Misc

TMNT:Allies 
A list of most of the major allies from the Ninja Turtles franchise.

TMNT allies from Mirage comics

TMNT Allies: Classic cartoon and Live-action



The times 4kids (aka Foxbox) screwed up Ninja Turtles
A list of things the channel did to the 2003 incarnation. Examples include: Scrapped episodes, subpar seasons, and some obscured stuff that happen at the time.



What makes a Final Fantasy Hero
A list to poke at certain cliches that happen repeatably to the main protagonists of the Final Fantasy series.

Part 1: Bizarre Origins

Part 1.2 Bizarre Origins

Part 2.1: Big Players

Part 2.2: Big Players

Part 2.3: Big Players

Part 3.1: "Deaths"

Part 3.2: "Deaths"

Part 3.3: "Deaths"

Chrono Cross Review

The original Chrono Trigger is consider one of the greatest RPGs and it's sequel Chrono Cross...Err. It's a good game but not as great under the shadow of it's predecessor.

Here's a link to my old review of Chrono Trigger if your curious

Click here to see the awesome opening to this game

Chrono Cross takes places in the year 1020 AD. Twenty years after the "Present" of Chrono Trigger.Your main character is the blue-hair boy in the above pic called Serge. The game starts with our hero at this mysterious tower with this scantily-clad blonde with an Aussie accent named Kid. Suddenly you see blood on a knife as Serge smiles. This is basically what the game's story in a nutshell, screwing the minds of the viewers.

Anyways, that was a dream the main character dreams about. Now is time to talk about the actual start of the story, Serge is a teenage boy in a fisherman's village to meet his girlfriend at the beach. When he gets there, a strange portal appears and transport him back to the same location but however, his girlfriend isn't there. He goes back to the village and nobody there knows him. They do remember a kid named Serge that drowned 10 years ago. He soon meets up with the mysterious girl known as Kid. She after a mysterious relic called the Frozen Flame.

 Kid also wants to kill a man known as Lynx who did something bad to her.

Serge soon learn that he is in an alternate world.

The setting of the game takes place at an archipelago called El Nido.

Wait, where was this in Chrono Trigger?

El Nido was an unseen area in the 1st game. There is an explanation for that's told in the game.

Instead of time travel like the 1st game, Chrono Chross lets you travel between the dimensions of Home World(Where Serge is from) and Another World. There are noticeable differences between the two worlds like Serge being alive from an event from his childhood where he nearly died, the famous Acacia Dragoons are dead, and the city of Termina(no relation to Majora's Mask) has been invaded by the Porre military.

Wait a minute? Porre!? This little town that's part of the Guardia Kingdom?

Yeah, another thing. Porre retroactively became somesort of military nation after the fall of Guardia. I get to that later.

Unlike Chrono Trigger's cast of 7 playable characters, you get 45 of them.

This is about 2/3 of the playable characters.

This is one of the problems with the game that makes Cross stuck in the shadow of Trigger. Most of these characters are forgettable. Soon you recruit them, you most likely forget them. There are some good characters with good stats and skills in the line up to play as but alot of them be sent to the bleachers.

Alot them are optional and they won't matter to the story that much. You most likely have them in your party just for a quick sidequest to gain their ultimate skill. That's their entire character arc in the game, how you recruit them, and them gaining their ultimate skill. You can have them in main story events but they be saying generic lines in their specific accents.

That's another thing about this game, alot of these characters have cheesy accents or character tics. It sort of help to make them less bland.

However you can kinda tell who are the filler characters. I doubt anyone can believe that a dancing voodoo doll, a baby dragon, a clown skeleton, and a turnip be the major characters.

I need to stop ranting about filler characters. Anyways, you can't recruit them all in one playthrough. The game encourages you to play several times. Like at one point, you need to sneak into an enemy mansion and you have three different characters to help you. A fake French wannabe heroic swordsmen, a heavy metal guitarist trying to find his sister, and a mysterious magician. The magician who may or not be Magus from the 1st game. He was intended early in development of didn't fall through. One of the alternate endings in the DS release said Magus got amnesia, hinting he may the same character.

There are other branching paths to get you recruit different characters. Weirdly enough, the best characters you can get is being a jerk to Kid. When you first meet Kid, she ask you to join her on her quest. Say no to her a few times and she walks away. You get Leena, Serge's alternate universe girlfriend. She is a good mage character to use. 

Another branching path that related to Kid is right after she gets poisoned. You can find a way to save her or lose all hope in saving her. So the moral is, be a jerk and you get the better characters. Kid does get cured in the end, regardless which option you use. You can travel dimensions to try to kill the last remaining Hydra to get a cure for Kid and get an annoying fisher kid, his sister, and a cool fairy mage, or you can give up hope since Serge is unaware he can travel worlds to kill a Hydra. This path will get him a town doc with a surfer lingo, the mother of that annoying fisher brat, and the young warrior, Glenn. Now the last guy is a freaking powerhouse. He can grab a mythical sword and then go the alternate world and dual-wields both of them.

Time to talk about the graphics. Alot PS1 graphics are horribly dated nowdays with the characters looking all blocky.

Look, it's Hagrid in 3D man. Look at the breathtaking graphics. He looks so real.*sarcasm*

 Chrono Cross is one of the few exceptions. It ages well compare to most.

Gameplay is kinda unique. You can use attack in light, medium, or heavy. However you are more of a chance to miss your attack if you attack heavy right away, it's best to attack light and to build up your chance to attack heavy without missing.

The element system is kinda unique complex system. It's sort of like your typical magic or specials techs option in RPGS but they don't go by MP/Mana. Instead, you have to attack your enemy to build up your element grid to cast your element. You can change the outcome of the battle depending on your characters and what elements you got. Like you can bring characters not weak to Red(fire) attacks from a monster that uses Red elements, or you can bring a Blue(Water/Ice) element character. The Blue may be weak but if you cast Blue elements multiple times in a row uninterrupted, it will make the red elements weak and the Blue attacks stronger. Other colors be Green(Air/Nature) vs Yellow(Earth/Lightning), White(Light) vs Black(Shadow)

The music is down right amazing. It is a joy to listen to. You can properly look up the game's music somewhere on youtube.

As I said, it's not a bad game. The music, graphics, gameplay and other factors are great. The problem is the overabundance of filler characters and the confusing story.

It's going to be full of spoilers from here on out so be warn.

The game is very very confusing. You think the 1st game be confusing with time travel with paradoxes and altered timelines but it's not.

People are confused by the stories of Metal Gear and Kingdom Hearts. Those can get confusing but as long as you follow the games in intended order, it's fine. But when you can to the last 3rd of Chrono Cross, it gets downright confusing and alot to take in.

Like when this dude showed up in the 2nd Matrix movie confusing

Here's some examples, you got future people trapped in the past, a future city frozen in time, lizard people from an alternate timeline, your dad became a furry and a supercomputer, the dragons gods merge to form a organic supercomputer, humans didn't evolve but magically morphed from fragments of alien parasites, Aussies are clones of a blue-hair girl from the 1st game, the world destroying alien parasite from an erased timeline fuzed with a blue-hair princess and devouring all time and space.

However you can say the game's main goal did end up resolving one of the biggest mysteries from the 1st game.

Magus' sister, Schala was last seen at 12,000 BC teleporting the good guys away at her evil mother's underwater later turn sky fortress. Many people wondered what became of her. There were a dozen theories on how to save her.

Chrono Cross did resolve this by making Serge free her at the final boss of the game.

Here's another thing that people didn't like, well...

All your favorites from the 1st game. They're all dead.

Well Frog and Ayla may died of old age in their time eras. They were barely referenced. Everyone else tho... The PS1 re-release of the game did came with bonus animated cutscenes. It showed Chrono and Marle getting married and becoming King and Queen or next in line of the throne, it never said. It also showed Lucca adopting a mysterious baby she found who Chrono Cross players know that is Kid. There was another animated cutscene that showed the fall of the Kingdom of Guardia. There way alot slayed bodies on the ground and the famous sword of Masamune is stolen and the sword itself gets corrupted.

When I mention about the peaceful city of Porre that randomly out of nowhere becoming a military nation. Well the DS re-release came with more bonus content. An enemy of the gang fell out of a time portal and plotted revenge, thus changing the timeline where Guardia fell in the year 1005 AD. Alot people assume that Chrono and Marle perished from the event.

Lucca started an orphanage and help raise several kids. However the villain Lynx burned down the place, in one of the select few times time travel happen in Chrono Cross, Serge saves a young Kid from the burning building but Lucca was no where to be found. Did she perished from the hands of Lynx?

Robo aka R-66Y aka Prometheus also dies. The villain known as Lynx, aka the supercomputer, FATE wants the relic known as the Frozen Flame. However something called the Prometheus circuit is there to prevent FATE from getting it's hands on it. FATE deletes the circuit.

This is down right depressing and kinda insulting. The 1st game was lighthearted and straightforward and the 2nd game is confusing and kills off your characters offscreen. Robo comes back and says 3 lines before FATE deletes him.

So you can see why fans of the 1st game weren't happy. However you can say it was implied deaths. It's possible Chrono and Marle survived but forced to resigned their Kingdom. Lucca may of escaped the fiery house. Robo may had a copy of himself on the circuit while the real one is out there in the future.

Also the two dimensions merged, so this merged timeline was barely seen at the very very end of the game. Who knows what happen since the ending of the game hit the reset button on the planet.


Like the 1st game, Chrono Cross is has several endings.

By normal methods, there's the good and bad endings. The bad ending is done by simply killing Lavos, thus prevent on saving Schala. Then there's the good ending that's done by using you elements in a certain order to sing a song to save Schala.

After beating the game, you get New Game+. This will let you replay the game will carry over all your levels, stats, and equipment from your previously playthrough. You can also use a certain item to retrieve your characters from your previous playthrough if you want to play go a different branch to retrieve different characters.

New Game+ will also give you early access to fight the final boss. Depending on where you are on the game, you can view a different alternate ending, just like what Chrono Trigger did.


Chrono Cross is not a bad game but fans of the 1st game kinda wish this was stand alone, but even if it was, you still have the confusing end part of the game.

More Updates

I went back on some earlier articles and added a few things.

You Will Cry!!! In Japan!!!
Added Gamera vs Jiger as well more info on Transformers: Energon

The times 4kids (aka Foxbox) screwed up Ninja Turtles
Added info about season 4's episodes being out of order as well as the cut content in the show.

Updates

In the past, I have posted stuff and then months later, I realized I forgotten things that I didn't write down when I originally published my article. So there is some updates I did.

You Will Cry 2015

Added stuff about Terminator Genisys.

You Will Cry 2016 part 2

Added stuff about the Max Steel movie.

Godzilland: Counting and Hiragana Review

View the Addition episode

I'm going to look at the un-subtitled episodes of Godzilland. Starting with the Counting episode.

Edit: I recently found at at late April 2019 that these episodes were fansubbed since March thanks to the youtube user, Wakalan Translations. I wrote this article before the subtitles were out. I will add a few things from what I learn of the translated version. The added material is where I put words brackets at the end of the sentence. Example: (Like this)

These two episodes came out two years earlier than the Adding and Subtraction episodes. The originally created character for the show, Godzilly aka Gojirin isn't in it as well as the actual canon character, MechaGodzilla the bully. Also missing is the live-action segments so you won't see Godzilla talking to a human and making cakes.

However there is a new character that is part of the Godzilland gang in these two episodes. It's King Ghidorah.

He looks like a Big Bird with two extra heads.

That's right, the destroyer of planets is chilling with Godzilla and the crew. Unlike MechaG, this guy isn't a "bully". While most of the cast have "kids" voices, Ghidorah is the worse. Three annoying kids voices speaking in unison. Uggh!!! Well it doesn't hurt my ears as bad as Krang in the bizarre Ninja Turtles OVA.

The episode starts with your usually anime opening. It's the same song as the adding and subtraction ones but with a different singer.

How ironic. It's his three opponents in the future GMK movie.

Tokyo's worse nightmare, an army of Godzillas.

Mothra putting her kids on a diet.

I'm surprised he isn't falling off with Rodan flying at Mach 3. (The subtitles are saying, "I won't let go of your hand." Kinda ironic since he's holding for dear life.)

Him sliding down on a sand hill on his tail is a million times more plausible than what we saw in Godzilla vs Megalon.

But forget he can slide on his tail, the King of the Monsters can ride a bike.

Here's the actual opening if you want to see.

Well I can't speak Japanese, so I try my best to figure the show out.

Seems Anguirus is throwing a party for Godzilla's birthday.

How can you relax in the air like that?

Rodan spots Anguirus' cupcakes and try to eat them for himself. Our spiky kaiju told him that they are for the birthday party.

Meanwhile Godzilla spots a moving dirt mound.

Watching Godzilla chasing after the moving mound is like watching my dogs hunting for moles.

The "mole" turns out to be Baragon. He tells the G-Man that Anguirus is hosting a party. Soon, every kaiju was at the party.

I can tell it's Godzilla's party since you can hear a variation of the birthday song in the background.

You know when a pal of your pats you in the back or put a hand on your shoulder, well Anguirus' version is this.

Oww. I bet that hurts.

The party host gives out his five cupcakes and notice something wrong.

Godzilla realized he has an empty plate.

Our spiky kaiju try to make up by giving his cake to Godzilla but then King Ghidorah started complaining.

Ghidorah's three heads started fighting each other over their one cupcake.

Luckily for everyone, Mothra has some extra cake with her. Soon, everybody have something to eat.

.

We now have a educational filler scene where Godzilla and the gang are using numbered blocks.

Next scene had Godzilla and Anguirus hunting for mushrooms.

Better make sure those aren't Matango mushrooms or you turn into mushroom hybrids monsters.

Soon Ghidorah watch and counted who had the most shrooms. Soon, the two kaiju were competing who was the better shroom picker.

They stop hunting when Godzilla spots a carrot. (Or Bamboo shoot according to the sub)

The carrot was really Baragon's tail.

Dude, why you wake me?

Next scene showed Godzilla and the gang in a line while Ghidorah recite their names and use numbers. This is another scene to teach kids counting. However, it got to the point where Godzilla got bored that he fell asleep.

Next showed a short scene of the gang on a train.

One of them got off if a boulder or a tree when it blocks one of the train numbers.

Mothra ends the scene saying Japanese words but one word sounds suspiciously like "Butts".

Next had Baragon counting the number of windmills while Rodan uses his wings to spin the blades. 

Next had Baragon counting the number of windmills that are blowing compare to the number of the ones that are not. Rodan tried to flap harder and harder to get them all blowing. One windmill at a time for Baragon to teach kids counting. This led to this scene.

Rodan then got up and use his wings to power all 10 windmills but this causes them to be blown off the ground.

I'm surprised governments of the worlds don't hire Rodan for wind services.

Next is another filler educational song. But you know what, unlike the others, this is worth watching. Why, because this is the coolest filler song moment in the entire Godzilland sub-franchise.

Behold, a rapping Ghidorah with shades.

He raps through the numbers. Now why can't the boring filler educational songs be this epic.

Here's a link to him rapping.
I only posted the link just to show him singing. It's a scene that needs to be seen to believe.

Next had Mothra reading a book.

Why can't she do this in the movies

A paper airplane flies and head her head, she reads it and it's from Godzilla.

It's hard to figure out what Godzilla is saying. It shows Godzilla, Anguirus, and Baragon on a swing set and a few other scenes.

This reminds me of an annoying Mega Man X boss.

The episode ends with Godzilla on a lawn chair. I guess he's on vacation. (The note that Mothra is reading from Godzilla, it says that he got into a fight with Anguris and Baragon over who should play on the swing but they played number games to decide. He tells her he learn to count to 100.)

Next episode is Hiragana, which is form of Japanese writing. In my opinion, this is my least favorite of the Godzilland sub-franchise. There's far less "plot" and more educational scenes than most episodes. Also trying to watch the show without subtitles is puzzling but at least English speakers know counting and they use the same numbers as us, an episode about the Japanese writing system on the other hand...

The episode start with Mothra in the garden.

Maybe she's watering Biollante somewhere in the garden.

She's having a party and planning to send flyers to everyone.

Is it just me or all these Godzilland episodes starts with parties. We got Godzilla's B-day, Godzilly's, now Mothra is throwing one.

He somehow able to hold that despite the lack of hands.

Poor Anguirus trips before he got his paper.

Here's a short clip of the scene

Godzilla is practicing his atomic breath but the flyer gets in his face.

Here's a short clip of the scene

The King of the Monsters pick it up and had question marks above his heads as he try to read it.

I'm no bird expert but don't you have to flap your wings to stay afloat in the air.

Everyone started to dive in.

It's funny how the background resembles Angry Birds decades before Angry Birds was a thing. 

Suddenly, Mothra wonder where Godzilla and Anguirus were. (All three Ghidorah heads asked each other if they seen two. Seems they don't look in the same direction.)

Next we saw is the Big G and the spiky kaiju fighting each other, like again. Best friends sure fight alot.

Mothra came in and acted like an ambassador.

The two were upset they missed the feast.

From what I can tell, the two can't read Hiragana, nether can I and the gang plans to teach them.

Next showed random things. I guess they are telling how to spell they random things. Like ants, dolphins, UFOs, riceballs,

Hey hey hey!! Now Japan, I heard about your weird porn.This is a kids show and I seriously don't want it in Godzilla.

Wait, why is he on a raft. I know he can swim in Godzilla Vs Gigan. 

Unfortunately I know because of that infamous scene of them "Talking"

The closest we ever get to a Godzilla vs Gamera crossover.

The turtle then bite Godzilla's nose and transform into a fox.

Then it transform into a bear, then a worm, spinning top.

Worm meets worm.

Next scene had Rodan being a food thief and swooping down and grabbing everyone's food. Including Anguirus' cookie and Godzilla's noodles. Karma bites him in the end when the noodles in his eyes causes him to crash.

Here's a video of him stealing food.

More random stuff being shown.

I'm rooting for Team Godzilla

Next had Baragon as a game show host. They talk more random stuff like eggplants, sushi, cats. (When the Big-G won the game, Baragon told him he won a flight on Rodan to Godzilland. The Big G was in WTF mode and saying he lives there, there's no need to go on a flight to his own homeland.)

More random showing stuff. I guess Godzilla and the gang made fun of the images they saw on the TV or something. (They makes jokes like ducks with tans, owls scared of the dark, and a snake doing push-ups. Now why a snake do push-ups since it has no arms?)

More random stuff. Yeah, you can tell this is my least favorite episode.

There was one scene where Ghidorah was drinking from a pond and Mothra came out with a princess veil on her head. A reference to something? (Ghidorha calls her a Goddess. Funny since Mothra is basically one in the actual movies where people of her island worships her.)

Next had Mothra flying into stuff, including Pac-Man ghosts that our flying kaiju is scared of.

Here's a clip of the scene

Now Rodan talks about more random stuff. Seems the Japanese more or less say lemon the same as English-speakers but with an R sound.

Mothra out of nowhere for no good reason was telling kids how to bite Godzilla tail.

Then Ghidorah started conducting the next filler song scene.

After that song, more random stuff shown. I guess Godzilla and Anguirus learned Japanese writing. (The gang play a game to saying words that don't end with N and Godzilla ends up losing.)

The last episode was easily my least fav. It's obviously aimed towards Japanese kids. Usually there's enough "plot" in these episodes to enjoy and not alot of educational scenes that I normally fast-forward through.

The Godzilland sub-franchise is kinda a neat little gem in this forgotten corner of the Godzilla series. It's not meant to take seriously and it may be fun to show others and watch their reactions on Godzilla and his buddies displayed in a kiddy manner. It has enjoyable funny moments like emotional MechaGodzilla being a game show host, the love triangle moments, Godzilla making pancakes, rapping Ghidorah, Rodan being a thief.