Tag: Arabian

Old-School Magic Returns in Mirage 7, A Forgotten Crusade

Mirage 7 may follow a familiar action-adventure path, but its desert setting, survival-lite mechanics, and story-driven mystery give it enough character to stand apart. Its greatest strength so far is not reinvention, but how confidently it guides players through Nadira’s haunting journey.

Mirage 7 Game PosterDrakkar Dev

Within the heart of Mirage 7 lies a familiar game design framework. For this first-person adventure-shooter, the main difference is whether you are slinging rocks at targets or eating scorpions for dinner. Players switch between young Nadira, a desert dweller searching for her missing sister, and Jiji, the pet lizard who protects her while she sleeps. The concept itself is not especially new, but the game still has enough flavour to stand out, especially through its Arabian Nights-inspired setting and its blend of exploration, mystery, and survival.

After spending some time with the Steam version on PC, I was impressed with the story more than the actual gameplay. This game is familiar enough that the muscle memory developed by playing similar games like Tomb Raider quickly returns. The keyboard and mouse controls feel comfortable, and while I did not get a chance to test a controller, the game seems like it would lend itself well to that option too.

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1001 Knights, or should that be Otaku no Culture Celebrating 1001 Posts?

A_Thousand_and_One_Nights-VHSBy Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

In honour of Otaku no Culture’s 1001th post instead of 1000, I fondly recall an animated feature film, 千夜一夜物語 — Senya Ichya Monogatori (A Thousand and One Nights) (1969), from Japan which never got a fair treatment outside of its own country. The reason is most likely because it was very risqué for its time; it was x-rated. I recall securing a VHS copy decades ago because any title based on literature appealed to me. Where it went now, well, I have to dig through my boxes of stored tapes to see if I still have it. Sadly, not every old anime I want to get replaced got a DVD release when I wanted to. The original Japanese language instead of the trippy English dub is available through YESASIA.

Part of why I was intrigued with this series is because this anime was an idea Osamu Tezuka (Astroboy) thought of. He believed not every product should be youth friendly and a study on Cartoon Research wrote:

…Tezuka, a fan of animation in all forms, was concerned by animation’s reputation as being for children only. He wanted to show that animation could be for all age groups and all interests. In the late 1960s he determined to produce theatrical animation features that would obviously be for adults rather than for children. These would be erotic but in good taste; the animated equivalent of America’s Playboy magazine. All of Mushi Pro’s resources would be behind them – with mixed results.

Eiichi Yamamoto served as director. In what the two crafted was based on the most popular of the tales presented in the original Arabic tale, One Thousand and One Nights — of which have been many adaptations. Aladdin and Sinbad are the heroes in this film. The exotic quality of the production was what drew me in and one day, I will put the DVD on my shelf again, next to Tezuka’s The Phoenix.

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