Toy Review: Transformers Rise of the Beasts Awakening Optimus Primal (Ultimate)

Review:  #779

Name:  Optimus Primal

Brand:  Transformers

Allegiance:  Maximal

Line:  Rise of the Beasts

Year of Release:  2023

Size Class:  Ultimate

Mold Status:  new

PACKAGING:

Awakening Optimus Primal is a Japanese exclusive release that is designed to be the biggest and the definitive toy version of Rise of the Beasts Optimus Primal.

As a result, the packaging has a clear window at the front, and plenty of stock photos at the back showcasing his many many gimmicks.

BEAST MODE:

Optimus Primal transformers into a mechanic gorilla as seen in the movie.

This is a good mechanical beast mode and the thing that does strike you is that the figure feels solid.  The figure utilizes big chunky pieces.

In terms of size, while he is officially in the "Ultimate" size class (i.e. bigger than Leader), he is roughly around Leader sized, but much much heftier and bigger than the current Leader size.

The gorilla head sculpt is fantastic and perfectly captures the onscreen model.

Being such a large size, it had the budget to properly make both modes as best that it could, including various panels to cover even the back of the gorilla.  The only robot pieces that you can identify are the robot feet tucked into the back, and the red peeking out which are the shoulder cannons.

Optimus Primal has plenty of articulation here, it helps that a gorilla has a humanoid shape so it shares most of the joints from robot mode.

He has enough range to stand on two legs, akin to his Beast Wars incarnation, even though he doesn't do that in the film.  However, his head doesn't have quite enough range to look down enough so he's forced to still tilt his head upwards as a result.

This is a fantastic beast mode and one that shows that there was a lot of attention to detail paid to it by the designer, even if the beast head can't quite look straight ahead when he's standing on two legs.

TRANSFORMATION:

Optimus Primal has a very familiar transformation, he pretty much shares it with his original namesake, with a few new minor elements to it.  The rear legs straighten to form his robot legs, you fold down the feet and the shine pieces in the process.  The arms basically are the robot arms that you only swap the fists around with and lifting up the shoulder pieces.  The biggest change is that you open up the chest to tuck the beast head away and flip up the robot head.  You finish it off by rotating the chest piece and folding the back plates away.

ROBOT MODE:

No matter how good the beast mode is, of course the robot mode is more important and Optimus Primal does not disappoint in this area.

He looks amazing, and the black plastic used has a bit of shininess to it which really adds to the look.

The head sculpt is a bit flat to be honest, even with the faceplate on.

In terms of size, he is quite tall, although to be fair, it's only as tall as Leader classed figures were a few years ago.  However, he is still much heavier, so he carries a fair bit more extra mass.

Articulation is great as you'd expect, with joints for his head, shoulders, elbows, wrists, fingers, waist, hips, knees and ankles.

The figure has a multitude of gimmicks.  The first is that you can swap out his masked face for his unmasked on.

His fingers are individually in two spots, which is nice and not something that they had to do as his weapons doesn't really require his hands to need to open.

The next gimmick, and you'll notice that he shares pretty much the same gimmicks as the original Beast Wars Optimus Primal, are pop out guns on his forearms.

Each forearm has the guns and they're springloaded, which is always fun to activate.

He has a pair of swords, and he does use these in the movie.

He can hold them in both hands but sadly, the sword are an unpainted plastic, if they were silver it would have looked much nicer.

Optimus Primal can hold both swords with one hand.

Lastly, the swords can attach to slots on his back for storage.

The other gimmick is that he has flip out shoulder cannons.  You need to open up the chest (i.e. start the transformation process) in order to flip them out, so they can be a bit annoying.  It's a trade-off to keep the shoulder cannons out of sight in robot mode though.

There are missiles that slot into the shoulder cannons, but they are only pressure launchers, rather than springloaded launchers.

Like the original Beast Wars toys, the gimmicks here are all unobtrusive but they add a ton of play value and character to the figure.

The figure is just great to feel in your hands because he is so big and hefty.  He features mostly ratchet joints, so each click is satisfying while keeping him stable.

He doesn't have much kibble, the only piece is the panel behind his waist.

This is a well designed robot mode that does it's job of representing the character, as well as being a fun toy, well.

OVERALL:

Awakening Optimus Primal is an awesome figure.  He is not cheap but you are getting value due to his large size, a nice amount of detail, and a lot of gimmicks.  Given that the Studio Series figure isn't even as screen accurate as this one (and that one was released later too), this is probably the best Rise of the Beasts Optimus Primal figure that you're going to get.

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Sword Oratoria (2017)

Sword Oratoria is a 12 episode spin-off to Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? You feel that it is supposed to follow Ais, the powerful swordswoman that Bell Cranel from the main series has a crush for, and the Loki familia that she is a part of. The season starts with giving a quick recap of what this world is and then shows the Loki familia deep in the dungeon, far far deeper than Bell can even hope to go (for now). It starts right before the main series as the first episode ends with Ais and Bell’s first meeting.

From the beginning, you might think that the show will center around Ais and that is true to an extent. Lefiya seems to be more of the central figure though and she idolizes Ais. Ais is feeling down given that she has been stuck on Level 5 for so long. The start of the season shows off the Loki familia and the typical things that happens around them, it felt slightly like a slice-of-life anime at times. Given that their screentime in the main series is somewhat low, it is interesting to see their team dynamics.

While Hestia from the main series is pretty much walking fan service, relatively speaking, there wasn’t that much of it. That’s not the case here as there are frequent heavy doses of fan service. Loki herself is prone to this, loving to grab the girls of her familia. Lefiya is constantly fantasizing over Ais and while this is done as a running gag, it isn’t much different froma typical male teenager lusting over their crush. This can take the focus away in many scenes since even when a serious event happens, the tone is lost when it defaults to providing fan service at all costs.

There are many parallels with the main series. Lefiya herself is one of the weaker members of the familia, given that she is an inexperienced adventurer. The season has her training hard to make up for that, like how Bell had to. Naturally, both Hestia and Bell make several cameo appearances. The anime goes out of its way to make this happen but in the first half of the season, they never interact with Ais and the Loki familia much. In the second half, they cross paths many times and the story events reconcile with the main series but telling it from Ais’s viewpoint. It is a typical approach but unfortunately not that interesting. By doing this, it doesn’t give Sword Oratoria its own unique identity. The other sad part is that even this spin-off must show Bell in an amazing light as everyone watches him in awe while he rapidly gains power.

Ais is not the best protagonist given her broody nature. She is quiet and isn’t great at interacting with other people. She is an ice queen that takes a long while to defrost, which can make sections of the anime boring. This is why Lefiya is instead the focus of a lot of scenes, given she’s more animated and frankly, more interesting by comparison. She isn’t without her flaws though. Being weak is not a problem, the problem is that whenever something happens, Lefiya gives up way too easily and hopes for Ais to jump in to save her. Invariably, Ais does just that. Lefiya improves during the season, but she never truly breaks away from this habit.

The main plot is scattered and slow. It keeps jumping in and out of progressing it, much to the season’s detriment. Just when it seemed to go back to focus on the plot, Hestia and Bell is show up to sidetrack it. Once that is done, it goes back to the main arc but by this point, it felt like the urgency was never there. The main arc felt like something that doesn’t need to be resolved given how seemingly unimportant it is.

The aimless direction continues into the season finale. Despite teasing the big villain during most of the season, we don’t even get to see much of them. The final episode was a climactic fight and the biggest one in the season. We see the Loki familia show off their teamwork. However, this spin-off has the same issue as the main series. Despite the apparently “dangerous” monsters that they struggle with, the monsters still easily get one-shotted. Despite a character getting significantly injured by defending the others, they will just pop right back up when required in the next scene. Unfortunately, the ending itself is inconclusive and just makes the whole season feel pointless because it does not resolve anything at all.

Overall, Sword Oratoria is average and middling. It had some potential but the decision to still involve Bell so heavily, and the meandering plot that goes nowhere, leads to disappointment. It takes all the focus away from the concept and premise of the anime. All that’s left are generic characters that fits your typical stereotypes, a slow and boring sequence of events, average animation, and a plot that is lacking any sort of hook.

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For other reviews, have a look at this page and this page.

Senran Kagura: Peach Beach Splash (PS4)

Senran Kagura: Peach Beach Splash is a spin-off from the series. Instead of a hack n slash like previous games, this is a third person shooter, albeit one using water guns. As you can glean from the title, this is a pure fan service game where the characters are fighting on the beach in swimsuits. The setup is simple, and this is not a surprise given the series is not known for its story. Supposedly an ancient tradition for shinobi to battle it out in a competition on the beach using water guns, the Peach Beach Splash competition returns after getting all the characters from the different schools together to participate. There is supposedly a deeper, darker, reason for why this competition exists but you just need to know that the characters agreed to it, and they will all be wearing swimsuits firing water guns at each other.

Considering the genre change, the controls feel good. It has a stock standard third person shooter control scheme. You can quick toggle between manual aiming, or auto-locking onto an opponent (i.e. heavy aim assist). The slight twist here is that each character can use the water as jets to jump and stay high up in the air, which is really fun to do. They can also use the water to dodge and slide forward in high speed. Both manoeuvres aren’t mandatory in single player mode as the game is pretty easy overall. The ammo for each weapon is represented by four water tanks on the screen and you will need to reload by holding down the square button. This causes the character to crouch and slow down so you need to be careful and keep an eye on how much water is left.

Each character basically plays and controls the same. Their only point of difference is their melee attack, which is unique to each character but something you don’t really use that much. Each character has a loadout which is based upon the card system. Therefore, the gameplay differs only with what you have selected as your weapon, which ranges from assault rifles, pistols, shotguns, and rocket launchers. The card system allows different abilities to be equipped to a character, such as homing attacks, buffs, and debuffs. This means that there are randomized card packs that you get from completing the missions to unlock new cards, as well as an in-game shop. There are hundreds of cards in the game, and the rarer ones give better effects of the same ability. Any duplicates you get from card packs are used to level up existing cards and characters.

The gameplay ends up becoming hectic and chaotic, especially thanks to the water splashing effects where you hit and get hit. This is mostly a team-based game but unfortunately, the AI is terrible. During harder matches, especially on higher difficulties if you select them, the AI will die. In story mode, they will not automatically revive and since it takes time to revive them yourself, it is better not to do so because you would currently be the target of the enemies. The game tends to overwhelm you with numbers. It’s not fun when you are knocked down and it takes forever to get back up. This is especially egregious in boss battles where the objective is to defeat the boss, but there are unending spawns of mooks that get in the way.

The single player story mode tells the story from five different perspectives, basically one from each of the schools / groups. Each story arc has ten missions. Perhaps most disappointing is how quickly these matches go by, they usually take anywhere from less than a minute to five minutes. It feels like you are just getting into the groove of the match and then it ends. Many missions have you fighting against generic enemies and there are only one of two objectives, either defeat every single enemy, or put out some fires. Each story arc takes just a bit over an hour to complete, so there isn’t much time for any sort of story, and it is over too quickly. The story is told via text dialogues with the character models onscreen, so it’s not very engrossing either.

The structure of each story arc and its objectives to too similar to each other, so it will get repetitive. The boss battles aren’t designed too well and it keeps making the same mistakes. It generally has a boss that is situated high up in the end and then swarms you with enemies. Your teammates will struggle to stay alive and die. This means that the game is too reliant on the player having good skill cards to equip on everyone so that they can survive a bit longer. This isn’t great when you are playing story mode the first time through as you won’t have nice cards by that point. The level designs also require improvement. They are supposed to be complex stages with varying heights and paths. However, due to the gameplay favoring speed and chaos as everyone zips around, some parts of the stages feel too cramped. You’ll often find yourself blocked by the varying heights as you try and wrestle the controls to get back up to the platform you fell from.

You are expected to level up your characters, weapons, and skills over the course of the game. The problem is that if you are playing only the single player content, then you will not earn enough in-game money and get enough cards to level up to keep pace. Each level takes exponentially more duplicate cards, but you earn duplicate cards and in-game money as roughly the same pace across all ten missions in a story arc. This can me while the first difficulty is too easy, the next step up, and the one after, will become too hard to certain stages. There is a real amount of grind to leveling up the everything that you would like to use. Obtaining all the unique skill cards is also a mammoth task. You’ll probably lose interest with the game long before you even get close to 100%.

Once you are done with the main story, there are 50+ more missions that cover off some side stories. These are sillier in nature compared to the main story. Not as much effort was put into them though as each one basically has some text at the beginning (without any in-game models either), then you play five consecutive stages back-to-back, before some text at the end to cap it off. The last piece of single player content are four tournaments of increasing difficulty. You can play these using any characters for your team. These are lucrative in terms of rewards and they’re more fun in that it’s a deathmatch instead. Each battle has a time limit, and you need to get more KOs than the other team to win and progress.

In the beginning, you will feel that the UI layout needs a bit of work. what we got isn’t the best in terms of delivering the info you need at a quick glance. When the action is so quick and frantic, the last thing you need is slow down to check your health, or check where the enemy is, or what skill cards you have that are available to be used. You also run out of water (i.e. ammunition) relatively quickly so that you are constantly shooting and then reloading after one or two enemies, which slows the pacing down. The graphics are fantastic though with a bright and colorful palette. It uses this to its advantage when you down an opponent, there is an option to repeatedly splash them to reveal further scenes of fan service. There is also a separate mode where you can “interact” with any of the female characters, which is surprising that it managed to make it through to the final version of the game given how... controversial it can be.

Overall, Senran Kagura: Peach Beach Splash, is a fun spin-off to the series. The pivot from hack n slash to a third person shooter, but with water guns, actually works out really well here. The core game mechanics are fine and surprisingly good. It’s just that there are some nitpicks in the game design that can make it more annoying to play. The huge emphasis on random card packs to get better skills, and the sheer number of duplicate cards you need to grind to level up anything to a decent level, are the main pain points. The story has never been a strong suit of the series and it’s not great here, but it is enough to push you through so that you can enjoy the gameplay and fan service instead.

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For other game reviews, have a look at this page and this page.