• A new LGBTQ+ forum is now being trialed and there have been changes made to the Support and Advice forum. To read more about these updates, click here.
  • Hey Trainers! Be sure to check out Corsola Beach, our newest section on the forums, in partnership with our friends at Corsola Cove! At the Beach, you can discuss the competitive side of the games, post your favorite Pokemon memes, and connect with other Pokemon creators!
  • Due to the recent changes with Twitter's API, it is no longer possible for Bulbagarden forum users to login via their Twitter account. If you signed up to Bulbagarden via Twitter and do not have another way to login, please contact us here with your Twitter username so that we can get you sorted.

\(T)/ (‘~’) (o_o)

Review
Akira review (movie):
Overview: A post-nuclear war Tokyo is experiencing social upheaval and instability, decay of law and order, a new religious movement, and a military coup at the same time. During all of this, several psychic experiments go awry, resulting in exposure to a standard bike gang member. The plot advances and gets increasingly insane from that point.

Plot: Probably the weakest part of this film is the plot. It's really hard to follow if you don't have any context. This is partially because the manga that the film is based on was not completed by the time of the film's release. It is understandable, but without context, one's enjoyment of the film is significantly reduced. However, the character writing and plot (with context) are really interesting.

Animation: IT'S SO SMOOTH. The animation is really good. The detailing is incredible. SO MANY FRAMES.

Voice acting: English dub is fine. Tetsuo's voice actor is very good. I can't account for the Japanese one, or any other languages.

Music: Really cool. I don't really have the knowledge or a strong memory of it, but from what I do remember, it was very...tonal? Eh, take my account with a grain of salt.

Editing: The way scenes shape up and the way the "camera" moves is really interesting and gives an amazing sense of scale.

9/10 shmekels, held back a bit by the voice acting. Otherwise amazing. Go watch it.
(Side note: apparently the Akira manga is really really good and has a ton of depth. I really need to read it. You probably should too.)
 
Last edited:
By the way, has anyone else noticed a massive (slight exaggeration) influx of new members to the forums? I don't know if this is a thing that's always been going on, but I just noticed a lot of people from early May/late April.
I've absolutely noticed it as well. I think part of it could be the fact that the game discussions have been heating up as of late, basically.
There have been other people who haven't posted very much or at all in the game discussions forums, but have been VERY active...actually basically just Blanc who's quickly made herself at home (and it's going to be a month that she's been here soon!) here~

Other than that...most of the others who've joined have gone inactive, but that's normal for around 30ish% of everyone who comes here?
 
No more school computer, so no more long-winded and overdone essays/reviews/analyses. :(
Education Hot Take:
History is one of the most important classes you can take (in general), because it allows you to have a better understanding of the past, and therefore, current events.
Short ones are good too! Like this!

...History is a good class! As long as I'm not memorizing dates and names, I'm relatively good to go? Maybe?
 
In order to understand this Elden Ring review, you will probably need to understand my playthroughs. So here’s part one of my first run of the game (I’ve done 2 so far, with a third up in the air and unlikely to be done soon):

MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRETY OF ELDEN RING

Character: Tree Frog 2. This is the distant relative of Tree Frog, the character I had in my Dark Souls 2 playthrough (first souls game I played). I choose Swordsman class, since I heard dual wielding was in the game, they didn’t have a shield, and had dope armor.

Tutorial: Breezed through it, no major events happened.

Beginning the story: I walk into Limgrave, the first area of the game. I get the horse and make a deal with the lady who gives you it. I get bored and annoyed with the open world after finding a giant ax and a big longsword, as well as a couple ashes of war (unique moves and abilities you can place on a weapon). I get a little bit annoyed with the perceived fundamental lack of anything to do in the game, and run past the first main mini-area. After riding my horse to the new area bed getting increasingly frustrated without anything to do, I enter Liurnia. This is where the story really kicks off.
I run around for a bit, then notice the huge castle in the center of the swamp/lake that makes up the region, I run there. After arriving and dodging through multiple platoons of soldiers and several barricades, I reach the blocked entrance, discovering a map with an X on it. I kid you not, the only way to get inside the castle is to solve an “X marks the spot” puzzle. So cool. Intrigued, I run to the location, and discover a dragon guarding a treasure. So I run past the dragon and barely escape before making it back. Then, I enter the castle.
My feelings towards the game have become more positive by this point, and they’re about to get a whole lot more positive. The area I’m going through is a whole lot more linear, which I personally prefer to the open world I’ve experienced so far. And it turns out, this place is essentially Hogwarts, but if it was a lot darker and every non-Muggle wore what looked like the Burger King mascot head over their own. (Seriously, search up Raya Lucaria Sorcerer helmet, it’s hilarious). After running through the area, I pick up some Marionette Archer Spirit Summons (little helpers that make boss fights a bit easier through distracting and damaging bosses. They’re usually just normal enemies that are on your side, but there are unique ones, too.) I advance to the final boss of that zone, and pick up a Burger King helmet to wear (that I would wear for the rest of the playthrough). I kill the final boss of the zone, who starts out as a crowd control boss, but becomes much more conventional and dangerous as the fight progresses. After killing her, I decide to put all of the points I got into health and strength, and decide to do a strength build from that point onward. So I take the axe and go back to the first intended boss zone, Stormveil Castle. I get through it fairly easily, and kill the boss of the area, taking his axe so I can dual wield axes. I venture into the hellscape that is Caelid, and dodging giant malformed crows and dogs, duck into Caelid Divine Tower. There, I confront my greatest enemy of the game: The Godskin Apostle. I cannot understate my hatred of and rivalry with this stupid, awesome optional boss. Since I refused to back down against this guy, it took six hours and some clever usage of spirit summons and ashes of war to get through this. My reward, his clothes and sword. Since the sword required faith to be used, I started putting points into that. Eventually, I realized that the sword in its current state was kind of awful, so I stopped trying to use it. And I ventured on the Redmane Castle, where the major boss of the zone was focused. And promptly stopped, because the boss before the major one was too difficult for me at my current level. So I skip the area for now, and head to midgame: The Altus Plateau.
 
Also, here’s what my characters looked like at the end of my runs:
2051197F-9F61-427F-BB87-DBB20795DCF9.jpeg
01A08BDA-2F15-4DF5-812D-9678609D7CD1.jpeg
Sorry for the really bad image quality.

But my birthday was quite nice :)
 
First run of the game, part 2:

After venturing into the Altus Plateau, I realized that my character was more defined than just a tree frog. So I went to Renalla (The final boss of Raya Lucaria and one of the few bosses that survive encountering the player, giving a respec tool instead) and renamed my character to Burger Frog. After running around the Altus Plateau, and not really doing anything that would matter that much, I eventually got enough points in faith to use the sword the Apostle dropped, at Godslayer Greatsword. However, I was underwhelmed and decided to stick with the double axes for the rest of the playthrough. However, now I had a lot of points in faith to use, and decided to accept communion at the Church of Draconic Communion, and thus gain a ton of cool dragon incantations that let me spew fire and clouds of rot with a dragon head. Dope af, as the kids say.
Anyways, after getting all the cool spells, I ventured into Leyndell, the capital, and got through it without incident. However, during this time, I was curious about the sewers, because they seemed to be much bigger than they let on. In the sewers, I encountered the loathsome Dung Eater, and after understanding the lore, wished to not interact with him for the rest of the game (though I did do part of his quest to get a really cool-looking sword). Even deeper into the sewers, I encountered a boss, Mohg, who will not become relevant later in the game. Past him, through a secret path, I got into the lowest part of the sewers. After getting a couple incantations and doing a stupidly hard platforming challenge, I reached the Three Fingers. They touched me, and I was viciously burned, thus becoming the Lord of Frenzied Flame.
 
After getting fingered by some smoking hot hands, I ventured past the capital into the Mountaintops of the Giants. Here, I…killed the main boss and a dragon, and did very little else. By now, my flowchart for fighting bosses was:

Rot Breath -> Freeze Breath -> jump attack until one of us dies.

In any case, I got teleported to Tornado Town (Farum Azula) and killed the Godskin Duo and helped a bunch of people out with them, via online summoning. Then I defeated Maliketh, the Black Blade.

The final two bosses, Godfrey/Hoarah Loux and Radagon/Elden Beast, were pretty much the opposite of each other. While Godfrey is an amazing fight with spectacular visuals, gameplay, and music, Radagon is merely serviceable as a final boss. Same with the Elden Beast.

However, I defeated these two and took the throne as Lord of Frenzied Flame, and cleansed the Lands Between, so they might be molded superior.

Time for New Game+!
 
New Game+ Playthrough:
I decided to go with a mostly magic build (with a conventional weapon added in, so I wasn’t completely helpless in special scenarios) because I heard that magic is incredibly powerful.

(TL;DR: In certain cases it is, but otherwise it’s somewhat balanced).

So I loaded up a new save file and started gathering all the stuff I needed for a very broken magic build. Most important was the spell Comet Azur and a specifc reusable potion. Comet Azur shoots a massive beam of blue light at a target, and can be held. For many bosses that aren’t evasive or are slow, this can cut through most of their health bar.

Once I did this and started actually playing to do all the stuff I didn’t do last game. I completed Ranni’s questline, to get a new ending, and it was really well done. I completed Sellen and Thop’s quest lines ( I killed almost every major boss, including Malenia, Blade of Miquella, who you may have heard of if no other Elden Ring characters. I killed Mohg, Rykard, got every major Spirit, Spell/Incantation, and weapon, and gotten the Age of Stars ending.

For New Game+2, pretty much just did a speedrun to get the final ending (Goldmask’s Elden Lord ending) and with that, I 100%ed Elden Ring. 10/10 game. A more comprehensive review is next/soon. I have a lot of thoughts on this one.
 
PSA: Don’t go on the American Politics thread. It’s a vague mixture of hopelessness and chaos you don’t want to interact with.
there's a lot of reports coming in from there sometimes. easily maybe the most dramatic place we have here i think!!! spoooooooky
 
Review
Overview of Elden Ring:
One of the best games released in the past few years, if not ever, Elden Ring is a masterclass in storytelling, level design, character design, hiring George R. R. Martin, and excellent gameplay formulae. Every choice you make feels meaningful, no matter if it is what weapon to use, what bosses to fight, or which characters to aid. With a huge variety of weapons, no two playthroughs are the same, and with the addition of a more streamlined online experience as well as the new Spirit Summoning mechanic, beginners to the genre have a much easier time with regards to the skill floor. Furthermore, the huge open world filled with meaningful upgrades, secrets, and characters allows one to just say “F*** it” and run around with no clear goal in mind. It’s like Breath of the Wild, but for adults, and much more difficult.

10/10 shmekels. I can very easily see this winning game of the year, and this is probably THE game to play if you want to try out the Soulsborne genre.

Note: I really wanted to write a much lengthier review, but it felt disingenuous to do that, since I can’t really do it justice no matter how long the review is. The only place the game really fails is in the music, which is fairly lackluster. However, pretty much everything else makes up for that.

See ya! :bulbaLove:
-Neyo
 
Please note: The thread is from 1 year ago.
Please take the age of this thread into consideration in writing your reply. Depending on what exactly you wanted to say, you may want to consider if it would be better to post a new thread instead.
Back
Top Bottom