Video Game Review: E3 2019 thoughts/Madoka Magica Magia Record: She’s still alive!

When you're done read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain!, support me on Patreon and watch my Twitch Channel Every Saturday at 12:00 ET

 Before I say anything this review is in no way, shape or form influenced or sponsored by Aniplex, Magia Quartet or anyone involved with the game or Madoka Magica franchise. This is all me, a fan giving basically free advertisement of my own accord. With that said June of 2019 is turning out to be quite a wonderful and surprising month for gaming. First we have the US release of Persona Q2 New Cinema Labyrinth; the last major release on the 3DS just a few weeks ago. E3 actually gave me something to smile about and not just how pathetic EA and Ubisoft are and the live Adult Swim show that is the Devolver Digital presentation I’m talking about some real good stuff. 

 Not only do we have a release time for Kingdom Hearts Remind but we also have the remake of Final Fantasy 8 (for the like, three people who actually like it.) But my highlights of E3 is the confirmation of both No More Heroes 3 and Banjo Kazooie for Smash!!!

 But in the midst of all this is that a little mobile game that I’ve been eyeing since its release in Japan back around 2017 is getting released in the states on the 25th. Magia Record, a moble game tie in to Madoka Magica. When I heard this was finally making it stateside only one thought ran through my head. 

 I mean as a Madoka fan how could I not want this? It’s free (technically), introduces a new story, more characters and more chances for Urobutchi and his crew to rip your heart out and squish it like a bug, what more can ya want?! Now there is a story to go with this game so without going into major spoilers the new main is Iroha, a magical girl who’s set up shop in the city of Kamihama and is looking for her little sister Ui who is also a Magical Girl and has been missing for quite some time. Along the way she’ll meet up with some new friends, some familiar to us, others brand new. But aside from the usual witches running around and spreading despair like Johnny Appleseed after listening to Linkin Park for too long there’s these new monsters called Rumors who; just like the rumors in Persona 2 Innocent Sin are the manifestations of rumors spread by the people of the town. 

 Only unlike the majority of Persona 2 rumors these ones manifest as Witch like creatures who exist to perpetuate the rumors that spawned them. Usually that involves killing people in some convoluted Two Face or Riddler esc obsessive compulsive fashion. As if that wasn’t weird enough, in Kamihama; Magical Girls don’t turn into Witches, instead their witches manifest as Doppels, which are basically dollar store versions of Stands or Personas, only with more body horror, YAY! And just like Innocent Sin; tying all of these weird events together is a cult of Magical Girls called the Wings of Magus with weird powers and objectives. Also there's this weird Kyubey like creature running around which doesn't seem to be part of the collective and no this isn't Juubey from Innocent Malice it actually looks like Kyubey just more intentionally cute. 

 From what little I can gather on this game the combat isn’t too complicated. You can control up to 5 of your favorite MG’s as you battle it out with Witches, their familiars, Rumors, other MG’s you know the drill. While I’m not too familiar with the exact controls you can input certain commands and cards related to your team to unleash normal attacks, buffs, Final attacks and with some of the girls you can summon their Doppels for a screen nuke that will if not wipe you your enemies then at the very least give you a major advantage. You can recruit other MG’s to chose from but there comes the big catch with this game. It’s a Gatcha free to play game where depending on if you progress in the story, log in daily or buy them yourself you can acquire Gems to spin the wheel and see if you can get a brand new MG for your team. 

 Now I personally recommend not buying these types of currency unless there’s a special deal going on, like a discount or getting something on top of the Gems your getting like how Kingdom Hearts Unchained X does its weekly deals where you not only get jewels for 15 bucks but also access to exclusive deals and Medals for the week, basically make sure you’re getting enough bang for your buck know what I mean? Speaking of KHUX there's the girls themselves and how they level up. See there's a Star tier system. The higher the rank the girls are, the more powerful they are, simple enough. Starting with the 1 Star to the top tier 5 Stars.

 Not exactly sure how they level up but it's there. Also if there's a 5 Star MG they will have a Doppel. Sometimes with updates MGs who could only go up to 4 starts will get a boost to 5 and a Doppel of their own. So make sure you save them all cause you never know. But speaking of Gems it's time to get to the brass tacks of why I mad this article in the first place.

 To promote the game Aniplex or whomever decided to do a promotion campaign for potential player. If they can reach a pre determined number of per orders for this free mobile game (wtf?) we get escalating bonus'. The top one for 20,000 people pre ordering this sucker is that every player will get the 4 Star Glasses Homura and 150 Gems. Not sure how valuable those gems are but for a 4 Star Moemura I think we need to send some love their way I don't know about all of you. Here's the link to the tweet so you can share with your other friends which includes the link to the Apple Page so you can help us get a leg up in the game and get the poor purple more blob before her world turned her into Loli Schwarzenegger.

https://twitter.com/MagiaRecordEN/status/1134164835057299456

 So there you have it, we not only have the original 5 of Madoka, Homura, Sayaka, Kyoko and Mami but we'll also get a plethora of new original MG's and some of the MG's from the Spin off Manga will get their long over due time in the spotlight, including Kazumi and Yuma, yay! Listen, I love the Madoka series because it has earned it from me. This is not my usual thing, either Magical Girl stuff or Gatcha free to play stuff, but there is always the exception that proves the rule as Madoka deserves. With this, a Manga and anime adaptation of this game coming out this year it's a clear sign that this franchise isn't going anywhere. Hopefully with enough support we'll finally get the conclusion we've all been waiting for.

 Yes I know it sounds naive but as a certain pinkie pie once said "If someone ever tells me it's a mistake to have hope, well then I'll just tell them they're wrong and I'll keep telling them until they believe; no matter how many times it takes." Besides with that much cheddar rolling in they'd have to be crazy not to bank on that, YA YA!! Well with my community service done for now, time to get back to my sentence of reviewing Heisei Generations Forever. 

Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story: Magia Record is owned by Aniplex, F4samurai and Magica Quartet.
Street Fighter (TV Series) is owned by Capcom, Graz Entertainment, InVision entertainment, USA Studios and Discotek Media
Spongebob SquarePants is owned by Nickelodeon, Stephen Dillenburg, United Plankton Pictures, and Viacom International Media Networks

Video Game Review: Kingdom hearts unchained X: war never changes.

Please be sure to read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain! and support me on Patreon.

 Before I say anything else, know this, I do not like micro transactions. When it's for games that cost nothing like this one they're fine because it's supporting a good product that you play for nothing. They piss me off however when the micro transactions are the only way to progress in the game or when they're put in games that already has a selling price. The worst offenders being the Assassins Creed games, Destiny, Dead Space 3 and any other game I forgot to mention that has them. Now I could go into more detail but I'll instead point you in the direction of the voice of reason in a house of maniacs so he can tell you all exactly why micro transactions in $60 games is horrible and why nobody should support those practices. Also #FucKonami

 Back on track to positivity while yes unchained X does have micro transactions it already has a decent way for those who have more patience and self-control to enjoy ourselves without having to shell out $60 for Monopoly money. First and foremost as a Kingdom Hearts fan I am well aware that the lore of this game and continuity of the series is almost as confusing as Bioshock infinite and the Zelda timeline but it is still far less convoluted and terrifying then making sense of the Tommy Westphall universe. But fear not this game has nothing to do with the current story of Sora, Riku, Kairi and everything else, this is in fact a prequel taking place before the war of light that separated the KH world into what it is, this is the story told by Kairi's grandmother when she was a kid, so continuity is not a problem here.

 You play as an original character of your creation who has awoken as a Keyblade wielder and is taken to a world called Daybreak Town where you train as a Keyblade wielder under one of five guilds called unions, which are mostly just for aesthetics. 

There's the Bear union Ursas, the Fox union Vulpeus, the Unicorn union Unicornis, the Leopard union Leopardos, and last is the Snake union (my Union BTW) Anguis. 

 Each Union is trying to gather Lux, crystallized fragments of light to keep them safe from the forces of darkness and to that end players travel to different worlds and slay Heartless to collect Lux and preserve the worlds. Now those who are more familiar with the lore will ask. "Why are we going to these worlds and seeing King Mickey, Donald, Goofy and all the other characters if they aren't supposed to exist yet?" A legitimate question which isn't answered at this time. I do know the answer however, remember during the events of Coded when Maleficent mentioned a book of prophecies? 

 The theory is that the five Union heads are using the worlds depicted in the book to generate Heartless and thus Lux for their members to collect. Players can also use the power of the book to enhance their Keyblades with medals of characters that grant special attacks. Speaking of medals they're upgradeable and are split into three groups, power, speed and technique. The medal groups form a Rock Paper Scissors dynamic with certain Heartless being grouped into these groups and can take more damage from one group and take less damage from the group they're strong against.

As clearly demonstrated in this picture.

 As you progress through the missions and complete the optional objectives you'll receive tokens that you can use to purchase upgrades such as more ap, hp and cost capacity for your Keyblades and also more customization options for your character. But here's a free tip. Unless you really want the item or if the items are blocking stat boosts don't bother getting them, they'll only waste metals and chances to get stronger, and in later missions where the Heartless get stronger you're going to need every advantage you can get, trust me on this.

 Speaking of advantages you can purchase new metals from the in game store, but not with Munny no no no no. That's for fusing metals which I'll get to later. You use Jewels to purchase metals, you can get Jewels from one of three ways, one earning them from completing certian quests (which only give the jewels once so no farming.) Logging in every day to get a cumulative bonus, or purchase them with real world cash. Now to be fair you do earn new combat metals as you progress and the ones you get can carry you through the game as long as you upgrade so Jewels are not an issue unless you have no self control and want that super cool Cloud or Auron metal.

 Since the game launched in April it has been updating with events, coliseum ranking tournaments and new story missions about a month or so. But as of now they've announced that story missions will be released more frequently. Now on to upgrading your metals, you can upgrade them by fusing with other metals to increase their exp. Once they're at their maximum you can upgrade them to their next tier by fusing them with certain metals, Cheshire Cat to upgrade from level 1, Merlin to upgrade from level 2, The Fairy Godmother for level 3, Yen Sid and one of the fairies from Sleeping Beauty (depending on their color of course) to upgrade from level 4 and last Sorcerer Mickey and the level 5 equivalent fairy to get to the highest tier metal level 6. Level 6 may be the highest grade of Metal but they are the highest costing metal to hold in your Keyblade, you can lower their cost by fusing them with Sid Metals but those are hard to come by so level 6 might not be as good as it sounds. Especially since you can augment your metals with Chip and Dale metals increasing the metals attack and defense respectively. But nonetheless each fusion requires Munny and more to fuse depending on how high the level your metal is so save and be careful.

 Another trick to learn is metal upgrades, once your metals reach level 3 you'll notice a new section on your metal counter. By fusing metals of the same level and character you can increase the special  damage percentage of your metal. It starts at one counter for level 3 metals and increase as the metal ranks up reaching a total of 5 when it reaches level 6. However you can only unlock this skill when you beat level 200 so just keep that tidbit in mind when saving up metals.

 So my thoughts so far on Unchained X. It's an enjoyable little time waster. So far its importance to the mythos is negligible as Square Enix is just going to pack all the important cut scenes in Kingdom Hearts 2.8 so you really don't even need to play this game. But hey it's free, fun and you don't even really need to put down a whole lot of cash to get ahead. Just a little bit of patience and diligence and you should be good to go. So hey if you have some free time on the bus this is a good way to kill some time.

Kingdom Hearts is owned by Square Enix, Disney Interactive Studios, Tetsuya Nomura, and Shinji Hashimoto.