Remember me giving you my first impressions on the show together with my first impressions on Scribblenauts? Well, whatever. This show you better check out.

In my first MYMHM post I wrote about Adrian Snell and the CD called the Passion. While I realize that the CD might have a limited audience, Romeo X Juliet's only problem is that it might have been released in the wrong country. It is a twenty-four episodes long anime series created in Japan (but don't worry, it is dubbed to English as well), based on the play by William Shakespeare and with the theme song being a Japanese translation of "You Raise Me Up." Most of the clips on youTube have about five thousand views, which is good compared to the Passion, but not very good compared to many other series (I for instance checked the Reaper, that has around 50000 on its clips).

Let me tell you at once, that Romeo X Juliet is the most enjoyable love story I have ever seen or read, beating the original play, beating Titanic and beating Beauty and the Beast. I say that a play is too short to show real love – a statement which Shakespeare's play is supposed to have proven wrong, but to me didn't. What Romeo X Juliet has that Romeo and Juliet lacks, is the time to give the character's personality. The character development is good for all the characters in the series, which is about a dozen important ones.

Also, the series is more than just a love story. It is also a story about tyranny, hope and fighting for what is right. Prince Montague, Romeo's father rules the land of Neo Verona (an island that floats in the sky) with an iron fist, and the nobles are stepping on the commoners' heads. In the beginning of the story, Juliet is dressed up in red clothing and plays a hero called the crimson whirlwind, fighting for people's rights in a Robin Hood-like fashion. As it goes on, the plot thickens considerably. You have to watch and see what happens.

The series seems to work on all parts. The plot, the animations, the music, the dialogue, it all fits perfectly together, and I can only think of one thing I wish they did differently: That they removed the character named Hermione, who had poor character development and never became as important a character as you got the impression she'd be.

One of the series' greatest strengths is the balance act between following the original play and changing it. It is a strength because it adds a lot of dispense. For instance, if Juliet is the last remaining Capulet, like the start suggests then what about Tybalt? He is supposed to kill Mercutio and be killed by Romeo? Will he be in the series or not? And how big a role will this tree called Escalus play?

About midway through though, it is easy to forget that this is based on Shakespeare's play and not just its own story – though William Shakespeare being one of the characters in the series will remind you. Even after it lose some of that suspense, there is a lot more to go with, and the series is concluded with two brilliant episodes that I not only found to be great, but also surprising.

Let me put it this way to give you a clue about how good this series is: Last night I watched the last six episodes. It took two hours, which is time I could have spent playing Dragon Age. That should say quite something. Eager to check it out yet? Use the playlist I post a link to – it has all the episodes dubbed to English.

Link

Dragon Age is a game you might end up thinking about when you are not playing it. Due to the fact that you always have 2-6 choices to what you'll say in dialogue (often affecting what you do as well), you can to some degree give the main character your personality. So this is what kind of guy my character - Xaleb, the elven mage, is:

Believer:
Whenever he is in the chantry, he will ask one of the mothers to bless him.

Mercyfull:
Due to his strong believes, Xaleb often shows mercy. After he defeated the bandits, he let the leader go as long as he promised to leave this place and never come back. When he was attempted assasinated, Xaleb let one of the survivors join his party, because the man had been sold on the slave market when he was a kid and hadn't really had a choice.

Cautiously trusty:
Xaleb like to think the best about everyone, even when they act suspicious, so he will ask a lot of questions before he will determine whether or not he think someone speaks the truth.

Proud:
He is very proud of being a Grey Warden, and will never lie about who he is, even when he knows there is a prize on his head.

Optimistic:
Xaleb is not the kind of guy who says "I will try my best", he always ensures people that he will succeed - even though his they might be concerned that he is too cocky.

Persuasive:
Xaleb has made his cunning stats a top priority and thus he has yet persuaded someone everytime he has tried. He is also a nice person and would much rather Persuade people than try to Intimidate them.

Kiss-ass:
Xaleb will talk politely and give compliment to everyone he likes or he thinks is too powerful for him to opose against.

Also, I like to talk to everyone and often I do some side-quests, so I'm progressing very slowly in the game.

I'm taking a day of from Ferelden today, because I find that if I begin to play it, it will take four hours before I can put it down, and my time is limited at the moment, so I need to sort my days to Dragon Age days and non-Dragon Age days. Anyways, here is my review.

Mario and Luigi - Bowser's Inside story.

Masterpiece

Hilarious, fun and addictive – Bower's inside story is a game you just can't put away until you've beaten it

Ever sine I downloaded Paper Mario for the virtual console, I have been in love with Mario RPGs. What is so incredible bout them, is that Mario is one of, if not the most successful game franchise of all times, yet Nintendo has the self-irony to make a series of games that has so much parody it's almost mooching the original series. However, if you think this game will just give you funny dialoge and hilarious Luigi moments, you are wrong, because the game offers good and varied gameplay.

In the start of the game, Mario, Luigi, Peach and a star-something called Chippy are sucked into Bowser's body due to the doing of some crazy dude called Fawful. It is up to Bowser to save the Mushroom Kingdom (though of course he does it for all the wrong reasons), while Mario and Luigi are helping him from the inside. Bowser himself only knows that Chippy is in there, but he knows that something is going on. Inside Bowser's body you sometimes move around in a side-scrolling environment, fighting what you come across and work to do something. Other times you play mini-games to for instance help him do a heavy lift. Bowser is walking around in a 3D overworld, though limited by his lack of jumping ability.

The combat in the game is turn-based, but unlike most games with turn-based combat, there is so much more to it than just strategy. You make your attacks more powerful with good timing, but what is the most fun, is when the enemies attack. If you do it correctly, you can avoid taking damage, and even deal some damage to your opponent. The enemies are very well-done, and you need to learn their moves to know how to deal with their attacks. It is done so brilliant that all enemies feel unique, and therefore it took fifteen hours before I began to find the combat repetitive. To be a master of the game, you must have strategy, timing, fast reaction and motoric skills. When you use special attacks it might even require precision and memory.

The reaction comes in handy when you don't know which of the brothers will be attacked, and if the attack goes towards them, meaning you should jump, or above them, meaning you really shouldn't. Sometimes it is ruined by the fact that you can jump with both brothers and there won't be a penalty for it. When you play as Bowser, you respond to attacks by either ducking or boxing, and at times, you need quick reaction to choose the right one.

There are a lot of strategic elements. As you level up, all stats will be increased, but you also choose one stat that you'll increase extra, and here you can increase it with 1 to 7 points depending on your timing. There is gears to equip as well, and they have very different effects. Do you want a gear that heals you once per turn, one that heals you when you use a specific attack, or one that races your stats, and in that case, which stats are most important to you. Then of course you choose what attacks or items to use in combat, and there is even a badge system with a meter that builds up as you perform excellent action commands.

Timing is everything when it comes to action commands and blocking your enemies attacks, and is also important in many mini-games. Motoric skills, or frequent button mashing if you like, might be a pain to many, and while the Mario brothers only use it against certain enemies, Bowser uses it a lot. He has an inhaling command which is used to suck enemies into his body so the brothers can take care of them or to check enemies for creatures called "blitties" (if you collect them all, you'll get a price). It is also useful against certain enemies. For instance, you might want to inhale the teeth of one of the enemies since it raises your defence.

In any case, the gameplay is very varied, and without saying to much, there will be times when you fight in an unnormal way. I have never played a game with a better turn-based combat system, and the boss fights are particularly magnificent.

The incredible thing about this game, is that you could buy it for the gameplay alone and enjoy it very much, or you could buy it for the humour alone and enjoy it very much. While the dialogue is not as funny as in some of the Paper Mario games, the brothers' expressions and their Italian talking is ingenious. And then, there is the Luigi moments. I don't want to tell you about them, just look forward to them, it will be good.

The bottom line is, this is the best Mario RPG and one of the most fun games ever. You are looking at more than twenty hours of loving-every-minute of it. Well, almost at least. As I've mentioned, the combat begins to feel repetitive after fifteen hours, though it quickly returns to awesomeness. Also, some of the touch screen based mini-games are ruined by the brothers being small, and when you have to tap them as they are moving around, you might easily miss, which in at least one mini-game means you are likely to fail at it several times before completing it. The two flaws are enough to prevent the game from being a perfect ten, but not at all enough to ruin the experience.

By the way, if after reading this review, you still can't imagine how great the game is, I will put it simply: Buy it and find out for yourself.

Score: 9.5/10