BYOND Anime

Reordering Poll

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 16:28:23 GMT

The following is a poll for members of the BYOND Anime guild. This poll will determine the new rankings of our senior 7 games.

In your comments, feel free to nominate any game that is not on this list, if a valid game receives enough nominations it will then be reviewed by a moderator and possibly added to the front.

Only members of the BYOND Anime guild can vote in this poll.

Happy polling.

_{Sidenote: The results of this poll as of October 9th will determine the new order.}

Pokemon RP Reborn Review

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 19:02:32 GMT

Gameplay: 4

Just to begin, this game has no sense of RP at all, so why it is called Pokemon RP Reborn..I'm not sure. Well I know its has Reborn in its title because it is based of Pokemon RP, the original. And it has Pokemon because it is a Pokemon game.. Anyways..

Now when you first start, you can choose to be a trainer or Pokemon, so I'm going to highlight both.

1:Trainers. While you would think being a trainer would give you more power over Pokemon, but its not quite what one would think. You start off in the one and only town, but are not given a Pokemon to start with yet. You are told to go catch one in the wild. This is harder than it seems, as all the Pokemon are actual players. To makes things even harder, you are unable to catch Pokemon in the most populated areas of the game. (The Training Dummies and the Pokemon Sanctuary). And then, when you do catch a Pokemon, there is a very low chance they will decide to stay with you.

Since you almost never have any Pokemon, unless you befriend them, then the point of the game as a trainer loses purpose, as there are no gyms or quests you can follow as a trainer.

It is suggested that NPC Pokemon are added for Trainer use, as well as Pokemon Training.

2.Pokemon
Pokemon definately are the preferred choice among the players of the game. You are given options to choose among a list of pokemon you want to be, which includes some rares. You then start in the Pokemon Sanctuary, a Pokemon only area. From there, it seems the point of the game is to level as much as possible. To level, you either can beat other Pokemon (and get in trouble for mass playerkilling), or use the Training Dummies.

They get crowded easily. Through the wide range of Pokemon in the game however, there is a large range of attacks which are either physical(meaning you must be beside the target), or a projectile like attack(Fire Blast, Water Gun). The attacks are a bit disappointing.

Altogether, the gameplay had potential to be amazing, but the game remains somewhat "unfinished". I played about 2 years ago, and 3/4 the four areas that were suppose to be completed remain inaccessible. Yes the game has become popular, but I don't think thats a reason to stop production.

Some nice functions that have been added over time though include the targeting system, which allows for easy targeting for attacking. Another would be the Battle System, which initiates when two trainers go one on one, or when a trainer comes upon a pokemon in the grass. It is very unique compared to other BYOND games.

Presentation: 4
The game uses Gold/Silver Graphics for the most part, but Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Pokemon Graphics. Proportionality, they don't work well together, and the Gold/Silver graphics could have been update long ago to Generation III or IV graphics. The attacks are disappointing, much like other Pokemon games on BYOND, and do not have any graphics designated for them, just saying "[Attacker] has used [attack] on [Target] for [randnum] damage."

As for sound, there is none at all.

However, mapping is well done, there are no map glitches as far as I know of.

Originality: 3
Its a pokemon game, which isn't really original...

It is also based off of another BYOND game that had lost it's source. However, they did begin from scratch.

As already noted, the Battle System is original.

Overall: 4
It is a good game on BYOND, and well liked. However, like I have said, it is far from Perfect and needs a lot of work. Some Suggestions:

Add:
-Pokemon NPCS
-more Pokemon
-More objectives for trainers
-an Easier way of getting money

Naruto Final Fight Review

Fri, 01 May 2009 00:18:33 GMT

There are currently two (co)owners, Zack101(Kaio), and DemonicK(Argon). Kaio is the nice one, though of course like everyone, he can get angry. Argon is the..well, demonic one, though not a bad guy. They both share the code and make updates as often as possible. Enough about the owners, on to the game itself.

Gameplay is pretty simple, using macros to do a few things. A-Left handed attack S-Right handed attack F-Kick Z-Generate chakra X-Guard C-Counter. Jutsu are found in the jutsu tab, and if you would want to macro them, you'd put ".click" and then the jutsu. If you simply pay attention to the guide in the beginning, then you should have no problem knowing how to play. The game is centered around skill for those of you looking for it. 9/10

The title screen is just a picture of Konoha with the Hokage mountain, and NFF in the middle. The next screen you pick from four different villages-Leaf, Rock, Rain, and Sound(I'll get into why only these villages later.) by clicking their symbol, and then pick a clan, some you know, and some original. The last creation screen you pick the color of your base icon, the color of your eyes, your hair, and the color of your hair. When your character is created, you end up at your academy where you can talk to different NPCs for help. You may notice NPCs walking around. They may or may not say hi or random things to you depending if you're from that village, which if you aren't they will attack you. The icons are simply great in my opinion. They apparently closely resemble a Naruto GBA game, but also apparently, they are not ripped. Oh, I almost forgot, the map is gargantuan. 8/10 for presentation.

(Me in Sound doing a spinning kick on someone. It's animated but yea..this is a picture. You spin with your leg out and their body spins.)

The originality of this game is shocking. Eras are implemented into the game in which some villages were destroyed due to wars or simply due to lack of population(the storyline is now around 300 years after the current Naruto storyline.). With that in mind, I'll let you guess where the Uchihas have moved to village wise. While you are creating your character, you are asked questions which determine your stats then and there, and they cannot be raised any further(with the exception of stamina and chakra in which they increase naturally at certain ages.). Taijutsu(Physique) is not just limited to boring punches and kicks in this game! You can learn different styles, though I believe you can only learn the ones that are located in your village with the same being true about certain jutsu. Yes, there are genjutsu(Control) in this game that actually do something. There is one called Kiga which makes someone hungry(if you are at 100% hunger or thirst, you constantly lose stamina, and eventually vitality.), and another, burriza(sp?) which makes the person you used it on feel as though they are in a blizzard and thus their screen(and their screen only) is covered with a blizzard and they are slowed down. Ninjutsu(Capacity) is plentiful in this game, but don't worry about it being a ninjutsu rule all game. If you lack physique yet your opponent specializes in it, I don't think you want to be too close. Training, there is none. You build experience in order to learn jutsu(some have higher experience and give you that experience in cooldown in seconds), but there is no way, as I have previously stated, to gain stats. 9/10

Overall the game gets a 9 from me. The community isn't horrible...but they do have their own agenda and won't be quick to help you. The staff won't ban you for talking back to them, but if you do break a rule they ban for, expect to come back in a day or two. If there is lag, you can probably blame it on someone spamming a jutsu or the smoke that comes from fire jutsu. Usually a reboot can fix it.

http://www.byond.com/games/DarkMoonProductions/ NarutoFinalFight

R.A.W.: Gintama

Sun, 26 Apr 2009 00:10:49 GMT

Random Anime of the Week: Gintama
_{The Edo Period was the age of the samurai...and then the aliens landed.}

Gintama is a comedy/action anime that takes place in Japan's Edo Period, 20 years after aliens landed and waged war with the samurai. With their superior technology, the samurai quickly lost and relinquished their weapons, thus beginning the Sword Prohibition Act.

The main character is Gintoki, a man who runs a shop called the Yorozuya (literally means do-everything-shop). Gintoki is an ex-samurai who fought the repel the aliens in the previous war, but nowadays he spends his time lazying around with an apathetic attitude.

The anime features several anime/tv-show references. While most of the episodes are comedy, they really don't have much of a point after the first 10-ish, and can be easily skipped over to get to the action(48,58, theres more but I haven't watched it all the way through) if that's more what you're into.

Episode count: Currently 150+

Links:

http://www.narutowire.com/120/Gintama -anime
http://www.onemanga.com/Gintama/ -manga

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure

Sat, 14 Mar 2009 14:20:06 GMT

- Group shot of all the main protagonists from each part.

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is an ongoing Japanese comic-book series written and illustrated by Hirohiko Araki since 1987. It's split up into 7 seperate parts, that each focus on a different member of the Joestar bloodline with all of their names being able to be read as JoJo.

The first 10 volumes of Part III: Stardust Crusaders (Volumes 12-22 for the Japanese version) is currently released in English by Viz, with them re-continuing releases starting this year (it was widely believed they dropped the series).

-Dio Brando and his stand (Wryyyyy is the sounds Vampires make in JJBA apparently)

JoJo's Bizarre Adventure is a large spanning comic book series split into seven parts. Each part is it's own story that can be read independently from each other, and stars a different member of the Joestar Bloodline. I've actually so far only really read the first three parts, so I can't comment on parts IV-VII as of this writing, though from what I understand they're all worth reading if you enjoyed the first three parts.

The series starts off with the struggles between Jonathon Joestar and Dio Brando in Victorian England, which ultimately results in Dio Brando becoming a vampire. Part II stars Jonathon's grandson Joeseph Joestar, and the families continuing battles against immortal vampires during the late 1930s. Part III, the most famous part of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure involves the return of Dio Brando, and the mysterious development of Stand Powers in the Joestar Family.

The stands are probably the most unique thing about JJBA. It's hard to explain them but they're like seperate bodies that come out of people that have certain powers (and they come in all different shapes and forms).

- Gyro, one of the protagonists of Part 7: Steel Ball Run

The story isn't really anything amazing, but the comic is certainly very enjoyable, and the battles are usually fun to read and really nuts. Like some of the stuff is just ridiculous ranging from dropping steamrollers on people to battling a Gorilla on a battleship, where the battleship is part of the Gorilla. The Art is hit or miss with people, and it's pretty flamboyant, though I personally think it adds to the charm of JJBA. I really recommend this series.

-Clips of the Dio vs. Jotaro battle

There is currently no anime adaption of the series (which is strange considering how popular it is in Japan, and how long it is), but there is a 12 episode OVA series of Part III, which is pretty well done, and it has been dubbed into English for those that are wondering.

-5 minute trailer of the JJBA movie they released a few years ago based on part 1. I don't know if this will ever come stateside, and no one has bothered to fansub it. *sigh*

-Links and other info
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JoJo%27s_Bizarre_Adventure
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/ manga.php?id=1900 <- OVA
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/ manga.php?id=1900 <- Comic
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/ manga.php?id=5564 <- Steel Ball Run (Part 7 of JJBA)

For those of you that do not wish to wait years and years for Viz to get around to releasing the rest of the volumes in English (if they don't drop it), there are currently fan-translated versions floating around of every single chapter (aside from chapters of Part 7 which haven't been done yet). Generally all of Part 1 and 2 have good versions, as well as Part 6 and Part 7. Part IV and V are horribly done, and no one has bothered to re-do them yet.

I might also do a more in-depth post on some of the seperate parts since this post is just a broad overview. Hope those that give this comic a shot enjoy it.

Vinland Saga (One of those R.A.W. things)

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 19:33:34 GMT

**The series is currently not licensed and is unavailable anywhere outside of Japan. Please check the bottom of the article for what this means.

Vinland Saga is a relatively new (2005) historical-fiction comic book written and drawn by Makoto Yukimura, the guy who made Planetes. I wouldn't exactly say it's particularly historical, especially with some of the combat, but it's entertaining and that's what counts, right? The comic opens up with a siege of a Frankish fortress, and a band of vikings led by a man named Askeladd takes the opportunity to help the attacking forces in return for half the bounty. Being that they are vikings they end up sacking the entire fortress in spectacular fashion and getting away with all of the plunder.

The plot revolves around a young viking lad named Thorfinn who is tagging along with Askeladd in hopes of avenging his father, who was killed by Askeladd in battle. The duo eventually get themselves involve with the Danish invasion of England, and run into Thorkell, a fellow viking who switched to the English side because it was too boring to fight them. Thorkell is a crazy giant Viking guy who likes to throw giant, sharpened at the tip logs at enemy ships to sink them, and he he has on one occasion uppercut a horse. I'll leave it at that since I do not want to give much of the story away.

Overall it's an entertaining comic book series with a great cast of characters, crazy battles, all with an interesting story to boot. I highly recommend it.

Links-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinland_Saga_(manga)
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/ manga.php?id=6121
http://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?id=1568

** continued: It is because of this that the only really feasible way (unless you can read Japanese and are willing to import it) to read the comic is through fan-translated releases of the comic known as scanlations. I'll refrain from linking to the online fan-translated version for now since I don't know if BYOND staff would be okay with it but I'll be sure to ask them about this in the future.

R.A.W 6

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 12:33:54 GMT

Hey everyone, itâ€™s that time of the week again.

This weekâ€™s random anime of the week for 30/01/09 (which some of you will probably know of) is:

Yu Yu Hakusho: Ghost Files

A lot of you have probably heard of this great anime series. I usually hate anime fight scenes due to some of them being very lengthy, but when watching fight scenes in Yu Hakusho (in almost every one of the episodes) I was truly impressed. It has quite a lot of sagas to keep you occupied with, all of them action packed with fights!

Yu Yu Hakusho is a martial art/fantasy anime developed by Yoshihiro Togashi. The story is based around a 14-year old boy called Yusuke Urameshi who dies saving a boy from a speeding car. He then arrives in the â€œafterlifeâ€ but the people in the afterlife claim that â€œthey are not ready for his arrivalâ€. He is then sent back to the Human world to prove he is worthy of being revived. Eventually he is revived and assigned as a Spirit Detective, investigating demon cases in the Human world.

I would completely recommend watching this anime. I also believe there are a few Yu Yu Hakusho games out there on BYOND right now! This anime would make a great game if developers gave it a chance. Discuss this anime series on the R.A.W 6 Discussion thread!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yu_Yu_Hakusho

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/ anime.php?id=311

http://www.yuyuhakusho.com/ (Official website!)

R.A.W. 5 (After a huge hiatus)

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 17:46:44 GMT

Yes, it's back! Random Anime of the week. Something that SuperSaiyanGokuX used to do on a weekly basis. If you don't know what it is, it will be advertising new an exciting anime's that you might or might not have heard about. I'll be posting a new R.A.W every friday. Maggeh will also be providing you with some anime articles aswell as myself, so look forward to that :).

Anyway, this weeks random anime is:

Denno Coil

Denno Coil is a futuristic anime set in 2026 and you might of guessed; new technology has been developed, a popular one being the new internet-connected augmented reality eyeglasses.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennō_Coil

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/ anime.php?id=6278

I have only watched about 7 episodes of Denno Coil and will definitely watch the full 26 episodes. The anime is definetly worth checking out, to discuss this anime, read the forum thread!

Review for Shinobi by Acryptid

Fri, 23 Jan 2009 21:53:22 GMT

Today I am here to review a game that used to be formerly known as NWOTS(Naruto Way Of the Shinobi). This game was known to be Axerob and Busters game, but mainly Axerob since it was his old hub. I really don't want to get into how "Acryptid" owns this game, but I'll tell you in a nutshell. Azerob, Acrpytid, Buster and a few other kids, got into a hissy fit and eventually axerob claims "He got back stabbed" Now Acrpytid owns the game.

Now I don't really know what to say, but many ~~naruto games~~ rips in byond anime are based of this game. But the staff eventually ended up re- pixeling most of the icons which differs from all the other rips. This game is the 1st and original wots, but now lets get to the review.

Game-play:
Heh, well unfortunately for Shinobi, I like to unravel tons of truth. Well basically this game is kill, kill and more kill, you wont have fun fighting others in this game at all. Most of the people on this game usually 1 hit k.o. you, which will usually get a average 12 year old frustrated.

I don't know about you, but to me its pretty disturbing , I tried to say hi and ask for a few tips but before I got the words out you end up with a big fat 1 hit k.o. You haven't seen the kids that can hit up to 2e + 00 right?

But even though this game has its moments, You will run across a friendly player once in a while an be willing to help you along the way.

Do not AFK Train, EZ, or unattentively train your character. You will be banned for a week and your character will be deleted. Wait, whats this?

Character ban and deletion of character? I personally think they do this on purpose, they know its going to happen to a player one time, and a GM will magically appear and ban you. If you really don't want players to AFK train or Ez or all that crap, make a better user friendly training system. You can't blame players on the lack of code and thought added into the training system.

Presentation:
I wont lie on this, I'm pretty jealous , they have some nice icons in this game. I've been playing for a while now and all they icons look nice, but even some of the simplest icons have too much detail added to them, is that really necessary? As I said most of the icons had been re - pixeled and I think it is way better than the old ones. It be even way better if the added some sounds jutsu sounds preferably, or home made sounds(Head to audiophiles my friend). GFX isn't too bad so nothing to comment on that.

Originality:
When it comes to originality to me it means everything. I wouldn't be reviewing this game if it was a rip, and if it was a totally make a joke of it, not a review. Although I gave it a 5 because its a fan game. It has some concepts from other games, and it wont be hard to find.

Overall: I give this game a 6. It has its up and downs at times but I think the game is being managed by a much better staff. It is being re-programmed so get ready to see something else in the long run. So I will end this by saying good luck to Acrpytid and his team in the process of re-creation.

Rasengan3oo4~

Significant Changes for the Anime Guild

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:06:47 GMT

Two pretty significant changes have been made to the guild to try and make the game submission and review submission process a little more efficient and quite frankly make it possible to actually enforce quality standards.

Ill explain, basically when the guild shrunk from having 1000 games to less than 200 we found ourselves with a major problem. Anybody could submit a game to the guild and guess what, every single game that was booted from the guild for good reason instantly was resubmitted. Every time in fact a game was rejected for not addressing the things that had them removed they would simply resubmit the game over and over. I found that the system of any person being able to submit a game to the guild quite frankly a bad idea. So here's how the new system is going to work, and I'll make sure it does.

There is a new area of the Anime guild forum, its meant for 2 reasons.
1) Creating Submission/Resubmission requests that both game judges and myself can view.
2) Creating Game Removal requests. Hey we do after all have much higher standards, so if you find a game to be in violation of a rule then hell, give us a detailed explanation as to why! (you'll have to break the template a bit for this one.)

Game submission will automatically have a text template when you go to create a thread. First this is meant for the game owner to make, not some fan of the game who doesn't really know what they are talking about. However filling out the form is pretty easy, however excessive spelling errors or a failure to mention stolen content or a mention of stolen content that obviously goes against our guidelines will make it super easy for us to reject the game submission. Another plus to this system is that a rejected game submission stays on record, so we don't have to evaluate it again unless you explicitly explain how you addressed our complaints. In excess of this, it allows the game judges to explain why a game doesn't fit the requirements of the guild in a detailed response (and make it respectful!), and I'll weigh in to give a final verdict.

Also I have decided that ever since I gave everybody the ability to give reviews, it has done nothing but caused trouble and heartache for me. Guys reviews arent supposed to be one sentence long for gods sake. Due to this, I have restricted review submission to the ranks above average player. So those who I have given "Reviewer", "Game Judge" or even one of the established "Veteran Player" or "Game Designer" ranks are the only ones who can even submit reviews.

It basically turned out that an anonymous no effort submission process for games doesn't work with this guild and the average member of the guild doesn't put enough time into reading the guidelines that have been posted about what a review constitutes, namely: Screenshots and an unbiased review of the merits and flaws of a game without major spelling or grammar problems.

So this is my idea. I think this will be way easier for everybody involved and will give a higher level of transparency to the guild. Basically as it is now the major function of admitting and rejecting games is now completely transparent, and I think we all can appreciate that.