

The action was incredible this season, with the differences amongst the fighting styles of the main trio against Dracula’s army, with Belmont and his whipping, Alucard combining super strength and flying swordsmanship, and Sypha and her mixed elemental magic. The problem is probably the pacing, as the built up fight happens in a very fast manner, the battle choreography and animation were great, it just happens very quickly.

The final showdown is more drama oriented than action oriented, and although that might have disappointed some viewers, I appreciated this approach and its build up throughout the whole season, which even has a sense of closure and catharsis at its end, despite the story remaining incomplete.

The production went up a notch on this entry, with the improved motions and special effects for all of its action. The characters introduced in this season, such as Carmilla and Isaac, were redesigned from the videogames, and honestly for the better, even with the raceswap that was done to the latter. Hector looks almost the same as he does in Curse of Darkness, but he was tremendously changed as a character. I wish he was more like his original self, but even as he is, he is fine, and the others were done far better than in the videogames.

I think there were some short musical references to the soundtracks of the videogames, but I otherwise didn’t notice many differences in the audio department.

As a whole, this season was a bit faster, had more of a plot, looked into the characters more, and had very good action and production. It's a notable improvement over the first, and the best season overall, so I give it something between a 6.5 and a 7/10.

The third season was a step back in quality all around. More static and with a bit more questionable CGI, thus worse special effects, plus the newly introduced characters don’t have very interesting designs, thus the visuals are worse as a whole. As usual, the audio department didn’t feature many major changes, though at least half the season is quieter and more monotone, thus it is the worst in here as well.

The story takes an actually interesting approach, as it bothers to tap into the aftermath of the ending of the second season and what the “new” antagonists plan to do, as well as their backdrop stories. Unfortunately the actual plot is very talky, very slow, does not progress much, focuses a lot on secondary characters and places that won’t matter much in the next season, making it feel like it’s on sidequest mode for most if not all of its duration.

It also falls for the usual with Western adult oriented cartoons, there’s need for sex to be on screen to show that the series is indeed adult, while the scenes provide nothing to the plot. To its credit, one sex scene was about a character manipulating another and turning him into her slave, even if somehow the audience has seen it as romantic, and another one was just an excuse for some people to try and kill a major character. But nonetheless, none of them felt justified to be there.

A weird thing about this third season was its theme exploration, as themes of feminism and patriarchy are introduced through the backdrop story of the main villain, and although explaining a character does not equal to justify them, in this case it felt like this particular character was being victimized, while otherwise being horrible and a big threat to humanity as a whole. Dracula was decently and shortly explored, this new villain, not really.

As a whole the third season was by far the worst one in every way, worse visuals, the most boring audio, little and very slow plot, and the writing and theme exploration weren’t really there, so I can’t rate this one higher than a 5/10. Meaning, it is still not really a bad season.

As the fourth season starts, you notice the necessity of the stuff shown in the third season. Although there are some inferior, boring, slow and mostly uneventful episodes, for most of its duration, it’s dedicated to the action, showdowns and epilogue of the story. Slaves turn against masters, villains are overpowered in epic fights, Alucard completes his character arc and unites people for safety and eventually even battle, and even a secondary character from the third season sort of develops and gets a catharsis. Also the last episodes are almost fully dedicated to a big battle against many demonic creatures, and even death itself.

It would be the best season if not for the actual ending, filled with a short and a bit disappointing final battle, plot armor to save a main character from a certain death, and even some previously dead characters being revived out of nowhere for a forced happy ending and even going against the whole point of the series in a way if you ask me. So yeah the actual finale was pretty bad.

Which is a shame because it was otherwise doing fairly well and even the production went back to being slightly better than the one from the previous season, minus some weak special effects here and there.

As a whole, this season could have been the best one if not for the actual finale of the season and the whole series, but it is still worth the watch and better than the previous entry, so I give it a score of 6/10.

As a whole, the Castlevania series may not be as well put together and exciting as the rule of cool anime I compared it with due to pacing and ending issues, but otherwise connects its themes with straightforward action fairly well, maybe aside from the third season, so I think it’s worth at least a one time watch, as long as you don’t expect it to be a direct adaptation of the games.

When you hear about a League of Legend-based series about Piltover, with the crazy marksman Jinx being chased by the huge mechanical gloves wielder tomboy bruiser Vi and the overly exaggerated British sniper Caitlyn, announced at the peak of the hype around Cyberpunk 2077, what do you expect if not mindless action?

Well, as Arcane proved, turns out that was not the intention, as instead there was a lot of focus on the emotional connection between the characters, the basics of the way the arcane magic from the setting works, a theme of fusing magic and science, and a sociopolitical conflict between the rich and developed Columbia (from Bioshock Infinite)-like Piltover and Zaun, the poor and contaminated slums below it, and surprisingly without victimizing nor demonizing neither side, as there are gray characters on both sides of the conflict.

The first season shows engineers Jayce and Victor (this one originally from Zaun) learning to canalize arcane infused magical crystals on weapons and tools, which may help as a resource for Piltover, enforcer (policewoman) Caitlyn and gangster and former prisoner Vi working together to find Jinx and other criminals, so the conflict between the cities does not escalate further, part of the higher ups from Piltover wanting to leave Zaunites alone, and even early in the story one leader of misfits, Vander, containing the gangs back there with the same objective. And as the emotional core of it all, the conflict between two separated sisters, confronted about a tragic event in their past.

Although the cast in general is fine, the best handled characters are Silco, a major gangster developing toxic weapons and monsters with a gas that Piltover releases over Zaun, to use them back against the city, and Jinx, whose crazy antics were changed from the videogame from maniacal to traumatized, with seemingly a personality disorder, constantly having conversations with another version of herself, or completely alone, flashbacks and illusions of people from her past, and being hurt for all the loses and abandonment in her life, plus seeing her sister working with those who were their enemies their whole lives.

To that can be added an almost impeccable production. The artstyle is distinctive, the 3D models, places and backgrounds are well rendered and show no issue whatsoever, the character designs were updated for the better from their originals (besides Viktor), the motions are polished, the facial expressions are impressively detailed, and the special effects are also very good. The audio department contains incredible sound effects, good enough voice acting at least in English, Spanish, Latin American Spanish and Japanese, and some references to the music from the videogames, but suffers from a not very good soundtrack with even Disney’s Phill Collins era of excusing exposition with the weak lyrics of easygoing songs.

Besides that, not everything in the first season was good, as the runtime sometimes suffered from slice of life moments, silly comical bits that clash with the overall seriousness, some unnecessary scenes which stalled the plot, and the lack of an ending. But nonetheless, if you just stick with the first season, it is overall a solid watch.

Unfortunately, there’s a notable drop in quality in the second season. Not in terms of production though, as the audio kept the same level and the animation was just as phenomenal if not better thanks to having some different and distinctive visual styles during some scenes.

But what was undeniably worse was the script. To be fair with it, the overall story is good and it does start well with Zaunites rioting and Caitlyn dealing with her loss from the first season and turning it into a class-based hate, beyond a personal one, even telling Vi she’s “one of the good ones”. Besides that you have Jinx helping other Zaunites and making them rise, the sisters sorting things out, the lesbian pairing becoming canon after more than a decade, Noxians displaying the invasion they were cooking over since the beginning, an anticipation and buildup of the Black Rose group, a look into Mel’s past, objective and family situation, and even metaphysical aspects with a sort of multiversal closed loop at the end of the series.

Unfortunately, too many things are happening at the same time, and in such a short time, that you can’t help but feel that the pacing is rushed or the amount of episodes is short or the runtime is poorly handled. Caitlyn becomes a dictator and snaps out of it after a montage; she breaks up with Vi, gets together with someone else, then helps Vi again for her personal gain despite going against her whole plan, and then gets back with her, out of nowhere. Silco is revered as a hero of the people for… reasons, Jinx becomes his successor of sorts and liberates Zaun, out of screen, Vander turns out to be alive, his past and relationship with Silco is revealed, introducing issues with what was previously established about the kids from the first season, the sisters sort things out out of nowhere, a whole episode is dedicated to what if scenarios in another timeline, wasting runtime that could have been dedicated to what it is actually happening in the plot.

Also there’s another unnecessary sex scene, not as long as the one from the first season but even more awkwardly introduced in the series, there’s some silly comedy here and there, there’s a whole invasion, war and Zaun and Piltover uniting out of nowhere to fight a bigger threat, and that was the end of their decades worth of conflict, and the metaphysical aspects are presented and resolved, all of these last things taking place in one and a half episodes.

Also, regarding the death of characters, some people complained about their lack of impact and how little the characters ended up matter in the plot, while players of the game complained about the canon inconsistencies. Personally I think no death is confirmed on screen, every character can get back to life one way or another, and the canon of the game doesn’t matter one bit because they can always rewrite it for the third or fourth time and call it a day.

But down to it, it is true that every interesting aspect introduced on either the first or the second season got a rushed and lukewarm resolution in the end. So although I had this series rated positively for a while, I no longer can turn a blind eye to its many problems in the second season, and have to lower my score to the point of considering the series not worth the watch, at least not beyond the first three episodes of the second season.

Well Ave Mujica is here and compared to the prequel I’ve got to say that I appreciate how it is more straightforward, directly showing more about the main character and where she comes from instead of trying to be half mysterious as MyGO!!!!! was in its beginning. I still can’t excuse her personality and how she deals with things, but I can at least understand why and how she does the things she does.

In comparison to the previous entries I watched, the tone here is far more serious, being almost entirely focused on that mood and without mixing it with comedy as much as its prequel, and I actually think that the themes it was going for were very interesting. Right off the bat, Ave Mujica attempts to deal with the world of girl pop bands in Japan, and how their members have to hide a good part of their private lives, and in general how there can be different artistic visions amongst their members.

But there are also discussions between them about their different goals, whether it is more important to pursue what you want to do out of your art or what the audience wants out of you, as well as if it’s better to follow a performance in a prepared way or be spontaneous, both for the sake of spectacle, and so you can make it big quickly.

Besides that, there is the character Nyamu, who wants to become successful as quick as possible but gets perplexed at the actual talent of Mutsumi, so she wants to improve herself and ends up rejecting those opportunities. That other girl tries to keep up with her famous persona and the expectations others have about her, from her fans to the band, and is worried about doing the proper thing for her group and standing out for herself and not as someone from a famous family of artists. She gets mentally pressured to the point of developing a split personality and faking the public persona that was always expected out of her, with even full episodes of psychological immersion included.

Unfortunately, good intentions mean nothing without good execution and I can’t exactly say that there’s one in here, as events happen in rather quick succession and somewhat quirky ways to feel as serious and well explored as the writing and tone clearly intended, and as organic as needed for them to seem properly written.

The series takes off right from the ending of the previous one, and I have to say that for a band that refuses to use their connections, they sure form, get famous and get to have a big concert very fast. Unlike the toxic MyGO!!!!! though, you can see problems within this band right away, as half the members don’t have any connection and some of them disagree with the supposed leader on what to do. It could have been interesting to see how the protagonist deals with other characters being as proactive as her, instead of people that just do what she wants, and I expected her to have a character arc revolved around her realizing that she just plain sucks as a leader, and friend.

But just like with every other plot point in here, things happen very fast, with most of them getting no more than one episode or even half of one of runtime before moving to something else, so the handling of them end up being treated rather superficially and leaving a lot to be desired.

Even when something gets a more appropriate runtime dedicated to it, like that one girl having a mental breakdown, the writing of it can come off as corny and melodramatic, as serious theme exploration gets replaced with generic teenage drama and tearjerker moments. Yes, it’s a show about teen girls but that doesn’t excuse stuffing it up with themes and topics that aren’t going to be properly explored.

And for how proactive the characters seemed to be, eventually the MyGO!!!!! girls have to step in to help them with their problems and move the show forward, so the series end up being dependent of its prequel and its main group of the previous one, despite being released as their own things.

The teen drama also even replaces the music as the main focus of the series, and if you have read my other reviews about pop idols/bands shows, and even Hibike! Euphonium, you know how I dislike when that happens. I will at least admit that stuff that happens in the anime excuse the interruption of the performances and their replacement with enough downtime for the characters to deal with their personal issues, but I still found it disappointing that the teen drama took over the main point of the show completely. By comparison, MyGO!!!!! also had a lot of that, but the music was never sidelined as hard as in here.

At least in here the characters are straightforward, but somehow even more toxic than their predecessors were, and I wish their whole conflict wasn’t about generic teen drama where they yell and cry on screen to each other for classic emotional manipulation full of tearjerker moments, and simple by-the-numbers resolutions.

It’s hard to write about the rest of the characters because the vast majority of the show is about they overcoming their problems, thus doing so would result on heavy amounts of spoilers. I will at least say that Uika has yuribait moments that would make KyoAni proud, and a cheesy telenovela worthy backdrop story that’s not even shown but told. I know that I sound like a broken record, but again, they didn’t get enough focus and when they did it felt way too rushed and over the top, partially for coming up too late in the story. And Umiri is just there to be the professional one of the team and really nothing more. She is revealed to be the token funny girl, which was a surprise, but nothing of real substance behind, she is given a backstory that’s supposed to be sad but she doesn’t seem to care about it, so why would I? And her emotional breakdown later on wasn’t the least convincing.

The audio aspect in this anime ends up being disappointing because, although I prefer this band’s theatrical gothic rockpop music over the jpop made by MyGO!!!!! and the gothic jpop of Roselia, there are just a few full performances, only one up until the 10th episode in fact, and you can hear that song on the opening. Aside from that there’s the ending and I liked both but it’s a shame that there is such a shortage of songs from a music anime, especially one with such a cool aesthetic. The voice acting is still weak, even when some of the Ave Mujica members have actual experienced seiyuus behind them and there’s one song on one episode that purposely sounds like shit because the girl singing it can’t stop crying on stage and screen. The reason for that is that other characters, including the returning MyGO!!!!! cast, still sound inexperienced and not natural or not with enough nuance behind their delivery. The sound effects are there, whatever.

Same thing with the visuals, they didn’t change at all from the previous series, they are ok-ish, the CGI can look very plastic at times, but eh, it is what it is.

As a whole this was the most interesting out of the three BanG Dream entries I followed because it was the most ambitious, and I appreciate the early slight improvements over the writing and characterization compared to the previous show. Unfortunately, the execution and the pacing became a lot worse as the series went on, and ended up leaving a lot to be desired from what it could have been, ending in the same old meh result for a third time, leaving me with no real interest to follow another one.