Dungeon Samurai Volume 2: Kami no Kishi Review

Dungeon Samurai Volume 2: Kami no Kishi

By Kit Sun Cheah

If you have read my review of volume one of this saga found here, then you will know that I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The second volume starts six months after the first. Our heroes have now gotten somewhat used to their situation, and things are starting to become a little routine for them in some ways. However, it wouldn't be much of a story if things just became run-of-the-mill, and Kit Sun does not disappoint.

Not only do the antagonists start to learn and adapt tactics, much like our heroes, but newer tougher enemies pop-up too. The stakes increase, even as our heroes gain an extra edge or two against the forces of the dungeon.

The way that Kit Sun actually shows the humans constantly adapting their tactics and equipment to newer threats and situations is refreshing compared to some stories that I have read where things remain somewhat stagnant. Not only that, but he also continues to show the 'behind-the-scenes' parts of military endeavours such as the miners, the farmers, the blacksmiths, etc, that fuel the war-machine, as it were, without getting bogged down in minutiae. Every little glimpse of this background detail is woven in to the story seamlessly, and you barely notice it happen without looking for it. Our heroes also constantly adapt too, growing as individuals, and as a group.

If the story had remained like the original entry, I would have been fine with it, but Kit Sun manages to not only take the original entry's strengths and maintain them, he manages to amp things up without them being overwhelming.

Overall, this is a great sequel to the original entry, and manages to not only match it's predecessor, but surpass it in every way. Definitely worth reading!

Triple Review

Today we have three different books to review, so let's get started.

Combat Frame XSEED: Coalition Year 40

By Brian Niemeier

I previously reviewed the first part in this series here. To recap, the first book was brilliant, and set the series off to a great start. Therefore the sequel had a high bar to surpass, which I am happy to say it managed.

The book takes place after the events of the first, and things have only gotten more complicated for the folks fighting for freedom. Once again, we have an interesting cast, political intrigue on a grand scale, and of course, big mecha battles that makes anime shows in the same vein look like amateur hour.

Suffice it to say that I fully enjoyed the sequel as much as I enjoyed the original.

If you read the first in this series, you will definitely enjoy this entry, and if you haven't checked out the original entry, then there's no time like the present to rectify that.

Dungeon Samurai Volume 1: Kamikaze

By Kit Sun Cheah

For more on how this series was created, drop by the author's website where he goes in to detail about the story behind the story.

I haven't read any isekai fiction before, as far as I can recall anyway, and what I have seen said of the usual fare turned me off from the genre in general. However, this is not your average isekai story as can be seen by the rules Kit Sun set for himself when he decided to write this.

When I read Dungeon Samurai, I could not help but notice how much it reminded me of the Wizardry series of games. As I am a big fan of those kinds of games, this book already hit the right notes for me. Throw in the detailed way that the characters of the story handle the dungeon in question, among other details, and this story was a winner for me.

A fantastic read, and as usual, I was left wanting more. So if you like isekai, or just feeling adventurous, get this book.

Superluminary: The Lords of Creation

By John C. Wright

I have read just about everything by John, and I am always surprised at how crazy some of the stories he tells can get without losing you. This book is no exception. The first in a three part series, Superluminary is once again one such crazy science fiction story, and should be read with its other two parts in one sitting for the best effect.

If characters being assassinated twice (successfully) and still being around to talk about it, space vampires (you read that right), or interstellar warfare involving Dyson-spheres outfitted for war (yes, war Dyson-spheres) don't intrigue you, you should get your pulse checked. You might be a space zombie. Yes, they too, are a thing.

Albedo: Eyes From Outer Space Review

I'm a fan of Sci-fi, and a lover of Pulp, so when a game claims it's got both, I'm willing to give it a shot.

I downloaded Albedo: Eyes From Outer Space (which henceforth will be Albedo: E.F.O.S.) because I got it for free ages ago, then promptly left it on my hard-drive gathering dust. In fact, I had forgotten I had it until last week when I was looking for something new to play. Something light, nothing too taxing, no 100-hour long RPGs this time.

Albedo: E.F.O.S. seemed to fit the bill.

I took a quick look at the screenshots to remind myself what the game was and was mildly intrigued. "Looks like an old-school style adventure game" I thought to myself. "This'll do nicely." I believed.

I was wrong.

I couldn't tell if the game was trying to be humorous and failing, or serious and failing. A secret research facility with strange creatures running amok could make for an interesting horror scenario, but on the other hand, it could easily be the set-up for a satirical jaunt, poking fun at all the sci-fi of the '60s and onwards.

The creatures are monocular, tentacled monsters like the aliens from The Simpsons. So, I initially thought it was supposed to be a satire. Later, I ran in to a floating fish that served no purpose as far as I can tell, which further suggested this. But there was no joking, no comments poking fun, barring hidden nods to Star Trek and Ghostbusters, which seemed more for nods to these particular series than for any satirical purposes. So, I assumed it was a semi-serious sci-fi horror. I say assume, because the game barely tells any story. The character speaks, but mainly to lightly direct the player.

The story, what little there was, was so uninteresting, I couldn't force myself to finish the game. Normally, I can't leave a game unfinished (or book for that matter), but in this case, I couldn't force myself to care.

Moving on from the story, the graphics are probably ok, with a very '60s aesthetic to the monsters (and the flying saucers), but the game looked like someone had smeared a thin layer of Vaseline over the camera lens, making it impossible to determine for certain whether the graphics were barely passable or bad. Perhaps that was the reason they did that, who can say these days.

The controls were simply bad. Interacting being finicky, an inventory that took forever to cycle through as you accumulated more items, making fighting a creature and cycling through the inventory deadly, and interaction points on items being tiny or oddly placed in some instances.

The audio was poor, with the voice of the main character sounding like he was talking into a tin can. The music was forgettable, so much so, that I can't even recall if there even was any music.

All in all, this was a game that had the ingredients for what could have been a great little horror adventure, or a satire taking a humorous poke at sci-fi from the '60s, which were all sadly squandered.

I'm glad I got it for free, otherwise I would have felt shortchanged, no matter the price.

Onimusha: Warlords Remaster Review

As someone who was a big fan of the Onimusha when it initially released, and was sad to see it fall by the wayside, as many games of yesteryear did, it was a nice surprise to hear that Onimusha was getting a remaster.

Of course, every man and his dog are releasing remasters. Hell, even games that no-one really asked for remasters of got the shiny treatment. I'm looking at you CoD4. Well, at least I know I didn't ask for it. Which is what matters, obviously.

C'est la vie.

Back to Onimusha.

At first, I was sceptical. It had been so long, would it still hold up to the nostalgia shades that are sometimes welded to my head? The price was decent, at about 16 quid, so I thought "why the hell not?"

First things first; yes it does still hold up. In fact, it only reinforced my belief that modern gaming has lost something. The magic, if you will. But that's a blog for another time.

Now, I did no extra research, beyond a cursory glance, so I know hardly anything about the technical side of things. It certainly must have been cleaned up a touch, upscaling, that sort of thing as the game looks smooth, and crisp. The game controls the same, with the fixed camera angles, and tank-like controls of other greats such as Resident Evil, and the like. The music was redone, and I have no idea if it is improved, but as the original composer was a conman (he pretended to be deaf, if I recall correctly), it was to be expected. It sounds good, regardless.

In my opinion, the game seems fine. I definitely had a blast replaying through the game. In fact, I hope this spurs Capcom to do the same for the rest of the series, and maybe even revive the series proper.

Now, a friend of mine mentioned that this is based on the version that released on the PS2 versus the Xbox version, which had extra content, and that is unfortunate, to be sure. I'm not sure of the reasoning for this, and I assume it was an oversight on Capcom's part, or intentional if they release the extra content as DLC which would sour my opinion.

All in all, the game was a refreshing blast from the past, and I definitely felt it was worth the price of admission. Your mileage may vary, of course, depending on various factors, but if you liked the series, and would like to take a stroll down memory lane, then you can do worse than Onimusha: Warlords.