The Boys - Season 2 (2020)

The second season of The Boys, which is based upon the graphic novel, is eight episodes long. It is set in a world where superheroes exists but takes on a more gritty realistic tone. It gives more thought and focuses on how it integrates such people with power in society. Basically, the corporation known as Vought has all these superheroes on contracts and uses them as celebrities to generate a ton of money and influence. The first season revealed some dark secrets Vought was holding onto and we see that this world is as equally corrupted and terrible as one would expect.

The first season ended on a pretty big cliffhanger with shocking events and a reveal that was totally unexpected. The first episode of the second season doesn’t jump into it straight away. It focuses on other events, slowly building up the dark tone of the series before teasing you with the continuation. With the members of The Boys, Hughie, Mother’s Milk and Frenchie are in hiding. Butcher is missing and the group is struggling given that they are now wanted and hunted by both authorities and The Seven. There is tension within the group and without a leader, you can see them starting to implode. Butcher’s absence is noticeable but it is such a sweet feeling when he returns.

Several characters, even those who are supposed to be in the same team, come to a clash. Hughie and Butcher have different ideals and both sides have their own justifications. Butcher expresses more violence though but none of them have the higher moral ground. Butcher wants to find and save his wife, while Hughie still takes on a more idealistic approach in trying to expose Vought. They may be fighting against the corruption of the superhero corporation but they are definitely not the good guys either.

We see more flaws of several characters. Homelander is taking on a lot of power being the leader of The Seven and supposedly Vought. The character shines even brighter this season with an excellent performance and holding tons of charisma. However, things go awry when his leadership is challenged and as the new CEO of Vought had noted, he is just a big man-child.  The season covers various perspectives so it jumps around often. This can break up the pacing, especially with some of the slower stuff like focusing on the Deep’s psychology and how he is still suffering from being sidelined.

The new member of The Seven, Stormfront, is supposed to break the status quo as she is not submissive to what Homelander wants the public’s impression of them to be. It can feel like the character is trying too hard at times by doubling down on the female aspect, vlogging and acting badass. Her character gets more interesting soon though because she continues to highlight the one persona that superheroes has to the public and the media, and her other true person that shows when a person has too much power. She also causes a massive rift within The Seven itself.

The show is not afraid of showing gory shots. Body parts explode, limbs are sawed off, beheadings and there’s a heap of swearing. Furthermore, Homelander has some really weird and creepy fetishes. Some of his actions are very uncomfortable to watch. At this point, it’s hard to know whether to root for Homelander or not. One the one hand, he is a terrible person and deserves everything he gets. On the other hand, the person serving him attitude and giving him trouble is equally bad. Homelander is losing control of his team, while Stormfront is unpredictable. She has a hidden agenda but it is hard to tell what she is actually planning to do. In one scene she’s against The Seven, in others, she’s not. That said, Homelander is crazy powerful as all other superheroes are afraid of him.

The second season is not as fast paced as the first. Interesting things do happen but they are interspersed by a lot of slow scenes, scenes that sometimes you feel is not essential to the story. It’s also less surprising than the first season since you know what to expect with the characters now and know that they aren’t good people. Despite the darkness and despairs at the insurmountable odds of taking down Vought and the corrupt superhero culture, it promises a glimmer of hope. Unfortunately, as you can already expect, things shouldn’t go as well as planned but the show manages to surprise you at how it does it. You will feel truly blindsided and it is a somewhat shocking scene that leaves a deep impression.

The season ends on a strong finale where the good outweighs the bad. It feels like after the whole season, the gang is properly working together after sorting out their issues with each other. Then the big reveals come out for Stormfront, Vought and Homelander as Butcher, Hughie and the rest of the team goes for them head on in a confrontation. Just when everything settles down as the season ends, it reveals the identity of a mysterious character that had been there throughout the season. It’s an unexpected reveal.

Overall, the second season of The Boys, while not as strong as the first season, still carries an engrossing story in an interesting world. It continues to explore more deeply the politics of having superheroes ingrained in such a society. The pacing can be off at times, mainly in the beginning where there are several slow scenes in order to set up the tone and plot arc of the season but it is worth it.

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Atelier Shallie Plus: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea (Vita)

Atelier Shallie Plus: Alchemists of the Dusk Sea is the third and final game in the Dusk trilogy of the Atelier series. The Plus version was first released for the PlayStation Vita, which is an expanded port of the PS3 version. It has all the DLC characters included and additional story events. The DLCs also include all the costumes that you can change from the get go as well as a bonus dungeon.

The series was never a graphical powerhouse but the graphics here are pretty decent, especially for a handheld. While the environments and other structures can have flat textures, the character models are much more detailed. Each character has various costumes that you can change at the hub. However, the text seems a bit small at first on the Vita’s screen, takes a while hours to get used to.

The game has significantly toned down the difficulty. Each game since Atelier Ayesha has made things bit easier than the last. For one thing, the game got rid of the calendar system. You now have unlimited time to do all the things that you want and character events are not missable anymore, nor are there onerous requirements. Rather, they will always be there until you trigger them. Replacing the calendar system is the motivation system, where if you spend too long grinding, it will start to lower your character’s movement speed as a subtle hint and nudge to continue the story. It’s not actually that intrusive though.

Alchemy also feels it has less of a focus. While the alchemy system is an iteration of Escha and Logy’s already robust system, the required items to progress through the story just lacks the sort of challenge in the Arland trilogy. Even though it is still a core part of the gameplay, it feels more like an optional side experience compared to the previous games. Despite that, it can still get very addictive and you could easily spend hours alchemizing items. On the whole, this ends up being a very relaxing game that’s more similar to other JRPGs. Tinkering with the alchemy and transferring properties via a combination of your skills in just the right chain is extremely satisfying once you get it.

There are also other quality of life improvements, such as for the first time, you can use the right stick to swivel the camera around. Camera angles are no longer fixed. Each small separated area is filled with gathering points to obtain items for alchemy and enemies that you can battle to gain experience points to level up. Exploration in these new areas is a large part of the game, even though it doesn’t take long to go through an area. What helps are the snappy load times and the fast travel system, it doesn’t take long to go from location to location.

The gameplay follows are familiar structure through each chapter. You’ll play through all the story events, and then once done, you enter free time with its own set of objectives. You’re welcome to complete as many or as little of the optional ones, with a few select ones that will end free time and advance into the next chapter. The optional objectives are unlocked by you doing random things like talking to people a number of times, defeating certain types of enemies, gathering and using items. These will unlock helpful abilities such as automatically defeating enemies without going into battle if they are weaker than you, or provide a significant amount of experience points, to further streamline the game.

The game uses a turn based combat system. While you only start off with a small number of playable characters, you end up with way too many by the time the halfway point comes. Since it included all the DLC characters, this makes it harder and more tedious to keep up with equipment requirements, not that the game is that hard either way. The party is comprised of three members but you have three more in the back row that you can swap in to do assist attacks or defend. Only the alchemists can use items while all others have access to skills instead which uses MP. It’s a standardized turn based battle system but throws a few twists with area skills, ultimate moves and a burst bar. The burst bar fills as you hit enemies and once full, all your characters get a massive buff in offense and defense for a few turns.

Following on from the previous game, there are two protagonists with their own story events, Shallistera and Shallotte, both with the nickname Shallie. You pick one after the prologue. Stera’s story focuses on how she went to the city in order to obtain help for her village. Like a lot of other small villages, the water source has been running low and eventually will dry up. Sadly, the town has its own problems so Stera ends up helping the town first. While Lotte is more personally as she journeys to becoming an alchemist, with more focus on her family.

There are different perspectives between the two protagonists. The first half has more differences while the second half converges. You’ll still see different scenes, although a lot of the optional ones are the same. It is different enough that it is not a complete waste to do the two routes, plus, you can only get the true ending in your second playthrough. It takes around 25 hours to complete your first playthrough, with around 10 more hours to complete a second playthrough including the true ending.

There are plenty of returning characters, with their own story scenes. The story is also much lighter than previous Dusk games. You’ll sweep past the first few chapters, and even free time, in a blur. You unlock numerous new areas at once and requests for alchemy items, which is uncommon already, will rarely be for something difficult like an item with a specific trait.

Being the last in the Dusk trilogy, surprisingly, it actually resolves a lot of the questions that previous games had raised about the world. We finally discover the cause of the Dusk, we learn about the backgrounds of several characters that were mysterious, and it references previous games’ events as well. Also continuing the trend is the melancholy tone of the plot and the meaningful message that it tries to convey. The music is really good. It is slow and relaxing. It’s not as melancholic as Atelier Ayesha but hits the right notes in reflecting the dying world. There are a few strong tracks, mixed with others that you don’t notice until you jump to another location and realize you miss it.

Overall, Atelier Shallie Plus: The Alchemists of the Dusk Sea is a fun and relaxing game. However, the removal of the time limit, as well as a lessor focus on alchemizing for story purposes, can make it a bit too tame and generic with less points of difference compared to other JRPGs. The character designs and personalities are charming so it is a shame that despite being the last in the trilogy, it doesn’t quite wrap up everything about the dusk as nicely as it could.

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Toy Review: Transformers Generations War for Cybertron Kingdom Rodimus Prime (Commander)

Review:  #681

Name:  Rodimus Prime

Brand:  Transformers

Allegiance:  Autobot

Line:  Generations - War for Cybertron:  Kingdom

Year of Release:  2021

Size Class:  Commander

Mold Status:  new

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS:

Rodimus Prime is the Commander figure for 2021 and he comes in a similar sized box to Sky Lynx from last year.  The front has an amazing piece of artwork (all the packaging artwork of the Kingdom line is amazing, really).

On the back are you typical product stock images, and showing off the various gimmicks of the figure as well as the accessories.

Speaking of accessories, Rodimus has a ton of them:  seven blaster effects, an effect for the Matrix of Leadership, gun, sword, and two flame effects for the vehicle.

VEHICLE MODE (COMBINED):

The default vehicle mode for Rodimus Prime is the cab with trailer mode (which is more like a caravan).  The downside of this mode is that you can see the cab portion sticks out for far too much, and the spoiler is mostly hidden away.

The cab is big and long but looks pretty good.  The vehicle doesn't have any unsightly gaps from any angle which is great.

This is a huge figure as well, and while he is a Commander, with the shrinkages and cost cutting these days, you can't expect them to be as big as they were before.  Above is a comparison against a Leader sized figure to show off that Rodimus is even bigger, even if it is mainly the hollow trailer.

Of note are the black flame effects that peg onto either side.  Not sure why they are molded in black even just the same blue as the other effects would have been nicer.  The break in the side exhausts are due to the fact that transformation requires it for the car's spoiler to slot through.

Beneath the trailer is a slide out tray, which can store some of the additional accessories.  While the gun and sword can store inside the trailer, the two flame parts and the Matrix effect can store in this tray.

Furthermore, at the back of the tray are two 5mm slots so that you can peg two of the blaster effects there to simulate NOS or something.

The back of the trailer opens up and a ramp can be folded down.

The trailer is big enough for a Deluxe to slide up and fit inside.

This is a fairly decent mode, even though there were a few compromises in this mode, it's still surprisingly fun and robust.

VEHICLE MODE (CAR):

To separate the "cab" from the trailer, you can just need to pull the car out.  It's pegs in a few places but it is easy enough to slot in and out.  The result is a standalone sports car.

Unfortunately, unlike the recent Studio Series version, this version is nowhere near as slim and sleek.  It's actually too bulky for it's own good, with a weird back that juts higher, making the spoiler on top looking like some weird growth.

He's still approximately the size of a Voyager in this mode, but feeling slightly bulkier and heavier than one.

The sword attaches onto the bottom in this mode, although it may get in the way of the ground clearance.

The gun pegs onto the side.  The wheels roll and that's pretty much all there is to gimmicks here.

The two flame effects can also peg onto the exhausts but again, being black, something just seems a bit off.

Considering that this is like a bonus mode to the trailer, it's not too bad.  However, you can't help but feel that both of the vehicle modes are compromised because of this.

TRANSFORMATION (TRAILER):

To get the trailer into it's battle platform mode, you open up the two halves.  Take out the gun emplacement, then flip down the ramps on one side and another piece on the other end.  The gun emplacement then unfolds so that it can stand up.

TRAILER:

The trailer transforms into a battle platform, and the instructions has you leaving the red piece at the back untouched.  It is basically a folded out trailer.

That said, it looks cooler and feels more sturdy if you flip the red piece at the back to act as another leg, otherwise that hinge is unused.

The gun emplacement can then peg onto the middle.

All of the accessories can store in the battle platform thanks to the multitude of 5mm ports situated everywhere.

Naturally, you can also display this mode with a vehicle on top.

Finally, and this is kind of weird, but the instructions shows off a mode where the trailer remains a trailer, but the gun emplacement remains folded up and pegged on top.  It's billed as some sort of storage mode but looks pretty weird.

TRANSFORMATION (ROBOT):

This is where Rodimus justifies the Commander pricing.  His transformation is much more complicated that you would expect, and at times, feels like the designer was making it more complex for the sake of making it more complex.  The hood forms the chest, while the sides form the arms.  The way the shoulders fold and unfold to attach to the torso can be confusing at first.  Then the back of the car splits to form the legs, and once again, the wheels and other pieces fold together in a way that is more complicated than it should be.

ROBOT MODE:

Rodimus' robot mode is where the designer has put in their most focus because it looks the best.

He barely has any kibble in this mode, you might go so far as to say that there is none (since the big spoiler on his back is more of an iconic feature of the character).

The head sculpt looks really good, with a silver painted face and blue painted eyes.  It definitely conveys the older look of the Prime version compared to the younger Hot Rod.

For size, he's a little big taller than a Voyager but is much shorter than a proper Leader, which is to be expected.  That said, he feels way bulkier than a Voyager, it's like the mass of a Leader shoved into a Voyager figure (which frankly, should be how much a Voyager should be anyway instead of the lightweight hollowed figures we get nowadays).

Naturally, Rodimus has the works in terms of articulation.  He has joints for his head, shoulders, arms, wrists, waist, hips, knees and ankles.

He's a well balanced figure and since all his joints are using swivel hinges or ratchets, they hold up his weight remarkably well.

As he is pretty much kibble-free, that also means his range of articulation is unencumbered.

To help make up the Commander price point, he is loaded with gimmicks.  First off, his hands are partially articulated.

His chest can open up to reveal the Matrix of Leadership.

The Matrix itself is removeable and you can peg the effects part on it to mimic the opening of the Matrix.

Just like in vehicle mode, the two flame effects can peg onto the ends of the exhausts, this time in robot mode it's on his forearms.

This leads to a sort of blowtorch weapon or a flaming blade weapon.

He comes with two handheld weapons, a sword and a gun.

The sword is black plastic with the blade itself painted silver.

It can be held in either hand (there are 5mm grooves inside the hand, despite the hand articulation), and it's a really nice size, perfect for the figure.

When not in use, the sword can store by pegging onto his back.

The gun is folded in half for storage in vehicle mode but unfolds into a longer, two handed gun for robot mode.

Rodimus has just enough articulation to hold both handles of the gun.

If you fold the gun back in half, it can store on the side of his backpack.

The blaster effects can peg onto the end of the gun to show it firing.

The blaster effects are actually very versatile.  You can combine multiple together for a bigger effect, or you can only use just the one.  It works either way, although you have to be careful of the weight.

Pretty much all of the orange you see in robot mode is painted on, so you do need to be a little bit careful with chipping it.

Of course, Rodimus has the battle platform at his disposal in this mode.

From the back, you can see that the gun emplacement is pegged onto the platform itself, and has two handles for him to hold.

This means that Rodimus easily anchors himself when holding onto the weapon, and the gun emplacement itself can also swivel 360 degrees.

Blaster effects can also attach to the end of the two barrels, although practically, you can only use the two slimmer / smaller ones at the same time.  This is a really fun figure thanks to all the accessories, and the battle platform compliments the robot mode a lot too.

OVERALL:

Rodimus Prime is a worthwhile Commander size figure.  While at full price, it can be a little bit harder to swallow due to his smaller size, however, he does help make it up with more accessories, a more involved transformation and much more solidarity for the size.  On sale, the figure is one hundred percent worthwhile.

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