Nerd Battle: Ayane vs. Lili Rochefort

She's hot.  She has a fighting style that's highly effective with her back to her opponent.  She has a drill kick to level her opponents with.  It's Ayane from Dead Or Alive...or Lili Rochefort from Tekken.  Who the better hot chick with the drill kick?  Until a crossover between Tekken and Dead Or Alive happens, the only way to decide is with a good old-fashioned Nerd Battle.

Tekken's angelic beatuty, Lili Rochefort.

DOA's efficient beauty, Ayane.

Ayane is one of the better characters in the Dead Or Alive series.  She's been around from the beginning.  She was a hidden character in the first game, but (possibly because of her popularity) she's been a readily available character ever since.  A lot of things set her apart from the rest DOA's cast.  She has a fighting style belongs exclusively the her, with no overlapping moves or clone characters.  She also has a very unique appearance and has to be one of the most recognizable women in a fighting game.

Ayane is almost instantly recognizable with her trademark headband among other things.

Lili is a fairly popular character from Tekken who's been around since Tekken 5.  She is blessed with good looks and a pretty unique style, as well.  There's not much overlap when comparing her moveset to other characters and like Ayane, she has no clones running around.  While her look doesn't stand out as much as Ayane's, her overall appearance is much nicer than the majority of the Tekken girls.

Lili's beauty can't be denied.

First, let's get it out of the way and compare how these two look.  Ayane and Lili look vastly different.  Ayane looks a teenage rock star with purple hair and red eyes.  Lili looks like an angel in a miniskirt, sporting long blond hair, purple eyes, and wearing mostly white.  Both girls are hot in their own way and this is where Ayane wins in looks.  Lili has a more realistic beauty and as such, you'll see at least one girl that looks like her in real life.  There's no woman in real life that looks like Ayane (at least not naturally) and she has more outfits to boot.  Lili is hot and her outfits can be customized, but also fairly common in videogames and real life.  Ayane gets the win here for looking unique and still being hot.

Ayane's wardrobe includes ninja gear, swimsuits...

...and school uniforms, among other things.

Lili's wardrobe is deep and highly customizable, but no match for Ayane's.

Up next, come their backstories.  Growing up, Ayane was an unwanted baby, ostracized by those around here simply because of the circumstances of her birth.  The end result is that she is very haughty and better than everyone by honing her skills.  Lili, on the other hand, is a child of privilege who was probably told from birth that she's better than everyone.  Both think their better than the average person, but Ayane actually proves it, whereas Lili just goes out and gets her ass kicked by Asuka.  For being a more sympathetic character, Ayane wins backstory.

Ayane overcame a terrible childhood to become a strong fighter.

Then there's the drill kick, the reason for me writing this post.  Both Ayane and Lili have this move which sends them flying across the screen spinning like a drill, hence I call it a drill kick.  There are difference, though.

Lili's drill kick is one of the most fun and beautiful moves to watch in Tekken.

Ayane's drill kick is versatile and deadly.

First off, Lili's drill kick requires you to hop to the side before she executes it.  You'd better make sure you hop the right way or she does a sliding kick instead.  She does have an unblockable version that doesn't require you hop first, but that when you learn about the major flaw in both versions; the move is kind of hard to hit with.

Ayane, on the other hand, doesn't have to hop into hers.  This means you won't make a mistake and do a sliding kick.  Also, despite being easier to hit with, it feels more satisfying.  If that that wasn't enough, it travels farther and a combo or two actually incorporate this move for added flair.  As long as you don't overuse it or get predictable with it, Ayane's drill kick is a useful tool for attacking while quickly closing the gap between her and opponents.  Lili's kick may look cooler, be Ayane's is infinitely more useful.  Ayane wins here, too.

Finally, there is actual fighting ability.  Ayane is a highly-trained ninja who's probably killed quite a few people during mission.  She's also very effective with her back turned to her opponent, making her fairly unique character in a fighting game.  Lili is (probably) a self-taught heiress who fights for fun.  If they were to meet in a fight (hopefully in a DOA/Tekken crossover) Ayane would likely crush her like a bottle return machine crushing a Pepsi can.  It would take a miracle (perhaps help from Asuka) for Lili to win.  Long story short, Ayane is the better fighter.

Ayane can be deadly when her back is facing the opponent.

Ayane kicks poor Lei-Fang so hard, her feet go through the wall.

Lili can be cruel when she wants to be, but...

...as Ayane says, "the match is decided."

While Lili is hot, talented, and fun to watch fight, Ayane is all that, too.  Plus, she's more effective in combat, as she can actually beat some of her rivals.  The girl herself looks unique and she has a bigger wardrobe to show off (or cover up) those virtual curves.  She's more sympathetic, her actions carry more weight in her world, and she's a better overall fighter, as well as having a better drill kick.  Ayane wins this Nerd Battle.  Agree?  Disagree?  Comment and make your voice heard.

Amu Being Cute

Amu's victory poses is pretty cute.  It balances being girly with being a gun-slinger, minus the gun.  Perhaps she'd have been a pop star if she wasn't trapped in Fillujah.  Anyway, enjoy.

Cute, huh?  A nice sight after blasting heads with her rifle/shotgun/magnum.  Check it out in Summon Night 6: Lost Borders.

Summon Night 6: Lost Borders, Birth of the Brave

The theme that plays when you win a battle in Summon Night 6: Lost Borders.  It's a cool song that just makes you feel powerful and victorious.  In a soundtrack that's up and down, this song stands out as undeniably good.  Enjoy.

Can't you feel the power?  It's the perfect reward after wiping out cute little monsters and beating people into submission.  It goes well with characters like Amu and Nesty.  Hope you enjoyed it.

Tekken 7 Review (PS4)

Tekken.  A long-lived series of fighting games, it is to 3D fighting games what Street Fighter is to 2D fighting games.  That's to say it's the standard-setter.  3D fighting usually doesn't get much better than Tekken.  The series had enjoyed amazing highs (Tekken 3) and depressing lows (Tekken 4), but 23 years later, it's alive and well.  If it wasn't, Tekken 7 wouldn't exist.

As mentioned before, Tekken 7 is a 3D fighting game.  The thing that makes it unique is that each limb is assigned a button.  You have left punch, left kick, right punch, and right kick, all with devoted buttons that you can set up yourself.  This method works well and makes performing combos feel satisfying.  It's been working for 23 years.  Why fix something that isn't broken?

Unlike Josie's leg here, the gameplay isn't broken.

There is a nice number of characters, with plenty of new characters, such as Shaheen and Josie.  There are neat updates on old characters on old characters, like Nina armed to the teeth in a wedding dress.  As you might expect, there are some subtractions.  For me, Julia Chang (not that piece of crap Jaycee) and Lei Wulong  (yay, Jackie Chan) are huge losses.  On the other hand, garbage characters like Alex/Roger and Zafina are gone.  Yet they kept other garbage characters Kuma/Panda and Alisa.  Oh, well.  You win some, you lose some.

We lost characters like Lei Wulong and Julia Chang for a piece of crap like this.  Just look at her.

Here comes the bride, decked out and ready to kill.

Hot women are present and accounted for.

Staying on the subject of characters, the single biggest addition is Akuma from Street Fighter.  He's really there and he's not just passing through, either.  He's a major player in the story and woven into the very lore of Tekken.  In other words, he's canon.  He doesn't play EXACTLY the way he played in Street Fighter, but you won't be able to tell the difference.  He has everything he had in Street Fighter.  Fireballs, hurricane kicks, and even his super moves are all present and accounted for.  His transition was well done for the most part.  He can be cheap and overpowered, though, so bring plenty of patience (and a willingness to sidestep a lot) when fighting him.

Akuma is a bigger fish than any of the original addition, like Gigas and Shaheen.

There are other characters, such as Geese Howard from King Of Fighters, with Final Fantasy 15's Noctis on the way via DLC.  Additions like Akuma, Geese, and Noctis give a sense that literally ANYTHING can happen.  Who will they (and other fighting games) add next?

The story mode is divided into two sections; the main story and the character story.  The main story is short, sweet, and tight.  They involved only the major players (including Akuma), opting not to shoehorn everyone in like Tekken 6.  It isn't without it's flaws, mainly the fact the fighting picks up right where the cutscenes leave off.  I mean EXACTLY where the cutscene ends.  If you're not paying attention, you will take plenty of cheap shots simply because you didn't realize the cutscene ended and the fight began.  Also, they missed the opportunity to perhaps make Asuka a major player like she should be.  She's a Kazama (a family closely associated with the Mishima family), but she's treated like a joke, trapped her in a lame feud with Lili.  Jun was (still is?) a Kazama and Jin's last name is Kazama and are/were major players.  What's wrong with putting Asuka in the family feud?

Learning when a cutscene ends and a fight starts is key to ass-whoopin' prevention.

Character stories, on the other hand, are pretty shitty.  Each character only gets one fight.  ONE!  This may be okay in the case of Nina Williams and Steve Fox, whose stories and relation to each other should be well-known to Tekken veterans.  They do create some intrigue, but one lousy fight is pretty short.  Three to five fights per character would have been nice to build up new character connections and rivalries.

On to the other stuff.  The graphics are among the best in the series.  There is some weird stuff, like hair that defies physics and clothes going through characters' bodies, but as a whole, the game still looks good.

Josie kicks Xiaoyu so hard, her coat phases through her own leg.  I wonder if that hurts.

The music varies from solid to pretty good.  The G Corp Helipad theme and the Mishima building themes are darned good.  Even better is the Jukebox Mode, where you can listen to music from previous games in the series.  You can even put together a playlist (or three), select what music you hear during gameplay and when you here it.  So if you decide the music from Tekken 7 sucks, just select the music from another game or multiple games.  A nice touch.

With TEN games represented, you won't struggle to find good music.

As for other game modes, they are okay.  Arcade Mode is what you'd expect.  Beat ass until the boss comes along, then beat their ass, too.  Treasure Mode is essentially Survival mode and is how you earn money and random items to customize the characters with.  It's BS, though, because you earn so little money per fight and don't what you'll unlock or who you'll unlock it for.  If you can get online, join a tournament to earn money faster.  Sadly, there's no Tekken Force Mode as of yet.  Maybe they'll bring it in via DLC.

Then, of course you have customize mode.  It's weak compared to Tekken 6's Customize Mode, but it works.  Some of the items are decent, while others are silly and plain shitty (like the headwear items).  Much like with the characters, you win some and lose some.  You can still make some solid changes that don't look stupid.

Nothing's hotter than a girl with a rose in her hand and a pizza on her back.

In the end, Tekken 7 is a solid game.  Just solid.  The Tekken gameplay is still there, with miniscule differences you may or may not notice.  There are decent additions, crappy additions, and questionable omissions.  The main story is short yet satisfying, but the character stories are too short.  If you like Tekken, you'll have fun.  Make sure to check it out.

Videogame Hotties: Josie Rizal

Do you like models?  How about kickboxers?  Then fire up Tekken 7 and meet your dream girl.  Her name is Josie Rizal, the kickboxing model.

Josie Rizal, a stylish fighter.

Josie is a new addition to the Tekken family.  She seems to take Christie Monteiro's exotic look and fashion sense and Bruce Irvin's outfit and fighting style to create a brand new character.  Simply put, this one girl wiped out two characters and rendered them redundant simply by existing.  Was it worth losing a hot girl like Christie AND a great striker in Bruce?

That depends.  She doesn't seem as hot as Christie or as effective as Bruce.  But she's still far above an average fighter.  I mean, how many women can punch out a bear?

Seriously...she knocked out a bear with her bare hands.

When it comes to looks, she's not an ugly girl.  Whereas there was some debate as to whether or no Christie was hot or ugly, Josie is undoubtedly at least cute.

Cute doesn't mean weak.  Just ask poor Katarina.

As a kickboxer, you have to have two thing: good shorts and strong legs.  Josie has them.  Look at those neat shorts...or maybe it's a skirt.

Shorts or skirt?  Perhaps a skort?  You be the judge.

And look at those legs.  Those long, strong...(drools)...huh?  Was I saying something?

Legs so strong, even bears must succumb.

Anyway, moving on.  No kickboxing outfit is complete without gladiator sandals.  Yes, they are fine.

Kicking ass in style with a good pair of sandals.

But if you want a more professional look, just take them off.  She can still can in plenty of faces without them.

Ask poor Xiaoyu if this kick hurts any less just because Josie's barefoot.

And that's Josie Rizal.  If you need a cute girl who can punch out bears, she's the one you want.  Check her out in Tekken 7.

Grand Kingdom Review (PS4)

Grand Kingdom is a game that players will love and hate at the same time.  You love the throwback graphics.  You'll hate how small everything looks.  You love the gameplay mechanics.  You'll hate the BS that comes with the mechanics.  You'll love the game's length.  You'll hate the hours of grinding.  That's the way Grand Kingdom is.  For everything it gives you to enjoy, it turns around and kicks you in the balls with something else.

The premise is that you play as a some guy with no face, voice, or body and lead band of mercenaries through numerous battle, all while being lead around by a pair of badasses who don't do any fighting.  It's worth noting that without a body, your character doesn't fight, either.  Instead, you put together said band of mercenaries and have them do the fighting.  This is where the fun begins.

Move your "chess piece" around a board full of enemies, obstacles, and even helpers.

Upon meeting an enemy "chess piece", their leader gets a fairly cool intro.

Combat is fought on three planes.

After the initial tutorial disguised as a battle, you will have the ability to hire your own band of mercenaries from whatever jobless bums the game decides to give you, each with his or her own strengths, weakness, and abilities.  Maybe you'll get lucky a the game will give a beastly unit early on.  Yep.  You are given a totally random set of characters to choose from after every mission and there's a chance you'll get a few godly characters if you know what to look for.  You can hire of to fifty of these guys, so don't be afraid to take a chance, just to see what someone can do.  If you decide a unit is garbage, you can simply fire them later and replace them with someone better.

Continuing with the units you can hire, there are fifteen different job classes and some are definitely better than others.  All have their uses, though.  For example, the Paladin is a pure tank, having the crappiest movement in the history of videogames, but he can take a hellacious beating without flinching.  The Dark Knight can deliver quite a beating, but falls apart like wet toilet tissue when he's is hit, despite wearing full armor.  The Dragon Mage will pretty much rape whatever you pair her off against.  You'll get a chance to edit the appearance, voice, and stats of anyone you hire.  The enemies will have access to these same classes, as well as monsters, so they can deliver the same beating you can.

The coveted dragon mage.  Careful, though as she takes up two unit spots.

Hit "square" to learn about your character's job class.

As mentioned before, you can hire fifty characters.  You can put together six teams with up to four members each, meaning some characters will undoubtedly get left out of the action.  The key to winning is to build balanced parties, but you can structure these parties anyway you want.  You want a party full of slow-moving Paladins who look the same?  You can do that.  You want a party with nothing but women?  You can do that, too?  Perhaps you'd like a party with nothing but long ranged fighters.  Go for it.  But, just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

What do I mean?  Some characters have bad synergy.  Characters may not move the way you hoped, blocking off the attacks of other characters.  This means some characters won't be able to attack at all because of the turn order.  If by chance you do get a strong shield of a frontline to protect your backline, you'd better beware of using big, sweeping attack.  This is because your characters can hit each other, breaking the guard of any allies they hit and potentially turning them away from the opponent.  So your characters might die because they get raped twice, first by their own allies, then by the enemy.  It's BS.  Make sure your sure you check the characters' speed (which determines turn order) to prevent screw ups.

Ranged attackers can be frustrating at times.  If you use the wrong attack, you'll mow down your meatshields with a lightning bolt or an arrow to the back of the head.  Not only that, some of these attacks have a charge time, meaning your enemy may be able to move out of the way depending on how the turn order plays out.  The ranged attacks that can go past your allies require good positioning and successful successive button presses to pull off.  If you're to slow or fast with your button presses, you won't get the fullest out of these attacks.  If you position your character wrong, you risk hitting an ally.  It's as big of a headache as possible.

While moving around the board, you'll have to watch the turn count (if the mission has a turn limit), TP (which enables you to use techniques on the board, and morale (which affects your party's performance).  There are also invisible enemies, bounty heads (the gold "chess pieces"), traps and weapons (which damage you if a battle starts in their attack radius, among other things that want to mess up your day.

Not everything is bad, though.  You might randomly encounter a "friendly" enemy who will reward you for helping them or beating them.  You could also encounter some shady-looking guy who will sell you an item.  This guy is not to be confused with merchants, who will sell you a bunch of stuff if you have the money.  There are also some medic girls who may heal you for free or be a bitch, depending on which one shows up.  On top of that, make sure you gather resources so you can visit towns to make weapons and power up characters.

Time for the other stuff.  The graphics remind me of a little of Odin Sphere.  In other words, they're darned good 2-D graphics.  The music is a mixed bag.  The battle themes seem too upbeat, but they're neat songs as a whole.  If you have an internet connection, you have access to other stuff.  Not much wrong here.

This whole scene is just cheesy enough to make you feel good.

Grand Kingdom is a one of those games that's hard to judge.  As mentioned earlier, it does as much wrong as it does right.  It can be challenging to put together a balanced winning team with good synergy, but when you do, you'll have fun.  The music won't get on nerves, but being able to hit your allies will.  You'll have to grind to beat some of the more powerful enemies, so bring plenty patience.  Check it out.

Summon Night 6 Lost Borders Review (PS4)

It's raining men...and women...and chocolate chip cookies.  Summon Night 6: Lost Borders is an ambitious game to be sure.  But is it good?  Let's find out.

Summon Night 6: Lost Borders is a strategy roleplaying game in what seems to be a long-running series of games.  Being an SRPG, it plays similar to games like Final Fantasy Tactics, Fire Emblem, and others.  So, it already has the good fortune of being in my favorite videogame genre.

As for the game's own gameplay, it's not bad.  You trot your characters off into battle and beat on cute little monsters.  The game throws in a badass on occasion to keep you on your toes.  The game has a lot of characters, so in terms of numbers, you'll be satisfied.

The battles can be big, but they're quick.

On the characters, the subtitle "Lost Borders" says it all.  This is a crossover game, featuring characters from previous entries in the series.  You have badasses, bratty kids, a few cute girls, and an idiot or two sprinkled in there.  They all can be upgraded into specialized beast to beat on all the cute little monsters you see.

Badasses and idiots, present and accounted for.

Three problems with the characters, though.  First, most of them come off as childish, immature, or just plain idiotic.  Even the adults seem like kids.  Second, if you (like me) have not played a previous entry in the series, you won't know who the heck these characters are or the worlds and events they are referring to.  Not to worry though, because they explain everything, which this leads to the third problem.  These characters are talkative.  Really talkative.  Too talkative.  There were times I wanted to say, "Shut up so I can kill something!"  They should have called the game Summon Night 6: Too Much Talking.

Even the game admits it talks too much.  Amu's face says it all.

I guess I can still forgive the excessive dialogue because the game's story is a mind-twister.  There's time travel here, alternate dimensions there, a dash of mind control, and confused characters everywhere.  As a crossover game, everyone has to figure out how they got to Fillujah (not Fallujah) and how they can get back to where they belong.  Some characters are different versions of people that other characters know.  The natives of Fillujah, on the other hand, have to figure out how they came to be and what Fillujah is, adding a pinch of mystery.  If (unlike me) you don't care about story, though, you can just skip the cutscenes.

Even a native like Amu doesn't know about much about Fillujah.

On to the other stuff.  The graphic are kind of cute and cartoony.  The monsters don't look intimidating.  Oddly, it's the human characters that will give you pause, as most of them were apparently badasses in previous games in the series.  There music is hit or miss and there is a lot of it.  The voiced cutscenes (as opposed to the text-only cutscenes) make the some of the dialogue tolerable.  There's an in-game encyclopedia call Eucross HQ that can tell you more about the characters (as if they won't) among There's a decent amount of stuff here.

Just a sample of the cute little monsters to be killed.

Summon Night 6: Lost Borders like having a friend who talks too much.  The dialogue can be funny, especially when characters like Amu and Bulrell come into the picture and start acting like assholes.  There's just simply too much of it.  However, when the fighting starts, you'll have fun.  If you have the patience to get through all the talking, you'll find a competent SRPG in this game.  Check it out.