Kids on the Slope

Last year, Tenzuka Productions brought us a lovable slice of life anime that followed the story of Kaoru, an honours student who suffers from Social Anxiety. When he moves to Kyushu and starts attending Higashi High School, he meets the notorious "bad-boy" Sentaro and together they form a bond through their mutual interest in music.

When Sentaro helps Kaoru loosen up and be more comfortable around other people, relax and start to enjoy life, Kaoru soon realises he has developed feelings for Sentaro's childhood friend, Risuko. Sentaro introduces Kaoru to the world of jazz where they play in the basement of Ritsuko's father's record shop. Going from classical to playing jazz turns out to be quite a learning curve for Kaoru, but determined to rise to the challenge Sentaro sets before him, he soon feels right at home playing music his family would be horrified to know he performed.

With friendships growing, Kaoru pursues his love for Ritsuko while Sentaro takes an interest in Yurika, a senior from a prestigious family they meet on the beach one day. But regardless of what feelings they may have towards the girls, winning their hearts would be anything but easy, especially when Ritsuko implies that her interest in Sentaro goes beyond childhood friends, and Yurika ends up falling for Sentaro's best friend and fellow jazz player, Junichi.

The anime is set back in the era when jazz was at its peak and vinyl was still a popular format, and if that didn't place the setting firmly in your mind, then mention of the Sound of Music being newly released during an episode of the show and the song, My Favourite Things, being all the rage at the time. I found it quite interesting to hear the famous song performed by the characters of the show, and was also pleased to see the mentions and tributes given to famous artists like Art Blakey, Bill Evans, Chris Conner, and even some rock slipping in there with mention of The Beatles. The setting and depth to the show is quite amazing. And so is the background to the characters, especially the support character, Junichi, who by the end of the show becomes quite the central figure in one of the story arcs.

While the protagonist, Kaoru, still leaves much to be desired in the ways of character development -- by giving us glimpses into the expectations placed upon him by his family, and the social criticism given by his sister, which is never really integrated fully into the story -- we see much going on in Sentaro's past and how it effects Ritsuko. By several episodes into the story, we start to see that Sentaro's reputation as the local "bad-boy" is misplaced, and in reality he struggles to take care of his big family in his father's absence, taking on the role of caring for his siblings while his father works abroad.


While the characters certainly act realistically in the show -- none of the over exaggerated shyness and comedy you would typically find in a romantic anime -- I couldn't help but feel a bit cheated on the outcomes of the story arcs, leaving me wanting more, and knowing I wasn't going to get it. While the show had a lovable ending, I felt that it could have done with an extra 12 episodes and gone much further with Kaoru and Ritsuko's relationship and how it effected Sentaro. I also couldn't help but feel sorry for Sentaro throughout the story when his interest in Yurika, and later, Ritsuko, met with complete rejection. There were also moments when Kaoru annoyed me, especially once Ritsuko realised her true feelings for him, yet his response to her advances ended up being quite bitter. Once again, the reactions and development of the story felt natural and well written but I wasn't satisfied with the way it ended. Saying that, I've yet to be satisfied by any romantic anime to date, and that appears to be an issue I'm never going to win.

Overall, Kids on a Slope is definitely one of the better anime of last year, and certainly worth watching. It also features one of those musical intros that are so catchy you can't help but listen to it all the way through every single episode.

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Say, I love you

There are a few anime music intros that have made me want to listen to the entire song every single episode. Say, I love you, is one of those intros. It's not often that a song and intro sets the scene so well and matches the characters and story of the anime perfectly. When the song first starts, and the intro does that blur effect, you get a real feel for the romantic tone of the anime. Unfortunately, that's where the positive side of the anime ends.

Say, I love you, is your typical clichéd teen romance drama, akin to the dreadful shallow characters that was Twilight. The story tries to delve into a plot revolving around school bullying and the troubles school kids face when dealing with social expectations placed on them by others, but unfortunately, the main couple of the show, Mei and Yamato, leave much to be desired in the way of character development. Thankfully, we see the supporting characters, Aiko and Megumi, filling in the gap and giving us a true glimpse into the horrible mentalities of the "popular" kids in school. Megumi's story is certainly the plot to follow for this show, rather than the protagonists.

At the beginning of the show, we are told of Mei's past, the bullying she suffered, and the betrayal of people she considered her friends, which drives her to give up on making friends altogether and cut herself off from the world. This seems to work well for her, and in the first episode we are shown Mei as a character who doesn't need friends, strong enough to go at things by herself and just get on with school life, regardless of what anyone thinks of her... until she kicks Yamato in the face and que "love at first sight" entrance. After this point, Yamato pressures her into being friends when she doesn't want to be, going so far as to give her his phone number. But when a stalker starts following her home from work, instead of calling the police, which would be the sensible thing to do she instead calls the guy she didn't want to be friends with to come save her, and in doing so, he takes liberties with her vulnerability by stealing her first kiss.

I would like to think that Mei gets stronger, and that she is able to deal with her issues that stop her from making real friends, but in the end we are treated to the typical plot of a female character who changes herself to suit the guy she likes for no explainable reason. Mei's love interest in Yamato is completely unfounded, no reason given, and comes across as the average YA "he's so perfect" trope that has many viewers shaking their head in dismay. Unfortunately for Yamato, he comes across as an inconsiderate emotional blackmailer. His character truly does reflect Edward from Twilight, and it is made worse when every mistake he makes is forgiven without any argument from Mei because he is just too perfect in her eyes to do any wrong. What happened to the Mei we met in the first episode? He has turned her into a weak character that lacks any mind of her own, instead deferring to other people's opinions on how she should act. Her character instead of growing, actually gets worse as the episodes go on, and even by the last episode she is still the awkward shy mess she was back in the second episode. One day, I'm ever hopeful I'll find a romance anime that actually progresses with the relationship beyond a kiss or heartfelt words. When the first episode started with a kiss, I thought this might be the anime to do that, but as the episodes came and went, and no more progress beyond that was made I lost hope. We saw more progress in Aiko's story than the main protagonists.

We can at least be thankful for Nagi and Kei, who come along to help Mei open up by sharing their own similar experiences with her, and for the most parts, their stories tend to be stronger than Mei and Yamoto, even though they are only minor characters. In fact, Kei's background is the only glimpse we get into Yamoto's character to make us think there might actually be something behind that superficial exterior he exudes, but it is gone within one episode and never mentioned again. Which is a complaint for much of the story; every problem is solved far too easily with none of the expected drama that should go alongside it. The anime was trying to be "lets all be happy" so much that it lost any credibility to the problems the characters faced.

The real depth to the show comes from Megumi, the amateur model who buys people's friendship with money. Her story provides insight into the true nature of the superficial-popular-girl-type character we often see on TV when her whole world implodes on her when attempts to win Yamato's affection away from Mei, as well as that of Yamato's friends who befriended her, backfires on her and she ends up loosing everything and discovering that she had no friends after all. The consequences of this story arc drive her into a psychological breakdown that ends up being far more interesting of a story than the romance between Mei and Yamato.

Overall, I was hoping this show would be better than it was. I still found it entertaining enough to watch the entire series, but was left at the end thinking, 'That's it?' when the outcome of the show was no real different to any other romance anime, and possibly in a way, worse. Read More →

From the New World

Following the outbreak of uncontrollable psychokinetic powers that nearly destroyed the world, a secluded set of villages are recovering from the devastation by separating children from the rest of the world and teaching them to control their fledgling powers. When their powers manifest, they go through a trial to test their ability to use the powers referred to as 'Cantus'. If the child succeeds in passing the trial, they are reunited with friends and family who went before them in a special school designed to train them in how to use their cantus. On the surface, the village appears to be a normal, every day community, with people living out their ordinary lives with the assistance of their cantus, but in the background lies a mystery hidden behind lies and deceit, not the least being; what happens to the children who don't pass the trial, or the ones whose power never manifests?

Many rumours and tales surround the secrets of the villages - secrets that only the adults seem to know and are deliberately keeping hidden from the children. These rumours set our protagonist, Saki, and her classmates on an adventure with the sole purpose of discovering the truth behind the rumours. What they uncover will be far beyond what they ever expected.

I have one word that sums up this anime, and that is: strange.

From the New World is a dark anime reminiscent of M Knight Shyamalan's The Village, driven by the series of clues that lead us through a deep and complicated mystery that keeps us wondering just what is going on until the very end. Half the reason for this is the random, completely implausible, and disjointed plot arcs that tend to make very little sense in the overall scope of the story.

We are first introduced to a worker race of ratmen who assist the adults of the village in menial duties, foraging and dealing with complicated matters discretely when the limitations of the adult's cantus doesn't permit - like the suspected murdering of innocent people. One limitation of the cantus is that they cannot use it to harm other humans. The first quarter of the show throws Saki and her friends right into the middle of a battle between queerat tribes for no apparent reason other than to show us a bit of the world outside their village.

During their adventure that sees them caught up in the queerat war, they find one of the many creatures that the tales speak of, which appears to be some I-Don't-Know-What-Like glowing creature. The tales say that whoever sees one of them dies, but then, the question is raised; then how did the tale come to exist? Using their cantus to capture the creature, it is discovered they aren't just any normal animal, but some sort of cybernetic animal that acts as a computer AI  to access a library containing forbidden histories of the world. Not only is the creature one of the strangest things I've ever seen in anime, it's physical design is completely illogical when taking into consideration its intended purpose.

Having learnt what they shouldn't have, the next major complaint I have with the show is when the children are taken captive by a mysterious man who has cantus powers far superior to their own. He seals away their powers, preventing them from using their cantus permanently. The only way to get their cantus back is to return to the village and recover their diaries, which have recordings of the process they went through in the trials when their powers first manifested. But by the time they return to the village to recover these diaries, Saki's older, narrators voice tells us their powers came back on their own, as if that part of the plot element was completely brushed aside. If their powers came back without the diaries, then why mention them in the first place? This is only but one of the illogical plot developments in this series.

Following this narration scene that dismisses their sealed powers as nothing important, the story skips forward two years, totally dismissing the fact that they were scared out of their wits with what the adults of the village would do to them knowing they had discovered part of the forbidden knowledge; which ended up being nothing at all. No, in fact, the village council wants to reward Saki, who is constantly going out of her way to uncover truths and pry into things she shouldn't by making her the next in line to take over the head position of the village council. Why they would ever want such a rebellious child who is determined to destroy everything the village has worked towards I can't possibly understand.

The next strange plot development I can't understand in the show is after they have skipped forward two years and it shows the relationships Saki and her friends have developed. At the beginning of the show, we are given the hint that Saki is secretly in love with her male friend Shin, but come this stage in the story, it is revealed her other male friend, Setarou is actually gay, and in a relationship with Shin. I was completely surprised by this unexpected development which seems to serve no other purpose than being a complete shock tactics twist with the purpose of causing controversy, which becomes even worse when it is also revealed that Saki herself has formed a lesbian relationship with her friend, Maria.

These relationships appear to last only a matter of a couple of episodes before they are nearly forgotten about and Maria starts encouraging Saki to pursue a relationship with a newly introduced character even though they are supposed to be together. Scenes involving them walking through the school show practically every single student involved in some form of relationship with another student, over half of them being same-sex, which can only lead me to suspect there is some strange genetic bonding and manipulation of feelings going on behind the scenes. On several occasions it is referred to as animalistic relationships and compared to monkeys. I can only suspect this is some sort of political statement made by the writer to support such relationships and was completely unnecessary for the story - hence how easily they where thrown away. Either way, I found these developments hard to deal with because they destroy any potential romance story that could have developed as the episodes progressed. Honestly, before I found out that Setarou was gay, I was suspecting him and Saki might at one point end up falling in love, based on the way the first part of the story was going. No way that is going to happen now.

There are many other strange twists that seem to have no apparent reason, from killing off characters unexpectedly and then forgetting about them shortly after, to having characters running for their lives out of no fault of their own when they'd spent years prior in what appeared to be complete safety.

To add salt to the wound, I am at a complete loss at the writers need to make the queerat races so childishly annoying in the way they act and talk. Their incomprehensible nattering continues to grate on my nerves.

Unfortunately for the writers, it is safe to say this anime is one that deserves to be passed by and forgotten about. The only reason that kept me watching as far as I did, was the intrigue of the mystery that, even though I know the answer to, continues to interest me enough to wonder what they are going to do about it. But seriously, this anime barely makes any sense at all and I'm afraid I have to rate it as one of the weakest anime I've watched this season. Read More →

Robotics;Notes

Based in the year 2019, Robotics;Notes follows the story of Kaito Yashio and Akiho Senomiya who are the sole members of the Central Tanegashima High School Robotics Club. Akiho is determined to live up to the expectations of her older sister by finishing the large-scale robot her sister started back before she graduated from the school after founding the original robotics club. While Akiho seeks funding to continue her project, Kaito spends his days hanging round the club hanger, not helping in the development of Akiho's robot, but playing a popular mech fighting game, Kill-Ballad, which is based on the fictional anime, Gunvarrel. The fictional show itself serves as inspiration for Akiho, going so far as to codename her project, Gunbird-1 - a robot from the anime.

While the robot looks very little like the real Gunbird-1, Akiho finds encouragement from the relucant Kaito's unexpected and heartfelt support, as well as that of her other friends who over time join the club to help finish the project in their own unique way. Her work is not without merit, which is soon recognised by the company behind the fictional lollies, Space Candy, run by a man who will come to coin the most catchy saying of the entire show: Impact! You only have to take notice of anime forums around the world to see that this word is on the tip of every robotics fan's tongue.

Robotics;Notes is the third anime to be adapted from the series of visual novels produced by 5pb Inc, and follows in the wake of the smash hit 2011 anime sensation, Steins;Gate. While not quite living up to the success of its predecessor, the anime has shown itself to be a much deeper story than previously expected. With its foreboding of apocalyptic disaster, we can surmise that what starts as a simple school robotics club might well be the only thing standing between the Earth and certain annihilation.

Robotics;Notes is full of humour and lovingly crafted golden moments which you would come to expect in what we thought was going to be a slice of life anime, but it has a serious side that is slowly creeping in from the background, directed by the artificial intelligence program, Airi, who reveals herself to Kaito, along with a secret NASA doesn't want the world to know. It doesn't seem surprising at all that an anime skirting around the possibility of a worldwide apocalypse would show its face in a year that is already full of doomsday, end of the world, predictions.

I have quite enjoyed the show so far, although I liked Steins;Gate better, but I am sure we are going to be in for a real treat as the story leaves behind character introductions and humour in favour of the real meat of the story. Read More →

Hunted: Season Finale Impressions

Hunted is a bond-esque television drama written by Frank Spotnitz for BBC One staring Melissa George as Sam Hunter, the butt-kicking espionage operative working for the private intelligence agency, Byzantium. Like a female version of Bond, Sam has the knack for getting herself into trouble, although nothing she can't fight her way out of with her to-be-expected incomparable training, but most of all the sex appeal we have come to expect from attractive and talented spy flick stars. Unfortunately, that same sex appeal is ruined by her petulant sulking and weak moments that betrays the tough character personality she is attempting to develop into.

When Sam is betrayed by members of the very intelligence agency she works for, she goes into hiding in order to recover from the attempt on her life that cost her the life of her unborn child. During her recovery she gathers together any information she can find on Byzantium, looking for clues that will lead to the identity of those who betrayed her and why they'd made an attempt on her life, which as the story progresses, is apparently tied into a project called Hourglass, and a traumatic experience she suffered as a child.

Having recovered from her injury and loss, Sam returns to Byzantium when she realises it is the only way she can find answers to the puzzle surrounding her. She is welcomed back into the team, although many surprised to see her, including her once boyfriend, and the father of her dead baby, Aiden Marsh. Knowing she is their best operative, they quickly throw her back into the action, assigning her to gain the trust of Stephen Turner. Rescuing his son from a staged kidnapping attempt, Sam is quickly brought into Stephen's home as a nanny for his son, Edward, when she takes on the persona of Alex Kent, a single woman desperately in need of a job. Sam uses the secret identity and position to get close to Stephen's father, Jack Turner, and discover the secret he is using to blackmail a large conglomerate organisation that has ties to Byzantium. The story escalates when she discovers ties between the attempt of her life, the mysterious Hourglass project, Byzantium and it's largest parent company, Polyhedrus.

I had wanted to believe in the show that so much reminded me of a UK version of Alias without the cheesy acting. It was supposed to be the show that filled the gap left by the hit show Spooks, and clearly the network had dropped a huge ton of money into it. The production quality is high, although on occasions suffers from some below-average acting and scripts. On the whole though, the show appeared to have potential, and a decent amount of action and intrigue to keep me interested. Unfortunately, ratings slipped on the show and now it looks to be on rocky ground. BBC One is choosing to drop support for the show, but Cinemax hasn't given up hope quite yet. We will see a second season, but it might go the way of Strike Back and become a hugely different show. It will still feature the sexy Melissa George, although some may consider that a negative, rather than positive, based on her acting skills. But she has a pretty face, right? That always sells.

The greatest problem I see with Hunted is the unresolved plot arcs. I believe, given the funding and support, the holes would have all been filled in time and answers given, but the show was surviving on a severely limited number of episodes for a story that easily needed double their allotment. The simple truth was, there were far too many stories going on in the show for it to possibly reach any satisfactory conclusion. The worst of this being the briefly visited, but unfulfilled relationship Sam develops with Stephen and his son. I was disappointed how easily they threw away all they'd worked towards regarding them in those last episodes, although I suppose his character was too weak to truly take her interest. On many occasions, Stephen frustrated me with his inability to stand up to his father, even after discovering all Jack's dirty, dark secrets. With the move away from BBC One, we should be worried that those questions we had by the end of the finale might very well be left unanswered. It is a shame, because the series did show a good level of untapped potential that I had hoped they would in time work their way into.

Overall, the series was intriguing, but ultimately an unsatisfying watch. I enjoyed watching it, but would have liked there to be at least a full season of episodes so they could flesh it out properly. Read More →

Psycho Pass

Psycho-Pass is an anime that started off mediocre and uninspiring. But as the episodes have gone on, I've started to see something in it; a jewel that is slowly being polished into a series that just might be worth watching after all.

The anime is based in the near future, following a similar story to the movie Minority Report, where it is possible to measure a person's mental state, personality and the probability that a person will commit crimes. This is called their "Crime Coefficent" level and is monitored by "Enforcers" working for the Safety Bureau's Criminal Investigation Division. Enforcers use weapons called "Dominators" that read the target's mental state and determine how serious of a threat the perpetrator is. The weapon has two modes, stun and lethal, and will automatically switch between the modes when the target's level gets too high.

The anime follows the story of Akane Tsunemori, an inspector fresh out of training who is placed in charge of a group of Enforcers, ensuring they follow the rules and stay in control of their own mental state. She takes an interest in Shinkya Kogami, who used to once be an inspector, but when his own Crime Coefficent level grew too high while investigating a difficult case was demoted down to Enforcer and treated like a latent criminal - like the other Enforcers, who are all latent criminals, given the chance to redeem themselves by working for the police instead of committing the crimes they were predicted to do. If her curiosity develops into something more we can only theorise, but as the episodes continue, I wonder if Akane will turn out to really be the perfect, high-scoring, 'model citizen' they all believe her to be. It will be interesting to see if she goes the same way of Shinkya Kogami.


The concept of this anime is brilliant, and is what made me start watching it. At first I was put off by the below-average anime quality. They could of at least made the characters look pleasing to the eye, but I suppose the artists were going for a more average, realistic look - which that did achieve. Animation style aside, the story has enough going for it to make me continue to watch.

Unfortunately, the gem I now see in it only became apparent about four episodes into the anime. The first two episodes were a real struggle, dealing with dark situations, weak characters, unexplained plots and ridiculous arguments that just ended up being a waste of time and over dramatisation. This was solved by the story starting to actually go somewhere productive and become serialised series from one episode to the next, forming a long story arc revolving around virtual reality hackers and crime bosses.

The strange, lackluster animation continues to grind on me but I suspect we are in for a very big surprise in the episodes to come that will leave us wondering just where this show came from - very much what happened to the hit TV Show Fringe - the first season barely had any story, yet halfway through the second season the viewers' eyes were opened to an amazing development in the characters and story. We might just be in for the same evolution with Psycho-Pass. I am very curious to see if the anime lives up to my hopes in the weeks to come. Read More →

Guild Wars 2: The Lost Shores - DAY TWO

The second day of the weekend-long Lost Shores event has started and unfortunately not all is well in the world of Tyria. Day One quest chains were still bugged out, even after a supposed bug fix patch was released in the early hours of the morning, and adventurers were growing even more frustrated with their inability to experience the story ArenaNet had crafted for the weekend. Things did not bode well for the MMO developers chances to impress all those new players they had drawn into the game with the trial key giveaways.

Players gathered around Levvi, waiting for the Phase Two event to kick off. 12:00pm server time came and went, leaving the adventurers puzzled. Where was the next major event, where were the karka that were supposed to attack Lions Arch once more? They were nowhere to be seen. All adventurers were left with was an updated meta-event text stating something about testing out new weapons on the Karka, but where these weapons were, and how you went about testing them, nobody knew. There was no cutscene to show us the way, no hints from ArenaNet like there had been yesterday. Today we were left believing something had gone dreadfully wrong.

Fifteen minutes after the even start time, there was at last some progress. Apparently the Lionguard, under the direction of Magnus, were building a siege weapon to attack the Ancient Karka with. Now that things were at last underway, Magnus, along with Levvi and Kiel, lead us to the walls of Fort Marriner, where we could see the aforementioned trebulchet. That was the moment the karka chose to attack.

Like the previous event, the Ancient Karka sent waves of lesser karka against us, but this time we were prepared. Barrels of a toxic substance harmful to the karka were scattered across the land between Fort Marriner and the lighthouse. This time the egg-layers fell with ease, the toxin ripping through their shells. Forced into a confrontation, the Ancient Karka joins the fight, but this is where the problems start. On some servers the boss vanished without a trace, leaving adventurers without any event rewards or completion bonuses. On other servers the karka's health continously reset, making him impossible to defeat. Unfortunately, my server was one of those affected by this bug, which means I missed what end to the event there could have been. Upon my return to Lions Arch, after exploring a couple other points of interest in the event weekend, I found the boss gone, having vanished into thin air.

Regretfully, this was the outcome many got when taking part in the event. I'm afraid to say Day Two started on a worse note than Day One, at least the first event was achievable. All that is left for adventurers now is to continue the storyline on into the Southsun Cove, via the shipmaster at the Lions Arch docks.

Stay tuned for more details and screenshots of Southsun Cove as Unfathomable Writings embarks upon their  voyage across the Sea of Sorrows. Read More →

Guild Wars 2: Fractals of the Mists

Following the completion of the opening event, access to Guild Wars 2's new style of dungeon experience was released to adventurers all over Tyria, even to those who are not quite lv80 yet when they were scaled up to lv80 for the weekend long event so that they could experience the dungeon alongside veteran players. When the portal opened, Unfathomable Writings was there to take the first step into Fractals of the Mists, a dungeon-crawling adventure like no other.

First thing we were greeted with through the portal was Dessa's Laboratory, which served as the central nexus for movement through the many instances to be found within the mists. General goods and repair venders were to be found here, as well as the namesake NPC Dessa and her assistants.

Stepping onto the platform in the centre of the room we were greeted with a prompt asking us if we were ready to travel deeper into the mists. Not knowing quite what to expect, we all ticked our ready status and waited for Dessa to plunge us into the chaos that was to come. Loading times were smooth, and our experience proved to be pleasantly bug free.

First up we were thrown right into the middle of a dark, gloomy swamp. None of us had a clue where we were, or how to get out of this hellhole we found ourselves in. Two steps into the swamp and we were confronted by our first fight, a Champion Marsh Drake. Surprised to find such a high level monster as our first opposition we eagerly joined the fight, burning the creature down, and were disappointed to find no loot reward given for our kill. It appeared that champions were to be a normal trash mob in this particular instance.

Having dispatched the foul champion beast, we explored further into the swamp and found our way blocked by three locks. To open these locks we would need to recover the three wisps that would release them. The said wisps were scattered across the swamp, hidden behind hordes of monsters and masses of discretely placed traps. To complete this puzzle, we were forced to collect all the wisps in one go, rushing back to the locks on a thirty second timer. This was not so easy to achieve, for traps and monsters were determined to delay our flight, and the swamp itself was pitted against us when impenetrable walls of vines rose and fell, blocking out path. Our challenge was made even harder when the same Champion Marsh Drake continued to respawn on a timer of only a few seconds. He was joined by the Mossman, a purple bordered boss. After numerous attempts, uncountable crippling traps, and running around like a madman to try and get away from the Mossman, we were victorious.

Inside, we travelled through an underwater passage which eventually opened up to the small glade belonging to a twisted and hostile Tree Ent, Bloomhunger. The boss himself was a pushover and we had very little trouble dispatching him. During the fight he would drop poison AoE circles, for the most part easily avoidable. He would also summon elementals to buff him, but the adds were dispatched within seconds, offering us no challenge at all. Once defeated we were treated to a chest containing several random items, sometimes rares, as one of our party managed to get. Dessa then spoke to us through the nether, prompting if we wanted to continue on to the next dungeon. Sure, why not, we thought; that wasn't so bad.

But Dessa had larger games for us to play. As soon as we arrived in the second dungeon, we knew we were in for an amazing encounter. Drawn right into the middle of an all out war between the charr and an ascalonian city, we were forced to use charr disguises and join the battle alongside the charr as they assaulted the walls, confronted the enemy commander and threw their gates wide open. It was not an easy battle to win. The enemy turned their seige weapons on us. Catapults fired on our position, the arrows from carts reigned down from above and the enemy tipped burning oil on us whenever we got near the gates. With some amazing ranged combat by one of our party, we were able to take their weapons down and attack the gate.

On the other side of the walls we fought our way through streets crawling with enemy soldiers, the city itself turned into a complicated maze network by the blockades the ascalonians had erected. Eventually we found our way to the central courtyard where we were greeted by an army of enemy soldiers manning catapults. After dispatching the opposing forces and capturing the courtyard we defended the charr magician as he performed the ritual needed to win the day and destroy the ascalonians. They were not going to give up so easily though. Their leader retaliated, leading an attack against our position. Much to our disappointment though, the boss of this instance put up less of a fight than Bloomhunger had. Victorious, we took our reward from the chest and moved on to the next stage.

Our final adventure inside the Mists involved scaling a massive colossus who had been imprisoned by a dark cult. At the colossus's feet we were confronted by the boss of the instance, the Legendary Archdiviner. Putting up more of a fight than expected, the head cultist drops his magical hammer and flees deeper into the ruins. Taking his weapon we climbed the scaffolding, making our way to the top where the Archdiviner waited for us. Little did we know the challenge that awaited us along the way.

Our first stop was the giant's knees, which were bound to the cliff by a magical seal. The only way to break the seal was to charge the Archdiviner's hammer with the blood of his fellow cultists. Veteran mobs attacked us, aiding the trash cultist mobs in their fight, making our attempts to free the colossus difficult indeed. It was made worse by the debuff placed on the party member holding the hammer. When the debuff stacked forty times, the player would be killed instantly. Our only choice was to pass the hammer between us before we reached that fatal number. Three charges later, the knee was free and we moved on to the next one, repeating the process. Victorious, we proceeded up the scaffolding, making our way to the chest seal. This one proved to be the easiest of them all, and it wasn't long before we were working our way up even higher. Little did we know what waited for us halfway up the ruins.

Faces that blew strong winds at us threatened to throw us from the edge, plummeting to our death below. Luckily, this instance had checkpoints, so if you died, you respawned at various stages up the side of the ruins, and not from the beginning. This was the only instance to offer us this feature. During this adventure we discovered that once you leave the instance, it appears that there is no way back in. Entering the Mists would result in you being thrown into a completely different instance from the one the rest of the party was in. Which was unfortunate, since several of us had forgotten to bring repair canisters  By the look of the red gear we had towards the end, we really needed that repair vendor, but to return to Dessa's lab would wipe all our progress in this instance.

The wrists proved to be a greater challenge. They were protected by shields and you could only strike the seal once before the shield made it invulnerable. We were forced to run back and forth between the wrists, fighting off the hordes of cultists that spawned while hit by hit, we broke the seals down. All that was left was to free the head and confront the Legendary Archdiviner at the top. This would be no easy achievement, especially since we were now one man down. After dodging fireball traps that played the same tricks on us that the wind did, we at last reached the top of the scaffolding and were greeted by the final boss.

The Archdiviner turned out to be both the most challenging of the three bosses and the most interesting. In the centre of the room was the final seal, restraining the colossus's head, but it was protected permanently by a shield. The only way to get past the shield was to confront the Archdiviner and burn his health down a quarter. During the fight cultists ran to his aid, making for a tough fight, but when the shield broke for the first time we rushed in, killing the adds to charge the hammer. We failed. The Archdiviner's attacks were serious business, nearly one-shotting several members of the party. Luckily for us, his health never regenerates, even when you wipe, until he is almost dead, but even then his health will never regen past quarter full. The fight wasn't made any easier by our severely broken gear. In the end, several of us were forced to purchase canisters from the Black Lion Trading Co. in order to continue fighting.

Down to half health, the boss changed his tactics, releasing a high-damage AoE attack that left burning DoTs on us. I can tell you now, those burns hurt, bad. Unless you could switch the conditions into boons, you were most likely dead if you got caught in it. during this stage the boss started teleporting party members he came in contact with into cages where they were forced to break their way out of, or enlist the aid of other party members to free them.

The final stage of the boss saw his teleporting trick continuing throughout the fight while he spawned baby karka to help him fight. Fortunately, his AoE attack ceased to happen during this stage, making it easier for us to burn him down and release the shield around the seal. It only took three hits to break the seal and emerge victorious as a four man dungeon team. We were treated to one last treasure chest while the Colossus made his way off into the distance after bowing his thanks to us. We were then transported back to Dessa's Lab, where we could continue on with level two, if we so chose to do so.

Overall, our experience ended on a very positive note. Unlike other dungeons, we'd succeeded in clearing path one of the Mists on our first day, without pulling any hair out, enjoying every moment of it - especially when we were knocking down the walls of that ascalonian city - and coming out of our adventure thoroughly satisfied. I commend ArenaNet on their fantastic new dungeon and its flawless, bug free, progression. Read More →