Introduction to Reviews

Over the past year and a half, I've done all sorts of blog entries, from opinion essays to in-depth analysis, and now, I'm going to branch out to reviews. These will be similar to the "Gaming Oddities" entries, but will focus on more mainstream games, as well as other media.

For starters, I will begin each review with the title of the work, and, when necessary, the medium in parentheses, to distinguish between works with the same name and to clarify whether I am reviewing the original or an adaptation. Here are some examples.

• Bokurano(manga) vs. Bokurano(anime). The latter is an adaptation of the former, but many elements of the plot, including the ending, are different.
• Frozen(Disney film) vs. Frozen (2010 live action film). The two have absolutely nothing to do with each other- the former is a Disney film and the latter is a thriller- despite sharing the same name.
• Kino's Journey(light novel) vs. Kino's Journey(2003 anime) vs. Kino's Journey(2017 anime)- The original light novel and two anime adaptations, proof of why it can be important to distinguish between them.
• Fullmetal Alchemist(manga) vs. Fullmetal Alchemist(anime) vs. Fulmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. Like Kino's Journey, FMA has two adaptations, with the first adaptation being similar to Bokurano(starts out similar but diverges from canon midway through) but the second one has a different title.

Each review will be broken down into sections. Here is a list of the topics you can expect, although there's no guarantee that all of them will be used for any given work(for example, only video games will have comments about the gameplay), and I may not use these specific names.

1. Introduction. In this, I outline my basic review of the game, as well as whether I recommend it.
   
   
2. Story. A basic plot synopsis and discussion of the concept.
   
   
3. Gameplay A basic description of the gameplay.
   
   
4. In-Depth Story. This section goes into more depth about the story
   
   
5. In-Depth Gameplay. This section goes into more depth about the gameplay and covers specific topics.
   
   
6. Production Values: The quality of the art/graphics, soundtrack and other such things
   
   
7. Any other sections as needed, followed by the last two topics.
   
   
8. Spoilers. As the name implies, a section that involves important topics I cannot otherwise discuss without spoiling the plot. I put it last
   
   
9. Conclusion. A summary of the review to wrap it up.

Basically, reviews will start with a basic summary, then go into more depth, then provide spoilers for those who wish to see them.

Reviews will have one of three ratings, mostly self-explanatory. Recommended states that I recommend playing/watching/reading the work if you're a fan of the genre or series. Highly Recommended is a higher honor, although it's relatively rare, and I'll reserve it for works I especially like (although I'm more likely to write about such works). Not Recommended generally means that I advise that you avoid the work in question, ranging from unimpressive to terrible; how bad it is matters less than the fact that I don't think it's worth your time, and the tone of the review speaks for itself. I decided to go for this system to allow for unambiguous judgments about what I review without getting wrapped up in what each review score means.

In many cases, I'll review an entire work, but in others, I may only look at a single arc or season, especially for long series (e.g. One Piece).

This concludes my explanation of my methodology.