Re;Zero - Starting Life in Another World (2016)

Re;Zero - Starting Life in Another World is based upon the light novel series.  It is 25 episodes long with an extended first episode at 50 minute, while the others are the normal 25-ish minutes.  It stars Natsuki Subaru, who was randomly transported into another world while he was purchasing items from a convenience store.  He suddenly finds himself in a fantasy world with beasts and other races walking around and going about their business.  Subaru finds himself a proud unemployed, who plays games all day and have no notable skills.  He is as normal as they come.  Needless to say, based on his game experiences, he expects some sort of superpowers and having an easy life meeting the heroine or whatnot in this world.

Unfortunately for Subaru, he doesn't gain the overpowered magical abilities that he wants.  Instead, eventually, he gets on skill, "Return by Death".  That is, every time he dies, he travels back to a specific point in time.  As the series goes on, this "checkpoint" also moves along, thus he doesn't have to repeat everything all the time.  Subaru inadvertently uses this skill again and again in the first arc and you can feel the same helplessness and horror at the situation.  How can you fight against something so powerful and so many leagues above you even if you could keep repeating the same moment again and again to try and avoid the encounter?

It can get a bit screamish what with the way that Subaru dies and how the villain explains what's happening to him in detail as he lies there dying.  With Subaru's only ability being to go back in time by death, you wonder how it is going to carry the rest of the season and it does so quite innovatively.  This is especially true when you realize what it means when he wakes up with a sense of deja vu (i..e he died).  Re;Zero has more than a tinge of horror that will send chills up your spine.  As Subaru fails again and again, you will feel the same helplessness and despair that he must have felt.

It's made worse when both you and Subaru do not know where to even start on deciphering the events that causes his deaths in the first place and knowing that he is going to die the same way again.  There are a few characteristics of Subaru's ability that isn't explained such as the fact that each time Subaru dies and reverses time, events may not progress exactly the same way.  There's a passing comment here and there but even Subaru himself haven't nutted out fully how it works.  Subaru as a main character just isn't likable in the beginning and throughout most of the season since he does not have many redeeming features.  He is not charming, he has no extraordinary abilities and isn't particularly clever.

Subaru comes off as extremely selfish and arrogant, without anything to back it up.  He is weak and extremely cringeworthy in his actions, he doesn't think through things before he does them and it shows.  It gets frustrating when you see the main character do something so stupid and get crushed int he process.  It is painful to see Subaru make the same mistake even when you're screaming inside to get him to think rationally and set proper priorities, you'd have think he would have learned by now.  While it is also a byproduct of the fact that he can just go ahead and redo events when he dies, a significant part of it lies in his social ineptitude, pushing others away.  Thus it is a surprise that various other female characters are attracted to him...

With that said, straight after one of Subaru's displays of extreme selfishness, we are shown just how much of a toll it takes on him and what he has to experience especially when many of his achievements will never be known by anyone else.  Needless to say, this can easily mind break anyone.  Despite the colorful setting, the anime is quite dark at times with some twisted events that make you feel hollow inside.  The word brutal can be used to describe all the things that happen to Subaru.  Straight after the peak of frustrating at Subaru, you end up feeling sympathic for him.

A lot of the characters in the series are selfish themselves (just like in real life, I'd suppose), requiring their own advantages in order to help.  These characters pretty much insult and destroy Subaru and while their points are valid in terms of his flaws, the way they do it is too vicious and cruel.  Through Subaru's actions, we are shown the difference in mentality between humanity and the world of Re;Zero.  Subaru will often try to make motivational speeches to inspire other characters and to show that he isn't as useless or wimpy as initially seemed.  While it works on the characters in the series, to the viewer however, they don't quite make sense and doesn't give the same sense of accomplishment, satisfaction or motivation that it is supposed to.

The cast gradually expands.  We are immediately introduced to Subaru's love interest, the half-elf Emilia.  However, the spotlight is stolen by Rem and Ram, the twin sisters who are introduced early on.  They are both charming and funny, with a dry sense of humor, keeping a monotone face and voice.  The storytelling can be messy at times since character motivations are tough to decipher.  There will be times where you are not sure why some characters have acted the way that they have.  Resolution of story arcs are also a little bit anti-climactic.  You'd think some sort of big revelation is going to take place and what ends up being revealed doesn't quite live up to your expectations and hype.

Due to all the above but mainly Subaru's selfishness, while the first 18 episodes does a lot to defy the conventions of the genre and does a lot of deconstruction, it feels average.  However, once Subaru breaks time and time after, there is a scene where Rem helps motivate him.  Despite confessions to Subaru, he still picks Emilia which is confuddling.  Barring that, after this scene, the last seven episodes are amazing and raises the bar dramatically.  Subaru massively develops as a character, building on what he had already experienced and using it to his full advantage.  He actually lives up to his potential.  Then comes the exciting fight scenes, twists and revelations that finally hint at Subaru's powers.  This all culminates into what is a predictable ending but still emotional and fantastic.

The anime is beautifully animated with stunning scenes and strong character design.  Overall, Re;Zero - Starting Life in Another World starts off slow.  You have to consider that the first 18 episodes are pretty much a prologue and a necessary journey to build Subaru's character.  Once it passes that point, the series rapidly ramps up the pacing, reaching a epic finale that makes up for all of the shortcomings and leaves you craving for more.

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Book Review: Biomega Vol. 3

Review:  #749
Title:  Biomega Vol. 3
Series:  Biomega - 3rd volume
Author:  Tsutomu Nihei
Read Before:  no
Comments:  The plot moves briskly but is still quite confusing on who is who and what is happening.  There are some characters who have crazy powers and with a lot of wow factor in their appearances.  As the DRF continues on their target to transform humanity and the Earth itself, another target is revealed which entangles Zoichi more in his search for Eon Green.  In the end though, the pacing is tough on the viewer and the story hard to follow.
Rating:  6/10

Toy Review: Transformers Generations Studio Series Grimlock

Review:  #447
Name:  Grimlock
Brand:  Transformers
Allegiance:  Autobot
Line:  Generations - Studio Series
Year of Release:  2018
Size Class:  Leader (Wave 1)
Mold Status:  new

DINOSAUR MODE:

Grimlock, based upon his Age of Extinction appearance, transforms into a robotic dinosaur T-Rex.

This is a great dinosaur mode, despite there being a few issues.  There is a flap beneath the tail that is held up only by friction and the sad part is that it is equally useless in robot mode, so it feels like a pointless compromise.

Despite there already being a Leader classed Grimlock in the Age of Extinction toyline, this is a brand new mold.  Above is a comparison against AOE Optimus, and Grimlock is absolutely huge.

The sculpting is amazing and the whole figure has a metallic green airbrushing effect that looks much better in person than in photos.  Note that the teeth is soft rubbery plastic.

The mouth can open to allow Grimlock into a roaring pose.

A spoiler for robot mode but there are two T-Rex heads, the second one is actually kind of in plain sight split on either side of his tail.  This, coupled with the mace makes the tail the weakest part of this mode.

Poseability is fairly limited.  He gets a neck since that doubles as the robot shoulders.  The legs are also quite poseable but the static second half of his body stops him from being flexible.

A quick comparison against Age of Extinction Voyager Grimlock and the proportions are much better, as well as the colours.

A brilliant alternate mode.

TRANSFORMATION:

While simple, it is fun, easy and quite clever.  He transforms similarly to AOE Scorn in that the head and tail of the dinosaur forms the robot arms, and the dinosaur legs form the robot legs, with the head popping up from the torso.  There are some neat twists such as how the T-Rex head collapses into his forearm.  The transformation is reliant on moving big solid pieces, so it feels satisfying and not likely to break.

ROBOT MODE:

Grimlock's robot mode is equally good and is a lot more screen accurate than any of the previous toys.

He has a huge flap on his back which is the previous mentioned piece that relied on friction to keep upright in dinosaur mode.  Here, is still gets in the way and quite annoying.

The headsculpt, and just sculpting in general, is gorgeous.  It can be a bit hard at first to see it but he has red eyes.

The airbrushing effect of the metallic green is present here too and it works wonderfully.  It's surprising that Hasbro risked enough to put out such a "bland" color scheme.

The sculpting is intricate and note that he has two whole T-Rex heads on his shoulders, the second one is faux but looks great anyway.

As part of the Studio Series line, he comes with a cardboard diorama showcasing the Hong Kong battle scene.

While it looks good, the stand takes up a huge amount of space.

Grimlock is a huge figure.  While he is only a bit taller than Optimus, he is a lot bulkier, wider and heftier.  He is one of the most substantial Leader classed figure we've had in a while.

This may irk some people but Grimlock lacks a right hand, instead, it is his mace weapon.  Too bad he lacks his handheld flail though.

Articulation is really good.  He has ratchets and hinges for all of his joints, plus a waist swivel which is helpful.

His large footprint allows him to be stable in all poses.

His waist armor is split into three pieces and they are hinged to not prevent the hip movement.

A fantastic robot mode that's both screen accurate and fun.

OVERALL:

It is surprising at how well designed Grimlock is.  Both modes are fantastic, the figure is solid overall and the size is perfect for such a menacing character.  The colour scheme works a lot better in person than photos show.  Grimlock is highly recommended.

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Book Review: Biomega Vol. 2

Review:  #748
Title:  Biomega Vol. 2
Series:  Biomega - 2nd volume
Author:  Tsutomu Nihei
Read Before:  no
Comments:  With its art style and various perspectives, this second volume of Biomega can be confusing and hard to follow.  At its core, it’s still following Zoichi as he travels around a post-apocalyptic world in order to save two hostages from the DRF Forces.  We’re treated to an explanation on how the virus came to be that had crippled the world.  Zoichi’s beginnings are also explained, being a synthetic human, and how he is stronger and faster than many others.  We see those skills in action and the scenes can be fairly bloody and gory.
Rating:  6/10

Transformers: The Last Knight (2017)

The fifth live-action movie in the Transformers franchise and it feels like it is time that it needs a reboot.  Once again, the writers shoehorned heaps of retcons and how the Transformers were involved in shaping another part of human history, to the point where there are heavy continuity issues.  Granted, they have given a plausible reason for why everything seems to happen to Earth but it doesn't make it any easier to accept when they supposedly had a hand in human wars, and effectively helped in every significant thing in human history.  The humor is less cheap and low, although it still feels forced at times.  Unfortunately, some of the characters once again changed forms with no explanation whatsoever, especially Megatron returning when he was Galvatron in the previous movie.  One of the best things about the movie is that the characters from Age of Extinction returns, and that there were various nods to the events of previous films.  It doesn't save it though because the plot is terrible, the pacing and editing is horrendous and the movie overall just does not make sense.  It jumps from point to point too fast without anything to show the viewers how or why it jumped to that point.

Decisions made by characters are not explained so viewers are left scratching their head at why they had to do that.  It's a shame that a lot of the characters are pointless and if you removed them, then the movie would not have suffered anything.  This just makes a big chunk of the movie bloated.  Most of the Transformers look like generic aliens and not like they transform at all as there are limited to no vehicular parts on their robot modes.  It doesn't help that they transform much less now.  They gain additional abilities yet lose several shown in previous movies, so it feels like the newest gimmick which will be promptly replaced with another.  Perhaps the worst part is the battle scenes, where it felt like the film focused so heavily on humans that even the limited robot scenes are boring.  It's terrible when a character comments that they don't have enough ammo to defeat a Decepticon, yet a few seconds later, Optimus jumps in and defeats it with a sword strike, what?  There are explosions galore and the human characters surviving explosions multiple times suspends belief.  Overall, Transformers:  The Last Knight is filled with cliched and eye-rolling dialogue, concepts and actions.  While it is marginally better than Age of Extinction (at least the product placement isn't as in your face), the quality of the film series has decreased yet again with the high fantasy focus which seems a far cry from the grounded first movie.

Gulliver Boy (1995)

Gulliver Boy, also known as Imagination Science World Gulliver Boy, is a 50 episode anime from the 1990s.  It is an original story not based on any existing works.  First things first, Gulliver Boy has a great soundtrack, including an adrenaline pumping opening theme, great battle tracks and catchy ending themes.  Naturally, the anime stars Gulliver, who starts off being imprisoned in a magic school but escapes by awakening the powers in his left hand.  He is quickly joined by his childhood friend, Edison, who loves science and is a genius to boot.  Last is Misty, who is on the run and eventually become friends with Gulliver after running away from Spain.

Well, Phoebe also joins the cast later on as the fairy who has fallen in love with Gulliver and will follow wherever he goes.  One thing to know is that the early episodes can be cheesy and corny.  Gulliver himself is often immature and both him and Edison are initially fixated with Misty's beauty and body proportions.  It is set in a unique world where technology and magic exists, based mainly in countries inspired by Europe (the opening episode is set in Venice, and Gulliver ends up travelling the "world", most of which are European cities).

However, the belief in magic and in its powers is overshadowed by technology, leading to a lot of people becoming disillusioned by magic and giving up on it.  That is, until Gulliver appears and reaffirms the potential that magic has.  The anime mixes all sorts of concepts such as giant mecha that it can become somewhat messy.  The main driving force for Gulliver is revenge.  He is travelling around the world to gain power, enough to defeat Judau, the King of Spain who personally slained his father.  It doesn't help that Judau wants to personally capture Misty back to Spain to be by his side.

Gullver's left hand not only shoots out magical beams of energy, he will eventually gain power discs which fits into his glove allowing him to fire/summon beings of power or spirits (it's never fully explained).  In addition to finding the discs, they are also searching for the four blue stones which Judau is searching for in order to gain ultimate power.  It is a classic big fetch and travel quest.  Unfortunately, the plot has convenient coincidences such as the island they needed to go just happening to be on the way where the villain was running towards.  There are a heap of stock footage and repeating frames in order to pad out the episode length.  The short battles don't help satisfy any of the anticipation from the build up.

Throughout the episodes, Gulliver is usually overpowered (or he will quickly gain a power that will make him overpowered) and he only gets more power as he gains further discs.  His ego can get overwhelming and annoying especially when he gets too confident.  For character development, thankfully he is brought back down to earth being defeated by a more powerful adversary.  During his travels, Gulliver meets a lot of people and all these side characters are underused.  Each has unique powers and ideas but they just show up for a few episodes (if that) and then the team carries on with their journey and the side characters are left behind and forgotten.

The pacing is off in terms of the progress of their objectives.  They'll have long stretches where Gulliver doesn't get anything new and thus you're subjected to the same summoning stock footage again and again.  Then suddenly in back to back episodes, Gulliver will gain two blue stones or he'll gain two new discs in quick succession.  While Gulliver Boy has a monster of the week type of format for the first half, with some disappointing battles against Gullver's enemies, it redeems itself with a much more focused storyline when Gulliver finally gets to Spain in order to fight against Judau to avenge his father.

Judau's backstory and his relationship with Misty is brought fully into light, which finally makes his character more than the one-dimensional villain that he had been so far and makes him much more compelling.  There are a few surprising twists that were done well and the battle between Gulliver and Judau was not a short affair, it is appropriately fleshed out and truly showcases what a powerhouse Judau is.  Judau is absolutely crazy but there is a good reason for that.  The writer did a fantastic job of causing a 180 for the viewer to feel the sadness and sympathize with Judau and his history that had eventually caused him to become what he is now.  That is a great twist in the middle of the anime and this is where everything suddenly becomes amazing, with the huge amounts of revelations.

The pacing does not relent from the halfway point as the plot moves forward at a very quick pace.  It's one twist after another with extremely emotional scenes which are done really well.  The way all the characters' fate are intertwined is perfect and the world building and backstory building is just sublime.  The second half can feel very different to the first half.  The first half was more lighthearted and episodic whereas the second half is darker and the characters become much more powerful, frequently gaining new powers.  This is also the point where it can get freaky, fuelling the stuff of fantasy nightmares.

There are not only more fight scenes but more elaborate ones too, such that all of the first half felt like filler that only served to allow the animators time to develop the second half.  It is definitely a poor design to have the vast majority of Gullver's powers obtained in the second half of the series, as it meant his earlier powers outstay their welcome due to being repeatedly recycled (even after he gained more powers no less) and his other powers are under utilized.  It's frustrating when Gulliver uses one of the first powers he had obtained, when it is repeatedly shown to be the weakest one, to waste time as it was defeated easily.

Perhaps the strongest aspects are the sacrificed made by many of the characters to help Gulliver achieve his destiny.  Coupled with the sad music that plays during these sections when you realize that one of your favorite characters are about to perform a heroic sacrifice and it really tugs your heartstrings.  The level of cruelty from the main villain and the seemingly betrayal of a few characters just feels "right".  The final battle is suitably epic and while it treads on the side of being corny, cheesy and idealistic (using the power of all the people Gulliver had helped during his travels to bolster his strength), it is a satisfying end to the villain that had done so much unforgivable evil.

Yet Gulliver Boy surprises you once again in the last part where the plot and pacing changes to become more lighthearted and acts as a type of elongated epilogue.  It's a nice way to end the series by having the plot device of the repercussions of what Gulliver did instead of quickly showing a happily ever after.  It settles the relationship issues between the characters, however, it is still extremely cheesy and over the top.  There is more fan service towards the end too and it knowingly makes fun of itself in this aspect.  It's to the point of defying your expectations when you'd expect a stock footage to go on as normal but it gets interrupted to hilarious effect.

Overall, Gulliver Boy is not perfect.  It has a heavy reliance on stock footage, an extremely filler-esque first half and ending (probably to make the 50 episode length required) but the story has so much potential and a lot of it is realized.  It created a deep and interesting fantasy world that blends together technology and magic without falling into the trap of making one or the other redundant.  The twists, including the betrayal of some characters, the opposing powers of some villains (that is like the yin to Gulliver's yang) and the bonding displayed in the final voyage, makes Gulliver Boy a classic fantasy adventure that's enjoyable and keeps you thinking after it has finished.

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Book Review: The World God Only Knows Vol. 19

Review:  #747
Title:  The World God Only Knows Vol. 19
Series:  The World God Only Knows - 19th volume
Author:  Tamiki Wakaki
Read Before:  no
Comments:  With this volume, the Goddesses arc finally comes to a finale.  It was a massively long arc but one that is definitely the highlight of the series so far and gave it much more purpose than just conquering yet another target.  As Keima is getting desperate to awaken the Goddess within Ayumi, it becomes a lot messier and more awkward when Chihiro gets involved.  You can feel the pressure with Vintage closing in, where nowhere is safe.  Unfortunately, the way that Keima wins over Ayumi is a bit convoluted and the logic is hard to understand.  It isn’t helped that Chihiro made things really complicated, and Ayumi is quite unfathomable.  Nevertheless, while the threat of Vintage is carelessly casted away once all the Goddesses were released, the ending of the arc (and to the volume) was a really nice surprise.  It closes with the end of the Mai Festival, the performance of the 2-B Pencils (aka the band that Chihiro pulled together with Ayumi and Elsie) with some memorable scenes and lyrics.  Of course, how can we forget the rare moment where Keima shows his true feelings for once, making it all the more melancholy.  The series has seriously upped its quality with the conclusion of this arc and is a lot more enjoyable for it.
Rating:  7/10

The Guided Fate Paradox (PS3)

The Guided Fate Paradox is a rogue-like RPG, being the spiritual successor to the PSP game Z.H.P. Unlosing Ranger VS Darkdeath Evilman.  The gameplay in each chapter involves exploring a randomly generated dungeon consisting of 10 floors.  It is turn-based, therefore enemies will only do something when you do something, with the whole dungeon comprised of a grid.  Your character, Renya, can attack, wait, use items, special attacks and throw items.  You can swap equipment on the fly at any time with no penalty.  Enemies roam in the open, however, and as you have to reveal each piece of the map at a time, coupled with the high angled camera, they can end up sneaking up on your.  You can only rotate the camera or angle it even higher, you cannot level it to see further int he distance, which is really annoying.  Your character has a HP bar, a SP bar for special attacks, and an EN bar.  EN is used for all actions including walking, therefore you have to keep a close eye on EN and refill it where necessary as once it depletes, it eats into your HP.  HP and SP restore every turn and you can speed up turns but this is dangerous as an enemy might get up to you and get in a few hits before you realize it.

Renya can equip headgear, two weapons, leg gear and miscellaneous gear.  The game is unique in that each gear has its own special attack when you equip it.  These attacks are useful as they can provide ranged attack or area attacks.  Unfortunately, most of the stat boosts are provided by the equipment.  Equipment gains power through usage, until they Burst, in which case, they are then capped and loses a significant amount of power.  You then have to spend money at the blacksmith to strengthen it, allowing it to gain power again up to a higher cap.  You then repeat the process.  As you have no access to the blacksmith during a dungeon, and that the most significant power gain is just before the equipment Bursts, it is a really annoying gimmick and is basically just inventory management.  You have limited inventory space while in a dungeon meaning you will constantly have to chuck items and equipment away.  You can eventually increase your inventory space but by that point, you're expected to trek through more floors of a dungeon in one go so it doesn't solve the problem at all.

Being a rogue-like, The Guided Fate Paradox is extremely cheap and unfair.  If you die in a dungeon, you lose all the items in your inventory and half your money.  That being said, there is permanent storage for your items and money in the Hub World so the losses aren't as heavy hitting but considering you're probably using your best equipment to Burst it and strengthen it later on, you'll end up reloading a previous save as you can only quick save in a dungeon (whereby you can only load the save once, although there is a workaround).  Every time you enter a dungeon, your characters' levels are reset to 1.  Once you clear a dungeon, they will gain permanent boosts to their base stats so that even when you start at level 1 the next time, you are stronger.  Therefore, even if you die, it isn't all for nothing but the stat boosts are so little you're better off reloading your save anyway.  It is extremely annoying in the second half of the game where dungeons easily take over two hours to grind to a suitable level, only for you to get blindsided by the boss.  You'll lose all progress and have to spend another two hours grinding from level 1 again up to that point.  Furthermore, if you stay too long in a level while inside a dungeon to try and grind, the game forces you to go up to the next level!

It would have been much better to have a traditional leveling up system as the current system of improved base stats doesn't reflect the amount of effort that got you to the point of dying.  Leveling all the way up again when you reattempt a dungeon is just shamelessly padding the game out.  Another dungeon gimmick is moving floors or different heights.  This presents a huge problem in certain areas since the angled view means you can accidentally move into the wrong direction when you don't expect it and can't get back up to that spot immediately.  There are traps in random floor tiles; these are cheap because each tile has a random chance of being a trap whenever you step on it.  This means if you step on one with no issues before, it can suddenly turn into a trap when you backtrack and step on it again.  The game eases you in during the earlier chapters but you will soon be expected to trek ten floors in one run, with a tough boss on the tenth floor.  There are no checkpoints which make it frustrating when the bosses are cheap and you can't even reconnaissance as there is a high risk of dying before you can use an item to warp out.

Enemy levels scale up really high really quickly between each floor, which makes grinding a pain when you exit and go back in at level 1.  While these cheap mechanics are trademarks of the genre, it is still annoying as hell when you've spent an hour grinding carefully to the boss only for it to surprise attack you with its cheapness and you die.  If that is not enough, certain dungeons have small surfaces and you'll likely spawn right in the middle of a cluster of high leveled enemies.  The one movement one turn turns against you when you have swarms of enemies, or when the enemy has ranged attacks, since you cannot get to them in time before you die.  They'll crowd around you and you'll die before you've had one turn.  The later chapters of the game skew it more towards frustrating and less towards enjoyment, leaving too many things to chance and ends up being terrible, destroying any goodwill from earlier chapters.  You'll notice a significant difficulty spike from Chapter 4 onwards.

You get a partner in most dungeons.  You can send simple orders such as following you or doing their own thing.  However, because they are usually right behind you, the type of gear you equip them, and consequently, the type of special attacks that they can use, is very important.  That being said, the AI doesn't always follow you exactly which is annoying during gimmick dungeons when they end up being split apart, go berserk on high level enemies and end up dying as a result.  The characters can also gain base stats via the Divinigram.  This is a grid-like structure where you place Holy Icons to boost their attack, defense, hit ratio and speed.  The equipment Burst mechanic plays into this system as every time you Burst an equipment, you get one Holy icon to use.  This is the core way to improve your character's powers.  The story is told in a visual novel-esque style, the game is rendered using 2D sprites which holds it own charms.

We are introduced to Renya, who never wins anything from lotteries.  Therefore, naturally, only day he wins the grand prize... of being a god.  He gets transported to another world and is then tasked with fulfilling the wishes of people's prayers.  The twist is that it covers all beings:  magical, aliens, fairy tales etc.  There are heaps of cutscenes, at least one per floor and most of your first playthrough will be spent watching these cutscenes.  They can be skipped though, which is a boon in second playthroughs.  Renya enters the Fate Revolution Circuit, a type of machine that allows him to interact with the person that made the prayer in a sort of Copy World.  In there, Renya defeats the monsters and this is the basis for the dungeons and the gameplay.  The last chapter requires quite a bit of grinding due to the insane enemy level scaling per floor, which makes it all the more annoying when the final boss has an even bigger level gap.  It gets to the point where it requires you to one-hit KO all normal enemies of the dungeon in order to be at a comfortable position to defeat the final boss.  However, the story segments in the final chapter were pretty good and of course, you have the blossoming relationship between Renya and his angle helper, Lilliel.

When you do defeat the final boss though, the resulting ending is anticlimactic, making it seem almost not worthwhile.  Once you finish the game, you enter New Game Plus where you keep your Total Level and equipment, and unlock various postgame dungeons.  The story is only around 50% of the game, you have so much postgame content although they all boil down to overlong dungeons, getting better gear and defeating overpowered bosses.  It gets dull real quick.  You're expected to trek hundreds of floors in one go, preparing really well beforehand and at least a few deaths in order to know the patterns of the bosses to devise a proper strategy.  One of the best things about the game is the music, which is catchy and quite unique.  The story is at least 30 hours long, with plenty more if you end up dying in a dungeon and having to redo them.  Overall, The Guided Fate Paradox has a lot of great moments and can be very addictive in its gameplay.  Unfortunately, it is hampered in the rules of its genre with cheap gimmicks, overpowered bosses and unforgiving penalties for losing.  The story isn't too bad and the aesthetics are charming.  Recommended if you're keen in this genre but otherwise, avoid.

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