thinkabout42

Meg, the core protagonist of the show, is extremely charismatic. She's a neat mix of fierce and silly, but also a selfless, kind-hearted soul that is always willing to help. And even in the face of her rather grim fate, this unlucky girl finds the strength to fight back with joyful defiance.

To escape her prophesized death, the young witch has a year to collect enough magic tears by helping people in need. It may sound like a simple and predictable premise, but the show avoids getting stale, often going in unexpected directions, mixing whimsy and tragedy in equal sizes.

This aspect is even underlined in the chosen theme songs. The opening is cute and cheerful, while the ending theme, composed by Yuki Kajiura, drowns you with its haunting melancholy.

The story doesn't have a resolute ending (the novels are still ongoing), but just for Meg's antics alone this anime deserves to be seen - like a storm she's certainly going to leave her mark on the magical world.

Final Fantasy II is a pretty innovative and experimental RPG for its time.

The turn based combat remained the same, but the progression system is fresh and fascinating, allowing characters to excel in things they tend to practice most. So, sword wielders get better with swords and magic users learn to deal more damage with their spells. This allows you to shape any character into any role you envision for them.

As for the story, its tone is dark and hopeless, reflected in both dialogue and music, with slightly more narrative depth than the previous title. The game also features a unique dialogue system, which allows the player to retain certain specific keywords and then repeat them back to other people. The characters learn the secrets of the story alongside with the player.

Unfortunately, as impressive as it is for the NES era, this game's many ideas are only good on paper. As the initial flame of fascination fades, you quickly realize how boring and annoying this game is to play.

The progression system was designed to reduce mindless grinding and make the game seem more natural, but it just ends up being unintuitive, punishing and hilariously exploitable. For example, if your mage dares to use physical attacks, they will get dumber, which will negatively affect their magical output. Each magical spell also levels up individually, so if you want your resurrection spell to not miss during a difficult fight (and that can happen!), you need to use it around a few hundred times. Of course you will never die that often, so a lot of spells are levelled up by meaningless casts just for the sake of getting those points. Also, can you guess the most efficient way to get more health? Beating each other to death of course! While some weak goblin enemies probably stand around confused at the resulting spectacle.

The same disappointing feeling comes with the story. At its best moments, it's a Star Wars rehash. Becoming a part of the rebellion, saving a princess, destroying the evil empire's flying mechanical monstrosity... At its worst, it is a boring slog through several dungeons to get a spell that is not even required at any point in the game. I believe said spell was a joke by the programmer, a great joke that wastes several hours of your playtime.

Oh yes, let's talk about dungeons. They're awful. The most notable thing about them is the abundance of empty rooms overfilled with enemies with nasty attacks. A total mood killer for anyone with a sense of exploration.

Finally, the music is great. You know, it's Final Fantasy.

And there you have it. Final Fantasy II remains an impressive achievement in certain areas, but it got so caught up in being quirky and innovative that it forgot to just be fun. Hardcore RPG fans may still find it interesting, but be aware that this game requires heavy guide usage to counter its unintuitive design.

After more than a decade of silence, the Whispering Corridors series makes its grand comeback with the brand new movie. And as usual, it's yet another standalone story.

Following the old tradition, this movie is set in an all-girls school, but refreshingly this time our central protagonist is not a schoolgirl, but an adult woman named No Eun-Hee. Arriving to her hometown, Gwangju, she starts working at a local school that she herself was a student of. Soon after arrival she gets dragged into a whole whirlpool of issues - problem students, odd rumors, vengeful ghosts and her own forgotten past all come with their hardships and challenges.

Despite the supernatural premise this movie is more of a drama disguised as a ghost story. Of course, it has its share of creepy moments, jumpscares and eerie visuals, but they are not central elements of the movie. If you were a fan of the series, you'll know what to expect and if you weren't, I'm making this clear here. It promises to be a horror movie, but it isn't.

With that out of the way, the general storyline of this movie is pretty solid. Not quite novel in many aspects, but enjoyable as a whole package. It combines two layers - past and present - in a rather unique way. Both have their own ghosts, antagonists and societal issues to shine a light on. Most of the time they're only connected by the experiences of Eun-Hee. Telling essentially two different stories in a single movie is a dangerous road to take, but the authors managed to do it gracefully. Certain moments can be very unexpected and shocking, thought provoking and terrifying even. It won't leave your head very easily.

It's not completely flawless though. There are a few odd and awkward scenes here and there. These don't make much sense even on a rewatch and feel like cheap baiting or red herring. It could be much better without those.

Musically it also doesn't have a strong identity, which is especially disheartening when comparing to previous movies. Most of the tracks are just your generic Korean horror stuff. At least there is a pretty nice and bittersweet ending theme song.

Going back to the positives, visually it's very pleasing. It carries good location choices and camera work and overall feels very artistic.

All in all, this is a great watch - both as a standalone experience and as the worthy successor of the long running series. It has a great story, despite a few issues, and looks pretty amazing. It manages to be surprising even in the eyes of old fans, but is also a welcoming introduction to any newcomers.

On a side note, non-Korean viewers might feel a bit confused about certain historical context. I strongly advice to read up on any confusing plot points on the Internet. And don't worry - once you finish this movie, you'll know exactly what to look for.