Short Peace is a multimedia project comprised of four short anime films and a video game (called Ranko's Tsukigime's Longest Day). Each piece is supposed to represent a different setting or era within Japan. The four shorts total up to 1 hour and 8 minutes and the game itself can be finished in under an hour. Therefore, the total package is only going to provide approximately 2 hours of entertainment and for something that was released at full retail price, that is pretty poor value for money. Onto the actual content though, the shorts are preceded by a short opener which to be honest, doesn't really make much sense or in any way prepare you for what is going to be shown next. I can't say I like the aesthetics. Furthermore, there are only Japanese voiceovers with English subtitles.
Possessions:
The first short is Possessions. A traveler is caught in a storm in the forest and arrives at an abandoned shrine. He decides to stay there fro the night to wait it out. Throughout the night, he encounters strange things and events due to the restless spirits. It has a neat feel to it and felt like there was a hidden message within it all. However, the final part was a bit weird and hard to understand.
Combustible:
The second short carries yet another aesthetic being more like traditional Japanese artwork. This takes place in ancient Japan and we see the tale of a couple from being childhood friends to where they are now. One of them becomes a firefighter, a huge blaze takes over the suburb which also acts as the climax and finale. The ending was predictable but otherwise a fairly intense short.
Gambo:
I found the third short, Gambo, to be the weirdest yet and my least favorite. It is a story of a demon (in the form of a red ogre) that ravages a village, taking one daughter per night back to his lair. A white bear (who name is the title of the short) mysteriously decides to defend the village and attack the demon. There is some gore in this one and a lot of blood spurting.
A Farewell to Weapons:
The last short takes place in a post-apocalyptic Tokyo, with crumbling skyscrapers. A team of men, wearing enhanced weaponized suits take on an automated robotic tank. The whole short revolves around the battle and it is very exciting. There were some intense combat and heavy casualties. Unfortunately, it is dragged down by an ending that it's somewhat stupid and juvenile. Nevertheless, this is the best short film in the collection.
Ranko Tsukigime's Longest Day:
The final piece of the package is a 2D sidescroller beat 'em up. The aesthetics of the game is beautiful and the game play is fun. Unfortunately it is overshadowed by one fact: the game is short, so short that it is finished within an hour on your first go. The game has ten stages and each stage takes anywhere between 1 minute to 4 minutes to finish. The aim of each stage is to go from left to right, you can jump, attack by swiping your weapon, slide and shoot. It is a crazy game and it reminds you of Sonic. It's really fun dashing through the level, destroying all your enemies and reaching the goal in the fastest time possible. Defeating an enemy will cause it to explode in a cascade of rainbow colored objects which sets off a chain reaction destroying nearby enemies. It's quite satisfying and easy to get the hang of. Each stage is timed in the sense that there are these spirit enemies trying to catch you from behind. You can shoot to hold them off at bay if they come too close but you can run out of ammo. This makes exploring each level sucky as you can't slow down and figure out what you might have missed.
The game has a collectible system that isn't tracked, meaning you don't even know which stage has the missing collectible you want. There are three boss fights and they're different from the normal levels. You end up dashing up the screen in one, fightin ga dragon on a hoverbike in another and defeating a masked man in the ring in another. All of them rely on you memorizing their attack patterns. The story is nonsensical and disappointing. The opening anime cutscene is beautiful but subsequent cutscenes have different aesthetics and not necessary good aesthetics either, which ruin the immersion. While comprehensible in the beginning, the story breaks down near the end of the game where it is near impossible to understand what just happened. Once again, the voice acting is done in Japanese with English subtitles. However, the English subtitles is overlaid in a transparent black box (think YouTube caption boxes). In some instances, you can still see the Japanese textbook underneath which seemed quite lazy. In the end, the core game itself is fun and a blast to play.
Overall:
Short Peace: Ranko Tsukigime's Longest Day is a unique package. It is definitely not for everyone and there are some questionable elements. The four anime shorts are average while the game's mechanics are solid, even if the story is hard to make a sense of. Due to the short nature of the package, it's best to wait until this goes down in price and only if you're interested.
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