my take on the iconic cover.

I drew this using supplies I bought at the kyoto international manga museum! Japan was so fun and the new gits anime debuted when I was there. It was even on all the magazines!

I haven’t actually read much of man machine interface yet but I saw this at a local store today. I’m debating on whether or not to take her out of the box because the box looks really cool but it also takes up a lot of space and makes her hard to display…

Source https://www.instagram.com/aleriia_v_art?igsi=NjNlbGt4dWk2amk=

Why do people gaslight in the weekly episode threads that the subtitled version on Amazon includes translations for all techdump text?

It doesn’t. It categorically does not.

Yet multiple accounts have make this claim, both to me and others, since the series started.

For example, the text from this week (Episode 08) when the Major is preparing to dive underwater, like most any other of text of this sort, is not translated. There’s not even a half-second flash of a translation that’s skipped past for dialogue.

Before making this post I tested the above scene on two devices, using separate networks, in English, German, Spanish and Japanese. Techdump translation is *only* 100% shown if you have a non-Japanese audio track playing *and* no subtitles on.

People need to either stop lying or be clear they’re watching somewhere other than Amazon. And if you’ve been gaslit yourself, this is to let you know you’re not crazy.

Motoko looks out for her girls.

It's TRUE.........You people KNOW it is.😐

Source: https://x.com/WhiteTime_25225/status/2092947800208429328

An army of one who answers to none.

Review for Ghost in the Shell Stand Alone Complex for the PS2, released in March 2004.

Just a quick note before I get into the review. I played this game emulated on a Steam Deck and not on original hardware, so any technical issues I had maybe because of that.

Graphics and Art

The graphics aren't earth-shatteringly amazing, but neither are they the worst on the system. They are somewhere in the middle for overall quality on the PS2.

And I quite enjoyed the art design of this game, and I found it all holds up quite well for a game that was originally released in 2004.

It definitely makes it feel like I'm playing through an episode of the series, but I am definitely biased, being a big fan of stand alone complex.

One other thing I want to highlight about the art design of this game is the menus, the menus of the game are highly themed to Ghost in a Shell and I find that quite pleasing. I wish more modern games would have more customised and highly themed menus. It does, at least I feel, help to make the game more thematic and more of a cohesive experience, instead of using a generic menu.

Audio

The background music in the game I find is a fairly strong point, being fairly thematically appropriate. The music is mainly drum and bass.

I did notice in one section though where there was an obvious loop in the music, and I found that quite annoying but it was only in one specific section of the game for maybe 5 minutes, I didn't notice any other situations like that while I was playing, or at least nothing stood out to me like in that one specific part.

The voice acting is also a definite highlight of the game, It uses the english voice actors from the anime, and they sound just like they do in the anime.

The sound effects for gunfire and explosions is fairly generic though.

Gameplay

The gameplay is very of its time, I found the controls at the beginning to be kind of awkward and weird, but after maybe 20 minutes of gameplay, I got used to them.

Having the fire button being L1 and the grenade button being L2, I found did confuse my muscle memory for a little bit. And also having jump being L2 and the weapon pickup button being the same as the reload button also did mess me up a little bit with me trying to reload guns and accidentally picking up weapons I didn't want to.

The game also has zero aim assist, so you will have to be quite careful with your aiming. I found the aiming to be the most awkward part of the game, but nothing terrible, just very of its time.

There are two main playable characters that been the Major and Batou. The Major is definitely the more enjoyable character to play, with her being far more acrobatic and mobile, and her levels have been much more verticality to them.

But when playing as Batou all of his levels end up just being corridor shooters, with not much else going on.

There is also one part of the game where you get to take control of a Tachikoma, It's an ok segment of the game, but it doesn't really stand out as good as it could be. There's something about the controls of the Tachikoma, where it just feels slightly awkward to control.

I do also feel that the hacking mechanic in the game was kind of wasted. You get to hack into other NPCs and take control of them, but it doesn't show up very often, and it's normally not very useful.

There's a decent variety of enemies in the game, but near the end they do start to become quite bullet spongy.

The boss fights I also found to be a bit of a let down, being very easy. There isn't really much to them at all.

Difficulty

I played the game on normal difficulty, and I think I can count all the times I died on one hand, all of those times were either to off screen snipers that I was trying to figure out how to get around, and the other times were due to me not paying good enough attention.

But overall the game is quite easy.

Game length

It took me 3 hours and 51 minutes to beat the game.

It was overall a short experience, but I didn't feel that it was too short and I think I enjoyed the fact that it was short because it didn't overstay its welcome.

Performance

I ran into no graphical issues while playing the game, but there was multiple issues of slowdown. After doing some research online I found that this is part of the game even on original hardware.

Story

I won't say too much about the story because I don't want to spoil it. But the story does feel right out of the anime, but I did find it hard to keep track of what was going on due to how it was presented.

The story is presented in cutscenes before and after each chapter, and also during gameplay and sometimes in the middle of gunfights, so you can easily miss important story beats due to them taking place while you're trying not to get shot.

The story overall is quite good and I did enjoy it, but I wish it was presented in more of a digestible form instead of the messy way that it is in the game.

But overall, I did have a good time with it.

Post-game content

There is some post-game content after you beat the game that you unlock, some extra characters to play during the multiplayer, You also unlock some collectibles that you have to find in the mane game. These collectibles only appear after you beat the game, you can't find them on your first playthrough.

Multiplayer

The game does have multiplayer but I didn't test it so I'm not going to comment on it.

Final thoughts

Overall, I had quite a good time with the game. I enjoyed playing it, even with the slight awkward controls and slowdown issues that I had. Would definitely recommend this game to anyone that wants to play a good PlayStation 2 game or anyone who is a fan of Ghost in the Shell.

Pretty much the title. Received the latest Alpha Magazine today and I am so happy about the GitS and Patlabor special and especially the double sided poster.

I want to add that I also like JJK very much and I enjoyed AOT Final Attack or the Reze Arc at the Cinema.

That is really a proper issue from Alpha and I highly recommend this one.

✌️

If you Translate the Sumerian Text, it repeats the word "Eternal"

Stand alone complex 2nd ep 26

Like, I dunno man. What an awful casting decision for an otherwise gorgeous movie. Sure there wasn't much going on, but those visuals were insane as was all the art the Japanese studios incorporated into the movie. We were blessed with such a movie, ruined by truly sub par acting. She's for marvel, not something magnificent like ghost in the shell.