Weekend rant: Return of the weekend rant

The weekend rant returns!

God, it's been ages. I apologize for the total lack of updates this past weekend. Work had left me completely exhausted. And to top it all, my poor old cat had to be taken to the vet because she had been throwing up the entire day. Thankfully, that's all taken care of now, so I can start to focus my attention toward Flame War ADVANCE again.

I finally got my hands on Kingdom Hearts 2 a week or two ago, so that has been taking up a significant amount of whatever little free time I get. I quite like the game, despite the fact that it is far easier than the first. I'll admit, before I first played Kingdom Hearts, I was quite put off by the fact that it included Disney characters. However, the crossover really has been handled quite remarkably, so about an hour into the game, I was as much in love with the Disney worlds as any fan of the company would be.

KH2 is a little darker than the first game, and I quite like that. It shows a growth ... an evolution of the story. The main characters are all a little older, and despite the fact that the Disney presence is still there in abundance, there are a plethora of new, original characters that are more along the lines of what you would expect from Square Enix. Frankly, I can't wait for Kingdom Hearts III. If you do a search on FWA, you'll see that I have covered a fair number of stories pertaining to it. The fact that it is going to be a new series really excites me, despite the fact that Square is probably going to whore it out on every platform in existence.

In other news, Eurogamer recently got to take a look at the upcoming localized release of Blue Dragon, and judging by what they have to say about it, the game isn't very likely to appeal to fans who have spent a considerable amount of their gaming lives playing PlayStation 2 RPGs, owing to its overly-simple plot. This bit in particular is what stood out in my eyes:

Even the villain is on traditional fictional ground - he's largely speaking evil because he likes being evil. Although Microsoft's strange restrictions on what we're allowed to talk about in our previews (anything after a relatively early point in the game is off-limits, apparently) won't let us tell you what his motivations are, suffice it to say that you're unlikely to bat an eyelid.

Now, don't get me wrong. Eurogamer goes on to say that the graphics and presentation of the game are top-notch and that the nostalgic design of the game seems to be a deliberate choice on Mistwalker's part. I'm fairly certain an old role-playing hand like Hironobu Sakaguchi could go wrong after so many years of getting it right.

However, I've ready way too much manga to be satisfied by a premise where everything is so black and white. One look at the list of names working on the game, and you'll see that there is heavy involvement from one of the biggest names in the manga industry: Akira Toriyama.

That said, I'm not a terribly big fan of Akira Toriyama's work, and he has handled the character designs for Blue Dragon. Now, while it is true that Toriyama was part of the "Dream team" that worked on Chrono Trigger, most people tend to remember him by his more widely known creation; Dragonball. Right from the moment I found out Toriyama was in charge of the game's art, I've held an involuntary bias against it, which really is quite sad, seeing as how the game is Mistwalker's first major piece of work.

Lost Odyssey however, is another story. The game not only looks mindblowing, it is also a full-blown role-playing title on the 360 aimed at RPG veterans. I can't wait to get my hands on the game when it comes out.

Moving on, Anime Expo is currently in in progress, and several sites, including ANN are reporting back with a ton of interesting news. Provided all goes well, Manga Jouhou should have its own set of updates coming in soon.

The highlight of the Expo so far? The English cast for School Rumble has been announced. And what a cast it is! Tenma is being voiced by the incredibly talented Luci Christian and Yakumo has the honour of being voiced by Caitlin Glass of Fullmetal Alchemist fame.

Considering how well done Funimation's FMA dub was, I have very high hopes for School Rumble. Sure, the show is a lot harder to dub than an action shounen series, but that is part of what makes it even more exciting for fans waiting anxiously to see how the final product will turn out. The first School Rumble DVD will be out on August 21st.

Speaking of anime, the Summer season of anime shows is right around the corner and Anime Online has the lowdown on what we can expect to see. If you're running out of stuff to watch (I always am), I would highly recommend giving their list a quick read. Baccano!, Shigurui and Mushi Uta (which is being produced by a brand new studio) are the ones I'm really looking forward to.

OK, that's enough ranting from me. How's everyone else's weekend coming along?