ChouSeiShin Gransazer Episode 2: Move! Dolcruz - Summary/Review

Back again for the second episode. Last episode ended with Tenma awakening as a Gransazer and becoming a fire warrior named Sazer Tarious while chasing after his captures. Now, click "read more" and let's pick up where we left off.

Storm of Spears (PC - Steam) Review

I still stand by my initial Steam review of this game:

“There is no storm of spears in this game, nor does the character on the banner art and title screen appear in the game anywhere.”

Mechanically, it’s a run of the mill RPG Maker game. Much of the graphical content is appears to be reused from other games. The text boxes that appear during in-game dialog is inescapably recognizable as RPG Maker style text.

In combat, player sprites can be seen attacking the enemy, which is a small detail, but its something not every RPG Maker game does. Another positive is that battles are initiated by colliding with sprites on a map screen much more akin to Chrono Trigger's encounter style rather than Dragon Warriors abrupt random battle style.

For those of you who are wondering, there is no...

Green Phoenix - A More Perfect Union Review

Today's book recommendation is going to be quite different than usual. While most of the book's I review tend to be alternate history novels, which makes sense given my personal literary preferences (though I will try to expand my literary recommendations for future reviews), today's recommended story isn't a true novel in the sense of the word.

Today's recommended story is extensive and a long-form exploration of an alternate timeline, but presented on the AlternateHistory.com forum, comprised of dozens of individual blog posts. The author is a teenager, but their grasp of narrative flow and historical interconnectivity is surprisingly complex. A More Perfect Union is a truly fascinating thought experiment, borne out of a love of a famous Broadway musical, that has grown into one of AlternateHistory.com's most popular and extensive timelines of recent memory.

And the timeline isn't even finished yet. I have wanted to geek out about this timeline for a while now, and with the new year now wrapping up its first month, I've decided to expand my "book recommendations" to include this wonderful view of a better America.

***

Kaitou Sentai Lupinranger VS Keisatsu Sentai Patranger Number 44: The Truth Revealed - Summary/Review

The 44th episode, continues off the cliffhanger from last time. No time for silly jokes so let's click "read more" and jump right into it.

ChouSeiShin GranSazer Episode 1: Awaken! The Warrior of the Stars - Summary/Review

Wow! Tokusatsu that isn't by Toei? Nope. Back in 2003 the creators of Godzilla, Toho, attempted to get into the Super Hero Tokusatsu scene to compete with Toei's Super Sentai and Kamen Rider success. Thus, the Chouseishin franchise was born. This is the first incarnation, Gransazer. I have no idea what to expect so, let's click "read more" and find out what this series has in store.

Woodle Tree 2 Deluxe+(steam) - review

     What is up, my name is Octangle, a.k.a. The Orange Shard. I'm new, but I hope you enjoy the review.

  Woodle Tree 2 Deluxe+ is a 3D plat-former published on Jul 22, 2019. It is very reminiscent of Super Mario 64 and others in the genre. The game seems to be for younger audience, as it is E for everyone.

Green Phoenix - Building Better Backstories III

Last week I took a long look at Frozen 2 and throughout that review, I felt myself inherently comparing it to its predecessor. This is perfectly natural, as any sequel will be held to the standard set by the previous entries in any series (sometimes to its determent).

But while I was watching Frozen 2 in theaters, that unavoidable comparison brought an interesting thought to my mind. The story of the original Frozen is a fairly strong one, possessing only a single element that I feel is fairly weak and could be improved upon.

With that in mind, I was sitting in the Frozen 2 showing thinking about just how one minor change to the overall film could change the narrative direction of the film, and even improve its thematic and dramatic elements.

Which naturally left me realizing that that would make an excellent article for Building Better Backstories. So let's take another quick look at the Frozen franchise and change one story beat and see whether or not the "new" film is better or worse than the original?

THIS ARTICLE WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS TO THE ORIGINAL FROZEN.

***