Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Remembering 2015: Anime and Gaming Analysis



The year 2015 has been quite an impact for our daily lives ranging from the good news, better news, the best news, the bad news, the worst news, and everything we laid our eyes on. Now it's the ideal time for this blog to write down the analysis on what's what over the year 2015.

Anime and gaming, not two words you'd often hear in the same sentence but for the year 2015, these two interests ever nerds and geeks loved about made huge headlines.

Amazingly, the year 2015 is a big year in the world of idols in anime and gaming but the heated rivalry between THE IDOLM@STER and Love Live! School Idol Project made the biggest headlines in 2015. In THE IDOLM@STER side, the airing of the Cinderella Girls TV series, the first ever Side M concert, the second Million Live concert, the Cinderella Girls third concert, and the 10th anniversary concert held at Seibu Prince Dome last July became every producers' fantasy came true and it's not just the live performances that scored big gains to one of Bandai Namco's most successful titles because with the announcement of a new IDOLM@STER game for the PS4 as well as the addition of new Must Songs PSVita game and the new Cinderella Girls Starlight Stage app game, this franchise keeps on expanding to greater heights.

The Love Live series marks the fifth anniversary since the project began in 2010 and catapulted its way to become one of the most successful franchises in anime history and in honor of such occasion, the movie version of the hit TV series, called Love Live! The School Idol Movie was shown in theaters not just in Japan but globally as well, including the US and in the Philippines. Following the blockbuster hit of the Love Live movie, the unveiling of the second-generation Love Live, known as Love Live! Sunshine!! was introduced and Lovelivers have been greeted by the new generation of school idols in the form of Aqours.

Of course, fans of THE IDOLM@STER and Love Live don't usually get along together but at the 2015 AniMelo Concert, all that's about to change when a selection of 765PRO ALL STARS performed alongside μ's in a performance both of the sides will never forget.

Anyway, enough idol trash right now, because the year 2015 brought us some of the best anime shows as watched by most otakus everywhere. They have this majorette-laden Sound! Euphonium, a role-playing adventure show Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in the Dungeon? (our favorite goddess Hestia made famous on this show), the rebooted Fate: Stay Night Unlimited Blade Works TV series, The Asterisk War, Himouto! Umaru-chan (this anime really brought laziness to a whole new level), and of course, the one anime that blew every viewers' heads off, One Punch Man.

Anime adaptations of video games are nothing new here and with the arrival of animer versions of the popular browser game Kantai Collection and the popular role-playing game God Eater, they made pretty decent mark in the world of anime in the year 2015.

Inside the world of Pokemon, we've been introduced by the arrival of the 720th Pokemon; the mischief Pokemon Hoopa. Apart from its announcement, the new mythical Pokemon starred in the Summer 2015 Pokemon XY film Hoopa and the Clash of Ages, along with the Pikachu and the Pokemon Music Squad short film. Players of Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire got their hands of Hoopa as well as the Prison Bottle item which allows them to transform Hoopa in its powerful Unbound form. Aside from Hoopa's arrival, a new chapter of the Pokemon XY anime series lit up and now called Pokemon XY & Z. In XY & Z, viewers will brace themselves to the mysteries of the legendary Pokemon Zygarde and its many forms from the Zygarde Cell, Zygarde Core, 10% Form, 50% Form, and the Complete Form. Apart from the many forms of Zygarde viewers will look forward through next year, viewers also surprised of Ash's Greninja unlike anything they knew about this ninja Pokemon. The bond between Ash and Greninja resulted it to become Ash-Greninja according to a certain Kalos mythology regarding the bond between the trainer and the Pokemon. Anyway, there's more explosive moments to expect on the XY & Z next year, including the upcoming film featuring the recently announced mythical Pokemon Volcanion.

While we're in the middle of the world of Pokemon, the franchise has been flooded with three new free-to-play games such as Pokemon Shuffle, Pokemon Rumble World, and Pokemon Picross. Apart from these F2P Pokemon games available on the eShop, there was a new Pokemon Mystery Dungeon game called Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon, where players get to pick whose Pokemon will they want to be and set off on an adventure to help other Pokemon and save the world from impending chaos.

Inside the world of gaming, well thanks to the success of the PS4 and XBOX One, more and more games have find its way into these new age consoles. In the XBOX side, retrogamers got themselves for a treat with the Rare Replay collection and the remastered Gears of War collection but Halo fans managed to hunt the truth with the brand new Halo 5 Guardians video game. The game's epic storyline, co-op play, improved multiplayer and the rivalry between Master Chief and Jameson Locke are what made Halo fans swoon to this latest installment.

Bandai Namco's Tales franchise celebrated its 20th anniversary and in honor of such occasion, a brand new Tales game was released last January for the PS3 titled Tales of Zestiria. The 20th anniversary celebration also announced a next chapter in the Tales saga called Tales of Berseria and for this new installment, it introduces a female protagonist for the first time under the name of Velvet. It's set to release exclusively for the PlayStation consoles this 2016.

One of the biggest games that made the headlines in 2015 is the long awaited installment to the post-nuclear adventure franchise Fallout and with the all new Fallout 4, fans have been looking forward to play this latest installment after several years. This open-world action adventure game allows players to be who they want to be thanks to the SPECIAL system and apart from fighting enemies, players can build stuff and make negotiations. The possibilities are almost endless.

Konami has been quite making a headline for the year 2015 because with the cancellation of the new Silent Hill game that stars The Walking Dead's Norman Reedus on it as well as the change of staff management and the end of Kojima Productions as we knew it, looks like things aren't looking so well for the Japanese game company, especially when they've launched the long-awaited Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain for the Playstation and XBOX consoles. The Phantom Pain breaks the tradition from the past installments as it introduces open-world stealth for the players. From occupying guard posts, capture soldiers and wild animals, expanding your own bases and defend from opposing players, customizing weaponry, the possibilities are endless in The Phantom Pain.

Racing games scored big time in the year 2015 and one of the most successful racing games of 2015 are Dirt Rally, Assetto Corsa, Forza Motorsport 6, and most famously Project CARS, a game made by racers for racers.

The year 2015 brought us so many stuff fit for geeks and nerds alike. Be sure to check back onto this segment for the motoring analysis.

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