I've never seen Halo like this before. Halo 4 is emotional, something I've never felt from the franchise quite like this. Sure, invested fans will protest and say that the lore is fascinating and the war struggles moving, but I can safely say I've never sat through a Halo campaign quite at the edge of my seat like I have in the first title by 343 Industries.

People, especially gamers, seem to be afraid of change. That's understandable when it comes to the Halo franchise.

Halo is a legacy. When Bungie introduced the sci-fi, first-person shooter franchise over a decade ago, it wowed fans with a perfect formula of alien creatures and versatile weapons. People obsessed over the game's multiplayer modes, playing iterations that were years old, even after new titles in the series were released. Halo sold Xboxes. It's a household name, and for good reason.

So change seems like it would be scary. Like it might ruin the integrity of something that's formed such an impressive community. Hardcore Halo fans can rest assured that 343 has stayed true to the core of Halo, and I urge them to keep an open mind when confronted by its new skin.

Because that skin is beautiful. It's cinematic, and features lovely music. Cut scenes look absolutely phenomenal, with performance capture done so well that I sometimes confuse the rendered characters for real, live actors. The soundtrack, by Massive Attack's Neil Davidge, is expectedly wonderful, and the realistic sound effects are a delightful surprise. The crunch and squeaks of Master Chief's armor as he moves around, and the hazardous hum of damaged vehicles are little details that go a long way.

343's take on the franchise humanized what was up until now mainly just a really fun, well-made series of games.

Master Chief is an icon, in both our world and the Halo world. He's a super soldier and the people of the future look to him for safety and assurance. When he walks through those doors, there's a sense of ease that washes over the other soldiers. Everything will be okay now.

I have never felt that connection to Master Chief like I have in Halo 4. But I've also never been able to see under his helmet, at the kind of person he has to be to maintain the hero status. If you read all the Halo novels and get really invested in the Halo culture, you'll know that it's a struggle to carry the weight of the universe on your conscience. But this was something that never quite came across in the video games.

Halo 4's single player campaign feels like two stories. It's a story about war and the introduction of a new species of enemies: the Prometheans. It's a story about a fanatical sect of the Covenant that, ignoring the peace treaty set during previous games, are fighting humans again. It's a story with religious subtext and dense lore. But it's also a story about Master Chief, a human who can barely connect with humanity anymore, as he is so strongly focused on carrying out his obligations that he doesn't allow himself any other response to tragedy other than a devotion to eradicating it. And it's a story about Cortana, who has stuck by Master Chief for years. Their relationship is a strong one. It might be the last shred of any sense of normalcy Master Chief has left. This half of the story lends itself to Halo 4's emotional side. And it is a fascinating and lovely experience.

The other side of the story of Halo 4-that dense lore-is hard to approach. New concepts and names are thrown at you in such rapid succession that it's difficult to follow along. I imagine this will be especially hard on newcomers, who might have a vague understanding of the sci-fi universe they are entering, only to get bombarded by such inaccessible lore.

This is unfortunate, because I really want to love the Prometheans' backstory. So I can't help but feel that Halo 4 does a disservice to players who are new to the franchise by rattling off so many new concepts without giving proper time or context to digest it all. I suspect even veterans of the games might find it difficult to parse the information as fast as the game is shoving it down your throat. The Covenant's reemergence as a threat, for instance, was confusing. Certain parts of the story aren't explained well, and it's easy to get lost in new characters and abstract concepts that the game hurries to explain, and then just as quickly abandons.

Fortunately, digging into the Spartan Ops-solo or cooperative missions that will release weekly in tandem with cinematic episodes-reveal more detailed information that will hopefully help explain the campaign's thick storyline. Unfortunately, I found the Spartan Ops missions to be fairly boring. I played five missions, each better than the last, but they didn't interest me beyond functioning as another way to gain experience and therefore access new guns, abilities and perks. I can't speak to how much you can learn more about the behind the scenes stories, because the first week's content was severely limited and dry. I admire that 343 will release new episodes every week, but so far they've been mainly lengthy chores of killing waves of enemies with forgettable plot lines.

But what of the basic structure of the game itself? Is that formula of grunts, elites and jackals still respected? Are all your favorite guns included?

Halo 4 still feels like a Halo game. It's full of Banshees and battle rifles. It has impressive setpieces. Some of the multiplayer maps are even recreated-or at least inspired by-classic Halo maps. Halo 4 is proof that 343 is clearly in tune with what fans love about the Halo franchise. But, as I've said, gamers are afraid of change. So the addition of ordnance drops in multiplayer-basically a bonus given to players who do well during a match-might not be desirable to you. I think it works. You might not. That's fair.

Of course, you can tweak and customize multiplayer rounds to your liking, even opting to play around with ordnance options. There are a plethora of modes to enjoy, as well. I was particularly fond of the Flood mode, which pits a few players as Flood and most as human Spartans. As you kill the Spartans, they become infected and fight until there's only one man left standing. In first-person shooters, it's not uncommon for the community to take it upon themselves to invent their own game modes, listing out rules and relying on the honor code from players to carry it out, effectively creating their own unwritten mode. This Flood mode is a multiplayer game born of one such community-made mode from Halo 2, so it's nice to see 343 giving that community a nod. The other multiplayer modes range from the classic Team Slayer, which pits the red team against the blue team, to Oddball, where the goal is to hold onto the ball the longest. Every mode had me cursing and giggling simultaneously. Granted, my experience may have been the most optimal, as I was in a room with roughly nine others, all of us calling out playfully to one another in the competitive environment.

But 343 has added exciting new single player gameplay options, too. Like the addition of mechs. Even if their placement in the single player campaign is a rarity, it's very exciting to hop in an armored suit to shoot rockets and stomp enemies with your metal feet. In fact, there wasn't much of an emphasis on vehicles in general, though you do get to play around with the Pelican aircraft. I have fond memories of flying around in space battles in Halo: Reach, and though flying missions do reappear in the latest title, they don't feel as emphasized (or as cool as that space battle). They're more like quick intermissions between main events.

Prometheans as a new enemy class are more annoying than I expected. They're cowards. They immediately flee as soon as you shoot them. I expect AI to react to my threat, ducking under cover as needed. But I didn't expect to play hide and seek with them. A few of these species are more aggressive than others, warping in front of your face with the protection of their tough shells of armor. But others-especially the service-type species that can heal the other Prometheans-dart away from your line of sight and stay hidden. Though fighting them grew stale very quickly, picking up their weapons was not. The design of the Promethean weapons is impressive, even doing a neat trick where the gun disassembles and then reassembles itself to reload. From shotguns to snipers to rifles and pistols, every gun feels great in my hands. I always prefer alien weapons in Halo games, but these new, orange/red-glowing weapons trump even the Covenant's stock.

There are a few issues to pick out in Halo 4, whether they're to do with the storyline or gameplay. But my experience with Halo 4 was an enjoyable one. The campaign held my interest as I watched Cortana and Master Chief's emotions unfold. Missions were fun. Multiplayer is diverse and just as fast paced and unique a first-person shooter multiplayer experience as I have come to expect from the series. As afraid as you may be of Bungie passing the torch to a new development team to handle a franchise that has the foundation of years of quality behind it, I strongly urge you to keep an open mind for Halo 4, because you just may enjoy it as much as I did.

Pre-release multiplayer isn't the best indicator of how a game will play online once a community has formed around it. I'll update my review within the week that follows the game's release with updated multiplayer impressions based on playing against the general public.

Last week we at Kotaku East showed you how to play Valkyria Chronicles 3, even if you don't understand Japanese, using a collection of translations and guides from across the internet. Of course, for the more patient of you—or just those who want everything translated and in one simple package—there is another option, if you're willing to wait for it.

The Valkyria Chronicles 3 Translation Project is a group of fans working hard to—as the name implies—translate the game into English. But the scope of the project is far more than simply translating the game. They plan to go into the game's code and insert the translated script and menus just like in a professional localization.

Since the project started back in February of this year, the project has shown great progress. Not only have they translated the majority of the script (with only the side and post-game missions still left to go), but they have also already inserted the main story translation into the game proper.

There is still a lot of work to do, however. There are bound to be more than a few formatting errors in the text; and the only way to check for them is to play through the entire hundred-plus hour game, looking for errors manually. They are also experiencing issues with the menus' character limits (as Japanese often takes far fewer letters than English). And on top of that, there's the translation of the remaining missions to finish.

When completed, their translation patched version of the game will be playable on PSPs with custom firmware installed. They also plan to release the patch for both the original Valkyria Chronicles 3 and Valkyria Chronicles 3: Extra Edition.

The Valkyria Chronicles 3 Translation Project has yet to announce an expected release date, but they seem to be going strong and continue to give updates on their progress at least once a month.

Stay tuned to Kotaku East for further updates as this project nears completion.

Meet Allen. He's a hair stylist in the latest Harvest Moon game, Harvest Moon 3DS: A New Beginning. And man, he's such a jerk! Don't believe me? Have a look.

Like so many characters of similar ilk, he's a jerk a first, because that makes him seem so much nicer when's not being so damn smug and buttheaded.

Screen captures courtesy of Ducky and TinyCartridge.

Photoset [Ducky]
Another Photoset [Ducky via TinyCartridge]

Meet Allen. He's a hair stylist in the latest Harvest Moon game, Harvest Moon 3DS: A New Beginning. And man, he's such a jerk! Don't believe me? Have a look.

Like so many characters of similar ilk, he's a jerk a first, because that makes him seem so much nicer when's not being so damn smug and buttheaded.

Screen captures courtesy of Ducky and TinyCartridge.

Photoset [Ducky]
Another Photoset [Ducky via TinyCartridge]

With just under two weeks until the release of the newest Evangelion movie, Evangelion 3.0: You Can (Not) Redo, we at Kotaku East are taking a look back at the previous films in the Rebuild of Evangelion series. When I talked about my history with Evangelion a week or so back, I mentioned my dislike for the first of these movies, Evangelion 1.11: You Are (Not) Alone. Ever since I saw the film for the first time, I felt it was just a prettied up, shot-for-shot compilation of the first six episodes of the series. Moreover, it was an abridged one to boot, with the movie a full 31 minutes shorter than the same section in the series. So I couldn't understand why anyone would watch the movie when they could just watch the series instead. Sure it would look a little worse, but you would get a more developed story.

After I wrote that article, however, fans were eager to point out that I had missed the subtle differences between the film and series—and that these differences have major, world-changing implications for the series as a whole. While I had watched You Are (Not) Alone only a few months back, it had been several years since I watched the series. Moreover, I had never watched either the series or You Are (Not) Alone with the specific intent of comparing the two. So perhaps there was something I had missed all those years ago when I first formed my opinion. There was only one thing to do. This past weekend I sat down to do something I had never done before, watch both the first six episodes of the series and the film back to back.

The first thing I noticed upon starting the series was how good it looks, even to this day. While You Are (Not) Alone does look clearer and more detailed (especially in the backgrounds), it is also far darker—so dark, in fact, that entire portions of the movie were unwatchable until I turned off all the lights and drew the curtains. This is not bad, per se, but it is odd how many scenes that happen in the day in the series happen at night in the film.

Besides the color palate, I was surprised to see how many other changes there were. For the sake of a tighter narrative, many of the scenes are re-ordered, removing the series' mixed chronology moments. In addition, many lines were tweaked slightly as a means of exposition and the pace of many conversations has been sped up—completely removing the common, awkward dead air of the series.

In the story itself, the world is far worse off, with the seas red and the majority of sea life killed off. The series shows the opposite, with sea life recovering. Pen Pen the penguin is called a new species in the series while in the movie he's called one of the last of the old species. Moreover, the human world is shown in a far more dilapidated state in the film, with the older cities falling into disrepair and the destroyed cities being left in ruins.

But what perhaps affected the story the most are the things that were cut entirely—especially as it pertains to Shinji as a character. The most striking is Eva 01's hand not moving on its own to protect Shinji from a falling ceiling like it did in the series. This changes the scene—and Shinji's motivations—drastically as Shinji now gets into the Eva for the first time to protect the injured Rei with no expectation of help from the Eva itself.

Many other cuts also serve to make Shinji a stronger character. The vast majority of his whining lines have been removed, making it more about the character struggling to find meaning in his life rather than simply complaining about it. Also cut is the vast majority of his time spent running away from his responsibility/emotional pain (which took a full episode in the series). Instead, he makes the choice to return to Nerv moments before they pick him up; and when Misato tells him to leave if he doesn't like his situation, he doesn't even consider it. While I have little doubt that most of these cuts were done for time rather than any kind of authorial intent, they serve to make Shinji a stronger person while still preserving his internal conflict.

This new Shinji is made even stronger by his portrayal in the final part of the film, which is actually the only part longer than the episode on which it is based. He is hurt far more by the 6th Angel than in the series and is naturally hesitant to enter into combat again—this time running away from physical pain on top of the pressures of having to protect the city alone. Yet after being shown what is truly at stake (the fate of all life on earth), he overcomes his fear and gets back into the Eva. Even when shot again in the subsequent battle, he refuses to give up. But as Rei protects him from a third shot and takes on the full brunt of the physical pain herself, Shinji learns, that despite what he had believed, he is not alone—not in pain nor responsibility.

Some additions not related to the main cast serve to add mystery like: "Why is the outline of a dead angel on a hill before the angels have even arrived?" or "Why is Kaoru chillin' on the moon—and why does he already know who Shinji is?" Others add foreshadowing (like the discussion about the dummy plug) or a look into Shinji's mind (the new train car scenes).

In the end, after doing a direct comparison, I found that I enjoyed Evangelion 1.11: You Are (Not) Alone far more than I expected. In fact, truth be told, I found it more enjoyable than the first six episodes of the series. It looks better, is better paced, and better defines Shinji's physical and emotional struggles. Moreover, Shinji comes out of it a much more likable (and therefore identifiable) character. Upon my first watch of the film, I complained about there being any cuts at all, but for the most part, these cuts were just of exposition or long silences—neither particularly necessary for the story. If there was anything that I felt was done better in the series, it was the handling of Shinji's middle school life, from him being a class celebrity (as an Eva pilot) to his friendship with Toji and Keisuke. Regardless, the next time I sit down to marathon Evangelion, I plan to skip the first six episodes and watch Evangelion 1.11: You Are (Not) Alone instead.

Evangelion 1.11: You Are (Not) Alone was released on Blu-ray and DVD on March 9, 2010, in the United States.

Evangelion 3.0: You Can (Not) Redo will be released in Japanese theaters on November 17, 2012.

Japan is getting a new kind of Pepsi. It's a special kind. It's so special that the name of it is, well, Pepsi Special.

The drink is actually designated as a "food for specified health uses". This means the product is regulated by the Japanese government and has its seal of approval.

Pepsi Special actually contains indigestible form dextrin, which is used as a dietary fiber supplement and makes it difficult for the body to absorb fat while eating. Pepsi Special isn't the first cola of this kind released in Japan. However, it is one of the first.

Pepsi and Suntory worked together so that Pepsi Special doesn't have an overpowering dextrin aftertaste, but a refreshing Pepsi finish.

Priced at ¥150 (US$1.87), Pepsi Special goes on sale November 13 throughout Japan.

「ペプシ スペシャル（特定保健用食品）」新発売 [Suntory]

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Japanese erotic games (aka "eroge") often feature cute, curvy characters in evocative settings. So when you think of these computer games, you probably don't think of, oh, giant mecha, deadly katana, or evil villains.

Japanese site Kanasoku (NSFW) assembled screenshots of various eroge that, well, don't all look like eroge. (On Kanasoku, there are some eroge-esque titles, too.) Most of them are safe for work, save for one or two, and many of them look downright odd. Then, there's the guy who is humping a car.

For the curious: On the list, adult game maker Light seems to be well represented with titles like Dies irae -Also sprach Zarathustra- and Kajiri Kamui Kagura. You can find some of Light's unorthodox eroge from over the years on its official, yet NSFW site.

Click in the lower corner of each image to expand to full size.

「え？これエロゲ？」ってなる画像貼っていきます [カナ速]

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Bravely Default: Flying Fairy is Square Enix's newest RPG on the 3DS; and while it may technically be a new IP, it shares a lot in common with the famous JRPGs of yore.

The gameplay is your typical turn-based system, but with one new twist: the "brave" and "default" system. By selecting "default" on your turn, you can defend the turn and save it for later. When you want to use this saved turn later, you select "brave." You can save up to three turns and therefore unleash four attacks total, if you so choose. You can even "brave" if you haven't saved any turns; however, you must pay for it by losing your next few turns.

The game also features a robust job system with many classic jobs from other similar titles. As you level up, you level up your base level and job level separately. You are also able to access the spells/skills of one other job in addition to the one you have currently equipped. As you progress through the game, you face bosses which, when defeated, drop a new job crystal for your arsenal.

To see how Bravely Default: Flying Fairy plays in action, check out the video above.

Bravely Default: Flying Fairy was released for the Nintendo 3DS on October 11, 2012, in Japan. There is currently no word on an international release.

Kotaku has already brought you the wonders—and innards—of the Hello Kitty meat bun. Now there's a Hello Kitty chocolate bun.

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Japanese website Gigazine swung by its local convenience store, snapped up a few chocolate buns, and then got out the stabby-stabby.

YOU BASTARDS, NO, NO, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

The filling was described as "very sweet". Looks yummy, too. Carry on, Gigazine, carry on.

チョコの影響でガングロになったキティちゃん、「ハローキティチョコまん」試食レビュー [Gigazine]

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If you've played Resident Evil 6, you might have noticed that "Yashichi" appears as a TV brand. Yashichi isn't a real brand. It's an in-joke. Ha ha.

For years, the shuriken-like Yashichi emblem has appeared in Capcom games, starting with the first Capcom game, 1984's Vulgus. It went on to appear in one form or another in games like Ghost 'n Goblins, 1942, and numerous Mega Man games. Most recently, it appeared in Resident Evil 6—as spotted by Japanese site Rocket News.

Read more about Yashichi over on its wikia page.

『バイオハザード6』のゲーム内に登場するテレビのメーカーが判明！ [ロケットニュース]

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