Easter Break

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Hello there everyone! It’s yer favorite Ultimate Despair here and I have arrived to tell you all about my week long break.

So for my Easter break, I was introduced to this mobile game that came out last September called Dragalia Lost and I have been hooked on it for a week now! I am not the biggest fan of mobile games as I feel that most of the ones that I have come across are pay to play or pay to win and that is a huge turn off for me from a game. Dragalia however does not require you to pay to catch up with everyone else or do well in the game and this is what intrigued me.

See the source image It’s actually a ton of fun to play and I was really interested in one of the characters I summoned whose name is Estelle (she’s a healer and I typically love the support role in games). I spent a lot of my break playing Dragalia Lost and I arrived at a good time since there is a collaboration event going on between Dragalia Lost and Fire Emblem Heroes so if you want tp try it, now would be a very good opportunity to do so.

I also went to the theaters with my mother and aunt to watch Hellboy which was my first movie with actual gore. I’m not a big fan of extremely violent movies but the main reason I liked the movie was because of Hellboy himself as he was very down to Earth and expressed how he felt as humans viewed him as a monster instead of seeing him for the precious cinnamon bun he really is.

Not only did I see Hellboy, but I saw Avengers Endgame as well on Friday but I’m gonna wait a long while before I think about reviewing it because #DontSpoilTheEndgame.

The new event for Overwatch recently came out so I’ve been playing competitive, the new Storm Rising event, and the other 2 events from last year. Storm Rising really isn’t anything special to me and I consider it a major flop compared to the last 2 events, but the interactions between Genji and Mercy are nice (I ship them :]).

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So that is all from me on my Easter break. It’s been pretty enjoyable and I’m glad I found a mobile game I actually like and that I was able to see Endgame without being spoiled. See ya next time homies, Ultimate Despair out!

St. Patrick’s Cathedral

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Hey there everyone! It’s your favorite Ultimate Despair Allan here and I am here to share with you my experience at the Saint Patrick’s Cathedral last Thursday.

It started out with a Latino speaker trying to wake the church full of senior students up and although he was a bit funny, he didn’t really do much to my feeling since I’m always meditating when I enter a Church so it was hard to break me out of it.

Archbishop Cardinal Timothy Dolan continuously spoke as well throughout the mass and he was very encouraging to the students. My experience altogether was the Mass was pretty okay and it was just like every other mass I’ve been to despite the different people there.

Afterwards is where the real fun began. I went out with my friends to Five Guys cause we were starving and I got a hot dog which I was very surprised is about 500 calories if my memory is correct.

We then went to the Nintendo store in Rockefeller plaza and I’ve been there quite often in this past year but it never gets old. They changed the top floor so that there are games to play such as the new Yoshi and Mario Party from last year. I was finally able to find a Snivy plushie as well and I will show a picture of Ivy the Snivy in the next post. She completes my Unova starter trio which is actually the first region I started playing Pokemon in. I’m a Pokemon White boy till the end because I lovvveeeeee Unova.

Anyways, we went to a Book Off store and looked at Manga, figurines, old games, and it was generally just a good time.

That’s all I have for my experience on Thursday and I’ll see y’all soon. Ultimate Despair out!

Big Apple Comic Con

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Hello there everyone! It’s yer favorite Ultimate Despair Allan coming right back at ya with a new blog. Today I’m going to talk about my first time at comic con last Sunday

So I went to the Big Apple Comic Con in New York and despite its small size compared to other conventions, every booth fit well and it wasn’t cramped in the slightest. When I first went up the stairs I met this woman with an incredible cosplay of 2B from NieR: Automata and I just had to get a picture (it has my face so not showing it :p) and that started it off pretty well.

message_1552445993669 My favorite section of the whole convention was the art section and by God was it amazing. I ran into this booth that specialized in pixel art and it was like super cool! I bought a Baby pixel from Five Nights at Freddy’s and now she sits on my computer stand reminding me to be careful since most characters I like either have pigtails or are menacing such as Baby herself. The booth even had some meme pixel art such as the caveman SpongeBob and Ugandan Knuckles.

: Art by @grandpabats_ on Instagram. He has really amazing art so go check him out.

My favorite booth was this one that actually popped out to me because of the sheer quality of the art. The artist’s (grandpabats_ on Instagram) booth was composed of everything I loved. It had Little Miss Muffet from Undertale who is my favorite character because of her amazing music, fun character, and cute spider helpers, Undyne the Undying in her determination form, Lapis Lazuli from Steven Universe, Taiga and Ryuji from Toradora, and the list goes on and on. Basically this guy had everything I knew in his booth and I kept coming back to buy more art because they were amazing. I went with my aunt and even though she may not know these characters, she still loved it too and saw what I saw in that grandpabats had the best booth in the building for me.

message_1552446071150-1 — Art by @grandpabats_ on Instagram

There was also this booth that had pendants, rings, and keychains based on anime and video games. I bought a Hylian shield pendant from the Legend of Zelda although the chain was a bit small so I need to look for one. It’s decorative on my computer stand as I put it in the model of a chest that’s being guarded by this ferocious dragon. So the shield is the treasure and the dragon just likes the shininess. The other booths had tons of good art too but none of them caught my eye as much as grandpabats and the pixel booth did. It was still my favorite section of the whole convention and I can’t wait to go to another one possibly in June.

That is all I have for you lovely folks today. Thanks for taking the time to check up on me over here and I’ll see y’all next time on Total Despair Island! Ultimate Despair Out!

20190310_132521_burst01 — Art by @grandpabats_ on Instagram. My favorite piece of Lapis Lazuli

My Friday Off

Yelloooo there everyone! Long time no see. I’ve been busy these past couple months but I’m here to tell ya what I did last Friday since it was a day off for me.

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Sooooo I pretty much played Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for a good portion of the day since I’m trying out some new characters like Kirby and King Dedede although I am thinking of trying out Chrom after today. Kirby has a surprisingly fun play-style as he has really good air game, recovery, and has RAW power.

I also played some Overwatch since there is a new lunar new year event that’s out and I’ve got my hands on all the skins I wanted so this event was a success for me. I’m learning to play Soldier: 76 more since I want to be more of a dsp/support main. I managed to get through the placement matches for competitive Capture the Flag and ranked in the middle as a platinum. It took a while but it was quite fun and is the reason why I’m getting more into damaging than tanking.

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Finally, last Friday I actually started to re-watch Kirby: Right Back at Ya! Like everything Nintendo makes, this has aged very well and some episodes almost made me tear up. To anyone looking for a cartoon with great writing and funny characters that you can relate to, I highly suggest this. Even though Kirby is only able to say “Poyo” for the majority of the show, he still manages to express himself very well and it honestly works which was a total surprise to me. Also, King Dedede literally has the best voice I’ve heard from a cartoon character and it’s my head-canon for Dedede anytime I see him.

So yeah, that was my Friday off and it was quite enjoyable. Thanks for taking the time out of yer day for me and I’ll see you all later. Ultimate Despair out!

Danganronpa: Anime vs Video Game

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Hello to all you wonderful people and Monokuma lovers! Allan here and I’m here to talk about Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, the game and the anime. I will not include any spoilers (if there are, they are very small) in this post so you don’t have to worry about me talking about who’s dead or whatnot.

I am a huge fan of the Danganronpa series and I’ve played through all the games and watched the anime as well. That doesn’t exactly make me the master critic or whatever but I’m just here to share my opinions on the different between the first game and the anime adaptation of it.

First of all, I would like to address the different pros and cons of the game before I get to the anime. So we begin with Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc.

Danganronpa is a visual-novel adventure where high school students with special talent come to improve. This includes improving baseball skills, swimming, or fortune-telling among other things. The player follows Makoto Naegi, the Ultimate Luckster, as a crazy bear called Monokuma takes control of the school and forces the students in a game of kill or be killed with a Phoenix Wright vibe as there are class trials.

The game does very well in its character development, investigation and trial game play, and the buildup throughout each chapter with surprises and cliches.

Each character has a unique personality and the game allows you to interact with them and give them gifts to learn more about them personally. Every student is recognizable and relatable in some way

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The investigation and trial game play work very well together as you spend the majority of the chapter in the trial which requires critical thinking and a clear head to understand what is going on. The investigation helps to put the pieces of the story together and brings you into the core part of the game by transitioning from free time to the progressing part.

The buildup is also done wonderfully as each chapter starts off with a feel-good vibe like you’re student that’s actually in high school. There are some moments that stand out such as the brotherly bonding between the disciplinary student and the gang leader that cheer you up which is needed cause there is a LOT of heavy stuff in this game. The game quickly breaks that feel-good vibe when a murder has occurred unexpectedly and leaves you in suspense as one of Makoto’s classmates is a murderer and its up to you to figure it out.

The game also lacks in some parts as yes there may be a good deal of character development, but most of those characters perish before you are able to fully bond with them and you are only able to after the main story which sucks.

It’s also very slow paced and if you plan to replay it, its a chore to get through since the entire game is reading with just a bit of actual game play. They don’t call it a visual novel for nothing and after a certain point, you’ll just want to get on with the story already to find out who is behind everything as that is where most of the effort is put into.

That is basically the game’s pros and cons and now I will talk very briefly about the anime since (this is one of its cons), it is EXTREMELY short and cuts out almost half of all the content that was originally in the game.

The anime consists of 13 episodes with every 2 being one chapter with an extra being an addition to the final chapter. The character development is privileged to only a few students as the others are just in the background or barely get any screen time.

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Another lacking part of the anime is dumbing down of the information and the trials. While in the game some parts of the trial or investigation may stump you, the anime may as well skip the trial as it speeds by just to get to the execution. The first chapter went doubly as fast compared to the in-game chapter. The lack of content left me annoyed as this felt more like another anime than an anime adaptation if you catch my drift.

The voice acting is very well done in Japanese but in English, the characters are given generic personalities and they sound more like children than teenagers. The more fun parts are also cut out as the anime tries to get the trial which cuts out a good chunk of the chapters.

Despite these faults, the animation isn’t too bad and I enjoyed seeing my favorite characters brought to animation. Even though some did not make it, my favorite character got a very good amount of screen time as they should cause this character is integral to the story.

The ending is rather satisfying as well as it tries to introduce people who are new to the series to the next game which has not been animated, but is the best one in the series in my opinion.

So yeah, the game has more content and development but is slow and takes away most of those characters that are developing while the anime skips most of the development and build up but offers fans a pretty nice animation with some unique moments that the game failed to deliver correctly.

Personally, I would choose the anime when I need a refresher on the main story and the game when I feel like getting personal and actually wanting to be a part of the character’s lives. Both are pretty good and can be pretty bad but I love them all the same.

That’s my take on Danganronpa the game vs the anime. Let me know what you thought if you’ve seen either and with that I shall take my leave. Ultimate Despair out!

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Let’s Talk: Overwatch

Hey there! It’s your favorite son of Big Boss here bringing my opinions on Overwatch, which is a fantasy shooter that I absolutely love but have problems with as well.

Overwatch has been a big part of my recent involvement in more multiplayer games and this is because unlike other games I find a bit bland now like Call of Duty or The Division, Overwatch is always changing and can always be played a different way.

On the first week that I purchased Overwatch, which was August 2016, I devoted myself to the cool cyborg ninja dude Genji! I’m a huge fan of ninjas and their superhuman abilities in games such as Aragami so when I saw Genji I was ecstatic.

Over the past 2 years that I’ve been playing Overwatch, I’ve actually managed to bond with and become better friends with people from my school. This game really does bring people together because of its very wide selection of characters and play styles to choose from. You can go in swinging a hammer, shooting rockets from the spy, sniping with a bow and arrow, or even just sitting there and letting your own turret do all the work for you ;).

Although I praise this game for its wonderful game play and magnificent world-building, I have a lot that I REALLY don’t like either. Case in point, the competitive scene.

My buddies and I have gone through Overwatch for the past 2 years but most of them aren’t into competitive Overwatch so I tried it myself…emphasis on tried. When I go into competitive alone, I get people who leave the match when we’re winning, trolls who just want to bring the whole team down and ruin the game, and even stubborn players who refuse to switch characters simply because they all want to be the stars of the match.

Another problem is the balancing of the characters (Brigitte) and how Blizzard (creators of Overwatch) fails to address all the problems of their own game. McCree for example, is an old-fashioned Wild West like cowboy armed with a revolver and some flashbangs. He does a lot of damage but suffers heavily from his lack of mobility as all he has is a roll on a long cooldown and his ultimate slows him down even more making him an easy target.

Mercy is another character that Blizzard hasn’t shown very much love for. Mercy is a lot less viable than she was before in the game as they removed her ultimate to resurrect a number of people and made it into a 30 second cooldown ability (games typically last around 10 minutes so this really isn’t a lot). Her healing has been reduced to the point where she cannot heal more than the weakest character in the game can do damage, and her new ultimate has been downgraded to the point where the only values of it is that she can fly and extend her healing and damage beam to the whole team.

I play healers and I play tanks. The majority of these players religiously play offense like its their destiny. When I follow one of these offense players like say…another Genji, I get left behind and bashed on for “not doing my job” when there are 4 other people on the team who need my help. No matter what happens however, I still manage to keep calm and I currently am in Platinum which you could say is where the majority of players are and I’m proud of my rank.

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The whole Mercy downgrade over the year really does irk me as I love to play healer as well. One of my favorite healers is Moira, who is a biological scientist who can heal a large amount of health with a limit and can inflict damage for a good amount in which it heals her and refills her biotic energy. She can also throw orbs of healing and damage and her ultimate is a coalescent laser combining her healing and damage which does major healing and damage.

I’m very passionate about this game and I may be all over the place when talking about it, but it really is a great game. It brings friends together and allows for a multiplayer and team based experience that hasn’t been seen for years. Overwatch brings out the best and the worst of me as I’m a bit loud when playing but I’m more aware and am able to alert my team when danger is coming from a side they’re not looking at. Really…this game is great.

And with that, I take my leave and am glad to have shared with all of you the beauty and ugliness of Overwatch. It was great talking about this and I’ll see you all later! Ultimate Despair out!

Overwatch-Winter-Wonderland-Screenshots-21-1280x720 — My favorite hero, Torbjorn as our fellow hero Santa Claus

Status on College Preparations

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Hello there everyone! Your favorite Ultimate Despair is back with an update on his college stuff! I’ll be covering my opinions for staying instead of going away and what I have in the way of getting everything ready for college.

So to start off, I want to stay near home instead of going away to some far away college because I have a lot more options at home and if I did go, I’d basically be away from my family and all my amazing friends that I spend time with over here.

I would be lonely and miss home and my friends and it wouldn’t be the same so I decided to stay near home and it’s going rather well.

My college list is getting smaller everyday as I’m putting the finishing touches to my college essay in which I’m writing about passion and love for all life. I find that writing a formal essay about myself is difficult as I have difficulty complimenting myself or giving myself credit where credit is due. Nevertheless, I am pretty good in writing and thinking on the spot so it should be a cinch.

Thanks to the new age of technology (glad I was born this time period), finding colleges is much easier as websites like Naviance and The Common App make it easier to set up a resume and find colleges that have what I need.

I originally thought that game design would be a pretty hard major to find but surprisingly, there are a ton that I have to work with and am able to look into. Game design is my dream and I plan to make it a reality. I aspire to be a game designer that’s as successful as Hideo Kojima cause that man is my inspiration for good storytelling and game design.

So yeah, that’s the status on my college work and it’s coming along quite nicely. This was an…interesting subject for me to share but I see it as a good first step towards being able to branch myself out more with different topics. Later this week, you’ll be seeing another game review (depends how long the game is which has me pumped) so thanks for keeping up with me and I’ll see y’all later. Ultimate Despair out!

Mega Man 11 Review

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Hello there everyone! Your friendly Ultimate Despair has arrived with a review of the long-awaited Mega Man 11. There will be a few spoilers, such as a few images with power-ups, opinions on the robot masters, and stage scenery and mechanics you may be trying to avoid online so some are major and minor but other than that let’s get right into it.

I played this game on the Nintendo Switch and I’ve played the past 10 Mega Man games so let me tell you what they’re about. Mega Man is a game about a household robot turned into a super fighting robot to combat the robotic masters of the infamous Dr. Wily. Mega Man defeats these robots, copies their powers, saves the day like any other hero.

I absolutely love these games for their difficulty and demand to “git gud” by giving you insane jumps or even hordes of enemies. When I heard that the classic Mega Man was finally getting an 11th release after so many years, I was pretty ecstatic. Let’s kick off this review talking about the movement and the new gear mechanics.

The movement is incredible. They brought back sliding to dodge overhead attacks and quickly move out of the way. The jumping is handled very well and the whole game depended on Capcom getting this right. Seriously, there are jumps with huge gaps back to back that just keep on coming and the only choice you have is to pray you make that jump as you keep your momentum. I really don’t see any problems with the movement of this game aside from it being too precise where even a flick on the control stick inches you forward which could end you.

This new addition to the series has also added gear mechanics. There are two types: Speed Gear and Power Gear. These powers run on a limited time-span and if they’re overused, you’re gonna have to wait a while (I died a lot because of this). They’re actually pretty simple, speed gear slows down time meaning boss attacks, enemy movement, and stage hazard movement, while power gear boosts your mega buster to fire a huge red blast after your regular charge attack (shown in image above) and it also powers up the abilities you get from the robot masters. You can also use both gears at the same time to power yourself up, slow down time, and fire a fused gear attack, but this can only be activated at very low health and when it’s done, you can’t charge your attacks or use gears so it works as an ace in the hole and a glass cannon. Being overly dependent on this new mechanic could very well be your downfall.

43171354_1140981629397923_3763988817137106944_n — Tight spaces with a column of flame creeping behind Mega Man. Good time to have speed gear ready otherwise he’d be fried!

The scenery in this game is well inspired and has a really nice viewpoint from the 2-D perspective as it acts as a background and tells you the setting of the stage. Each level has a theme such as Block Man’s pyramid based level, Blast Man’s amusement park, and Impact Man’s construction site that goes deeper and deeper underground. Each level has a gimmick that stands out like Torch Man’s column of fire closing in on you acting like a chase scene. This inferno continues to trail behind you multiple times during the stage as the game gives you very tight jumps and enemies trying to stop you from escaping this flaming menace to the campsite. There is a lot of detail put into each stage and every time you replay a stage, you notice these details more and more which is a very nice touch by Capcom.

The robot masters, which act as bosses in these games, all have unique personalities and incredible voice acting that leaves you remembering them just by their voice. Some of them are a little out of this world like the child-like Bounce Man, or the hot-tempered Block Man. Some of them could have been better like Bounce Man or Impact Man and this is disappointing as they fall really short in the battles. Some robot masters also seem to be favored more in detail than others such as Block Man having almost 50 voice lines and a different transformation while the others have about 30-40 with minor changes to their forms with the exception of one other robot master. Basically, they were all pretty good personality wise but in a fight, about half of them don’t stack up to their mini-bosses.

43092136_1140981989397887_5677040428428296192_n — I know a big purple cat who would love to fish for this 😉

Mega Man 11, despite its boss battle problems, is a worthy successor to the franchise. There are even difficulty modes for newcomers that grant infinite lives and make some portions of stage easier. I enjoyed playing this because it really made me feel like an accomplished gamer to have beaten it. All in all I give this game a solid 8/10 for its amazing game play mechanics, stages, and platforming. I’ll likely be doing more of these reviews for different games as I really enjoyed playing a game to tell a story as well. I have high hopes for the future of this series with its new revival and I hope Capcom takes what they learned from here to make the next Mega Man game even better. Thanks for sticking around and I’ll catch ya on the flip side :). Ultimate Despair out!

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